Friday, December 1, 2017

Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Daniel 7:2-14; Luke 21:29-33)

John Donne’s meditation “No Man is an Island” is reminiscent of Jesus’ parable in today’s gospel.  A bell tolls in Donne’s essay, and people ask, “Who died?”  The point is that a tolling bell should remind everyone that she or he is going to die.  Similarly Jesus uses the image of a fig tree to tell his disciples to take notice to what is happening around them.

Just as the budding of the fig tree foretells the coming of summer, the destruction of Jerusalem augers the return of Jesus in glory.  Although his return has not yet taken place in a definitive way yet, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70.  Apparently the “times of the Gentiles,” which Jesus refers to earlier in the long passage, is still in effect.  Nevertheless, billions of people have come to their individual end in death.  Jesus’ words then should be taken as a warning of this eventuality.

We prepare for death by living as justly as possible.  First, we owe God constant and fervent thanks.  Then we must care for ourselves and those closest to us – family, co-workers, and friends.  Finally, we need to assist the poor.  We have to use our resources to help them live with dignity.

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Feast of Saint Andrew, apostle

(Romans 10:9-18; Matthew 4:18-22)

In his seminal exhortation on evangelization, Pope Paul VI wrote: “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”  Little is said about the apostle Andrew in the gospels outside of the stories of his being called by Jesus.  But as Paul VI said, the witness that he gives in these calls speaks forcefully through the ages.

Peter and Andrew are probably like most fishermen.  They love the sea not only as the source of food for the table but also for the freedom it brings.  On the sea in their boat no one is tells them what to do.  But for the two brothers in today’s gospel the call of Jesus is more powerful than the attraction of the sea.  They tarry not a minute but respond to his beckoning at once.  Their leaving boat and even their father testifies to Jesus’ primacy over everything else. 

We need to give witness as well.  It starts with how we present ourselves.  Do our homes feature a cross identifying Jesus as he who brings peace to our lives?  Do we mention Jesus as the source of any goodness we have and the goal of our lives beyond death?  Exhibiting a cross and indicating Jesus’ authority in our lives serve to purposes.  They evangelize others, and they keep us rightly focused.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Daniel 5:1-6.13-14.16-17.23-28; Luke 21:12-19)

Recently Fr. John Jenkins, C.S.C., the president of the University of Notre Dame, publicly defended one of the university’s faculty members from an unjust accusation.  When a law professor of the university was nominated for a federal judgeship, a number of senators attacked her as living by dogma.  What bothered the senators was the professor’s conviction that abortion is wrong.  Fr. Jenkins wrote an open letter saying that he too lived by dogma as do millions of other Americans.

The implied criticism of Church dogma reflects today’s gospel.  Jesus tells his disciples that they will be persecuted because they preach him.  The persecution begins soon after his death and resurrection as attested in the Acts of the Apostles.  It waxed and waned for three hundred reaching a climax just before the Emperor Constantine granted Christians religious freedom.  And it has never really ended until the present day.  Christians themselves have sometimes provoked harsh reactions, but more often people resent the Church for preaching the justice of God’s kingdom.

We should not be surprised if we hear snide remarks made against us.  A generation ago Catholics were supposedly undermining the common good by having large families.  More recently we are ridiculed for believing in what the sophisticated call fantasies such as the resurrection of the dead.  As Jesus advises, we should not become too outraged.  Rather our stance should always be like his cool defense of what we believe.  It does not rest on sophisticated argument but on the gospel we receive from him.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Revelation 14:14-19; Psalm 96; Luke 21:5-11)

Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias” relates how the statue of an ancient Egyptian king was found in the middle of a desert.  The statue’s shattered state belied the sign it bore naming the figure “Ozymandias, King of Kings” and telling the on-looker to despair in awe.  The poem reminds the reader that the greatest works of art as well as the greatest people are all time-bound.  Their fame hardly lasts for centuries, much less for eternity.

In the gospel Jesus relates the same prophetic message.  People gaze starry-eyed at the wonders of the Temple, but Jesus tells them not to be impressed.  The Temple, he says, will fall as it indeed did barely a generation after his death.  Jesus also warns his disciples not to follow unreservedly the great personages who may claim to be like him.  These men and women will also pass away.

We Christians give full allegiance only to God.  He is the source and goal of our lives.  Yes, we cooperate with others in effort to make of the earth a decent habitat for all humans.  But we should not become too comfortable and never complacent here.  We seek a peaceful earth so that we might come to know and love God who promises us heaven as our true home.

Monday, November 27, 2017

Monday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Daniel 1:1-6.8-20, Luke 21:1-4)

A man with a Ph.D. in biology enjoys talking about the diet of Chinese peasants.  He says that since they are dirt poor, Chinese peasants can afford little meat and dairy products.  Rather, he explains, they mainly eat vegetables and receive the protein that their bodies require from beans and other legumes.  The authority is convinced that this diet is not inferior but significantly superior to richer, western diets.  He believes that the fats westerners assimilate from eating meat not only threatens their hearts but also are related to cancer.

The results of the vegetarian experiment related in the first reading today, then, should not be surprising.  Although the chamberlain believes that Daniel and his companions would be undernourished by the diet, actually they prove to be healthier than the others because of it.  But, of course, good nutrition is not the prophet’s point in relating this story.  He means to tell us that when we abide by the Lord’s will, things always work out for the best.  We do not need to worry, as Jesus says, about what we eat and drink or about what clothes we wear when seek first God’s kingdom.

Jesus reaffirms this lesson in the gospel today.  He praises the poor widow for generosity, a virtue extolled throughout this Luke’s gospel.  Sometimes we think that we might ignore God’s will as expressed by Jesus in order to secure more of a desired good.  Some people argue, for example, that it would be all right to take the life of a patient suffering from incurable cancer so that she does not suffer.  But such an action would violate the sanctity of human life, one of the highest principles of God’s law.  No, we want to go out of our way to comfort and console those in agony.  When we do so, both they and we will benefit.