Monday, August 20, 2018

Memorial of Saint Bernard, abbot and doctor of the Church

(Ezekiel 24:15-23; Matthew 19:16-22)

In today’s gospel Jesus calls the rich young man to a rich spiritual life.  He invites him to go beyond the basics of keeping the commandments.  He wants him to be “’perfect as (his) heavenly father is perfect.’”  The young man must dispossess himself of his riches and walk with the poor man Jesus.  It may seem like a hard row to hoe, but the man has asked for the formula for eternal life! 

St. Bernard not only lived this “body and soul” spirituality but, like Jesus, called others to it.  As abbot he regularly warned monks about satiating the palate with delicacies and pampering the flesh with fur.  But he also recognized that holiness is more a matter of sacrifice of spiritual excess than of material excess.  Pride can be a greater temptation than gold.  Sloth may prove a larger pitfall than “surf and turf.”

Jesus does not call all of us to religious observance but he does invite everyone to sanctity.  We must deny ourselves in order to love God and neighbor.  We cannot live for power, pleasure, or prestige.  Rather we must sacrifice these ego-gratifying glories to serve others.  Doing so, we will be beneficiaries of God’s eternal glory.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ezekiel 19:59-63; Matthew 19:3-12)

The woman is no longer young.  She has never married and, no doubt, wonders if she ever will.  She asks for a book on sexual ethics to guide her.  She says that most of what she sees pertains to married couples or to youth who one day will marry.  She implies that the Church has abandoned people in her position.  Even in the gospel today Jesus does not seem to address the possibility that one may not marry because there never was an opportunity to do so.

The apostle Paul does take up the issue in the First Letter to the Corinthians where he says that that “it is a good thing” that the unmarried and the widowed remain as they are if they can exercise control over their passions.  He reasons that the unmarried may concern themselves exclusively with pleasing the Lord where the married have various interests competing for their attention. 

But Jesus is actually not far from Paul as he advises that those who can accept what he teaches about forsaking marriage for the sake of the Kingdom should do so.  Furthermore, those who lack opportunity to marry need not lament over their situation but should consider it carefully.  They will probably discern, as professed celibates readily do, that being unmarried offers manifold possibilities.  They will have more opportunities to serve the common good, to befriend different kinds of people, and to learn about the world.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Memorial of Saint Pius X, pope

(Ezekiel 28:1-10; Matthew 19: 23-30)

In The Great Gatsby the consummate self-made man tries to woo back a former lover by showing off his expansive wardrobe.  The woman, however, who is also wealthy, is not impressed.  Neither the man nor the woman realizes the true purpose of wealth.  It does not buy happiness but supports growth of self and others.  Parents might invest in the education of their children or perhaps use their nice home for a social with church workers. 

The gospel today as well as the reading from Ezekiel conveys the folly of hankering after wealth.  Jesus’ disciples are astounded when he suggests that the wealthy have no place in the Kingdom.  They see the wealthy as blessed by God on earth and destined to inherit choice places in heaven.  No, Jesus advises them, the rich perhaps more than the poor need God’s mercy to be saved.

To follow Jesus we must come to terms with wealth.  As he says, no person can serve both God and money. We should show not waver in our allegiance to the Lord.  One man did this living by the maxim: for a successful life a person is to spend twenty years learning, twenty years earning, and twenty years serving.

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ezekiel 12:1-12, Matthew 18:21-19:1)

Exile is a terrible experience.  We only have to review the situations of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan to appreciate exile’s horrors.  The foreign cultures they inhabit lack familiar institutions that might provide some solace.  They have trouble finding jobs which leads to their exploitation as slave labor. They are also exceptionally vulnerable to new diseases and to swindlers’ deceptions. 

In the reading from Ezekiel today God wants the prophet to show the Jerusalemites that they are headed on a course of exile.  Ezekiel is to act as a person uprooted from his native place to awaken the people that their sins are bringing them to ruin.  The hope is that the people will reform their lives so that God might spare them the trauma of exile.  Sadly, however, they will refuse to repent.

We see Jesus as bringing us out of the exile that sin has caused.  Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the garden was the prototype of exile from which Jesus has rescued us.  He brought us to the “Kingdom of heaven,” not yet heaven but on the way there.  This state is not so much a physical place as it is a renewed relationship with God in which we experience the peace of Christ.  Acquiring the relationship, we will forgive others their offenses against us, as the gospel today recommends, because we have come to realize how gracious God is to us.

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

(Revelation 11:19a.12:1-6a.10ab; I Corinthians 15:20-27; Luke 1:39-56)

We might think that the Church honors Mary just for being the mother of Jesus.  As we too well know from the recent “royal wedding,” relations to the sovereign have special status.  But Mary’s relationship with Jesus runs deeper than blood.  The Church recognizes her as the first and most committed evangelizer.  In today’s gospel passage Mary proclaims the good news of Jesus before he is born!

Mary sings of how God saves the poor, among whom she considers herself. She says that God has “’has lifted up the lowly’” and “’has filled the hungry with good things.’”  This is very good news for all who have waited patiently for the Messiah.  Not only the destitute but also the faithful who generously help the needy can now rejoice.

Mary is rewarded for her own faithful attentiveness to God with a special place in heaven.  She occupies this space body and soul according to the ancient tradition of the Church.  We gladly sing her praises, follow her example, and pray for her intercession before the Almighty.