Monday, November 5, 2018

Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

(Philippians 2:1-4; Luke 14:12-14)

Most of us find ourselves competing with others.  We resent when a peer receives attention, and we are ignored.  We become envious when he is promoted and we are left behind.  We begin to calculate in our minds how we are as good, maybe better than the one others admire.  In today’s first reading Paul beseeches the Philippians not to engage in such unproductive thoughts.

Paul has a special affection for the Philippians.  According to Acts, it is the first community he evangelized after crossing over from Asia to Europe.  In this letter he will share with them personal ambitions and intimate thoughts.  At its beginning, however, he exhorts unity within the community. They are to do nothing out of selfishness but to judge everyone as better than themselves.

It seems that a distorted sense of self-worth often causes our mentally competing with others.  We need to recognize that our basic dignity comes from being created in God’s image and knowing Jesus Christ.  More than anything we can do, this gives us importance.  How others judge us in the end makes little difference.  As God’s servant and Jesus’ friend, we should strive to serve one another, not to better them.

Friday, November 2, 2018

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls Day)

(Wisdom 3:1-9; Romans 5:5-11; John 6:37-40)

The old priest said that he did not care if he was a heretic but he believed that all people are saved.  He might have shown more respect for Church dogma, but in this case he could not be called a heretic.  The Church teaches that hell exists, but it has never said that any human being resides there.  Those who hold for universal salvation may look to today’s gospel for support.

Jesus tells the people that anyone who believes in him will have eternal life.  He probably has in mind followers who make sacrifices to serve others, but their numbers are not necessarily limited. Is it not possible that all who have ever done a loving deed may be considered a follower who has served?  Perhaps those guilty of serious sins were affected by conditions that lessened their culpability.

In any case today we pray for all the dead.  We want to be generous enough to include in our prayers those whose deeds we detest.  Our prayer should cover the man who just killed eleven people at the synagogue in Pittsburgh.  It also would include a former boyfriend or girlfriend who may have betrayed us personally.  Of course, it embraces our loved ones who fell short of perfection but nevertheless tried to help us.

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Solemnity of All Saints

(Revelation 7:2-4.9-14; I John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12a)

Every one of us probably can tell the story of a saint.  We probably did not know a canonized saint like Mother Teresa or St. Oscar Romero.  But we have known at least one or two people whose lives always reflected God’s holiness and goodness.  I knew a priest who even when he lived almost a hundred years would answer the door for all callers.  If they wanted him to hear their confession, which usually was the case, he would do it promptly, even if he was eating dinner at the time. 

Today’s gospel gives us the characteristics of these saints.  They are “poor in spirit” never resting on their laurels but always looking to God for salvation.  They show mercy to all never holding grudges but always willing to forgive those who wrong them.  They possess clean hearts never allowing animal desires to objectify others but treating everyone as a beloved brother or sister.

All saints have their feast day on which we remember their virtue and pray for their intercession.  Today we celebrate not those special saints whom we have known or heard of but of all whom we have not known.  We recognize that they have been transformed by God’s grace which spreads like air throughout the world.  We also pray today that we will allow ourselves to breathe in that grace.

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ephesians 6:1-9; Luke 13:22-30)

Sir John Falstaff taught the English Prince Hal how to live a dissolute life.  Drinking, gambling, and womanizing were vices that the man passed on to his young protégé.  When Prince Hal became King Henry, Falstaff supposed that he would have life easy.  He expected his friend, the king, to provide him with all the money necessary for both pleasure and leisure.  King Henry, however, rejects his friend as an opportunist.  He banishes him from his presence “on pain of death.”  Jesus promises to do something similar in today’s gospel.

A man from the crowd yells at Jesus a question.  “’Lord,’” he asks, “’will only a few people be saved?’” Quite surprising to people today, Jesus warns the crowd that they had better desist doing evil.  He says that even though they “’ate and drank’” with him, they have not won salvation.  Rather they have to do good and avoid evil if they are ever to enjoy eternal life.

We Catholics sometimes have a similarly incorrect idea about the way to salvation. Some of us believe that just because we “’ate and drank’” with the Lord at mass, our eternal destiny is secure.  No, we must do so worthily.  This means that we strive along with Jesus to love God and neighbor.  It implies that we sacrifice our comfort to follow his way of service.

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ephesians 5:21-33; Luke 13:18-21)

Betty and her husband lived in a Texas city fifty years ago.  It was still a time when most women did not work outside the home, and Betty was no exception here.  But she had social interests that brought her in contact with the poor.  She began to advocate publicly for needy children.  She asked for government support for programs like Head Start.  Her husbands’ friends saw such social schemes as communist.  They told him that his wife she should stay at home.  But he told them that he believed his wife was right.  The community should assist poor families meet the needs of their children.

Betty’s husband was motivated by a deep love for his life.  He did not come to favor community social assistance on his own.  It was his love for his wife that made him see its justice.  No doubt he took seriously today’s first reading.  Husbands have to love their wives wholeheartedly.  True love requires careful attention to what the other believes.  It calls forth patience to both understand her truth and question her inconsistencies.  It also elicits sacrifice so that she might flourish in her goodness.

Today’s passage from Ephesians has been dismissed as culturally conditioned.  Even St. John Paul II said that love excludes any kind of servile subjection.  But it contains a message as critical as a hurricane warning.  Husband and wife must love one another unreservedly.  If they do not, they will not only fail their families but also their Lord.  As the Letter makes clear, their relationship is to reflect Christ’s love for the Church.