Thursday, February 14, 2019

Memorial of Saint Cyril, monk, and Saint Methodius, bishop

(Genesis 2:18-25; Mark 7:24-30)

Today in this liturgy we celebrate four evangelizers.  We may be stretching both the term as well as the liturgy to render such a result.  However, it will be worth the effort if we reinforce our sense of being evangelizers as well.

The first to be mentioned is Jesus himself.  He is the evangelizer par excellence.  The Father sent him to the world to announce His great love.  In the gospel reading Jesus evidently needs some rest from the work.  Nevertheless, he heals the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter so that she too can give thanks and praise to the God of Israel.

Should we not see the Syrophoenician as an evangelizer?  She explains -- to Jesus in a sense and certainly to us – that God’s love was never intended solely for Jews.  She knows instinctively that it is meant for every human being.  She also shows us how God especially bestows His efficacious love on the humble of heart.

Today the Church remembers Saints Cyril and Methodius.  They were ninth century missionaries who overcame hardships and challenges to convert a part of Russia and Moravia to Christ.  Coming from Greece, their orthodoxy was suspect in the Western church.  German bishops were especially hostile to their efforts to work among the peoples of Moravia.  However, they demonstrated their faithfulness to established doctrine and used their scholarship to abet their work.  They translated the Bible into Slavic languages which assisted their evangelization efforts.

According to Fr. Stephen Rehrauer, a Redemptorist moral theologian, St. Valentine was a priest of Rome during one of the great persecutions of the Church.  He was arrested and spent time in jail before his execution.  There he converted the jailer’s blind daughter to Christ.  On his way to his martyrdom, he slipped the girl an envelope with a note reminding her to be faithful to her promise to love others like Christ.  He signed the note, “Your Valentine.”  When the girl opened the envelope and found the note, she received the gift of sight.  Fr. Rehrauer concludes that when people today exchange Valentine greetings, they might keep this story in mind.  He says that in asking one another to be their “Valentine,” they are not asking that they be their lovers, but their mentors.  They are asking that they teach them the love of Christ.

Wednesday, February 13, 2109

Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 2:4b-9.15-17; Mark 7:14-23)

Today’s first reading presents the mysterious “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” It stands in the middle of the garden – at the center of human existence.  It is unlike any of the other trees in that God has specifically warned not to eat its fruit.  Eating it will cause death.

“Knowledge” here is more than intellectual knowing.  Rather knowledge is the often painful process of learning by experience.   It is our experience of fire or of rejection.  The Lord wants to spare Adam this bitter process.  Because He has given Adam plenty to live on, He tells Adam not to eat of the fruit.  Of course, Adam with the help of his soon to be created partner will reject this good advice.  They will freely choose to disobey God’s command in pursuit of experiential knowledge.   Their action will indeed introduce death into creation.

Humans have developed beyond Adam’s primitive state.  We have searched for knowledge in a trillion ways.  The knowledge has brought us some good like machines to relieve us of back-breaking labor.  It has also brought us anxiety and war.  There are still prohibitions established by God both in nature and revelation for our welfare.  We are not to kill.  We are not to exploit the poor and the weak.   When we violate these commands, we can expect a fate more gruesome than death.

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 1:20-2:4a; Mark 7:1-13)

A number of years ago people started talking about producing a square tomato.  They said it would be easier to pack and ship.  Agriculturalists took up the challenge with some success.  Today there are tomatoes that are less rounded, but they are mainly used for processing.  Scientists have more critical projects to work on.  In doing so, they respond to God’s mandate in today’s first reading.

Genesis pictures humans as the epitome of creation.  After God creates the material universe, He sets the earth aglow with life.  First plants then fish and birds followed by land animals inhabit land, sea, and sky.  Finally, God creates men and women in His image.  In a sense they are like God because He has granted them dominion over the other creatures.  They are to develop what God has made.  But a definite responsibility is implied with this authority.  As they are given only plants to eat, humans may use animals for labor but are not to kill them for food.

Eventually, God conceded that humans may eat the flesh of animals.  But we must take care not to abuse God’s grant of dominion.  We do not have a right to squander natural resources.  Nature was created for us to use, to perfect, and to preserve.  God never intended that it be polluted and destroyed.  Where this has already been done, humans have the responsibility to restore nature as best we can.

Monday, February 11, 2019

Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes

(Genesis 1:1-19; Mark 6:53-56)

Every year eight million people visit the town of Lourdes in southern France.  Most go to be healed of some malady or to pray for another who is sick.  The water from the spring at the site of Our Lady’s appearance to St. Bernadette has shown to be especially curative.  Pilgrims drink the water and fill bottles with it to be taken home.  Many take baths in the pools.  They are immersed a few seconds and emerge healed either spiritually or physically.  The custom can be compared with one noted in today’s gospel.

The reading tells how the sick beg Jesus to touch one of his tassels.  The practice sounds superstitious but actually expresses great faith.  Jews are required by the Law to wear tassels.  Jesus, known as a holy man, keeps that precept and the whole Law in both spirit and letter.  By touching one of his tassels, a person manifests her own acceptance of God’s will.  This in turn puts the person in God’s favor.  If she is sick, she can expect some kind of healing.

Tassels serve Jews in a way not at all unlike how the sacraments serve us.  They put us in touch with the Holy One whose power created the universe.  Submitting our will to His, we too will be healed of our ailments.

Friday, February 8, 2019

Friday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Hebrews 13:1-8; Mark 6:14-29)

Sometimes a prayer is uttered for prison reform.  The person who makes it has a finger on a festering sore in the United States.  There are over two million people imprisoned here.  This country also has the largest per capita number of prisoners in the world.  Most of the imprisoned are not convicted of the crimes for which they were originally jailed.  Rather plea bargaining is typically done whereby the district attorney offers the apprehended person a reduced sentence if the person pleads guilty.  This happens whether or not the person has done anything wrong.  The exhortation in Hebrews today to be mindful of the imprisoned sounds especially cogent here.

The other exhortations of the reading can be taken as a remedy for the appalling number of prisoners.  Whether or not people have perpetrated the crimes for which they are imprisoned, there are a large number of crimes committed.  At the root of these crimes are often found “love of money,” the abandonment of marriage vows, and forgetting the moral lessons taught in youth.  Addressing these sources should draw society closer together.  Everyone then should develop a sense of responsibility for the good of all.

As Hebrews repeatedly reminds us, we must keep our eyes on Jesus.  We want to love him, to imitate him, and to teach him.  Whether people believe in him or not, he will draw our society together in care for one another.  He certainly will bring fulfilment beyond money, sex, and illusory teachings.