Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 8:6-13.20-22; Mark 8:22-26)

Perhaps you have wondered about why Noah sends out a raven first and then a dove.  And maybe you have asked why the dove but not the raven comes back to the ark when land cannot be found.  And then, what is the purpose of Noah’s animal sacrifice to God?  We should not think that these actions are arbitrary or, much less, that they comprise a historical record.  As in much of Genesis the author of the story is telling us something of nature – both human and non-human.  These questions have answers which may be ascertained through attention to both the Scripture and the environment.

A raven is a scavenger bird which is particularly fond of rotten flesh.  Evidently the raven was having a difficult time onboard the ark where there was only vegetative food.  It waited out the drying of the land rather than go back to a vegetarian diet.  The dove, which is content with eating vegetables, does not mind returning to the ark.  Noah burns animals as a sacrifice because he too enjoys the taste of flesh.  But God has always frowned on animals tearing apart one another and also on humans doing it.  He accepts Noah’s sacrifice but is not pleased with it.  He realizes that the plan to renew creation with both humans and beast living in harmony will never work.  So He makes a covenant with humans.  They can eat the flesh of animals and even offer Him sacrifices with it, but they will have to obey His law.  They may not eat the blood of animals and, most importantly, may not spill one another’s blood.

In time God will give humans other laws, but none will calm their hearts.  That will come only when God sends His Son to make up for humanity’s sins and to bestow on humans the Holy Spirit.  Jesus will bring about the new creation that turns women and men into true daughters and sons of God.

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 5:5-8.7:1-5.10; Mark 8:14-21)

On top of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, stone statues of the twelve apostles look over the world that they have struggled to win for Christ.  Each member of the band appears so magnificent in wisdom and power that we are challenged to reconcile these figures with the fumbling characters we meet in the gospel today. 

The twelve have twice witnessed Jesus distribute a thousand times more bread than they had at hand.  Yet they worry about having enough food in the boat when they have one loaf – that is, the Lord himself!  Like most people, they cannot get over the human condition of scarcity.  They cannot see that in Christ’s company they have more than enough.

Bumpkins as they are at this point, Jesus has to warn the disciples about thinking themselves greater than they are.  He uses the example of leaven or yeast to give them the message.  Put a bit of yeast in a little dough and in a short time you find a full loaf of bread.  Yeast or leaven puffs up making something appear more massive than it is.  “The leaven of the Pharisees” and “the leaven of Herod” puff up their carriers to the extent that they cannot recognize God’s messengers.  The Pharisees think that they are defending God as they demand signs on the spot from Jesus, even after he has repeatedly given witness to his divine commission.  In decapitating John, Herod pretends to have authority over innocent life.  Jesus warns his disciples against both kinds of arrogance.  They and we are neither to worry about what is lacking nor to think of our own virtue as sufficient.  Rather, they and we must trust in Jesus.

Monday, February 18, 2019

Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 4:1-15.25; Mark 8:11-13)

The seven deadly sins capture most imaginations.  Sin appeals to egotistic self-interest.  The deadly or capital sins have greater attraction because they imply great risk and big payoff.  The seven are not so much sins as tendencies to sin.  They may be helpfully classified as run-away passions causing people to act contrary to the law and their real interests.  In today’s first reading God counsels Cain to keep these passions in check.

God acts benevolently toward Cain.  Rather than ignore him after He chooses Abel’s sacrifice rather than his, he gives Cain good advice.  He admonishes him to, in effect, let go of envy and anger.  God tells him that these passions need not control Cain.  Rather with the development of virtue Cain can control them.

Passions in themselves are not evil.  They may even lead to some good.  There is a righteous anger, for example, and erotic love may lead to marriage and a family.  But even in these instances, we want to control their power.  Developing virtue through prayer, patience, and persistence in doing good we can harness our passions to serve us and our community. 

Friday, February 15, 2019

Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 3: 1-8; Mark 7:31-37)

It is a classic axiom that humans do not choose evil because it is bad.  Rather they choose it under the aspect of some good that it brings.  In today’s first reading the serpent tempts the woman by mentioning apparent advantages of eating the forbidden fruit.  First, her “eyes would be opened”; that is, she will have gained insight or knowledge.  Then it adds that she and her mate “will be like gods.”  They will not only know more but will decide for themselves right and wrong.  Once the woman’s reason has been stirred by the serpent’s ideas, she imagines other benefits.  The fruit becomes “pleasing to the eye” and apparently to the palate.

The story is reflected in every sin.  The thief prizes another person’s treasure more than the person’s right to keep what she has legitimately obtained.  The fornicator thinks little of the harm he creates by satisfying his lust but mostly of the pleasure it gives.  Even people who know well of the evil that sin incurs may commit it anyway for the sense of autonomy it brings.

In today’s gospel as everyday Jesus is proclaimed as doing the Father’s gracious will.  He restores hearing and clear speech to the man as a sign of God’s love.  Such love is manifested in every judgment of conscience that some act would be evil.  In refusing to sin, we acknowledge that God forbids evil acts because He loves us.

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.