Sunday, November 29, 2020

 

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

(Isaiah 63: 16-17,19,64: 2-7; I Corinthians 1: 3-9; Mark 13: 33-37)

Can't it be said that the world is now waiting for its savior? Today everyone yearns for salvation in the form of a vaccine for Covid. We are tired of covering our faces, confining ourselves to the house, and suspecting every stranger as a carrier of the virus. However, the vaccine will be a false messiah. Even if it saves us from Covid, it will only return us to the same selfishness and greed that have prevailed in our time.

First, let us recognize how the pandemic has revealed some flaws in our lifestyles. With confinement, families have spent more time together with the result that adolescents feel less anxiety. The many activities of each member of the family had produced a sense of facing the challenges of life alone. Also, by taking classes with Zoom, children have not had to get up early in the morning. More sleep has reduced stress. This is not to say that the pandemic is a good thing and that the vaccine will not be helpful.  But we must recognize that the vaccine will not deliver us from our most serious problems.

The first reading today is from the third part of the book of the prophet Isaiah. It was penned 2,500 years ago, but it sounds like it could have been typed last year. People have turned away from God's commandments. Where God has said, "You shall not kill," abortion is increasingly acceptable. Where He has said, "You will keep he Lord's day holy," mass attendance continues to decline. It is not necessary to comment on the violations against the sixth and ninth commandments in our time. The reading has its finger on the pulse of our time when it asks the Lord: "Why ... do you let our hearts harden to the point of not being afraid of you?" For this reason, it asks God to come down from heaven though it means tearing open the skies and shaking the mountains.

We believe that God heeded the prophet's cry. In the second reading, Saint Paul tells how Jesus Christ died and rose again to give his followers a “spiritual gift.” We have the grace of the Holy Spirit to live for God even more than for ourselves.

Before his death Jesus said that he was going to return to lead his disciples to eternal life. In anticipation of this event, he tells us in the gospel today to “watch” and “be alert.” This does not mean that we leave our jobs to watch like a sailor in a crow's nest. Rather, Jesus wants us to watch for him as students awaiting the visit of the school principal. That is, he wants us to spend our time advancing in truth, love, and goodness.

There is a story that helps us understand the purpose of Jesus here. Once a legislature was in session when a storm arosein the heavens. The clouds were so dark and the wind so strong that some legislators said the end of the world had come. A group moved that they end the session to return to their homes. But the president of the legislature spoke up.  He said, “If it is not the end, we are going to appear ridiculous leaving our work unfinished. And if it is the end, it would be better if the Lord sees us accomplishing our tasks. I say: 'bring in the candles.'" Thus we want to prepare for the coming of the Lord by doing his will.

Advent always has two goals. At the beginning of the season we want to remember the promise of Jesus to come again. He came once in the flesh to save us from sin. At the end of time he will come in glory to lead his disciples to eternal life. The second objective is to prepare for Christmas. The mystery of the Incarnation overwhelms our imagination. God, the Creator and Sovereign, wanted to humble himself to show us the extent of his love! It is worth a month of lockdown to prepare ourselves for this great event.

Friday, November 27, 2020

Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Revelation 20:1-4.11-21.2; Luke 21:29-33)

A few months ago Christopher Nolan’s new film Tenet was released.  It is action sci-fi that challenges the mind as it awes the emotions.  The opening scene takes place in the future.  It may or may not really happen depending upon the hero’s ability to control the plot.  Casual viewers will likely find the movie bizarre.  But Christopher Nolan fans will grope assiduously for its meaning.  The Book of Revelation presents a similar challenge although it should never be casually dismissed. 

Revelation was written to shore up the hope of persecuted Christians.  Its narration of the future cannot be taken literally.  The thousand years which today’s passage references has long passed without the promised culmination of goodness.  This does not mean that the book is mistaken.  Rather the author only speculated when and what kind of events would the triumph of goodness be.  He is right in assuring that it will take place.

We can be sure that God’s love will ultimately conquer evil because of Christ’s resurrection from the dead.  We have seen other evidence as well like, for example, the Church surviving two thousand years despite many attempts to dismantle it and its own folly.  For now we want to redouble our efforts to live righteous lives.  We want to become partakers of the new reality the reading promises.  

Thursday, November 26, 2020

 Thanksgiving Day

(Sirach 50:22-24; I Corinthians 1:3-9; Luke 17:11-19)

In one episode of “The Simpsons” brash Bart leads the family in grace before dinner. He speaks up, “Dear God, we paid for all this stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothing!”  Perhaps some feel a similar unwillingness to thank God today.  It is not that they feel that they earned everything which they have.  No, people have difficulty giving thanks today because it has been a difficult year.  Covid-19 confined most everyone to their homes for a substantial time.  Most, as well, have lost an elderly relative or friend who has succumbed during the pandemic.

There is also a failure to give thanks in today’s gospel. Nine of the ten men cured of leprosy do not return to thank Jesus for their cure.  Their failure stems from the errant thought that it is not worth the effort to find Jesus.  After all, they have lived in isolation for so long that they need to get on with life.  The cured leper, on the other hand, recognizes something more important than enjoying good health.  He sees the moral urgency to thank his benefactor.  Before he goes to rejoice with family and friends, he gives Jesus the thanks that is due.

The year has been hard in many respects, but we – like the healed leper – should be grateful.  There have been blessings.  One man says that the time to himself has enabled him to read thirty books.  A psychologist explains how adolescents have profited by being with their parents more.  We remain indebted to God for our lives here and now and for the promise of eternal life.  We do well to give Him thanks every day but especially this day designated for thanksgiving.

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Revelation 15:1-4; Luke 21:12-19)

 Preachers used to talk a lot about the wrath of God.  The topic easily captured people’s imaginations.  Also, Scripture references it enough to make it seem very important. Today's first reading refers to it quite directly.  Seven angels hold the last seven plagues of God's fury.

However, we must be very cautious in using human attributes to describe God.  He (forgive this gender reference, but this is Scripture’s predilection) is beyond human emotion since he is pure Spirit.  Indeed, God is beyond our ability to describe Him.  Yet a few qualities stand out because Jesus uses them in speaking of his Father.  God is just, for example.  Indeed, justice is what Revelation is trying to intimate when it speaks of God’s wrath.  For human sin, justice seems to require the imposition of severe punishments.  But God’s justice is not a tit for tat.  Its aim is to make humans just.  Although it sometimes punishes, its primary tool is mercy.  Both the Old and the New Testaments constantly show God acting mercifully.  He wants His people to consider imitating His ways.

We cannot imitate God by becoming angry.  Although anger is not necessarily sinful, neither is it an attribute of God.  We do imitate God when we show mercy, but not mercy as permissiveness.  No, care for others requires a willingness to pardon their transgressions.  However, unless it holds them accountable to improvement, it fails to testify to God’s love.

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

 Memorial of Saint Andrew Dung-Lac, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs

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

For more than five hundred years until 1963 whenever a new pope was crowned, he would be dramatically reminded of the closeness of death.  As he proceeded from the sacristy of St. Peter’s Basilica, the master of ceremonies would kneel before him with rapidly burning flax.  The master would then say, “Sic transit gloria mundi” (“there goes the glory of the world”).  The pope was being reminded that, like the flax, his time is short.  Despite having the highest position in the Church, he too will die and face judgment for his sins.

As this month of the dead wanes, we receive strong reminders of death’s inevitability in today’s mass readings.  Revelation reminds us that the world’s inhabitants can die and be judged in an instant.  In the gospel Jesus tells the people not to be overly impressed by the temple’s beauty.  He says that it will fall along with many people.  The lesson of these readings, like the message to new popes, is that we are to trust in God, not in humans.  If death is to be overcome, it will be by the Creator’s power, not by any human one.

The many martyrs of Vietnam testified to their faith in God with their lives. Between 1820 and 1880 between 100,000 and 300,000 Catholics in the country either were killed or suffered great hardship.  Today’s feast recalls 117 of these whose cases are documented and who were canonized by Pope St. John XXIII.  They should not be seen as foreign, much less as exotic.  Rather, they are our partners whispering into our ears not to forget that we too will die.