Tuesday, November 1, 2022

 Solemnity of All Saints

(Revelation 7:2-4.9-14; I John3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12a)

 Halloween traditions have a murky background.  Do the wearing of masks and the prominence of skeletons celebrate a time-conditioned rising from the dead?  Or are customs of dressing in clothes of various cultures and periods indicative of the plethora of saints in Church history.  Because Halloween immediately precedes All Saints and not All Souls Day, the latter answer appears more on target.

Today’s readings testify to many kinds of people becoming saints throughout the centuries.  Revelation says it directly.  A “great multitude…from every nation, race people, and tongue” participate in the heavenly court.  John’s letter indicates that people must purify themselves to gain such a standing.  The beatitudes describe those who have gone through the process of purification.  They are the poor and humble, peacemakers and pursuers of justice. 

All Saints Day reminds us of the past which we readily forget as we preoccupy ourselves with the here and now.  It tells us of the faith of our predecessors in God whom we can marginalize in our quest for self-fulfillment.  It emboldens us to imitate their virtue so that we too might reach their standing in eternal life. 

Monday, October 31, 2022

 Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

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

A famous moral theologian once admitted that he would never say that his work is perfect.  He just thought it “a little better” than anyone else’s.  The man was joking, of course.  Yet he had his finger on a very common human fault.  People like to consider themselves as better than others, at least those in their own grouping.  This kind of thinking sets up rivalries which readily spill over into animosities and even hatreds.  It is the kind of disposition that St. Paul wants the Philippians to avoid in today’s first reading.

The passage leads into the great Christological hymn of Philippians, renowned for the Greek term kenosis.  The word means emptying and refers to Christ letting go of the fullness of divinity to become human.  Paul is coaxing the community at Philippi to give up any pretensions of rank or class.  He wants everyone to think of himself or herself not as better but, indeed, not as good as every other person. 

Often the antidote to excessive behavior in one direction is to assert the other direction.  This strategy is at the heart of Paul’s admonition.  Of course, we are in some ways better than others and not as good as others in different ways.  Nevertheless, Paul’s hope is that every community member strives to be like Christ.  That is, she or he will give up considerations of superiority and concentrate on loving others.  

Sunday, October 30, 2022

 THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

(Wisdom 11:22-12:2; II Thessalonians 1:11-2:2; Luke 19:1-10)

There are many fascinating stories of Saint John Paul II. The World Youth Day, 2002, occasioned one of the best. Pope John Paul arrives in Toronto to be with countless young people for the last time in his life. He is eighty-two years old and looks, with a swollen and distorted face, like he is even older. At the closing mass with nearly a million people in attendance is a twenty-four-year-old woman. She is an alcoholic, a heroin addict, and a prostitute. She tells herself that she wants to die. Only because of some youth in the parish near her was she attending the event. Then her life changes. As if he were addressing her alone, she hears the pope say that he loves her. Many men have told her they love her, but in this case -- she says later -- the man was serious. Also, the pope tells her that God, who made all the stars in the heavens, loves her too. He loves him so much that he wants her to spend all eternity with Him. Listening to John Paul, the young woman no longer wants to die; on the contrary, she now wants to live. Like Jesus in the Gospel today, Saint John Paul II was a person capable of changing people's lives.

Throughout this Gospel of Luke simply the presence of Jesus results in blessings. At its beginning, still within Mary's womb, his coming causes the infant within Elizabeth to jump for joy.  At its end, having met Jesus, Pilate and Herod, who were enemies, become friends. According to the disciple on the road to Emmaus, Jesus is "a prophet mighty in deed and word." However, he is also as merciful as a mother to her last child. We remember how Jesus raised to life the widow's son and how he healed the servant's ear in the Garden of Olives. As always, Saint Paul has helpful words to describe the effect of Jesus. He writes: “…I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” As he went to meet Paul on the road to Damascus, Jesus seeks out Zacchaeus in the gospel today.

We need to understand the type of person Zacchaeus is. He is not the "good tax collector" ready to help the poor save money. Rather, he is "chief tax collector," probably the one who knows best how to swindle people and how to defend his crimes with lies. He wants to see Jesus not because Jesus is a holy man but because he is famous. As seeing the king of England when he comes to your country, seeing Jesus is the thing to do on this happy day in Jericho. But the encounter with Jesus changes Zacchaeus forever. He's no longer going to extort anything from anyone. Rather he is going to repay four times whatever he has defrauded in the past and give half of his assets to the poor.

Jesus comes in search of each one of us. There are stories of his appearances to people like Saint Thomas Aquinas when, according to a report, he spoke to him from a crucifix. More common but still powerful is the presence of Jesus felt in programs like the Road to Emmaus. Jesus often comes to us through the words of the gospel or through knowing a truly holy person like St. Teresa od Kalcuta. However, Jesus' preferred way of reaching out to us is through the sacraments. As it is said, “When a man baptizes, it is Christ who baptizes”. Yes, faith is necessary to recognize Christ.  However, he is there.

Of the seven sacraments the one where he is most recognizable is definitely the Eucharist. We have him first in our hand, then we consume it. The result is not that he becomes like us but the opposite. We become like him. Now during Halloween we can think of the bread and wine as a costume that Jesus wears to approach us. In this case he doesn't want to take chocolates from us. Rather, he wants to share his life with us.

Friday, October 28, 2022

 Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles

 (Ephesians 2:19-22; Luke 6:12-16)

A guest editorial once appeared in the Wall Street Journal telling of a struggle to get a little girl the education she needed. The editorial was written by a woman who had just graduated from a state university in Florida and was about to pursue a master’s degree.  What’s remarkable is that the woman had been considered a hopeless cause after failing first and second grades.  Then her godmother took her into her home and procured for her a state voucher to attend a private school.  There the girl received the special attention she needed.  Today we celebrate the saint who may be considered the young woman’s patron.

St. Jude is sometimes surnamed Thaddeus because he is not mentioned in Mark’s and Matthew’s gospel while Thaddeus is.  But the most telling inference in the gospels of this saint is that his name appears at the end of the list of apostles except for Judas Iscariot.  In other words, Jude is the last of the faithful apostles.  Yet in the eyes of many Catholics around the world Jude is the most famous other than St. Peter.  The reason for his popularity is that his being positioned in the last place has made him the patron of so-called “hopeless causes” – a sense which perhaps everyone has of her or his situation at one time or another.

In truth none of our causes is really hopeless.  God has sent Jesus to help us.  We need to trust in him, perhaps with the intercession of St. Jude.  He will supply us with the opportunity to rise from desperation.  He will make us well.

Thursday, October 27, 2022

 Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ephesians 6:10-20; Luke 13:31-35)

Quite a number of years ago, a documentary movie featured a French Protestant community during World War II.  The community conspired against Nazi occupants to save the lives of thousands of Jews fleeing persecution.  The film’s title, “Weapons of the Spirit,” was taken from today’s reading from the Letter to the Ephesians.

The letter speaks of a struggle “not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers,
with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.” Modern people generally eschew this type of language as being otherworld fantasy.  Nevertheless there is a wide consensus that the Nazi regime was indeed diabolical.

We should not fool ourselves.  The spiritual life is a struggle against inhuman forces.  The human person is naturally inclined to self-gratification.  Using market advertising, evil spirits turn preoccupation with self into a fulsome vice.  More than a hearty education is needed to overcome its threat.  As Ephesians counsels, we need to hold faith as a shield and Scripture as a sword to do what is right.