Friday, September 1, 2023

Friday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

(Thessalonians 4:1-8; Matthew 25:1-13)

Occasionally someone clamors, “The Church should get out of the marriage business.”  Marriage does seem like a sordid deal at times.  A person entering marriage may be immature.  The desire to annul an unsuccessful marriage may promote perjury.  However, marriage is hardly a business.  It involves the intimate relation between a man and a woman.  Besides procreation, the relationship should enhance the couples’ appreciation for God.  Both readings today concern the seriousness of this sacrament.

St. Paul urges the Thessalonians to seek marriage partners of virtue.  He wants them to avoid choosing a mate for looks and also to refrain from lewd acts within marriage.  The gospel parable uses marriage as a symbol of the coming of Christ at the end of time.  Because he will take only a righteous Church as his bride, the Church must prepare herself for him with works of mercy.  By implication, then, every couple should prepare themselves carefully for marriage.

Marriage is suffering in many parts of the world.  Young people increasingly do not marry.  Many marriages end in divorce.  We need to promote strong marriages by modeling chaste behavior and by helping young adults discern whom and when to marry.

 Thursday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

 (I Thessalonians 3:7-13; Matthew 24:42-51)

 We think of the “good thief” as the bandit who was crucified with Christ and asked his help.  But the gospels relate another “good thief” who more authentically deserves the distinction.  He is Jesus who alludes to himself as a thief in today’s passage. 

Jesus’ extravagant use of parables allows the appellation to make a point.  Like a thief in the night Jesus will come to his people at an unexpected time.  They, therefore, must stay prepared for his coming.  This does not mean that they stand around anxiously like those waiting for a delayed bus or even that they polish the candlesticks.  No, being alert or “staying awake” means that that they look for Jesus in the needy.

Who are the needy and how might we help them?  Many live in the parts of town where we seldom find ourselves.  But they are really everywhere.  They are the lonely whom we might engage for a few minutes in conversation.  They are friends deluged with work to whom we might offer a hand for half an hour.  They are the sick, the uneducated, and the aged whom we might spend a few hours a week visiting in hospital, schools, or nursing homes.

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

 Wednesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

 (I Thessalonians 2:9-13; Matthew 23:27-32)

 The “whitewashed tombs” in today’s gospel refers to the Jewish practice of painting tombs white.  Such coloring was to warn the people not to go near those tombs.  The Jewish concern was not respect for the dead, however, but dread of contamination by being in their proximity.

Jesus’ association of the scribes and Pharisees with “whitewashed tombs” constitutes a severe criticism.  He is saying that their apparent virtue only masquerades spiritual rot.  He claims that the scribes and Pharisees are hypocrites of a major order.  Their crimes have been detailed throughout the gospel.  They tie excessive burdens on the poor by a narrow interpretation of the law.  They seek the adulation of the masses but lack righteousness.  They persecute him for curing the sick by saying that he is in league with the devil.

We should remember that not all the scribes and Pharisees were evil.  Indeed, the Pharisaical movement saved the Jewish faith after the destruction of the Temple.  Nevertheless, they badgered Jesus and were especially severe in persecuting his followers later in the first century.  More importantly, however, we must take care that we do not turn hypocritical like the Pharisees in the gospels.  We should strive to be understanding of others’ faults, always ready to help others live virtuous lives.

 

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

 Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist

 (I Thessalonians 3:7-13; Mark 6:17-29)

 In the gospel reading today a man makes an oath to do something that turns out to be immoral.  Herod promises his stepdaughter anything that she might ask.  He does not imagine her wanting him to murder.  We must ask, “Is such an oath binding?”

 No, it is not because it involves doing something evil which is always wrong.  Unfortunately, people are sometimes so proud that they think their every word must carried out.  They need humility.  Discovering that they have made a foolish oath, humble people beg God’s forgiveness for their mindlessness.  They never carry out an unconscionable act.

 Today’s celebration of the passion of John the Baptist should be more than a lesson on oath-taking.  John dies like an Old Testament prophet giving witness to the truth.  His manner of death prefigures Jesus’.  A civil system that arrests a man for speaking out against immorality will hardly tolerate one who seeks to inaugurate an even greater righteousness.  A more perfect man than John the Baptist, Jesus will suffer a more brutal death.

Monday, August 28, 2023

Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

(I Thessalonians 1:1-5.8b-10; Matthew 23:13-22)

With good reason many look upon cohabitation with grave concern.  Today many young couples have little reservation in sharing the same bed.  The result of serial sexual partners will hardly be a satisfactory permanent partnership.  More likely it will lead to continual disappointment. Listening to the life story of Saint Augustine may provide perspective and even some consolation for this development.

Augustine was reared in northern Africa and educated in Carthage.  When he was seventeen, he established a relationship with a woman of that city.  They engendered a son who stayed with Augustine until the boy’s death at sixteen years later.  At one point Augustine abandoned his lover to groom himself for an arranged marriage.  But before he married, Augustine restlessly took on another concubine.  In the end, Augustine never married.  Instead, he became a priest and eventually a bishop renowned for his preaching and theology.

Augustine’s moral theology expressed great reserve over sexual relationships.  He considered sexual relations outside of marriage as always sinful.  Even in a marital relationship, sex was not to be used for satisfying desire but for allowing procreation.  Perhaps Augustine had a harsh outlook on marital sex out of regret for his youthful exploits.  Nevertheless, we can learn from Augustine the need to resist sexual desires outside of marriage.  They often lead to deep personal injury and to tragic separation from the Lord.