Sunday, September 3, 2023

 TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

(Jeremiah 20:7-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27)

According to the common way of thinking, a prophet is someone who foretells the future. But we also hear how figures like Martin Luther King, who are not known for having predicted the future but for denouncing sin, are also prophets. In the gospel today we see Jesus doing both.

The Church provides the first reading as a focus for understanding Jesus as a prophet. Jeremiah is arguably the best known prophet in the Old Testament. His book is by far the most personal of all the prophets. In the reading, Jeremiah laments to God the deplorable condition in which he finds himself. He is exhausted after denouncing the sins of Israel without seeing repentance. In fact, he is ridiculed by people for his efforts to correct their faults.

Jesus is found in the gospel today in a similar situation. People have refused to put faith in him. His countrymen in Nazareth were scandalized at his visit. And the Pharisees challenge him every chance they get. Yes, it is true that Simon Peter has declared him "the Messiah, the Son of God." But now Peter himself shows little understanding of what this title means. When Jesus, acting as a prophet, informs him that he is going to suffer for being the Messiah, Peter openly opposes him.

Jesus then proves himself a prophet in the second sense of the word by reproaching Peter. He calls him “Satan,” the tempter who tries to divert people from doing what is right. In addition to having predicted what will happen to him, Jesus denounces the presumption that glory can be reached without experiencing the cross.

Here is a lesson on the spiritual life. It is always more than peace and harmony. Rather it includes moments of struggle. In the first place, we must control the passions that would suffocate us with pleasures. We must also discipline ourselves to overcome the will to pursue other transcendental goals like fame and power. Finally, we must rise above our critics, both friends and foes, who would lead us away from the often painful path to true life.

In the gospel Jesus, ever the insightful prophet, poses the invaluable question: "What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" By saying “life” here Jesus does not have in mind life on earth that will end with death. Rather he is referring to life with God that will never end. This life implies deeper longings such as reunion with our dead loved ones and the glory we had in the prime of life. Jesus tells us that there is only one way to this life -- that of joining him as his disciple.

The lesson here was demonstrated for newly elected popes with a dramatic ritual.  For more than five centuries, every time a new pope was carried from the sacristy of St. Peter's Basilica to the coronation site, the procession was interrupted three times. A monk carrying a brazier with burning flax shouted in Latin: “Sancte Pater, sic transit gloria mundi” which means “Holy Father, so passes the glory of the world”. It was a lesson for everyone. The power and fame even of the papacy is worth nothing more than a burning cloth if the person loses his soul, his life. May we not allow anything to interfere with our following of Jesus. Only he can bring us to lasting life.

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.