Giáo Phận
Phú Cường – Năm Hiệp Thông Giới Gia Trưởng
Bước vào mùa chay, chuẩn bị đón mừng lễ kính Thánh
Giuse trong năm Hiệp Thông. Giới gia trưởng giáo phận Phú Cường đã quy tụ về
Nhà Chung giáo phận để tĩnh tâm dọn tâm hồn, lãnh nhận hồng ân Chúa ban.
Chúa nhật ngày 9/3/2014, 8 giờ chúng tôi thấy đã có nhiều đoàn xe từ các tỉnh
Bình Long, Tây Ninh xa xôi, gần có Củ Chi, Bến Cát tiến vào khuôn viên nhà
chung giáo phận Phú Cường, các anh em này phải đi từ rất sớm để có mặt ở đây,
vào giờ này.
Sau khi làm thủ tục ghi danh và ổn định chỗ ngồi trên
lầu I, cha đặc trách Tôma Trần Đức Thành giới thiệu chương trình cùng tuyên bố
khai mạc. Nguyện xin Chúa Thánh Thần soi sáng mở lòng trí cho chúng con được
thông hiểu các điều Chúa truyền dạy.
Cùng khai mạc có cha Gioan Baotixita Bùi Ngọc Điệp,
cha Giuse Phạm Văn Hòa và hơn 600 anh em giới gia trưởng toàn giáo phận.
Thắp lửa hiệp thông là bài hát mở đầu cho buổi tĩnh
tâm có điệp khúc như sau:
Hãy thắp lên
ngọn lửa hiệp thông. Hiệp thông trong Chúa, trong Giáo Hội và Giáo Phận Phú
Cường. Hãy thắp lên ngọn lửa hiệp thông, chung sức xây đời bằng gương sáng từ
đời sống gia đình.
Mở đầu buổi
tĩnh tâm là mục chia sẻ. Hiệp thông để truyền giáo là bài do cha Jb. Bùi Ngọc
Điệp chia sẻ. Theo đó cha cắt nghĩa Hiệp thông là gì?. Là hiệp nhất nên một, là
chia sẻ trách nhiệm, là tham gia công tác, là thông cảm tha thứ, chấp nhận
nhau.vv…
45 phút chia sẻ của cha đã lắng sâu vào người nghe,
từ đó mỗi người thêm hiểu biết mình hơn,
thông cảm với anh em mình hơn và nhất là với những anh em chưa cùng đoàn chiên
Chúa, để những người này họ nhận biết Chúa nơi anh em. Được biết, trong giờ
chia sẻ có các cha ngồi giải tội.
Sau giải lao, 10 giờ30 mọi người tập chung ở nhà
nguyện trên lầu 4. Tập hát 10 phút, tiếp theo là thánh lễ.
Thánh lễ đồng tế được chủ sự bởi cha Tôma. Mở đầu cha
chủ sự mời gọi anh em gia trưởng hãy lắng đọng tâm hồn, dâng lên Thiên Chúa
phút giây linh thiêng này để được Chúa thương nhậm lời.
Bài giảng chúa nhật I mùa chay do cha Giuse Phạm Văn
Hòa chia sẻ, đại ý như sau:
Đức Giêsu với bản tính loài người, sau 40 ngày chay
tịnh, Ngài cảm thấy đói. Ma quỷ lợi dụng đã đến cám dỗ Ngài, nhưng Ngài đã vượt
thắng.
Năm xưa ma quỷ đã cám dỗ được ông Adong bà Evà, ngày
nay chúng cũng cám dỗ mỗi người chúng ta.
Cám dỗ không
thể làm hại được người ta khi người ta không theo cám dỗ ấy, và điều đó lại
càng hiệu nghiệm hơn khi có ơn Chúa.
Chống trả chước cám dỗ làm cho ta vững vàng hơn trước
mặt Chúa.
Lạy Chúa, xin cho chúng con biết dùng lời Đức Giêsu
đã dạy là kinh Lạy Cha, là phương thế
giúp chúng con chống trả chước cám dỗ. Amen.
Đông đảo anh em rước lễ cũng là một tín hiệu vui,
nguyện Chúa chúc lành mãi mãi.
Thánh lễ kết thúc sau phép lành, mọi người cùng hát
bài Cầu Xin Thánh Gia “Giuse trong xóm nhỏ khó nghèo thủa xưa….”.
Sau giờ cơm trưa và nghỉ giải lao. Đúng 13 giờ, anh
em lại tập hợp ở hội trường để thảo luận và chia sẻ kinh nghiệm do cha Matthêu
Nguyễn Thanh Yên phụ trách. Trong phần này, anh em đã nêu lên những thắc mắc
hoặc kinh nghiệm để giúp cho sự hiểu biết được rộng rãi hơn.
Gần 2 giờ chia sẻ, mọi mệt mỏi được đánh tan bởi sự
vui vẻ và hóm hỉnh của cha phụ trách và anh em. Thật là một buổi tĩnh tâm đầy
yêu thương.
Mọi người chia tay lúc 15 giờ. Hẹn gặp nhau trong lần
tĩnh tâm lần tới.
Tôma
Đỗ Lộc Sơn
C Cycle
1st Sunday of Advent Jr 33: 14-16 Lk 21: 25-28, 34-36
ON GUARD
In the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon , England
Dowding had less than four years to prepare the RAF
for the epic Battle of Britain, while at the same time helping France
Lord Dowding’s vigilance and preparation while
waiting for the Nazi attempt to invade Great
Britain played a key role in England
Jesus says: “Watch yourselves, or your hearts will
be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness, and the cares of life, and that
day will spring on you suddenly, like a trap…say awake, praying at all times….”
Of course Jesus is not speaking about a military
invasion or an impending war. He is speaking about his second coming in human
history at the end of time. Yet the means of preparation are the same: we have
to exercise vigilance, discipline ourselves and share with one another.
These same means are an excellent Advent
preparation for Christmas, that celebration of Christ’s first coming in human
history.
First, we must exercise vigilance. It is easy for us to become absorbed in our livelihood
and too forget life, or to become preoccupied with our own private projects and
to miss God’s great plan. That is why we must be vigilant, watch and pray.
Prayer opens our eyes to the presence of God.
Prayer puts all things in proper perspective. Prayer implants peace in our
hearts even in the midst of problems or poverty.
Second, we must exercise self – discipline. Without discipline we waste things: we waste our
time; we waste our talents; we waste our natural resources. Self – discipline
creates conditions for maximum effectiveness in the way we use our gifts.
By disciplining our minds, we grow in wisdom and
knowledge. By disciplining our appetites, we increase our capacity to enjoy and
appreciate.
Only a person who is in possession of himself can
give himself in love to another person. Only a person who is self – disciplined
is truly free to seek and find Christ.
Thirds, we must have a spirit of sharing. When we experience shortages,
sharing makes it tolerable and even joyful. When wealthy nations begin to share
more with the Third World , peace on earth will
become more of a reality.
Sharing does not diminish our wealth; it extends
its usefulness. Sharing does not impoverish us; it enriches us with a deep
sense of satisfaction. Sharing does not leave us empty – handed; if fills our
lives with friendship and good feelings.
Let us not wait for another war to come before
vigilance, discipline and sharing become important to us. Advent is an ideal
time to develop these habits – not just in getting ready for Christ’s coming at
Christmas – but also for his coming in our daily lives, at the time of our
death and at the end of time.
When Lord Dowding was preparing the RAF for the
war, he didn’t know how much time he had. We too don’t know how much time we
have left to live – four years or forty years; four months or four hours. That
doesn’t matter. May we be on guard and watching whenever the Lord comes.
2nd Sunday of
Advent Ba 5: 1-9 Lk 3: 1-6
ROCK STARS
When rock stars like Michael Jackson and Bruce
Springsteen make a tour, elaborate preparations are made for their coming. If
they come to the Silverdome in Pontiac ,
Michigan
Their publicity staff hypes up the local media,
their travel agents arrange for luxurious accommodations and their technicians
set up spectacular light and sound systems.
By the time a rock star arrives, most of the rough
edges have been smoothed out and most of the kinks straightened out. Such
elaborate preparations almost guarantee a successful stay and a very profitable
show.
It is not surprising, then, that rock stars like
Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen are almost worshipped like gods, and that
their entourages resemble the prophets of old heralding the coming of the Lord.
In fact, one wonders if today’s gospel about John the Baptist proclaiming the
coming of Jesus applies more to modern rock stars than it does to the true
Messiah.
That shouldn’t be, but unfortunately it is. Where
have we failed if 70,000 screaming teenagers will pay $30 a ticket to see a
rock star, and yet will not come to Sunday Mass and give even 30 cents to
support the Church?
It is useless to blame society or the media, or
point the ginger of guilt at parents or pastors. It would be better if we were
to look at ourselves to see where we have failed personally.
Advent is still a penitential season, even though
it has joyous strains throughout. Today’s readings are an example.
On the one hand, in the first reading from the
prophet Baruch, the Lord’s word is one of celebration and joy because his
people are about to return home from exile.
One the other hand, in the gospel, the word of the
Lord comes to us through John the Baptist, and it is a word of repentance and
forgiveness of sins: “Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight”.
So the hard questions we have to ask ourselves
during Advent are: How have I failed to herald the Lord’s coming? How have I
failed to witness personally to his good news of salvation?
If we really believe that Jesus is Lord, then we
will make sure that everything is ready for his coming – whether he comes at
special times like Christmas or at ordinary times in our daily lives. We will
honestly face up to those spiritual valleys in ourselves that need to be filled
up – those valleys we create by our bitterness and resentment, fears and
worries, or anger and hostility.
If we sincerely believe that Jesus is Savior, then
we will openly admit that there are some spiritual hills that need to be
leveled off – those hills we build with our greed and materialism, self –
indulgence and lust, or pride and self – righteousness.
If we truly believe that Jesus is indeed God’s Son
and the Messiah, then we will do all we can to straighten out our lives – our
crooked attitudes toward people and our distorted views of them; our roundabout
ways and detours to avoid meeting the Lord.
Only when we put the same energy and enthusiasm
into making ourselves spiritually ready for the Lord’s coming, as promoters put
into the material preparations for the coming of a rock star, will Christianity
begin again to make a significant difference in the world and attract youth.
Only when we put the same care and commitment into
our spiritual Christmas preparations, as rock stars put into their musical
performances, will “all mankind begin to see the salvation of God”.
3rd Sunday of
Advent Zp 3: 14-18 Lk 3: 10-18
ANTICIPATION
Carly Simon once wrote and sang a song called
“Anticipation” that became very popular. In it she describes how she waits for
her beloved to come, imagines what their being together will be like and
rehearses what she will say to him.
Anticipation is looking forward to some future
event. The anticipated event is almost certain to happen and it arouses in us
considerable thought and feeling. We eagerly anticipate important moments in
our lives like graduations and wedding; we get all excited about things like
the new Ford Aerostar or a new Rocky movie; we waited 75 years in anticipation
of the return of Halley’s comet.
Anticipation is one of the moods of today’s
readings.
In the first reading, the prophet Zephaniah moves
our emotions in expectation of the Lord’s coming: “Shout for joy, daughter of Zion
In the gospel, the prophet John the Baptist has
been preaching about the coming Messiah. The crowd, tax collectors and even
soldiers are full of anticipation and ask John what they can do to get ready
for the Messiah’s coming.
We are not unlike these people in the gospel. We
too are full of anticipation, especially for Christmas Day. The delight of
children going to see Santa Claus, the buying and wrapping of Christmas
presents, the decorating of Christmas trees, the preparing of Christmas dinner
– all of these Advent activities express our great expectation and anticipation
of something wonderful about to happen.
If our anticipation focuses only on the holiday dimensions of Christmas –
decorations, parties, presents and vocations – our anticipation will end up as
a great big illusion and leave us disappointed.
But if our anticipation also includes the holyday dimensions of Christmas – God’s
grace, new birth, peace on earth and good will to all – our anticipation will
culminate in a true celebration and leave us with a sense of fulfillment.
The Church’s Advent liturgy tries to prepare us
spiritually for this kind of celebration.
Our Advent
prayer, for example, address our desires to the Father with such phrases
as: “Increase our longing for Christ our Savior”; “The day draws near for a
waiting world to see the glory of your Son”; “We look forward to the birthday
of our Savior”.
Our Advent
readings typify this theme of anticipation. Besides today’s readings which
we have already mentioned, recall the opening sentence from the First Sunday of
Advent: “See, the days are coming – it is Yahweh, who speaks – when I am going
to fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel
Our Advent
songs express anticipation – songs like the traditional “O Come, O Come,
Emmanuel”, or Charles Wesley’s beautiful hymn “Come, Thou Long – Expected
Jesus”.
As our Advent days dwindle down, may we focus, not
so much on the secular aspects of Christmas, as on its sacred dimensions. May
we look forward with eager anticipation to the coming of Jesus in a new and
deeper way – into our hearts and homes, into our thoughts and feelings, and
into our dreams and desires.
4th Sunday of
Advent Mi 5: 1-4
Lk 1: 39-45
JOY
In the prologue to his book Joy, William Schutz tells how the birth of his son Ethan inspired
him to write the book. Ethan begins his life by giving joy to his parents. The
joy continues as Ethan sees, touches, tastes and hears things for the first
time.
But something happens to Ethan as it does to all of
us. Somehow his joy diminishes with growth, never to return fully. Schutz wrote
his book to help readers recapture some of this joy.
Like Ethan, Jesus too begins his life by giving
joy. Even before he is born his very presence brings joy to people. When Mary
greets her kinswoman, Elizabeth
Now it is our turn to leap for joy as we approach
the celebration of Christmas. But how authentic will our joy be? Will it be a
forced joy that can only be achieved by drinking alcohol? Will it be a joy of
escapism from responsibility through the frantic pursuit of pleasure? Or will
it be the superficial joy of prosperity suggested by slick television
commercials?
To be authentic, our Christmas joy must be
something deeper than these false substitutes. Psychologist William Shutz
offers in his book Joy some sound
suggestions as to how we might attain this kind of real joy.
His approach is based on the conviction that joy is
a feeling that comes from the fulfilment of one’s potential. Shutz explores the
different areas where we can develop our full human potential.
First, the
body. Health, energy level, muscle tone and breathing all play a role in
how much we enjoy our body. Adequate exercise, sufficient sleep and proper diet
are important for the well – being of our body.
Second, personal
functions. Developing skills, increasing sensory awareness, improving our
mind and getting in touch with our feelings all contribute to a fuller
enjoyment of life.
Third, interpersonal
relations. We experience joy when we achieve a balance in being with people
and being alone, in being independent and in receiving support, and in being
affectionate without getting engulfed.
Fourth, organizational
relations. To realize our potential we need the support of society – we
need a warm family, a congenial place to work and a government concerned about
our welfare.
All of Schutz’s suggestions to attain authentic joy
are excellent, as far as human psychology can take us. But they still leave us
short of that ultimate joy that can only come through Jesus.
His very presence in our midst is the source of
this kind of joy. His presence in creation, in the sacraments and in his people
should make us jump for joy the way John the Baptist did.
Even when we cannot achieve our full human
potential in some of those areas Schutz outlines, we can still experience a
profound interior joy because Jesus is in our midst. The power of his presence
enables us to endure any difficulty, transcend any trial or overcome any
obstacle.
His presence can bring peace where is anxiety,
sharing where there is selfishness and dream where there is despair.
Isaac Watts was right when he composed a Christmas
carol entitled “Joy to the World!” Indeed, there is real joy in the world at
Christmas time because the Lord is come. He is Emmanuel, God with us!
Christ – Mass During the Day (A,B,C) Is
52: 7-10 Jn 1: 1-18
HE DWELT AMONG US
The play Seventh
Heaven is a story of love and regeneration. The hero is Chico
For the next four years Diane starves and suffers
in that dingy Paris attic, but never falters in
her faith that her beloved Chico Chico
This play gives us some insight into the meaning of
Christmas when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us: “And we saw his
glory, the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and
truth”.
By being born as a baby from Mary’s womb, Jesus
took on our human condition. Except for sin he could now share in our
sufferings, hurts and frailties. Jesus was truly human.
And yet he remained divine. Jesus was still the
eternal Word. God’s only Son, and the fullness of grace and truth. He is truly,
according to John marsh, “a human embodiment of a heavenly reality”.
Consequently, Jesus is Emanuel, a
name which means “God is with us”.
The clause “dwelt among us” contains Old Testament
allusions to God’s presence among his people. We recall, for example, how god
literally “pitched his tent” among the Israelites by dwelling in the tabernacle
during their Exodus.
Moreover, the glory or the presence of God was made
visible by the cloud that was seen above the tabernacle during the day and by
the fire that was seen in in the cloud during the night. God’s presence in the
tabernacle accompanied the Israelites at every stage of their journey through
the wilderness.
Christmas means that God’s presence among his
people is now being brought to fulfillment in the very flesh of Jesus. His
human body is the new tabernacle, the new and supreme sign of God’s dwelling
among us.
The consequences of this new mode of divine
presence – now available to us in the Eucharist – are staggering. Because Jesus
dwells among us, he is able to do for us what Chico
All through history this meaning of Christmas has
inspired Christians to see the glory and the presence of God, not only in the
marvels of nature, the grandeur of art and the beauty of people, but even in
the poverty of a slum, the mud of a battlefield and the refuse of a hospital
ward.
It’s easy to see God’s glory in times of success,
good fortune or fame. But it takes faith to say that God dwells among us when
we’re out of work, handicapped or unwanted. Yet people like Chico
If Christmas signifies anything, it should be that
God truly dwells among us to transform any situation into a place where his
glory is seen: kitchens become cathedrals, factories become temples, classrooms
become shrines and slum attics become Seventh
Heavens!
Holy Family
(A,B,C) Si 3: 2-6, 12-14 Lk 2: 41-52
THE COSBY SHOW
One of TV’s highest – rated programs of all time is
The Cosby Show. It is a weekly sitcom
about an upper – middle – class black family, which, for all practical
purposes, has become America
In a feature article about Bill Cosby, Newsweek magazine said that his show
about the Huxtables is endearing but not cutesy, its parents are hassled but
never hapless and there is clowning but no guff.
The
Cosby Show is popular because the family situations it
portrays have an air of universality and reality about them. Any family can
identify with both the irritations and misunderstandings that arise on the
show, and with the truly humorous and heartwarming things that happen.
While Dr. Cliff Huxtable, his lawyer – wife Clair
and their four children may not be the perfect counterpart of the Holy Family,
they do picture for us in modern terms what some of the qualities of family
life should be.
Today’s readings suggest some of these qualities.
The first reading from the book of Sirach
emphasizes the authority and dignity that parents possess, and the honor,
respect and care that children owe them.
In the second reading, St. Paul
sums up how members of a family are to interact: with mercy, kindness, patience
and forgiveness; by bearing with and loving one another; by playing and praying
together (Col
The gospel story about Jesus getting lost reminds
us that celebrations like the Passover or Christmas are an important part of
family life. But it also illustrates how sorrow, pain and worry are part of
every family’s experience, too.
Apparently Bill Cosby’s television family is a
facsimile of his real family. In real life Bill Cosby and his wife Camille have
four daughters and one son. Bill Cosby says this about his wife Camille:
It’s hard to
describe a relationship with so much growth in it. It goes past just missing
her when she’s not here. I’m just very, very fortunate that the person I trust
the most trusts me, and the person I love the most loves me. I love her so
much.
Another real – life family is that of Dr. Paul
Kelley, his wife Mary Margaret, and their three sons and three daughters. Dr.
Kelley is an orthopedic surgeon in Ann
Arbor , Michigan
First, commitment
– a complete, lifelong caring for the other, no matter what may happen.
Second, communication
– a willingness to take time to listen, dialogue and share one’s feelings.
Third, compatibility
– the ability to get along, adjust and be flexible.
Fourth, compassion
– the capacity to understand weakness and sympathize with failure.
Fifth, confession
– the readiness to say “I’m sorry”, be reconciled and forgiven.
Sixth, conviviality
– a sense of humor to laugh at oneself and make others smile.
Seventh, children
– one’s own, adopted, godchildren or nephews and nieces with whom we can
share life and love.
“The Seven C’s” suggested by Dr. Kelley are seen in
Dr. Huxtable’s family on The Cosby Show. They
also sum up today’s readings about how to become a holy family instead of a
broken family. May these “Seven C’s” serve as our guide to grow together in wisdom
and age and grace before God and each other.
January 1 Mary, Mother of God A,B,C Nb 6:
22-27 Lk 2: 16-21
MEMORIES
Rose Kennedy will go down in history as one of America
No other mother in U.S.
Yet through in all, she has kept her faith: “I have
always believed that God never gives a cross to bear larger than we can carry.
I believe in heaven and expect to see my husband Joe there, my three sons, and
my daughter Kathleen”.
Looking back over her life she says: “I would
rather have been the mother of a great son than to have written a great book or
painted a great masterpiece”. Maybe someday Rose Kennedy will be canonized; but
even if she isn’t, her faith in her role as a mother mirrors to us the faith of
another mother we honor today – Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
In the gospel from Luke are told that Mary, too,
treasured all the things that were happening to her as a mother and reflected
on them in her heart. she too would know supreme moments of triumph through her
son as well as sorrowful moments of tragedy.
Motherhood and memories seem to go together.
Mothers like Mary and Rose Kennedy seem to be bearers of family memories. By
reflecting on important family events they not only store them in their memory,
but also draw from them meaning and significance.
Mothers thus keep alive the family heritage and
traditions, and pass them onto their children and grandchildren. By remembering
and retelling the stories about our ancestors, mothers anchor our roots in the
past and call on us to contribute our own part to this collective family
history.
In his book The
Living Reminder, Fr. Henri Nouwen says that among the best things we can
give each other are good memories, such as “kind words, signs of affection,
gestures of sympathy, peaceful silences, and joyful celebrations”.
We owe so much to our mothers for these kinds of
memories – not only in the sense of the family’s history which they pass on to
us, but also in the sense of their own good deeds and kind words which we
remember.
Fr. Nouwen says that these memories – whether
conscious or unconscious – enter so deeply into our being that, indeed, we
become our memories. They take on flesh and blood in us.
As a result, whether we are aware of it or not,
these memories serve as sources of strength in times of trial, as guides in
times of confusion and as motivators to leave our own good memories to others.
If this is true of our own physical mothers and the
memories they leave us, how much more true is it of our spiritual mother Mary.
Through St.
Paul
Through the liturgy’s memorial acclamation she
urges us to: “Keep in mind that Jesus Christ has died for us and is risen from
the dead. He is our saving Lord be is joy for all ages”.
Through the Christmas season Mary helps us to
remember its true meaning as expressed in the Christmas Preface: “In the wonder
of the Incarnation we see our God made visible and so are caught up in love of
the God we cannot see”.
In other words, Mary our mother helps us recall
that great vision of the angels and shepherds at Bethlehem
2nd Sunday of ChristmasA,B,C
Si 24: 1-4, 8-12 Jn 1: 1-18
FULLNESS OF LIFE
In his autobiography Man in Black, country music star Johnny Cash describes the year
1967 as a turning point in his life. From the time he wrote and sang his first
hit in 1955, “Folsom Prison Blues”, Johnny Cash gradually got addicted to
drugs.
But in 1967, after being thrown in jail and then
almost killing himself when released, Johnny Cash got help from his wife June
Carter and Dr. Nat Winston, and kicked the habit. He tells how during his forty
days of withdrawal in the wilderness of his room, his every breath was a
fighting prayer asking God for help.
Since then Johnny Cash has regained his faith in
Jesus, attends church regularly, read his Bible, helps Billy Graham with some
of his Crusades and has written a novel about St. Paul
Today another John proclaims Jesus as Savior – John
the evangelist. And to what John the evangelist says about Jesus in his gospel,
Johnny Cash would probably add, “Amen”.
“Through him all thins came to be”, John writes,
“not one thing had its being but through him….Indeed, from his fullness we
have, all of us, received – yes, grace in return for grace”.
It took Johnny Cash a while to learn that apart
from Jesus nothing comes to be. You can have success, fame and money, but
without Jesus they mean nothing. In fact, such things prove to be destructive
apart from God because they deceive us with empty promises of happiness.
We can wear fancy clothes, drive luxury cars and
dine at the best restaurants, but without Jesus all these things leave us
unfulfilled. In fact, they prove to be detrimental apart from God because they
drive us to want more and more.
The Word of God became flesh in Jesus to share his
fullness with us, to fill up our emptiness with his presence and our hearts
with his love. Jesus came among us so that we could find life in him – real,
deep down life and not just something superficial, abundant life and not just
something minimal.
If there’s a lot of loneliness in our lives, it’s
because we have not yet found the fullness of Jesus. If there’s anxiety in our
hearts, it’s because the peace of Jesus has not yet penetrated them.
Imagine a world without music or songs from people
like Johnny Cash, or a world without art and color, or a world without any
depth or perspective. In such a world our existence would be dull,
unimaginative and flat. That’s the way it is without Jesus.
But with Jesus we find the fullness of life – we
can hear sounds of music even amidst cries of pain: we can see rainbows of
color even in pockets of poverty; and we can discover new dimensions even in
death.
Imagine a world without rivers and lakes,
landscapes without flowers and trees, tables without food and drink. Such a
world would make life dry, barren and empty. That’s what a life without Jesus
is like.
But with Jesus we experience the fullness of life –
his living waters spring up within us; his vine makes our branches fruitful;
his bread of life satisfies our deepest hungers.
That’s the meaning of Christmas – “From his
fullness we have all received a share”. At least country – singer Johnny Cash
and the evangelist John think so. Do we?
Epiphany
(A,B,C) Is 60:
1-6 Mt 2: 1-12
THE STAR
In Arthur C. Clarke’s short story “The Star”, we
read about a Jesuit astrophysicist who makes a space trip with other scientists
to a distant galaxy called the Phoenix Nebula. There they chance upon a
solitary planet still orbiting the remnant of a central sun which had exploded
thousands of years ago.
The explorers land their spacecraft on this planet
and examine the scorched surface caused by that cosmic detonation. They
discover a melted – down monolithic market at the entrance of a great vault in
which they find the carefully stored treasures and records of an advanced
civilization.
On their return trip to Earth in our own galaxy,
the Jesuit astrophysicist calculates the exact time when the light from this
cosmic explosion in the Phoenix Nebula reached Earth. It was the date of
Christ’s birth when the light from that fire was seen as a bright new star
appearing in the East.
But now that he had solved an ancient mystery, he
had a greater mystery to grapple with. How could a loving God allow a whole
planet of intelligent beings to be given to a galactic conflagration, so that
the symbol of their passing might shine above Bethlehem
This science –fiction story about the star of Bethlehem Bethlehem
Arthur Clarke’s science – fiction story about the
Jesuit astrophysicist and Matthew’s colorful story about the Magi are both
stories of faith, but in different ways.
One the one hand, Clarke’s story culminates in a crisis of faith. His priest – scientist
reaches a point where he is overwhelmed by the mystery of how the cosmic
destruction of a whole civilization can be reconciled with a loving God. His
faith in God is on the verge of faltering.
Do we recognize ourselves in this kind of crisis of
faith? Although we aren’t threatened by some colossal explosion of the sun in
our own solar system, we are threatened every day by nuclear explosions which
could destroy the Earth.
Moreover, individuals die every day because of
accidents, cancer and crime. Though their number is not as staggering as the
count of the victims of a nuclear war would be, nonetheless their loss to us is
equally painful and perplexing.
We should not be surprised, then, if our faith
falters sometimes. Faith is not truly faith until it is tested. Only when all
our reasons for believing are removed will we find out what faith really means.
On the other hand, Matthew’s story ends in the simplicity of faith. The Magi step out
in faith when they risk leaving their homeland for a foreign country. They put
their trust in the guidance of a star. Upon finding a little child and his
mother, they worship him as a newborn king. Finally, their decision about how
to return is determined by a dream.
“What naive, foolish men,” we might say, “to let
stars and dreams determined their destiny!” And yet in their simplicity of
faith they found a peace which surpassed all expectations and a joy beyond all
telling.
Their story is told to affirm our own faith as we
make our own journey through life, and to give us some assurance in our own
search for God.
Baptism of the Lord (A,B,C) Is
42: 1-4, 6-7 Lk 3: 15-16, 21-22
SOLIDARITY
The movie Gandhi
is a three – hour epic depicting the life of Mahatma Gandhi: a man of faith
and a writer, a politician and pacifist. To lead the oppressed people of India
By means of fasting from food, long vigils of
prayer, marches, protests and civil disobedience, Gandhi persuaded the British
to grant independence to Indian in 1947.
Even though a civil war between the Muslims and
Hindus of India followed, and even though Gandhi himself was assassinated in
1948, he nevertheless began an immense movement toward freedom, peace and
justice.
One of the reasons why Gandhi put on a loincloth
and faster from food almost to the point of death was to show solidarity with
his Indian people and to identify with them in their suffering.
This is one of the reasons why Jesus was baptized
in today’s gospel – to show solidarity with us and to identify more deeply with
us.
In his Pelican commentary on Luke’s gospel, George
Caird asks the question: “Why was Jesus baptized?” After all, to be baptized
was to ask God’s forgiveness, and it is the consistent witness of the New
Testament that Jesus had no sins of his own to confess.
Moreover, Jesus uttered scathing criticisms of
empty formalism. So it would seem that Jesus would not have undergone baptism
unless the ritual had profound significance for himself and for us. Caird
writes:
Jesus went to
be baptized, then, not for private reasons, but as a man with a public calling.
John the Baptist had summoned all Israel
In other words, Jesus did not have to be baptized.
He was always God’s be oved Son on whom his favor rested. Yet he freely chose
to be baptized to identify himself with our need for forgiveness and with our
longing for redemption. To lead us into the kingdom, he himself would enter by
the only door open to us, the door of baptism.
Perhaps the life and death of both Gandhi and Jesus
give us a hint about what we must do to live a meaningful life in a senseless
world and to leave it better then we found it. We must identify ourselves with
the poor and the oppressed and do what we can to relieve their burdens –
whether by passive means of prayer and fasting, or by active means of
nonviolent protest and the sharing of our material goods.
Like Gandhi and Jesus, we too have to hear today’s
worlds from Isaiah as addressed to ourselves: we have to see ourselves as God’s
chosen servants upon whom he has put his Spirit when we were baptized; we have
to be the ones who will not break the bruised reeds of people who are jobless,
nor quench the smoldering wicks of people who are at the point of despair.
If the Lord isn’t calling us for the victory of
justice, then whom is he calling? If the Lord isn’t sending us to bring light
where there is darkness and ignorance, sight where is blindness and racism, or
freedom where there is oppression and ill – treatment, then whom is he sending?
Gandhi and Jesus both had a strong sense of
solidarity with their suffering people. By our baptism we become members of
God’s chosen people. But to what extent do we identify with their needs? To
what degree do we want to express our solidarity with them? To what lengths are
we willing to go to do good works among them?
1st Sunday of
Lent Dt 26: 4-10
Lk 4: 1-13
WRONG REASONS
In his play Murder
in the Cathedral, playwright T.S. Eliot describes how St. Thomas Becket
struggles with the threat of martyrdom. He is not afraid to die because of the
sufferings of martyrdom, but because he may not be properly motivated.
As he defends the Church of England against King
Henry II, Thomas wonders whether or not he is doing this out of pride. “Nothing
would be more tragic”, he says, “then to do the right thing for the wrong reason;
to do what is noble for reasons of vanity”.
The temptations that faced Thomas Becket are
similar to those that confronted Jesus in today’s gospel. In his Pelican
commentary on Luke, G.B. Caird sums up the three temptations this way:
It is unlikely
that Jesus ever felt any temptation to do things which are commonly regarded as
immoral…. But that does not mean that his temptations were the less real…. All
temptation is to do what is attractive, and the subtlest and strongest
temptation is to do what appears to be good.
Caird goes on to show that since Jesus was a man of
fervent and dedicated spirit, his temptations were of three types. First, to
allow the good to usurp the place of the best. Second, to seek His Father’s
ends by mean alien to God’s character. Thirds, to force the hand of the Father
by taking short cuts to success.
In the first temptation, Jesus is hungry from
fasting for forty days. The devil invites him to turn stones into loaves of
bread. To eat when one is hungry is a good thing. But when eating dulls our
senses to supreme values in life, we allow the good to usurp the place of the
best.
If we care only about the instant gratification of
our immediate physical needs, then we fail to notice the needs of our neighbor
or the poor. By giving priority to the physical, we give up the special place
of the spiritual in our lives. We deny what Jesus himself quotes from
Scripture: “Man does not live on the bread alone”.
In the second temptation, Jesus is offered power
over all the kingdoms of the world. Although the purpose of his messianic
mission was to establish his rule, the way he would do this his Father’s way –
the way of defeat on the cross and not the way of conquest; the way of weakness
and obedience and not the way of power and independence.
Many are the times we seek God’s ends, but by means
alien to his will; we want prosperity, but at the expense of the unemployed;
pleasure, but by exploiting other people, status, but by snubbing undesirables.
In the third temptation, the faith of Christ is
tested. If he were to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple
This is the temptation to force God’s hand by taking
short cuts to success: we want world peace, but by nuclear arms; woman’s right,
but by allowing abortion; prayers answered, but by buying God’s favor.
Thomas Becket prayed that he might not do a good
thing – become a martyr – for the wrong reason – out of vanity.
We too would do well to pray during Lent for the
following: first, that we seek always what is best, and not substitute what is
only good; second, that we seek God’s ends by using God’s means; thirds, that
we put our faith in god and not force his hand.
2nd Sunday of
Lent Gn 15: 5-12,
17-18 Lk 9: 28-36
TOPAZ
Precious stones have a magical quality about them,
as anyone who has visited the Tower
of London
Blue topaz is chemically a silicate of aluminum,
which of itself has no beauty or brilliance. But under great pressure and heat
exerted over millions of years, this dull opaque silicate is transformed into a
transparent crystal with a remarkable ble color and clarity.
Today’s readings tell us about other striking
transformations.
In the first reading from Genesis, not only is
Abram’s name changed by God to Abraham, but his whole destiny is changed as he
now becomes the father of many nations.
In the second reading, Paul says that our homeland
is in heaven. It is from there that our Savior will come “to transfigure those
wretched bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body” (Ph 3: 21).
Finally, in the gospel Luke describes the
transfiguration of our Lord in the presence of his disciples: “As he prayed,
the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as
lightning”.
The gospel is a goldmine rich with symbolism. In
the publication Share the Word, Fr.
Laurence Brett explores this mine at some length. What follows is a summary of
his findings. Moses and Elijah represent the Age of the Law and the Age of the
Prophets. With the appearance of Jesus, the central
age of history has now dawned.
Last week we heard how the title Son of God was used by the devil during
the temptations. This week we hear the same title given to Jesus by his own
Father to establish his identity: “This is my Son, my chosen one”.
As for time, Luke
places the transfiguration about eight days after Peter’s confession of faith.
Perhaps he is hinting at the resurrection to come when Jesus will rise on the
eighth day, Easter Sunday, the first day of the new creation.
As for place,
the mountain is not named. It is a theological mountain, a place where God
reveals himself to Jesus as he did to Moses and Elijah earlier.
The purpose of going to the mountain is to pray. It was while Jesus was praying
that he was transfigured. Prayer marked every significant stage in his life and
we will find him praying again on Mount
Calvary
The theme of glory
recalls the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem
The word passage
is the same one used for the Exodus from Egypt Mount Sinai ,
except here Jesus is resplendent with his own glory. The three booths or tents take us back to the
wanderings of the Jews for forty years in the desert.The cloud is a sign of God’s presence just as it was during the Exodus
when it covered the Tent of Meeting.
As we come down with Jesus from the mountain to
follow him on his way to Jerusalem
So too with us. Our sufferings during Lent will be
transformed into the joy of Easter. Our penances will be transfigured into the
glory of the Paschal feast.
If minerals like silicate of aluminum can be
changed by immense pressure and heat into the brilliance of blue topaz, how
much more can the ordinary elements of our own life – with all the pressures
and forces that bear upon us – be transformed by God’s grace into something
radiant and beautiful.
But for this to happen, we have to be like Abraham
and put our faith in God.
3rd Sunday of
Lent Ex 3: 1-8,
13-15 Lk 13: 1-9
ONE MORE CHANCE
Just before Christmas in 1985, our country was
shocked by an air crash in Newfoundland , Canada
A few months later in 1986, we were stunned again
by another national tragedy when the space shuttle Challenger exploded only 74
seconds after liftoff. Seven astronauts were killed in that catastrophe.
Today’s gospel gives us two other examples of
disasters that occurred in Christ’s lifetime. One of the incidents was the
ruthless murder of some Galileans while they were in the middle of their Temple
The other incident was a construction accident
which happened near the Temple Temple
These two incidents are brought up because the Jews
presumed that those who were killed were being punished by God for their sins.
But Jesus denies this. Instead, he asserts that what really destroys life is
our unwillingness to repent and change our lives.
Jesus says, not once, but twice by way of emphasis:
“Unless you repent, you will all perish as they did”. The repetition of this
teaching is followed by a parable about a fig tree.
Usually it takes a fig tree three years to mature
and bear fruit. If it is not producing fruit by that time, it likely never will
and so it can be cut down. But this fig tree had already been given twice the
allotted number of years it takes to produce fruit, for the owner of the
vineyard had allowed three more years to pass in fruitless expectation.
And yet, the owner will give the fig tree still one more chance. His vinedressers will
do even more than is necessary to help by hoeing and manuring it. All this on
the grounds of a perhaps or a maybe.
This parable is a perennial one for us. Every Lent
god gives us one more chance to
produce more fruit in our lives. God is more than generous with the
opportunities he gives us to reform our lives.
All of us have some areas that need changing: maybe
we watch too much television, smoke too often or eat the wrong kind of food:
perhaps we criticize too much, are too impatient or too demanding; maybe we
waste too much time, neglect our work or avoid unpleasant tasks.
But if year after year our lives are fruitless in
personal growth, sterile in prayer and empty of good works, then we are a
barren fig tree. We can’t blame accidents or sickness or other people for our
condition. We have to take responsibility for our own lives.
Even terminal cancer patients can cultivate the
will to live productively with the time they have left. For example, before she
died, Jory Graham wrote a newspaper column to encourage other victims of
cancer. Even amputees can take on new challenges. For example, Ted Kennedy, Jr.
relearned how to ski.
What destroys life in us then are not accidents or
tragedies, but our unwillingness to accept difficulties and overcome them; to
accept suffering and transform it. What makes our lives fruitless are not their
circumstances or limitations, but our refusal to give it one more try and hoe
our ground for one more year.
This Lent is a season of grace. It may be our last
one as it was for the people who died since last Easter. Now is the time for us
to reform our lives so that they will be more productive. Now is the time to
make whatever changes are necessary so
that our fig tree in the Lord’s vineyard will bear more fruit in personal
growth, prayer and community service.
4th Sunday of Lent Jos 5: 1, 10-12 Lk 15: 1-3, 11-32
PRODIGAL SON
Matt
Houston is a television program about a wealthy Texan now turned
private investigator. In its premiere showing it gave some background to Matt
Houston’s life. His mother died giving birth to him. His father was so
depressed that he gave up Matt for adoption to his closest friend.
The father then drifted away, eventually becoming
an alcoholic and a criminal. Many years later he finds out that Matt’s life is
being threatened because of a case he is working on. So the father returns to
warn him. As the story unfolds, their true relationship is revealed.
At first Matt refuses to accept his real father.
But when the father steps in front of a bullet aimed for his son, Matt’s eyes
are opened and he realizes how much his father loves him. The story ends with
the father dying in his son’s arms – forgiven by his son Matt and embraced in
love.
This television story is really an adaptation of
today’s gospel parable, except that the roles are reversed. In the gospel story
told by Jesus it was a son who went away and wasted his life, only to return
and be forgiven by his father. In the Matt
Houston story it was the father who went away and wasted his life, only to
return and be reconciled with his son.
Both versions show us what a magnificent love there
is between parents and children, and, consequently, how boundless God’s love is
for us. In his book Rediscovering the
Parables, Joachim Jeremias says that the Prodigal Son story tells us with
impressive simplicity what God is like – a God of incredible goodness, grace
and mercy.
Almost every detail of the story emphasizes the
immense, reckless love God has for us: the way the father looked every day for
his son, ran with abandon to meet him and refused to listen to his son’s well –
rehearsed speech; the manner in which the father dressed him with the finest
robe, ring and sandals; how he threw an extravagant feast to celebrate his
son’s return and tried to persuade his older son to share in the joyous
occasion.
Every detail of this carefully crafted story is
charged with symbolism to reveal the incredible, unconditional love God has for
us. If only we could realize this, we wouldn’t be like the younger prodigal son
in the sense that we would be afraid to approach our heavenly Father or
hesitate to come to him.
The Father doesn’t wait for us. He goes out – he
runs out – to meet us. The Father doesn’t want to listen to our litany of sins
when we pray. He interrupts to tell us how precious we are to him, how glad he
is to have us back and how much he is going to do for us.
If only we could appreciate God’s boundless love
for us, we wouldn’t pout like the older son and approach our Father as if we
were a hired hand. We are no slaves, but sons of god. We don’t have to
calculate our wages, but simply trust in his generosity.
The Father doesn’t want us to make snide remarks
about our brothers and sisters, or to think that we are superior to them.
Instead he wants us to forgive one another as family, share in one another’s
sorrows and joys, and celebrate the way he brings us back to life when we are
dead and finds us when we are lost.
Matt Houston realized too late the tender love his
father had for him. While we know that the prodigal son came to this kind of
awareness before his father died, we never really know if the elder son ever
did. Before time runs out on us, pray that we may come to know, experience and
respond to the tremendous love God our Father has for us.
5th Sunday of
Lent Is
43: 16-21 Jn 8: 1-11
THE SCARLET LETTER
In 1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne published The Scarlet Letter. Its setting was a
Puritan community in Boston in early New England . Hawthorne
The child’s secret father was none other than the
community’s minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester had to bear public scorn and humiliation,
while the minister had merely to bear the pangs of conscience.
After many years the minister finally confessed his
secret sin to the people and later died in peace. Hester meanwhile went on to
live like a saint, bringing happiness to her disturbed illegitimate daughter
and helping others in their troubles.
The Scarlet
Letter has several similarities with today’s gospel story about then wowbe
danght in adultery.
First, the women. Both women were implicated in
acts of adultery and were consequently subject to the penalties imposed by the
law.
Second, the punishment. By today’s standards Hester
was dealt with harshly by always having to wear her scarlet letter “A” on her
dress. But harsh as that punishment may have been, it was still not as severe as
the stoning – to – death penalty that threatened the woman in the gospel
episode.
Third, the men. In The Scarlet Letter the guilty minister enjoyed the respect of the
people, while Hester was held in contempt. For many years he lived a
hypocritical life, until his conscience finally compelled him to confess. In
the gospel, the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees boldly accuse the woman of
he sins but lack the courage to confess their own sins.
Fourth, there is conversion. Hester suffers much
for her sin but becomes a saintly person in the end. The woman in the gospel is
forgiven by our Lord and is given a chance to make a new life for herself.
What are we to learn from comparing these two
stories? Perhaps two lessons. First, the lesson that sin is real. The tendency in modern society is to deny that some
things are sinful, such as stealing from stores, using addictive drugs or
having abortions.
Another tendency is to excuse sin by invoking
sociology or psychology. For example, some justify premarital sex as a
necessary experience for growth in maturity. But in the gospel there is no
indication that Christ is denying the existence of sin. He forgives the woman
not because what she did was harmless, but because he loved her in spite of her
adulterous act.
Moreover, Jesus is quite clear in his directions to
the woman. She is to go in peace, but from now on she is to avoid this sin.
The second lesson we can learn is the generosity of God’s forgiveness. The
woman’s adultery, which others would have condemned and killed her for, is
dramatically forgiven by our Lord.
Where others might dole out forgiveness piecemeal
or in installments, Jesus blots out the whole debt of guilt all at once. We
can’t help but recall here St.
Augustine
Christ’s generosity might upset some of us. Surely
he should have first denounced her indulgence of the flesh. Surely he should
have waited at least until she said that she was sorry.
It’s too bad that Jesus did not consult us first.
We would have warned him how easy it is to abuse such generosity.
Christ’s generosity is almost too good to be true.
He trusts in her honor to respond the right way. He believes in her sincerity.
Did he ever do less for us?
Palm Sunday Lk 19: 28-40
Lk 22: 14-23; 56
FEARLESS RESOLVE
We’re inspired whenever we see these film heroes
walk fearlessly into what they know are high – risk situations, because they
have resolved to do what they have to do to right some wrong.
Spontaneously we almost want to stand up and cheer
for them as they defy death and demonstrate daring, because we wish that we too
could face our own challenges with the same kind of courage.
On this Palm Sunday we see another hero enter at
high – risk situation determined to do what he has to do. The hero is Jesus,
who knew that his enemies were plotting his death, yet, in the opening verses
of today’s gospel, “went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem
In these few words Luke captures the courage and
resolve when marked Christ’s journey to Jerusalem
These same qualities of courage and resolve were in
the mind of the prophet Isaiah when he had the Suffering Servant say: “So, too,
I set my face like flint; I know I shall not be shamed” (Is 50: 7).
When we read Luke’s account of the passion, there,
too, we saw Christ advance unflinchingly to his crucifixion and death. At the
Last Supper he instituted the Eucharist to signify his body that would be
broken and his blood that would be shed for us.
During his agony in the garden, Jesus balked
momentarily over the cup of suffering he had to drink. But an angel from heaven
came to strengthen him in his set purpose to do his Father’s will.
When Jesus was struck and taunted by the armed
guards, he kept his composure and remained silent. During his interrogation by
the Sanhedrin he spoke out confidently: “From now on the Son of man will be
seated at the right hand of the Power of God”.
On the way to Calvary ,
Jesus was helped by Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross, but only to make sure
that he would reach his destination. On the cross Jesus refused to come down
and save himself. Instead he commended his spirit into his Father’s hands and
died for us.
Unlike our mythical film heroes, Jesus did die. He
was not invincible, but vulnerable to death. Nevertheless, Jesus conquered
death in a way that supersedes the greatest exploits of our film heroes: he
rose from the dead on the third day.
There is, then, a twofold purpose to Palm Sunday.
On the one hand, it introduces Holy Week by presenting the passion and death of
Jesus. On the other hand, it anticipates next Easter Sunday by presenting
Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem
May our Lord’s courage and resolve in going to Jerusalem
May our Lord’s ultimate victory over death also
encourage us, when all seems lost, to commend ourselves with faith into the Father’s
hand.
In this way, the palms blessed today will signify
both our pledge to journey with Jesus to Jerusalem
Easter (A,B,C) Ac 10: 34,
37-43 Lk 24: 1-12
A NEW CREATION
Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical, Cats, is a delightful, whimsical production based on a poetical
work by T.S. Eliot. Although this imaginative musical is sheer fantasy, the cat
characters it sketches personify enough human qualities to make Eliot’s point:
“You have now learned enough to see. That cats are much like you and me”.
This is especially true in the climactic Jellicle
Moon scene when one cat is selected to go to cat heaven and be reborn to a new
cat life. The sentimental choice is the bedraggled fallen feline, Grizabella,
the cat counterpart of Mary Magdalene in the gospels.
In her torn attire, Grizabella symbolizes the scum
of society, the so – called street people like prostitutes, drunks and drug
addicts. So when she is chosen to be reborn to a new life, we almost want to
stand up and cheer “Alleluia!”.
In its own theatrical way, Cats is a resurrection story corresponding to the Easter story in
today’s gospel. On the first day of the week, at dawn, Mary Magdalene and some
other women come to the tomb to anoint the dead body of Jesus. Two angels tell
them: “Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here; he has
risen”.
We’re no longer on a stage of fantasy, but in a
setting of salvation history. While Grizabella’s rebirth was pure imagination,
our Lord’s resurrection is divine revelation. Where Cats could only awaken our deepest hopes for another and better
life, Christ’s resurrection confirms these expectations as true.
Moreover, there are scriptural overtones to some of
the lyrics of the hit song from Cats, a
song entitled “Memories”. When Grizabella sings about the day dawning at
sunrise and a new life beginning, we can parallel her with Mary Magdalene’s
coming at dawn on the first day of the week to the empty tomb where she will
hear about our Lord’s new risen life.
According to Fr. Eugene LaVerdlere, the “first day”
means much more than Sunday, the first day of the week. For the early
Christians “first day” was heavily charged with symbolism, because it put them
in the context of the creation story of Genesis where the term was introduced.
We recall how in the beginning darkness covered the
earth. Then God said, “Let there be light”, and light was made. God called the
light “day” and the darkness he called “night”. “Thus evening came, and morning
followed – the first day”.
In other words, the phrase “first day” was
canonized as a creation expression signifying the beginning of everything. So
it was only natural for the evangelists to use the same words, “first day”,
together with the word “dawn”, to communicate to us the meaning of Christ’s
resurrection as God’s new creation, his new beginning for everything.
This is a very exciting insight, for it tells us
that however dark our surroundings may be at times – because of failures,
tragedy and even death – Jesus has conquered that darkness by his resurrection
from the dead.
No matter how down and out we may become like the
outcast cat Grizabella, there is always hope for us that a new life can begin
even here and that we can find the meaning of what happiness is.
2nd Sunday of
Easter Ac 5: 12-16 Jn 20: 19-31
BREAKTHROUGH
The story of Helen Keller and Ann Sullivan is told
in the movie The Miracle Worker and
it serves as a counterpoint to the story of Thomas the apostle today. For Helen
Keller the senses of hearing and seeing were barriers instead of bridges to the
world. Unable to see or hear or communicate, she spent her childhood in a dark
and silent world.
Nonetheless, under the patient guidance of Ann
Sullivan, Helen Keller learned how to speak and write. Eventually she became a
distinguished lecturer, the author of many books and a world traveler
proficient in several languages.
As she herself put it, she was able to “break
through the barrier of the senses”. Today’s gospel represents another such
breakthrough, but in a different way. Thomas the apostle can see and hear but
is unable to believe in the risen Lord until Jesus himself appears, speaks and
commands Thomas to touch his hands and his side. It seems that it was now
unnecessary for Thomas to actually touch our Lord. Seeing and hearing Jesus
were enough for Thomas to make the breakthrough of his senses to reach the
point of faith. Jesus said to Thomas: “You believe because you can see me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe”.
This episode in John’s gospel is especially
significant for us. When this gospel was being written, the disciples who had
actually seen the risen Lord had died. Now many were coming to believe in Jesus
even though they had never seen him.
Thomas thus becomes a key link between the age of
the apostles who saw the Lord with their own eyes and all future ages of
disciples who will never see Jesus in this life and yet will believe in him.
We are part of this final age of time and we can
thank Thomas for occasioning our Lord’s last beatitude, as it were: “Happy are
those who have not seen and yet believe”.
The key to making a breakthrough of the barrier of
our senses is faith. Certainly much can be demonstrated with the help of our
senses. Our scientific labs and courts depend on what we see, hear and touch to
prove things. But there is a realm of experience and knowledge that transcends
our senses, a realm where the senses actually become a barrier.
We sometimes call this realm the inner world of our
memory and imagination, of intuition and creativity, of religion and mysticism.
To penetrate this inner world we have to let go of our external senses, which
will only distract us or cause interference, and trust in our inner powers. We
call this faith, a belief in some reality for which there are no external signs
to prove it exists, yet which somehow we know does exist.
Many are the times we have to make our own personal
breakthrough of the senses by an act of faith. When people get married they
stake their whole future together on an act of faith. When students choose a
college to attend they place immense trust in their teachers. When priests get
ordained or religious take vows, they commit themselves to Jesus – someone they
cannot see, yet in whom they believe.
We need faith to persevere when we cannot see our
goal or to be patient when we cannot see any result; we need faith to make
decisions when we have little evidence to go on or to pray when we’re not sure
if anyone is listening, let alone speaking to us.
When St. Thomas Aquinas composed his hymns to the
unseen Christ present in the visible Eucharist, faith played a key part. Many
are the times we have sung: “What our senses fail to fathom, let us grasp
through faith’s consent”.
May we renew that faith today and make another
break through the barrier of our senses.
3rd Sunday of
Easter Ac 5: 27-32, 40-41 Jn 21: 1-19
WELCOME TABLE
Before he died in 1975 at age 82, the Rev. Eugene
Huffman “did whatever his black hands could find to do”. At various times, he
had worked as a chauffeur and butler for movie stars like John Hall and Bette
Davis, held jobs as a short – order cook and a Pullman porter, was a newspaper
columnist and radio commentator, and had written novels and plays.
Then Eugene Huffman became a minister and in 1961
founded a church in San Francisco
When his church was thriving during the 1960’s,
Rev. Huffman’s Welcome Table fed as many as fifty people a day and his seven –
room apartment above the church provided shelter for 14 homeless men.
If asked why he had a Welcome Table, Rev. Huffman
would quote today’s gospel from John, in which our Lord asks Peter three times
if he loves him and then tells him three times to “feed my lambs”.
A footnote in The
New American Bible on this text stresses its juridical aspect. The First
Vatican Council cited this text in defining the supreme authority and power
which Jesus gave to Peter as head of his Church. But Rev. Huffman interpreted
the text differently. When Jesus says to Peter, “Feed may lambs”, Rev. Huffman
took the words as addressed to us literally.
In other worlds, Rev. Huffman said that Christ is
not only telling us to feed his people sacramentally with the word of Scripture
and the bread of the Eucharist, but also physically with real food and drink.
Rev. Huffman felt that food and fellowship should
go together. Fi we are one in fellowship because of our common faith in Jesus,
then we should also be one in the food we share because of our love for one
another.
Rev. Huffman’s interpretation of this text from
John is supported by other sections of the gospel. John’s gospel is the only
one that does not give an account of the institution of the Eucharist at the
Last Supper. Instead it gives a description of Jesus washing the feet of his
disciples and then telling them about fraternal charity.
It seems then that the significance of the
Eucharist for John is not just eating and drinking. It means serving and
ministering. The Lord’s supper is not just liturgy and ceremony. It means
loving and sharing.
If we take Christ’s words to Peter seriously, as
Rev. Huffman did, then we literally have to feed his sheep in some way by our
generosity. For example, we have to sustain the life of the unborn by the
protection we provide for them, or feed the mentally deficient by fulfilling
their hunger for acceptance as human beings.
Feeding sheep might take on the form of nourishing
our youth by our openness and readiness to communicate with them, or supporting
our aged by holding them in high esteem and showing them appreciation.
The Jews in the desert complained because they did
not get enough food and drink. People like Rev. Huffman complain because they
don’t have enough food and drink to give away.
Peter complained because Jesus wanted to wash his
feet. Later he complained because our Lord asked him three times if he loved
him. But Peter was a stubborn man, and it was our Lord’s only way to show him
the meaning of the Eucharist, namely, unselfish service to others and a
ministry of giving.
Jesus asks us: “Do you love me? If you do, then
after you finish your Eucharist meal, go and feed my people – the unborn child,
the frustrated teenager, the mentally handicapped and the lonely elderly”.
4th Sunday of
Easter Ac 13: 14, 43-52 Jn 10: 27-30
ABANDONED? NEVER!
In his book Alive:
The Story of the Andes Survivors, Piers Paul Read tells how 16 people
escaped safely from an airplane crash in the Andes Mountains
There in the snow with no food and only light
clothing, they saw planes fly over the area from times to time, but the planes
never from time to time, but the planes never spotted them. Then on a
transistor radio they heard the awful news that the official search of the
crashed airplane had been abandoned as futile.
To keep alive they decided to eat parts of the
bodies of the dead. Eventually, two of the survivors left the crash site to
find a way out, and after struggling for 10 terrible days they came upon some
cowboys. Rescue of the other 14 survivor followed.
This story of the Andes
survivors tells us something about today’s gospel. Jesus says: “I know may
sheep and they follow me. I give them eternal life; they will never be lost and
no one will ever steal them from me”.
In other words, other people may sometimes give up
on us, but the Lord Jesus never will. Because of the circumstances, the
official search of the Andes survivors had to
be abandoned. But the Lord never abandoned them.
In fact, neither the paralyzing cold nor the
avalanches of snow, neither their injuries nor their illnesses could snatch
them out of the hand of the Lord. In spite of the perils that threatened them,
Christ protected his sheep so that they did not perish during the ordeal.
Now we might ask: “What about the 11 people who
died in the crash? Didn’t they perish? Or what about the 16 who lived through
the crash but died shortly after because of their injuries? Didn’t they perish
too?”
In a sense, yes, they did perish – but only in this
life. Through our faith in Jesus we believe that thy received from him in
exchange a better life – one that is eternal. Their death did not snatch them
out of the hand of the Lord. On the contrary, it secured their place in his
presence in a permanent way.
Their situation is described in today’s second
reading from the book of Revelation: “They will never hunger or thirst
again….because the Lamb who is at the throne will be their shepherd and will
lead them to springs of living water”. (Rv 7: 16-17).
So it doesn’t matter how great is the peril that
threatens us. Whether we live or whether we die, according to St. Paul
People may sometimes give up on us – and with good
reasons – but never our Good Shepherd. Our spouse may have to give up on us
because we drink or gamble too much, but never the Lord. He always offers us
reconciliation as he did the good thief on the cross.
Our political colleagues may have to give up on us
and try to remove us from office, but never the Lord. As we sang in Psalm 100,
“His kindness endures forever,” regardless of how many mistakes we may make.
So even though we are not saved from sorrow or
suffering or death, we can still be like the disciples in the first reading
from Acts and “be filled with joy and the Holy Spirit”, because we know that no
one will ever snatch us out of the hands of Christ.
5th Sunday of Easter Ac 14: 21-27 Jn 13: 31-33, 34-35
GREATNESS
In Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night, there is a famous line that reads: “Some are born
great, some achieve greatness thrust upon them”.
As we look around we see how true this is.
Some are born great, at least financially, because
their parents are very rich. We think of Henry Clay Ford or Nelson Rockefeller,
for example.
Some achieve greatness because of what they
accomplished with a lot of effort. Luciano Pavarotti and Beverly Sills come to
mind here.
And some have greatness thrust upon them because
they reacted heroically or nobly in certain situations. St. Maximilian Kolbe
and Anne Frank are examples.
If we look into today’s readings we see again how
true Shakespeare’s words are.
In the first reading from Acts, the apostles Paul
and Barnabas establish a principle for achieving Christian greatness: “We have
to experience many hardships before we enter the kingdom of God
In the gospel, greatness is translated into the
word glory: “Now has the Son of Man
been glorified, and in him God has been glorified”. The meaning of this hour of
glory or greatness is unmistakable. The scene is the Last Supper. The betrayer
Judas has just left the upper room. Our Lord’s passion and death are about to
begin.
How can Jesus call the hour of his death the hour
of his glory? In the same way we designate any hour of crisis or challenge as
an hour of glory.
In sports we recognize certain athletes as
superstars because they perform their best when the pressure is the greatest.
We think of Kirk Gibson hitting a home run to win the 1984 World Series for the
Tigers, or of Jack Nicklaus charging from behind to win the Master’s Golf
Tournament in 1986.
In the field of skilled professions, the surgeons
and lawyers who have great reputations are the ones who take on the greatest
challenges in the operating room or in the courtroom and who excel in the
process.
In times of war, we honor as heroes and heroines
the men and women who make the supreme sacrifice for their country by dying for
it.
So it is not surprising to see Jesus approaching
his hour of death as the supreme hour that will give the greatest glory to his
Father and that will glorify the Son forever.
Too often we look on our trials and challenges as
something to avoid and run away from at all costs. How mistaken we are, because
these are opportunities to achieve greatness. This is not to say that we should
go running around looking for troubles and crises. But when they do come to us,
we should view them as potential hours of glory.
Psychologists tell us that crises and challenges
are times either for breakdowns or breakthroughs with respect to growth in
maturity – and, we might add, with respect to growth in spirituality.
In other words, when a crisis occurs in our
marriage or work, or in our studies or health, we can, on the one hand, break down under the pressure by
damaging a relationship, copping out on the job, giving up in our studies or
indulging in self – pity.
Or we can, on the other hand, break through the challenge by deepening a relationship, conquering
the task, persevering in our studies or coping with our health problems.
True greatness is not measure by how much fame we
attain, but by how we react to crises and challenges the way Jesus did – by
seeing them as hours of glory and as opportunities for growth.
6th Sunday of
Easter Ac
15: 1-2, 22-29 Jn 14: 23-29
PATHFINDERS
In a best – selling book entitled Pathfinders, author Gail Sheehy follows
the lives of 200 persons who took the risk of blazing new, less obvious trails.
For example, Al Oerter was a four – time Olympic gold
medal winner as a discus thrower. As a young man, Al nurtured the classic male
fantasy of virility: perfection of physical strength.
At age 32 he departed from that male stereotype to
develop the other aspects of his personality, such as gentleness, in order to
be a better family man. Al Oerter is a pathfinder
who was willing to seek a new horizon of intimacy and love to balance his
earlier cultivation of athletic brawn and prowess.
Pathfinders
like Al Oerter are willing to re – evaluate their lives,
are ready to risk change and dare to make new decisions. We see this spirit
illustrated in today’s readings.
In the first reading, the early Church was
confronted with a controversy about retaining some Mosaic practices such as
circumcision. It was a situation that had never arisen before. The early
Christians had to make decisions they never dreamed of. But under the direction
of the Holy Spirit, they pioneered the Church to move along uncharted paths.
This pattern has been repeated down through the
ages to our own day as we have to confront new questions like test – tube
babies, environmental pollution and nuclear energy. Jesus never told us in his
Sermon on the Mount how we should use television and computers. But he did give
us the Holy Spirit to guide us in our roles as pathfinders in the new age of technology and electronics.
We have his promise to do this in the gospel for
today: “I have said these things to you while still with you; but the Advocate,
the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you
everything and remind you of all I have said to you”.
In his book Preaching
the New Lectionary, Reginald Fuller remarks that it is not the function of
the Spirit to convey ever new revelations; rather, it is “to unfold in ever new
understanding, ever new interpretations and applications the once – for – all
revelation of Jesus Christ”. The work of the Holy Spirit is more than a
reminiscence of all that Jesus said and did; it is also “a living
representation, a creative exploitation of the gospel”.
If Christianity is going to be relevant in the face
of contemporary issues, then we have to be pathfinders
in government and law, entertainment and education, and in health care and
business.
We may not know exactly what to do, but we should
not hesitate because the Holy Spirit will enlighten us. We may not know what
kind of opposition we may encounter, but we should not be intimidated because
the Holy Spirit strength us. We may not know what far – reaching consequences
our decisions may have, but we should not be fainthearted because the Holy
Spirit dwells within us.
When society marks out certain routes for us to
follow regarding abortion, pornography and materialism, we have to take risk of
being counter – counter – cultural and blaze our own trails with such movements
as Pro – Life, The Christian Culture Series and Bread for the World.
Christians who are pathfinders are not content with a cozy, card – carrying kind of
commitment. They search for new ways to apply their Christianity to current
events. Christians who are pathfinders are
not satisfied with a routine practice of their faith. They explore creative
modes and contemporary forms to express their faith.
Ascension Ac 1: 11 L4: 46-53
SOARING HIGHER
At the conclusion of Part One of Richard Bach’s
book Jonathan Livingston Seagull, two
radiant birds come as Jonathan’s brothers to take him higher, to take him home.
Jonathan balks, but the birds insist: “But you can, Jonathan, for you have
learned. One school is finished, and the time has come for another to begin”.
It was a moment of enlightenment for Jonathan. He
realized that he “could fly higher,
and it was time to go home”. Taking
one last long glance across the sky and land where he had learned so much,
Jonathan Livingston Seagull “rose with the two stars – bright gulls to
disappear into a perfect dark sky”.
There are striking similarities between this
episode in Bach’s book and Luke’s account of our Lord’s Ascension in today’s
readings.
First, the “school” and “learning” mentioned in Jonathan recall how Jesus “taught” his
apostles until the day he was taken up to heaven. Second, the “time for another
school to begin” for Jonathan reflects Christ’s promise to send the Holy Spirit
upon his apostles so that they could begin their new mission of being his
“witnesses to the ends of the world”. Third, the two “star bright gulls”
suggest the presence of the “two men dressed in white” who spoke to the
apostles after Jesus ascended.Fourth, when Jonathan “rose to disappear into the
sky”, it was reminiscent of Jesus being “lifted up in a cloud which took him
from their sight”.
The Jonathan
Living Seagull story can be taken, then as a modern myth to help us
understand the significance of Christ’s Ascension. Our Lord’s leaving was not
the termination of his redemptive activity. Rather, his glorification is an
extension of it among his people.
The time of Christ’s saving work on earth in its
visible and incarnational dimension was finished, but the time for his saving
work in heaven in its invisible and sacramental dimension was beginning. The
time for his own personal preaching was at an end, whereas the time for the
power of the Holy Spirit to become operative in the Church was at hand.
The time for preparing his apostles for their
mission of establishing his Church was over, while the time for their
participation in the expansion of that Church was starting. The time for his
physical presence in our midst was completed, but the time for his presence in
our midst through prayer, Eucharist and service was commencing.
Indeed, as Bach writes, “one school is finished,
and the time has come for another to begin”. The pattern is the same for us.
Whether we graduate, or get married, or get ordained, or retire, we are merely
finishing one phase of our life in order to begin the next one. In this life our tasks are never completed;
our challenges never end, our schooling is never concluded. There is always one
more project to begin, one more person to visit, one more book to read, one
more cause to support, and so on.
All of us are Jonathans capable of flying higher to
discover new dimensions of self – growth and interpersonal relationships. All
of us are called to transcend our self – concern to experience the excitement
of completing Christ’s work on earth by serving others in ever newer ways.
In a sense, liturgy is like life. We come to church
to praise God, hear his word and eat his bread. But we don’t stand here all day
looking up to heaven. We leave to witness to him in the world, proclaim his good
new and show by our love that he is indeed always with us.
For Jonathans like ourselves, life is not dull, but
dynamic; not static, but energetic; not a settling down, but a never – ending
search. Our story is yet to be finished. Our best chapters may not yet have
been written.
7th Sunday of
Easter Ac 7: 55-60 Jn 17: 20- 26
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
In 1922 author James Joyce completed his book
entitled Ulysses. It was an
experimental work that turned out to be a masterpiece of the stream – of – consciousness
school.
The setting for Joyce’s novel is Dublin
Throughout the book Joyce uses various literary
techniques such as dreams, musings, interior monologues and free association to
reveal the innermost thoughts and feelings of Stephen Dedalus and the other
characters.
While John’s gospel is much more edifying to read
than James Joyce’s controversial Ulysses,
the literary form of today’s reading is somewhat like Joyce’s stream – of –
consciousness style.
The setting for today’s gospel is the Last Supper
before Jesus died. The reading is from our Lord’s last discourse to his
disciples. It is the part where Jesus prays aloud to his Father in the presence
of his disciples: “Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in
you… I have made your name known to them… so that the love with which you loved
me may be in them, so that I may be in them”.
Since it is part of our Lord’s farewell address,
the prayer seems to race over a lot of his last – minute concerns. With so
little time left, only the urgent issues surface to his human consciousness.
Jesus is worried about our unity with one another.
He is anxious about how we will love each other. He is wondering about whether
we will end up sharing his glory.
This stream – of – consciousness type of prayer is
significant to us not only because of the ultimate issues it raises, but also
because it is a model of how we should pray sometimes.
Too often we restrict our praying to a recitation
of set prayers and formulas, like the rosary or a litany or the invocations of
some novena ritual. Such prayers in themselves are excellent. But they are not
the only way we can pray.
Sometimes we can use our stream of consciousness to
pray, the way Jesus did in John’s gospel.
As our worries surface, we can speak about them to
God our Father, for he cares about us more than many sparrows or the lilies of
the field.
As our fears make themselves felt, we can share
them with the Lord Jesus, for he too knows what it felt like to be afraid.
As our dreams and hopes reveal themselves, we can
set them before the Holy Spirit, for he may be the inspiration behind them and
he is the one who can bring them to completion.
One of the nice things about this stream – of –
consciousness from of praying is that we can easily slip into it anywhere and
anytime. We can be walking, jogging or driving and pray this way. We can be
washing the dishes or mowing the lawn and pray this way. We can be waiting in a
doctor’s office or in a supermarket checkout line and pray this way.
Stream – of – consciousness praying is different
from ordinary daydreaming in that it is not aimless reverie. No, it is
daydreaming that is gently directed to God. It is being lost in one’s thoughts
and feelings, but in the presence of God.
Moreover, it is not a selfish kind of prayer. Steam
– of – consciousness praying makes us more aware of the needs of other people –
especially those closest to us.
Like Jesus, we end up praying for unity and love in
our family and parish; for food and work for the poor; for freedom and justice
throughout the world.
Pentecost (A,B,C) 2:
1-11 Jn 20: 19-23
LANGUAGE
Almost 100 years ago Dr. Zamenhof, a Polish
linguist, constructed a new language that could be shared by the people
throughout the world. The artificial language Dr. Zamenhof created is called
Esperanto, “the language of hope”.
The name signifies the hope of humankind that a
common language might heal the divisions that exist among the different peoples
of the earth. We even use the slang expression, “speaking the same language”,
to indicated harmony or unity of purpose on a certain issue.
The Feast of Pentecost is the Church’s celebration
of her unity and universality in the Holy Spirit, and so some of the readings
used express this in terms of language.
One of the optional readings for Pentecost is the
Genesis story about the Tower
of Babel
Whether or not the events at Babel Tower of
Babel
In other words, the confusion of tongues attributed
to sin in the story of the Tower
of Babel Russia
We don’t need a translator to appreciate such
things as the Bolshoi Ballet, or a Picasso painting, or a Calder sculpture.
Great works of are seem to transcend spoken languages and touch or spirits to
unite us at the deepest levels of our being.
But Pentecost is more than a work of are or music. Pentecost is a new
outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit into our hearts to kindle in us the fire of his
love. The new language that will unite us is not Esperanto so much as the
language of love. Even before a child learns how to speak, it already knows
that it is loved by its mother. Even
though a word was never exchanged, the Jew who was beaten by robbers knew that
he was loved by the Good Samaritan. Even though victims of earthquakes or
floods may live in foreign countries, they welcome the message of love we send
in relief aid. Acts of kindness and
mercy destroy divisions and build bridges between people. Gestures of peace and
forgiveness reduce hostility and forge bonds of unity.
Tongues of five may not come down on us today as
they did on the first disciples at Pentecost. But may the Holy Spirit fill our
hearts anew so that we can speak his language of love to each other and to all
the world.
Holy Trinity Pr 8:
22-31 Jn 16: 12-15
TRINITARIAN COMPARISONS
In her book The
Mind of the Maker, Dorothy Sayers explores the mystery of the Trinity. She
uses different comparisons to help us understand a little how it is possible
for there to be one God, but three Persons.
Sayers quotes, for example, two comparisons
suggested by St. Augustine
Dorothy Sayers then goes on to analyze the creative
experiences of writers, painters and other artists, “for every work (or act) of
creation is threefold, an earthly trinity to match the heavenly”.
Thus a play by Shakespeare is first in the mind of
the author as an intuitive idea or insight. This is the image of the Father.
Second, there is the incarnation of the idea in written words. This corresponds
to the Son. Third there is the meaning of the work and its response in the
reader. This represents the Holy Spirit. These three elements are distinct, yet
form a single creative act.
So even though the mystery of the Trinity is indeed
beyond our comprehension, comparisons do make it more meaningful to some
extent. In addition, each of the three readings from Scripture gives us some
insight about God to inspire us.
The first reading from Proverbs extols the creative power of God in the wonders of
the universe. As we contemplate God’s handiwork ranging from sea to sky, we
can’t help but reaffirm our faith in God’s creative power at work in us.
Our lives may be surrounded sometimes by disorder
and chaos, yet somehow God remains a craftsman who can still create something
good and beautiful in and through and around us.
In the second reading from Romans the message is
one of hope. Every life has moments
of suffering. Sickness, losing someone dear through death, hurt feelings and
anxieties seem to afflict all of us from time to time.
Nonetheless we are able to endure these sufferings
because “the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit” (Rm 5: 5). Our hope in God’s abiding presence is not deceptive nor will
it leave us disappointed.
Finally, in the gospel from John we hear Jesus
promise to send the Spirit of truth to
guide us to all truth. We are surrounded by conflicting claims to the truth
about the meaning of life and the way to live.
The movie and television industries of Hollywood
and New York have their gospel; the gambling
strips of Las Vegas have theirs; the Playboy
Penthouses of Chicago have their version; the Madison Avenue promoters in New York
We need the Holy Spirit to lead us through this
maze of message to hear what God has to say. God spoke to us in a significant
way through his Son Jesus Christ. God continues to speak to us through his Holy
Spirit.
The Holy
Spirit is the ultimate revelation about how much God loves us and wants to be
with us. The Holy Spirit is our supreme guide to discover the truth about life
and the way we should live it. John F.
Kennedy once wrote: “There are three things which are real: God, human folly
and laughter.
The first two are beyond comprehension, so we must
do what we can with the third”. Although there is not much we can do with the
Trinity, at least we can dispose ourselves to receive their creative influence,
gift of love and guidance to all truth.
SHARING
Coming
Out of the Ice is a book written by Victor Herman that was later
made into a television drama. It tells the story of how Victor spent 45 years
of his life in Russia
As a 16 year – ole boy he left his hometown of Detroit in 1931 to go to Russia Russia
For the next 18 years he miraculously survived the
Russian prisons and labor camps until he was pardoned after Stalin’s death. But
it took another 20 years before Victor was allowed to return to Detroit
In one labor camp incident, Victor was left to die
on the ground after he had been confined to isolation for a year. His prisoner
friend, Red Loon, took him into his hut, scrounged for food to feed him and
nursed him back to health. Because Red shared what he had with Victor, he saved
Victor’s life.
In a sense, this heroic act of sharing is a type of
the sharing that should take place with the Eucharist. In the gospel, Jesus
looks out at a tired and hungry crowd in an out – of – the – way place. The
five loaves and two fish which his disciples had were obviously inadequate to
feed the multitude.
Nonetheless, Jesus instructs his disciples to get
the people seated, prays to his Father, pronounces a blessing over the five
loaves and two fish, and gives them to the Twelve to distribute to the crowd.
They all ate until they were satisfied, and there were twelve baskets of food
left over.
This scenario of taking bread, giving thanks,
breaking and giving will occur again at the Last Supper. In other words, the
miracle of feeding the multitude is Eucharist in significance, especially under
the aspect of sharing.
It seemed that the disciples wouldn’t have enough
to go around, let alone take care of themselves. Still Jesus told them to give
away what they had. The bread and fish were not first multiplied, stockpiled
and counted to make sure there was plenty available. Instead, the miracle took
place as the five loaves and two fish were being distributed. What a lesson of trust and sharing! We
don’t have to wait until we make sure we’ve got enough to take care of all our
needs, real and imagined, before we share with others. The Lord invites us to
share what we have precisely at those times when we don’t seem to have enough.
We don’t have to wait until we get all our debts
paid, a certain amount of savings in the bank and our freezers stuffed with
food before we share with others. Sharing should be going on all the time,
especially when we have only a little – whether it is five loaves and two fish,
or limited time and energy.
This is a hard teaching to accept. To try it we
have to have faith in the Lord’s
power to multiply our resources. We have to love
our brothers and sisters who are hurting more than we. We have to hope that all of us will be satisfied
with enough leftovers to fill twelve baskets.
This is the miracle of the Eucharist – by sharing
what we have with one another, God’s love is multiplied many times over through
us. This is what happened when Red Loon shared his food and bunk with Victor
Herman in that Siberian labor camp. Red’s sharing even the little he had and in
the worst of circumstances saved Victor’s life.
Moreover, the inspiration of Red’s heroic
generosity continues to multiply as the story of Coming Out of the Ice is retold. That is the meaning of Eucharist.
Eucharist is not just the bread of the Lord Jesus
whose presence we honor in the liturgy. Eucharist
is also the bread of ourselves that we have to share with others in life.
2nd Sunday of
the Year Is 62: 1-5 Jn 2: 1-12
THE BEST IS YET TO BE
In a drama written for television entitled Love Among the Ruins. Laurence Olivier
and Katharine Hepburn star as two old friends who were childhood sweethearts
forty years ago. Still a single man, Laurence Olivier is now a prominent lawyer
near the age of retirement. Katharine Hepburn is now a widow who comes by
chance to Olivier’s office for some legal help.
Their old romance flares up again, and this time
Olivier gets up enough courage to ask Hepburn to marry him. To convince her to
say “Yes”, he quotes these verses from Robert Browning’s poetry:
Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, For which the first was
made. Our times are in his hands.
This television drama about love and marriage, and
about “the best is yet to be”, throws some light on today’s gospel story about
the wedding at Cana . In his book John: The Different Gospel, Fr Michael
Taylor points out that unlike the other evangelists, John calls Jesus’s works
of wonder signs instead of miracles.
John does this because they reveal in a visible way the inner and spiritual
identity of Jesus.
This is the reason why Christ’s first sign at Cana is used to complete the Epiphany cycle of
manifestations about him. The star of
Epiphany Feast itself revealed to the wise men the newborn Savior. Our Lord’s baptism last week revealed to John the
Baptist that Jesus was God’s beloved Son. The wedding at Cana today reveals some
of the meaning of Christ’s role as Messiah.
The first symbol which strikers us in the story is
the marriage itself. The first
reading from the prophet Isaiah is but one of many Old Testament examples which
use the intimate and ultimate love between a husband and wife as an image to
describe the deep personal love God has for his people. This love is now being
revealed through his Son Jesus.
The second symbol is the set of six water jars which were used for
Jewish ceremonial washings. John chose the number six to indicate the
imperfection of the Old Testament purification of the Mosaic Law compare to the
perfect New Testament purifications from sin that would be accomplished by
Jesus.
A third symbol in the Cana
story is the wine, another Old
Testament image associated with the messianic age. When Jesus took the water
and changed it into an abundant quantity of wine (some 150 gallons) of choicest
quality, this symbolized that the Messiah was now here and that the new age had
begun.
The Old Testament, signified by the water, is not being cast aside; it is being
transformed by Jesus into something better – the new wine of the New Testament.
Indeed, this hour that has finally
come is the best that is to be in human history because it is characterized by
the abundance and excellence of God’s glory being revealed in Jesus. So much for the symbolism of the wedding at
Cana . How do we fit into the story? The story
begins and ends on a note of faith – Mary’s
faith at the beginning when she informs her Son about the shortage of wine, and
the disciples’ faith at the end when they believed in him. Whether we see ourselves as the wedding
couple or the waiter or the guests isn’t important. What is important is that
we see God’s glory being revealed in our midst here and now through Jesus, and
that we respond to him in faith.
What matters is that we see how Jesus continually
takes whatever stands for imperfect water in our lives – our mistakes, our
emptiness, our disappointments, our hurts our sins – and transforms them into
the best of wine: new hope, new dreams,
new courage, new efforts, new life.
What Laurence Olivier said to Katharine Hepburn in
their television love story, Jesus says to us:
Come along with me. The best is yet to be, The last
of life, For which the first was made. Your
times are in my hands.
3rd Sunday of
the Year Ne 8: , 5-8Lk 1:
1-4; 4: 14-21
INAUGURAL ADDRESSES
When U.S presidents are sworn into office it is
customary for them to deliver inaugural speeches. These addresses usually
outline the challenges which face them and the ideals by which they will try to
govern.
Such inaugural speeches are more often remembered,
however, for thir inspirational sayings
We recall, for examples, Woodrow Wilson’s statement
in 1913: “This is the high enterprise of the new day…. We shall restore, not
destroy”.
Famous too are Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s words in
1933: “This great nation will endure as it has endured… The only thing we have
to fear is fear itself”.
John F. Kennedy’s exhortation in 1961 is equally
memorable: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for
you. Ask what you can do for your country”.
More recently we call to mind Ronal Reagan’s
American Song theme in 1985: “Hopeful, big – hearted, idealistic – daring,
decent and fair. That’s our heritage, that’s our song… We raise our voices to
the God who is the author of this most tender music”.
Today’s gospel reads somewhat like one of these
presidential inaugural addresses. Jesus had already been appointed officially
by his Father to his office as Messiah when he was baptized. Although he has
yet to select his cabinet – the twelve apostles – he now begins his teaching
ministry by standing up in public in a synagogue and making his inaugural
address.
In his speech he quotes the prophet Isaiah to
outline the challenges facing him as the Messiah and to give us a glimpse of
the ideals by which he will try to live. Empowered by the Spirit, he will bring
restore sight to the blind and fee the imprisoned.
Then he makes the dramatic and daring declaration
that all this is happening right then and right there: “This text is being
fulfilled today even as you listen”.
Many presidents have made more eloquent inaugural
speeches, but none has ever had the power to implement his promises in a
perfect way. Only Jesus could do that, because he is the Son of God and
anointed by the Holy Spirit.
No president can accomplish his goals for the good
of his people unless they actively support him with their labor, military
service and taxes. In the same way, Jesus cannot continue to accomplish his
messianic work in our time and place unless we put our faith in him, follow his
way and fight for his causes.
Just as no country can survive, let alone prosper,
when it has too many freeloaders for citizens, so too the kingdom of God
If the world is in such a sorry state today, we
can’t put the blame on Christ and Christianity. We have to blame ourselves in
part, especially if we are merely card – carrying Christians – that is,
Christians who claim to believe in Christ, but are uncommitted to his causes.
G.K. Chesterton was right when he said:
“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult
and not tried”. So it is not enough to
be moved emotionally by Christ’s inaugural speech today; we have to do
something about it. We have to seek out the oppressed and outcasts and supports
their quest for justice. We have to reach out to the unwanted and unloved and
reaffirm their dignity. We have to listen to the cries of the wounded and poor
and lift them up with compassion.
If we don’t believe in Christ’s causes, then we
shouldn’t stand up and recite the Creed. But if we do believe in Jesus Christ
as Lord, and if we believe in committing ourselves to him, then we should stand
up with conviction and courage and proclaim the Creed!
4th Sunday of
the Year Jr 1: 4-5,
17-19 Lk 4: 21-30
UNPOPULAR PROPHETS
The movie Black
Like Me is based on a book by the same title written by John Howard
Griffin. It documents his experiences when he had his skin darkened to pose as
a Negro and traveled for a month through the Deep South
in the late 1950’s.
John Howard Griffin was born in Dallas France Griffin returned to Texas
After ten years of blindness, recovered his
eyesight in a dramatic way and was able to see his wife and two children for
the first time. Griffin
Griffin went on to become a leader in the Civil
Rights Movement, thus incurring a backlash of hatred from white racists,
ranging from threatening mail and phone calls to being hung in effigy by his
own townspeople, Griffin died in 1980.
The opposition John Howard Griffin encountered in
his prophetic work for civil rights finds a parallel in today’s readings.
In the first reading, God calls Jeremiah to be a
prophet and predicts the resistance he will meet: “They will fight against you,
but shall not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you”.
In the gospel, Jesus proclaims himself as a prophet
to his own townspeople. He is promptly expelled from the synagogue and almost
killed at the outskirts of Nazareth
Although none of us will ever likely be interviewed
by Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes for
making some protest, we are still called by the Lord to be prophets in some
manner and to proclaim his message according to our position in life.
Whether we are factory worker or housewife,
salesman or secretary, we are sent by the Lord to be his witness in the world.
Whether we are married, widowed or single, we are designated by Christ to
denounce injustice and to decry violence; to defend the weak and to demand
human rights.
For example, to stand up for the protection of the
unborn child is to take a prophetic stance against abortion. This will not make
us popular with a lot of people. In fact, it may invite accusations and
opposition.
To stand up for nuclear disarmament is to take a
prophetic stance against militarism. This too may mean going against the crowd.
In fact, we may be denounced as unpatriotic or labeled as a Communist
sympathizer.
To stand up for decency in literature, movies and
television is to take a prophetic stance against sexual permissiveness. As a
result, we may end up being ridiculed and mocked as old – fashioned.
It is never easy to be a prophet – whether in the
time of Jeremiah and Jesus or in the time of John Howard Griffin and John Paul
II. But prophets we must be if we claim to be Christian.
Although we will encounter resistance, we should
not be afraid because we have the Lord’s promise to be with us. Like Jesus in
the gospel, we should move with daring through the crowd, confident that God
will strengthen us in the face of the challenges we meet.
5th Sunday of
the Year Is 6: 1-8
Lk 5: 1-11
LAUNCH OUT
In Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman the main character, Willie Loman, is a tragic
symbol of futility. As a salesman, Willie drives around in his car dutifully to
make his calls on prospective customers. However, except for a few minor
successes, his efforts repeatedly end in failure.
Since Willie seems to be only “spinning his
wheels”, his life becomes an intolerable drudgery. He becomes so preoccupied
with his setbacks that he loses all perspective and kills himself.
If only Willie had been able to really see and not
just look at what he had – a loving wife, two sons, his health, his religion –
he might not have let his defeats drown him in despair. Instead, he might have
been able to discover his true value in the sight of God the way Isaiah and Peter
did in today’s readings.
Both the prophet and the apostle were overcome by a
profound sense of sin and unworthiness before God. “Woe is me… for I am a man
of unclean lips” cried Isaiah. “Leave me, Lord, I am a sinful man”, said Peter.
But they didn’t stay there. They stepped out in
faith to answer the Lord’s call to holiness and ministry. “Here I am. Send me”,
offered Isaiah. “I will follow you, Lord”, said Peter.
Like Willie Loman, Peter too knew the frustration
one feels when our best efforts end in failure. He and the other disciples had
been fishing hard all night but caught nothing.
Haven’t we been there too? We toil hard in the
kitchen, and our meals still turn out disappointments. We work hard on the job,
yet we seem to be getting nowhere. We study hard in school, but our test
results don’t show it. We try hard to mix socially, yet no one seems to care.
At such times it’s easy to get discouraged and want
to quit. That’s why we need to hear today’s gospel. For it is precisely at such
moments of futility that the Lord stands by to help us. When Peter’s boat was
empty, it was then that Jesus stepped into it.
We also need to be reminded that it takes faith to
find a way out of a sense of failure and futility. It was only after Peter
followed Christ’s directions to “launch into deep water and lower your nets for
a catch”, that they hauled in a huge number of fish.
To overcome feelings of futility, then, it takes
faith – faith in our Lord’s presence and faith in following his directions. We
may have to give it that one more try or launch out into deeper waters, but if
we have faith in Jesus, then fish we didn’t see before will appear.
Unfortunately, Willie Loman didn’t have this kind
of faith. But Anne Sexton did. Dying of cancer and searching for meaning, she
expressed her feelings in a poem.
At first Anne Sexton describes her futility in
trying to row towards God:
I am rowing, I am rowing
Though the oarlocks stick and are rusty
And the see blinks and rolls
….but I am rowing, I am rowing
Though the wind pushes me back.
Nonetheless, her poem ends on a note of hope that
God will somehow be reached through all the absurdities of her sickness and
embrace her in love. Anne’s poem ends with her still rowing.
6th Sunday of
the Year Jr 17: 5-8 Lk 6: 17, 20-26
HAPPINESS MYTHS
Dr. Harold Treffert is the director of the
Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Wisconsin
First, happiness is things. The more you accumulate and have, the happier you will be.
Second, happiness is what you do. The more you produce and earn, the happier you will
be.
Third, happiness is being the same as others. The more you are fashionable and conform with the
times, the happier you will be.
Fourth, happiness is mental health. The fewer problems you have and the more carefree
you are, the happier you will be.
Fifth, happiness is communicating with electronic gadgets. The more you can communicate
with a television set, a satellite or a computer, the happier you will be.
According to Dr. Treffert, these five myths about
happiness are the cause of many mental health problems today. If happiness
cannot be found through these five myths of “The American Fairy Tale”, then
where do we find it?
Jesus gave us an answer when he outlined the
beatitudes in today’s reading from Luke. Unlike Matthew’s version which
contains the more familiar listing of eight beatitudes, Luke’s gospel mentions
only four beatitudes, which are then followed by four corresponding woes.
Whether there are precisely eight or four
beatitudes is not crucial. What is crucial is their revolutionary character as
an agenda for finding happiness. They represent a complete reversal of the
world’s values.
Dr. Treffert summarized the world’s values of today
in terms of five American myths. In his day our Lord summarized them under four
headings: prosperity, comfort, fun and popularity. And Jesus not only rejected
these four things, he also attached woes to them “Woe to you who are rich… who
have your fill now…. Who laugh now….who have others praise you”.
It is not that Jesus is against wealth as such, or
pleasure, or good times, or popularity. He is against them when they are
attained by exploiting people or when they are made into objects of happiness
instead of being the means to happiness.
By contrast he proclaims that people can be happy
even when they don’t have these things: “Blessed are you” who are poor or
hungry, or weep or are hated.
“How is this possible?” we might ask. It is
possible because the kingdom
of God
The good news Jesus brought about God’s
forgiveness, compassion, and desire to share his divine life with us is
something that can be received by the poor as well as the rich. In fact, the
poor might be in a better position than the rich to welcome his good news
precisely because they stand so empty before god and realize their needs.
The beatitudes declare that happiness does not come
from what we have but from what we are – God’s chosen people who are
precious in his sight. Happiness does not derive from what we achieve but from what we receive – God’s gift of himself.
The beatitudes are not, then, some pipe dream or
fairy tale. They are God’s own word revealing to us the secret for finding
happiness regardless of our state in life.
7th Sunday of the Year 1S
26: 2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23 Lk 6: 27-38
FORGIVENESS AND FEELINGS
The Rev. Richard Wurmbrand was born a Jew in Rumania Rumania
Because he continued to talk about Christ to the
prisoners, the Communists tortured him with spiked closets, ice treatments,
starving rats and hot irons. Yet, Wurmbrand would always emerge and say,
“Before I was interrupted, I was telling you about Christ”. His full story is
told in a book entitled Tortured for
Christ.
Before the Stalin takeover, the Nazis had their
Jewish holocaust in Rumania
This Nazi did not believe in either guilt of
forgiveness. So Richard brought his wife Sabrina to this man and told her what
he had done to her family. Sabrina embraced the Nazi, kissed him and said: “As
God forgives you, I forgive you”.
Sabrina Wurmbrand could do what seems impossible to
us, because she believed in Christ’s words in today’s gospel: “Love your
enemies and do good to those who hate you. Be compassionate as your Father is
compassionate. Forgive, and you will be forgiven”.
The
Interpreter’s Bible acknowledges the difficulty of feeling
any kind of love toward someone who has hurt us deeply. But it insists that
even though “to love is not
necessarily to like”, we should still
want for someone “the best in life
that God can help us make available for him or her”.
In other words, Jesus is not asking for nice
feelings, which we cannot control. He is asking us to want nothing but the
highest god for someone. Sabrina Wurmbrand understood this. Her husband was
unfaithful to her at one time. Although she condemned his infidelity, she would
not condemn him.
The Nazi soldier had killed her parents, three
brothers and two sisters. To his utter amazement, Sabrina did not demand
revenge. Instead she disarmed him with forgiveness.
Sabrina wanted nothing but the best for her husband
Richard and for the soldier – their reconciliation and healing, a new vision
and direction, and a place in God’s kingdom.
We see David
doing the same thing for Saul in the first reading. Saul had tried several
times to kill David. Yet, when David had a chance to kill Saul in his sleep, he
spared his life.
By contrast,
how many times have we figuratively put the sword to someone who injured us,
either by making a snide remark or by leaving them in the lurch or by giving
them the cold shoulder?
Obviously, Christ isn’t saying that we should give
away our second family car to some thief who has just made off with the first
ca. but he is saying that we should love those who hurt us in some way, at
least by willing their highest good; that we should take some
initiative to reach out in forgiveness, instead of seeking revenge.
We don’t have to feel like doing it, but we do have to have faith in it. The paradox is that by doing good to others, it will
come back to us in surprising ways. By giving only what will help someone,
God’s graces will be given to us in good measure.
8th Sunday of the Year Si 27: 4-7 Lk 6: 39-45
TRUE EXCELLENCE
Iacocca,
An Autobiography become an instant best seller when it
was published in 1984. It marked another achievement for a man whose name has
become synonymous with success.
In 1964 Lee Iacocca was hailed as the mastermind
behind the introduction of the ever – popular Ford Mustang. In 1970 he became
president of the Ford Motor Company. In 1983 he was touted as an industrial
folk hero for saving and rebuilding the Chrysler Corporation.
Lee Iacocca is a paradox because he is a corporate
capitalist with populist appeal. He’s loved by executives and workers alike.
According to Joseph Califano, “He’s real, and he cares – I think that comes
through”.
People such as Lee Iacocca are recognized for their
excellence because their exterior successes seem to flow from their interior
qualities. This is why we acclaim coach Bear Bryant, the winningest coach in
the history of college football, or actress Helen Hayes, the First Lady of the
Theater.
What is true in the world of industry, sports and
entertainment is also true in the world of spirituality. At least Jesus seems
to think so in today’s gospel when he uses the example of good and bad trees:
“For every tree can be told by its own fruit….A good man draws what is good from the state of
goodness in his heart….For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart”.
Remarking on this passage in his Pelican commentary
on Luke, G.B Caird underlines the relation that exists between character and
influence:
The leader can
only guide if he first sees the way. The teacher can impart only what he
himself has learned….Sound influence is the fruit growing on the tree of sound
character, the overflow of an inner abundance.
In other words, we can’t move, inspire or influence
people unless there is something genuine and attractive within us. That’s why
people such as Lee Iacocca, Bear Bryant and Helen Hayes capture our
imagination. We intuitively sense their inner spark and become excited when we
see them in action. They enliven and energize us with their presence.
So if we want to make any impact on people’s lives
as disciples of the Lord, we have to strive to become good persons with a
goodness that is real and authentic.
It means that we have to put the mind of Christ: denouncing hypocrisy in
the name of truth; crying out for justice in the face of oppression;
challenging difference in the midst of complacency.
It means that we have to feel with the Lord’s heart: reaching out the downtrodden;
forgiving the wayward; sharing with the poor.
It means that we have to pray the way Jesus did: praising God for his goodness; thanking him
for his gifts; trusting in him for his help.
As we become good people in the image of Christ,
our lives will become more and more transparent. People will see goodness in us
and be inspired by it. They will recognize our genuineness and respond to it.
Then what we say will have force, because it will
flow from our inner convictions. Then what we do will make a difference for
others, because it will come from the depth of our being.
9th Sunday of
the Year 1K 8:
41-43 Lk 7: 1-10
CHARIOTS OF FIRE
The film Chariots
of Fire won an Oscar in 1982 for Best Picture. It tells the story of two
British sprinters and their pursuit of gold medals in the 1924 Olympics. One of
the runners is a Jew named Harold Abrahams who uses his running to combat anti
– Semitism and to fulfill his own compulsive need to win.
The other runner is a Scottish missionary named
Eric Liddell. He looked at his quickness as a gift from God and his development
of that talent as a religious act. He said: “God made me for a purpose, but he
also made me fast. When I run, I can feel his pleasure”.
When Eric Liddell found out that his heat in the
100 meter race was scheduled for a Sunday, he refused to run on the Sabbath in
spite of great pressure and ridicule. On Monday, Liddell entered another race –
the 400 meter event – for which he had not trained. Before the race, a stranger
gave him a piece of paper on which was written a line from 1Samuel 2: 30: “I
will honor those who honor me”.
Liddell had put his faith in God to enter this race
and the note only served to confirm it. He won the gold medal in that race and
set a new world’s record in doing so.
Today’s gospel tells another story of extraordinary
faith. When Jesus comes to save a centurion’s servant who was dying, the
centurion sends some friends to say to Jesus: “Lord, I am not worthy to have
you under my roof. But give the word and let my servant be cured”.
Jesus is amazed at the centurion’s faith, praises
him in front of the crowd, and cures his servant instantly from a distance.
This was a significant story for the early Church
because it signaled that non – Jews were worthy to enter the kingdom of God
No one knew this better than Helen Keller when she
wrote that she thanked God every day for setting in her darkness the lamp of
faith as a source of strength and as a guide. Eric Liddell knew this too when
he seemed to stand alone on the track because of his religious convictions, yet
believed in his heart that the Lord’s power would be with him.
We have our own opportunities to practice this kind
of faith.
Maybe we’ve been coasting along for years in good
health and suddenly find ourselves facing open heart surgery or cancer testes.
The nearness of God is not so real anymore.
Perhaps our family life, which had been a happy one
up until now, is being torn apart by an alcohol or drug problem. “Where is God
now?” we question.
Possibly we’ve enjoyed a work situation that had
been stable and secure, and now unexpectedly find ourselves laid off or even
unemployed. The apparent absence of God becomes disturbing.
Death sometimes takes away a loved one whose
presence meant very much to us. With that person’s departure, God too seems to
have disappeared.
These are times when we can say with the centurion
that we are not worthy of Christ’s presence, yet ask him in faith to say but a
word to bless us in some way: a word of encouragement to rally us, a word of
hope to reassure us, a word of promise to inspire us.
With faith we can face any future, however bleak,
and exclaim with the poet William Blake:
Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of Fire.
10th Sunday of
the Year 1K 17: 17-24
Lk 7: 11-17
WIDOWS AND ONLY SONS
The movie entitled Witness tells the story of an Amish widow and her 5 - years – old
son. The little boy witnesses a murder committed by a police officer and
becomes a murder target himself in a police cover – up.
Throughout this fast – paced movie of intrigue,
suspense and narrow escapes, we share in the worries and fears of the Amish
widow trying to protect her only son. We find our hearts reaching out with
compassion toward her: “Good Lord”, we pray, “She’s already lost her husband.
Don’t let any harm come to her little boy now”.
These feelings aroused in our hearts by the movie Witness are the same as those felt by
Elijah and Jesus in today’s readings. In parallel stories, both Elijah and
Jesus encounter widows who have just lost their only sons. The hearts of Elijah
and Jesus are moved with pity, and they bring the sons back to life.
To appreciate the impact of these miracles, we must
recall that in the Bible the widow was a frequent symbol of the poor and the
helpless. In biblical times there was no job market for women, nor was there
any welfare system as we know today.
So when Elijah and Jesus come across a widow who
has lost no only her husband (which is bad enough), but also (to make matter
worse) her only son, they meet someone who is indeed the poorest of the poor in
their time. So they are moved with compassion to restore the women’s sons.
Commentator William Barclay remarks that, on the
one hand, these stories are unparalleled for their pathos and poignancy in
presenting human misery. But, on the other hand, they are overpowering for
their revelations of divine mercy.
If we focus on just the gospel story, we find that
it is highly symbolic. First, the two crowds which converge. One crowd is a
funeral procession following a dead man. The other crowd is a group of
disciples following Jesus, the Lord of life.
For a moment, life triumphs over death, a
foreshadowing of the more definitive triumph that will take place later when
Jesus himself will be raised from the dead once and for all.
Second, in the opening episode of this chapter,
Jesus healed a centurion’s servant who was sick to the point of death. In today’s episode, Jesus restores a young
man who had passed beyond the point of
death.
By putting these two stories together
consecutively, Luke is making a significant statement: no suffering is beyond
God’s power to relieve; no death is beyond God’s power to conquer.
Third, there is the element of faith. In previous
miracle stories, like that of the centurion’s servant, faith was at work in the
recipients beforehand. But here, in the widow of Naim story, faith is neither
demanded nor sought beforehand. Instead, it is given as a gift afterwards. The
whole incident is charged with God’s gracious and unconditional love.
Is this not the way God intervenes sometimes in our
lives, too, when we’ve done nothing to earn or merit his amazing grace? Even
when he’s uninvited, he sometimes invades the ground of our being and brings
unexpected blessings for us.
Inspiring as the widow of Naim story is, it still
leaves some of us asking: “If God is so good, why didn’t he bring back to life
my husband or wife when they passed away? Why didn’t he restore my son or
daughter when they died?”
Perhaps the only answer is: The Lord did not raise
them from the dead when we wanted – but one day, in his own time, he will.
What is needed from us are not more questions, but
silence in the presence of God; not more demands or ultimatums, but trust as we
place our destiny in his hands.
11th Sunday of
the Year Lk 7: 36-50
FORGIVENESS STORIES
In the movie Under
the Volcano, Albert Finney plays a British diplomat in South
America . His personal life and career have been on a steady
downgrade. He is an alcoholic, his wife has left him and he’s been assigned to
a remote diplomatic office.
His wife returns to help him salvage his life
before he destroys himself completely. But the diplomat comes to a tragic end,
not because he dies an alcoholic at the hands of violent men, but because he
dies without being able to accept his wife’s loving forgiveness or to forgive
himself.
Forgiveness is the subject of today’s readings form
Scripture. But unlike the movie Under the
Volcano where forgiveness is refused, these readings are stores of
forgiveness received.
The Old Testament reading tells how Nathan
confronts King David with his sins of adultery and murder. David acknowledges
his guilt and is then forgiven by God.
In the gospel a woman – the town sinner, so to
speak – dares to approach Jesus at a dinner. With profound and sincere gestures
she acts out her contrition. After telling the host Simon a short parable about
forgiveness and gratitude, Jesus tells the woman that her many sins are
forgiven because of her faith and love.
These biblical texts abound with contrasts.
First, Kind David acts like a villain, but with
God’s forgiveness he recovers his lost virtue. His fall occasions a greater
fidelity.
Second, in the gospel, Simon the Pharisee sees
himself as a self – styled saint; but in fact he is a sinner who needs to be
forgiven for pride and a sense of superiority. In the eyes of all the
townsfolk, the woman is one of their worst sinners – but under the gaze of the
Lord, she is also one of their greatest lovers.
Third, according to his parable, Jesus implies that
both Simon and the woman are forgiven – but while the woman accepts the gift,
Simon does not.
Fourth, as the host, Simon should have shown more
hospitality to our Lord who was his guest. By contrast the repentant woman, who
was a complete stranger to Jesus, overwhelms him with affection. Simon seems to hold back and never gets close
to Jesus, or to anyone else for that matter. The woman is not afraid to express
her feelings and outdoes herself in repentance, just as she had outdone herself
in sinfulness before.
Fifth, the use of oil is pivotal to the story.
Simon withheld from Jesus an anointing with even a little ordinary olive oil.
The sinful woman literally poured out on Jesus a whole vase of expensive
perfumed oil – a symbol of both the vastness of her love and of the forgiveness
she received.
How do we face our own sinfulness and accept
forgiveness? Unless we honestly confess our sins we miss out on the miracle of
God’s mercy, the way Simon the Pharisee did. Unless we open our hearts to
accept the gift of forgiveness from God, from others and ourselves, we can
waste a lifetime the way the diplomat did in the movie Under the Volcano.
But if we are man enough like David or woman enough
like the gospel sinner to confess our sins and seek forgiveness, then Christ
can do great things for us. He can transform our vices into virtues, make guilt
give way to gladness and change dead ends into new beginnings.
The Lord’s kingdom does not consist of people who
have never sinned, but of people who have sinned and been forgiven; of people
who have failed, even grievously, yet found grace.
So we don’t have to pretend to be perfect as Simon
did. All we have to do is place ourselves at the feet of Jesus as the penitent
woman did and experience the pardon and peace of his unconditional love.
12th Sunday of
the Year Zc 12: 10-11
Lk 9: 18-24
SUFFERING AND SUCCESS
In recent years several movies have reflected the
connection that exists between suffering and success. The Rocky series about boxing, Chariots
of Fire about track, and Vision Quest
about wrestling illustrate how pain is the price an athlete has to pay for
victory.
We get the same message from television, too. Paper Chase about lawyers, St. Elsewhere about doctors, and Flame about theater performers emphasize
how long hours of study and training are necessary to become a true
professional.
In other words, the common athletic locker room
slogan of “No pain, no gain” fits equally well in libraries, labs and dressing
rooms. The message is the same – without self – discipline there can be no
development; without self – denial, no dedication; without some suffering, no
success.
A similar message appears in today’s readings.
By way of prophecy, the Old Testament reading from
Zechariah pictures God pouring out on the house of David a spirit of grace but
in a situation of suffering: “They will look on the one whom they have pierced;
they will mourn for him as for an only son”.
In the gospel Jesus proclaims that he will fulfill
this messianic prophecy by enduring suffering, rejection and death before he is
raised up in triumph. Jesus then goes on to spell out for us a definition of
discipleship. If we want to be his disciples, then we must deny ourselves, take
up our cross each day and follow in his steps.
There are two kind is shown in the movies and
television programs mentioned earlier – suffering we take on ourselves in the
form of self – denial, discipline and training. The purpose of this type of
suffering is no to experience pain or discomfort, but to prepare ourselves for
some kind of worthwhile performance or achievement.
We do the same in our spiritual life. Whenever we
voluntarily fast, pray or give alms, we deny ourselves some pleasure or
material thing in order to explore our own inner powers and to experience the
presence of God.
The second kind of suffering in discipleship is the
kind that happens to us beyond our control, in spite of our best efforts.
Catching the flu, getting hit by a reckless driver or being laid off from our
job are just a few examples of this kind of suffering.
Such suffering seems useless and senseless to us.
Its happening seems to contradict our idea of a God who is all good and just.
It was the kind of suffering that Jesus went through during his passion and
death.
And yet, somehow, even this kind of suffering can
serve a higher purpose. We have within us the capacity to draw good out of
evil, to convert losses into gains and to find meaning amidst pain.
God our Father did this when he raised Jesus from
the dead to new life. He continues to do this in and through us every time we
refuse to indulge in self – pity when we’re hurting and reach out to help
others; or deny ourselves the luxury of quitting and take up our cross with
courage; or weather the darkness of doubt and despair and renew our faith and
hope.
Once we decide to follow Jesus as disciples, we are
destined to share in his sufferings, but only that we might save ourselves in
the process and also share in his glory.
13th Sunday of
the Year 1K 19: 16, 19-21 Lk 9: 51-62
WORLD CLASS
In a recent issue of Sports Illustrated, there was an article on Bela Karolyi, a
Rumanian gymnastic coach. He was once the coach of the national Rumanian team
that produced the world and Olympic champion Nadia Comaneci.
In 1981 Bela Karolyi defected to the U.S with a
suitcase, leaving everything else behind including his Mercedes. Today he
trains more than 300 youth at his Sundance Athletic Club in Houston
To attain world class status in gymnastics the way
Nadia Comaneci did, an athlete must become a disciple of a master like Bela
Karolyi. First, she must sacrifice her own personal comfort and follow a
strenuous training program. Second, she must reorder her priorities, attach
supreme importance to gymnastics and subordinate everything else to it. Third,
she must make a single – minded commitment to persevere in spite of
difficulties and disappointments.
These same three elements of discipleship are
required of our Lord’s followers in today’s gospel. In responding to three
individuals who offer to become his disciples, Jesus talks about three
conditions:
First, not having a place to lay one’s head. In
other words, a willingness to make sacrifices with little concern for personal
comfort.
Second, leaving the dead to bury the dead, even in
one’s own family. In other words, giving the kingdom of God
Third, putting one’s hand to the plow without
looking back. In other words, a disciple must make an unswerving commitment to
his mission.
If such is the case, who of us is fit to be a
follower of Christ? Who of us would dare to be one of his disciples? The answer
is, “All of us”. If we understand these three conditions correctly, every one
of us is destined to this kind of discipleship.
In his commentary on this gospel, Scripture scholar
Carroll Stuhlmueller claims that the sayings of Jesus must be understood in the
Semitic background of contrast and exaggeration. Jesus was deliberately trying
to startle us, to stir up thought, to compel us to count the cost of committing
ourselves to his cause – the kingdom of God.Or, to put it another way, Jesus is
warning us against cheap grace. Our call to discipleship demands that we make
difficult choices – not always between good and evil, but between the good and
the best; not always without ambiguity, but with the risk of faith.
First, there are times when we have to sacrifice
our own personal comfort in order to minister to the sick, visit the elderly,
share with the poor or listen to the lonely.
Second, there are times when we have to reorder our
priorities and duties in order to allot time for meditation as well as for our
recreation, spend time with our family as well as with our work, or give time
to parish programs as well as to our own personal projects.
Third, there are times when we need single – minded
dedication to persevere in the face of obstacles in order to keep our hand to
the plow of chastity when the public promotes pornography, remain faithful to
our marriage promises when divorce would be an easy way out, and not look back
in pushing ahead for a Constitutional Amendment to protect the unborn.
None of us will probably ever become a world –
class gymnast – even under a master like Bela Karolyi. But all of us can become
world – class Christians by firmly resolving to follow Jesus – not only when we
have plenty, but even in poverty; not only when we feel like it, but even when
all we have is faith to go on; not only to Jerusalem, but even as far as
Calvary.
14th Sunday of the Year Is 66: 10-14 Lk 10: 1-11, 17-20
14th Sunday of the Year Is 66: 10-14 Lk 10: 1-11, 17-20
SUPERSTARS
What is it that makes an athlete a superstar? What
is it that puts an athlete in a class by himself or herself? Perhaps what makes
a superstar shine more brightly than others is his or her confidence and
capacity to perform consistently with excellence, especially in pressure
situations.
One thinks, for example, of the great quarterbacks
in pro football, of men like Joe Montana, who with two minutes left in a game
can lead his team downfield to snatch a victory out of the clutches of defeat.
When the going gets tough you want superstars like
Wade Boggs in the batter’s box in the bottom of the ninth inning, or Larry Bird
with the basketball in the final seconds of overtime.
When the pressure is the greatest, you can almost
sense that a superstar like Jack Nicklaus will sink that long putt on the 18th
green, or that Wayne Gretzky will put the puck in the net in the last minute of
play.
Now what is true of superstars in sports is also
true of saints in the Christian life. They have the confidence and the capacity
to come through when the pressure is the greatest. Today’s readings from
Scripture show why.
In the first reading from Isaiah, the Chosen People
are in exile and yet the prophet tells them to exult: “Rejoice, Jerusalem
In the gospel Jesus sends 72 of his disciples on a
mission to proclaim his peace, to heal in his name and to announce the here and
now presence of the kingdom
of God
In explaining this gospel passage, Fr. Laurence
Brett writes in Share the Word:
Ultimately,
despite rejection, the disciples’ mission will be victorious. Why? Because
their master has empowered them. Jesus watched Satan fall; they watch demons
fall.
In other words, the ultimate triumph of the kingdom
is assured. The decisive victory has already been accomplished through the
death and resurrection of Christ. It only remains to be revealed and worked out
in our own human history.
That is why we can be confident! We have been
empowered by the Lord to perform with poise under pressure.
Jesus sends us with the command: “Be on your way.
Go into your homes and parish churches, your studios and theaters, and there
proclaim my peace, heal in my name and make my presence felt”.
“I have given you power”, Jesus says, “to tread on
the force of the enemy. There is no loss from which you cannot recover; no
setback from which you may not start again; no hurt you’ve experienced that
cannot be healed”.
What confidence we should have then in Isaiah’s
vision of how the Lord can transform our sorrow into joy, our slavery into
freedom and our barrenness into fruitfulness!
What strength we should feel from our Lord’s
promises in the gospel! With his power we can be steadfast in suffering, keep
calm in crises and remain undaunted by disappointment.
Like superstars in sports we can come through under
pressure because the Lord is with us. Because of his presence, no failure need
ever be final and no sin need ever be the last word to our story. Even death
cannot destroy us completely, because our names are written in the kingdom of
heaven.
15th Sunday of
the Year Dt 30: 10-14 Lk 10: 25-37
THE GOOD SAMARITAN
In the movie Limelight,
Charlie Chaplin is Calvero, an aging vaudeville performer, and Claire Bloom
is Thereza, a suicide – prone ballerina. In his prime, Calvero was a famous
comedian – but now in his decline, coupled with
his drinking problem, he bores the audience.
As Calvero staggers home one night, he comes upon
Thereza trying to commit suicide. He rescues her and allows her to share his
apartment to recuperate. They begin a platonic relationship.
Calvero encourages Thereza to try ballet again.
When she loses confidence on her opening night, Calvero forces her to go
onstage. The strain is too much for the aging Calvero. He dies from a heart
attack while Thereza pirouettes on the stage with renewed hope.
This touching story about a caring man is almost
like a film version of our Lord’s Good Samaritan parable. Both Calvaro and the
Good Samaritan were moved with compassion at the sight of someone half – dead,
intervened to save them and them cared for them at their own expense.
To appreciate more our Lord’s parable, we should
recall how much the Jews and Samaritans hated each other for reasons of race,
politics and religion. Today it would be like an Irish Catholic helping an
Ulster Protestant or a black person assisting a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
In contrast to the Good Samaritan, the priest and
the Levite both saw the beaten man, but passed by. If the man were dead and
they touched him, then they would become ritually impure for temple worship. So
it seems that they were more concerned about ritual than in taking a risk to
help someone in dire need.
In what category do we fall? As we travel from our
own Jericho to Jerusalem Jericho
to Jerusalem
Whenever we find people hurting in some way from
illness or loneliness, poverty or senility, depression or rejection, we are
forced to make decision. We either look without compassion and pass by, or we
are moved by love and offer to help.
In her reflections on this parable, Sr. Nadine Koza
points out that too often we pass people by because we dislike, mistrust or feel
prejudiced against them. But if we can search inside to touch our own
woundedness, then we can see in the other’s brokenness a reflection of our own
and reach out to help them.
The clown Calvero and the Good Samaritan did this.
They rejected all the reasons why they shouldn’t get involved and risked
responding for the only reason that really mattered: someone near was hurting
like themselves and needed them.
Let us not line up with the lawyer in the gospel
and ask the wrong question: “Who is
my neighbor?” Instead, let us take our stance with Jesus and Calvero and ask “How can I be a neighbor?”
Let us not ask the wrong question as the priest and
Levite did: “What will happen to me if
I stop?” Instead, let us ask the question of the Good Samaritan: “What will
happen to him if I don’t stop?”
16th Sunday of
the Year Gn 18: 1-10
Lk 10: 38-42
TENDER MERCIES
In the movie Tender
Mercies, Robert Duvall is Mac Sledge, a washed up country singer who is an
alcoholic. Abandoned by a companion at a run –down motel along a desolate Texas
Mac Sledge needs a steady job, and so Rosa Lee
hires him to stay on as a handyman. Her only ultimatum is that he not drink while
on the job.
Out there on the prairie, pumping gas or puttering
around the grounds, with no one but the widow and her little boy for company,
the broken – down Mac Sledge becomes whole again.
Nurtured by the tender
mercies of Rosa Lee, Mac Sledge gradually quits drinking altogether, finds
peace and falls in love with her. Rosa Lee’s hospitality transforms his life in
such a powerful way that he is literally reborn like the legendary Phoenix
The virtue of hospitality is a central theme of
today’s readings.
In the first reading from Genesis, Abraham and
Sarah welcome three strangers to their tent and afford them the customary
desert amenities of shelter, water and food.
In the gospel, the sisters Martha and Mary welcome
our Lord to their home. Martha busies herself with all the details of
hospitality, while Mary entertains Jesus by sitting at his feet and listening
to his words.
We are inclined to contrast the two sisters and
characterize them as symbols of action as opposed to contemplation. However, we
would be closer to the spirit of the gospel if we view their roles as
completing one another – that is, as two different but complementary forms of
hospitality.
Martha is the female counterpart of the Good
Samaritan of last week’s gospel. Her actions on behalf of Jesus her guest
recall all the details of the Good Samaritan’s care for the victim he found.
Martha is indeed one who has gone and done the same. She is unselfishly and
generously showing compassion to Jesus through her hospitality.
Mary anticipates next week’s gospel. She is the
female counterpart of the disciples who ask Jesus to teach them how to pray and
then listen to his words of instruction. Mary, too, listens to our Lord’s
words. She understands that we do not live on bread alone, but on the word of
God. Jesus approves her insight that the bread of his word is better
nourishment than ordinary food.
So Martha and Mary are not in conflict in the way
they welcome Jesus. Rather, they accompany each other by expressing their
hospitality in different ways: Mary by being a listener; Martha by being a
doer.
St. Basil the Great preached and practiced
hospitality. In one of his sermons he said: "The Christian should offer
his brethren simple and unpretentious hospitality.” He founded an impressive
village near Caesarea to provide lodging for
pilgrims, orphans, aged people and the sick.
In the Eucharist, Christ welcomes us as guests and
extends to us his hospitality. Like Mary he sits by us and listens – he shares
with us the feelings of our hearts and the thoughts of our minds.
Like Martha and Abraham, Jesus does everything he
can for his guests – he uplifts us with forgiveness, inspires us through
Scripture and feeds us with the food of the Eucharist.
Through his hospitality Jesus shows tender mercy to us as weary travelers.
Can we do the same for one another? Can we show tender mercy to fellow pilgrims on the road of life and invite
people like Mac Sledge to heal their wounds, discover their best selves and
experience God’s blessings?
17th Sunday of
the Year Gn 18: 20-33 Lk 11: 1-13
ASK, SEEK AND KNOCK
In Ingmar Bergman’s film The Seventh Seal, a Knight returns from the Crusades and passes
through a country plagued with the Black Death. The Knight is trying to catch
up with God before Death catches up with him.
To stall for more time in his search for God, the
Knight challenges Death to a game of chess. The Knight says to Death: “I want
knowledge, not faith…I want God to stretch out his hand towards me, reveal
himself and speak to me…Why should he hide himself in a mist of half – spoken
promises and unseen parables? I call out to him in the dark but no one seems to
be there.
Death responds, “Perhaps no one is there”.
But the Knight remains undaunted in his search for
God and meaning. He finds it in the simple and beautiful love between a young
married couple and their child whose company he enjoys for a while. Before
Death finally takes him, the Knight finds fulfillment for himself by delaying
Death one more time to allow the family to escape safely. The Seventh Seal gives us some insight about today’s readings. In the first reading we see Abraham
bargaining as the Knight did, but this time it is with God.
Although the city Sodom Sodom
If Jesus were to appear before us today, he might
say further: “Ask, seek and knock the way the Knight did in Bergman’s film or
the way Abraham did in the Genesis story.”
Christ’s story and statements about persistence in
prayer sound nice, but they don’t square off with real life. All prayers are
not answered. All kinds of good people ask for cures and don’t receive them,
seek justice and don’t find it or knock for jobs and don’t get them. It might help us to understand that our Lord
is trying to make only one point with his parable – namely, that we should be
persistent in prayer. He even gives us reasons why: we have a loving Father who
cares for us, listens to us and rejoices to give us what we truly need. But Jesus also leaves a lot unsaid. He
doesn’t say that all our ills will be healed, or that all our problems will be
solved, or that death will disappear. After all, we are still in our human
condition and not in heaven. But Jesus
does say that we cannot ask, seek or knock in vain. In our troubles, pains and
sorrows we will be given the Holy Spirit to support us, strengthen us and
inspire us.
In his book Our
Prayer, Louis Evely suggests how we can find meaning in every circumstance
of our lives, even in tragedies. God does not cause them, but he shows us how
to overcome them. Evely writes:
God does not
prevent disaster or death; he is with us in them. He offers us the grace to be
happier poor than we would have been rich; to be happier in misfortune than
when everything is going well.
So we should be persistent in prayer – not so much
to persuade God about what we want – but to prepare ourselves to receive what
we really need. We might want prosperity, success or health. But what we might
really need is patience, wisdom and peace.
Ask for these things, and we will receive them. Seek after these higher
gifts, and we will find them. Knock in faith for things that are of real value,
and in fact they will be given to us.
18th Sunday of
the Year Ec 1:, 2: 21-23 Lk 12: 13-21
STOCKPILING
As a young man Bill Glass was an all – pro football
player for the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns. Today he is an evangelist
who is an all – pro preacher of God’s word.
In one of his talks, Bill Glass tells the story of
a multi – millionaire Texas
At his funeral, a vast crowd assembled to pay their
last respects. The dead man was dressed in his finest glittering apparel – the
kind Liberace wore when her performed – and was propped up in the front seat of
his golden Cadillac. As the car was lowered into the grave a young boy in the
crowd said: “Man, that’s really livin’!”
Bill Glass goes on to emphasize the point of his
parable. What we often think of as “really livin’ ” is actually “really
dying’.” What we often pursue under the illusion of a “full life” leads only to
an “empty grave”.
Today’s readings say much the same thing.
In the first reading from the book of Ecclesiastes,
the wise man pounder the vanity and futility of life: “For so it is that man
who has labored….must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for
it at all…what does he gain for all the toil and strain that he has undergone?”
In the gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the rich
man who built bigger barns to stock up his good. Just when he figured that he
was super – secure for the future, he died. Everything he stockpiled had to be
left behind.
In his commentary on this parable, Fr. Carroll
Stuhlmueller makes an interesting remark. He says that the man’s sudden death
is not really essential to the story. Even if the rich man had continued to
live, he was already dead. The moment he became greedy, he died to the only
kind of life worth living – a life of trust in God and sharing with others.
That is exactly the point Bill Glass was making.
When we make possessions or pleasure or power our top priority instead of
spiritual riches, we die to the joy of giving, the satisfaction of self –
disciple and the happiness of sharing. When we discloses the opportunities
we’ve wasted and our poverty of good works.
If we want to really live, now is the time to use
our resources wisely and not save them foolishly. Now is the time to exercise
our stewardship over God’s gifts and not set them aside as if we owned the
gifts.
Certainly we are not talking about necessary savings we need to educate our
children or to provide for the security of our retirement. We are talking about
excessive savings that reflect a lack
of trust in God, a basic greed in our attitude and a callous heart to the poor.
It seems that when we have too much today, we hold
a garage or yard sale. St. Leo the Great said:
Extend to the
poor a more open – handed generosity…In these acts of giving do not fear a lack
of means. A generous spirit is itself great wealth…The giver should be free
from anxiety and full of joy. His gain will be greatest when he keeps back
least for himself.
In the Eucharist we have an example of giving and
sharing. Christ did not institute the Eucharist to be stored up and left in our
tabernacles. He gave us the Eucharist as food to be distributed and shared as a
community.
Jesus challenges us to re – examine our priorities
and the way we use our possessions. Instead of growing rich for ourselves, he
invites us to grow rich in the sight of God.
19th Sunday of
the Year Ws 18: 6-9 Lk 12: 35-40
SUDDEN DEATH
The movie West
Side Story is a modern version of Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. The setting is New York City
Nonetheless, Tony and Maria fall in love with each
other. As the story reaches its climax, they are about to escape together from
the hatred of the West Side when their dreams
are destroyed by Tony’s tragic death in a senseless fight.
Tony never expected that night to be his last. He
was anticipating his marriage to Maria and the new life they would enjoy
together. He had even borrowed money to get them started. Tony was making plans
to live, not die.
But, as today’s gospel points out, death often
comes in sudden and unexpected ways. Jesus said to his disciple: “You too must
stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect”.
According to William Barclay, Jesus’ words have two
senses. In the narrower sense they refer to his Second Coming at the end of the
world. In the wider sense they refer to the time of our death when Jesus will
summon us from life.
If we take Christ’s words with respect to our own
death, then they assume a note of urgency. Christ is warning us to be always
prepared – to have our belts fastened and our lamps burning ready – like
servants awaiting their master’s return.
The note is one of urgency because we don’t know
how much time we have left. It might be very little, or it might be lengthy
period. We might die soon and suddenly as Tony did in West Side Story at a youthful age, or we might die much later and
very slowly, as actor and dancer Fred Astaire did at age 88.
In either case, we have to be ready. Perhaps the
best way to be always prepared is to live by the as if principle: to live as
if the Lord were going to meet us today in death; as if this were the last day of our life; as if there were no tomorrow.
If we apply the as
if principle, we are more likely to live with greater awareness and
intensity, with greater urgency and vigor. For example, we will be more
sensitive to the needs of people dearest to us and respond to fulfill those
needs while there is still time. We will be more attuned to the opportunities
that surround us and arouse ourselves to use them before they disappear
forever.
After his wife’s death, Thomas Carlyle wrote: “Oh,
if I could see her once more to let her know that I always loved her. She never
did know it”.
Perhaps it was this experience of a lost
opportunity that prompted Carlyle to write: “Our main business is not to see
what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”
We don’t know the day or hour when the Lord will
come for us or for our loved ones. So we have to live as if we were never to get another chance to do some good for
someone; as if this were the last
time they would hear us call them over the phone, visit them at home or write
them a letter; as if this were our
last chance to let them know that we truly care for them and are concerned
about them.
The Son of Man will come when we least expect him.
So we have to celebrate this Mass – to use the words of a plaque – “as if it were our first Mass; as if it were our last Mass; as if it were our last Mass.
If we pray every day with this sense of urgency, we
will be ready for the Lord when he does come to welcome us to his heavenly
banquet.
20th Sunday of
the Year Jr 38: 4-6, 8-10 Lk 12: 49-53
A FIRE TO KINDLE
In June of 1968 Senator Robert F. Kennedy was
assassinated in Los Angeles South Africa
In that speech, Robert Kennedy reflected on the
evils of the worlds: discrimination and slavery, starvation and slaughter,
poverty and repression. He asked, “What can one man or one woman do against
such an enormous array of wild ills?” He answered:
Few of us will
have the greatness to bend history itself, but each one of us can work to
change a small portion of evens, and in the sum total of all those acts will be
written the history of this generation.
That is the way Robert Kennedy lived and died. In
the words of his brother Edward Kennedy: “Bobby was simply a good and decent
man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it,
saw war and tried to stop it”.
The life and death of Robert Kennedy bear some
similarity to that of both Jeremiah and Jesus in today’s readings. They too
lived and died trying to change the course of human history by denouncing evil
and doing good.
In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah had
appealed to his people to return to God to avoid a national disaster. For his
efforts he is convicted as a traitor and thrown into a muddy cistern to die.
This time he is saved from death through the intervention of an Ethiopian, but
later he will be murdered by his own countrymen when his prophecies come true.
In the gospel, Jesus talks about his mission by
using the metaphor of lighting a fire, and he refers to his passion by using
the image of a baptism to be received. History repeats itself – like Jeremiah
before him, Jesus dies a prophet’s death in Jerusalem
Jeremiah, Jesus and Robert Kennedy – all three were
dedicated to doing good for their people; all three occasioned controversy and
division; all three were martyred for their cause.
Can our call to Christian discipleship be any
different? Can we look at the world’s evils of brutality and violence,
injustice and oppression, sensuality and greed, and not be inflamed by them?
Jeremiah, Jesus and Robert Kennedy were never
content with the status quo. They
were men of vision who saw how things should be. They were men of energy who
acted to make them happen.
How then can we close our eyes and pretend that
today’s evils are invisible? How can we cling to our illusions of security and
not reach out to touch someone who is hurting because of these evils?
We might say, “What difference will it make if I
help one poor family when whole nations are starving? Or if I prevent one
abortion when millions are performed every year? Or if I protest excessive
government spending on nuclear arms when billions are spent anyway?”
Robert Kennedy answered this way:
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to
improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a
tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers
of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the
mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
All of us have been created by the divine spark to
light a fire on the earth. Pray that we may have our Lord’s desire to ignite
that blaze by the way we live; that we may have Jeremiah’s courage to fan that
flame by the way we speak; that we may have Robert Kennedy’s faith to spread
that fire by the way we dream.
Robert
Kennedy often said: “Some men see things as they are and say “Why?” I dream of
things that never were and say, “Why not?”
21st Sunday of
the Year Is 66: 18-21 Lk 13: 22-30
THE LAST WILL BE FIRST
Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress, was known as
the “poor little rich girl”. Since her mother died when she was five, Barbara
Hutton described her childhood as an unhappy one. She said, “Though I had
millions of dollars, I had no mother and no home”.
Nor was her adult life a very happy one. She was
married seven times and was a princess three of those times. A virtual recluse,
she died in 1979 at age 66. A newspaper article summed up her life with the
words: “Barbara Hutton died unmarried and alone, a symbol of the cliché that
money doesn’t buy happiness”.
By way of contrast, consider the life of Dorothy
Day. She was known as “the mother of the faceless poor and of the city’s off
scouring”. She always felt that she existed for a special purpose. She
discovered that purpose when she became a Catholic at age 30 and dedicated her
life to help the poor.
Dorothy Day founded and edited the Catholic Worker newspaper, went to
prison as a suffragist and pacifist, and established farm communes and hospices
for the dispossessed. When she died in 1980 at age 83, Time magazine called her a “secular saint”.
Barbara Hutton and Dorothy Day illustrate somewhat
the proverb cited by our Lord today: “There are those now last who will be first,
and those now first who will be last”.
On the one hand, during her lifetime Barbara Hutton
had the first pick of almost anything she wanted because of her wealth –
husbands, mansions, dresses, etc. but in the end, none of these things brought
her happiness, fulfillment or peace.
On the other hand, Dorothy Day would probably come
up last in those surveys that list the most beautiful women, the most famous
women, the best dressed women, etc. But in the end, she was first in the hearts
of the countless poor people whom she helped and, consequently, will take a
first place in the kingdom
of God
But what about us who are neither first nor last
when it comes to wealth, status or virtue? How do Christ’s words apply to us
who are in – between people? The Interpreter’s
Bible emphasizes four points in response to these questions. First, the
kingdom door is narrow. The door is open, but it is narrow. This means that we
have to struggle strenuously to enter through it: we have to discipline
ourselves, carry our crosses and develop our talents. Second, the time is
short. The door is open, but in will soon be closed for some of us. None of us
will live here forever. Already the door is being closed on today’s
opportunities. We can’t afford to waste the time we have left. Third, there is no favoritism in the kingdom.
People will enter from the East and West, from the North and South. People will
come from the black and the white, the Democrats and the Republicans, the rich
and the poor. All of us will sit down together at the feast in God’s kingdom
where there are no favorites. Fourth,
some reversals and surprises will occur. The first may be last, and the last
may be first. Many or our expectations and calculations will be upended and
overthrown. The poor may step ahead of the rich, the simple surpass the clever
and the sinner outshine the pious.
We must
not ask, then, irrelevant questions like who
will get in or how many will
enter. Christ challenges us to try our best to come in through the narrow door
and to use wisely the little time we have left.
We should not preoccupy ourselves with foolish comparisons about who
seems to be luckier or has it easier than ourselves. Such speculations are
useless, for God has no favorites. He is an equal – opportunity God. What does
it take to convince us that, like Dorothy Day, we are destined for greatness?
We might be
surprised to discover one day that our cross was really our crown, that our
agony was really our glory and that our last place was really a first place.
Sunday of the
Year Si 3: 1-18, 28-29 Lk 14: 1, 7-14
HUMILITY
Dr. Richard Evans is a psychologist at the University of Houston
Surprisingly, the major thing Evans learned from
these great figures was the need for humility:
What these
great thinkers profess to know and their assessment of it is usually rather
humble. Some people tend to oversell what psychology and psychiatry can do to
help people solve their problems. Not so with the really great personages in
these fields. The really important people have a more modest view of what they
have contributed, much less what the field has contributed in general.
Humility is a mark of all truly great people. The
first reading from Sirach states: “Humble yourself the more, the greater you
are, and you will find favor with God”.
Humility is a quality Jesus himself has. In
Matthew’s gospel he says: “Learn of me, for I am gentle and humble of heart”
(Mt 11: 29). In today’s gospel from Luke he says: “Everyone who exalts himself
will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted”.
The virtue of humility has fallen on hard times in
our day. Books abound promoting aggressive behavior, assertive training and
affirmative action. In today’s marketplace humility is not what we would call
the “in – thing” that turns people on.
And yet humility remains at the root of the
Christian life. It ranks right up there with the great gospel reversals: to
lose one’s life is to find it; the last shall be first; the humble shall be
exalted.
The reason of this dilemma is that humility is
misunderstood. The humility which the world despises and rightly rejects is a
pseudo – humility. A pseudo – humility is pretentious self – effacement and a
phony denial of our gifts. It is easily seen in the award winner who mouths, “I
really don’t deserve this award, but…” or in the habitual drunk who says, “I’m
no good”, because it gives him an excuse for not changing his ways.
By way of contrast, authentic Christian humility is
an honest recognition of our true status before God.
On the one hand, humility is a joyful acceptance of
our gifts, talents and abilities as coming from God. It inspires us to use
these blessing for our own enrichment and for God’s glory.
On the other hand, genuine humility does not deny
our human limitations and weaknesses. It enables us to make a candied admission
that we are sinners, but sinners who have been forgiven and will continue to
need forgiveness.
In other words, humble people can look at both the
heights and the depths of their personalities without becoming proud over the
one, or discouraged by the other. This is the secret of truly great people.
Their humility empowers them to take on difficult
challenges, explore the unknown and attempt what seems impossible because they
are aware of their own inner resources and strengths. Their humility also
allows them to accept their mistakes, admit their limitations and even laugh at
their failures.
A healthy sense of humor is closer to humility than
serious self – depreciation. Pope John XXIII once remarked: “Anybody can be pope;
the proof of this is that I have become pope”.
If we seek to be truly great, then we have to
become humble. St. Augustine
Do you wish to raise yourself? Begin by humbling
yourself. Are you dreaming of building and edifice that will tower to skies?
Begin by laying the foundation of humility.
23rd Sunday of
the Year Ws 9: 13-18 Lk 14: 25-33
BRIDGE – BUILDING
In the early 1980’s, two famous bridges had
anniversaries. In November of 1982, festivities marked the 25th
anniversary of the opening of the Mackinac
Bridge in northern Michigan Brooklyn Bridge
Both bridges are regarded as remarkable
accomplishments for the particular eras in which they were constructed. The Mackinac Bridge
and the Brooklyn Bridge
By contrast, the Zilwaukee
Bridge near Saginaw , Michigan Zilwaukee Bridge
We can imagine Jesus saying: “If one of you decides
to build a Zilwaukee
Bridge
Of course, Jesus would not be giving a lecture on
bridge – building to us. Instead he would be telling us something about
discipleship. The point of the parables in today’s gospel is to make us realize
that becoming a disciple of Jesus is not something we do because of a sudden
whim or flight of fancy.
Discipleship is a serious commitment that requires
much thought and careful deliberation. Becoming a follower of Christ is the
most important enterprise we will ever undertake. Consequently, it requires at
least as much consideration as we would give to any important business or
political decision.
Discipleship is a venture that demands total
dedication. Everything else must become secondary if Jesus is to be the Lord of
our life. When Jesus says that we must hate
our families, he is using a Semitic expression meaning that we must prefer him above anyone else in our
life. If a conflict of interest arises, a disciple will prefer to follow Jesus
and not let family ties or work or leisure activities interfere.
We have to count the cost before we commit
ourselves to accompany Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem
We might be superficial disciples who hang around
Jesus hoping to catch some of his glory, but we’re not serious disciples who
are devoted and loyal enough to carry the cross after him.
Serious disciples are ready to renounce all their
possessions should that be required by the Lord. They are willing to surrender
their home, health, freedom, yes, even their loved ones, should that be the
price they have to pay to follow Jesus.
Thank the Lord for again giving us an invitation to
become true disciples. Praise him for giving us not only the inspiration to
start our own journey to start our own journey to Jerusalem
We may never be bridge – builders. But we can all
be builders of the kingdom
of God
Moreover, we can be confident that whatever it
costs us is nothing compared to the glory that will be ours in the
resurrection. We can expect that whatever good work the Lord begins through us
will be brought to completion by him.
24th Sunday of
the Year Ex 32: 7-11, 13-14 Lk 15: 1-10
LOST SHEEP AND COINS
In her novel Five
of Sorrow, Ten for Joy, author Rumer Godden tells an intriguing tale. The
heroine of the story is Lise, an English army girl who falls upon hard times
and becomes a prostitute after the liberation of Paris
Within a short time, she becomes the leading madame
in one of Paris
In trying to help a younger prostitute escape form
the same fate she suffered, Lise shoots and kills Patrice. So she is sent to
prison where she meets the French Dominican Sisters of Bethanie.
This is a community dedicated to serving whores,
drug addicts and vagrants; some of the sisters were once themselves such
unfortunates. Lise becomes one of the Sisters of Bethanie.
Sister Lise is a prototype of the lost sheep and
lost coin in today’s twin parables. She was wayward and lost, but through the
Dominican Sisters of Bethanie our Lord went searching for her. And when he
found her he embraced her, took her in his arms and invited her to become his
spouse, a nun.
Who of us would deny that there was more joy in
heaven and on earth when Jesus found Lise, than over ninety – nine of us who
have never been lost that way? Does this mean God loves the ninety – nine
less? No, just as parents do not love
their other children less when a particular child is sick and needs to be
lavished with more love for the time being.
Our Lord’s two stories are so simple that it is
easy to miss how sublime they are, too. In his book Rediscovering the Parables, Joachim Jeremias call our attention to
some of their significant details.
First, the
chief actors in each story. A shepherd was reckoned among the “sinners”
because he was suspected of driving his flocks into foreign fields and
embezzling the profits. A woman was considered a second – class citizen, the
mere property of man.
What a revolutionary move on Jesus’ part to use
them to play the role of God in his parables! It’s as if he said, “Do you want
to know what God is like? Then look at the shepherd or the woman in my story”.
Second, the
value of what was lost. One sheep did not cost much, but it was helpless to
find its own way back and would eventually starve or be was killed by a
predator. The lost coin in the other story may have been part of the woman’s
dowry, representing her most precious possession and future security.
For us the sheep and the coin denote our unique
worth as individuals in the sight of god. Society may dehumanize us, count us
like a digit and reduce us to anonymity, but never God. We always special,
precious and of supreme value in his eyes.
Third, the
intensity of the search. With unwearying persistence the shepherd pursues
the wandering sheep through cliffs and crags until he finds it. The woman
lights a candle and relentlessly sweeps her house until she recovers her
precious coin.
No matter how far we fall or how far we wander, God
never gives up on us. He searches for us with steadfast tenacity until he finds
us.
Finally, the
joy of finding what was lost. The expressions, “there is joy in heaven” and
“there is joy among the angels” are both paraphrases for the unutterable divine
name. In other words, God is the one
who rejoices when the lost are found and sinners repent.
Our God is a God who celebrates when sinners are
saved, delights when we do the right thing and finds joy in being generous with
his mercy. Lise learned this late in life. When will we learn this and live by
it?
25th Sunday of
the Year Am 8: 4-7 Lk 16: 1-13
MONEY – MAKERS
When he husband Ray Kroc died in 1984, Joan Kroc
was left with an estimated $700 million. Her wealth included an 8.7 – percent
share of the common stock of the McDonald’s food empire and full ownership of
the San Diego Padres baseball franchise.
Since that time this fast – food empress has become
a woman of many causes. Besides giving sizable donations to nuclear –
disarmament groups, the San Diego zoo, St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis
and the American Red Cross for African famine relief, Joan Kroc has also been a
steady supporter of the arts, alcohol and drug rehabilitation, medical
research, wildlife preservation and programs to combat child abuse.
Some skeptics dismiss her as a jet – set do –
gooder, but close friends say that she becomes personally involved in many of
the causes she supports.
Today’s readings from Scripture seem to be a
blueprint for Joan Kroc’s use of money. She is the antithesis of the rich
decried by the prophet Amos for trampling on the needy and taking unfair
advantage of the poor.
The gospel reading is a collection of three
separate statements Jesus made about money and material things, which Joan Kroc
seems to have taken to heart.
The first statement Jesus made was: “Use money,
tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails
you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity”.
On the one hand, Jesus is warning us about the
temporary nature of wealth, either because we can lose it while we are still
living, or because we have to leave it for others when we die.
On the other hand, Jesus is suggesting how to use
our wealth wisely. If we give to the poor, then they will become our friends,
both here on earth now and in heaven later. Jesus is not recommending a
calculated charity, but a life of compassion and sharing with a view to
eternity.
His second statement is about material things: “The
man who can be trusted in little things can be trusted in great”. While earthly
objects have their own intrinsic value, they are not as great as the rewards of
heaven. Yet it is how we use the little things of earth now that will determine
our greater rewards in heaven later.
One immediate application of this point of view is
our problem of environmental pollution. If we cannot learn to respect and take
care of things like water, air and soil, how can we expect to be entrusted with
the greater things of the kingdom where there will be a new heaven and a new
earth?
Our Lord’s third statement is: “No man can serve
two masters. You cannot serve both God and money”. Jesus is insisting on total
dedication. We cannot be completely committed to the cause of Christ, and at
the same time be excessively concerned about making money.
We must not
interpret this to mean that we should scorn the making of money. It is a
caution not to become overanxious about making money. Actually, Jesus admired
the skill and ingenuity of certain money – makers/ his parable about the unjust
steward is an example of this. What Jesus despised in financial matters was the
attitude of greed and selfishness.
Consequently,
our Lord expects us to be dedicated wage earners, but in subordination to the
demands of his gospel teachings about sharing with the poor, keeping an eye on
eternity and making him the master of our life.
26th Sunday of the Year Am 6: 1, 4-7
Lk 16: 19-31
DEAR ABBY
The “Dear Abby” column once received a letter from
a 15 - year – old girl which read as follows:
Dear Abby:
Happiness is not having your parents scold you if you come home late, having
your own bedroom, and getting the telephone call you’ve been hoping for. Happiness is belonging to a popular group,
being dressed as well as anybody, and having a lot of spending money. Happiness
is something I don’t have. “15 and Unhappy.”
Shortly after the letter was published, “Dear Abby”
received a reply from a 13 – year – old girl who wrote:
Dear Abby: Happiness is being able to walk and
talk, to see and hear. Unhappiness is reading a letter from a 15 - year – old
girl who can do all four things and still says she isn’t happy. I can talk, I
can see, I can hear. But I can’t walk. “13 and Happy.”
These letters reflect two different points of view
on happiness. Today’s gospel parable does the same.
One of the characters is a rich man who believed
that happiness is wealth, expensive clothing and sumptuous meals. If the
parable were told by our Lord today, he might describe the man in terms of
American Express credit cards, Cadillac cars and Cutty Sark Scotch.
The other character is a poor man named Lazarus, a
beggar who is sick with sores and starving. If he were here today, Jesus might
describe him as a refugee from Southeast Asia, a migrant worker from Latin America or an unemployed parishioner.
The parable continues with a sudden shift in
scenes. Both the rich man and Lazarus have died. Their fortunes are completely
reversed. Lazarus is now the one enjoying the higher honors, symbolized by the
bosom of Abraham – while the rich ma is suffering in torment, symbolized by the
flames.
Since his own fate is fixed, the rich man makes a
passionate appeal to send someone from the dead to warn his five brothers. But
to no avail. Abraham says to him: “If they will not listen either to Moses or
to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from
the dead.”
In his commentary on this parable, Joachim Jeremias
says some things about what the parable is not.
Although Jesus uses images that were popular in his time, his parable is
not a teaching about life after death.
In addition, even though he contrasts the final
destiny of a rich man and a poor man, his story is not a condemnation of wealth
in itself, nor an approval of poverty in itself. If we react to the story by
cheering for the poor man Lazarus and booing the rich man, we miss the point. The point of the parable is the outlook we
have on happiness. Happiness is not guaranteed by what we have, however much that may be, nor is happiness beyond our reach
because of what we don’t have.
Happiness consists in experiencing God present in
our own lives – in good times and in bad times; amidst plenty and amidst
poverty. Happiness means listening to God’s word – as spoken through the Old
Testament prophets like Moses; as spoken in the New Testament through his own
Son Jesus; as spoken in our own time through one another.
Happiness is found in helping the poor lying at our
gate: by showing compassion to the widowed and divorced; by caring for the aged
and handicapped; by welcoming the lonely and depressed.
During this liturgy, pray that we may not make
ourselves unhappy by being selfish, uncaring and insensitive. Ask the Father to
help us to be happy by seeing his gifts surrounding us and by sharing these
gifts with the poor.
27th Sunday of
the Year Hab 1: 2-3; 2: 2-4 Lk 17: 5-10
FAITH
Not since the legendary Caruso has an opera
personality had such charisma as tenor Luciano Pavarotti. In his autobiography,
Pavarotti: My Own Story, he describes
how he was trained by a great master, Arrigo Pola. “Everything Ola asked me to
do, I did – day after day, blindly. For six months we did nothing but vocalize
and work and vowels”.
Pavarotti worked hard under Pola for two and a half
years, and then worked just as hard under Maestro Ettore Campogalliani for
another five years. Finally, after putting so much faith and trust in his
mentors, Pavarotti made a breakthrough at a concert in Salsomaggiore where he
thrilled the audience and was a catapulted into fame.
This story about faith and trust leads us into
today’s readings which focus on the same themes.
The first reading starts with a protest by the
prophets Habakkuk about human violence and misery. It ends with God’s promise
to right these wrongs in his own time. In the meantime, we must live by faith.
The gospel gives us one of the best examples of
prayer in all Scripture, when the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith.
Pleased with their request, our Lord seems to say: “I’m glad you asked for an
increase of faith. Because if you had faith even the size of a tiny mustard
seed, you would have power to command trees to be uprooted and transplanted
into the see”.
The
Jerome Biblical Commentary interprets our Lord’s words as an
acknowledgment that faith is indeed a key factor in our lives, but also as a
caution that it is the quality rather
than the quantity of faith that need
to be increased.
That is why Jesus compares faith to a tiny mustard
seed – a living thing whose power does not depend on its size, but on its life
principle hidden deep within itself.
Unless we understand this distinction, we run the
risk of deluding ourselves. We can easily end up thinking that the more prayers
we say, the more faith we have; or the more good works we do, the stronger our
faith becomes.
Multiplying prayers and good works, as if faith
were some kind of spiritual stockpile, is to miss the meaning of faith. Faith
is more like life itself – something that can grow in a qualitative sense and
become deeper, richer and more fruitful.
Jesus himself never defined faith in the gospel.
But from all he said about it, we might define it as an unconditional
acceptance of Jesus as the Son of God. We have faith, then, if we believe in
the words Jesus spoke and in the power he possesses.
It doesn’t follow that faith will give us power to
literally move trees. But faith will give us power to cope with difficulties,
overcome obstacles and attempt great things for the Lord.
As Luciano Pavarotti put his trust in his master
teacher, we too will put all our trust in our mentor, the Lord Jesus. We may
not understand why the Lord allows some things to happen to us, but we will
still put our faith in him.
We may not understand why the Lord demands that we
let go of certain things, but we will still trust in him and accept his
discipline. We may not understand why he invites us to take on new challenges,
but we will still believe in him and say “Yes” to the challenges.
May the Lord increase this kind of faith is us, so
that even though it be like a tiny mustard seed, its power will penetrate our
whole being and through us permeate the whole world.
28th Sunday of
the Year 2K 5: 14-17 Lk 17: 11-19
GRATITUDE
In 1976 Louise Fletcher was awarded an Oscar for
best actress for her role as Nurse Ratched in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. She had given up acting for eleven
years to raise her children before she won that role after five big – name
actresses had turned it down.
In accepting her Acedemy Award, Louise Fletcher did
a very dramatic thing. With her voice breaking with emotion she faced a
national television audience and said: “For my mother and my father, I want to
say thank you for teaching me to have a dream. You are seeing my dream come
true”.
Louise Fletcher delivered the message in sign
language at the same time, because both of her parents are deaf mute and were
watching from their home in Alabama
This touching story about gratitude is reflected in
today’s readings from Scripture.
In the first reading from the second book of Kings,
the Syreian general Naaman comes back to the prophet Elisha to thank him with a
gift for curing him of his leprosy.
In the gospel from Luke, Jesus cures ten lepers,
but only one of ten returns to praise and thank him, and this man was a
Samaritan. Jesus then praises the faith of this one man who came back to give
thanks.
The
Interpreter’s Bible remarks that gratitude is an
instinctive human response:
Man gives
thanks for the same reason that birds sing. Children are taught how to say
“Thank you”, but they hardly need in the first instance to be taught how to
feel it.
Even nations pause to give thanks as a community.
The Israelites instituted the feast of Pentecost to thank God for the blessings
of a good grain harvest. Our own American holiday of Thanksgiving Day is the
same tradition.
Books on etiquette devote many pages to proper ways
of expressing gratitude, such as a thank – you note for a gift given at a
wedding or for a gesture of sympathy at a funeral.
It is important, then, that we say “Thank” often to
one another and to God. Taking time to do this makes us reflect on how many
blessings we have, instead of brooding over the ones we don’t have.
Showing gratitude provides occasions not only to
recognize our gifts from others, but also to appreciate and value these gifts
in a deeper sense as signs of their love for us.
If more people practiced the art of saying “Thank
you” sincerely and not just superficially, think of how much pain and hurt
would be eliminated from the world and how much happiness and joy there would
be instead.
When we have a spirit of gratitude for the taken –
for – granted blessings of life – like the sun, the water, our health – we have
an added resource to help us cope with disappointments, losses and
difficulties.
Martin Rinkart’s great song of praise, “Now Thank
We All Our God”, was composed after a war, famine and pestilence. As a minister
he had buried numerous victims during those trying times. Yet he never
despaired because his heart was full of gratitude for God’s “countless gifts of
love” that he could still see surrounding him.
May we too open our eyes to see the “wondrous things”
God does daily for us and approach him in prayer to praise him for these gifts.
May we appreciate what we do for one another every day and express our thanks
by word or gesture.
May our faith in times of trouble be firm enough so
that we will always find reasons to celebrate God’s blessings upon us.
29th Sunday of
the Year Ex 17:
8-13 Lk 18: 1-8
PERSISTENCE IN PRAYER
The movie Heartland
dramatizes the story of rugged prairie life in the early 1900’s. A widow
named Elinore Randall answers an ad to become a housekeeper for Clyde Stewart,
a taciturn cattle homesteader in Burntfork ,
Wyoming
After a rocky begining, their relationship smooths
out and they eventually get married, partly out of economic convenience and
partly out of deep human needs. Together they heroically endure the hardships
of a suborn soil that yields little food, freezing winter winds that decimate
their herd and the death of their newborn little boy.
In the climax of the story, Clyde Stewart has given
up on the cattle ranch and begins to pack their belongings. But Elinore won’t
let him quit. She pleads and bargains with him not to abandon their dream.
Her tenacity triumphs when a calf is born, a sign
of a new beginning, new life and new hope. Clyde
finally agrees to stay and give the ranch one more try.
Elinore’s persistence and faith are comparable to
the widow’s in today’s parable. The widow kept coming to the judge for her
rights and eventually wore him out. Jesus uses her as an example of praying
always and not losing heart.
According to The
Interpreter’s Bible, the point of the parable is not to picture God as a
heartless judge but to exhort us to persevere in prayer. If persistence
prevails with a judge who cares only for his own convenience and comfort, how
much more will it prevail with a gracious God who loves his children?
Nonetheless, some questions still remain
unanswered. Why should we have to plead and wait at all when we pray? Why are
some prayers never answered, regardless of how long we pray?
The
Interpreter’s Bible makes three suggestions as possible
solutions to these problems.
First, God may delay to answer prayers in our way
in order to purify our motives. Is what we ask for in prayer really what we need, or is it something we merely want?
What we want may
be nice – a raise in pay or an “A” on an exam – but it might only make us more
selfish and unloving. What we might really need
to make us a better and wiser person might be poverty or failure. Second, God may delay in order to intensify
our desire. Where there is little desire on the part of the entertainer,
athlete, student or worker, they seldom reach their potential. But where there
is intense desire, a person is more likely to scale the heights of excellence. Third, God may delay to make us appreciate
his gifts more. Home is dearer when the journey is long. Success is more
precious when the struggle is arduous. God’s gifts are sometimes valued more
when we have to wait for them.
Fr. William Toohey was the chaplain for the Notre
Dame football team for several years. He too struggled with prayer problems. If
Notre Dame won, people said, “You prayers worked today, Father”. “If Notre Dame
lost, they asked, “What happened? Didn’t you say the right words?”
To clarify his own understanding of prayer, Fr.
Toohey made some distinctions. Prayer is not working on God to manipulate him
into granting a request as if he were some kind of Aladin’s lamp. Rather, it is
a surrender to God in faith to experience his presence even without his presents. So we have to persist in prayer, not to
persuade God to give us some gift,
but to prepare and open our hearts to
receive him who is the Giver of all gifts. We need to persevere in prayer, not
because God is hard to reach, but because we are.So maybe we need to make one
more novena, light one more candle or recite one more rosary because we’re not
ready yet to relinquish our will to his or to receive him into our hearts.
30th Sunday of
the Year Si 35: 12-14, 16-18 Lk 18: 9-14
I’M OK, YOU’RE OK
A book that was a best seller for many years is Dr.
Thomas Harris’ I’m Ok, You’re Ok. Along
with its sequel Staying OK, it
popularized the Transactional Analysis approach to help people improve their
relationships with themselves and others.
Transactional Analysis (or TA) is a learning device
that enables us to realize that we are responsible for what we do in the
future, no matter what has happened to us in the past.
The goal of TA is to emancipate the adult element in us from the archaic
recordings of the parent and child elements in us, so that we can
create new options for ourselves and make our own free choices.
Today’s gospel story illustrates a little bit of
Transactional Analysis. The selection of two extremes as characters in Jesus’s
story tips us off that he’s setting us up.
The Pharisee was the religious pro – he did all the
right things demanded by the law. The tax collector was a sinner by employment
– he was guilty of breaking the law by the very work he did.
Each man prays in the Temple
“How come?” we would protest. Then Jesus would give
us the punch line: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who
humbles himself will be exalted”.
In terms of Transactional Analysis the Pharisee was
relating to God like a parent to child. He was telling God all about the good
things he was doing for him – fasting, praying, tithing and so on. He was
almost demanding that God admire and approve of him.
On the other hand, the tax collector related to God
like a child to a parent. He humbly acknowledged that he
had done wrong but trusted in his heavenly Father’s love and mercy.
How do we pray? Do we approach God as if we were
the Big Daddy with all kinds of gifts to give
to him? As if we were doing him a big favor with all our achievements?
Or do we approach God like a child going to a parent to
receive something? Like a child who comes in humility to be
affirmed, embraced, loved and exalted?
Also in terms of TA, by comparing himself to the
tax collector, the Pharisee almost so much as said to the latter, “I’m OK, but
you’re not OK”. He assumed a position of pretended superiority. He was playing
the “pecking game” that chickens play – that is, he was pecking on someone who
seemed smaller and weaker in his eyes, in order to make himself look better by
comparison.
Do we pray like that? Is our prayer a monologue of
“I” s like the Pharisee’s to convince ourselves that “We’re OK”? Is our prayer
a “pecking game” pointing out the flaws of other people to make ourselves feel
satisfied because “They’re not OK”?
One of the aims of TA is to make us ready to change
for the better regardless of our past. Prayer, too, prepares us for change, for
improvement. But this will happen only if we are humble and ready for change
like the tax collector, and not proud and self – satisfied like the Pharisee.
Change for the better will happen only if we
approach God the way a child comes to
a parent – not to give but to
receive; not to brag about ourselves but to listen to the Lord. Indeed, we are
OK in God’s eyes. But he wants to make us more so.
31st Sunday of
the Year Ws 11: 22-11: 1 Lk 19: 1-10
SHORT AND TALL
When Calvin Murphy played professional basketball
for the Houston Rockets of the NBA, he was one of the smallest players in the
league at 5’9’’. And yet he ranks 17th on the all – time scoring
list, is near the top in career Free Throw shooting percentage and holds the
record for consecutive successful Free Throws.
In a game dominated by 7 – foot giants, the
diminutive Calvin Murphy stood tall with his achievements and records. Another
remarkable man of small stature is featured in today’s gospel.
His story takes place in Jericho
instead of Houston
First, Zacchaeus is classified as a tax collector,
reminiscent of last Sunday’s story about the two men who went to the Temple
Not only does Zacchaeus go home justified, but he
is even privileged to have Jesus himself as his guest.
Second, Zacchaeus is described as a wealthy man.
This reminds us of two other rich men in Luke’s gospel. One is the rich man
Dives who wouldn’t share anything with the poor man Lazarus. The other is the
rich young man who went away sad when Jesus invited him to give all he had to
the poor.
Their counterpart is Zacchaeus who accepts Christ’s
invitation with enthusiasm and gives away half his wealth to the poor.
Third, when Jesus defends Zachaeus in the presence
of the people grumbling about him being a sinner, he says: “The Son of Man has
come to search out and save what was lost”.
This groups the story with other Lost – and – Found
stories in Luke: the parables about the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost
prodigal son.
Fourth, Zacchaeus climbed a tree so he could see
Jesus. The crowd, too, was curious to see Jesus, but they were blind because
they did not see Jesus the way Zacchaeus did – as a savior of sinner. This follows a preceding incident in which
something similar happened. As Jesus drew near Jericho
Today we play the role of Zacchaeus as we come to
church to see and hear Jesus, and Jesus invites us to hurry home so he can stay
at our house as guest. But for this experience to make any impact on our life,
we have to respond the way Zacchaeus did.
First, we have to face our sinfulness and start
changing our ways. How can Jesus justify us if we won’t repent and reform?
Second, we have to be willing to let go of certain
things to follow the Lord. How can Jesus find a place in our Heart if it’s full
of love of money, pleasure or power?
Third, we have to realize that without Jesus we
would be lost. How can we stand our ground except by the grace of God?
Fourth, we must have faith to see Jesus in our
midst. How can we expect to recognize Jesus in the poor, the outcast and the
handicapped unless we have faith?
If we respond the way Zacchaeus did, then the
following lines written by Emily Dickinson will be fulfilled is us:
We never know how high we are.
Till we are called to rise.
And then, if we are true to plan.
Our statures touch the skies.
32nd Sunday of
the Year 2M 7: 1-2, 9-14 Lk 20: 27-38
THE DAY AFTER
When the movie The
Day After was shown on television in 1983, it caused quite a controversy.
This was because it focused on the ultimate what
if – the event of a global nuclear war.
What
if the population of Kansas
City
The
Day After was intended primarily to provoke serious reflection and
discussion about nuclear disarmament. But it also provoked questions about our
faith. Would a good God allow such a terrifying evil to happen? Why do we have
to die at all? Is there really a resurrection?
Today’s readings suggest some answers to these
questions, not in the sense of complete explanations, but in the sense of
strengthening our faith in Jesus Christ, the risen Son of the living God.
In the Old Testament reading from Maccabees, we
hear the inspiring story of a Jewish mother whose seven sons are tortured to
death for their faith. It is one of the strongest Old Testament witnesses we
have to a God – given hope of being restored to life in a resurrection.
In the gospel, Jesus is challenged by an ultra –
conservative group of Jews, the Sadducees, who base all their beliefs on a
literal interpretation of the law of Moses and who deny any life after death.
The Sadducees pose a ridiculous problem about a
woman having seven husbands to prove their point that there is no resurrection.
But Jesus turns the tables on them and quotes their own Scriptures to claim
that the dead do rise to life.
Jesus refers to the passage where God reveals
himself to Moses at the burning bush as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac
and the God of Jacob. In other words, “God is not the God of the dead, but of
the living. All are alive for him”.
We don’t get a satisfying answer from the
Scriptures to the question, “How can a good God allow such terrible evils like
the slaughter of the seven sons or the death of the Marines in Lebanon
No matter how terrifying death may be, whether at
the hands of terrorists or nuclear missiles, life will be restored. No matter
how much destruction a nuclear holocaust may cause, the day after will never be the
last day. A new heaven and a new earth will appear.
Even if our bodies are vaporized and atomized by a
nuclear explosion, they will one day rise from the dust – restored and
transformed by the Lord – because our God is a God of the living and not of the dead.
If this is
going to be true the day after a
possible nuclear war, then it should be no less true any day before such an event. Christian hope does not allow us to
despair. Regardless of how close death may be, whether from cancer or
radioactive fallout, we can’t allow ourselves to get discouraged.
As long as we are alive, our quest for peace should
reflect Christian optimism, not pessimism. As long as we are alive, our efforts
to build God’s kingdom should demonstrate an appreciation of the temporal
order, not its abandonment. As long as we are alive, today is the only day that matters, not the day after.
With Christian faith and hope we are strong enough
to survive any today, and if need be any day after.
33rd Sunday of the Year Ml 3: 19-20
Lk 21: 5-19
DO NOT WORRY
In 1942 Edith Stein was driven with other naked
prisoners into a gas chamber at Auschwitz . She
had been a professional philosopher, teacher and writer; had served in World
War I in a Red Cross hospital; became a Catholic convert in 1922; and had been
a contemplative Carmelite nun known as Sister Benedicta since 1933.
But because she was of Jewish descent, Edith Stein
was arrested by the Nazis at a Carmelite convent in Holland
Since then she has become a Catholic symbol for all
the victims of the Holocaust. She was beatified in 1987, and there is a
movement to have her canonized as a patron saint for professional women,
intellectuals, scholars and contemplatives.
Edith Stein stands out as a victor as well as a
victim because of her faith in the triumphant cross of Christ. Her final book
on The Science of the Cross was
completed on the very day she was arrested. Of this book she said:
One can only learn the Science of the Cross if one feels the cross in one’s own person. I
was convinced of this from the very first and have said with all my heart:
Hail, O Cross, our only hope.
Edith Stein’s martyrdom fulfilled in a real,
striking way today’s readings from Scripture.
From the first reading by the prophet Malachi, we
can see how a judgment day arrive blazing live an oven fire. But for her, there
arose the sun of righteousness “with healing in its rays”.
In reading the gospel we can’t help but notice the
similarities between the cosmic disaster described there and the Holocaust
atrocities – wars and insurrections, manhandling and persecutions,
imprisonments and trials, hatred and violence.
But the key words of our Lord that strengthened
Edith Stein and which should inspire us are: “Do not worry about your defense
beforehand, for I will give you an eloquence and a wisdom…not a hair of your
head will be lost. By patient endurance you will save your lives”.
“But” we might object, “How can this be true? For
all her faith Edith Stein died as six million other Jews did in the Holocaust.
How can we say that she was not harmed or that she was saved?”
In his commentary on this section of Luke’s gospel,
William Barclay tries to answer us. He quotes a World War I poem by Rupert
Brooke:
We have built a house is not for Time’s throwing. We have gained a peace unshaken by pain
forever. War knows no power. Safe shall
be my going Secretly armed against all
death’s endeavor: Safe though all safety’s lost; safe where men fall. And if
these poor limbs die, safest of all. In
other words, Barclay concludes, anyone who walks with Christ may lose his life,
but can never lose his soul. We will all die one way or another in this life,
but we will rise with our Lord in the next life.
Few of us will ever have to face what Edith Stein
did at Auschwitz or what the early Christians did when Jerusalem
So we need to take heart from people like Edith
Stein, who seemed crushed by the gigantic forces of an evil like the Holocaust,
and yet triumphed over it because of her faith in Christ’s promise to be with
her.
If we have confidence in Christ’s words, “Do not
worry”, it won’t matter what kind of crisis we have to confront – whether it’s
a serious illness or the loss of a job or the breakup of some relationship.
With Christ at our side we will find the courage we need to overcome that
crisis. With patient endurance we will come through the ordeal even stronger in
spirit than we were before.
Christ the King
2S 5:
1-3 Lk 23: 35-43
CHARISMA
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on
November 22, 1963. Even though he was president for less than three years,
Kennedy captured the nation’s imagination with his charisma, eloquence,
decisiveness and wit. The mystique surrounding his memory is summed up in a Time magazine essay written by Hugh
Sidey in 1983. He writes:
John F. Kennedy
was the greatest actor of our time, dimming those more celluloid performers
like Ronal Reagan. He was on a stage as wide as the world and in a drama of the
centuries. He commanded with Marlborough and
debated with Churchill, he dined with Jefferson and rode with Sherman
Sidey goes on to call Kennedy a practical romantic
who sought the company of the great, both in his fantasies and in real life.
Kennedy urged his fellow Americans to follow this youthful adventure of mind
and body with him. In conclusion Sidey says:
That is why
John F. Kennedy lives among us today. In death he found a place in the caravan
of history’s great whose thoughts and words he used, whose actions he revered.
Today we honor another great leader whose bright
trajectory in history ended in midpassage – Jesus Christ our King! In the Holy
Year of 1983 we commemorated the 1950th anniversary of his death on
the cross.
Just as Kennedy did, Jesus too captured the
imagination of his nation. He did it with his Sermon on the Mount, his miracles
of healing, his outspoken criticism of the Pharisees and his sense of destiny.
Christ’s charisma was compelling.
Also like Kennedy did, Jesus too died a violent,
shocking death at the peak of his career. His death on the cross in the midst
of two thieves is the scene of today’s gospel.
But unlike Kennedy, Christ’s life did not end at
the tomb. Christ the King rose from the dead to fulfill some of his own words
on the cross: “I promise you: today you will be with me in paradise”.
There has been much mythmaking by the media
concerning the life and death of John F. Kennedy. But the life, death and
resurrection of Christ is more than a myth – it is the mystery of the invisible
God becoming a visible man to save us.
As St.
Paul
In a word, we are celebrating the establishing of
God’s kingdom through the mystery of Christ’s passion and resurrection. But to
participle in that kingdom we have to be like the good thief on the cross. We
have to turn to Jesus, trust in his mercy and take his promise for what it
says: “Today you will be with me in paradise”.
Moreover, to establish Christ’s kingdom here on
earth we have to promote the values of that kingdom as outlined in the Preface
of this Mass: truth and life; holiness and grace; justice, love and peace.
The significance of our role was understood well by
John F. Kennedy when he said:
The hopes of
all mankind for freedom and the future rest upon us. The energy, the faith, the
devotion we bring to this endeavor will light our country, and the glow from
that fire can truly light the world.
Supplement
Christmas Midnight Mass (A,B,C) Lk 2: 1-14
TIDINGS OF JOY
Paul Newman has directed a new film version of
Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass
menagerie. One of the principal characters of this story is Laura, played
in the film by Newman’s wife, Joanne Woodward.
Laura has been crippled since childhood and
separated from the real world like a piece of her own glass collection. She is
a symbol of all of us insofar as our existence is melancholy and joyless.
The Laura syndrome of sadness that afflicts us in
varying degrees is one of the main reasons why Jesus became human. This was
heralded by the angel to the shepherds in the Christmas gospel: “Do not be
afraid. Behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy, which will be for every people. Today in the town of David
In a sense, a person without Jesus is a lot like
Laura – handicapped and fragile, gloomy and cheerless. Without Jesus it’s hard
to sing “Joy to the World”, even at Christmas, because our world is then like a
glass menagerie – lifeless and
immobile, unreal and breakable.
But with Jesus everything changes. Sadness and
melancholy give way to joy, our hurts are healed and our loneliness is
transformed by love.
Without Jesus the world is joyless. Just witness
the false joy that dominates such scenes as disco clubs, gay bars, gambling
casinos, rock concerts, X – rated movie houses and so on. We see here a joy
that is superficial, fleeting and empty.
Contrast that with the joy that Jesus brings – a
joy that is deep down, lasting and fulfilling; a joy that gives depth, meaning
and purpose to our lives.
In his book Surprised
by Joy, C.S. Lewis tells how he passed from atheism to theism to
Christianity. At one stage in his journey he sought human fulfillment in what
he describes as desiring joy itself through a supreme aesthetic experience.
But C.S. Lewis was disappointed in his search. He
found not the wave of joy itself, but only the imprint it left on the sand. He
writes:
All images and
sensations, if idolatrously mistaken for joy itself, soon honestly confessed
themselves inadequate. All said, in the last resort, “It is not I. I am only a
reminder. Look! Look! What do I remind you of?”
Eventually C.S. Lewis found what he had sought in
joy: God himself as revealed in Jesus Christ. He went looking for joy, but as
the title of his book expresses it, he was surprised
by joy – he found Jesus.Indeed, we will find some real joy in our Christmas
dinners, gatherings and caroling. But only in Jesus will we find that genuine
joy that will sustain us long after our guests have departed, our gifts are
forgotten and our Christmas cards are burned.
For even if we are handicapped like Laura, with
Jesus we can still be happy. We may be fragile and breakable like glass pieces,
but with Jesus we can survive whatever abuse comes our way. There will be times
when we will be saddened because of illness or death; nonetheless, with Jesus
we can still be joyful.
Christmas – Midnight Mass (A,B,C) Is 9: 1-6 Lk 2: 1-14
GIVING
In a Christmas story narrated over the radio one
year, a little girl came into a store to buy a Christmas gift. The owner of the
store was an angry, bitter man who had recently lost his beloved wife in a car
accident.
The little girl explained that she wanted to get a
necklace for her older sister, but all she had was a few cents from her broken
piggy bank. It would be their first Christmas since their mother died.
The little girl’s self – forgetfulness and sincere
concern for her sister so moved the heart of the store owner that he gave her a
very expensive necklace in exchange for the few cents that she had.
After Christmas the older sister came to the store
with the exquisite necklace and wanted to know how her little sister was able
to pay for it. The store owner would not reveal the real price but only said,
“She gave all that she had to buy the gift”.
This story illustrates the spirit of giving that is
the heart of the Christmas story: “God so loved the world that he gave his Son” (Jn 3:16). God’s gift to
us is joyously announced by the angel to the shepherds in the Christmas gospel:
“Today in the town of David
This is the essence of Christmas – giving out of
love – generously and selflessly: God giving us his only Son to be our savior
because he loves us: the little girl giving her all to buy a gift for her older
sister because she loves her.
We usually associate the spirit of Christmas giving
with the buying, wrapping and exchanging of gift, or with the doling out of
Christmas bonuses. On the one hand, such giving is good – it’s good for
merchants, material things often replace entirely the deeper kind of spiritual
giving that is closer to the real meaning of Christmas.
Giving out of love the way God gave to us implies
giving something of ourselves. This kind of personal giving might take the form
of inspiring someone to be a better person or do something great. We saw this
happen in the radio story when the innocence and simplicity of the little girl
moved an angry and bitter store owner to do something noble and generous.
Such Christmas giving occurs every time we
demonstrate appreciation for what people do for us, recognize their
accomplishments and show an interest in them. It happens whenever we bring
peace to the troubled, hope to the downcast and love to the lonely.
Such Christmas giving out of love – generously and
selflessly – the way God gave us, is summed up in a poem someone wrote:
What is the best gift to give at Christmas?
To your offenders, forgiveness
To your opponents, tolerance
To your children, devotion
To your parents, reverence
To your fellow workers, cooperation
To your friends, generosity
To yourself, respect
To all, charity
.Easter (A,B,C)
Jn
20: 1-9
HE IS ALIVE
It one of its 1982 issues, Parade magazine had a story about 62 - year – old Lana Turner. It
was entitled “Laura Turns Religious”. After seven husbands, an affair with
alcohol and numerous scandals, Lana Turner had found religion. “God has his
arms wrapped around me,” she exclaimed.
The former “sweater girl” is no suddenly born –
again Christian. She is simply a woman who late in life has found security in a
deep, abiding faith in God. Since finding God, Lana Turner has given up booze
and her reclusiveness, and is reconstructing her life. She has put aside her
shady past and is walking with the Lord into a bright future.
As we celebrate Easter Sunday, it is easy to
compare Lana Turner with Mary Magdalene in John’s gospel. Mary comes alone to
the tomb while it is still dark. Finding the stone moved away, she runs off to
Simon Peter and John to say: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we
don’t know where they have put him”.
Then later in the story, Jesus appears to Mary
Magdalene in the garden. She doesn’t recognize him until he calls her by name.
Immediately he sends her to the disciples to announce that she has seen the
risen Lord.
In a talk about these resurrection stories, Fr.
John Bertolucci makes the following observations. Mary Magdalene had three
strikes against her, and yet she was the one selected by Jesus for his first
appearance after he had risen, and she is the one sent to announce to the
disciples the good news of his resurrection.
First, Mary Magdalene was a woman. In Jewish
society at the time of Christ, a woman was a second – class citizen, was
considered inferior to men and was treated like property.
Second, Mary Magdalene had been possessed
previously by seven demons. Jesus had expelled them from her, but she still
needed healing to rehabilitate herself. She still needed more time to get her
new act together.
Third, Mary Magdalene had a bad reputation. She was
known everywhere as a prostitute, as a woman of the streets. Her association
with Jesus still raised a lot of suspicious eyebrows.
Nevertheless, in spite of these three strikes
against her, Mary Magdalene was selected by Jesus as the first witness to his
resurrection. Jesus did not choose Peter, his designated leader, nor his
beloved disciple John. Instead he chose Mary Magdalene – a woman, an ex – hooker
and one formerly possessed by seven devils.
We should not be surprised if Jesus selected people
like Lana Turner or Mary Magdalene to witness to his resurrection. Their past
scandals and sins do not disqualify them from being born – again Christians.
On the contrary, these make them apt witnesses for
the risen Lord. For once they are converted, they can say to us: “Jesus is
alive. He is risen. I’ve seen him. I’ve touched him”.
Lana Turner and Mary Magdalene challenge us this
Easter to proclaim with our lives that Jesus is indeed alive and that he is
with us now. Moreover, Jesus sends us, as he sent these two women, to announce
this good news.
The Lord doesn’t care about our excuses, our past
failures or our state of readiness. Once we’ve turned to him, he wants us to
give witness to others how we’ve seen him alive, how his power is changing us
and how his hand has touched us.
Easter (A,B,C) Ac 10: 34, 37 – 43 Mt 28: 1-10
DEATH LEADING TO LIFE
Benigno Aquino, Jr. has become a Filipino folk
hero. At age 22 he was mayor of his hometown. Later he became a governor and
then a senator. In 1972 Aquino was preparing to run for the presidency in
opposition to Ferdinand Marcos when Marco suddenly invoked martial law,
canceled the election and jailed him.
Benigno Aquino stayed in prison for eight years
before he was released to travel to the U.S. Boston
In 1983 he decided to return to Manila Manila
Airport
But Aquino’s death did not end the fight against
the Marcos regime. Instead it drew more than a million marchers to his funeral
and fire a people’s revolt under the new leadership of his widow Corazon
Aquino, who became the President of the Philippine Islands.
Benigno Aquino’s bloody death thus became a source
of new life for his Filipino people. His tragic end marked the beginning of a
new era. In this sense, his death leading to new life is a type of the death
and resurrection of Jesus.
It is true that Aquino’s tomb is not empty, as is
the case in our Lord’s Easter story today. Nor has he been raised yet with a
glorified body like Christ’s.
Nevertheless, his spirit lives on through his widow
Corazon Aquino, his influence is felt in a very way among his followers and his
memory will mark Filipino history for a long time.
If the life and death of a man like Benigno Aquino
can create such an impact, how much more of an impact should the life and death
of Jesus create? The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is not something
symbolic. It is the very substance of our faith. It is not a myth whose memory
we try to keep alive. It is the very mystery that gives meaning to our whole
life.
The resurrection of Jesus was not an event that
affected a particular people at a particular time in history. It is the very
power of God raising Jesus from the dead to make him Lord of every people of
every time. If all this is true, what new impact should Easter make in our
lives this year? The gospel gives us some clues to answer this. The phrase, “Do
not be afraid”, and the command, “Go and tell the news” appear twice in the
gospel of Matthew. The women hear these words spoken to them first by the angel
at the tomb, and then by our Lord after they leave the tomb.
Today these words are addressed to us. “Do not be
afraid”, Jesus says. While it is true that we may not be terrorized by tyranny
as the Filipino people were we still have other things that frighten us:
threats of nuclear war, unemployment, violence, sickness and death.
So we need to hear Jesus reassure us that his
victory over death includes our victory over all these fears. We still have
battles to fight with them, but at least we can count on the final outcome
being in our favor.
“Go and tell the news”, Jesus commands us. This
doesn’t mean that we have to call a press conference. Nevertheless, we have to
find our own ways to let people know that Jesus is indeed risen and that he is
alive today.
The best way is to show that Jesus makes a
significant difference in our lives – perhaps because he’s freed us from some
bad habit, or has change our attitude toward work, or has made us more
sensitive to the sufferings of the poor, or has strengthened us in coping with
our own difficulties.
As Easter 1986 marked a new beginning for the
Filipino people because of the life and death of Benigno Aquino, may this
Easter mean new life for us in some way because of the death and resurrection
of Jesus.
Vigil of
Pentecost (A,B,C) Gn 11:
1-9 Jn 7: 37-39
THIRST
In his book The
Fearful Void, explorer Geoffrey Moorhouse describes how he crossed the
scorching Sahara Desert
One time when Geoffrey Moorhouse was sure that he
would die from thirst, a little boy brought him some water the color of diluted
blood. To Geoffrey this was the most beautiful thing in the world at that
moment, more beautiful than the stained glass of Chartres
Our bodies need water to sustain life and health.
We can go for weeks without food, but only for a few days without water before
our life - sustaining systems begin to break down. In the same way, our spirits
need the life – giving water of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus says this in today’s gospel: “If anyone
thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture
has said, “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water”. The evangelist
adds the comment: “Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed
in him were to receive”.
The significance of Christ’s claim becomes more
striking when we see it in the context of the Feast of Tabernacles. It was on
the last and greatest day of this festival that Jesus stood up and cried out.
The Feast of Tabernacles commemorated the forty
years the Jews lived in tents in the wilderness of the desert. Because they
were sustained by miraculous water from the rock, on each of the first seven
days of the Feast of Tabernacles a golden vessel was filled with water from the
Pool of Siloam and was carried in procession to the Temple
But on eight day of the Feast no water was carried.
That was the day that Jesus stood up to make his claim: “If anyone thirsts, let
him come to me and drink”. As mentioned earlier, he was referring to the Holy
Spirit that he would give to those who believed in him.
In his commentary on this gospel, John Marsh says:
Jesus is in
fact beginning to tell the festival crowd in the Temple of Jerusalem what he
has already told the Samaritan woman at the well by Sychar, namely, that he or
the Holy Spirit is the real quenching of thirst that is more than physical, and
of which physical thirst, dreadful and critical as it can be, is but a metaphor
or symbol.
All of us thirst and crave for many things in life.
We thirst for material things like a nice home or a new car; for financial
success and economic security; for pleasures of the body associated with food,
drink and sex; for things that delight the mind like a good book or an
interesting movie; for acceptance, companionship and love.
There are all kinds of things we thirst for and
there are all kinds of places or people we look to in order to satisfy these
thirsts. Some of these are the wrong places and the wrong people, and they
leave us more thirsty than before.
Only the Holy Spirit can satisfy our thirsts on all
levels by teaching us how to use material things wisely and by guiding us to
put money and pleasure in proper perspective. Only the Holy Spirit can fulfill
our deepest needs by enlightening us to discover our best selves and by
inspiring us to see those things which will be in our best interests.
May our prayer on this Vigil of Pentecost be:
“Come, Holy Spirit, and fill the hearts of your faithful. Increase our thirst
for the higher values of life, for things that really count. Satisfy our thirst
for personal fulfillment, peace of mind and a permanent place among God’s
people”.
Pentecost (A,B,C) Ac 2: 1-11 Jn 20: 19-23
Pentecost (A,B,C) Ac 2: 1-11 Jn 20: 19-23
JOHNNY LINGO
The movie Johnny
Lingo is a modern parable. The story is set on some islands in the South Seas where the custom among the natives is that the
husband buys his wife. For three cows a man can get a good wife; for five cows
the best wife.
On the island there is a 19 – year – old girl named
Mahana whom everybody consider ugly. Mahana’s father would take one cow just to
get her off his hand. But along Johnny Lingo who offers to pay eight cows for
Mahana as his wife. The islanders can’t believe it. Why would Johnny Lingo, the
shrewdest and handsomest man on the islands, pay eight cows for the ugly
Mahana?
Well, the marriage takes place and some months
later Johnny Lingo and Mahana return to the island. Again the people can’t
believe what they see. Mahana is no longer and ugly, awkward and shy girl.
Instead she is a young woman who is radiant with beauty, poise and charm.
Johnny’s love for Mahana has changed her,
transformed her from a nobody into the most beautiful woman on the islands – so
much so that Mahana’s father accuses Johnny Lingo of cheating him. Mahana is
not worth just eight cows; she is worth ten cows now.
This simple story of Johnny Lingo and Mahana is a
good illustration of what happens when the Holy Spirit comes into our lives.
In the first reading from Acts, we heard how the
Holy Spirit came as a driving wind and as tongues of fire to fill the hearts of
the disciples. As a result of the Holy Spirit’s coming, the apostles are
transformed. Before they were afraid, confused and timid. Now they are full of
courage, men with a mission and bold preachers of the gospel.
Like the disciple, we too need the gifts of the
Holy Spirit. Like Mahana, we too need the gift of love. And so Jesus Christ
comes like a Johnny Lingo into our midst to offer us the gift of his love:
“Receive the Holy Spirit”.
If we open our hearts to accept this gift, then
like Mahana in the story or the disciples on Pentecost, we too can be
transformed. Suppose we look at some of these changes under three headings – person, presence and power.
First, person.
Under the gentle guidance of the Holy Spirit we can discover who we really
are as a person. We are not an ugly Mahana not worth even one cow, but a
beautiful Mahana worth more than all the animals in the world. We are loveable
because we are children of God who have received the Spirit of adoption.
Second, presence.
Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to be with us always. Consequently,
we don’t ever have to feel rejected or left out as Mahana did at the beginning
of the story. Instead, we should feel secure and loved because the Holy Spirit
is always with us. We may feel lonely at times, but we will never be alone.
People may hurt us at times, but the Holy Spirit will heal us with his
presence.
Thirds, power.
Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to give the apostles the power to
preach and perform miracles. This same power of the Spirit is given to us to do
whatever is necessary to change our lives for the better; to overcome our
depressions and neuroses, and experience the peace and joy of the Spirit; to
become less dependent on alcohol, drugs and tobacco, and be free to become our
very best selves.
Pray that we may receive the Holy Spirit anew so he
can show us how lovable we are as persons,
be present with us in good times
and bad times, and give us the power to
change our lives for the better and renew the face of the earth.
Vigil of the Assumption A,B,C Lk 11: 27-28
MY FAIR LADY
My
Fair Lady is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion. It tells the story of a
linguistics professor named Henry Higgins and a lowly cockney flower girl named
Eliza Doolittle.
To demonstrate his genius in phonetics, the
egotistical Henry Higgins takes on the crude guttersnipe Eliza and tries to
transform her in three months into a woman of culture and grace. With
persistence and patience, he makes good his boast to be able to do this, and
Eliza indeed becomes a “Fair Lady”.
In fact, Henry Higgins does his work so well that
Eliza Doolittle falls in love with him and wants to live with him all the days
of her life.
This romantic story reflects in a faint way the
amazing transformation that happened to another woman, Mary, the mother of
Jesus. On this feast of her Assumption we celebrate the marvelous way God
raised her from the dead and took her with him into heaven. There God can truly
call her My Fair Lady.
Because of the way Mary bore Christ in her womb and
in her heart, she is indeed the “ark of God” mentioned in the reading from the
first book of Chronicles. She has been taken – body and soul – “to the place
prepared” for her in the tent of God’s eternal dwelling.
Because her “corruptible” frame has taken on
incorruptibility and her mortal body immortality”, she has already made real St. Paul
Finally, because of her faith and love, Mary
deserves to be called “Blessed” – the gospel equivalent of her title, My Fair Lady. She not only bore, nursed
and raised her son Jesus with great devotion, but also heard and kept God’s
word every moment of her life.
That’s some of the good news from Scripture about
Mary’s Assumption. But what does it have to do with us? Is Mary way out there
in some place we call heaven while we’re still down here struggling on earth?
Not really, at least not according to the Dutch
Catechism. It claims that just as Christ’s resurrection effected a new and more
forceful presence by him in the world, so too Mary’s Assumption brought about a
new and more powerful way of her being with us:
This means that Mary is more in the world than any other woman.
Cleopatra is remembered. Mary is addressed. She is the most closely present of
all women.
Furthermore, the magnificent transformation Mary
experienced is meant for us too. It is the sign and promise of our resurrection
and assumption into glory. In his book titled Catholicism, Fr. Richard McBrien writes: The dogma of the
Assumption asserts something about human existence in asserting something about
Mary: that human existence is bodily existence, and that we are destined for
glory not only in the realm of the spiritual but in the realm of the material
as well. Consequently, because Mary is with us “right here” and not “out there”
we can honor her with shrines, praise her with songs, and pray to and through
her with our rosaries.
Moreover, because her Assumption is a preview of
our own future transformation, we can find encouragement in times of suffering
and sorrow when we wonder if it’s all worthwhile; or find hope in experiences
of destruction and death when we question our destiny. The Polish people believe this. Even though
they are oppressed by Communism, their faith in Our Lady of Czestochowa and all
that the Black Madonna symbolizes enables them to sing proudly their National
Anthem: Jeszcze Polska nie Zginela – “Poland
is not yet lost”.May Mary’s feast of the Assumption continue to inspire
oppressed people like the Poles in their quest for freedom and strengthen us in
our own struggles on our pilgrim way.
The Assumption
of MaryA,B,C Lk 1: 39-56
TAJ MAHAL
The Taj Mahal in India India
But Princess Arjemand died giving birth to their
fourteenth child and the emperor was inconsolable. So he summoned a great
architect from Persia
Seventeen years were needed to build this
enchanting edifice of gleaming white marble embroidered with flashing jewels.
It is an enduring monument to love that still inspires tourists, artists and
writers from all over the world.
This beautiful love story gives us some idea of how
much God must love Mary, the mother of Jesus. Today’s feast of her Assumption
into heaven is proof of this. By raising her from the dead and taking her into
heaven – body and soul – God demonstrated his undying love for Mary.
Like Shah Jahan, God couldn’t bear the death of his
beloved. However, God could do what the Indian emperor could not do – raise his
beloved from the dead and restore her to life even more beautiful than before.
Moreover, God didn’t have to build a Taj Mahal to
memorialize Mary. Her own glorified body is itself a magnificent temple of the
Holy Spirit. As the first reading from Revelation describes her, she is
“adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her
head for a crown”.
No wonder the gospel has Mary again singing her Magnificat: “My soul proclaims the
greatness of the Lord, and my spirit exults in God may Savior…from this day
forward all generations will call me blessed, for the Almighty has done great
things for me”.
The meaning of Mary’s Assumption is summed up in
the Preface of this Mass: “The virgin Mother God was taken up into heaven to be
the beginning and the pattern of the Church in its perfection and a sign of
hope and comfort for your people on their pilgrim way”. In other words, Mary’s glorification is not
only a personal privilege – comparable to the resurrection and ascension of her
son Jesus – but also a promise and pledge of our own glorification one day. It
not only emphasizes her unique dignity as the mother of Jesus, but also
underscores our own destiny.
Mary experienced the human fact of death but was
preserved from its effects of decay and disintegration. Her Assumption is a
reminder that on the last day we, too, shall rise from the dead, and our bodies
will be clothed with incorruptibility and immortality.
Another consequence of Mary’s glorification is the
extension of her influence in our lives. As our mother she has not abandoned us
like orphans by leaving us physically. Rather, she is more present to us than
ever before in a spiritual way. Her disappearance from our sight was not a
departure implying absence. Rather, it inaugurated a hidden presence that is
more powerful than physical presence.
John Paul II alluded to this in 1979 when he
visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City
.All Saints (A,B,C) Rv 7: 2-4, 9-14 Mt 5: 1-12
ORDINARY PEOPLE
Harry,
My Friend is the true story of Harry Guttenplan – a crippled Jewish
beggar – whom author Stephan Grosso met on the streets of New York City
To all appearances, Harry was an ordinary man who
had a lot of ailments. He had a withered right arm and leg caused by infantile
paralysis as a youth; he was mentally impaired somewhat because of brain damage
caused by several strokes, he had asthma that continually cogged his nose,
throat and chest; and he was afflicted with Parkinson’s disease.
Occasionally Harry would get angry with God, lose
his temper with his sister or complain about feeling sad. But most often he
prayed with immense trust, gave people more credit than they deserved for being
the slightest bit kind to him, and celebrated simple pleasures like eating his
favorite ham and potato salad.
Stephan Grosso wrote a book about Harry Guttenplan
because he is convinced that Harry was a saint – “a holy man who had passed
through incredible stages of suffering, and who had immersed himself in great
life – changing experiences and had arrived at a childlike purity and
simplicity”.
On today’s feast of All Saints we honor people like
Harry – ordinary people who achieved extraordinary sanctity; ordinary people
whose lives people who didn’t always do saintly
things, yet always strove to be good
people.
We honor these ordinary people, who, in the words
of the first reading from Revelation, “Stand before the throne and the Lamb,
dressed in long white robes and hold palm branches in their hands”.
Today we join Jesus in the gospel and call them
“Blessed”, because in their own quiet way they were poor in spirit, hungered
and thirsted for what was right, showed mercy to others and were peacemakers.
Where do we find all these saints, these ordinary
people? On the streets, where Stephan Grosso found Harry Guttenplan; in the
places where we work; in our neighborhood community; and especially, in our own
family.
These saints are seldom cited for awards or given
medals. But if you look hard, you will see them overcoming their adversities,
forgiving those who hurt them, offering to help others and sharing whatever
they have.
According to psychiatrist Abraham Maslow, one of
the traits self – actualizing people has is “the wonderful capacity to
appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic good of life with
awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy, however stale these experiences may
have become to others”.
The same could be said of ordinary people like
Harry who have become saints. They have a capacity to experience God’s presence
in what seems monotonous and dull, to see his blessings in the routine and
commonplace.
Praise God for ordinary people like Harry who show
us how to see God where others do not. Thank God for all the saints who inspire
us to struggle on when others would quit. Glorify God for giving common folk
like us the call and the capacity to become saints ourselves.
All Saints
(A,B,C) Rv 7: 2-4, 9-14
Mt 5: 1-12
DREAMERS AND DOERS
On December 2, 1980 Maryknoll Sister Ita Ford was
martyred in El Salvador Brooklyn , on the occasion of Jennifer’s 16th
birthday. In that letter Sr. Ita described what a terrible time it was for
youth in El Salvador
Nonetheless, she felt that the youths who had died
for their freedom had fulfilled a purpose with their lives. Sr. Ita then urged
Jennifer to search for and choose something that would be both self –
fulfilling and of service to others. She wrote:
I hope you come
to find that which gives life a deep meaning for you. Something worth living
for – and maybe even worth dying for something that energizes you, enthuses
you, enables you to move ahead. I can’t tell you what it might be – that’s for
you to find, to choose, to love. Don’t waste the gifts and opportunities you
have to make yourself and other people happy.
Sr. Ita Ford’s words could easily be used to
describe the chartered members of the All Saints Club. For the saints are
people who chose to respond to God’s gifts and the opportunities he gave them.
They found something or someone worth living for – and, in some cases, worth
dying for. They were dreamers and doers.
Whatever that something was – a professional
career, a civic cause, a humanitarian service, and artistic endeavor – it gave
the saints some meaning and purpose to live for.
Whoever that someone was – their spouse, children,
patients, students, co – workers, a friend, an outcast – they inspired and
energized the saints to give themselves generously and selflessly.
In the gospel, Jesus tells us who become chartered
members of the All Saints Club: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
what is right; they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful; mercy shall
be theirs. Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall be called children of God”.
In other words, the saints are people whose set of
values transcends their own petty concerns and whose agenda for action is
dictated by the needs of God’s people.
In his book Motivation
and Personality, Abraham Maslow makes some statements about self –
actualizing people that apply equally well to the saints:
These
individuals customarily have some mission in life, some task to fulfill, some
problem outside themselves which enlist much of their energies…In general,
these tasks are nonpersonal or unselfish, concerned with the good mankind in
general…Ordinarily concerned with basic issues and eternal questions, such
people live customarily in the widest frame of reference.
Sr. Ita Ford was this kind of person. She became a
saint because she had a dream of doing something grand for God, and then did
something noble and selfless for his people in El Salvador
Will her young niece Jennifer become a saint
someday? Will she find something worth living and dying for, something that
will inspire and energize her?
Will we become saints before we die? Will
experience some vision of greatness to which God is calling us? Will we find a
dream to live by and do something beautiful for God? Are we dreamers and doers?
Immaculate Conception (A,B,C) Gn 3: 9-15, 20 Lk 1: 26-38
FAVORED ONE
Back in the roaring twenties Gloria Swanson was a
celebrated actress. To mark her eightieth birthday in 1980 she published Swanson on Swanson: An Autobiography.
She tells of her marriage in 1925 to a French
marquis. Since she was already pregnant at the time, Gloria Swanson decided to
have a secret abortion rather than jeopardize her career by creating a scandal.
She was haunted in her conscience by that choice for the next 54 years.
But in 1979 Gloria Swanson went through a healing
experience at a Buddhist temple. When she poured water and burned incense at
the site of thousands of graves of babies, some of whom had died before they
were born, she cried over the guilt she had carried for 54 years. Today we
recall another woman. She too is famous the world over not for her films, but
for her faith in an angel’s message. She too married a man from a royal family
– not some French marquis, but Joseph of the House of David. She too knew the
sorrow of losing a child – not by abortion, but by crucifixion.
The woman we remember today is none other than
Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and we remember her under special title of The Immaculate Conception. Mary’s title
means that from the first moment of her existence at conception, she was
preserved free of all sin, not only Original Sin, but also any personal sin.
Mary’s unique privilege of being immaculately
conceived is hinted at in today’s readings. When God says in Genesis that he
will put enmity between the serpent and the woman and between its offspring and
hers, we get a preview of Mary and her role in the history of salvation. We see the fulfillment of the Genesis
prophecy in the gospel when the angel Gabriel declares that Mary is highly
favored and blessed among women. This is the positive meaning of her Immaculate
Conception – not only is she kept free from sin but she is free to receive the
fullness of God’s gifts and favors.
In the Bible new names were often given to people
by God to signify a new mission they would undertake for him. For example, when
Simon was called to lead the apostles, Jesus changed his name to Peter, meaning
“rock”.
Since Mary is being called to play a new role in
God’s plan of salvation, she too is given a new name by God – “Favored One” –
the meaning “Immaculate One”. Her impossible mission to be the mother of God
now becomes possible. Mary’s mission today is somewhat modified, but it is
still significant. The Preface of this Mass sums it up when we sing that just
as she was a sign of favor to the
Church at its beginning, so too she
is a promise of its perfection at the
end of time. In other words, what she is by privilege, we are called to become by grace – namely, free of sin
and filled with the Holy Spirit. What she is by virtue of her unique role as
our mother in anticipation of
Christ’s redemptive acts, we are invited to become as her children in consequence of those acts.
In his book
The World’s First Love, Bishop Fulton
Sheen says that by preserving Mary form sin, God gave hope to our weak
humanity. One look at her, and we know
that a human who is not good can become better; one prayer to her, and we know
that because she is without sin we can become less sinful.
Maybe that
was Gloria Swanson’s experience when she made atonement for her sins. Perhaps
this can be our own experience today. As we look over our own mistakes,
foolishness and selfishness, we feel guilty, embarrassed and ashamed. But we
don’t have to stay that way. We can change our agenda and make a new beginning.
Mary’s Immaculate Conception is an inspiration for
us to have faith in our own special favors from God, to bring back into focus
our vision of what we can become under God’s grace and to make another effort
in quest of this ideal.
Immaculate Conception (A,B,C) Lk 1: 26-38
MISERY AND GLORY
Dorothy Day delighted to tell how she was inspired
to become a convert. One day, as a young girl, she was looking for her friend
Kathryn Barret to play. In running through the long railroad – like apartment,
she found Mrs. Barret in the front room praying. Mrs. Barret turned to tell
Dorothy Day that Kathryn had gone to the store, and then she went on with her
prayers.
Dorothy Day never forgot that incident. Later, when
she became depressed by the problems of poverty and injustice, she would
remember Mrs. Barrett. Dorothy Day writes:
Though I
groaned at the hideousness of man’s lot, still there were moments when in the
midst of misery and strife, life was shot through with glory. Mrs. Barret in
her sordid tenement flat finished her dishes at ten o’clock in the morning, and
got down on her knees and prayed to God.
Dorothy Day’s words, “in the midst of misery and strife,
life was shot through with glory”, are a splendid summary of the significance
of today’s feast of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. As a result of Original Sin
we are still “in the midst of misery”. But Mary’s Immaculate Conception, her
preservation from all sin from the first moment of her life, is God’s proof
that no matter how bad things seem to be, life is still “shot through with
glory”.
Today’s readings from Scripture reflect this note
of optimism.
The first reading from Genesis attempts to describe
how the Original Sin happened. Although the forces of evil win the initial
struggle, God promises that we will win the ultimate battle – the woman’s
offspring will crush the head of the serpent.
The Original Sin introduced death. Nevertheless,
life will continue and conquer: “The man called his wife Eva, because she
became the mother of all the living”.
These optimistic expectations are fulfilled in the
gospel. The angel’s words to Mary, “Do not be afraid”, can be taken to mean
that we no longer need to be afraid of misery and suffering. Through Mary, the
Lord is now with us to overcome them. Through the Holy Spirit who has come upon
us, “nothing is impossible with God”.Consequently, even though we still live
“in the midst of misery and strife, life is shot through with glory”. For one of
our own – Mary – was kept free of sin and is full of grace, and her son – Jesus
– has saved us from sin.
The misery brought on by Original Sin is still with
us: casualties from war and revolutions, victims of floods and earthquakes,
fatalities from accidents and killings. Yet, “in the midst of misery and
strife, life is shot through with glory”. Mary’s Immaculate Conception is proof
that God’s power is stronger than the power of evil.
We still live in a world torn by strife: tensions
between blacks and whites, Arabs and Jews, Irish Catholics and Protestants.
Yet, “in the midst of misery and strife, life is shot through with glory”.
Mary’s Immaculate Conception is evidence that harmony can exist within oneself
as an individual – and, consequently, between individuals as members of
society. Cardinal Suenens once wrote:
The sanctity of
the Son is the cause of the anticipated sanctification of the Mother, just as
the sun lights up the sky before appearing above the horizon. Extending this
further, we might say that the sanctity of Mary through her Immaculate
Conception anticipates our own sanctity through the sacraments. What she is by
privilege from the first moment of her life, we must approximate by grace
before the last moment of our life.
As the Holy Spirit descends upon the bread and wine
we offer so that they become the Body and Blood of Christ, may he come upon us
again to make us more like Mary in bringing the presence of Christ to the
world; and also more like Dorothy Day and Mrs. Barret in announcing that “in
the midst of misery and strife, life is shot through with glory”.
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