Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 140

The LORD God said: "It is not good for the man to be alone.I will make a suitable partner for him."

The Bible's teaching about marriage begins with a comical story about God and his creature Adam. The Creator can clearly see that his poor, bare, forked animal – as King Lear described him – is also lonely. The man has not complained about it; perhaps he doesn't yet feel his discomfort. But he has no one to admire, nor anyone to admire him; and he listlessly drifts about the Garden of Eden, eating whatever is within reach, and whenever he feels like eating; and sleeping whenever he feels like sleeping, wherever he wants to lie down. Whenever he feels up to it he pulls some weeds by way of gardening; or goes swimming with the crocodiles. 

There is no one to tell him when to get up, or lie down, get ready for dinner, eat, or stop eating. If there is something not quite right, something unresolved in his soul that needs resolution, he has no name for it; and perhaps doesn't know it. 

But when the Lord creates out of mud several more creatures, and Adam obediently names each one, the Bible says, "...none proved to be a helper suited to the man." We can imagine Adam saying, "That's a horse, and there's a dog, and that's a camel. Here's a goldfish, a toucan, a wallaby, and an anaconda. That's not it; that’s not it; nor is that; nor is that. I don't know what it might look like, but I'll know it when I see it.” 

And so the Lord created Eve; and Adam, seeing her, whooped in utter delight, “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called ‘woman."

The Bible immediately says, "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body." 

We find that teaching, beautiful, challenging, wonderful, some say impossible, there in the very beginning of the Bible because marriage has always been difficult and it has always been controversial; and we have to be told what God expects of us from the outset. That is, he demands that married couples must be faithful to one another for life and eager to have children.

But there were problems in paradise; and some time later, Moses had to make concessions when his governance was challenged with troubled marriages and divorce. He permitted the unthinkable; what had become one body could be split apart. Most nations have followed his example, even to this day, even here in Christian America. 

But Jesus insisted, “...what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” The Church believes it, and martyrs have died for it. John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded for protesting Herod’s marriage to his sister-in-law. And Saints Thomas More and John Fisher were also beheaded when they would not condone King Henry’s divorce and to his marriage to Anne Boleyn, whom he also beheaded.

We cannot abandon the words of Jesus; and despite the pandemic of divorce, no one wants to forget the ideal, beauty, and holiness of marriage. Everybody loves marriage. Even homosexuals insist that their friendships are really and truly marriage. They say their adopted children are spiritually conceived between them. 

Millions of people also say their living together without the benefit of a church or civil wedding is just like a marriage. When they separate they sometimes sue each other as if they had been married; and then the judge throws them out for wasting the court’s time. 

Although most people insist upon the right to divorce – as if there is such a thing – they don’t usually get married with the intention of divorce. So almost everyone agrees that marriage is the ideal, even when some of them are morally, psychologically, physically, or legally incapable of marriage.

The Church insists upon Jesus’s teaching about divorce because his covenant with the Church is a true marriage. It is not like a marriage; it is the first and the original marriage in which the marriages of men and women share. 

The relationship of husband and wife is created in the image, and becomes the likeness of that first marriage. Jesus is the groom and we are his bride; and he consummates our wedding to him when he gives us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink. Our union with the Lord is more than friendship and more than spiritual; it is very physical. We are in him and he is in us, and that bond is indissoluble and irreversible. He is the head; we are the body. No one can pull him away from him. 

And so the union of husband and wife is also indissoluble and irreversible. 

When I was a boy, I often heard amusing stories about marriage. People joked about it because the sacrament seemed as solid and dependable as death and taxes. Sadly, I don’t hear those jokes anymore; perhaps because people have lost faith in what seemed so dependable. There's nothing funny about failed marriages.

Today we have heard the amusing story of Adam’s loneliness and the creation of Eve. But we cannot forget Adam’s betrayal when he said, “The woman you gave me…!” He blamed God and threw his wife under the bus. That insult to God and betrayal of his wife led directly to Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, just as divorce has traumatized billions of children, leading to drug abuse, abortion, and suicide; not has it stopped violence against women.

The Church also remembers another story of love and betrayal. We remember the supreme confidence the Lord put in Saint Peter, and his most solemn pronouncement – …I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church…

But Peter, like Adam, also betrayed the Lord when he swore that he had never even heard of Jesus. Afterward – and even before the trial was over and the Lord had been condemned to death – Peter regretted what he had said. After the Lord was raised up Peter begged himm to forgive him. “Lord,” he said, “you know everything; you know I love you!” 

Divorce has caused endless grief but, like Peter, we can and do repent of our sins. Everyone must confess their part in this tragedy. We are children of Adam and Eve; we have sinned; we and our ancestors have sinned. But we seek and find forgiveness. By God’s grace and mercy, we find reconciliation and healing, and – like our love for God – many damaged marriages are stronger than ever. 

And for that reason, we still believe that marriage is like Saint Peter the Rock: the gates of Hell cannot prevail against it.

Optional Memorial of Saint Faustina Kowalska, virgin

Collect of Saint Faustina

Lectionary: 460

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
For I say to you,
many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,
but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

Yesterday I considered God's extraordinary gift to Saint Francis of Assisi; that is, the wounds of Jesus impressed upon his hands, feet, and side.  

Today, we remember Saint Maria Faustina, who had visions especially of the Lord's innumerable wounds on his face and body. As the young woman attended a dance in a Polish park, she received her first vision of the Lord, and saw his suffering face. She saw what many prophets and kings desired to see but did not see; and to hear but did not hear.

The vision of suffering, which was quite similar to Francis's vision on Mount El Verna, caused both grief and joy; and has brought millions of people to the same experience of the Lord. It is an understanding of Our God's intense engagement with his people through the Incarnation of Jesus. When the world tells us that God, if there is a God, should not meddle in human affairs; and that the course of human history is determined by irresistible forces of modernity and progress, God shows us his human face and his human compassion for his people. 

The Eucharist, which has been revealed to us as the very flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, engages the devout in the passion, death, and resurrection of our God. Where the world insists upon the "death of God," we see, hear, and announce the Good News that He has risen and appeared to Cephas.

Visionaries like Faustina and Francis reawaken our fascination with the price of our salvation, even as our faithful celebration of Holy Week draws us back into his orbit. The Spirit of God does not abandon us because we must be the constant presence and reminder of God's love to a sorely distracted world. 

But that Spirit can arouse inspiration and hope even at the sight 

of grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet

And newspapers from vacant lots....

In hopelessly barren settings, we may be given 

the notion of some infinitely gentle / Infinitely suffering thing. 

We are not fascinated by progress or modernity, nor by power. If there are forces beyond human control, which drive both our technological progress and our increasing threat to life and Earth, we know they too are subject to God's sovereign reign. Although He does not cause wounds, suffering, or death, he uses them for our salvation; and we place all our confidence in him. 

Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi

Readings and Sequence for the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Because all the mysteries of Jesus, Mary, the Eucharist, the apostles, martyrs, saints, and angels, are facets of that one Great Mystery, on this feast day of Saint Francis I think of his stigmata and the Eucharist. And I ask myself, "What does it cost me to believe these mysteries?"

Whenever we celebrate the Eucharist we remember that the Lord, on the night before he died, commanded us to "Do this in memory of me!"  That is, we must eat his flesh and drink his blood. The language is intentionally graphic and, for the vast majority of people, repellent. But Catholics often forget that. 

The wounds of Jesus are also repulsive. I observed major surgery once; and once was enough for me. One time, I shared a Christmas meal with a group of intern surgeons and their professor, and was aghast at the pictures they pulled off their cell phones to display to one another and to me. I wasn't prepared for that on Christmas Day. Although it is the feast of the Word made Flesh, I didn't want to see that side of our fleshiness. I suppose Francis's stigmata were equally repugnant. And I'd rather not look! 

Before he received that heavenly gift, Francis remembered the Lord's five wounds as precious jewels, inspiring, edifying, encouraging, and ineffably sweet to behold. After receiving the stigmata he showed them to no one.

Normally we're repelled by the thought of eating human flesh, and drinking human blood. And so we reflect upon the supreme irony of finding joy and satisfaction in obeying a command which so many found revolting. I ask myself, "Am I willing to pay the price of believing in these mysteries?" 

To participate in this Sacred Banquet and to admire these wounds, I must finally, with neither hesitation nor compromise, reject Satan, and all his works, and all his empty promises. Saint Francis's conversion began with his embracing and kissing a leper; it continued with his moving into a community of lepers. The fastidious young man assisted them and often changed their bloody bandages. It was repulsive work -- the smell alone would drive away most people -- and yet he learned to love it. 

Satan will have nothing to do with that, nor will his people. 

I knew a fastidious friar several years ago -- God rest his sweet soul -- who shared a Sunday banquet with people in Central America. Bugs were everywhere, and his hosts never noticed the flies that covered their platter of chicken as they served it to him. He swallowed his rising gorge and ate with a hearty appetite. For the love of God we often do things we hate to do.

We accept good things from the Lord, to cite Job, and that means accepting some things that are downright repulsive, and doing it eagerly! It's called kissing the leper, or going the extra mile, or giving both shirt and jacket. It's taking up your cross and following in his footsteps.

To participate in this Sacred Banquet and to admire these wounds, I surrender even what makes my flesh crawl and my gorge rise as I come to the Lord. 

Thursday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 458

Into whatever house you enter, first say,
‘Peace to this household.’
If a peaceful person lives there,
your peace will rest on him;
but if not, it will return to you.

The Catholic Church's first interest in dealing with national and local governments is its own freedom to worship the Lord and to invite others to join us. Joy wants to be shared, and freedom wants to address free people. 

Nor are we limited by the pursuit of success. If some people, for reasons of their own, choose not to share our joy and the privilege of living in the truth, we can move on in search of a more receptive community. The Gospels tell how the Lord himself sometimes met with a tepid reception in his home town; and, after healing a few sick persons, moved on to greener pastures. But Saint Mark adds, he was surprised and saddened by their obtuseness. 

Today's gospel describes a preliminary mission of the apostles. They will try their hand at announcing the gospel in preparation for that day -- which they must find unimaginable -- when they will tell the world about his passion, death, and resurrection; and its huge significance. For the present they can say only the Lord intends to visit their towns and villages, on his way to Jerusalem. 

Their mission seems well organized and deliberate; it was not unlike the recent, nationwide pilgrimage to Indianapolis. Although 55,000 people actually entered the stadium, tens of thousands marched and hundreds of thousands observed the spectacle. It was well publicized and noticed; and the nation was reminded that Catholics love the Lord, care deeply about others, and are here to stay. 

This gospel describes the missionary's freedom by their lack of baggage. They are "like lambs among wolves, carrying no money bags, no sack, no sandals."  They travel light and rely on the generosity of strangers. As they discover that the Holy Spirit anticipates their coming, and upon receiving such kindness upon arriving, they will say with all the more conviction, "Peace to this household." 

Their courtesy and gratitude, coupled with their care of the sick whom they meet everywhere, will announce the Lord's message, "The Kingdom of God is at hand for you." 

Wherever he is, there is the Kingdom; and wherever we take our Eucharistic Communion, the Kingdom of God is at hand. 

Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels

Lectionary: 457/650

...how can a man be justified before God?
Should one wish to contend with him,
he could not answer him once in a thousand times.
God is wise in heart and mighty in strength;
who has withstood him and remained unscathed?

Job's question appears to our world in a severely modified form but is nonetheless recognizably the same: Where do we stand in the vast scheme of things? Scientists attempt to probe the limits of the universe, using tools limited by their being mostly earthbound or within earth and solar orbits. They conclude that the universe is continually expanding without any foreseeable return. Only human imagination and unwarranted speculation can surpass those limits. But everyone agrees that the universe is incomprehensibly huge. As in HUGE!

The authors of our scriptures had no clever tools beyond their eyes but arrived at the same conclusion. Who can comprehend its dimensions? 

Of course, there are people who declare that the Lord of the Bible cannot be the Lord who created that Universe out of nothing since that God is so deeply concerned in human affairs. Although they admit it apparently started with nothing. But they don't pretend to offer a substitute for our God. The stars, planets, black holes and everything that is -- is happenstance. 

Nor are we much concerned about their skepticism. Because we hear...

The heavens [and the angels!] declare the glory of God;

the firmament proclaims the works of his hands.

Day unto day pours forth speech;

night unto night whispers knowledge.

There is no speech, no words;

their voice is not heard;

...He has pitched in them a tent for the sun;

it comes forth like a bridegroom from his canopy,

and like a hero joyfully runs its course.

From one end of the heavens it comes forth;

its course runs through to the other;

nothing escapes its heat.

We measure the Universe with musical instruments rather than scientific devices; and then we add "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord with all hearts" (Ephesians 5:19) And, unlike the skeptics, we know where we are in the universe, and that is right in the palm of God's lovely had. 

It works for us! 

Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church

 Lectionary: 456

When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem,and he sent messengers ahead of him.

As I understand, the original Greek of this verse, faithfully rendered by the King James Version, says that Jesus "set his face to go to Jerusalem." The expression recalls Isaiah's prophecy,

The Lord GOD is my help,

therefore I am not disgraced;

Therefore I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame. (Is 50:7) 

And the phrase was echoed by Ezekiel: 

...the house of Israel will refuse to listen to you, since they refuse to listen to me. For the whole house of Israel is stubborn of brow and hard of heart.
Look! I make your face as hard as theirs, and your brow as stubborn as theirs.
Like diamond, harder than flint, I make your brow. Do not be afraid of them, or be terrified by their looks, for they are a rebellious house. (Ez 3:7-9)

In American parlance, we might say, "the Lord steeled himself" as he set out for Jerusalem, Calvary, and certain death. 

At this point, we're only midway into the Gospel of Saint Luke, but the Evangelist must remind the Church that we have set out to go with Jesus, and that we will meet opposition. This will not be an easy journey; we're pilgrims, not tourists. We go as penitents hoping and expecting to be changed by the challenges. We will learn discipline as our thoughts, words, deeds, habits, practices, moods, and attitudes are assessed. 

We have always known that the Lord surveys our thoughts; he has commanded, "Thou shall not covet..." If we secretly covet other people's goods and privileges, the Lord knows. He assesses and guides our inner life in the way of holiness, even as he directs our words and actions. 

Coveting is for those who go nowhere; travelers cannot be amassing stuff as they move. In fact, the further they go, the more they shed and the faster they travel for having less to carry. Some attitudes, grudges, and regrets are just too much; and so we drop them. And then wonder why we carried them so far. 

Nor can we walk with fear. We too set our faces and steel our hearts for the encounters with opposition. If we experience fear, we remember how the Lord was overcome with fear on the night before he died. His knees buckled and he fell to the ground; but as he prayed his spirit revived and he rose to face the enemy. His face was set like flint, and remained so even when they struck him on the face.

...one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said, “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” 
Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?”  (John 18:21-22)

As we remember the Lord's setting his face for Jerusalem, we remember that God's face shines upon us, 

The LORD bless you and keep you!

The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!

The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace! (Numbers 6:24-26)