Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 345

"Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.

 T he twentieth century, with its ultra-violent wars and revolutions saw a theological reawakening in apocalyptic literature with its ominous intensity, and I will confess to my own fascination with it. Since early in my priesthood, despite having little direct contact with those Christian sects whose spirit and theology are driven by that urgency, I have tried to understand what is meant by the word with its multiple depths of meaning. 

As I have experienced Roman Catholicism, our traditions, symbols, and even our Canon Law has come to terms with that dimension of religion. We retain the urgent immediacy of the apocalyptic -- expecting the Second Coming at any time, on any given day -- while sending missionaries to all parts of the earth to build new churches, open new seminaries, and plan for the next century. 

And I see dimensions of the apocalyptic in our celebration and practice of marriage. The Jewish religion of Jesus's time recognized the permanent quality of marriage. From the beginning God intended man and woman to be joined as one flesh, as if their two bodies were one despite their separation while Adam slept. Men and women share a reproductive system that produces offspring only when they come together. Their spiritual oneness is restored by their marriage, and their reproductive freedom should not be violated by separation or divorce. 

But things happen. People die, leaving young, desirable, lonely spouses. Sometimes external forces like war, exile, or the economy separate couples permanently and irrevocably. Some people marry prematurely, before they are ready for the serious responsibilities of marriage. Separations of husbands and wives happen; people need partners, orphans want parents, and leaders both civil and religious must deal with it. 

Whether "Moses" or "the Mosaic Law" recognized the problem hardly matters, it had to be addressed and so, "Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation...." it wasn't supposed to be this way. 

In God's kingdom there is no divorce. It is neither necessary nor good. And those who live as if they are fully, deeply aware of God's sovereign rule marry and remain married for life. They make it happen daily regardless of the demands of the world, their personal difficulties, and its extraordinary sacrifice. 

They practice that awareness of God's familiar nearness and judgment with habits of daily prayer, conscious study of their faith, practicing Church with its voluntary, social, and recreational opportunities, and so forth. They share their past life, present activities, and future possibilities; even as they recognize their need for apartness and space. They are present to one another even when they're on opposite sides of the planet. Marriage is a totally consuming way of life, and apocalyptic explains that dimension of totality. 

When the Lord comes there will be no time for hesitation. His coming will be seen from east to west, and north to south; "one will be taken and another left!" Everyone will cease whatever they are doing and recognize their God. Some for the first time in their lives; others as they have known him all along. Those who do not worship Him in that moment will regret their reluctance forever. 

Married couples know something about that urgent immediacy. There are moments when the spouse makes a demand that must be addressed now. It may be a medical emergency or an accident. It may be the unexpected death of a loved one, an emotional crisis, or a traumatic memory that suddenly comes to life again. (Combat Veterans and their spouses become very familiar with those crises.) It may be the spouse's issue but it's theirs because they are one and must empathically feel everything together. 

I believe marriage is one way Catholics know and experience the apocalyptic dimension of our faith. The Sacrament reminds the world of the presence, authority, holiness, and beauty of God. 

Thursday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 344

Delay not your conversion to the LORD,
put it not off from day to day.
For suddenly his wrath flames forth;
at the time of vengeance you will be destroyed.
Rely not upon deceitful wealth,
for it will be no help on the day of wrath. 

I find a connection between today's readings from Sirach and Mark in the apocalyptic sense; that is, within an acute awareness of judgment and the end time. 

Salt may be a perfect analogy for the apocalyptic because, like our use of fire, it is both useful and dangerous. It burns fiercely in our eyes and open sores. We're all familiar with salt; it's used in practically every step of food production and consumption, and yet too much can be undesirable at best, and dangerous on occasion. 

As a chaplain in the VA I heard many complaints about tasteless food and the sodium-free diet. They wanted salt but could not have it. Some would risk their lives for its momentary satisfaction. Not many heard my suggestion that they find their pleasure in something else. Salt had always been plentiful and available, and even within reach on their breakfast, lunch, and dinner tables. They could not endure life without its tang. 

Many of us have the same familiarity with our religion, but we forget that familiarity breeds contempt and can be dangerous. Sure, we say, it's necessary but we need not take religion, faith, and God too seriously. Like anything else, they can be put off, delayed, compartmentalized, and finally ignored. Apocalyptic prophets remind us that God has called us out of nothingness for no apparent reason and may forget us as easily as we forget God. 

Or, more dangerously, we suppose with the Greek philosophers that matter has always existed and, at a moment in the distant past, God did nothing more than shape matter into various forms. And because we have not seen miracles in a very long time, he apparently set us aside like a coiled watch, and walked away. Unless we take a serious interest in recreating ourselves we might slowly, inevitably wind down into extinction. 

Deism assures the world of its rightful existence even if God doesn't care, does nothing, turns his attention to other matters, despairs of salvaging us, or has died. In that godless world there is nothing left but Power, and whatever ethical or moral principles we might agree upon. That deistic attitude underlies all STEM culture. 

The doctrine of creation out of nothing teaches us that God's creating authority -- His Word -- still sustains us against the abyss of nothing. He created us in the past and is sustaining in the present and will continue to do so. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches over me. 

Opposing that Greek, godless understanding of our beginnings, Saint Peter spoke apocalyptically,

They deliberately ignore the fact that the heavens existed of old and earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God; through these the world that then existed was destroyed, deluged with water. The present heavens and earth have been reserved by the same word for fire, kept for the day of judgment and of destruction of the godless.

 

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.

The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be found out. (1 Peter 3:5-10)

Wednesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 343

"Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us."

 W hen God needs me to defend him, we'll all be in very deep trouble. So said my African-American preacher friend in Louisiana. God-who-is-Truth, speaks for himself and we have only to testify to it. 

If we think we own it or control it; and should persuade, cajole, push, or force others to know the truth as we know it, when we think they should know, and in the same manner as we know it, we have turned to idolatry of the worst kind -- the worship of self. Imposing onto another's mind we'll find ourselves forced out of God's Kingdom.

The consistent response to God's Word must be humility in the presence of God and in knowledge of him. Whether that knowledge be his Name or his Presence (Shekhina) or his Majesty, our presence is welcome but not needed. We are guests and may feel honored to be in God's presence. We may not presume upon the privilege. 

We're all familiar with Saint Paul's ego. Trained as a Pharisee in the vanity of being God's Chosen, his ego appears throughout his writing as he struggled mightily to place it under obedience to the Holy Spirit. Whenever he remembered the appearances of the Risen Lord and recounted them with a creedal formula, he would add to the series,

Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. (I Corinthians 15:9)

He could never forget the arrogance and violence of his youth. But he could also admit to himself and his people, the story had not ended with his criminal behavior: 

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective

Like Mary, we give glory to God in all things. When she recounted her recent personal story of God's mercy to Elizabeth she began with her own experience and then wrapped it in the story of Salvation History. 

The Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

His mercy is from age to age

to those who fear him.

He has shown might with his arm....

That is where we must find ourselves even in post-Christian, post-modern America, within Salvation History but not its center. 

Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 342 

"The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise."
But they did not understand the saying,
and they were afraid to question him.

 S aint Mark describes the astonishing incomprehension of the Lord's disciples with two stories: first there is a prediction of his passion and death, and then their argument about who is the greatest. 

A more logical question for discussion might be, "Why are we staying with this mad man? He is enormously popular, powerful, and successful; people are coming from all directions. But he expects a catastrophe in Jerusalem and yet he marches directly toward it!" 

Rather than a discussion of who would be first among them, we might expect them to discuss who will be the last to desert. He would be the biggest fool of them all. 

In fact, I remember such discussions in the seminary, as we saw friends and classmates dropping out to return home. By the early 1970's, the birth control pill had opened new vistas for sexual adventurers. Chastity, marriage, and celibacy had lost their popular appeal. There were no movies about beloved priests and saintly nuns, 

The attrition rate in the seminaries after 1964 and the Vatican Council was heavy. Bishops and priests were heading for the exits; why should we stay? Of the sixty boys of the high school class of 1966 at the minor seminary of Mount Saint Francis, five were ordained, and four have stayed the course. And compared to the classes just ahead of me and just behind, that was very successful.

So why am I still here? We asked ourselves that question in those halcyon days, and still do. But I find the same question raised in religious magazines and bookstores, "Why I am still Catholic."

I find the answer in John 6: the Lord's question, Peter's response, and the Lord's jubilant reply: 

Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”

Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you twelve?

As he says, in John 15:16: It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you."

Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 341

Immediately on seeing him,
the whole crowd was utterly amazed.
They ran up to him and greeted him.

 A fter his exhilarating transformation, upon returning to his disciples and finding them engaged in fruitless attempts to exorcise a boy, Jesus suffered a kind of hard landing. We hear his disappointment in his remark: “O faithless generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you?"

It's not unlike the letdown we feel as we move from the Book of Wisdom's exalted reflection on Wisdom. We have had a vision of...

The sand of the seashore, the drops of rain, the days of eternity: who can number these?

Heaven's height, earth's breadth,

the depths of the abyss: who can explore these?

Before all things else wisdom was created;

and prudent understanding, from eternity.

The Lord's experience of Mount Tabor was exhilarating and deeply encouraging. His face was still shining as Moses was shining when he descended from Sinai. 

As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he spoke with the LORD. When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him. (Exodus 34:29-30)

Like the amazed Hebrews, when  Jesus reappeared, the "whole crowd was amazed" But "immediately," Saint Mark greets us with quarreling disciples, a distressed crowd of people, and a troubled man with his demon-possessed child. There is no time for savoring and sharing the delight of Mount Tabor with the other disciples. But Peter, James, and John have been silenced by the Lord's command, and after the commotion at the bottom of the hill, might have forgotten all about it. 

But we must not. We have already, in Mark 8, declared our belief that Jesus is the Messiah. But given what we have seen and heard -- his Transformation and God's declaration, "This is Beloved Son. Listen to him." -- we have yet to learn what it all means for us. Knowing these things cannot be a useless memento placed on a shelf and dusted periodically. Okay, I have seen the Lord -- the Messiah and Son of God -- what difference does it make to me?

For one, I will drive out demons. I have never been able to do so, neither by shouting, arguing, or persuading with all my strength and will. I can't even win an argument that makes any difference. Nobody really cares what I think, opine, or believe. Nor can I speak with authority of what I have seen. As the three disciples were not permitted to speak of what they had seen on the mountaintop, so is our knowledge of the Lord's resurrection useless information until something else happens. 

We must hear more, and it comes in verses 34-35

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.

The Gospel demands more than sincerity, that sweetly sophomoric virtue. It requires our whole life. 

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Fungi recycle
  trees in a Florida swamp   

Lectionary: 81

If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners,
and get back the same amount.
But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back....

 In his encyclical, Laudato Si', Pope Francis has urged us to build a worldwide economy modeled after the amazing efficiency of the Earth; that is, where everything is recycled. Just as dead trees house bugs which feed birds, which feed larger predators, which feed the tiniest scavengers; while fallen trees are converted by fungi back to dirt which rises in new trees, so should our metals, ceramics, plastics, and fabrics find new opportunities as new forms of metal, ceramic, plastic, and fabric.

We should produce no material which cannot be reused. Nothing should be dumped into the forest, deep sea, open sky, or underground because waste always reappears and causes harm to living things. The Earth will not be taken for granted and the Earth never forgets abuse.

We often say, "If it can be imagined, it can be done!" So why should we not imagine and build an economy modeled upon the natural cycles of our Earth? In today's Gospel Jesus proposes a similar economy. Our first century prophet knew nothing of ecological cycles but he knew the inexhaustible, providential mercy of God. It is there in our faith, in our stories of Bible History, and in our daily practice of love and charity. It's familiar to anyone who believes in God.

Married couples attest to this. After many years of marriage they remember the financial crises, the injuries and sickness, the losses and disappointment, their quarrels, betrayals, and mutual forgiveness; and they know God has never abandoned them; and their love has survived, deepened, and prospered. They make their marriage work because they believe in God and each other just as God believes in them. Their stories testify to God’s superabundant, inexhaustible generosity.

That story – we call it Providence – is written into the DNA of Jews and Christians. Just as the Jews remember their wandering in the wilderness, their exile in Babylon,and their diaspora throughout the world, we remember the resurrection of our Crucified Jesus. We tell our children about the inexhaustible courage and generosity of the apostles and martyrs who still carry the Good News of God’s mercy throughout the world.

The United States also honors God’s providence with the Latin statement on every dollar bill, Annuit Coeptis, meaning “God has favored us.” and with its declaration in English, “In God we trust.” It’s also there in the Eye of Providence which appears on the back of the dollar bill. You can see that same symbol in our chapel here at Mount Saint Francis, above the altar of Saint Therese of Lisieux.

God provides and there will always be enough. But his blessings come with certain provisions: we must not waste or squander; we cannot horde; we must share equally with everyone according to their needs. So long as everyone takes what they need and no more, there will be plenty. Should some people amass more than they need they are thieves; and God’s Providence will collapse. When that day comes we will know the meaning of Justice, Judgment, Armageddon, and Apocalypse.

MSF Chapel

Clearly the world’s faith in progress and technology without reference to God is a dead end. A few people with enormous technological power have exploited the resources of earth, air, and water; and wasted the Earth’s resources, without regard for the needs of everyone. They arrogantly think there will always be more where that came from. They stupidly think a few people can be extremely wealthy and God doesn’t care; but the human capacity for mindless waste, which is fed by our sinful anxiety, is exhausting even the earth’s capacities. Using laws, walls, and the military to prevent the poor from getting what they need only guarantees the destruction of all human life and the death of our earth.

Jesus has taught us about a new economy with his teaching; and laid its foundation by his passion, death, and resurrection. Pope Francis has elaborated on that vision with his Laudato Si. We can imagine it, and we do see people living by the Lord command…

Give to everyone who asks of you,  

and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

We do not have to abort the unborn or kill the sick and elderly. We do not have to create weapons of mass destruction, or buy guns to kill our neighbors or stop aliens. We have only to trust that the Lord cannot be outdone in generosity. There is more where that came from so long as we share equally with everyone.

Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle

Lectionary: 535

“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.

 P eriodically and frequently, we must go back to basics and remember that "flesh and blood has not revealed this" to Peter or anyone else

Peter saw a man. He heard him speak, walked, ate, and worked with him. He saw him sleeping and awake, tired and refreshed, disappointed and satisfied. He knew this man as well as anyone knows anyone, and yet he declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

He saw something invisible, as we see something in the sacraments which flesh and blood has not revealed to us. We reverence the tabernacle with its precious contents though we cannot see the angels who hover around the Presence of God day and night. We worship the flesh and blood of Jesus although we see only bread and wine. 

And to go further, we believe the Lord founded the institution, the Church, which keeps, treasures, and announces our faith to the world. Our own eyes might not reveal much that is promising about the old people and their grandchildren who half-fill the pews each Sunday. We cannot see the Kingdom of God which Jesus insisted is "at hand," nor does that which is within our hearts always appear on our faces. 

As Saint Paul said, "we live by faith and not by sight." And we know, despite the careless indulgences that are urged upon us on every side, that the Judge is present, sees, governs, vindicates, and condemns: 

So we are always courageous, although we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yet we are courageous, and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord. Therefore, we aspire to please him, whether we are at home or away.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil. (2 Corinthians 5:6-10)

 

Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 339

"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the Gospel will save it.

 G enesis tells us that God came down to see how things were going in Babel and then, displeased with what he saw, came down lower to confuse their languages. It is a comical story about human impudence and God's sovereign authority. But the story reminds us of many other passages in the Bible where the Lord comes down to attend to his pathetic human creatures. 

Psalm 4:2

Surely, I wait for the LORD;
who bends down to me and hears my cry

Psalm 18: 6 

In my distress I called out: LORD!

I cried out to my God.

From his temple he heard my voice;

my cry to him reached his ears.

The earth rocked and shook;

the foundations of the mountains trembled;

they shook as his wrath flared up.

Smoke rose from his nostrils,

a devouring fire from his mouth;

it kindled coals into flame.

He parted the heavens and came down,

a dark cloud under his feet.

...the LORD was my support.

He set me free in the open;

he rescued me because he loves me.

And there are many passages which assure us of God's attentive eyes and ears upon us: 

Psalm 34:16

The eyes of the LORD are directed toward the righteous

and his ears toward their cry.

Psalm 66:19

But God did hear

and listened to my voice in prayer.

Psalm 86:6-7  

LORD, hear my prayer;

listen to my cry for help.

On the day of my distress I call to you,

for you will answer me.

In the Gospels and the New Testament, we find fulfillment of these promises in the stories of Jesus's birth, life, and death among us. By his Incarnation he has become one of us with an ennate knowledge of human fear, anxiety, dread, pain, and suffering which is incomprehensible to gods, angels, and wealthy human beings. 

The most important text is the song found in Philippians 2:6-11 

...though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.

Rather, he emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

coming in human likeness;

and found human in appearance,

he humbled himself,

becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross....

It is impossible to exhaust this subject of God's humility, which the theologians call kenosis.  But everyone can renounce the self, take up their cross, and follow in his steps. 

Hear the exhortation of Saint Francis as he contemplated the mystery of the Eucharist: 

Let everyone be struck with fear,

let the whole world tremble,

and let the heavens exult

when Christ, the Son of the living God,

is present on the altar in the hands of a priest!

O wonderful loftiness and stupendous dignity!

O sublime humility!

O humble sublimity!

The Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God,

so humbles Himself

that for our salvation He hides Himself

under an ordinary piece of bread!

Brothers, look at the humility of God,

and pour out your hearts before Him! Ps 62:9 

Humble yourselves

that you may be exalted by Him! 1 Pt 5:6 James 4:10

Hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves,

that He Who gives Himself totally to you

may receive you totally!

Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 338

At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, 
“Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” 

 O n the one hand I am delighted to be reminded that my thinking must conform to God's way of thinking. On the other, I wonder about supposing that God thinks at all. It seems to be a daring supposition. How could anything I do, say, or think be compared to God's acts, words, or thinking. I get especially uncomfortable when someone suggests, "Well, those are human traditions and God doesn't think we have to conform to them."

Someone asked me if it's okay that her left-handed grandson makes the sign of the cross with his left hand. Someone might readily assure her, "I'm sure God doesn't care...." I think God cares. 

I explained that the Roman Catholic Church signs with the right hand, and Orthodox Catholics -- Greek, Russian, Byzantine, etc -- sign with their left. The child would be signaling his allegiance to a different form of Catholicism, and then have to engage the Great Schism of 1054, and the recent attempts of rapprochement. 

It might be a bit much for an eight-year-old. I think he'd do better to learn our ways. But if he insists on his peculiar way, he will learn that everything -- meaning Everything! -- has a history; and it's better to know that history before you go changing things or declaring you know better than two millennia of thinking. 

All of which does not address the Lord's rebuke, "You are thinking as men think!" 

We learn to think as we learn a language; we learn to think in that language and we struggle to understand concepts that are expressed in different languages. Often we just learn the expression and its meaning, and insert them into our speech with italics or an asterisk (*). 

Christians learn to think as God thinks by studying Hebrew, Greek, and a smattering of Aramaic; and we've learn to think with our Christian tradition by studying Latin, and many other languages of the universal Church. (Some spiritual explorers like to study Sanskrit or Chinese to learn religious notions of India or China, and then explore their possible use for Christians.) However, most Christians are satisfied with good translations of the Bible in their own language. 

But the study of the Bible in any language can only take us so far. To think as God thinks we must be guided by the same Spirit which led Jesus from Nazareth to Jerusalem, and the disciples from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. And, Catholics in particular believe that Spirit has never failed to guide, challenge, rebuke, and reform the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, (and peccant Church) throughout many centuries of tormented history. 

Some of us are saints and live exemplary lives; all of us are sinners and need the rebuke, healing, and guidance of our fellow Christians. We might think outside the box but we should not think without the Holy Spirit which informs the whole body. (1 Corinthians 12:12-31)

For that Holy Spirit we pray daily; and our Good God gives an ample measure for the asking. 

Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 337

Never again will I doom the earth because of man
since the desires of man’s heart are evil from the start;
nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done.
As long as the earth lasts,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
Summer and winter,
and day and night
shall not cease.”

 S aint Peter, in his second letter, amended the Lord's promise to Noah with an unexpected proviso:  

Know this first of all, that in the last days scoffers will come [to] scoff, living according to their own desires and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? From the time when our ancestors fell asleep, everything has remained as it was from the beginning of creation.”

They deliberately ignore the fact that the heavens existed of old and earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God; through these the world that then existed was destroyed, deluged with water. The present heavens and earth have been reserved by the same word for fire, kept for the day of judgment and of destruction of the godless.

And so a deluge of fire entered our collective imagination. (And Internet gaming.) The First Apostle may also be referencing Psalm 21:9-12. 

Your hand will find all your enemies;

your right hand will find your foes!

At the time of your coming

you will make them a fiery furnace.

Then the LORD in his anger will consume them,

devour them with fire

Even their descendants you will wipe out from the earth,

their offspring from the human race.

Though they intend evil against you,

devising plots, they will not succeed. 

(This passage is not found in the Liturgy of the Hours. See Tuesday Evening, week one.)

In the 1950's I readily joined my classmates as the school conducted drills for a possible nuclear attack. We hid under our desks. It was a ludicrous exercise but it made us aware of a danger that remains as near as it was seventy years ago. One of America's preeminent authors, Cormac McCarthy, has added his own dour scenario of a post-apocalyptic landscape in his book, "The Road." He offers little hope. If we have skirted the danger so far, it will remain an ever-present threat into the indefinite future. We will never forget how to build atomic and hydrogen bombs. Has the world ever seen an effective weapon we did not use? 

A secular society scoffs at the biblical legend of Noah's Flood, but it cannot so easily dismiss the deluge of fire we intend to use when the situation calls for it. It prepares for the worst and vaguely hopes it will not happen. 

Faith does not invest in weapons; neither carrying nor owning them. Peaceful people would rather be killed than kill anyone. Faith envisions God's Kingdom, and Hope dares to plan for it with every form of Charity, and many forms of legislative action in city halls, and state and federal capitals. We have read in the Bible of universal deluges; and of the end of the world; and we know it will happen. We want it to end in God's time, and not ours. 

Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 336

Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” 
They concluded among themselves that it was because they had no bread.

 T oday's gospel describes the misunderstanding we have come to expect of the Lord's disciples. They're discussing the problem -- some might call it a crisis -- of their having no bread while they cross the Sea of Galilee. And he cryptically suggests something about the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. 

Given the ideological polarities of our time, when one's choice of wheat or white bread might be regarded with suspicion, we can wonder if first century Palestinian bakeries issued Herodian and Pharisaic bread. Jesus might then suggest having nothing to do with either, as many decide to vote neither Republican or Democrat. 

"With all due respect, Sir," someone might have said, "we weren't discussing politics. We were asking which idiot among us failed to provide food for this crossing." 

But apparently Jesus referenced his recent display of God's Providence, when he provided food for four thousand from seven small loaves of bread. And to something even more mysterious. 

But that, of course, also went right over their heads -- Zing!둫𒂃

When he became aware of this he said to them,

“Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread?

Do you not yet understand or comprehend?

When he reminds them of the two separate incidents of feeding a crowd with a little bit of food -- Mark is the only Evangelists who tells both stories -- and they still have no clue, he challenges them, “Do you still not understand?”

He acts like that of the teacher who refuses to answer a student's question because the student is perfectly capable of discovering the answer. Or the Zen master who confronts their student with indecipherable koans. Many Catholics today, trained as we are with ready answers from the catechism, might raise both hands and say, "Oo! Oo! Call me sir! I know! I know! You're the Bread of Life!" 

At which the Master might yet again say, "Do you not yet understand or comprehend?"  

Do we accept the salvation of those who eat the flesh of the crucified and drink his blood as it flows down the wood? And what that means to the Lord? And to ourselves? 

We begin with this hunger as we cross the Sea of Galilee, and step away from the quarrels of red, blue, green, and rainbow parties. They claim the truth but ignore the Gospel. 

We must find the Bread that is right here in the boat. 

Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 335

He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said,“Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”

 T he Pharisees, as they're portrayed in the Gospels, had assumed an adamantine skepticism. They would believe nothing that Jesus said or did, and nothing that the Holy Spirit might reveal to them. God had spoken through the prophets in the past; but they were convinced the age of prophets had passed. What passed for prophecy had become apocalyptic, indecipherable messages, like those of Malachi and Daniel, with little application to real politics in the real world. 

The times were not unlike our own, in that we too are flooded with apocalyptic entertainments which forecast only gloom and doom. The public is entertained but does not take it seriously. Meanwhile politicians quarrel over which party is more satanic, which is also more entertaining and apocalyptic than useful. They regard any agreement, conversation, or compromise as betrayal. Members of the party must conform to the thought and sentiments of the party boss or face expulsion. Although everyone claims to know the Truth, no one seriously searches for it through a rigorous discipline of discernment, silence, and prayer. 

The Evangelists were deeply affected by apocalyptic urgency; and their stories are weighted against the "other party," the Pharisaic straw men. There was no concept of "objective reporting" in their Hebrew philosophy; that strange notion that we could know the truth without reference to God appeared much later, with the Enlightenment. The Evangelists knew only the Word of God and human willingness to hear and keep the word of God. 

Straw men are used to make a point with the Christian assembly. The real problem in the Church, then and today, are those Christians who maintain ideological, pharisaic, hypocritical attitudes about the Church and its members. Convinced of their own righteousness, they become caricatures of real persons, or straw men. 

The People of God must finally be willing to believe that which is real, true, and reliable. We must be willing to believe that the Truth speaks for itself when its presented honestly to people who are willing to hear it. Shouting, blaming, accusing, misinterpreting, and  suspecting one another of evil will not help. Nor can we be satisfied with partial answers to problems we have never been willing to address. There are no crises in the spiritual life; nor will acting as if every problem is a crisis resolve anything.  

As my friend the Baptist minister said, "When God needs me to defend him, we'll all be in very serious trouble." 

As we follow Jesus to Calvary we practice the faith that will carry us through the disappearance of security to the freedom of God's Kingdom. 

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 78

“Blessed are you who are poor,for the kingdom of God is yours.

....woe to you who are rich,for you have received your consolation."

 I've got good news and bad news. The Good news: the Lord God will bless us abundantly. The Bad News: the Lord God will punish us severely. That's not very funny, is it? But, as we hear in today's gospel, it is a constant message of the Bible.

A society of consumers loves to hear about blessings, opportunities, rewards, and free gifts. They don't want to hear about penalties, repayments, reparation, atonement, debts, or curses. They're assured and persuaded by eager banks and merchants that unfortunate consequences can be forestalled, cancelled, and forgotten. God won't let bad things happen to us because God loves us and is always so nice to us.

God speaks in today’s Sunday readings to a severely polarized nation – a nation of consumers – about blessings and curses. There is something unnerving about the God we meet in the Bible and in our Catholic religion. He speaks the truth, and he doesn’t always tell us things we want to hear, or reassure us with promises of endless happiness. The God who can see the future as clearly as he sees the past guides us with promises and warnings. But we don't always receive his blessings with recognition or gratitude, and we often ignore his warnings. And then we blame him for the terrible things that happen. 

I knew a man who worked continually, travelling non-stop to give speeches and meet with people. He was doing good work! His doctor warned him about his high blood pressure and lack of exercise, but he was too busy to take care of himself. When he finally suffered a debilitating stroke he complained that he'd never been warned. Like many people, he was a good speaker but a poor listener. 

The philosopher John Macmurray taught that our life as responsible persons begins when we notice there are other persons in the world. One day a child has a quarrel with his mother. But then, perhaps on the same day, he says to himself, “She was right. I wanted to do something and she would not let me do it, and she was right!” 

There are other people in this world! And most of them have more information, different experience, and better wisdom than I have. And I would do well to listen to them, to work with them, to join and work in the company of others. 

And not only are there other people: in fact, there is a God who created this world, and these people and me. And my life is about the Greater Honor and Glory of God; and not all about me! “Well I'll be damned!”

No, you won't be damned if you see other people and care more about them than you care about yourself. And you won't be damned if you act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with your God. 

The Bible and our Church teaches us that there is an otherness in Reality – in Being – and we must learn to recognize the existence of the other, like the child who finally discovers his mother. 

That means no one is exactly like you or me; and even if you had a clone that person would not be you. The entire universe with its gazillion galaxies and stars has never seen anything precisely like you, nor will you ever happen again. You are alone in your existence, as I am, as is everyone else. 

Our Testaments Old and New tell us repeatedly we must care for the widow, the orphan, and the alien; and my first obligation is to others and not to myself. The Bible says I must answer to The Other who is God and has authority to create, heal, guide, rebuke, condemn, and save me. When God says, “Who are you to judge your neighbor?” I realize I’d better shut up and pony up support for aliens, orphans, and widows. 

But the United States has become a nation of aliens. Polarized, we despise everyone who is not like "me." Everyone who has a different opinion, idea, or belief; everyone who votes differently, looks differently, or comes from a different place. 

The chasm that Lazarus could not cross grows deeper every day. God warns us of these things in today's gospel:

...woe to you who are rich,

for you have received your consolation.

Woe to you who are filled now, 

for you will be hungry.

 

Inflamed by propaganda, the satisfied and the hungry; the comfortable and the stricken, the religious and the irreligious are more estranged to one another every day. They fear, distrust, and hate one another. And as Abraham Lincoln said, a house divided cannot stand. 

Nothing can be gained by quarreling, despising, distancing, judging, or hating. Nobody wins; but everyone loses, especially the widow, the orphan, and the alien – and that will not stand in God’s sight.

The day must come when I say to someone I despise or fear,

“You are right, and I have been wrong. You see the truth and I have not seen it. You have done right, and I have not. Thank you for showing me what I could not see.”

When that day comes the Lord might say to me what he said to a hostile scribe, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”

Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 334

He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also.
They ate and were satisfied.

 We can suppose the several thousand people who followed the Lord into the wilderness listened to their bellies, felt full, and believed they had eaten enough.

But sometimes satisfaction is a decision we make even before the belly has spoken. We consider how much we had to eat; or what chore we have yet to perform; or, perhaps, the stories we're told; and say, "Enough!" We need no more, and want no more. 

When the Lord God found Adam and Eve dressed in fig leaves, he knew enough. He didn't need to hear Adam blame Eve or Himself. When the crowd saw the Lord's generosity and each had received a portion from a disciple's hand; and when they saw there was more than enough left over; they were satisfied. 

So why is that consumers are never satisfied? Having bought enough, they want to buy more. Having accumulated more than enough, they want to pile up more. Having one tattoo, one beer, one doughnut, one suit: they want to buy more. Renting one storage unit, they need another one. When is the consumer satisfied? Are they ever? 

Saint Augustine explains it quite simply, "Our hearts are restless until we rest in thee." 

But consumers have never heard that expression, although they might own two or three posters, t-shirts, and coffee mugs which exuberantly proclaim that message. Satisfaction is a decision we make. It is more than a discovery. It happens when I say, "Thank you, Lord!"

When Eli realized the Lord was calling the boy Samuel in the middle of the night, and not himself, he had only to instruct the boy, "Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening."  Afterwards, Eli asked the boy what had happened and, 

"Samuel told him everything, and held nothing back. 

Eli answered, “It is the LORD. What is pleasing in the LORD’s sight, the LORD will do.” 

When the old man Simeon saw Mary and Joseph carry the Infant into the temple, he took the child in his arms and said, 

Now, Master, you may let your servant go
in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in sight of all the peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel. 

Concerning hardship and opposition, Jesus told his disciples: "No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master." 

And finally, Job tells us how to be satisfied: 

"We accept good things from the Lord; and should we not accept evil? The Lord gives; the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."