November 4, 2012
Deuteronomy 6:2-6;
Psalm 18; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 12:28-34
Moses speaks the famous “Shema” to the people, “Hear, O Israel,
the Lord is God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” These are poetic words to
hear and to recite and they contain a truth for which we strive. We know our
lives are much better and lived more simply if we can just endorse them as
Moses wants. The goal of Moses is that we live out of these words that are
rooted and grounded in our hearts.
Jesus believes these words and his
life demonstrates his belief. When he is questioned by a scribe about the
foundational commandment, he repeats the words of Moses, but he raises the
standards much higher. The love of God has primacy of place in our life, but if
we truly love God the way we profess we do, love of neighbor necessarily
follows suit. We cannot say we love God if we hold onto disdain, fear, or
suspicion of our neighbor, and we have to ask, “Who is our neighbor?”
Ignatius
of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, at the end of his Spiritual Exercises, talks
about “loving the way God loves.” A person comes to see that God is always
laboring on our behalf and gives us ourselves as a gift to others. God wants us
to see the way God loves us and to be filled with admiration and gratitude. The
unique way God is caring for us is the same way God is caring for the people who are on my right and left sides. God is caring for our adversaries and
enemies in the same loving way God cares for me. When we see how bountiful
God’s love is for everyone, we begin to love strangers and opponents they way
we cherish our best friends, family, and loved ones. It makes all the
difference in the world. It means that we can put aside our dividing lines from
one another and strive for a greater goal. We become the one family Christ
wants us to be – brothers and sisters in the Lord.
The affection we see in the scribe’s
encounter with Jesus is heartwarming. The scribe does not appear to be putting
Jesus to the test, but merely questioning Jesus as a teacher. He is seeking
greater understanding and he recognizes the teaching authority of Jesus, though
he knows Jesus is not an official religious leader in the community’s eyes.
When he demonstrates understanding of what God wants out of a person, the heart
of Jesus warms to him and he affirms him. Most times in scripture we read of
Jesus correcting and chastising his opponents, but in this instance, Jesus is
delighted with the scribe who gets the message and the meaning. It is a mature
pedagogical teaching model where obtaining wisdom is affirmed and celebrated.
In this story, Jesus and the scribe walk away as winners. Each succeeds and
both are encouraged. This is a good way of building up the kingdom.
We
have to help people along the way. If we hold close to rules and regulations
too tightly, we make them our god. We always need a little wiggle room for
freedom. Here is a quote from Richard McBrien that says it well: “If love is the soul of Christian existence, it must be at the
heart of every other Christian virtue. Thus, for example, justice without love
is legalism; faith without love is ideology; hope without love is
self-centeredness; forgiveness without love is self-abasement; fortitude
without love is recklessness; generosity without love is extravagance; care
without love is mere duty; fidelity without love is servitude. Every virtue is
an expression of love. No virtue is really a virtue unless it is permeated, or
informed, by love.”
Let us do our best to build up one
another and affirm them – even if it means we bypass a chance to get an
advantage over an adversary. We have the power to choose which type of world we
want to create. Watch what happens. Only good-will reigns. The kingdom is advanced
because of your tiny effort. Freedom and peace can escape from the boxes in
which we hold them and a new age can dawn in our world. Swallow your pride and
let God be active. We cannot make ourselves a demigod. We do not hold the power
to judge and control and make all things conform to our will. If we truly live
out of the “Shema,” we will
acknowledge that God alone is Lord and that we have only one God. You will then
learn to love others, even adversaries, with all your heart, with all your
soul, and with all your strength – and Jesus Christ will once again affirm you
like he did the scribe.
Themes for this Week’s Masses
First
Reading: Paul writes in Ephesians that we are to be of the
same mind as Christ by sharing in his solace in love with compassion and mercy.
We are to do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory, but are to look
upon each other as more important than ourselves. We know that Christ, though
he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something at
which to grasp, but he emptied himself of God and came in human likeness
showing his great humility. He says to work out your salvation with fear and
trembling for God works in you both to desire and work. If we are to boast, it
is to be of the day of Christ – knowing that all power comes from Christ. Paul
talks about the many advantages given him by knowing Christ, but whatever he
gained he now considers a loss because of Christ. He considers everything a
loss because of the supreme good of knowing Jesus his Lord. Paul is able to
rejoice greatly in the Lord for the solitary kindness the Philippians shared
with him. In all circumstances of life, Paul is able to find strength for
everything he needs though Christ who empowers him.
Gospel:
On a Sabbath Jesus dines with a leading Pharisee and instructs him to invite
the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind rather than friends and
relatives or wealthy neighbors. As a man at the table said, “Blessed is the one
who will dine in the Kingdom of God,” Jesus replies by telling a parable of a
man who invited many to dinner, but few came until the servants went out to the
highways and byways to make people come in to fill the house. Great crowds were
traveling with Jesus and he addressed them by saying, “anyone who comes without
hating mother and father, brothers and sisters, and ones’ own life cannot be my
disciple.” He tells them that one must be prepared by calculating what they
need for salvation. As tax collectors and sinners were interested in the words
of Jesus, the Pharisees and scribes complained that he was welcoming sinners
and eating with them. Jesus tells them to rejoice because he has found the lost
sheep, but they are stuck in their dismay. Jesus values the clever and
world-wise person who figures out ways to deal with wealth. If you are not
trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with real wealth?
Saints of the Week
November 4: Charles Borromeo, bishop (1538-1584), was
made Bishop of Milan at age 22. He was the nephew of Pope Pius IV. He was a
leading Archbishop in the Catholic Reformation that followed the Council of
Trent. During a plague epidemic, Borromeo visited the hardest hit areas so he
could provide pastoral care to the sick.
November 5: All Saints and Blessed of the Society of
Jesus are remembered by Jesuits on their particularized liturgical
calendar. We remember not only the major saints on the calendar, but also those
who are in the canonization process and hold the title of Blessed, like Peter
Faber. We pray for all souls of deceased Jesuits in our province during the
month by using our necrology (listing of the dead.)
November 9: The dedication of Rome's Lateran Basilica
was done by Pope Sylvester I in 324 as the pope's local parish as the bishop of
Rome. It was originally called the Most Holy Savior and was built on the
property donated by the Laterani family. It is named John Lateran because the
baptistry was named after St. John. Throughout the centuries, it was attacked
by barbarians, suffered damage from earthquakes and fires, and provided
residence for popes. In the 16th century, it went through Baroque renovations.
November 10: Leo the Great, pope and doctor (d. 461) tried
to bring peace to warring Roman factions that were leaving Gaul vulnerable to
barbarian invasions. As pope, he tried to keep peace again - in particular
during his meeting with Attila the Hun, whom he persuaded not to plunder Rome.
However, in Attila's next attack three years later, Rome was leveled. Some of
Leo's writings on the incarnation were influential in formulating doctrine at
the Council of Chalcedon.
This Week in
Jesuit History
·
Nov 4, 1768. On the feast of St
Charles, patron of Charles III, King of Spain, the people of Madrid asked for
the recall of the Jesuits who had been banished from Spain nineteen months
earlier. Irritated by this demand, the king drove the Archbishop of Toledo and
his Vicar General into exile as instigators of the movement.
·
Nov 5, 1660. The death of Alexandre de
Rhodes, one of the most effective Jesuit missionaries of all time. A native of
France, he arrived in what is now Vietnam in 1625.
·
Nov 6, 1789. Fr. John Carroll of
Maryland was appointed to be the first Bishop of Baltimore.
·
Nov 7, 1717. The death of Antonio
Baldinucci, an itinerant preacher to the inhabitants of the Italian countryside
near Rome.
·
Nov 8, 1769. In Spain, Charles III
ordered all of the Society's goods to be sold and sent a peremptory demand to
the newly-elected Pope Clement XIV to have the Society suppressed.
·
Nov 9, 1646. In England, Fr. Edmund
Neville died after nine months imprisonment and ill-treatment. An heir to large
estates in Westmoreland, he was educated in the English College and spent forty
years working in England.
·
Nov 10, 1549. At Rome, the death of
Paul III, to whom the Society owes its first constitution as a religious order.