The Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

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August 19, 2018

Proverbs 9:1-6; Psalm 34; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58

Comparing the Jesus in John’s Gospel with Lady Wisdom brings up many paradoxes in our faith. Who is this mysterious Lady, who represents a key attribute of God? In Jewish lore, she is said to be the personified presence of God walking through streets crying out in a loud voice for people to follow her. If people listen to her words, they will have eternal life. She is the one who makes the Wisdom of God alluring.

Proverbs tells us that Lady Wisdom was begotten of God, as a part of God’s creation, and a first creation of God. She stands alongside God when the rest of creation is formed and together they delight in all God has made. She informs the human intellect and is given universally to people of all nations to come to know God. Her unity with God is unbroken. God delights in her and she delights in God. The feminine imagery helps people access the traditional roles of women in biblical culture as wife, mother, and teacher. Jesus represents a marked departure from Lady Wisdom. Jesus existed eternally as the Word of God, which distributes Wisdom. He was with God at the beginning and all creation happened through him. Both Jesus and Wisdom boast of feasting, but Jesus asks us to eat his very body. Lady Wisdom also stands in contrast with Lady Folly who is introduced later in Proverbs 9.

In this Gospel passage, we are asked to choose the Wisdom of the world, but we do it by eat the flesh of Jesus. In some ways, that sounds foolish. By eating his body and drinking his blood, we will be satisfied though we will experience physical hunger. How strange. We make friends with suffering in order to lessen its grip on us. We follow the law and the commandments, so we can have freedom. We die in order to live forever. Our faith is full of contrasts and the road ahead is not easy.

We must seek the Wisdom of God in these difficult days within the church. Cardinals and Bishops are punished for decisions, the seminary in Boston is under investigation, and a report of over 300 priests involved in crimes against our youth makes it difficult for the church to be a credible witness to God’s love and fidelity. It is understandable that people might pull away from it because of institutional errors.

Leaving the church is not the right thing to do. As the People of God, we still need to be fed by Jesus and experience our suffering with him. We cannot stay away from the sacrament because Jesus is the one who will give us the Wisdom through his Words and his Body. He needs us to get angry and act until our voices are heard because he does not want to see one more person suffer by the hands of a minister of the church. When trust is broken, it might be time to break conventions until our church is responsive to our pain and suffering. Together, you and I and many others, will be fed by Jesus who will show us the way forward. Do whatever he tells you, even if it does not make sense or if it frightens you. What may seem like folly to this world might be the Wisdom of God in action.

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 

Monday: (Ezekiel 24) Son of man, by a sudden blow I am taking away from you the delight of your eyes, but do not mourn or weep or shed any tears. Do not cover your beard, and do not eat the customary bread. That evening my wife died, and the next morning I did as I had been commanded.

Tuesday: (Ezekiel 28) Because you are haughty of heart, you say, "A god am I! I occupy a godly throne in the heart of the sea!"— And yet you are a man, and not a god, however you may think yourself like a god. Oh yes, you are wiser than Daniel, there is no secret that is beyond you.

Wednesday: (Ezekiel 34) Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been pasturing themselves!
Should not shepherds, rather, pasture sheep? You have fed off their milk, worn their wool, and slaughtered the fatlings, but the sheep you have not pastured.

Thursday: (Ezekiel 36) For I will take you away from among the nations, gather you from all the foreign lands, and bring you back to your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.

Friday (Revelation 21) "Come here. I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." He took me in spirit to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It gleamed with the splendor of God. Its radiance was like that of a precious stone, like jasper, clear as crystal.

Saturday (Ezekiel 43) I saw that the temple was filled with the glory of the LORD. Then I heard someone speaking to me from the temple, while the man stood beside me. The voice said to me: Son of man, this is where my throne shall be, this is where I will set the soles of my feet;
here I will dwell among the children of Israel forever.

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 19) "Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?" He answered him, "Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments."

Tuesday: (Matthew 19) "Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God." When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, "Who then can be saved?"

Wednesday (Matthew 20) "The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.

Thursday (Matthew 2) "The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those invited: "Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast."' Some ignored the invitation and went away.

Friday (John 1) Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth." But Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

Saturday (Matthew 23) "The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people's shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen.

Saints of the Week

August 19: John Eudes, priest (1601-1680) preached missions, heard confessions, and assisted the sick and dying. He founded a new religious order for women, which includes Our Lady of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters. He eventually left the Oratorians to found the Congregation of Jesus and Mary. 

August 20: Bernard, Abbot and Doctor (1090-1153) became a Benedictine abbey in Citeaux because of its strict observance. He was sent to set up a new monastery in Clairvaux with 12 other monks. He wrote theological treatises, sermons, letters, and commentaries that dominated the thought of Europe. His writings had a tremendous influence of Catholic spirituality.

August 21: Pius X, pope (1835-1914), was an Italian parish priest for 17 years before he became bishop of Mantua, the cardinal patriarch of Venice, and eventually pope. He urged frequent communion for adults, sacramental catechesis for children, and continued education for everyone. He is known for rigid political policies that put him at odds with a dynamically changing world that led to World War I.

August 22: The Queenship of Mary concludes the octave of the principal feast of Mary as she celebrates her installation as queen and mother of all creation. This feast was placed on our calendar in 1954 following the dogmatic proclamation of the Assumption.

August 23: Rose of Lima (1586-1617) was the first canonized saint of the New World. She had Spanish immigrant parents in Lima. Rose joined the Dominicans and lived in her parents' garden to support them while she took care of the sick and the poor. As a girl, she had many mystical experiences as she practiced an austere life. She also had many periods of darkness and desolation.

August 24: Bartholomew (First Century), according to the Acts of the Apostles, is listed as one of the Twelve Disciples though no one for sure knows who he is. Some associate him with Philip, though other Gospel accounts contradict this point. John's Gospel refers to him as Nathaniel - a Israelite without guile.

August 25: Louis of France (1214-1270) became king at age 12, but did not take over leadership until ten years later. He had eleven children with his wife, Marguerite, and his kingship reigned for 44 years. His rule ushered in a longstanding peace and prosperity for the nation.  He is held up as a paragon of medieval Christian kings.

August 25: Joseph Calasanz, priest (1556-1648), was a Spaniard who studied canon law and theology. He resigned his post as diocesan vicar-general to go to Rome to live as a pilgrim and serve the sick and the dying. He used his inheritance to set up free schools for poor families with children. He founded an order to administer the schools, but dissension and power struggles led to its dissolution.

This Week in Jesuit History

·      Aug. 19, 1846: At Melgar, near Burgos, the birth of Fr. Luis Martin, 24th General of the Society.

·      Aug. 20, 1891: At Santiago, Chile, the government of Balmaceda ordered the Jesuit College to be closed.

·      Aug. 21, 1616: At Pont a Mousson in Lorraine died Fr. William Murdoch, a Scotchman, who when only 10 years of age was imprisoned seven months for the faith and cruelly beaten by the order of a Protestant bishop. St. Ignatius is said to have appeared to him and encouraged him to bear the cross bravely.

·      Aug. 22, 1872: Jesuits were expelled from Germany during the Bismarckian Kulturkampf.

·      Aug. 23, 1558: In the First General Congregation, the question was discussed about the General's office being triennial, and the introduction of Choir, as proposed by Pope Paul IV, and it was decreed that the Constitutions ought to remain unaltered.

·      Aug. 24, 1544: Peter Faber arrived in Lisbon.

·      Aug. 25, 1666: At Beijing, the death of Fr. John Adam Schall. By his profound knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, he attained such fame that the Emperor entrusted to him the reform of the Chinese calendar.