The Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time

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August 26, 2018

Joshua 24:1-2, 15-18; Psalm 34; Ephesians 5:21-32; John 6:60-69

Many of you who are sitting in the pews at church this week have already answered the question that Jesus asked, “Do you also want to leave?” Your presence here means that you have said something like, “Lord, to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life.” It doesn’t mean that you haven’t thought about leaving because it is entirely understandable to do so.

The news about the evil actions in our church is dispiriting. It angers. It weakens. It paralyzes. It disgusts. It kicks up a range of emotions that are difficult to hold in balance when we walk into church to worship. Many people will walk away because fundamental trust is eroded. Few people know what to say to address the problems and it just does not seem to be a situation that anyone can control.

While Boston was the epicenter of the abuse news in the early 2000’s, the crisis has affected every diocese in the world and the extent of it is just becoming realized. Additional stories will flood the news stations and social media and it will be difficult to withstand the reach of these stories. People who have suffered before will suffer again and those who continued to trust the church may feel betrayed once more. No one has any words who can relieve this suffering.

What I do know about suffering is that the evil one tries to isolate us when we need to come together. Suffering becomes worse when we withdraw and keep our stories and thoughts inside. We need companions on the journey who will listen, reflect, refrain from judging, refrain from giving advice, and simply believe the stories we hear. We need to go against our impulses by reaching out to others who will simply be with us in solidarity.

I have come to realize something else about suffering. Even though we may not experience it in the moment, Christ is present within the suffering. It might take us years to discover it, but we will know of Christ’s presence at some point when we repeatedly ask the questions, “Where are you, O Christ, when I go through this trauma?” I have often found Christ broken, weeping, powerless as he is suspended on his cross and he is attentive to our suffering. He is there in all his vulnerabilities and he yearns for a healed world.

I can’t leave the church because I can’t leave the People of God and I can’t leave Jesus Christ. Where else would I be? He and I have been through too much together, and I can’t leave my friend. With him, and with many other pilgrims, we will suffer together, and we will choose to stay in the relationship. Of course, I want a changed church, and I have to let the Spirit of God continue the divine work of rebuilding it, but I want to be a part of the restoration. There’s only one person I know who has the words of eternal life, and I’m choosing to remain by his side.

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 

Monday: (2 Thessalonians 1) We ought to thank God always for you because your faith flourishes ever more, and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater.

Tuesday: (2 Thessalonians 2) We ask you, not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly,
or to be alarmed either by a "spirit," or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us
to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand.

Wednesday: (2 Thessalonians 3) For you know how one must imitate us. For we did not act in a disorderly way among you, nor did we eat food received free from anyone. On the contrary, in toil and drudgery, night and day we worked, so as not to burden any of you.

Thursday: (1 Corinthians 1) I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Friday (1 Corinthians 1) Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Saturday (1 Corinthians 1) Consider your own calling. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 23) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.

Tuesday: (Matthew 23) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others.

Wednesday (Mark 6) Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married. John had said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.

Thursday (Matthew 24) Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.

Friday (Matthew 25) The Kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. 

Saturday (Matthew 25) His master said to him in reply, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter? Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten.

Saints of the Week

August 27: Monica (332-387) was born a Christian in North Africa and was married to a non-Christian, Patricius, with whom she had three children, the most famous being Augustine. Her husband became a Christian at her urging and she prayed for Augustine's conversion as well from his newly adopted Manichaeism. Monica met Augustine in Milan where he was baptized by Bishop Ambrose. She died on the return trip as her work was complete.

August 28: Augustine, bishop and doctor (354-430),  was the author of his Confessions, his spiritual autobiography, and The City of God, which described the life of faith in relation to the life of the temporal world. Many other writings, sermons, and treatises earned him the title Doctor of the church. In his formative years, he followed Mani, a Persian prophet who tried to explain the problem of evil in the world. His mother’s prayers and Ambrose’s preaching helped him convert to Christianity. Baptized in 387, Monica died a year later. He was ordained and five years later named bishop of Hippo and defended the church against three major heresies: Manichaeism, Donatism, and Pelagianism.

August 29: The Martyrdom of John the Baptist recalls the sad events of John's beheading by Herod the tetrarch when John called him out for his incestuous and adulterous marriage to Herodias, who was his niece and brother's wife. At a birthday party, Herodias' daughter Salome danced well earning the favor of Herod who told her he would give her almost anything she wanted.

This Week in Jesuit History

·      Aug. 26, 1562: The return of Fr. Diego Laynez from France to Trent, the Fathers of the Council desiring to hear him speak on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

·      Aug. 27, 1679: The martyrdom at Usk, England, of St. David Lewis, apostle to the poor in his native Wales for three decades before he was caught and hanged.

·      Aug. 28, 1628: The martyrdom in Lancashire, England, of St. Edmund Arrowsmith.

·      Aug. 29, 1541: At Rome the death of Fr. John Codure, a Savoyard, one of the first 10 companions of St. Ignatius.

·      Aug. 30, 1556: On the banks of the St. Lawrence River, the Iroquois mortally wounded Fr. Leonard Garreau, a young missionary.

·      Aug. 31, 1581: In St. John's Chapel within the Tower of London, a religious discussion took place between St. Edmund Campion, suffering from recent torture, and some Protestant ministers.

·      Sep 1, 1907. The Buffalo Mission was dissolved, and its members were sent to the New York and Missouri Provinces and the California Mission.