Being Taught
The Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2021
August 8, 2021
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1 Kings 19:4-8; Psalm 34; Ephesians 4:30-5:2; John 6:41-51
During these Bread of Life discourses, we see that traditional Jews opposed the teaching of Jesus and they caused dissension. Somehow it is comforting to know that the Church has always seen its share of dissension, just as it exists today, and will be in the church long after we are in heaven. In matters of faith, people will interpret teachings in their own way and will live out of that belief. The danger arrives when one tries to impose it upon others.
Jesus said, “They shall all be taught by God,” and that is what we all want, but we wonder how that happens. In our rational world, we use deductive logic to arrive at answers with certitude, but it often does not happen with our faith life. We seek clarity but we get opinions and we do not know how to weigh various interpretations. Most of our teaching comes from an inductive process, for instance, when we receive the Eucharist. We cannot explain what happens when we come to worship or share in communion, but we know that somehow, we are satisfied or are even changed. Somehow the rightness of consuming the consecrated host makes us part of the larger Body of Christ.
Some of us try to read Sacred Scripture because this is an account of God’s love story with the world and we want to understand it better, but we do not know where to begin or what to read first, and when we do read it, we need a commentary to keep all the names, dates, and events straight. We want to know in what spirit we should read it or what to look for, what to believe, what to write off as human accounts. We want to know, “Did it really happen? Did it happen like that? Who wrote the book and what relevance am I to give it? Should I even bother to read the Old Testament?” Comprehending the Bible can be daunting and intimidating, and yet we know we are supposed to read Scripture because it is the most direct accounts of God’s interactions with us, and we want to hear God’s messages.
So, we look to the church where we find our Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Catechism, and church documents. In our hierarchy of teachings, we know our Ecumenical Councils, like the Second Vatican Council, are the highest teaching authority. They are our Constitutions and even a Pope cannot go against it. Then we have our Dogma, then Doctrine, followed by Synods and specialized teachings on specific subjects, and then we have a range of theological opinions. This is where it gets messy because not every bishop, cardinal, priest, or other person who speaks from the church has equal weight and rank, and one’s hierarchical place in the church does not guarantee expertise. Many times, people in positions of influence are merely stating one’s own opinion, and this makes us uncertain about its relevancy. For instance, a Catholic lay astronomer may have much more expertise in her field than a particular Cardinal. This is the reason we must study our traditions and look at the history of certain teachings, so that we can know which teaching has greater authenticity.
When we return to our Constitution, Vatican II, we know that God’s special way of teaching us is through our prayer – both communal and personal – and that God speaks to us through our conscience. The primacy of conscience is our most telling truth of how God communicates to us. God speaks to our soul; God is in our quest; God speaks to our conscience, a conscience we can never betray because we can never betray God. We, therefore, have to form and inform our conscience, do our own work to seek and discover what is true and right, and through this process of discovery we come to a clear way that God has been teaching us. It puts an end to murmuring, and it gives us the solace that God is in our striving, that God is the striving itself, and that God is very near to us.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (Deuteronomy 10) Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to the LORD, your God, as well as the earth and everything on it. Yet in his love for your fathers the LORD was so attached to them as to choose you, their descendants,
in preference to all other peoples, as indeed he has now done.
Tuesday: (2 Corinthians 9) Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work.
Wednesday: (Deuteronomy 34) Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the headland of Pisgah which faces Jericho, and the LORD showed him all the land—Gilead, and as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, the circuit of the Jordan with the lowlands at Jericho, city of palms, and as far as Zoar.
Thursday: (Joshua 3) The LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know I am with you, as I was with Moses. Now command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant to come to a halt in the Jordan
when you reach the edge of the waters.”
Friday (Joshua 24) In times past your fathers, down to Terah, father of Abraham and Nahor, dwelt beyond the River and served other gods. But I brought your father Abraham from the region beyond the River and led him through the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous, and gave him Isaac. To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I assigned the mountain region of Seir in which to settle, while Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.
Saturday (Joshua 24) Fear the LORD and serve him completely and sincerely. Cast out the gods your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. If it does not please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are dwelling.
Gospel:
Monday: (Matthew 17) Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?” When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him, “Then the subjects are exempt.
Tuesday: (John 12) Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Wednesday (Matthew 18) If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
If he refuses to listen to them, tell the Church. If he refuses to listen even to the Church,
then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.
Thursday (Matthew 18) Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.”
Friday (Matthew 19) He answered, “Not all can accept this word, but only those to whom that is granted. Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven.
Saturday (Matthew 19) The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” After he placed his hands on them, he went away.
Saints of the Week
August 8: Dominic, priest (1170-1221), was a Spaniard who was sent to southern France to counter the heretical teachings of the Albigensians, who held that the material world was evil and only religious asceticism could combat those forces. Dominic begged and preached in an austere fashion and set the foundations for the new Order of Preachers for both men and women.
August 8: Mother Mary MacKillop, religious (1842-1909), who worked in Australia and New Zealand to assist the poor, needy, and immigrants to the country, was canonized on October 17th 2010. August 8th is chosen as the day in which she will be memorialized on the Roman calendar. I offer the following prayer:
Bountiful and loving God,
You have filled the heart of Mary MacKillop
with compassionate love for those
who are in need at the margins of our society.
Deepen that love within us
that we may embrace the mystery of the Cross
which leads us through death to life.
We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus
who having broken the bonds of death
leads us to everlasting life. Amen.
August 9: Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), martyr (1891-1942), became a Catholic convert from Judaism after reading the autobiography of Teresa of Avila. He earned a doctorate in philosophy, but was unemployable because she was a woman. She taught at a high school for eight years before entering the Carmelites in 1933 where she made final vows in 1938. She moved to Holland to escape persecution by the Nazis, but was arrested when the bishops spoke out against the persecution of the Jews.
August 10: Lawrence, deacon and martyr (d. 258) was martyred four days after Pope Sixtus II and six other deacons during the Valerian persecution. A beautiful story is told about Lawrence's words. When asked to surrender the church's treasure, Lawrence gathered the poor and presented them to the civil authorities. For this affront, he was martyred. He is the patron of Rome.
August 11: Clare, founder (1193-1253), was inspired by Francis of Assist so much that she fled her home for his community to receive the Franciscan habit on Passion Sunday 1212. She lived in a nearby Benedictine convent until she was made superior of a new community in San Damiano. She practiced radical poverty by wearing no shoes, sleeping on the ground, and giving up meat.
August 12: Jane Frances de Chantal, religious (1572-1641), founded the Congregation of the Visitation with her spiritual advisor, Francis de Sales. This congregation was for women who wanted to live in religious life, but without the austerity of the other orders. Jane was married to a Baron with whom she had six children and she sought religious answers to her suffering. Her order established eighty-five convents dedicated to serving the poor before she died.
August 13: Pontian, pope and martyr and Hippolytus, priest and martyr (d.236). Pontian's papacy was interrupted by a persecution when the Roman Emperor Maximinus arrested him and his rival, Hippolytus, and banished them to Sardinia. Pontian resigned so another pope could succeed him. Hippolytus, who formed a schismatic group and claimed to be the real pope, reconciled with the church before he and Pontian were martyred.
August 14: Maximilian Kolbe, priest and martyr (1894-1941), was born in Russian-occupied Poland. He entered the Franciscans in 1910 and preached the gospel with his devotion to Mary in Poland and Japan. When the Nazis conquered Poland in 1939, he ministered to thousands of refugees. He was arrested, sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. When a prisoner escaped and retaliation was sought, Kolbe offered himself to replace one of the ten randomly chosen men to be executed.
This Week in Jesuit History
· August 8, 1604. St Peter Claver takes his first vows at Tarracona.
· August 9, 1762. The moving of the English College from St Omers to Liege.
· August 10, 1622. Blessed Augustine Ota, a Japanese brother, was beheaded for the faith. He had been baptized by Blessed Camillus Costanzi on the eve of the latter's martyrdom.
· August 11, 1846. The death of Benedict Joseph Fenwick. He was the second bishop of Boston, twice the president of Georgetown, and the founder of the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.
· August 12, 1877. The death of Fr. Maurice Gailland. He was an expert in languages and spent many years at St Mary's Mission in Kansas. He wrote a 450.page dictionary and grammar of the Potawatomi language.
· August 13, 1621. The death in Rome of St John Berchmans. He died while still in studies, preparing for a public disputation.
· August 14, 1812. Napoleon I and his army arrived at Polosk, in White Russia. They plunder the property of the Society and violate the tombs of the Generals.
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