Our expanded image of Church: The 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

                                                 Our expanded image of Church:

The 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

August 20, 2023

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Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Psalm 67; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28

 

Isaiah writes that foreigners will join themselves to the Lord and that God’s house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples. The Psalmist cries out “Let all the peoples praise you” as God’s invitation stretches across the globe. The readings emphasize the universal call of God to all people of goodwill, and God’s kingdom is expansive. We even learn that Jesus expanded his understanding of inclusivity when he encounters the Canaanite woman whose daughter was ill. Through their interaction, Jesus comes to understand a bit more that his message is wider than the people of Israel.

 

As the church reflects Jesus, it is important for us to see how the church is expanding its mission. Since after World War II, the church began to see itself as responsible to, not just Catholics, but to people of goodwill globally. It was a time when the church began to mature in its relationship to other people. It realized that Protestants were not the enemies they thought they were for five centuries, and the church realized it had a role in lessening the suffering of many people of the world, regardless of one’s religion or lack thereof. It began ecumenical friendships with its Protestant siblings and set about a new relationship with the Jews and other religions. 

 

We can see how Popes have evolved as well by looking at their papal trips. Pope John Paull II only visited Catholic strongholds to reinvigorate the faith; Pope Benedict XVI visited European cities to restore the continent to Catholicism. At this time, the influence of Catholicism was waning in Europe and increasing in Latin America, Africa, India, and Asia, and the church was becoming more diverse, less-Eurocentric. For the global south, Europe represented colonizers and imperialists, and they retained a local flavor of Catholicism, that had little familiarity with Latin or monarchical traditions. Pope Francis, responded to the needs of the global church, visited places like Lampedusa off the coast of Italy, where the lives of migrants and foreigners were imperiled as they sought dangerous routes to Europe. He visited Abu Dhabi, the first pope ever to visit the Arabian Peninsula, to care for the lives of Catholics who do not have religious freedom and are persecuted and to establish a new relationship with Islam. He visits Mongolia this month to let Catholics know that the church is there for them. Pope Francis’s papal trip are to tell minority Christians that his is their Bishop and that he cares for them. He travels to the peripheries to visit those Catholics whose voices are never heard. He wants them to know that even though others do not see them, he knows they are there. 

 

The church has become globalized and is no longer the church solely of Europe and the lands it once influenced. The Cardinals appointed by Francis are not a reward for someone being a faithful bishop in a largely populated area; Cardinals are raised to give voice to the multi-cultural reality of a global church. Three of the last Cardinals are from persecuted lands: the Sudan, Palestine, and Hong Kong. Our image of the church is going through growing pains as well as we expand our notion of what it means to be in a worldwide communion where the dignity of persons is honored and respected. Jesus went through these growing pains; the church is experiencing it with him today. Isaiah says foreigners will come; we must accept them and welcome them and treat them as equals.

 

Today, we see the church trying to understand itself differently, more maturely, more responsible to the needs of the suffering world, and more compassionate as it sees its role as helping people achieve salvation and to lessen their suffering – regardless of one’s religion. The solidarity of humanity is the common denominator. As the church reflects Jesus’s mind and attitude, we must reflect the church’s attitude when we attend to those who suffer and need a companion on the journey – without regard for one’s religion or characteristic. We, like the church and Jesus, are to expand our consciousness of how to be in solidarity with others in the world, mostly with people who are different from us. This will be the sign of our faith, when we can recognize the goodness in others and say, “O friend, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you wish.”

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

Monday: (Judges 2) The children of Israel offended the LORD by serving the Baals. Abandoning the LORD, the God of their fathers, who led them out of the land of Egypt, they followed the other gods of the various nations.

 

Tuesday: (Judges 6) "The LORD is with you, O champion!" Gideon said to him, "My Lord, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are his wondrous deeds of which our fathers told us when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?'

 

Wednesday: (Judges 9) "Hear me, citizens of Shechem, that God may then hear you! Once the trees went to anoint a king over themselves. So they said to the olive tree, 'Reign over us.' But the olive tree answered them, 'Must I give up my rich oil, whereby men and gods are honored, and go to wave over the trees?'

 

Thursday: (Revelation 21) The angel spoke to me, saying, "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.

 

Friday (Ruth 1) Once in the time of the judges there was a famine in the land; so a man from Bethlehem of Judah departed with his wife and two sons to reside on the plateau of Moab. Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons, who married Moabite women, one named Orpah, the other Ruth.

 

Saturday (Ruth 2) Naomi had a prominent kinsman named Boaz, of the clan of her husband Elimelech. Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, "Let me go and glean ears of grain in the field of anyone who will allow me that favor."

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 19) A young man approached Jesus and said, “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.

 

Tuesday: (Matthew 19) Jesus said to his disciples: "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."

 

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 (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."

 

Friday (Matthew 22) "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"
He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

 

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.

 

Saints of the Week

 

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

 

• August 20, 1891: At Santiago, Chile, the government of Balmaceda ordered the Jesuit College to be closed. 
• August 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. 
• August 22, 1872: Jesuits were expelled from Germany during the Bismarckian Kulturkampf. 
• August 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. 
• August 24, 1544: Peter Faber arrived in Lisbon. 
• August 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. 
• August 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.