Wisdom’s Nutrition:
The Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024
August 18, 2024
1 Kings 19:4-8; Psalm 34; Ephesians 4:30-5:2; John 6:41-51
Lady Wisdom bursts onto the scene after preparing the meal and taking care of the details of hospitality. She offers the food of wisdom to those who can hear her. She urges everyone to advance in the way of understanding. St. Paul also urges wisdom so that believer may make the most of every opportunity leaving behind ignorance. In the Gospel, we see the quarrel between those who are educated by the Spirit and those who are mired in the world as they know it, a world that becomes increasingly small if one does not advance in the spiritual life. Feeding on the wisdom of Jesus brings everlasting life.
We as individuals are invited to advance in our spiritual understanding and that means we sometimes must look at where we have been in church history and where we are going. Just as we develop as individuals, so does the church. Theologians like Tomas Halik, John Haught, and Ilia Delio see the church as an evolving institution, one that has constantly developed over the years, and one that is still coming into being. Some see the church as moving past its infancy phase. Historians see the infancy stage of the church as one in which doctrines were formed, heresies are proclaimed, liturgical and ministerial rituals were developed. The teenage years were the times the church responded to challenges from within and from those groups that separated from their communion in the Reformation. For five centuries, the church was confronted with expansion into newly discovered territories that presented unique moral issues, industrialization, and the rise of nation states and democracies.
During Vatican II, the church woke up and entered young adulthood as it recognized that it need not see Protestants as adversaries and that it had responsibility for a worldwide communion. The link to imperial Europeanism was over, and the church was asked to be the adult on a global stage. Today, the church enters full adulthood as it confronts nationalism, populism, and fundamentalism. Secularization has transformed religion. Traditional religious institutions have lost their monopoly on religion, and traditional religious boundaries are being transformed by the internet and the way society is being shaped by other forces. For some, this is a crisis, for others, an opportunity. If we fail to evolve and find meaning in our growth, we age poorly, and that can breed rigidity, emotional upset, anxiety, suspicion, pettiness, self-pity, and wreaking havoc upon other’s well-being. We can see this happen in the response of some people to Jesus Bread of Life statements; we can see it in our church today as well.
The adulthood, the mature age, the church is entering has the important task of completing the lifelong process of maturing. This is what Lady Wisdom offers. She brings about insight, wisdom, peace and tolerance, the ability to manage emotions and to overcome self-centeredness. We, and the church, can shift from a self-concern to a concern for others, and then we attain wholeness, holiness, and healthiness. You notice when people are healthy by the way they live, the “how” they are, their emotional richness, their imagination and creativity, their focus on the sense of beauty and sense of light-heartedness, their capacity for empathy, and their reliance upon gratitude. This is the kind of faith that inspires and informs one’s life.
We have an offer to receive God’s wisdom, to advance in our spiritual life, and to accept the fulfilling nourishment. As we grow and evolve, the church mirrors our growth. Are we ready to step into the maturity that is offered with all the promises of wholeness and healthiness? I think you are. I know you are. Let this food mature us so that we care for accept the bounty and offer it to a world that is starving to know God. As we are fortified, we can be the food the world needs to grow in grace and wisdom.
Scripture for Daily Mass
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. Groan in silence, make no lament for the dead, bind on your turban, put your sandals on your feet, do not cover your beard, and do not eat the customary bread. That evening my wife died.
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.
Wednesday: (Ezekiel 34) Thus says the Lord GOD: I swear I am coming against these shepherds. I will claim my sheep from them and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep so that they may no longer pasture themselves. I will save my sheep, that they may no longer be food for their mouths.
Thursday: (Ezekiel 36) I will prove the holiness of my great name, profaned among the nations, in whose midst you have profaned it. Thus the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when in their sight I prove my holiness through you.
Friday (Ezekiel 37) The hand of the LORD came upon me, and led me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the center of the plain, which was now filled with bones. He made me walk among the bones in every direction so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain. How dry they were!
Saturday (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.
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. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
Tuesday: (Matthew 19) 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.
Thursday (Matthew 22) "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."'
Friday (Matthew 22) “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 (John 1) "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?"
Saints of the Week
August 18: Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, S.J., priest (1901-1952), was a Chilean Jesuit priest, lawyer, writer and social worker who was born in the Basque region in Spain. He established Hogar de Cristo, that housed at-risk children, whether orphaned or not, and provided them food and shelter. Hurtado also supported the rise of labor union and labor rights in Chile.
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.
This Week in Jesuit History
- August 18, 1952: The death of Alberto Hurtado, writer, retreat director, trade unionist and founder of "El Hogar de Christo," a movement to help the homeless in Chile.
- August 19, 1846: At Melgar, near Burgos, the birth of Fr. Luis Martin, 24th General of the Society.
- 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.
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