Prayer: Teresa of Calcutta

I have to be a saint in my own way; you have to be a saint in your own way.

Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

October 30, 2011

Malachi 1:14-2:2, 8-10; Psalm 13; 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9, 13; Matthew 23:1-12

          Paul's warm letter to the Thessalonians is nestled softly between two harsh critiques of the day's religious authorities. While drawn to Paul's letter, its message becomes all the more inviting when I feel the veracity of the other two. In Malachi, the Lord of hosts is chastising his priests because they no longer keep his ways and they show partiality in their decisions. They use a human system of judgment that causes many to falter because of their instruction. The Lord finds these priests contemptible because they show disdain for the covenant and they break faith with one another. The Lord reminds them that we have one father and because of the covenant, we are all his children.

          In Matthew, Jesus tells his friends that the scribes and Pharisees have the legitimate authority because they occupy the chair of Moses and has gone through the prescribed education, therefore their words are to be respected because they come from Scripture. Their example does not match what they teach and they lay onerous burdens upon people of goodwill who are sincerely striving to fulfill the law's expectations. The religious authorities are concerned with human honor and glory and moved away from an intimate relationship with the Lord. They like to be called "Rabbi" and "Master" and to receive job perks, but no one is to be called "Father" because in God's Kingdom, God is the sole Father who provides for his family's children.

          In contrast, Paul, as a leading church figure, talks about the gentle ways the people and church leadership care for one another. They do it with genuine affection, with a desire to share the Gospel and their very own selves as well because the people of God had become so dearly beloved to them. The people experience firsthand the exhausting demands church leadership places upon themselves so no burden is placed on any brother or sister. They work hard to serve one another with great charity and they give thanks because their friends are now able to hear the word of God.

          It is good for us to examine this contrast in style. It is good for us to ascertain the style of church leadership today. What do you notice? To which type of community are you drawn? I know the type of community I want to help create.

          The question becomes, "how do I create the community I want to live in?," even when external forces challenge or damage the community's well-being. To quote George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, "The style is the man himself." We live as if Christ's resurrection happened and means something - because it did and does. We live in joy that is free from the grasp of sin and death. God changed the world for us; we respond by showing our gratitude and care for each other.

          Hospitality, affection, overflowing charity are important characteristics of 'who we are' as a people. Let's make sure it marks us and defines us. Let's be remembered this way. Let us show the world that we love and honor God's covenantal relationship with us and that we have no real cares because God is looking out for our well-being. We can live this more boldly that we presently do. Let's try to love one another more fully. That means we have to start liking one another. Let us build a community of faith where we listen more adeptly, see one another and know that we are also seen by others, that we feel what someone else feels with our senses, and we respond with care and compassion as we learn what one needs.

          Forces beyond our control can be formidable. We do not have to give them power over our attitudes. Let no one erode your joy. God's judgment first and foremost matters and we garner our strength for the many ways God continues to labor for us. Let us celebrate and praise God who is doing wonderful things for us; let us praise alongside each other with great acts of kindness and caring.

Themes for this Week’s Masses

First Reading: Paul continues in Romans to say the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. God delivers all to disobedience that he might have mercy upon all. None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself, but while we live, we live for the Lord. We are the Lord's - no matter what. This is why Christ died and was raised, that he might be Lord of both the living and the dead. You are full of goodness, filled with knowledge, and are able to admonish one another. Paul speaks humbly about completing his work of bringing the Gentiles to obedience by words and deed through the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God. Therefore, he proclaims the Gospel in new areas, to a new people who have not heard the word of God. Paul then greets his many friends in Rome and asks the people to receive him so he can raise funds to go to Iberia (Spain) to continue to preach.

Gospel: At a leading Pharisees' house, Jesus insults the host again by telling his guests their relationships are based on who will repay you even greater for what you have given them. Their motives are selfish. The Pharisees then complain that he is eating with tax collectors and known sinners. Jesus teaches them that he is working to bring them back to God through repentance just as a shepherd searches for the lost sheep and brings him back into the fold. God rejoices when a sinner repents. He then praises an unworthy steward who defrauds his master but does whatever is possible to wiggle his way out of major debt. Jesus says we are to be as crafty in our ways to reform our lives. He urges them to make friends with dishonest wealth for the one who is trustworthy in small matters is trustworthy of greater ones. He knows the hearts of the Pharisees who love money and he tells them their motives are despicable.

Saints of the Week

Monday: All Hallows Even (evening) owes its origins to a Celtic festival that marked summer's end. The term was first used in 16th century Scotland. Trick or treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling when poor people would go door to door on Hallomas (November 1) receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2.)

Tuesday: All Saints Day honors the countless faithful believers - living and dead - who have helped us along in our faith. Our liturgical calendar is filled with canonized saints, but we have many blesseds and minor saints who no longer appear on it. We have local saints across the world. We have many people who live Gospel values who we appreciate and imitate. We remember all of these people on this day.

Wednesday: All Souls Day is the commemoration of the faithful departed. November is known as All Souls Month. We remember those who died as we hasten towards the end of the liturgical year and the great feast of Christ the King. As a tradition, we have always remembered our dead as a way of keeping them alive to us and giving thanks to God for their lives.

Wednesday: Rupert Mayer, S.J., priest (1876-1945), resisted the Nazi government and died while saying Mass of a stroke. In 1937, he was placed in protective custody and was eventually released when he agreed that he would no longer preach.

Thursday: Martin de Porres, religious (1579-1639) was a Peruvian born of a Spanish knight and a Panamanian Indian woman. Because he was not pure blood, he lost many privileges in the ruling classes. He became a Dominican and served the community in many menial jobs. He was known for tending to the sick and poor and for maintaining a rigorous prayer life.

Friday: Charles Borromeo, bishop (1538-1584), was made Bishop of Milan at age 22. He was the nephew of Pope Pius IV. He was a leading Archbishop in the Catholic Reformation that followed the Council of Trent. During a plague epidemic, Borromeo visited the hardest hit areas so he could provide pastoral care to the sick.

Saturday: All Saints and Blessed of the Society of Jesus are remembered by Jesuits on their particularized liturgical calendar. We remember not only the major saints on the calendar, but also those who are in the canonization process and hold the title of Blessed, like Peter Faber. We pray for all souls of deceased Jesuits in our province during the month by using our necrology (listing of the dead.)

This Week in Jesuit History

·         Oct 30, 1638. On this day, John Milton, the great English poet, dined with the Fathers and students of the English College in Rome.

·         Oct 31, 1602. At Cork, the martyrdom of Dominic Collins, an Irish brother, who was hanged, drawn, and quartered for his adherence to the faith.

·         Nov 1, 1956. The Society of Jesus was allowed in Norway.

·         Nov 2, 1661. The death of Daniel Seghers, a famous painter of insects and flowers.

·         Nov 3, 1614. Dutch pirates failed to capture the vessel in which the right arm of Francis Xavier was being brought to Rome.

·         Nov 4, 1768. On the feast of St Charles, patron of Charles III, King of Spain, the people of Madrid asked for the recall of the Jesuits who had been banished from Spain nineteen months earlier. Irritated by this demand, the king drove the Archbishop of Toledo and his Vicar General into exile as instigators of the movement.

·         Nov 5, 1660. The death of Alexandre de Rhodes, one of the most effective Jesuit missionaries of all time. A native of France, he arrived in what is now Vietnam in 1625.

Prayer: Staying Close to God

Suppose you give your three-year old daughter a coloring book and a box of crayons for her birthday. The following day, with the proud smile only a little one can muster, she presents her first pictures for inspection. She has colored the sun black, the grass purple, and the sky green. In the lower right-hand corner, she has added woozy wonders of floating slabs and hovering rings; on the left, a panoply of colorful, carefree squiggles. You marvel at her bold strokes and intuit that her psyche is railing against its own cosmic puniness in the face of a big, ugly world. Later at the office, you share with your staff your daughter's first artistic effort and you make veiled references to the early work of van Gogh. A little child cannot do a bad coloring; nor can a child of God do bad prayer.

A father is delighted when his little one, leaving off her toys and friends, runs to him and climbs into his arms. As he holds his little one close to him, he cares little whether the child is looking around, her attention flitting from one thing to another, or just settling down to sleep. Essentially the child is choosing to be with her father, confident of the love, the care, the security that is hers in those arms. Our prayer is much like that. We settle down in our Father's arms, in his loving hands. Our minds, our thoughts, our imagination may flit about here and there; we might even fall asleep; but essentially we are choosing for this time to remain intimately with our Father, giving ourselves to him, receiving his love and care, letting him enjoy us as he will. It is very simple prayer. It is very childlike prayer. It is prayer that opens us to all the delights of the kingdom.

From "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning

Prayer: Thomas a Kempis

Whoever finds Jesus finds a rare treasure, indeed, a good above every good. Whereas one who loses him loses more than the whole world. The one who lives without Jesus is the poorest of the poor, whereas no one is so rich as the one who lives in his grace.

Spirituality: Martin Buber (again)

Every Thou in the world is by its nature fated to become a thing, or continually to re-enter into the condition of things. In objective speech it would be said that everything in the world, either before or after becoming a thing, is able to appear to an I as its Thou. But objective speech snatches only at a fringe of real life.

Spirituality: Loneliness by Anthony de Mello, S.J.

Loneliness is not cured by human company. Loneliness is cured by contact with reality.

Prayer: From Robert Hotchkins at the University of Chicago

Christians ought to be celebrating constantly. We ought to be preoccupied with parties, banquets, feasts, and merriment. We ought to give ourselves over to veritable revelries of joy because we have been liberated from the fear of life and the fear of death. We ought to attract people to the church quite literally by the fun there is in being a Christian.

From "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning

Song: What about your brother?

What about the man who sits down to wonder

why life has cheated him?

Thinks about his situation

hangs his head and cries

Will we pretend his problems don't exist?

He's reaching out for help - will we selfishly resist?

What about your brother? He's crying

What about your brother? He's dying

What about your brother?

From "Have a little Faith" by Mitch Albom

Photo: Ignatius of Loyola

Click to Enlarge

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

October 23, 2011

Exodus 22:2-26; Psalm 18; 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10; Matthew 22:34-40

          It is too bad we do not get to know the Old Testament better. These are the Hebrew Scriptures Jesus enjoyed reading. The social justice efforts of the church rise right out of the first few books of the bible. In Exodus, we hear a strong command by God to respect the alien and to treat the widow and orphan judiciously. In economic matters, we are not to exact harsh judgments on those poorer than we are. We are to be considerate of others' boundaries just as we want them to honor ours.

          My best guess is that we think themes of the Old Testament as too remote for us and intended for a more primitive people. For instance, when we hear that God has preferential love for the poor, I suspect we believe this reality. Our hearts goes out to the poor as well. I wonder though if we have properly imagined who the poor are. In our intercessory prayers, we remember the starving, the homeless, those with addictions, and all those we consider at the bottom of society. We know we have a responsibility to look out for them.

          Do we have to re-imagine who God is talking about when we think of the poor? Perhaps our categories will expand to include your neighbor who is just hanging on paycheck to paycheck or the person who goes to McDonald's to get her favorite meal. Those in the middle too often become neglected or are made invisible. To us, poverty means destitute, homeless, moneyless, and without adequate clothing. While we think of only the poorest of the poor, God remembers the various layers of those in poverty.

          Our social systems today obscure the plight of widows and orphans. We hardly use those terms now. Perhaps in today's world, these are the single parents and their children whether through personal tragedy or divorce. Their livelihood may be at great peril as they have to depend upon the goodwill of their divorced bitter partner or the state's efficient and effective bureaucracy. These people are hurting and deserve to be 'seen' and 'heard' by their neighbors. Too often we assume that most people are like us.

          The author of Exodus tells us 'we shall not molest or oppress an alien' because we were once aliens and we know how it feels to be on the outside.' However, we use 'alien' to refer to a being from another planet. Once upon a time, a family bought a house and lived in it forever. Today, many people move from house to house, city to city, and country to country, and some have few problems adjusting. Too often we assume that most people are like us. We overlook the fact that many people live in fear, do not feel welcomed or valued, are not made to feel as if they fit in, or do not receive the subtle invitations that tell them they are included. A smile or gesture of kindness communicates far more than we imagine. It is right for us to see that most of us, including ourselves, are foreigners and are different in some qualitative capacity from others at most times in our day.

          Once again, we are to expand our imagination and worldview. Today's alien might be the illegal immigrant many in our nation hate, especially if skin color, language, or class doesn't match what we want as normative. She could be a person who holds a different position from a Roman Catholic church bishop. Muslims and Mormons are suspected as deviants because of our own lack of understanding. A schoolboy who is bullied because others suspect he is gay or because his parents are in a same-sex marriage has become an alien to many. ~ We have a responsibility to encounter the 'alien' and treat him or her with great nobility - because we know what it feels like to be different. We were once in their situation. Do not let yourselves become too remote from the world around you. Do not "alien-ate" yourself from them. God doesn't want that.

          With this in mind, we read the Gospel passage about the law's summation as a personal matter. If we love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind, we turn to our neighbors and love them as we love ourselves. The foundational element is that God loves each of us first and we return our gratitude to God by caring for our neighbor - even those we do not want to consider our neighbor. Real love begets more genuine love. Far too many who are on the margins, far too many who are in the middle, hope and depend upon this love from us.

Themes for this Week’s Masses

First Reading: Paul continues in Romans to say if you live according to the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body and you will live. Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God and we can call out, "Abba, Father." The present sufferings are nothing compared with the glory that will be revealed to us for creation awaits with eager expectation the full revelation of God's children. The Spirit of God is groaning within us, and within all creation, for the redemption of our bodies. We hope for that which is not seen. The Spirit comes to our aid and intercedes in our prayers. We need to relax so we can know that all things work for good for those who love God. We can realize that God is on our side; therefore we have no enemies that can separate us from Christ's love. We are inextricably bound. God has not rejected his people; even the Gentiles are included in God's plan of salvation. God's mystery is always coming more completely into its fullness.

Gospel: Jesus encounters a cripple woman who suffered for eighteen years. He heals her immediately to glorify God, but the leader of the synagogue protests that he did it on the Sabbath. Jesus begins to talk about the kingdom of God. He compares it to a mustard seed that is tiny but blossoms into a large tree. He passes through towns while instructing the people. When asked about who will be saved he replies that the way is difficult. Intimately knowing God through Jesus will aid a person's path to salvation. Friendly Pharisees tell Jesus to flee because Herod wants to kill him. Jesus remains undeterred. He will do the will of the Father - against all odds. He then has dinner at a leading Pharisees' house and he insults the invited guests by revealing to them that they seek places of honor and human glory rather than the glory of God.

Saints of the Week

Monday: Anthony Claret, bishop (1807-1870) adopted his father's weaving career as a young man, but continued to study Latin and printing. After entering seminary, he began preaching retreats and giving missions. He published and distributed religious literature and founded the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He was appointed archbishop of Cuba but was called back to Spain to be Queen Isabella II's confessor. He resumed publishing until the revolution of 1868 sent him into exile.

Friday: Simon and Jude, apostles (first century) were two of the Twelve Disciples called by Jesus, but little is known about them. We think they are Simon the Zealot and Judas, the son of James. Simon was most likely a Zealot sympathizer who would have desired revolution against Rome; Jude is also called Thaddeus, and is patron saint of hopeless causes. Both apostles suffered martyrdom.

This Week in Jesuit History

·         October 23, 1767: The Jesuits who had been kept prisoners in their college in Santiago, Chile, for almost two months were led forth to exile. In all 360 Jesuits of the Chile Province were shipped to Europe as exiles.

·         October 24, 1759: 133 members of the Society, banished from Portugal and put ashore at Civita Vecchia, were most kindly received by Clement XIII and by the religious communities, especially the Dominicans.

·         Oct 25, 1567. St Stanislaus Kostka arrived in Rome and was admitted into the Society by St Francis Borgia.

·         Oct 26, 1546. The Province of Portugal was established as the first province in the Society, with Simao Rodriguez as its first provincial superior.

·         Oct 27, 1610. The initial entrance of the Jesuits into Canada. The mission had been recommended to the Society by Henry IV.

·         Oct 28, 1958. The death of Wilfrid Parsons, founder of Thought magazine and editor of America from 1925 to 1936.

·         Oct 29, 1645. In the General Chapter of the Benedictines in Portugal, a statement published by one of their order, that said St Ignatius had borrowed the matter in his Spiritual Exercises from a Benedictine author, was indignantly repudiated.