The Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, September 1, 2024

Mark 7, 1–8; 14–15;  21–23

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. —For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.— So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.  “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”

One of the great faults we possess and one of the worst consequences of original sin, is that we tend to take the sign for the reality.  We take the appearance for the thing itself.  So common is this fault that it seems inevitable in cases where decisions and judgments must be made.  We “judge the book by its cover” repeatedly, despite sorry experience.  The devil and his followers know this very well: “False apostles are deceitful workmen, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no wonder: for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11, 13-14).  However, “by their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7, 20).

In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, the Pharisees, blind to the meaning of purity, mandate rituals for purity that could be, at best, mere signs of the reality.  The Pharisees, believing that their rituals did in fact render them pure, ignored the actual impurity within themselves.  The ostentation of their rituals confirmed their thinking for them.  The Lord strives to correct them, pointing out the limitations of the sign and announcing the end to signs, for with the Incarnation of the Son of God, the time of the Old Law, which could do no more than command signs, had ended.  

In other places, the Lord and the Apostles praise purity.  The Lord himself declares, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5, 8).  Here, he condemns impurity and lists actions which cause a person to become truly impure, or that signify that impurity is already present in a person, out of which he performs these actions.  The Greek word translated as “unchastity” actually means fornication and, in general, sexual immorality.  The word translated as “envy” is actually two words, meaning “an evil eye”, which signifies envy along with hatred of a person for having something the envious person covets.  The sins listed by the Lord “defile” a person, he says.  That is, they do more than make the perpetrator ritually unclean: they corrupt him from within his heart, so that he is fit for nothing than damnation.

The pure of heart possess a freedom to love and to understand which those who are impure deny to themselves.  This is why only they shall see God.

 Saturday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, August 31, 2024

Matthew 25, 14-30

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “A man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one– to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them, and made another five. Likewise, the one who received two made another two. But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money. After a long time the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them. The one who had received five talents came forward bringing the additional five. He said, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’ Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two talents. See, I have made two more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’ Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.’ 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. For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ ”

From the middle of chapter 21 to the end of chapter 25 of his Gospel, St. Matthew carefully reports everything he remember the Lord Jesus saying about the final judgment during the last days of his life.  Going by St. Matthew’s account, the Lord was preoccupied with this subject, urging people to repent up till the time of his Last Supper and the beginning of his is Passion.  We see in this the force of his desire for the salvation of the world.  Even at the Last Supper, he counsels Peter and Judas Iscariot with an eye to their eternal destiny.  St. Luke even tells us of his pastoral care of the Good Thief with his last breaths.

In the parable which the Church uses for the Gospel Reading for today’s Mass, we see a master going away on a journey and he sets up his servants to carry on his business for him. “To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one— to each according to his ability.”  He knows his servants’s abilities, and he distributes his talents among them according to his expectations in light of this knowledge.  He does not distribute the talents in an equal way because he understands that the three servants do not have the same abilities.  It is noteworthy that he does not give all the talents to the one who is best qualified to handle these talents — the one to whom he gives five.  He would have made more money that way, in the end, but it seems that making money is only a secondary factor here.  What the Master really intends is to give all three of the servants who have handled his money a chance to shine, and to be rewarded for their work.  Thus, the Lord entrusts each person with a calling — a vocation — and the grace necessary to know, and to carry out, his calling.  His purpose for doing so is not to enrich himself, for he is infinitely rich in glory and happiness, but so that he might have cause to grant a share in his riches and joy with us.

What are these vocations, in general?  The Church Father Origen taught that the five talents signified a complete knowledge of God’s law, as the number five was the number of the books of the Pentateuch.  The person who received these was meant to govern in some way.  Learned and able, this one might be a member of the clergy, or a secular authority, or a teacher.  The number two signified the the material and the spiritual aspects of the world, and for Origen this meant that the one who received two talents was meant to build, for instance.  This could be a missionary, or a construction worker.  This person would have practical knowledge and cleverness.  The one talent signified the unity of one, and this meant the spirit.  Origen considered that the person who received the one talent actually received more than the one who received the five because the spiritual person is greater than one who merely governs things and people.  These talents — these vocations — are given to be developed.

When the Master returns, he calls his servants to him in order to learn how they succeeded.  Now, the Lord Jesus knows all things and does not need us to tell him anything.  But he wants us to admit the truth, to take responsibility, for what we have done.  In the present case, the man with the five talents has governed wisely.  He has rejected attempts to enrich himself at the expense of others and the temptation of abusing his authority.  This might be Pope St. Gregory the Great, or St. Catherine of Sweden.  The servant with the two talents has also worked hard, building.  This might be a Catholic wife and mother, Louis Pasteur, or Father Damien of Molokai.  The servant called to the spiritual life might be St. Claire or St. Francis.  But in this case, the servant failed.  He rejected his spiritual calling or failed to make progress in it once he had begun.  As his Master tells him, all he had to do was the most basic thing, accept the vocation and make even the smallest progress, but he did not even do that.  If he had truly applied himself, he could have made many more times the amount the one with the five talents did, and this would have rebounded to the glory of the Master.

Because the servant with the one failed to carry out his vocation, he is cast out into the fearsome darkness.  Had the one with the five not produced, this would have been his lot as well.  How essential is it to know and to carry out our vocations!  And yet this is a terrible problem in our society today.  So many people do not know what to do with themselves.  This applies to people of all ages.  Young people graduate from high school with no ideas or plans and then accrue enormous debt in college and still have no real ideas or plans.  People in the midst of their careers suddenly wonder what it is all for.  Folks who retire early from their government or corporate jobs now face nearly half their lifetimes with no real idea for what to do next.  But this is not hard to figure out.  Understanding our vocations comes down to thinking about how we can serve God and our neighbors, given the talents, abilities, and interests that we have.  In the end, it all comes down to service, to answering the question, How can I help?

May we serve our God with all our hearts so that one day we may hear him say to us, “Come, share your master’s joy.”

 Friday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, August 30, 2024

Matthew 25, 1-13

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “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. Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight, there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise ones replied, ‘No, for there may not be enough for us and you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.’ While they went off to buy it, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him. Then the door was locked. Afterwards the other virgins came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’ But he said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

One of the most interesting aspects of the Lord’s parables is how they preserve snapshots of ancient Jewish life.  They teach us about customs and ideas that largely disappeared after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and scattered the Jewish people within a generation of the Lord’s Death and Resurrection.  In the present parable, the Gospel Reading for today’s Mass, for instance, we learn about the conclusion of the typical Jewish wedding in the first century A.D.  At a designated time following the wedding agreement between the man and the woman in the presence of the bride’s parents, a reception was held at the house of the bride’s family, following which the groom would lead his bride to his house, where the wedding feast took place.  The feast began only when the bride and groom arrived.  There was no set hour for this.  It only occurred at such time as the reception at the bride’s house ended, and there was no set time for this.  Thus, the virgins with lamps along the road.  These friends of the bride or the groom, between twelve and sixteen years in age, would light the way for the couple as they neared the house.  Servants within the house would keep a look-out for the first sign of the lit lamps so that they could open the doors to the newlyweds the moment they arrived, and the music could begin.  As in any wedding ritual, to be chosen for a task by the bride and groom constituted an honor prized by the recipient.

“Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!”  The cry may have come from a herald.  The wedding party was conveyed by lamp-bearing attendants from the bride’s house to a point halfway to the groom’s house, where the attendants from the groom’s house took over.  If the cry did not come from a herald, it would have come from a servant or even a guest from the groom’s house who had started walking up the road to see if there was a reason for the groom and bride being delayed.  Not seeing the virgins and their lamps, his cry would be meant to rouse them.

“Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.”  The foolish virgins panic as they realize their lack of preparation will be seen — as it should be — as lack of respect for the bride and groom.  They would incur disgrace in the town as a result.  Their attempt to get the wise virgins to give them some of their oil already comes too late.  “No, for there may not be enough for us and you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.”  The wise virgins should not be accused of selfishness: they are thinking of the service they owed to the bride and groom.  The lamps did not function as mere ornaments in a town without public lighting, but were necessary in order to guide the wedding party along the street without danger of falling into holes or puddles or stumbling over stones.  In their increasing panic the foolish virgins had to go into town with their flickering lamps, wake up the merchants who sold the oil, and persuade him to sell them oil at that inconvenient hour.

But long before the foolish virgins returned, “the bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him.”  This included the wise virgins.  Likely, the groom would have noticed that only five of the virgins he had arranged to light the way had appeared and wondered what had happened to them.  Whatever the case, after the whole party had gone inside, “the door was locked”.  Not just closed, but locked, as was the custom late at night.  

“Lord, Lord, open the door for us!”  The remaining virgins seek entrance even after they had failed in their appointed work.  There is no reason for them to go into the house, and no place for them there, either.  Their earnest seeking to enter the house in spite of the frosty reception they could expect from the groom speaks not of affection for him and the desire to apologize for their dereliction but only of their self-absorption.  “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.”  The verb is in the perfect tense.  This tense indicates a completed action in the past, the effects of which continue to the present.  I have not known you.  It is as if the groom is denying that he had invited this particular virgins to act as his lamp bearers and that they had usurped the position.  This would lend clarity to their lack of seriousness: they had joined the wise virgins not out of consideration for the groom, but simply to get into the wedding feast.  They had not brought extra oil because they had expected the groom to show up at a reasonable time: they were not going to the expense of buying extra oil and lugging it around.  Thus, the groom’s resolute refusal to let them in.

“Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”  This warning is for those who indeed are called to be lamp-bearing virgins at the wedding feast of the Lamb.  Not only will interlopers be excluded from it, but those who fail in their appointed duties will be, as well.  These will wail and gnash their teeth together in the darkness outside.  Each of us of the baptized are appointed particular duties for the Groom while we live our lives on earth, according to our age and condition.  Let us not be caught “asleep” when he comes at the end of our lives, but let us be faithful virgins — free of sin — performing our tasks on that unexpected day.

 The Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist, Thursday, August 29, 2024

Mark 6, 17-29

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. Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him. She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee. Herodias’ own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.” He even swore many things to her, “I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom.” She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the Baptist.” The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request, “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her. So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in the prison. He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl in turn gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. 

The deep influence of St. John the Baptist required the Gospel writers to record more about him than any other figure apart from Jesus.  They provide us with greater information about John the Baptist than even about the Lord’s own Mother and foster-father.  And while St. Luke gives us many words from the mouth of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, we never hear St. Joseph, the Lord’s foster-father, speak at all.  The Baptist, even in death, seemed to overshadow the Lord Jesus, for some people believed the Jesus was John the Baptist or perhaps had received a “portion” of his spirit, much as the prophet Elisha received from the prophet Elijah before the fiery chariot carried him up to heaven (cf. 2 Kings 2, 9).  Indeed, John’s harsh manner of life and his fierce, relentless preaching marked him out as the prophet the Jews had anxiously awaited since the death of their last prophet, Malachi, over four hundred years before.

 In much a similar manner to Elijah, John the Baptist got into trouble with a ruler over his wife (although here Herod Antipas is called a “king” his title was only that of “tetrarch”).  Herod’s wife Herodias was both the divorced wife of his brother Philip and also his niece, and thus the marriage went contrary to the law of Moses on two counts, though in the Gospels John the Baptist is shown as harping on the first.  John’s hold on the Judean people and Herod’s shaky position as tetrarch resulted in Herod and Herodias feeling seriously threatened by him, and so John was arrested.  We are not given any details of the arrest.  It would have been interesting to compare the details of his arrest with those of Jesus’s, three years later.  At the same time, Herod hesitated in killing John because of his popularity.  St. Mark gives us an insight into Herod’s state of mind regarding John at this time: “When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him.”  From this, it seems that Herod either had John brought to him on occasion or that he went into the prison in his for tree in order to listen to him.  Either way, John’s forceful personality and the authority of his words exercised some hold even on an essentially non practicing Jew like Herod.  Later, this same “perplexity” caused Herod to want to see Jesus, who only stood silently before him when Pontius Pilate sent Jesus to him (cf. Luke 23, 8-9).

Herod would likely have kept John alive in his prison indefinitely had it not been for Herod’s lust.  Seeing the daughter of his niece/wife Herodias dance at his own birthday party, he promised the girl anything she wanted, even up to a part of territory which he ruled.  The girl, who would not have been married at the time and so would be in her early teens, went to her mother, who had more reason to feel threatened by John the Baptist than her husband.  Herod, after all, could have appeased John and his large following by divorcing his problematic wife.  Seizing her opportunity, she told her to ask for the head of the prophet.  Politically, this made sense for the girl as well as for the mother since John’s death could mean that his following would disappear and Herodias’s (and her daughter’s) position at court would be assured, st least in the short run.  

However, John had completed his sacred mission of preparing the way for the Son of God, and many of his disciples, during his life and after his death, joined with Jesus — he himself encouraging them to do so.  During his time in prison John’s followers kept him informed of the miraculous deeds and words of the Lord Jesus, of his growing following, so that he could know that he had, as St. Paul would later say, “I am even now ready to be sacrificed: and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought a good fight: I have finished my course: I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice which the Lord the just judge will render to me” (2 Timothy, 4, 6-8).

 Wednesday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, August 28, 2024

Matthew 23, 27-32

Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the Prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous, and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the Prophets’ blood.’ Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the Prophets; now fill up what your ancestors measured out!”

Today’s Gospel Reading continues the Lord’s condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees of which we first read on Monday.  St. Matthew gives a thorough account of it, and this would have consoled the Galilean Christians for whom he wrote and who were suffering bitter persecution at their hands.  It is also profitable for us today to be reminded of the reality and severity of the Lord’s wrath against those who turn God’s word against those who believe in it.  We might find such people today in leadership positions in the Church, but unbelievers who try to quote Scripture (usually out of context) in order to harass Christians also fill the ranks of today’s scribes and Pharisees.

“You hypocrites.”  That is, You godless ones.  The Greek Septuagint translates the Hebrew word kha-nef — “godless” — as ὑποκριτής, which we render in English as “hypocrite” (for example, in Job 34, 30).  The Pharisees, who preferred the Septuagint to the Hebrew edition of the Scriptures, knew very well what the Lord meant by calling them that.  They were “godless” inasmuch as the love and worship of God had nothing to do with their enforcement of the Law as they saw it.  Indeed, this is what they worshipped, not Almighty God.

“You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.”  In the rather antiseptic culture in the West today, the horror the Lord describes barely registers, but in Israel and many other places at the time and for centuries afterwards it was not at all uncommon to some across unburied corpses decaying on the roadside or in the fields or hanging on trees or crosses, with carrion tearing at it and clouds of insects buzzing at it.  Nothing more vile or sickening can be imagined, and the Lord describes the hearts of the scribes and Pharisees to this loathsomeness.  Such is the reality of those who lead God’s people astray.

“If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the Prophets’ blood.”  In order to understand why the Lord reacts as he does to these words we must note that the scribes and Pharisees do not condemn the crimes of their ancestors.  In fact, by not cutting themselves off from their ancestors (in the way a father might disinherit his child), they take on the crimes they committed, for, to the Hebrew mind, the ancestor lived on in his or her descendants in a very real way: a man was his father and grandfather, going back through the generations.  Thus, Jesus is the son of David.  And so without renouncing their ancestors, those who built the tombs of the Prophets whom they had killed act in solidarity with them, as their killers.  Truly, they “filled up” what their ancestors “measured out”.

The Lord does not speak with such vehemence against the Roman occupiers as he does against the Scribes and Pharisees of his own people.  It is a sign of how his wrath will blaze, one day, more against the God’s enemies who are within the Church than of those persecutors outside of it.  

 Tuesday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, August 27, 2024

Matthew 23, 23-26

Jesus said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”

The Jewish law of tithing is found in two places in the Old Testament: in Numbers 18, 21-26, which directs the tithe to the priests for their sustenance; and in Deuteronomy 14, 22-29, where it is declared, “Every year you shall set aside the tithes of all your fruits that the earth brings forth.”  These fruits, though, are specified: “The  tenth of your corn, and your wine, and your oil, and the firstborn of your herds and your sheep.”  These things were to be brought “to the place which the Lord shall choose”, which eventually meant the Temple in Jerusalem, unless doing so proved excessively burdensome, in which case their worth in coin would be brought there.  The Pharisees exceeded the demands of the Law by teaching that even the smallest herbs and seeds should be tithed, just as they exceeded it in their teaching on the Sabbath and when they extended to the common people the laws for cleansing that were supposed to apply only to the priests on duty in the Temple.  Yet they did not teach that which undergirded the Mosaic Law for which they professed to have so much zeal: “judgment — that is, “divine judgment” — “mercy and fidelity”.  

For this grave omission, the Lord Jesus accuses the Pharisees and scribes of being “hypocrites”, from the Greek word used to translate the Hebrew word “ungodly” or “godless” in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Law and the Prophets used by the Pharisees, including Saul of Tarsus.  And as the Lord demonstrated that the ancient priesthood of Aaron had come to an end by driving out of the Temple courtyard the animals to be sacrificed, so the Lord here shows the emptiness of the teaching of the Pharisees.  They are “blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!”  We note here that the Lord goes beyond criticizing their teaching and rebukes them personally.  They will hear this again on the Last  Day when the Lord comes to judge the living and the dead.  “You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.”  This can be understood as a metaphor for their bodies, which they adorn — “They make their phylacteries broad and widen their fringes” (Matthew 23, 5) — and their souls, which are rotted out.  This can also be seen as the contrary sign of the Law in reality: ordinary practices not much different from those of their neighbors, but motivated by the love of God and neighbor.  

“Cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”  The Lord offers practical advice that is meant to convey spiritual counsel.  A cup which has been used is most in need of cleansing within, which held the beverage, and so it is cleansed first.  Of secondary consideration is its exterior, which may only need to be wiped off.  Jesus means for the Pharisee to examine his heart and confess his sins.  Penitent, the Pharisee may now put on the distinctive clothing of the Jew of that time.  Jesus uses irony here, for the Pharisees were obsessed with ritual cleansing and knew very well how to wash cups, though they did so through a misinterpretation of the Law.

Jesus calls the Pharisees “blind” several times, as recounted by the Evangelists.  Another example of this is found in John 9, 40-41, when, after he had healed the man born blind he said that he had come to give sight to the blind and to take it from the sighted, whereupon “some of the Pharisees, who were with him, heard: and they said unto him: Are we also blind?”  To which the Lord answered, “If you were blind, you should not have sin: but now you say: We see. Your sin remains.”  That is, they are spiritually blind but they pretend to others that they can see, leading them into their own darkness.  We gather, then, that the Pharisees knew that they were not the guides to the Law they made themselves out to be.  We can get hints of this awareness when they make such patently absurd claims that the Lord Jesus cast out demons by the prince of demons (cf. Matthew 9, 34), and when they admitted to themselves the poverty of their judgments (cf. Mark 11, 31-33).  

All that we do in our lives should have at its core the love of God and neighbor.  St. Paul reminds us that we may do many great and hard things in this life, but unless they have this love as their origin and guiding principle, we are digging our own graves: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13, 1-3).

 Monday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, August 26, 2024

Matthew 23, 13-22

Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “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. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves. “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.’ Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.’ You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it; one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it; one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated on it.”

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.”  If the Lord’s rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees is a continuation of his teaching about them in Matthew 23, 2-12, then he is still speaking to “the multitudes and his disciples” as per 23, 1, and so he is not addressing them directly, though his words would surely get back to them.  The Lord was at that time speaking on the Temple grounds, likely near the treasury.  

The Lord rebukes the scribes and Pharisees for two main reasons.  First, he publicly points out their egregious errors and sins so that they must repent or lose face with the people, and also to convert them so that they would not be lost.  Second, he distinguishes the sins of the leaders from the sins of the followers, which are lesser, and by doing this he draws the people to act virtuously and not in the way of their leaders.  His rebuke is sharp.  He calls the scribes and Pharisees “hypocrite”, which is from a Greek word used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew word for “godless”.  The scribes and the Pharisees act as though there is no God to watch them or to hold them accountable.  There mind is that of the fool who is quoted in Psalm 14, 1: “There is no god.”  Further in the Psalm, the author describes such as these: “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they act deceitfully: the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.”  This is the way of those who reject God.

“You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.”  despite their godlessness, they have usurped the teaching authority and “lock” the Kingdom of heaven from others by their piling up of burdensome laws and rules and by their own contemptible example.  “You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.”  In general, the Jews did not proselytize, though they might do so if a prominent Gentile showed interest in the worship of the true God.  But rather than convert him to true Judaism, they converted him to Pharisaism.  “If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.”  It is this loose practice of swearing and the mess of arbitrary rules around it that our Lord forbids in his Sermon on the Mount.  He uses this occasion to point out that it is the Temple that is sacred, the altar that is sacred, not the gold or the sacrifice.

You and I are consecrated to God through our baptism even more so than the old Temple was consecrated to him through a multitude of animal sacrifices, so let us appear before the world covered with the gold of good deeds.

 The 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 25, 2024

John 6, 60–69

Many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”  As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

Today’s Gospel Reading concludes chapter 6 of St. John’s Gospel which has furnished readings for the past several Sundays.  It is necessary to keep in mind as we read this how the episode started with the miraculous feeding of the five thousand by the Lord Jesus, and his subsequent revelation to them that this was a sign for the manna with which God the Chosen People on their way to the Promised Land, and that this too was a sign for the true Feast sent down from heaven: his Flesh and his Blood, that they might have eternal life.

“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”  The Greek word translated as “hard” can also mean “violent”, “harsh”, and “stern”.  It is the basis for our word “sclerosis”.  They are saying that the Lord’s teaching about his Body and Blood is much more than “difficult”.  It seems to go against nature.  Therefore, “Who can accept it?”  The word translated here as “accept” has as its first meaning “to hear”, and a secondary meaning of “to obey”.  It is much stronger even than to “believe”, since believing may not involve a cost, but obeying always will.  All the same, the crowd had been prepared to hear and also to obey by the tremendous miracle of the loaves and fishes.  

“Does this shock you?”  The word translated here as “shock” is the basis for our word “scandal” and properly means “to stumble”.  Jesus is asking the people, Does this cause you to stumble?, or, Are you stumbling?  That is, Is your faith faltering?  He then makes a further revelation: “What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?”  This comes across as a promise, as a reward for their faith.  If they believe in his teaching about his Body and Blood, they will merit to see him ascending into heaven.  For some, whose faith was already weak, this may have sounded like a warning: If you cannot believe my teaching about my Body and Blood, how can you believe in my Resurrection and Ascension?  He then offers them aid in their effort to believe: “It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.”  That is, you cannot believe this on your own, but the Holy Spirit will help you.  Protestants who reject the Lord’s teaching cite this verse in support of their belief that the Lord was speaking symbolically of his Body and Blood, as though it said, The words I have spoken are symbolic and life.  But what the Lord actually says only strengthens the argument that he was speaking quite literally of his Flesh and Blood.

“For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”  Without grace, we cannot go to the Lord.  We cannot know who he is or understand his teachings, or obey his commandments.  There is no faith unless through a specific grant of it to us by God.  And there are those who have been granted grace who then reject it: “Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.”

“As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him.”  As a result of their refusal to even ask for help to believe, as the father of the possessed boy did: “I do believe!  Help my unbelief!” (Mark 9, 24), they left the Lord.  They went back to their former — sinful — lives.  They had been so close to eternal life.  Enough of the crowd departed that the Lord turned to his Apostles and challenged them: “Do you also wish to leave?”  Perhaps there was a pause as the Twelve gathered their thoughts.  This had not been an easy teaching for them, either.  Then Peter spoke up, and he spoke for all of them: “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”  Peter reveals here and on subsequent occasions the extent to which these men had sold out for Jesus.  There was nothing really to go back to.  Jesus was the one they had waited for, looked for, hoped for.  There was no one else, no place else for them to go.  This did not make the teaching they had heard any easier for them, but they wanted to understand, they wanted to believe and to obey.  They were in love with Jesus, and understanding would follow with time and persistence.

We should not fail to see how the Lord fulfills the feeding of the Hebrews with manna: the miracle of food from heaven in the desolate wilderness giving the people strength to enter the Promised Land, then the people rejecting it and dying in their sin before reaching it.  In John 6 we see the descendants of the Hebrews rejecting the Bread of Life who stands before them.  How necessary it is for us to rejoice continually in this Food which God himself sets before us, to receive It and to be nourished with It until we enter the Promised Lamd of heaven!

The Feast of St. Bartholomew, Saturday, August 24, 2024

Matthew 22, 34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the Law, tested him by asking, “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. The whole Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.”

I mistakenly thought yesterday was St. Bartholomew’s feast day and wrote a reflection for that Gospel reading.  His feast day is actually today (August 24) but I am posting a reflection on yesterday’s (August 23) Gospel Reading to make up for the omission.

“When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees.”  This event takes place after the Lord had triumphantly entered Jerusalem, and would appear to have occurred the next day, Monday.  The Lord’s various opponents are unnerved and angry due to the acclaim of those who came up with him from Galilee and were well aware of how this appeared to fulfill the messianic prophecy in Psalm 118.  They see him in the Temple courtyard and attempt to provoke and discredit him.  The Sadducees, a relatively small sect comprised mostly of the priests, thought they could show the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, held by the Pharisees and taught by the Lord, to be false with a trick question with which they had succeeded before with others.  The Lord, however, had applied the Scriptures not only to answer the question but to show their own teaching, that there was no resurrection, to be false.  The Pharisees, apparently not present for this, heard about it, and a scribe of their number decided to engage Jesus in a theological discussion for which he could not be prepared, as he had come from Galilee and had no formal training in the Law.

“Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest?”  The question is one which a child might be asked, and the scribe might be acting out of contempt through asking it of Jesus, but judging by the scribe’s reaction to the Lord’s answer (given in Mark 12, 32-33), it seems this was not the case.  Instead, the scribe is employing dialectic, a Greek method of reasoning which the Pharisees favored.  This begins with simple, incontrovertible facts, and proceeds to deeper questions on which opinions diverged.  Jesus gives the clear answer to the the scribe’s question: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  This is the great commandment of Almighty God given through Moses, who added, “These words which I command you this day, shall be in your heart: And you shall tell them to your children, and you shall meditate upon them sitting in your house, and walking on your journey, sleeping and rising. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be and shall move between your eyes. And you shall write them in the entry, and on the doors of your house” (Deuteronomy 6, 6-9). 

The scribe’s plan after he elicited the Lord response to his question is unknown.  We can conjecture, however, that he would have led him to those matters of the Law which the Pharisees especially held against Jesus: his supposed breaking of the Sabbath and his refusal to obey the cleansing rituals imposed by the Pharisees on the people.  But the Lord will not play this game and goes on to teach the scribe and his hearers what they needed to know themselves: “This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Now, that the love of neighbor is the second commandment is not obvious, for the command,ent to love God is found in Deuteronomy and the commandment to love one’s neighbor is given in Leviticus, amidst a number of other laws.  It is not even singled out in that context.  If the scribe had asked Jesus for the second commandment, he could have answered, “You shall have no gods before me” or “Honor your father and mother” and the scribe would have been satisfied with either.  But the Lord Jesus links love of God and love of neighbor: “the second is like it”.  There are hints in the books of the Old Law of such a connection, as in Proverbs 19, 17: “He who is merciful to the poor loams to God.  He will repay.”  The Lord’s bringing the two commandments together shows that the first is the cause of the second, and that we should love our neighbors precisely because we love God.  Likewise, if we hate our neighbors, we cannot love God.  As St. John puts it: “If anyone say: I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For how can he who does not love his brother whom he sees love God whom he does not see?” (1 John 4, 20). 

“The whole Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.”  So speaks the Lawgiver himself.  What we might miss here, though, is that this unlettered Galilean was saying all of this on his own authority.  He does not quote the Prophets or even other Pharisees to justify it.  This was the teaching “with authority” that aroused both admiration and condemnation of so many at the time.  Also in doing this, the Lord subtly destroyed the arguments anyone might have that he was breaking the Law by healing a crippled woman on the Sabbath (cf. Luke 13, 10-17), for instance, for if the Law depended and was described from these two commandments, healing on any day must be permitted.  In point of fact, it fulfills the law of the Sabbath, which was made for man (cf. Mark 2, 27).

The love of neighbor is at times difficult but we can carry this out by keeping in mind the love of God which he shows to us every day.