Monday in the Third Week of Lent, March 1, 2021

Luke 6:36-38

Jesus said to his disciples: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, the Lord is giving commandments in a way that reminds us of how Moses gave the Law to the Hebrews.  He goes from one law to the next, accepting no questions, and not relying on previous authorities.  The Lord gives these on his own authority.  Very often, when laws are made they seem to primarily benefit the ones who make them.  Here, the laws do not benefit the Lord at all, but greatly benefit the ones for whom he made them.  First, there is the great benefit of having his law.  Before the Lord came into our world the human race stumbled about in a dark maze, unable to find its way out, or, indeed, if it was supposed to find its way out.  The light provided by the laws of Christ provide a way to see and his grace provided a means of following that light.  Second, these laws that he gives show his love for all of us since they are made for all of us, and not for a subset of people.  Third, his laws guide us safely through this life into eternal life.

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”  This law can be retranslated as “Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate to you.”  We do not earn his compassion nor does he owe it to us.  We cannot buy it, demand it, or expect it.  He gives it to us not because of who we are but because of who he is.  Therefore we give it to others not because of who they are, but who we are.  Now, we cannot be compassionate to the extent that the Father is because we are not infinite.  We are limited in what we can do.  But we do what we can for others even when we recognize the reality that we often cannot do as much as we want. 

“Stop judging and you will not be judged.”  The Lord does not command us here not to form informed opinions or not to go by our own experience when we encounter others whom we do not know.  He is saying for us to wait until the facts come out in a situation before making up our minds as to someone’s innocence or guilt.  We are not to jump to conclusions or to look for reasons to hate someone.  “You will not be judged”, that is, we will all be judged at the end of our lives, and on the last day when Jesus comes again, but that judgment will be entirely fair and it will be rendered by God, who knows all things.  He will not act aggressively, he will not frame evidence against us, he will not listen to lies uttered against us.  In short, he will not judge in the way that people usually judge each other.

“Forgive and you will be forgiven.”  We show our desire to be forgiven in our forgiveness of others.  As with compassion, we bestow forgiveness not because of who those who have harmed us are, but because of who we are: the adopted sons and daughters of Almighty God.  In fact, we give proof of who we are by forgiving, imitating our God who is much more anxious to forgive us than we are to ask for forgiveness.

“Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.”  How often we see this in the Scriptures and in our lives!  The Lord Jesus does not merely make wine from water for the wedding couple at Cana, he makes the best possible wine.  He does not merely make just enough food for the crowds which he feeds in the wilderness, he makes a great deal more than enough.  He does not merely stop storms threatening to capsize Peter’s ship, he completely and in an instant  calms the sea and dispels the clouds.  He does not merely die for us to set us free from sin, he dies the hideous and grievous death of the cross.  This bountiful giving brings to mind the Lord’s words in Matthew 10, 8: “Freely you have received: freely give.”  The Lord has given so much to us that we can share it and not miss any of it.  

“For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”  This rule helps us to tell how much we have done and how much we still have to do.  In giving our whole self to Christ, we receive his whole self in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Second Sunday in Lent, February 28, 2021

Mark 9:2–10

Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.  As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what ‘rising from the dead’ meant.

We humans can read about a thing, study it, analyze it, and feel that we can know it well, but often when we come face to face with it for the first time, we are stunned by its reality.  The numbers on paper describing it do not begin to tell of its true size or grandeur, as we experience it in person.  In the same way, the Lord had prepared Peter, James, and John to witness his Transfiguration through healing the blind, the deaf, and the lame, and by raising the dead.  Peter had confessed that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Even so, what these men saw on the mountain “greatly terrified” them, according to the Greek.  Peter, the boldest of the three, was reduced to babbling about building tents.

What did these three men see?   They saw that the Lord’s clothes “became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.”  We note that Mark describes the Lord’s clothes, but not his face.  St. Matthew tells us that the Lord’s face “shone as the sun” (Matthew 17, 2).  No word, no sound, told them what was about to happen.  The Lord stood before them, and then it happened, perhaps very suddenly.  Elijah and Moses stood with him, as though a curtain had been drawn to reveal that they had been with the Lord all along.  The Apostles saw these two great men of Israel “conversing with Jesus”.  St. Luke tells us that “they spoke of his exodus that he should accomplish in Jerusalem” (Luke 9, 31).  The Greek word is, in fact, “exodus”, the same word that describes the departure of the Hebrews from their slavery in Egypt for the Promised Land.  The Lord would have been preparing Elijah and Moses for his Passion and Death, teaching them how he would fulfill the Law and the Prophets.  In this way, he showed the Apostles that he himself was the culmination of the Law and the Prophets, and that they were subordinate to him.  The Apostles also saw a great cloud overshadow them, and they heard a voice of great power blare out from it: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”  This commandment from heaven acted to confirm Peter’s confession of the Lord Jesus as the Son of the living God, in an unforgettable way.  

“Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.”  For a single moment after hearing the voice, the Apostles stared about them at the revealed glory of their Lord, and then it was all gone.  This would have been as much a cause of wonderment as its arrival.  Jesus gave them no time to recover, or even to rub their eyes.  He had shown them what he wanted them to see, and now he gave them an order they would have no trouble following: “As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone.”  They themselves did not begin to understand until after the Resurrection what they had seen, and only then could tell the others about it.

“Except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.”  They struggled among themselves to know what he meant when he said that he would rise from the dead.  It was a phrase shrouded in mystery for them, but they only asked themselves what it might mean, as though, on their own, they could comprehend it.  They did not ask the Lord.

The Lord’s glory shines around us all the time.  At the offering of the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass, angels fill the sanctuary of the Church to adore their Incarnate God.  They fill the places where he is enshrined in tabernacles.  A blaze of grace fires around the holy men and women of our world.  Miracles go unnoticed despite their power.  As we grow in holiness we will do better than to see these with our eyes, which can be distrusted; we will know them with our souls. 

 Saturday in the First Week of Lent, February 27, 2021

Matthew 5:43-48

Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers and sisters only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

The Mosaic Law introduced a uniform, distinct code of law into the lives of the members of the twelve tribes of Israel.  Before the giving of the Law, justice was accorded arbitrarily by the heads of each tribe, or sometimes by the local ruler.  Among the Law’s precepts was a very simple one: You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  This law bound the communities within the tribes together both by defining the people within the communities as neighbors with whom one had a likeness in terms of culture and proximity, and by defining those outside the community, the tribe, and the twelve tribes, as their “enemy”, against whom they must be united for safety.  The status of the outsider as an enemy did not necessarily identify him as a target for violence, however.  One could engage in trade with enemies and live in peace with them.  But the outsider was to be treated with suspicion, as a potential attacker.  The twelve tribes of Israel shared a common interest always; with those from the outside, occasionally.  And sometimes an outsider performed some act that warranted active hostility.

The Lord Jesus fulfills this law when he teaches that all people are loved by God and that therefore we are all neighbors of one another.  The true enemy, the true outsider, is the devil, who fights against God, whom he cannot touch, through the human race, which he could, before the coming of the Lord.  We are all neighbors, Jews, Gentiles, Samaritans.  And yet some individuals may threaten others in some way.  These are personal enemies and may even be members of one’s own household.  The Lord teaches us in the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, that we are even to love these as well.

When we love those whom it is easy or natural to love, we gain no special merit.  Even the godless do this.  But loving those who are difficult to love so that love becomes work, this is real love and is meritorious.  This can only be done by God’s grace.  Loving the lovable is joyous and a gift God gives us.  Loving the unlovable is grimy, in-the-trenches work.  This can mean acting in a civil way to uncivil persons, and refusing to join in the gossip and complaints with which many people try to cope in having to live or work with them.  At the same time we do not excuse people in our minds when there really is no excuse, nor should we pretend that a person is not as wretched as he acts.  Love is about loving the person as he is, not as we pretend or wish him to be.  Above all things, this means praying for the person’s conversion, and then, when possible, giving a good example.  This is a gift we give God and it is meritorious because this makes us like God, who makes his sun shine on the wicked and the good.  

We might wonder why God causes his sun to shine on the wicked and the good.  He does so because perfect Love does not allow anyone or anything to keep it from loving all people.  Love loves without distinction.  However, the wicked and the good experience God’s love or the signs and effects of his love in very different ways.  The wicked will not understand the good that is offered to them, such as good health, as coming from God, and so will miss out on the joy that comes from knowing God’s care in this way.  Because they do not believe in God, they have no one in whom they can trust to preserve their health.  It is all random, or “luck” to them.  This results in their living in a grim world where pleasure might exist here and there, but joy does not.

God, who is perfect Love, calls us to perfection as well: “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  We often interpret “perfect” in terms of power: doing some work “perfectly”, that is, without evident flaw.  But the old adage “No one is perfect” applies here, and for many people, perfection in power is a continuously vanishing goal, a siren that lures people to exhaustion and, finally, destruction.  The perfection to which we are called is in love.  No one can love as much as God can love, but each of us can love as much as we can.  For examples we can look to the saints.  St. Therese lived such a life of love that she could speak as her last words, “My God, I love you!”  St. Maximilian Kolbe lived such a life of love that he could offer his life to save that of a complete stranger.  Mother Teresa loved so perfectly that she was able to give herself up to the care of the most utterly abandoned souls on the planet.  Each of us, wherever we are and wherever God calls us, can love fully, as God does.  

Friday in the First Week of Lent, February 26, 2021

Matthew 5:20-26

Jesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.  You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”

The Lord Jesus did not offer himself to the Jews as merely an alternative to the Pharisees, in terms of his teaching, but as one who came to restore the Mosaic Law to what it actually said.  The Pharisees had interpreted the Law through the prism of the Temple and the purity and other precepts governing it.  They also brought the Law “up to date” to a population that was no longer mainly nomadic by extrapolating from the original law, thus creating the “precepts of men” that the Lord so much opposed.  In effect, the Pharisees made it very hard to carry out Jewish duties.  At the same time, they did not teach much on the moral laws, as distinct from the laws regarding ritual purity and things of this kind.  Part of the appeal of Jesus as a teacher came from his stripping away this accretions that the Pharisees held up as the true meaning of the Law.

When the Lord Jesus says to the crowd, “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven”, he is insisting that the people need to follow the Law as God gave it to Moses, and as Moses gave it to the people.  They could hear it — and the Prophets — read out in the synagogues so that they could know it, and they were to follow it without falling into the ways of the Pharisees.  Their teachings on righteousness made righteousness nearly impossible for the average Jew and for anyone but themselves, but their teachings were wrong.  Righteousness was within the grasp of any Jew who carried out the Law in his life — the righteousness that was possible for the Jews before the time of grace, at any rate.  And the Lord prepares them to receive grace by instructing them correctly on how to follow the Law.  He has established by his miracles, which were only possible by the power of God, that he has the authority to teach the Law, whereas the Pharisees have no real standing to do this.  They were not appointed by the high priests to teach, nor did they have anything to do with the Temple authorities and the governance of the Jews.  Indeed, their sect only arose in Israel a couple of hundred years before.  It was certainly not inaugurated by Moses.  It is, in fact, just another emperor without his clothes on.

There are many cultural forces and self-important persons which strive to tell us how to live in society, and even as Christians.  They attempt to foist their pathologies on us and to call these “normal” or normative.  But there is only one Christ, and he calls us to a salvation that cannot be surpassed.  We, his sheep, know his shepherd’s voice, for it rings out through the Church.  These forces and people are the new Pharisees whose moral code sometimes uses Christian terms, but in ways at odds with their true meaning.  They would have us think that theirs is the only ethics, the only morality, but it benefits only themselves.  The difficulty in following their shifting code makes life and even language impossible, but the new Pharisees mock and try to destroy those who fail.  Let us, for our part, listen to and follow the Lord Jesus, who is the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life. 

 Thursday in the First Week of Lent, February 25, 2021

Matthew 7:7-12

Jesus said to his disciples: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asked for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asked for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him. Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.”

In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, we see how much more eagerly Almighty God is to answer our prayers than even we are to ask for what we need.  He is like a shopkeeper standing in front of his store, calling out the bargains he has for his customers, practically cajoling them into coming in.  It is almost pathetic to see him this way, the infinite God, bowing before his creatures as a servant ready to do their will.  And yet, that is the power of love — to make us servants of one another.  

But what are we to pray for?  We pray for our necessities, especially for our spiritual necessities.  We pray for the grace to become saints.  We pray for the grace to help others to become saints.  We pray to know the Lord Jesus more and to experience the boundless cascade of his love.  The Lord tells us to pray perseveringly: “Pray, and do not grow weary” (cf. Luke 18, 1).  St. Paul adds to this, “Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5, 17).  How do we do this? We can pray at specified times throughout the day, as priests and religious are to do; we can pray during times when we find ourselves free from obligations; we can pray simple prayers like aspirations, over and over.  We can imitate some of the desert fathers and mothers who lived apart from the cities in solitude, and repeatedly pray from our hearts, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  Making a holy hour or even half hour allows us to ask for what we need, as well.

One thing we ought to keep in mind is that prayer transforms us, even beyond the graces we gain for ourselves and for others through it.  By gazing at the Lord in prayer, we become like the One on whom we look.  That is why praying before the Blessed Sacrament is so highly recommended to us.  We can think of it this way: when we go outside in the summer and lay in the sun, its rays change our appearance.  If we bask in the invisible light of the Blessed Sacrament, he will change our interiors.

“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.”  This is such a simple phrase that a child can understand it.  And yet many adults can not or will not.  The Golden Rule, as we call it sometimes, is a measure (hence, “rule”) with which we determine how we should act towards another human being.  We apply it as a critique to an action we are contemplating. If the action most probably would have a truly good effect, then we should consider doing it.  At the same time, we must figure whether the good action done for a stranger, say, would prevent us from carrying out a responsibility to a friend or family member. The Golden Rule, as the Lord teaches us, respects the order of love he has established for us.

 Wednesday in the First Week of Lent, February 24, 2021

Luke 11:29-32

While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”

“This generation is an evil generation.”  St. Luke does not provide any special context for this saying of the Lord Jesus.  He has been speaking to a gathering crowd on diverse subjects, and he seems to burst forth here in declaring that this is an “evil generation”.  The generation, or age, of which he speaks began with his Incarnation and will continue until he comes again in judgment.  It is an “evil” generation because of its intransigence in converting.  Instead, “it seeks a sign”, though with the preaching and miracles, and the Death and Resurrection of the Lord, the growth of the Church, and the lives and miracles of the saints, the signs of the past pale in comparison with the reality of the present.  Thus, the demanding of signs is simply a stall to remain impenitent.  

“Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites.”  The Lord reveals that Jonah was “a sign” to the Ninevites.  This is intriguing because the Book of Jonah presents the Prophet as walking through their city, preaching.  In this way he is clearly acting as a prophet or preacher.  But the Lord tells us that it was more than his words that affected the inhabitants of Nineveh: Jonah was “a sign” to them.  He was a foreigner from a distant land who was not awed my the majesty and size of this wondrous capital of a great empire.  He preached to them, beseeching them to repent of their sins before Almighty God destroyed their city.  They had seen nothing like this before.  He sought no payment from them, as prophets and preachers usually did in those times and places, nor did he seek any advantage or other reward.  He preached for forty days and then departed.  He sought no friends, slept out-of-doors, and ate what was offered to him or what he was able to buy.  He would have featured a rough appearance after his time on the boat and then inside the fish.

“So will the Son of Man be to this generation.”  The Lord declares that as Jonah preached repentance and was himself a sign to the Ninevites, so he would be the reality to which that sign pointed, to “this generation”.  But the Ninevites repented at the word of a man, Jonah, whereas this generation remains intransigent to the word of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus.  And, in fact, the Lord declares that “at the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it.”  This speaks to the hardness of the world in which we live today, the difficulty of making converts, and the power of the grace which fills sinners so that they do repent and conversions are made.  We ought not to wonder that there is so much wickedness in the world but that there is some good in it.  We ought to recognize the miraculous nature of conversions of life, of true repentance for sin, and to pray very much for this.  

 Tuesday in the First Week of Lent, February 23, 2021

Matthew 6:7-15

Jesus said to his disciples: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  This is how you are to pray: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’  If you forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”

“Do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words.”  The pagans believed that they could bargain with their gods, bribe them, or win them over by flattery.  Jesus speaks contemptuously of this attitude.  This brings to mind the words he spoke through the Prophet Amos: “I hate, and have rejected your festivities: and I will not receive the odor of your assemblies. And if you offer me holocausts, and your gifts, I will not receive them” (Amos 5, 21-22), in which he showed his indignation at prayers and sacrifices offered insincerely and mechanically.  “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”  God requires us to ask for what we need not because he does not know what it is, but in order for us to conform ourselves to his will and to confess our utter dependence on him.

“Our Father, who art in heaven.”  The Lord gives us an example of how we are to pray through this concise prayer in which we ask God for his will to be done in us and for him to forgive us our sins.  It is a prayer for the coming of the Kingdom of which the Lord had come to preach: “[May] thy Kingdom come.”  These are the essentials for which we are to pray: for his will to be done in us, for the forgiveness of our sins, and for his coming again in glory.  The concision of this prayer makes it easy to remember, and prevents us from bargaining, bribery, or flattery.  Familiarity with it can lead to the abuse of rattling it off without thinking, though, and so we must be careful to say it with attention and the devotion of our hearts.

“If you forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.”  This is not part of the prayer, but a comment on it.  Forgiveness is necessary for salvation: our forgiveness of others, and God’s forgiveness of us.  These are tied together.  To the extent that we forgive, we will be forgiven.  In part, we need to forgive in order to build up our capacity to receive forgiveness; and, in part, forgiveness is a vital way of overcoming the world, and of severing our ties with it.  We need to recall what forgiveness means so that we can do it properly: it is the renunciation of personal revenge on someone who has harmed us though we be innocent of provoking the harm.  With this forgiveness, we overcome our instincts and all that the world would have us do in response, and for this reason it can be a hard work to accomplish.  But then we look at the crucifix and think of how Jesus died so that our sins could be forgiven.

 The Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, Monday, February 22, 2021

Matthew 16, 13-19

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?”  Simon Peter said in reply,  “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

“Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi.”  The ruins of this ancient city lie outside of Galilee in the region of the Golan Heights.  It was here that Simon, son of John, identified Jesus of Nazareth, “the Son of Man”,  as “the Son of the Living God”.  Jesus chose the land of the Gentiles, not of the Jews, to receive Simon’s declaration and to bestow upon him the leadership of the Church.  This signifies that the Church is composed of men and women from all the nations in union with Jesus Christ.  Giving the leadership to Simon in Jewish lands, particularly near Jerusalem, would have led the Apostles to believe that the Church was meant only for the Jews.  This event is the middle term of a three part assertion in St. Matthew’s Gospel that the Faith is to be preached to Jews and Gentiles alike, and that it is to be filled with believers of both origins.  The first term is at the beginning of the Gospel when the Magi come to worship Jesus from Gentile lands, led by a star.  The Magi represent the Gentile people who are led by the star — the Church — to the Lord.  And then at the very end of his Gospel, Matthew quotes the Lord as commanding his Apostles, just before he ascends into heaven, to preach the Gospel to the whole world and to baptize those who believe it.

With today’s Feast, we celebrate the universal bounds of the Holy Church, and its unity in the office, the “Chair” of St. Peter.  The feast does not celebrate the current occupant of this chair or any past occupant.  It celebrates the unity of the Church throughout the world in the authority handed on to St. Peter and his successors.  The Church has been given the authority to besiege hell and to burst through its gates, rescuing men and women from the grip of Satan and bringing them safely into the arms of the Faith.  “I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.”  The keys of heaven are entrusted to the Church, in the person of Peter and his successors and delegated to the bishops and priests.  These “keys” may be said to “unlock” heaven for repentant sinners in the Sacraments of Penance and Extreme Unction, when the priest gives the Apostolic Pardon to one who is dying.  The Apostolic Pardon specifically mentions its origin in the powers of binding and loosing, as well as that the power to give the Pardon is granted by the Apostolic See upon that priest’s ordination.  But these “keys” also relate to teaching, for the Church alone can teach the true meaning of the Scriptures, and it alone, through the successors of Peter and the bishops appointed by these successors, can hand on the authentic teachings the Lord wants us to know for our salvation.  A given bishop or even pope may err in interpreting these teachings, but they reside in the Catechism and in the documents of the ecumenical councils for all to read and know.  On certain highly specialized occasions, the Pope may even speak infallibly ex cathedra on doctrine.

We pray that we may always remain faithful members of the Church, recalling that Peter’s Boat may be tossed by the waves of tribulation and persecution from the outside and seem to be filling with the water of heresy and confusion on the inside, but the Lord himself is in it, and he protects us though he remains unseen.

 The First Sunday in Lent, February 21, 2021

Mark 1:12–15

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.  After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

St. Mark condenses the temptations Jesus underwent in the Judean wilderness, reported in detail in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke, to just a couple of verses.  He does, however, add a detail not found in the other accounts: “He was among the wild beasts”.  This remark tells us that the Lord had gone far out into the wilderness where lions still roamed, and where he would have found food and water scarce.  Mark says that the Lord was “tempted”, or, better, “tested” by Satan out there in the wilderness.  The Evangelist sums up the whole of Christian life in these verses: that we who are members of the Body of Christ abide in the wilderness of this world for a certain, predetermined period.  During that time we are “among” the wild beasts of the heathen, and in addition we are tempted-tested by Satan.  We are thus subject to three dangers: of being savaged by the unbelievers, or of adapting to the wilderness of this world as they have in order to prolong our stay in it, or of falling to the temptations and the testing of Satan and losing our faith altogether.  Yet, as the angels “ministered” to the Lord, they minister to us as well, interceding for us, consoling us, and inspiring us.  This ministry, while invisible, is necessary for us and we would have little hope of heaven without it.

“After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God.”  Mark tells us here that the Lord remained in Judea until John the Baptist had been arrested.  He then came to Galilee, as though an outsider, proclaiming the Gospel of God.  “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”  He proclaims this as a herald, for the Greek word translated as “the Gospel” actually means an announcement of a king or other ruler, usually of “good news”.  The “good news”, the Gospel, announced by the Lord is that the kingdom of God has drawn near.  It is customary to translate the phrase as “the kingdom of God is at hand”, but that is not what the Greek says.  The kingdom of God is represented as itself on the move, not that it has suddenly appeared or that we have unwittingly drawn near to it.  It has been coming for a very long time, and now it has approached so that we can see it, and its Herald has reached us.  He tells us that we must now repent and to believe that it has approached.  If the reward is before us, we ought to be spurred on to great efforts in order to attain it.  We strip ourselves of all encumbrances so as not to be slowed in any way from attaining it: we repent of our sins, we do penance with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we give ourselves completely over to the Herald, who will assist us with directions.

Those who desire to be saved must truly believe that the Kingdom of God has approached, that we are living in the last age, and that before we can enter, we must render an account of what we have done in our time on earth.  The sight of this Kingdom drawn near will frighten many and as a result they will oppress the faithful more fiercely, and they will deny that there is a Kingdom.  They will truly reveal themselves to be “beasts”.  But let us live as saints that we may dwell with the angels in the Kingdom the Lord has announced to us,

 Saturday after Ash Wednesday, February 20, 2021

Luke 5, 27-32

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

“Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi.”  The verb here translated as “he saw” means something more than “he looked at him”.  It carries the meaning of “beheld” and “contemplated”.  The Lord, in other words, was looking intently at Levi, who also went by the name “Matthew”.  Levi was sitting at his table in the marketplace collecting taxes while scribes recorded the transactions and others counted or weighed the coins.  Despite the line of people and their complaints and excuses, he felt the Lord’s eyes upon him.  He looked out past the people before him and met those eyes.  The man whose preaching had stirred him even from a distance and whose miracles were recounted to him, was looking at him, the tax collector, whom decent folks avoided to the extent that they could: for the Pharisees taught that tax collectors were little better than vermin.  “Follow me.”  That is all the Lord said to him.  It was both an invitation and a command.  And Matthew understood with certainty that he was to follow not for an hour or a day, but for the rest of his life.  He did not wait to see if Jesus would repeat himself, or if Jesus would clarify that he meant someone else.  Matthew got up and went to Jesus, “leaving everything behind”.  

“Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them.”  Matthew shows his joy at the call of the Lord Jesus by hosting his last great feast.  The Apostles, who often went hungry with the Lord, must have delighted at the rich variety of food, for meat from goats and fattened calves would have enriched the fare, and good wine would have flowed as well.  His friends, many of whom probably lived outside the town, would have poured in from the surrounding area.  The Lord would have kept with Matthew, who introduced his guests to him.  Meanwhile, Matthew’s steward would have hustled about, directing the lower servants and checking the food and the wine.  Music played on lyre and flute would have entertained the crowd as they ate, drank, and conversed.  The tax collectors and their friends, largely shunned by society, had developed a certain roughness that would have shone itself in bawdy language and raucous laughter.  A good amount of joking would have centered on the fact that Matthew — of all people — had as his guest of honor a holy man.

The Pharisees were disgusted.  It is hard to imagine them feeling welcome at such a feast.  Perhaps they merely strolled around, disapproving of it all, or else they hung around outside the compound.  But they complained.  “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” They addressed the Apostles, but the question was directed at the Lord.  The Lord heard the question, either himself or through an Apostle.  “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”  Jesus, who has acted as physician in healing physical ailments, now reveals to the Pharisees that his work is with souls as well.  We should notice, too, how the Lord declares, “I have . . . come” to heal sinners.  He does not say, “They are called to repent”, but rather, “I have come to call these to repentance.”  That is, the Lord is acting on his own authority.  The inference too is clear: “I have come into the world” to do this.  But who of those born into the world can say this?  We do not come into the world with a purpose.  Only one who existed outside of this world can do this.  The prophets never spoke like this, nor Moses.

“I have not come to call the righteous.”  These are those who esteem themselves to be righteous, despite Psalm 143, 2: “In your sight no man living is justified.”  Or, they do not recall the words of Ecclesiastes 7, 21: “There is no just man upon earth that does good, and does not sin.”

The Pharisees are concerned with keeping themselves ritually pure, which they equate with righteousness.  But the Law does not forbid eating and drinking with tax collectors and “sinners” nor does it say that one who does so becomes unclean.  The Lord on many occasions calls the Pharisees “hypocrites” and one reason for this is that they claim to know, study, and observe the Law, but they hardly know it at all.  They study instead “the doctrines and precepts of men” (Mark 7, 7), and set aside the Law for these lesser things.  We do this when we refuse to eat or talk with others because we consider them “evil” because of their political or religious opinions, for instance.  Surely some shared interests can provide an opening for civil discussion and learning about the origins of the beliefs of others.  Lest we think this impossible, let us consider that the Apostles, all raised as faithful Jews, sat down with the tax collectors and sinners, and ate with them.  And, of course, the God of heaven and earth sat down at the table of his creatures Peter and Andrew and ate at their humble board.  Conversion is not accomplished from far off but from close up.  The Son of God became man in order to be close up with us.  If we humble ourselves a little, we can be close up with unbelievers and gradually help them to believe.

 Friday after Ash Wednesday, February 19, 2021

Matthew 9:14-15

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Eating is a central activity in many religious cultures.  In this context, this necessary human activity is raised by ritual to a form of religious worship.  For instance, St. Paul strenuously urged his Gentile converts not to eat meat sacrificed to idols because this was a sign of communing with them: “But the things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. And I would not that you should be made partakers with devils. You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord and the chalice of devils: you cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord and of the table of devils” (1 Corinthians 10:20–21).  So, too, the practice of fasting became a form of divine worship.  We find this practiced on various occasions in the Old Testament as a way of repenting of sins.  The Pharisees, beginning in the century or two before the Birth of the Lord, made fasting a regular practice so that fasting and certain customs pertaining to it became associated in the public mind with them.  It is not clear why the Pharisees fasted, however.  It may have had to do with their ideas of expanding the ritual purity required for service in the Temple to ordinary life.  Later, John the Baptist and his disciples fasted as a way of preparing for the feast of the coming messianic kingdom.

Jesus and his Apostles often went hungry, but the Lord did not compel them to fast in the way the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist did.  Partly, this had to do with the intense labor they did in traveling and ministering to the crowds, as well as the fact that their meals were sporadic in any event.  Mostly, though, the Lord did not have his followers fast because there was no reason for them to do so: “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?”  John’s disciples continued to fast after their master was arrested and the Lord’s public life began.  They carried on a practice that had lost its purpose.  And the Lord’s teaching regarding the need for internal purity and the spiritual meaninglessness of physical purity destroyed the purpose of fasting by the Pharisees.

“The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”  The Lord speaks here of the time after his Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven.  Since his Ascension, we believers in the Lord have lived in a world in which the Bridegroom has been “taken away”.  Although present sacramentally in the Holy Eucharist and effectually present through his grace, he intercedes for us before the Father in heaven.  In our present state, it is proper to fast as a sign of our longing for him, and also as a preparation for the Wedding Feast we hope to enjoy with him in heaven.  We certainly do not want to spoil our appetites for this food by filling up on the inferior food of this present life.  

We also mourn over our sinfulness, for fasting is an ancient custom for the grief-stricken.  We ought to grieve over our falls to temptation, which brought our Lord to suffer on the Cross for us.  Indeed, we should mourn for this “as one mourns for an only son” (Zechariah 12, 10) because of what our sins cost our Savior, and what they may cost us, if we do not reform entirely.

 Thursday after Ash Wednesday, February 18, 2021

Luke 9:22-25

Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”

“The Son of Man must suffer greatly.”  These are not the words a follower hopes to hear his leader say.  To the follower, the leader who says this is preparing for defeat, and is only trying to buy time and more desperate support.  To the more worldly, these words sound like the beginning of a pitch for money.  But Jesus is not an ordinary leader.  He chooses to live a life of poverty and of ceaseless labor.  He makes no great claims for himself but refers his words and deeds back to the Father.  His words and deeds carry so much power that they cause people in sound mind, both men and women, to give up everything to follow him, and also to heal the sick, expel the demons, and raise the dead.  He also seeks no favor from either kings or high priests.  And when people object to his teachings because they seem too hard, he lets them go rather than soften his message.  

In truth, people — especially his Apostles — know that the Son of Man already led a life of suffering.  The words he speaks now — “The Son of Man must suffer greatly” — speak of even greater suffering to come.  It is noteworthy that the Lord says that he “must suffer greatly”, as opposed to “will suffer greatly”.  He is announcing that he is submitting himself to some overriding need that will result in his greater suffering.  He “must” do this, not just that this will happen.  His words here bring to mind what he says in Luke 12:49–5: “I am come to cast fire on the earth. And what will I, but that it be kindled? And I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized. And how am I straitened until it be accomplished?”  He came to save us, and now he must undergo that which is necessary for him to do this.  He “must” suffer greatly.  But why would anyone submit himself to this?  Because the Lord Jesus is beside himself with love for us.  In Mark 3:21, we read of how he was unable to eat because of the crowd that pressed him on all sides: “And when his brethren had heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him. For they said: He is become mad.”  His brethren were right, but they did not understand that this is what love does.

“And be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed.”  Already it was clear that he was rejected by these authorities.  He speaks of them here so that later his followers will remember that he foretold this to them, and that they should not despair on this account.  He also seems to add this to what he has said of his greater suffering as though this rejection was particularly painful to him, that the very people who should have recognized him as the Son of God would punch, slap, and spit on him, and then have him out to a terrible death.

“And on the third day be raised.”  One wonders if anyone really heard these last words after hearing the previous ones.  And what did it mean that “on the third day be raised”?  He does not lay out a description for his disciples to bolster their spirits.  In this way too the Lord differs from other leaders.  These others might see trouble ahead (in this world, trouble is always ahead), but they would emphasize or even invent a silver lining that would result.  They would build this up so that the suffering would appear minimal.  The Lord does the opposite.  He nearly buries, as it were, the good news.  He emphasizes the suffering.  He wants people to know that he loves them and would do anything for them.

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”  If any leader wanted to drive away his following, a declaration of this kind would be the one to do it with.  To a modern reader an adaptation might be, Pick up the noose with which you will be hanged and follow me.  No one picks up their cross unless it is to bear it to the place of crucifixion.  And in order to do this, one must deny oneself — to know what it is, to accept it for what it means, and to willingly bear it for the sake of Christ.  For us, this means to live the life of a Christian, forsaking the world and its glittering promises of pleasure and self-indulgence, and to live humbly in service to the Lord, spreading his Gospel.

“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”  Those who stumble over each other to avoid their crosses will perish utterly.  Those who consider others who enter the priesthood or religious life as throwing their lives away, will die shameful deaths.  Those who look at the Lord’s teachings and respond, “This saying is hard.  Who can accept it?” (John 6, 60), will walk away into the darkness where there is wailing and the gnashing of teeth in regret.

“What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”  In all of human history, no one has gained the “whole world”, though some have tried.  This begs the question, Why do people still strive to do it?  Even if their idea of gaining “the whole world” only meant obtaining all the things they desired, who really accomplishes even this?  Some may boast of it, but anyone can boast of things that cannot be proven.  Some may seem to us to have done this, but it is only because our imaginations are weak.  The truth is that there is nothing in this world that can make us as happy as we wished and for as long as we wished.  It is all deficient, it all falls apart.  Only Jesus lasts.  So let us shoulder our crosses and follow him wherever he goes so that one day we may hear the angels proclaim at the sight of us in heaven: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth now . . . they may rest from their labors. For their works follow them” (Revelation 14, 13). 

 Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Jesus said to his disciples: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.  When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.  When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”

The ancient name for the season of Lent is found in its Latin name, Quadregesima, that is, “the forty days” — the forty days before Easter.  In the earliest days of the Church, Lent was not necessarily forty days.  In some places the penitential season prior to Easter lasted one week; in other places, the time might run from two weeks to even sixty days (Sexuagesima), the time between the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord on February 2 and Easter.  The forty day period to which we are accustomed became established in the west by the fifth century.  

During Lent (from an Old English word for “Spring”) Christians prepare for the celebration of the Lord’s rising from the dead by intensifying the fasting, alms-giving, and prayer necessary for ordinary Christian life.  We unite ourselves to the Lord with greater devotion and increase our efforts to separate ourselves from this world by reducing our dependence on it.  Many people seek to do these things by attending daily Mass, by going to confession more regularly, and by adopting other practices.  Reading the Gospels and praying the rosary come as highly recommended.

In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, the Lord Jesus speaks of the proper way of giving alms, praying, and fasting.  We are not to perform these actions for show, but ought even to do them in a hidden way.  Thus, we protect our sincerity and our purpose of doing them only for God.  The Lord here emphasizes our intention, what is in our heart, and so we can compare these actions to sins he tells us to avoid.  That is, in Matthew 5, 21–22, the Lord teaches: “You have heard that it was said to them of old: You shall not kill. And whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment.  But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment.”  Now, a person can kill another by accident or by self-defense and the killing may not be sinful.  When the killing is motivated by the anger of hatred, then it is.  It is the anger that erupts from hatred that makes a killing a murder, and therefore a sin. Just so, the giving of alms is good, but it may be undertaken for the purpose of tax benefits or to impress another person.  It is the love that prompts the alms that perfects the act.  Therefore, we must especially cultivate our love of God and neighbor during Lent: to look long and with feeling upon the crucifix, to really examine our consciences and to grieve for our sins so that we might live in gratitude for the forgiveness won for us by the Lord Jesus, who would do anything to win our love.

 Tuesday in the Sixth Week of Ordinary Time, February 16, 2021

Mark 8:14-21

The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” They concluded among themselves that it was because they had no bread. When he became aware of this he said to them, “Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?” They answered him, “Twelve.” “When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?” They answered him, “Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass follows directly that of yesterday’s.  The Lord had sailed to a place called Dalmanutha, had preached there, and then had been confronted by Pharisees who desired him to produce a sign from heaven.  After declaring that they would not be given such a sign, he got back into the boat and he had and the Apostles sailed away again.

While still in the boat on the Sea of Galilee the Apostles make an account of their supplies and find that they have but one loaf of bread remaining.  This loaf may have come with them from the recent feeding of the five thousand people a couple of days before.  The Apostles may have planned to buy bread in Dalmanutha but the abrupt departure meant scrambling to get back aboard the boat.  After a bit of sailing, the Lord said to his followers, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”  Between the sound of the wind, the noise of the water, and the elongated shape of the boat, Jesus probably had to shout for the Apostles to hear him, and they may have interpreted his words as a reproach from their tone.  The lack of bread had bothered them.  A disciple always wants to appear at his or her best before the teacher.  They had not been prepared with enough food even for themselves at the recent feeding of the enormous crowd.  They had taken his words to them on that occasion as a rebuke, even as sarcasm: “You give them something to eat.”  His speaking now seemed to them his contempt for their failure.

“Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend?”  The Lord, who could feed five thousand people could just as easily feed twelve besides himself, had other things on his mind, and for him, the threat of the “leaven” of the Pharisees and that of Herod far outweighed that of hunger: “Do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?”  

St. Mark does not enlighten us with whether the Lord explained his warning about the “leaven” of the Pharisees and that of Herod, but we can infer a few things by looking at the very brief Parable of the the Leaven, in Luke 13, 20-21: “And again he said: To what shall I liken the kingdom of God ?  It is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”  Leaven, such as yeast, is composed of incredibly tiny bits of fungus which can cause fermentation.  The particles are very fine, like powder.  Only a very small amount is necessary in making bread.  In the parable, the woman uses a pinch or two of the stuff and kneads it into the dough.  It disappears at once, and she would continue kneading until it was fairly evenly spread throughout the loaf.  Left for a time, the bread would “rise” and then be ready for baking.  In ancient times, no one knew for sure how it worked.  So the Lord is speaking of something small, almost unnoticeable, that entered a person and grew up inside until the person was consumed with it.  Doubt can work that way.  We can even speak of the “seeds” of doubt, scattered here and there, which mature into the weed of apostasy.  The Lord knows well that the faith of the Apostles is newborn and weak, needing constant nourishment and attention.  At the same time, they are surrounded by the dangers of indifferentism, cynicism, and hostility to anything new.  He warns his Apostles not to pay attention to the Pharisees who are unable to understand any interpretation of the Scriptures other than theirs as anything but heresy; and the Herodians, many of whom regarded King Herod as the messiah and the future leader of a Jewish kingdom independent of Rome.  He himself belongs to neither party, nor, obviously, to the Sadducees.  He is something far greater.

Despite their tender faith, in a short time from that point one of them will declare Jesus to be “the Christ”.

We must also guard our minds from the voices around us that condemn and mock religion, both crudely and under the guise of a certain sophistication.  We fortify ourselves with books and talks on Catholic doctrine, the study of apologetics, with the Holy Scriptures, and, above all else, with prayer.  The voice of the Lord in prayer drowns out all the others, even those of the wind and the sea.

 Monday in the Sixth Week of Ordinary Time, February 15, 2021

Mark 8:11-13

The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore.

The Lord arrives on the boat near a town on the coast of the Sea of Galilee called Dalmanutha.  No other mention of this town is found in the Scriptures or anywhere else.  The site of the town is itself disputed, with some scholars suggesting it lay near Magdala.  It must have been an insignificant place with few inhabitants, but the Lord Jesus set out for it nonetheless.  He shows us his determination to go to any place so that all  might hear him.  He would overlook no one.  St. Mark does not tell us what he said to the people there, but it seems he did preach to a certain number of people, for we are told that “the Pharisees came forward”.  They “came forward” to argue with the Lord, which they would not have done had the Lord not been preaching.  They were “seeking from him a sign from heaven” such as none of the prophets or even Moses gave.  That is, they were asking for a sign in the sky to validate him and his teaching.  Considering the fact that the Lord at this stage in his ministry was preaching about the approach of the Kingdom and the need for repentance, this demand from them is quite extraordinary.  He does not go far beyond what John the Baptist had done, except for his miracles, which evidently the Pharisees would not accept as “a sign from heaven”, and yet they did not require .John to produce signs.  We can conclude from this that though the Lord was not yet making special claims about himself and his relationship with the Father, the Pharisees were anxious about him.  “A sign from heaven to test him.”  That is, so that his identity might be revealed to them.  But as we know, not even the Lord’s rising from the dead was enough for them.

“He sighed from the depth of his spirit.”  They demanded a sign, but would refuse to believe it when they saw it.  The Lord’s exasperation here brings to mind his words as spoken through the Prophet Micah: “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!” (Micah 6, 3).  The Lord cried out to his Chosen People, seeking the reason for why they have abandoned him for other gods.  This verse is used in the “reproaches” on Good Friday.  “Why does this generation seek a sign?”  The Greek and Hebrew words that are translated as “generation” also carry the meanings of “an age”, “an epoch”, “a cycle of time”, and so on.  According to the reckoning of the early Christians, we are living in the sixth generation or age.  It began with the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus, and will end with his coming to judgment.  Thereafter shall reign the seventh age, an eternal Sabbath in which the just shall rest from their labors.  The present generation is an evil one (cf. Matthew 12, 39) and distinctly lacks faith.  Already in the earthly lifetime of Jesus so little faith existed that he wondered aloud, “When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?”  (Luke 18, 8).  “Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”  Elsewhere, the Lord says that only “the sign of Jonah” would be given.  In fact, the time for signs ended with his Incarnation.  This is the time of the fulfillment of those signs.  Earlier was the time for shadows.  Now is the time of the sun which cast those shadows.  The Lord shows this in his preaching and in his miracles.

“Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore.”

His leaving the Pharisees without another word is itself a sign.  It is a sign for how he will leave the Jews and proceed to the Gentiles through the later preaching of his Apostles.  He does not condemn these men to hell, he does not threaten them, he does not harm them.  He simply walks away, as he walked away when he was rejected by his own people at Nazareth, and as he will do in other places where the people will not listen to him.  He goes his way.  In the same way, he does not force us to attend Holy Mass, to read the Scriptures, to pray the rosary, or to perform charitable works.  We may let the day slip by without doing these things.  But by doing them we cling to the Lord so that wherever he goes, we go too, and he does not slip away from us.

 The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 14, 2021

Mark 1:40–45

A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.  He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.”  The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

Here are the essential elements of the prayer of intercession, that form of prayer in which we ask God for something for ourselves or for others.  First, “A leper came to Jesus.”  The one in need comes to the Lord Jesus for the cure of his terrible affliction.  So often we find ourselves in need and we respond by going into denial about it, or we assume that somehow it will take care of itself.  “And kneeling down begged him.”  We do not go before the Lord as an equal or as in any way deserving of his help.  We recognize him in our hearts as the omnipotent God.  “If you wish, you can make me clean.”  We make our plea to him with all the need and emotion we have.  We do not attempt to bargain with him, make a claim on our perceived merit, or flatter him.  We do not engage in flights of rhetoric.  Our prayer must be direct, simple, and from the heart.  St. Mark quotes the leper without any description or comment, but we should not imagine him as speaking to the Lord in the calm way it appears on the page.  This was a desperate man, sick, friendless, ashamed, hungry, homeless.  His prayer is made with tears and groans.  He hides nothing of his suffering, but comes to the Lord ad he is.  He most likely is calling out to him from a certain distance.  “The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.”  The Lord shows his power in his reply.  The answer to our prayer may not be apparent at first, but in our prayer we accept the answer he will give us, in the manner and at the time he chooses to give it to us.

The exchange between this leper and the Lord teaches us something else.  The leper says, “If you wish, you can make me clean.”  “If you wish” is not quite right.  The Greek has, “If you desire” or, “If you will”.  The leper poses his need to Jesus not as a matter of his power, but as a matter of his will, as if to say, “Your will be done.”  It is an acknowledgment of the supremacy of the divine will over all things and people.  It is also a confession of faith that the Lord can do whatever he wills.  And, finally, it is a sign that the leper will accept what the Lord’s will is for him.  The Lord replies, “I do will it. Be made clean.”  The Lord’s words indicate that he has only waited for the leper to approach him and to make his request before curing him.  That is, the Lord had an even greater desire to cure the man than the man had of being cured.

“Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.”  Jesus several times warns others against publicizing what he has done.  He will not accept testimony from just anyone.  Those whom he particularly warns he seems to regard as poor witnesses who would impede his work.  The Lord warns the demons he expels from telling people who he is — he will not be announced by them.  He also warns crowds who are only interested in a show of miracles not to tell about him because their stories will only attract others like themselves: people who will not listen to his teaching but who only want to see something novel.  In regards to this leper, we see how unreliable he is.  The Lord commands him to follow the law in regards to his cure, but he does not, and instead “he spread the report abroad”.  

We show ourselves as the Lord’s reliable witnesses by obeying his laws throughout our lives, and after praying for what we need, accepting his answer.