Thursday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, September 1, 2022

Luke 5, 1-11

While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.

At first glance, St. Luke’s description of the call of the first Apostles seems to differ from that of Matthew 4, 18-22 and Mark 1, 16-29.  However, we can understand those two accounts as being summarized versions of what the Lord did, leaving out the miraculous catch of fish.  To answer the question of why would Matthew and Mark summarize, we should keep in mind that the Evangelists were summarizing the whole time they were writing.  They could not possibly have included all the details of the Lord’s every encounter, of all his teaching, and of each miracle.  Some miracles we know about but for which we have no details, such as the exorcism of the seven Desmond from Mary Magdalene.  Specifically, Matthew sees the Lord’s preaching and his fulfillment of Scriptures as central to understanding Jesus, and so he summarizes his considerable ministry in Galilee before the Sermon on the Mount with, “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom: and healing all manner of sickness and every infirmity, among the people” (Matthew 4, 23).  He describes his miracles in detail so as to underscore what the Lord has just preached.  Mark manages to abridge with a single line the temptations the Lord underwent after his Baptism, whereas both Matthew and Luke render very dramatic accounts, so we should not be surprised by his omission of the catch of fish and Peter’s emotional confession of his sinfulness to the Lord.  To answer the question of why Luke gives far greater details to this event, we need to understand that Luke is emphasizing the Lord’s mercy to a Gentile audience, and his love for sinners and outsiders with whom the Gentiles can relate.  

We see this mercy throughout this account.  “While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.”  Luke presents this crowd, even at this early point in the Lord’s ministry, “pressing” on him in their desire to hear his words, as though crying out, “Sweet are your words to my taste! More than honey to my mouth” (Psalm 119, 103).  The Lord did not walk away, fearing to be crushed by them, but finds a way to stay, and preaches from Peter’s boat.  Now, we ought to try to see this marvelous act of divine condescension on his part.  The Son of God, equal to the Father in power and majesty, gets into a little wooden boat in order to preach to a crowd of fairly ordinary people in a remote part of the world he himself had created.  Almighty God humbles himself before his creatures in order to practically beg them to accept the gift of eternal life which he holds out to them.

“Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”  The carpenter directs the work of the fisherman, and the fisherman yields to him.  The Lord directs him to a place where the fish should not be at a time when they would be difficult to catch anyway.  It is, perhaps, what a carpenter might think a fisherman should do.  Peter has heard the carpenter preach, though, and knows that he is something greater than he seems.  “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”  Just at the point when the exhausted fishermen were ready to go home, they set out again, and they do so on what must have seemed to at least some of them a foolhardy job.  We might wonder what Peter expected.  Perhaps nothing.  Perhaps he was so moved by the Lord’s preaching that he simply carried out his direction without wondering what would happen.  We see mercy here, too.  It would be surprising to Peter and the others if Jesus had told them to lower the nets close to shore and they had pulled up some fish, but the Lord wants to show them a sign of what they shall do later in their own preaching, and also to reward them for their patience with him in their boat that morning.  And so, “they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.”  Peter had to call over to his partners Zebedee and his sons to come and help them, a sign of the numbers of preachers the Lord would require to preach the Gospel to the world.  “They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking.”  Never had such a single haul occurred on the Sea of Galilee.  The men shouted to one another and stumbled about, the breeze blew across the water, birds called as they flew over the sea, and Peter, stunned, sensed who it was who stood calmly before him: “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus.”  His eyes, bleary from tiredness and fear, looked up into the eyes of love.  He would have needed to speak quite loudly to be heard above the noise of the fishermen, the sea, and the sky: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  Here, as on the occasion of the Transfiguration, “he did not know what to say, for [he was] exceedingly afraid” (Mark 9, 6).  The Lord gazed at him steadily and allowed Peter to gaze back at him.  “Do not be afraid.”  And then, “From now on you will be catching men.”  Peter would not have understood that.  What he did know was that this man had done the impossible and filled his boat with fish at a time and place where there should have been none.  He sensed who this must be but could not yet put to words what he thought.  The Lord does not ask him to do so, either.  He knew Peter was not ready, and in his mercy the Lord never demands from us what it is not possible for us to do.  Peter had done what he could and put out into the deep and lowered his nets.  That would do for now.

 Wednesday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, August 31, 2022

Luke 4, 38-44

After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her. He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and waited on them.  At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them. And demons also came out from many, shouting, “You are the Son of God.” But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.  At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place. The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him, they tried to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, “To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent.” And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

“After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon.”  According to the Evangelists, the Lord’s exorcism of the possessed man’s demon in the synagogue, recounted in yesterday’s Gospel Reading, is to be counted as his first public miracle (the miracle at the wedding at Cana was performed in a back room).  In the aftermath, the Lord and his first disciples walked through the town to Peter’s house.  The crowd in the synagogue, asking each other in open astonishment, “What word is this, for with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they go out?” (Luke 4, 36).  Some of those who had witnesses the exorcism would have remained in the synagogue after the Lord left, tending to the man, and others would have stood in frozen silence, trying to make sense of what they had witnessed.  A few others would have followed the Lord out of the building and gone a little ways up the road after him in their amazement.  Let us note that the Lord does not remain in the synagogue after the exorcism.  His business done there, he moves on to Peter’s house.  It seems that the Lord had lived in or around Capernaum for some weeks after leaving Nazareth, for Luke says, “And he went down into Capharnaum, a city of Galilee: and there he taught them on the sabbath days” (Luke 4, 31).  But it is only after he had already preached there for some weeks that he casts out the demon, and it is only then that Peter brings him to his house in order to ask him him to cure his mother-in-law.  

“Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever.”  A fever of this kind in those days spelled death.  “And they interceded with him about her.”  The intercession of the saints in heaven is no different than the intercessions of the members of Christ’s Body here on earth.  “He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her.”  He rebuked the fever as though it had intelligence, and as he had earlier rebuked the demon in the synagogue.  Later, he will rebuke the raging sea and wind and they calm immediately.  We rebuke those over whom we have authority.  The Lord hereby demonstrates to the world that he possesses authority over these things.  Again, “with authority and power he commands”.  “She got up immediately and waited on them.”  Just as the demon had gone out of the man without hurting him, so the fever leaves her without a trace of itself.  She needs no time for recovery or convalescence.  She goes not to her bedroom to lie down but to the kitchen to work.

“At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him.”  Since the people of that time took their main meal around noon, news of what the Lord had done had time to get around to neighboring villages.  “He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.”  We are accustomed to hearing of the Lord Jesus healing the sick, but we ought to think about this simple sentence.  It hides, because nothing could reveal, tales of long-term suffering, sickness, agony, birth-defects, wounds that would not heal, broken bones not set right, blindness and deafness, and more cases of possession, too: “And demons also came out from many, shouting, ‘You are the Son of God.’ ”  But, “he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.”  The Lord does not accept the testimony of Satan.  He healed all of these, one by one, and the formerly afflicted person rose and went home.  

“At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place.”  We are not told whether the Lord had time to rest first.  “The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him, they tried to prevent him from leaving them.”  St. Mark adds that the Lord went out to the deserted place to pray, and that Peter was among those looking for him.  “To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent.”  According to Luke, Jesus had already spent some weeks in Capernaum, teaching in the synagogue.  He ended his stay there with many miracles of healing that underscored his doctrine.  And now it was time to move on.  “And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”  Capernaum lay in the far north of Israel, in Galilee.  Luke tells us that he went south into Judea in order to teach there.  Most of the Lord’s teaching preserved in the Gospels was done in Galilee, with some in Jerusalem.  How we wonder about all that he did and said in “the towns of Judea” which is not recorded!

The people of Capernaum tried to prevent the Lord Jesus from leaving their town.  We ought to prevent him from leaving us by turning away from sin and wicked habits and to dedicate ourselves to doing good, according to our calling, as he did. 

 Tuesday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, August 30, 2022

1 Corinthians 2, 10-16

Brothers and sisters: The Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God. Among men, who knows what pertains to the man except his spirit that is within? Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms. Now the natural man does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually. The one who is spiritual, however, can judge everything but is not subject to judgment by anyone. For “who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

St. Peter speaks of St. Paul’s Letters “in which are certain things hard to be understood” (2 Peter 3, 16).  Perhaps Peter himself scratched his head as he glanced over them.  Three principal difficulties hinder our understanding Paul’s letters:  Paul sometimes addresses questions in letters from original readership, and we may not be aware of this (see Romans 1); Paul is creating the theological language of our Faith, adapting older terms and using them in unfamiliar ways; he frequently writes while he travels and sometimes loses his train of thought.  In sum, he is trying to capture the truth about heavenly realities and make them plain in an earthly world.

His Letters often deal with very practical matters, such as whether men and women ought to marry or whether a convert should be circumcised.  At times, though, he seems rapt up in visions and his words seem strange to us.  In the section of his First Letter to the Corinthians used for today’s First Reading, this seems to occur.  “The Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.”  This sounds impossible to understand until we realize that Paul is speaking about the unity of the Holy Trinity.  This unity does not come from the outside, as it were, but from the interiors of the Persons.  The Spirit, the Bond of love that binds the Father and Son together, proceeds from within both and so knows them intimately.  He searches out and knows the love of the Father and the Son for each other.  “Among men, who knows what pertains to the man except his spirit that is within?”  Paul compares this knowing by the Holy Spirit with the situation of mortal man.  We have nothing comparable to the Holy Spirit.  God knows himself, but we cannot know ourselves to the extent that he knows himself.  The little we do know of ourselves as humans comes from our souls.  We can know our limitations and especially our mortality from our souls, but also we can know that he possess free will.  But no one can know the precise abilities and limitations of a given individual than that individual, from his soul.  “Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God.”  If we cannot know others as well as we can know ourselves, we can hardly know the inner life of God.  “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.”  The “spirit of the world” is the thoroughly secular way in which most people think of themselves, as though they are just animated bodies and as though they possessed no immortal soul.  But the baptized believer receives the Holy Spirit so that his soul might be informed by the Spirit of the truth of the human person.  That is, the Spirit helps the soul to recognize its limitations and mortality but also the hope of it gaining immortality through the Death of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God.  The baptized believer knows himself in a very different way than a secular-minded person does.  

“And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.”  Paul puts forth the very problem of theology: how to explain in human words the meanings of which are grounded in earthly things the spiritual realities of heaven.  The early Christians ingeniously invested old words with new meanings, adapting physical, philosophical, and religious words for this purpose.  The Greek ekklesia, originally meaning a social assembly, became used for “the Church”.  Presbyteros, which meant “elder”, was used for “priest” instead of hieros in order to distinguish the Christian priest from the pagan.  Later, theologians would coin words such as homoousion and transubstantio when not even adapting older words could suffice.  Even so, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard: neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2, 9).

“Now the natural man does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually.”  This is the man with the secular mind for whom the concepts of God and of the world beyond this one make no sense and has no attraction.  “The one who is spiritual, however, can judge everything but is not subject to judgment by anyone.”  The Christian understands reality far better than a secular person who studies it professionally because the Christian understands, for instance, that all is created by Almighty God to manifest his glory.  He understands a things purpose as well as its end.  He understands that God’s Providence governs the world and so there is purpose.  “For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?’  But we have the mind of Christ.”  Paul quotes from Isaiah 40, 13.  He uses the quote to remind his readers that although we have greater knowledge of the human person and of the world than secular-minded people, our knowledge is still limited.  That we have it at all is due to the revelations made by the Lord Jesus and the help of the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass is taken from Luke 4, 31-37.  The Evangelist describes an exorcism the Lord Jesus performed in a synagogue.  The secular-minded person would read this and ascribe the sufferings of the possessed man to some psychosis, some physical cause.  But the spiritual-minded understand that this life is a warfare, with the forces of hell arraigned against us.  At times, the devil gains the upper hand, but the power of Jesus Christ, “the holy one of God” frees us.  With all our faith, we are still astounded by his power: “What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.”  The secular-minded misses it altogether.

 The Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist

Monday, August 29, 2022

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.

St. John the Baptist preceded the Lord Jesus in that he was born before him, preached of his coming, and in terms of sanctity, for as the Lord himself said of him, “There has not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11, 11).  His sanctity consisted of his relentless carrying out of the will of God, challenging the established religious authorities and even the political leaders of the time.  He did not do so recklessly or needlessly.  He challenged the Pharisees to put their houses in order before facing the wrath to come.  And as the Prophet Elijah rebuked King Ahab for his unlawful marriage to the pagan Jezebel, so John rebuked King Herod for the illegal marriage to his brother’s former wife.  At the height of his influence and following, he baptized Jesus of Nazareth and recognized him as the Messiah concerning whom he had preached.  In the several months following this encounter of the two, John’s influence and following ebbed while that of the Lord grew.  John understood this, and explained to one of his adherents, “He must increase but I must decrease” (John 3, 30).  All the same, he continued to preach repentance and to baptize up until Herod (or his wife)  felt threatened enough that soldiers came and dragged him away in chains.

John was not formally charged with any crime nor was he tried by any court.  He was jailed simply on the king’s order.  The Evangelists imply that John remained in prison for some time, but probably not more than a few months: “When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him.”  The Greek word translated here as “very much perplexed” means “at his wits end”, as though not knowing what to do about his marriage or about John.  Despite this, he heard him gladly, willingly.  It seems that with John in custody, he no longer posed a threat and Herod, who went to listen to him, does not seem to harbor any murderous intentions towards him.  Herod is shown as a dupe by the Evangelists by for swearing to give his niece anything she wanted as a reward for her dance.  She also comes across as a mere pawn in going to her mother for advice rather than stating her own preference.  The devil works this way: through the hapless and the unwary, he harms the good.  He is the master manipulator whose sole goal is to destroy whatever is good.  The knowledge that he cannot win against God only embitters and enrages him further.  The devil managed to start a war as a result of this marriage of Herod and Herodias, for to marry her, Herod divorced his first wife, the daughter of an Arabian king.  This war broke out within a year of the Death and Resurrection of the Lord and proved disastrous for Herod.  A few years after the war the Roman Emperor Caligula accused him of plotting against him and both Herod and Herodias were sent into exile in the province of Gaul, where they died in misery.

John the Baptist’s life ended not in misery but in glory, circumstances notwithstanding, for his end was attended by hosts of angels, who brought his soul to the place where the great Patriarchs and Prophets were awaiting the coming of Christ, who would appear to them on the day after his own Death.

We pray that through John’s intercession we too might stand up for the commandments of God in the face of all evil.

 The 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 28, 2022

Luke 14:1, 7–14

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully.  He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place. Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’ Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Then he said to the host who invited him, “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Most days, the Lord Jesus and his Apostles ate on the road or outside the towns they visited.  A few of them, probably two, would go into the town and buy dried fish, bread, and perhaps figs from the market with funds provided by the women who accompanied them (cf. Luke 8, 2-3).  They would take their main meal during the midday, the custom of that time and place.  The Lord would thank the Father for what they had, and they would eat.  Jesus seldom sought a house where he could eat — the major exception being his eating at the house of Zachaeus (cf. Luke 19, 5).  He did accept invitations to eat in houses, but mostly in order to teach the householders and their guests about the Kingdom of God.  For this reason, the Lord ate with the Pharisees on several occasions.

On this occasion, the scrambling for the choice seats in the house — those nearest the head of the household and his guest of honor, Jesus — appears unusually intense, and the Lord takes the situation, which no one could deny, as an opportunity to teach about humility, and about himself.  Now, we ought to keep in mind that at this time, humility was not a virtue to be embraced.  In every culture, a person was expected to proclaim his achievements and to demand preferences and privileges for them.  Striving for the highest places at a banquet was customary.  One had to be assertive in order to gain proper deference and rights.  The Pharisees dispute among  themselves for the higher places so that they might be seen as superior to those in lesser places and to reinforce their opinion of their own status.  The Lord begins teaching by offering practical advice.  Following this advice would also allow the owner of the house to rank his guests according to his own estimation of them, perhaps to the consternation of some.  But this would at least show deference to the one giving the banquet, as would be right.  It is charming to see the Lord sometimes speaking on merely earthly matters.  We see that no matter is beneath him, and that he wants to help people in even things of this kind.

His teaching also gives us insight into himself.  He himself is the guest who comes and takes the lowest place, despite his importance.  As St. Paul says, “he emptied himself and took the form of a servant” (Philippians 2, 7) in his Incarnation and living among us.  His Father is the master of the banquet who raises him from the lowest place, from his tomb, to his right hand in heaven, to the acclaim of the countless hosts of angels.

He sits at the lowest place, with us, and we ought to stay where he is, among the other servants.

 Saturday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, August 27, 2022

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.’ ”

The Lord God gives us all the same law, the same commandments.  We are all to obey the commandments that we shall commit no murder or adultery.  If we obey the commandments of God out of love for him we will go to heaven after our life on earth.  Within the law, God calls us to various lives and works, and he fits us to them and them to us so that we may be able to accomplish them, for we are of all different levels of intellect and ability.  That is, he does not expect a person who struggles with simple math to become a physicist.  Before the beginning of time, in his most wonderful Providence, Almighty God designed us for some particular life and work, and those things for us.  Thus, in the parable, the master gave unto each servant certain amounts of money — “each according to his ability.”  The master does not give the man with the least ability five talents, but one.  And this is not only for the good of the servant, but for the accomplishment of the master’s aim.  In his case, it is to make money for himself.  The Lord gives us work that is fit for us, and that is good, but he does this also with an eye to his ultimate aim.  In the Lord’s case, the salvation of the human race.  By cooperating with God, we do well for ourselves, our fellow humans, and for God’s greater glory.

“Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.”  Likewise, the servant given two talents makes two more.  These servants double what their master had given them.  This fact shows that they fully put their intellects and abilities to their tasks.  It is no small thing to double an investment in any age of history.  And we see in the response of the master to each of them, that he is exceedingly pleased with them.  He does not say to the one who made five more talents, Why did you not make ten?  And he does not reproach the servant with two talents by asking why he did not make five like his fellow.  He is grateful for what they have done, and promotes them to levels of management on his estate.  The servant who did not try to make a profit with the talent given to him has shown contempt for his master by his inaction, and worsens his position by making as though the master demanded more from him than he could possibly give.  The master returns the contempt, and the useless servant is cast out into “the darkness outside”, which is to say, he abandons him to the darkness within him.  The master did not expect this servant to make five talents or two with the one he had given him, but some minimal profit, in keeping with what the man could have achieved, given his intellect and ability, but he would not employ them on his behalf.

When we read the lives of the saints, as we should, we should not be overwhelmed with their deeds and think to ourselves that if founding a religious order or living among a foreign people spreading the Gospel, or suffering martyrdom is required to get into heaven, we might as well give up now.  It is true that for some, this is God’s plan, and he equips the person to do these things.  Maybe we can say that this is the servant who is given the five talents: God has given him or her what is necessary for them to do the work he created them for.  Most of us, though, are on the two talent level, and are made for less spectacular, shall we say, kinds of work.  Whatever we discern that the Lord has given us to do, let us be industrious at it, confident that it is not too much, but is perfectly suited for us through his Providence.

 Friday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, August 26, 2022

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.”

The sin that offends the Lord Jesus the most is the contempt that has its greatest sign in complacency.  Here, for instance, the foolish virgins do not make any attempt to do justice to the honor accorded them, in not stocking up on the oil they will need.  The Lord condemns this again in the Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22, 1-24), in which the king comes across a guest who is not wearing the proper wedding garment and will not answer his question as to why not.  Again, in the Parable of the Ten Talents (Matthew 25, 14-30), the servant that is punished has not even tried to make money for his master.  None of these characters in the parables act in accordance with their responsibilities or even in their own self-interest.  As a result, they are put “outside”, that is, their choice to separate themselves from the others is honored, and they remain in their own darkness of self-reproach and self-destruction.

The virgins the Lord calls “wise”, or, “prudent”, are those who take seriously the honor accorded them and simply carry out their duty.  They do nothing extraordinary — a fact the Lord makes clear when he says that they fall asleep while waiting for the bridegroom to return.  That is, they succumb to wounded human nature.  But they accomplish their task by recognizing the potential problems they might face and act so as to minimize them: they buy enough oil so that even if the bridegroom comes later, they will have enough to relight their lamps for him.  The “foolish” virgins are not let off through their weaker intelligence: they could have, but did not, follow the example of the prudent virgins.  This is a matter of the will, not of the intellect, and so they are faulted by the bridegroom. 

At the end of the world, the wicked will attempt to excuse their actions by claiming ignorance: “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty . . . and not serve you?” (Matthew 25, 44).  That is, they will acknowledge that they failed to carry out their duty, but only because of inherent weakness for which they could not be blamed.  But the Lord, in replying to them in virtually the words he replies to the just — “As long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me” — tells them that they had the example of the just to follow, and they refused to do so.  The Lord thus exposes the contempt which the wicked manifested through their complacency and attempted to disguise as ignorance.

The Lord knows full well that we are prone to human frailty.  As he said to the sleeping Apostles on the night he was arrested, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”.  But he will aid us in our need if we desire to do his will.  That the Apostles did not do his will and fled into the darkness when the leaders of the Jews came for him was not due to their human weakness but to the fact that they did not do as the Lord told them in order to receive his help: “Keep watch, and pray that you enter not into temptation.”  They neither kept watch nor prayed, but fell further into the slumber of sin.

 Thursday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, August 25, 2022

Matthew 24, 42-51

Jesus said to his disciples: “Stay awake!  For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so. Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards, the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

As we draw near to the end of the Church year and to the Season of Advent, the Mass readings increasingly emphasize the end of time and the day of judgment.  Here, the Lord, in the few days before he suffered and died for us, teaches to to “Stay awake!”  or, more precisely, as in the Greek, “Keep vigilant!”, for it is not enough to stay awake if a person is not paying attention to what is going on around him.  The Lord wants his followers to stay ready because he will come like a thief on the night, when least expected.  The faithful follower of Christ also hears the Lord’s words as a call to keep watch for some act of service to perform.  In a busy restaurant, a server has to keep her eye on the tables in her station and to provide for her customers even before they ask for something.  She has to keep watch for when one of her tables is seated too so that these new customers are not kept waiting for menus and water.  Or, a back-up quarterback does not know when he may have to take over for the starter.  The starting quarterback may be completing his passes and look at the peak of his form, and the next moment he is injured and has to come off the field.  The back-up needs to start warming up the instant he realizes something may be wrong.  If his head is in the game and he has followed every play, and he has kept himself in shape throughout the season, he is able to go out and continue the drive.  This may even be his big break to start playing regularly.  The unprepared backup who is not paying attention will lose his chance, which may never come again.

“My master is long delayed.”  Two thousand years seems a long time to us, but it is hardly a blink of an eye in the history of the earth.  It seems a long time because we are impatient people.  Our impatience is demonstrated by a lack of knowledge of the past and of interest in the future.  But, as St. Peter reminds us, “One day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3, 8).  Peter further explains that the “delay” is only apparent: “The Lord does not delay his promise, as some imagine, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance” (2 Peter 3, 9).  The Lord patiently waits for his slowest sheep to catch up with the rest of the flock before closing their gate.  The Lord gives each person multiple opportunities throughout life to believe, to repent, and do penance.  If we read the Gospels carefully, we can see all the chances the Lord gives Judas to change his mind, including several during the course of the Last Supper.

Let us, then, make good use of whatever time left the Lord affords us on this earth so that we will not be caught unaware and unprepared but instead looking forward to the good things he has prepared for us.

 Wednesday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, August 23, 2022

The Feast of St. Bartholomew

John 1, 45-51

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

“Philip found Nathanael.”  St. John’s accounts of the calling of the first Apostles imparts the excitement of those men in those days.  First, Andrew and John hear John the Baptist call Jesus the Lamb of God, and they go and spend the day with him.  Andrew is impressed enough that he tells his brother Simon about Jesus and Simon goes back with him.  The next day, the Lord went and “found “Philip”, who then went and “found” Nathanael, presumably a friend, perhaps a relation.  This “finding” presupposes a searching.  Philip searched for and then found Nathaniel, who also went by Bartholomew (“the son of Thoma”.  Thus, as Andrew and John had searched for the Messiah, in so doing becoming disciples of John the Baptist, and then found him, so they sought out and found others to follow him.

“We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the Law, and also the Prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”  Moses wrote of a  great prophet in time to come: “The Lord your God will raise up to you a Prophet of your nation and of your brethren like unto me: him you shall hear” (Deuteronomy 18, 15).  The future Apostle undoubtedly referred to this.  As to what Philip meant by “the Prophets”, it seems he meant the Son of man of whom Daniel wrote, since this was what the Pharisees taught the people to expect.  “Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”  Thus did the Son of God identify himself to his creatures.  “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”  Bartholomew’s question contains a pinch of contempt and may reveal a certain regional prejudice, as Nazareth, though enough of a town to have its own synagogue,  he considered it lesser than the place from which he hailed.  His skepticism that the Messiah could come from Nazareth also contrasts with Philip’s simple enthusiasm for Jesus.  It is as though St. John is saying that a person need not embrace the Lord and his Gospel immediately after hearing of him, but, as St. Paul says, he ought to “test everything; retain what it good” (1 Thessalonians 5, 21).  This Bartholomew does by going to meet the proposed Messiah himself.

“Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.”  That is, there is no deceit or treachery in him.  Jesus says of Bartholomew that he is the “true” child of Israel.  Now, Israel here is understood as both the nation and the ancestor.  As the ancestor, Israel’s name was originally “Jacob”, meaning “usurper”, a name he lived up to in his usurping his older brother Esau’s heritage.  When Jesus calls Bartholomew a true child of Israel, he is identifying him as a “true” Israel, free of treachery.  This declaration of Bartholomew’s virtue brought a question from him: “How do you know me?”  That is, how do you know my character?  The Lord’s answer is interesting: “said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”  The Lord says, “Before Philip called you”, that is, before Philip found you, not when Philip found you.  The Lord knew of the existence of Bartholomew before Philip saw him under the fig tree.  The Greek verb we usually translate as “to see” means “to see with the eyes” and also “to understand”, as in English we say, “Oh, I see.”  Jesus was both seeing Bartholomew from afar but was also present in his heart, “knowing” him there.  Jesus says that he saw him under “the fig tree”, which is a symbol of Israel.  It is also a very particular kind of tree, with wide, spreading branches.  Jesus informs him that not only did he see him under a tree, but under this tree.  Philip might also have had trouble locating Bartholomew because of the branches, but the Lord saw him there even without being present.  The addition of “fig tree” to the Lord’s answer may refer back to his calling Bartholomew a “true child of Israel”, and the future Apostle caught the inference.

The formerly skeptical Bartholomew answered back, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”  This seems a bit of an extreme act of faith even for the power the Lord has revealed to him, and it tells us something of the man’s impulsive nature and, probably, youth.  He shares this with the other Apostles, too, if we think about it.  Peter, of course; James and John, the “sons of thunder”; Matthew, who got up immediately from his custom’s post; Thomas, who counseled the other Apostles that they should go back to Judea with him in order to die with him there.  St. John is teaching here, using his example, that if we harbor doubts about the truth of the Lord and his Gospel we can go to him, studying his words, and if we have maintained an open mind, we will be granted faith.

“Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.”  That is, you will understand greater things.  “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”  It is not yet the time to reveal to him or the others the Passion and Death to come.  The Lord speaks here of the vision of the Son of man in the Book of Daniel, confirming what Philip had told him.  The scene the Lord describes will take place at the end of the world when he returns in glory to judge the human race.  There is an interesting detail that the Lord Jesus adds that is not in Daniel: “the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”  This detail goes back to Jacob the ancestor, when he slept in the wilderness: “And he saw in his sleep a ladder standing upon the earth, and the top thereof touching heaven: the angels also of God ascending and descending by it” (Genesis 28, 12).  Jesus himself is the “ladder” between heaven and earth, the means by which those who are saved enter the Kingdom of his Father.  Bartholomew, the true Jacob, the true Israel, the fulfillment of his ancestor, would come to know Jesus as the true Ladder, and that the angels would lead souls to heaven by him.

St. Bartholomew is said to have preached the Gospel in Parthia and India, and also in Ethiopia.  He was martyred in Armenia.  The Armenian Apostolic Church considers him and St. Jude as its founder and patron.

 Tuesday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, August 23, 2022

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3; 14-17

We ask you, brothers and sisters, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling with him, not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a “spirit,” or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand. Let no one deceive you in any way; [for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you this? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming. The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.]  To this end he has also called you through our Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.  May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.

The Lectionary unfortunately chops up this reading from St. Paul.  The verses omitted from the Letter (4-12) are included here within brackets.  These verses are necessary for us because they tell us what it is that we should be concerned and on the watch for, and also that the end of the world is not as imminent as some of these new Gentile Christians feared, for the signs of it had not yet appeared.

“With regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling with him.”  It is interesting to compare what the Lord himself taught about the end in, say, Matthew 24-25, and what St, Paul taught.  Paul, of course, had not heard Jesus preach and so all that he knew of the Gospel came from the Apostles who had.  Now Paul hands on what he received from them to a people recently converted and without the benefit of Jewish tradition regarding the end of the world to fall back on.  

“Not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a “spirit,” or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand.”  In the Ancient Greek religion, oracles and pythonic spirits “foretold” the future, usually at various shrines.  St. Paul warns the Thessalonian Christians not to consult these things and not to listen to people who had.  “Oral statements” might be attempts by people to deduce the time for the end.  False letters from the Apostles seem already to float around.  In 3, 17, Paul makes sure to authenticate this particular Letter: “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the mark in every letter of mine; it is the way I write.”  He likewise does this in his Letter to the Galatians: “See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand” (Galatians 6, 11).  The Lord Jesus had already warned his followers not to listen to people who were saying that the world had ended: he taught that when the world ended, it would be sudden and everyone would know it together (cf. Matthew 24, 23-27).

“For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed.”  Paul speaks of events that will occur preceding the end.  Of the “rebellion”, the Lord says, “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Matthew 24, 29).  The Book of Revelation speaks similarly.  A great apostasy will take place in which a great number of Christians — and especially their leaders — will reject God and his Church: they will “fall from heaven”.  We may liken this to another fall of which the Lord speaks: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10, 18).  “A man of lawlessness” will appear quite openly at that time.  He is the “son of perdition”, that is, of destruction and ruin.  He is so-called because he acts for the devil as though his son and will lead large numbers of people to hell.  St. John calls him “the Antichrist”.  “Who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.”  This may mean that he preaches atheism while also establishing himself as the only authority offering salvation (of whatever kind).  While many people acted in this way in the twentieth century and some do so now, this man will seemingly perform miracles: “The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception.”  The Lord speaks of the serious threat of even steadfast Christians being lured by the Antichrist’s false power: “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24, 24).

“And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time.”. This verse and the one following it, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way”, are difficult to translate.  Paul seems to say that the devil seeks even now to destroy the world and to lead the human race in slavery to hell, and that he would, if the Lord did not restrain him, for we humans are weak, easily deceived, and given to sinful acts, while the devil is far more intelligent and powerful than we are.  This restraining may be what the Lord means when he says, “And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24, 22).  The “shortening of days” meaning “the restraining of the Antichrist’s power”.

“And then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming.”  Just as the Lord breathed on the Apostles so that they might receive the Holy Spirit (cf. John 20, 22), so he breathes on the Antichrist and he dies.  His death will come suddenly when he seems to be at the height of his power and near victory.  It will be as the calming of the storm which threatened the lives of the Apostles: “And a great storm of wind arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already filling . . . and he awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40  (Mark 4, 37-39).  

“Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”  That is, God allows the wicked, who have rejected objective reality and morality, to suffer the consequences of their embrace of what is false.  Those who hope to be saved must avoid the wicked and their lies lest they fall prey to them.

“To this end he has also called you through our Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Paul reassures the Thessalonians that God calls them to salvation.  He makes it possible for them to be saved, but they must do their part in accepting God’s immeasurable gift to them: “Stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.”  The Lord urges perseverance throughout  the Gospels.  It is a major theme in the Letters of the Apostles, and it is the principal message of the Book of Revelation.  

“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.”  St. Paul ends this part of his Letter with a prayer for the perseverance of these new Christians, reminding us also to pray for this virtue for ourselves.

 Monday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, August 22, 2022

The Feast of the Queenship of Mary

The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary is based on two principles, both defined by Pope Pius XII in his encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam:

According to ancient tradition and the sacred liturgy the main principle on which the royal dignity of Mary rests is without doubt her Divine Motherhood. In Holy Writ, concerning the Son whom Mary will conceive, We read this sentence: "He shall be called the Son of the most High, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father, and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end," and in addition Mary is called "Mother of the Lord"; from this it is easily concluded that she is a Queen, since she bore a Son who, at the very moment of his conception, because of the hypostatic union of the human nature with the Word, was also as man King and Lord of all things. So with complete justice St. John Damascene could write: "When she became Mother of the Creator, she truly became Queen of every creature." Likewise, it can be said that the heavenly voice of the Archangel Gabriel was the first to proclaim Mary's royal office.

According to Pope Pius, the second principle is linked to the first: “But the Blessed Virgin Mary should be called Queen, not only because of her Divine Motherhood, but also because God has willed her to have an exceptional role in the work of our eternal salvation.”  One May say that, in according to the first principle, her Queenship was bestowed, and, according to the second, understood in a very strict way, it was earned.

The Church has always understood Mary to be the Queen of heaven and earth.  The antiphons Regina Caeli and Salve Regina (the former dating to the sixth century, according to tradition, and the latter to the thirteenth century) testify to this as well as innumerable statements to this effect by the Church Fathers.  One even says that the name “Mary” has its origin in the Syriac mar, which means something like “my lord”.

The Gospel reading for today, Matthew 23, 13-22, simply continues the cycle from Friday, although a feast of this kind really deserves its own readings.  All the same, a careful reading of the text of this reading offers us a verse on which we can meditate with profit regarding the Virgin Mary’s Queenship: “You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?”  That is, Christ himself is the Altar, the Priest, and the Victim of sacrifice.  Inasmuch as he is the Altar, certainly she who places herself beside it is made sacred, that is, holy, and worthy of honor.  This is confirmed by the Lord’s declaration that “one who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it”, which draws a certain level of identity between the altar and that which touches it.  The Virgin Mary, so near the Heart of Christ in her heart, and so near the Body of her Son on Golgotha, shares in his glory and majesty.  And as she stands at the King’s right hand, she is the Queen, “in gold of Ophir” (Psalm 45, 9).

Unlike earthly potentates, however, the Virgin Mary reigns as one who serves.  Jesus Christ, our Lord, declared that, “The Son of man came not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20, 28), even to the point of giving his life as a ransom for many, and so Mary also comes, as Queen, to serve.  She serves us as an inspiring model and as intercessor on our behalf with her Son.  The oldest example of Christians seeking her help is found in the prayer Sub Tuum Refugium, dating back to the 200’s, and representing a tradition already old at the time: “We fly to thy protection, O Holy Mother of God.  Do not despise our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O Glorious and Blessed Virgin.”  

 The 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 21, 2022

Luke 13:22–30

Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out. And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

“Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.”  St. Luke tells us the names of only a few of these fortunate towns and villages.  Since we can follow the route the Lord must have taken through Galilee to Jerusalem, we can make some surmises, but we do not know how long he spent in any of these places, nor of what he said in them.  Just a few sentences spoken in one of these unnamed towns, a single description of a miracle, would be so precious to us.  This lack makes what the Evangelists preserve for us all the more worth embracing and pondering. 

“Lord, will only a few people be saved?”  St. Luke preserves this for us, and how good that he did so, for it is a question we all want to know the answer to.  Now, what is it that the questioner really wants to know?  Why does he ask?  The questioner is asking about his chances, or about those of family members.  He realizes that he is not living a particularly virtuous life, but he is not ready to admit that he is living a bad life either.  And likewise, concerning family members.  It is not a theoretical question.  It is a nervous question.  Will only a few be “saved”?  This man is not asking about entering the Kingdom so much as being saved from fiery Gehenna.

“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”  The Lord speaks of a “gate” through which a person must strive or “contend” to enter.  This brings to mind the Lord’s admonition that it is easier for a camel (or a rope) to pass through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to enter the Kingdom of God.  Also, “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are who find it!” (Matthew 7, 13-24).  This gate is “narrow” because our sinful habits have made it narrow.  Each time we sin, each time we succumb to the will of the devil, the gate narrows for us.  It may narrow to the point where not only can we not go through it, but we can no longer see it.  Each time we win or, conversely, each time we perform a virtuous act, we change.  The change is abiding; it does not have a fleeting effect.  Even after we have confessed the sin and received absolution, our character does not change.  Changing our character — becoming a virtuous person — takes time and hard work.  This is the “striving” or contending.  As St. Paul says, “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Ephesians 6, 12).  That is, we not not fight exterior foes so much as interior ones: our hardened character and the demons who want to protect what they regard as their property.  How do we contend successfully against them?  Through regular reception of the Sacraments, devoted prayer, and mortification, such as fasting — and not only from food.  The Lord tells us the struggle will be a hard one, but it is for us the only struggle that matters.  Even so, many will fail.

“After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ ”  The door is “locked” at the end of our lives on earth and at the end of time.  We do not want to be left outside where “there will be wailing and grinding of teeth”, and so we hasten inside the first time the Master calls, and he is calling now, for each of us to come inside.  “We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.”  Those shut out of the house — who die without repentance — will shout in their panic that they must be allowed in because he came among them, but proximity — the Lord’s taking on human flesh — does not guarantee salvation for those who ignored or rejected him.  “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!”  That is, I know you are not members of my family.  Depart?  Depart to where?  The Lord asked Peter and the Apostles if they were also going to leave him after he had taught the crowd about the Bread of Life.  Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6, 69).  Away from the Lord there is only darkness and suffering, brought on by oneself.

“And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out.”  This is a related teaching, joined to the previous teaching by the Lord’s explaining that it is not enough for people to have been alive at his coming as man for them to be saved.  Here, he says that it is not enough to be a Jew to be saved.  “And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.”  The Lord here speaks of the Gentiles who will come to believe and who will take the place of those Jews who would not believe.  This saying would have inflamed the Pharisees and many other Jews too, for they saw the Gentiles as “dogs”.  The inference that the Gentiles and the Prophets would eat together in the Kingdom would have been seen as deliberately provocative, for while the Jews allowed themselves to have certain business with the Gentiles, they most certainly could not eat with them.  In this verse, we see how the Lord fulfills Isaiah: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: the calf and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together, and a little Child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11, 6). 

“For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”  The order in heaven will not divide the Jews and the Gentiles, with the Jews in all the first places, but they shall be ordered according to their love for God.  For us also, the Lord shows that it is possible for us to convert from our past lives, however hardened in sin they may be, to repent, to do penance, to practice virtue, and to be saved and numbered among the just.

 Friday in the 20th Week of Ordinary Time, August 20, 2022

Matthew 23, 1-12

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

“The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.”   We note here the way the Lord has phrased this statement: They have “taken” their seat on the throne of Moses.  He does not say that they were appointed by anyone to the chair of Moses — his teaching authority.  In the absence of anyone else in his seat, they set themselves in it.  A prime weakness from which the Judaic religion suffered came from the lack of officially appointed teachers who would explain the Law and the Prophets to the people.  In the beginnings of the people of Israel, after they had settled in the Promised Land, God had sent men and women as judges to protect their independence and also to explain the Law to them.  Samuel was the last of these.  After the Temple was built in Jerusalem and the worship of God conducted there, the high priest and the priests from the tribe of Levi centered their lives around their service in that place.  They did not teach the Law to the people.  The Prophets urged the people to embrace the Law and especially to reject the worship of idols but they did not “take their seat” on the chair of Moses.  It was up to the high priest to appoint teachers of the Law, but this never happened.  The people were easy prey for the Pharisees, who simply moved in and taught their interpretation of the Law as the Law, though it varied from it, sometimes quite considerably.

“Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.”  We might question why the Lord admonishes the people of the crowd to do this, especially in light of what the Apostles would say following his Ascension into heaven, when the Pharisees ordered them not to preach about Jesus: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5, 29).  And later, they would teach that all animals were clean and could be eaten, in contradiction to the Pharisees: “That which God has cleansed, do not call unclean” (Acts 10, 15).  But the time for this had not yet come.  The Law would hold force until the Death and Resurrection of the Lord, and then the New Law of the New Covenant made in his Precious Blood, had force.  The Pharisees then lost the chair in which they had presumptuously seated themselves.  “They do not practice.”  This is an implied warning for his followers that they must practice what they believed and what they would one day teach.

“They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them.”  The Mosaic Law did not lay heavy burdens on the people.  It provided both a civil and a religious code that was probably less onerous than the codes of the people around them, who worshipped many gods, including some which demanded human sacrifices.  It was the Pharisees who “tied up” the Law with their convoluted interpretations that made burdens that were hard to carry.  

“All their works are performed to be seen.”  Some interpret this verse to mean that we should perform all of our good deeds secretly so no one knows who performed them, but this seems going to far, as a rule.  As people who live public lives it can be very difficult to follow this, and st the same time we ought to be giving good example to others.  The question, rather, is one of motivation.  Am I performing this good act in order to be congratulated for it, or am I doing this in order to render assistance to someone in need, and it doesn’t concern me whether others sees this or not.  The Lord’s injunction to not let our left hand know what our right hand is doing in performing acts of charity refers to the state in which we should be that we do not even realize we are performing good deeds because doing so is so normal for us.

“As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Christ.”  That is, do not seek out of pride to be called Rabbi, Father, or Master, and do not get it into your heads that you are your own authority.  For us, to be a Teacher, Father, or Master is to share in the Lord’s identity and authority as such, not to have it for ourselves, and certainly not to appoint ourselves to sit in his “seat”. 

“The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”  The Lord sums up his teaching in these two simple lines.  The Pharisees did not see themselves as servants but as rulers.  They took the seat of Moses for themselves but did not act as Moses had — as the servant of God who led Israel as their servant.  When the Lord says “the greatest”, he means the wisest, the most capable, perhaps even the most wealthy.  These “greatest” among the followers of the Lord have a special obligation to be particularly dedicated servants.  We see this in the case of St. Paul, who, of all the early preachers of the Gospel, had the best education, was the most gifted theologian, and had the most endurance.  He himself declares, “I made myself the servant of all” (1 Corinthians 9, 19).

Let us strive also to serve by our speech and our good example so that we might receive the rewards promised in the Gospel to those who love God and follow his Law of Love.