Tuesday in the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time, August 1, 2023

Matthew 13:36-43

Jesus dismissed the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He said in reply, “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom. The weeds are the children of the Evil One, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

The holy angels play an important role in the general resurrection at the end of time of the living and the dead, and this is fitting, for they have a stake in the salvation of the just.  As St. Augustine teaches, the choirs of angels look about in heaven and see many places empty from which the wicked angels fell.  They look forward to the time when these places will be taken by the saints, men and women who attain sanctity with the grace of God and their cooperation with it.  The angels of heaven see that they are to help us through their prayers and, when directed to do so by Almighty God, by their direct intervention, as has happened many times in our history.  A human’s guardian Angel will assist his charge, when that charge dies in the grace of God, either to purgatory or to heaven.  At the end of time, the Lord Jesus will come with the whole company of angels.  Many myriads of angels will go forth to the graves of all who have died to reconstitute their bodies, which will then be glorified by God so as to possess immortality from then on.  The angels will gather the risen dead and all those still living to the place of judgment.  The angels will there separate the good from the wicked to the right and to the left of the Lord Jesus.  After the judgment is concluded, the saints will rise with the angels to take those vacated places in the heavenly choirs.  “They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”  The holy angels will also assist in the punishment of the wicked who made themselves over as slaves to the demons.  They will cast them, body and soul, into the fearful fires of hell that never slacken nor ever go out.  They do this not out of malice but as instruments of God’s justice.  Once this duty is performed, they will return to the bliss of heaven.  And we can well imagine that of the righteous of the human race “shine like the sun”, how much more those pure intelligences the angels!  

 Monday in the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 31, 2023

Exodus 32, 15-24; 30-34

Moses turned and came down the mountain with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, front and back; tablets that were made by God, having inscriptions on them that were engraved by God himself. Now, when Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “That sounds like a battle in the camp.” But Moses answered, “It does not sound like cries of victory, nor does it sound like cries of defeat; the sounds that I hear are cries of revelry.” As he drew near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. With that, Moses’ wrath flared up, so that he threw the tablets down and broke them on the base of the mountain. Taking the calf they had made, he fused it in the fire and then ground it down to powder, which he scattered on the water and made the children of Israel drink.   Moses asked Aaron, “What did this people ever do to you that you should lead them into so grave a sin?” Aaron replied, “Let not my lord be angry. You know well enough how prone the people are to evil. They said to me, ‘Make us a god to be our leader; as for the man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ So I told them, ‘Let anyone who has gold jewelry take it off.’ They gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.”   On the next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a grave sin. I will go up to the Lord, then; perhaps I may be able to make atonement for your sin.” So Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Ah, this people has indeed committed a grave sin in making a god of gold for themselves! If you would only forgive their sin! If you will not, then strike me out of the book that you have written.” The Lord answered, “Him only who has sinned against me will I strike out of my book. Now, go and lead the people to the place I have told you. My angel will go before you. When it is time for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”

“This calf came out.”  The Israelites sin with their idolatry very soon after God has parted the Sea for them to cross on their way out of Egypt and then drowned the pursuing Egyptian chariots in the waters.  Secure in the Sinai, Moses entrusts the people to his brother Aaron and goes up a mountain to receive God’s law for them.  But the people are eager to exchange their slavery to the Egyptians with slavery to idols that cannot help them, and Aaron is complicit in their sin.  His cowardly report to Moses that he put gold into a fire and a calf happened to come out of it shows his true character.  It is the character of an authority who admits, “Mistakes were made” when he is caught in his own crimes.  It is the defense of the sinner who faces eternal damnation and wants to appear repentant without actually being repentant.  It warrants a greater condemnation.  Our salvation depends heavily on our forthright admission of guilt and our determination to do penance and to make right the harm we have done.

“You have committed a grave sin. I will go up to the Lord, then; perhaps I may be able to make atonement for your sin.”  We should picture the Lord Jesus in the place of Moses, and speaking to us.  His face is sad, his voice is low with disappointment.  He offers us life and we throw his Sacrifice back at him as though worthless.  But he still pleads for us before his Father, even so: “If you would only forgive their sin! If you will not, then strike me out of the book that you have written.”  He does not try to excuse us or cover up for us.  We need forgiveness which means clearly confessing the fault.  In our Lord’s pleading, he acts as though he were the one who was guilty, as though he were the one confessing his sin.  So great is his love for us, an almost pitiable love towards which we have so little regard.  This “book” is the Book of Life in which are written the names of all those to be brought into heaven.  Jesus refers to this book in Luke 10, 20: “Rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven.”  The Lord also says, in Revelation 3, 5, regarding the believer who perseveres, “He who shall overcome shall thus be clothed in white garments: and I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life. And I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.”  But not all people are recorded in this Book: “And all that dwell upon the earth adored [the Antichrist], whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb which was slain from the beginning of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear” (Revelation 13, 8-9).  Their names were written in the Book but were “blotted out” due to their sin.  In fact, they themselves blotted out their names from this Book.  

“Him only who has sinned against me will I strike out of my book.”  The one who sins and does not repent will be struck out of the Book of Life.

“Now, go and lead the people to the place I have told you. My angel will go before you. When it is time for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”  See what God does here.  He continues to bring the Israelites to the Promised Land. Despite their sin, but he also punishes, in the time of his choosing.  That is, God does not destroy the people though they deserve this: “I see that this people is stiff-necked: Let me alone, that my wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them” (Exodus 32, 9-10).  Instead, he commands Moses to lead them to the land flowing with milk and honey even as the guilty are punished.

Let us take our repentance very seriously and work to make up for the wrong we have done so that we may hear our names read out from the Book of Life at the judgment at the end of the world.

 The Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 30, 2023

Matthew 13, 44–52

Jesus said to his disciples: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Do you understand all these things?” They answered, “Yes.” And he replied, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” 

If we go by the Lord’s explanation of the parable of the net thrown into the sea we can understand the searchers in the earlier parables as the Lord or his angels.  Thus, the man who finds the treasure in the field is the Lord who finds a person who is striving to lead a virtuous life.  The Lord “sells” all that belongs to him or, rather, he comes down from heaven to take on our flesh and buys him with the price of his Blood.  Of course, the Lord laid down his life for all people, but only a relative few will take advantage of the grace he offers and will repent to receive it.  This is the meaning of the treasure “buried in the field”.  The one who strives to lead a virtuous life cannot get very far without grace, which will unearth him and bring him up out of the field and into the light of God’s presence.  There are many other things buried in the field, but very few treasures.  Likewise, the merchant searching for fine pearls is the Lord.  Comparatively few humans respond to the Lord’s invitation to be saved.  Only a few grains of sand choose to become fine pearls, as it were.  And this is why the priest, when consecrating the wine at the high point of the Mass, says, “. . . the Blood of the new and eternal covenant which will be poured out for all, etc.”  The Lord pours out his Blood for all, in fact, but only a fraction of those for whom he pours it out will respond and make his sacrifice effectual for themselves.  In the third parable, a large number of things are brought up in the net from the sea, that is, the general resurrection at the end of the world, and the angels will separate the good, who are to be kept, from the wicked, who will be cast into the furnace.  That is, those who chose to become saints versus those who chose wickedness.

We can also understand the searchers in first two parables as the person who is searching for God.  These searchers look everywhere.  They are not born with wealth and have no one to point out for them likely places for wealth to be found.  Yet they persevere until they find him.  However, all the while God is drawing them to himself invisibly, imperceptibly.  He rewards their endurance and persistence with his grace.  The searchers immediately recognize the One for whom they sought and do not hesitate in giving up everything in order to possess him utterly.  As St. Paul says, “I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3, 8).

The one who finds the Lord Jesus should not allow himself to grow complacent for that is a sure way of “losing” him — losing our faith.  We should always be finding him.  A truly great treasure must be examined and studied and shown to others for us to grow in our knowledge and appreciation of it.  A truly great book must be read over and over and studied, and each time it is read the reader makes new discoveries, and this is true of a great piece of music.  And every prayer we make to Almighty God, every glance at the crucifix, every verse which we read in the Bible leads us deeper in the Lord’s majesty and love, where we will find the end of all our desires.

 Saturday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 29, 2023

The Feast of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus

Luke 10, 38-42

Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.  She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.  Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?  Tell her to help me.”  The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 

There is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

Formerly, distinct feast days were assigned for Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, with Mary of Bethany identified as Mary Magdalene.  The calendar that resulted from Vatican II puts them together on the same day and assigns St. Mary Magdalene her own feast day.  All that is known for certain of these sisters and their brother is found in the Gospels: the present Gospel Reading, the account in St. John’s Gospel of the Lord Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and the feast held in their house for the Lord at which Mary anointed the Lord.  Later traditions in the East pass on that the three of them were set adrift in a boat without rudder or sail which eventually reached southern France.  The three separated once arrived and preached the Gospel, with Lazarus becoming the first bishop of Marseille.  Eastern tradition holds that Lazarus went off to Cyprus after the Resurrection due to threats by the Jews and he preached the Gospel there, being anointed bishop of the island by Saints Paul and Barnabas.  More probable is the report made by (I believe) St. Cyril of Alexandria (around the year 200) saying that Lazarus was so greatly affected by his sojourn in limbo before Jesus raised him that he never smiled again except on one occasion. 

The account preserved by St. Luke and used for today’s Gospel Reading shows us the house of these three saints.  Martha is hurriedly preparing (or supervising the preparation) of the midday meal, the main meal of the day.  Mary sits at the Lord’s feet as he teaches.  His Apostles are assuredly also present though Luke does not mention them.  Also, Lazarus is assuredly present as well, though he is not mentioned either.  The point of this little, homey, jewel of an account is not what the Lord is teaching Mary and the others, but to show that we should think less of what we can do for Jesus and more of what he does for us.

“Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.”  The village, we learn from St. John, was that of Bethany, a short distance from Jerusalem.  Luke does not identify Martha is the friend of Jesus as John will in his Gospel because at this point, they have only just met.  Now, Martha “welcomed” him, that is, invited him to the midday meal at her house as though she were the primary owner.  More likely, Lazarus owned the house through the death of their parents, but such was the love and respect of the three children for each other that it was owned, in effect, mutually.  Now, this was a large house, from the details we find in St. John’s Gospel, and they were fairly wealthy.  They were also young: none of them is said to be married and St. John would certainly have named the widow of Lazarus in the story of his raising by Jesus if there had been one.  This would put them as not exceeding twenty years of age at that time.

“She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.”  We should notice that Luke does not identify Mary of Bethany with the Mary of Luke 8, 2, “out of whom seven demons were cast”, whom he lists with other women followers of the Lord.  Mary of Bethany here places herself in the posture of a handmaid, a household slave, beside and at the feet of Jesus, alert and prepared to serve.  “Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him.”  The Greek has: “Martha, distracted” or “greatly troubled”.  Even with slaves, this meal would have required enormous work to prepare.  Perhaps Martha acted impulsively in inviting Jesus to her home, not realizing how many others would accompany him, and now found herself overwhelmed.  Finally, Martha saw that her sister was not going to leave the Lord to assist her as she normally would have helped her on any other occasion.  “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?  Tell her to help me.”  Martha’s words sound abrupt, and they certainly are meant as a rebuke to Mary.  But we should not fail to appreciate Martha’s situation: she was desperate, and the whole meal was about to fall apart unless she had her sister’s help.

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”  Martha has addressed a prayer to Jesus that he send Mary to help her.  Here we see how Jesus sometimes answers prayers.  He answers not with what we want but what would be best for us.  It is better, the Lord is saying, for Mary to listen to my words, for they bring eternal life.  It is also better for you that she remains with me so that you can see what is more important.  As for feeding me, I will feed you.  The Lord does not minimize what Martha is doing but showing that what Mary has chosen is the greater thing even than the eastern rule of hospitality in which the whole family comes together to serve the guests, invited or not.

We do not do God the favor of attending Holy Mass on Sundays, but it is he who provides hospitality to us.  And as important and necessary as it is to serve him in carrying out his commandments, in the end what this does is prepare us to receive the good things he has to give us.

 Friday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 28, 2023

Matthew 13, 18-23

Jesus said to his disciples: “Hear the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the Kingdom without understanding it, and the Evil One comes and steals away what was sown in his heart. The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”

If we read in a certain way the Lord’s parable of the Sower (in Matthew 13, 3-8) and his explanation of it, which forms the Gospel Reading for today’s Mass, we might conclude that a person is certainly predestined to be a believer or not.  We might see the seed sown on the path — the person who “hears the word of the Kingdom without understanding it” — as doomed from the start, as the devil “steals away what was sown in his heart”.  What chance has an ordinary mortal against the devil?  In fact, this person exercised his free will through his life for committing wicked deeds long before he heard the Gospel.  He already had given himself to the devil.  All the devil does is exercise the authority this human has allowed him to have.  We might then wonder about this person’s culpability, for how could he know that he was committing sin before he heard the word of God?  While some actions, such as lust, were revealed as sinful only when the Lord came, the human heart knows that some actions, such as adultery, are wicked even without hearing the Gospel.  The person who commits these wicked actions makes himself wicked and less and less capable of believing in God and following his law.  This is all the result of repeated choices made with free-will.

Similarly, the one who hears the word of God “and receives it at once with joy” but who falls away “when some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word”.  Jesus describes such a one as “rocky ground” upon which his words fall.  It is “rocky” through its own choice.  This person has not learned to curb his impulsivity nor learned any form of self-discipline.  Rather than choosing to fight for what he professes to believe in, he chooses to flee in hopes of adversity fading away over time.  We can understand this in terms of resisting temptation as well.  This individual finds comfort in the words of Jesus and is attracted to his Person, but when tempted to break his laws and commit a wicked act he puts up only a token fight  and surrenders— “he immediately falls away” — so as to escape the stress of the battle.  

The seed is “among thorns” when a person who has devoted himself to his career, gaining riches, fame, or some other temporal good hears the word.  This person may not necessarily live a life steeped in sin but he has chosen a life utterly divorced from the spiritual.  He has adopted the material world as his home.  Still, the word of the Lord charms him and draws him near.  But it remains theory, and he does not put it into practice. He is presented with a choice: God or mammon, and he chooses the latter.  

The person signified by “rich soil” is not predestined for heaven but throughout his life has rejected evil and has sought the good.  He has grown in the natural virtues and has learned self-discipline.  He looks beyond the things of this world for something greater and longer lasting.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ gives him everything he wants and he devotes himself to knowing the Lord and obeying his commandments.  Anyone at all could be this “rich soil”.  It does not depend on genetics, for if it did, St. Augustine would have become a pagan brute like his father.  It does not depend on upbringing.  If it did, St. Germaine Cousins would have become a cruel woman like her step mother.  It is the choice of the individual and his or her cooperation with the grace of God that causes a person to become a devout Christian and a saint.  Almighty God provides plenty of time and opportunities for each person to choose.

 Thursday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 27, 2023

Exodus 19:1-2, 9-11, 16-20

In the third month after their departure from the land of Egypt, on its first day, the children of Israel came to the desert of Sinai. After the journey from Rephidim to the desert of Sinai, they pitched camp.  While Israel was encamped here in front of the mountain, the Lord told Moses, “I am coming to you in a dense cloud, so that when the people hear me speaking with you, they may always have faith in you also.” When Moses, then, had reported to the Lord the response of the people, the Lord added, “Go to the people and have them sanctify themselves today and tomorrow. Make them wash their garments and be ready for the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai before the eyes of all the people.”  On the morning of the third day there were peals of thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. But Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stationed themselves at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was all wrapped in smoke, for the Lord came down upon it in fire. The smoke rose from it as though from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. The trumpet blast grew louder and louder, while Moses was speaking and God answering him with thunder.  When the Lord came down to the top of Mount Sinai, he summoned Moses to the top of the mountain.

It is hard not to read the First Reading for today’s Mass and not think of the Holy Mass.  We can understand the Lord’s words to Moses, “I am coming to you in a dense cloud, so that when the people hear me speaking with you, they may always have faith in you also” as the Lord’s words to the Church, that the Lord will come down to the faithful in a “dense cloud”, that is, in the mystery of the Holy Eucharist.”  He will speak to the faithful too in order to teach them.  He will teach them through his Holy Church, and they will learn the subject of his teaching and also that the Holy Church is the instrument of his teaching.  The Lord then teaches the Church how the faithful are to prepare for his coming down to them, “Go to the people and have them sanctify themselves today and tomorrow. Make them wash their garments and be ready for the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai before the eyes of all the people.”  That is, Tell the faithful to repent of their sins, to go to confession and to do penance: I will come to them on the third day in order to give them time to cleanse themselves of anything that draws them away from me.  I will come to them on the third day as I came to the Apostles on the third day: as they mourned for me for three days, mourn over your sins in the days before you worship me at Holy Mass.

“On the morning of the third day there were peals of thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.”  The “thunder” and “lightning” are the Scripture readings that are proclaimed before the Gospel.  They move us and fill us with awe, preparing us for the words of the Lord himself, which are signified by the trumpet blast.  We should indeed tremble to hear them for they reach into our inmost being and confront us with the truth about God and ourselves.  “Stationed . . . at the foot of the mountain”, that is, of the altar, we see it “all wrapped in smoke”, that is, we see the mystery of the changing of the consecrated bread and wine into the Flesh and Blood of God.  We see it in mystery, for the forms of the species remain unchanged while their substances are transformed for the Lord comes down upon the altar “in fire”, in his very self.  “The smoke rose from it as though from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.” The significance of this event is proclaimed by the ringing of bells at each transubstantiation.  At this moment the holy angels who fill the sanctuary cry out in a loud voice: “Alleluia!  Salvation and glory and power is to our God!” (Revelation 19, 1).  If heaven trembles, so much more should the earth, and so those with faith are shaken with wonder and joy at the Lord’s coming.  “The trumpet blast grew louder and louder, while Moses was speaking and God answering him with thunder.”  Now comes the time for Holy Communion, for the greatest intimacy between God and his faithful ones.  It is a time of great glory for God and for those prepared to receive him.  The angels rejoice and heaven looks forward to the day when she will be filled with all the saints of God.  His faithful become temples for him, tabernacles for him.  We do not have any idea how beautiful we appear to him when we have received him.

“When the Lord came down to the top of Mount Sinai, he summoned Moses to the top of the mountain.”  The Lord comes down from heaven onto our altars and into our bodies and souls in order to brings us up with him to heaven for we can hardly get there by ourselves.  He comes for us to receive him so that he may receive us in his Holy Church which is as “a bride prepared for her husband” (Revelation 21, 2).

We ought to pray fervently that we might know the Holy Mass for what it truly is for it is through the Mass that we worship God, receive him, and are taken up by him.

 Wednesday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 26, 2023

The Feast of Saints Joachim and Anne

Matthew 13, 16-17

Jesus said to his disciples: “Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

According to the very early Christian text dating back to 100-150 A.D. which is called the Proto-Evangelium or Proto-Gospel of James, the names of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s parents were Joachim and Anne.  They were an older, childless couple who very much wanted children.  In his grief, Joachim left home and vowed not to return there or to eat and drink until the Lord heard his prayer.  Very movingly, he said, “My food and drink will be prayer.”  In his good time, God sent an angel to Joachim to tell him that he and his wife would become the parents of a daughter while a second angel told this to Anne.  After making sacrifices in gratitude, Joachim came home: “And, behold, Joachim came with his flocks; and Anna stood by the gate, and saw Joachim coming, and she ran and hung upon his neck, saying: Now I know that the Lord God has blessed me exceedingly; for, behold the widow no longer a widow, and I the childless shall conceive. And Joachim rested the first day in his house.”  The text goes on to tell of the birth of Mary and how Joachim and Anne brought her to the Temple at an early age to live with the holy women who dwelled there.

While not everything reported in this text, which the Church Fathers did not accept as Scriptural, can be trusted as authentic, certain things can which are attested by other sources.  For instance, the names of the parents, their advanced age, and the dedication of Mary in the Temple.  We can surmise other details about them: that they lived in Nazareth of Galilee, that they were devout Jews, that Joachim was a workingman devotion to the, spread early and quickly in the eastern churches through the wide dissemination of the Proto-Gospel, but it was not until it became known in the Middle Ages that we find devotion to them in the West, but the devotion proved strong and abiding.  One of the first churches built in North America was dedicated to St. Anne, and is now a basilica known as St. Anne de Beaupré.  A million pilgrims make their way to it each year in hopes of obtaining St. Anne’s intercession.  A great abundance of miracles have occurred there — very many instantaneous healings.  There are walls within the basilica on which hang crutches, wheelchairs, eyeglasses, and other aids to the suffering which were left by those who were cured.  It is a very beautiful and moving place, at once a great testimony to the faith of the French people who moved to the New World in the 1600’s and to the love of God for those drawn to him through these saints.

“Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.”  In the Gospel Reading for the Feast of St. Joachim and St. Anne, the Lord speaks of those who believed and hoped that the Savior would come.  He commends those who do see and hear him.  He means this not only in terms of what is visual and auditory, but in terms of understanding, believing, and obeying.  He also means this not only for those who saw and heard him at that time but for those of us alive now who see him with they eyes of faith and hear his words in the Gospels.  We are most blessed if we, like those before us, not only hear his words but understand, believe, and obey them.  “Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”  About 1,500 years separate the time of Abraham to the time of Jesus, and no one can say how many years there were from Adam to Abraham.  So many people lived and died in those times yearning for deliverance from sin that was not merely prefigured in the sacrifices of animals but accomplished in reality.  So many awaited the New Israel and the New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah: “Jeremiah 31:31–34 (D-R): Behold the days shall come, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, the covenant which they made void [through their idolatry], and I had dominion over them, says the Lord. 

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, says the Lord: I will give my law in their inmost being, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying: Know the Lord — for all shall know me from the least of them even to the greatest, says the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31, 31-34).  The Lord Jesus made this new covenant in his Blood, which we partake of at Holy Mass and by doing so pledge our commitment to it.  We pray that God will bestow on us a spirit of gratitude that we live in these days when we may know the fullness of his love for us through his Son Jesus.

 Tuesday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 25, 2023

The Feast of St. James the Great

Matthew 20, 20-28

The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom.” Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.” He replied, “My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

St. James, the son of a fisherman named Zebedee and older brother of John, was probably in his later teens when Jesus called him to be an Apostle.  Neither he nor his brother were married.  Their mother followed Jesus and the Apostles, with a group of several women who provided for them “out of their means” (Luke 8, 3).  Jesus included James in a select group of Apostles along with Peter and John, allowing them to witness him raising the dead, glorified in the Transfiguration, and praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.  The Lord gave a nickname to James and his brother, calling them “the sons of thunder” (Mark 3, 17), and we see something of the youthful ferocity of his zeal when he and John ask Jesus if they should call down fire upon a Samaritan town that refuses them entry (cf. Luke 9, 54).  James was the first of the Apostles to die for Jesus, beheaded at the order of King Herod (cf. Acts 12, 2) in the year 44.  He is called “the great” probably in comparison with the height of James the son of Alphaeus.  There is an old, though not ancient, tradition that James the Great preached in Spain and that his relics are buried at Compostela in the north of that country.

“The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.”  The Gospel of St. Mark has it that they two Apostles asked Jesus their favor directly, but this may be because St. Peter did not remember their mother doing this.  At any rate, it does not change the meaning of the passage.  Here though, Matthew’s specific mention of their mother (whose name seems to have been Salome) indicates 1) their relative youth and 2) the mother’s prominent place among the women serving the Lord and his Apostles, or at least her estimation of her place.  Rather than embarrassment at the intervention of their mother on their behalf, the brother James and John show their eagerness to rule with Jesus, to fight for him, and even to die for him.  When he asks them if this is true, they readily reply, “We can.”  As in,“We are able” or “We are capable”.  

The Lord’s answer must have dismayed them a little: “My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”  He is saying that they will “fight” for him and suffer for him (and James will die as a martyr for him) but the Father will award the places beside him.  Jesus foretells their future on earth but tells them that their place in heaven will be determined by his Father.  His response shows the Lord contending with their firm mindset that Jesus was going to overthrow the Romans.  They were asking for places in the government that he would establish in Jerusalem.  This sets the stage for his teaching about true use of authority: “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.”  Authority — “greatness” — provides a person with the knowledge and the resources to serve in the most effective way.  It is not for self-indulgence: “The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt.”  It is for service, and the Lord presents himself as the greatest model of service: “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  This is an essential revelation.  He, the Messiah, the Son of Man of whom the Prophet Daniel said, “His power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away: and his kingdom . . . shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7, 14), did not come to use his power and authority to conquer earthly kingdoms but to “ransom” many with his own life.  The measure of greatness is service just as the greatness of a man is not in grandiose displays of strength but in restraint.

We ask St. James to intercede for us that we too might be able to drink the chalice of the Lord and so come into his Kingdom.  We pray, too, to St. Christopher, whose feast also occurs on this day, for safe travels in this world and a safe passage to heaven in the next.

 Monday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 24, 2023

Matthew 12, 38-42

Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here. At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.”

“Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”  The scribes and the Pharisees ask a strange question.  It is strange because they would have asked for “a sign” from any other teacher: teachers explained signs; they did not make them.  The nature of the sign they wish to see they leave unclear.  The Greek can mean both a simple sign or a miracle, which could also serve as a sign.  Now, the Lord performed many miracles and very many scribes and Pharisees had seen them.  They wish to see some identification the Lord would give to prove that he was the Messiah they awaited, the leader to defeat the Romans and reestablish the independent kingdom of Israel.  This proof would be something more than the healing of a blind man.  Perhaps they wanted a sign of some kind in the sky.  They may have understood from the Lord’s reference to himself as the Son of Man that he indeed was making the claim to be this Messiah, and they were asking for a sign, as Gideon long before had asked God for a sign, before going into battle (cf. Judges 6, 36-40).

“An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign.”  The Lord implicitly compares the present “generation” to the generations of Israelites who fell away from the Covenant to worship idols.  In this case, the scribes and Pharisees believe themselves to be righteous, but in reality they are not because they egregiously misinterpret the Law and the Prophets to suit themselves, and so they construct a Messiah at odds with what the Prophets promise.  We might think of the Lord saying this loudly and as though amazed that the evil generation has enough sense to ask for a sign.  

“No sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.”  The Lord came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets and here he states that he will complete the “sign of Jonah”.  We should understand this as Jonah’s self-sacrifice for the (Gentile) sailors, telling them to throw him overboard during the storm to save themselves.  Jonah then is saved, spending three days in the belly of a giant fish.  Thus, the Lord sacrifices himself for us all and enters the “belly” of death for three days, then to depart from it in safety.  The scribes and Pharisees would only understand the sign after it had been accomplished, much as with the case of the sign given to Moses: “This you shall have for a sign that I have sent you: When you shall have brought my people out of Egypt, you shall offer sacrifice to God upon this mountain” (Exodus 3, 12). 

“At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it.”  This brings to mind the Lord’s warning to the cities where he had preached and healed: “Woe to you, Corozain! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the mighty works that have been wrought in you, they would have done penance long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes” (Luke 10, 13).  How will the Gentiles of Nineveh do this?  “Because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here.”  The fact that Jesus was greater than Jonah is attested by his miracles, st the very least.  Likewise, “At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.”  The “Queen of the south” is the Queen of Sheba (the Horn of Africa or present day Yemen) who came to hear Solomon’s wisdom.  The Lord is greater than Solomon in that his wisdom is far superior to his, as is his power: “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28, 18).

As Christians we do not possess signs but Reality and we look forward to the fullest possession of that Reality in his kingdom.

 The Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 23, 2023

Matthew 13, 24–43

Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”  He proposed another parable to them. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.”  He spoke to them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.”  All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.  Then, dismissing the crowds, he went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He said in reply, “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear.” 

“The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field.”  We should try to read the parables in today’s Gospel Reading as though we had not heard them before or heard any explanation of them.  This will give us some idea of what the people heard when the Lord related them.  They heard, in the first parable, a short account of a man who sowed (or, supervised the sowing by his slaves) of seed in his field, and that an enemy of his attempted to sabotage his hard work, bizarrely, by sowing weeds in the field at night.  Rather than send his slaves out to pick out the weeds, the man lets his crop and the weeds grow together.  At harvest it would be quite clear what was to be gathered into the barns and what to burn.  Now, the Lord has told his crowd of listeners that this is what the kingdom of heaven is like.  The crowd asks no questions.  But how much of his meaning could they have understood, especially if they expect the Messiah to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth after defeating the Romans?  How much would we understand in their place?  But no one asks any questions.

In fact, the Lord explains for us all the frustrating problem of why he allows the wicked to live among the just, and those striving to be just, and he does it in this simple, concise way rather than offering long lectures to accomplish the same goal.  He himself, he is saying, does not plant the weeds with the good seed.  Rather, the devil comes in to do this, intending to corrupt the good seed.  The Lord brings good out of the evil the devil does by allowing the wicked to test the good, thereby offering the good the opportunity to strengthen their virtue through its rigorous exercise.  The attitude of the man in the parable: “If you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them” shows his wisdom, as if to say, The good seed “needs” the bad seed.  But of course, at the harvest — the end of the world when the angels gather together all who have ever lived — the wicked have no further use and can then be burned.

We should also try to see the Parable of the Mustard Seed as its original hearers heard it.  While it is possible some of the crowd grasped that the “good seed” and the “bad seed” in the first parable signified the just and the wicked, it is less likely the people would have understood the story of the Mustard Seed.  It features no unusual elements as the first parable did, and it describes a simple fact of nature that hardly needed telling.  But the Lord is teaching that the kingdom of heaven shall begin very, very small so that it is hardly noticeable.  But, amazingly, it will grow into “a very large bush” for the birds of the air — all seeking righteousness — to inhabit.  The birds fly about in the air but cannot live there.  They find refuge in the branches of the Mustard Tree — the Body of Christ, the Church — so that they may be “in” the sky, the place where God dwells with his angels.

The third parable also presents a commonplace event: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.”  What could the crowds have made of that?  What could we?  But no one except the Apostles asks questions him about what he means.  Here, the yeast is the grace of God which is invisible and yet enormously powerful.  God “works” it into his Church — or into any member of his Church, so that an abundance of faith and good works results.

Today we have many ways to learn about the Lord and his teachings.  Not only does his Church offer us catechisms but also the works of the Fathers of the Church and of those who teach the Faith today.  Let us avail ourselves of these while we yet have time so that our faith in and love of the Lord Jesus may grow.