Friday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, September 1, 2023

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 Gospel Reading for today’s Mass continues the Lord’s teaching on the end of the world, his second coming, and the great judgment.  He is teaching in Jerusalem, certainly in the Temple courtyard, a day or two after his triumphal entrance of Jerusalem.  Many people were expecting him to announce at that time the reestablishment of the Kingdom of Israel and war against the Romans.  Instead, he teaches the establishment of a kingdom “not of this world” (John 18, 36) by him.

“The Kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins.”  This might otherwise be stated as “The establishment of the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins, etc.”  In this parable, the Lord describes the present age of vigilance, his bringing his Bride the Church to heaven, and the punishment of the wicked.  The ten  virgins in the parable signify those who wish to enter the Kingdom.  We might also think of them as the Christians alive at the time of the second coming and the Bride whom the Lord brings to his house as the deceased righteous who have been raised up.

“Five of them were foolish and five were wise.”  That is, five chose to be foolish and five chose to be “prudent”, the actual meaning of the Greek word translated here as “wise”.  The five chose to be foolish for even if they possessed lesser intellects and did not know what to do they did have the example of the prudent virgins to follow.  “The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps.”  The foolish virgins act contemptuously as though they did not care whether they had enough oil or not.  And since their role was purely ceremonial, they act against their own interests for they will hardly be allowed into the celebration when the groom does come.  We can understand the “oil” here as faith or commitment to the faith, or even to love for the bridegroom.

“Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.”  The bridegroom, is answerable to no one and may take however long he wishes to return to his house with his bride.  He acts in accord with a plan with which we are not familiar so that his return seems delayed, but in fact it is not.  We ask, “Where is his promise or his coming? For since the time that the fathers slept, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”  But the Apostle Peter answers: “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, 4; 9).  

“At midnight, there was a cry.”  Literally, “in the middle of the night” when it was darkest and the groom was least expected.  This may also signify the last, most terrible persecution of the Church which will take place just before the end: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall put you to death: and you shall be hated by all nations for my name’s sake” (Matthew 24, 9).  “Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!”  The cry of the archangel sounds through the world, announcing that time has ended.  All will be gathered to him in an instant from the ends of the earth:  “And [the Son of Man] shall send his angels with a trumpet and a great voice: and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them” (Matthew 24, 31).  

“Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.”  Those who chose to be foolish and were unprepared for the bridegroom’s coming panic at his second coming but it is already too late for them.  They did not persevere in their faith or use the time they had to build up treasure in heaven with good deeds.  They did not love the bridegroom enough to make sure they had all that they needed to serve him.  Nor can they borrow this from those who have it, for each person will be judged according to his own deeds: “But according to your hard and impenitent heart, you treasure up to yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to everyone according to his works” (Romans 2, 5-6). 

“The bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him.”  Those dressed with the white wedding garments of faith and good deeds.  These have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb (cf. Revelation 7, 14).  “Then the door was locked.”. It was locked by “him who opens and no man shuts and who shuts and no man opens.”  When the Lord comes, the time for repentance — the ample time he gives to each of us — ceases.  

“Lord, Lord, open the door for us!”  The virgins who chose to be foolish desire entrance to the celebration but did nothing — not even the small task they were given — to merit this.  “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.”  I do not know you as my own.  “I know you not who you are. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity” (Luke 13, 27).  Could there be words more horrifying to hear than these?

Let us fill up the “jars” of our souls with the oil of fervent faith and pious deeds so that we may enter into the eternal wedding feast in heaven.

 Thursday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, August 31, 2023

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.”

“Stay awake!  For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.”  The Lord’s teaching on the end of the world begins in St. Matthew’s Gospel at the beginning of Chapter 24.  The day before the Lord gave this teaching he had entered Jerusalem triumphantly, with the Jews thinking he was the long-awaited Messiah.  Matthew then describes him as coming out of the Temple and the Apostles marveling at its buildings and courtyards, and telling them that of these things “there shall not be left here a stone upon a stone that shall not be destroyed” (Matthew 24, 2).  The Apostles anxiously asked for the time when this would happen, and the Lord proceeded to tell them all about his return in glory to judge the living and the dead while also mentioning the destruction of Jerusalem which would come first.  We can also understand these verses as pertaining to the end of our lives on earth.

In the verses used for today’s Gospel Reading, the Lord teaches the necessity for the faithful to possess and exercise both perseverance and alertness.  He means, From now on, keep vigilant, for the judgment is coming.  That is to say, we should not start taking the second coming seriously when we are older, but every day of our lives we should be prepared for it.  We need not be obsessed with it so that we do nothing but wait, but we should be aware of our need to build up our faith and to fill up our treasure of good deeds in heaven.  “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.”  The Lord emphasizes urgency with his image: if the master of the house will stay alert for the hour the thief will come, how much more should we, whose very souls are at stake, keep awake and aware.  In this way we can see temptation and sin as a distraction by our soul’s enemy so that we are not ready when the Lord comes, but performing good works as engaging in this vigilance.

“So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”   We might think back to the first Passover, when the Jews ate a late dinner with their coats on and were ready at a moment’s notice to rise and to leave Egypt.  We, likewise, must be ready to leave the Egypt of this life for the Promised Land of heaven.

“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?”  The master has put a servant in charge and gone away for an unknown period.  Jesus asks the question: Who is this?  It is each of us, for the Lord puts us “in charge” of helping the people around us to get to heaven, nourishing then with our words and deeds.  “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.”  How many actions we have performed which we would not want to be our last actions on earth!  What do we want to be doing when the Lord comes, whether at the end of our lives on earth or at the great judgment if we are alive at that time?  The servant who is doing his master’s work when he comes will be put in charge of all his property: this servant will be raised from his earthly work to a lofty place in heaven, there to intercede for the conversion of the world.

“My master is long delayed.”  We may be tempted during our lives to end our alertness, to cease our vigilance.  We grow weary and the wait seems long.  We cease to nourish with our words and good example the people whom God has given us, and this amounts to “beating” them and “drinking” with “drunkards” — those who have given in to self-indulgence to the extent that they are senseless and uninterested as to the master’s return.  “The servant’s master will come . . . and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites.”  The master will punish that neglectful servant for not being ready himself for his return as well as for not helping the others get ready for it.  They will be punished to some degree too, for they were not helpless, bot not as severely as the one who was supposed to help them (cf. Luke 12, 47-48).  This wretched servant will be assigned a place with “the hypocrites”, the godless, the word the Lord used for the scribes and Pharisees (which may indicate that the Lord may have originally meant that the Pharisees were this servant who was supposed “to distribute to [the Jews] their food at the proper time”).  In this place there will be “wailing and grinding of teeth.”  St. Thomas Aquinas says that the wailing will be due to the exterior suffering afflicted on the damned and that the grinding of teeth will be due to interior hatred and guilt for having known the Lord’s will and rejected it.

Holy pictures and crucifixes in our homes, and medals and scapulars on our person help us to stay vigilant as well as the regular habit of prayer.  We should take advantage of whatever we can to keep our minds on heaven, and the Lord who reigns there.

 Wednesday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, August 30, 2023

Matthew 23, 27-32

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

“You are like whitewashed tombs.”  Today’s Gospel Reading continues the Lord’s reproach of the scribes and the Pharisees.  The Jews of the time provided two kinds of resting places for their dead.  Ordinary folks buried their dead in graves dug out of the ground.  The wealthier among them had tombs carved out of the outcrops of rock common in the Holy Land.  These tombs amounted to small compounds with a little courtyard and then the tomb itself which consisted of a chamber large enough to accommodate a human body lying on its back and also a few people who would wrap it and anoint it as well as recite prayers.  Niches were carved within the side of the tomb where the bones of the body would be placed after the flesh had decomposed so that entire families could be buried together.  The exterior of the tombs were kept clean and were even whitened so that they did not become overgrown with plants.  These would “appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.”  The Greek word translated here as “filth” should be understood as the Jewish concept of “uncleanness”.  This meant that touching the tomb made a person unclean, “beautiful” appearances notwithstanding.  The tomb is a thing of death, and belongs to the kingdom of darkness and death.  This, the Lord Jesus is telling the crowds, is the scribe and Pharisee, whatever his learning, his ability to speak, his expensive clothing, his elaborate prayers.

“You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous.”  The scribes and Pharisees wish to take the bones of the prophets from the places where they have lain buried for centuries and build new tombs for them as of to cover up how they were killed and hurriedly buried by their frightened followers.  “If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.”  The scribes and Pharisees attempt to separate themselves from the guilt of their ancestors without condemning their ancestors and separating themselves from them.  “We would not have joined them”, but we not have stopped them, either.  And the scribes and Pharisees do not say, “We will repent of the way of our ancestors by obeying the words of the prophets.”  The Lord concludes, “You are the children of those who murdered the prophets; now fill up what your ancestors measured out!”  The scribes and the Pharisees are their “children” in the sense that they carry out the work of their parents in opposing the truth and persecuting those who proclaim it.  Those who killed the prophets inspired by God followed prophets of their own choosing and making who validated their wicked way of life, as did the scribes and Pharisees of the day, who foisted upon Israel their own false interpretation of the Law and the Prophets, and then lived godless lives contrary to the Law.  They “filled up” what their ancestors “measured” through the harassment of John the Baptist and their persecution and killing the Son of God, even in the face of miracles that could be performed only with divine power.

Today we honor the saints — those of the time before Christ and of the time since he came — in many ways.  We name churches after them.  We make paintings of them.  We go to Mass on their feast days.  We (sometimes) name our children after them.  We take their names when we receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.  We pray to them in time of need.  We honor them best by imitating the virtues in which they imitated the Lord Jesus, recalling the words of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, 1: “Imitate me as I also imitate Christ.”  In this way, and infused with the Holy Spirit, we become “living temples” dedicated to the Lord Jesus, truly beautiful in every way, filled not with the dead bones of tombs but with a share in his divine life.

 The Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist, Tuesday, August 29, 2023

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.

“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.”  The Herod who killed John was not the same Herod who tried to kill the Infant Jesus.  That was the one who has gone down in history as Herod the Great for his immense building projects.  He died of an excruciating disease in Jericho not long after the Birth of Christ.  The Herod who killed John was one of his sons, and he ruled Galilee and Perea.  He is called a “king” in the New Testament but the title was never his.  He lived from about 20 B.C. until 39 A.D.  The Roman Emperor Caligula deposed him due to reports of his part in a conspiracy, and he was exiled to the province of Gaul.  Herod’s divorce of his first wife and marriage to Herodias led to nothing but trouble.  Besides further alienating his subjects, his first wife was the daughter of an Arab king, and the divorce led to a catastrophic war with that king a few years after the Lord’s Ascension into heaven.

The divorce itself did not cause John the Baptist to cry out against Herod, for divorce was granted by the Law.  But Herod then married Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip (also known as Herod II), who had divorced him, and this was forbidden by the Law.  This marriage was criticized not only by John but even from within Herod’s family and proved very unpopular with the Jewish people.  Herod sought to quell the outrage by arresting and killing his critics, and thus John the Baptist was arrested.

“It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”  John need not have said this to Herod face to face but only to have condemned the marriage publicly.  Since John did not preach in Galilee, he must have been arrested in the territory of Perea, on the eastern bank of the Jordan, a territory Herod also ruled.  As a public figure preaching repentance, John had a responsibility to condemn it, much as bishops today should rebuke politicians claiming to be Catholic when actively opposing or undermining Church teaching, because of the scandal involved.  Otherwise, as private individuals, we ought to exercise prudence in speaking to family members and friends about some egregious act against the Faith, such as marrying outside of the Church, lest we chase these folks away from repentance.  “Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.”  It was not enough for her that John was silenced through his imprisonment.  She nourished a personal hatred for John despite knowing that she had married in contradiction to the Law, though ostensibly Jewish.  “When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him.”  Herod was rendered perplexed by John because he could not reconcile his secular outlook with John’s preaching on the Kingdom and the coming of the Messiah.  Herod may have thought of himself as the Messiah, encouraged by the flattery of his courtiers and those supporters known to Scripture as “the Herodians”.  

“Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.”  We should say this to God and only to God.  This is what the saints and those wishing to become saints do.  Herod sets his sensual appetites before him as his god and winds up in a terrible situation.  “The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her.”  Those who put great stock in appearances and in the opinion of others become their slaves.  Herod had probably already lost the respect of his guests by making such an oath to a dancing girl, and he would lose more by carrying out her request despite its immorality and its likelihood to further inflame the citizens of his realm against him.

“So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in the prison.”  It is not known how long John was kept in the prison, though a period of months seems not extreme.  The prison itself would have been of small size, unlighted, and unsanitary.  It was made as a holding place for those to be executed shortly after arrest, not for a long term.  “He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl in turn gave it to her mother.”  One wonders what the mother did with it, apart from serving as a trophy to her skill at manipulation and as a testament to her hatred.  In fact, though, it serves us as a trophy of steadfastness to God’s will in the face of persecution.  It is supposed to be kept at the Cathedral at Amiens, France, brought from Constantinople during the Crusades.

“When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.”  John’s soul in heaven basks in the glory of the One whom he announced while his body awaits its rising on the Last Day.  Let us ask St. John the Baptist to pray for us on earth that we might persevere as he did, looking forward to the coming of the Lord.

 Monday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, August 28, 2023

Matthew 23, 13-22

Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves. “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.’ Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.’ You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it; one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it; one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated on it.”

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

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

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

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

 The 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 27, 2023

Matthew 16, 13–20

Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Caesarea Philippi was earlier named Panion by the Greeks during their occupation of the Holy Land a few hundred years before the Birth of Christ.  It was so-called from the worship of the god Pan to whom a local grotto had been dedicated.  When the locality came under Roman control it was ruled by Herod the Great, who built a temple to the Emperor Augustus there.  Later, the Tetrarch Philip enlarged the city and rededicated the temple to the reigning Emperor Tiberius, which entailed the renaming of the city as Caesarea Philippi.  The Lord never entered his pagan place but he chose it as the site in which he would accept the confession of Peter in his divinity, resulting in Peter’s own renaming.

“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  The Lord Jesus has appropriated the title “the Son of Man” for himself.  The title is found in Daniel 7, 13: “One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came even to the Ancient of Days: and they presented him before him.”  In the Book of Enoch, a popular Jewish work of that time but which is not included in the canon of the Scriptures, the Patriarch Enoch is represented as seeing a vision of God, and of the One who was with him. Enoch says,in part, “With [God] was another being, whose countenance had the appearance of a man, and his face was full of graciousness, like one of the holy angels. I asked the angel who went with me [...] concerning that one and who he was, and whence he was, and why he went with the One to whom belongs the time before time.  He answered and said to me: 'This is the Son of Man who has righteousness, with whom dwells righteousness, and who reveals all the treasures of that which is hidden, because the Lord of the spirits has chosen him.”  The angel tells Enoch that this Som of Man will raise up kings and punish sinners.  Thus, Jesus of Nazareth makes astonishing claims when he identifies himself as the Son of Man, but he has proven his right to this title through his many and powerful miracles.  But now, at Caesarea Philippi, he asks his Apostles who the people think he — the Son of Man — is.  The Apostles have heard the people talk and they duly report to him: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the other Prophets.  

“But who do you say that I am?”  The people may not know that he is the Son of Man, but the Apostles do, and the Lord now asks them to say who this Son of Man is.  Neither the Scriptures nor the Book of Enoch really says.  They describe him and they say what he does, but they do not say who he is or where he is from — whose son he is.  He simply appears.  It is Simon the son of Jonah who answers: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  We ought not to under-appreciate what happens here.  To this point in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has shown flashes of his divinity through his miracles, but Elijah the Prophet had also performed miracles.  He has spoken of God as his Father, but he has also instructed his disciples to prayer to God as “our Father”.  Only a revelation from God could have made Peter to know that Jesus — the Son of Man — was the Son of God.  And he does not mean it in the sense of an angel, a priest, a king, a judge, or a prophet, all of whom were described as “sons of God” in the Old Testament, but as The Son of God.  No one had ever said to an angel or to a prophet, “You are a (or “the”) son of God.  But Simon Peter does so to Jesus.  This is an act of tremendous faith rooted in a tremendous revelation.  This One whom he could see, talk to, and touch was the Son of the living God.

The Lord Jesus confirms the nature of the revelation and it’s content: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.”  That is, Simon does not figure this out on his own, nor has any other Apostle confided this to him.  Only the Father could have told him this.  We can imagine the Apostle, startled by what he has said and it’s import, and at the Lord’s telling him he has received a direct revelation from the Father in heaven.

“And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”  The Greek word the Lord calls the Apostle is Petros, a masculinized form of petra, which is in the feminine gender.  The word itself means a massive boulder or outcropping.  Caesarea Philippi, the emperor’s city, was located at the foot of Mount Hermon on what we today call the Golan Heights, and the Apostles would have understood, even if they could hardly believe, what Jesus meant.  Herod may have built a royal city on a rock, but Jesus would build a heavenly one upon Simon son of Jonah.  And it would proceed fearlessly against the gates of hell and prevail against them.  Furthermore, Jesus tells him, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  The Lord Jesus virtually raises up Simon the fisherman to the rank of Son of Man in giving him this power.  He must have reeled.  St. Mark’s account, based on St. Peter’s reminisces, does not include the Lord’s speaking of the Church or of the power of binding and loosing.  In light of Peter’s humble opinion of himself — “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5, 8) — he may have not come to terms with this, even years later.

“Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.”  The Lord had revealed himself to his Apostles through Peter’s inspired words, as the Messiah, the Christ, but also he had revealed what the Messiah was, and it was not the comparatively poor thing that the people had been taught by the Pharisees to hope for.  He would not conquer nations but death and the devil, far greater enemies.  The people were not ready to know the Messiah for who he was until after he had risen from the dead, but the Apostles had a need to know now.  Even so, they managed to hold onto their old beliefs until Jesus rose and explained all things to them, beginning with the Law and the Prophets.

 Saturday in the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time, August 26, 2023

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. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you.”  In today’s Gospel Reading, the Lord seems to support the teaching authority the Pharisees and the scribes (who tended to belong to the Pharisees) have assumed for themselves.  And though they interpret the Law in their own way and to the detriment of the Law’s original intent, following their teachings on the Law, whether in regards to their many ceremonial washings or their understanding of what could and could not be done on the Sabbath, they did not directly contradict the Law.  They may make obedience to the Law onerous, but they do not teach against it.  Therefore, it is safe for the people to follow their instructions.  The Lord takes it upon himself to speak up to them on the burdens their interpretations lay upon the people and he explains to them the original intent of the Law, but the Lord never breaks it.  It is, after all, the Law he created.  “But do not follow their example.”  We learn best when words are accompanied by demonstrations.  We need to see a thing in order to really understand it.  What does “love of neighbor” really mean?  Unless the phrase is connected with the concrete, it remains an abstraction.  No matter how lengthy a treatise on the words may be, it sticks only in the intellect and does not become a subject for action.  If a world-class gymnast attempts to explain in a classroom how the uneven parallel bars are used, she will not succeed in conveying the experience.  It needs demonstration.  The Lord insists that the people make a distinction between the teachings on the Law they hear and the actions of the Pharisees which they see.  This is not easy to do.  How do we learn to fast of the one who teaches about fasting is always eating at fine restaurants?  All the more virtuous, then, are those who strive to carry out the fasting laws without good example.

And how necessary it is for us to teach the Gospel both with our words and with our actions.  The Lord himself sets the example of love of God and neighbor with his works of charity and his zeal for souls.  He teaches us too with words, and illustrates them with vivid, unforgettable parables.  He continues today to illustrate his teachings with the lives of his holy ones, making people such as Mother Teresa a walking Gospel.  

Against the poor example of the Pharisees who are more interested in being accorded titles than living up to them, the Lord says, “Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven.”  A student or disciple would refer to his master as his father even as the master would refer to his student as his son.  But God is our teacher, speaking through his chosen instruments.  He is our Father.  When we address others as “father”, we do so in a derivative way.  This even includes our biological fathers, for it is God who creates us and gives us life with the cooperation of his instruments.  And those who nourish us with his teachings and his Sacraments are called “father” as well, for they too are given a share in God’s fatherly care for us.

“The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”  “Fatherhood” and the office of teacher are positions of service.  God gives them certain authority so that they may possess what they need in order to serve.  The Lord Jesus is the “greatest” of all and we see that he chose to reign from the throne of a Cross, serving us in the most profound way by dying for our salvation.  And for this he was exalted: “For which cause, God indeed has exalted him and has given him a name which is above all names: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9–11).  Let us, then, gladly take our positions as servants, directing friends and strangers alike to his Kingdom through the words and actions he directs us to say and do.

 Friday in the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time, August 25, 2023

Matthew 22, 34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

In Deuteronomy 6, 4–8, Moses solemnly declares to the Israelites: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength.”  So important are this commandment that Moses continues: “And these words which I command you this day, shall be in your heart: And you shall tell them to your children, and you shall meditate upon them sitting in your house, and walking on your journey, sleeping and rising. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets before your eyes.”  Thus, the Pharisee asks Jesus a question to which the answer is very well-known.  Since this is so, the Pharisee is asking it as a preliminary to further questioning — to gradually build a case for the matter he has in mind.  However, after answering the question and adding the content of the second greatest commandment, the Lord, according to St. Matthew seized the moment and asked his own questions of the gathered Pharisees: “What think you of Christ? Whose son is he?” (Matthew 22, 42).  St. Mark adds to what we know of this event by telling us that this Pharisee, a scribe, responded with understanding to what Jesus said, pleasing him so well that the Lord said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” (Mark 12, 34).  And this response silenced everyone so that the Pharisee did not go on with his questioning.  We can well-imagine the shock and confusion among the Pharisees when the Lord said this to the one who had spoken to him, for  the way the Lord spoke of the Kingdom of God did not make any sense to them, as in, How could a particular individual be close to the Kingdom of God, which was the Kingdom to be inaugurated on earth by the Messiah with the overthrow of the Romans?

“You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength.”  We are able to do this knowing that the Lord our God loves us with his whole heart and strength: “Let us therefore love God: because God first has loved us” (1 John 4, 19).  Not only is the knowledge of God’s love for us motivation for us to love him, but his love actually enables us, through grace, to love him.  This love is increased by the good works we do for his sake and for our growth in knowledge about him.  When we devoutly and carefully read the Scriptures, especially the Gospels, we grow in our love for him.  Now, Moses knew that loving God was the most essential of all human activities and so he commands the people to meditate always on how deserving he is of our love and how right it is for us to love him.  And if the Israelites were to do this, then how much more we who belong to the Body of Christ ought to do this.  Looking upon the crucifix aids us well in bringing to mind the love of God for us, not even sparing his own Son so that we might have eternal life.

“The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  The Pharisee does not ask for the second greatest commandment but the Lord sees the two as linked so that he must speak of the second if he speaks of the first.  Throughout the Gospels he links our relationship with God to our relationship with our fellow humans.  For instance, he tells us to pray to the Father, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  St. John explains the doctrine: “If any one says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also” (1 John 4, 20-21).  In this way also we may grow in our love for Almighty God, by exercising our love for those among whom he has placed us.  This love may take various forms and will vary in intensity according to the nearness of our relations, but we will not withhold our love from anyone.  At the very least we will pray for a person’s conversion of heart.

“The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”  The Mosaic Law is spread out over the course of four books and is not organized.  It is also interspersed with narratives.  Here, the Lord gives us the keys to following the whole of the moral law which we are bound to obey as his members.