The Feast of All Saints, Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Matthew 5, 1–12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

The Sermon on the Mount, which St. Matthew records and from which the Gospel Reading of today’s Mass is drawn, contains much of the Lord’s moral and pastoral doctrine.  It is also a mirror of the Lord himself: his mercy, his zeal for souls, his profound wisdom, his practical nature, his humility, and his simplicity.  All these are found in the Beatitudes, which come at the head of the Sermon.  In fact, we can read the Beatitudes as follows: I am poor in spirit (cf. Luke 22, 27).  I am one who mourns (cf. Luke 19, 41).  I am meek (cf. Matthew 11, 29).  I hunger and thirst for righteousness (cf. Luke 12, 50); I am merciful (cf. Luke 23, 34).  I am clean of heart (cf. John 8, 46).  I make peace (cf. Matthew 11, 28).  I am the one on whose account you will be persecuted (cf. Matthew 10, 22).

Likewise, the holy ones of God and those who strive for holiness, the saints in heaven and the devout here on earth, make themselves mirrors of the Lord’s virtues, inspiring us to imitate them.  As St. Paul said to the Corinthian Christians, who had no other model for sanctity than him: “Be imitators of me as I am also of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11, 1).  That is, we should not necessarily unthinkingly copy the actions of the saints but imitate their virtues, even as they imitated those of the Lord Jesus.  Now, we can also avail ourselves of their prayers so that we may become saints ourselves: “And another angel came and stood before the altar, having a golden censer: and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer of the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne of God. And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel” (Revelation 8, 3-4).  The prayers of the saints go before Almighty God as sweet-smelling incense, pleasing him.  Certainly if the Son of God counsels us all to ask and we shall receive, the prayers of those who did God’s will on earth and sing his praises continually in heaven will gain a favorable hearing.

And this praise is the main work of the saints, as it shall be ours should we join them: “They serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne shall dwell over them. They shall no more hunger nor thirst: neither shall the sun fall on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, shall rule them and shall lead them to the fountains of the waters of life: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 7, 15-17).  They sing the hymn of the Virgin Mary: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord! My spirit rejoices in God my Savior!”  for Mary is the Queen of all the saints.

 Tuesday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 31, 2023

Luke 13, 18-21

Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”  Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”

The term “The Kingdom of God” as such is not found in the Old Testament although there are many references to God as King, and even prophesies about God coming down to the earth: “The rivers shall clap their hands, the mountains shall rejoice together at the presence of the Lord: because he comes to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with justice, and the people with equity” (Psalm 98, 8-9).  The term would seem to come from the Pharisees who taught that God would send his anointed into the world to restore Israel.  This restoration would last a thousand years, as per the First Book of Enoch, written in the hundred or two hundred years before the Birth of Jesus.  Then the dead would be raised and God would judge the people.  The thousand year period of the restoration would have been understood by the Pharisees as “The Kingdom of God”.  The term itself, however, does not seem to arise until the time of Jesus.  When the Lord speaks of “The Kingdom of God” or “The Kingdom of Heaven” he confirms that it exists, that it has “drawn near”, and he also corrects the teaching of the Pharisees about it.

“What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it?”  The Lord Jesus speaks as though he himself knows what it is like, that he has seen it and now will relate what he has seen to the people.  He does not speak speculatively but with authority.  He does not cite Scripture to provide a foundation for his teaching, as the Pharisees would, but speaks as an eyewitness.  “It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.”  The Lord does not say that its majesty will fill the earth, that angels will guard its gates, which will be made of diamonds, or that the walls of the Kingdom will reach miles into the sky.  He does not say that the Patriarchs and Prophets will walk about in it or that all its inhabitants will be made wise.  These are the sorts of things the Pharisees taught.  Rather, the Lord compares the Kingdom to the humble, tiny, common mustard seed.  A man takes this seed and plants it in his garden.  Nothing could be more commonplace than this.  His hearers must have thought they were not hearing him right.  “When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”  And then the Lord paused and looked around, waiting for the people to digest his words.  He is clearly teaching that the Kingdom of God is not what the Pharisees taught.  They spoke in grandiose terms, but the Lord in lowly ones.  He is saying, Yes, it is the Kingdom of God, but it is “within you”, and not outside of you: “And being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answering them and said: The kingdom of God does not come so as to be seen. Neither shall they say: Behold here, or behold there. For lo, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17, 20-21).  And so the Kingdom of God begins with a speck of grace within a person’s soul, and when it is nourished and watered with good works and hearing the word of God, it becomes fully grown so that others may benefit from it as well.  The Lord is speaking of the life of grace and faith, a share in the divine life itself.

“It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”  Yeast, like mustard seed, is tiny and yet potent.  Three measures is a great deal of flour and yet just a little yeast will make it grow.  The Lord speaks of both the mustard seed and the yeast as being “hidden”: the working of grace in the soul is a great mystery but its effects are clear.  The “woman” here can be understood as the Holy Spirit, and the “flour” as the soul.  In both cases of the seed and the bread growth results that benefits others — the yeast aiding in the making of bread.

Only a small opening need exist for mustard seed and yeast to enter, and only a small opening in the human will need exist for grace to enter.  We pray that we may always be opened wide for it, and for openings in the souls of unbelievers.

 Monday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 30, 2023

Luke 13, 10-17

Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect. When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, said to the crowd in reply, “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the Sabbath day.” The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?” When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

“Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.”  Normally when Jesus went to a town he did his teaching in the town’s synagogue on the Sabbath.  As a famous visitor, he was invited to read from the scrolls containing the Law and the Prophets and then he would comment on them, teaching the congregants about the Kingdom of God.  He is teaching in this way in a synagogue in an unnamed town, probably in Galilee, at the beginning of the Gospel Reading for today’s Mass.  “And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.”  Women prayed and listened to the reading of the Law and the commentary on it alongside men in Israel at that time so this woman could have been seated anywhere in the synagogue.  Jesus, sitting up front and facing the congregation would have seen her easily.  St. Luke remarks that she was “crippled by a spirit”.  Based on what the Lord says of her condition after he has cured her, she has been crippled by an evil spirit.  Very likely she endured other torments as well.  The woman suffered from her infirmity for eighteen years, perhaps half of her lifetime.  

“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”  The verb here carries the meaning of “set free” or “loosed”, and the sense is that she is loosed from a heavy burden she has been carrying like a pack animal or a slave and is now free to walk about on her own.  She is loosed, unbound.  It is Jesus who sets her free, who looses her from her burden.  We can think of him as gently removing it from her stooped back and helping her to stand upright again, even aiding her first steps in freedom.  “He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.”  Luke implies that the Lord left his place as commenter on the Law and went into the congregation to lay his hands on her.  The effect on her is immediate.  She does not strain or hesitate due to pain, but straightens up right away as if it is the most natural thing for her to do, as if she had never been afflicted in the first place.  And she glorified God.  We often hear of the Lord healing people but seldom hear those who are healed glorifying God.  This too comes naturally to her.  The synagogue must have rang loudly with her praises while the congregation would have been thrown into commotion.

“But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, said to the crowd.”  The leader of a synagogue was not its pastor or ever someone trained in religion.  He was the owner of the land on which the synagogue was built or of the building itself, or funded its operation.  He did not perform any official function during the services on the Sabbath.  Here the synagogue leader takes it upon himself to rebuke Jesus for an action he deems inappropriate for the Sabbath.  This would be in accord with what the Pharisees taught about keeping the Sabbath but not in accord with what the Law actually taught.  The leader fears to rebuke Jesus to his face and so he rebukes the people of the congregation, meaning the healed woman, for coming to Jesus on the Sabbath to be cured.  Oddly, the leader is not impressed at all with the miracle or consider that this display of divine power supersedes human customs regarding the Sabbath.  

“Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering?”  The Lord does not counter the synagogue leader’s rebuke with theology but with an example simpler and easier to understand.  “This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?”  The Jew’s proudest boast was of being a descendent of Abraham.  Here the Lord reminds the leader of her state.  If even animals were untied on the Sabbath then certainly this child of Abraham, so superior to any child of the Gentiles, should be freed.  The Jews in the synagogue probably did not know of the demonic origin of the woman’s condition.  We should note that she was not possessed but that the devil had gained certain power over her physical body.  Because of this demonic slavery, the Lord declares that the Sabbath is the perfect day for her liberation, as it was the time when all the Jews set down their work to rest and to pray.

“All his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.”  The leader of the synagogue certainly opposed Jesus on this occasion but Luke indicates that others took his side.  But they could not explain the miracle or rebut the Lord’s plain words.  The whole crowd rejoiced over this sign of divine power, and also, it would seem, over their liberation from the tyranny of those who thought like the Gentiles and who had enslaved them with their narrow and pointless interpretations of God’s word.

 The 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, October 29, 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.”

The events recounted in the Gospel Reading for today’s Mass take place the day or two after the Lord entered Jerusalem to cries of Hosanna.  After arrival, the Lord, coming as a conqueror, went directly to the Temple, as its rightful Lord, and seized it back from the corrupt Jewish leadership by casting out the money-changers and the sellers of animals, performing the sign showing that the sacrifices of the Old Law were abolished by his own imminent Sacrifice.  The Jewish leadership fought back, seeking to stone him or at least to find some way of discrediting him before his disciples.  In the present reading, after failing several times to do this, a member of the Pharisees tries again with a different strategy.

“Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest?”  This new opponent begins his attempt to discredit Jesus by a very simple test.  In asking him what was the greatest commandment, he can appear as genuinely interested in the Lord’s teachings, and yet see if he can trip him up on the very fundamentals of Jewish belief.  The scholar of the Law (more accurately translated as “one learned in the Law”)  does not think that Jesus will answer satisfactorily and that Jesus, in his answer, will give him an opening for showing him up as a fraud.  Even if Jesus does answer the question in a generally satisfactorily way, the scholar of the Law can still use his answer as a wedge to break him apart, he thinks, for Jesus is an unlearned man from Galilee.  

So what is this learned man asking?  He is asking which of the laws God gave the Israelites through Moses was the most important, the most foundational.  Now, the commandments of the Law are found in the five books of the Pentateuch, or Torah, interspersed with narratives, songs, and other material.  The commandments are not given in any particular order.  The so-called Ten Commandments are given twice: in Exodus 20, 2-27, and in Deuteronomy 5, 6-21, with slight differences.  A person asked what was the greatest commandment of the Law could say, with some justification, that either the first or the second Commandments was the most important: “You shall have no strange gods before me”, or, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”  The first establishes God as the only true God; and the second establishes that he possesses such immense holiness that his name cannot be spoken, unlike the names of the pagan gods.  An argument could be made that either of these commandments is the source for the entirety of the Law, whether moral or liturgical.

But Jesus gives a different answer: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  This is from the Shema Israel (“Hear, O Israel”) found in Deuteronomy 6, 4-5, recited daily by observant Jews according to commandment.  This law to love God with all one’s being comes first so that even the First and Second Commandments proceed from it.  A God who is to be loved with all one’s being leaves no love for “strange gods”, and because he is worthy of such utter and complete love his name must be most sacred so that it cannot be spoken by human tongues.  All the moral and liturgical laws flow from this single commandment.  The Lord Jesus gives the second commandment as well: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  This law does not follow hard on the Great Commandment in the biblical text: it is found in Leviticus 19, 18.  The Lord Jesus can say that this is “the second commandment” rather than, say, that regarding God’s name, because the Great Commandment perfectly states what an individual’s behavior toward God should be.  This second commandment has to do with behavior towards our fellows whom God also created in his image and likeness.  Thus, the commandment for how to behave towards God, and one for how to behave towards his image and likeness.  “The whole Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.”  Without these two commandments there is no basis for the Law and for the coherence of its various ordinances.  

St. Mark completes the story in Mark 12, 32-34, noting the legal expert’s praise of Jesus for his reply and his own comment on it, leading to Jesus telling him that he is not far from the Kingdom of God, which silenced all his hearers.

The two Great Commandments may seem obvious to us but this was not the case two thousand years ago even to those who studied the Law.  This is a revelation of Jesus.  The profundity of his answer to the question posed by the man learned in the Law ought to move us with its perfection — only God could have said this.  As an experiment we might read for ourselves the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy and see if we could have answered as Jesus did.

 Saturday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 28, 2023

The Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles

Luke 6, 12–16

Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

The Apostles likely remained in Jerusalem for a few years after receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  It is evident from The Acts of the Apostles that for some time they still prayed in the Temple and they continued to preach to the people even after being warned and punished by the Jewish rulers.  Peter also made mission trips to such places as Antioch but returned to Jerusalem after each one.  That the Apostles are all still in Jerusalem a few years after Pentecost is also clear from a comment St. Luke makes in his Acts, that after the martyrdom of the deacon St. Stephen, the Jewish leaders and the Pharisees inaugurated a wider persecution of the Christians and these fled Jerusalem, carrying the Faith with them, while the Apostles alone remained: “They were all dispersed through the countries of Judea, and Samaria, except the Apostles” (Acts of the Apostles 8, 1).  The Apostles stayed in Jerusalem during this time because they wanted to concentrate on winning over their fellow Jews to the new Faith in Jesus.  They also believed, at least for a time, that the Lord would be returning soon to Jerusalem in glory to judge the living and the dead.  But by the year 48, st the latest, nearly all the Apostles had gone out to the nations to preach the Gospel, for the council held in Jerusalem to determine whether the Gentiles needed to become Jews in order to become Christians was governed only by Saints Peter, James, and John.  Already, when, in the year 36 or 37, the recently converted Paul met Peter in Jerusalem, the only other Apostle he saw was James the son of Alphaeus: “Then, after three years, I went to Jerusalem to see Peter: and I tarried with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles I saw none, saving James the brother of the Lord” (Galatians 1, 18-19).  

St. Jude left with the other Apostles to preach during this time.  It is possible that, along with James, the son of Alphaeus, that Jude was related to Jesus, for his name may have been mentioned in Matthew 13, 55 on the occasion of the Lord’s return to Nazareth: “Is not his Mother called Mary, and his brethren James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Jude.”  He called himself “the brother of James”, that is, James the son of Alphaeus, in the first verse of his Letter, departed from the other Apostles.  Evidently a Galilean, he is said to have preached for a time in that region, including in Samaria,  before setting out for Asia Minor and then into Armenia, at that time a sizable kingdom and a sometime ally of the Roman Empire.  It existed on the east of Asia Minor and encompassed parts of what is now Iraq and the Caucasus region.  During his time in Armenia he converted the king of the country.  The Armenians to this day revere him as the founder of their faith.  It one tradition, Jude was later beheaded in the city of Beirut.  A curious tradition found in the work of a thirteenth century Greek saint asserts that Jude had been the groom at the wedding of Cana and followed Jesus after learning of how Jesus had turned the water into wine.

St. Simon is also thought to have been related to Jesus on account of Matthew 13, 55.  In the lists of the Apostles found in the Gospels he is called either “the zealot” or “the Canaanite”.  The Hebrew words have the same root.  Since “the Canaanite” was long an anachronism by the time of Jesus (and a term implying pagan worship), his surname is better translated “the zealot”, that is, a member of a party of Jews who strongly opposed Roman rule.  Tradition holds that after leaving Jerusalem he preached in Galilee and eventually in Persia, where he helped establish the Church.  Tradition also holds that he and Jude were martyred together in Beirut, although another tradition holds that he was sawn in two in Persia by order of the king.

In the First Reading for today’s Mass, St. Paul told the Christians at Ephesus, “You are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone” (Ephesians 2, 19-20).  We owe so much to the Apostles who first preached the Faith and whose Gospels and Letters make up what we call the New Testament that the Church is called Apostolic.  We profit today from them through their writings and through their prayers.  

 Friday in the 29 Week of Ordinary Time, October 27, 2023

Luke 12, 54-59

Jesus said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain — and so it does; and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot — and so it is. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?  Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate, make an effort to settle the matter on the way; otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the constable, and the constable throw you into prison. I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”

“When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain — and so it does.”  It is very charming to see how the Lord talks to us of tremendous spiritual events and realities in such simple terms that all of us can understand him.  His speaking in this way also encourages us to look for signs of heaven and grace in the natural world, such as seeing God’s power reflected in storms or in the ocean’s tides and vastness.  And it is right for us to do this, for all that he has created bears some trace of his authorship as effectively as a signature on a painting.  Here, the Lord Jesus reminds us of how we look to signs in the natural world for what the weather will be like in the near future.

“You hypocrites!”  The Greek word that has given rise to our word “hypocrites” was used by the Greek translators of the Hebrew Scriptures for a word meaning “godless”, and that is the best way to understand this word here: “You godless people!”  Jesus refers to their worldly outlook for the sake of which they restrict God and religion to a very narrow space in their minds.  “You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”  They think themselves clever for their petty accomplishment while not bothering with what really matters.  The Jews failed to interpret “the present time” so that they missed his Birth in Bethlehem but the Gentiles did not, as St. Matthew shows through the arrival of the wise men from the East (the Jewish shepherds only became aware of it through the direct intervention of the angels).  The Jews could have reckoned the time of his Birth from checking the genealogical records: from Abraham to their time there were forty-two generations, six multiplied by seven, that is, the number of days of the creation of the world multiplied by that number plus the sabbath.  The scribes should have known the time.  And the Jews knew the place of his Birth, for the Prophet Micah revealed it.  And so the Lord warns them to pay attention to spiritual things, and to think hard about their eternal destinies: “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?”

“If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate, make an effort to settle the matter on the way.”  The Lord gives an example of what the people should be paying attention to through his use of an everyday example.  The Greek word translated here as “magistrate” means “prince” or “ruler”.  He means for the people to “interpret” this example spiritually, on their own.  “Otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the constable, and the constable throw you into prison. I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”  The legal case the Lord describes involves a matter of debt.  He advises the debtor to make a deal with the lender.  Such as deal would result in a desperate plight for the debtor, but one far less worse than imprisonment for the debt.  The Greek word for “debt” also is translated as “sin” and the Jews should have understood the Lord’ meaning here: ask forgiveness of the one you have sinned against before you face your Divine Judge. 

“You will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”  The Lord refers to purgatory, a place in which the “last penny” is paid that we owe due to unrepentant venial sins.  Of course, a person’s debt may be so heavy that it can never be paid, and this represents mortal sin, sin committed with malice.  But those without mortal sins weighing down their souls may be perfected in love through the purifying flames of purgatory.  

We ought to keep our minds on God and on our path to salvation as we make our way through each day for the things we pass by shall certainly pass away.

 Thursday in the 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, October 26, 2023

Luke 12, 49-53

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

St. Luke sets this teaching of the Lord at the end of his larger teaching on rejecting the teaching of the Pharisees, trusting in God during subsequent persecution from them, and on the judgment to come when he returns.  Some of the Fathers saw no connection between the verses which make up today’s Gospel Reading and those that came before and said that the Lord spoke them at another time and place.  On the other hand we can see them as an eruption of the Lord’s zeal for souls, that he cannot wait until he undertakes those actions by which he will save his elect.

“I have come to set the earth on fire.”  Literally, from the Greek: “I have come to cast fire on the earth.”  Many of the Fathers interpreted this “fire” as the Holy Spirit, so that the Lord was saying that he could barely constrain himself until the time came for sending forth the Holy Spirit upon his Apostles and disciples.  But the early Father Tertullian bids us compare this verse with Matthew 10, 34: “Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword.”  “Fire”, then, is “the sword”, which Tertullian interprets as persecution.  Tertullian thinks persecution, that the Lord permits a future persecution of his disciples, especially since he says, in the verse immediately following, “I have a baptism with which I must be baptized”, clearly referring to the his Passion and Death.  As if to say: “I forewarn you of this future persecution.  Learn from my example how to be patient and to bear it well.”  It is by tribulation and persecution, which we all suffer but as Christians particularly, that the soul is tried and either becomes stronger in faith or loses it entirely: “For he that has, to him shall be given, and he shall abound: but he that has not, from him shall be taken away that also which he has” (Matthew 13, 12).  We might wonder about the Lord’s choice of description of his Passion and Death as “baptism”, but baptism, in the early days of the Church as well as in the baptism of John, entailed being completely submerged in river water, signifying death, while the raising up out of the water signified life.  “How great is my anguish until it is accomplished!”  The Lord struggles to contain himself in his yearning for the salvation of souls.

“Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?”  That is, the messiah taught by the Pharisees to be expected was to overthrow Roman rule, defeat all of the enemies of the Jews, restore the rule of the house of David, and rule in peace.  Jesus explicitly rejects that he has come into the world to do this.  “No, I tell you, but rather division.”  St. Matthew recalls him saying, “I came not to send peace, but the sword” (Matthew 10, 34), implying a violent rending, which is what the Greek word translated as “separation” actually means.  “From now on a household of five will be divided.”  The rending which the Lord came to bring into the world, that is, his offer of love and life in him, divides even members of families against each other, for in order to receive and experience the Lord’s love we must love him above all things, whether they are property, wealth, popularity, power, pleasure, or the expectations of other people.  God must come first.  This is a very difficult proposition to accept, for many people.  They do not want to serve, they want to be served.  Those who do not join their way of life seem to them to oppose them.  Sometimes violence results.  This occurs on civil levels as well as personal levels so that those in power feel threatened by those who believe in God and follow his commandments, and results in persecution of different kinds.

“Behold you are fair, O my love, behold you are fair” (Song of Songs 1, 4).  What does God see in us that he virtually pants with anticipation for our presence with him in heaven?  For none of us is so proud that we cannot say, “I am a lily of the valley” (Song of Songs 2, 1), very ordinary, nothing to look at.  Before God we are less than the dust of our streets is to us, and yet to God we are worth the price of the Blood of his only Begotten Son.  Let us consider he deeply we are treasured by Almighty God so that we can begin to understand the true meaning of his Son’s Passion and Death.

 Wednesday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 25, 2023

Luke 12, 39-48

Jesus said to his disciples: “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”  Then Peter said, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so. Truly, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful. That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly. Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

In today’s Gospel Reading the Lord continues to speak of the end times and his Second Coming after he had counseled his followers not to fear civil or religious authorities who persecuted them for their faith but rather to trust most securely in God.  

“Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.”  In this parable, the human soul is “the master of the house” and his mortal life is his house.  The “thief” can be understood as death which strikes through the unguarded and unprepared life as though unexpected and undefended for the soul whose life this is sleeps in laziness and complacency.  The soul that fortifies his life with good deeds and lasting faith is prepared and is not so much snatched from this earth by death as goes peaceably with death to the Lord in heaven.  Some of the Fathers believed that Christ himself was signified by the thief, who “breaks into the house” of the unprepared man or woman and casts them into hell but who is met in peace by the virtuous believer who goes with him into Paradise.

“Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?” Peter’s question reveals that he has not understood the meaning of the parable.  The Lord’s reply does not directly address Peter’s question but elaborates on what he has already taught.  “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?”  The Lord continues with the master of the house, but in a different way.  The emphasis is now on the steward, whom the master will reward or punish according to his conduct.  This is the Apostle or any Church authority.  The “food allowance” is the teaching of Jesus Christ and also the pastoral care the authority is duty-bound to provide, such as the administration of the sacraments.  “Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.”  Now, the steward in performing his duties is only doing what he is required to do — he does nothing extraordinary in this.  And yet the Lord Jesus calls this one “blessed”.  “time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so. “Truly, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.”  This saying brings to mind Matthew 19, 28: “You who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”  These stewards will be raised to very high places in heaven.  

“My master is delayed in coming.”  The church authority grows weary of performing his duties and makes an excuse to do as he pleases.  In fact, he had lost his faith long before and was simply putting in his time, unable to make a living in any other way.  This one “begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk.”  Not only does he fail in his duties but he misuses his authority to prevent those committed to his care from carrying out their duties.  He also disturbs their peace to such an extent that they may waver in their faith.  “Then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour.”  The steward does not know the day or the hour because he has forgotten or stop believing in the existence of the master of the house, his own master.  The master “will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful.”  That is, a place outside the house where there will be wailing and the gnashing of teeth.  He who once reigned in the house experiences a terrible fall on account of his own negligence and faithlessness.

“That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely.”  The Lord makes a distinction here.  Knowing the divine will — the Lord’s commandments and his own divinely appointed responsibilities — but lives a godless life will receive a very severe punishment in hell.  But “the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly.”  That is, this servant did not know God’s commandments but is still held accountable for committing acts which are universally held as abominable, such as willful murder.  “Shall be beaten only lightly” is not quite accurate.  The Greek says, “who is worthy of stripes shall be beaten with a fewer number.”  Both shall receive severe punishment, but the one who knew the master’s will shall suffer more grievously.

“Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”  This is the source of comic book writer Stan Lee’s phrase about the possession of super powers.  For the Christian, the believer given great gifts or authority will be held more accountable than those who receive fewer of these, and the ones with the most will be even more accountable.  We can think in terms of deacons, priests, bishops, and popes, but also to those who have received what we might call charismatic gifts which complement church authority in the service of the faithful.  We might also consider that things as free time and good health and natural talents among these as well, for everyone possesses some of God’s gifts.

We ought, each of us, to take stock of what God has given us so that we may use it to the full.  Let us not hold back in the service of the Lord.

 Tuesday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 24, 2023

Luke 12, 35-38

Jesus said to his disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants.”

In the Lord’s parable of The Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matthew 25, 1-13) we see how young women were to welcome the new bridegroom and bride to the bridegroom’s house.  These waited outside the house, equipped with oil lamps.  Here, the Lord speaks of the male servants who waited for their master’s return with his bride within the house.  Both the virgins and the servants had to keep themselves ready for there was no set time for the groom and his bride to return from the house of her parents.  In order to be ready to open the door at the proper time and welcome the couple vigilance was required.  Someone would have to keep an eye out at all times.

The Lord Jesus says to his Apostles, “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.”  On the road to Jerusalem he is already speaking of the end times, a subject which will dominate his teaching during the last few days before he undergoes his Passion and Death.  He describes the situation of the servants: they are picked men with a specific task.  It is a simple one.  They are to wait in the house until the sign that the couple has arrived.  That sign would be the arrival of the virgins with their lighted lamps.  They would open the door to the groom’s knock and the house would fill with the virgins and the couple.  There would be joyous celebration with plenty of wine and singing.

“Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.”  The servants could hope to be tipped by the master for their vigilance, but the Lord is speaking of something greater here.  In fact, a complete reversal of their roles takes place: “Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.”  This new situation turns the wedding feast on its head: it is the servants who are honored by the host, the servants who should be serving him, his bride, and his guests.  It is a shocking development and the Lord’s revealing it would have baffled his Apostles, for it does not make sense.  Why would the host do this?  These are mere servants who have done nothing more than their duty.  The groom, instead, treats them as though they were his closest friends and family.  The Lord is teaching of the wild, abandoned love God has for us, his creatures.  He treats our carrying out the simple commandments he gives us as though we were doing him an incredible favor.  If a groom had treated his servants in this way in first century Galilee they would have thought him out of his mind.  

“And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants.”  The Lord directs these words at us living today, for the watch goes from 9:00 P.M. to midnight, and the third watch from midnight until 3:00 A.M.  That is, long after the bridegroom could reasonably have been expected.  It seems that at least some of the Apostles and many of their converts (see especially 1 Thessalonians) believed that the Lord would return within their lifetimes.  Now it seems very late, but we know he is coming.  If we are prepared for his coming, blessed will we be when he arrives.