Friday in the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time, August 21, 2020

The Feast of St. Pope Pius X

Matthew 22:34-40

Just to let folks know: one of the priests here at Blessed Sacrament has tested positive for the coronavirus and so we are under quarantine,  the other three of us will get tested today, we hope.  The office will be closed for the next two weeks but we will try to have priests here for at least some of the Masses on
Sunday.  Please check the parish website for details.  As of right now, we all feel all right.

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.”

Today’s reading directly follows the Lord’s encounter with the Sadducees, in which he was challenged on the doctrine of the Resurrection.  It is the only time we know of in which they approached him.  Following this encounter, the Pharisees resume their attempts to pin him down as to the basis for his teaching.  One of their band thus steps forward and asks him point blank: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”  This is an identity test, asking the question, Who are you, and what do you believe?  It is also a test regarding the Lord’s beliefs about the law as a whole.  We recall that in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus had already defended himself against the accusation that he claimed to have come to destroy the law (cf. Matthew 5, 17).  The opinion that the Lord denigrated the law arose because he had openly cured people on the Sabbath, an action which did not in fact break the law, but only the Pharisaic interpretation of the law. 

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”  This was a question every Jew could answer because the answer was the Shema Israel, a prayer, blessing, and creed which a Jew would say twice a day, and which was carried in written form in the phylacteries which the Jews wore: “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. 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 and shall move between your eyes. And you shall write them in the entry, and on the doors of your house” (Deuteronomy 6, 4-9).

This answer would have satisfied the Pharisee, but the Lord goes on to speak of the second law, “second” not in terms of numbering but in terms of importance: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  This law is given in Leviticus 19, 18 in order to sum up a series of commandments regarding one’s behavior towards a fellow Jew.  This law, then, does not follow in consecutive order from the “first” commandment, and the Pharisees would not necessarily have put it as second in importance after this.  More likely, they would have put forward one of the Ten Commandments, such as the first, which forbids having “strange gods” before the true God, or the commandment imposing the Sabbath.  

Jesus has been asked a question.  St. Matthew indicates that with it the Pharisee was testing him, that is, challenging him.  By speaking of this second commandment, Jesus responds with his own challenge, and not merely a theological one, but one which threatened the authority of the Pharisees.  Because of their origin as a sect founded by men, little real basis existed for their own interpretations.  Jesus, however, comes out directly on his own authority, as established by the the divine power evident in his miracles, and defines the second commandment.  In the verses following this reading, Matthew tells how Jesus manifested his own authority as divine through the Scriptures.  In doing this, the Lord pushes them to look beyond the narrow confines of their sect in order to take seriously the claims he makes about himself.

We celebrate the Feast of St. Pope Pius X (d. 1914), a very simple, devout man of humble background.  During his papacy he fought against the heresy of modernism, temporarily checking its advance in the Church.  A childhood friend of mine who later became a priest in New York City rescued a large statue of St. Pius X, his patron saint, when he saw it being thrown out of a church during its “renovation” (this was in the Diocese of Richmond, VA).  He somehow got it up the stairs to his room and set it beside his bed, where it watched over him at night.  The episode is very emblematic of what happened to the Church in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and perhaps even today.  We pray for the intercession of this holy pope and ask God to grant his Church a true renewal of Faith and holiness so that it might lead the world to him.

. 

Thursday in the Twentieth .week of Ordinary Time, August  20, 2020

The Feast of St. Bernard

Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables saying, “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’ Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

“The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.”  We ought to notice that Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king.  Jesus does not say that it may be likened to a feast made by the king.  He likens it to a king.  What sort of king?  To a king “who gave a wedding feast for his son”, that is, to a generous father, a father excited for his son, a king who wanted to honor people in his kingdom by making a feast for them on the occasion of his son’s marriage.  Jesus does not describe the kingdom of heaven as a place.  As in the parable which precedes this one in St. Matthew’s Gospel, he likens it to a person.  In the earlier parable, he likened it to a landowner who was generous in paying his workers.  Here, to a king.  Jesus reminds us that the Church is not a place, either, nor is heaven.  It is the faithful in union with Christ.  Because it is a “union”, it transcends the physical, the geographical.  Thus, Jesus can say to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.”   St. Thomas Aquinas comments that Jesus himself is the kingdom of heaven.  In these parables about the kingdom of heaven, Jesus tells us about himself.

The invited guests react strangely to the invitation the king issues them through his messengers.  In fact, even if they disliked the king personally, they should have attended the feast simply because it was in their best interest to do so.  The Lord tells us that some of the invited guests acted as though they had not heard the invitation.  One went to his business, one to his farm.  These people so belonged to the world that they could not imagine living in a different way, or seeing their larger responsibilities in life.  For very many people today, the main matters of life consist of health, career, finances, and sex.  The idea of religion never arises for them.  It does repel others: “The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.”  These folks saw in the king’s invitation a threat to their freedom to do as they wished.  If they agreed to go to the feast, they would have to wash and dress for it, and then act with decency and polite behavior throughout the meal, which was for the king’s son and his bride.  The king’s subsequent destruction of the “city” inhabited by these bad subjects signifies the consequence of their actions, which is death.  To reject God through sin is to die, that is, to lose God’s grace and friendship.  

“The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike.”  Those who first heard the Lord tell this parable, particularly the Scribes and Pharisees, would have understood they were the unworthy invited guests, and that the “bad and good” who filled the hall were the Gentiles.  We can also see here that the membership of the Church is open to sinners who repent.  Jesus himself tells us that he came not for the righteous but for sinners (cf. Luke 5, 32).  That is, all who recognize themselves as sinners and in need of grace.

“My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?” The king may seem here to expect too much of a guest who has just been brought in without much notice.  The fact is that all the other guests are apparently wearing wedding garments.  Either they put on their own garments and came to the wedding feast already dressed, or garments would have been provided for those who came without them.  This man in his normal clothing is showing contempt to the king and the guests, and his refusal to answer the king’s question confirms this.  He signifies one who attempts to benefit from Christ’s promises without seeking the sacraments, or, having received them, without believing in or living out all of his teachings.

“Many are invited, but few are chosen.”  This seems contradictory: those to be invited are already chosen.  To understand what Jesus means, we have to look back at the parable.  Initially, a very large number of people were invited, but they did not come.  At the king’s order, his messengers brought in enough people to fill the hall, but the number brought in fell short of the number originally invited.  All people are called to the Church, called to salvation in Christ, but not all will believe, not all will be saved.  You and I are the messengers given the task of calling in “the bad and the good”.  Let us do our part, with the help of God, to fill up the banquet hall of heaven.

Today we honor the 11th century preacher St. Bernard who zealously delivered the invitation of God.  He converted sinners, set tepid faith ablaze, and made holy men and women holier.  Through his intercession  may we become the Lord’s dedicated heralds.

Wednesday in the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time, August 19, 2020

Matthew 20:1-16

I have some news: We are gradually resuming parish activities at Blessed Sacrament, and I will be able to offer Bible Study again on Tuesday evenings and Wednesday mornings as before.  It looks like our startup dates will be Tuesday, September 15, at 7:00 PM, and Wednesday, September 16, after the 8:30 Mass, maybe about 9:15 AM.  Each meeting will last an hour, and will be held in Quinn Hall, not the Trinity Room as before.  I would like to look at the topics we were going to investigate during Lent before the virus shut us down.  They are very apt for today: Mercy, Forgiveness, and Justice, an hour-long meeting dedicated to each of these.  We will look at what the Scriptures teach us and see how they work in practice in the life of Jesus and in our lives today as Christians.  We will also explode the myths and misunderstanding so common about them.  What does mercy really mean?  Are mercy and justice incompatible?  Are we supposed to “forgive and forget”?  And how do we actually forgive?  Please email me or call me at the office if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for future topics!

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’ When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’ He said to one of them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?’ Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

It seems to me that the last verse of chapter 19 belongs not to the end of the teaching about whether the rich could be saved (in yesterday’s Gospel reading) but to the beginning of the Gospel reading for today.  Evidently when the Gospels were carved up for the present lectionary, the person in charge went by the text decisions of Stephen Langton (d. 1228), the Archbishop of Canterbury, who provided what became the modern arrangement of the chapters in the Scriptures, rather than the strict sense of the text.  Thus, the parable of the workers in the vineyard, in my opinion, is introduced with a single basic teaching: “And many that are first, shall be last: and the last shall be first” (Matthew 19, 30), and then concluded with similar words that include an emphasis.  This radical teaching of the Lord frames the parable.

There are many ways to understand this parable precisely because it features such strange behavior on the part of the landowner.  One way to look at it is that it is about the lavish generosity he shows to his workers, particularly the ones hired later in the day.  Another is to understand the anxiety the landowner has to get his vineyard harvested before anything happens to the grapes.  Still another is to see that the ways of the landowner are not the ways of his laborers, but extremely different.  In all instances, the landowner is a figure for God.  In the first, we see that God’s purpose is to manifest his own glory and one way in which he does this is through a generosity only he can possess.  In the second, we see God’s great care for us, his grape clusters hanging on the vine, and to bring us into heaven as expeditiously as possible lest persecution or the cares of this world bruise or destroy us.  In the third, we see God making it abundantly clear how different his way are from our ways, and that with respect to his providence and his judgments, all we can do is to wonder.

It also pays to think of how this is about sin and forgiveness.  The workers who come out at dawn are those who come to their senses about their sins and do not put off repenting but come to the Lord right away.  The night of sin is ended, the dawn of new life has arrived, and they go to the Lord, begging forgiveness, and receiving from the Lord the grace of becoming his followers, indeed, members of his Body.  Others come to him more slowly.    They have also torn themselves from their lives of sin, but with greater difficulty than those who came at dawn.  They are also forgiven and are made followers as well, to toil in the vineyard of the world, doing the Lord’s business.  At the end, at the final judgment, all are to be received into heaven.  Some among those who toiled the longest complain that they should receive a greater reward, but the Lord reminds them that it is only due his grace that they are saved at all, and that it is unseemly for his followers to judge each other as to their worthiness or lack thereof. 

If  we look at ourselves and think how God overwhelms us with his grace and mercy each day simply by allowing us to call ourselves Christian, we will see our time in the vineyard of this world as a great favor he has granted us, despite the heat of the day and the difficulty of the labor.

Tuesday in the Twentieth Week of ordinary Time, August 18, 2020

Matthew 19:23-30

Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

One of the most charming aspects of the Gospels is the use the Lord Jesus makes of ordinary things to teach about holy things.  We hear him speaking about merchants searching through baskets of oysters (Matthew 13, 45-46), of a woman sweeping her house (Luke 15, 8-10), of men working in a field together (Matthew 24, 40), of two women grinding grain together (Matthew 24, 41), and of a net full of fish (Matthew 13, 47).  Here, Jesus uses a needle’s eye to talk about whether the rich can be saved.

“Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven.”  Why the rich, particularly?  The Lord’s words come on the heels of St. Matthew’s account of the rich young man whom Jesus called to sell all he had in order to follow him.  The young man had gone away sad, “for he had many possessions.”  Or, to look at it another way, his many possessions owned him.  It is as though he were their slave and not he their owner.  But he traded life with Jesus for a few pieces of property.  Jesus probably gazed after him as he walked away, as though waiting for him to come to his senses, to see if he would look back.  And then the Lord turned to his disciples and said these words.  And, to emphasize what he said, he spoke them again in a different way: “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”  Jesus does not merely say, It will be hard for that rich young man who has walked away to be saved.  He speaks of the “rich” in general: it will be hard for any of them to be saved.  

We might pause here to see how Jesus defines “rich”.  Right away, we think of the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, who “was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day”, while Lazarus starved (Luke 16, 19).  Here, the “rich” are those who have much more than they need and are in fact so “owned” by their possessions that they cannot part with the least of them even to save another person’s life.  The rich are not merely those who do no work, own huge homes, employ a host of servants to keep those homes, and whose wealth comes to more than the GDP of small nations.  Much has to do with one’s attitude towards one’s wealth and how that wealth is used, for “the love of money is the root of all evils” (1 Timothy 6, 10).

The Apostles are alarmed: “When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, ‘Who then can be saved?’ ”  The translation here is deficient.  The Greek word translated as “astonished” actually means, “flew into a panic”, and combined with the adverb that actually means “extremely” or “vehemently”, Matthew is telling us that the Apostles went completely out of their minds.  The intensity of their reaction cannot be overstated.  Looking at the Greek, it seems that at first they could not speak at all, and then could only manage a whispered, “What?”  And in the next few moments when they realized that they had heard the Lord aright, they went berserk.  They experienced the greatest shock of their lives.  

We who are conditioned by twenty-first century norms cannot imagine what this meant for the Apostles.  Their models for righteousness were the extremely prosperous Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  And while David and Solomon had their flaws, they — and particularly Solomon — were revered for their power and wealth.  For the Jews, no holy men and women lived in poverty.  Even Job started and ended with great wealth.  Honestly accumulated wealth was seen as the sign par excellence of God’s favor: “Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess” (Deuteronomy 5, 33).  “Who then can be saved?”  If those favored by God, as seen in their property and possessions, cannot be saved, than who can be?  Certainly not the poor, who do not have God’s favor, as seen by their blindness or lameness, or who are being punished by him for their laziness and wickedness.

“Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.’ ”  Here, Jesus addresses the greater question of whether anyone can be saved.  The answer is, Yes, but only by the grace of God.

“Then Peter said to him in reply, ‘We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?’ ”  Deep emotion makes his voice tremble.  He is shattered.  Most of the Apostles, save, I think, for a couple, gave up what they possessed at the time they were called with an eye to gaining greater earthly wealth in the future.  Even after his Resurrection some held onto the notion that Jesus would restore the kingdom of Israel and that, as a consequence of their following him, they would be given high positions in the new government (cf. Acts 1, 6).  Probably the answer Jesus gave only partially reassured him: “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”  Yes, Jesus would reward his followers, but the Apostles’ worldview has been blasted away. 

We see here how closely the Apostles listened to the Lord and how seriously they took his words.  They did not attempt to brush aside his hard teaching here, or deny what he had plainly said, or reinterpret his words to a meaning more comfortable to them.  For each of us who truly seek to live as his followers, there is some hard teaching we must accept because it is his.  It may seem to fly in the face of everything we have believed up to that point.   But it is Jesus who is The Truth, not our own own experience and understanding.  Let us pray for the strength to accept what he tells us what we must believe and what we must do.

Monday in the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time, August 17, 2020

Matthew 19:16-22

A young man approached Jesus and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He asked him, “Which ones?” And Jesus replied, “You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

The moral of this story might be: Don’t ask Jesus a question and then expect him to give you the answer you want to hear.

St. Matthew recalls the young man’s question as, “What good must I do to gain eternal life?”  St. Peter recalled the question as, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10, 17), to which Jesus replied, “Why do you call me ‘good’?”  It is the same question, though, remembered differently.  We can reconcile the versions and bring out the meaning by rewording the question slightly, with reference to the Greek text: Excellent teacher, what thing shall I do that will be useful for my gaining eternal life?  The word translated in the Matthew reading as “good” (as in, “good teacher”) is agathos, which can mean moral, noble, lucky, or useful.  Now, the young man is not addressing Jesus as “good teacher” in the sense of a “holy” teacher.  He is addressing him as one who is “good” at what he does, teaching, hence, “excellent”, as I have reworded it.  Similarly, this is the word Matthew recalls him using, as in “what good”.  The young man is not asking what virtuous works he should perform: he is asking what actions can he perform that would be useful for him in his quest for eternal life.  This may or may not involve virtuous works.  He is merely asking, What will get me into heaven?

The Lord Jesus asks him to specify his use of agathos.  This evidently takes the young man aback because in none of the Gospels does he give an answer.  Jesus then instructs him to keep the Commandments.  Strangely, the young man asks, “Which ones?”  It is as though a student were to ask a teacher which questions on the test he meant him to answer.  Now, while it would be easy to think that this fellow is not very bright, it could be the case that he had heard that Jesus had abolished some of the laws.  In fact, Jesus did find it necessary to insist that he had not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it: “For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5, 18).  And so, Jesus begins to list the Commandments for him.  But the young man interrupts the Lord: “All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?”  

Now, here is true insight.  “What do I still lack?”  It is a question that sooner or later— usually later — each of us is going to ask.  I hear secular people ask it all the time: I’ve gotten my degrees, paid off my debts, had a successful career, and raised children, but I feel like I’m missing something in my life.  I feel unfulfilled.  What do I still need?  Typical suggestions I hear are: volunteer work, travel, new human relationships, pets, and hobbies.  It is remarkable that a young man, probably in his late teens, would have some concern for his eternal destiny and sense that he lacked something for it.  St. Peter remembers that in this moment, “Jesus, looking on him, loved him” (Mark 10, 21), and then offered him a life with him beyond all imagining, but in order to have this, “Go, sell what you have and give to the poor.”  

To be saved, keep the commandments, but to follow me on a deeper level, in a more intimate way, first do this.  Jesus does not here make a general commandment to everyone who believes in him, but he makes an offer.  The offer requires thoroughly uprooting one’s life and handing it to Jesus without reservation.  Let us note again that Matthew makes it clear that this was a young man, that is, as yet unmarried, who would find it easier to dispose of his earthly goods.  

What Jesus tells him is too much for him, at least at that time.  But what is it that especially intimidates him?  Is it really that “he had many possessions” and he could not dream of parting with them, or was he frightened of what life with Jesus would mean?  Was he frightened of the Lord’s love, for he certainly saw that the Lord looked with love on him?  Intimacy frightens people as much as they long for it because it means allowing another to fully know him, warts and all.  Peter had felt this initially, saying to Jesus, “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5, 8).  

Ultimately, we must ask ourselves, how close do we want to be to Jesus?  Do we “just” want to get into heaven, or do we want to be in love with God?

The Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 16, 2020

Matthew 15, 28

He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, “Lord, help me.” He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.

Today’s Gospel reading occurred recently during the week, but there is still much in it to be reflected on.

Jesus calls to the gentile woman, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Now, if we think about this, we quickly come to two possible conclusions: Either Jesus spoke falsely to the woman, because he went on to help the daughter, or Jesus spoke truly about being sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and then disobeyed his Father in helping her.  In order to understand what exactly happened here, we have to look at what the Lord meant by “the lost sheep of the house of Israel”.  First, Jesus does not simply say, “the house of Israel”, but the “lost sheep” of the house of Israel.  Does this mean that the house of Israel consists of “lost sheep”?  Does it mean that he came only for those members of the house of Israel who are known as “lost sheep”, but not for the house of Israel as a whole?  Now, we see how the Lord has seen or spoken of “lost sheep” in this and the other Gospels.  Matthew 9, 36, for instance: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”  Or, Luke 15, 4: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?”  The sheep here signify those who belong to God but have wandered away and put themselves in danger.  Their leaders have failed them, perhaps even abandoned them.  These leaders may be the Sanhedrin, the rabbis, the scribes, or leaders of sects — that is, those who put themselves forward as authorities and provided false or misleading teachings about God.  Thus, the “lost sheep” are those who belong to God and who are misled, or left to themselves to understand who God’s is.    

As for “the house of Israel”, this is an anachronistic term.  It meant Jacob and his sons and their progeny, arranged in twelve tribes.  By the time of Jesus, only two tribes survived: Judah and Benjamin.  “Israel”, as such, no longer existed.  We must, then, understand “Israel” in another sense.  We look to St. Paul here, for he had a very keen sense of what it meant to be a Jew, describing himself as of the tribe of Benjamin (cf. Romans 11, 1), that is, a “true Jew”, unlike those descendants of converts out in Galilee.  Paul tells us: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” 

(Galatians 3, 28).  That is to say, in the new dispensation of Christ, under the new covenant established in the Blood of Christ, all who belong to God are “Israel”.  This New Israel is the Church, in fact, and the New Jerusalem is heaven: “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; 3 and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling of God is with men’ ” (Revelation 22, 2-3).   

“The lost sheep of the house of Israel”, then, are all those belonging to God who have been misled or abandoned by those on whom they depended to know the truth about God, whether Jew or Gentile.  That this does pertain to the Gentiles as well is again clear from St. Paul: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; for although they knew God they did not honor him as God” (Romans 1, 19-21).  That is, the pagan teachers, philosophers, and authorities possessed all the evidence they needed for a natural knowledge of God and his law, but they chose to promote the worship of created things  instead.

Therefore, when our Lord calls to the Gentile woman: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, he spoke the truth, and did so in a very wise fashion.  On the one hand he appeased his Apostles, who wanted him to drive her away from them, and on the other, he offered her the chance to speak her piece.  That is, he allowed her to teach the Apostles that faith is accredited to one who believes in Jesus as Lord whether of Jewish or Gentile heritage.  This might have reminded them that their father Abraham had come from a Gentile heritage and only began to know God and to be circumcised late in life.  

We are left amazed at the Lord’s wisdom as well as at his mercy.  We marvel at how continuously he uses the lowly to teach the greater, and thereby to teach the necessity of becoming lowly in the eyes of the world so as to become great in the eyes of God.  A simple maiden from Nazareth in Galilee (not even a native of Judea) is chosen to be the Mother of God; a woman known as a sinner and formerly possessed by seven demons is the first to see the Risen Lord and is sent to announce the Resurrection to the Apostles; a child is used as an example for the life of faith; and here, a Gentile woman shows that even non Jews may acquire faith and the favor of God.  

May the Lord open our eyes and ears to all that he desires us to learn about him!

Remember that your questions and comments are always welcome either here online or at my email address: mfcaime@cs.com.  God bless!

The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 15, 2020

Luke 1:39–56

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”  And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, and has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.”  Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

We celebrate today the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, body and soul, into heaven.  Although not revealed in Scripture, belief in her Assumption is attested to in accounts handed down by the early Church.  The general gist of these is that at the end of her life on earth the Holy Spirit gathered the Apostles from the parts of the world in which they were preaching and brought them to her bedside.  After speaking to them of her desire to be reunited with her Son and assuring them of her prayers, she died and shortly thereafter was interred in a stone tomb.  Three days afterwards the Apostles opened her tomb to find her body gone.  Because these accounts speak of the “death” of Mary, the Greeks call their celebration of her entrance into heaven “the Dormition”, that is, the “sleeping” of Mary.  In the West, it was popularly believed that the Blessed Virgin did not die but that she was taken up into heaven while still alive, much as our Savior ascended into heaven after his Resurrection.  The oldest surviving evidences of the feast commemorating this event say that it was kept in August by monks in Palestine and in Egypt around the year 500, and from those places it spread into the West.  The doctrine of the Assumption continued to be taught through the ages and was formally defined by infallible decree by Pius XII in 195o.  The decree left open the question of whether the Blessed Virgin suffered physical death or not, but in the end what matters is that God took her to himself, body and soul, at the end of her life on earth.

This wondrous event is much celebrated in art.  One of the greatest paintings in human history is that of Titian’s “Assumption”.  A close study of the Virgin’s face as she is transported to heaven, surrounded by angels, powerfully reveals the awe and unworthiness that she must have felt, while, beneath her, the Apostles shrink back, marveling at the sight, St. John alone reaching his arms to her in his longing to be with her.  The Virgin herself is a wonderfully natural looking woman dressed in lush red and blue against a glowing gold field of light which grows a fuller hue as she nears the Father.  Her arms are extended upwards and bent at the elbows, as though she were praying, preparing to embrace, and yet gently protesting, all at the same time.  She is presented in a flowing red dress and swirling full length blue cape, but without a crown or even a halo, traditional elements representing sanctity.  The simplicity of her appearance allows for her to be seen as she saw herself, a mere handmaiden. 

The core of the Gospel reading for this solemnity consists of the Virgin’s outburst of praise to Almighty God in thanksgiving for his choosing her to be the Mother of his Son.  In Latin, the first word of her praise is Magnificat, literally, “it magnifies”, as in, “My soul magnifies the Lord: my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”  Thus, her prayer is known as the Magnificat.  From at least the sixth century it has been prayed daily at Vespers as a culmination of the praise offered at that office.  Settings exist for it in Gregorian chant, and it has been set to music by the greatest composers, including Palestrina, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, J.S. Bach, and Rachmaninoff.  Each of these compositions is magnificent and even majestic, and they are often performed.  I find that of these, the Palestrina most movingly evokes the mystery of the Assumption, while the Bach, with its abundant brass, is a celebration of the Virgin’s glory.

At the heart of the Magnificat is the theme of reversal, that God in his mercy casts down the rich and raises up the poor, that he humbles the proud and gives pride of place to the humble.  In all of this, we see Mary’s faith in God and in his promises.  She herself, a young peasant girl in a small town, is lifted up by God to hold within her chaste womb his only Son.  Nowhere in her prayer does she extol her own virtues, and only speaks of herself as being blessed by all generations to come in order to emphasize how unheard of, unprecedented, it is that God has sent his Son among us.

On the occasion of this Solemnity let us meditate on the stupendous act the Lord has performed in raising up the Virgin Mary, body and soul, into heaven, and to pray that through her intercession, by the grace of God, we may join her there.

The following is my literal translation from the Latin of the traditional hymn for Lauds for this Solemnity:

Solis, O Virgo, Radiis Amicta

O Virgin, clothed with the rays of the sun,

Your head encircled with twelve stars,

To whom the moon presents herself as a footstool for your feet,

O glorious one, shine forth!

O you, conquerer of dreadful death and of hell,

Enthroned near Christ, zealous for us,

Earth and the heavenly vault celebrate you

As their power-wielding Queen.

But the frightful serpent still threatens 

the lost children entrusted  to you,

Merciful Mother, be present here,

Crush the head of the evil one.

Guard the followers of the blessed Faith,

Gather the the fallen from all places to the holy flock,

Which people the shadow of death 

Has touched a long-lasting time.

O mild one, pray for the forgiveness of the guilty,

Help the weeping, the poor, and the sick,

The bright hope of all through the sharpness of life,

Make certain our salvation.

Praise be to the ever highest Trinity,

Who, O Virgin, granted you a crown,

And set you as our Queen,

And in his providence, as our Mother!