Monday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 19, 2020

The Feast of St. Isaac Jogues and Companions

It is good to be home again, and also to find that the pastor did not change the locks on me!

Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”  Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.”

“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”  The Lord Jesus, in his time on earth, was probably besieged with people who wanted him to side with them in disputes.  He did not, however, possess any legal authority, and he points this out to the man who makes this plea to him: “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”  The Lord also refuses to act as a moral authority in a matter of this kind.  There were courts for this.  Presumably the man comes to the Lord after he has failed to gain his end through the legal system, and likely for a good reason.  Maybe this is the prodigal son who father has just died, leaving what is left of the estate to his elder son.  The younger son has no title to it or to any of it, and is now dependent for any kind of livelihood on the goodwill of his brother.

Next, according to St. Luke, the Lord launches into a parable illustrating that “one’s life does not consist of possessions.”  In the parable, a man already rich produced a bountiful harvest.  He then considered within himself (not “asked himself”, as in the English here) what he ought to do, since he did not have enough storerooms for his harvest.  The premise of the rich man’s consideration is that he must use this abundance of wealth for himself.  The question is how to do this.  If he sells it all now, he risks lower prices, and perhaps few buyers — if his harvest was prosperous, probably those of others were as well.  At the same time, he is already rich.  His storehouses are already full.  The solution he hits on is: “I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.”  The solution is a sound one.  The rich man has far and above what he needs or can use.  But there is risk in storing his wealth, for rust and moth may consume what he has stored, or thieves may break in and steal it (cf. Matthew 6, 19).  (“Rust” here refers to a disease infecting plants that may involve fungus.  At any rate, some kind of rot or spoilage.)  As it happens, in the parable, the totally unforeseen occurs: the rich man dies.  As he is about to die, God speaks to him: “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?”  The Greek word for “fool” here can also be translated as “inconsiderate man”: thus, the man considered, but he did so in an inconsiderate way.  That is, he worked from an ill-conceived premise.  He should not have thought how to keep his over abundance for himself but he rather should have thought: I have more than enough for myself.  I do not need more.  What else can I do with my excess?  And thinking as a Jew he would have remembered that the Lord said in the law, “There will not be wanting poor in the land of thy habitation: therefore I command thee to open thy hand to thy needy and poor brother, that liveth in the land” (Deuteronomy 15, 11).  This command is especially to be noted because its context is the abundance of the land which God is giving to the Israelites.

“Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.”  The Lord teaches us that when we frame questions of purpose, as, What shall I do?, we must think of God’s purpose, what is God’s will.  The question the rich man should have asked was, What does a God, who has given me this wealth, want me to do with it?  The question we as Christians ought to ask ourselves, especially when we are young, is, What does God, who has given me this life, want me to do with it?  We can also phrase this as, How does God want me to serve him?  The rich man, in his consideration, did not seek any other opinion.  We should avail ourselves in learning the answer to our question with the Scriptures, with wise people, but most importantly, God, in prayer.  If the rich man had asked God what he should do with his wealth, God would not have asked him what he was going to do with it at the end of the parable.

I think this is a very important parable because it  is the only one in which we hear God speaking.  

We pray this day to St. Isaac Jogues, whose heart burned to work among the Iroquois for their salvation, that God will make clear to us the work he wills us to do.

 The 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, October 18, 2020

The Feast of St. Luke

Matthew 22:15–21

I am home from retreat.  The flights came and went on time and on the final leg I had a window seat and no one sitting in the seat next to me.  I’m very tired, but ready to resume my work.

The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech. They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status. Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

“Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status.”  The Pharisees and the Herodians know this is not true of themselves, and do not therefore think it true of anyone.  This is precisely why they think they can trip up the Lord Jesus with the question they are about to ask.  Still, despite themselves, they do speak the truth about the Lord: he was a truthful man teaching the way of God in accordance with the truth, and who was not concerned with anyone’s opinion.  So many of us and so many of our teachers and authorities calculate and measure out our opinions and positions based not on truth but on what others will say or do in response.  Our bishops, for instance, seem to employ whole banks of public relations people who write out scripts for them to deliver.  Whenever there is a need for them to speak out, their remarks are sculpted and polished as though meaning and sincerity has been quite prohibited.  But most of us do this as well, whether at work, for fear of losing our jobs, or in other public places, for fear of losing friends or positions of trust.  Now, we must be prudent in how we deliver the truth so that we speak it without hope of personal gain or out of a desire to hurt someone, but whether we speak in a whisper or shout from a rooftop, we need to speak the truth, and the truth needs to serve God.

“Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”  The problem here was not the paying of money.  Paying this tax meant an acceptance of Rome’s rule.  The Pharisees certainly grumbled against it, while the Herodians, whose legitimacy depended upon Roman support, supported it.  Ironically, the Pharisees who squirmed under Roman rule and thought of it as standing in the way of a new, restored Kingdom of Israel, would later show their obeisance to it in bringing the Lord Jesus before the Roman procurator Pilate.  Pretended sincerity always comes out in the open.  A lie is a very hard thing to keep alive.

“Show me the coin that pays the census tax.”  Interestingly, Jesus calls for one of them to show him a coin, rather than to have Judas, who held the common purse, give him a coin.  This also shows the hypocrisy of his questioners: if they rejected the Roman tax, they would also reject the Roman coins, Roman currency.  They would not touch it.  “Whose image is this and whose inscription?”  The Lord acts as a teacher of children here.  He begins with the very fundamentals: What is this everyday thing that I have in my hand?  What does it look like?  Where does it come from?  Whose is it?  The mention of the image on it may remind us that the Jews were forbidden by the law from making any “graven image”.  In fact, we do not have depictions of people made by the ancient Israelites.  Statues or other images exist of the great Assyrian and Babylonian kings, of the Egyptian pharaohs, of great and even humble Romans.  But there are no contemporary portraits of Kings David or Solomon, and no portrait of the Lord Jesus made during his lifetime — not even a bit of description of him in the Gospels.  The Lord may have intended to warn the Pharisees of their coming exposure as hypocrites in this way.  At this point they should have taken their cue from the incident involving the woman caught in adultery and suddenly melted away.  They were about to get caught in their own snare: “He has opened a pit and dug it; and he is fallen into the hole he made” (Psalm 7, 15).  

They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”  If Caesar’s image is on the coin, then it is his coin, and rendering it back to him does not morally affect or implicate the giver.  We also think of the Lord saying, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth . . . but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven” (Matthew 6, 19-20).  The possession of money does not advance a person in grace.  Jesus, by treating Caesar’s coin and his image with contempt in this way shows up the Pharisees as those who pay attention to “a person’s status”.  The Lord answers them by saying, How is this even a question for you?  And by telling them to pay “to God what belongs to God”, he implies that they are not doing this.  

We must be men and women of integrity, worthy of respect but uninterested in having it.  And we must also recognize that what we lawfully give to “Caesar” here, that is, to our rulers, pales in comparison with what we should be giving to God.  We have to keep in mind during these days of political acrimony that we cannot subvert what belongs to God by giving it to Caesar.  We cannot vote for politicians supporting abortion, for instance, and think that this is a purely legal matter.  When political or legal opinion conflicts with God’s law, the Christian does not work against God’s law.  The Christian sees that the question posed to Jesus is also posed to us.  Do we give ourselves to Caesar, or to God?

 Saturday in the 28th Week of Ordinary Time, October 17, 2020

The Feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch

As I write this, I am in a cell in the Franciscan Monastery in Irondale, Alabama.  I have had a good retreat and now it is time to go home. 

Luke 12:8-12

Jesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. 

“Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 

“When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”

St. Luke is presenting a session of the Lord’s teaching.  He relies for the Lord’s words on the testimony of witnesses who speak from their memories.  Perhaps that accounts for the form of this speech as a collection of brief teachings that are not necessarily connected.  It is the same case as when a person has attended a class or lecture or read a chapter in a textbook and someone asks about what they remember from it.  The first person will tell what he most easily remembers, and provide a selection of highlights.

The Lord Jesus says, “Everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God.”  The Greek word translated here as “acknowledge” actually means “confess”, “profess”, and even “praise”.  To “acknowledge” someone is to simply state a fact without an opinion or response to the fact: “I knew him”, or, “He is present.”  However, to “confess” or “profess” makes clear that a serious relationship exists: “I believe in him.”  So, Everyone who professes their belief in me before others, the Son of Man will profess an intimate relationship with before the angels of God.  Let us note that this is not simply a matter of believing the Lord, but believing in the Lord.  On the other hand, “But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.”  The Greek word translated here as “deny” can also mean “to repudiate”, that is, to not simply deny, but to contemptuously reject.  “Before men . . . before the angels of God”.  The Lord challenges his hearers and those who would follow him: Whose opinion do they value more?  And the answer cannot be “both”.  And among whose company do they prefer to spend eternity?  With the wicked who sought their rejection of Jesus, or with the mighty angels who serve him?  As for the Lord’d confession and the repudiation, we know what he will say: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25, 34).  And: “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25, 41).

“Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.”  This verse has long baffled even the learned and they have uttered many opinions.  St. Augustine says that the sin of impenitence was the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit because the first fruit of the Holy Spirit in baptism is the forgiveness of sin.  “Impenitence” means a steadfast refusal to repent and to follow the laws of God.  It can be a refusal to reject a sinful way of life or apostasy, which occurs when someone leaves the Faith and refuses to return even on his deathbed.  As a priest, I have seen this in visits to the dying in hospitals.  It is a dreadful thing to witness: an old man or woman who abandoned the Faith years before, then perhaps indulged in depraved activities to their own harm and that of others, and who then waved the priest away with hate in his heart or even with a curse as he or she lies dying, the sound of the respirator droning on beside the bed.  We must pray for ourselves and our loved ones that a steady life of self-indulgence does not lead us to that.

“When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities”.  To this point in St. Luke’s Gospel there has been opposition to the Lord by the Pharisees, but no real persecution of his followers.  This saying may have not made much sense to those who heard it first, though it would have comforted them later when persecution did come from Jerusalem and elsewhere.  This teaching takes up the theme in the earlier verse about confessing belief in Christ.  The Lord Jesus tells those who believe in him as the Son of God not to worry about what defense they shall make for themselves in a hearing or trial.  The Holy Spirit will speak for them then, just as he spoke on their behalf to God when they did not know what to say to him (cf. Romans 8, 26).  We recall here that the Lord Jesus called the Holy Spirit the “Advocate”, one who speaks for another, one who represents another in a legal proceeding (cf. John 14, 26).  Baptized in the Holy Trinity, we are given life and protected by him all our days: the Father, who gives us life and sustains us; the Son, by whose Death we are forgiven and redeemed; and the Holy Spirit who speaks for us in prayer to the Father and defends us in our time of need.

In the verses which make up the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, the Lord speaks openly of what will make for our salvation and our damnation.  It is up to us to take his words personally and to live faithfully, to persevere in the Faith when called to account for it, and to pray for the grace of leaving this world at peace with God.  In this way did St. Ignatius of Antioch live and die, as shown in the brief, inspiring letters he wrote as he was brought to Rome to die in the amphitheater for his belief in the Lord Jesus.

Friday in the 28th Week of Ordinary Time, October 16, 2020

St. Margaret Mary Alocoque 

Luke 12:1-7

Today I met a seminary friend of mine whom I had not seen since those long ago days.  He is a friar here, and it did me much good to spend time with him.  He was — and is — one of the most gentle souls I have ever known.  We talked for hours about old and also recent times.  I have mentioned my admiration for the sisters here who are so much in love with the Lord Jesus.  The friars here are so much in love with him too.  I think I am leaving the retreat house tomorrow afternoon to spend the night at the friar’s house, their friary, which is close to the airport.

At that time, so many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot. Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples, “Beware of the leaven — that is, the hypocrisy — of the Pharisees.  There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops. I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more. I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one. Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.”

“At that time, so many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot.”  When we look at the preaching of the Lord Jesus, we see calls to repentance, dire warnings, a regular drumbeat of threats of hell, difficult and unnerving parables, and confrontations with authorities.  He gives detailed descriptions of the day of judgment, and he demands lived absolutely dedicated to himself in order to survive that day.  Mixed in with his preaching are cures and other miracles.  All things considered, we might well marvel at the crowds that thronged to see and hear him.  Jesus never spoke in the abstract, and so a given person who joined the crowds was likely to be seriously challenged as to his beliefs, his morals, and his actions, even if done in good faith.  Here, St. Luke emphasizes the size of the crowd: “They were trampling one another underfoot.”  This was an immense crowd that had come out of the cities into the wilderness in order to hear him and to endure his words directed at them.  Right away, he takes on the Pharisees, popular among a large segment of the people.  He speaks of their hypocrisy as though this were their primary attribute.

But then, as Luke tells it, the Lord challenges the crowd: “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.”  Now, this is disturbing.  The members of the crowd, and we ourselves, think about the actions and thoughts we hide, and tremble a little, but then we wonder what this means.  “Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops.”  Jesus is peaking of the future.  Two thousand years later, we think to ourselves that Jesus is speaking of the final judgment.  Luke gives no indication that Jesus links this with that last great day.  We think to ourselves that we are safe if this happens only in the distant future.  The Lord is telling us that we will be held accountable for all of our deeds, that all people will be judged for everything they have done or said or even thought.  It is not enough that a person refrains from actively harming another person, but he will be judged even because he hated him and hoped for his harm.  

Jesus repeats in a different way what he has said in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of St. Matthew: “You have heard that it was said to them of old: You shall not kill. And whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5, 21-22).  Jesus thus fulfills this commandment — he shows what “fills” the skeleton of its words.  Similarly, by saying, “There is nothing concealed . . .” the Lord sums up his teachings on the commandments.  The added detail that all of these wicked thoughts and intentions will be revealed — that is, to all people, since God already knows the secrets of our hearts — adds incentive for us to maintain a high level of vigilance so that we do not think them in the first place.  “Thinking them”, let us note, is different from being tempted to have them.  It is when we accept the wicked thoughts and nurse them that we commit sin.

“Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.”  While “Be afraid” is not wrong here, a better, because more direct, translation would be, “Fear”, or, even better, “Be terrified”.  The Greek verb is not the fear that really means “respect”, as in respecting a superior; the noun form of this word is Phobos.  In the Iliad we read of the god Phobos spreading panic during battle.  This is a very real, visceral terror.  The Lord is saying, in essence: Be terrified of the actual possibility that you may be cast into fiery Gehenna.  And be fearful of offending him who can toss you there.  

Next, Luke quotes Jesus as consoling the people: “Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.”  Throughout the Gospels and perhaps most evident in the letters at the beginning of the Book of Revelation, we see a pattern of warnings and promises, of dire threats and of gentle urging.  The Lord so deeply desires us to join him in heaven.  This is the purpose for all the fiery talk he directs at his hearers.  It is not to discourage them, but to rouse them to look and to understand, and to take action on their own behalf even if not for the love of God.  And then here and there, when absolutely necessary, the Lord speaks calmly, almost sweetly, of how much we mean to him.

 

 Thursday in the 28th Week of Ordinary Time, October 15, 202o

Luke 11:47-54

The Lord said: “Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets whom your fathers killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building. Therefore, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and Apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute’ in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood! Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.” When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.

“Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets whom your fathers killed.”  This may be one of the more confusing statements our Lord makes.  When he tells parables, we are able to understand at least part of what he means.  But it seems very strange that he speaks forebodingly of those who build the tombs of the dead, especially of the prophets.  The reason for our perplexity has to do with not understanding how the Jews thought, long ago.  We westerners naturally take for granted that there is only one way to think, and we have it, but that is not so.  Let us simply consider that the Hebrew language is written so that the main verb usually comes at the very head of a sentence and that the subject comes at some point after that.  Very different from our sentences, which tend to begin with the subject!  We ought to wonder how differently people must think whose native language is ancient Hebrew.  Now, the reason Jesus speaks the way he does to the builders of the tombs of the prophets is that these are for the prophets “whom your fathers killed.”  In ancient times, and very much so in the Ancient Near East, you were your ancestors.  In fact, because one’s forefathers came before, they were greater than you.  A person might live long afterwards but he was responsible for the deeds of his forebears as though he had committed them himself, for good or ill.  That was how covenants worked.  Was a person then doomed by the fact of his ancestry?  No, in that he could repent from whatever sins his ancestors had committed, and act in ways that made clear they were not the children of their sinful predecessors.  

So, what would Jesus have these people do, resolve not to build the tombs of the prophets?  We should consider that the prophets had been buried a long time before, by their families or followers.  What the Jews of the Lord’s time were doing was to rebury the bones of the prophets in new tombs, or, at the least, to erect monuments over the existing graves, as people might do to honor soldiers killed during a war after that war is over.  But these Jews do not have the right to do this — it belongs to the family members of the prophet to do so if they wish.  And who are these builders of monuments?  Not members of the family, but the descendants of the ones who killed them in the first place.  Jesus points out that by erecting monuments like this, they show themselves to be the descendants of the murderers.  They seem to take glory in their killing by the very fact that they are taking over the relics of those whom their ancestors killed.  What they should do instead is to read the words of those prophets, heed them, and then fast and pray.  Instead, they try to act as though they themselves — particularly the Pharisees — are the descendants of the prophets who alone can rightly interpret their words.  

The Lord insists, “Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!”  Now, we can think to ourselves that the Lord’s words pertained to the Jews of his time, but the Hebrew word for “generation” does not necessarily mean the traditional forty year period.  It could also mean, more generally, an “age” or “epoch” — some period of time with a marked beginning and ending.  Since we are living in the last days, as Christ and the Apostles repeatedly tell us, we can consider that the Lord Jesus is also speaking to all of us living since he came to the earth.  We “build the memorials” of the prophets when we fail to heed their message of repentance and preparation.  Furthermore, we think that if we had been living in the Lord’s day, we would have followed him faithfully.  But let us be honest.  How faithful are we to him now?  We have his words in the Gospels, the testimonies of the Apostles, the teaching of the Church, the illumination provided by the lives of the saints.  We have the Sacrifice of the Mass which perpetuates the effects of our redemption, his Real Presence on our altars and in our tabernacles.  And we do not have to look hard to see his miracles in our lives.  By our acts of faithlessness, by our sins and rebelliousness, we as good as adopt as our ancestors those who put the Lord on the Cross with their own hands.

So let us reject the ways of our “ancestors” and make our ways those of the Lord Jesus, and we will not hear his “Woe!” directed at us when he comes in his glory.

 Wednesday in the 28th Week of Ordinary Time, October 14, 2020

Galatians 5:18-25

If you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.

The chapels here are so lovely.  Their solemn beauty and dignity raise up the heart and make it hard not to worship God.  Many of the churches in my diocese were built at a time when the zeitgeist was “relevance”.  Priests and religious sisters cast aside the clothing that made them distinct and that reminded themselves of their distinctness.  The idea was to blend into the crowd, to become one of the sheep.  But then the priest or religious sister loses the very thing which people need: a vivid reminder of Christ’s presence.  This misguided pursuit of “relevance” very much affected church architecture during the late 1960’s through the 1980’s.  According to the prevailing notion at the time, churches needed to fit in with other public buildings such as community centers and municipal offices, again, in order to “become one of the sheep”.  But a church, particularly a Catholic church, has as its purpose the worship of God.  Any other building has as its purpose the service of man.  A church, in order to fulfill its purpose, must have a distinctive appearance that draws people to it.  A saint draws people to God by his or her holy deeds.  A church draws people to God through its beauty.  Clarity and symmetry provide the foundation for this beauty, and point the way to Almighty God.  (In yesterday’s reflection I mentioned the distinctive “look” cultivated by the Pharisees.  The priest and the religious dress in a particular not to attract attention to themselves but to God.)

This is also true in the moral life.  We must know what actions constitute vices and what are reckoned as virtues.  Avoiding wicked actions and engaging in virtuous ones have the effect of pointing to a transcendent purpose or cause for the behavior.  Virtue confronts the non virtuous with the question, Why?  Why be honest when dishonesty is easier, or when it would more certainly achieve a stated goal?  Why act chastely when no one else does?  Why not exercise your authority gratuitously, since doing so makes us feel powerful?

St. Paul calls such things “works of the flesh”, that is, actions which do not aid the progress of the soul on its road to perfection and salvation.  Works of the flesh provide, perhaps, momentary excitement, but leave people sad, restless, and broken.  Paul lists the major ones for these new Christians to know, although he calls them “obvious”: “immorality”, that is, fornication, according to the Greek; “impurity”, of a sexual kind, which we can infer from the word’s place in the list; “licentiousness” or “lewdness”; “idolatry”, dedication to anything that is not God; “sorcery” or “witchcraft”; “hatred”; “rivalry”; “jealousy”; “outbursts of fury”; “acts of selfishness”, or “ambition”, according to the Greek; “dissensions”, that is, challenging Church teaching; “factions”, or, “a self-chosen opinion”, according to the Greek;  “envy”, or “holding a grudge”, according to the Greek; drinking bouts”, or, simply, “drunkenness”; and “orgies”, which is “reveling”, in the Greek.

To these, St. Paul opposes “the fruit of the Spirit”: “love”; “joy”; “peace”, that is, of mind; “patience”; “kindness”; “generosity”; “faithfulness”; “gentleness”, “self-control”, or “self-mastery”.  These lead to a happiness here on earth which is not dependent upon our present circumstances, and to a joy in heaven which no one will be able to take away.  St, Paul adds to this, “Against such there is no law”, which may make us think of a line attributed to St. Augustine: “Love, and do what you will.”  The meaning here is that these fruits of the Spirit go beyond any earthly law and cannot be enforced, or prohibited by it.  They belong to a kingdom not of this world and are possessed by the citizens of this kingdom.

Now, many people strive to overcome their habitual vices by fighting against them, and this can work for some.  Others concentrate on living the virtues.  For example, a person fighting lust can avoid anything suggestive and engage in social activities or hobbies that absorb his or her attention.  Or, a person could strive to live chastely, that is, not so much fighting against an urge, but looking at the world each day as a new chance to serve and to do good.  Both methods require strength, foresight, and perseverance, but one may be better suited for one person than another.  They can also be utilized consecutively, building up strength against the vice, and then living not so much in an anti-lust mode, but in a chaste mode, as it were.

Incidentally, the first sentence of this reading should be separated with a paragraph break  from what follows, as it pertains to the previous subject under discussion, the question of whether circumcision would profit the Gentile Christians of Galatia (to which St. Paul vigorously answers No).

Tuesday in the 28th Week of Ordinary Time, October 13, 2020

Luke 11:37-41

After Jesus had spoken, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home. He entered and reclined at table to eat. The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal. The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside? But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.”

While I was making a holy hour in the gorgeous Blessed Sacrament Chapel here, at three o’clock, the sisters sang their mid afternoon office.  Their chapel is on the other side of a wall so they cannot he seen, but they can be heard.  I listened to them chanting their love song to God.  Old and young chant together the ancient psalms, having abandoned everything for the sake of the only One who matters.

In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, St. Luke recounts how a Pharisee invited Jesus to dine at his house.  We might remember how on one such occasion the Pharisee did not provide the normal amenities for the Lord, anointing his head, having his feet washed, and so, but that is not the case here.  After Jesus has been properly welcomed and it is time to dine, water and bowls and towels are provided the guests to wash in.  But Jesus declines this, and “the Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.”  To understand this, we have to remember that the Pharisees had their own customs, and over time they had confused their customs with the Jewish Law so that they seemed one and the same.  The custom of washing is prescribed for the temple or the tent where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, and this was done by the priests.  The Pharisees interpreted the Law in their own way so that this was to be done households as well.  Jesus clearly wants to teach the Pharisee that this washing is not of the Mosaic Law: it is a mere “human precept”.  

The Lord also takes advantage of the situation to teach a more personal lesson: “oh you Pharisees!  Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil.”  This “plunder and evil” is insisting that all the Jews must adopt their interpretation of the Law in order to be “true” Jews.  “You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?”  That is to say, of course a potter would have made the whole vessel.  It would be impossible to only make the outside and not make an inside to it.  Here, we have to keep in mind that this washing is ceremonial — it has nothing to do with hygiene.  Why, then, Jesus is asking, do you only cleanse the outside? Why not cleanse the inside as well?  Or, why bother cleansing the vessel at all?  Of course, Jesus is also speaking of how the Pharisees cultivated a certain “look”, a certain appearance or style: “They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge their fringes” (Matthew 23, 5).  At the same time, by insisting on others going by their unsupported understanding of the Law “they bind heavy and insupportable burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders” (Matthew 23, 4).

The Pharisees made their mistake because it is an easy mistake to make.  We Christians need to know what the Church actually teaches, what the Bible truly says, and not to substitute our own ideas for them instead.  And we ought not to decorate ourselves fancily, to deliberately draw attention to ourselves by what we wear or how we speak.  Rather, like the Lord, people should say about us, “there was no comeliness, that we should be desirous of him” (Isaiah 53, 2).  But let our kindness and generosity, such rare traits these days, win people over.