Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time [II]
I Kings 21:1-16  +  Matthew 5:38-42
June 15, 2020

“Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back ….”

As we continue to hear Our Lord preach the Sermon on the Mount, it is striking how practical and down to earth His words are.  He does not speak fluff:  the sort of words that we hear from so many teachers of the spiritual life.  He gives very practical advice about how to treat others.  In doing so, Our Lord is drawing us into a deeper relationship with the Father.

Our Lord slowly tries to teach us how intimately related are the commands to love God and neighbor.  It is in Christ Jesus that the divine Word of God is made flesh.  It is in Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross—the sacrifice of the altar—that we share sacramentally in Christ’s life, in order that we might share morally in His life by loving both God and neighbor fully.

However, we must be honest with ourselves, and be mindful that we are hardly advancing in the spiritual life if repentance is the largest part of our prayer.  Our penance merely disposes us to be God’s servants rather than His rivals.  When we consider the words of Christ in today’s Gospel passage, we see how completely we are to give of ourselves to others.

If our own spiritual houses are in order, how devoted are we to helping others build theirs?  How willing are we to be patient with others, with those who cannot be patient in their own prayer?  How will others learn the need for patience if not by seeing our example?  How willing are we to accept insults in silence and pray for the one who insults?  How will others learn the need for forbearance if not by seeing our example?  As we share in the sacrifice of the altar, may Almighty God help us see in our daily lives who it is in most need of a Christian witness.  Then, may Almighty God strengthen us through the Body and Blood of Christ to be the one to offer that witness.

Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Matthew 5:33-37

“Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’”

Saturday is the day of the week dedicated to Our Blessed Mother Mary.  We ought, each Saturday morning or afternoon, spend time in devotion to her.  One way to foster such devotion is to reflect on the Scriptures from that morning’s Mass in light of Mary’s life and vocation.

In today’s Gospel passage Jesus continues His Sermon on the Mount.  We could listen to the entire sermon picturing Our Lady, reflecting upon how she fulfills in her life and vocation everything Jesus is saying.

By way of example, consider Jesus’ fulfillment of this command of the Law:  “Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow.”  Immediately there comes to mind the scene of the Annunciation, and the words that Our Blessed Mother spoke:  “I am the maidservant of the Lord.  Let it be done unto me according to your Word.”

As Jesus offers His teaching in today’s Gospel passage about how disciples need to be faithful to their word, we can see in Our Lady the fulfillment of the Law.  We see in Mary that being faithful to one’s word means being faithful to the Word who became Flesh for us, and who offers us that Gift in the Sacrifice of the Mass.

Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time [II]
I Kings 19:9,11-16  +  Matthew 5:27-32
June 12, 2020

“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.’”

Jesus continues in today’s Gospel passage to give examples of the Law being fulfilled.  Today’s two examples are about adultery and divorce.  While both examples concern human sexuality, Jesus’ teachings about these two grave sins take different approaches.

Regarding adultery, in order to show the fulfillment of God’s Law Jesus takes us within the human person.  Jesus teaches us that not only outward actions can condemn.  So also can inner actions of the mind and heart.

Regarding divorce, Jesus reverses Moses’ allowance of this practice.  Not only does Jesus not permit divorce.  He also clarifies that when a divorced person enters another relationship, adultery is the result.

Undoubtedly, both of Jesus’ examples in today’s Gospel passage seem to make following Jesus more difficult than following the letter of the Law.  In our own day, there are some who find the Church’s consistent teaching that the divorced and remarried may not receive Holy Communion too difficult.  Yet in the midst of all such perceived difficulties, Jesus sets us on the right road to healing from our sins and the many negative effects of our sins.  For our part, we need to turn around and begin travelling in the right direction.

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ [A]
Deuteronomy 8:2-3,14-16  +  1 Corinthians 10:16-17  +  Sequence + John 6:51-58

“… unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you do not have life within you.”

references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church cited for this Solemnity by the Vatican’s Homiletic Directory:

CCC 790, 1003, 1322-1419: the Holy Eucharist
CCC 805, 950, 2181-2182, 2637, 2845: the Eucharist and the communion of believers
CCC 1212, 1275, 1436, 2837: the Eucharist as spiritual food

There is a certain fittingness or aptness to God redeeming mankind through the Incarnation and death of God the Son.  St. Paul points out to the Romans that “just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one man the many will be made righteous.”  God is, if you will, into fittingness, aptness, and order, so it’s no surprise that the Father would choose to redeem mankind by the death of His Son made Flesh, rather than by, say, metaphorically snapping His fingers.  But He was not limited to redeeming mankind by the death of the Son of God.  The Father could have used any means He wished to redeem mankind.

Yet the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist reveals to us another reason why the Father chose the death of Jesus as the means of man’s redemption.  This reason is the most loving reason possible, though at first glance it might not appear so.  Being human, you may recoil from God loving you this much.  God chose the death of Jesus as the means of man’s redemption so that you in turn could enter fully into the saving mysteries of Christ.

By way of contrast, imagine that God had chosen to purchase man’s salvation at a different price.  Imagine that God had set the price of mankind’s salvation at ten billion galaxies.  Or imagine that God metaphorically snapped His fingers to release mankind from the bonds of sin and death.  Or imagine that God purchased man’s salvation at the price of every drop of water in all the oceans and seas of the earth.  Where would that leave you (besides awfully thirsty)?  It would leave you free.  It would leave you redeemed.  But it would not leave you with the ability to imitate your merciful Father.  It would leave you as an adopted son or daughter of a God into whose likeness you could not grow.

Can you offer ten billion galaxies to God?  Can you destroy death with the snap of your fingers?  Can you collect every drop of water in every ocean and sea on earth?  You cannot, because all of those actions are beyond the capacity of being human.  But every human being can die.

Death is our means of entrance into the saving mysteries of Christ.  What could be simpler?  This is why at Holy Mass we profess the mystery of faith by chanting:  “When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.”  This is why Jesus, at His Last Supper, willed to institute the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the way to Calvary:  so that there, accepting the Body and Blood of the Lord, we might have the strength to die to our selves:  our fallen selves, so as to discover our true selves.

This is not easy to do.  It may be simple, but it’s not easy.  Those who work in health care may have perhaps seen a person on his death bed who dies not from his disease, but from exhaustion:  who expends all his energy not in living his life, but in struggling against inevitable death.  Sin occupies in our moral and spiritual life much of the same struggle.  We don’t want to die.

This is why Holy Mother Church compels each of her children under pain of mortal sin to participate in Holy Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation.  By faithfully receiving the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, we receive Jesus’ life, which gives us the strength to die:  to accept death as the means to true life, or in the words of the Prayer of St. Francis, to believe truly that it is in “dying that we are born to eternal life.”

This death is a daily walk for the Christian disciple.  Julius Caesar said (in the words that Shakespeare put on his lips), “Cowards die many times before their deaths.  /  The valiant never taste of death but once” [Julius Caesar II, 2].  But Julius Caesar, of course, was a pagan who met a gruesome death that befit a life filled with vices.  The Christian who follows Jesus faithfully dies not only many times, but every day.  It is this daily death, expressed within our vocation and our sacrifice of time and talent to our neighbor, that gives us hope for the hour of our death, and allows us to embrace that hour in peace.  The strength to walk the Way of Christian discipleship—the Way of love that leads to eternal Love—flows through this Most Blessed Sacrament.

St. Barnabas, Apostle
Acts 11:21-26;13:1-3  +  Matthew 5:20-26
June 11, 2020

“But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment ….”

In yesterday’s Gospel passage, Our Lord stated that He had come not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.  Beginning today, in the Gospel at weekday Mass we hear examples of Jesus fulfilling the Law.

Jesus uses a phrase today that He repeats several times throughout the fifth chapter of Matthew.  The phrase “You have heard that it was said…” signals that Jesus wants to present a contrast to us.  First, Jesus presents a basic teaching that comes from the Jewish Law:  for example, in today’s Gospel passage, “You have heard that it was said… ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’”

Then, Jesus explains how such a teaching of the Law is to be fulfilled.  He declares today:  “But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment….”  The rest of today’s Gospel passage is Jesus’ unpacking of His new teaching, which again, is the fulfillment of an ancient teaching from the Law.

Today, then, we strive to reflect on Jesus’ specific example of anger.  What is the means by which Jesus teaches His disciples to enter into the fulfillment of this teaching?  The means is reconciliation.  Jesus, in the examples He cites, gives two commands:  “go first and be reconciled with your brother”, and “Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him.”  Meditate, then, on reconciliation with your neighbor as a form of love of neighbor, and thus as a means to the love of God.

St. Barnabas Healing the Sick (click HERE)

Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time [II]
I Kings 18:20-39  +  Matthew 5:17-19
June 10, 2020

“I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”

This week we’ve begun to hear Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, from the fifth chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel account.  After the Beatitudes (in Monday’s Gospel) and the similes of the disciples as salt and light (in yesterday’s Gospel), Jesus today sets the framework for the teachings He’s about to offer the disciples.  We could sum up this framework with these words:  “I have come not to abolish [the Law] but to fulfill.” 

Having said that, in the rest of today’s Gospel passage He strictly directs His disciples to integrity in their lives.  There must be integrity between, as we would put it today, what they practice and what they preach.  With this demand Jesus issues a warning and promise:  “whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven”, while “whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”

Every Christian is, by virtue of baptism, called to be a teacher.  We remember St. Francis’ admonition to “preach always, and if necessary, use words.”  As each of us makes our nightly examination of conscience, we look for the integrity Jesus has asked of us, in what we’ve taught others by our actions and words.

Tuesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time [II]
I Kings 17:7-16  +  Matthew 5:13-16
June 9, 2020

“But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?”

Yesterday at weekday Mass we began hearing from the Sermon on the Mount, which is found in the fifth through seventh chapters of the Gospel account of Saint Matthew (5:3—7:27).  In today’s passage from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls His disciples “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world”.  Either of these could serve you as the basis for a long period of meditation.  But consider just one aspect of what Jesus sets before you today.

Salt has long been used as a preservative of food.  So one might be tempted to consider Jesus’ image of “the salt of the earth” as meaning that Christians are called to preserve life.  In other words, Christians are called to preserve what we already have.  But the following words of Jesus suggest something further.

Jesus speaks of salt in terms of its taste, as a seasoning.  As most of us know, salt isn’t meant to be tasted by itself.  Most of us would be repulsed by even the idea of putting a spoonful of salt in our mouths.  But it’s common to sprinkle salt liberally on one’s food in order to bring out the taste within the food.

Here we can reflect on Jesus’ image in terms of our own discipleship.  If Jesus’ disciples are “the salt of the earth”, Jesus is paying a compliment to “the earth”.  There is value—taste—in the world because it was created by God.  Even though the world that we live in is full of sin, our role as disciples involves bringing out what is good in God’s creation—cultivating that good—so that it might be elevated by God’s supernatural grace.

Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time [II]
I Kings 17:1-6  +  Matthew 5:1-12
June 8, 2020

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Beginning today and for many days to come, we hear at weekday Mass from the Sermon on the Mount.  This sermon is one of the chief features of St. Matthew the Evangelist’s Gospel account.  As such, the sermon illustrates Matthew’s portrait of Jesus:  Jesus as the living fulfillment of Moses.

Moses was the prophet who led God’s People to an earthly salvation in the Old Testament:  from physical slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.  But Jesus effects salvation in an infinitely more profound way.  So while many features of Jesus’ life and ministry echo the role of Moses, at the same time there are discrepancies between the two of them which point out how Jesus fulfills what Moses could only foreshadow.

Note in today’s Gospel passage two points of the evangelist’s “setting the stage” for the Sermon on the Mount.  First, Jesus “went up the mountain”.  This act is reminiscent of Moses ascending Mount Sinai to receive the Law from God.  However, where Moses must receive the Word of God before teaching it to the people, Jesus is the Word of God!  Jesus teaches “from the heart” of His divinity.

Second, note that “after He had sat down, His disciples came to Him.”  The fact that Jesus sits down points out that Jesus is a teacher.  In ancient cultures—contrary to our American experience—a teacher would sit while the students would stand.

More significant, though, is that “His disciples came to Him.”  Moses had to descend the mountain in order to share with the people the Word he had received from God.  Later, God declared that if anyone should even touch the mountain that he must die.  Then when Moses descended to teach the people, he found that they were worshiping an idol!

But Jesus invites His disciples to join Him up on the mountain.  This contrast to Moses suggests that Jesus will teach in His great sermon something profoundly interior.  He wants His disciples to join Him on the mountain, symbolizing that He is inviting them to climb:  that is, to transcend everything that is of the earth.  So Jesus invites us today to ascend to the Word of God, and through His words, closer to the heart of the Father’s divine life.

Saturday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time [II]
2 Timothy 4:1-8  +  Mark 12:38-44
June 6, 2020

“… but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”

We live in a society where values contrary to the Gospel are canonized.  A person’s value is measured in economic terms.  The poor are shunned as worthless.

God has a different set of values from those of our society.  When Jesus saw the wealthy putting large amounts of money into the collection box of the Temple, He was not impressed.  It was not as if the wealthy should not have given large sums, but Jesus was looking for something else.  He saw that something else in the poor widow who donated only two small copper coins.  He explains to us what He saw:  “[The wealthy] have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”

It was the generosity of the widow that mattered, not the amount that she gave.  We are called to be generous people, unselfish in all our relationships with others.  God does not value us for giving our money; or, for that matter, for giving our time and talent.  God values us for the generosity from which our giving flows.  Generosity flows from the love that we receive in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.