Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time [II]
Ezekiel 1:2-5,24-28  +  Matthew 17:22-27
August 13, 2018

“Give that to them for me and for you.”

When Jesus walked this earth—Jesus, the one whose life and ministry fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament—there were three ways in which He spoke and acted as a prophet.  Through these three, He teaches us not only how to be His disciples, but also how to teach in His name.

The sort of grand spectacle that we hear in Ezekiel today was fulfilled by Jesus through the miracles He worked, and also by His Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, when He shone in glory before three of His disciples.  But as impressive as that was, spectacle was not the norm for Jesus.

Though many like to pretend otherwise, Jesus also preached “fire and brimstone” when the occasion called for it.  This second way of being a prophet, of course, is one of the reasons that Jesus was led to the Cross.

The third way in which Jesus acted as a prophet is a kind which is very rare in the Old Testament.  But it is uncommonly common in the life of Jesus.  In the life of one of His saints—St. Thérèse the Little Flower—it was called the “Little Way”.  It is a way of simplicity and humbleness that goes overlooked by those looking for spectacles.  It is a way that is ignored by those who are looking out for themselves, instead of others:  by those who justify their actions by claiming that they’re just doing what everyone else is doing, walking down the broad path, instead of trying to walk the narrow way that following Jesus demands.

The simplicity and humbleness of Jesus in today’s Gospel is a very good meditation for those setting out again to begin a new school year.  Jesus is not obligated to pay the tax that is demanded of Peter, but Jesus explains—“that we may not offend them”—that He will pay the tax anyhow.

The miracle by which Jesus accomplishes this almost goes unnoticed, because it’s not the point.  Jesus’ point is to teach by humility, to teach by doing that which is not necessary, but which can lead others to see the Little Way.  This is the way that, after a long journey through a life of service in this world, leads to the vision of eternal life with God and His saints.

The Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time [B]
I Kgs 19:4-8  +  Eph 4:30—5:2  +  Jn 6:41-51
August 12, 2018

“…the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

The past two Sundays’ Gospel passages came from John 6.  In both passages “signs” are mentioned.  There were the signs that Jesus performed in miraculously healing the sick, and the sign of the Multiplication of the Loaves.  But there was a problem with Jesus’ miraculous signs:  no one understood what these signs were meant to signify.  It’s true, the crowds literally saw the signs themselves.  But they did not see their purpose.  They saw the “what”, but not the “why”.

Because they misunderstood why Jesus had multiplied the loaves, “the people… were going to come and carry Him off to make Him king.”  However, Jesus understood that these people wanted to do the right thing for the wrong reason, and so “He withdrew again to the mountain alone.”

However, these people were stubborn.  They went “looking for Jesus”, and “when they found Him”, “Jesus answered… ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.’”  Jesus wanted to be their king.  But Jesus was thinking “Christ the King”, while the crowds were thinking “Burger King”.  Jesus was thinking about souls.  The crowds were thinking about stomachs.

The crowds did see that this man could make their lives on earth more comfortable.  But they did not see that He worked these signs in order to show them who He truly was.  The signs weren’t about them.  They were about Him and His identity.

This Sunday the Church proclaims Jesus’ own answer to the question of who He is.  His answer will unfold further in the next two Sundays’ Gospel passages.

Within today’s passage, in the span of just four verses, Jesus gives us three answers, each a variation on the other.  In each, Jesus describes himself in terms of bread and life.  Jesus declares, “I am the Bread of Life.”  Then He describes Himself as “the bread that comes down from Heaven so that one may eat it and not die.”  Then Jesus calls Himself “the living bread”.  In all three of these answers, Jesus tells us that He is a bread that gives life.

“Life” is what Jesus is as God, in His divine nature.  “Bread” is what Jesus is for us, in His human nature.  It’s through Jesus’ human nature that He shows us His divine love for us, and allows us to share in His divine nature.

In all this, Jesus has been preparing the crowds for His final words in this passage:  “the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”  With these words Jesus elevates His use of signs.  He goes beyond metaphorical talk about bread and life to discuss the historical offering—on Good Friday—and the sacramental offering—at Holy Mass—of His Flesh as life-giving bread.

Jesus speaks here today, and the next two Sundays, of a sign that will be a sacrament.  A sacrament not only signifies, but also manifests and make truly present what it signifies.  Christ is speaking to us about the Holy Eucharist when He proclaims:  “the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

St. Clare, Virgin
Habakkuk 1:12—2:4  +  Matthew 17:14-20
August 11, 2018

Why, then, do you gaze on the faithless in silence while the wicked man devours one more just than himself?

Before we begin next Monday a two-week period of listening to the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, we hear today—on this day that we dedicate to Our Blessed Mother Mary—from the minor prophet Habakkuk.  The Book of the Prophet Habakkuk is only three chapters long, which is less than three pages of most bibles.

The prophet Habakkuk is very unusual among the people of the Bible.  The first two chapters of his prophecy record how Habakkuk questioned God:  for God’s ways of governing the world, and for allowing Judah’s enemies to prey upon Judah.  The prophet questions God by asking:  “Are you not from eternity, O LORD….?  Why, then, do you gaze on the faithless in silence while the wicked man devours one who is more just than himself?”  Habakkuk asks the questions to God that many are unwilling to ask, believing that it’s sinful to even talk to God, much less ask Him questions.

How much more is Our Mother Mary a model for us:  a model of faith, first and foremost, but a model of being honest with God, and pouring our questions and weaknesses.

St. Lawrence, Deacon & Martyr
2 Corinthians 9:6-10  +  John 12:24-26
August 10, 2018

“…whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”

In the year of Our Lord 258, Saint Lawrence offered the wealth of the Church to those who had nothing of their own.  Lawrence was the chief deacon—that is, the arch-deacon—of the Diocese of Rome.  It’s the responsibility of a deacon to proclaim the Word of God, to look after the material goods of the Church, and to care for the poor.  So as the chief deacon of a diocese as large as Rome, Lawrence held a great deal of responsibility.

He was called to act upon all these roles one day when Pope Sixtus II was put under civil arrest (Christianity still being an illegal religion).  Not long after, the pope was martyred, and Lawrence knew that he would be one of the next Christians the Empire would come after.  So Lawrence sought out the poor, widows, and orphans of Rome, and gave them all the money he held, selling even the sacred vessels of the Church.

The civil prefect of Rome called Lawrence before him and demanded that he produce the treasure of the Church.  Lawrence then gathered together the blind and the lame, the leprous, the widows and orphans, and lined them up before the prefect’s villa.  When the prefect arrived, Lawrence simply said, “Here is the treasure of the Church.”  The prefect not only did not understand Lawrence’s words.  He did not understand Lawrence spending his life in the service of such deplorable people.  It’s unlikely, in fact, that the prefect cared, since four days after the death of the pope, Lawrence was martyred as well, on the tenth of August.

Saint Lawrence understood that the true wealth of the Church lays in the manner in which our lives touch the lives of others.  In our own lives as Christians, one of the most important challenges we face is to realize to what extent—both for good and evil—our lives are connected to the lives of others.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin & Martyr
Jeremiah 31:31-34  +  Matthew 16:13-23
August 9, 2018

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Today’s Gospel passage is well-known for revealing Jesus’ intention of founding His Church on the rock of faith, personified both in the individual Simon Peter, and in the office of the papacy.  What sometimes is overlooked is what immediately follows.  These latter verses also reveal something important about the Church, the office of the papacy, and the men who hold that office.

When Jesus “began to show His disciples that He must” suffer and be killed, the newly appointed Peter begins to “rebuke” Jesus!  The word “rebuke” is not a soft one.  But Jesus immediately and forcefully corrects Peter, revealing to us that Peter’s office is not subject to the personal concerns, insights or doubts of him who holds the office.  Nor is the officeholder of the papacy unable to err.

Peter’s error here reverses the profession of faith after which Jesus named him “Peter”.  Jesus praised Peter’s confession of faith, pointing out to him that “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father”.  Contrast these words with what Jesus says following Peter’s scandalous rebuke:  “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do”.

This contrast between the divine and the human is juxtaposed by Peter’s confession of Jesus and his rebuke of Jesus.  Peter’s confession is of Jesus’ divinity, but his rebuke is based on refusing to accept Jesus’ humanity as the means of His mission.  Each of us needs to accept Jesus’ mission of offering His Body and Blood on the Cross.  Through this mission, Jesus will fully share divine life with those of us who place their faith in Him.

St. Dominic, Priest
Jeremiah 31:1-7  +  Matthew 15:21-28
August 8, 2018

“Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

When the Israelites entered the Promised Land after the Exodus, they met up with the Canaanites.  The Israelites considered them to be wicked and godless, a race of people that they should exterminate.  This outlook persisted until the time of Jesus.  In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus explains that this outlook cannot be held by His followers.

The woman in the Gospel passage is a Canaanite.  She had enough faith in Jesus to ask Him to release her daughter from a demon.  But then Jesus says a shocking thing to the woman:  “It is not right to take the food of the sons and daughters and throw it to the dogs.”  These words do not represent Jesus’ own thoughts, but we see—because of the response that Jesus draws out of the woman, and because of Jesus’ action in reply—the lesson that Jesus has for His followers.

In our culture today, we can apply Jesus’ teaching to the way that many today are tempted to treat those from areas where terrorists dwell.  Jesus says to us, “Love is not exclusively for those who are dear to us.”  Jesus teaches that we must love those we may consider enemies, and pray for those who persecute us.

Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time [II]
Jeremiah 30:1-2,12-15,18-22  +  Matthew 14:22-36
August 7, 2018

Those who were in the boat did Him homage, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”

Very unusually, on this weekday in Ordinary Time the Church provides two options for the Gospel passage.  The following reflection is based upon the former option (noted above).  The latter option is Matthew 15:1-2,10-14.

The Church bears a rich treasury of interpretation of Sacred Scripture.  By that I don’t simply mean that the Church has accumulated many different, though equally insightful, interpretations of Scripture from the writings of her many members (although that’s true).

The Church’s treasury of Scripture interpretation is based upon a four-fold view of the Holy Bible.  The first view of the Bible looks at the literal meaning of a Scripture passage. In the case of today’s Gospel passage, for example, the literal meaning of the passage is an historical event involving Jesus interacting with His disciples, and miraculously walking on water.  One could make a long and spiritually fruitful meditation solely about the literal meaning of this passage.

However, the other three views of Scripture consider different “spiritual senses” of a given passage.  That doesn’t mean, of course, that the literal meaning doesn’t deal with spiritual matters.  But the three spiritual senses of Scripture relate the literal meaning to a broader meaning that the passage doesn’t directly touch upon.

For example, at the end of today’s Gospel passage, those who were in the boat did Jesus homage, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”  Above and beyond the literal meaning of this event, one can “see” the boatful of disciples confessing the divinity of Jesus as symbolizing the Church Militant (that is, the Church on earth).  Around this basic symbol are several complementary symbols:  for example, the water on which the boat rests, and the weather surrounding the boat, as the turbulent world in which the Church Militant lives.  Then again, the confession of faith is a symbol of the Sacred Liturgy of the Church, which receives Jesus into the Church’s “boat” in the sense of the faithful receiving God’s Word and His Word made Flesh.

It is easier to ponder the literal sense of Scripture than the three spiritual senses.  But with the guidance of the Church’s saints, the spiritual senses invite us into great theological riches.

The Transfiguration of the Lord [B]
Dan 7:9-10,13-14  +  2 Pt 1:16-19  +  Mk 9:2-10
August 6, 2018

We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.

In today’s account of the Transfiguration, we have a miniature of the entire Gospel and a miniature of the way that God has always made His Divine Revelation known.  God, like any loving parent, wants us to share in His love.  But at the same time He wants us to enter into that love as freely as possible.  In other words, God wants us to come to Him of our own accord, because the more freely we come to Him, the more we grow in His love.

But as a loving parent, God knows we are often weak and need His help.  God gave us an intellect by which we could of our own power reason that God exists, that He loves us, and that He wants us to imitate that love.  God also gave us a free will by which to imitate Him.  Our human intellect and will are often very weak, however, and so God constantly gives us signs of His presence, in order to remind us of Who God is and how much He loves us.

God did not have to inspire the human authors of Scriptures, but He did so in order to give us a record of His love.  God did not have to choose twelve men to be his apostles, in order to share the Sacraments of His love, but He did so to strengthen us in this earthly life of ours, because we face so many setbacks, failures, and disappointments.  God the Son was transfigured before the eyes of these three apostles not simply so that they could say, “How good it is for us to be here.”

The Transfiguration occurred so that the apostles would hear the voice of God the Father:  “This is my beloved Son.  Listen to Him.”  They do listen to Him.  What is it that He chooses to state next?  Coming down the mountain, Jesus points the apostles’ attention ahead to the Cross, to His death.

As we share in the Eucharist—the offering of Christ’s self-sacrifice on the Cross—God our loving Father nourishes us with the life of His Son.  Here is a further transfiguration:  the death of Jesus on the Cross into the Resurrected Lord, so that the giving of our lives might mean the receiving of God’s life.

The Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time [B]
Ex 16:2-4,12-15  +  Eph 4:17,20-24  +  Jn 6:24-35
August 5, 2018

“I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Any Scripture passage that you pray over will echo many others in Sacred Scripture.  Take Jesus’ statement in today’s Gospel passage:  “I am the Bread of Life”.  Open your mind to the whole of Sacred Scripture.

Every passage in Scripture where “bread” is spoken about, or “life” is spoken about, relates to these words of Jesus.  There are hundreds of such examples in the Bible.  But start simply within the same book and chapter of the Bible from which this sentence comes, and then move outwards, like the ripples in a pond after a stone falls down into its center.

Saint John the Evangelist refers to “bread” not only in John 6.  Like the other three evangelists, he precedes his account of Jesus’ Death with an account of the Last Supper.  It’s not a coincidence that at the beginning of John 6—which we heard last Sunday—the evangelist notes that “The Jewish feast of Passover was near” [John 6:4].  Jesus chose this sacred time of the year to teach His disciples that He is “the Bread of Life”.  In a later year of Jesus’ life, He chose this sacred time again in order to institute the Sacrament of the Eucharist.  St. John wants those listening to his Gospel account to reflect on how everything Jesus says in Chapter Six strikes a chord with Jesus’ teaching at the Last Supper.

What Jesus prays to the Father in John 17 flows from what Jesus had taught in John 6.  Praying to the Father at the Last Supper about you and all His other disciples, Jesus says, “I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me” [John 17:22-23].  This is the end goal.

But then, remember the ripples in the pond.  Move outwards.  Consider the other three Gospel accounts, the other books in the New Testament, and then the books of the Old Testament.  Many Old Testament events relate to Jesus proclaiming, “I am the Bread of Life.”  The most powerful come from the Book of Exodus, and relate to Israel’s Passover from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land.

Today’s First Reading is from Chapter 16 of Exodus.  The Israelites are only one month past their escape from slavery in Egypt.  But to them, there seems to be no end to their wandering.  They begin to tell themselves that they were better off as slaves in Egypt, complaining to Moses and Aaron:  “Would that we had died… in the land of Egypt, as we… ate our fill of bread!”

However, in response to their ingratitude, the Lord not only does not punish them.  The Lord mercifully says, “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.  Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion”:  that is, their “daily bread”.  What the Lord begins that day to give them is a bread to satisfy physical hunger.  But He is clearly working something deeper at the same time.

This “daily bread” is meant to give the Israelites hope.  Yet though the Lord gives this bread to the Israelites daily for almost forty years, He does not do so perpetually.  This “daily bread” continues only until they arrive at the Promised Land.  Then it ceases, because the Lord has something greater yet in store for them.

Through this we understand better Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel passage.  Jesus says to you today, “Do not work for food that perishes but for food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”  The Son of Man gave you this food—“the Bread of Life”; that is, Himself—at the Last Supper.  He gave you “the Bread of Life” on the day of your First Holy Communion, and He offers Himself up for you at each celebration of Holy Mass, to strengthen you for the long earthly pilgrimage to the end goal of Heaven.