Saturday, November 28, 2009
Grim times. Daniel is so disturbed by his vision he asks “an attendant” for an interpretation. Daniel, the interpreter of dreams and visions? Jesus warns us not to let our hearts be heavy with dissipation and worries (Lk 24 on the road to Emmaus: “Oh you dull of heart!”). “Be alert,” Jesus insists. So let us turn to Daniel’s prayer, the Benedicite, from the opening of each phrase: Bless the Lord. All creatures all week have been called on to bless the Lord. Today we conclude with all peoples blessing God. To bless is to hand over all that one is. God lavishes on us all that God is (Romans 8) and we are invited to bless or surrender all that we are to God. Mutual self-giving. That is another meaning of Eucharist.
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Friday, November 27, 2009
Daniel had a dream-vision of many beasts with many horns, rather scary, as apocalyptic literature can be, to frighten those who persecute us. Then his vision turns to the Ancient One who took dominion away from the beasts. Finally, one like a son of man (in the Canadian version: one like a human being) came on the clouds and to him was given dominion and a kin-dom for all ages. The Son of Man imagery in the New Testament comes from this vision. Luke’s Jesus says we will know when the kin-dom of heaven is near. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
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Thursday, November 26, 2009
Thanksgiving Day in the United States
With apologies to Canadians and those from other countries who use these reflections, we will use the special readings today for Thanksgiving. Eucharisto in Greek means “I thank you”. Giving thanks, then, fits every eucharistic celebration. In fact, many prepare for Eucharist by gathering up all they are thankful for during the week, or remembering all the dying and rising they have done in union with Christ. The gospel today is the experience of Jesus’ disappointment that ten lepers are healed and only one gives thanks. Paul gives thanks to God for all the grace we have received. The antiphon for the psalm is “We thank you for your faithfulness and love.” Sirach is simple and short: “Bless the God of all…who fosters people’s growth from their mothers’ wombs...May God grant you joy of heart and may peace abide among you.”
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
The kings of Babylon fall and a new king takes the vessels stolen from the Temple to use at his banquet for his thousand lords, his wives and concubines. In response to the desecration, suddenly a finger appears and writes on the wall of the palace. Terrified, the king sends for Daniel, who interprets the writing. He testifies to “God in whose power is your very breath.” Jesus expands his warnings about the end time. Bad enough, these natural disasters and wars, but even families and friends will betray us. Relationships are ruined. We are not to prepare a defense. Jesus himself will give us “words and a wisdom” to confound our oppressors.
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
The king of Babylon was disturbed by a dream, which Daniel could interpret, detailing the fall of one kingdom after another. The Canticle calls on all creatures to “Bless the Lord”. Then Jesus in Luke’s gospel warns about the destruction of the temple, the deception of false Messiahs, “earthquakes… famines and plagues.” He assures us we need not be afraid: “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified.” We remember that apocalyptic is a form of literature written to give hope to people oppressed by evil. Since we are friends of Jesus, we must take his encouragement not to fear very seriously.
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Monday, November 23, 2009
The book of Daniel opens with the king of Babylon choosing the brightest and best of Israel’s young men to be his personal servants. Besides educating them in Chaldean culture (remember that Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees?), the king wanted them to have a share of the royal feasts. Daniel pleaded that he and his companions should eat only vegetables and be tested. Indeed, at the end of the ten day test, they “were fatter” than the others who had meat and wine! They willingly chose the simple life; the widow in Luke’s gospel willingly chose to be destitute, giving to the temple treasury “all she had to live on.” Hopefully, she had thought it through. What were the priests going to do with her little coins? Sometimes we may have to starve the system rather than ourselves.
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Sunday, November 22, 2009
Feast of Christ the King
Does power mean ruling, managing, fixing, competing? Does power mean being with, staying with, listening, holding and listening again? Sometimes, especially in grief, people rage at God’s powerlessness. God’s is not always the dominion that Daniel portrays. God may not be clothed with strength, to quote the psalmist. We look to Jesus, “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead” before we ever bow before him as “Alpha and Omega, the Almighty”. We “Behold the man” as Pilate questions him, shivering in his blood soaked robe. Jesus responds, “You say that I am a king”—the strong, the leader. Then adds, “For this was I born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.” He might have continued, “And when you kill me, God will show my power as Emmanuel,” the God who stays with, listens, holds.
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Saturday, November 14, 2009
“While gentle silence enveloped all things…your all powerful Word leaped from heaven….” So begins our Wisdom reading, reminding us that Advent is almost here. However, instead of a helpless baby, this almighty Word is a warrior who brought death, “while the whole creation was fashioned anew.” Jesus tells a parable of a widow (voiceless) who uses both voice and persistence to wear down a wicked judge. Pope John XXIII called Vatican II so that we might find new images and language to clothe ancient truths and this parable is a good example. Only when the voiceless (the poor, women, other outcasts) began to find their voice did they re-interpret the parable. God is not the unjust judge. God is in solidarity with the voiceless. God is the widow crying to us, the unjust judges of who is right, who is wrong, who is in, who is out. God identifies with the poor and helpless of this world.
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Friday, November 13, 2009
In the gospel, Jesus paints a more fearsome picture of the end of the world than lightning suffusing the sky! The Wisdom reading offers more to treasure in our hearts. The author bemoans the foolishness of those who can appreciate the glories of nature, but have no idea of the “artisan…for the author of beauty created them.” Yet they cannot be blamed for they keep searching for this creator of beauty.
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
Take the Wisdom reading today and read it slowly, carefully, perhaps out loud. All that the author says about Lady Wisdom applies to the Word. Wisdom (feminine, Sophia) is interchangeable in late Jewish tradition with Word (masculine, logos). When the evangelist John saw the Wisdom/Word made flesh, Jesus, expression of God’s love and faithfulness, he could only use the masculine. This first passage gives such a beauty-full description of the cosmic Christ, raised as universal savior. In the gospel today Jesus speaks of the coming of the Son of Man, an apocalyptic image from Daniel 7. We are not to be figuring out when he will come, for the kin-dom is already among us. As lightning covers the whole sky, so the risen Christ (who must first endure suffering and rejection)
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Remembrance Day
The first reading is perfect for this day we remember the end of the war to end all wars. God directs strong, strict words to rulers of nations; God demands justice or God will condemn. Even Jesus seems distraught that of the ten lepers whom he healed, only one returned to thank him, and he a “hated” Samaritan. The psalm can be our prayer too:
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The Wisdom reading is often chosen for funerals, a public reminder that while the death of our loved ones seems a disaster, “they are at peace.” Jesus warns that we, the slaves of God, don’t get too puffed up like the scribes whom he condemned in Sunday’s readings. When we come in from our field work, we can’t expect the master to wait on us. Does the master thank the slave for doing his/her duty? No, Jesus says, we are to say,
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Monday, November 9, 2009
Dedication of Saint John Lateran, Rome
This church is titled “The mother and head of all churches of the city and of the world,” the “Urrbis et Orbis” church, the cathedral of the bishop of Rome, the Pope. The readings chosen, however, do not emphasize the importance of a building but rather the centrality of the Temple which is the very Body of Christ, that is, us. After cleansing the temple with its marketplace atmosphere, Jesus points to his Body as the true Temple. We are built on Christ as our foundation, Paul instructs. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells within you?...God’s temple is holy and you are that temple.”
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Sunday, November 8, 2009
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
There are two themes today. The most obvious is “widow.” In Hebrew, the word means the voiceless. Ezekiel depends on the kindness of a Gentile widow, whom Jesus praises after his mission statement in Luke 4. In the psalm, we hear God’s mission statement, on which Jesus comes to put flesh; the widow receives God’s care. In the gospel, the “shorter version”, Jesus praises the widow who “put into the treasury all she had to live on.” What trust in God’s care! The second theme is Jesus’ condemnation of those who “devour widows’ houses”. The Word became flesh to “deal with sin”, and because he has, his second coming will be to “save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”
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Saturday, November 7, 2009
Paul ends his letter to the Romans: “To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.” As he concludes, he thanks those who have supported him, including Prisca, Mary and Junia, “prominent among the apostles.” Some manuscripts change Junia (f) to Junius (m)—so unusual is it that a woman should be counted an apostle. Likewise today. Our liturgists have omitted the first two verses of this last chapter in which Paul thanks Phoebe, called a deaconess of the church at Cenchrae and a helper or benefactor. We have plenty of evidence that there were deaconneses in the early church. Helper is prostatis in Greek. It is nowhere else used in the New Testament, which is written in a dialect of Greek. It is used in secular Greek and in the Greek translation of Chronicles in the Jewish scriptures. It means supervisor, overseer, governor. Super in Latin is over in English and epi in Greek; visor in Latin is look in English and scopus in Greek. A supervisor, overseer might well be the episcopos, the bishop of Cenchrae. Our church is poorer for not calling women to be priests and bishops, but as the Alleluia verse reminds us, our powerlessness is like the Word incarnate’s: “Jesus Christ was rich, but he became poor to make you rich out of his poverty.”
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Friday, November 6, 2009
The gospel is a hard saying of Jesus, leading up to praise of the shrewdness of a servant who is about to be dismissed, unable to dig, ashamed to beg. So he reduces the amount the master’s creditors owe—he who has already squandered the master’s property! Paul on the other hand has not wasted a moment in handing on good news, but will not boast because it is Christ who has accomplished everything.. The Alleluia verse reminds us that we are in a lifelong process of being and becoming: “Whoever keeps the word of God grows perfect in the love of God.”
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Thursday, November 5, 2009
“Whether we die or whether we live, we belong to the Lord.” What a consolation Paul offers us. Oh to be that free! That unafraid. That is what the psalmist proclaims: “The Lord is my light and my salvation! Of whom should I be afraid?” Jesus in the Alleluia invites the heavy burdened, and who is more heavily burdened that those who “live” life in fear of death. There is not a think to fear, promises Jesus, for if we are indeed a lost sheep we have a God who searches and searches for us. Even if we sin, God like a housewife will look and look for us like a lost coin, and God will rejoice to pick us up.
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Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Today we celebrate Charles Borremeo, the patron of the SSND American “foundress,” Mother Mary Caroline. Again, some of the continuous readings can fit her spirit. The entrance antiphon is about good shepherding; Romans is about love as the complete fulfillment of the law. The gospel urges us to take up our cross even if it means leaving family “and even life itself,” as Caroline did on mission to the New World and wearing herself out opening schools and caring passionately for the students and their teachers. It is the psalm that characterizes her best: “They are gracious, merciful and just, they deal generously and lend...they have distributed freely, they have given to the poor…” Caroline even “lent” some SSND postulants to a Bavarian community who would be called the School Sisters of St. Francis!
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Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Once this feast was dedicated to getting “souls” out of purgatory. Coming to know God so much better now (even if in Romans, Paul speaks of God’s wrath) many have ceased to believe that there is a purgatory. We certainly don’t “get them out” or even persuade God to get them out, as though life after death were a place. So today we celebrate all the “little” saints, all those who have gone before us in faith, all our friends, relatives, and benefactors. How do we know they are with God? Paul writes: “the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” This gift of God cannot be revoked (Rom 10). And Jesus promises: “This is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything…” God’s will is not wrath but loving welcome to our everlasting home, as the Psalm confirms too.
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Monday, November 2, 2009
Commemoration of all the faithful departed
Once this feast was dedicated to getting “souls” out of purgatory. Coming to know God so much better now (even if in Romans, Paul speaks of God’s wrath) many have ceased to believe that there is a purgatory. We certainly don’t “get them out” or even persuade God to get them out, as though life after death were a place. So today we celebrate all the “little” saints, all those who have gone before us in faith, all our friends, relatives, and benefactors. How do we know they are with God? Paul writes: “the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” This gift of God cannot be revoked (Rom 10). And Jesus promises: “This is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything…” God’s will is not wrath but loving welcome to our everlasting home, as the Psalm confirms too.
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Sunday, November 1, 2009
Feast of All Saints
The book of Revelation was written to console Christians who were being persecuted by Rome. Its symbolism spoke to the people of that day, but sometimes it frightens modern readers. For example, in no way can we take literally that only 144,000 will be saved. Instead, we proclaim to God: “This is a people who longs to see your face.” In John’s letter he reminds us that we are already God’s children and what we are to become has not yet been revealed. We have a fairly good clue (see the prayer at the end today!). Michael Crosby likes to ask Catholics to recite the ten commandments, which most can do; then he asks them to write the eight beatitudes with their promises.
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