Her Rightful Place (Lk 1:39-56)

 

Although the Assumption was not declared a dogma until 1950, the feast of the Assumption is really an ancient celebration of the life and destiny of our Blessed Mother.  From the early 6^th century on, this feast in essence commemorates the way Mary lived her entire life in union with Christ.  The possibility of their union begins with her own immaculate conception, free from sin, while it becomes a reality at the Annunciation with her consent to be the mother of Jesus.  Mary’s reply was more than passive acceptance of what the angel Gabriel said to her.  Her consent expressed her profound belief that the Holy Spirit would accomplish all that was revealed to her (Lk 1:30-35). 

Mary’s response in essence was to place her trust in God and devote herself to Christ even before she understood the full effects of that commitment.  She acknowledges and gives voice to her trusting surrender to God in her great Magnificat at the Visitation.  On that occasion, Mary says to Elizabeth, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.  From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his Name.” (Lk 1:46-49). 

With these words, Mary becomes the first evangelizer, bearing in her womb the Word made flesh, bringing that Word to Elizabeth and the baby John.  On this occasion, Mary also becomes the first “tabernacle” wherein the Son of God remains invisible to human eyes, all the while radiating his divine light through the eyes and voice of his mother.  In this way, Mary’s life was a living Eucharist and her assumption the rightful culmination of the way she lived—in humble, joyful, and complete surrender to God. 

Mary’s trust in God is a fitting model for how we too can live in union with Christ.  As St. Paul reminds the Corinthians, our bodies are living tabernacles with Christ hidden in our hearts, eagerly waiting for the opportunity to express his love through us toward others (1 Cor 6:15-17).  This feast is therefore a reminder of our own destiny as well.   

Mary shows us how to live out our destiny most clearly at Cana when she said to the wine steward, “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5).  In the same way, we demonstrate our own trust in Jesus when we do whatever he tells us.  Like Mary, we do so without understanding the full ramifications of what that means for our lives.  That is the nature of authentic trust.  We do not need a complete picture of how it all turns out before we commit ourselves to the journey of trust in God.  This is how Mary lived with Jesus throughout her life. 

From the beginning, Mary also understood that Jesus came for others, especially the stranger, the foreigner, the oddly dressed, the downtrodden, the sinner.  She knows that we encounter Jesus more often in the ordinary circumstances of our lives.  Perhaps for this reason she and Joseph lived very ordinary lives with Jesus in virtual obscurity for the first 30 years of his life.  At the same time, Mary understood that being in communion with Jesus meant sharing Her Son with others. 

Mary’s trust in the way of God does not mean her life was easy any more than it means that for our lives.  We know that Mary often endured deep pain and sorrow during her life, especially at the death of her beloved Jesus, just as we suffer for our loved ones.  Despite the pain and difficulties she endured, Mary remained faithful to her son.  She knew that Jesus is our ever-present, devoted companion who sheds light on our own way of life and helps us shed that light for others.  It is no wonder that the union between Mary and her Son would culminate in her assumption, body and soul, at the end of her earthly life. 

This is the spiritual legacy that we have inherited from our Blessed Mother.  Her trust in God and humble devotion to Christ is the model for our own way of life.  Mary embraced the two great commandments of love with her whole heart and soul in union with Christ.  By following Mary’s example, we can expect that same union to continue into eternity at the end our own earthly life.  May we always hold Jesus in our hearts like Mary and share his love with others as she did, especially with those who need him most.

Faith or Sight, Save or Lose (Mt 16:24-28; 10:39; Lk 9:24)

 

Jesus presents an interesting challenge for us today when he compares saving one’s life as a matter of self-interest with losing one’s life for his sake.  The point seems to be that, if I conduct my life along the lines that God expects of me like Jesus did in his life, then I can expect that whatever happens will be to my benefit.  In other words, losing my life for Jesus means imitating him by trusting God to bring about good no matter how bleak things may appear at the time.  St. Paul relies on this same idea in his letter to the Romans when he says, “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called to his purpose” (Rm 8:28).

Here’s the challenge.  Putting that kind of trust in God goes against the modern focus on autonomy and self-reliance.  From an early age, we learn that God helps those who help themselves.  Accepting responsibility for our lives is a good thing, but in the process, we tend to forget about trusting God to show us the way.  We take the helm and hope that God catches up.  We pray to God for help in carrying out our will, not his.  Our faith reflects our desire to save our lives.  We just hope that God concurs.

Losing life for Jesus, on the other hand, calls for a different starting point that Proverbs describes in this way: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; on your own intelligence do not rely; In all your ways be mindful of him, and he will make straight your paths” (Prov 3:5-6).  Trust in any sense is a choice.  In this case, we can choose to be guided either by belief and trust in Jesus, or by our own interests.  As St. Paul would say, we can live either by sight or by faith (2 Cor 5:7).  When we live by faith, our lives take on a different focus.

With many parables, Jesus indicates that living by faith is a power to act a certain way, something that we do.  We act with faith.  This is why he says to his followers, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father...” (Mt 7:21; Mk 3:35).  Faith is not only believing in God; it also means doing the will of our heavenly Father.  We must be doers of the Word; not just hearers (Jm 1:22).  We can trust Jesus to show us the way.

Faith on these terms is an active way of living that centers on imitating God’s love for his children and his creation.  St. Paul describes faith as putting on the mind and heart of Christ and trying to do what God wants.  For Paul, whoever is in Christ is a new creation (2Cor 5:17).  As a new creation, our faith compels us to imitate the love of Jesus in the ordinary circumstances of our lives—however we understand our situation.  This is how St. Dominic, whose feast we celebrate today, lived his life.

Today, we celebrate the way Dominic relied on faith to discover and achieve the purpose of his life.  Dominic proves that having faith and trust in God does not mean surrendering who we are or what we want.  Quite the opposite.  To live in faith means being true to ourselves as God has fashioned us to be.  The expectation is that we do this in imitation of Jesus.  His love for God motivated his love and care for others, all of whom he viewed as the beloved children of God.  Jesus calls us to do the same with our whole hearts and minds.  Imitating Jesus is faith in action, trusting God and doing our best in the circumstances at hand.

To Hear or Not to Hear (Mt 13:54-58; Mk 6:1-6)

 

The official name of the Redemptorists is the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.  They are a missionary order founded in Italy by St. Alphonsus Liguori whose feast we celebrate today.  The Redemptorists are dedicated to serving the poor and to preaching the Word.  St. Alphonsus was popular in his day due in large part to his simple preaching style. He prided himself on his sermons being effective because they were easy to understand. 

His sermons were also effective because of his devotion to proclaiming the truth.  As a result, the truth of what he proclaimed often brought about conversions to the faith, as well as the return of many who had left.  It seems appropriate, therefore, that today’s gospel is about hearing and accepting the truth, especially when it comes from unexpected sources.

After Jesus spent time in the desert, the Holy Spirit strengthened Jesus to begin his public ministry in his native town of Nazareth.  Jesus enters the synagogue there on the Sabbath and reads the now familiar passage from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.”  Jesus then says to his listeners, “Today, this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21).

The people of Nazareth do not accept what Jesus says, however, because they are hard of heart. They take offense at what he says, for they are sure that a mere carpenter’s son cannot teach them anything, let alone teach with authority.  Their haughty attitude leads them to reject his teaching and force Jesus out of town.  Saddened by their lack of faith, Jesus claims that no prophet is accepted in his native place.

            Saddened but not deterred, however, Jesus next goes to the city of Capernaum where he has a very different experience.  In Capernaum, Jesus also teaches in the synagogue, but unlike the people of Nazareth, the people of Capernaum listen carefully to what Jesus says.  They accept his authoritative interpretation of scripture and the truth of what he proclaims.   They are open to the teaching of Jesus because their hearts are open to the Holy Spirit.

            The contrast between Capernaum and Nazareth has meaning for us today.  On the one hand, we often act like the people of Nazareth.  We box people in and do not let the truth of what they say reach our hearts.  We do not hear the truth because they do not fit our idea of what a genuine teacher of truth looks and acts like.  It is even easier to reject such persons when we know negative things about them.  Then, we too are sure that a mere “carpenter’s son” cannot teach with any authority.  We miss out on the truth.

            There are other times, however, when we are like the people in Capernaum.  We trust the Holy Spirit to guard our hearts and minds.  This enables us to listen with an open mind to what others have to say.  We then can accept the truth of what we hear, no matter who proclaims that truth.  When we place our hope and trust in the Holy Spirit, we open ourselves to the presence of Jesus in others.  The Holy Spirit in turn enables us to set aside our bias and preconceived ideas.  Only then can we recognize and accept the truth being proclaimed.

Martha and the Main Thing (Lk 10:38-42)

 

The Martha and Mary story is all about attitude and staying focused on the main thing.  This story brings back memories from my growing up years.  I come from a large family of five sisters and one brother.  As with any size family, there are many tasks involved in caring for the members.  Planning and preparing meals alone can be quite the challenge without proper organization and management.  Add to that cleaning house, doing laundry, putting clothes away, and grocery shopping, the larger the family, the greater the need to share the work. 

You would miss the mark if you think I got out of sharing the housework because of all my sisters.  If the thought had even crossed my mind that housework was women’s work and therefore not mine, my two older sisters would have made certain that I changed my thinking.  They knew exactly how to allocate the work, and they made sure I carried my load.

These memories invite me to reimagine the rest of the story about Martha and Mary.  Imagine that Martha takes Jesus at his word and decides that she too ought to listen to him, like Mary, instead of preparing a meal for the crowd at hand.  So, Martha stops what she is doing, sits down and listens to Jesus as he teaches.  Then, when he is finished, he looks to Martha and says, “What’s for dinner?”  Martha says, “Nothing—I have been sitting here listening to you the whole time.”  A hungry Jesus might very well rethink his original response to Martha when she asked for his help.

Whether that is how the story played out we will never know.  What we do know is that Jesus is not providing an excuse for avoiding responsibilities, as Martha seems to think Mary is doing.  Jesus is also not gaslighting Martha’s emotional response, or that pragmatic concerns are trivial matters that should take a back seat to discipleship.  Jesus is not trivializing what Martha was doing.

In fact, Martha was serving others, precisely what Jesus came to do—I came to serve, not to be served, he tells us, and he urges us to do the same.  Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me. Jesus shows that serving others out of love is the fundamental meaning and guiding principle of discipleship.  All of which raises a question. 

If Mary was doing right by listening to Jesus teach, and Martha was doing right by serving others, then what does Jesus mean when he says Mary chose the better part?  The clue is in his response to Martha.  His response does not address WHAT Martha and Mary were doing.  Rather, Jesus speaks to HOW they were doing it.  Jesus speaks to their attitudes.  Jesus in effect was saying to Martha, “The main thing is to know the main thing and to keep the main thing the main thing” (Steiner, Homily Backgrounds, June 2013).

As for Mary, we can be sure that she was not being insensitive to her sister or the needs of her houseguests.  Martha may have owned the house, but Mary and Lazarus were living there.  Thus, Mary would have been aware of what needed to be done in preparing a meal, and how she would have been expected to help.  And yet, she risked personal criticism from both her guests and her sister by accommodating the one guest she thought deserved her undivided attention—Jesus.  In other words, Mary focused on doing the main thing.

Mary listens to Jesus as he teaches for her own spiritual good and without regard to the momentary cost to herself.  She did so with confidence.  You might say that Mary acted out of love for Jesus.  He came to teach, and she accommodated his wishes by listening to him.  Having a right attitude is the sense in which Mary chose the better part.

Martha, on the other hand, seems to be acting out of a sense of duty.  Carrying out our duties is important, of course, but when duty is our only motive, we know what usually comes from that attitude.  No good deed goes unpunished, as they say.  Not surprisingly, Martha felt put upon and abandoned, alone in her efforts to please her guests.  She must have felt that even Jesus did not notice or care how hard she was working.  Because she is so troubled and upset about the situation, she complains to Jesus.  Martha is not focused on the main thing.

We can relate to Martha.  She felt much the way we feel at times, especially when we do things for others from a sense of duty, and they don’t even notice.  We hope to please, but we often get the feeling they don’t really care.  We then feel put upon and abandoned.  Whether we complain or not, we usually feel troubled and upset that no one appreciates how hard we work.  Perhaps we are not even sure that we did the right thing.  Even when we do complain to someone, it can be a bitter pill for that person to tell us that acting out of duty rather than love is not the right attitude and rarely brings us peace or joy.

We can also relate to Mary.  We too focus on the main thing and choose to do the right thing as we see it, despite the criticism and trouble we know will come our way.  We are aware of how others will think we should have done something different, and yet, we come away feeling content and at peace.  We are willing to put up with the cost to ourselves because we know that we have done the right thing.  We have chosen the better part.

In the end, we can take comfort in the way that Jesus responds to Martha.  His response to her complaint is a clear show of sympathy, not judgment.  Jesus expresses concern for Martha in her anxiety to serve her guests.  As a true friend, however, he reminds her that acting out of love rather than a sense of duty is the better part and a sure way to find peace and joy.  At times, we too need a similar attitude adjustment.  We need to be reminded that answering our call to love others despite the cost is the main thing, the better part.  May we always stay focused on the main thing.    

To Pick or Not To Pick (Mt 12:1-8; Mk 2:23-28)

 

For the Pharisees, picking grain from the field on the Sabbath was no trivial matter.  They viewed the effort as a form of work in violation God’s commandment to keep holy the Sabbath.  This required abstaining from all forms of work.  For this reason, the Pharisees took offense at what Jesus and his disciples did.  Their criticism derived from a misunderstanding of God’s commandments as an expression of his holiness.

The Pharisees believed their covenant with God obligated them to imitate his holiness primarily by keeping his commandments (Ex 31:17, 23:12).  Any violation of those commandments, therefore, was enough to sever their connection and relationship with God and must be avoided at all costs.  This was the basis and motivation for their criticism of Jesus and the disciples.

Jesus appeals to the same obligation regarding the holiness of God in his response to their objection. He counters their objection with an authentic interpretation of the commandment when he says to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  With this, Jesus aims to show that there is no better way to imitate the holiness of God than by doing good rather than harm, by saving life rather than killing (Mk 3:4).  Good deeds born of compassion and love for others is exactly the way to imitate the holiness of God, especially on the Sabbath.  No wonder Jesus offended the Pharisees of his day.

Jesus responds this way because he knew the Pharisees focused more on appearance than substance when it comes to the commandments of God.   For that reason, he will say to them more than once, “You are more interested in doing religion than in doing what is right.  You prefer strict adherence to ritualistic behavior while avoiding the weightier matters of justice, mercy, and faithfulness to the will of God.”  Their hypocrisy and lack of love motivate Jesus to call them whitened sepulchers, appearing beautiful on the outside but filled with self-indulgence and evil doing on the inside (Mt 23:23-36).

The message of Jesus remains valid to this day.  He urges us to be authentic in our love for others by showing them kindness, patience, and understanding—in being merciful and just towards others rather than judging their actions and way of life.  This is especially true in our treatment of the poor, the outcast, the marginalized and the vulnerable members of society.  This is what Jesus means when he says to his disciples, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (Mt 11:6).  The good deeds of Jesus serve as an invitation to imitate his behavior, not a reason to take offense at his unconditional love for others.

Following Jesus is a blessing that leads to eternal life.  We are blessed that God so loved us that he became one of us in the person of Jesus Christ.  We are blessed that Jesus is our model because he is like us in every way.  Jesus shows us who the Father is and how we can imitate the holiness of God.  This is the good news that Jesus preached so long ago.  And, we are truly blessed to hear his message once again.

A Distant God Who is Near (Lk 15:3-7)

 

There is a song made popular by Bette Midler several years ago entitled, “From a Distance.”  The song is about a future world where peace and harmony rule the day.  In that world, “All have enough and no one is in need—there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease—no hungry mouths to feed.” The song further suggests that it is our responsibility to bring about this peace and harmony.  We are our own instruments of hope.

God, on the other hand, apparently watches us from a distance in our efforts to make this happen.  Perhaps he waits to see how well we perform, or even if we can transform anger and despair into hope, violence into peace.  Whether we succeed or not, the song suggests that God is a mere observer with no real connection between God and us.  God simply watches us—from a distance.

Although the song correctly points out our responsibility to work for peace and justice, to love and care for others rather than mistreat them, the song gets it wrong about God.  God is not one who watches us from a distance.  God is not a disinterested almighty power passively waiting for us to accept his offer of eternal life.  Rather, God is a seeker from the beginning.  He sought Adam and Even when they broke friendship with him.  His aim in finding them was not to punish, but to restore. 

As the parable of the lost sheep illustrates, God is always here among us, actively pursuing us, searching for us to make sure none are lost, not even one among 100.  Jesus tells this parable in response to a criticism by the Pharisees who were displeased that Jesus associated with those deemed unworthy, the sinners and tax collectors.  The parable is meant to show that God does not think in terms of worthiness.  Rather, God thinks only of finding and helping his dear ones who broke friendship with him, so that they will not miss out on his profound love and care for their wellbeing.

When we break the bonds of our friendship with God, his mercy and love for us compels him to search for us with the aim of restoring that friendship.  This is because God is always faithful, slow to anger, merciful and steadfast in his love, even when we are not (Lam 3:22-23; Ex 34:6-7).  For this reason, nothing can separate us from the love of God (Rm 8:38-39).  God is the true “hound of heaven” who loves us dearly and searches for us, and when He finds us where we are and we return to Him, He is jubilant.  There is great joy in heaven.  Who can resist a father like that?  Who can say no to his call?

The proof is Jesus himself.  Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, who came to show us who the Father is and how to find our way to the Father’s house.  God longs for and eagerly calls his children into relationship with him.  That relationship stems from and consists in love for one another, along with mercy and mutual forgiveness.  God is always calling us to be more like Christ (Rm 8:29-31).  We live in the light of Christ by imitating his love and mercy.  We then become more visible to God, and through us, he becomes visible to others. 

God helps us in many ways to answer his call, especially through his Holy Spirit.  Jesus promised to send this helper, and we can therefore place our trust in His care with confidence.  When we trust in the Holy Spirit, we have no reason to fear the outcome, for “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord” (Jer 17:7).  God loves us.  God is with us.  And when God is with us, all things are possible for us (Mt 19:26).  

A God of Our Own Choosing (Mt 6:19-23)

The story about heavenly treasures versus earthly treasures is a story about our freedom to choose and the consequences of our choice.  In his discussion with the disciples, Jesus focuses on our freedom to choose between lasting values and passing values; between substance and appearance.  Jesus makes this distinction in hopes that we will choose wisely.    

Because all choices come with consequences, Jesus adds the advice to “Store up treasures in heaven” where nothing can be lost or destroyed.  He gives this advice because he knows that earthly treasures often have strong appeal despite their passing value.  He also knows that we will reap only what we sow (Gal 6:7).  His advice, therefore, expresses his hope that we will choose heavenly treasures over earthly treasures.

Does Jesus mean that the passing values of the world really have no value at all and should be avoided altogether?  No, that position would go against our fundamental need for many worldly things to survive.  For that reason, worldly pursuits surely have a practical value worthy of careful consideration and honest reflection.  Therefore, Jesus must have something else in mind when he cautions against the pursuit of earthly values. 

He gives a hint in the way he calls attention to choosing one kind of value over the other.  Notice that he says, “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”  First the attraction, then the pursuit.  In putting it this way, Jesus underscores the freedom of choice that sometimes goes beyond mere appreciation for the practical value of worldly things to the point of idolizing those things we view as important and valuable.  In other words, Jesus knows we can turn anything into a god.

The question Jesus wants us to consider for our own benefit has to do with which god we choose to pursue—the one, true God or a false god of our own making.  There is no value in pursuing a false god.  This is the whole point of the golden calf story.  Pursuing any version of the golden calf leads to greed, a lust for power, status, control, and other priorities that have no lasting or true value.  In many cases, pursuing a false god brings serious harm to our companion sojourners and goes against the true God of eternal life. 

The Pharisees made this mistake long ago.  Jesus reveals their mistake when he says, “No servant can serve two masters.  He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon” (Lk 16:13).  Jesus meant this as a direct criticism of the Pharisees for their greed and lack of compassion for the poor.  Mammon was their god.  They loved their money and their status above all else. 

The Pharisees pursued these passing values with gusto, to their own detriment and that of the very people they were called to serve with love (Lk 6:11; 16:14).  Even today, many value status and honor over peace and justice, cruelty and hate over mercy and kindness, exploitation and manipulation over love and concern, all in devoted service to one false god or another. 

Jesus taught his disciples to live a different way, to be a different kind of person—to be loving, kind, patient, understanding, and merciful, especially toward the poor and vulnerable persons.  Doing good works for others out of love for God reflects the values we are free to pursue or not (Gal 6:9-10).  The choice is ours.  Jesus hopes we choose wisely.

 

Love Three Times (Jn 16: 12-15)

 

On this great feast of the Holy Trinity, there is a story about St. Augustine that tells us something about this mystery of our faith.  You may have heard it as well.  As the story goes, St. Augustine was walking along the beach one day, trying to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity—how God can be three persons in one.  As he walked along, he saw a young boy fill a seashell with water from the ocean and pour it into a small hole in the sand.  Out of curiosity, Augustine asked him what he was doing.  The boy replied, “I’m trying to fit the entire ocean into this hole.”  Augustine smiled and said, “That’s impossible. The ocean is too big for such a small hole.”  The boy looked at him and said, “And so is the mystery of God too big for your mind to fully understand.”  Then the boy vanished.

True or not, the story calls attention to the fact that, although much has been said and written about the Trinity, we know about the Trinity primarily through revelation and God’s grace. The Trinity is the foundation and central mystery of our Christian faith (CCC 232).  We first encounter this mystery most explicitly perhaps at the baptism of Jesus where God the Father testifies: “This is my Son whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Mt. 3:17).  The Holy Spirit appears as a dove and descends on Jesus.  This is enough to convince John the Baptist that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah. 

These are personal terms—Father, Son, and Spirit—that reveal a loving intimacy between the Persons of the Trinity.  Jesus reaffirms this idea with his promise to send the Advocate as someone who will remind others and teach them.  This description of the Holy Spirit is one of a real person (Jn 14:26).  Teaching and reminding are what a real person does. 

This description the Trinity as a unity of coequal persons working together for our salvation is consistent with our understanding of the term person.  We understand person not as a “me” term, but essentially as a “we” term.  An authentic person fully exists only in relationship to others.[1]  An authentic person lives in an interpersonal, interconnected loving relationship of self-giving and receiving.

    The Apostle John expresses this idea in describing God as love itself, poured into our hearts (1 Jn 4:8; 4-16; Rm 5:5).  He means that the love in our hearts is in fact God himself.  The Triune, loving God is in us and we are in the Triune, loving God (1 Jn 4:16).  Our God-given nature, therefore, is to be a lover, to express the love in our hearts (1 Jn 5:3-5).  This is the nature of love.  Love always seeks to express itself to the one loved, and wants to be loved in return.  Then, we feel grateful.  Authentic love, in fact, is complete when it is actively given and actively received with gratitude.”[2]

This desire for reciprocal love makes us vulnerable, however, for the one we love may not love us in return.[3]  When this happens, we often feel sad, disappointed and even frustrated.  Can we say the same about the Trinity?  Does God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit feel sad and disappointed when we do not love him or his children as he has loved us?  The answer must be yes.  Why else would Jesus urge us to love one another as he has loved us.  To love others is to love God.  Jesus makes this plain when he says that whatever we do for the least of his children, we do to and for God himself (Mt 25:40).  This is how we return God’s love for us, by loving others.

Love for God and his children also includes love for his creation, the only home he created for his children on earth.  God first reveals himself to us through his creation as noted in the Book of Genesis: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1; cf. CCC 47-50).  The reading from Proverbs celebrates the wisdom of God as the architect of creation.  This poem highlights the playful delight of God in carrying out his creativity, and his joy in being with humanity.  Through his creation, God reveals his desire to be involved with us by sharing his own love and goodness with us in a way that gives us life to the full.[4]

Caring for creation is how we express our gratitude for this gift from God.  Such gratitude inspired the late Pope Francis to issue his encyclical on the environment (Laudato Si).  In that encyclical, Francis claims that we have a duty to care for creation, our only home this side of eternity.  Like any home, we must provide adequate and proper care for where we live.  We live together on this planet in a kind of interconnected communion that supports and protects life itself (93; cf. Franco). 

The feast of the Holy Trinity is a reason to celebrate our commitment to caring for this communion with others and with God.  Caring for each other and God’s creation is a way to imitate the loving relationship of the Trinity.  Through his life and mission, Jesus revealed to us the person of God the Father as the eternal one who creates all things; the person of God the faithful Son as the one who brings eternal life; the person of God the loving Spirit as the ground of truth, who lives among us and empowers us to follow Jesus in bringing about the Kingdom of God.

Today on this great feast, we call upon this Triune God—Creator, Redeemer, and Spirit-Among-Us, a God who labors within us and brings us to birth.  We call upon this Triune God beyond all names and beyond all human understanding in the language of our hearts, the image of our desire, to commemorate the providence of God in our lives, and to give thanks for his benevolence. 

  We love God more than we know or can say about God.  We pray that our love will be like God’s love—creating, redeeming, renewing.  From beginning to end, we call on God in the universal language of our faith to renew us in his Spirit—in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

 

 

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[1] Challenges and Renewals, W. Norris Clarke, University of Notre Dame Press, 1966, 74-75.

[2] Person, Being, and St. Thomas, W.Norris Clarke, Communio 19: International Catholic Review (Winter 1992).

[3] Authentic Living: How to Be Real, Jeremy Sutton, Ph.D., Positive Psychology (March 2021).

[4] Jacques Maritain, Existence and the Existent. Garden City: Doubleday, 1957, 90.

The Holiness of Love and Devotion (Mt 5:27-32)

 

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Anthony of Padua.  Anthony began his monastic life as an Augustinian friar at the age of 15 with his given name Fernando.  Soon after ordination to the priesthood, he transferred to the Franciscan order.  Their custom was to have novices choose a new name as a symbol of serving God in a new way.  Fernando chose the name Anthony in honor of St. Anthony the Great.  Padua just happens to be the name of the city in Italy where he lived and worked as a Franciscan.  Anthony died near there in 1231 at the age of 35.

Despite his brief life, Anthony is known for his influential preaching, extensive knowledge of scripture, and deep devotion to the poor.  This is what motivated Pope Gregory IX to canonize him in 1232, less than a year after his death.  In 1946, Pope Pius XII proclaimed St. Anthony a Doctor of the Church, not only for his contribution to Catholic theology and doctrine, but especially because of his holiness of life.

Anthony took to heart God’s instruction to the Israelite community:  Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy (Lv 19:2;).  For this reason, holiness is everybody’s concern, everybody’s destiny, rather than something reserved to monks and the monastic way of life.[1]  Franciscans commit themselves to the way of holiness, and Anthony remained true to this commitment throughout his brief life on earth. 

In living out his commitment, Anthony followed the example of Jesus.  Through his own life and mission, Jesus shows us that being holy means living with integrity, being true to ourselves as God fashioned us and called us to be.  Jesus came to do the father’s will, and he never deviated from that purpose.  He was perfect in his resolve to carry out the will of the father as he understood it.  He applied that understanding in his life to the best of his ability, even to the point of surrendering his life for our sake.  Through his love and devotion to God, Jesus proves that he was always true to himself and true to what God called him to be.

Anthony lived by this same principle because he understood that God chose holiness of life for all of us from the very beginning (Eph 1:4).  He understood that our purpose is to live as Jesus lived in a manner consistent with the lasting values of God (1 Jn 2:5-6).  Living with such integrity is how we find true peace and lasting joy (1 Chron 29:17).  This universal call to holiness motivates Paul’s instruction to the Romans: “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Rm 12:2).  We live out this principle of holiness by doing ordinary things for others with extraordinary love and devotion to God.[2]          

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[1] The Universal Call to Holiness, Francois Corrignan, Indian Journal of Spirituality (6-1 1993), p.1.

[2] Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales, VIII, p. 11.