The Annunciation of Our Lord

 Is 7:10-14, 8:10

Ps 40

Hb 10:4-10

Lk 1:25-38

 

Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ,
Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto

"The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary,
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit." 

 

With rare exceptions spaced many decades apart, the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord always falls during Lent.  This solemnity, this feast, is a welcome glimmer of hope during a season of penance and fasting.  

We hear the prophecy in the first reading.  We hear the fulfillment of that prophecy in Luke's Gospel.  We hear Ahaz's stubborn 'no' in the first reading.  We hear Mary's perfect 'yes' in the Gospel.

 

Isaiah narrates God's command to Ahaz that he ask for a sign.  Ahaz refused to ask.  In His frustration  God told Ahaz the sign He would give.  The Universe held its breath when the angel appeared in the house in Nazareth, a backwater town of no importance.  The angel was to carry news to a young woman living in the house.  How would she reply? Is this the time or must the waiting continue?

 

The angel's appearance in the room startled the young woman. The tension in the universe approached unbearable.  God had promised a sign, that the virgin shall bear a son.  Is this the time? Is this the woman?

 

The universe was still.  Nothing stirred.  All movement halted when it heard the angel's greeting, "Hail, full of grace!  The Lord is with you."

 

Clasping its hands in front of its heart, the universe waited for the scene to unfold. "Do not be afraid Mary, For you have found favor with God. You will conceive and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus."  The woman appeared puzzled and concerned, as if she were asking herself what the odd greeting meant.

 

The universe was stilled. Oddly, the anxious anticipation vanished

replaced by a new calm.  The look on her face was changing.  Wait . . . . 

 

"Ecce ancilla Domini, 

fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum."

 

"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, 

May it be done unto me according to your word."  

The universe changed instantly. It would never be the same.  A new calm descended.  The prophecy would be fulfilled.  The young woman's words

penetrated the very substance of the universe where they would echo forever.

The most important yes in history had just been spoken.  And the universe rejoiced.  The virgin had accepted her vocationto be the Theotokos, the God-bearer, in fulfillment of the prophecy to Ahaz.

 

Like us, Mary was endowed with free will.  She could have rejected the 

vocation the angel presented to her. It seems irreverent to suggest that Mary could have refused. Her decision, however, was not inevitable.  It was not forced by God.  She was chosen.  But she had her own choice and  she responded with yes.

 

Et Verbum caro factum est.

Et havitavit in nobis

 

"And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."  

 

Angels rejoiced. Seraphim, Thrones, Powers, and Dominations celebrated. 

Mary's life would change.  Joseph would soon receive her into his house. 

They would soon make the arduous journey to Bethlehem where Jesus would be born of the House of David, once again in fulfillment of a prophecy.

 

On this great feast the Eastern Church will sing a hymn to the Theotokos,

a hymn to the God-bearer whose reply to the angel enabled the universe to rejoice: 

 

"Receive, O earth, 

the glad tidings of great joy.

Heavens, praise the glory of God. 

The Theotokos, the God-bearer, the living tabernacle of God

shall not be touched by an unclean hand. 

 

The lips of believers 

shall sing to her ceaselessly 

with the voice of angels crying joyfully, 

 

Hail full of grace, 

The Lord is with Thee." 

______________________________________

At around noon on Friday 25 of March the Solemnity of the Annunciation, Pope Francis with representatives of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church will dedicate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. At the same time here in Boston a Mass will be offered by Cardinal O'Malley at the Cathedral

The photos are from Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Church is colloquially known as "The Franciscan Church" though formally it is the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation. Located in the center of town It is one of the most recognizeable landmarksk in Ljubljana. It is pink. Apparently red is the color associated with the Franciscan order, and it was originally painted red. Red does not do well in sunlight, as anyone with a red carpet in the living room learns. It faded to pink. People preferred the pink.

I made my retreat in the attached Franciscan friary. The church closes for cleaning between 1 and 3 or something like that. I had a key. I went in during the time. Was lying on my back in the center aisle taking shots of the ceiing. Certainly startled the woman doing the cleaning. Would have been helpful to speak more Slovenian. Fortunately I was wearing blacks and I think she figured it out.

The church sits on the Ljubljanica River that 

runs through the center of town.

The Triple Bridge comes to an intersection in front.

The main altar is quite elaborate

I'd been invited to concelebrate a Sunday Mass.  Arrived early.  The light remained like this for only ten minutes.  I had the camera with me and shot away. 

The choir loft and organ

I made my retreat at the attached Franciscan Friary during Lent.  Probably the only time I will ever be able to walk to the retreat house. 

Lying on the floor to take this while the church was closed for cleaning.  Cleaning lady was quite surprised when she zipped around the corner into the main aisle to find a man dressed in black on his back with a camera balanced on his face.  

+Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Flaming Foliage: Homily for the 3rd Sunday in Lent

Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15

Ps 1031-4, 1-8, 11

1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12

Lk 13:1-9

 

The narrative of Moses and the burning bush is familiar.  On first reading it seems odd that Moses had to ask God's name.  However, the Jewish Study Bible explains that Moses was not raised with his people.  He knew nothing of their religion.  Kind of like too many children today whose parents fail to give them any religious instruction so as to "empower" them to choose on their own when they are older.  Ignorance is not always bliss, sometimes it is pathetic. 

 

Moses had to undergo a conversion, he had to learn, if he were to become the leader of the people.  When he asked to whom he was speaking he was told: I AM.  The Jewish Study Bible translates the Hebrew as "I Will Be What I Will Be."    It goes on to explain that this means  "My nature will become evident from My action." That nature did, indeed, become evident.  Alas, the people didn't always get or appreciate that nature.   

 

The gospel narrative is unique to Luke's gospel.  What are we to make of it?  

 

We have to ask the questions: why do bad things happen to good people? why do good things happen to bad people?  The problem is that of theodicy, There is breathtaking arrogance inherent in the assumption that one can explain the problem of "theodicy," that one can explain why or how a loving God permits or allows evil, disaster, death and suffering. The angry "WHY?" the desperate WHY?  have circled the globe since God created it.   It will continue to circle the globe until the world ends.

 

One can hear Eve screaming WHY? after Cain murdered Abel.  

 

One can imagine Noah shrieking WHY? when he surveyed the damage after the flood.  

 

If we listen closely we can hear ourselves groaning WHY?  at the illness or death of a loved one, the loss of home and possessions through fire or flood, or the confrontation with mortality  upon realizing: I am dying.  WHY? is perhaps the most frequently recited prayer in all of Ukraine at present. 

 

Jesus' examples of bad things happening to good people are challenging because there is no historical record for them.  Yes, Herod was a crazed megalomaniac who did evil sadistic things so as to maintain absolute control of his kingdom.  The parallel with Putin is hard to miss.   True, towers did collapse and kill people.  Lust for money and construction collapses because contractors cut corners, continue today, as evidenced in Miami and the recent bridge collapse in PIttsburgh. 

 

But, scholars cannot agree what the Tower of Siloam was.  There is no historical record of a sacrifice of Galileans at worship--though today there are too many examples of Christians martyred at worship, and, based on recent history, there will be others. Jesus' examples were used to illustrate that evil, disaster, suffering, and death happen to both the bad and the good, the just and the unjust.  The saying "only the good die young" is as appalling, inappropriate, and inaccurate a statement as was ever invented.  Appalling is also applicable to the Billy Joel song of the same title but that will be the topic for a different homily. 

 

Jesus repeats: "If you do not repent " twice in this short passage.  That demand implies conversion of heart as well.  Repentance and conversion are two sides of the same coin.  Repentance is an interior act.  Conversion is evidenced by a change of observable behavior emerging from the act of repentance.   In His call to repentance Jesus is echoing the words of the prophets: Amos, Isaiah, Micah, and Ezekiel, each of whom preached repentance for sin and conversion of heart.  

 

Their message was reinforced and amplified by John the Baptist whose baptism was not meant to be a simple cleansing. As detailed by Josephus, John's baptism  was to be accompanied by conversion of life.  Thus Jesus calls us to repent and open ourselves to the conversion that follows.  Will bad things still happen in the world if we repent?   Without a doubt.  Will we still suffer?  Of course, it is part of being human. Will we still experience pain, despite conversion of heart?  Absolutely.  The problem is not that bad things will happen to good people. The problem is the temptation to defiance toward God when bad things, pain, and suffering do happen.  The problem is the attitude,  "God, if you don't shape up I'm shipping out." 

 

The reading from Paul's Letter to the Corinthians is a challenge on at least two levels.  

 

First, it is edited.  Chapter ten, verses one to six and ten to twelve.  The four missing verses are important. They describe the kind of sin that called down punishment: idolatry, immorality, testing God.  Sounds like twenty-first century American life marked by the idolatry of celebrity worship, the immorality of sex-change surgery and abortion. The testing of God through greed, and lethal materialism.

 

Second, there is no accounting for the fact  that both those who are good and those who are evil undergo the same tests: suffering, death, and pain.  I'm not sure Job would, or could, have taken much comfort from Paul.  

 

We will never know why bad things happen to good people. 

We will never know why good things happen to bad people.  

That not knowing, and the frustration it causes, is part of the human condition.  We've seen that frustration and anger playing out over the past two years of covid.  Faith will temper pain and sorrow somewhat.  Prayer will soothe the soul a bit.  But in the end we will never be able to articulate the answers.   Despite that uncertainty, despite the lack of answers,  we are called to sing with the psalmist in faith and hope, 

 

"The Lord is kind and merciful,

He pardons iniquities, heals all ills,

redeems lives from destruction,

secures justice,"

 

There is nothing to add to that. 

_____________________________________________

The photos are from an interesting drive along Rt 45 W in Central Pennsylvania on the way between my hometown and Penn State.  Hairy John State park is along the way.  When possible I stop just to wander a bit, look about, and maybe have some lunch at one of the picnic tables.  This particular day was a cool dry one after a couple of days of rain.  There were a few large puddles about.  One of them was jammed with hundreds of butterflies wallowing and "splashing" in the water.  Apparently muddy water is a way to get nutrients.  Never saw anything like it before or since.  

+ Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

 

Temptation Eyes: Homily for the 1st Sunday of Lent 6 March 2022

Lk 4:1-13

 

“Come let us worship the Lord  

who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.”   

 

Every morning during Lent the liturgy of the hours begins with this antiphon:  It reminds us that Jesus was like us in all things but sin. He knew hunger and thirst, grief, sorrow, and profound fatigue. He knew temptation and suffering.  Temptation and suffering are part of what it means to be human, they are part of the human condition.  Were our lives free of temptation and suffering we would be incapable of experiencing joy.

 

The use of tempted in Luke's gospel presents a challenge for English-speakers.  Many automatically define temptation  as negative, illicit, and synonymous with sin. But, the Latin, Hebrew, and Greek  roots of the word translated as temptation are neutral.  Those roots include “trying,” “testing,” or “proving.”  Indeed, some versions of the Our Father pray 'do not put us to the test' rather than the more familiar, 'lead us not into temptation.'

 

Unlike Adam, Jesus, the New Adam, was obedient to the Father in all things, even to accepting death on the cross.  Satan offered those temptations when Jesus was hungry from fasting, tired from prayer, and disoriented by the harshness of the desert.  

 

The Evil One tests us when we are in a similar states of hunger, fatigue and confusion.  We are tested when disoriented by the unfamiliar geography of the personal deserts in which we find ourselves: newly widowed, diagnosed with a disease that will end in death, the confusion when abandoned by others.  We confront these temptations when we are dissatisfied with the status quo, when we are frightened or angry, when preoccupied or overwhelmed with things of the world.

 

The challenge to create bread from stones was not simply to relieve hunger.  It was the temptation to arrogant self-sufficiency, and illusory freedom, the temptation of taking care of oneself to the exclusion of all else.  That temptation to radical self-sufficiency looms large in our lives in ways that are unique to each of us.   

 

Putting God to the test is one of humankind's all-time favorites.  God is not a divine puppet master  who pulls our strings so as to make us dance.  Nor is he a marionette we can control.  God does not "cause" things to happen for the entertainment value  of watching us struggle.  And yet we ask . . . 

 

"Why did God give me cancer?"   

"Why is God allowing the war in Ukraine?"

"Why did God take my child?"

"Why?  Why?  Why?"  

 

We cannot control God with strings made of prayer. “If my prayer isn't answered in the way I demand, I am through with God.”  Those understandings of God are appropriate only to a child. How often do we test God in this way?  How often do we demand that God answer our prayers in very specific ways, according to highly detailed scripts of which we hold the only copy? 

 

Dostoevsky wrote in  'The Grand Inquisitor' section of The Brothers Karamazov:  “. . . man seeks not so much God as the miraculous.  And as man cannot bear to be without the miraculous, he will create new miracles of his own for himself and will worship deeds of sorcery and witchcraft.”  The late Jesuit Father Stanley Marrow,  accurately observed that, '. . . our appetite for signs is insatiable.  We are forever testing to see if God is still there, to check whether our prayers are getting through.'

 

The Faustian bargain, “Sell your soul."  I will give you great power.” was the final temptation. Power. Prestige.  Money.  Control.  Being a celebrity.  These idols have replaced God in many lives.  The lust for power drives both major political parties in this country and most of the world.   The false idols of power and prestige, money and control have contributed to diminishing the quality of our lives in many dimensions.  Today as we watch a megalomaniac's desire for power playing  out  in Ukraine, many of us pray that Taiwan is not the next country in line for a violent power grab by a country that refuses to recognize Taiwan's sovereignty.

 

Despite the attractive temptations offered him, Jesus freely chose to obey the will of God the Father. In so doing, he made it possible for us to imitate Him in our own exercise of freedom and free will, the gifts that, along with speech, set humans far above all lower animals at a distance that will never be lessened.  

 

Freedom is a wildly misunderstood concept.  It is not a release from restrictions, rules, or responsibility, freedom as frequently understood by a college student away from home for the first time.  Freedom is notthe opportunity to choose anything whatsoever, whenever, to make those choices without consequence or criticism. Dogs and monkeys do that because low animals have no free will and, as they are driven by instincts they bear no responsibility for their actions.  Freedom is not the ability to adopt individual or idiosyncratic attitudes toward life or morality.  Human freedom is not the right to decide who shall live and who shall die, at the beginning of life, the end of life, and anywhere in between. Rather than being freedom from, human freedom is freedom for.  It allows us confront the temptations the evil one, the world,  throws in our way.  Free will allows us to say yes or no. It allows us to decide for or against ourselves. It allows us to maintain our integrity.  Only humankind can decide for or against God in freedom.  Only we have sufficient understanding to choose to reject sin. 

 

When describing her adolescence, St. Edith Stein wrote: "I consciously and deliberately stopped praying so as to rely exclusively on myself; so as to make all decisions about my life in freedom."  Years later, now a Carmelite nun, she described how she had been  released from the self-imposed shackles of atheistic pseudo-freedom to find radical freedom in the science and shadow of the cross.

 

“Come let us worship the Lord  

who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.”   

____________________________________________

The photos below are from Slovenia in 2016.  As I transfer photos from a few slunky USBdrives to a muk h smaller and faster solid state drive I am revisiting memories, reprocessing, and so on.  All of the shots were taken within a 1/2 mile radius.  

Tivoli Park and Tivoli Castle

This is the kind of display that screams  TAKE A PHOTO

In a wheel chair in the melting snow

Golden arches are everywhere

Lent Is Not About Weight Loss: Homily for Ash Wednesday

Fasting, ashes, and sackcloth have signified sorrow, mourning, penitence, atonement, and humility since the Book of Genesis.   We read in this opening book how, when Jacob was told that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal he "tore his garments, put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned his son for many days."  In Jonah we learn how, when the prophet proclaimed that which was to befall Nineveh, the people . . . proclaimed a fast  "and all of them, great and small,  put on sackcloth . . . and the king sat in ashes."  And, as we will hear in Sunday's gospel, Jesus fasted for forty days in the wilderness. Only at the end of that time did  the evil spirit tempt him. 

 

We are not called to fasting and penance for the sake of fasting and penance.  Fasting is not meant to be its own goal.  If undertaken without the desire for interior conversion it is nothing more than Weight Watchers without the points or Oprah's exhortations.  We read in Isaiah:  "This is the fast I desire . . . to unlock the chains of wickedness . . .to let the oppressed go free . . . to share your bread with the hungry . . .  and not to ignore your own kin."  Thus the triple prescription for Lent: fasting, prayer, and alms giving must be accompanied by inner conversion. 

 

In his book God or Nothing  Robert Cardinal Sarah of Guinea wrote: "The relief we must bring to the poor and to afflicted people is not just material but spiritual."  He goes on to quote Pope Francis' exhortation Evangelii Gaudium "I want to say, with regret, that the worst discrimination which the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual care."

 

One sees proof of that discrimination in the sins committed by hospital administrators, nursing home administrators, public health officials, and many others  who forced the critically ill and the dying elderly to die alone, bereft, oftentimes terrified, uncomforted by the presence of even one family member at the bedside, and deprived of confession, absolution, and last rites for no good reason.  Hysteria and health care do not mix well.

 

As was true of the prophets before Him,  Jesus' call to conversion and penance is not to be manifest solely in outward signs such as ashes, sackcloth, and fasting.  Fasting, prayer, and almsgiving are hypocritical when divorced from interior conversion and used only as a form of virtue signaling.  Lent is not meant to be a season of 'give ups.' It is equally important, perhaps more so,  that it be a time for taking on; taking on extra time for prayer, reading of sacred texts, particularly the gospel, or contemplation.  The time required need not be dramatic.  Ten or fifteen extra minutes are perfectly adequate in the context of overly busy lives.

 

Our ability and desire to care for others, our willingness to attend to the needs of others, can only grow from prayer and meditation on scripture.  As the late Jesuit Father Stanley Marrow wrote in his commentary on John's Gospel: ". . . loving with utmost generosity and utter selflessness, even to laying down of one’s life, is not uniquely Christian.  What distinguishes, or must distinguish, Christians is:  when they love, they love asChrist loved them and because he loved them."  

 

Before washing your face tonight look in the mirror at that smudge of ashes, no matter how faint it has become. Ask what it means to you.  What does it mean for the next forty days. And then pray the words the responsorial psalm, the great Miserere.

 

"A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.  

Cast me not out from your presence 

and your Holy Spirit take not from me.

 

O Lord, open my lips
and my mouth shall declare your praise."

________________________________________________________

Recall that you are dust and to dust you shall return.

+Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Sirach, Luke, and Drunk Texting: Homily for the 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 Sir 27:4-7

Ps 92

1 Cor 15:53-58

Lk 6:39-45

 

The readings from Sirach and Luke pose the same question, arrive at the same answer,  and offer the same warning. Sirach advises:  "Praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested."  Luke observes:  " . . . from the heart the mouth speaks."

 

Throughout the book of Sirach the author uses images from daily life and experience as a means of instruction in how to live. Here we are reminded that the results give the measure of the person. Publicity, an air of bravado, and good looks count for little except in the worlds of celebrity and politics.  Instant communication and social media have created treacherous minefields that did not exist in the past.  Today Sirach might write,  "Praise no one before he Instagrams"  and Luke might observe that the heart reveals itself in the sound bite.  Many remember the advertising campaign, "Friends don't let friends drive drunk." Excellent advice at all times.  It was no surprise when the riff on this theme appeared as: Friends don't let friends text drunk. Excellent advice. 

 

It is always amusing to watch a celebrity spout off an opinion and then have to retract, grovel, and apologize.  Indeed, the offender oftentimes quotes the gist of Sirach when whining:  "But that's not who I am."  Perhaps it is.  It is difficult to retract an ill-advised comment in the current cancellation culture dominating the U.S, especially if that comment is misattributed,  misquoted, taken out of context, or manipulated to fit an accuser's agenda.  

 

The power of speech is unique to humans.  No lower animal possesses anything approaching speech. True, each species has a repertory of squeaks, squawks, shrieks, growls and other primitive sounds that allow for a type of communication. But only humans have the gift of words that can be combined into sentences and  paragraphs, poetry and prayer, that can foster peace or precipitate war.  Words that can explain complex scientific principles or ease a grieving heart.  In scripture speech is frequently symbolized by the tongue, the extraordinary organ that gives humans the ability to form words consistently and intelligibly. Both Sirach and Jesus advise control of the tongue, control of what one says and how one says it. 

 

Babette's Feast, the 1988 movie that won the Best Foreign Film Oscar, is a perfectly made film. It is not, as one critic described it, a semi-comedic food movie.  It is a profound meditation on the Eucharist and the importance of the Eucharistic banquet in creating a community, maintaining that community, and, most critically, healing the rifts that inevitably develop in any community or family. In one scene during the titular feast a woman tells the splintering community:  "The tongue, that strange little muscle, it has accomplished great and glorious deeds for man.  But it's also an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." 

 

There is nothing one can add to describe the power of human speech, the effect of what we say, how we say it, and to whom we say it. That strange little muscle, can caress the words of the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the uncountable number of prayers that we utter in times of distress and sorrow as well as in times of celebration and joy.  That strange little muscle can also destroy another's happiness or ruin a reputation in moments.  We are, and will truly be, known by our words. 

 

The psalm assures us: "The just one shall flourish like the palm tree, like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow. . . They shall bear fruit even in old age; vigorous and sturdy shall they be . . ." Yes, even in old age. 

 

We are two days away from Ash Wednesday. Lent gives us an opportunity to examine our lives, to evaluate our deeds, and to reconsider our words, those things that tell the world what we are, who we are, and how we are. Those things that reveal the stores of goodness in our hearts or allow the evils we harbor there spill forth.

 

The gospel antiphon gives us all the instruction we need: "Shine like lights in the world as you hold on to the word of life."

_____________________________________________

One of the most surprising places I've visited was Saigon.  I was permitted to stop in Vietnam on the way home from tertianship in Australia.  I'd planned ten days in Saigon before heading off to Taipei.  Had I known I would have stayed longer in Saigon and less in Taipei as I'd been there several times and was more interested in spending time with my buddy Ignatius than in touring.  

The photos are of the Cathedral Basilica in Saigon.  All of the building materials, including the bricks, were brought over from France.  Because the bricks were not glazed they have remained brightly colored, which explains the nickname "The Red Cathedral."  

In much of Asia there is no secrecy surrounding the bride's gown or big reveal at the processional.  Bride and groom are photographed well before the wedding with the photos oftentimes on display at the reception a few weeks later.  No one could pay me enough to be a wedding photographer.  

There is a barrier at the back of the church preventing tourists with cameras from wandering about. 

Sculpture of the Blessed Mother in front of the Cathedral. 

+ Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

No Arty, It is NOT okay: 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 1 Sm 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23

Ps 103

1 Cor 15:45-49

Lk 6:27-38

 

The first reading is instructive. 

The second one is explanatory.

The gospel is prescriptive. 

 

And the psalm offers consolation in our struggles.

 

The first reading instructs us on the difference between envy and jealousy, words that are oftentimes used interchangeably as if they were synonyms.  They are not. The distinction is important.  Envy and jealousy are different emotions that drive different behaviors. The behaviors associated with jealousy are potentially more damaging, destructive, and dangerous than the behaviors characteristic of envy, though envy may deteriorate into jealousy. 

 

Envy means coveting or wanting what someone else has. It can drive either positive behaviors or disastrously maladaptive ones depending on the individual.  Thus, it can motivate someone to try harder.  Imagine a student who envies a classmates grades and wants similar ones.  And then he observes his friend and realizes that studying more and gaming less will help. However, envy that puts someone into financial distress because "I want the same Mercedes that my neighbor has" or "I gotta' have those granite counter tops like my sister's" can be destructive and result in deep debt.  Rather than wanting what the other has, jealousy is fear, sometimes an incorrect or even delusional fear, that someone will take what I have from me.  It can drive violent, destructive, and murderous behavior.  Shakespeare had a field day with jealousy in Othello. 

 

The story of Saul and David is one of envy that deteriorated into homicidal jealousy on Saul's part. The tragedy began with Saul envying David's popularity and skill.  Saul wanted people to sing his praises the way they sang David's.  With time Saul became obsessed that David would usurp his power. That obsession drove his desire to kill David so as to prevent him from taking what Saul had.

 

For his part David was far from perfect.  He was a man with many serious flaws, a man who sunk to an abysmal low in his tawdry affair with Bathsheba. Like all of us he was a sinner: a sinner who was loved by God and forgiven when he repented though the penalty for his adultery was harsh.  In this particular narrative, however, he showed himself to be virtuous when he refused to kill Saul despite the perfect opportunity to do so.  "Today, though the Lord delivered you into my grasp, I would not harm the Lord's anointed.”

 

The politicians of both parties in this country could learn a lot from David.  

 

Envy, jealousy, and their associated behaviors are rampant in our society, in the halls of congress and state legislatures, and in just about any other venue one can name. While not rare in Rome that is a homily for another time.

 

Attempted murder is generally frowned upon in the halls of government, at least in the U.S. But . . . . character assassination, false accusations, backstabbing, and slander on social media are modern equivalents.  Destroying another's reputation is as lethal as a spear through the heart. 

 

The second reading explains the reason for sinful human behavior in concise terms.  Adam, the first man, was from the earth and of the earth.  Thus, Paul wrote: "As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly."

 

We will be reminded of our earthly origins in just ten days as ashes are imposed on our foreheads to the formula, "Recall that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return."  No getting around that fact.  We are from the earth and will return to it in due course.

 

Jesus, the new Adam, was of heaven. In his obedience he atoned for the sin of Adam, the original sin that we carry within us, the sin of arrogance and pride. The penitential prayer in the Carthusian rite of the Mass is simpler than in the Roman .  It begins: "I confess to Almighty God that I have sinned through pride . . . "  Pride was the sin of Adam and Eve.  

 

Jesus the heavenly man is the image we desire.  That image is within our grasp.  As Paul wrote, "Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one."

 

But how can those of the earth bear the image of the one of heaven?  The prescription is given in the gospel. It is not an easy-to-fill prescription, it is definitely not an over-the-counter remedy, by any stretch of the imagination. Love your enemies . . . . Bless those who curse you . . . Offer unstinting generosity . . . Do to others as you would have them do unto you . . . Some of those prescriptions are particularly challenging today:  Do not judge . . . . Do not condemn . . . Forgive and be forgiven . . . And, a second mention of unstinting generosity.

 

The politization of covid has resulted in appalling judgments of others, harsh condemnations, and vile imprecations, on both sides of the issue. At the end of October a column by Arthur Caplan an NYU bioethicist  who is fortunately not a physician charged with the care of the ill, appeared on Medscape, a physicians' website under the title: "IT IS OK FOR DOCS TO REFUSE TO TREAT UNVACCINATED PATIENTS." Not only is it not OK to refuse treatment on the basis of vaccination status, it is immoral, not unlike those passers-by who ignored a brutalized man lying in the gutter until a Samaritan happened upon the scene. Some celebrity types have suggested that it is permissible to punch in the faces of  those who refuse to be vaccinated.  Do not judge.  Do not condemn.  Yeah, right.  

 

The challenges here are great.  When is calling something sin judgmental and in error and when is it necessary to call sin for what it is?  When must we forgive?  What is unforgiveable?  When is it possible to restore trust?  When must we remain forever untrusting of another?  Each of us must struggle to answer these questions. The struggle is eased by the consolations in the psalm:  

 

"He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion."

 

True, we must ask for that pardon and healing. Ideally, it helps us to amend our lives.  But . . . . pardon, redemption, and healing are there for the asking. 

 

"Merciful and gracious is the LORD,"
slow to anger and abounding in kindness 

Not according to our sins does he deal with us,

nor does he requite us according to our crimes."

 

In response to this consolation we can only sing to acknowledge, "The Lord is kind and merciful."

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Down in Connecticut.  Weather is miserable.  Very damp.  Did indoor photography of cheese and bread.  There is less cheese today than when I arrived two days ago but that is to be expected.    

+ Fr. Jack, SJ, MD
 

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

13 February 2022

Jer 17:5-8

Ps 1

1 Cor 15:12, 16-20

Lk 6:17, 20-26

 

 

"Happy is the man 

who has not followed the counsel of the wicked, 

or taken the path of sinners, 

but for whom the teaching of the Lord is his delight . . .

 

Not so the wicked; 

they are like chaff that wind blows away. 

The wicked will not survive judgment 

in the assembly of the righteous."

 

Thus begins the psalter; the Church's ancient prayer book of 150 hymns, that comprise most of the Liturgy of the Hours. The importance of the psalter for the Church's liturgy cannot be overemphasized. There is no time of the day that it is not being recited or chanted, be it in hurried fashion by a busy religious holding a breviary with multi-colored ribbon markers, the monk or nun using with neumes of ancient chants in choir, or, in a new development of today, from the backlit screen of an iPad or iPhone.

 

The introduction of the responsorial psalm into the Mass was a positive development that allows greater familiarity with these hymns.  While the importance of the psalms cannot be overemphasized, it is similarly difficult to overemphasize the importance of this first psalm to the rest of the psalter. 

 

In one of his homilies on this psalm St. Basil the Great indicated that the foundations and structures around things and upon which things are constructed, must be proportionate to their purpose and size.  Thus, the foundation of a tall building must be sunk deep into the earth if it is to support the structure's height and mass; the keel of a large merchant ship must be sufficiently large and deep to keep it steady, even in rough seas.  

 

Thus, the psalms that are so important to the spiritual life of the Church and the individual, must have a firm and deeply anchored starting point.  Sometimes called Beatus Vir, Psalm 1 has been set to music by many composers including Mozart in his exquisite Solemn Vespers of the Confessor.  Beatus vir is that starting point, foundation, and steadying keel of which Basil speaks.  Both the first reading and the gospel appear to rely on it. 

 

The dating of the psalms is uncertain.  Current opinion is that many of the first 50 or so psalms were pre-exilic, coming into use before the 59 year exile from Jerusalem  that began in 587 BC and ended in 538.  It seems reasonable to assume that Jeremiah ben Hilkiah, a prophet who was active from 626 BC until the captivity of Jerusalem in 587 would have been familiar with this psalm.  As in the psalm,  Jeremiah warns of the woes that will befall the one whose heart turns away from the Lord,--the one who begins to believe his or her PR--and likens him or her to a barren bush in a salt wasteland.  He then praises the one who trusts in the Lord, the one who will remain fruitful even during times of drought because of his or her nearness of the source of nourishment: God's law.  

 

Unlike Matthew's eight beatitudes all of which follow the same pattern of consolation: "Blessed are they who . .  . . for they will be . . ." Luke enumerates the woes that will befall those who fail to trust in the Lord.   Thus, while the first four statements in what is known as  The Sermon on the Plain begins with the personal "Blessed are you . . . ." the tone changes in the final four statements that begin with, "But woe to you who . . . "

 

These woes are addressed to those who are rich and satiated, who laugh and are well-thought of.  The woes don't necessarily condemn those who are materially wealthy, happy, have enough to eat, and are renown and respected.  Rather, they stand as a warning to the comfortable of the world whose prosperity and notoriety has turned them away from God and the demands of His covenant.  Those whose love of power, or narcissistic enchantment with their own abilities, drives them to flaunt God's law.

 

Subtly underlying the woes is the reminder that worldly comfort can change over night. The stock market crash of 1929 set off a ten-year long economic depression from which many never recovered. In our day the 'covid crash' has had similarly catastrophic effects on the lives and well-being of many, particularly those who are, or were not, materially comfortable to begin with. But there is an even more malignant side to this covid crash. That is in the treatment of others.

 

Were this gospel to continue further, though still be within the Sermon on the Plain,  we would hear Jesus' teaching on love for one's enemies, for the other, for the one whom we interpret as a threat or danger. Alas, U.S. society has taken a tack of persecuting those who do not toe the party line. 

 

I am still at a loss to explain the column that appeared in late October on Medscape, a physician's website.  Written by bioethicist Arthur Caplan of NYU the attention-grabbing title was: "It's OK for Docs to Refuse to Treat Unvaccinated Patients." Fortunately, Caplan is a PhD and not a physician entrusted with the care of patients. While I cannot share my initial response to the column in sacred space without risking a lightening strike, the fallout was swift and sure with over 700 comments on a website in which 100 comments is an enormous response.  The majority ranged between negative and condemnatory, including one contributor who declared he was discontinuing his subscription.  

 

Not only is not OK to refuse to treat non-vaccinated patients it is immoral to refuse treatment on that basis, not unlike those passers-by who ignored a brutalized man until a Samaritan happened upon the scene. 

 

Back in the early-80s when AIDS was still a mysterious illness the hue and cry was loud against physicians who refused to treat AIDS patients or those whose lifestyles put them at risk. Apparently things have changed.  Of course the usual suspects in Hollywood have emerged from the woodwork to pontificate with suggestions that it is OK to punch the unvaccinated in the face.  These are the ways of the wicked to which the psalmist refers.

 

We are living through very dark ethical and moral times.  Happy the one who follows not the counsels of the wicked, but rather the way of the Lord   . . . . .even when that way is difficult and perhaps dangerous.  

_______________________________________

Didn't post for the past few weeks as on one Sunday I was celebrating in Portuguese but not preaching, there was a blizzard on another and I did not even attempt to get to Framingham, something I knew would happen very early in the blizzard.  Things are a bit more under control.  

Am in the process of moving all of my photos, over 100,000, from three or four USB drives to a high capacity solid state drive.  As a result I am revisiting places I've been and thoroughly enjoying the process.  Below are some shots from Slovenia, a period of time that represents some of my best experiences in the Society.  

Taken on one of the most perfect evenings in April that one can imagine. 

Lake Bled, the most popular tourist draw in Slovenia.  Only got there once and, alas, it was cloudy until the last hour before we left.  I was with a group for whom I'd celebrated Mass and thus had no control over the schedule. 

One of the first shots I took in the country.  The yellow church at the end is the Cathedral.  I spent ten months trying to recreate that shot but . . . . 

The church at Preddvor in the mountains. 

One of the outdoor cafes.  I lived close to the center of the old city and thus made many many trips in the evening and after dark to shoot.  

Monastery cloister in NE Slovenia