Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Lectionary: 543

“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.


Joseph of Bethlehem was certainly delighted to find himself betrothed to the lovely Mary of Galilee. If he knew little about her, she was young, attractive, pleasant, and of a respectable family. We can only imagine his dismay when he learned she had a past. There was more to her than met the eye, but that would become too apparent soon enough. He was suddenly afraid to take Mary into his home.

If he was the first to face this dilemma, he was not the last. Even in the fourth century, as the bishops approached Nicea, many refused to accept Mary into their relationship with the Lord. She was the mother of Jesus, they were willing to grant, but that made little difference to them. She had done her part in bearing Jesus of Nazareth, they supposed, now let her disappear into the past and be forgotten. They could not accept and would not use her title, Theotokos -- the Mother of God. 

And they had their reservations about Jesus. He was a good man, like many others. A saint! He had been possessed by the Son of God, but was not himself the Son of God. He too had done his part in manfully bearing God's Presence within him even to Calvary. He certainly cooperated fully and completely with God's plan of salvation for the human race. A hero! 

But not God. He was a man who'd been used by God to show his fellows the way of salvation. Act as Jesus acted and you too will be saved. An extraordinary man, a role model, an example! But not God. God had gone as far as God could go -- as God should ever go -- in using the man to demonstrate the way we should live. But God had neither suffered on Calvary, nor died on a cross, nor been buried in a grave. Nor would he descend into hell. Jesus might have, but not God. 

We can only imagine their consternation when they were shouted down by the roar of most bishops attending the Council of Nicea, and voted into obscurity. They must have suffered disgust when they heard the spontaneous festivity of the city celebrating Mary's new title -- Mother of God! -- throughout the night. 

But there are still many who are afraid to take Mary the Mother of God into their homes -- because she still comes with a past. Her past now includes all the sins of the Church that God her Son gave her with his dying breath. Those children, despite their sins, heard and obeyed his command, "Behold your mother." 

They include drug-dealing Mexican drug dealers with their images of Our Lady of Guadalupe; and Italian mafia who demand that images of Santa Maria di Polsi bow before the home of their crime boss. The Church denounces these abuses of her image, but that matters little to those who shun the company of sinners.  

To belong to Jesus we must belong to the sinful Church which loves the Lord and his Mother. We approach the altar through the narrow doors of the baptismal font and confession box. Idealists abandon their ideals and purists, their purity when they enter the Church to greet its people with a holy kiss. We might not like the people we meet in Church; we might hold grudges against former spouses, adulterous in-laws, and shady neighbors. But there they are, and here we are, together in Joseph's house.

Everyone has a past. If you love someone without knowing their past you love only an image of your ideal self. If we know little of Saint Joseph's past, we can admire the way he accepted Mary's and ours. True, he hesitated for a moment. But he never looked back as he fled his home and career in Bethlehem to take her and her son into Egypt. 

Saint Joseph knew Psalm 106 like everyone of his fellow Jews, and would pray with them, "We have sinned; we and our fathers have sinned." And by that prayer, he became a saint. 

Monday, March 18, 2024

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 251

Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”


This terrifying story ended with a sigh of relief touched with humor. The enemies went away one by one. The Lord had given them permission to stone the woman, with only one proviso -- that the one who had not sinned should cast the first stone. The rest of the sinful pack could proceed in their bloody game with abandon. Apparently none would claim innocence of sin before the rest of his brothers. 

Suddenly alone in the street with the woman, the Lord sent her home. With no one to condemn her, there was no need for a trial or condemnation. Jesus had said to Nicodemus, he had not come to condemn anyone; why would he do so now? Her innocence was again presumed. As to the man with whom she'd committed the sin -- if there was such a man -- he had already escaped the sentence of death, but he'd not heard the kind words of Jesus. His guilt remained. 

What do we make of the story? Interestingly, "Generative AI" offers this self-contradicting analysis of adultery in the United States: 

As of 2022, adultery is a criminal offense in 16 states. However, prosecution for adultery is rare because many adultery laws are considered archaic. Adultery is defined as a married person having sexual intercourse with someone other than their spouse. It can be punishable by a fine or even jail time. Adultery is a crime in most of the United States and occurs in most American marriages. However, states' anti-adultery laws are rarely enforced. Some states with anti-adultery laws include: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi. Adultery can also subject you to court-martial in the United States military.

An unenforceable law is no law. Apparently, police, prosecutors, and judges have assumed the same attitude, "Neither do I condemn you."  

The Catholic Church believes that adultery is a serious sin. It is a violation of the covenant between a husband and wife; it is sacrilegious because the marriage covenant reflects the Covenant of God with his people. We cannot conceive of God abandoning his Church. We attend Mass and receive the Eucharist with the assurance that the Lord gathers us into his Real Presence. So long as two or more pray together, he is with them; in fact, he called them together.  Upon this rock he builds his Church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. 

If we had to trace the origin of much of the waywardness of American society to its origin we might point to adultery. There is the most obvious form of illicit liaisons between consenting adults; there are the more subtle forms of spouses failure to be with one another. Alcoholism comes between many couples, as do preoccupations with work, leisure, and family. 

Every faithful couple struggles to maintain their awareness of their marriage, keeping it ahead of every other concern. They make decisions together; and when they must decide separately, they talk it through. They shape their lives around their needs for togetherness and separation; and no two marriages are alike because every married individual is unique. 

But, as the scriptures attest, there is nothing new about adultery. It's been around forever. And the Lord continues to withhold his punishing hand as he leads us by the hand into every deeper union with him, 

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Fifth Sunday of Lent

 Lectionary Year B Readings

I am troubled now.  Yet what should I say?
‘Father, save me from this hour’?
But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name.”


John the Evangelist recalls only a brief moment when Jesus suffered any human hesitation as he approached the hour of his death. The synoptic gospels -- Mathew, Mark, and Luke -- give us more detailed accounts of the Lord's Agony in the Garden. He fell to the ground at the thought of what was about to happen; he sweated blood as he realized he would be dead by this time tomorrow. 

But Saint John's Jesus reflects serene, presidential confidence from his first appearance in the Jordan River through his passion and death, and into his Easter appearances. In today's gospel, as the shadow of anxiety passes over the Lord, he immediately settles his soul with the prayer he has taught us, "Hallowed be thy name." It's virtually the same as "Glorify thy name." 

His mission and ours is to give glory to God. From the moment God spoke to Abraham, eighteen centuries before Gabriel spoke to Mary, the mission of God's people has been to glorify God's name. Other people may know something about God. The Greek philosophers, for instance, supposed there should be a supreme being; but they had no name since he never spoke to them or revealed his name to them. 

Our hallowing of God’s name, in obedience to the Lord's Prayer, begins with our reverence for the word God; and continues with our straightforward, direct language. Christians have no need to swear, as Jesus taught us:

...you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say…. Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.

Our hallowing the name of God the Father, the holy name of Jesus his son, and the Holy Spirit goes beyond not abusing the words. As God's holy people we bless God’s name when we speak of the wonders God has done for us. We are blessed in so many ways, and we must practice that attitude of gratitude. There are a billion obvious things for which we thank God from our birth – especially because of the parents who welcomed and did not abort us. To our food, shelter, security, education and opportunities And our health – such as it is. Everyone who has ever visited or stayed in a hospital knows there’s someone worse off than me. We thank God for our health, our breathing, and our being human. 

We also remember the miracles when he healed us from the hurts we’ve suffered – especially those things that have been done to us. They are manifold, ranging from unintended insults to the cruelest, most deliberate crimes. By the Grace of God, and because we obey him, we learn to let them go. No regrets, no resentments, God delivered me from that place, that hurt, those people, and I have no need to go back. Praise God for that! 

We hallow God's name by our cheerful generosity to others. If we are not generous, if our behavior is uncivil; our attitudes, cynical; and our thoughts, self-absorbed, then we dishonor God’s name. For the world is watching, and they know we are God’s people and are told to be holy as he is holy. 

During Lent we approach the Sacrament of Penance to celebrate God’s mercy. The confession of our sins also glorifies God’s name. Like our fathers and mothers from ancient times, we remember and own their sins and ours; and that the Lord persistently, consistently, repeatedly forgives us for pretty much the same sins time after time after time. 

Our life stories must become gospel stories, like the story of Jesus’s passion, death, and resurrection. If our gospels are different from his, it’s only in that they include the sins we have committed, while he is without sin.

In today’s gospel, Jesus reminds us, “It was for this purpose that I came to this hour.” He must glorify God’s name by his passion and death. He would betray his mission if he blamed anyone for his death; he would not save us if he condemned the Jews, or the Romans, or anyone else for what happened that day; as He said,

This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.

Every time we say “forgive us our sins,” we admit to anyone in earshot that we have sinned, and thereby we Glorify the God who stands with us in our guilt, shame, and remorse. 

That prayer is a sure sign of God’s mercy. It shows that the Holy Spirit still lives in our hearts; he still calls us together; his words still find utterance on our tongues, and God’s Holy Name is still glorified in us. 


Saturday, March 16, 2024

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent

 Lectionary: 249

But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge,
searcher of mind and heart,
Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause!


Several years ago, when I was younger and more adventurous, I was riding my bicycle on a reasonably wide and very straight country road. There was ample room with a wide berm for two lanes of traffic. But as I pedaled, wearing no more protection than a t-shirt and shorts, a car full of teenagers swerved out of their lane to pass within inches of my handlebars. 

I was astonished and angry at the whole group -- I could see some turning around to look back at me as the car passed -- and I cursed them. And then I remembered there was a severe curve about a mile up the road and hoped they'd miss the turn. I went further; I said a prayer that the driver would lose control and the car would flip over. 

That's how I felt about their threat to me, and I said it aloud. All the saints and angels heard me say it in the presence of God. 

But then, as the calm of the open highway returned to my soul, I considered that there was only one person driving the car; and he or she had made the foolish, impulsive decision to terrify me. Not all the riders had wanted him to do that, though they might have said nothing in protest. They probably have parents and relatives who would be grieved at the accident, and would never know about the threat I'd suffered. I began to repent of my prayer. 

I decided to let the Lord choose and exact whatever revenge he should take for what I'd suffered. He would be my champion and defender, and the judge of all. When I got to that treacherous curve there was no evidence of an accident, and I was relieved. 

I've often heard that anger is a sin. I don't believe that. We witness God's wrath in the Old and New Testaments, and we often read about the anger of the prophets and saints, and the avenging angels. 

If we don't get angry enough to do something, an awful lot of things never change. 

Anger may cause me to sin, and for that I am responsible. But I might, in sheer joy, throw a hammer through a window. Elation doesn't make it right; it's just as sinful whether I was mad, sad, or glad when I threw the hammer. 

In today's first reading, we hear Jeremiah's prayer for revenge. We was not a powerful warrior. He seems like a rather smallish fellow, very lonely with his mission, and respected only as an unpopular prophet. When he was abused he felt hurt and angry and wanted revenge. What could be more natural than that? And so he prayed that the Lord would judge between him and his enemies. 

God's people, following the example of Jesus, the prophets, martyrs, and saints, let the Lord be our protecting shepherd. He leads us away from danger and, when necessary drives away the wicked thief, wolf, bear, and lion. If he allows us to suffer, it is with him. And the saints call that a privilege


Friday, March 15, 2024

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 248

"Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
Reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
He professes to have knowledge of God
and styles himself a child of the LORD.
To us he is the censure of our thoughts;
merely to see him is a hardship for us....


Wisdom in today's first reading describes the world's reaction against the people of God. Because they represent the Presence of God in the world, they are obnoxious. Which is to say, the world despises God, and those who love the Lord have a peculiar relationship with the world around them. We live in this place but are not of this place. We love our home although our home hates us. 

We consider that dilemma especially within the season of Lent. Our musing begins with world, a word often used in the Gospel of John:
Most often, the world is that place which the Lord loves and has come to save. 

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16-17

But the world is also ignorant of God and responds with hostility. 
‘If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you. (John 15:18-19)

And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement... John 16:8

...about judgement, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. John 16:11

Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. John 16:20

In his most famous work, Models of the Church, Father Avery Dulles described four different ways that Christian churches typically respond to the world. He offered the study as an ecumenical way for the various denominations to understand and find agreement with each other. 

The first and fourth are extremes; the first is entirely comfortable in the world and readily recognizes and endorses its best values; the fourth is as hostile to the world as the world seems to be hostile to it. There are two types of church between them, which Father Dulles also described. The second strives to find its comfortable place in the world despite knowing there are intractable problems with that posture. The third is more suspicious of the world, knowing that the world cannot survive the judgment and wrath of God. 

As I recall from reading the book over fifty years ago, Dulles appointed the Anglican churches as those most comfortable in the world. He cited the statues of Washington and Lincoln in the Washington Cathedral. Washington attended the church though his beliefs were essentially deist; Lincoln had read and could quote the Bible, but did not often attend Christian services. 

Their opposites, some fundamentalist churches loudly denounce the values of the world, and insist that their faithful never participate in worldly pleasures like athletics, the arts, dances, and card games. They should never smoke, drink, curse, or cuss; although they might quarrel and feud with abandon, especially when they suspect infidelity in their congregations.

Amish and Mennonites might be those churches which maintain a bemused distance from the world without loudly condemning it. Some encourage their youth to cautiously explore the world and thereby discover the wisdom of their pious elders who have tasted its delights and found them insipid. Hopefully, the youth return to the fold and raise their children within their traditional religious communities.

And finally, Catholics and mainline denominations -- which comprised the vast majority when Father Dulles produced his book -- live in the world but remind their faithful to practice a healthy skepticism toward its values. (As I recall, today's Evangelicals were hardly a blip on the religious radar screen in 1974, when the book was published.)

Lent, I believe, is especially that time when our penitential practices must separate -- if not isolate -- us from the world around us. We might not go out to as many restaurants; we might select religious reading over entertainment; we might serve the church more actively by working the fish fries; and so forth. 

The Liturgy of the Hours offers a mature, traditional, and familiar practice of faith. It is recommended by its spiritual solidarity with hundreds of thousands who read the same prayers in many of the world's languages. 

In the end, in the apocalyptic moment when the Lord judges all the nations, we cannot expect much sympathy for our trials from the world and its peoples. They will maintain their culture of death with abhorrent practices like abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment to the end. They will continue to oppress minorities and exploit children while neglecting the elderly. 

They understand only power, and must despise both the weak and those who renounce the pursuit of power. They cannot stand a crucified god; the very notion is absurd to them. 

Lent calls us to restore and revive our faith in the Crucified who was raised up for our salvation. Lent reminds us that we expect this world to end in a cataclysm of failure and disappointment, as we are delivered into eternal bliss. 

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 247

The LORD said to Moses,
"I see how stiff-necked this people is.
Let me alone, then,
that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them.
Then I will make of you a great nation."
But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying,
"Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people....


Moses's conversation with the Lord about the people they are leading through the wilderness is a study in frustration. They go back and forth between them. One complains while the other condoles; and then the other threatens to give it up while the other reassures. These people are not easy to deal with!

But let me digress for a moment: As I read the wonderful selections of the patristics each morning in our liturgical Office of Readings, I find that the great bishops of the early church often failed to connect these people -- the Old Testament grumblers, complainers, and traitors -- with the New Testament church. In other words, they left the implication that the Jews were sinfully ignorant of God's mercy, but we Christians get it

We don't. Our magisterium -- that spiritual church that is securely guided by the Holy Spirit -- gets it but we don't. We are still the sinful children of our Old and New Testament ancestors. Salvation is from the Jews and Christians who think they are superior to Jews of the new or old covenant are in mortal danger. Enough said! (for the moment.)

Jesus is the new Moses who, like his ancestor, intercedes continually before the Father for his sinful Church. As we hear the LORD's complaint in today's selection from Exodus we should tremble with fear for our Church, our nation, and ourselves. Can anyone do atonement for our sins? Can the crucifixion and death of one man close the breach that has opened through the walls of our holy city; can it purify the streets, shops, and homes of this bewildered center of the earth?

In today's gospel we watch the Lord stand strong before his opponents. He argues reasonably against their irrational opposition. He is insists that they have the credible testimony of first, John the Baptist; second, the works of God which he has done and they have seen; and finally, the scriptures. These witnesses acknowledge the authority of Jesus. 

"But you do not want to come to me to have life." 

We have no excuse for our refusal to trust him with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.

As we approach Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter we recognize our failure even to observe the practices of Lent. Many of our good intentions have been compromised; some of them never got off the ground! Nor has the world paused to admire our Lenten observance. They noticed the hilarity of Mardi Gras; they might have taken part in it. But Lent is a wash; it's not on the calendar.  

And so we begin again, two weeks before Holy Thursday, to walk with the Lord as he atones for our sins, the sins of our ancestors, and the appalling criminality of the human race. Can one man's prayer be heard before the just anger of God; can one man's death atone for so much?

Yes, if he is the Son of God. We hope and pray and believe that he is. 



Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 246

"My Father is at work until now, so I am at work."
For this reason they tried all the more to kill him,
because he not only broke the sabbath
but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.

Saint John Henry Newman was probably influenced by Darwin's doctrine of evolution when he showed how the doctrines of the church survive through innumerable obstacles and heretical challenges. In a sense, they survived because they fit our experience of the Lord and his Gospel.

Today's gospel suggests that it was Jesus's opponents who first recognized his equality with God the Father. The evangelists, both those who wrote and those who preached, would work with that principle as they announced the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord to the world. The teaching didn't fit Greek notions of a supreme being, but the Lord's relationship as the Only Begotten Son of God was too solidly anchored in every writing of the New Testament to be denied. 

In today's gospel from John 5, Jesus describes his work as identical to the Father's. When he speaks of the authority to judge he has received from the Father, we should remember the two judgment seats as described in John 19. First there is the seat on which Pilate placed him while the mobs shouted for his crucifixion. Although he is our divine judge and savior, in that moment the mobs judged him while Pilate washed his hands of the whole business. And then there was the cross, which was a throne of pain. Although the Lord is both innocent and helpless, those who prefer the darkness condemn him and thereby bring condemnation on themselves. 

When we speak of doctrines like Trinity and Incarnation our conversation can become pretentious and erudite. Such notions seem like grand ideas for late night, college dorm conversations but irrelevant in the "real world." It helps to remember we're speaking of existential matters like condemnation and death. Our beliefs would be more palatable to God's enemies if we didn't insist on the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the Eucharist. But they would not be worth dying for either.  

Jesus calls us to be obedient children of God because he is the Obedient Son of God; he invites us to serve because he came not to be served but to serve. Our life begins not in the distant past when our mothers bore us, but in this moment as we serve the Living God. He summons us to worship God within the same House of the Holy Spirit which unites the Father and the Son in mutual love.