August 19, 2020
Wednesday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time

Gratitude Conquers Envy

“Are you envious because I am generous?” Matthew 20:15b

This line comes from the parable of the landowner who hired workers at five different times during the day. The first were hired at dawn, the second at 9 a.m., the others at noon, 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Those hired at dawn worked about twelve hours and those hired at 5 p.m. worked only an hour. The “problem” was that the owner paid all the workers the same amount as if they all worked a full twelve hour day.

At first, this experience would tempt anyone to envy. Envy is a sort of sadness or anger at the good fortune of others. Perhaps we can all understand the envy of those who put in a full day. They worked for the full twelve hours and received their full pay. But they were envious because those who worked only an hour were treated by the landowner with much generosity receiving a full day’s wage.

Try to put yourself into this parable and reflect upon how you would experience this generous action of the landowner toward others. Would you see his generosity and rejoice for those treated so well? Would you be grateful for them because they were given this special gift? Or would you, too, find yourself envious and upset. In all honesty, most of us would struggle with envy in this situation.

But that realization is a grace. It’s a grace to become aware of that ugly sin of envy. Even if we are not actually put into the position of acting upon our envy, it’s a grace to see that it’s there within.

Reflect, today, upon whether you see any traces of envy within your heart. Can you sincerely rejoice and be filled with much gratitude at the success of others? Can you sincerely be grateful to God when others are blessed with the unexpected and unwarranted generosity of others? If this is a struggle, then at least thank God that you are made aware of this. Envy is a sin, and it’s a sin that leaves us dissatisfied and sad. You should be grateful you see it because that is the first step in overcoming it.

August 18, 2020
Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Being First!

“But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” Matthew 19:30

This little line, tucked in at the end of today’s Gospel, reveals much. It reveals a contradiction between worldly success and eternal success. So often we seek out worldly success and fail to seek the riches that last for eternity.

Let’s start with the “many who are first.” Who are these people? To understand this we must understand the difference between the “world” and the “Kingdom of God.” The world refers to a purely vain popularity within any given culture. Success, prestige, vainglory, and the like accompany worldly popularity and success. The evil one is the lord of this world and will often seek to raise up those who serve his unholy will. But in so doing, many of us are enticed by and drawn to this form of notoriety. This is a problem, especially when we begin to take our identity in the opinions of others.

The “many who are first” are those whom the world elevates as icons and models of this popular success. This is a general statement that certainly does not apply to every particular situation and person. But the general tendency should be acknowledged. And according to this Scripture, those who get drawn into this life will be “last” in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Contrast this with those who are “first” in the Kingdom of God. These holy souls may or may not be honored in this world. Some may see their goodness and honor them (like Saint Mother Teresa was honored), but very often they are put down and considered undesirable in a worldly way.

What’s more important? What do you honestly prefer for all eternity? Do you prefer to be well thought of in this life, even if it means compromising values and the truth? Or are your eyes fixed on the truth and eternal rewards?

Reflect, today, upon the goal of building up treasure in Heaven and the eternal reward promised to those who live lives of fidelity. There is nothing wrong with being well thought of by others in this world, but you must never allow such a desire to dominate you or dissuade you from keeping your eyes on that which is eternal. Reflect upon how well you do this and seek to make the rewards of Heaven your exclusive goal.

I Desire Mercy

Putting up with annoying people: this too is a work of mercy, and we don’t always recognise it as such.

Living side by side, we Christians certainly try to love one another according to Jesus’ example and commandment. But despite everyone’s good will, occasionally people with very different personalities end up living together. Thus it is comforting to know that to put up with others is a work of mercy: to endure their behaviour, their awkward manner, their nagging; basically to lovingly disregard what are really minor shortcomings. Similar to feeding the hungry and visiting the sick, this is one of the works that will be asked of us at our ­final examination.

Servant of God Chiara Lubich

Monday 17th August 2020, 20th Week in Ordinary Time.

Man is the origin and destination of all economic activity

Today, when seeing the “paralysis” of this rich young man – incapable of responding to the call of love – we must consider the true meaning of the economic activity and its final purpose. Material goods are “goods”, but they are not men’s final end but men’s means: the authentic human development must be “integral”; it has to promote the good of every man and of the whole man.

Development needs above all to be true and integral: the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, because man is the source, the focus and the aim of all economic and social life. Economic crises tend to have a moral root, which obliges us to re-plan our journey: our world needs a profound cultural renewal and the rediscovery of values background.

—”Moral underdevelopment” – characterized by a short and restricted view of the person and his destiny – hinders authentic human development: human costs always include economic costs, and economic dysfunctions always involve human costs.

Saturday 15th August 2020, 19th Week in Ordinary Time

The Solemnity of the Glorious Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

  1. All Generations Will Call Me Blessed: When Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption, it was a cause of great joy throughout the Catholic world. Believed for centuries, it entered the realm of official Catholic dogma. Our Lady is brought to heaven to share in the glory and joy of her Son and our Lord. We have always looked to Mary as our mother, and so the feast of the Assumption continues to fill us with happiness. She is with Christ, and she is our mother more than ever. We entrust ourselves to her in the same way that Pope John Paul the Great did, “Totus Tuus.”
  2. Scattering the Proud: Proud people are generally very focused on whatever serves their best interests. So “scattering” is a perfect verb to use to indicate what happens to the proud when God goes into action. Mary rejoices in that “scattering,” but who are the proud? Maybe we don’t have to look any further than ourselves. How much we fight with that root sin of pride! Mary is happy when pride gets scattered, and the perspective we have widens. Instead of just seeing things from our myopic point of view, this scattering opens up the “thoughts of our hearts” to see others and their needs. Nothing is more Mary-like than that.
  3. Lifting the Lowly: This feast of the Assumption is proof that God literally lifts up the lowly. Like her Son and his Ascension, Mary is lifted up by God into the realm of eternal life. Sometimes we cling to our pride out of a sort of instinct of self-preservation—“If I don’t look out for number one, who will?” But Mary’s humility is a lesson for us. Our true self-fulfillment lies in becoming every day more filled with God; we can only do that if we are not filled with ourselves. Let’s ask Mary to help us to live more like her and experience the true joy—the lifting up—that there is in humility.

Happy Feast Day

Friday 14th August 2020, 19th Week in Ordinary Time

St Maximilian Kolbe. (1894 – 1941).

  1. Sexuality and marriage: they are sacred!

Today, with the Gospel, we look at sexuality as a central reality of Creation. Sexual diversity and marriage (where spouses will give each other their sex distinction) are sacred. It is not by chance that:

  1. God changes His language (“speaking” in the first person plural) when He is going to create man (“Let us make mankind in our image”);
  2. Christ dignifies the marriage with the category of Sacrament and thus, He attends a wedding at the beginning of His Ministry.

The word of God supports this tradition of the Church. Furthermore, in “Genesis” we read that God created us in His image, making us “male” and “female”. When two people give each other mutually and, together, they give life to their children, the Sacred is also affected: each person harbors the divine mystery. And so, the coexistence of man and woman also steps into the religious, the sacred, and the responsibility before God.

  1. Let no one separate what God has joined

Jesus responds to his contemporaries questions about the true meaning of marriage by underlining its indissolubility.

His answer, however, also provides the adequate foundation for Christians to respond to those whose stubborn hearts have made them seek to extend the definition of marriage to homosexual couples.

In taking marriage back to God’s original plan, Jesus underlines four things relevant to why only one man and one woman can be joined in marriage:

1) «In the beginning, the Creator made them male and female» (Mt 19:4). Jesus teaches that there is great meaning to our masculinity and femininity in God’s plan. To ignore it is to ignore who we are.

2) «Man has now to leave father and mother and be joined to his wife» (Mt 19:5). God’s plan is not that a man leave his parents and cling to whomever he wishes, but to a wife.

3) «The two shall become one body» (Mt 19:5). This bodily union goes beyond the short-lived physical union that occurs in the act of making love. It points toward the lasting union that happens when man and woman, through making love, actually procreate a child who is the perduring marriage or union of their bodies. It is obvious that man and man, and woman and woman, cannot become one body in this way.

4) «Let no one separate what God has joined» (Mt 19:6). God himself has joined man and woman in marriage and whenever we try to divide what he has joined, we do so at our own and all of society’s expense.

In his catecheses on Genesis, Pope John Paul II said: «In his answer to the Pharisees, Christ put forward to his interlocutors the Total vision of man, without which no adequate answer can be given to questions connected with marriage». Each of us is called to be the “echo” of this Word of God in our own day.

Tuesday 11th August 2020 is the feast of St Clare. (1193 – 1253).

Ezekiel’s experience of eating the scroll tells us how we should relate with God’s word. The word of God that we hear should go through us just as food goes through the digestive system. God requires that we hunger for it like food, masticate it through meditation, digest it and assimilate it so that it becomes part of our being. God’s word strengthens our resolve to live in obedience to God, and it empowers us to proclaim it to others from the depth of our being through a faith-filled life. Today’s Gospel tells us that only the word of God can show us the way to true greatness, which is the way of childlike simplicity and humility.

Children” before God (divine filiation)

Today, we wonder what it means “to be children”, which Jesus considers such an absolute necessity. According to Jesus Christ, to be children means learning to say “Father”. Man wants to be God and, giving this expression its correct sense, he should eventually reach out to God. To understand the huge force this word implies, it is necessary to read it with the perception of Jesus, the Son.

But when man chooses to be like God, while emancipating himself from God and rebelling against his status as a creature, putting himself above everything else and focusing on himself —as in the eternal dialogue with the serpent in the earthly Paradise— then he just ends with nothing, because he puts himself against his same truth, which means referring everything to God.

St Clare. (1193 – 1253). Italian.

At 18, Clare was not only beautiful but her parents were very wealthy. She gave up everything to follow the original Little One, Jesus Christ our Savior. Imitating St Francis of Assisi, the little poor man of Assisi, Clare embraced radical poverty. She founded the Poor Clares and modeled its constitution from what she learned from St Francis of Assisi.

I know one Poor Clare Nun, who made a great contribution to the world. Mother Angelica (+ 2016). She founded EWTN which is the only global Catholic Television Network in the world.

PHILOSOPHICAL PHENOMENOLOGY

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891 – 1942)

She was born into a practising Jewish family. She had a distinguished career as a philosopher and received a doctorate at the University of Freiburg, but her academic career was impeded because she was a woman.
Reading the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Ávila brought about her conversion to Catholicism and she was baptized on 1 January 1922. She taught at a Dominican girls’ school and studied Catholic philosophy. She became a lecturer at the Institute for Pedagogy at Münster but was thrown out of her post in 1933 as a result of the Nazi régime’s anti-Semitic legislation.
She entered a Carmelite monastery in Cologne and took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Her order moved her to the Netherlands to keep her safe from the growing Nazi threat. While a Carmelite she wrote an important philosophical book, seeking to combine the phenomenology of her former teacher Edmund Husserl with the philosophy of Aquinas, and she also wrote on St John of the Cross.
On 20 July 1942 the Dutch Bishops’ Conference had a statement read in all churches condemning Nazi racism. In retaliation the authorities ordered the arrest of all Jewish converts to Christianity. Teresa Benedicta was taken to Auschwitz and killed on 9 August 1942.

Sunday 9th August 2020, 19th Week in Ordinary Time.

“Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how [strong] the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” (Matthew 14: 27 – 30).

Why do we doubt the word of God? Jesus allows Peter to sink in order to teach us a lesson about the power of faith and the consequences of unbelief. God is truth and His promise is always true and certain.

When man listens to the devil, the Father of lies, what does he hear? Man hears that God does not mean what He says. You can’t trust Him. God is not kind and faithful. Look at the world and see the mess the world is in. It is all God’s fault. Satan deceived Adam and Eve through such lies. Peter started to sink because he took his eyes off Jesus and focused on the confusion all round him.

“The sum of your word is truth; and every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever.” “And now, O LORD God, you are God, and your words are true”; this is why God’s promises always come true. God is Truth itself, whose words cannot deceive. This is why one can abandon oneself in full trust to the truth and faithfulness of his word in all things.” (CCC 215).

When God said to Mary: You will conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit and become the mother of God. Mary chose to believe God.
When God said to Abraham to leave his country at the age of 75 and start a new life in a foreign country, Abraham chose to believe God. You too can choose today to believe the precious promises of God to you.

God Never Fails!

Saturday 8th August 2020, 18th Week in Ordinary Time.

St Dominic, OP (1170 – 1221).

The history of our Faith

Today it is encouraging to go back over the history of our faith, by fixing our gaze in Jesus Christ. In Him, who died and rose again for our salvation, the examples of faith that have marked these two thousand years of our salvation history are brought into the fullness of light.

By faith, Mary accepted the Angel’s word and believed the message, tasted the fruits of Jesus’ resurrection, and treasuring every memory in her heart, she passed them on to the Twelve. By faith, the Apostles left everything to follow the Master, they went out to the whole world, following the command to bring the Gospel to all creation. By faith, the disciples formed the first community gathered around the teaching of the Apostles. By faith, the martyrs gave their lives bearing witness to the truth of the Gospel…

—By faith, across the centuries, men and women of all ages, whose names are written in the Book of Life, have confessed the beauty of following the Lord Jesus.

St Dominic (1170 – 1221)

He was born in Castile (part of modern Spain) and became a canon of the cathedral of Osma. He accompanied his bishop (Diego de Azevedo) in a mission of preaching against the Albigensian heresy, which was then strong in southern France. While the official missions lived in formality and splendour, Dominic and Diego lived in extreme poverty, and prepared with great diligence for the debates that they held with their opponents. When the suppression of Albigensianism was undertaken by invasion and war of a particularly savage kind, Dominic continued to try to preach and persuade.
In 1216 he founded the Order of Preachers, dedicated to saving souls by preaching and persuasion. Like the Franciscans, founded a few years before, the Dominicans put great importance on poverty, both of the individual and of the community, and of the need to be involved directly in the world while still living some form of monastic life. At a time when the settled Benedictine monasteries had grown into great and rich institutions, this was a revolutionary and to some a subversive concept. The Friars made a lasting impact on the life of mediaeval Europe, and the Dominicans in particular altered the course of intellectual history by making a well-thought-out and rational response to the new learning that was appearing as long-forgotten thinkers such as Aristotle became known once more in the Christian West.
Dominic died at Bologna on 6th August 1221.