Friar’s Corner #752: 10/11/15: Twenty-Eighth of OT; 4th Week of Christian Prayer.
Sunday, Oct11: Twenty-Eighth of OT: Wisdom 7:7-11 (I deemed riches nothing in comparison to wisdom.); Ps 90:12-17 (Fill us with Your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy.); Hebrews 4:12-13 (The Word of God discerns reflections and thoughts of the heart.); Alleluia, alleluia! Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Alleluia, alleluia! Mark 10:17-30 (Sell what you have, and follow Me.)
Theme: Fill us with Your love Jesus, and we shall sing for joy. Alleluia!
Holy Spirit, please fill us with more of Your wisdom.
Worldly wisdom according to "Webster’s New World Dictionary," #4 is "a wise plan or course of action." In business this leads to a successful, productive and comfortable life style. In Biblical times this kind of wisdom was written by scribes in royal courts like Egypt. Yet don’t get too close to the Pharaoh because when he dies you will die with him so he has your gifts for his comfortable afterlife. We see this very much in our commercialism and relativism today or you might say “political correctness.” "This comes from a pagan and political worldview. Disciples of Jesus are not called to this.
In Jewish scriptures, the Wisdom literature books describe a God- dimension to that good living. In Jesus’ time, for a Jew to be more well-to-do or wealthy, was the result of a good and wise way of living. Jesus often took objection to that way of thinking, as in Mark’s section today.
Commentators see three areas in these pronouncement stories. All of them relate to worldly possessions:
a) the rich man (vs17-22)b) a teaching on wealth and the reign of God (vs 23-27)c) and assurances to those who surrender possessions (vs28-30).
I don’t want to come down on those who have a lot of money. Some of that could be God’s gifts and their own ingenuity in business transactions as long as they were not cheating their poor workers in wages, etc. The question would ”What are they doing with that wealth? How are they sharing it to help some who are very poor, rescue the unborn and respect our planet?”
The rich young man was basing his salvation on obeying the Ten Commandments. We don’t earn heaven by legalism. Salvation is a pure gift of God. We need to accept Jesus and the atonement He won for us, forgiving our sins, by His death of the cross. That brings us into His new kingdom. Then we need to follow Jesus’ basic principles of loving God fully, those closest to us, spouse, children and family, and our neighbors and we love ourselves.
My sense in praying over these pronouncements is that there are layers of people who follow Jesus. You have the apostles who are closest. Then there are two larger groups of men and women who are disciple and students. They get the core teachings about the good news of Jesus. As they evangelize and bring Christ’s message to others they have to adjust the message to their audiences according to time and circumstances. The same is true for us today. I sense these groups became the clergy as the church increased. Peter was married (Jesus healed his mother-in-law early in His ministry). Jesus promised those closer ones:
"There is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come."
As I have given up having a wife and children, my family has never gotten smaller but larger. I have been adopted into many families through my various assignments. I saw 250 young men every day when I taught high school in Levittown, PA. I think those in these categories were clergy. And add to that today, religious and those single for the gospel.
Most of the world’s population is not called to the clerical state but to be married, sharing a unique love for their spouse. Then they are called to help God create and educate His children to help bring salvation to those around them in the future. The primary key is loving Jesus first as we see Him relating to people in the 4 gospel stories. He was walking through Palestine looking for the blind, crippled, lame and broken, bringing them His fantastic healing love. As Jesus touches our lives and fills us with more and more of His love, we exalt and sing for joy at being loved so much. Every day Jesus’ church offers us more of His love to equip us to take Jesus from the church and be His hands and love, blessing God’s children we meet each day. We need His power to share His love. At times the joy is truly amazing. Yet not all will accept His love any more than they accepted Jesus’ message when He was physically on earth.
Let us find the obstacles in our own lives that keep us from Jesus and rush to be filled with His love, so we can love others more. Have a blessed week. Peace and all good, + Fr. Bob Hilz.
Monday, Oct 12: [We now begin the beautiful letter of St. Paul to the Romans. Amazing!] Rom 1:1-7
(Through Christ Jesus we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles.), Ps 98:1b-4 (The Lord has made known His salvation.), Luke 11:29-32 (This generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.)
N.B.: For those following Jesus’ messages of Divine Mercy, today is the feast of St. Faustina Kowalska <though still not on the U.S.A. calendar>, 1905-1938, Polish religious and Mystic. She was born in Glogowiec near Lodz into a large peasant family. She only had three winters of formal education. After several years working as a domestic servant she entered the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy. Faustina zealously performed her duties as cook, gardener and doorkeeper. She led an unusually rich spiritual life with various mystical gifts. Through her Jesus expanded the understanding of the love of His Sacred Heart given to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in what we now call Divine Mercy. Her mission was to be Jesus’ secretary of Mercy or love. Jesus gave us an image, novena, rosary, prayer at 3 p.m. and a new feast. God’s Mercy is at the very heart of our Catholic Faith. Her diary is now counted among the outstanding works of mystical literature. She died in Cracow, was beautified by Pope St. John Paul II in 1993 and canonized on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 30, 2000.)
Tuesday, Oct 13: Rom 1:16-25 (Although they knew God they did not accord Him glory as God.), Ps 19:2-5 (The heavens proclaim the glory of God.), Lk 11:37-41 (Give alms and everything will be made clean for you.)
Wednesday, Oct 14: (optional memorial of St. Callistus 1, Pope and Martyr, d + 222. It is said that he was a slave. He was a founder of a bank in Rome where the baths of Caracalla now stand. He was in prison a few times and after he was free he was ordained a deacon by Pope Zephyrinus. He was in charge of the cemetery which later became that of the popes. He was elected pope in 217 but an opposing minority resisted and thus caused the first schism in the Church. During his 5 years as pope he defended traditional Catholic teaching, made changes in penitential practices and in marriage law. Although there was no persecution of the church then he was said to have been martyred in 222. His tomb was not discovered until 1960.) Rom 2:1-11 (God will repay each person according to their works, Jew first and then Greek.), Ps 62:2-3, 6-7 and 9 (Lord, You give back to everyone according to their works.), Lk 11:42-46 (Woe to you Pharisees and scholars of the law!)
Thursday, Oct 15: {memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church, 1515-1582. She was born in Avila, Spain, and joined the Carmelite Order. Teresa reformed the order with the help of St. John of the Cross. In those years after her own conversion and following the Council of Trent, she contributed greatly to a renewal of the entire Church. Her highly active life in no way distracted her from an equally contemplative one, as she wrote several outstanding works of ascetical and mystical life. Her spiritual teachings are a guide to a life in union with God. She was declared a Doctor of the church in 1970.} Rom 3:21-30 (A person is justified by faith apart from works of the law.), Ps 130:1b-6b (With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.), Lk 11:47-54 (The blood of the prophets is required, from the blood of Abel to that of Zechariah.)
Friday, Oct 16: (memorial of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin, 1647-1690. She was born at Burgundy, France, of a middle class family. At 24 she joined the Visitation nuns at Paray-le-Monial where she advanced in the life of perfection. From December 1673 to 1675 she received remarkable private revelations concerning the Sacred Heart of Jesus: a new image, a new feast, a new novena of Masses and Holy Communions on the First Fridays of 9 consecutive months and an hour of adoration and reparation before Jesus in the Eucharist for the sins of humanity. Jesus wanted to draw all of France into His Sacred Heart and do special things there but King Louis refused. Almost three hundred years later Jesus expanded this understanding of His love and Mercy for humanity with more revelations given to an almost illiterate Polish nun, St. Faustina Kowalska, in the 1930s. Yet St. Faustina is still little known in this country among the clergy. St. Margaret Mary was canonized in 1920.) Rom 4:1-8 (Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteous.), Ps 32:1b-2, 5 and 11 (I turn to You, Lord, in time of trouble, and You fill me with the joy of salvation.)
Saturday, Oct 17: (memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr, 50-107. He was probably born in Syria. He may have been a disciple of St. Peter and Paul, or possibly of St. John. One tradition declares that he was the child mentioned in Matthew 18:1-6, who was placed by Jesus among the Apostles. Ignatius succeeded St. Peter as bishop of Antioch. He was called Theophoros (God-bearer). It is in Antioch that the followers of Jesus were first called Christians. He was arrested and sent to Rome under the persecution of Emperor Trajan in 107. He is most noted for the 7 letters he rote to various churches on the way to Rome that are among the earliest and richest Christian writings about marriage, the Eucharist and the Incarnation. He begged people not to prevent his martyrdom since he wanted to get to heaven by that means. He was thrown to wild beasts in the Roman Circus.) Rom 4:13 and 16-18 (Abraham believed, hoping against hope.), Ps 105:6-9 and 42-43 (The Lord remembers His covenant forever.), Lk 12:8-12 (The Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.)
Sunday, Oct 18: Twenty-Ninth of OT: Isaiah 53:10-11 (If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life.); Ps 33:4-5, 18-2 and 22 (Lord, let Your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in You.); Heb 4:14-16 (Let us confidently approach the throne of grace.); Alleluia, alleluia. The Son of Man came to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Alleluia, alleluia! Mark 10:42-45 (The Son of Man came to give His life as a ransom for many.)
Nancy Ward: www.JoyAlive.net