A Homily - Ash Wednesday (Year B), A Holy Day of Obligation

First Reading – Joel 2:12-18 ©

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 50(51):3-6, 12-14, 17

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 ©

Gospel Acclamation Psalm 50:12, 14

Alternative Acclamation Psalm 94:8

The Gospel According to Matthew 6:1 – 6, 16 - 18

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

The anointed one is not a king, Jesus was not a lord; the Romans may have crowned him with thorns, but to them it was a joke, they were mocking him when they called him king of the Jews.

Jesus was a man of the land, one of the am haaretz, his anointing came through death and through his death he showed us the way of compassion.

Remember.

It is right and good to pray for the people. It is even better when you do so, to leave the temple, to leave the church, to be with those who are suffering, knowing that God, the creator of the universe, that God will not intervene in the suffering we experience apart from our agency. God has equipped us all to be able to deal with extraordinary grief and hardship, we have been equipped with everything we need to lift-up those among us who have been struck down.

When you speak to people as a Christian, and much more so if you are speaking as a minister of the Church, speak to them with a spirit of modesty and humility; go to them as a servant.

Celebrate, rejoice and be grateful. Share the good news: that God is with you and that God is kind and that God is caring. Do so, even knowing that God will not intercede in the course of our lives. God will not free us from oppression, alter our material condition, remove us from the path of danger. God relies on us to do that work, for our sisters and brothers, on behalf of the divine,

If you wish to share the good news, make your life an example of it.

If you wish to show that God is with us, be with the suffering.

If you wish to show that God is good, exhibit goodness in your own life.

If you wish to show that God is kind and caring, then you must be kind and caring…even if imperfectly.

Be mindful.

With God there is never justice without mercy, there is no judgement without love.

Know that when we seek forgiveness from the divine, we are looking for something that has already found us, which is not to say that we should not seek it.

When we come to the knowledge of our trespasses and we are contrite, that contrition is the shower that washes us, this is the baptism of repentance, symbolized by the water, the reality of which is a fait accompli.

We are all sinners.

We are animals.

There is little difference between the human being and the wolf, or the lion, except that God speaks to us from our innermost being, God is present at the core of our personhood. By being present to us in this way God gives us the power to overcome our animal nature, a nature that is bloody and raw. God gives us the grace to live a holy life; and the wisdom to pursue it in good conscience.

There is no crime that God has not forgiven…rejoice.

Do not look for God’s hand in the tribulations we suffer, or the rewards we enjoy during the time we are on Earth; our troubles are like the wind, fleeting and ephemeral, temporary and accidental as brief as the pleasures we may enjoy.

Consider the teaching of the apostle: our salvation is the work of God; God has done the work, beginning as Saint John said, in the first moment of creation, with the light in the darkness, all things come to being in the Word

Know this!

The fall, such as it is, happens subsequent to and in the context of God’s saving work.

Jesus revealed the truth of it, and entrusted we who follow the way with the task of sharing it.

This is the gospel:

You are reconciled to God.

There is no debt to pay.

Allow the burden of sin, and the fear of it to fall away from.

Be glad.

It was always God’s plan that we fall and rise together, that we rise and fall as one…because we are one, we are joined together from the beginning, in the goodness of God, and we cannot separate what God has joined.

The apostle tells us in the simplest terms that the mission of the church is to announce the reconciliation.

Hear this!

Everyone is reconciled in God’s love; there are no exceptions.

The members of the church are meant to serve as ambassadors of this good news.

The church is not, nor should it ever be structured like a recruiting agency, obsessed with signing up members and promising a reward that has already been given freely by the creator.

The mission of the church is to proclaim the reconciliation, to proclaim that every day, from here to eternity, that every day is the day of salvation.

All creation belongs to God, all that is good and all that frightens us, everything comes from God and will redound to the good.

This is the essence of faith.

Therefore be mindful!

You will have no reward from God in this life.

Consider the Gospel reading for today:

Do not seek glory or glorify yourself in public.

Do not seek admiration from the world at large.

Do as Jesus said: pray in private, not in public, do not boast of your piety.

Do not brag on how much you give to the world, or how well you pay your employees, do good for the sake of doing good, be fair for fairness’ sake.

Go to your work and to your disciplines gladly, if you are fasting then fast, smile and be happy.

This is the way to proceed, not just for the season of Lent, but for all the days of your life.

 

First Reading – Joel 2:12-18 ©

Let Your Hearts Be Broken, Not Your Garments Torn

‘Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks – come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning.’

Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn, turn to the Lord your God again, for he is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness, and ready to relent.

Who knows if he will not turn again, will not relent, will not leave a blessing as he passes, oblation and libation for the Lord your God?

Sound the trumpet in Zion!

Order a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, call the people together, summon the community, assemble the elders, gather the children, even the infants at the breast.

Let the bridegroom leave his bedroom and the bride her alcove.

Between vestibule and altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, lament.

Let them say, ‘Spare your people, Lord!

Do not make your heritage a thing of shame, a byword for the nations.

Why should it be said among the nations, “Where is their God?”’

Then the Lord, jealous on behalf of his land, took pity on his people.

 

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 50(51):3-6, 12-14, 17

Our God comes and will not be silent!

Devouring fire precedes him,

it rages strongly around him.

He calls to the heavens above

and to the earth to judge his people:

“Gather my loyal ones to me,

those who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

The heavens proclaim his righteousness,

for God himself is the judge.

Were I hungry, I would not tell you,

for mine is the world and all that fills it.

Do I eat the flesh of bulls

or drink the blood of he-goats?

Offer praise as your sacrifice to God;

fulfill your vows to the Most High.

You hate discipline;

you cast my words behind you!

 

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 ©

Be Reconciled to God

We are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s name is: be reconciled to God. For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God. As his fellow workers, we beg you once again not to neglect the grace of God that you have received. For he says: At the favourable time, I have listened to you; on the day of salvation I came to your help. Well, now is the favourable time; this is the day of salvation.

 

Gospel Acclamation Psalm 50:12, 14

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!

A pure heart create for me, O God, and give me again the joy of your help.

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!

 

Alternative Acclamation Psalm 94:8

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!

Harden not your hearts today, but listen to the voice of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!

 

The Gospel According to Matthew 6:1 – 6, 16 - 18

Your Father Who Sees All that is Done in Secret Will Reward You

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Be careful not to parade your good deeds before men to attract their notice; by doing this you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win men’s admiration. I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing; your almsgiving must be secret, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.

‘And when you pray, do not imitate the hypocrites: they love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues and at the street corners for people to see them; I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when you pray, go to your private room and, when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.

‘When you fast do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do: they pull long faces to let men know they are fasting. I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that no one will know you are fasting except your Father who sees all that is done in secret; and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.’

 

Ash Wednesday (Year B), A Holy Day of Obligation

Frank Herbert – Author, Intellectual, Hero

I had been an avid reader since I was eight years old, when in the third grade, I began reading novels. I quickly began to read the books that inspired me most, over and over again. I read all kinds of things, but at the age of fifteen I still mostly read fiction; it was then that I first read Dune.

It was 1984. I had taken a copy from the carousel of paperbacks in the English Room/Library at the alternative high-school I was attending. I read that copy, perhaps not as carefully as I should, but as carefully as I could, I found it somewhat dense, even challenging.

I went to see the motion picture when it came out later that school year, in 1985. Needless to say, I found David Lynch’s adaptation to be one of the worst movies ever made, and with that screening Dune passed from my thoughts for a time.

However, in the summer of 1988 I was visiting a friend in Bigfork, Montana. I was in a bookstore looking for something to read on the bus ride home to Minneapolis. I picked up a copy of Dune.

Four years had passed since my first go at it, my understanding of the world had expanded, I was able to engage the book in a completely different way…and I was hooked; I was nineteen years old and Dune changed my life.

Since then I have read it and the other five books in the original Dune series, eight times over, as well as everything else Frank Herbert wrote…if I could find it in print.

Frank Herbert was a giant, among the foremost intellectuals of his era; I am deeply indebted to him. I have given away dozens of copies of Dune throughout my life, and recommended it to more people than I can count, always with these words born directly from my experience:

This book will change your life.

Many (not all) came back to me to tell me that it had.

Frank Herbert wrote science fiction, but the science he wrote into his fiction had less to do with spaceships and laser beams (though it had those things), and more to do with the science of politics, religion, ecology and psychology…with the multi-dimensional human-person occupying the center of his imagination.

Through his insight Herbert challenges the reader to explore what it means to be human. He asks open-ended questions about the range of human potential, in a way that allows the reader to believe in those possibilities for themselves…his own view concerning the range of human potential is inspiring.

He believed that we can do more, be more, see more of the world than our senses allow…if we are disciplined. He believed that if we are attentive to the world around us, if we cultivate within ourselves the desire to live a life without fear, we will secure a future for humanity beyond our solar system, we will spread throughout the galaxy…and beyond it.

Frank Herbert died thirty-eight years ago today, and a heroic light left the world.

He is missed.

A Homily – The Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 31(32):1-2, 5, 11 ©

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Ephesians 1:17, 18

Alternative Acclamation – Luke 7:16

The Gospel According to Mark 1:40 – 45 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Consider the reading from Leviticus articulating the grounds on which you may cast a person out, the leper, or anyone with a lesion on their skin that will not heal. This is not the way, Jesus embraced the leper, he healed them. His ministry was directed toward outcasts, unmarried women, roman soldiers, tax collectors, Samaritans, the sick and the diseased.

 Know this!

 All sins are forgiven by God, it is easy for the divine; grace flows as easily as the kindness of a loving parent. It is difficult for us to forgive each other, but it is not difficult for God, with whom all things are possible. It is a much more difficult proposition for to accept forgiveness, from each other and even from God.

 It is impossible to hide our sins, our guilt from God; for God knows us even as we know ourselves, we cannot hide our anger or self-loathing, God knows us better than we know ourselves and God understand all things.

 Remember.

 We are easily led into error, and susceptible to self-deception, it is common trait that all human being are liable to.

 The psalmist asks us to observe the people all around us, their state of being; and to bear witness to the fact that we are all beautiful and fragile, imperfect things…creatures. The psalmist asks us to bear witness to how we endure misery in our guilt, we carry it until we are able to admit our faults and ask forgiveness, We are encumbered by our anger until we are able to forgive those who have hurt us.

 Jesus bore witness to those truths and encouraged his followers to walk the path of humility, the path of love and mercy, to seek reconciliation through forgivness, to forgive and be forgiven…this is the way.

 Consider the wisdom of the apostle:

 He taught us that we are together, in this life and the next; we are one. Truly, we are one people; one being, one body as the apostle says. We are not made one through baptism, confession, and the other sacraments. We are one because God created us this way, in and through the divine-self, the sacraments are merely visible signs of this eternal truth.

 Understand this.

 The relationships we have with each other are real. Our relationships (far and near), are a part of who we are. They belong to our essential nature. Even the relationships we have with people we do not know are constituent elements of our being.

 We are in relationship with all those future generations of people that have yet to be born, we are in relationship with them as we are with the past, as we are the totality of what is now. Therefore, how we behave toward one of our neighbors, is truly how we treat ourselves, it directly reflects our love for God and demonstrates our commitment to the way.

 Take the time to be a model of God’s love, as Paul attempts to do, model that love at all times in all places, to all people…insofar as you are able.

 This is the way and there is no other.

 Do this in remembrance of Jesus, and God whom he called Father.

 Be mindful.

 There is hope in the knowledge of God.

 Take the hope you have for yourself, and extend that hope to everyone…this is the way.

 If you think that God has promised riches and glories, a great treasure as an inheritance for the saints: remember, that the first will be last and the last will be first, heavenly riches are not counted in gold and silver and precious things.

 The Church is meant to be a guardian of the meek and a caretaker of the sick, to defy the conventions of modern life, to seek the blessing of the divine through service to your community. We are meant to be advocates for mercy in the interest of justice, and to be humble all the days of our life.

 Consider the Gospel for today.

 The ministry of Jesus was that of a healer. He healed the body of disease, he freed the minds and the hearts of his followers.

 Jesus’ intention was not to subvert the existing order or to encourage people to abandon the temple. He did not aim to overthrow the priesthood, or to undermine the law. Jesus did not seek fame for himself or to be rewarded for the fruit of his ministry and service. Nevertheless, people sought him out, and as a consequence he was forced to teach and perform his ministry beyond the margins of society.

 His ministry grew until he was forced to become an itinerant preacher. He was followed by large crowds and could not stay in one place too long. His ministry continued to grow until it attracted the attention of the entrenched powers and became a threat to the general social order…and then they killed him.

 His ministry was fruitful because it was rooted in love, because it was fearless, and because he was an authentic servant of the people.

 

First Reading – Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46 ©

The Unclean Man Must Live Outside the Camp

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘If a swelling or scab or shiny spot appears on a man’s skin, a case of leprosy of the skin is to be suspected. The man must be taken to Aaron, the priest, or to one of the priests who are his sons.

‘The man is leprous: he is unclean. The priest must declare him unclean; he is suffering from leprosy of the head. A man infected with leprosy must wear his clothing torn and his hair disordered; he must shield his upper lip and cry, “Unclean, unclean.” As long as the disease lasts he must be unclean; and therefore he must live apart: he must live outside the camp.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 31(32):1-2, 5, 11 ©

You are my refuge, O Lord; you fill me with the joy of salvation.

Happy the man whose offence is forgiven,

  whose sin is remitted.

O happy the man to whom the Lord

  imputes no guilt,

  in whose spirit is no guile.

You are my refuge, O Lord; you fill me with the joy of salvation.

But now I have acknowledged my sins;

  my guilt I did not hide.

I said: ‘I will confess

  my offence to the Lord.’

And you, Lord, have forgiven

  the guilt of my sin.

You are my refuge, O Lord; you fill me with the joy of salvation.

Rejoice, rejoice in the Lord,

  exult, you just!

O come, ring out your joy,

  all you upright of heart.

You are my refuge, O Lord; you fill me with the joy of salvation.

 

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1 ©

Take Me for your Model, as I Take Christ

Whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do at all, do it for the glory of God. Never do anything offensive to anyone – to Jews or Greeks or to the Church of God; just as I try to be helpful to everyone at all times, not anxious for my own advantage but for the advantage of everybody else, so that they may be saved. Take me for your model, as I take Christ.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Ephesians 1:17, 18

Alleluia, alleluia!

May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our mind, so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Luke 7:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

A great prophet has appeared among us; God has visited his people.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 1:40 – 45 ©

The Leprosy Left the Man at Once, and He Was Cured

A leper came to Jesus and pleaded on his knees: ‘If you want to’ he said ‘you can cure me.’ Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. ‘Of course I want to!’ he said. ‘Be cured!’ And the leprosy left him at once and he was cured. Jesus immediately sent him away and sternly ordered him, ‘Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.’ The man went away, but then started talking about it freely and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived. Even so, people from all around would come to him.

 

The Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Author, Philosopher, Hero

When I was early in my teens my reading habits began to move away from science fiction and fantasy literature that occupied my imagination, providing content for my dreams.

Just when I was beginning to lift my face from the acid washed pages of my comic worlds, looking past the American authors they were teaching in school…Lewis, Fitzgerald and Steinbeck, I found Dostoyevsky resting on the shelf…and a whole new dimension of literature opened up for me.

Dostoyevsky wrote from the crossroads where literature becomes philosophy; he exposed the human condition at that juncture.

He was a novelist, and through him I came to understand the power that narrative has to convey certain truths that touch all human beings.

There are no authors more adept at this function than the Russians, with Fyodor Dostoyevsky being the foremost practitioner.

His influence on me was profound.

From Crime and Punishment and Notes from the Underground, to The Idiot and the Brothers Karamozov, I spent years reading the body of his work, from my mid-teens through my twenties and into my thirties. I tracked down his cannon until all that was left were translations of his notebooks beginning…which I read.

I purchased the notebook for A Raw Youth at a bookstore in Minneapolis (Majors and Quinn). I was in the Navy, I was home on leave, my friend Lucy was with me.

In those pages I could see the way Dostoyevsky constructed the arc of his narrative, how he developed his characters from ego to id, from false-self to true-self, from privilege to despair and back again...the movements of the soul.

The book was used and there was an imperial ruble tucked into its pages. I think it was serving as a bookmark, left by whoever was last to read to it.

Dostoyevsky I found, was the father of modern existentialism, and through him I learned to admire Charles Dickens, whom Dostoyevsky considered to be the greatest author of all time.

It has been one hundred and forty-three years since Dostoyevsky went into the dirt, his influence has not waned, human beings have not changed and his insight into the dilemma of existence remains sound…I think…it is well suited to the digital age.

Observation, February 9th, 2024, Friday

a warm February

today is cooler than it has been

 

there is a breeze,

it rattles my windows

A Homily – The Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Job 7:1-4, 6-7 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 146(147):1-6 ©

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 8:12

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 8:17

The Gospel According to Mark 1:29 – 39 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Consider the ancient wisdom of Job.

 Life is brief and often a struggle; there is no guarantee of joy, even though we were made for it.

 Let me say this again, we were made for joy, but suffering is universal. Therefore, be kind to one another, we cannot tell what tomorrow may bring.

 Consider the words of the psalmist who teaches that God, creator of the universe, that God establishes the conditions for all things to come into being. In wisdom God established the cycles of life and death. Material power of no concern to God, and God does not seeks honors, title, or glory...though it is good to our thanks and praise.

 We honor God when we emulate God’s love for creation, when we pursue a ministry of justice through the exhibition of mercy, when we bend our will toward healing, when we feed the hungry, welcome the exile, clothe the naked and house the homeless.

 For those who seek to follow the way of Jesus, these are not metaphors, these are the concrete steps that must be taken.

 Be mindful of the apostle, pay careful attention to how he thinks and speaks of himself, and remember, like all men the apostle is liable to the vice of vanity.

 Paul chose to follow the way; it was a choice he to accept the ministry. God did not coerce him.

 Know this.

 The apostle does not deliver people to salvation; God, and God alone is the savior. We are saved by grace; we are saved because God wills it. The work of Christian ministry is to demonstrate it.

 Be mindful.

 We are all in the way, and the way does not exclude anyone. Through the way we are all moving toward God, the divine source of all being; we are moving inexorably toward fulfillment in the divine.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today.

 In Mark’s the mission of Jesus is often treated as a mystery, though not a total mystery, his purpose on earth is presented like an open secret.

 Jesus cast out devils and cured those who were afflicted by them, then he forbade those whom he had healed from speaking about him or his works. According to the narrative they knew who he was, Christ the Messiah, but he did not want them to spread the news, not at that point in time.

 This pattern plays over and over again in Mark, encouraging the reader or hearer to regard this as a matter of cosmic significance, as if keeping the secret until the exact right moment mattered in some way to Jesus’ mission. It is depicted as a stratagem, as if the salvation of the world and the ultimate triumph of good or evil, of God’s victory over the Devil, is somehow dependent on this secret being kept.

 Reading the Gospel this way may be viewed as a later interpolation, something placed into the narrative as a means of explaining to the audience that Jesus, who was in fact God’s own self, knew everything that was about to transpire, from the beginning of his mission to the resurrection, and that he did not broadcast it because not broadcasting it was a part of the divine plan.

 Set this aside, it is fantasy.

 This is what the Gospel tells us: from the beginning of his mission Jesus was concerned with healing, the cure of souls and service to his neighbors. His mission was to save them, to provide some comfort, show some love and give some relief.

 To be saved is to be made well, that is the literal meaning of the word salvation, and the savior is not engaged in a cosmic conflict, the savior is concerned with the resolution of ordinary suffering.

 Jesus taught the way, and the way is a path to liberation; he did not want the powerful factions in Jerusalem, in the temple or the synagogue, the power of the royal family, or the power of Rome to come down on him or his followers. Therefore, he made the way, a way of peace and perseverance, of communitarianism and service.

 In this he summarized the whole of the law and the teaching of the prophets. 

 

First Reading – Job 7:1-4, 6-7 ©

My Life is but a Breath

Job began to speak: Is not man’s life on earth nothing more than pressed service, his time no better than hired drudgery?

Like the slave, sighing for the shade, or the workman with no thought but his wages, months of delusion I have assigned to me, nothing for my own but nights of grief.

Lying in bed I wonder, ‘When will it be day?’

Risen I think, ‘How slowly evening comes!’

Restlessly I fret till twilight falls.

Swifter than a weaver’s shuttle my days have passed, and vanished, leaving no hope behind.

Remember that my life is but a breath, and that my eyes will never again see joy.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 146(147):1-6 ©

Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.

Alleluia!

Praise the Lord for he is good;

  sing to our God for he is loving:

  to him our praise is due.

Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.

The Lord builds up Jerusalem

  and brings back Israel’s exiles,

he heals the broken-hearted,

  he binds up all their wounds.

He fixes the number of the stars;

  he calls each one by its name.

Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.

Our Lord is great and almighty;

  his wisdom can never be measured.

The Lord raises the lowly;

  he humbles the wicked to the dust.

Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23 ©

I Should be Punished if I Did not Preach the Gospel

I do not boast of preaching the gospel, since it is a duty which has been laid on me; I should be punished if I did not preach it! If I had chosen this work myself, I might have been paid for it, but as I have not, it is a responsibility which has been put into my hands. Do you know what my reward is? It is this: in my preaching, to be able to offer the Good News free, and not insist on the rights which the gospel gives me.

So though I am not a slave of any man I have made myself the slave of everyone so as to win as many as I could. For the weak I made myself weak: I made myself all things to all men in order to save some at any cost; and I still do this, for the sake of the gospel, to have a share in its blessings.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 8:12

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the light of the world, says the Lord; anyone who follows me will have the light of life.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 8:17

Alleluia, alleluia!

He took our sicknesses away, and carried our diseases for us.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 1:29 – 39 ©

He Cast Out Devils and Cured Many Who were Suffering from Disease

On leaving the synagogue, Jesus went with James and John straight to the house of Simon and Andrew. Now Simon’s mother-in-law had gone to bed with fever, and they told him about her straightaway. He went to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to wait on them.

That evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils. The whole town came crowding round the door, and he cured many who were suffering from diseases of one kind or another; he also cast out many devils, but he would not allow them to speak, because they knew who he was.

In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there. Simon and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found him they said, ‘Everybody is looking for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came.’ And he went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out devils.

 

The Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Philosophy, Angelic Doctor of the Church

When I finally made it to university, I went to a school named for Saint Thomas Aquinas in Saint Paul, Minnesota; I studied philosophy and theology, and the classics too.

The University of St. Thomas was a grand place. It felt like a university, with its tall stately buildings made from massive blacks of light-tan sandstone, a stone that is ubiquitous quarried from the river bluffs along the Mississippi. The moment I passed through the arches into the quad I felt like I had arrived.

My time at St. Thomas was reasonably well spent; my studies adequately prepared me for advanced studies elsewhere (barely); I continued my theological work when I had graduated from there.

My work thus far, in the philosophy and history of Christian soteriology, is not as exhaustive as our Patron Saint’s achievement with his Summa Theologica (thus far), which remains a unique accomplishment in the history of Western thought. Nevertheless, my work is ongoing, and may one day make the mark.

The Summa, it should be noted, is more important for the mode of thinking St. Thomas  transmitted his ideas in than for the conclusions he presented in its pages. His revolutionary mind was ultimately constrained by a careful, cautious and conservative approach to theology that made him a defender of Church’s errors, rather than a reformer.

Regardless, St. Thomas successfully bridged the gap between the ancient philosophers: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle et al, and the proto-renaissance period of Western Europe, re-discovering the use of intellectual tools such as formal logic and discursive reasoning; he re-employed them in a way that allowed Europeans to leave the Dark Ages, clearing a path for the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason that followed.

Saint Thomas died on March 7^th, 1274.

In 1969 the Church moved the day we celebrate his feast to January 28^th, we celebrate his sainthood today.

Thomas Aquinas was Italian by birth and a member of the Dominican order; he is counted  among the “scholastics” and he was famous in his day. He died while making a pilgrimage, going along the Appian Way. Death took him at the Cistercian Abbey of Fossanova, and the monks there, fully cognizant of his fame, knowing that he would become a saint of great renown, coveted the relics of his body.

His hosts boiled his carcass down to the bones, and polished those to keep them clean and preserve them in good order. They kept all the water from the cauldron his body dissolved in for distribution in the relic-trade; they refused for years to turn his remains over to his Dominican brothers, parceling out his bones and the water bit by bit over years, keeping his skull until the very end.

The University of Saint Thomas has a vial of that water in its collection of sacred artifacts, a silly business, really, and beneath the dignity of the intellectual giant that Aquinas was known to be.

On his death bed it is reported that he gave an estimation of the value of his own contribution to the doctrine and dogma of the church, of which he said: everything is just straw.

There is a prayer that Thomas wrote, it is carved into a column of the main entrance to the school grounds at the University, the same arches that I walked through, my first day on campus, two stories below the offices of the Philosophy Department (which I belonged to). I recited that prayer aloud every day I attended classes.

It is a prayer that I carry with me, as if it were written in my heart:

Grant, O Merciful God

That I may ardently desire,

Prudently examine,

Truthfully acknowledge,

And perfectly accomplish

What is pleasing to thee

For the praise and glory

Of thy name

 

In the year 2024 CE, seven hundred and fifty years after the death of Saint Thomas, the world has become lost in another kind of dark ages, which is odd and sadly ironic because the current tide of anti-rational, anti-intellectual sentiment that has taken its grip on us has been seeded through the prevalence of digital media platforms that are in themselves a function of our mastery of light as a means of communication...there is some irony here.

We now find ourselves living in a milieu that disdains the truth, scientia, science and knowledge, and which undermines the roll of reason in public discourse.

It is saddening.

 In Western Europe the so-called dark ages are considered to have begun around the year 500 CE, with the reign of the emperor Justinian who insisted on a homogenous cultural throughout the empire, that all Roman citizens become Christian or leave. Tens of thousands of artisans, merchants, traders and teachers did just that…they left. This was roughly the same length of time, seven hundred and fifty years after the golden age of the philosophers, and roughly seven hundred and fifty years before Saint Thomas wrote his Summa.

 Let me be clear, I am not suggesting that there is anything inherently ominous in the pattern of years I have articulated, the numbers themselves are arbitrary and it would be unreasonable to suppose otherwise. However, we would be wise to acknowledge the trend, the descent of darkness has a cycle all of its own. We have fallen into this before and we are susceptible to do so again; this is what it means to be human.

 Once we have fallen it could take centuries to find the light again, and we are teetering on the brink of disaster.

 The overall fragility of our situation, our sitz im leben, our setting in life, brings to mind St. Thomas’s final words when reflecting of the body of his work…it is all straw, he said, nothing but straw.

 Everything we have built since the St. Thomas paved the way for the enlightenment, including liberal-democracy and acquiescence to human rights, could blow away with the wind, or burn up in a flash.

 Reason save us!