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Daily Scripture

+ 20th Week in Ordinary Time

I’ll do it myself.

Readings: Ezekiel 34:1-11 Psalm 23:1-6 Matthew 20:1-16

Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: because my shepherds did not look after my sheep, but pastured themselves and did not pasture my sheep, I will claim my sheep from them and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep. I will save my sheep, that they may no longer be food for their mouths. [Ezekiel 34:10]

There is much talk about a vocation shortage—fewer young men entering the seminary and fewer still persevering to ordination. Not withstanding some notable exceptions this has resulted in the lowering of standards for ordination. Moreover, priests and candidates for the priesthood are being ‘imported’ from other countries whose needs are as urgent as ours.

The prevailing accent seems to be on the need to have a sufficient number of priests to ‘say Mass’ and provide for the sacramental needs of the faithful. But surely in the light of the Second Vatican Council, priests need to be more than presiders at Mass and providers of the sacraments, as important as are these roles.

The earliest experience of the Church can be instructive in this regard. The notion of presbyter provided the early church with presiders for worship and leaders for base communities. Celibacy was not an issue and there was no clerical caste. The gifts of the faithful were recognized in such a manner that men and women, married and single fulfilled the spiritual needs of the community including the sacramental needs.

Notwithstanding the inadequacy of the notion of shepherding people (sheeple?) the need remains for qualified men and women to minister to the needs of the community.

Ezekiel warned the priests and assured the people of Israel that God would find away to pasture his people.

Ezekiel’s words need to be taken to heart again and in fact we already see that God is indeed providing a way through the action of the Holy Spirit in the lives of men and women, married and single, who are tending to the needs of the faithful.

Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time 'C'

Saturday November 10, 2007

Life is more than what the eye can see

In recent years, I have taken a dislike for movies that focus on physical or psychological violence. Perhaps my aversion is rooted in denial, that is, in my unwillingness to confront the reality of evil and violence in the world, indeed, in our free and open society. On the other hand, it is more likely the result of overexposure to the violence that seems to dominate the news and entertainment industry. Though I tend to be an optimist, current trends in both the political arena and even on the domestic scene within families and in the church have tempered my optimism notwithstanding the periodic glimpses of decency that rekindle a sense of hope in the human potential for heroism.

Several years ago, I traveled to Eastern Europe. Auschwitz and Berkinau were on our itinerary and although I had mixed feelings about a visit to these extermination camps, I knew I could not absolve myself of the responsibility to be exposed to the remnants of the horrors that took place under Nazi fascism in the shadow of civilization. My reluctance was due in no way to denial but to the natural human repulsion for torture and dehumanizing barbarism that not only degrades the human body but also deprives the soul of the hope that is so essential to faith.

I suppose there is a difference between a venue of TV violence between gangs and the violence that results in the martyrdom of people who lay down their lives for the sake of principal or whose lives are taken from them simply because they are of a different race or color or religion.

The gruesome martyrdom of the seven brothers in the Book of Maccabees dramatizes the incredible strength of faith that motivated their loyalty to God. They could not submit to any earthly power that might jeopardize their commitment to their ancestral faith.

This is a hero story, to be sure, written to inspire Jews of a later age who were exposed to the ‘new age’ philosophy of Alexander the Great. The author of Maccabees intends to support a kind of a spiritual resistance movement against the prevailing materialism of the Greek culture during the third century before Christ. However, the message moves far beyond resistance to the hope of resurrection. There is more to life than what meets the eye. This is the first explicit Old Testament reference to the notion of resurrection.

The gospel story narrated by Luke is a bit preposterous, to be sure. This is another example of what some scholars refer to as a biblical cartoon. Cartoons are often humorous and even ridiculous but do contain important lessons. In this case, Jesus is addressing himself to the Sadducees who though committed to the Law did not believe in the resurrection because there is no mention of it in the Torah. The Sadducees enjoyed the favor of Rome and had no reason to look beyond the grave. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were concerned not with material wealth but with the life of the Spirit which they sincerely believe emanated from their adherence to the Torah.

According to the Sadducees, the woman would have seven simultaneous husbands in the afterlife—a situation expressly forbidden in the Torah. [Leviticus 20:21] However, Luke was making the point that resurrection is not resuscitation or a continuation of earthly life. It is a complete transformation of life but on a continuum. Death is a passage to immortality. Christians believe that the gift of immortality is given at Baptism. Jesus was not disparaging marriage but emphasizing the fact that the ancient levitical law would no longer apply since life is a continuum that does not cease with physical death. Although marriage is a physical relationship in which husband and wife experience the joy of physical union, it is also a partnership of souls oriented toward the life of the spirit. Wives and husbands are soul partners moving toward a full life in Christ in the next life in which “there is no male or female, Jew or Greek, slave or freeperson; “all are one in Christ,” united with God forever.

On October 26th of this year, Franz Jagerstatter, a simple devout farmer who was beheaded in 1943 for his refusal to fight in an unjust war for the Third Reich, was beatified at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Linz, Austria.

For Jaerstatter, the love of God did not allow any apathy or equivocation between good and evil or mental reservation or prevarication that would cover up wrongdoing of any kind.

Here are excerpts from the report on the event by Tom Roberts of the National Catholic Reporter:

The differentiation may be clear today, but that was hardly the case in Jagerstatter’s lifetime when he was utterly alone among his villagers in taking his stand and when he was viewed variously as a stubborn religious extremist and as someone who was acting irresponsibly toward his wife and three young daughters.

In a long spiritual and intellectual struggle during the late 1930s and early 1940s that culminated in his decision to refuse induction into Hitler’s army, Jagerstatter sought counsel from a number of priests and his bishop. All of them encouraged him to compromise his conviction that serving the German war effort was so incompatible with his Christian faith that conscience compelled him to refuse.

The night before his execution, a Catholic chaplain visiting him in his cell pointed to a document on the table between them. Jagerstatter need only sign it and his life would be spared. The priest later recalled that Jagerstatter ‘smilingly pushed it aside with the explanation, ‘I cannot and may not take an oat in favor of a government that is fighting an unjust war.’

He knew that there was more to life than what the human eye can see.

But there are many others who are being tortured as we worship in the security of this elegant church.

And there are what we call the ‘white martyrs’—men and women of faith who stand for truth and integrity even in the face of church authorities who cast them aside as rabble rousers out to destroy the church. They are silent and not so silent witnesses who light candles for the broken and wounded souls abandoned by their shepherds who like the Sadducees and Pharisees are more concerned about the minutiae of rubrics and rituals and the externals of religious practice than in religion that flows from the heart of Christ.

Life is more than what the eye can see. Life must be more than what the eye can see.