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Daily Scripture

+ Seventh Week in Easter

“The best is yet to come!”

Readings: Acts 28:16-20, 30-31 Psalm 11:4, 5 & 7 John 21:20-25

There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written. [John 21:25]

My cousin frequently quotes the phrase, “The best is yet to come.” He is by nature, an optimist and tends to see the brighter side of life whatever the circumstances. Optimism is the portal to faith and I suppose the reverse is also true.

Today is the Vigil of Pentecost. This morning’s gospel passage concludes with a phrase similar to that of a good interviewer such as Pierce Morgan on CNN: “There are also many other things that Jesus did…” Jesus is the feature and the focus of John’s Gospel as he is of the other three evangelists. The celebration of Pentecost is our opportunity to conduct our own interview and to absorb all that Jesus said and did over his lifetime so that we may begin or, assuming that we have already begun, continue our own gospel.

In the concluding chapter of his book, The Church Unfinished, [Paulist Press, New York/Mahwah NJ, 2004] Dr. Bernard Prusak, STl, JCD, offers us some wisdom on the future Iin the light of the past: “’What humanity is,’ the philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey writes, ‘only history tells us.’ Like human life, the life of the catholic or universal Church is lived forward but understood backward. Catholic tradition does not, however, simply involve remembering and preserving the past. The final chapters of Catholic identity are a work in progress, like a book without a final chapter and a back cover. The Church’s catholicity includes sweeping spatial and temporal dimensions. It involves an ever-expanding memory, embracing the immense richness of past and present times, places and cultures, and at the same time an openness to assimilating, and possibly being transformed by, a future history in which God offers a surplus of possibilities. What the Church is, only the entirely of its history will fully reveal.” (Looking Ahead, p 333)

The gospels are unfinished and so is the Church.

“The best is yet to come!”

Daily Scripture

Friday February 24, 2012

+ Friday after Ash Wednesday

Avoid extremism.

Readings: Isaiah 58:1-9 Psalm 51:3-6, 18-19 Matthew 9:14-15

This rather is the fast I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed and the homeless. Clothing the naked and not turning your backs on your own. [Isaiah 58:6-7]

Fast and abstinence is an ancient practice that originated not with Christianity but with ancient religious and is still the practice among the health conscious. It is encouraged during Lent not because we need to lose weight – notwithstanding that the number of people who suffer from obesity is on the increase. We fast and abstain to be mindful of those who go hungry every day. Consequently, it is not enough to fast without giving the proportionate amount to charities that help to feed the poor wherever they exist. A by-product of our penitential practice is feeling better physically, psychologically and of course spiritually.

However, of greater significance are our efforts to work for justice local and global. Whether or not you agree with every element in the president’s plan of action to regularize the economy, or with the prospective candidates in the opposite party, one would be hard put to suggest that we participate in the global economic crisis.

It is curious that both sides can quote ‘appropriate’ texts from Sacred Scripture to defend their point of view and there are extremists in both parties. Demonizing those who disagree with us obfuscates the issues revolving around poverty resulting in the torpedoing of equitable solutions.

Lent can be a great equalizer vis-à-vis the modification of our life-style. The fiscal engineers and mechanics can debate the details but Catholic social doctrine is pretty clear about the just distribution of wealth and the rights of the poor to the basic necessities of life – whatever it takes.

But let’s not do it out of a sense of guilt but out of a sense of true Christian generosity and a keen sense of justice.