Saturday, February 28, 2009

Luke 5: 27-32

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed  him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" Jesus said to them in reply, "Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners."

Church tradition has it that Levi, the tax collector and son of Alphaeus, was the evangelist and disciple Matthew.  As the disciple Simon had his name changed to Peter as part of his conversion and Saul became Paul as part of his conversion so Levi became Matthew as part of his conversion.

And Levi was a wealthy man, leaving everything behind, he got up and followed Jesus. Today's reading from Isaiah says, "If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness and the gloom shall become for you like midday; then the Lord shall guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails> The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake, and the foundations from ages past you shall rise up, "Repairer of the breach," they shall call you, "Restorer of ruined households." Isaiah's words describe /Levi the Jewish tax collector and under the name Matthew the brilliant evangelist for Matthew wrote his gospel to prove to the Jewish people that Jesus was the Messiah foretold throughout the Old Testament, And Matthew wrote to that end and effectively so. And Matthew as Levi the wealthy tax collector  gave a great banquet for Jesus and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with Levi and with Jesus.

And the Pharisees and scribes were jealous and complained to the disciples and Jesus answered with one of those sayings familiar to all of us,  "Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have no come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners."

And I add that Peter too was a successful man as Simon, the leading fisherman in the  Sea of Galilee. If you visit the Sea of Galilee you can see Simon-Peter's house and it is a substantial house even by the standards of today.

Ash Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Mt 6:1-6, 16-18.

The reading is from the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew's Gospel has the most complete version of the Sermon on the Mount. The reading selecting for today tells us how to behave when we are giving alms, when we are praying and when we are doing penance. Basically, not to use our performing of these virtuous acts to draw attention to ourselves. The lines omitted, Mt. 6:7-9, are the instructions by Jesus on how to pray where he teaches the Our Father.

Today is Ash Wednesday. In ancient times on Ash Wednesday, sinners were ostracized from the believing community and wore sackcloth and ashes. They wore those dirty clothes for all of Lent until Holy Thursday when they were given a clean white robe and welcomed back into the community. But at the time of the Sermon on the Mount, the community was homogeneous, so that the caution of Jesus not to draw attention to oneself through piety applied to that time. In our secular time, we assent to placing a mark of ashes on our forehead in Church with the prayer, "Remember, from dust you came and to dust you shall return". And we wear that mark out into the community as witness, to tell others we meet that we have marked ourselves as part of the community of the Lord.

The weblog The Anchoress has some wonderful notes on Monsignor Timothy Dolan, the former Milwaukee archbishop who has been names archbishop of New York.

"Maybe the greatest threat to the church is not heresy, not dissent, not secularism. not even moral relativism, but this sanitized, feel-good, boutique, therapeutic spirituality that makes no demands, calls for no sacrifice, asks for no conversion, entails no battle against sin, but only soothes and affirms." - a 2007 lecture on preaching.

From a February 23, 2009 radio interview:
"the liberation of obedience" How liberating it is. I put it in God's hands. I don't have to make the call. I wasn't asked if I would go. I wasn't asked if I were worthy. I wasn't asked if I thought I had the qualifications. I wasn't asked if there were other places I'd prefer. It wasn't an ask; it was an order. As Jesus said, "You didn't choose me. I chose you."

What a joy to be with you. This is the last day before the Lenten fast.

St. Patrick's cathedral symbolizes the strong faith of the people of Ireland who came to the United States with nothing, except the pearl of great price, our faith. In the words of Archbishop Hughes, now my predecessor, "We need a cathedral of suitable magnificence to show our love for the Lord." Now, right smack dab in the middle of the City of New York, perhaps the most prestigious address in the world, this beautiful cathedral soars.

Yesterday, you noticed [when I was televised giving our communion] that I was sort of glowing, a radiance. That was genuine. My soul was overflowing.

Q That has got to be amazing. Now you have the keys to St. Patrick's Cathedral.
A And the debt.

Monsignor Timothy Dolan was born 2/6/50, attended Cardinal Glennon College in Shrewsbury, Mo, finished his priestly formation at North American in Rome, ordained 6/19/76, served as a parish priest in St. Louis, earned a doctorate in American Church History from the Catholic University of America, was secretary to the Papal Nuncio, then made vice-rector of his old college and adjunct professor of theology at St. Louis University, sent to Rome in 1994 as rector of the North American College, on 6/24/01 made auxiliary bishop of St. Louis, on 6/19/01, his 25th anniversary as a priest, made archbishop of Milwaukee and now, 2/23/09, he has been transferred to New York City as archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York.

Mark 9:33-37

They came to Capernaum and once inside the house, he began to ask them, "What were you arguing about on the way?" But they remained silent. For they had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all." Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me."

Our true being looks out at the world with words, and it looks up at God with wordless trust.

All Popes, looking back to Peter and through John Paul II and Benedict XVI, signed and sign their missives with the phrase, "The Servant of the servants of God."

His words also say volumes on those couples and individuals who open their hearts and homes to children in adoption and thus freely commit themselves to a lifetime of love and service of God's most helpless angels. Dowling, Have you Heard the Good News?, Reflections on Cycle B, at p. 162.

Jesus was talking about His death to his disciples. Afterwards, His disciples argued about which disciple was the greatest. The disciples thought that Jesus was the Messiah, the Anointed One, who would be King of The Jews as descendant of David. They interpreted that to mean that Jesus would establish an earthly Kingdom, so that the disciples would each be mighty figures in that earthly kingdom. But Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world." Jesus then brought His disciples together to instruct them. In His kingdom, "If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last and the servant of all." Now for our perspective we see what Jesus meant. David's kingdom in the north lasted 250 years until it was conquered by the Assyrians and the ten tribes to the north were scattered and became known as "the ten lost tribes of Israel." Similarly, the two tribes to the south around Jerusalem lasted 400 years until they were conquered by the Babylonians.

But the Catholic Church the kingdom of Jesus not of this world has lasted over 2000 years, and each head of the Church from Peter to our Benedict XVI signs each letter "the Servant of the servants of God".