4th Sunday in Ordinary Time / Feast of St. John Bosco

When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.—Luke 4:29

When Don Bosco was a boy he was forced to go a neighboring city to continue his education. The little hamlet of Becchi, his home town, was simply too small to justify a public school. At first he walked the two plus miles every day to Castelnuovo di Asti to attend classes, and eventually found lodgings in the town itself. It was a difficult time, to say the least. He was separated from his family, and because he had never been to school before (he had only received private tutoring from a local priest) he took classes with student four or five years younger than he was. Being a poor farm boy, his cloths were ragged and this, combined with the fact that he was so much older than his classmates, made him the object of ridicule. His only saving grace was that his teacher, a local priest, treated him kindly. But when the priest was transferred to a nearby parish things changed. His replacement, Fr. Moglia, though John was a hick for whom formal education was a waste of time. Fr. Moglia was often heard to say “can anything good come from Becchi.”

In some ways John Bosco faced the opposite problem of our Lord in Sunday’s gospel. John was the outsider who was not respected because of his different background. In the case of Jesus, the people in the synagogue knew who He was, or at least thought they did; he was the carpenter’s son, no better than them. They were thinking, “how does he come here now to preach about how God’s salvation would be given to the gentiles instead of us?” In both cases the results were the same; people did not want to accept them or that God was working through them.

God does not always speak to us in the ways we expect. He uses people, events and circumstances to lead us along the path of life. It is the rare person who experiences some supernatural apparition or mystic experience. It is for us to be open to the possibilities of life, and read the will of God in what’s going on around us. This takes prayer, discernment and the help of a mature and trustworthy spiritual director or guide.

It also takes a sensitivity that allows the Word of God to truly touch our hearts. The words of Isaiah that Jesus quotes are ones of comfort and assurance, yet the people of Nazareth reacted negatively because our Lord was laying down a challenge. He was telling them to look beyond their narrow self interests to perceive the big picture; that God’s salvation is intended for all humanity, not just one race or nation. They were not ready to accept the Scripture as a two edged sword and be cut to the marrow by what it meant for them personally.

Don Bosco did complete his education, and was ordained a priest in 1841. But this would not be the end of his struggles. In founding the Salesians he would face innumerable trials and struggles, at times questioning where God was leading him. He would be abandoned by collaborators, misunderstood by brother priests and harassed by government officials. All the while he kept his eyes on the goal; the salvation of souls, especially of the young. May we take courage from Don Bosco’s example and not be afraid to follow God’s will, especially when it is difficult and trying.

Now when the seventh month came the whole people gathered as one man in the open space before the Water Gate, and they called upon Ezra the scribe to bring forth the book of the law of Moses which the Lord prescribed for Israel…“Today is holy to the Lord your God. Do not be sad, and do not weep.”—for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law.
—Nehemiah 8:1,9

(Between the March for Life and other goings on at school I had trouble getting posts up this week. Here’s something I was working on for Today.)

They were a people who had been separated from their land and their customs for generations. Though they had tried very hard to preserve the old ways while they were in exile, their children, as well as many of them, had never heard the words of their ancient law. These books were more than just legal code, it was their story; the story of a people called by the God who created all of humanity in His image to be His witness before all peoples, called out of slavery to freedom, called to be holy. It was to be the rule that guided them, a story that grounded and supported them through the good times and bad. These words were meant to remind them of their national identity. It was to remind them of the call that God had given them. But now they wept.

This story from the Book of Nehemiah tells of the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple after the Exiles were permitted to return from Babylon. Upon hearing the words of the Torah again for the first time they wept because they realized that they had not kept faith with the Covenant that their forefathers had entered into at the time of Moses. In their hearts they knew that they had been on the wrong path even before the Exile, and in the end their break with the Covenant is what led to their captivity. Only renewing faith in God and the Covenant was going to give them any lasting security.

We are not exiles, in the sense that we have been taken from our land and kept from worshiping God. But at the same time there is a gap between the Gospel and the contemporary culture that has led us off the right path, sometimes whithout being aware of it. We need to examine our lives, both individually and communally, to see where we have lost faith with the Covenant we entered into with God at our baptism and renew each week in the Eucharist. This past week we held the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. It is a yearly reminder that we as a people have broken faith with God and have, at the very least, tolerated the great abomination of abortion in our land. Abortion is just one life issue, true. We will explore it and others in greater detail in future posts, but I start with it because all life issues stem from it. The preborn are the most vulnerable of God’s creation. They have no courts of appeal or lawyers to defend their cause. They have no rights that are recognized by the civil authority. The cheapening of their lives cheapens all life, be it that of the old and infirmed or develpmentally challenged .

As I wrote, abortion is but one issue. Let us make that communal examination of conscience and not be afraid to ask ourselves where we have gone off the path. Let us listen to the Word of God again for the first time, and allow it to drive us to tears. Then, let us rededicate ourselves to the Gospel that gives life.

Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Gospel

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

-John 2:1

Two weeks ago we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, when we remembered Jesus being manifested to the Gentiles as the promised Messiah. In the Eastern Church this feast, along with the Baptism of the Lord and the miracle at the Wedding at Cana are all seen as reflections of the same mystery; Jesus revealing himself in Divine glory. Jesus does this in an act of generosity, helping a newlywed couple in an embarrassing situation. But Jesus is doing more than just saving the party. He uses it as an opportunity of give a sign of what His mission was all about. It isn’t an incidental detail that the water was turned to wine in those six stone jars. They were reserved for Jewish ceremonial purposes, and Jesus is pointing to the fact that in His mission the old rituals were being replaced with new. What came before had value in its place, but were to give way to the vital, powerful Sacraments of the New Covenant.

Jesus was hesitant to act at first, since the time had not yet come to reveal Himself. It was only after the intersession of Mary that Jesus acted. This form of intercessory prayer, where we urge God into action is not novel. The words of the Lord’s Prayer “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” are asking God to hasten the Second Coming and the ultimate renewal of Heaven and Earth. Mary is a sign for us, just as assuredly as the miracle itself. She is a sign that God wants us to be active in our faith, not passive. We are to pay attention to the needs of the people around us and respond to them, by both action and prayer.

For Mary, life went from simple to complicated very quickly. Accepting the angel’s message would bring misunderstanding, doubt, and almost ended her marriage before it started. In the midst of this Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth to assist her in her moment of need. Allowing Jesus into her life drove her to serve others, in spite of the challenges that she faced. In the great mystery of the Communion of Saints Mary is a sign that the blessed souls of heaven and we who still strive on earth are separated by less than we understand. Mary, the Queen of Heaven, is active still, praying for us to her Son just as assuredly as she spoke to Him on behalf of the young couple at Cana. She offers us an example of action and contemplation that helps us to manifest the love of Christ to all we meet.

Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, 1st Reading

As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you.
Isaiah 62:5

Sociologists tell us that we are living in an age in which many people view God as being both close and distant. They believe in God, and that there is a moral order that he set up, albeit vague, and that we can pray to him. But for the most part God is placed to the side and used when He is useful. God doesn’t necessarily have a place in people's everyday existence and in the decisions they make in their lives. He is like a cosmic fireman’s ax, behind a glass that we only break in cases of emergency. The technical term for this is Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD). The deism born from the Enlightenment taught that it was God who put the world on a shelf, like a freshly wound clock, to be forgotten about as the hands moved into a meaningless future. But now it is the world that has put God on the shelf, only to be referenced when it is deemed necessary for some personal need.

The saddest part of this trend is that MTD has been adopted as the default position by many Western Christians (in fact, it has been deemed the “American Religion”). The problem, of course, is that this is not the biblical view of the kind of relationship God wants to have with us. While Isaiah’s words were directed to the Israelite community as a whole, we can also see in them the essence of the individual’s relationship to God. God wishes to enter into an intimate union with the individual soul, not a simple service agreement. Infidelity to God and his commandments, especially through idolatry, is often referred to as adultery. This marriage imagery appears throughout the scriptures, but is too often overlooked. If we read the writings of the great mystics the higher levels of contemplation are often described in almost romantic terms, as a lover might speak of his or her beloved. God consumes them, and every part of their lives is effected by this bond of unitive love.

When we love that deeply there is no sacrifice we won’t make for the other. That person is always on our minds and we fear doing something that would lose their affection. Putting someone on a shelf means that the relationship is over, or at the very least is taking a lower position on our list of priorities. But when we truly allow God into our souls, not as a helper or even as a friend, but as the true passion of our lives, there is no putting Him aside. He is a demanding lover who expects that our devotion be complete, and He doesn’t tolerate rivals. Right conduct is not defined in vague terms, but is very precise. Yes, He is a forgiving, quick to overlook faults and eager for us to return when we wander, but He will also let us go if we really don’t want to live with Him in our lives. God is a lover, not a slaveholder.

As we enter into this new year, it’s a good time make an examination of conscience, asking ourselves where God is in our lives. Is He the passion of my soul, or someone akin to a repairman we call when the cable goes out? Do we rejoice in Him and allow him to rejoice in us, or have we put Him on a shelf?

The Baptism of the Lord

And the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

—Luke 3:22

A key to understanding the mystery of the Lord’s Baptism is the fact that it was not a necessary act. Jesus had no sin, original or actual. Even if he did John’s baptism did not have the power to forgive. This simple ritual did not yet have the fire of the Holy Spirit to make it effective. It was symbolic of repentance, but could not forgive sins as Christian baptism does. So why did Christ do it?

Jesus submitted to baptism in obedience to the Father, as the first public act of humiliation leading to the cross. He lowered himself to stand among sinners, to take his place with us. “Though he was in the form of God, (Jesus) did not regard equality with God something to be grasped” is how Paul puts it. He “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human appearance.” (Philippians 2:6-7) Jesus’ entire life, from the cradle, when he received the myrrh from the magi, through his baptism, the journey to Jerusalem, the Transfiguration to the institution of the Eucharist points to his death on the cross, the ultimate act of humiliation. This is why he is the beloved Son, because his love, expressed through obedience, was boundless.

As Salesians, lay and religious, we make many sacrifices. We know that religious forsake much, but lay Salesians must also do without in order to live their vocation to serve the young. There are other careers that pay more, are less stressful or may even garner us a bit of fame. Don Bosco could have used his abilities and talents in a very lucrative career within the Church. There were those who tried to talk him out of his mission to the young with visions of miters and red hats. Instead he emptied himself of these earthly ambitions in imitation of the Good Shepherd.

For Don Bosco it was a selfless act of freedom. We are called to that same radical choice. I’ve heard it argued that cafeteria duty, black top supervision and the building of rapport with students are unprofessional, beneath the dignity of an educator (this was not from a teacher at one of our schools, thank heaven). But we know that this is the farthest thing from the truth. True, we always go down to the kids level in order to bring them up, but first we must meet them down where they are! We are to always be professional, but never slaves to a worldly professionalism. We are to empty ourselves of pride and pretentiousness. So when we follow the Salesian call faithfully, in the big and small things that we do (even the things that seem a little goofy), we are truly following Christ on the road to Calvary. But ultimately we follow to the glory due beloved daughters and sons of the Father as well.