July 22, 2023
Daily Reading from the USCCB: John 20:1-2, 11-18

Saint John says that St. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb of Jesus on that first Easter morning alone “while it was still dark” and saw that the stone had been removed. Mentioning that it was dark is symbolic in John’s Gospel for a situation that needs enlightening. Thinking that someone had removed the body, she ran to Peter and the other disciples to inform them of what she thought had happened. Later, St. Mary Magdalene mistakes Jesus for a gardener and asks him where he has put the body. It took those first disciples a while to comprehend what had taken place—Jesus was alive; he had risen.

We are often like St. Mary Magdalene and those early disciples—we are “in the dark” and don’t always understand what is going on. Our God can be mysterious and we sometimes miss the point or wonder what he is doing. We ask questions and grope for answers.

Maybe we can pray to St. Mary Magdalene for patience and insight—especially when we seem to be “in the dark” about our God. We can ask her to help us understand.

June 7, 2023
Daily Reading from the USCCB: Tobit 3:1-11a, 16-17a

The scripture writer tells us that Tobit was grief-stricken and he groaned and wept aloud. And yet he begins his prayers with, “You are righteous, O Lord, and all your deeds are just; All your ways are mercy and truth.”

Sarah, who is suffering from the verbal abuse of her father’s maid prays, “Blessed are you, O Lord, merciful God, and blessed is your holy and honorable name. Blessed are you in all your works for ever!” Both–despite their suffering and sorrow–could pray with praise and thanksgiving. They didn’t deny their situations, but rose above them to recognize the goodness of God. Their faith and experience told them that God is bigger than their present circumstances.

We can get bogged down in our troubles and begin to see the world in a negative light. It is then that we need to go to our faith and to both our experience of God and those of others to get a bigger picture. Like Tobit and Sarah we will still face our present difficulties, but we can see hope and light beyond them.

May 27, 2023
Daily Reading from the USCCB: John 21:20-25

When we were kids and were asked a question we often answered, “None of your bee’s wax,” which was our childish way of saying, “None of your business.” As adults, we sometimes need to politely tell people that their question asks for information that we’re not willing to give—for whatever reason.

That’s pretty much what Jesus says to Peter when Peter asks about John. Jesus says, “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me.” In other words, don’t be concerned about John. Just do what I’m asking you to do–namely follow me.

We can sometimes get worked up about someone else and be overly concerned about what they’re doing or how they’re being treated. Jesus’ message is simply: pay attention to what you are called to do and do it well, and don’t be concerned about others whose circumstances and situations you really don’t understand anyway.

In other words, we have plenty to do just keeping track of our own lives.

“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).

According to Saint Luke’s Gospel, just a few months after the angel Gabriel visited Zechariah and announced the conception of Saint John the Baptist, that same angel visited Mary in the little town of Nazareth. Needless to say, Mary was a little shocked when, all of a sudden, an angel appeared and told her that she was highly favored by God, and that she should not to be afraid. And, besides all that, the angel said that Mary was to conceive a child and should name him Jesus.

Not your normal course of events on a quiet day in the small town of Nazareth.

But things were just beginning—and they were going to get far more complicated before they got clarified. For one thing, Mary was engaged to Joseph, but they were not yet married nor living together, and, as Mary assured Gabriel, they had not been sexually active. So, here she was, engaged, a virgin, told she was to conceive a child, and, presumably, Joseph was totally unaware. And the real clincher: the child was to be conceived by the Holy Spirit and would be called the Son of God. Oh, and by the way, Elizabeth, her relative who was barren and advanced in years, is expecting a child—actually, she’s in her sixth month of pregnancy—“for nothing will be impossible for God.”

After a couple of questions and a moment to catch her breath, Mary makes an astounding response: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Wow, what faith! No mention of what she was going to do or how things might work out. Just, OK, if that’s what God wants, let it be done.

Not the way I would have handled the situation—not that I’ve had many angels appear to me!

An Extraordinary Event

But that is just the point, this was not an ordinary event to be handled in an ordinary way. This was the moment that our God became flesh and was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Our God, creator of everything—including human beings—willed to become one of his own creatures out of sheer love for the human race. No compelling reason, no need on his part, no ulterior motive, just love for a group of humans who had gone astray and had no way to get back on the path to life. That is pure and simple love.

Mary played an essential role. She agreed to allow the Lord to become flesh and take up his dwelling among us. She was free to say no—again no compulsive need to agree, just an act of loving faith to do the will of God as she understood it at that moment. Of course, that understanding would grow as the years progressed, and would involve many more acts of loving faith; some almost beyond comprehension.

Thoughts on the Annunciation

In a homily excerpt used in the Office of Readings for December 20, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux captures the gist of this event very well and speaks of it so tenderly:

“You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.

“The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life. . . .

“Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.

“Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word.”

In Mary’s answer, “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Thank you, Mary, for making this possible. Thank you for playing this essential role in our salvation.

December 7, 2022
Daily Reading from the USCCB: Matthew 11:28-30

In this passage, Jesus speaks to people who he knows and sees are overburdened with religious obligations that are not based on their relationships with God. Rather those obligations are somewhat self-centered; all about proving that they are worthy of God’s love and making God indebted to them. This is what the Pharisees themselves did, and how they looked upon God. It was like they were telling God: “We are good and obey every detail of the law. Therefore you owe us the reward of your love and respect.” It sounds preposterous, but it was true.

If they could only realize that God’s command was as simple as “loving God and loving one another,” then they would have found that this burden was far lighter and easier–even if it was not perfect. Love always surpasses “law observance.” The reason is that Jesus’ command is about our relationship with and for each other. The law is always about “how good WE are.” That’s why Jesus was accused of being a “law breaker” in the eyes of his enemies. That’s why Jesus was so comfortable being with “sinners” and eating at the same table with them. Jesus hated sin, but he was not afraid of sinners.

Eventually, however, I learned more about St. Francis of Assisi. But I also discovered conflicts because sometimes the romanticism that has surrounded Francis over the years doesn’t fit well with the historical facts. The temptation is to admire the saint, gush over his attractive qualities, and miss what he stood for. We run the risk of losing the real Francis and replacing him with an image often of our own making.

For example, there is an image of Francis as somewhat of a rebel who challenged the Church and his society, and advocated a freedom from Church and social structures. Some even see him as the forerunner of what would become the Protestant Reformation. Yet Julian of Speyer, in calling St. Francis “Catholic” and “totally apostolic,” adds that Francis strongly recommended adherence to the teachings of the Church.

A practical example of this is the requirement in the Friars’ Rule of Life that, upon admission, the Minister Provincial is to see that the candidate who comes to us seeking to live our way of life is Catholic and that he believes, professes, and observes the faith of the Catholic Church. Does that sound like a rebel? Someone intent on challenging and changing the Church? But the real Francis was, in some ways, a nonconformist. So, how does that image fit with his recommendation for adherence to the teachings of the Church?

Let’s look at Francis as a “catholic and totally apostolic man” and see what we find.

An Affirmation from Rome

Early in the life of what would become the Order of Friars Minor (the Franciscans), when the group who had opted to follow him and his way of life numbered a dozen, Francis took them to Rome to see the pope. The pope in those days lived at St. John Lateran, the cathedral of Rome, since the Vatican as we know it had not yet been built.

Francis was well-aware that his followers resembled a number of heretical groups who preached, among other things, a form of poverty that was not consistent with the Gospel. Francis did not want his band of men to be included with them. Furthermore, he wanted the assurance that he and his followers were on the right track.

He wanted firm affirmation, backed by the authority of the Church, that his way was legitimately consistent with the Gospels—which he got from the pope in verbal form.

Later, in his Testament, Francis would say that it was the Lord who gave him brothers and that no one showed him what to do. The Lord himself revealed to him the way he should walk. In the mind of Francis, the order and its way of life were not his, but the Lord’s. As such, the order was always subject to the jurisdiction of the institutional Church. And he wanted to be faithful to that Church.

A Deep Devotion for Priests

In the Testament, Francis also expresses his deep faith and reverence for priests “who live according to the rite of the holy Roman Church.” He goes on to state that even if they were to persecute him, he would still have recourse to them and honor them. Why this respect? (It almost sounds like fawning!). Upon further reading, however, we find that for Francis, every priest—even those who sin—brings him the only visible sign on this earth of his Lord Jesus Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist. They, and they alone, bring him Jesus.

I believe that we can correctly view this matter as Francis’ deep faith in and love for not only priests, but also in and for the Church and the Sacraments of the Church, and not as a mere submissiveness to priests, which would be idolatry. Francis is a man who thinks and emotes along with what the Church teaches and holds. It’s not a blind obedience or a submissiveness to authority on his part; it is faith. And that faith is what makes him a “Catholic” man.

Totally Apostolic

According to Brother Bill Short, a Franciscan scholar from California, Francis most likely spent about half of his life actively evangelizing and the other half in quiet prayer or contemplation. Brother Bill bases this on the medieval liturgical calendar, which Francis would have known and followed. 

In that calendar, there were many more lenten-type periods of preparation for major feast days than we have today, and the saint often observed them alone in quiet prayer. For instance, when he was on the mountain of La Verna and received the stigmata, Francis was in prayer preparing for the feast of St. Michael. These preparation periods totaled approximately six months.

So St. Francis only spent about half the year actively preaching and evangelizing. It was in this context, however, that Julian of Speyer called him “totally apostolic,” not that he spent his entire life evangelizing, but that his prayer and active lives lent themselves to such an intimate union with God that his whole life became a lived presentation of the Gospel. And Francis had a great passion for living the Gospel life.

The same could be said of St. Clare, who, while she lived an enclosed life, proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ by her example and way of life and thus was also totally apostolic.

Reformer, Not Revolutionary

What do we do with the argument that Francis laid the groundwork for later challenges to the Church? I believe that the facts of his life refute these claims and present him as a true son of the Roman Church, ever faithful and obedient. Let me explain.

Few people would deny that Francis changed both the Church and his society. He was not naive. He recognized that both institutions needed a renovation. He loved his homeland—he even went to war to defend it—and his Church, but that did not mean that either was above criticism or reform. It was the way he orchestrated his proposed changes that distinguished him as a “reformer” as opposed to a “revolutionary.” He would have never considered turning his back on the Church or his country. A few examples may help.

Francis saw his adoption of a radical life of poverty as a personal choice. He never implied that he expected everyone to follow his choice—actually, he seemed genuinely surprised when fellow Assisians started following him.

It appears from his writing and behavior that he did not intend to found an order or start a movement. He simply chose a way of life that he felt God was calling him to live. As a result, Francis never condemned those who did not choose to live as he did. He was more focused on his own need for conversion than on that of others. But in that very attitude, he created the change that was needed.

Perhaps one of the best examples of Francis’ rejection of what he viewed negatively within his society was his literal stepping away from Assisi and living outside the walls with the lepers and the poor at the Portiuncula. Like Ezekiel, who packed his bags, crawled through a hole in the city wall, and left town (cf Ez 12:7), Francis left the security and the world of Assisi in a clear statement of his rejection of his former way of life within that city. Again, without pointing any fingers at his family members, contemporaries, or friends, Francis made a choice for himself that spoke loudly, but did not condemn others.

I believe that upon reading the works of Francis, one finds someone fervently obedient to the Church and state, but not opposed to working quietly to improve both. There’s no railing against or leaving the Church or society. Rather, there must be a deep love for the institutions and a willingness to purify them from within.

That is, in part, what made St. Francis a “catholic and totally apostolic man.”