Happy Labor Day. Labor Day weekend is an invitation to take pride in our work. Whatever our life’s work, do it well! That's what holiness is all about: doing our life’s work as best we can.
If you’re traveling, drive safely. I read a humorous story about two people who were in a car collision. Both cars were demolished, yet the drivers emerged, and the woman said, “Wow, we’re okay! This must be a sign from God that we should be friends.” Flattered, the other driver replied, “Yes, I agree. But you’re still at fault…you caused this.” The woman continued, “Look—another miracle. This bottle of wine didn’t break. Surely God wants us to celebrate.” She handed him the bottle. The man drank half and handed the bottle back. The woman put the cap back on and handed it back to the man. The man asked, “Aren’t you having any?” The woman replied, “No. I’ll just wait for the police.” Hmm.
Today, September 1, is the 60th anniversary of the opening of St. Raphael School. Teachers and staff everywhere have an immense responsibility to develop in young people skills of mind and habits of heart so they can live lives of integrity. Our gratitude to all the teachers and staff especially to those who have served and are serving in our school.
What does the word of God bring to us today? Well over 3,000 years ago, Moses pleads with the Hebrews to be faithful to their promises.
Yes, God promises blessings if they keep God’s laws, i. e., worship God and treat their fellow human beings fairly. This challenges us to be faithful to our promises.
Then, the Letter of James says boldly there shouldn’t be a discrepancy between faith and action. Do we walk the talk.
The Gospel pursues a similar theme. Jesus distinguishes between external behaviors and internal attitudes.
The scribes and Pharisees are hypocrites, Jesus says. The word “hypocrite” basically means an actor, one who says one thing but lives differently. Hypocrites pay lip service to God but internally they’re thinking immorally, i. e., they’re greedy, dishonest, envious.
Jesus asks us: do we try to live a life of integrity?
Biblical passages indicate that human beings are a bundle of contradictions. Who really are we?
Author Leo Tolstoy discovered that many ordinary people have answered this by virtue of their faithful relationship with God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit. That friendship with God sustained them. Jesus was indeed their way, their truth and their life.
Daniel Levinson’s groundbreaking bestseller “The Seasons of a Man’s Life” is about the cycle of human development: from childhood and adolescence through young adulthood, into middle years, and old age. As we go through this cycle, we will face crises of one kind or another. “Crisis” has a twofold meaning: it can be a disaster or an opportunity.
We repeatedly let go of our past so that we can move through these cycles of life. We must let go of loved ones, friends, perhaps health or job. Ultimately, we must let go of our own earthly life so that in death God can transfigure us into a new kind of spiritual embodiment.
We trust in God’s unconditional love: that He will catch us in our final leap of faith into the darkness of death and bear us away within himself forever, almost like a flying trapeze artist who lets go of that bar in a circus performance.
The Catholic answer to the question “why are we here?” acknowledges the brevity of human life, and also our freedom to choose good over evil, right over wrong. Hence each of us is responsible for the way we live. Tragically, some people choose evil. The Book of Genesis in Chapter 3 highlights this brokenness. Tradition calls this “original sin.”
Human beings cry out for freedom, peace, justice and truth. But they cry out even louder for healing, for redemption, for salvation! Who can heal us, save us? Some have sought human solutions: in the world of things, in demagogues, in “isms” of one kind or another.
The Catholic tradition looks to an awesome power beyond ourselves--God--who is not indifferent to our human situation. This compassionate God became flesh in Jesus and is alive by the power of the Spirit in our midst today—especially in the community of disciples we call the Church; and alive especially in the sacramental signs.
We possess within our fragile selves the incredible treasure of faith in God. Faith is a gift from God. But each of us must continue to struggle to do right.
The Letter of James today encourages us, “keep oneself unstained by the world.” So that the God who transformed the earthly Jesus into a new heavenly reality can also transform us.
The great 16th century Spanish Carmelite reformer, Teresa of Avila, got it right, “Let nothing upset you, Let nothing startle you, all things pass; …Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone is enough.”
