Letter to the Romans: 15

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Brothers and sisters:
Greet Prisca and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus,
who risked their necks for my life,
to whom not only I am grateful but also all the churches of the Gentiles;
greet also the Church at their house.
Greet my beloved Epaenetus,
who was the firstfruits in Asia for Christ.
Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you.
Greet Andronicus and Junia,
my relatives and my fellow prisoners;
they are prominent among the Apostles
and they were in Christ before me.
Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.
Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ,
and my beloved Stachys.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the churches of Christ greet you.

I, Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord.
Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole Church, greets you.
Erastus, the city treasurer,
and our brother Quartus greet you.

Now to him who can strengthen you, 
according to my Gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ,
according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages
but now manifested through the prophetic writings and,
according to the command of the eternal God,
made known to all nations to bring about the obedience of faith,
to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ
be glory forever and ever. Amen.

We’re ending Paul’s Letter to the Romans this Saturday, his longest and most theological letter. In chapter 15 he speaks about his mission to Spain, (Friday) assuring the Romans he’s coming to Rome as a visitor, not to be part of their church. 

He knows a surprising number of people in the Roman church, but Paul’s not planning to settle down there with them. He obviously hopes the Roman church will support him on his Spanish mission; his aim is to bring the gospel to the whole world. 

First, he will return to Jerusalem, the city of his own people, the Jews. It’s not just to deliver some funds for their relief. He wants to assure them, to persuade them that the message he preaches is the gospel of God. 

Paul never gets to Spain; he’ll die in Rome.

I find it strange that Paul in his letters doesn’t offer extensive references to incidents in Jesus’ life, such as his miracles, or quotations from his teaching or his parables. We do that as a matter of course in talking or teaching about faith today. 

True, the gospels were not written when Paul wrote to the Romans, likely in 56 to 58 from Corinth, but certainly the stories of Jesus’ life and summaries of his teaching were important in Christian preaching at the time. Why doesn’t Paul use them?

Does he see the mystery of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus an immediate mystery, taking place now? The gospels bring us back to the time of Jesus, the events of his life and the words of his teaching. Does Paul see them, not just as events and words of the past, but a mystery happening now. Jesus is not dead, but living in the world here and now. 

Paul introduces us to someone, not from the past, but someone sharing himself and his promise with us now. Is that why Paul’s letters are read with the gospels? So that we may understand the gospels are happening now, in our time, in us? Maybe so.

The Mystery of the Temple

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Yves Congar OP, one of the leading theologians at Vatican II, wrote a book in the 1950s called “The Mystery of the Temple,” in which he looked back to the time of David and the prophets for answers to the rapid secularization happening in France in his day when people were abandoning God and the church. Could God’s presence then help understand God’s presence in his day?

I remember reading the book around the time of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s and saying to myself, “Poor France! Thank God for the United States where the faith is so strong and our churches full.” Now I’m reading Congar’s book again.

Some sentences in that book struck me: “We are always tempted to confine ourselves to what we see and touch, to be satisfied with this and to think that a preliminary achievement fulfills God’s promise.” 

Abraham thought God’s promise was fulfilled in Ismael, Joshua thought it was the conquest of Canaan. Solomon thought it was in his immediate descendants…”but these promises were capable of more complete fulfillment which would only materialize after long periods of waiting and urgently needed purification. Only the prophets–and this, in fact, is their task–draw attention to the process of development from seminal promises and to the progress of the latter towards their accomplishment through successive stages of fulfillment continuously transcending one another.”  (p 31-32)

We may look at the church or our world at this time and think it’s the end, but it isn’t.  It’s only a “preliminary achievement” in God’s plan. We need prophetic vision to help us “draw attention to the process of development from seminal promises” by successive stages of fulfillment.

We need to listen to theologians like Yves Congar.

St. Charles Borromeo (1538-84)

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Charles Borromeo. whose feast we celebrate today, was born into a rich powerful northern Italian family in 1538. His uncle was Pope Pius IV. Nepotism was customary at the papal court then, so having the pope as your uncle was a sure way to get ahead. A shy studious young man of 23, with a speech impediment, Charles was called to Rome and made a deacon, then cardinal, becoming the pope’s trusted advisor and Secretary of State.

His brother died unexpectedly In the winter of 1562 and Charles, grieving, made a retreat, following the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola. His father and mother died also,  and as their remaining heir Charles was urged by his family, including the pope, to marry and have children. Instead he chose to become a priest.

The Council of Trent was concluding its work for church reform and Charles embraced the council’s call for reform; he left Rome and became bishop of Milan.

As bishop of that key city, Charles Borromeo became a key figure in the renewal of the Catholic Church shaken by the Protestant Reformation. In an era of absentee bishops, he stayed in his diocese, bringing about reform. He helped draft the Catechism of the Council of Trent. He founded a Confraternity of Christian Doctrine for catechizing his people. He started a printing press to make the Word of God known to his people. He created seminaries for training priests.

He wasn’t afraid to deal with inertia in his church or to confront the challenge to his authority from secular rulers or diocesan groups. In 1569 a friar from one religious community irked by his call for reform fired a shot that grazed his vestments while he was celebrating Mass. He was a man of meetings, a hard worker, constantly calling people together in diocesan synods and groups.

He endeared himself to his people by his work among the plague-stricken, when a plague gripped Milan in 157.  Borromeo stayed in the city while most authorities fled. He mobilized  people to minister to the sick and dying and set up hospitals for their care.

He was only 46 when he died, worn out trying to bring the gospel to his people;  he showed other bishops and dioceses how to renew the church. Some historians say he lacked an appreciation of the role of the laity in the ministry of the church, but most  see saints like Charles Borromeo, Philip Neri and Francis de Sales as more important for the Catholic renewal after the Reformation than the popes and general councils of the time.

We hope and pray for church leaders and saints like them today.

Father Theodore Foley, a holy superior general of my community, the Passionists, was reading the life of Charles Borromeo, when he died in 1974. He was inspired by his selfless leadership and his commitment to work patiently for the good of his community.

Wikipedia  has an article on Charles Boromeo.

Politics goes beyond the local

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All politics is local, the saying goes. But let’s hope politicians–and we who elect them– go beyond local interests and ourselves. The Second Vatican Council says it well:

“Christians should co-operate, willingly and wholeheartedly, in building an international order based on genuine respect for legitimate freedom and on a brotherhood of universal friendship. This is all the more urgent because the greater part of the world still experiences such poverty that in the voices of the poor Christ himself can be heard, crying out for charity from his followers.

There are nations, many of them with a Christian majority, which enjoy an abundance of goods, while others are deprived of the necessities of life, and suffer from hunger, disease and all kinds of afflictions. This scandal must be removed from the human family, for the glory of Christ’s Church and its testimony to the world are the spirit of poverty and the spirit of love.”

Beautiful image in that quote–the poor are the “voices of the poor Christ’.” Unfortunately, politicians –and those who elect them (us)– only hear their own voices and interests.  Politicians should listen to voices seldom heard, and so should we.

Our Deafness to the Gospel: Romans 11

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Why are the people of Israel, my own people, so deaf to the gospel, Paul asks in his Letter to the Romans read this week? ( Romans 11) It’s a question we might ask as we wonder about the present deafness of the western world, our own people, to the gospel today. Why do so many dismiss the Christian faith as meaningless? Why are so many leaving the Church?

”Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? Or who has given him anything that he may be repaid?For from him and through him and for him are all things.To God be glory forever. Amen.”

Paul doesn’t leave the question at that, however, but he sees Israel’s deafness preparing for the coming of the Gentiles into the church. As Paul sees it, Israel’s resistance to the gospel allowed the Gentiles to accept the Chrisian message. They wouldn’t enter a church that was too Jewish in its nature, a Jewish Christian church.

Is our deafness today preparing for the next stage of God’s plan of salvation, when other nations, from Africa and Asia, will be welcomed into the Christian church that no longer appears clothed in the colonialism of the western world?

The rest of Paul’s reflection also deserves to be heard. Just as Paul warns Gentile Christians against arrogantly abandoning the Jews, who are God’s work, so too God’s grace is still at work in our western church, in a plan that is inscrutable and unsearchable. The church we knew, remains holy in God’s eyes. We need to respect its traditions and its holiness.

We are not God’s advisors, but servants and discoverers of his plan.

St. Martin de Porres

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November 3rd we remember St. Martin de Porres. Born in Lima, Peru, in 1579, Martin’s father was Spanish and his mother a freed black woman. He entered the Dominican order in 1603 as a brother and tended the sick poor in the neighborhood as a nurse and pharmacist.  He’s often shown with a broom, surrounded by animals, because he took care of the cats and dogs and birds that came looking for something to eat, as well as the sick whom he attended to.

In his wonderful encyclical Laudato Si, devoted to preserving and enhancing the environment, Pope Francis observes that sometimes the poorest environment can be changed by individuals bringing love and care into it.

“A wholesome social life can light up a seemingly undesirable environment. At times a commendable human ecology is practised by the poor despite numerous hardships. The feeling of asphyxiation brought on by densely populated residential areas is countered if close and warm relationships develop, if communities are created, if the limitations of the environment are compensated for in the interior of each person who feels held within a network of solidarity and belonging. In this way, any place can turn from being a hell on earth into the setting for a dignified life.” (LS 148)

I think that’s what Martin de Porres did. He turned places that were “a hell on earth into the setting for a dignified life.”

Extreme poverty, the pope continues, “can lead to incidents of brutality and to exploitation by criminal organizations. In the unstable neighbourhoods of megacities, the daily experience of overcrowding and social anonymity can create a sense of uprootedness which spawns antisocial behaviour and violence. Nonetheless, I wish to insist that love always proves more powerful. Many people in these conditions are able to weave bonds of belonging and togetherness which convert overcrowding into an experience of community in which the walls of the ego are torn down and the barriers of selfishness overcome.”

You get the impression Pope Francis speaks from his own experience in these words. He probably would say today: that’s what saints like Martin de Porres do. They bring love where it’s needed.

Wikipedia has an excellent article on Martin de Porres

Martin de Porres, from an original portrait

All Souls Day: November 2

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All Saints Day and All Souls Day belong together. On the Feast of All Saints we thank God for calling all to holiness as his children. All of us are called to be numbered among the saints of God.

On All Souls Day we remember that we are all weak and sinful and depend on the mercy of God.  We can lose hope in our call, and so on All Souls Day we ask God’s mercy for ourselves and those who have gone before us in death.

Listen to our prayer at Mass:

“Remember, also, our brothers and sisters, who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection, and all who have died in your mercy. Welcome them into the light of your face. And have mercy on us all, we pray, that with the Blessed Virgin Mary, with the blessed Apostles and all the saints who have pleased you throughout the ages, we may be coheirs to eternal life and may praise and glory you, through your Son, Jesus Christ.( 2nd Eucharisitic Prayer)

We pray for all who hope in Christ’s resurrection, and also for “all who have died in your mercy.” All Souls is a day we pray for all who have died.

We begin our prayer on All Souls Day with St. Paul’s words to the Thessalonians and Corinthians, affirming God’s promise of eternal life to all humanity:

“Just as Jesus died and has risen again, so through Jesus God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep and as in Adam all die so also in Christ all will be brought to life.”

At the Communion of the Mass, we hear the words of Jesus:

“I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord. Whoever believes in me even though he die will live and anyone who believes in me will never die.”

Yet death saddens us; it can weaken our faith. Praying for the dead strengthens our faith and benefits those who have gone before us. In our opening prayer we ask for stronger faith.

Listen kindly to our prayers, O Lord,
and, as our faith in your Son
raised from the dead is deepened,
so may our hope of resurrection for your departed servants
also find new strength.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.

“It’s a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the living and the dead.” Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.

When we think of saints, we may think of Mary, the mother of Jesus, apostles like Peter and Paul, or extraordinary individuals like Mother Teresa.  True friends of God.

Besides those saints – shining lights of faith– there are unnumbered others in God’s company, the Feast of All Saints says. In a vision of heaven, St. John saw  “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.” {Revelations 7, 9-13} We hope to be with them one day.

Our hope rests on a promise Jesus made, the same apostle says:

 “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are…Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.” (1 John 3,1-3)

How shall we reach that place where we’ll be revealed as children of God?  Jesus said to follow him and live as he taught. He offers the way in his Sermon on the Mount, our gospel reading for this feast says. He will be the way, the truth and the life.

We haven’t seen yet that life we hope for or what God intends us to be. Life does not end; it changes. This feast invites us to trust in God’s promise and hope for the day it’s revealed. 

Extraordinary saints are not the only ones in heaven. There won’t be just a few either. Countless others are in God’s company: saints unnoticed here on earth, saints with little to show, saints who were sinners. People like us.

As we celebrate this feast, St. Bernard says:

“Rise again with Christ and seek the world above and set your mind on heaven. Long for those who are longing for us; hasten to those who are waiting for us, ask those who are looking for our coming to intercede for us. Desire their company and seek a share in their glory. There’s no harm in being ambitious for this. No danger in setting your heart on such glory. Remembering the saints inflames us with a yearning that Christ our life may appear to us as he appeared to them and that one day we may share in his glory.”

Romans 8:26-27: The Gift of Prayer

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In his Letter to the Romans, Paul writes of weakness. We live in a world of cosmic sin. Paul sees that weakness in humanity and in himself.

Yet, God gives us in Christ a grace that cannot be measured:

 “ We have received a spirit of adoption through which we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:15-17)

As God’s children we have the gift to speak to our Father in prayer, even in our weakness: 

“The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts
knows what is the intention of the Spirit,
because he intercedes for the holy ones 
according to God’s will.” (Romans 8:26-27)

God’s gift is never withdrawn, and so we often end our prayers:

 “Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”