Labor Day Parade 1889, New York City, NYPublic Library
Labor Day is a holiday in my country, a day off. It’s also day to reflect on issues affecting work and workers. Labor Day can be traced back to when our world was agricultural rather than industrial. In many Christian societies, it was a day when people gave thanks for the crops they harvested and prayed for continued blessings. “Prosper the work of our hands, Lord, prosper the work of our hands.”
Labor Day can be traced to the rogation days in the Christian calendar, when people gathered in their church and went in procession through their fields thanking God for his gifts of the earth and asking God’s blessing for the future. Their procession was a walk of appreciation. As they walked through their fields people saw creation as good.
In a gospel suggested for today, Jesus tells us
“Do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.” (Matthew 6:311-36)
Each day has its worries, but worrying about tomorrow stops us from appreciating today, Jesus tells us. Worrying about tomorrow can stop us from living today.
That’s not to say we should not reflect on society’s social ills. Labor Day is also a time to call out against poor labor conditions, abusive labor conditions, lack of opportunities for good, meaningful work. There’s the threat that comes now from Artificial Intelligence. How will that impact workers? Not well, it seems. Time to think about workers.
Still, Labor Day calls us to take an appreciative walk through our own wheat fields, through the place where we are, looking at the work we do, appreciating the work others do for us. It’s a holiday.
St. Dominic, who’s feast is August 8th, is a saint universally celebrated in the Catholic Church. Why is he universally celebrated?
Dominic, who lived at the beginning of the 13th century, faced the Albigensians , a gnostic movement strongly entrenched around Toulouse in France that was drawing believers away from the church. Dominic gathered preachers to bring the teaching of the gospel to the area. Preaching the gospel, according to Dominic, meant not only to understand your faith, but to know what those who differ from you believe. He established communities of followers, the Dominicans, near universities such as Paris and Bologna.
They were to study and pray. Study and prayer and a simple life would help them know the truth and bring it to their world.His community still has that vital role in the church today.
The prayers for Dominic’s feast ask that the gifts of study and prayer and a simple life remain in the church. We need people who think and pray and preach.
One of Dominic’s biographers mentions something about him that’s true of all the saints, I think. Saints look redeemed. Dominic’s face was joyful, which came from a joyful heart and a soul at peace. He believed God was with him.
“He was a man of great equanimity, except when moved to compassion and mercy. And since a joyful heart animate the face, he displayed the peaceful composure of a spiritual man in the kindness he manifested outwardly and by the cheerfulness of his countenance.”
That same “cheerfulness of countenance” seems to be what people remark about Pope Francis. That doesn’t mean smiling continuously, but that joy is our “default,” it’s the attitude usually there. Fra Angelico seems to capture the peacefulness of Dominic in his portrait of the saint. (above)
Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) was born near Naples, Italy, into a noble family. He began life as a lawyer but gave up law to become a priest and devote himself to bringing the gospel to the poor. His sermons and instructions were simple. “I never preached a sermon that the poorest old woman in the congregation didn’t understand,” he claimed. In 1732 he founded the Redemptorists, the Congregation of the Holy Redeemer.
A prolific writer, poet and musician, Alphonsus authored a series of devotional books on Mary and important works on moral theology. He advocated leniency and mercy towards people, steering a course between severity and laxity. In hearing confessions, he said he never denied anyone absolution. We can see why he’s an example for pastoral workers today.
In 1762, he became bishop of Sant Agata dei Goti, a small diocese near Naples, where he worked to reform the clergy and renew its people in their faith. In 1775 he resigned his bishopric because of his health, but continued writing religious and devotional tracts till his death in 1787. In 1816 he was canonized by Pope Gregory XVI. Pope Pius IX declared him a doctor of the church in 1871.
“Hasn’t God a claim on our love? From all eternity God has loved us. ‘ I first loved you. You had not yet appeared in the light of day, nor did the world yet exist, but already I loved you. From all eternity I have loved you.’
God gave us a soul endowed with memory, intellect and will; he gave us a body equipped with the senses; it was for us that he created heaven and earth and all things. The truth is the eternal Father went so far as to give us his only Son.
By giving us his Son, whom he did not spare precisely so that he might spare us, he bestowed on us at once every good: grace, love and heaven; for all these goods are certainly inferior to the Son. He who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for all of us: how could he fail to give us along with his Son all good things?”
The prayer for his feast day points out it’s our turn to do what Alphonse’s did:
O God who constantly raise up in your church new examples of virtue, grant that we may follow so closely in the footsteps of the Bishop Saint Alphonsus in his zeal for souls as to attain the same rewards that are his in heaven.
1. Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together. Each generation inherits the task of shaping its own era, of guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted and fraternity is made possible. Yet every era also runs the risk of creating an inhumane and more unjust world. Whenever humanity is in danger of marring its true identity, we Christians lift our eyes to the Incarnate God, knowing that it is “only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of humanity truly becomes clear.” [1] In Jesus Christ, this humanity in its grandeur becomes the Way, the Truth and the Life, opening the path for each of us to grow toward fullness.
2. Founded on Christ, the living stone, we experience the powerful and mysterious action of the Holy Spirit, and we believe that every authentic human effort to cooperate with him for the good will be blessed by our heavenly Father, in whom we place our hope. For this reason, we can diligently contribute to every initiative that builds a more just world, and we can call others to collaborate in promoting the integral development of every human being. We wish to engage in dialogue with all men and women of our time, with whom we share in the events, questions and aspirations of humanity. [2] Together with them, we seek to identify new paths for the common good and for promoting a dignified life for all. Indeed, openness to dialogue is an integral part of the Church’s vocation because, constituted in Christ as “a sacrament… of communion with God and of the unity of the entire human race,” [3] she recognizes history as the place where the Gospel challenges and directs human experience.
Our first reading at Mass today, the letter from the church of Jerusalem to the church in Antioch, offers an important teaching on the nature of the church. The church of Jesus Christ is meant for all peoples. “I will give you thanks among the peoples, O Lord.” www.usccb.org
The universality of our church may be a special gift to the world today, when wars are pitting one country against another, when so many countries are closing their borders in fear of foreigners, when nations are looking only to their own interests.
We’re living in a divided world. It’s longing for a voice reminding us of our common humanity. We’re all children of God.
Our church is called to be a model of what the world should be. A home for all, whatever your race, or color, or place on the social ladder. I think that’s one reason Leo XIV gets the worldwide welcome he does.
So let’s pray for him and stand with him. What does a pope stand for? He shepherd’s a church that’s a home for all. He proclaims the message of Jesus, God’s only Son. That’s why Pope Leo was chosen, not because he’s an American, but because he’s a missionary at home in the world itself.
On the day of his election, the new pope told the cardinals who elected him to join him in a mission to the world. On the day after, he asked the crowds in St. Peter’s square to join him too on that mission, to follow Jesus Christ and bring his message to all peoples.
We belong to the Catholic Church. We have to keep our church catholic. We have to be catholic ourselves.
Antioch in Syria is the second important city our readings from Acts of the Apostles recall this week. Capitol of Roman Syria, Antioch was then a center of trade and government, on a sea route linking the Roman world. It would be an obvious place for Peter and Paul to begin their mission to plant the church in new lands. Luke indicates that others were also part of this mission.
“Those who had been scattered by the persecution that arose because of Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but Jews. There were some Cypriots and Cyrenians among them, however, who came to Antioch and began to speak to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.”
Luke sees the church of Antioch at the center of the church’s missionary activity, replacing Jerusalem destroyed by the Romans in 70. Here the believers in Jesus were first called “Christians”.
The church grew and prospered in Antioch. By the 2nd century the Christian Church was organized under a respected bishop, Ignatius, who wrote letters to various Christian churches on his way to martyrdom in Rome. By the 4th century Antioch was considered the most important Christian church after Rome and Alexandria. It was one of first Christian centers to have a cathedral, built between 327-341. Early church councils took place there. St. John Chrysostom was among its many prominent theologians and leaders.
Known today as Antakya, Antioch is a Moslem city in Turkey. Flattened by earthquakes, its access to the sea, the Orantes River, silted over, the city offers few traces of its ancient commercial power and Christian past, except a collection of Roman mosaics.
Peter and Paul, who feature so prominently in the Acts of the Apostles, would never have accomplished their mission without the “Cypriots and Cyrenians” who first came to Antioch as persecuted believers and “began to speak to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.”
I discovered on Google books an old study of plants and trees by Richard Folkard, an English botanist. (Plant Lore, Legends and Lyrics, London 1884) It’s a treasure of information.
Folkard says that from earliest times people saw religious meaning in plants, flowers and trees. He writes especially about how they were seen in medieval times.
“In the dark ages the Catholic monks , who cultivated with assiduity all sorts of herbs and flowers in their monastic gardens , came in time to associate them with traditions of the Church , and to look upon them as emblems of particular saints . Aware , also , of the innate love of humanity for flowers , they selected the most popular as symbols of the Church festivals , and in time every flower became connected with some saint of the Calendar , either from flowering at the time of the saint’s day , or from being connected with the saint in some old legend…
But it was more especially upon the Virgin Mary that the early Church bestowed their floral symbolism … The poetry no less than the piety of Europe has inscribed to her the whole bloom and colouring of the fields and hedges. The choicest flowers were wrested from the classic Juno , Venus , and Diana , and from the Scandinavian Bertha and Freyja , and bestowed upon the Madonna , whilst floral offerings of every sort were laid upon her shrines .
Her husband , Joseph , has allotted to him a white Campanula , which in Bologna is known as the little Staff of St. Joseph . In Tuscany the name of St. Joseph’s staff is given to the Oleander. A legend recounts that the good Joseph possessed originally only an ordinary staff , but that when the angel announced to him that he was destined to be the husband of the Virgin Mary , he became so radiant with joy , that his very staff flowered in his hand…
A Catholic writer complained that at the Reformation the very names of plants were changed in order to divert men’s minds from the least recollection of ancient Christian piety A Protestant writer of the last century , bewailing the ruthless action of the Puritans in giving to the ” Queen of Beauty ” flowers named after the ” Queen of Heaven , ” says :’Botany , which in ancient times was full of the Blessed Virgin Mary , is now as full of the heathen Venus .’ ”
Folkard reminds us that the monks were good catechists. That work of theirs is largely ignored today. If you consult Wikipedia’s listings of trees and plants, there’s hardly a trace of that Catholic tradition. I wonder if we shouldn’t mine that tradition again as we try to enhance our care of the earth. Clover .spearmint, foxglove, lupine, campanula, marigolds, cowslip, Lady’s mantel, Lady’s bedstraw are more than a genus and species. They once spoke of the mysteries of God.
We began reading from the 6th chapter of Luke’s Acts of Apostles last Saturday, which describes a social problem that never disappears. Some newcomers to Christianity are being treated unfairly. “As the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.”( Acts 6:1)
If we substitute “Immigrants” for “Hellenists” a more familiar situation emerges in this story. New-comers are not treated fairly in this story. Probably the poorer song them especially.
The “Hebrews” were the first followers of Jesus, mostly Jews from Galilee. They’re Jewish Christians at home in the Jewish world; they fit into the religious and political Judaism of the time in spite of the friction that came from following Jesus of Nazareth.
They’re the establishment.
In every age immigrants, once they gain a little footing in their new home tend to speak out for their needs. The Hellenists, led by Stephen, began to speak out. Stephen’s fiery words seem to be only about religious matters, but he’s also criticizing the closed world of Judaism.
Is it also the closed world of early Jewish Christianity as well?
Stephen’s criticism cost him his life and initiated the Jewish reaction that led to the expulsion of many of the Christian Hellenists. They become immigrants again but, as Luke notes, they bring the gospel to new peoples.
How did Christianity spread early on? Certainly not to the apostles and genius of Paul alone. The Acts of the Apostles this week reminds us there were others, like the deacon Philip, who brought the gospel to Samaria. (Wednesday)
Then, there’s the Ethiopian official Philip baptizes. He surely brought the gospel to Africa. (Thursday) There were many others, not just apostles, but immigrants like Stephen, who fulfilled a divine plan they hardly understood.
We are in the midst of an age of massive immigration, due to wars, climate change, religious discrimination and other issues. We tend to see these issues only in social or political terms.
This week’s readings from Luke remind us there’s more. God’s plan is also being fulfilled in many other ways.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!
Continuing in our reflection on the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium (LG), today we will look at the second chapter, dedicated to the People of God.
God, who created the world and humanity, and who wishes to save every man, carries out his work of salvation in history, choosing a real people and dwelling among them. For this reason, He calls Abraham and promises him descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore (cf. Gen 22:17-18). With Abraham’s children, after freeing them from slavery, God makes a covenant with them, accompanies them, cares for them, and gathers them together whenever they stray. Therefore, the identity of this people is given by God’s action and by faith in Him. They are called to become a light for other nations, like a beacon that will draw all peoples, the whole of humanity, to itself (cf. Is 2:1-5).
The Council affirms that “All these things, however, were done by way of preparation and as a figure of that new and perfect covenant, which was to be ratified in Christ, and of that fuller revelation which was to be given through the Word of God Himself made flesh” ( LG, 9). Indeed, it is Christ who, in giving His Body and His Blood, unites this people in Himself and in a definitive way. It is a people now made up of members of every nation; it is united by faith in Him, by adherence to Him, by living the same life as Him, animated by the Spirit of the Risen One. This is the Church: the people of God who draw their existence from the body of Christ [1] and who are themselves the body of Christ; [2] not a people like any other, but the People of God, called together by Him and made up of women and men from all the peoples of the earth. Its unifying principle is not a language, a culture, an ethnicity, but faith in Christ: the Church is therefore – according to a splendid expression of the Council – the assembly of “all those who in faith look upon Jesus” ( LG, 9).
It is a messianic people, precisely because it has Christ, the Messiah, as its head. Those who belong to it do not pride themselves on merits or titles, but only on the gift of being, in Christ and through Him, daughters and sons of God. Above any task or function, therefore, what really matters in the Church is to be grafted onto Christ, to be children of God by grace. This is also the only honorary title we should seek as Christians. We are in the Church in order to receive life from the Father unceasingly and to live as His children and brothers and sisters among ourselves. Consequently, the law that animates relationships in the Church is love, as we receive and experience it in Jesus; and her goal is the Kingdom of God, towards which she walks together with all humanity.
Unified in Christ, Lord and Saviour of every man and woman, the Church can never turn inwards on herself, but is open to everyone and is for everyone. If believers in Christ belong to it, the Council reminds us that “All men are called to belong to the new people of God. Wherefore this people, remaining one and unique, must extend to the whole world and to all ages, so that the intention of God’s will may be fulfilled, who in the beginning created human nature as one and wants to gather together his children who were scattered” (LG, 13). Even those who have not yet received the Gospel are therefore, in some way, oriented towards the people of God, and the Church, cooperating in Christ’s mission, is called upon to spread the Gospel everywhere and to everyone (cf. LG 17), so that every person may enter into contact with Christ. This means that in the Church there is, and there must be, a place for everyone, and that every Christian is called to proclaim the Gospel and bear witness in every environment in which he or she lives and works. Thus, this people shows its catholicity, welcoming the wealth and resources of different cultures and, at the same time, offering them the newness of the Gospel to purify them and to raise them up (cf. LG, 13).
In this regard, the Church is one but includes everyone. A great theologian described it thus: “The unique Ark of Salvation must welcome all human diversity into its vast nave. The only banquet hall, the food it distributes is drawn from all of creation. The seamless garment of Christ, it is also – and it is the same thing – the garment of Joseph, with its many colours”. [3]
It is a great sign of hope – especially in our times, traversed by so many conflicts and wars – to know that the Church is a people in which women and men of different nationalities, languages and cultures live together in faith: it is a sign placed in the very heart of humanity, a reminder and prophecy of that unity and peace to which God the Father calls all his children.
This 3rd week of Lent is an important week for people entering our church and participating in its sacraments. It’s a school for catechumens seeking Baptism; others are receiving sacraments. Three readings this week are especially important: the story of the Samaritan woman, the story of Naaman the Syrian, and then, Luke’s account of Jesus visit to Nazareth.
The Samaritan woman, who meets Jesus at Jacob’s well, is an important teacher for those approaching the church and its sacraments. It’s a story so important that the liturgy recommends this gospel be read in place of another gospel this week, if it’s not read on Sunday.
Like the Samaritan woman, we are people of our own time and place, with our prejudices and deep desires. Like her, Jesus leads us gradually to a new understanding of who we are and what we are called to be. Like her, he promises us living water.
What does “living water” mean? Baptize in living waters, the early baptismal rituals say. They forbid baptism in stagnant water. Why? Stagnant water goes nowhere. Living water brings us to all life, to all creation, to a greater life. It’s not a water that restricts; this water makes us grow.
For the Jews the Jordan River was living water. Entering the Jordan at his baptism Jesus empowered it with new life. His Spirit entered the waters. Just as water once flowed out in four rivers over the whole world – according to the Book of Genesis – the waters of the Jordan flowed out over the world after Jesus was baptized.
Monday’s reading recalls Naaman the Syrian. Like the Samaritan woman, he was not a Jew. He came somewhat skeptically to the waters of the Jordan to be cleansed of his leprosy. Not only was he cleansed of leprosy, but he came to new knowledge: “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.” Like the Samaritan woman, Naaman received the gift of faith.
The stories of Naaman and the Samaritan woman are great stories for reflecting on the mystery of the church, baptism and the sacraments.
Why do we catechize and baptize people entering the church and her sacramental life during Lent? Because Lent leads to the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Living water came from his side at his death. Blood and water from his side gave life to the Church and her sacraments.
During this third week of Lent, the gospel of the rejection of Jesus at Nazareth is also read. (Monday) The story is important because it presents “the scandal of the Incarnation.” Jesus was rejected at Nazareth as the carpenter, Mary’s son. Those who enter the church and participate in her sacraments will face a similar “ scandal of the Incarnation.”
The church is a complex reality, Pope Leo said in a recent address, it is a reality of saints and sinners. We have to live in that reality.
