Thoughts for Today

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Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time C/II.

Prayers this week: God, come to my help. Lord, quickly give me assistance. You are the one who helps me and sets me free: Lord, do not be long in coming. (Psalm 69: 2. 6)

Father of everlasting goodness, our origin and guide, be close to us and hear the prayers of all who praise you. Forgive our sins and restore us to life. Keep us safe in your love. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

(August 1) Saint Alphonsus Liguori, bishop and doctor of the Church (1696-1787)
Moral theology, Vatican II said, should be more thoroughly nourished by Scripture, and show the nobility of the Christian vocation of the faithful and their obligation to bring forth fruit in charity for the life of the world. Alphonsus, declared patron of moral theologians by Pius XII in 1950, would rejoice in that statement. In his day, Alphonsus fought for the liberation of moral theology from the rigidity of Jansenism. His moral theology, which went through 60 editions in the century following him, concentrated on the practical and concrete problems of pastors and confessors. If a certain legalism and minimalism crept into moral theology, it should not be attributed to this model of moderation and gentleness. At the University of Naples he received, at the age of 16, a doctorate in both canon and civil law by acclamation, but soon gave up the practice of law for apostolic activity. He was ordained a priest and concentrated his pastoral efforts on popular (parish) missions, hearing confessions, forming Christian groups. He founded the Redemptorist congregation in 1732. It was an association of priests and brothers living a common life, dedicated to the imitation of Christ, and working mainly in popular missions for peasants in rural areas. Almost as an omen of what was to come later, he found himself deserted, after a while, by all his original companions except one lay brother. But the congregation managed to survive and was formally approved 17 years later, though its troubles were not over.
Alphonsus’ great pastoral reforms were in the pulpit and confessional — replacing the pompous oratory of the time with simplicity, and the rigorism of Jansenism with kindness. His great fame as a writer has somewhat eclipsed the fact that for 26 years he travelled up and down the Kingdom of Naples, preaching popular missions. He was made bishop (after trying to reject the honour) at 66 and at once instituted a thorough reform of his diocese. His greatest sorrows came toward the end of his life, involving changes to the Rule and the temporary break-up of branches of the Order. At 71 he was afflicted with rheumatic pains which left incurable bending of his neck. He suffered a final 18 months of “dark night” scruples, fears, temptations against every article of faith and every virtue, interspersed with intervals of light and relief, when ecstasies were frequent. Alphonsus is best known for his moral theology, but he also wrote well in the field of spiritual and dogmatic theology. His Glories of Mary is one of the great works on that subject, and his book Visits to the Blessed Sacrament went through 40 editions in his lifetime, greatly influencing the practice of this devotion in the Church. Someone once remarked, after a sermon by Alphonsus, "It is a pleasure to listen to your sermons; you forget yourself and preach Jesus Christ." (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today: Ecclesiastes 1:2:2:21-23; Psalm 89; Colossians 3:1-5.9-11; Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Jesus replied, Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you? Then he said to them, Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them this parable: The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God. (Luke 12:13-21)

True security If there is one thing the modern world encourages us to do, it is to be successful materially and financially. We are encouraged to make good money, to have a good home, to have a good car, plenty of possessions, a good business, a career that earns social approval, and in general to attain temporal success and material security. Of course, to a point these are valid goals. God does want us to gain and use those things we need in life. But the danger is that in seeking material goals we can become materialistic, which is to say we can make material enjoyment and security the goal of our life. These are the values of one who believes that this world is all that there is. It is this danger of materialism against which St Paul warns us in the second reading, and he expresses it clearly. He says “you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-5.9-11). What are the things that are in heaven? Christ gives us his answer in The Lord’s Prayer. In it we pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Looking for the things that are in heaven means above all looking for God’s will to be done as perfectly as possible in our daily life, just as it is done perfectly in heaven. St Paul explains in specific terms what this involves. He says, ‘That is why you must kill everything in you that belongs to earthly life: fornication, impurity, guilty passion, evil desires and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshipping a false god; and never tell each other lies.’ In St Paul’s terminology, to commit any of these sins is to have one’s thoughts on the things of earth. He especially emphasises one of those sins: greed. He says that greed “is the same thing as worshipping a false god.” We are warned against devoting ourselves to material possessions in such a way that those possessions take centre stage in our lives, and displace God.

So then, are we striving to serve God, doing His will day by day here on earth, just as it is done in heaven? Indeed, this should be the principal objective in all we do to earn our living, and in the use of our material possessions. We ought not be spending our lives simply to gain absolute material security, a security based on material wealth which, we hope, will leave us dependent on nothing and no-one. In any case, absolute material security is an illusion. It is impossible that material things make us absolutely secure, for it is only God who can be man’s true security. This is exactly what today’s Gospel teaches us. ‘Watch, and be on your guard,’ our Lord said, ‘against avarice of any kind’ (Luke 11:13-21). Christ’s warning is against every kind of avarice. ‘For,’ he says, ‘a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs.’ That is so obviously the case, if only we give some attention to the matter. No matter how secure a person might seem to be financially, no matter how successful that person may have been in life from a material point of view, that person could drop dead any instant. He is not secure. And have we not seen this happen time and again over the years with leading businessmen or politicians? Years back, at the height of his business fame, one of Australia’s most successful and wealthy businessmen suddenly died at 52, and was cremated. He could not take a cent with him, and all there was left were ashes. What did he go to God with? Years back, an Australian Prime Minister went swimming, and that was the last that was ever seen of him. Our Lord puts this point vividly in his story of the rich farmer (Luke 12:13-21). “There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, ‘What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them. Then I shall be able to say to myself, I am completely secure for good now. I can now settle back and enjoy myself.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! You do not realize that this is the last day of your life. And when you go tonight, all this stuff you have worked for, someone else will have it.’” He was, God said, very foolish.

The fulfilment of God’s will is the source of our security and our true wealth. Let us pray insistently that we make it such. Of course we must devote ourselves to our business or profession or calling in life, whatever it may be. But the purpose of our efforts should be that what God wants done, is done. It is this that gives us security here on earth and for ever in heaven. It is this which ought inspire our prayer and our principal petitions before God. It is this which is the world’s security. Let us all be on guard against the illusions of false security which can infect our whole mind and corrupt our religion. As St Paul says, let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.

(E.J.Tyler) my website

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If you are faithful you will be able to count yourself a conqueror.

—Even though you may lose some battles in your life, you will not know defeat. You can be sure that there is no such thing as failure, if you act with purity of intention and with a desire to fulfil the Will of God.

—And then, whether you win or lose, you will always triumph in the end, because you will have carried out your work with Love.
(The Forge, no.199)

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When the intellect is cultivated, it is as certain that it will develop into a thousand various shapes, as that infinite hues and tints and shades of colour will be reflected from the earth’s surface, when the sunlight touches it; and in matters of religion the more, by reason of the extreme subtlety and abstruseness of the mental action by which they are determined.

JHN, from the Letter to the Duke of Norfolk

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Morning Offering: O Jesus, through the most pure heart of Mary, I offer you all the prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your divine heart, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass. I offer them especially for the Holy Father's intentions:

Pope Benedict's general intention for June is: "That every national and trans-national institution may strive to guarantee respect for human life from conception to natural death."

His mission intention is: "That the Churches in Asia, which constitute a 'little flock' among non-Christian populations, may know how to communicate the Gospel and give joyful witness to their adherence to Christ."