7/8/2016 – Friday of the 14th week of Ordinary Time – Matthew 10:16-23

    Scripture scholars estimate that Matthew’s Gospel was written approximately 50 years after Christ’s death and resurrection, which means that the Gospel was both written and heard in the context of the experiences of the Early Church, in the context of the persecutions and struggles they went through.  By stating that Jesus was sending out the disciples like sheep amongst wolves, he knew the opposition, cunning, and challenges that they would face in proclaiming the Gospel to the world.  The disciples in the Early Church were people of peace and reconciliation, renouncing violence and retribution, that is why they were like lambs amongst wolves.  There were some to whom the Gospel was proclaimed that wanted to destroy the disciples, seeing them as a threat to their own activities and ambitions. 

       Like me, probably most of you when you were in high school read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter that was set in the American colonies of New England.  I remember us discussing the themes of sin, guilt, and repentance in connect with the novel with my high school American literature class, as well as learning about the Puritan view of life that was such a big influence in the American colonies. A year after that novel was published, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s daughter Rose was born, in the year 1851. She grew up both in Massachusetts and in England, where her father served as US counsel.  She married when she was a young lady, but her marriage was not a happy one: her husband struggled with alcoholism and with holding down a job, and she lost her only child when he was 5 years old.  Yet, she and her husband converted to Catholicism when they were traveling in Italy.  It was her Catholic faith that brought her courage and strength.  She separated from her husband and devoted her life to carrying for those with incurable cancer, patients who were treated as if they were lepers in America in the late 19^th century. After her husband’s death in 1898, Rose Hawthorne became a Dominican sister.  She established the Dominican Congregation of St Rose of Lima, known as the Servants from Relief for Incurable Cancer.  They established a center for cancer patients in New York.  Rose Hawthorne become Mother Mary Alphonsa.  She served as a Dominican sister until her death in 1926. The Dominican priest who is defending Rose Hawthorne’s case for beatification stated that even thought she was a lady of culture, education, and social status, she lived amongst the poor and established a home for them where they could live in dignity, cleanliness, and comfort.  She and her religious sisters were the servants to their cancer patients, showing them care, love, and concern.  Rose Hawthorne’s biography is entitled Sorrow Built a Bridge.  Out of our pain and sorrows, we can find our calling as disciples of Christ just as Rose Hawthorne did.  That is our mission. 

7/10/2015 – Friday of 14th week ordinary time – Gen 46:1-7, 38-40, Matthew 10:16-23

      I had mentioned earlier in the week that the first readings in our daily masses this week would be the story of Israel and his son Joseph, the story of how the people of Israel ended up in Egypt.   Today, we hear about Joseph being reunited with his father Israel and with his brothers.   Initially, Israel must have feared for his life and the lives of his sons, since he thought his beloved son Joseph had been lost, and he was afraid what would happen to the rest of them.  Yet, God reassures Israel that it is safe to travel to Egypt, that this is part of God’s plan, that God will be there with him.   We also might fear some of the places we go in life as well; we also might question God’s plan for us.  Indeed, we may have to travel some places in life that seem very unsafe for us.   When I was a missionary in Ecuador, I used to have to go through the main bus terminal in the capital city of Quito.  Our mission headquarters was located in the Quito, so I had to travel through there quite a lot.  There were muggings and acts of violence in that bus terminal all the time.  In fact, I knew of a priest who had been assaulted there twice in the stairwells, one time to the point of having his glasses and crucifix stolen from him, from a robber who had a rosary hanging from around his neck nonetheless!  I always dreaded going through that bus terminal, but I really had no other choice.   In reflecting upon that story, I recalled what Jesus told his disciples in today’s Gospel:  “I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves.” Those are not very reassuring words, are they? Yet, we put our trust in the Lord.  We realize that God’s ways are sometimes very different than our own ways.  As the psalmist tells us today: “The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.”   May we indeed put our trust in our salvation that only comes from our heavenly Father through Christ, even in the midst of the reality we face here on earth.