30th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 25 October 2020

by SFXparish | Oct 22, 2020 | BLOG

Thus says the LORD: “You shall not molest or oppress an alien… You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry to me, I will surely hear them cry.” (Ex 22:20-22)

In our first reading today we hear how God commands his chosen people not to molest or oppress any alien people whom they encounter, for they themselves were once an alien people oppressed in Egypt. The Lord God continues: the Israelites are to do no wrong to any widow or orphan.  Still the Lord God persists, for the Spirit makes it clear that God hears the cry of all those who are wronged and who have no voice.  The world may not hear these cries, but the Lord says, “I will surely hear them…”

It is a very unfortunate affair that the Church must make a distinction between what are called “life issues” and “social justice” issues.  God makes no such distinction. God hears the cry of all the afflicted.  He hears the cry of the widow and orphan, the cry of the enslaved, the cry of the refugee; the cry of the child in the womb and we know how much he loves his little ones (Mt 19:14).  We should be in fear if these little ones cry out to God from the womb against us.

Now as Catholics we should consider the affliction of all people in our nation and around the world.  However in an election season we should also consider that we are not just any people.  We are people of true religion, we are people of faith; we are children of God who must stand fast with the ears of God hearing what others ignore.  We cannot forsake life in any form but especially we cannot forsake life in the womb because as God’s stewards we should surely hear the babes whom others do not hear.

Have you not heard “out of the mouth of babes… you have established a bulwark against your foes to silence [the] enemy” (Ps 8:2) and also “Wisdom … gave ready speech to infants” (Wis 10:21).  If we do not hear the cries of the children in the womb and do not put them first in the voting booth, them tell me (please tell me) who else will? The world is not listening!  The United Nations, the European Union, and the secularists of our own nation listen to the cries of the refugee, the immigrant, the widow and orphan, but have blocked their ears entirely to the unborn.  We Catholics are the last remaining hope of waiting-to-be-born children.  Do you not see this? Have you not yet realized this?

For this 30^th Sunday in Ordinary Time we place on our bulletin cover a work by the great Baroque Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens entitled The Virgin and Child Surrounded by the Holy Innocents (1618 – courtesy Wikipedia).  This image is representative of the eternal joy of those children massacred by King Herod after the birth of Jesus (Mt 2:16-18).  We offer it as representative of our present hope for those children massacred in the womb by our modern society and for your most earnest reflection during this election cycle.

True, we could have shown images of refuges crowded on boats, or hungry women and children. However, the world has been shown these images and has mostly acted.  We also could have placed on our bulletin cover Ruben’s Massacre of the Innocents.  In our time, it is these innocents that have yet to be sufficiently spoken for… and voted for.

-Steve Guillotte, Director of Pastoral Services

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 18 October 2020

by SFXparish | Oct 14, 2020 | BLOG

Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, “Whose image is this…” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” (Mt 22:19- 21)   

 Justice is giving to each person that which is due to him.  God is a person, albeit a Divine Person, who is ever entitled to his own due. In truth, every good thing is due back to God because every good thing comes from God.

Now what good and sincere person who received a rich bequeathal from another good and sincere person would not be thankful and earnestly set out to please that person with a return from all that was given him.  Only a thankless and covetous person would not want to please the generous person who bestowed a great gift upon him.

God, most generous, gives us many good things, but the greatest of these is LIFE. The life of man is especially precious because it comes with a promise of eternal life to those who gratefully repay their fruitfulness to God.  Therefore, the best way that man can give God his due is to cultivate human life, and what is “human life” except each and every human life created with a rational soul at the moment of conception.

Now a good man will always cultivate human life by assisting the poor, the expectant mother and child, the widow, the orphan; his fellow man in need.  However, in our time the good man is told that the expectant mother and child is not really his concern.  Caesar or “the world” may still allow the good man to contribute to the health of the unborn child but also demands that he contribute to its death: Caesar wants to tax the good man to pay for abortions. Hence, Caesar no longer wants only a census tax to pay for the born; he wants a death tax to destroy the unborn. Mind you, Caesar has the sonogram; he can look inside the womb.  He ought to ask his citizens the same question that Jesus asked about the Roman coin – “Whose image is this?” But Caesar is fearful that the answer will come back, “It is in the image of God”.

For this 29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time we place on our bulletin cover a work by the French painter James Tissot entitled The Pharisees and The Sadducees Come To Tempt Jesus (1894; Courtesy Brooklyn Museum). Tissot was a prolific illustrator of the activities of Jesus and he offers many artistic insights into Jesus’ mission.

Here we see Jesus confronted in the public square by his religious enemies. Most of the postures of the Pharisees and Sadducees seem aggressive or angry, however one with hand-on-chin appears willing to ponder Jesus’ words, while another who hears raises his eyes to praise God.  For His part Jesus raises His hands in brotherhood and invitation while His Apostles sit by as if stymied as to how to act amongst all these teachers of the Law.  A beautiful olive tree overhangs the scene.  Thus Tissot offers a sense of serenity, yet there remains a tension in this encounter that will soon lead Jesus to be condemned, first by Jewish authorities and then by Caesar.

Present day Caesar continues to be very suspicious of his good citizens – those of us who only desire to give back to God what is God’s.

-Steve Guillotte, Director of Pastoral Services