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Sign & sacrament

25 Aug 2013 - Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

A teacher asked his class for examples of words that describe the current crop of college students. He expected to hear “highly educated” or “sophisticated” but was surprised at the honesty of a young woman who responded “entitlement. We think everything is owed to us.” An overstatement, yet such an attitude can often be attached to a particular social class, race, gender, ethnicity, or nationality. I may grow up believing I am owed good things in life because I am white, or black, because I am a woman, or an American, or a Catholic. But scripture makes it clear that simply being a member of a chosen race or having rank upon rank of noble ancestors makes no impression on God. Only one thing does: goodness. For more “Sign & sacrament” material, search the Prepare the Word database by today’s scripture reading, a particular theme, or a special occasion.

identity Belonging virtues

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The inner word

27 Dec 2015 - Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Cycle C

On the roll call of virtues God’s chosen ones should practice, the Letter to the Colossians lists “bearing with one another”—it’s along the lines of “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In daily life “bearing with” can mean “putting up with” or “tolerating” or “carrying one another’s burdens.” Either way: The next time you encounter something or someone inconveniencing or annoying you, remember the occasions when you needed to “be put up with.” Think of situations when someone stepped in to help you. Remember that experience when you have a chance to assist another when they’re weak.

virtues

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Homily stories

12 Jun 2016 - Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Like many people who lived through the Great Depression, my grandparents stockpiled food. They had a whole room in their basement filled with canned and dried items—some store-bought, some from their garden—on floor-to-ceiling, corner-to-corner shelves, and a giant freezer full of meat, including game and fish my grandpa caught. It was probably enough to feed their family for a year, just in case. Their caution seemed unnecessary to me. Fast-forward to 2008, and we all learned a painful lesson that an older generation already had—that excess leads to reckoning. We’d been collectively possessed by possessions and real-estate riches, and those demons weren’t driven out until the damage was done. I’m sure many people after the crash wanted to weep at Jesus’ feet! But debt isn’t forgiven the way sins are, and suddenly frugal grandparents everywhere seemed sage. Prudence (good judgment) and temperance (restraint) are among the four cardinal virtues, along with fortitude (courage) and justice. Cardinal virtues are developed by habit and can be practiced by anyone. Let’s use the prudence and temperance gained from elders and experience to prepare ourselves for whatever the future holds.

Authors Jennifer Tomshack

cardinal virtues prudence temperance

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The inner word

03 Oct 2010 - Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Patience, love, self-control, and steadfast love are the themes of today's readings. Assess the presence and strength of these virtues in yourself. Even small doses will serve you well, Jesus says, if you remember them when you need them. Habakkuk, Timothy, and the apostles all receive lessons in leadership. What kind of leader are you? What kind of leader do others expect you to be? What kind of leader would best serve the people to whom you minister?

patience Love strength virtue

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Who's listening?

31 Jan 2010 - Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Love, faith, prophecy, vocation. The hearers of today’s readings will want to find themselves in these great themes. God tells Jeremiah his prophetic vocation was chosen from before his birth—in other words, he always had it, whether he knew it or not. Ask people today to think seriously about their own Christian vocation. What is it? How do they discern it? Perhaps it is to love and proclaim love, despite the difficulties of doing so. As both Saint Paul and the gospel tell us, generosity is key. Love is essential to the other virtues, even faith, and the important thing to know about love is that it is generous. So it is with hearing God’s prophetic message. Unlike the skeptical inhabitants of Nazareth, we can believe with love. We can be both prophets and the hearers of prophets, if we love with charity and open hearts.

Vocation Prophecy virtues Saint Paul

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The inner word

27 Sep 2009 - Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

During ordinary time we get exposed to lessons in discipleship. The lesson this week includes a warning against spiritual jealousy. Has the multiplying of ministries in the church in recent days been a cause of jealousy in me? Do I welcome the proclaiming of truth wherever it might be found? What virtues (e.g., openness and flexibility) do I need to exercise to be truly collaborative?

jealousy virtue collaborative discipleship

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Exploring the word

06 Dec 2009 - Second Sunday of Advent, Cycle C

Advent is the season of hope. But what power does hope have in this world? It seems such a frail thing, a mere disposition. Depending on the present circumstances, hope can appear more like a delusion, a silly dream, the folly of those who aren’t thinking very clearly. Look at the world. See who occupies the seats of authority and controls the forces that shape us all: markets, courts, governments, laboratories, church and temple and mosque. In the presence of such people—who may well be the modern-day Tiberius Caesars, Pontius Pilates, Herods, and Caiaphases—what good is hope? Catholics and other Christians spend one month every year practicing and cultivating the art of hope. But hope is more than an art: It’s one of three theological virtues, along with faith and love (see 1 Corinthians 13:13). That means the object of our hope is God, not any worldly person or thing. No mortal event can save us from the power of sin and death. Like the other theological virtues, we don’t generate our own hope: It’s a gift from God for which we might ask if we don’t sense it operating in us. Those prone to depression, cynicism, fear, or anxiety should especially pray for this virtue to be released in their lives. Because faith, hope, and love work in tandem, to be lacking one is to be handicapped in all three. Though hope cannot be self-generated, it must be consciously and routinely practiced—and can be lost if it’s not. That’s why we have a whole season dedicated to the exercise of hope. If there were a “Hope Gym” we could visit to develop this gift, it would make things easier. And in a sense there is: It’s our story of salvation. Listen to Baruch console his once-exiled community, promising a triumphant return carried on thrones along level paths under shady and fragrant trees. Is that only nonsense? Who’s going to convey the population in such a lavishly exaggerated fashion? God is. God’s glory is the lamp to light their way; God’s mercy and justice will keep them company. If you doubt that, reread Exodus and Isaiah and the post-exilic prophets. The people who walked in darkness did see a great light. The captives of Zion did come back rejoicing, sheaves and all. Israel placed their hopes in God, and God delivered. Literally. And when John the Baptist stepped forward and promised that rough ways would be made smooth in the time of salvation, his kingdom proclamation was answered in the arrival of Jesus. Christian hope is not blind, ignorant, or without basis. We hope for the future because we possess the story of a glorious past of prayers answered and dreams achieved. Related scripture links In spirit and in truth: John 4:23-24 Genealogies in the gospels: Matt. 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38 Luke’s concern with the secular times: Luke 1:5; 2:1-2; 3:1-2; 13:1-5; 24:46-47 The old cannot fit into the new: Luke 5:33-39; 9:23-25, 59-62; 18:15-17 Catechism links The way prepared: CCC 522-524; 535; 608; 711-720

Authors Alice Camille

Hope theological virtues Faith Love

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Exploring the word

22 Mar 2009 - Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

To speak of faith as an activity may sound strange. Most of the time it seems like such a passive commodity. We make professions of faith, reciting lists of doctrinal statements that someone else wrote long ago. Reciting these lists costs us nothing. We don’t even have to think about them or understand them. Even the fact of our Christianity may seem like a passive situation. Before we could speak a word, chances are water was poured over us and the pact sealed. Writing “Catholic” into the block marked “Religion” on most forms can be as impersonal as writing the color of our hair and eyes or the letter that describes the type of our blood. What, if anything, does that have to do with our essential nature, with us? Yet faith is not an incidental trait or a random accident of birth. Faith is a gift from God, one of three theological virtues that cannot be acquired by personal effort. It’s not a gift you can put in the back of the closet after registering perfunctory thanks, much less re-gift to someone who can make better use of it. God chooses to reveal the divine presence in our midst; our response to this invitation to relationship is faith. Appreciating faith not as a holy medal to wear but a response to make helps us to identify our role in the action. God invites, and we respond. That’s faith. Faith is not a supernatural event but a quintessentially human act. When two people marry, they trust that the word and intention of the other is true. Why? Not because they have sifted through the checkbook, diary, and phone log to see what evidence can prove the other’s veracity. No, what they do is believe in and put their confidence in that person. They give their assent to a shared life and love, an interior communion that relies on what can’t be seen or touched or dragged into court. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” as the writer of Hebrews says (11:1). While faith cannot be fingerprinted and verified, it can be certain. “Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt,” Cardinal John Henry Newman wrote. Saint Augustine employed his faith as a lamp of enlightenment: “I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to believe.” As our gospel points out this week, the light came into the world for just this purpose, to rescue us from the darkness of ignorance and misunderstanding. All that’s required of us in the presence of this great gift is to respond with faith. A single act of faith can move mountains. Related scripture links The wages of sin: Rom. 6:23 All have sinned: Rom. 3:23; 7:13-25 Christ died for sinners: Rom. 5:6-8 Moses and the seraph serpent: Num. 21:4-9 Later fate of the bronze image: 2 Kings 18:4 Catechism links Expulsion: CCC 385-389; 396-412; 1006-1009; 1846-1851 Grace: CCC 1996-2005

Authors Alice Camille

theological virtues gift john henry newman Trust

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Quotes

25 Dec 2016 - Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas), Cycle A

We have spouses and children and parents and colleagues and friends, because someone has to know us better than we know ourselves. —Richard Russo "Virtue,” as the ancients called it, is defined on the level of “that which depends on us.” –Simone de Beauvoir

Richard Russo Simone de Beauvoir virtue

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Exploring the word

17 Jul 2022 - Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

How do you invite the God of All That Is into your home? If you were expecting God later this afternoon, what would you do to prepare? Plumping a few sofa pillows and running a comb through your hair doesn’t seem quite adequate. Nor does heating up those little finger-food quiches and making a fresh pot of coffee. One feels sure that more is required: vacuuming, dusting, maybe rearranging the potted plants? Throwing surface clutter and wandering shoes into the nearest closet? Is there time to plant a few annuals up the walkway to add a little color? How do you prepare for the coming of the Lord who can raise valleys and lower mountains when it suits the divine will to do so? The task of preparing a welcome for God is daunting. Yet according to the prophets from Isaiah to John the Baptist, it’s also required; and if the Bible record is any indication, it’s usually required when you least expect it. God doesn’t call ahead to make an appointment, or even buzz you on your cell while still a few blocks away. You could be taking a nap at home on a summer’s day like Abraham, or “at the office” in the middle of your workday like Moses, Peter, James, and John. You might be too young to be thinking of such things, like David, Jeremiah, or Mary of Nazareth; or too old, like Sarah, Zechariah, and countless others. You may have already made up your mind about where God is clearly not going to materialize like Joseph, betrothed of Mary, or Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus did. Be forewarned. The unlikely, unsuitable, and inconvenient hour is the one God likes best. The virtue of hospitality Back home, when we used the word hospitality, it implied the fresh-coffee and pillow-plumping variety. Very rarely it also entailed setting an extra place for supper or keeping someone overnight, but my parents weren’t too keen on either of those ideas. Guests were allowed to sit on our sofa for an hour or two, but they weren’t really invited into the bosom of the family’s inner sanctum. That’s why people used to have guest parlors. That room was maintained, not to welcome people, but frankly to keep them out of the real parts of the house where we lived and moved and had our being. This is obviously not the Hebrew meaning of hospitality, energetically demonstrated by Abraham at Mamre. He leaped up, bowed low with his creaky old bones, and begged three strangers to bless his tent with their presence. He had them bathed and rested, and while this was happening he and Sarah whipped together something a few shades larger than Thanksgiving dinner. When your meal starts with a live steer, it will take a while to get underway. But no trouble seemed too great to honor these unexpected guests. And these strangers have become known as the angels who came “unawares,” the ones we must always be vigilant for. They have been immortalized in Andrei Rublev’s icon and are synonymous, in many minds, with the Trinity. They ask for nothing, but we are wise to give them the best that we have. Because their blessing is the greatest blessing, and if there is any chance of obtaining it, it is worth the price of the steer. Hospitality in Bethany Others will practice this extreme approach to hospitality. Lot will insist on taking these same strangers from the town square to the safety of his home. Jethro will invite Moses to his table, under his roof, and to select from among his daughters in short order. Rahab will offer the spies of Israel, not only the immediate protection of her home but also the chance to overtake Jericho as a whole. Salvation history seems divided between those who take hospitality seriously, and those who miss the opportunity to have heaven under their roofs. When, in the reception of Jesus, Martha of Bethany knocks herself out with the burdens of much serving, she is exercising the best of her religion and tradition. Maybe she’s wrestling a steer to the ground back there in the kitchen, or maybe Jesus did have the courtesy to send word ahead that he was coming through Bethany on his way to Jerusalem. But we can be sure this woman is not going to be outdone in the hospitality department when it comes to entertaining the one she believes is the Messiah, the Son of God, the one they’ve all been waiting for. And yet history will not put her on the list with Abraham, Lot, Jethro, and Rahab as world-class hosts and hostesses. In fact, the last word on the subject of Martha always seems to be that she was deficient in some way—in the most important way! Martha, by every measure, has fulfilled the biblical virtue of hospitality wildly well. The problem is not Martha. The problem is that the standard has changed. When God is your guest Mary of Nazareth was unique, and the doctrines about her underscore this. But in her historically unprecedented reception of the divine, the standard for welcoming God shifted seismically. Mary of Bethany, we might say, embodied this new understanding by welcoming Jesus not simply into her home but into her being. She sat at his feet like a disciple, and she took the word of life into heart, mind, soul, and strength. A nice dinner is always a nice idea, but in the presence of Jesus, there is food to eat of which we may not suspect. Since the time of the Incarnation, hospitality has assumed an intimate and interior meaning. Our teaching on the indwelling Holy Spirit confirms this. From now on, when God is your guest, it is not enough to open your door. You have to open your life. Applying the word Don’t put Martha down Please don’t hurt Martha by contrasting her in a negative light with her sister. The sisters of Bethany together reveal the full complement of what biblical hospitality means. Martha did it the traditional way, and it’s still a wonderful thing to bring someone into your home and treat him or her like an honored guest. Don’t you like when it happens to you? What Mary’s response demonstrates is the vital part of what Christian hospitality also entails. We should take people into our homes, and God above all into our hearts. When God is at home in your heart, you don’t even have to fluff the pillows. Related scripture links Prepare the way: Isa. 40:3-5; Luke 3:4; John 1:23 Hospitality code: Exod. 23:9; Lev. 19:33-34; Deut. 10:17-19; Isa. 58:7; Job 31:31-32 Examples of hospitality: Gen. 19:1-11 (Lot); Exod. 2:20-22 (Jethro/Reuel); Josh. 2:1-22 (Rahab); Tob. 2:1-2 (Tobit) Martha’s faith: John 11:27 Heart, mind, soul, and strength: Deut. 6:4-5; Luke 10:27 Food to eat of which you do not know: John 4:32 Catechism links Hospitality: CCC 2571 Incarnation: CCC 464-470 Indwelling Spirit: CCC 797-798

Authors Alice Camille

preparing a welcome virtue of hospitality martha and mary

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