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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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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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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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