17th Week, Tuesday, July 30: St Peter
Chrysologus
Jeremiah 14:17-22 / Matthew 13:36-43
A disaster strikes Judah: The people wondered if God still loved them.
A newspaper described what was left of the town Udall,
Kansas, after a tornado: "All homes were shredded to splinters. Only the
shells of stores and office buildings stand above the hip-level mass of
kindling strewn across the area "And from the population of 500 persons,
no one has been found who has not been injured in some way….
"A water tank which held the town's water supply
high atop a skeletal tower was twisted inside out like a paper cup."
International News Service.
A natural disaster like this helps us appreciate the
spiritual disaster that struck God's people. Small wonder they thought that God
had deserted them.
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How do we react to disasters in our lives? "If God
sends us stony paths, he provides strong shoes." Corie ten Boom
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A lot of questions have been asked about this age-old
problem of evil in the world, as well as the origin of evil. The Latin term for
this phrase "origin of evil" is MYSTERIUM INIQUITATIS. When
translated into English it is "the mystery of iniquity". Indeed, sin
and evil is so much of a mystery.
The letter to the Romans 7:19 puts this mystery in a
life experience when it says - For what I do is not the good I want to do; no,
the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. So as much as sin and evil
is mysterious, yet the reality and the fact is clear. Sin and evil is merely a
manifestation of the lack of goodness, whether it is around us or in us.
In the 1st reading, we hear of how God feels about the
sinful and evil situation of mankind, with these words: Tears flood my eyes
night and day unceasingly. God's love for us was so deep that He sent His only
Son so that He can restore our love and goodness. But we have to make the
decision to pick up the weeds of our sin and burn them in the fire of God's
love.
With Jesus, we can be certain that love and goodness will
triumph in the end.
In our fight against sin and evil, whether within or
without, let us put our confidence in God as we cry out - O our God, you are
our hope (Jer 14:22)
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THE FIELD OF THE WORLD
Introduction
We hear the prayer of the people – a prayer probably
composed by Jeremiah himself – appealing to God in time of war and famine. It
is like a penitential celebration expressing trust in the Lord and the hope to
be spared. Jesus explains the parable of the wheat and the weeds. Good and evil
will always coexist in the Church and in the world, until God’s good time
comes. The word of the Lord should perhaps help us to be patient and
understanding with the all too human aspects of the Church of the past and of our
day. The good will ultimately triumph; we have this assurance, while we already
work in the present to purify the Church and ourselves.
Opening Prayer
Lord our God, sower and lover of all that is good, we are
the times impatient about the human weaknesses of your Church and its leaders
and members. Help us not to condemn too easily but to look at our own defects,
and to work with all our might to reveal in us and in your Church the genuine
face of Jesus, by the strength of your own Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Commentary
Jeremiah today looks out over a pillaged and beleaguered
Judah. She has reaped the punishment so often predicted. The picture could have
been different had the population so decided. But even if the country is
faithless, God remains faithful. And so Jeremiah utters a heartfelt plea for
forgiveness. It is futile to turn to “do-nothing gods.” It is to the covenant
that the prophet returns and asks the Lord to forget it not. The history of
Christianity has seen repeated examples of infidelity. The people of the new
covenant disregarded their special status no less than the people of old. But
forgiveness requested has been forgiveness attained. If we are contrite of
heart, all wrongs can be righted. The prophets never failed to turn to the Lord
after punishment. One of the clearest signs of contrition is our willingness to
forgive others or to ask for forgiveness. In fact, the New Testament uses this
as a yardstick to measure God’s forgiveness. We have all suffered hurts. But a
magnanimous spirit rises above them. As we ask God’s forgiveness, let us never
forget to extend our own.
Points to Ponder
The fall of Judah and divine punishment
The prayer for forgiveness
Forgiving others
Intercessions
– That intimate prayer to the Lord may lighten up our faces
and our lives, we pray:
– That however humble our task in the Church, the Spirit of
the Lord may give us the courage to speak out for what is right and good, we
pray:
– That we may not usurp God’s task of separating the weeds
from the wheat in the Church, but leave the judgment to him, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God, for the sake of your covenant we pray you for
the bread of strength of your Son Jesus Christ. Let him cure us from all our
ills and lead us to you, our God, who are our hope and trust now and for
ever.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God, you want us to be with you sowers of goodness
in this world, of hope and peace, of freedom and joy. Use us as we are, with
our assets and faults, that we may share in the passion and resurrection of
your Son and bring this world to a new birth through him who is our Savior,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing
God lets his sun shine on good and bad alike. We are not the
judges of the Church or of the world: let God do the judging. Pray that he
keeps us faithful. May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the
Holy Spirit.
***
Saint Peter Chrysologus
Feast day July 30
About 431, Peter, a deacon, became bishop of Ravenna, Italy.
Many Christians in his diocese were following false teachings and living by
values that were not Christian. Peter became known as an outstanding preacher.
He also preached to catechumens preparing for Baptism. At the bishops’ meeting
in Constantinople in 448, Eutyches, a false teacher, denied that Jesus was both
God and man. When the bishops refused Eutyches the right to teach his false
ideas, he went to Peter for help. But Peter said, “In the interest of peace and
the faith we cannot judge in matters of faith without the consent of the Roman
bishop [the pope].”
Peter Chrysologus believed that Christians should acquire
knowledge to support the Christian faith. He encouraged education as a
God-given opportunity and obligation. About 450, Peter died where he had been
born: Imola, Italy. Thirteen centuries later, Pope Benedict XIII declared him a
Doctor of the Church because of his homilies.
