13th Week, Friday, July 4; St. Elizabeth of Portugal
Genesis 23:1-4, 19; 24:1-8, 62-67 / Matthew 9:9-13
Isaac marries Rebekah; His love for Rebekah healed Isaac.
There was a time when many people thought Willie Nelson's singing career was over and his life was almost totally wrecked. But then came a remarkable turnaround. Willie talked about his turnaround in a television interview with Barbara Walters. He said the incentive and the power to change his life came from his wife. Then Willie sang a song he had written to celebrate the beautiful influence his wife had on his life. Called "Angel Flying too close to the Ground" it contains this memorable line: “Love is the greatest healer to be found." It was this kind of healing power that Rebekah brought to the life of Isaac after his mother's death.
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Have we ever experienced the healing power of another's love in our own lives? "While faith makes all things possible, it is love that makes all things easy.” (Evan H. Hopkins)
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The Old Testament literature is full of imagery and symbolic language. So it may be necessary to understand the imagery and the symbols in order to understand the significance of the message.
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The length of Sarah's life was one hundred and twenty-seven years [vs ll. This is the only time when the Bible reveals the age of a woman. This was not unkind. When one is 127 years, there is neither a chance nor a reason to hide the age. She was the first to be buried in the family tomb in the cave of the field of Machpelah opposite Mamre. It was the first piece of land Abraham possessed in the land of Canaan and he had to pay heavily for it. With Sarah buried, his urgent task was to find a wife for his son. The choice of Rebekah is one of the loveliest stories of the Bible. Our reading chooses brevity for charm and gives us the barest facts. It ends by saying "Isaac led Rebekah into his tent and made her his wife and loved her". This was the pattern of our Indian marriages. Modern marriages reverse the order: First they fall in love, then they become man and wife, and then only he takes her home. Which was better, the choice of a wise man who is emotionally not involved but chooses objectively? Or that a young man chooses with his eye and his heart? What young people should pray for and rely on is that God in his Providence should arrange it sweetly.
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In line with the promise made by God to give the “Promised Land,” to his descendants, Abraham seeks a wife for his son Isaac from his own relatives, but without letting Isaac live in their pagan environment. For to keep his religion pure Isaac cannot take a Canaanite wife. God is shown here as the God of history.
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Matthew interrupts the narrative of the miracles by telling us his own conversion. He gives it one verse in two lines. What stands out more strikingly in his mind is the grand party he had in his house with Jesus as chief guest. We can understand that the Pharisees were scandalized by Jesus eating with the tax collectors and sinners. Both are people who do not particularly care for religion. It is bad company and sin means turning away from God. Sharing a meal shows some intimacy. But they were not justified. They judged wrongly. Many a sinner loathes sin deep down in his heart, and would like to love God. Jesus is there to teach them just this. He had come to free men from sin and to turn them to love God with their whole mind. He had not come for those who considered themselves the just. He would indeed be a poor doctor both professionally and financially, who cared only for those who are well Jesus does not mind to be called the friend of sinners.
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The gospel, which Jesus preaches and lives, is not a religion based on the self-righteousness of people but a religion of love and mercy based on God’s pure generosity. This makes it possible for a typical sinner – an exploiter and a traitor to his people to boot – to be called to be an apostle. And Christ sits at table with sinners – with Levi-Matthew and his friends, with us now “so that sins may be forgiven.”
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Prayer
God of mercy, you put the self-righteous to shame and you call sinners to the task of bringing your Son’s salvation to the world. Forgive us our pride and reassure us that we can count on you and your love because we are weak and sinful people. Let us share in your life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
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St. Elizabeth of Portugal
On July 4, the Catholic Church celebrates St. Elizabeth of Portugal, a queen who served the poor and helped her country avoid war during the 13th and 14th centuries.
Elizabeth of Portugal was named for her great-aunt, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, who was canonized in 1235. Their lives were similar in some important ways: both of them were married at very young ages, they sought to live the precepts of the Gospel despite their status as royalty, and finished their lives as members of the Third Order of St. Francis.
The younger Elizabeth was born in 1271, the daughter of King Pedro III of Aragon and his wife Constantia. Even in her youth, Elizabeth showed a notable devotion to God through fasting, regular prayer, and a sense of life's seriousness. While still very young, she was married to King Diniz of Portugal, a marriage that would put her faith and patience to the test.
King Diniz was faithfully devoted to his country, known as the “Worker King” because of his diligence. Unfortunately, he generally failed to live out the same faithfulness toward his wife, although he is said to have repented of his years of infidelity before his death. Diniz and Elizabeth had two children, but the king fathered an additional seven children with other women.
Many members of the king's court likewise embraced or accepted various forms of immorality, and it would have been easy for the young queen to fall into these vices herself. But Elizabeth remained intent on doing God's will with a humble and charitable attitude. Rather than using her status as queen to pursue her own satisfaction, she sought to advance Christ's reign on earth.
Like her namesake and great-aunt Elizabeth of Hungary, Elizabeth of Portugal was a devoted patroness and personal friend of the poor and sick, and she compelled the women who served her at court to care for them as well. The queen's bishop testified that she had a custom of secretly inviting in lepers, whom she would bathe and clothe, even though the law of the land barred them from approaching the castle.
Elizabeth's commitment to the Gospel also became evident when she intervened to prevent civil war in the kingdom on two occasions. Alfonso, the only son of Diniz and Elizabeth, resented the king's indulgent treatment of one of his illegitimate sons, to the point that the father and son gathered together rival armies that were on the brink of open war in 1323.
On this occasion, St. Elizabeth placed herself between the two opposing armies, insisting that Diniz and Alfonso come to terms and make peace with one another. In 1336, the last year of her life, she intervened in a similar manner to prevent her son from waging war against the King of Castile for his poor treatment of Alfonso's own daughter.
Following King Diniz's death in 1325, Elizabeth had become a Franciscan of the Third Order, and had gone to live in a convent that she had established some years before. The testimony of miracles accomplished through her intercession, after her death in 1336, contributed to her canonization by Pope Urban VIII in 1625.
