Continuing in Matthew yesterday (Mt 8:18-22) we came across a couple of men, the first a scribe, the second a disciple, who express a desire to follow Jesus.  This is an opportunity for Jesus to let those around Him know what radical true discipleship can require (“nowhere to rest”) and what it entails (“follow me” from this moment forward).  The comment at top was made by the scribe.  When we can say those words with complete openness and sincerity, especially in light of Jesus’ words here and in what His closest collaborators and future followers endured for His sake, we have greatly advanced in discipleship.  Consider the first word: “Teacher.”  It is appropriate we capitalize this word when referring to Jesus.  He is the true Teacher, we all must strive to be His model students.  When Jesus speaks, we are obliged to listen.  But we must be in the classroom first.  Jesus speaks to us through divine revelation in Scripture and Tradition, safeguarded by His Body, the Church’s, teaching office.  Certainly we must get to church for Sunday obligation, but also attend, or at least watch Mass on TV, more often if possible.  In addition, let us make a habit of reading the Bible daily.  We must familiarize ourselves with Church teaching, ideally starting with the Catechism, but also challenging ourselves with other good works.  And of course, this all must be supported by conversation with God, that is, prayer.  Through prayer, sacraments, and study we increase in our ability to follow Jesus as we come to better and better understand what His will is for us and, thus, where He is leading us.

The gospel reading for today has Mark giving us a story of healing wrapped in a raising from the dead (Mk 5:21-43).  First, Jairus, a synagogue official, pleads with Jesus to come to his house to heal his dying daughter.  Jesus goes off with him, but on the way He is accompanied by a large and close crowd.  In the midst of this crowd a woman, ill for twelve years, is able to reach Jesus and touch His garment as she trusts this act will effect her healing.  She is in fact healed and Jesus realizes that the healing happens.  He seeks her out, she confesses her whole story, and He leaves her with the words at top.  Finally, Jesus reaches Jairus’s house, is told the girl has died, puts everyone out anyway, and, to the astonishment of all, brings her back to life.  Jesus orders that no one be told about this.  Faith is a key theme in this passage.  Not only the line above but also Jesus words to Jairus upon learning his daughter had died: “Do not be afraid; just have faith” (v. 36).  These must be words we interiorize to the core of our being.  The hope for salvation must begin with faith.  Eliminating fear happens with a deep and abiding faith.  Healing in body, and more importantly, healing in soul, rely on faith.  The sacraments of healing, Confession and Anointing of the Sick, should come to mind immediately for Catholics.  Entering into the confessional or receiving the anointing with a humble and contrite heart, desiring the deep and thorough healing that only God can give, trusting that no sin is greater than God’s mercy, results in a person coming away from these sacraments with a peace that cannot be found anywhere but within the divine heart.  Sacraments have the power to effect physical healing, and we certainly can ask for such help, but if it does not happen, know that the eternally important part has been taken care of.  Let us partake of the sacrament of Confession often preparing well through prayer, regular examination of conscience, and frequent recourse to Mass and Holy Communion.  We, too, want to hear the words, at top, said to us by Jesus through His ministers who act in His person.

Moving into chapter eight of Matthew (Mt 8:5-17), Jesus has just come down off of the mountain after delivering the lengthy Sermon on the Mount and healing a leper.  At Capernaum he is approached by a Roman centurion who is appealing to Jesus to cure his servant.  Jesus is willing to go to his place to cure the boy.  The centurion humbles himself by saying he is not worthy to have Jesus come to His house, but recognizing Jesus as a man in authority — as the centurion himself is in authority over others — he knows Jesus can simply declare the healing done and it will be done.  Jesus is “amazed” at this level of faith and lets everyone around know that it is greater than any He has yet encountered.  He then tells the centurion the words at top and the servant is healed at that moment.  Jesus goes on to heal Peter’s mother-in-law of fever and later in the day cures and exorcises many more.  Our challenge is to approach the faith of the centurion.  We must unhesitatingly believe that Jesus will do for us whatever is best for us.  By conforming ourselves to God’s ordained and permissive will, nothing that happens to us will counter our wills.  So it will be done for us because of our belief.  Augustine’s advice, recalling the greatest commandment and its close second (Mt 22:37), helps us attain this disposition: “Love, and do what you will.”

Yesterday’s Solemnity honored Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Apostles.  Appropriately, the gospel reading chosen relates, arguably, the most important encounter between Jesus and Peter (Mt 16:13-19).  Jesus asks the apostles who people say that He is.  Various answers are offered: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or another prophet.  When Jesus asks the apostles who they say He is, Simon replies for them all by saying: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16).  Jesus then tells him this is a divine revelation.  Jesus goes on to rename him Peter and declare what is written at top.  This Church will tear down the gates of the netherworld.  Jesus then gives the keys to this kingdom to Peter as head of the Church, and thus Peter has the power to bind and loose sins.  What a wonderful gift we have in this Church, established by Christ, and the successors of Peter and the apostles who have faithfully safeguarded and passed on the true Faith that they received from Jesus.  As one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, we recognize the unity of belief and believers, its holiness which comes from its Founder and its Advocate, its universal scope and appeal, and its founding on the closest collaborators of Jesus Christ.  As “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Tim 3:15), we can turn to no other source for the fullness of divine revelation and the proper understanding of the same.  We should thank God often for the great gift He has given us that allows us to know the truth without question.

Two days ago we heard the last verses of the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 7:21-29).  Jesus starts with the words at top and goes on to say that even if a person does great deeds in His name if that person does not follow God’s will in his life, he is an “evildoer.” Jesus goes on to use an analogy of a house’s foundation: Those who hear and act accordingly have built on rock, those who hear and ignore have built on sand; one withstands storms the other does not.  Jesus, teaching with authority, leaves His hearers astonished.  Jesus’ opening words are terribly important (particularly when we consider the consequences for not heeding them).  Some Christians promote a “once saved, always saved” doctrine in which they believe that once they declare themselves “born again” no action of theirs, no matter how heinous, will threaten their salvation.  Catholics are not immune to their own form of “assurance” if they think that simply going to weekly Mass and receiving the sacraments is a guarantee of heaven.  Faith life is not confined to a one time declaration or an hour or two a week.  If the rest of our lives does not conform to what we confess in church, we truly are like the man who built his house on sand: We will be easy marks for the increasing decadence we encounter in our culture and society.  Words, even accompanied by emotions, do not necessarily correspond to one’s will.  The goal is to get all of these aspects of ourselves into conformity.  Our overwhelming desire should be to endeavor to know the will of God for our lives (through prayer, study, reflection) and then actualize it to an ever higher and higher degree (through, again, prayer along with the graces that come through the sacraments, to which we will be more and more receptive as we grow in the virtues and eliminate the vices).  Let us attach ourselves firmly to the Rock.

Another short excerpt from Jesus’ teaching (Mt 7:15-20) directly follows yesterday’s passage.  Immediately we find another famous saying: Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.  This refers to false prophets who can be known by the bad fruit that results from their teaching and actions.  Such as these will eventually “be cut down and thrown into the fire” (v. 19).  The passage closes by repeating the words at top.  I don’t know that many of us consider ourselves prophets (although the Holy Spirit does give this specific gift to some — see 1 Cor 12:10) but, whether we are evaluating prophets, teachers, those in authority, or our ourselves, the message is a tremendously important one.  Let us always first look at ourselves (remember about “remov[ing] the wooden beam” [Mt 7:5]?).  What are the fruits that we bear?  Are others better off for having encountered us?  Do we build up rather than tear down?  Do people say of us what pagans said of the early Christians:”Look how they love one another” (Tertullian, Apology 39)?  Do we live exemplary lives inspiring others to do likewise?  Do we exude the joy of knowing the Lord and are we prepared to share it (cf. 1 Pt 3:15)?  As we more and more conform ourselves to Christ we become better able to discern if others are also producing good fruit or if they are simply tickling our ears: “For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity [“itching ears” in the RSV], will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths” (1 Tim 4:3-4).  Let us first reform our lives so that we are not taken in by pleasant and smoothly delivered words but prudently evaluate such words and look with a wary eye at what is produced by them.

Yesterday’s short excerpt from Jesus’ sermon (Mt 7:6, 12-14) contains three famous sayings: Don’t “throw your pearls before swine,” the Golden Rule, and “the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction.”  The last saying has the words at top as its conclusion.  This should not be a frightening thought, but it should be a sobering one.  The way of the world is the way of the wide road.  Go along to get along.  If it feels good, do it.  “Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” (Is 22:13)  You only live once.  This is not God’s way, though.  We know the path to heaven through His revelation, safeguarded by the Church, to which He entrusted the keys to the Kingdom.  God gives us true freedom, His freedom, that is, the freedom He practices.  Sin makes us less human as it makes us less like the perfect Man.  Vice enslaves (cf. Jn 8:34).  The broad way has detours into enslavement.  The “straight and narrow” way of the Lord keeps us from the lurking dangers that can be so tempting but must diligently be avoided.  If few are on that path when called home to the Lord, we want to be in that number.  And we are called to bring as many with us as possible.  Thus, we must never shirk from the face of evil, but confront it head on.  We must never confirm anyone in sin, but make known to them the true Way (cf. Jn 14:6), always in love, primarily through example, and never accompanied without fervent prayer.

The short passage read today continues Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in a new chapter (Mt 7:1-5).  It begins with the oft-quoted line, “Stop judging, that you may not be judged” (v. 1).  The way one judges others is how God will judge him when he meets Him.  The reading concludes with the line above.  This is certainly a difficult challenge the Lord presents to us.  It is very easy to pass judgment on others on anything from appearance to attitude to disposition to words and actions.  While we certainly can, and are sometimes obligated to, make prudential judgments regarding objective actions, we are never to judge the internal disposition or eternal fate of any person; we leave this to God’s justice and mercy.  Even here, it is a wonderful thing to always attribute the best possible motives to others.  In this we show our love of neighbor and our desire to build him up in his eyes, our eyes, and others’ eyes.  To best accomplish this, we must take the Lord’s advice (above) to get rid of our own “wooden beam” first: What sins and vices do we cling to or have on our souls that bring us down and heighten the desire to pull others down as well?  Do we really have any reason to point out the fault of others when we should be focusing on cleaning up our own act, something that requires a lifetime of diligent prayer, penance, and mortification?  Our attitude should not be that of the Pharisee in the synagogue: “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity” (Lk 18:11) who looks at others as the problem, but rather that of the tax collector in the synagogue: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Lk 18:13) who finds the problem inward.  Then we can look forward to a personal judgment at the moment of death measured in the small (or hopefully empty) amount in which we measured others.

With the celebration of the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist we are privileged to hear proclaimed the story of the birth and circumcision of John the Baptist (Lk  1:57-66, 80).   The birth of John to Elizabeth and Zechariah is a source of great joy for their relatives and friends as Elizabeth bore this child in her later years.  At the time of circumcision, the onlookers suggest that the child be named after his father.  But Elizabeth says he is to be named John and her husband confirms this per the angel Gabriel’s instruction (v. 13).  Upon conveying this information, Zechariah again is able to speak (his initial doubt resulted in him being struck dumb — vv. 18-20) and he immediately blesses God.  These miraculous events cause everyone to have the sentiments conveyed in the headline.  The closing line speaks of John becoming strong in spirit and living in the desert until he begins his public ministry.  For parents to be or parents of young children, the question of the townspeople should be on their lips as well.  What will our child become?  How seriously do we take the responsibility we have in this formation?  Do we seek the Lord’s hand in his life?  Do we consecrate the child to the Lord so that His will be done for him or her?  Will we encourage openness to the priesthood and/or religious life for this gift of God?  As friends and family, will we support the proper formation of this young member of the family of God by word and example?  For those with child, will we show our support for mom and the fruit of her womb, encouraging her to consider “what this child will be”?  The “hand of the Lord” is with every baptized child and will only grow stronger with a solid family life, proper and continuous instruction in the faith, weekly (and more often, if possible) Mass, additional sacraments, and unceasing prayer.  An awesome responsibility belongs to parents as pro-creators with God.  He could do it without us (cf. Lk 3:8) but He doesn’t.  We must rely on Him for His unfailing help, always seeking His will in our lives and the life of the precious gift He has given to parents and to the world.

Our reading of chapter six of Matthew concludes today with Jesus speaking to the disciples about the uselessness of worry regarding earthly matters (Mt 6:24-34).  Jesus begins by telling them that they cannot serve two masters, but must decide if their devotion is to God or to mammon (i.e., wealth/property).  Then He goes on to speak about worry.  Anxiety over food, drink, clothing is not to be ours.  Rather, we are to trust that in God’s goodness He will provide for us as He does for all of earth’s living things.  Thus, we are to do what the Lord says in the headline and then we need not worry about tomorrow.  This is easier said than done, is it not?  It seems to be a real leap of faith that Jesus is asking of us.  We think of all the practical concerns of day to day living and it seems quite natural to have concern over all manner of important matters.  Certainly, we are not to sit back and wait for God to drop food, drink, clothes, and other necessities in our laps.  We each are given talents and are meant to use them to contribute to society and to our families.  We do our part and God does His.  We must maintain confidence that He will provide.  By putting the Kingdom first in the way we conduct our lives, God will give us exactly what we need, when we need it, to be fulfilled here on earth so that we will be prepared for heaven.