From Season to Season

Shortly after he arrived at a compound for patients of Hansen’s Disease (a leper colony) in India, Doctor Paul Brand , a specialist in hands and tendons, quietly slipped into a community meeting, sitting on a mat behind the group in the courtyard. All around were smells of disease and decay, of cooking spices, and medical ointments. His eyes were drawn to the patients’ hands, most of which had missing or deformed fingers that were turned in—hands that were often called “lepers’ claws.” Some of the patients were sitting on their hands or trying to keep them hidden. When the patients realized Doctor Brand was there, they asked him to speak. So, moving to the center of the group, he began by saying, “I am a hand surgeon. So, when I meet people, I can’t help but look at their hands. [Palm readers claim] that they can look at your future by looking at your hands. I can tell your past. For instance, I can tell what your trade has been by the position of the callouses and the condition...

“What will you give me if I had him over to you?” “What’s that man’s life worth to you?” “How much is your power, your agenda, your comfort, your security worth to you?”   We’ve heard the story and we know the answer: 30 pieces of silver.   It’s a very specific amount. In Exodus we read that 30 pieces of silver was the value of a slave. Later in the Old Testament, the Prophet Zechariah received 30 pieces of silver as payment for his work as a shepherd. Saint Matthew wants us to make those connections. And we could, of course, spend time reflecting on the theological or symbolic value of those pieces of silver, and perhaps you can do that on your own today.   But as I reflected on the Readings of this “Traitor Wednesday,” I found myself coming back to the Lenten series on morality and the Ten Commandments that led at Saint Pius X Church [in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin] these past six weeks. And, one of the basic ideas of morality that we explored in the ser...

Today--the Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent--is a day traditionally set aside to honor to Seven Sorrows of Mary. Although the reforms of the Church's Calendar after Vatican II elimitated this duplicate celebration of the Mary's "Dolours," opting to focus on the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15, the liturgy does include an optional collect (opening prayer) for today's Mass which reminds us of the special role Mary played in the Passion. And so, today, we remember Mary as the Woman of Compassion . Madonna in Sorrow by Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato In our culture, compassion is often equated with kindness or even with mercy, but there is a much more dynamic meaning to this word. It comes to us from two Latin words ( cum =with and passio =to suffer) and literally means "to suffer with." And so, to be a person of compassion means that we literally share in the sufferings of another person. This isn't simple empathy, eit...

John Amias and Robert Dalby were Yorkshire men who studied for the priesthood at the English College in Douai, France. John, a widower, was ordained in 1581 and traveled to England with Blessed Edmund Sykes that same year. He successfully ministered for seven or eight years before being arrested. Robert, who had formerly been a Protestant minister, was arrested as he landed in England in 1588. The two priests were tried and condemned together. Showing great joy and a spirit of prayerful resignation at their execution, Blessed John Amias and Robert Dalby were hanged, drawn, and quartered on March 16, 1589, and beatified in 1929. In today’s First Reading we hear about the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, young men who refused to worship a false God set up by King Nebuchadnezzar. The king’s golden calf was a symbol of his own authority and by forcing the enslaved Jewish community to worship this idol, he was undermining their identity as God’s Chosen People. Bles...

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him.   Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” …   Jesus [said to the woman], “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.”   Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” — John 8:1-7, 10-11 Blessed Charles de Foucauld (d. 1916), a soldier and explorer, monk and priest, missionary and martyr, once wrote, “We are all children of the Most High. All of u...

This Lent, I have been especially mindful of the Seven Sorrows of Mary. Although this isn't a specifically Lenten devotion — bringing together as it does events drawn from the entire life of Jesus — it nonetheless invites us to reflect on the role Mary played in the full story of salvation, particularly in those times of sadness and fear that are an essential part of the Gospel story. A strong tie of faith binds Mary’s sorrows to those we experience throughout life. Her faith, resilience, courage, and (especially) hope allowed her to find the hand of God at work, even in the most devastating events of her life. The Seven Sorrows of Mary are: 1. The Prophecy of Simeon (cf. Luke 2:34-35 ) 2. The Flight into Egypt (cf. Matthew 2:13-14 ) 3. The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple (cf. Luke 2:43-45 ) 4. Meeting Jesus As He Carries the Cross (cf. Luke 23:27 ) 5. The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus (cf. John 19:18, 25-27 ) 6. Jesus Is Taken Down From the Cross (cf. Mark 15:43-4...

While the young son was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.” But his father ordered his servants, “Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.” —Luke 15:20-24 On October 1, 1950, a 27-year-old man was executed in Paris for murdering a police officer during a botched robbery. Jacques Fesch, the murderer, was a victim of neglect by his parents and the isolation and boredom that can accompany a life of privilege. He was a rake. He lived an restless life, wandering from relationship to relationship, job to job, eventually finding himself the fath...

The daughter of one of the wealthiest men in America, Katherine Drexel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1858. While visiting Europe, Katherine worked to recruit priests and religious to minister to Native Americans, and it was during this trip that Pope Leo XIII suggested that Katherine herself become a missionary. The following year, she established schools in the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, California, Oregon, and New Mexico. In 1889, Katharine entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Mercy, and in 1891 she professed her vows as the first member of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People . Opening a novitiate in Philadelphia, she received twenty-one new sisters in the first year. The new community’s first mission was in New Mexico. Following the death of her father in 1901, Katherine and her sister each received an inheritance amounting to one thousand dollars a day. Other missions and schools soon followed, including Xavier University in New Or...