Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Mark 7:1-13; Memorial: Our Lady of Lourdes
As Catholics many of us have strong opinions about music and everything else about the mass–there are things we like and things we don’t—and that’s OK, as long as we don’t lose sight of what the mass is really about.
The next time something happens at church we don’t like, let’s take it as an invitation to pray for deeper faith. Let’s remember the Lord’s admonishment in the Gospel today: “You hypocrites! You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” Why are we worried about little things when the Lord our God is pouring himself out on the altar?
Did Our Lady care about what Bernadette was wearing when she appeared before her in the grotto at Lourdes?
And we’re always judging people, too, by the way they look or talk, forgetting who they really are. “Next to the Blessed Sacrament,” C.S. Lewis said, “your neighbor is the holiest thing you’ll ever see.” What difference does it make if his sweatshirt is dirty?
As someone put it in an article I read the other day, too often we’re like people playing golf underneath a volcano. The writer was talking about how out of touch college professors are in the face of all the terrible things in the world, especially English professors, but I think that’s true for all of us. We’re all working on our short game while the mountain explodes and the fire reigns down.
Except for us as Catholics the volcano doesn’t represent the end of the world, at least in a terrifying way. For us the volcano is Christ. For us the volcano is the love of Christ. For us the volcano is the great power of Christ, under us and all around us and everywhere.