October 7, 2021, Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary
Thursday, 27th Week in Ordinary Time
Mal 3:13-20b
Ps 1
Lk 11:5-13
The first reading offers us a text from the prophet Malachi, in which God harshly rebukes those who served him and then expected prosperity and profit in return. Disappointed, their faith fails. They praise those who do evil and to whom all is well and, seeing the difference, they implicitly launch an accusation to the Lord, who seems unjust to them, because he rewards the wicked and does not care about the good who suffer.
You have defied me in word, says the Lord, yet you ask, “What have we spoken against you?” You have said, “It is vain to serve God, and what do we profit by keeping his command, and going about in penitential dress in awe of the Lord of hosts? Rather must we call the proud blessed; for indeed evildoers prosper, and even tempt God with impunity.” (Mal 3:13-15).
The dramatic problem of the success of the wicked and the sufferings of the righteous appears often in the Bible: we think of the book of Job, we think of many psalms that present the triumph of the wicked and the apparent abandonment of the good (Ps 37, 73, etc.). In psalm 73 we read:
I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they suffer no pain; […] They are free of the burdens of life; they are not afflicted like others. […] Is it in vain that I have kept my heart pure, washed my hands in innocence? For I am afflicted day after day, chastised every morning.
Malachi establishes a comparison between those who fail in fidelity and love, because they are scandalized by the success of the wicked, and the God-fearing ones. The Lord announces the coming of 'a day' when justice will be fully restored.
Then they who fear the Lord spoke with one another, and the Lord listened attentively; and a record book was written before him of those who fear the Lord and trust in his name.
And they shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, my own special possession, on the day I take action. And I will have compassion on them, as a man has compassion on his son who serves him. Then you will again see the distinction between the just and the wicked; between the one who serves God, and the one who does not serve him. For lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the Lord of hosts.
But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays. (Mal 3:16-20b).
The responsorial psalm, on the other hand, does not refer to an eschatological 'day'. There is rather an affirmation of the value of the good work carried out, wherein the just already find their joy and are blessed, while the wicked are scattered like chaff that the wind scatters.
Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.
In Luke’s Gospel passage, Jesus seems to take up the encouraging affirmation of Psalm 1: “the Lord watches over the way of the just”, because he invites us to trust fully in the Father’s help and providence. In fact, in the parable of the intrusive friend who, finding himself in need, goes at night to wake his friend for three loaves of bread, his comportment serves as a gentle reproach towards those who lack faith or doubt God's intervention. They become discouraged in the face of the weaknesses, shortcomings and fears that dot their daily existence:
And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
Jesus’ affirmation: “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children …” mitigates the differences between good and bad, so inherent in our human judgments. Of course it does not cancel them out, because differences obviously remain, but it helps us to realize that we are 'all' at least a little malicious, we are 'all' beggars for forgiveness and love and we 'all' need the help of the great friend who is the Father, whose providence is infinite and who will give us the Holy Spirit, provided we simply ask him.
We have already received it in Baptism, but we often forget that it was given in order for it to take action within us. The presence of the Holy Spirit, who sustains our earthly pilgrimage with his gifts already gives us a foretaste of eternity and renders our earthly life of difficulty, if not more blissful, at least more serene.
We also forget that the fullness of grace was given to us as a mother and advocate, she who fully possessed the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary. We can address our requests to her without fear, on any occasion.
On October 7th the Church commemorates the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary. Today's feast commemorates the day on which Christians conquered the Turks in Lepanto in 1571, but in this month of October, missionary month par excellence, we remember Mary, mother of life and of all creation, mother of peoples, above all the poorest and most forgotten. Thus, we want to copy here the prayer of the Holy Father Francis, who invokes Mary as Mother of life and Queen of the Amazon:
Mother of life,
in your maternal womb Jesus took flesh, the Lord of all that exists.
Risen, he transfigured you by his light and made you the Queen of all creation.
For that reason, we ask you, Mary, to reign in the beating heart of Amazonia.
Show yourself the Mother of all creatures, in the beauty of the flowers, the rivers, the great river that courses through it and all the life pulsing in its forests. Tenderly care for this explosion of beauty.
Ask Jesus to pour out all his love on the men and women who dwell there, that they may know how to appreciate and care for it.
Bring your Son to birth in their hearts, so that he can shine forth in the Amazon region,
in its peoples and in its cultures, by the light of his word, by his consoling love, by his message of fraternity and justice.
And at every Eucharist, may all this awe and wonder be lifted up to the glory of the Father.
Mother, look upon the poor of the Amazon region, for their home is being destroyed by petty interests. How much pain and misery, how much neglect and abuse there is in this blessed land overflowing with life!
Touch the hearts of the powerful, for, even though we sense that the hour is late, you call us to save what is still alive.
Mother whose heart is pierced, who yourself suffer in your mistreated sons and daughters,
and in the wounds inflicted on nature, reign in the Amazon, together with your Son.
Reign so that no one else can claim Lordship over the handiwork of God.
We trust in you, Mother of life. Do not abandon us in this dark hour.
Amen.
(Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia of the Holy Father Francis to the people of God and to all persons of good will – February 2, 2020)