October 9, 2021, Memorial of Saint John Henry Newman, cardinal
Saturday, 27th Week in Ordinary Time
Jl 4:12-21
Ps 97
Lk 11:27-28
The apocalyptic language of the last chapter of Joel's prophecy resounds threateningly for all the nations of the earth. Yet besides being the expression of God's justice, it is also an invitation to conversion: the valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of judgment, where all the peoples will be gathered for the last and definitive judgment, is called the Valley of the Decision, because the final decision of God and man will appear right there.
Thus says the Lord: Let the nations bestir themselves and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit in judgment upon all the neighboring nations. Apply the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; Come and tread, for the wine press is full; the vats overflow, for great is their malice. Crowd upon crowd in the valley of decision; for near is the day of the Lord in the valley of decision. Sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withhold their brightness. The Lord roars from Zion, and from Jerusalem raises his voice; the heavens and the earth quake. (Jl 4:12-16)
Nobody can make fun of God, who is a just judge. If you choose evil consciously and definitively, you will be judged on your conscious and final decision. There will be a day when God will exterminate all wickedness and make his faithful ones rejoice.
The passage from Joel ends with the phrase “...the Lord dwells in Zion”. The heavenly Jerusalem, the eschatological one, will include all those who have chosen to live in love of God and neighbor, and not just historical Israel. John the Baptist had already announced it when he warned: “Produce good fruits as evidence of your repentance; and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” (Lk 3:8).
In the responsorial psalm we sing this universal extension, which calls together the earth, the islands, the mountains, the heavens and all peoples to proclaim justice and to contemplate the Lord’s glory.
The Lord is king; let the earth rejoice; let the many isles be glad. Clouds and darkness are round about him, justice and judgment are the foundation of his throne. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his justice, and all peoples see his glory. Light dawns for the just; and gladness, for the upright of heart. Be glad in the Lord, you just, and give thanks to his holy name.
The Gospel also helps us to distinguish earthly things from those of Heaven:
While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” He replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” (Lk 11:27-28).
While Jesus is teaching, his enemies’ hostility is growing around him: he is continually contradicted and tested. Nonetheless, those who are good and simple listen to him, trust, and admire him. In the crowd, a woman praises the mother who generated that prophet who speaks with authority and, without realizing it, she begins to fulfill the prophecy that Mary herself had made about herself in the Magnificat: “all generations will call me blessed”.
Pope Benedict XVI, in No. 124 of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, comments on the Gospel passage as follows:
This close relationship between God’s word and joy is evident in the Mother of God. Let us recall the words of Saint Elizabeth: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord” (Lk 1:45). Mary is blessed because she has faith, because she believed, and in this faith she received the Word of God into her womb in order to give him to the world.
The joy born of the Word can now expand to all those who, by faith, let themselves be changed by God’s word. The Gospel of Luke presents this mystery of hearing and joy in two texts. Jesus says: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it” (8:21). And in reply to a woman from the crowd who blesses the womb that bore him and the breasts that nursed him, Jesus reveals the secret of true joy: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” (11:28). Jesus points out Mary’s true grandeur, making it possible for each of us to attain that blessedness which is born of the word received and put into practice. I remind all Christians that our personal and communal relationship with God depends on our growing familiarity with the word of God. Finally, I turn to every man and woman, including those who have fallen away from the Church, who have left the faith or who have never heard the proclamation of salvation. To everyone the Lord says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20).
May every day of our lives thus be shaped by a renewed encounter with Christ, the Word of the Father made flesh: he stands at the beginning and the end, and “in him all things hold together” (Col 1:17). Let us be silent in order to hear the Lord’s word and to meditate upon it, so that by the working of the Holy Spirit it may remain in our hearts and speak to us all the days of our lives. In this way the Church will always be renewed and rejuvenated, thanks to the word of the Lord which remains forever (cf. 1 Pet 1:25; Is 40:8). Thus we too will enter into the great nuptial dialogue which concludes sacred Scripture: “The Spirit and the bride say: ‘Come’. And let everyone who hears say: ‘Come!’” The one who testifies to these things, says: ‘Surely I am coming soon!’. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (Rev 22:17, 20).
Saint John Henry Newman, whose memorial we celebrate today, shows us the sure path to take in his long and painful spiritual journey: like Mary, he listens to the Word and puts it into practice in the darkness and in the light of faith, entrusting himself completely to the Lord’s goodness, aware that this is the essence of true joy:
God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his—if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.
Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it; He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me—still He knows what He is about.
O Adonai, O Ruler of Israel, Thou that guidest Joseph like a flock, O Emmanuel, O Sapientia, I give myself to Thee. I trust Thee wholly. Thou art wiser than I—more loving to me than I myself. Deign to fulfil Thy high purposes in me whatever they be—work in and through me. I am born to serve Thee, to be Thine, to be Thy instrument. Let me be Thy blind instrument. I ask not to see—I ask not to know—I ask simply to be used.
(from Meditations and Devotions, Meditations on Christian Doctrine, I. Hope in God-Creator”, March 7, 1848)