2/10/2023 Maximums / Minimums In Mark 1:22, Jesus’ audience was astonished at his teaching, “for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes,” who could read and interpret the law, but couldn’t legislate. In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus exercising his authority. Every time he said, “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors…But I say to you…” he adopted God’s position as legislator, higher than that of Moses who only received the law from God. When Jesus defined the law, just as God the Father does, he pushed for more noble and caring behavior than the earlier law required. In the years when I was in the classroom, one of the clearest differences between students was the attitudes about “the course requirements.” So many of them were hungry for knowledge, and pursued every avenue of learning with enthusiasm. But not all of them. It was so clear that some wanted to know exactly what they needed to do to pass the course, so they could do that much and no more. “Getting by” was sufficient for them. They lacked any passion for their studies. As a professor, I responded by providing minimums that were, if anything, fairly substantial, based on my experience of what priests would need to know to preach and teach the Scriptures well. I felt it was important to challenge the minimalists to something more meaty and enthusiastic. I didn’t succeed with everyone, but I did with some, even many. I see Jesus encouraging us, in this weekend’s Gospel, to move ourselves beyond a minimalist approach to faith and life. There were behaviors that the Hebrew Scriptures permitted, in the more violent times of the past, which Jesus no longer accepted. He took a deep look at what the Torah permitted regarding how we deal with troublesome brothers (and sisters), how permanent are our marital relationships, how to respect people other than our spouses whom we find attractive, how to speak the truth without embellishment. In each case, Jesus references the old teaching, and then corrects or amplifies it. Jesus conceives of a maximalist Kingdom of God. In essence: let’s do as much as possible to create the caring Kingdom of God. No settling for the least common denominator here. You might consider where you are on this spectrum. Are you trying to do the least possible, just to squeak by, morally and spiritually speaking? Are you desiring to do more, but struggling to attend to all of life’s demands? Is your relationship with the Lord the guiding value of your life to which you dedicate your heart with enthusiasm? In whatever place you find yourself, I encourage you to take the next step, to hold yourself up to a yet higher standard. Let the bright light of Jesus’ enthusiasm shine upon you, and respond with ever-greater commitment. Siempre adelante! Fr. Patrick Pastor 2/4/2023 You are salt and light.I love these images from Matthew’s Gospel today as we hear Jesus tell his disciples, “You are salt of the earth ... You are the light of the world.” While we may take these two elements for granted in our modern times, they certainly would have been understood as precious and necessary commodities to the disciples. Salt was used to persevere food and also to provide flavor while oil lamps were used to illuminate their darkened homes. Salt with no flavor would have no purpose and it would have been utterly ridiculous to light a lamp and then immediately cover it with a basket. Rather, Jesus challenges his disciples – “your light must shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” This past week, we celebrated National Catholic Schools’ Week – an opportunity to give thanks for the blessing of Catholic education in the United States. Currently, there are 5,938 Catholic elementary and secondary schools that serve over 1.6 million students across our nation. These are institutions where students are taught they are “salt and light” and receive the call to go forth to make God known, loved, and served in the world. But just as the early disciples saw salt and light as items of immense value, we too should not take Catholic education for granted. We are blessed to have our own place of transformation here in Camarillo where St. Mary Magdalen students are challenged to be “salt and light.” Currently serving 298 students from Camarillo and the surrounding communities, our hope for our students is to allow their lives to be changed by their time in our community and then to share those gifts with others. The work that we do is something that cannot be done without your prayers and support and to my fellow Padre Serra parishioners, I offer humble words of deep gratitude. Your generosity over the years allows us to continue to grow and thrive. This is your school community and you are such an important part of the educational journey and faith development of all our children. Siempre Adelante! Michael Ronan Principal P.S. If you have school-aged children and are interested in sending them to St. Mary Magdalen or just want to visit our school, I’d love to invite you for a personal tour of our campus home. Also, note that we are currently accepting applications for the 2023 - 2024 school year for all grades. More information is available on our website (www.smmschool.net). |
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