Daily Reflection Wednesday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time Memorial of St. Albert the Gre

Today’s first reading from the Book of Wisdom cautions us who are in charge of family, church, town, nation. We cannot use our authority for selfish purposes. “Hearken you who are in power over the multitudes and lord it over throngs of peoples!” When I hear the daily news about Palestine, Israel, Russia, the Ukraine, and other countries at war, I wonder at the motives and means of leaders as they engage in devastating war toward each other. We pray for leaders to make the right decisions. Although we can do little politically in these countries, we can become part of outreach programs to help the victims of war.  In addition, we use our power in our own nation to vote for people who work for justice and show concern for their constituents.

    Our gospel today tells the familiar story of the ten lepers asking Jesus for a cure. During this time in history even educated people did not understand the cause of leprosy, let alone any kind of cure.  Yet, this reading has deeper religious and political meanings. Jesus deliberately walks into enemy territory. The Jews and the Samaritans were political and religious enemies. Jesus does not care about that fact. He does not get intertwined in local politics. He cares for the people who have come to him for a cure from their leprosy. These men obey Jesus and proceed to show their leprous bodies to the high priest, as was the law. Only one realized that it was Jesus who cured them, and the man returned to thank him. In reality this grateful man disobeyed the rule. Haven’t we at some time in our lives disobeyed a human-made rule in order to deepen our relationship with God? This is what discernment is all about. Of course, discernment does not mean flaunting rules. Like the Samaritan man, we realize that Jesus is the center. So, we prayerfully weigh our options in making a decision.

    We are also commemorating the thirteenth century Dominican, St. Albert the Great. Some of his writings are apropos to what the Book of Wisdom and Jesus’ words and actions are teaching us today.

“An egg given during life for love of God is more profitable for eternity than a cathedral full of gold given after death.”

“To forgive those who have injured us in our body, our reputation, our goods, is more advantageous to us than to cross the seas to go to venerate the sepulcher of the Lord.”—St. Albert the Great