Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
We take so much for granted, we presume the way things are is the way they really must be. Think of our cities: mid-Manhattan, say, or Wall Street –or any other of our commercial centers. Great for all sorts of things. But why do people love to go to Europe, to Florence or Rome or Paris? Because there are cities where you can sit at cafes right downtown and watch the world go by, and sit there as long as you like. There are still traces in those places of the Catholic world, a more human world, not based on money and money alone. Cathedrals.
We pray that the Father’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven: but is it the Father’s will that the accumulation of wealth should be what life is all about? Who decided that that should be the case? Jesus explicitly says that we should not be doing this – and yet we live in a culture that is all about the unbounded accumulation of wealth. This is not Catholic.
Well, we Catholics have left our mark: there is St. Patrick’s right on Fifth Avenue, and Our Lady of Victory on Wall Street, and any number of other chapels throughout our busy, money centered downtowns, where the Eucharistic Lord is adored and treasured. I know of at least one shopping plaza in the New York suburbs with a Eucharistic chapel, and many Masses every day. Let us stop in the midst of this alien world’s busyness and pray, and rejoice that Our Lord is here with us. And let us bring something of our Catholic beauty into the marketplace as well – perhaps beginning with some flower boxes, cafes, and – can you imagine? – someday maybe a shrine…..Like the ones we pay so much to visit in Europe.