Daily Gospel Reflection
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October 14, 2020
The Lord said, “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honor in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.”
One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too.” And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them.”
Leaving a television sportscasting career to attend law school–with a wife and two young boys–did not come without pressure to succeed. Measuring success would now have nothing to do with cleanly narrating football highlights or correctly applying makeup. It was now about earning high grades. With that in mind, I embarked on my 1L year focused on memorizing every fact of every case in every casebook. As Thanksgiving approached, I came to the just-in-time realization that, while the case facts were important, mastering the embedded rules for future application was the ultimate goal. In other words, I had not been seeing the forest for the trees.
While “the rules” carry the day in law school, Jesus rightfully and strongly took issue with the Pharisees and lawyers’ obsession with their own man-made regulations and religious interpretations. Instead of projecting a divinely inspired “love your God and neighbor” message to the people, they were more concerned with “tith[ing] mint and rue” and “load[ing] people with burdens hard to bear.” Jesus tells us today that the forest, quite simply, is that God is love. Seeing only the trees, and even being down in the weeds, the Pharisees and lawyers were neglecting the forest.
Let us agree that there are times when we focus on small, insignificant trees while losing sight of the forest. We might be hypersensitive about checking every box in strict adherence to Catholic Church doctrines and devotions. But how well are we living our faith, sacrificing, and loving our neighbor?
Separately, our days can be derailed by a disagreeable social media post, an unwarranted e-mail, a bad grade, an improperly blended Frappuccino, or a loss by our favorite sports team. With God’s help, and starting right now, let us challenge ourselves to not allow such fleeting, human events to obscure our view of the divine forest: God’s love.
Prayer
Protect us from egos that seek glory over God’s love of others; give us wisdom to realize that all that really matters is honoring your will. Strengthen us this day so we sidestep the temptation of earthly applause just to appear a little more important to the detriment of doing what is truly important. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Saint Callistus began his life as a slave and ended it as pope, murdered or martyred around the year 222 AD.
Callistus’ biography was written by one of his ecclesial enemies, Hippolytus, so it presents a somewhat biased and unfavorable view of Callistus. Hippolytus was the clear favorite for papal election but he was passed over in favor of Callistus, causing Hippolytus no small amount of envy. Hippolytus vehemently disagreed with Callistus’ policy of reversing the excommunications of those who had committed murder and adultery and bringing them back into the Church, upon their repentance. Despite his uncharitable bias, there are some certain definite facts that can be gleaned from Hippolytus' account, known as the Philosophumena.
Callistus was a slave, born in late second-century Rome. Callistus' Christian master put him in charge of a bank that held money for the local community. Callistus irresponsibly lost the money, either through dishonest investment or careless stewardship, and fled the wrath of his master.
When pursuers closed in, he jumped into the sea, but was caught and sentenced to work in a mill. The people who had lost money from his bad investments wanted Callistus returned so that he could recover their funds. Facing mounting pressure to return the lost money, Callistus tried to collect from other debtors, who promptly initiated a brawl. After this misdemeanor, Callistus was sentenced to work in the mines with other Christian prisoners.
Mercifully, Emperor Commodus granted amnesty to many imprisoned Christians in the mines, and Callistus was released. He made his way back to Rome and re-established himself in the community. Pope Victor I gave him a pension, and Callistus' health, taxed from years of hard labor, began to recover.
When St. Zephyrinus was elected pope in 199, he put Callistus in charge of a public cemetery for Christians. This was one of the first pieces of property in Rome that the Church owned, and unlike his earlier experience with stewarding money, Callistus managed the cemetery wisely. This cemetery eventually became known as the Catacombs of Saint Callistus on the Via Appia Antica. There are at least nine popes now buried there. After Callistus' excellent stewardship of this cemetery, Zephyrinus asked Callistus to serve as one of his counselors, and he ordained him a deacon. The two became close friends.
When Zephyrinus died, Callistus was elected pope in 217 by a majority of the Christians in Rome, according to the custom of the time. He was merciful in dealing with sinners, reversing excommunications and working to preserve orthodox Christianity against various schisms and heresies. He has also been credited with the official implementation of the Ember Day fasts.
It is possible that Callistus was martyred—not in an imperial persecution, but perhaps in some kind of popular uprising—or he was murdered. Legend has that he was thrown into a well, perhaps because of this legend his titular church contains a well. Some of Callistus' relics rest in the reliquary chapel at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus.
St. Callistus, the young slave who became pope—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Callistus is used with permission from Catholic Online. Last accessed October 3, 2024.