Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

The readings for today offer both disturbing situations/choices and hope for a bright future. The first reading in particular was difficult to think about with the images that were created and the general attitude that it conveyed. The gospel was nearly as challenging as we were told that we must love more than anything else on this earth.

When I read the first reading I was thinking the story was not new, I've seen the depiction of the Egyptians and the Jews and how ill-treated they were. The epic movie of Moses is still clear in my memory. The thought of likking babies to control the population of another group of people was gut-wrenching to say the least.

A book and a movie came to mind. THE FARMING OF BONES is a novel about the 1937 massacre of Haitians in the Cominican Republic by the dictator Trujillo who feared the Haitians were becoming too numerous. He didn't stop with killing babies, he had all ages slaughtered. The movie is THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE. Once again seeing the mistreatment of fellow human beings, this time it was the Jews being victimized at the hands of the Nazis, was sickening. Young girls were brutally raped, children forced on trains (knowing where they would lead), and people shot without mercy.

Where is God in all this? Were there any good people around? How can we find a positive message in scripture, the book, or the movie?

Although our first reading today ends with the order to kill all the male childre, we know what comes next. Jochebed, the mother of Moses, dares to save her son. She places him in the water-proffed papyrus reed basket and sets him adrift in the river. When the Pharaoh's daughter sees him, she clearly recognizes him as a Hebrew baby but doesn't alert her father to say here's another to kill. Instead, she shows mercy and saves him. The boldness of his sister Miriam to forward and offer to find a Hebrew woman to nurse him is extraordinary. Thus, it is the "conspiracy" of three incredible women that saves a baby and a people despite the horror of the times!

Similarly, in the time of the massacre in 1937, there were Dominicans in defiance of Trujillo (often at the cost of their own lives) who worked to smuggle Haitians across the border or to hide them from Trujillo's thugs. Although far too many perished in that action, many were saved because of such unselfish actions and kindness shown by strangers. Then we come to the Zabinskis: Dr.Jan Zabinski, the zookeeper, and his wife, Antonina, whose kind nature and love of living creatures is evident as the story begins. Their reaction to the bombing of Warsaw and the treatment of the Jews is first to hide a friend. Soon they realize the extensive horror happening to all and make a commitment at their own peril to save children. They rist everything as they turn their beloved Warsaw Zoo into a secret refuge for harboring Jews as they flee the ghetto. By the end, over 800 "guests" had experienced the kindness of the Zabinskis and all but tow, who were executed by the Nazis, survived. 

These are the images that I want to remember. These are the people led by the Holy Spirit to take the risks and show mercy and kindness, be it a young princess in defiance of her father or a doctor on the border of two countries caring for the oppressed or a couple risking everything to hide hundreds of persecuted countrymen. It is people like them and others all over the world that Jesus calls to in the gospel. In the gospel, Jesus mentions that He did not come to bring peace but the sword. I believe this message is about the battle of good over evil. 

... whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

To follow after Christ is not always easy, probably never the easiest road to take. Yet it is the one with the most rewards. The challenges may, indeed, be of this earth, but the rewards surely are not!

...whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciples--amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.