19th Week, Friday, August 16: Saint Stephen of Hungary
Ezekiel 16:1-15, 60, 63 / Matthew 19:3-12
God speaks of Israel: “I loved you, but you deserted me.”
Some time ago America magazine carried an article entitled “Adult Runaway.” It dealt with the growing number of adults who desert their spouses and families. These adults almost always end up unhappy. Quoting the head of the Missing Person’s Bureau of Los Angeles, the article says: “The majority . . . would give anything to be back living their former lives. But they mistakenly figure there’s no way they can undo the past.”
Today’s reading compares Israel to an adult runaway. It also portrays God as being willing to forgive if the runaway would only return.
****
How do we handle family frustrations? Do we seek help when these frustrations become “unbearable,” or do we foolishly hope the situation will remedy itself? “A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt each day.” Andre Maurois
****
Introduction
In poignant, at times almost crude terms, springing from a heart that loves deeply and is hurt by infidelity, the prophet Ezekiel reminds the people of God’s covenant love. What the people are, what we are, we are by God’s love. He has linked his destiny to ours and cannot forget or abandon us, even it we desert him.
God reveals some qualities of his own love in the love of husband and wife. It is a love that reveals, in which a person discloses himself to another person as intimately as possible. It is a love that accepts the other person as he or she is and is willing to share everything together. It is a love that sacrifices all self-interests for the partner. It is a faithful love. It is also a love that is creative, that brings out the best in the other person. Is this not an image of God’s love and, conversely, is God’s Trinitarian love and his love for us not the model of all human love?
***
Ezekiel tells the story of Jerusalem and its rise from a tiny, corrupt backwater pagan town to the corrupt grand capital of David's kingdom. He frames it as an allegory like a motion picture from the 40's. A wealthy man finds a young girl in the gutter. He cleans her up, gives her everything and then she leaves him for someone else. In the section between verses 1 5 and 60, omitted from the reading, Ezekiel describes her activities in graphic terms that prudes might call "pornographic." It does catch one's attention.
Ezekiel sees the relationship between God and Jerusalem as a marriage that had broken down. God remains faithful and ready to heal His wanton people. Ezekiel's core message is that God will not abandon His people despite their sin.
****
We are familiar with the proverb "Great oaks grow from little acorns". Indeed, everything has a humble beginning. Great cathedrals were once started from a single block of stone. If Rome wasn't build in a day, then everything will have to grow and be built day by day. Humble beginnings must always be remembered, so that however glorious or whatever greatness is achieved, one won't get too proud or conceited.
In fact, as nature would show us, the taller the tree, the deeper the roots. The greater we become, the more we must remember how we began.
In the 1st reading, we read how God favoured His people and blessed them with abundance. But as the 1st reading tells us, they became infatuated with their own beauty. Their vanity made them think that it was all their own achievement and that also made them turn away from God and turn to the other nations for more wealth and fame. They forgot that it was God who provided for them and it was His blessings that made them famous and prosperous.
Because they forgot their humble beginnings, God treated them as they deserved - they were covered with shame and reduced to silence. They were humbled so that they can remember the covenant that God made with them and turn back to Him.
Similarly, for us, in whatever state of life, we must remember our humble beginnings and remember that it is God who brought us to this blessed moment.
So, whether in marriage, or as a single, or as a religious or priest, minor or governor, peasant or president, let us continue to turn to the Lord our God for His blessings and guidance in life.
It is God who will make us great and prosperous; we just need to be humble and remember our humble beginnings.
***
Saint Stephen of Hungary
Feast Day August 16
At the turn of the second millennium, St. Stephen succeeded
his father as leader of the Magyars in Hungary. Looking to strengthen his
authority, he determined to consolidate the state and extend Christianity
throughout the land. In 1001 he arranged to have Pope Sylvester II name him
king of Hungary. The pope obliged. As an additional sign of support, Sylvester
had a special crown fashioned for Stephen that has become world famous.
Stephen extended his control over Hungary by restricting the
power of the nobles. By creating dioceses and establishing monasteries, Stephen
strengthened the church and positioned it for expansion. Politically, he
aggressively used his power to establish Christianity as Hungary’s religion. He
ruthlessly abolished pagan customs, outlawing adultery and blasphemy. Stephen
ordered everyone to marry, except religious, and forbade marriages between
Christians and pagans.
But Stephen had a kinder, gentler side. Like St. Louis IX,
he made himself accessible to his people. He also took personal concern for the
poor. He used to walk the streets in disguise so he could give alms to needy
people. Once he barely escaped when some beggars beat and robbed him. But he
refused to stop the practice. Stephen was a family man. In 1015 he had married
Gisela, the sister of emperor St. Henry II. The couple had one son, Emeric,
whom Stephen groomed as his successor. In the following letter to his son,
Stephen lays out his vision of what a Christian monarch must be:
My dearest son, if you desire to honor the royal crown, I
advise, I counsel, I urge you above all things to maintain the Catholic and
apostolic faith with such diligence and care that you may be an example for all
those placed under you by God and that all the clergy may rightly call you a
man of true Christian profession. However, dearest son, even now in our kingdom
the Church is proclaimed as young and newly planted; and for that reason she
needs more prudent and trustworthy guardians. . .
Finally, be strong lest prosperity lift you up too much or
adversity cast you down. Be humble in this life, that God may raise you up in
the next. Be truly moderate and do not punish or condemn anyone immoderately.
Be gentle so that you may never oppose justice. Be honorable so that you may
never voluntarily bring disgrace upon anyone. Be chaste so that you may avoid
all the foulness of lust like the pangs of death. All these virtues I have
noted above make up the royal crown and without them no one is first to rule
here on earth or attain to the heavenly kingdom.
Sadly, Emeric died in a hunting accident, leaving Stephen no
successor. After the saint’s death in 1038, a series of Magyar kings undid much
of his work.
