Tuesday of 12th Week in Ordinary Time
ALOYSIUS GONZAGA, Religious
Perhaps few saints have been as misrepresented as St. Aloysius Gonzaga (1568-1591). Of high noble birth, he became a Jesuit at the age of 17. He was not at all a devout dreamer, but had a dynamic, impatient temperament. He radically renounced power, wealth, prestige and marriage. His ideal was to make God’s goodness visible by dedicating himself entirely to God and the service of people. Before he reached the age of 24, he died from the pest as the result of attending to the sick and the dying during an epidemic.
First Reading: 2 Kings 19:9-13; 14-21; 31-37
The Rabshakeh left and found that the king of Assyria had pulled up stakes from Lachish and was now fighting against Libnah. Then Sennacherib heard that Tirhakah king of Cush was on his way to fight against him. So he sent another envoy with orders to deliver this message to Hezekiah king of Judah: “Don’t let that god that you think so much of keep stringing you along with the line, ‘Jerusalem will never fall to the king of Assyria.’ That’s a barefaced lie. You know the track record of the kings of Assyria—country after country laid waste, devastated. And what makes you think you’ll be an exception? Take a good look at these wasted nations, destroyed by my ancestors; did their gods do them any good? Look at Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, the people of Eden at Tel Assar. Ruins. And what’s left of the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of Sepharvaim, of Hena, of Ivvah? Bones.”
Hezekiah took the letter from the envoy and read it. He went to The Temple of God and spread it out before God. And Hezekiah prayed—oh, how he prayed!
God, God of Israel, seated
in majesty on the cherubim-throne.
You are the one and only God,
sovereign over all kingdoms on earth,
Maker of heaven,
maker of earth.
Open your ears, God, and listen,
open your eyes and look.
Look at this letter Sennacherib has sent,
a brazen insult to the living God!
The facts are true, O God: The kings of Assyria
have laid waste countries and kingdoms.
Huge bonfires they made of their gods, their
no-gods hand-made from wood and stone.
But now O God, our God,
save us from raw Assyrian power;
Make all the kingdoms on earth know
that you are God, the one and only God.
It wasn’t long before Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah:
God’s word: You’ve prayed to me regarding Sennacherib king of Assyria; I’ve heard your prayer. This is my response to him:
The Virgin Daughter of Zion
holds you in utter contempt;
Daughter Jerusalem
thinks you’re nothing but scum.
The remnant will come from Jerusalem,
the survivors from Mount Zion.
The Zeal of God
will make it happen.
To sum up, this is what God says regarding the king of Assyria:
He won’t enter this city,
nor shoot so much as a single arrow there;
Won’t brandish a shield,
won’t even begin to set siege;
He’ll go home by the same road he came;
he won’t enter this city. God’s word!
I’ll shield this city, I’ll save this city,
for my sake and for David’s sake.
And it so happened that that very night an angel of Godcame and massacred 185,000 Assyrians. When the people of Jerusalem got up next morning, there it was—a whole camp of corpses!
Sennacherib king of Assyria got out of there fast, headed straight home for Nineveh, and stayed put. One day when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer murdered him and then escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon became the next king.
Gospel: Matthew 7:6; 12-14
“Don’t be flip with the sacred. Banter and silliness give no honor to God. Don’t reduce holy mysteries to slogans. In trying to be relevant, you’re only being cute and inviting sacrilege.
“Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.
“Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.
Prayer
Our God and Father,
we learn to know and appreciate you better
through the life of saints
like St. Aloysius Gonzaga.
May his life and death inspire us.
Help us to be austere and frugal like him,
yet strong of character.
Help us to put our life totally
in the service of others.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord. Amen.