Memorial: St. Bonaventure

Click for readings: Ex 1:8-14, 22 / Ps 124:1b-3, 4-6, 7-8 / Mt 10:34—11:1

When our parents gave us rules that we had to follow, our first question was always, “why?” Especially when the rule concerned something that we can’t do. Even more so when the rule was something that the adults could do, but the kids could not. If the rules are not just, we are not obliged (morally) to follow them. Even if the rules are from our parents. As Jesus tells us today, “For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.”

St. Thomas Aquinas gives us criteria for a law that is a just law. It must be:

1. Reasonable
2. For the common good
3. Made by the proper authority
4. Well promulgated

When the new king imposed forced labor and oppression, the People of Israel did not acquiesce. They knew the new rules were not just and they refused to crumble under the oppression. The new king had met #3 & #4 of the criteria, but it is clear that the first two were certainly missed. So, what do we do under oppression? How do we react when faced with adversity and an unjust law? The king thought the People of Israel would decrease under the pressures of physical torment, but he was mistaken. He tried to break their spirit, but their faith was too strong. Elie Wiesel writes in “Night” that it was not the physically strong farm boys who were able to overcome the tortures of the Nazi’s but the men who were strong in spirit, those who had a strong connection with God.

As the old phrase goes, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” This was the case with the People of Israel. “Yet the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread.” Do not get discouraged by hardships, set backs, and road blocks. Cultivate your strong spirit so that when the adversity and unjust law comes, you will be ready to fight. “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Take courage, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”