Isaiah
25:6-10a; Matthew 15:29-37
Aristotle states that virtue is the mean between
excess and deficiency. Yet, God seems to
go beyond the mean. Today’s gospel goes
from one extreme to another: God turns a deficit into a banquet that satiates a
famished crowd and leaves seven baskets of leftovers! God is not just being generous; God goes over
the top! Just look at the feast that Isaiah describes in the first
reading! “The Lord of hosts will provide
for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines.” Frugality is not one of God’s
attributes. Rather, God leans on the
side of prodigality when it comes to providing for us. For some, the rich food of God’s mercy and
the choice wine of holy love can be seen as wasted upon the “undeserving,” but
God’s wrenching heart seems to equalize the saint and sinner.
Alfred Hüffer’s Pauline von Mallinckrodt: A Short Biography recounts many anecdotes
that illustrate Mother Pauline’s extravagant love. In one instance, she comes to the defense of
an intoxicated man when a postulant neglected to add milk to a cup of coffee
meant to sober him (203). In another, while
Mother Pauline was very ill, the doctor informs her of a novice who would not
allow him to lance a boil on her neck because she feared needles. Disregarding her own pain, Mother Pauline
calls for the novice. Without her
notice, Mother Pauline nonchalantly lances the boil to relieve the novice of
her pain (206). Mother Pauline’s
excessive love extends even to animals.
In Sr. Mary Perpetua Rehle’s We
Felt Her Love, Mother Pauline liberates the flies that the Sisters caught
in a fly-catcher (10) and has the gardener release the mice who infested the
garden (7). For God and Mother Pauline,
love goes beyond the mean.
Today, how can I respond extravagantly to
the call of love?
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