OCTOBER 19/20, 2019
5:00 PM (SAT), 9:00 AM (SUN) 5:00 PM (NEWMAN CTR) ORDINARY FORM MASSES
The Aesopica is a collection of fables credited to the Greek storyteller Aesop, who lived around the sixth century before Christ. There are over 700 fables, and one of perhaps the best known is The Tortoise and the Hare.
Interestingly, because it was never translated into Latin, it remained relatively obscure until the 16th century when it was translated into French and Dutch. Not until 100 years later is it found in English.
Walt Disney provided an animated version of the fable in 1935, where the hare is a smart aleck college boy, complete with varsity sweater and adoring bunnies swooning over him. The tortoise is an honest working man, who just keeps on keeping on.
The hare, bathed in his own self-confidence, takes a nap. And when all is said and done, the Tortoise is the winner.
In our own time, the moral of the story is: “Slow and steady wins the race.” While in its own time, the moral may have been more based on attitude – the hare’s foolish overconfidence leads to his demise against an easy target. An ancient Greek source points out that those with positive natural abilities often ruin them by idleness. Emphasizing that sobriety, zeal, and perseverance can overcome laziness – regardless of ability.
By the 17th century, the moral was “perseverance winneth,” while religious commentators have leaned toward Ecclesiastes 9:11 – “the race is not to the swift,” while another notes that “the more haste, the worse speed.”
Today is the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time. And our readings point to “perseverance.”
In Exodus we hear of Moses’s perseverance in prayer – even to the point of having Aaron and Hur get him a chair and hold up his hands. And how this led to Israel’s victory in one of its first battles in the desert.
St. Paul admonishes Timothy to be “faithful to what you have learned and believed” and to be persistent.
The words translated as “faithful” and “persistent” are, in the Greek, μένω and ἐφίστημι. The first is where we get the English word remain. The second implies readiness. In some sense like a soldier on station, ever watchful.
What is translated here as “convenient or inconvenient” has more often been translated as “in season or out of season.” The root word here being καιρός which means an opportune time – as in the beginning of St. Mark’s Gospel is translated “the time of fulfillment.”
The point of the Gospel is given away in the first sentence. St. Luke tells us that the parable is about “the necessity …to pray always without becoming weary.”
The two enemies of perseverance are apathy and over-confidence.
What I would call “meh” and “me.”
We can be so self-assured that we step into presumption – and in losing sight of the goal, miss out completely. Or, we can give up before we’ve ever started, and never know if we have a chance.
The key is to strike a balance – what Aristotle called “The Golden Mean.” To know oneself – but within the boundaries of humility, while knowing what must be done – and doing it.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, let us pray for the grace to persevere.
And as we move closer to November, the month of the Holy Souls, let us also pray for the grace of final perseverance. To follow Christ – unreservedly to the end – so that in faithfully following Him here on earth, we might follow Him into glory in eternity.
