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Rector Emeritus

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Stational Basilica of St. Eusebius on the Esquiline

Stational Basilica of St. Eusebius on the Esquiline

Reflection for Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

March 27, 2020

The wicked said among themselves,
thinking not aright:
“Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
Reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
 

There is a common saying that says: No good deed goes unpunished!  It is as if human nature has a finite ability to appreciate the goodness of others.  Hardwired in the dark side of the human psyche is its tendency, at times, to look for opportunities to see the flaws and foibles of others, even when others are attempting good. 

At the root of such human darkness invariably lies jealousy.  Rather than rejoicing and empowering goodness in others, our own sense of inadequacy, despises or resents that goodness in others as some sort of a twisted threat to us.  This dynamic is tragically at work in not a few politicians who fail to rise above such destructive pettiness to let the common good flourish. 

The section quoted above from the Book of Wisdom has, within tradition, been applied to Jesus, the ‘prophet rejected’ by his contemporaries. For the religious elite of his time, his ‘good news’ was just too good to be true.  So many viewed what he said and did as a threat to the perceived comfort of their established ways of thinking and doing.   

In time, like so many of the prophets before him, he was rejected and ultimately killed in the foolish belief that his life and message would be forever silenced.  However, God would have the final word and that final word would be witnessed in the empty tomb and his risen son who would conqueror forever the darkness of sin with the sure hope of unending life in his unfailing love.

 

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msgr. Arthur a. holquin, s.t.L.

Msgr. Art was ordained to the priesthood on May 25, 1974 for service in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Shortly after the creation of the new Diocese of Orange in 1976, he completed post-graduate work at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, obtaining an S.T.L. in Sacramental Theology and an M.A. in Religious Studies. He has served the Diocese in a number of ministerial capacities:  Director for the Office of Worship, Director for the Office of Evangelization, Rector of Holy Family Cathedral and finally, Pastor and Rector of Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano. In 2009 he contracted a rare neurological condition (Primary Lateral Sclerosis) that gradually impacted his walking and speech. In 2014 he was named Rector Emeritus of the Basilica parish. Msgr. Art’s favorite quotation is from Blessed Henry Cardinal Newman: To live is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often.


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