Feast of St. Leo the Great (Year B)

The Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Leo the Great, a pope in the 5^th century. The Church was assaulted by a different type of difficulty --- heresy. Thanks be to God. Pope Leo I was able to consolidate the truth of Christian faith and fended off the invasion of the barbarians.

We begin to read a book called the Wisdom of Solomon. Scholars deduce that it was written in Greek in around 150 B.C. Since a Hebrew version does not exist, the Protestant tradition does not include this book in the canon. For example, KJV, RSV put this book in the Apocrypha section after the book of Revelation. The Catholic tradition has never doubted its canonicity. This book is inspired by God. Though this book is written in Greek, its theology is very Jewish. So, the translators of the Chinese Bible, the Franciscan fathers believe that the author of this book was a Jew. He wrote this book to console and support the Jews who were suffering persecution. The author wrote in Greek because most of the Jews at that time did not know Hebrew. They were living under the Greek Empire. Naturally, Greek became the official tongue.

The book of Wisdom began with righteousness. It sets the tone of the whole book.
Love righteousness, you rulers of the earth, think of the Lord with uprightness, and seek him with sincerity of heart (Wisdom 1:1).
Wisdom will make you righteous. If you have wisdom, you are able to discern right from wrong. God will be delighted. Therefore, you work hard to study, to accumulate wisdom. Then you will be saved. How convenient! The author cherished a very optimistic outlook.
Do not invite death by the error of your life, nor bring on destruction by the works of your hands;
because God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living.For he created all things that they might exist, and the generative forces of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them; and the dominion of Hades is not on earth.
For righteousness is immortal (Wisdom 1:12-15).
You feel like reading the New Testament --- God is not God of the dead, but of the living.

Then the author turns to examine why the righteous must suffer. Starting in chapter 2, the author listed several wrong attitudes commonly held by ungodly people. They would say, life is sorrowful and short. We come into existence only by chance. Therefore, let us enjoy it.
Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist, and make use of the creation to the full as in youth.
Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes, and let no flower of spring pass by us.
Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.
Let none of us fail to share in our revelry, everywhere let us leave signs of enjoyment, because this is our portion, and this our lot (Wisdom 2:6-9).
As if it was not enough, they hated the righteous because the righteous provided a mirror for the ungodly, making them shameful.
Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training.
He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord.
He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange.
We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father(Wisdom 2:12-16).
Because of these ungodly people, the righteous are persecuted.

Dear Lord, we are mirrors for each other. Let us lead a life worthy of the gifts You bestow on us. Amen.