• • CCUSA Presents the Washington Weekly
• • Faith and the Common Good
• • Trivia
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Overview: President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act on Tuesday. The bill lowers the prices of prescription drugs, increases Medicare benefits, and encourages the development of renewable energy. It also raises taxes on some corporations, while removing a tax on some wealthy hedge fund managers and private equity executives. For more details, click here.

Economy: In the week ending August 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial [unemployment] claims was 250,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 10,000 from 262,000 to 252,000. The 4-week moving average was 246,750, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 2,500 from 252,000 to 249,500.

Affordable housing: Anthony Granado, vice president of government relations for Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), in a television interview, describes the affordable housing crisis in the United States and how CCUSA is supporting those affected by the crisis, not only with housing but also with a variety of services (e.g., CCUSA Healthy Housing Initiative, CCUSA Francis Fund for Eviction Prevention).

A living room is seen at the Second Farms housing complex in the Bronx borough of New York City, April 1, 2021. The new building, opened by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, has 319 units of affordable housing, 10% of which house formerly homeless residents. (CNS photo/Johnny Zhang, courtesy Catholic Charities)

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Tomorrow, Aug. 20, the Church celebrates the memory of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 - 1153). And there's a lot to celebrate: "Adviser of popes, preacher of the Second Crusade, defender of the faith, healer of a schism, reformer of a monastic Order, Scripture scholar, theologian, and eloquent preacher."

Yet, for all his activity, Bernard understood that his life and everyone else's has come to be through, is sustained by, and ordered to the love of God. God "loves" us into existence and, like the father in Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son, yearns for us to return to him. Even when men and women rejected God, God sent Jesus to remedy the fault and make reunion possible.

Our return to God begins in the silence of prayer, during which we perceive God's love for us and desire to return God's love. St. Bernard wrote, "Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar return however unequal it may be."

A woman encounters Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament. (CNS photo/Valaurian Waller, Detroit Catholic)

Jesus taught us how to love God in return: it is through a relationship in which we seek to listen and to please God in all things. As we yield more and more to God, we find ourselves at the same time loving our brothers and sisters. Love of neighbor flows naturally out of love of God.

Some people might be amazed at what St. Bernard accomplished during his lifetime. Jesus, too, accomplished many things and served many people. Both of them, Jesus the Master and Bernard the disciple, would say, the works are great, and we too should continue to work and love our neighbors, but always with our hearts and minds focused on the fullness of life when God will be all in all (1 Cor 15:28).

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Q. What American mathematician, on Aug. 19, 1791, wrote a letter to then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson criticizing Jefferson's stance on slavery?

Please send your answers to [email protected]. 

Last week's question and answer:

Q. What happened on August 12, 1939 in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin?

A. Thanks to Rita Meyer for being first with the right answer: The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland and featuring words and music by E.Y. "Yip" Harburg and Harold Arlen, received its world premiere in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, on August 12, 1939.

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