Prayers today: When peaceful
silence lay over all, and night had run half of her swift course, your
all-powerful word, O Lord, leaped down from heaven, from the royal throne
(Wis. 18:14-15)
God of power and life, glory of all who believe in you, fill the world with your
splendour and show the nations the light of your truth. We ask this through our
Lord Jesus Christ your Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, world without end.
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him
nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the
light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not
overcome it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came
as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might
believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was
in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not
recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive
him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the
power to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of
human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and
made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the
Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John testifies concerning
him. He cries out, saying, This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me
has surpassed me because he was before me.' From the fulness of his grace we
have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace
and truth came through Jesus Christ. No-one has ever seen God, but God the only
Son, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.
(John 1: 1-18)
The Word
One of the most frequented of modern movies was the 1965 epic, Doctor
Zhivago, directed by David Lean and loosely based on the famous novel of the
same name by Boris Pasternak. It remained popular for decades, and as of 2010
was said to be the eighth highest grossing film of all time. One of the most
memorable features of the film was its theme song — the Lara song which played
gently in the background throughout the movie as the romance unfolded. Lara’s
melody was a thread that hauntingly held various elements of the story
together. I
like to think of the Prologue of the Gospel of St John as a theme song coming
from heaven and pervading the Gospel that follows. The drama opens with the
heavenly melody, clear and approaching. The song is of the Word who was with
God in the beginning. Whatever we take to be the beginning, there already was
the Word, and the Word was with God. These two Persons were always there, and
as the Gospel will tell, the Spirit who would be their Gift came from them
both. The heavenly song continues. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we saw his glory. Who could possibly have attained to this knowledge of the
one God by human effort and investigation? Impossible. We know it because it
was revealed in the man Jesus Christ. That is the theme song, the song of the
Word that sums up and pervades the Gospel that follows. We saw his glory, John
says in exultation, the glory of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. The figure of Jesus Christ shines forth at the beginning of the
Gospel as the most beautiful and wondrous spectacle of human history. Moses his
great predecessor gave to us the invaluable guide of God’s Law, but grace and
truth came from Jesus Christ. In the song of the Word that is the Prologue of
the Gospel, we sense love and wonder in the voice of John as he begins the
narration of his Gospel. We knew the Word become flesh! We beheld his glory! We
touched and heard him! At the outset John invites us to capture the unique
grandeur of Jesus Christ, God and man.
This is the fundamental fact about the Christian religion and about the life of
each Christian. The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us, and he did
this in order that we might become children of God. The mystery of the
Incarnation is the basis of the Christian religion, and the person who has not
serenely come to believe in this is not yet a Christian. There was once a man
in a certain locality, a certain nation, at a precise point in history, and that
man was the living God. He was of a certain height and no taller. He had
certain features, his brow being of a certain height, his hair of a certain
colour, his nose and features of a certain contour, his walk of a certain form,
his voice of a certain accent and timbre, his build of a certain shape. In his
human intellect he reasoned and perceived in a certain way. The Gospels suggest
that he thought very concretely with a strong propensity towards analogy and
symbol. He spoke of the “leaven” of the Pharisees, and of his “food” being the
will of his heavenly Father. Humanly he bore within him the quintessential
characteristics of the Hebrew race, and was thus not Roman or Greek or Egyptian
but distinctively Semitic. He was every bit a man, body and soul. Yet this
wondrous man was divine. How could we possibly understand this, or adequately
appreciate it? What we can say, and what the Church has taught, is that the Word
who is God — the same one God who is also the Father — took to himself a truly
human nature, while retaining his own divine mode of being. Thus did this
divine person become man, so that in speaking with this man, looking on him,
listening to him, men gazed on the living God. We can never think enough of
this. By the gift of divine grace we are empowered to believe this, and
contemplating in faith the person of Jesus Christ leads us to love him. Jesus
Christ asks for our love, just as he gives us his love. The perfection of man
consists in the knowledge, the love and the following of Jesus Christ, for it is
this that makes us true and faithful children of God.
Let the song of the Word be the lullaby of our days. In the beginning was the
Word and the Word was with God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him
all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him
was life, and that life was the light of men. The Word became flesh and made
his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the Only-begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Let this song be our life, and let our
souls be carried along through the storms by its heavenly power.
(January 1) Mary,
Mother of
God
Mary’s divine motherhood broadens the Christmas spotlight. Mary has an
important role to play in the Incarnation of the Second Person of the
Blessed Trinity. She consents to God’s invitation conveyed by the angel
(Luke 1:26-38). Elizabeth proclaims: “Most blessed are you among women
and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:42-43, emphasis
added). Mary’s role as mother of God places her in a unique position in
God’s redemptive plan. Without naming Mary, Paul asserts that “God sent
his Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). Paul’s
further statement that “God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts,
crying out ‘Abba, Father!’“ helps us realize that Mary is mother to all
the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Some theologians also insist that
Mary’s motherhood of Jesus is an important element in God’s creative
plan. God’s “first” thought in creating was Jesus. Jesus, the incarnate
Word, is the one who could give God perfect love and worship on behalf
of all creation. As Jesus was “first” in God’s mind, Mary was “second”
insofar as she was chosen from all eternity to be his mother. The
precise title “Mother of God” goes back at least to the third or fourth
century. In the Greek form Theotokos (God-bearer), it became the
touchstone of the Church’s teaching about the Incarnation. The Council
of Ephesus in 431 insisted that the holy Fathers were right in calling
the holy virgin Theotokos. At the end of this particular session,
crowds of people marched through the street shouting: “Praised be the
Theotokos” The tradition reaches to our own day. In its chapter on
Mary’s role in the Church, Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the
Church calls Mary “Mother of God” 12 times.
Other themes come together at today’s celebration. It is the Octave of
Christmas: Our remembrance of Mary’s divine motherhood injects a
further note of Christmas joy. It is a day of prayer for world peace:
Mary is the mother of the Prince of Peace. It is the first day of a new
year: Mary continues to bring new life to her children—who are also
God’s children. “The Blessed Virgin was eternally predestined, in
conjunction with the incarnation of the divine Word, to be the Mother
of God. By decree of divine Providence, she served on earth as the
loving mother of the divine Redeemer, an associate of unique nobility,
and the Lord’s humble handmaid. She conceived, brought forth, and
nourished Christ” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,
61).
(AmericanCatholic.org)
The shepherds went
with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the
manger. Having seen, they understood the word that had been spoken to
them concerning this child. All those who heard what was told to them
by the shepherds wondered and Mary treasured all these things,
pondering them in her heart. The shepherds returned glorifying and
praising God for all the things they had heard and seen as it was told
to them. After eight days the child was circumcised and he was given
the name JESUS, which was given to him by the angel before he was
conceived in the womb. (Luke 2: 16-21)
Mary When
Cardinal Carol Wojtila was elected Pope in 1978 he chose for his papal banner a
simple and unusual design. It was a plain cross on the shield and under the
cross the letter M: symbolic of Christ on his cross with Mary standing nearby.
That is to say, at the outset of Pope John Paul II’s pontificate, Christ with
Mary his mother were presented before the Catholic, non‑Catholic and
non‑Christian world. Today,
at the very beginning of the new civil year, the Catholic Church celebrates the
Feast of Mary the mother of God. While it is probably still a surprise and even
a shock to some Protestant Christians to see the prominence of Mary in the
Catholic scheme, it is the most natural thing in the world for Catholic and
Orthodox Christians. They honour Mary just as Christ honours her and they treat
her as their mother, just as Christ treats her as his mother. Let us consider
the place of Mary in Christian devotion in a more historical context. Prior to
its rejection by the Protestant Reformation beginning implicitly with John
Wycliffe in England during the fourteenth century, passing over to Jan Huss in
Bohemia in the fifteenth century, and then taken up explicitly and in powerful
earnest by the Protestant Reformers in the sixteenth, the cult of Mary was the
most normal thing in the world for the Christian. It was always judged and
encouraged by the Church as a wonderful doctrinal and devotional development of
Christian doctrine. Just as any idea develops, indeed just as any living thing
develops, so did the understanding of and devotion to Mary. Of course, not all
changes are true developments, and the Church is constantly vigilant against
those changes that it judges to be deformations. The Protestant Reformation was
a case in point. Luther proposed and insisted on certain teachings which the
Catholic Church judged not to be developments but profound misconceptions. This
raises the question of who in the Church has been granted the authority from on
high to determine what is a true development of doctrine and what is a
deformation.
The Catholic Church gives its clear answer. The charism to make such a judgment
resides in the successors of the Apostles who must act in union with, and
subject to, the successor of St Peter. The Pope judges and states, or more
usually the bishops of the Church (together with and subject to him) judge and
state, what is to be believed as having being revealed by Christ. So it is
that, over the two thousand years of the Church’s life, devotion to and
understanding of Mary the mother of the Saviour has grown in the life and
devotion of Christ’s faithful. This development has occurred under the Church’s
supervision. Mary is the Woman, as our Lord addresses her in St John’s Gospel,
who interceded for those in need at the wedding feast of Cana. She is therefore
our help, the help of Christians. She helps us with her intercession as the
Queen Mother and inspires us with her example as the one who was totally
obedient to the word of God. She is the Woman, as our Lord addressed her on the
Cross, whom he gave to his beloved disciple to be his mother. In him she was
given to all of Christ’s disciples to be their mother. She is the mother and
model of the Church because she is, as the Council of Ephesus taught, the mother
of God. This is her fundamental prerogative. She is Christ’s mother and
therefore she is the mother of the Son of God made man. What dignity is hers!
At the beginning of the civil year, the Church with good reason places before
all of Christ’s faithful the figure of the most exalted human person in the
sight of God, Mary the mother of the Second Divine Person made man. She is, as
the Angel said to her, full of grace and the Lord is with her. She is, as
Elizabeth said to her, blessed among women and blessed is the fruit of her
womb. Therefore we constantly address her as our mother because she is Holy
Mary, Mother of God. We ask her to pray for us sinners now and at the hour of
our death. This we ask of her daily. At the beginning of the year we ought
entrust ourselves to Mary’s maternal care and ask her to keep us close to Jesus
who is the Object of her, and our, whole being.
Let us as Christians cultivate a true devotion to Mary, one that will please
both her and her divine Son. That devotion is one that leads us to love God
with all our mind, heart, soul and strength, and our neighbour as ourself. Mary
is our help in this. She is the help of Christians in their work in life, which
is to be true disciples of Christ. Let us not separate ourselves from her who
is our great help, Mary the Mother of God whose feast we celebrate today.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic
Church, no. 527, 484-487
O King of peace, give us your peace and pardon our sins. Dismiss the
enemies of the Church and protect her so that she never fail. Emmanuel
our God is in our midst in the glory of the Father and of the Holy
Spirit. May he bless us and purify our hearts and cure the sicknesses
of our soul and body. We adore you, O Christ, with your good Father and
the Holy Spirit because you have come and you have saved us.
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Appendix)
January
2, Weekdays of the Christmas Season (Days before the Epiphany)
(January 2) St.
Basil the Great (329-379)
Basil was on his way to becoming a famous teacher when he decided to
begin a religious life of gospel poverty. After studying various modes
of religious life, he founded what was probably the first monastery in
Asia Minor. He is to monks of the East what St. Benedict is to the
West, and his principles influence Eastern monasticism today. He was
ordained a priest, assisted the archbishop of Caesarea (now
southeastern Turkey), and ultimately became archbishop himself, in
spite of opposition from some of his suffragan bishops, probably
because they foresaw coming reforms. One of the most damaging heresies
in the history of the Church, Arianism, which denied the divinity of
Christ, was at its height. Emperor Valens persecuted orthodox
believers, and put great pressure on Basil to remain silent and admit
the heretics to communion. Basil remained firm, and Valens backed down.
But trouble remained. When the great St. Athanasius died, the mantle of
defender of the faith against Arianism fell upon Basil. He strove
mightily to unite and rally his fellow Catholics who were crushed by
tyranny and torn by internal dissension. He was misunderstood,
misrepresented, accused of heresy and ambition. Even appeals to the
pope brought no response. “For my sins I seem to be unsuccessful in
everything.” He was tireless in pastoral care. He preached twice a day
to huge crowds, built a hospital that was called a wonder of the world
(as a youth he had organized famine relief and worked in a soup kitchen
himself) and fought the prostitution business. Basil was best known as
an orator. His writings, though not recognized greatly in his lifetime,
rightly place him among the great teachers of the Church. Seventy-two
years after his death, the Council of Chalcedon described him as “the
great Basil, minister of grace who has expounded the truth to the whole
earth.”
St. Basil said: “The bread which you do not use is the bread of the
hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who
is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who
is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the
poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many
injustices that you
commit.”
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today: 1 John 2: 22-28; Psalm 97; John 1:19-28
This is
the testimony of John when the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and
Levites to ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed and did not deny,
“I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “Well then, are you Elias?”
And he said: “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”
They said therefore to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to
those who sent us? What do you say of yourself?” He said, “I am the
voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the
Lord, as the prophet Isaias said.” Those who were sent were of the
Pharisees, and they asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not
Christ, nor Elias, nor the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize
with water; but there stands in the midst of you one whom you do not
know. He will come after me who is preferred before me, the latchet of
whose shoe I am not worthy to loose.” These things were done in
Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.(John 1: 19-28)
John the
Baptist
In the first chapter of St John’s gospel a good portion is given over to John
the Baptist. All recognized his greatness, and John the Evangelist, writing
long after his death, tells us more of him. We read in the Acts of the Apostles
of various followers of John the Baptist found here and there across the ancient
world, who were profoundly influenced by him. Our Lord on one occasion said
that no one born of woman had been greater than he. Our
Lord’s precise meaning here would need to be considered carefully because, of
course, far greater than John in personal holiness was our Lord’s own mother.
Speaking in a different sense, our Lord himself would say that the least in the
Kingdom of Heaven was greater than John the Baptist. However, our Lord clearly
affirms the greatness of John the Baptist. Now, let us ask in what did his
greatness consist? Obviously he heard the word of God, accepted it totally
and put it into practice with utter dedication. He was a prophet and recognized
by all as such. At times there were prophets in the Old Testament who were less
than worthy of their calling, but such was not John the Baptist. The priests
and Levites from Jerusalem were sent to ask him who he claimed to be in the
scheme of God’s plan for his people. For instance, did he understand himself as
being the Prophet whom Moses had predicted was to come? No, I certainly am
not, replied John. Was he then Elijah whom the Scriptures foretold would come
again to prepare a people fit for the Lord? No. John saw himself as being none
of these exalted figures — although, be it noted that our Lord told his
disciples after his Transfiguration that John indeed had been the Elijah who was
to come. So John was fearless, he was wholly given over to bearing witness to
the word of God, and he was profoundly humble. He sought no special status or
praise in the eyes of others. Who then did he see himself as being? I am,
John said in answer, nothing other than a voice, a voice crying out in the
wilderness.
He was a voice announcing the arrival of Another. As we think, then, of the
greatness and the humility of John, we are drawn to think of the One to whom he
bore such splendid and disinterested witness. John was a voice crying out to
all that they prepare a way for the Lord. St John the Evangelist had been a
disciple of the Baptist and therefore a personal witness to what he was
narrating about him. His purpose in describing these scenes in which John the
Baptist speaks and acts, was to set forth the person of Jesus. I am not fit to
undo the straps of the one who is coming, John said to his questioners
(John 1: 19‑28). What a testimony this is!
St John tells us in the passage that “this is how John appeared as a witness.”
John appeared as a witness by refusing all personal honours and by attributing
all honour and glory to the One who was already in the midst of them. With this
example before us, let us ask ourselves this question: in my heart of hearts do
I think that “I am not fit to undo the sandal straps” of Jesus, whose disciple I
am? Let us ask this question of our Jewish and other non‑Christian brethren,
what is your view of John the Baptist? Do you regard him as having been a holy
man and a prophet? If you do thus regard him, should you not take heed of his
testimony in respect to the person of Jesus? John the Baptist said of Jesus that
he, John, was not worthy to bend down to undo his sandal strap. Considerable
numbers of Christians would not have anything like this degree of veneration and
reverence for the person of Jesus Christ. In his personal reverence for the
person of Jesus, John the Baptist is a model for the modern Christian. He is
also a model as to the kind of witness before others that each Christian ought
bear in respect to Jesus. We ought be humble and profoundly reverent. We ought
pray for the grace so to revere Christ that we too can say from the depths of
our hearts that we are not fit to kneel down and undo his sandal‑straps. This
reverence ought show itself in the way we refer to Christ and in how we speak of
all that is his, such as his Church and his Sacraments.
Every person who has discovered Christ has a great work to do in life. It is to
be faithful to his word and to bear witness to him. John the Baptist provides
us with an outstanding model in respect to reverence for Jesus and bearing
witness to him. It has often been remarked that modern man tends to lack
reverence. Let us be humble in respect to ourselves and profoundly reverent in
respect to the person of Jesus. John the Baptist can help us in this.
Enter into the wounds of Christ Crucified. There you will learn to
guard your senses, you will have interior life, and you will
continually offer to the Father the sufferings of our Lord and those of
Mary, in payment of your debts and the debts of all men.
(The Way, no.288)
Remain in peace, O Altar of God. May the offering that I have taken
from you be for the remission of my debts and the pardon of my sins and
may it obtain for me that I may stand before the tribunal of Christ
without condemnation and without confusion. I do not know if I will
have the opportunity to return and offer another sacrifice upon you.
Protect me, O Lord, and preserve your holy Church as the way to truth
and salvation. Amen.
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Appendix)
January
3, Weekdays of the Christmas Season (Days before the Epiphany)
(January 3) Most Holy Name of Jesus
In a world of fiercely guarded corporate names and logos, it should be
easy to understand this feast. The letters IHS are an abbreviation of
Jesous, the Greek name for Jesus. Although St. Paul might claim credit
for promoting devotion to the Holy Name because Paul wrote in
Philippians that God the Father gave Christ Jesus “that name that is
above every name” (see 2:9), this devotion became popular because of
12th-century Cistercian monks and nuns but especially through the
preaching of St. Bernardine of Siena, a 15th-century Franciscan.
Bernardine used devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus as a way of
overcoming bitter and often bloody class struggles and family rivalries
or vendettas in Italian city-states. The devotion grew, partly because
of Franciscan and Dominican preachers. It spread even more widely after
the Jesuits began promoting it in the 16th century. In 1530, Pope
Clement V approved an Office of the Holy Name for the Franciscans. In
1721, Pope Innocent XIII extended this feast to the entire Church.
Jesus died and rose for the sake of all people. No one can trademark or
copyright Jesus' name. Jesus is the Son of God and son of Mary.
Everything that exists was created in and through the Son of God (see
Colossians 1:15-20). The name of Jesus is debased if any Christian uses
it as justification for berating non-Christians. Jesus reminds us that
because we are all related to him we are, therefore, all related to one
another. “Glorious name, gracious name, name of love and of power!
Through you sins are forgiven, through you enemies are vanquished,
through you the sick are freed from their illness, through you those
suffering in trials are made strong and cheerful. You bring honour to
those who believe, you teach those who preach, you give strength to the
toiler, you sustain the weary” (St. Bernardine of
Siena.) (AmericanCatholic.org)
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today: 1 John
2:29-3:6; Psalm 97; John 1: 29-34
The next
day, John
saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me there
comes one who is preferred before me because he was before me. I did
not know him, but for this have I come baptizing with water that he
might be manifest in Israel.” John gave testimony, saying: “I saw the
Spirit coming down as a dove from heaven, and he remained upon him. I
did not know him but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me:
‘He upon whom you will see the Spirit descend and remain, he it is who
baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ I saw and I have given testimony that
this is the Son of God.”(John 1:
29-34)
Son of God At the
outset of the Gospel of St John we are presented with the fundamental identity
of Jesus of Nazareth. The Gospel opens with St John’s own Prologue setting
forth his profound reflections on the person of Jesus. He is the eternal Word
who had always been with God. He is the only‑begotten Son of the Father, God
himself made man. St John then introduces John the Baptist, in order to inform
the reader of what John had said of Jesus. It is a tribute to the Baptist and
to his remarkable testimony that he is so prominent in the very Prologue.
We
read in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) that John pointed Jesus
out as being the promised Messiah who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. John
the Baptist’s mission in life was to prepare the people for his coming and to
alert the nation to the fact that it was in and through Jesus that the plans of
God for his people and for the world would be fulfilled. Now St John, the
author of the fourth Gospel, had been a disciple of John the Baptist and there
are significant additions in his account of the Baptist’s testimony. He shows
that the Baptist testified that our Lord’s mission was to take away the sin of
the world: “John saw Jesus coming to him and said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world’” (1:29). We are not told if John had any
conception of how this would be done, but his image of Jesus being the Lamb of
God suggests a sacrificial mission. It seems that he understood that this great
Servant of Yahweh would be the Suffering Servant portrayed in Isaiah. Jesus
would also baptize in the Holy Spirit (1:33). Especially remarkable was his
testimony that he who was God’s Lamb and who would baptize in the Spirit, was
God’s Son. “I saw and I have given testimony that this is the Son of God”
(John 1: 29‑34). It is clear that John did
not regard Jesus as a son of God merely in a way that might have been applicable
to any prophet. He was the Son of God, although there is no further explanation
given of John’s use of this pivotal title.
John the Evangelist tells us at the end of his Gospel that he wrote it in order
to show that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (John 20:31). At the
beginning of the Gospel he narrates that before the public work of Christ began,
John the Baptist bore witness to this too. I once met a couple who had on their
car a sign saying, “Jews for Jesus.” I stopped and asked them what the sign
signified. They told me that “Jews for Jesus” referred to a movement of Jewish
people who recognized that Jesus was the Messiah. John, whom the people
recognized as a great prophet, bore testimony that Jesus was the promised
Messiah. But there is far more to the person, the work and the mystery of Jesus
than this. Most critically, there is the fact that he is God’s Son. John the
Baptist gave that witness, and John the Evangelist goes on in his Gospel to show
that Christ formally claimed to be the Son of God. This implied not only in his
own mind but clearly in the mind of his enemies that he was equal to God. It
was this truth that Christ bore witness to in the presence of the highest
religious authorities in the land. It was in order to render this witness that
he allowed himself to be delivered into their hands. It was for this claim that
they demanded his death from Pontius Pilate — “for pretending to be the Son of
God” (John 19:7). Down through the
centuries it has been the litmus test of the Christian. Does one accept that
Jesus is not only the Messiah but the very Son of God? This is refused by our
Jewish brothers and of course it is refused by our Muslim friends. It is the
great claim of the Christian Church, and it is the reason why Christ is
understood by the Christian faithful to have all authority in heaven and on
earth. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords above all because he is
the very Son of God. He is the second Divine Person, and is just as much the
one God as is the Father. In him resides the fullness of the Godhead, and the
fullness of Christ resides in his body the Church. The Church contains this
wondrous treasure, the person of Jesus Christ the Son of God made man. Those
who by baptism become members of the Church receive a share in the divine life
of Jesus Christ.
Let us place ourselves in the Gospel scene of today and listen to the testimony
of John about Jesus. He is the Christ, the Messiah who is the Lamb of God
taking away the sin of the world. He is the Saviour of man, and there is
nothing lacking in him. In him comes every heavenly blessing because he is the
very Son of God. Let us make him the entire object of our life and follow in
his footsteps, no matter what may be the cost. He is our Way, our Truth and our
Life.
Your holy impatience to serve him does not displease God. But it will
be fruitless if it is not accompanied by a real improvement in your
daily conduct.
(The Way, no.289)
God of the spirits and of all flesh, who have trampled death and
annihilated the devil and given life to your world, may you yourself, O
Lord, grant to the soul of your deceased servant N. rest in a place of
light, a verdant place, a place of freshness, from where suffering,
pain and cries are far removed. Do You, O good and compassionate God
forgive every fault committed by him in word, work or thought because
there is no man who lives and does not sin. You alone are without sin
and your justice is justice throughout the ages and your word is truth.
Since you, O Christ our God, are the resurrection, the life and the
repose of your deceased servant N., we give you glory together with
your un-begotten Father and your most holy, good and life-creating
Spirit, now and always and forever and ever.
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Appendix)
January
4, Weekdays of the Christmas Season (Days before the Epiphany)
(January 4) St.
Elizabeth
Ann Seton (1774-1821)
Mother Seton is one of the keystones of the American Catholic Church.
She founded the first American religious community for women, the
Sisters of Charity. She opened the first American parish school and
established the first American Catholic orphanage. All this she did in
the span of 46 years while raising her five children. Elizabeth Ann
Bayley Seton is a true daughter of the American Revolution, born August
28, 1774, just two years before the Declaration of Independence. By
birth and marriage, she was linked to the first families of New York
and enjoyed the fruits of high society. Reared a staunch Episcopalian
by her mother and stepmother, she learned the value of prayer,
Scripture and a nightly examination of conscience. Her father, Dr.
Richard Bayley, did not have much use for churches but was a great
humanitarian, teaching his daughter to love and serve others. The early
deaths of her mother in 1777 and her baby sister in 1778 gave Elizabeth
a feel for eternity and the temporariness of the pilgrim life on earth.
Far from being brooding and sullen, she faced each new “holocaust,” as
she put it, with hopeful cheerfulness. At 19, Elizabeth was the belle
of New York and married a handsome, wealthy businessman, William Magee
Seton. They had five children before his business failed and he died of
tuberculosis. At 30, Elizabeth was widowed, penniless, with five small
children to support. While in Italy with her dying husband, Elizabeth
witnessed Catholicity in action through family friends. Three basic
points led her to become a Catholic: belief in the Real Presence,
devotion to the Blessed Mother and conviction that the Catholic Church
led back to the apostles and to Christ. Many of her family and friends
rejected her when she became a Catholic in March 1805. To support her
children, she opened a school in Baltimore. From the beginning, her
group followed the lines of a religious community, which was officially
founded in 1809. The thousand or more letters of Mother Seton reveal
the development of her spiritual life from ordinary goodness to heroic
sanctity. She suffered great trials of sickness, misunderstanding, the
death of loved ones (her husband and two young daughters) and the
heartache of a wayward son. She died January 4, 1821, and became the
first American-born citizen to be beatified (1963) and then canonized
(1975). She is buried in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Elizabeth Seton had no extraordinary gifts. She was not a mystic or
stigmatic. She did not prophesy or speak in tongues. She had two great
devotions: abandonment to the will of God and an ardent love for the
Blessed Sacrament. She wrote to a friend, Julia Scott, that she would
prefer to exchange the world for a “cave or a desert.” “But God has
given me a great deal to do, and I have always and hope always to
prefer his will to every wish of my own.” Her brand of sanctity is open
to everyone if we love God and do his will. Elizabeth Seton told her
sisters, “The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will
of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills it; and thirdly, to
do it because it is his
will.”
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today: 1 John 3:7-10; Psalm
97; John 1:35-42
The next
day John stood with two of his disciples watching Jesus walking, and he
said “Behold the Lamb of God.” The two disciples heard him speak, and
they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and seeing them following him said to
them, “What do you seek?” They said to him, “Rabbi, (which is to say,
Master,) where do you dwell?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They
came, saw where he was dwelling, and they stayed with him that day. It
was about the tenth hour. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one
of the two who had heard what John had said, and had followed Jesus. He
found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah,
which, interpreted, is the Christ.” And he brought him to Jesus. And
Jesus looking upon him, said, You are Simon the son of Jonah: you will
be called Cephas, which translated is Peter.(John 1:35-42)
Come and
see
I have often considered that this scene is one of the most beautiful scenes in
the Gospel, occurring right at the beginning of the public ministry of our
Lord. Inasmuch as there are only three persons involved (except for the Baptist
at the beginning), the source for this must be one of the two disciples of John
who followed Jesus. Let us presume it was the one other than Andrew — probably
John the Evangelist himself, the author of the Gospel.
He remembers long afterwards the scene of his first meeting with Jesus. He met
Jesus together with Andrew the brother of Simon Peter. It came about because of
what John the Baptist said of Jesus to his disciples, that he was the Lamb of
God, that he was at the very centre of God’s plans for his people and for the
world, that he was the Messiah. John was encouraging his two disciples to
follow Jesus and this they did. Think of the respect and perhaps awe with which
they followed Jesus, having heard these words of John! Why did they follow him?
They yearned for God and they loved what was good. It was this which had drawn
them to John the Baptist and had led them to place themselves at his feet as his
disciples. Now they were taking their first steps towards someone far greater
than the Baptist, and indeed they were within close proximity to the very best
that God had sent. So they followed Jesus respectfully, diffidently and at a
little distance, with yearning and love. They had before them the greatest of
treasures, and lo! Jesus turns and gazes at them with simple friendliness,
asking them what they were looking for. All they could say was, “Master” —
implying their desire to listen and learn from him and be his disciples — “where
do you live?” (John 1:35‑42) Could we follow
you there and listen to you? Could we have that privilege? Could we be with you?
With a smile (so we may imagine) our Lord replies, “Come and see.” So they went
and stayed with him that day, seeing for themselves that he, Jesus, was indeed
the promised Messiah.
There are many things we could comment on in respect to this scene, so pivotal
for these first two of our Lord’s Apostles. Reading the other Gospels, we
gather that at a certain point early during his public ministry our Lord
formally called these same Apostles to follow him and they left their nets and
did so (Matthew 4:18‑22). But our Gospel
scene today places us prior to this formal call and lets us glimpse the first
encounter and the rise of their commitment to Jesus. How did it come about?
There were several factors, beginning with John the Baptist’s clear and lofty
testimony to Jesus. He was the Messiah, the Lamb of God who would take away the
sin of the world. John’s holy life and immense prophetic authority conferred on
Jesus a powerful aura at the outset, and constituted a positive encouragement
for the two disciples to follow him. Secondly, our Lord’s own simple
friendliness immediately drew the two disciples to his life and person,
convincing them at first hand of the truth of what John their prior master had
said of him. But there was a third and indispensable element and that was their
own active disposition. They truly wanted to know our Lord and to be his
disciples. There was something in them that impelled them towards him and made
them responsive to the testimony of John and wide open to the invitation, the
friendship, the teaching and the authority of Jesus. In a word, they had the
right dispositions. They were, to use the words of one of our Lord’s parables
in a different Gospel, very good soil for the word to produce its crop. Their
hearts desired God, and they saw in Jesus the full presence of God. There were
others who would interact with our Lord and who would not have these
dispositions — quite to the contrary. Their hearts were not right. There was
even one of his disciples who presumably actively desired to be in our Lord’s
company and whom our Lord not only called but chose as one of the Twelve, but
who betrayed him. Let us then humbly and perseveringly ask God for the right
fundamental dispositions for discipleship while we ourselves work daily at
acquiring them.
All through life we must listen to the testimony of the Church about Christ, the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We have the example of these
two disciples and their response to John’s testimony. But to listen well, our
hearts must be properly disposed . We must attend to the state of our heart and
we must every day work at eradicating the sin that lodges there and which will
spoil the response we could give to Christ and his word. Let us entrust
ourselves to the care and grace of the Holy Spirit whom we received at our
baptism, and who abides with us in order to lead us to Jesus.
O my God, I firmly believe
that you are one God in three divine Persons,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I believe that your divine Son became man
and died for our sins and that he will come
to judge the living and the dead.
I believe these and all the truths
which the Holy Catholic Church teaches
because you have revealed them
who are eternal truth and wisdom,
who can neither deceive nor be deceived.
In this faith I intend to live and die.
Amen.
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Appendix)
January
5, Weekdays of the Christmas Season (Days before the Epiphany)
(January 5) St.
John
Neumann (1811-1860) Perhaps
because the United States got a later start in the history of the
world, it has relatively few canonized saints, but their number is
increasing. John Neumann was born in what is now the Czech Republic.
After studying in Prague, he came to New York at 25 and was ordained a
priest. He did missionary work in New York until he was 29, when he
joined the Redemptorists and became its first member to profess vows in
the United States. He continued missionary work in Maryland, Virginia
and Ohio, where he became popular with the Germans. At 41, as bishop of
Philadelphia, he organized the parochial school system into a diocesan
one, increasing the number of pupils almost twentyfold within a short
time. Gifted with outstanding organizing ability, he drew into the city
many teaching communities of sisters and the Christian Brothers. During
his brief assignment as vice provincial for the Redemptorists, he
placed them in the forefront of the parochial movement. Well-known for
his holiness and learning, spiritual writing and preaching, on October
13, 1963, he became the first American bishop to be beatified.
Canonized in 1977, he is buried in St. Peter the Apostle Church in
Philadelphia. Neumann took seriously our Lord’s words, “Go and teach
all nations.” From Christ he received his instructions and the power to
carry them out. For Christ does not give a mission without supplying
the means to accomplish it. The Father’s gift in Christ to John Neumann
was his exceptional organizing ability, which he used to spread the
Good News.
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today: 1 John 3:11-21; Psalm
99; John 1: 43-51
On the following
day Jesus intended to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him,
”Follow me.” Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter.
Philip found Nathanael and said
to him, “We have found the one of whom Moses in the law and the
prophets wrote, Jesus the son of Joseph of Nazareth. Nathanael said to
him, “Can any thing of good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him
“Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him,
“Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile.” Nathanael said
to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called
you, when you were under the fig tree I saw you.” Nathanael answered
him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.” Jesus
answered, “Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, you
believe. You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him,
“Amen, amen I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of
God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” (John 1: 43-51)
Knowing
Christ
In a pluralist world of various and indeed opposite opinions, people take up
their positions. They form their own views and convictions, even the view that
it is not possible to be ultimately certain about anything. A philosopher may
come to describe himself as a theist, or an Hegelian, or a positive atheist. A
self‑confessed religious person may describe himself as a Christian by
conviction, or as a man not of religion but of so‑called spirituality. Whatever
it be, the person we are talking of has formed and adopted a position. Now,
when it comes to being a Christian this way of talking can miss a fundamental
element. Being a Christian does not simply involve “taking up a position,”
which is to say, embracing the Christian system as a body of thought. It means
having met and in some sense embraced a living and real Person, the person of
Jesus. I suppose we could compare it with how a spouse describes his
relationship with his partner, or a member of a family describes his
relationship with his family. It is to be described in terms of personal
relationships and not just in terms of intellectual conviction. “I know and
love her” he would say, and not just that “I fully agree with her position.” The
authentic Christian says, “I know and love Christ” and not just that “I fully
agree with Christ’s teaching” — even though the love of Christ is expressed and
sustained by the full acceptance of his teaching. His teaching is accepted not
primarily because it commends itself to my mind (which it does anyway) but
precisely because it comes from him whom I know, love and fully accept. But
there is an even more fundamental element in the life of the Christian. It is
that I know and love Jesus because he has known, loved and chosen me first.
Christ is not just a philosopher or teacher or great light whom I have chosen to
approach and attach myself to. He has taken the initiative — though I may not
have realized it — to approach me and invite me to himself. Of course, on
reflection I myself may have found myself drawn to him, but the prior thing is
his choice of me.
In our Gospel today we are reminded of this pattern that is so fundamental in
the life of a Christian. We read that on the following day Jesus intended to go
to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Christ “found” Philip
and invited him to follow him. Of course he would have seen in Philip the
dispositions necessary to be a true disciple, but nevertheless the fundamental
thing was his personal entry into Philip’s life by inviting him to follow him.
Philip’s Christian life involved, yes, the acceptance of Christ’s teaching. But
it primarily involved Christ’s entry into his life as his friend and master at
that moment of his call and invitation. The Christian life is not primarily —
though it includes — the embrace of the “Christian position.” It is primarily a
personal relationship of reverent and loving friendship with a living Person,
the person of Jesus Christ. That relationship has its ultimate roots in
Christ’s call to be his friend, disciple and ardent follower. The choice comes
from Christ in the first instance, which means it comes from God. In our Gospel
passage today (John 1:43‑51), Christ’s call
to Philip passes on through Philip to Nathanael, and then confirmed by Christ
himself when Nathanael meets him. So it is with every Christian. Indeed, the
origins of this personal choice and call lie in eternity. St Paul tells us in
one of his Letters that before the world began, God chose us, chose us in Christ
to be holy and full of love in his sight. Both Philip and Nathanael henceforth
knew that Christ had chosen and called them to himself, to be his friends and
disciples. What a privilege this was! What an incentive to live a life worthy
of this call! How tragic (as in the case of Judas) if this call were to be
gradually refused. Let us then ground our Christian life and “position” not
primarily in a correct intellectual conclusion (though this must be part of it)
but primarily in the knowledge and love of the living person who has chosen and
called us to himself.
This is to say that the daily life of the Christian must be based on personal
prayer. This is the only way the living and risen Jesus will be encountered.
It is the only way his personal call will be heard. On that basis, and together
with it, one reads, ponders, thinks things through, and one comes to understand
and accept the Christian position — but always as that which comes from the
living Master. It is because of our faith and hope in him and our love for him
who has chosen us for himself, that we accept his teaching — and not simply
because we have come to agree with it.
O Lord God,
I hope by your grace for the pardon
of all my sins
and after life here to gain eternal happiness
because you have promised it
who are infinitely powerful, faithful, kind,
and merciful.
In this hope I intend to live and die.
Amen.
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Appendix)
January
6, Weekdays of the Christmas Season (Days before the Epiphany)
(January 6) St. Gregory Nazianzen (329-390)
After his baptism at 30, Gregory gladly
accepted his friend Basil’s invitation to join him in a newly founded monastery.
The solitude was broken when Gregory’s father, a bishop, needed help in
his diocese and estate. It seems that
Gregory was ordained a priest practically by force, and only reluctantly
accepted the responsibility. He skilfully avoided a schism that threatened
when his own father made compromises with Arianism. At 41, Gregory was
chosen suffragan bishop of Caesarea and at once came into conflict with
Valens, the emperor, who supported the Arians. An unfortunate by-product
of the battle was the cooling of the friendship of two saints. Basil, his
archbishop, sent him to a miserable and unhealthy town on the border of
unjustly created divisions in his diocese. Basil reproached Gregory for
not going to his see. When protection for Arianism ended with the death
of Valens, Gregory was called to rebuild the faith in the great see of
Constantinople, which had been under Arian teachers for three decades.
Retiring and sensitive, he dreaded being drawn into the whirlpool of corruption
and violence. He first stayed at a friend’s home, which became the only
orthodox church in the city. In such surroundings, he began giving the
great sermons on the Trinity for which he is famous. In time, Gregory did
rebuild the faith in the city, but at the cost of great suffering, slander,
insults and even personal violence. An interloper even tried to take over
his bishopric. His last days were spent in solitude and austerity. He wrote
religious poetry, some of it autobiographical, of great depth and beauty.
He was acclaimed simply as “the Theologian.”
It may be small comfort, but post-Vatican II
turmoil in the Church is a mild storm compared to the devastation caused
by the Arian heresy, a trauma the Church has never forgotten. Christ did
not promise the kind of peace we would love to have—no problems, no opposition,
no pain. In one way or another, holiness is always the way of the cross.
“God accepts our desires as though they were a great value. He longs ardently
for us to desire and love him. He accepts our petitions for benefits as
though we were doing him a favour. His joy in giving is greater than ours
in receiving. So let us not be apathetic in our asking, nor set too narrow
bounds to our requests; nor ask for frivolous things unworthy of God’s
greatness.” (AmericanCatholic.org)
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today: 1 John 5:5-13; Psalm 147:
12-15, 19-20; Mark 1:7-11 or Luke 3: 23-38.
And this was John’s message: “After me
will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy
to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with
the Holy Spirit.” At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was
baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw
heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice
came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
(Mark
1:7-11)
The
Spirit
We read at the beginning of the Bible that, “In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness
was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:
1-3). What was the inspired intent in speaking of the “spirit of God” here? It
is, of course, disputed, but the plain meaning is at least that the power of God
enveloped — hovered over — all. God spoke and by this power things came to be
and were arranged.
As with the word, so with the spirit, more and more was gradually revealed. The
word was revealed to be the Word, and the spirit was revealed to be the Spirit,
and each was the gift of God to man. In our Gospel passage today, God and his
Word and the Spirit occupy the scene together, each in his individuality and yet
in intimate communion. Let our attention turn for a moment to the Spirit. By
the power of the Spirit, God created the universe. The Spirit is continually
present in creation because by his power, God continually sustains the
universe. He is also present among the peoples. When Pope Paul II addressed
the Australian Aborigines at Alice Springs in 1986, he said that “for thousands
of years” they had fashioned their culture, and that “during all this time, the
Spirit of God has been with you.” The Pope said that “Your “Dreaming”..... is
your own way of touching the mystery of God’s Spirit in you and in creation.
You must keep your striving for God and hold on to it in your lives.” But there
is clearly a sense in which the Holy Spirit was granted to individuals in a
special way, granting fuller gifts and greater guidance. The Spirit came upon
David when he was anointed by Samuel to be king after Saul. The Spirit came
upon various Judges, such as Samson, to defend and guide the people. He came
upon the prophets, and we read at the start of the Gospel of St Luke that he
came upon John the Baptist while he was still in the womb. John had the
greatest mission of the prophets, for he was to announce the arrival of the
Messiah and point him out.
In our Gospel today (Mark 1:7‑11), the
Spirit comes upon Jesus at his baptism in the river Jordan to launch him on his
mission. It must have been a striking event: the heavens were seen to be “torn
open”, and like a dove the Spirit descended on Christ in such a way as to be
obvious. All of the comings of the Spirit on chosen persons were exceptional
events with special results for those around. But the coming of the Spirit on
Jesus was the herald of an altogether new coming: that coming of the Spirit on
all men. And so it is that, just as there is the wonder of the Word of God
becoming man, so there is the wonder of the Holy Spirit being granted to each of
us who, by faith and baptism, accept the Word who is life. We do not think
enough of the Holy Spirit. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that the world
was made and is sustained. How mighty is the Holy Spirit! He is a distinct
Person, a divine Self who views all of creation and who communes with the Father
and the Son. He is the ineffable fulness of their life of love, and it is he
who unites both in their eternal embrace. It was by his power that the wondrous
miracle of the Incarnation was effected. It was by his power that the Son of
God offered himself as a victim on the Cross, and it was by his power that he
rose to life. It is by his power that the bread and the wine is changed at Mass
into the Body and Blood of Christ. When we think of the Spirit we ought think
of love and might, a might that led the unconquerable Christ to turn the
prospects of the world right around. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the Son
of God broke the power of sin and set man in a heavenward direction. Now, this
same Spirit who came upon Christ in the river Jordan comes upon us at our
baptism, and again at our confirmation, and very many times in life, provided we
remain in the state of grace. However, we puny and mortal creatures have it in
our power to make the Holy Spirit sad, as St Paul writes. We do this when we
commit deliberate sin.
The coming of the Holy Spirit on Christ at his baptism in the river Jordan
marked his consecration as God’s instrument, whereby we would be born again in
the Holy Spirit by faith and baptism. As we think of Jesus, let us think of the
Gift he brings. That Gift is the Comforter, the Advocate, the Teacher, the
Guide. He bears witness to Jesus, and transforms us gradually into the likeness
of Jesus Christ. Come, Holy Spirit! Fill the hearts of your faithful! Enkindle
in us the fire of your love. Grant that by this Spirit we may be truly wise,
and always rejoice in his consolations.
January
7, Weekdays of the Christmas Season (Days before the Epiphany)
(January 7)
St Raymond
of Penyafort (1175-1275)(Picture to right: tomb of St
Raymond, Barcelona)
Since Raymond lived into his hundredth year, he had a
chance to do many things. As a member of the Spanish nobility, he had the
resources and the education to get a good start in life. By the time he was
20, he was teaching philosophy. In his early 30s he earned a doctorate in
both canon and civil law. At 41 he became a Dominican. Pope Gregory IX called
him to Rome to work
for him and to be his confessor. One of the things the pope asked him to
do was to gather together all the decrees of popes and councils that had been
made in 80 years since a similar collection by Gratian. Raymond compiled
five books called the Decretals. They were
looked upon as one of the best organized collections of Church law until
the 1917 codification of canon law. Earlier, Raymond had written for confessors
a book of cases. It was called Summa de casibus poenitentiae. More than just
a list of sins and penances, it discussed pertinent doctrines and laws of
the Church that pertained to the problem or case brought to the confessor.
At the age of 60, Raymond was appointed archbishop of Tarragona, the capital
of Aragon. He didn’t like the honour at all and ended up getting sick and
resigning in two years. He didn’t get to enjoy his peace long, however, because
when he was 63 he was elected by his fellow Dominicans to be the head of
the whole Order, the successor of St. Dominic. Raymond worked hard, visited
on foot all the Dominicans, reorganized their constitutions and managed to
put through a provision that a master general be allowed to resign. When
the new constitutions were accepted, Raymond, then 65, resigned. He still
had 35 years to oppose heresy and work for the conversion of the Moors in
Spain. He convinced St. Thomas Aquinas to write his work Against the Gentiles.
In his100th year the Lord let Raymond retire.
Raymond was a lawyer, a canonist. Legalism is one of the
things that the Church tried to rid herself of at Vatican II. It is too great
a preoccupation with the letter of the law to the neglect of the spirit and
purpose of the law. The law can become an end in itself, so that the value
the law was intended to promote is overlooked. But we must guard against
going to the opposite extreme and seeing law as useless or something to be
lightly regarded. Laws ideally state those things that are for the best interests
of everyone and make sure the rights of all are safeguarded. From Raymond,
we can learn a respect for law as a means of serving the common good.
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Click on centre
arrow below to play the
video:
Scripture today: 1 John 5: 14-21; Psalm 149:
1-5; John 2: 1-11
On the third day a wedding took place at
Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also
been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him,
“They have no more wine.” “Dear woman, why do you involve me” Jesus replied,
“My time has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he
tells you.” Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for
ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to
the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then
he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They
did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into
wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had
drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone
brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have
had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” This, the first of
his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his
glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. (John
2: 1-11)
Jesus
and Mary
Our Gospel scene is of a joyous wedding celebration in a tiny village of
Galilee, not far from Nazareth. The bridal couple knew Mary and Jesus well, and
Mary, in the midst of the event, was alert to what was happening. There had
been a miscalculation and it threatened to disappoint the entire celebration.
The wine had run out. A subdued consternation grew among those managing the
proceedings. Silently
she rose and went to her son. He had returned to Galilee from Judea, and had
also been invited. It must have become known that he had gathered a small band
of associates. They were invited to the wedding feast with him, and presumably
John, the author of the Gospel passage, was among them. By now he knew the
mother of Jesus, and he observed what was happening. She approached, and spoke
a quiet word to her son — a word which John may have distinctly overheard, never
to be forgotten. The eyes of Mary met those of her son, and she simply said,
“They have no more wine.” Jesus knew immediately that she was asking that he do
something beyond nature — which is to say that he begin his great mission now.
It shows that she was calmly expecting his messianic work to become manifest at
any point. They both knew it — both he and she. A little while before, he had
left Nazareth to go to Judea for baptism by his kinsman John, who was already
famed as a prophet. Mother and son undoubtedly looked on that baptism as the
formal beginning of the work ahead. And so he returned, introduced to her his
disciples, and now the wedding feast was in progress. A sudden need had arisen
— the bridal couple, the organizers and several others present were about to be
embarrassed. Now, though unplanned and unexpected, was the moment, for now
there was a need. She simply said the word, heard his reply to her, and left to
go to the servants. She directed their attention to him, and said, “Do whatever
he says.” That was all, and Christ’s grandeur as a great instrument of God was
within minutes made manifest. Jesus could not resist the word of his mother.
As we read this passage we think of the effortless power of Jesus Christ over
nature — he did not pronounce so much as a word of command. At a later time,
during the height of his ministry, he and his disciples were out in the boat in
the midst of a heavy sea. So serious was it that they — experienced fishermen —
thought they were about to go down. But he was sound asleep. They roused him
with a shout, and he calmly rose and with a word quelled the raging storm to a
silent calm. On that occasion he did use a word of command. But at the wedding
feast of Cana, not even a word was spoken. He simply rose and walked towards
the stewards. Perhaps he had seen the ones his mother had just been speaking
to. He gave them simple directions: fill those jars with water. Perhaps he
watched them doing this, perhaps they brought word to him when it was done. Now
take a draught of it to the master of the banquet, he said. Perhaps our Lord
was smiling, anticipating the surprise and enjoying the thought of the joy soon
to come. His mother was also in the room, in the midst of others, but
undoubtedly observing what was going on. She knew he would resolve the problem
with effortless divine power, and so it was. John too, the author of our
passage, who may have heard the word of Mary to Jesus, also saw what was
happening. His eyes would have opened wide in fascination at the sign before
him of the glory of the One whose disciple he now was. We are told that this
was “the first of his miraculous signs.”Jesus performed it in Cana of
Galilee. John was not the only one of his disciples to perceive his
glory, for we read that“He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples
put their faith in him” (John 2: 1‑11). It
had happened quietly, modestly and with no fanfare, as if it was as nothing for
the might and glory of the wonderful man they now followed. It was the first of
so many of what they would come to call his mighty works, of which in number and
quality there had been no equal in the chosen people to that point. Christ had
entered the scene publicly. His power and his goodness became manifest in a new
way. But so had, in the mind of the disciples, the person of Mary. By her
prayer, it had all begun.
Let us appreciate anew the glory of Jesus, which St John tells us began to be
shown on this occasion at the wedding feast of Cana. It is all so human, so
accessible, so open to our touch. Jesus, mighty God become man, was now with us
and he is with us still. By our faith and our baptism we are in him and we have
access to his life and his grace. But Mary his mother is with us too, and her
intercession is so very great. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners
now and at the end!
Prayers this week:
The Lord and ruler is
coming; kingship is his, and government and power.(Ml 3:1; 1Ch 39:12) Father,
you revealed your Son to the nations by the guidance of a star. Lead us
to your glory in heaven by the light of faith. We ask
this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy
Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
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When Jesus
therefore was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of king Herod,
behold, there came Magi from the east to Jerusalem. They said, “Where
is he that is born king of the Jews? For we
have seen his star in the east, and have come to adore him.” And king
Herod hearing this was troubled, and all of Jerusalem with him. And
assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the
people, he inquired of them where Christ would be born. They said to
him, “In Bethlehem of Judea. For it is written by the prophet, “You
Bethlehem of the land of Judea are not the least among the princes of
Judea, for out of you will come forth the captain who will rule my
people Israel.” Then Herod, privately calling the wise men, carefully
learned of them the time of the star which appeared to them. Then
sending them on to Bethlehem, said “Go and diligently inquire after the
child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also
may come to adore him.” Having heard the king they went their way; and
behold the star which they had seen in the east went before them until
it came and stood over where the child was. Seeing the star they
rejoiced with very great joy. Entering the house they found the child
with Mary his mother and falling down they adored him. Then opening
their treasures they offered him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Having received a word in a dream that they must not return to Herod,
they went back via another route to their country.
(Matthew 2:1-12)
The
World
In our Gospel passage today for the feast of the Epiphany, St Matthew presents
us with one of the several extraordinary facts associated with our Lord’s birth
which reverberated on a limited scene. The chapter opens with a matter‑of‑fact
reference to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem of Judah in the days of King
Herod. Again,
in a matter‑of‑fact manner, Matthew records that “there came Magi from the east
to Jerusalem asking, where is he who is born king of the Jews? For we have
seen his star in the East and have come to adore him.”
(Matthew 2:1‑12) This visit was a sign from heaven that this Child is
the child of the ages, the child whose work would be of world significance, the
child long predicted as the Messiah‑King. God revealed through his angel the
nature and work of this Child to Mary and Joseph (in Matthew, chapter 1), and
now he reveals something of it to the Gentiles (in chapter 2). He is the King
of the Jews. He cannot have been perceived by these pagan Magi as just an
ordinary future King in a foreign land (like, say, Herod with whom they spoke),
because they themselves felt entirely involved by the birth. This Child was a
King whose reach would touch them and their world. There was a love and
veneration in their attitude because they believed that this future King would
be a boon to them. It is intriguing, incidentally, that this small company of
learned pagans who arrived to pay their respects to the as‑yet unknown Child
came from the East, and not, say, from the West and from Rome. If the entire
scene were just a symbolic fiction, would it not have been more impressive if
Matthew had invented a few learned people arriving from, say, Rome to adore the
Child? After all, Rome was already the master of the world, and Herod
himself occupied his throne only by Rome’s permission. But no, they came from
the East and perhaps they were Zoroastrian Magi. This adds, in my view, to its
undoubted credibility. The point, though, is that the event of their journey,
their arrival and their words implied and bore witness to the fact that this
obscure Child was a Messiah not just for the Jews but for the nations.
Matthew’s account of these profoundly religious pagans from the East bowing down
before the Child Jesus, invites us to rest our gaze on Christ and to join with
them in their faith and in their adoration of him. “And entering into the
house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they adored
him; and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold, frankincense,
and myrrh” (Matthew 2:1‑12). Jesus is the
Messiah‑King of the Jews but also the King of all the nations. Matthew sees in
the action and words of the Magi heavenly testimony to the fact that the
Christ‑Child is the universal Lord and King of the world. What happened was a
fact full of significance and symbolism. Moreover, not only does it tell us
about Christ but it tells us about what God can do and is doing in the hearts of
those who do not know him. If we assume that the little band of Magi were, say,
Zoroastrian priests and scribes, then God was not simply leaving them in a
darkness bereft of any kind of revelation. God was leading them on to Christ.
Christ is the true revelation and religion of God, but God was near to the
efforts of the pagans to attain the light, in order to bring them to the Light.
He gave them a star — which might have in fact been an Angel appearing as if
a star. After all, an Angel enlightened Mary and Joseph in the first Chapter.
Now in the second chapter, God is shown enlightening the pagans through a star.
The point I am making here is that these good and conscientious pagans,
searching from within their own religious tradition, were not being left to
their own unaided powers. God was leading them on not to a fuller truth in
their own religion, but to revealed truth beyond it. They were well disposed,
and more so than their more religiously blessed interlocutors in Jerusalem, and
they were using in good faith the means providence had placed at hand. One
would think that Matthew saw these events as symbolic of the hand of God and his
call in the life of the nations. God was present in the fallen religious life
of the pagan world and was vouchsafing them with a form of revelation that
called those with goodwill to the Saviour, the King of the Jews.
The word Epiphany in Greek means “manifestation.” We think of the manifestation
or revelation of Christ to those of goodwill from the pagan world. Jesus Christ
is the Messiah‑King of the Jews, but he is also the Messiah‑King of the world.
He is the Lord of lords and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given
to him. God is at work in the heart of the world, granting revelations of
sorts, in order to call it gradually to the person of Christ. The fulfilment of
the world will consist in its acknowledging Jesus as its Lord, and living its
life accordingly. At the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel (2:1-12), God reveals
himself to the pagan Magi. At the end his Gospel, Christ sends his disciples to
the whole world (28:18-20). Let us join with Jesus in bearing witness to him
before the world, knowing that the grace of God has gone ahead of us to make our
testimony fruitful.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic
Church, no.528, 484-487
O Lord God, I love you above all things
and I love my neighbour for your sake
because you are the highest, infinite and perfect
good, worthy of all my love.
In this love I intend to live and die.
Amen.
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Appendix)
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Scripture today: 1 John 3:22-4:6; Psalm 2; Matthew 4: 12-17.23-25
When Jesus heard that
John had been arrested he retired to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth he came
and dwelt in Capharnaum on the sea coast within the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim. This was
in order that it might be fulfilled what was said by Isaiah the
prophet: ‘Land of Zabulon and land of Nephthalim, the way of the sea
beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: The people that sat in
darkness, has seen a great light. For those who sat in the shadow of
death a light has dawned.’ From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Do
penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus went about all
Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the
kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and every infirmity among
the people. His fame spread throughout all Syria and they presented to
him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and
torments. Such as were possessed by devils, and lunatics, and those
that had palsy, he cured. Many followed him from Galilee, from
Decapolis, from Jerusalem, from Judea and from beyond the Jordan.(Matthew 4: 12-17.23-25)
Knowing
Christ
Routine is a natural and indeed good feature of life, and the regular course of
action that constitutes routine is necessary in the development of most good
things. Generally the development of anything requires order, and order
includes a certain repetition and this repetition is often lifelong. We
need homes, and there is a certain routine in the ordered construction of them.
In the keeping of a home there are much the same duties to be done repeatedly —
such as cleaning and maintaining — and this constitutes a routine. A husband
and wife follow a regular course of action day by day in their very
relationships: they live together, they dine together, they do many different
things together and they do these good things repeatedly. If they do not live
in this ordered and repetitive way, their relationship will have no chance of
deepening. The flourishing of their love requires a certain routine. Man is
perfectible and is called to seek that perfection, and repeated application at
certain things is a necessary feature of the process. But by the same token,
because of the sameness in any regular course of action, we can lose interest.
A spouse can lose interest in his partner because he gets bored with the
sameness. He has forgotten that the regular and repetitive nature of living
with one another is not only necessary but full of possibility for development.
Now, this danger can afflict a person’s religious life and in particular his
life with Christ. St John’s Gospel tells us that at the Last Supper our Lord
said that eternal life is this, to know the Father and him, Christ, whom the
Father sent. But if we are to come to know Christ we must be prepared to work
at it day by day all through life. There must be a routine of daily prayer,
reading, spiritual attention and effort, and this routine must involve earnest
application. Many give up because of the routine, and seek distractions
instead. It is precisely through a persevering spiritual routine or plan of
spiritual life that we come to know the freshness, the reality and the
uniqueness of the person of Jesus Christ.
That having been said, let us endeavour to appreciate Christ’s towering grandeur
as it is portrayed in our Gospel passage today (Matthew
4: 12‑17.23‑25). Christ returns to Galilee after the arrest of
John. Through his reference to the prophecy of Isaiah, St Matthew endeavours to
show Christ’s spectacular greatness. The prophet speaks of a “Galilee of the
Gentiles. The people that sat in darkness, has seen a great light. For those
who sat in the shadow of death a light has dawned.” Christ is a very great light
dispelling a darkness that is the shadow of death, and he possessed power
without limit. We read that “from that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Do
penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Jesus went about all Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing
all manner of sickness and every infirmity among the people.” John preached at
the Jordan, but Christ went everywhere throughout Galilee and, though he was
sent to the House of Israel, Galilee was a land with many Gentiles. He appeared
as a great light, and the personal authority which he displayed to teach and
pronounce on God’s plan was astonishing to the people and disconcerting to the
leaders. He presented himself as the supreme light who needed no other, and
those who refused him he declared to be in the darkness, a darkness that would
lead to death. We need to appreciate the freshness and the greatness of Christ
as the light of the world both now and for all the ages. His word is supreme.
Not only that, but his power was without limit in the service of good. “Such as
were possessed by devils, and lunatics, and those that had palsy, he cured.”
Philosophers speak of the Absolute — the ultimate reality. The Christian
identifies this Absolute as having appeared in history. This Absolute was a
particular person at a particular point of history in a particular locale. He
is Jesus of Nazareth and he lives now.
Let us not allow ourselves to lose interest in Jesus, for we do so at our
peril. Through a wholesome and necessary spiritual routine we must come to know
him. He is real, he lives, and he is the Light and the Power of the world. He
is our guide and he is our mainstay. He is the Ruler of the kings of the earth,
though unseen. His kingdom will never end and it has already begun. It will be
manifested in all its glory at the end and we had better be part of it. If we
are not, all is lost for us. So then, let us take our stand with Jesus because
as he says in the Gospel, all who do not gather with him will be scattered.
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest
all my sins because of thy just punishments, but most of all because
they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my
love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to sin no more and to
avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Appendix)
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Scripture today: 1 John 4: 7-10; Psalm
71; Mark 6: 34-44
When Jesus landed and saw a large
crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a
shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. By this time it was late in the
day, so his disciples came to him. This is a remote place, they said, and it's
already
very late. Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding
countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. But he answered,
You give them something to eat. They said to him, That would take eight months
of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them
to eat? How many loaves do you have? he asked. Go and see. When they found out,
they said, Five— and two fish. Then Jesus directed them to have all the people
sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds
and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven,
he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set
before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and
were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces
of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
(Mark 6: 34-44)
The
Light
Years ago I read a piece by the famous British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge,
since deceased. Muggeridge was an outstanding commentator and contributed
significantly to bringing the person of Mother Teresa to the attention of the
world. In his article he wrote that he always had the ambition of being a light
for others. From
being an agnostic (and perhaps close to atheism) he came to embrace Catholicism,
through, principally, his association with Mother Teresa of Calcutta. His
ambition was to be a light. He became a light because of his Christian faith
and the talents he possessed to manifest his faith. Muggeridge’s article
reminded me of the world’s need for a light. In every generation there are
numerous persons clamouring for prominence and who claim in one way or another
to be a light. A communist regime holds control of a vast country and refuses
any other opinion. It believes itself to be the light for that nation while
itself being unawares in darkness and doing much harm in the process. A
populist gains power through a country’s democratic processes and gradually
exploits his position to impose a dictatorship in the name of socialism for the
sake of the poor. He regards himself as the light for the people and proceeds
to suppress freedoms and to curtail the rights of the Church. He is oblivious
to the darkness that envelops him and which, from him, spreads to so many
others. One of the fascinating things to consider in human history is simply
the contrariety of viewpoints and firmly held convictions. People hold
diametrically opposed views with utter conviction as to their truth. This
recurring and almost universal phenomenon, generation after generation, has led
many philosophers and those influenced by them to think that there is no such
thing as an objective truth, and that the only truth is what is useful or
preferable. Others implicitly accept the possibility that opposite convictions
may each be true. But the absurdity of all this will not do.
The long and the short of it is, as alluded to above, that the human race needs
a Light from on high. In our Gospel passage today we read that, “As Jesus
stepped ashore he saw a large crowd, and he took pity on them because they were
like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length”
(Mark 6: 34‑44). The large crowd that
awaited our Lord we can surely view as an image of the world, except for the
fact that so very much of the world does not understand its plight. The world
awaits a Teacher, and the Christian claim is that Christ is the true Light of
the world. This claim derives from Christ himself. He claimed to be the Light
of the world, and that anyone who does not walk in the light which he is, walks
in the darkness. Of course, the light of the Son of God pervades creation
because it is through him that all things come to be. But the point here is
that it is from him that man’s true light flows. Its source is Jesus Christ the
Son of God made man, and in our Gospel passage today we have this very Person
stepping forward to guide the crowds, who were like sheep without a shepherd.
Moreover, he was filled with pity for them, symbolizing in the process the pity
that fills the heart of Christ for all men and for each of us as we search our
way towards salvation. Christ had no doubt about the matter, nor did he leave
any doubts in the minds of his disciples — he himself was the Light of the world
and the only Light. He was the only way to the Father. He is the Way, the
Truth and the Life. No other religious leader or philosopher would have dared
to make such claims, but Christ did so with calm and consistent assurance. We
who are his disciples, similarly must bear calm and unambiguous witness to the
central role the Person of Jesus occupies in our unceasingly troubled world.
The great family of mankind is like a vast concourse of sheep without a
shepherd. Christ is the good Shepherd who looks on all with compassion and who
is the guide and the light of each and all.
Let
us place ourselves in the company of Jesus and resolve to be his disciples in
real earnest. Let us understand very clearly that of ourselves we are like
sheep without a shepherd, as is the world around us. Let us then take our stand
with him and resolve to bring others to the recognition that in him we have the
answer to our plight, an answer that has come to us from above. That answer is
the person of Jesus in whom, as St Paul writes, is to be found every heavenly
blessing.
1. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your
soul, and with all your mind.
2. You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Appendix)
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Scripture today: 1 John 4:11-18; Psalm 71; Mark 6:45-52
Jesus
immediately ordered his disciples to get into the boat and go ahead of
him to Bethsaida while he dismissed the people. When he had sent the
people off he went up the mountain to pray. When it was late the boat
was in the middle the Lake and himself alone on the land. It was about
the fourth watch of the night and seeing them in difficulty (for the
wind was against them) he came to them walking across the water, and
made as if to pass them by. When they saw him coming on the water they
thought it was a ghost and cried out for fear. Immediately he said to
them, “Take courage, it is I. Do not be afraid.” He thereupon alighted
the boat and the wind ceased. They were dumbfounded, for they had not
understood the event of the loaves. Their minds were closed.(Mark 6:45-52)
Evil and
disorder
There was a time when the Argument for God from Design was regarded as the
simplest and clearest proof of the existence of God. Two centuries ago Paley
was writing of the proofs of the existence of God and he used it at length. If
you found a watch would you not think that it required a designer? So too does
the world require a Designer. Fair enough, although rather than making it an
argument from the design that is seen in things, perhaps a better word would be
order. There is a radical order and intelligibility in the universe and this
requires an Orderer.
The problem is that very many people are struck not so much with the order in
things (as against a radical chaos) but with the degree of disorder everywhere.
If God is all‑powerful, could he not have put better order into things? If this
is the best he can do, is he really what we mean by the infinite and all‑good
God? Whatever about that response to an argument which while quite valid needs
constant refining, it is a response that reminds us once again of the problem of
evil and suffering. Why am I suffering this meaningless, unnecessary and very
painful circumstance? A large number of innocent people board a plane and
it goes down in a terrible storm and all are destroyed. Untold suffering visits
their families. Disease, famine, natural disasters, rampant terrorism strikes
right and left and reveal the radical vulnerability of every visible thing.
This disorder could suggest, incidentally, that a principle of disorder has been
introduced from some other source. It could also suggest that the divine
Orderer has given to us his children an ongoing share in the work of ordering
the world in accord with his plan. In fact God has revealed this to be the very
case. Be that as it may, the problem of evil remains and the human family
yearns for a solution. Is there something concrete that the human family can
turn to in the midst of the disorder of the world, and which will deliver man
from the evil of his situation?
Yes indeed, there is. In our Gospel today (Mark
6:45‑52) we are presented with the grand figure of Jesus. He has
dismissed the crowds after having effortlessly fed them to their entire
satisfaction. With a handful of food he fed thousands of people and there were
several baskets full of the scraps left over. Earlier he had cured people of
all kinds of debilitating sicknesses and diseases. Now he sends them home and
goes up the hill to pray by night, having sent his disciples ahead of him to
cross the Lake. He makes no mention of how he will rejoin them. They do as he
tells them, and in the process of doing so, difficulties strike them. How
typical of the situation of man! God places him in this world with the gift of
life and gives him his work and responsibilities. He does what he is told to
do, or perhaps he does not. Whatever be his course, difficulties strike him.
In our Gospel passage today, our Lord’s disciples are in the process of doing
exactly what our Lord asked them to do — which was to cross the Lake to the
other side — and they find themselves in difficulties. But lo! He comes to them
in the midst of their difficulties and in a way that would seem impossible. How
could it be expected that Christ would be with them far out on the Lake in the
midst of these bad conditions? It is a lesson for man in all his situations.
Christ now lives, and whatever was his power then when he walked the earth, now
that he is risen it is unrestricted by all that relates to death. He lives in
glory. Death and difficulty cannot touch him. In his risen glory he is always
near, near to us in all our difficulties. Whatever be the storm and the trouble
afflicting man, Christ will be coming to him within that storm. He repeats to
each of us in our difficulty, “Have courage, it is I. Do not be afraid!” He may
not choose to banish the difficulty (but of course he may!), but he who is the
Saviour of the world will be there. He came to the disciples during this Gospel
scene, we can be assured that he will come to us. With him by our side all will
ultimately be well. We need not be afraid. Christ is with me. As St Thomas
More said, though I lose my head I’ll come to no harm.
Let
us look on the difficulties of this life and the turmoil of the world in the
light of today’s Gospel. Christ the Redeemer of man is there in the midst of
every affliction. He has been through it all and understands. His own
sufferings were not taken away and those sufferings brought life to the world.
Let us take our stand with him placing our entire faith in him whatever be our
circumstances. With him we are safe. Separated from him we are vulnerable
indeed.
If you are not master of yourself — though you may be powerful — your
air of mastery moves me to pity and laughter.
(The Way, no. 295)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The two commandments of love:
1. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your
soul, and with all your mind.
2. You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Appendix)
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Scripture today: 1 John 4: 19- 5:4; Psalm 71; Luke 4: 14-22
Jesus returned in
the power of the Spirit to Galilee and the fame of him went out through
the whole country. He taught in
their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth where he
was brought up and went into the synagogue, according to his custom, on
the Sabbath day. He stood up to read, and the book of Isaiah the
prophet was handed to him. As he unfolded the scroll he found the place
where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Therefore he
has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to
heal the contrite of heart, to preach deliverance to the captives and
sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of reward.” When he had
folded up the scroll he handed it to the leader and sat down. The eyes
of all in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them:
“This scripture you have heard is this day fulfilled.” All gave
testimony to him and marvelled at the graceful words that flowed from
his lips, saying: “Is not this the son of Joseph?”(Luke 4:14-22)
Behold
the Man!
One of the notable features of our Gospel passage today is its vivid factual
detail. At the beginning of his Gospel, St Luke informs us that “many have been
at pains to set forth the history” of Jesus’ life and work, based on “the
tradition of those first eyewitnesses”. Luke too has resolved to narrate the
story in writing, and has “traced it carefully from its first beginnings” (Luke
1:1‑3). He means to write history and at times he includes copious detail. Our
scene today describes our Lord’s return to his hometown and the sensation caused
by his address in the synagogue. So special was the event that Luke describes
it in detail. He tells us that our Lord went to the synagogue
on the Sabbath day as he had long been accustomed to. He describes how our Lord
stood up to read, how he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah — the book
he was handed is actually specified — and how he looked for a particular passage
and found it. He then read it, folded up the scroll, handed it back, sat down
and proceeded to give an arresting and profoundly moving address. All this
detail! (Luke 4:14‑22) The scene is so easy
to imagine and it leads us to long to see the face of Jesus. We can only
conjecture where Luke obtained his information, but my strong surmise is that it
came from the mother of Jesus, the mother of the early Church. Perhaps at the
time of our Lord’s return she still resided in Nazareth and perhaps he stayed
with her in their home. Perhaps they went to the synagogue together with some
of our Lord’s disciples. There was Mary in the congregation listening to her
divine Son and observing the impact of his words. She would experience the
trauma of his rejection by his own town. But here we behold the commanding and
beautiful figure of Jesus of Nazareth presenting himself with utter assurance as
the one the prophet whom Isaiah had long before foretold. Who had ever made
such claims before, especially at Nazareth? In me you see the Messiah, he calmly
announced. I am the one whom God would send to redeem his people from their
oppression, as expressed in the imagery painted by the prophet.
This Jesus who presents himself so serenely and yet powerfully in the Gospel
account is not just a figure of the dim and distant past. He lives now. He is
risen from the dead and is God‑with‑us here in our age. He can be located. He
abides within the Church he founded, and he is encountered in the Church’s
preaching, teaching and Sacraments. Those who receive the Church’s Sacraments
with faith live in him and he lives in them. He is just as real now as he was
in the synagogue of Nazareth then. Knowing this, let us place ourselves in the
synagogue of Nazareth of long ago with the Gospel account filling the thoughts
of our heart, and let us gaze on the person of Jesus. We have the factual
detail of Luke’s account to aid us in our prayerful memory of him. More still,
let us take our place with Mary in that synagogue, perhaps with at least a few
of our Lord’s disciples or close relatives who became his disciples also
present. Let us listen to Jesus, hear the timbre of his voice and observe the
serene and holy expression that filled his countenance. There speaking before
us is the Man of the ages. Behold the Man! These would be the words of Pontius
Pilate during Christ’s Passion and they are the words we can use to express our
loving reverence. Behold the Man, the Man who is at the same time God, God the
Son become man. What an unspeakable gift he is from God to humanity! The
prophets had promised, and the Scriptures recorded the coming gift of the
Messiah, but what a Messiah! Who would have guessed that the Messiah would be
God himself? The Christian religion is not just a system of religious doctrine,
or the revelation of a way to become holy. The heart and soul of the Christian
religion is a real and living person, the person of Jesus Christ. The religion
of the Christian is at its heart a personal relationship with that person, Jesus
Christ. In our Gospel scene today (Luke 4:14‑22)
this jewel of mankind, Jesus Christ, presents himself to his own townspeople as
the object of their yearnings. Sadly, he was rejected. Let us not allow
anything in us to be part of that rejection.
Every
day in the life of a Christian ought be a new beginning in his relationship with
Jesus. Every day ought involve a fresh discovery of Christ’s grandeur and
beauty and love. This will only happen if we place ourselves daily in the
presence of Jesus and listen to him speaking to us above all in the Gospel
text. Let this Nazareth scene be a privileged place in which to do this, as we
gaze upon Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God, the Redeemer of man and the world.
It is hard to read that question of Pilate's in the holy Gospel: 'Whom
do you wish me to release to you, Barabbas, or Jesus, who is called
Christ?' — It is more painful to hear the answer: 'Barabbas!'
And more terrible still when I realize that very often by going astray
I too have said 'Barabbas!' and added 'Christ?... Crucify him!'
(The Way, no.296)
Der Gott Jesu Christi by
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger [Pope Benedict XVI]
"He saw that they were tossed about while rowing.. . About the fourth
watch of the night, he came toward them"
The apostles were crossing the lake. Jesus alone is on land, while they
are wearing themselves out in rowing without making any headway since
the wind is contrary. Jesus is praying and, in his prayer, he see them
struggling on. So he comes to meet them. Clearly this text is full of
ecclesiological symbols: the apostles on the sea with the wind against
them and the Lord with the Father. But what is decisive is that while
praying, when he is “with the Father”, he is not removed from them;
very much to the contrary, it is while praying that he sees them. When
Jesus is with the Father, he is present to the Church. The problem of
the final coming of Christ is here deepened and transformed in a
Trinitarian way: Jesus sees the Church in the Father and, by the
Father’s power and the strength of his communication with him, is
present to her. It is precisely this communication with the Father when
he is “on the mountain” that makes him present and, conversely, the
Church is, so to speak, the object of the encounter between Father and
Son and thus herself anchored in the Trinitarian life.
(from The Daily Gospel)
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Scripture today: 1 John 5:5-13; Psalm
147; Luke 5: 12-16
It
happened that when Jesus was in a certain town a leper, seeing Jesus,
fell on his face and pleaded with him, saying: “Lord, if you will, you
can make me clean.” Stretching out his hand, he touched him, saying: “I
will. Be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him. He ordered him to
tell no one but “Go, show yourself to the priest and make an offering
for your cleansing as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” But the
fame of him went abroad the more, and great multitudes came to listen
and to be healed of their infirmities. And he would retire into the
desert to pray. (Luke 5: 12-16)
Prayer
of faith
Our age is striking for its technological superiority. Consider any figure of
one hundred and fifty years ago — say, in England, the world’s leader in
technology — and ask what would have been his reaction had he had a glimpse of
our day.
Were he to have had a glimpse of television, mobile phones, computers, the
Internet, air travel, modern medical technology, how great would have been his
astonishment! Yet despite all this, one doubts that in the main the lot of
mankind has improved very greatly — if we include the underdeveloped world.
While great numbers live in apparent security, great numbers certainly do not.
Be that as it may, there is no doubt that however much our technology improves
we still are creatures in absolutely radical need. Death can be put off but it
cannot be avoided. We remain inveterately vulnerable. For this reason we can
identify with the condition of the leper in our Gospel passage today. Seeing
Jesus, he fell on his face and pleaded with him, saying “Lord, if you will you
can make me clean.” The leprosy of this man we can view as symbolic of the
condition of man at the various levels of his existence, be it physical,
emotional or spiritual. Let each of us ask, though, am I able to pray the
prayer that the leper offered to Christ? Consider what I am suggesting. Of
course, we ought recognize our need as did our leper in today’s Gospel. But
much more importantly, we ought ask ourselves if we are able to pray as did the
leper. He prayed immediately and unhesitatingly to Christ that his leprosy be
taken away. I wonder if many of us are able to petition God with the faith that
he had. Our problem is that all too often we do not pray with faith. We do not
have the faith to pray for what we need. In one of his books, St Alphonsus
Ligouri writes that the reason why we do not receive much more from God is that
we ask so little from him. Why do we ask so little from him? We ask for so
little because we do not really and from the heart believe that he is able or
willing to answer our prayer.
This is why we ought pray daily with the Gospel text in our hands, listening to
and gazing upon the figure of Jesus who said that he who sees him sees the
Father. The leper came to our Lord and told him from the heart that if he so
willed he could cure him of his leprosy. Do we truly believe that God either
wants to, or can, send rain to drought‑stricken areas? Do we truly believe that
God wants to and can bring peace to, say, certain parts of the world gripped in
storms of violence? If we believe this we shall pray for these very worthy
intentions, but if we do not believe it — though we may not admit this to
ourselves — then we shall hardly pray for them. Furthermore, we may indeed
believe in the value of praying for some personal intention or need, or for the
needs of a friend or relative, but it can be another matter praying for the
needs of the world. In my heart of hearts I may think that (without formalizing
the thought) it is impossible for God to change the course of history. But
Christ teaches time and again that all things are possible for God. The leper
came to him and asked him earnestly and genuinely to cure him. He knew he could
do it if he just willed it. The response from our Lord was immediate: “I do
indeed will it. Be cleansed.” It shows that if only the entire Church would
pray with greater faith and perseverance, the world would be a significantly
better place. This would be through the power of God and the prayer of the
Church. However, there is this further point. The most important needs are
those of a spiritual and religious character. Our Gospel passage today gives us
one among many examples that could be cited from the Gospels showing that our
Lord, great and effortless as his miracles were, did not see himself as
primarily a miracle worker. He did not come primarily to answer that need. He
came to deal with the root problem which is sin and alienation from God. One
man may suffer from this sickness, another man that. But all suffer from the
primordial sickness which spawns the rest of the evils striking mankind. That
primordial fault‑line is the presence in man of sin.
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It is this which
more than anything he does for us, and yet at the same time he truly wills to
help us in our afflictions. The problem is that all too often we do not believe
that he wants to or can. We need to learn from the leper in our Gospel passage
today. He uttered a wonderful prayer that wrought immediate fruit. Let us pray
with faith, and persevere in our prayer, confident in God’s power, holiness and
love.
All that, which worries you for the moment, is of relative importance.
What is of absolute importance is that you be happy, that you be saved.
(The Way, no.297)
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The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12):
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will
be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all
kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.
(The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Appendix)
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Scripture today: 1 John 5:14-21; Psalm 149; John 3:22-30
After
this Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea. There he
abode, and baptized. John also was baptizing in Ennon near Salim
because there was much water there. They came and were baptized for
John was not yet cast into prison. There arose a question between some
of John's disciples and the Jews concerning purification. They came to
John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan to
whom you testified is baptizing and all are going to him.” John
answered, “A man cannot receive any thing unless it be given him from
heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, ‘I am not Christ
but that I am sent before him.’ He that has the bride is the
bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him
rejoices because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is
fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.”(John 3:22-30)
The
Baptist
Each of the Gospels stresses the ministry of John the Baptist as the Precursor
of the Messiah. He pointed to Christ as the One who was coming, the promised
One. The people held John to be a prophet, and Christ confirmed their
conviction, telling the people that John was greater than all the prophets
before him. All
this is manifest from the Gospels and most of all in the Gospel of St John who
had himself been a devoted disciple of the Baptist. It is generally agreed that
the Gospel of St John was the last of the Gospels to be produced, and I have
often thought that the extensive testimony of John the Baptist about Jesus is
given there for two purposes. It is given, firstly of course in order to set
forth the unique figure of Jesus and secondly, I suspect, to set straight the
record about the Baptist for those who had continued long afterwards seeing
themselves as his disciples. It would seem that at least some who were
profoundly influenced by the teaching and holiness of John did not hear his
testimony about Jesus — although, that many others did, is clear from the
Gospels. Our Lord appealed to that testimony even in his confrontations with
his enemies. The Evangelist reports the testimony of the Baptist primarily in
order to give his testimony to the person of Jesus. The prophets before him had
borne testimony to the will, the plan and the promises of God which included the
coming of the Messiah. Many texts could be cited such as those of the Suffering
Servant in the book of Isaiah. But the Messiah was delineated there without
high precision as to who he would be. In John the Baptist, the people had a
prophet who was able to indicate precisely and without any mistake just who the
Messiah was. He specified a particular individual and spoke of his holiness,
his greatness and his mission. He was extraordinarily precise. In our Gospel
today, John’s disciples tell him that “he who was with you beyond the Jordan to
whom you testified is baptizing and all are going to him.” His response was to
testify even more to the person of Jesus.
Consider John’s testimony in our Gospel passage today
(John 3:22‑30) — and there is further and even richer testimony in
other passages. He reminds his disciples that he has told them that, whatever
might be their esteem of him, he himself is not the Messiah. The one to whom
“all are going” now is the Messiah. His own mission has been to go before him
and to announce his arrival: “I am sent before him.” This Jesus to whom he had
testified is “the bridegroom” of God’s people and he, John, is no more than “the
friend of the bridegroom.” John’s reference to Jesus as “the bridegroom” is
somewhat remarkable. Our Lord referred to himself as the bridegroom when
approached by John’s disciples for an explanation as to the apparent laxity of
his disciples in respect to fasting. Christ is the bridegroom. No other
prophet had been referred to in that way, indeed the only One whom certain
prophets had called “the bridegroom” was God. Yahweh is the bridegroom of his
people, their husband. It would seem that John the Baptist had been granted an
extraordinary insight into the person and mission of Jesus of Nazareth, his
younger relative. He calls him the Messiah and the bridegroom of the people.
There are other things John reveals about Jesus in other passages — such as that
he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world — all of which shows
that John was indeed the greatest of the prophets in what had been revealed to
him by God about Jesus, and in what he then prophetically revealed to the people
and especially to some of his disciples. At the conception and birth of Jesus,
Heaven had revealed great things about Jesus to Mary his mother and to Joseph
his foster‑father. From the beginning they knew who he really was. But they
had no mission to reveal this to the people. Years later it was given to John
to know many of these things and to reveal them precisely in his office as
prophet of God. In his humility and his testimony he is a grand model for all
of Christ’s disciples, and undoubtedly the authors of the Gospels regard him as
such. That is to say, as John testified to Jesus, so should we.
More than anything the object of our Gospel passage today is the person of
Jesus. He must increase, we must decrease. We are friends of the bridegroom,
and he, Jesus of Nazareth, is the promised Messiah and the bridegroom of God’s
people. He is God the Son made man, the Second divine person, God from God and
Light from Light, mankind’s Redeemer. Let us spend our lives coming to know and
love him and bearing witness to him every day to the world around us.
New lights! What joy you feel that God has let you 'discover' an old
discovery!
Make the most of the occasion: it is the moment to break into a hymn of
thanksgiving: it is also the moment to clean up odd corners of your
soul, to get out of some rut, to act more supernaturally, to avoid
giving bad example to your neighbour.
In a word: let your gratitude show itself in some concrete resolution.
(The Way, no.298)
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Scripture today: Isaiah 42: 1-4.6-7; Psalm 29; Acts of the Apostles 10:34-38; Matthew 3:13-17
Jesus
came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John
resisted him, saying “I ought to be baptized by you, and you come to
me?” Jesus answered him, “Allow it to be so for now. For it is fitting
that we fulfil all that is right.” Then he consented. Jesus being
baptized immediately came out of the water, and lo, the heavens were
opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and coming
upon him. And a voice from heaven, saying “This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased.”(Matthew
3:13-17)
Baptism
I once met a scholar of the Mandaean religion, a religion which gives to John
the Baptist a very high status as a prophet. I think one could say that the
Mandaeans give to John the Baptist the status which Islam gives to Mahomet.
That is to say, he is the supreme prophet of God’s revelation to his people.
Of
course, from the Christian perspective the Mandaeans in their special veneration
of John the Baptist are much nearer the truth than Islam, although the Christian
goes on to say that the Mandaeans have completely misunderstood John the
Baptist. The Mandaean scholar I referred to — himself a Mandaean — was a very
well educated man, having reached the end of his second Ph.D when I met him. I
have not studied the history of the Mandaean religion but it does remind us of
the very great impact of John the Baptist. We read in the Acts of the Apostles
of Paul meeting various groups of disciples of John during his travels. The
Gospels provide us with important information about him. He was indeed a great
prophet, and Christ said of him that no one born of woman was greater than he —
but, he added, the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater still. That is to
say, however exalted might be the Covenant of Abraham and Moses as represented
by John its greatest prophet, much more exalted still is Covenant and Kingdom
established by Christ as represented by even the least of its children. John
pointed to what was coming and testified that it was far greater than the
blessings he enjoyed and represented. He was directing the attention of the
people and his disciples to the Messiah. Today, the feast of the baptism of our
Lord, we think of the public appearance of the Messiah and the revelation of him
by the Father and the Holy Spirit. It occurred at his baptism by John in the
river Jordan (Matthew 3:13‑17). In
honouring the baptism of John by his own participation, our Lord was pointing to
its grand fulfilment in the baptism he would administer. He is the centrepiece
of the scene. He, the Son, is the gift of the Father and the Holy Spirit to
God’s people and to mankind. His reception of John’s baptism points to our
reception of Christ’s baptism.
Scattered throughout the New Testament are repeated references to the critical
importance of baptism into Christ. John the Baptist himself predicted that
while he baptized with water the Messiah who was already in their midst would
baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. In the Gospel of St John, our Lord
tells Nicodemus that one cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless one is born
again of water and the Spirit. Just before he ascended into heaven our Lord
charged his disciples to go to the whole world and make disciples of all the
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. As St Paul writes, at our baptism we are immersed in Christ and in
particular into his death and we emerge from that divine washing sharing in
Christ’s risen life. By that simple rite, provided it is performed as the
Church directs and with the Church’s intention, immense blessings come to the
soul. The presence and the guilt of sin is taken away and the soul is embedded
in Christ, spotless in a resplendent sinlessness. We become members of his body
the Church and his divine life pulses thenceforth through our souls. But the
tendency to sin remains, though the soul is endowed with gifts of grace to
resist it. A great battle of repeated falling and rising lies ahead if the soul
is to grow in Christ and attain the holiness intended by God. But the means of
grace are at hand in the life of the Church, especially in the Sacraments and
the ministry of the word. The feast of our Lord’s Baptism when Christ
identified with sinful man reminds us of our own baptism when we received the
blessings won for us by Christ. We became children of God and members of his
family the Church, that Church founded on the Apostles with Peter at their
head. Our souls became filled with grace and we were placed in Christ. We
entered into him and he in us. Though unseen and unheard, the Father said of
each of us, this is my beloved son, adopted by grace. The Holy Spirit came and
rested upon us. We each of us who were baptized received our vocation to become
holy in Christ.
The baptism of Christ by John in the river Jordan symbolized the sinless
Christ’s oneness with sinful humanity. He became one with us as the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world. For the individual, that sin is taken away
in the first instance at Christian baptism. The Christian is empowered then and
there to take the fight to the enemy by renouncing sin and continuing that
renunciation daily. Let us bring the work to completion by making personal
holiness in Christ the project of our daily life.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic
Church, no.1217-1228 (Baptism)
Christ has died for you. — You... what ought you do for Christ?...
(The Way, no.299)
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The four cardinal virtues:
1. Prudence
2. Justice
3. Fortitude
4. Temperance
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Appendix)
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Scripture today: 1 Samuel 1:1-8; Psalm 115; Mark 1:14-20
When John
was imprisoned, Jesus went into Galilee preaching the gospel of the
kingdom of God, saying: “The time is accomplished, and the kingdom of
God is at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.” Passing by the sea
of Galilee he saw Simon and Andrew his brother, casting nets into the
sea (for they were fishermen). Jesus said to them: “Come after me, and
I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately leaving their nets they
followed him. Going on from there a little, he saw James the son of
Zebedee and John his brother who also were mending their nets in the
boat. Immediately he called them, and leaving their father Zebedee in
the boat with his hired men, they followed him.(Mark 1:14-20)
The
person of Jesus
Decades ago in Australia there was no thought of the study of religion being
included in the final examinations of High School. As I recall there was very
little opportunity to study for academic degrees in religion at University level
either. All that has changed. Religious studies is widely taken at Secondary
level and, at least in New South Wales, a great number of students include it
among their Higher School Certificate subjects.
Very many do studies in religion at University. Now, in general, state
Secondary and University studies in religion are studies in comparative religion
and in the religions of academic interest to the particular faculty. For the
Christian student this offers positive opportunities and certain hazards. On
the negative side the student can gradually form the view that there is no
objective falsehood in religion. A religion is true and interesting depending
on its utility or appeal to preferences. Its utility or its attraction will
constitute its validity. That is to say, truth in religion is set aside as a
subjective, peripheral, or even impossible issue. On the positive side, for the
Christian student the comparative study of religion offers the chance to
appreciate the ways of God in drawing the nations nearer to himself. It also
can illustrate the distinctiveness of the religion revealed by Christ. The
person of Christ can stand out the more when he is placed in the context of the
religions and thought systems of man. Our Gospel passage today recording the
beginning of our Lord’s public ministry can be appreciated the more when we
think of other leaders of thought and religious life. No other prophet had
announced that God’s own Kingdom was near at hand, with one exception. His
announcement was a preparation for what Christ would announce. He pointed to
the person of Jesus. The other prophets pointed vaguely to a future Messiah and
Kingdom. Christ announced its present arrival: “The time has arrived. The
kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.”
But more is suggested in our Gospel passage (Mark
1:14‑20). Our Lord announces the arrival of the Kingdom and calls to
himself certain disciples. He goes to them and asks that they follow him. It
was to be a very personal following and not just an acceptance of his doctrine —
essential though that too would be. Typically a great religious leader or
thinker simply finds his disciples and students gathering around him and they
proceed to study and listen to his doctrine. But the object of Christian
discipleship is above all the following of a Person. He is the object of their
quest and their heart rests not simply in his doctrine but above all in him. It
is because of their faith and hope in him and their love for him that they
accept wholeheartedly his doctrine. Christ calls his disciples not just to be
his students, but his personal friends. It is a one‑to‑one relationship with
Jesus, but as a community — which is to say, in his Church. The Christian life
is not just the mastery of Christ’s system of thought and perhaps passing it on
to others who enter the school. It is a life of love for him leading to a
personal following of him and, indeed, to an abandonment of all that interferes
with this personal following. “Come after me,” Christ says to each of us.
Enter into my company and friendship, and as my friend, embrace and live
according to my doctrine which sets forth what I shall do for you and for all.
Total belief in what I teach, even to the point of martyrdom, will flow from
faith in and love for me and sharing my life. Moreover, part and parcel of
sharing my life will be seeking to draw others into my company, which is the
Church. I will help you become fishers of men so that they too will become my
friends. This personal friendship with Jesus which is at the heart of the
Christian religion is the result not simply of our personal decision, but it has
its roots in Christ’s choice of me and of us. He chose us to be his friends.
The Christian life consists in a total response to this invitation. The great
Christian is one who, like these first Apostles, becomes totally attached to
Christ.
Every day we ought strive to hear anew
the invitation Christ has extended to us. He says to each of us, “Follow me,
and I will make you a fisher of men.” He has chosen each baptized person to be
his personal friend and on the basis of that friendship, a friendship with the
Son of God made man, we accept and embrace his teaching as it comes to us in
Scriptures and in the teaching of the Church he founded. Let us every day renew
this personal foundation of our Christian life.
Your personal experience — those feelings of restlessness, despondency
and bitterness — makes you realise the truth of those words of Jesus:
no one can serve two masters!
(The Way, no.300)
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The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit:
1. Wisdom
2. Understanding
3. Counsel
4. Fortitude
5. Knowledge
6. Piety
7. Fear of the Lord
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Appendix)
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Scripture today: 1 Samuel 1: 9-20; 1
Samuel 2; Mark 1: 21-28
They
entered Capharnaum and immediately going into the synagogue on the
Sabbath day Jesus began to teach. They were astonished at his doctrine,
for he taught them as one having authority and not like the scribes.
Now there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit and he
cried out, “What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you
come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” Jesus
threatened him, saying: “Speak no more, and go out of the man.” The
unclean spirit convulsed him, and crying out with a loud voice went out
of him. They were all amazed and they questioned among themselves,
saying: “What is this? What is this new doctrine? With authority he
commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” And his fame
spread immediately throughout all of Galilee.(Mark 1: 21-28)
Christ
in the Church
There are two things we notice about the activity of our Lord as reported in our
Gospel passage today. Firstly, we see that he teaches. There are countless
forms of wonderful service that the stream of mankind is engaged in, and the Son
of God made man could have come to serve man in any one of them.
For the years of his hidden life our Lord served as a carpenter‑builder, but
once his public mission began, his work was to teach, to teach and preach the
word of God as the Prophet long foretold. Let us notice that his distinguishing
characteristic precisely as a teacher in the eyes of the people was his
authority. His authority as a teacher appeared to be supreme. While other
rabbis and scribes quoted authorities and supporting opinions, Jesus deferred to
no one. Even in that most sacred and defining institution, the Sabbath Day,
Christ interpreted its practice as one with independent authority. He was Lord
of the Sabbath, he said. John the Baptist, even before our Lord had so much as
begun his ministry and before he had something of a record to his credit, had
said that he himself was not worthy even to undo his sandal straps. We read in
the Gospels how if any of the leaders of the people chose to challenge him they
were effortlessly worsted in debate. He silenced them all, to the extent that
finally no one, we read in the Gospels, dared to question him further. Indeed,
if we think of the broad sweep of human history it would be difficult to think
of any other individual who claimed and exercised such authority to teach as did
Jesus. It provoked a tremendous jealousy among the leaders of the people, which
even Pilate could see when they brought Christ before him. But there is a
second feature of Christ’s ministry which our passage today highlights. It is
his sheer power. I do no mean a power over others derived from political or
sociological influence. I mean his power over nature and over the
supernatural. He effortlessly dominated and silenced the unseen demons. Whence
came the power? It was innate to him because of his divine nature. He was God.
But now, the wonderful thing is that this same Jesus lives still in his entire
reality and he continues to teach and to exercise the power he manifested then.
Take any teacher of the past, any great religious founder, any philosopher or
theorist. He is dead, and it is his teaching that lives on in the minds of
those who choose to study his thought and writings. But Christ is not dead. He
is alive, and alive not just in his spirit but in his entire spiritual and
bodily reality — but of course unseen. Christ rose from the dead and lives
now. But where is he? Where can he be located and reached? Where does he
continue to act just as he acted in our Gospel passage today? His abode is the
Church he founded. His House, his Temple, his body is the Church he founded on
Peter. “You are Peter,” he solemnly said to Simon, “and on this rock I will
build my Church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. I give to you
the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound
in heaven.” The Christ of the Gospels abides in his Church, and the Church’s
purpose is to enable whoever wishes to approach Christ and to live in union with
him to be able to do so. The Church’s purpose is to bring her treasure which is
Christ to the world. The world’s everlasting jewel is the person of Jesus, and
he dwells among us still in all his risen reality, and he does so in his body
the Church. It is through the ministry of his Church that he comes to abide in
the hearts of the baptized. What is Christ doing in the life of the Church? He
is doing what he did in our Gospel scene today (Mark 1:
21‑28) but at a deeper and more significant level. He teaches the
word of God with all authority and he does this above all in the teaching of the
Church and in the Church’s own Book, the Holy Scriptures. He exercises his
saving power in the channels of grace which are the Sacraments. In each of the
Sacraments it is Christ who is encountered. It is there that he drives out sin
and Satan and fills the soul with his life. All this is to say that the Christ
of the Gospels lives and ministers still in his Church, and the Church is
nothing other than his body, with him as her head.
The exciting thing about the Church and about being a member of the Church is
that the living and real person of Jesus is there in the Church’s midst. The
Church is Christ’s creation. He is the life and the centre of the Church’s
ministry. It is he who teaches when the Church teaches. It is he who acts when
the Sacraments are administered. It is he who preaches when the authorized
pastors of the Church preach. He is the head and we the Church’s members make
up his body. Let us realize where our great treasure is, and that in and
through us the Church brings him to the world.
A secret, an open secret: these world crises are crises of saints.
God wants a handful of men 'of his own' in every human activity. And
then... 'pax Christi in regno Christi — the peace of Christ in the
kingdom of Christ'.
(The Way, no.301)
name was John. He came
as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might
believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was
in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not
recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive
him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the
power to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of
human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and
made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the
Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John testifies concerning
him. He cries out, saying, This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me
has surpassed me because he was before me.' From the fulness of his grace we
have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace
and truth came through Jesus Christ. No-one has ever seen God, but God the only
Son, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.
(John 1: 1-18)
I
like to think of the Prologue of the Gospel of St John as a theme song coming
from heaven and pervading the Gospel that follows. The drama opens with the
heavenly melody, clear and approaching. The song is of the Word who was with
God in the beginning. Whatever we take to be the beginning, there already was
the Word, and the Word was with God. These two Persons were always there, and
as the Gospel will tell, the Spirit who would be their Gift came from them
both. The heavenly song continues. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we saw his glory. Who could possibly have attained to this knowledge of the
one God by human effort and investigation? Impossible. We know it because it
was revealed in the man Jesus Christ. That is the theme song, the song of the
Word that sums up and pervades the Gospel that follows. We saw his glory, John
says in exultation, the glory of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. The figure of Jesus Christ shines forth at the beginning of the
Gospel as the most beautiful and wondrous spectacle of human history. Moses his
great predecessor gave to us the invaluable guide of God’s Law, but grace and
truth came from Jesus Christ. In the song of the Word that is the Prologue of
the Gospel, we sense love and wonder in the voice of John as he begins the
narration of his Gospel. We knew the Word become flesh! We beheld his glory! We
touched and heard him! At the outset John invites us to capture the unique
grandeur of Jesus Christ, God and man.
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Perhaps
because the United States got a later start in the history of the
world, it has relatively few canonized saints, but their number is
increasing. John Neumann was born in what is now the Czech Republic.
After studying in Prague, he came to New York at 25 and was ordained a
priest. He did missionary work in New York until he was 29, when he
joined the Redemptorists and became its first member to profess vows in
the United States. He continued missionary work in Maryland, Virginia
and Ohio, where he became popular with the Germans. At 41, as bishop of
Philadelphia, he organized the parochial school system into a diocesan
one, increasing the number of pupils almost twentyfold within a short
time. Gifted with outstanding organizing ability, he drew into the city
many teaching communities of sisters and the Christian Brothers. During
his brief assignment as vice provincial for the Redemptorists, he
placed them in the forefront of the parochial movement. Well-known for
his holiness and learning, spiritual writing and preaching, on October
13, 1963, he became the first American bishop to be beatified.
Canonized in 1977, he is buried in St. Peter the Apostle Church in
Philadelphia. Neumann took seriously our Lord’s words, “Go and teach
all nations.” From Christ he received his instructions and the power to
carry them out. For Christ does not give a mission without supplying
the means to accomplish it. The Father’s gift in Christ to John Neumann
was his exceptional organizing ability, which he used to spread the
Good News.
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Gregory was ordained a priest practically by force, and only reluctantly
accepted the responsibility. He skilfully avoided a schism that threatened
when his own father made compromises with Arianism. At 41, Gregory was
chosen suffragan bishop of Caesarea and at once came into conflict with
Valens, the emperor, who supported the Arians. An unfortunate by-product
of the battle was the cooling of the friendship of two saints. Basil, his
archbishop, sent him to a miserable and unhealthy town on the border of
unjustly created divisions in his diocese. Basil reproached Gregory for
not going to his see. When protection for Arianism ended with the death
of Valens, Gregory was called to rebuild the faith in the great see of
Constantinople, which had been under Arian teachers for three decades.
Retiring and sensitive, he dreaded being drawn into the whirlpool of corruption
and violence. He first stayed at a friend’s home, which became the only
orthodox church in the city. In such surroundings, he began giving the
great sermons on the Trinity for which he is famous. In time, Gregory did
rebuild the faith in the city, but at the cost of great suffering, slander,
insults and even personal violence. An interloper even tried to take over
his bishopric. His last days were spent in solitude and austerity. He wrote
religious poetry, some of it autobiographical, of great depth and beauty.
He was acclaimed simply as “the Theologian.”
Since Raymond lived into his hundredth year, he had a
chance to do many things. As a member of the Spanish nobility, he had the
resources and the education to get a good start in life. By the time he was
20, he was teaching philosophy. In his early 30s he earned a doctorate in
both canon and civil law. At 41 he became a Dominican. Pope Gregory IX called
him to Rome to work 
for him and to be his confessor. One of the things the pope asked him to
do was to gather together all the decrees of popes and councils that had been
made in 80 years since a similar collection by Gratian. Raymond compiled
five books called the 