September 2009
| Liturgical Season | Sun | Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | Sat |
| 22nd Week in Ordinary Time B/I | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 23rd Week in Ordinary Time B/1 | 6 | 7 |
8
or
Nativity of The Blessed Virgin Mary |
9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 24th Week in Ordinary Time B/1 | 13 |
14
or
Exaltation of The Holy Cross |
15 or The Sorrows of Mary | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 25th Week in Ordinary Time B/1 | 20 |
21
or Saint Matthew |
22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 26th Week in Ordinary Time B/1 | 27 | 28 |
29
or Archangels |
30 |
His
mission intention for September 2009 is: "That Christians in Laos ,
Cambodia and Myanmar , who often meet with great difficulties, may not be
discouraged from announcing the Gospel to their brothers, trusting in the
strength of the Holy Spirit".
Tuesday of the twenty second week in Ordinary Time
(September 1) St. Giles (d. 710?)
Despite the fact that much about St. Giles is shrouded in mystery, we can say
that he was one of the most popular saints in the Middle Ages. Likely, he was
born in the first half of the 7th century in southeastern France. That is where
he built a monastery that became a popular stopping-off point for pilgrims
making their way to Compostela in Spain and the Holy Land. In England, many
ancient churches and hospitals were dedicated to Giles. One of the sections of
the city of Brussels is named after him. In Germany, Giles was included among
the so-called 14 Holy Helpers, a popular group of saints to whom people prayed,
especially for recovery from disease and for strength at the hour of death. Also
among the 14 were Saints Christopher, Barbara and Blase. Interestingly, Giles
was the only non-martyr among them. Devotion to the "Holy Helpers" was
especially strong in parts of Germany and in Hungary and Sweden. Such devotion
made his popularity spread. Giles was soon invoked as the patron of the poor and
the disabled. The pilgrimage centre that once drew so many fell into disrepair
some centuries after Giles' death. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, 9-11; Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14; Luke 4:31-37
Then Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began
to teach the people. They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had
authority. In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil
spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, Ha! What do you want with us,
Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are— the Holy One
of God! Be quiet! Jesus said sternly. Come out of him! Then the demon threw the
man down before them all and came out without injuring him. All the people were
amazed and said to each other, What is this teaching? With authority and power
he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out! And the news about him spread
throughout the surrounding area. (Luke 4:31-37)
Perfect man
We read in the book of Genesis how Abraham was called by God to
leave his homeland and go to where he would lead him. Abraham grew in his faith,
his sense of mission and his stature as a man of God. Moses too grew in his
calling and powers. The first great milestone for Moses was God’s intervention
at the Burning Bush, when he was told of his mission to lead the children of
Israel out of the land of slavery to the land promised to their fathers Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. Moses grew in his status and his powers. At various
points he
displayed uncertainty and lack of faith. He was refused admittance into the
promised land because of his lack of faith on one occasion. David, the greatest
of the kings, grew in position and in his powers over time. It is obvious from
the Qur’an that Mahomet grew in his interpretation of what he took to be his
revelations, and his understanding of his mission evolved over time. But what is
noteworthy about Jesus Christ is that he suddenly appears on the scene of his
ministry in the fulness of his powers. There is no uncertainty, no doubt as to
his personal identity, his mission and his powers. It is precisely his sure
knowledge and his unhesitating use of his supernatural power which has been the
stumbling block of liberal Christianity. Its proponents have asserted that
Christ was uncertain about himself and that he lacked an awareness that he was
the Son of God till, for instance, at certain advanced moments in his public
ministry. But no, the pages of the Gospels are absolutely clear that from the
beginning, Jesus Christ was in full awareness of who he was, of the boundless
extent of his power, and of the true character of his mission. Any limits to his
power were those imposed by himself: namely, the free will of man whom he came
to redeem. He revealed himself, his powers and his mission but gradually, but it
is plainly evident that he himself did not gradually understand and acquire
them.
Our Gospel passage is from St Luke. Luke’s account of our Lord’s public ministry
begins with Chapter 4, following the infancy narratives and our Lord’s baptism
and encounter with Satan. He immediately went through Galilee “in the power of
the Spirit” and he was “glorified by all.” When he returned to his home town of
Nazareth, all “marvelled at the words of grace” that came forth from him. His
claims were so exalted that they violently rejected him. Their very rejection
shows the fullness of his message from the beginning. Thus he departed for
Capernaum, and as we read in today’s Gospel, once again we sense a fullness and
completion in his teaching authority and powers. We read that “Jesus went down
to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people.
They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority.” He
unhesitatingly and at a mere word exercises effortless command over the
underworld. Which of the prophets had done this? Admittedly — for instance — in
the presence of Pharaoh, Moses cast his staff down and it became a serpent, and
his serpent swallowed the serpents of Pharaoh’s men. But I am referring to
direct encounters with demons. The demons quailed before Christ and he dealt
with them as an all-powerful commander might deal with helpless miscreants. “In
the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out
at the top of his voice, Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have
you come to destroy us? I know who you are— the Holy One of God! Be quiet! Jesus
said sternly. Come out of him! Then the demon threw the man down before them all
and came out without injuring him” (Luke 4:31-37). What came across here was a
man with full and complete authority in word and in power. “All the people were
amazed and said to each other, What is this teaching? With authority and power
he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!”
All of this is but the manifestation of the utter uniqueness of Jesus Christ in
the history of God’s chosen people and in the history of the world. It is an old
saying that there is nothing perfect in this life. Do Hindus claim that Buddha
was perfect? Buddhists may act as if they think he is, but they would not
formally claim it. Do Muslims claim that Mahomet was perfect? They may act as if
they do but I do not think that they would claim it — after all, in their view
he is but a prophet. But the Christian claims that Jesus Christ was perfect man
and, of course, true God. Written across the pages of the Gospels is the fact of
his perfection. Perfect man and true God! Nothing beyond or greater than he
exists, or can be desired! In being his friend, we have our all.
(E.J.Tyler)
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For the person who loves Jesus, prayer, even prayer without consolation, is the
sweetness that puts an end to all sorrow: he goes to pray, eagerly, like a child
going to the sugar-bowl after a bitter dose of medicine.
(The Way, no.889)
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Continuing
The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-First Chapter
TO FIND THE CREATOR, FORSAKE ALL CREATURES
THE DISCIPLE
People are wont to ask how much a man has done, but they think little of the
virtue with which he acts. They ask: Is he strong? rich? handsome? a good
writer? a good singer? or a good worker? They say little, however, about how
poor he is in spirit, how patient and meek, how devout and spiritual. Nature
looks to his outward appearance; grace turns to his inward being. The one often
errs, the other trusts in God and is not deceived.
(Concluded)
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From the time that I became a Catholic, of course I have no further history of
my religious opinions to narrate. In saying this, I do not mean to say that my
mind has been idle, or that I have given up thinking on theological subjects;
but that I have had no variations to record, and have had no anxiety of heart
whatever. I have been in perfect peace and contentment; I never have had one
doubt.
(JHN, from the Apologia pro Vita Sua (1864)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
Wednesday of the twenty second week in Ordinary Time
(September 2) Blessed John Francis Burté and Companions
(d. 1792; d. 1794)
These priests were victims of the French Revolution. Though
their martyrdom spans a period of several years, they stand together in the
Church’s memory because they all gave their lives for the same principle. The
Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1791) required all priests to take an oath
which amounted to a denial of the faith. Each of these men refused and was
executed. John Francis Burté became a Franciscan at 16 and after ordination
taught theology to the young friars. Later he was guardian of the large
Conventual friary in Paris until he was arrested and held in the convent of the
Carmelites. Appolinaris of Posat was born in 1739 in Switzerland. He joined the
Capuchins and acquired a reputation as an excellent preacher, confessor and
instructor of clerics. Sent to the East as a missionary, he was in Paris
studying Oriental languages when the French Revolution began. Refusing the oath,
he was swiftly arrested and detained in the Carmelite convent. Severin Girault,
a member of the Third Order Regular, was a chaplain for a group of sisters in
Paris. Imprisoned with the others, he was the first to die in the slaughter at
the convent. These three plus 182 others—including several bishops and many
religious and diocesan priests—were massacred at the Carmelite house in Paris on
September 2, 1792. They were beatified in 1926. John Baptist Triquerie, born in
1737, entered the Conventual Franciscans. He was chaplain and confessor of Poor
Clare monasteries in three cities before he was arrested for refusing to take
the oath. He and 13 diocesan priests were guillotined in Laval on January 21,
1794. He was beatified in 1955.
“The upheaval which occurred in France toward the close of the 18th
century wrought havoc in all things sacred and profane and vented its fury
against the Church and her ministers. Unscrupulous men came to power who
concealed their hatred for the Church under the deceptive guise of
philosophy.... It seemed that the times of the early persecutions had returned.
The Church, spotless bride of Christ, became resplendent with bright new crowns
of martyrdom” (Acts of Martyrdom). (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Colossians 1:1-8; Psalm 52:10,
11; Luke 4:38-44
Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon's
mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her.
So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once
and began to wait on them. When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus
all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he
healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, You are the Son
of God! But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew
he was the Christ. At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people
were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him
from leaving them. But he said, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of
God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent. And he kept on
preaching in the synagogues of Judea. (Luke 4: 38-44)
He will never leave us
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was accorded the honorific
title of Mahatma, or Great Soul — Great Soul Gandhi! He became the father of
modern India and left an iconic example of non-violence in opposing oppression
and in attaining political freedoms. He was loved by the nation, but was
suddenly snatched from life and within days his cremated remains were scattered
and spread in different directions. Loved, yet now gone! We could think of many
great souls of history, but let the thought of them remind us
of
the greatest soul of all — Jesus Christ, the “mahatma” of all time. He, of
course, utterly transcended Gandhi for he was not merely man but God. Now, let
us think of the sentence in our Gospel passage today which describes the people
seeking Jesus. We read how Jesus left the synagogue, went to the house of Simon
and cured Simon’s mother-in-law. Incidentally — if I may make an aside — notice
how there is nowhere in the Gospel any mention of Simon’s wife, nor of any
children. Simon’s mother-in-law gets up to minister to Jesus and his companions,
but there is no mention of Simon’s wife helping. We may surmise that by the time his following of
Jesus commenced, Simon’s wife had passed away and this might even have happened
early in their married life. The Gospels give the impression that Simon was free
to follow Jesus entirely, and this he enthusiastically did. He perceived that
Jesus was a great soul — the very greatest. In our Gospel passage today we read
that “At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking
for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving
them.” Simon loved Jesus, wanted to be with him, and here he was urging him to
return to the people because they too were seeking him. But Jesus told him that
he had to move on. He had to go to the others — he had to “preach the good news
of the kingdom of God to the other towns also,” he said, “because that is why I
was sent. And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea”
(Luke 4: 38-44).
As we read these words we think of the greatness and the spiritual beauty of
Jesus of Nazareth. Great and beautiful soul! We think of the attraction of his
divine person and how he is the object of the yearnings of the heart of man. As
we read our Gospel passage, we think of how, during his mortal life, union with
him in friendship was subject to the limitations of mortal life. That is to say,
he had to move on to the other towns. He had to leave where he was and reach
others who were elsewhere. He could not simply stay for the sake of friendship.
Indeed, he had to depart even from this very life. It was part and parcel of his
mission. As his mission advanced in time, he had to tell his closest friends,
his disciples, that it was necessary for him to leave them too. He had to suffer
and to die. The time would come for him to be gone. It was a great mystery for
them and they dared not think of it nor try to understand it. When he did go — via the path of a violent death
— they were devastated beyond description.
Loved, yet now gone! The light had gone from their life. Whenever we think of
any great soul of history suddenly taken from the midst of those who loved and
revered him, we can be reminded of the greatest departure of all, that of Jesus
Christ from the midst of men. But there is this signal difference which marks
the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. He moved on to the other towns, and moved on
even from this life, precisely in order to be closer than ever before to his
disciples. The goal of Christ’s ministry was precisely to abide with his
disciples forever. If any one loves me he will keep my commandments, and my
Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Christ’s words in the Gospel today (Luke 4: 38-44),
explaining that he had to move away to the other towns even though the people
wanted him to stay with them, remind us of the great fact that he is now with us
forever. He is God-with-us, and nothing can snatch us from his hand. As St Paul
writes, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. This is
the mystery now revealed, St Paul writes, Christ in you, your hope of glory.
St Paul writes that in Christ is every heavenly blessing. He is the gift of the
Father to man. There is no greater possession than his friendship. He is the
pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field which we must sell all to
gain. He will never go away, never leave us, whatever be our joys and sorrows.
Christ is in you, your hope of glory! He is present in his body the Church. He
is present in his word, read, explained and proclaimed by the Church. He is
present in the Sacraments and especially in the Eucharist. He is God-with-us.
Let us plant ourselves by his side and never allow anything in our lives that
might lead us away from his company.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You are distracted in prayer. — Try to avoid distractions, but don't worry if in
spite of everything your mind still wanders.
Don't you see how in ordinary life even the most considerate children play with
the things about them, and often pay no attention to what their father is
saying? This does not imply a lack of love or respect: it is the weakness and
littleness peculiar to a child.
Then, look: you are a child before God.
(The Way, no.890)
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Continuing
The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Second Chapter
SELF-DENIAL AND THE RENUNCIATION OF EVIL APPETITES
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
MY CHILD, you can never be perfectly free unless you completely renounce self,
for all who seek their own interest and who love themselves are bound in
fetters. They are unsettled by covetousness and curiosity, always searching for
ease and not for the things of Christ, often devising and framing that which
will not last, for anything that is not of God will fail completely.
Hold to this short and perfect advice, therefore: give up your desires and you
will find rest. Think upon it in your heart, and when you have put it into
practice you will understand all things.
(Continuing)
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Each constituent portion of the Church has its proper functions, and no portion
can safely be neglected.
(JHN, from ‘On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine’ (1859)
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Thursday of the twenty second week in Ordinary Time
(September 3) Saint Gregory the Great, pope and doctor
of the Church (540?-604)
Coming events cast their shadows before: Gregory was the
prefect of Rome before he was 30. After five years in office he resigned,
founded
six monasteries on his Sicilian estate and became a Benedictine monk in his own
home at Rome. Ordained a priest, he became one of the pope's seven deacons, and
also served six years in the East as papal representative in Constantinople. He
was recalled to become abbot, and at the age of 50 was elected pope by the
clergy and people of Rome. He was direct and firm. He removed unworthy priests
from office, forbade taking money for many services, emptied the papal treasury
to ransom prisoners of the Lombards and to care for persecuted Jews and the
victims of plague and famine. He was very concerned about the conversion of
England, sending 40 monks from his own monastery. He is known for his reform of
the liturgy, for strengthening respect for doctrine. Whether he was largely
responsible for the revision of "Gregorian" chant is disputed. Gregory lived in
a time of perpetual strife with invading Lombards and difficult relations with
the East. When Rome itself was under attack, he interviewed the Lombard king. An
Anglican historian has written: "It is impossible to conceive what would have
been the confusion, the lawlessness, the chaotic state of the Middle Ages
without the medieval papacy; and of the medieval papacy, the real father is
Gregory the Great." His book, Pastoral Care, on the duties and qualities of a
bishop, was read for centuries after his death. He described bishops mainly as
physicians whose main duties were preaching and the enforcement of discipline.
In his own down-to-earth preaching, Gregory was skilled at applying the daily
gospel to the needs of his listeners. Called "the Great," Gregory has been given
a place with Augustine, Ambrose and Jerome as one of the four key doctors of the
Western Church.
"Perhaps it is not after all so difficult for a man to part with
his possessions, but it is certainly most difficult for him to part with
himself. To renounce what one has is a minor thing; but to renounce what one is,
that is asking a lot" (St. Gregory, Homilies on the Gospels).
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Colossians 1:9-14, Psalm
98:2-6; Luke 5:1-11
One day as Jesus was standing by the
Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding round him and listening to the word
of God, he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who
were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to
Simon,
and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the
people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out
into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch. Simon answered, Master,
we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so,
I will let down the nets. When they had done so, they caught such a large number
of fish that their nets began to break. So they signalled to their partners in
the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so
full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees
and said, Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man! For he and all his
companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon,
Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men. So they pulled their boats up
on shore, left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:
1-11)
The key to success
We are at the shore of the Lake of
Gennesaret and it looks as if it is still morning, for we read that some
fishermen were still washing their nets. Among them were Christ’s disciples,
Simon and his partners James and John. They had been working all night long. Let
us surmise that our Lord had come to the shore in the early hours of the morning
to commune with his heavenly Father and, following that, to be with his
disciples. Now on the shore, our Lord was noticed by various persons. Word
spread and a crowd
gathered, pressing on him from all sides to hear him speak.
St Luke gives us the detail that there were two boats at the water’s edge, left
there by the fishermen who were now washing their nets. All these details help
us to appreciate vividly the historical and factual character of the account. So our Lord boards
Simon’s boat and proceeds to teach the people some yards from the shore. He
finishes, dismisses the crowd — perhaps allowing them to get to their day’s
work, and turns to Simon. For Simon it had been a bad night, for no fish had
been caught. In him we have represented man at his daily work, man hoping to do
good work in life, man with his hopes and dreams of making a mark and yet so
often failing to do so, at least to his satisfaction. Each one of us is
represented there, each of us who hope to do something worthwhile in life by our
work — be it work in family, work in a profession, work of any kind and in any
circumstance. In Simon we have man with his weary and empty hands, full of toil
and yet so often empty nevertheless. The question rises forth from his heart,
how can my efforts be fruitful? Christ says to Simon, throw out the net for a
catch! There were no fish, and yet Christ said, throw out the net! Believing and
obeying Christ’s word, Simon did so and a great catch was made.
What is it that made all the difference
to Simon’s efforts? It was that he heard the word of Christ and put it into
effect. He did what Christ wanted. It is as simple as that, but it is the
message that man at his work must hear and live by. As we think of the surging
flow of little people who make up human history, all the little people at their
work with their hopes and dreams, all who wish to make a mark with the gift of
life that has been given them, we ought think of this key to success. The key is
to do our duty, because it comes from God. Christ spoke, telling Simon what to
do. Simon did it, and success came from his obedience. In this particular
instance, the success was visible and material. A lot of fish were caught
(Luke 5: 1-11). But success can be hidden
and known only to God. For instance, Christ was crucified and died a terrible
death engulfed in opprobrium and abuse. But it was a success — his death
redeemed the world. It took away the sin of the world and gave to all those who
believe in him the power to become children of God. The key to this success was
his obedience, obedience unto death. One of the biggest mistakes a person can
make is to seek goals in life that are not appropriate to him at all. I refer to
goals altogether outside his God-given capacities and his God-given
circumstances and calling. His life thus becomes a personal adventure rather
than the humble service of God. The average person leads, and is called to lead,
an ordinary life. His life is like that of Mary and Joseph of Nazareth — and
indeed, like that of Jesus himself during his years with Mary and Joseph at
Nazareth. The key to great though hidden success in the ordinary life — and in
any life — is obedience to God in the little duties. Consider a parallel. A
person with ordinary work may, with great care, build up a certain wealth that
is greater than that of a person who aims high but well beyond his capacities
and circumstances. Similarly, the ordinary life is filled with opportunities to
grow in spiritual riches. In such a life there is everything needed for true
success: being a saint — but hidden — in the world.
Let us think of Simon
toiling through the night at his work and catching nothing. Christ tells him to
cast out the net again. He does so and has great success. Every day of our lives
we ought be striving to do what Simon then did, which is to do what Christ
wants. If we do that, success, the real success that God wants us to have in
life — not a success of our own imagining — will be ours. That success, though
even unseen in this world, will be very evident to God and to us in the next.
(E.J.Tyler)
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When you pray keep the distracting ideas moving, just as if you were a policeman
on traffic duty: that is why you have the energetic will-power your life of
childhood has given you. Now and then keep a thought for a while and commend to
God those who caused the inopportune reflection.
And then, off again, and so on until the time is up. When you pray like this,
though you may feel you are wasting time, rejoice and believe that you have
succeeded in pleasing Jesus.
(The Way, no.891)
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Continuing
The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Second Chapter
SELF-DENIAL AND THE RENUNCIATION OF EVIL APPETITES
THE DISCIPLE
But this, Lord, is not the work of one day, nor is it mere child's play; indeed,
in this brief sentence is included all the perfection of holy persons.
(Continuing)
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Oh that we could take that simple view of things, as to feel that the one thing
which lies before us is to please God!
(JHN, from the sermon ‘Divine Calls’ 1839)
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Friday of the twenty second week in Ordinary Time
(September 4) St. Rose of Viterbo (1233-1251)
Rose achieved sainthood in only 18 years of life. Even as a child Rose had a
great desire to pray and to aid the poor. While still very young, she began a
life of penance in her parents’ house. She was as generous to the poor as she
was strict with herself. At the age of 10 she became a Secular Franciscan and
soon began preaching in the streets about sin and the sufferings of Jesus.
Viterbo, her native city, was then in revolt against the pope. When Rose took
the pope’s side against the emperor, she and her family were exiled from the
city. When the pope’s side won in Viterbo, Rose was allowed to return. Her
attempt at age 15 to found a religious community failed, and she returned to a
life of prayer and penance in her father’s home, where she died in 1251. Rose
was canonized in 1457. Rose's dying words to her parents were: "I die with joy,
for I desire to be united to my God. Live so as not to fear death. For those who
live well in the world, death is not frightening, but sweet and precious."
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Colossians 1:15-20; Psalm
100:1b-5; Luke 5:33-39
They
said to Jesus, John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of
the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking. Jesus answered, Can you make
the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come
when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast. He
told them this parable: No-one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on
an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from
the new will not match the old. And no-one pours new wine into old wineskins. If
he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the
wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And
no-one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.'
(Luke 5: 33-39)
The one Bridegroom
One gathers
from the words addressed to our Lord in today’s Gospel that his disciples did
not stand out in their practice of religion. By that I mean that the religious
practices they observed did not mark them off in any notable way from those of
the average person. People said to Jesus, “John’s disciples often fast and pray,
and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”
It seems that the disciples of John and those of the Pharisees stood out in the
society of Israel for their obvious
practice of piety. It was clearly seen that
they were praying and fasting much more than was the norm. Our Lord did not
encourage this among his disciples at this point, though the time would come
when his disciples would have their Christian discipline of fasting and prayer.
Our Gospel passage, though, does set forth what was special about the disciples
of Christ. What was special about their group was the One who was its heart and
soul. They, his disciples, are not observing the practices of religion in an
obvious and striking way. But ah! They have that which is far greater. They have
in their midst the Bridegroom! “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast
while he is with them?” The marvel of the Christian religion is not so much the
religious regime its adherents pursue. Its boast is the Person who constitutes
its heart and soul. What the disciples of Jesus have and what the disciples of
John and the Pharisees do not have is the person of Jesus, the Bridegroom. It is
this which is altogether new, and it is this that our Lord wants his disciples
to realize and to build their whole lives on. All else in religion must be given
second place to making him, Jesus, the centre of life and religion. Once this
has been done, then the great practices of religion such as special prayers and
special fastings will have their due place. “The time will come when the
bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.” Jesus is no
mere master of disciples. He is no mere teacher, no mere prophet. He is the
object of religious worship and love.
In our Gospel today, our Lord presents himself as the Bridegroom
(Luke 5: 33-39). All others — such as John
the Baptist — are mere friends of the Bridegroom. So it was that out of the
midst of the Jewish people at the fringe of the Empire came a new religion that
was absolutely revolutionary. It did not come with a doctrine simply of prayers
and fastings and of great spiritual strivings. It came with the announcement of
a new doctrine about God. At its beginning the Empire had encountered it. Pilate
the procurator had engaged with the One who was its heart and soul, the
Bridegroom. He had put it down, but lo! It was discovered to be present and
spreading, and the heart of it was the Person of Jesus, now claimed to be risen
and glorious. It was causing the utmost consternation among the Jewish leaders,
and their object of concern was not the degree to which the Christians fasted
and prayed or performed any other of the usual practices of religion. Their
concern was the claim as to this Jesus. He was claimed to be the one and only
God, and his heavenly Father too, and the divine Spirit as well, the Spirit of
them both. This new religion was not about prayers and fastings but about him,
Jesus, the Bridegroom of God’s people, and the Bridegroom of all those children
of God whom he would bring into the unity of the divine family. It was an
exclusive claim, and it meant two things. Firstly, for God’s chosen people the
Jews, it meant that their fulfilment was to be found in him and in him alone.
Secondly, it meant that the religions of the world also had their exclusive
fulfilment in him and in him alone. He was the Bridegroom, unique,
irreplaceable. It is by his name alone that men were to be saved. No one could
go to the Father but through him. Indeed, he and the Father were one. Truth in
religion was to be identified with him. Jesus Christ was not just one possible
messiah among many in Judaism. He was not just one more god in the Empire’s
extensive pantheon. He was the one and only Messiah and the one and only God — God become man. He had died and risen and was now the Bridegroom of the Church,
his body.
Christ is not just one among many religious leaders. He is not just one among
many great prophets — as Islam would have it. He is not just another incarnation
of the Buddha — as the Dalai Lama once opined. He is not just another, though
higher, Socrates. He is the unique fact of Christianity and of all religion. The
disciples of Christ (now) fast and pray, but what distinguishes their body, the
Church, is that within it is present the Bridegroom. He is the treasure of all
his disciples, and it is he who empowers them by his grace to live the religion
that God has revealed. Let us live in him, then!
(E.J.Tyler)
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What a wonderful thing it is to be a child! When a man asks a favour, his
request must be backed by a list of his qualifications.
When it is a child who asks — since children haven't any qualifications — it's
enough for him to say: I'm a son of So-and-so.
Ah, Lord, — say it to him with all your heart! — I am a son of God!
(The Way, no.892)
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Continuing
The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Second Chapter
SELF-DENIAL AND THE RENUNCIATION OF EVIL APPETITES
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
My child, you should not turn away or be downcast when you hear the way of the
perfect. Rather you ought to be spurred on the more toward their sublime
heights, or at least be moved to seek perfection.
(Continuing)
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I am not so irrational as to despise Public Opinion; I have no thought of making
light of a tribunal established in the conditions and necessities of human
nature. It has its place in the very constitution of society; it ever has
existed, it ever will exist, whether in the commonwealth of nations, or in the
humble and secluded village. But wholesome as it is as a principle, it has, in
common with all things human, great imperfections, and makes many mistakes.
(JHN, from the ‘The Rise and Progress of Universities’ (1854)
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Saturday of the twenty second week in Ordinary Time
(September 5) Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
(1910-1997)
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the tiny woman recognized throughout the
world for her work among the poorest of the poor, was beatified October 19,
2003. Among those present were hundreds of Missionaries of Charity, the Order
she founded in 1950 as a diocesan religious
community.
Today the congregation also includes contemplative sisters and brothers and an
order of priests. Born to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje, Macedonia
(then part of the Ottoman Empire), Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu was the youngest of
the three children who survived. For a time, the family lived comfortably, and
her father's construction business thrived. But life changed overnight following
his unexpected death. During her years in public school Agnes participated in a
Catholic sodality and showed a strong interest in the foreign missions. At age
18 she entered the Loreto Sisters of Dublin. It was 1928 when she said goodbye
to her mother for the final time and made her way to a new land and a new life.
The following year she was sent to the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling, India.
There she chose the name Teresa and prepared for a life of service. She was
assigned to a high school for girls in Calcutta, where she taught history and
geography to the daughters of the wealthy. But she could not escape the
realities around her—the poverty, the suffering, the overwhelming numbers of
destitute people. In 1946, while riding a train to Darjeeling to make a retreat,
Sister Teresa heard what she later exp
lained
as “a call within a call. The message was clear. I was to leave the convent and
help the poor while living among them.” She also heard a call to give up her
life with the Sisters of Loreto and, instead, to “follow Christ into the slums
to serve him among the poorest of the poor.” After receiving permission to leave
Loreto, and establish a new religious community and undertake her new work, she took
a nursing course for several months. She returned to Calcutta, where she lived
in the slums and opened a school for poor children. Dressed in a white sari and
sandals (the ordinary dress of an Indian woman) she soon began getting to know
her neighbours—especially the poor and sick—and getting to know their needs
through visits. The work was exhausting, but she was not alone for long.
Volunteers who came to join her in the work, some of them former students,
became the core of the Missionaries of Charity. Other helped by donating food,
clothing, supplies, the use of buildings. In 1952 the city of Calcutta gave
Mother Teresa a former hostel, which became a home for the dying and the
destitute. As the Order expanded, services were also offered to orphans,
abandoned children, alcoholics, the aging and street people. For the next four
decades Mother Teresa worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor. Her love knew no
bounds. Nor did her energy, as she crisscrossed the globe pleading for support
and inviting others to see the face of Jesus in the poorest of the poor. In 1979
she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On September 5, 1997, God called her
home.
Speaking in a strained, weary voice at the beatification Mass, Pope
John Paul II declared her blessed, prompting waves of applause before the
300,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square. In his homily, read by an aide for the
aging pope, the Holy Father called Mother Teresa “one of the most relevant
personalities of our age” and “an icon of the Good Samaritan.” Her life, he
said, was “a bold proclamation of the gospel.” Like so many others around the
world, he found her love for the Eucharist, for prayer and for the poor a model
for all to emulate. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Colossians 1:21-23;
Psalm 54:3-4, 6 and 8; Luke 6:1-5
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the
cornfields, and his disciples began to pick some ears of corn, rub them in their
hands and eat the grain. Some of the Pharisees asked, Why are you doing what is
unlawful on the Sabbath? Jesus answered them, Have you never read what David did
when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking
the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he
also gave some to his companions. Then Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is
Lord of the Sabbath. (Luke 6: 1-5)
Lord of the Sabbath
As with so many passages of the Gospels our brief reading
today has a truly remarkable utterance. Its context is the sacred observance of
the Sabbath. The Sabbath day was pivotal in the Jewish religion as it was a day
that belonged to the Lord. It was the Lord’s day when everyone interrupted the
pursuit of earning a living and rested in the Lord. So clearly was the Lord’s
day seen as fundamental, that many of the teachers of the Law went to excess in
their instructions on how it was to be observed. Moreover, the
religious
regime they imposed in respect to the Sabbath became a means of spiritual power
and self-aggrandizement. Nevertheless, the Sabbath and its religious rest was a
defining element in the religious life of the nation. In his important book on
Egypt, Israel and the rise of monotheism — Of God and Gods (UWP, 2008)
— Jan Assmann
writes that “the three Jewish and Christian commandments that have no parallels
in the Egyptian concept of sin” (no gods, no images, and keeping the Sabbath)
“represent the innovative and revolutionary core of biblical monotheism.” There
was no regular Sabbath in Egypt, though there were a great many festival days.
To violate the Sabbath constituted a sin of a high order in Israel. We see
a foundation of this in the account of creation in the opening chapter
of the Bible. God is described as creating the world over the period of a working
week. All God's work was good, and what he did in making man was very good. His work completed, he
is shown as resting on the seventh day. Man is commanded to imitate God in
working well, and in resting on the seventh day. God made this Sabbath, this day
of rest, a holy day. It is presented as a divine institution. On
this day of rest from work Israel worshipped its Lord, the creator of all and Father of his chosen people.
The Sabbath day was a most important institution in Israel. During the week many things dominated life, but
on the Sabbath, the Lord God is supreme. It is the Lord's Day. Well now, on one Sabbath, our Lord was
passing through cornfields with his disciples. It may have been a walk of
recreation, perhaps following on our Lord speaking in the Synagogue. Let us
observe what happened.
There were, perhaps, many others in the immediate vicinity of these fields, for
some of the Pharisees were there. They spotted the disciples of our Lord picking
ears of corn, rubbing them hard to prepare them for eating, and then consuming
them. It was a received teaching among the Pharisees, one which they propagated,
that this picking of ears of corn was a violation of the Sabbath — a mini harvesting of crops. But our
Lord ignored such absurdities and these Pharisees immediately intervened. In
view of our Lord’s condemnation of their motives on other occasions, we may
surmise that their muddled prejudices were due to a blighted reading of the
Scriptures and a desire to impose themselves as religious leaders. But our
interest here is, as ever, in our Lord’s words of response. Firstly, his
accusers read very poorly the Scriptures. Their own human traditions were given
far greater weight than the actual word of God. “Have you never read what David
did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and
taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And
he also gave some to his companions.” The great David himself did not view the
observance of the Sabbath as they did. But even more astonishing was our Lord’s
next claim, for we read that “Then Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is Lord of
the Sabbath” (Luke 6: 1-5). Jesus, in the
presence of the Pharisees, says he is Lord of the Sabbath — it is in effect a
claim to be Lord. He is master of the Sabbath in that he is its supreme and
final interpreter, but he is also its object. The Lord of the Sabbath was God,
and this is why it was so very important in the life of the nation. It preserved
the chosen people in their allegiance to God. The other preoccupations of life
ceased when the Sabbath came, and God was the only preoccupation. He is the Lord
of the Sabbath. Here, Christ claims to be the Lord of the Sabbath. For the
Christian, this became even clearer when the Church chose to observe the Sabbath
on the first day of the week, the day of the Lord’s resurrection, rather than
the last.
No other prophet made such a claim as our Lord
makes effortlessly, and almost in
passing, before his critics in today’s Gospel passage. No prophet from
Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah to John the Baptist said anything of its like.
Jesus says, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. As St Paul writes in one of his
Letters, Jesus Christ is Lord! Let us make that the catchcry of our hearts as we
give ourselves over to the work of life, however hidden, ordinary and humdrum it
might be. Jesus Christ is Lord! Let us make him the Lord of all our Sabbaths,
and the Lord of all our days.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Perseverance. A child who knocks at a door, knocks once and again, and many
times..., and loud and long; shamelessly! And the anger of whoever comes to open
is dispelled by the simplicity of the disturbing little creature. So you with
God.
(The Way, no.893)
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Continuing
The Imitation of Christ
BOOK
THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Second Chapter SELF-DENIAL
AND THE RENUNCIATION OF EVIL APPETITES
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
I would this were the case with you -- that you had progressed to the point
where you no longer loved self but simply awaited My bidding and his whom I have
placed as father over you. Then you would please Me very much, and your whole
life would pass in peace and joy. But you have yet many things which you must
give up, and unless you resign them entirely to Me you will not obtain that
which you ask.
(Continuing)
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O my Lord Jesu … I am strong in Thee, strong through Thy Immaculate Mother,
through Thy Saints: and thus I can do much for the Church, for the world, for
all I love.
(JHN, from Meditations and Devotions 1893)
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to index for this month---------------------------Back to
index to Liturgical Days---------
Twenty third Sunday of Ordinary Time B
Prayers this week:
Lord, you are
just, and the judgments you make are right. Show mercy when you judge me, your
servant. (Psalm 118: 137.124)
God our Father, you redeem us and make us your children in Christ.
Look upon us, give us true freedom and bring us to the inheritance you
promised.
We ask
this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.
(September 6) Blessed Claudio Granzotto (1900-1947)
Born in Santa Lucia del Piave near Venice, Claudio was the youngest of nine
children and was accustomed to hard work in the fields. At the age of nine he
lost his father. Six years later he was drafted into the Italian army, where he
served more than three years. His artistic abilities, especially in sculpture,
led to studies at Venice’s Academy of Fine Arts, which awarded him a diploma
with the highest marks in 1929. Even then he was especially interested in
religious art. When Claudio entered the Friars Minor four years later, his
parish priest wrote, "The Order is receiving not only an artist but a saint."
Prayer, charity to the poor and artistic work characterized his life, which was
cut short by a brain tumor. He died on the feast of the Assumption and was
beatified in 1994. Claudio developed into such an excellent sculptor that his
work still turns people toward God. No stranger to adversity, he met every
obstacle courageously, reflecting the generosity, faith and joy that he learned
from Francis of Assisi.
In the beatification homily, Pope John Paul II said that Claudio
made his sculpture "the privileged instrument" of his apostolate and
evangelization. "His holiness was especially radiant in his acceptance of
suffering and death in union with Christ’s Cross. Thus by consecrating himself
totally to the Lord’s love, he became a model for religious, for artists in
their search for God’s beauty and for the sick in his loving devotion to the
Crucified" (L’Osservatore Romano, Vol. 47, No. 1, 1994).
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Isaiah 35:4-7a; Psalm 146:7-10;
James 2:1-5; Mark 7:31-37
Then
Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of
Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. There some people brought to him a
man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on
the man. After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers
into the man's ears. Then he spat and touched the man's tongue. He looked up to
heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, Ephphatha! (which means, Be opened!)
At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to
speak plainly. Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so,
the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. He
has done everything well, they said. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute
speak. (Mark 7:31-37)
Living in the truth
There are many myths of the ancient world. One thinks of
Homer’s Illiad and his Odyssey, and Virgil’s
Aeneid. These, of course, are grand classic fantasies. It is said that
Tolkien, a devout Catholic who wrote The Lord of the Rings,
composed his work in order to give to England her own grand myth. His friend and
fellow Oxford academic, C.S.Lewis, once complained to Tolkien that myths are
lies, though breathed through silver. Tolkien said no, not necessarily. Myths
can be truths expressing matters such as
beauty,
truth and honour. Such truths cannot be seen but they are very real and it is
through the language of fantasy and story — myth — that these important truths
can be expressed. In writing and reading myth, Tolkien intended to meditate on
and express great truths of life. He told Lewis that the Bible is the one “myth”
that is not just mythical but true because its Author is God. Tolkien’s view
helped C.S.Lewis on his journey to Christianity. Now the Gospel also is a story,
but the supremely important thing about this story is that it is true. Our
Gospel passage today (Mark 7:31-37), like
the rest of the Gospel, exudes the note of truth. It is interesting to see the
number of times the word and the theme of “truth” recurs in the inspired
writings of St John. A supreme moment comes in his Gospel when Jesus stands
before Pilate, the representative of the world’s single superpower, the Roman
Empire. We have God become man facing, in the person of Pilate, Caesar. Pilate
asks Jesus, What have you done? You are not really a king? Our Lord answered,
“To this end was I born, that I should bear witness to the truth, and everyone
who is of the truth listens to my voice” (18:37). There was nothing mythical
about his person and mission, in the sense that there was nothing of fantasy.
Christ was all fact — hard, redeeming fact. He is the Way, the Truth and the
Life. What is truth? Pilate asked. The reply had been given. The Truth is Jesus
Christ and his teaching. Years ago Cardinal Ratzinger pointed out that St
Augustine understood the Christian faith not as being in continuity with earlier
religions but rather in continuity with philosophy. His point was that its
object was fact and objective truth, and reason was involved in knowing it.
As we think of the events narrated in our Gospel passage, we are surely reminded
that what we are dealing with here is the truth. It is a wondrous truth, the
truth of Jesus Christ. The Good News of the Gospel is that there is this truth,
one far beyond the ordinary, but in no way fantasy — or, as some put it, mere
myth. The Gospel is sometimes described as myth in the sense that it is the
defining story that inspires the greatest in man. It embodies the supreme truths
of life in the form of story, rather than in philosophical statements. It does
do all this, of course, but it does so as a story that is objectively true. As
Tolkien put it, it is the one myth that is totally true. One bases one’s life on
it as on fact and objective reality. Jesus Christ, true God and true man, our
Redeemer, is the objective truth who brings true salvation and true bliss
forever. It is this truth that answers to the deepest call and the truest
longings of man, for he knows that he has the duty to seek the truth, to adhere
to it and to order his life in accordance with its demands. He knows that his
supreme duty is to the truth, to sincerity and truthfulness. We could even say
that though this is indeed the direction the heart of man gives, it was
especially Christianity which taught this to the world. What matters is the
truth, and myth has value to the extent that it embodies truth. In Jesus Christ
the whole of God’s truth has been made manifest. He is the truth — the Way, the
Truth and the Life. Those who follow him live in the Spirit of truth and guard
against dissimulation. Christ was especially severe on certain of the scribes
and Pharisees for their hypocrisy. They were not truthful. A Christian must bear
witness to the truth of the Gospel in every field of his activity, both public
and private, and also if necessary, with the sacrifice of his very life. Christ
went to his redeeming death precisely bearing witness to the truth of his person
and mission. Martyrdom is the supreme witness to the truth — the truth of Jesus
Christ. Man’s conscience requires of him that he respect the truth, and divine
revelation presents its embodiment: Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Let us be resolved to live according to the truth, whatever be the cost. The
truth is ultimately not an abstraction. Nor is it a mere “story” — though it is
a story indeed. It is fact. It is real. It is objective and it may be relied on.
Reality is ultimately personal — God. God is one in being, three Persons. As
Pope Benedict has often put it, God’s face is Jesus Christ. He is the revelation
of God and we are called to union in friendship with him. As true, Christianity
is the life of man.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no.2464-2474
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Have you seen the gratitude of little children? Imitate them, saying to Jesus,
when things are favourable and when they are adverse: 'How good you are! How
good!...'
These words, if you mean them, are the way of childhood, and will bring you
peace, with due measure of tears and laughter, and without measure of Love.
(The Way, no.894)
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Continuing
The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE
INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Second Chapter
SELF-DENIAL AND THE RENUNCIATION OF EVIL APPETITES
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
"I counsel thee to buy of me gold, fire-tried, that thou mayest be made
rich" -- rich in heavenly wisdom which treads underfoot all that is low. Put
aside earthly wisdom, all human self-complacency.
I have said: exchange what is precious and valued among men for that which is
considered contemptible. For true heavenly wisdom -- not to think highly of self
and not to seek glory on earth -- does indeed seem mean and small and is
well-nigh forgotten, as many men praise it with their mouths but shy far away
from it in their lives. Yet this heavenly wisdom is a pearl of great price,
which is hidden from many.
(Concluded)
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In his 1840 sermon ‘Righteousness not of us, but in us’ John Henry Newman turns to one of his characteristic themes: how do we achieve salvation? Looking at both God’s initiative in sending his Son to this world, to suffer and die for mankind, and also at salvation as a real change in our lives which requires our active involvement, Newman formulates a synthesis that we find already in his Lectures on Justification (1838):
There are two opposite errors: one, the holding that
salvation is not of God; the other, that it is not in ourselves. Now it is
remarkable that the maintainers of both the one and the other error,
whatever their differences in other respects, agree in this,—in depriving a
Christian life of its
mysteriousness. He who believes that he can please God of himself, or that
obedience can be performed by his own powers, of course has nothing more of
awe, reverence, and wonder in his personal religion, than when he moves his
limbs and uses his reason, though he might well feel awe then also. And in
like manner he also who considers that Christ’s passion once undergone on
the Cross absolutely secured his own personal salvation, may see mystery
indeed in that Cross (as he ought), but he will see no mystery, and feel
little solemnity, in prayer, in ordinances, or in his attempts at obedience.
He will be free, familiar, and presuming, in God’s presence.
Neither will "work out their salvation with fear and trembling;" for neither will realize, though they use the words, that God is in them "to will and to do." [Phil. 2: 12-13] Both the one and the other will be content with a low standard of duty: the one, because he does not believe that God requires much; the other, because he thinks that Christ in His own person has done all. Neither will honour and make much of God’s Law: the one, because he brings down the Law to his own power of obeying it; the other, because he thinks that Christ has taken away the Law by obeying it in his stead.
They only feel awe and true seriousness who think that the Law remains; that it claims to be fulfilled by them; and that it can be fulfilled in them through the power of God’s grace. Not that any man alive arises up to that perfect fulfilment, but that such fulfilment is not impossible; that it is begun in all true Christians; that they all are tending to it; are growing into it; and are pleasing to God because they are becoming, and in proportion as they are becoming like Him who, when He came on earth in our flesh, fulfilled the Law perfectly.
(Reference: John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons Vol 5 (1840) Sermon no. 10, p. 140-42)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
Monday of the twenty third week in Ordinary Time
(September 7) Blessed Frederick Ozanam (1813-1853)
A man convinced of the inestimable worth of each human being, Frederick served
the poor of Paris well and drew others into serving the poor of the world.
Through the St. Vincent de Paul Society, his work continues to the present
day. Frederick was the fifth of
Jean and Marie Ozanam’s 14 children, one of
only three to reach adulthood. As a teenager he began having doubts about his
religion. Reading and prayer did not seem to help, but long walking
discussions with Father Noirot of the Lyons College clarified matters a great
deal. Frederick wanted to study literature, although his father, a doctor,
wanted him to become a lawyer. Frederick yielded to his father’s wishes and in
1831 arrived in Paris to study law at the University of the Sorbonne. When
certain professors there mocked Catholic teachings in their lectures,
Frederick defended the Church. A discussion club which Frederick organized
sparked the turning point in his life. In this club Catholics, atheists and
agnostics debated the issues of the day. Once, after Frederick spoke on
Christianity’s role in
civilization, a club member said: "Let us be frank, Mr. Ozanam; let us also be very particular. What do you do besides talk to prove
the faith you claim is in you?" Frederick was stung by the question. He soon
decided that his words needed a grounding in action. He and a friend began
visiting Paris tenements and offering assistance as best they could. Soon a
group dedicated to helping individuals in need under the patronage of St.
Vincent de Paul formed around Frederick. Feeling that the Catholic faith
needed an excellent speaker to explain its teachings, Frederick convinced the
Archbishop of Paris to appoint Father Lacordaire, the greatest preacher then
in France, to preach a Lenten series in Notre Dame Cathedral. It was well
attended and became an annual tradition in Paris. After Frederick earned his
law degree at the Sorbonne, he taught law at the University of Lyons. He also
earned a doctorate in literature. Soon after marrying Amelie Soulacroix on
June 23, 1841, he returned to the Sorbonne to teach literature. A
well-respected lecturer, Frederick worked to bring out the best in each
student. Meanwhile, the St. Vincent de Paul Society was growing throughout
Europe. Paris alone counted 25 conferences. In 1846, Frederick, Amelie and
their daughter Marie went to Italy; there Frederick hoped to restore his poor
health. They returned the next year. The revolution of 1848 left many
Parisians in need of the services of the St. Vincent de Paul conferences. The
unemployed numbered 275,000. The government asked Frederick and his co-workers
to supervise the government aid to the poor. Vincentians throughout Europe
came to the aid of Paris. Frederick then started a newspaper, The New Era,
dedicated to securing justice for the poor and the working classes. Fellow
Catholics were often unhappy with what Frederick wrote. Referring to the poor
man as "the nation’s priest," Frederick said that the hunger and sweat of the
poor formed a sacrifice that could redeem the people’s humanity. In 1852 poor
health again forced Frederick to return to Italy with his wife and daughter.
He died on September 8, 1853. In his sermon at Frederick’s funeral, Lacordaire
described his friend as "one of those privileged creatures who came direct
from the hand of God in whom God joins tenderness to genius in order to
enkindle the world." Frederick was beatified in 1997. Since Frederick wrote an
excellent book entitled Franciscan Poets of the Thirteenth Century and since
Frederick’s sense of the dignity of each poor person was so close to the
thinking of St. Francis, it seemed appropriate to include him among Franciscan
"greats."
Professor Bailly, the spiritual leader of the first St. Vincent de Paul
conference, told Frederick and his first companions in charity, "Like St.
Vincent, you, too, will find the poor will do more for you than you will do
for them." (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Colossians 1:24–2:3; Psalm 62:6-7, 9; Luke 6:6-11
On another Sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and was
teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shrivelled. The Pharisees
and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they
watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew
what they were thinking and said to the man with the shrivelled hand, Get up
and stand in front of everyone. So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said
to them, I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil,
to save life or to destroy it? He looked round at them all, and then said to
the man, Stretch out your hand. He did so, and his hand was completely
restored. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what
they might do to Jesus. (Luke 6:6-11)
Christ and sin
It is a Sabbath day and we are in the
synagogue. Jesus is teaching. Knowing him to be the Son of God made man as we
do, let us place ourselves in spirit in that synagogue and gaze on Jesus as he
speaks. We ought try to realize ever afresh that this man before us is the
creator God, he who is pure being and the source of all that is. He is God who
has taken to himself a human nature, thus making himself a man like us in
every way except that he had no sin. It means that he acts like a man — for he
is a man — and he is treated
by
many as a mere man. There he is, perhaps seated at the front. That he would
have been seated is suggested by the fact that when he returned to his town of
Nazareth and went into the synagogue, he read the scroll and then sat down to
speak. There he is, a man in his early thirties, undoubtedly of most noble
mien, full of grace and obvious truth. Little did the people realize it, but he
was the greatest — the very greatest man of his age. The great Caesar was as
nothing to him. Before he began his public ministry and while in the
wilderness following his baptism by John, Satan had offered him all the
kingdoms of the world if he would but worship him. Satan recognized his
unparalleled greatness. Mysteriously, the path he would take to bring all the
peoples to glory was not that of other greats of the world. His path was to be
humiliation, poverty, suffering and finally death amid opprobrium. So here he
is before us, speaking in the synagogue. With us are a mixed assembly — of
course, it consists of the people of the town. There are the obscure ones, the
ordinary ones, the more important ones, and there are present even his
enemies. I refer to the Pharisees and teachers of the law. Their notable
characteristic, even before anything happens, is moral blindness. As ever,
they, jealous for their position which they sensed was being usurped by what
they deemed to be this young know-all, were "looking for a reason to accuse
Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath."
Let us consider their attitude and response.
A man whose right hand is ruined is in the synagogue listening to Jesus. Being his right hand, its paralysis is especially telling in the man’s general helplessness. He is there, looking at Jesus and listening to his grand words of hope. Our Lord notices him during his address and has every intention of healing him when he finishes speaking. The Pharisees and teachers of the law also see that the man with the withered hand is there, and see in this circumstance a special opportunity leave this presumptuous prophet discredited. If he cures him on the Sabbath, he will be breaking the Sabbath law of rest from all work. He can then be exposed as a fraud and as one who does not respect the law of God after all. Behind this ruse is a profound reluctance and indeed refusal to accept the light. They hate the light and refuse to come to it, and this too our Lord knows all too well. They love their own position — and we read later in the Gospel that Pilate knew that it was from jealousy that the chief priests handed our Lord over to them. They were jealous for their position and spiritual power. So our Lord finishes, rises and steps forward. He will not only proceed to heal the man of his hopeless affliction, but he will endeavour to snap the bonds that are blinding his enemies. He will show them by his effortless supernatural power the absurdity of their contentions. So he addresses the Pharisees and teaches, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" But no answer. They do not want to be overwhelmed in debate by this signal individual before them, and particularly in public before the town. Christ cannot draw them to converse with him on the matter before them because they are intent on his condemnation, and nothing will lead them to accept his light. So, sovereignly and without hesitation, he directs the man to hold out his limp and useless hand. Silently, and in an instant, the hand is restored. Remembering the quality of the wine our Lord changed from water at the wedding feast of Cana, we may presume that the hand of the man was restored to an exceptional strength and ease.
But what effect did this action have on the enemies of our
Lord? It had no effect at all. We read that "they were furious and began to
discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus"
(Luke 6:6-11). On the
one hand our Lord’s action shows the almighty power and mercy of God for the
one suffering, and on the other hand we have the spectacle of hard and
unyielding sin. There are two diamonds, as it were. The one is the far larger
and it is absolutely lustrous. The other is small, dark and very, very hard.
It will continue on in its hardness. Let us sell all we have and go for the
large one — that one is Christ, the treasure in the field, the pearl of great
price, our all.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Work tires you out and leaves you unable to pray. You are
always in the presence of your Father. If you can't speak to him, look at him
every now and then like a little child... and he'll smile at you.
(The Way, no.895)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Third Chapter RESTLESSNESS OF SOUL -- DIRECTING OUR FINAL INTENTION TOWARD GOD
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
MY CHILD, do not trust in your present feeling, for it will
soon give way to another. As long as you live you will be subject to
changeableness in spite of yourself. You will become merry at one time and sad
at another, now peaceful but again disturbed, at one moment devout and the
next not devout, sometimes diligent while at other times lazy, now grave and
again flippant.
(Continuing)
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The whole period of the Christian Church, from the day of
Pentecost to the end of all things, is one holy and spiritual Sabbath.
(JHN, from the sermon ‘The Principle of Continuity between the Jewish and Christian Churches’ (1842)
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Tuesday of the twenty-third week
in Ordinary Time B-2
click centre arrow
Scripture today: 1 Corinthians 6:
1-11; Psalm 149; Luke 6:
12-19
Jesus
departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose
Twelve, whom he also named Apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his
brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the
son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot, and Judas the son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. And he came down with them and
stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a
large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal
region of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him and to be healed of their
diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.
Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him
and healed them all. (Luke 6:12-19)
Our call
Our Gospel today describing the call of the Twelve is from
St Luke. St Matthew records the prior call of Simon and his brother Andrew,
and James and his brother John (5: 18-22). This is common to Mark (1: 16-20)
and Luke, except that in Luke’s account Andrew is not mentioned at Simon’s
call (5: 1-11). Matthew narrates his own call at his tax collector’s booth
(9:9), and then, having referred to the “disciples” during his account,
tells us that our Lord “summoned his twelve disciples and gave them
authority” to
exorcize
and to cure (10:1). The names of these Twelve are then listed. There are
various differences in the lists of the Twelve which the Synoptics provide,
but for our purposes here, the comparison to be noted is that between Mark
and Luke. In Mark, there is the call of “Levi the son of Alphaeus,” at his
tax collector’s booth (2: 14) and then in the following chapter (3:13),
Jesus goes up the mountain and summons the men he has decided on. These come
and join him. “He named twelve as his companions whom he would send to
preach the good news.” They are “the Twelve” (3: 3-19). In Luke, Jesus goes
up the mountain to pray and spends the whole night in prayer to God, after
which he calls his disciples and selects the Twelve (6: 12-19). The account
which Mark gives (3: 13-19) is closer to Luke’s in that our Lord goes up the
mountain and there gathers the Twelve. There are differences, though. In
Mark, Jesus goes “up the mountain” and calls to himself “those he wanted,
and they went to him” (3:13). In Luke, our Lord went “up into the mountain
to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God” (6:12). It is a much more
solemn portrayal. It was when it was day, after this special night of
prayer, that Christ called his disciples and from them he chose twelve ― and
he named them Apostles (6:13). These details are not mentioned by Mark,
whereas Mark does tell us that he chose them to be with him, and to send
them out to preach (3:14).The thing to notice in Luke’s account, which is
our Gospel today (Luke 6:12-19), is the
solemnity of our Lord’s choice of the Twelve and his special naming of them.
Our Lord spent the whole night in prayer to God before his choice, and he
named them Apostles. It is reminiscent of what St Paul tells us in one of
his Letters, that before the world began, God chose us, chose us in Christ
to be full of love in his sight. This tells us that we are the products,
each of us, of the Creator’s personal choice ― and that, from all eternity.
This eternal choice is both extremely difficult to envisage, and
breathtaking in its implications. It is difficult to envisage because of the
incalculable complexity of history. Consider the multitude of factors
contributing to the occurrence of one single event. Take, say, a tragic
collision on the roads between two cars, bringing to an end four lives. If,
for instance, there had been some small change in circumstances, such as
stopping to get petrol rather than continuing, there would have been no
crash. The two cars would not have collided at that moment. Every person’s
existence is due to the convergence of numerous circumstances, none of which
are necessary. A person is born and lives out his life, but what would have
happened were it not for the chance meeting of his parents? I am thinking of
the case of parents who met by the most unlikely of chances. So much happens
seemingly because of chance events. The history of humanity seems to be made
up of a vast ocean of chance events. But however much the world may appear
as an unfolding ocean of coincidences, in fact the providence of the Creator
contains it all within an almighty grasp. All is in the hand of God, and
God’s purposes are attained through it all. He had each of us in mind from
all eternity, each of us by name, chosen by him in Christ to be holy and
full of love in his sight. Just as Christ thought of each of the Twelve
during that night of prayer, followed by his personal choice of them the
next day, so God our almighty Father has had each of us in mind from all
eternity. His providence, enfolding all of creation, has been bringing into
being each and all of his children. The imagination boggles at the thought
of its complexity, and it is breathtaking in its implications for the
almighty power of God. The love of God for each of us is almighty in its
reach.
God loves me and has chosen me in Christ to be full of love in his sight.
Let us think of this personal vocation possessed by each of us, which is
just as real as the personal vocation of each of the Twelve called by Jesus
Christ on that morning following the night he spent in prayer to God his
heavenly Father. As St Paul writes, Christ loved me and gave himself up for
me. This is the love I mean, St John writes, not that we loved God but that
he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:
10). Let us base our whole life on this solid foundation, the personal,
loving choice of God for each of us ― each of us by name.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
Feast
of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Sept 8)
(2009 — Tuesday of the twenty third week in Ordinary
Time)
(September 8) The birth of the
Blessed Virgin Mary
The Church has celebrated Mary's birth since at least the sixth century. A
September birth was chosen because the Eastern Church begins its Church year
with September. The September 8 date helped determine the date for the feast
of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 (nine months earlier). Scripture
does not give an account of Mary's birth. However, the apocryphal
Protoevangelium of James fills in the gap. This work has no historical value,
but it does reflect the development of Christian piety. According to this
account, Anna and Joachim are infertile but pray for a child. They receive the
promise of a child that will advance God's plan of salvation for the world.
Such a story (like many biblical counterparts) stresses the special presence
of God in Mary's life from the beginning. St. Augustine connects Mary's birth
with Jesus' saving work. He tells the earth to rejoice and shine forth in the
light of her birth. "She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the
precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the nature inherited from our
first parents is changed." The opening prayer at Mass speaks of the birth of
Mary's Son as the dawn of our salvation and asks for an increase of peace.
"Today
the barren Anna claps her hands for joy, the earth radiates with light, kings
sing their happiness, priests enjoy every blessing, the entire universe
rejoices, for she who is queen and the Father's immaculate bride buds forth
from the stem of Jesse" (adapted from Byzantine Daily Worship).
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Micah 5:1-4a or Romans 8:28-30; Psalm 13:6; Matthew 1:18-23
This is how the
birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to
Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through
the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not
want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
dream and said, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as
your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will
give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will
save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfil what the Lord
had said through the prophet: The virgin will be with child and will give
birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel— which means, God with us.
(Matthew 1: 18-23)
Mary
Many
have read the book, Infidel (Free Press, 2007), by Ayaan
Hirsi Ali. It is the story of her eventual abandonment of Islam. Born in Somalia, raised as a Muslim, this author came into
prominence following the murder of Theo van Gogh in Holland by an Islamist who
threatened she would be next. She came to reject Islam and embrace a Western
atheism. In Infidel she also speaks of the production of the film
Submission: Part One. The film, she writes, "is first and foremost
about the relation of the individual with Allah. In Islam, unlike in
Christianity and Judaism, the relationship of the individual to God is one of
total submission, slave to master. To modernize Islam and to adapt it to
contemporary ideals would require a dialogue with God, even disagreement with
God’s rules.." She writes that "as an adult, I felt that liberation of Muslim
women must be preceded by liberation of the mind from this rigid, dogmatic
obedience to Allah’s dictates" (p.313). The Western authors assisting her in
her journey of rejection of the Qu’ran and God’s Judgment and the
Afterlife were Spinoza, Voltaire and the like. Let us prescind from the
question of the image of God instilled by Islam, and take her current and
published position as very representative of modern positive atheism. Religion
alienates. It stunts growth. It represses man’s freedom. It is the great
obstacle to man’s flourishing. A flashpoint or locale of this is the modern
woman: she cannot attain her potential if she submits to God. She must be free
to decide for herself. The model here is very akin to that of the original
woman — Eve — who responded to the temptation insinuated in her mind by the
Serpent. God knows that when you eat of this tree your eyes will be opened and
you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad. The woman saw
that the tree was good for food and for gaining wisdom, so she took and ate
(Genesis 3:5-6). Liberation and fulfilment means liberation from God. That
fundamental temptation at the beginning has pulsated throughout the
generations. With good reason Cardinal Newman wrote that essentially religion
is a matter of authority and obedience, but fully suffused with love. The One
we are called to love is One we must obey.
There is a different model, however — one very different from Eve who was the mother of all the living (Genesis 3:20). That model is Mary, whose birth we celebrate today. The Church’s Tradition has always presented her as the Woman par excellence, the one without fault or sin, the one who in consequence is the greatest creature before God. The Angel entered her presence, as we read in the Gospel of St Luke, and saluted her with words of the highest esteem. She was most highly favoured, full of grace. The Lord was with her, with her without any qualification or hesitation. She was wholly in God as if in heaven, while being immersed in life on earth. Her flourishing was unceasing, and nothing hampered this flourishing. She was most like God, and the key to this liberation and fulfilment was her profound obedience to God and faith in his word. She is the Beauty of our race, the excellent though wholly created reflection of God. Her Son, the Word made flesh, was the eternal image of the unseen God, and she was his perfect imitator and disciple — while being his mother nevertheless. Mary’s happiness and fulfilment consisted in loving obedience to the word of the Father. Behold the handmaid, the servant, of the Lord, she responded to the Angel. Be it done unto me according to your word. On this basis, Mary the mother of Jesus flourished in a way and to a degree we cannot measure. Her soul streamed towards God day by day as she fulfilled to perfection — the perfection of loving obedience — the duties of every day. This is the model whom our author mentioned above ought to have contemplated. Mary’s duties in life unfolded in accord with her mission of being the mother of the Messiah. "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1: 18-23). Mary is mother and model of all the living, the new Eve, the one who shows what it is to submit to God.
Hail Mary! Your birth was a new dawn for mankind. It led to
the coming of the Redeemer. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy
Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Let us pray this prayer often — indeed, every day.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You think there is something wrong because, in your
thanksgiving after Communion, the first thing you find yourself doing, without
being able to help it, is asking: Jesus, give me this: Jesus, that soul:
Jesus, that undertaking...
Don't worry, and don't try to force yourself: when the
father is good and the child simple and daring, don't you see how the little
lad puts his hand into his father's pocket, looking for sweets, before
greeting him with a kiss? Well then...
(The Way, no.896)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ BOOK THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Third Chapter RESTLESSNESS OF SOUL -- DIRECTING OUR FINAL INTENTION TOWARD GOD
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
But the man who is wise and whose spirit is well instructed
stands superior to these changes. He pays no attention to what he feels in
himself or from what quarter the wind of fickleness blows, so long as the
whole intention of his mind is conducive to his proper and desired end. For
thus he can stand undivided, unchanged, and unshaken, with the singleness of
his intention directed unwaveringly toward Me, even in the midst of so many
changing events. And the purer this singleness of intention is, with so much
the more constancy does he pass through many storms.
(Continuing)
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Christianity is faith, faith implies a doctrine; a doctrine
propositions; propositions yes or no, yes or no differences. Differences,
then, are the natural attendants on Christianity, and you cannot have
Christianity, and not have differences.
JHN, from ‘The Tamworth Reading Room’ (1841)
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Wednesday of the twenty third week in Ordinary Time
(September 9) St. Peter Claver (1581-1654)
A native of Spain, young Jesuit Peter Claver left his
homeland forever in 1610 to be a missionary in the colonies of the New World.
He sailed into Cartagena (now in Colombia), a rich port city washed by the
Caribbean. He was ordained there in 1615. By this
time the slave trade had
been established in the Americas for nearly 100 years, and Cartagena was a
chief centre for it. Ten thousand slaves poured into the port each year after
crossing the Atlantic from West Africa under conditions so foul and inhuman
that an estimated one-third of the passengers died in transit. Although the
practice of slave-trading was condemned by Pope Paul III and later labeled
"supreme villainy" by Pius IX, it continued to flourish. Peter Claver's
predecessor, Jesuit Father Alfonso de Sandoval, had devoted himself to the
service of the slaves for 40 years before Claver arrived to continue his work,
declaring himself "the slave of the Negroes forever." As soon as a slave ship
entered the port, Peter Claver moved into its infested hold to minister to the
ill-treated and exhausted passengers. After the slaves were herded out of the
ship like chained animals and shut up in nearby yards to be gazed at by the
crowds, Claver plunged in among them with medicines, food, bread, brandy,
lemons and tobacco. With the help of interpreters he gave basic instructions
and assured his brothers and sisters of their human dignity and God's saving
love. During the 40 years of his ministry, Claver instructed and baptized an
estimated 300,000 slaves. His apostolate extended beyond his care for slaves.
He became a moral force, indeed, the apostle of Cartagena. He preached in the
city square, gave missions to sailors and traders as well as country missions,
during which he avoided, when possible, the hospitality of the planters and
owners and lodged in the slave quarters instead. After four years of sickness
which forced the saint to remain inactive and largely neglected, he died on
September 8, 1654. The city magistrates, who had previously frowned at his
solicitude for the black outcasts, ordered that he should be buried at public
expense and with great pomp. He was canonized in 1888, and Pope Leo XIII
declared him the worldwide patron of missionary work among black slaves.
Peter Claver understood that concrete service like the
distributing of medicine, food or brandy to his black brothers and sisters
could be as effective a communication of the word of God as mere verbal
preaching. As Peter Claver often said, "We must speak to them with our hands
before we try to speak to them with our lips." (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Colossians 3:1-11; Psalm 145:2-3, 10-13ab; Luke 6:20-26
Looking at his disciples, Jesus said: Blessed are you who
are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for
you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and
reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and
leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their
fathers treated the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have
already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will
go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you
when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the
false prophets. (Luke 6:20-26)
That which lasts
Most would regard
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle as the greatest of the ancient philosophers, and
among the greatest in human history. In the early centuries of the Church — as
exemplified in Augustine — Plato was of particular influence. Whereas in the
Middle Ages — as exemplified in Aquinas — when the works of Aristotle became
available and known, Aristotle loomed the larger. I do not think, though, that
Socrates, Plato or Aristotle asked the question, why does the world exist?
They attempted to give a metaphysical
account of its nature as being
— i.e., a form of existence — that is caused, that changes, that is contrived or
ordered, and that is varied in quality and perfection. But why is there a
world, rather than not? Their position was, I think, that the world simply is.
It is a fact and therefore it always was a fact. What is not necessarily a
fact is the current form it has — this evidently changes and is caused and is
ordered and is varied, and it is this that needs to be explained. Their
philosophical notion of God arose from these questions, not the question of
why this changing, caused and ordered reality we call the world exists at all.
The problem of being that is radically contingent — that in no way needs to be
and yet that is — did not much arise. I think we could say that this question
arose because of the revealed doctrine of creation from nothing. On the one
hand, the ordinary Christian accepted and lived with this doctrine that the
one God created and sustains all that is. On the other, great minds were led
to reflect in philosophical fashion on the very being of this changing and
ordered world. Aquinas, for instance, applied Aristotle’s distinction between
the actual and the potential not only to the nature of things, but to their
very being. The upshot of all this intellectual consideration was an enhanced
awareness of the radical contingency of everything of our experience, a
contingency at the level of being. This is not just a philosophical issue. For
any wise person the issue is, am I placing my bets on that which is ultimately
ephemeral? Am I taking my stand on what will assuredly crumble?
In our Gospel passage today, we have St Luke’s version of what are called Christ’s beatitudes. In a slightly different form they begin St Matthew’s presentation of the Sermon on the Mount. Our Lord sets forth the one who has true riches, the one who possesses things of substance, the one whose life is founded not on the ephemeral but on that which cannot pass away. He describes those who are truly blessed. Countless numbers of books have been written reflecting on the implications of what our Lord describes as the blessedness of those who are poor, those who hunger, mourn, and who suffer. At its heart is our Lord’s grand point that if your hunger and your suffering stems from your possession of what will never fail — namely union with him — then you are truly blessed. A person may sense that there is nothing in this world that is of ultimate substance and that everything to be gained in this life is under the ultimate threat of dissolution. You can’t take it with you, is the popular saying. But what to do about this? What is the way through to happiness and true wealth in this passing world, even in the midst of adversity? How in this life can a blessedness be gained that is not profoundly and radically contingent? There is an answer to this, and it is that Christ is the pearl to be gained, the treasure to be acquired at all costs. Once this is done, then even if poverty and suffering come, we have every reason to be joyful. Indeed, Christ assures us, if poverty, setbacks and adversity come precisely because of our possession of Christ, then our situation is especially blessed. We are following in the footsteps of our Master and Friend. It is the path to glory. "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven" (Luke 6:20-26).
If we gain Christ and union with him, we have found the
treasure of the world. This is the one treasure that stands forever. It is the
one possession that is not radically contingent. Christ is our joy in this
life amid setbacks and disappointments — even to the ultimate point of death.
He is our lasting joy, the joy that lasts beyond this life into eternity. He
is the Rock of the ages and the Rock of eternity and he is so accessible to
all. Outside of him all is sand, a sand that crumbles.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Our will, strengthened by grace, is all-powerful before God.
If, for instance, as we travel in a bus, we are struck by the thought of so
many offences against God and say to Jesus, backing our words with our will
'My God, i wish I could make an act of love and reparation
for every
turn of the wheels carrying me', in that very instant, in the eyes of Jesus,
we really have loved him and atoned just as we desired.
Such 'nonsense' is not pushing spiritual childhood too far: it is the eternal dialogue between the innocent child and the father doting on his son:
'Tell me, how much do you love me?'... And the little lad
pipes out: 'A mil-lion mil-lion ti-mes!'
(The Way, no.897)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Third Chapter RESTLESSNESS OF SOUL -- DIRECTING OUR FINAL INTENTION TOWARD GOD
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
But in many ways the eye of pure intention grows dim, because it is attracted to any delightful thing that it meets. Indeed, it is rare to find one who is entirely free from all taint of self-seeking. The Jews of old, for example, came to Bethany to Martha and Mary, not for Jesus' sake alone, but in order to see Lazarus.
The eye of your intention, therefore, must be cleansed so
that it is single and right. It must be directed toward Me, despite all the
objects which may interfere.
(Concluded)
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The course of heresies is always short; it is an
intermediate state between life and death, or what is like death; or, if it
does not result in death, it is resolved into some new, perhaps opposite,
course of error, which lays no claim to be connected with it. And in this way
indeed, but in this way only, an heretical principle will continue in life
many years, first running one way, then another.
JHN, from An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845)
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Thursday of the twenty third week in Ordinary Time
(September 10) St. Thomas of
Villanova (1488-1555)
Saint Thomas, the glory of the Spanish Church in the sixteenth century, was
born in the diocese of Toledo in 1488. His mother was a Christian of
extraordinary tenderness for the poor. God worked a miracle for her one day,
when her servants had given
away
absolutely all the flour in their storeroom. When another beggar came to the
door, she told them to go back once more and look again, and they found the
storeroom filled with flour. Her little son followed his mother’s example, and
one day gave away, to six poor persons in succession, the six young chicks
which had been following the hen around in the yard. When his mother asked
where they were, he said, "You didn’t leave any bread in the house, Mama, so I
gave them the chicks! I would have given the hen if another beggar had come."
At the age of fifteen years he began his studies and succeeded so well he was
judged fit to teach philosophy and theology in a college of Alcala, and then
at Salamanca. When his father died he returned to Villanova to dispose of his
patrimony. He made his house into a hospital, keeping only what was needed for
his mother, and gave the rest to the poor. At the age of twenty-eight he
entered the Order of the Hermits of Saint Augustine at Salamanca, becoming
professed in 1517. When ordained a priest three years later, he continued his
teaching of theology, but also began to preach so remarkably well that he was
compared with Saint Paul and the prophet Elias. The city was reformed, and
after the Emperor Charles V heard him once, he returned and often mingled with
the crowd to listen,
finally
making Saint Thomas his official preacher. He became Prior of his Order in
three cities, then three times a Provincial Superior. His sanctity continued
to increase, and he was nominated archbishop of Valencia in 1544; he had
refused a similar offer sixteen years earlier, but this time was obliged to
accept. After a long drought, rain fell on the day he assumed his new office.
He arrived as a pilgrim accompanied by one fellow monk, and was not recognized
in the convent of his Order when the two travellers came asking for shelter
during the rain. He was obliged to reveal his identity when the Prior, who
wondered where the awaited archbishop might be, asked him if perchance it was
he. The new Archbishop was so poor that he was given money for furnishings,
but he took it to the hospital for the indigent. On being led to his throne in
church, he pushed the silken cushions aside, and with tears kissed the ground.
His first visit was to the prison. Two-thirds of his episcopal revenues were
annually spent in alms. He daily fed five hundred needy persons, made himself
responsible for the bringing up of the city’s orphans, and sheltered neglected
foundlings with a mother’s care. During his eleven years’ episcopate, not one
poor maiden was married without an alms from the archbishop. Spurred by his
example, the rich and the selfish became liberal and generous. And when, on
the Nativity of Our Lady, 1555, after one week of illness, Saint Thomas was
about to breathe his last, he gave his bed to a poor man and asked to be
placed on the floor. It has been said that at his death he was probably the
only poor man in his see.
When a refractory
priest had not heeded his bishop’s remonstrances, Saint Thomas took him into a
room apart, uncovered his shoulders and knelt before his crucifix, saying: "My
brother, my sins are the reason you have not changed your life and listened to
my warnings. It is just for me to bear the penalty of my fault." And he
scourged himself cruelly. This frequent practice brought many to tears and
reform of their lives. In this way a perfect Pastor inspired his entire flock
with truly Christian sentiments. He was canonized in 1658. (Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin)
Scripture today: Colossians 3:12-17; Psalm 150:1b-6; Luke 6:27-38
But I tell you who
hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who
curse you, pray for those who ill-treat you. If someone strikes you on one
cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop
him from taking your
tunic.
Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not
demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love
those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who
love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is
that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you
expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to
'sinners', expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to
them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your
reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is
kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is
merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you
will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be
given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over,
will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be
measured to you. (Luke 6: 27-38)
The divine surprise
There are many significant advantages for the theist and for the religious
person in taking an interest in the religions of man and in the history of
thought. If we consider the religions of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, we
find ourselves viewing a very mixed situation, of course. A common element is
its polytheism. Numerous gods populated the religious imagination of the
classical period of history, which itself constituted the foundations of
Western culture. It would be absurd, of course, to attempt a generalization
requiring expertise in such a broad sweep of cultural history. But it is
legitimate to share a distinct impression. My impression is that the gods of
ancient history reflected fallen man. They were proud, petulant, often in
rivalry, and rather unconcerned for man’s welfare unless placated and enticed
by the careful observance of ritual. They married, had their offspring,
warred, were easily irritated, and at times jockeyed for position in the
pecking order of the heavens. They were anything but holy, as a Christian
would conceive it. Were they noted for their special love for man? Not
at all. They had the attitude towards man that might be expected of the
average ruler. If we consider indigenous religions, a common feature is that
the highest god recedes into remoteness after his creative activity is over.
Lesser spirits then bear upon man. There are some interesting exceptions:
African traditional religion can show a surprisingly exalted notion of the
high god. I am thinking of, say, the Nuer and the Massai religions. But are
their high gods distinguished for their desire to love and be loved by man?
No. What could we say of Allah in Islam? Allah, exalted as he is, asks man for
total submission. He does not descend to man’s level to ask that he and man
enter a covenant mutual love. If we take the history of Philosophy, beginning
with, say, the philosophy of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and passing to
philosophical systems that have not been influenced by Judaeo-Christian
revelation, and if we are speaking of a God who is other than the world, then
once again we get the impression of a God who is very distant, especially
distant in love.
Of course, God is indeed distant. He transcends man and he is the Ruler of all. There is much that the religions and philosophies in history have perceived that is true, and there were early Christian Fathers who understood and taught this. But what is most distinctive about the Christian revelation is its insistence that God is love. God so loved the world that he sent his only Son to save the world. God loves me, is the discovery of the Christian. It may take years to discover this, but when it is realized, it involves a very new image and concept of the divine. I tend to think that man by nature tends to regard God as being not very friendly. He is not very kind. He is not very understanding or interested. He is either a long way off, or very near precisely in order to pounce and punish. My suggestion would be that this is largely the effect of the conscience, and modern Western man who is deficient in the sense of sin tosses overboard this wearisome notion of a god. But the revolutionary character of the Christian religion lies in this central feature, that God is absolutely one and that he is pure love. His almighty power shows itself in his love and mercy. In parable after parable and above all in his own life, Christ revealed that God is rich in mercy. At the heart of all that is, there throbs a Heart of love. All that there is flows from the creative act of this love. It is a love that is patient and kind and one which expects to be imitated. And so our Lord teaches us that we are to live in imitation of God who is our Father. "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who ill-treat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back" (Luke 6: 27-38). If we are not merciful and kind, we shall be absolutely unlike our heavenly Father who is merciful. Further, there is this dire warning: "For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
Let us immerse ourselves in the doctrine of the most holy
Trinity. The Father loves the Son with an infinite, eternal love. The Son
returns this love in infinite measure, and the Holy Spirit is this love in
person. All this is conveyed to the baptized person, and he is asked by Christ
— through the utterance of the Church — to live in such a way that this
compassionate, undying, merciful love is manifested in his daily life and
interaction with his fellows. This is the way we win souls for Christ, by
reflecting his love for us — just as he reflected to perfection the love of
the Father.
(E.J.Tyler)
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If you live the 'life of childhood', you should have the
sweet tooth of a child, a 'spiritual sweet tooth!' Like those 'of your age',
think of
the good
things your Mother keeps.
And do so many times a day. It just takes a moment...
Mary... Jesus... the Tabernacle... Communion... Love... suffering... the
blessed souls in purgatory... those who are fighting: the Pope, the priests...
the faithful... your soul... the souls of your people... the guardian
Angels... sinners...
(The Way, no.898)
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Continuing The
Imitation of Christ BOOK
THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
Thirty-Fourth Chapter GOD IS SWEET ABOVE ALL THINGS AND IN ALL THINGS TO THOSE WHO LOVE HIM
THE DISCIPLE
BEHOLD, my God and my all! What more do I wish for; what
greater happiness can I desire? O sweet and delicious word! But sweet only to
him who loves it, and not to the world or the things that are in the world.
(Continuing)
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The true Christian rejoices in those earthly things which
give joy, but in such a way as not to care for them when they go. For no
blessings does he care much, except those which are immortal, knowing that he
shall receive all such again in the world to come.
JHN, from the sermon ‘Scripture a Record of Human Sorrow’ (1831)
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Friday of the twenty third week in Ordinary Time
(September 11) St. Cyprian (d. 258)
Cyprian is important in the development of Christian thought and practice in
the third century, especially in northern Africa. Highly educated, a famous
orator, he became a Christian as an adult. He distributed his goods to the
poor, and amazed his fellow citizens by making a vow of chastity before his
baptism. Within two years he had been ordained a priest and was chosen,
against his will, as
Bishop
of Carthage (near modern Tunis). Cyprian complained that the peace the
Church had enjoyed had weakened the spirit of many Christians and had opened
the door to converts who did not have the true spirit of faith. When the
Decian persecution began, many Christians easily abandoned the Church. It
was their reinstatement that caused the great controversies of the third
century, and helped the Church progress in its understanding of the
Sacrament of Penance. Novatus, a priest who had opposed Cyprian's election,
set himself up in Cyprian's absence (he had fled to a hiding place from
which to direct the Church—bringing criticism on himself) and received back
all apostates without imposing any canonical penance. Ultimately he was
condemned. Cyprian held a middle course, holding that those who had actually
sacrificed to idols could receive Communion only at death, whereas those who
had only bought certificates saying they had sacrificed could be admitted
after a more or less lengthy period of penance. Even this was relaxed during
a new persecution. During a plague in Carthage, he urged Christians to help
everyone, including their enemies and persecutors. A friend of Pope
Cornelius, Cyprian opposed the following pope, Stephen. He and the other
African bishops would not recognize the validity of baptism conferred by
heretics and schismatics. This was not the universal view of the Church, but
Cyprian was not intimidated even by Stephen's threat of excommunication. He
was exiled by the emperor and then recalled for trial. He refused to leave
the city, insisting that his people should have the witness of his
martyrdom. Cyprian was a mixture of kindness and courage, vigor and
steadiness. He was cheerful and serious, so that people did not know whether
to love or respect him more. He waxed warm during the baptismal controversy;
his feelings must have concerned him, for it was at this time that he wrote
his treatise on patience. St. Augustine (August 28) remarks that Cyprian
atoned for his anger by his glorious martyrdom.
“You cannot have God for your Father
if you do not have the Church for your mother.... God is one and Christ is
one, and his Church is one; one is the faith, and one is the people cemented
together by harmony into the strong unity of a body.... If we are the heirs
of Christ, let us abide in the peace of Christ; if we are the sons of God,
let us be lovers of peace” (St. Cyprian, The Unity of the Catholic
Church). (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14;
Psalm 16:1b-2a and 5, 7-8, 11; Luke 6:39-42
Jesus also told the people this parable: Can a blind man lead a blind man?
Will they not both fall into a pit? A student is not above his teacher, but
everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you look at
the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank
in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the
speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own
eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will
see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
(Luke 6:39-42)
One’s own sin
Many decades ago I attended an address given
by the editor of a leading Sydney tabloid. He made the point that the Church
is news, and of course news is what the tabloid markets. It is a marketer of
news and its sales depend on how attractively its distinctive product, the
news, is packaged. Many categories of news are of immediate interest to the
public — the financial state of society, tragedies and mishaps, natural
disasters, the outbreak of war and its progress, and so forth. There is one
category of news which, I have
often noticed, is especially seized upon by
media outlets — be they tabloids, serious newspapers, television and radio
media — and that is, ethical issues. A flagrant violation of law in society
rivets the attention of the public, but what media professionals especially
delight in is the investigative reporting of unethical or immoral practice,
which may or may not be criminal behaviour as such. While the Church has
been news, what is of greater interest to newsmakers is ethics, immorality
and secret crime. But further things can be said about this. Firstly,
failures in ethics and morality are not regarded as sinful — the question of
sin is deemed to be a purely private and subjective issue. There is crime,
immoral and unethical behaviour. This must be brought to light, and all
delight in doing so. But there is no sin, because sin involves God and God
is a matter for each person and is not a public fact. It would be a laughing
matter for the media to accuse a politician or political leader of
committing a serious sin. But it is no laughing matter to accuse a political
leader of unethical or immoral behaviour. While sin is just a joke, ethics
is most newsworthy and the public love soap-opera presentations of ethical
misdemeanours. That is the first point to be made. The second is this. While
people readily condemn others for moral failure if this comes to light, few
accuse themselves of moral failure, let alone of sin. There is a perennial
readiness to denounce others for their imprudence and moral lapses, but it
is a rarity to see someone with an abiding sense of personal fault and sin.
That is to say, we are quick to condemn others, but slow to admit our own
fault to ourselves. One thinks of the scene in the Gospel of St John in
which the religious leaders brought to our Lord a woman caught in her
immoral behaviour. Moses condemned such as her to stoning — what did he,
Jesus, say? They wanted to catch him, but their action illustrates the
tendency of man to avoid admission of personal sin. Our Lord replied that
the one who is free of sin was to be the first to cast a stone. The way he
said this and what he then did somehow conveyed to each the fact of their
own sinfulness, for they left one by one. They readily condemned evil
behaviour, but were blind to its presence in themselves. It took our Lord’s
words to unmask it, and the power of the accusing conscience did the rest.
They retreated from the scene. It reminds us of the very beginning when,
having sinned, Adam and Eve hid in the Garden from the sight of God. They
were afraid of the anger of God, but, interestingly, they still were
reluctant to admit to their sin. God said, “You have eaten of the tree of
which I commanded you not to eat!” The man said, “The woman you placed at my
side gave me fruit from the tree and I ate.” The woman — whom, in any case,
God had placed at his side — was to blame. “What have you done?” God asked
the woman. She too avoided admission of sin. “The Serpent deceived me, and I
ate.” Man will dodge, if he can, the accusation of personal sin. His
conscience, clearly echoing the voice of God, is most powerful in its
judgment of guilt. Man shuts the door to that voice and puts himself out of
earshot. He prefers to be deaf to it, all the while condemning wrongdoing in
others. All this illustrates the pertinency of our Lord’s words in the
Gospel of today. They are relevant to every place and time. “ How can you
say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when
you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first
take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the
speck from your brother's eye” (Luke 6:39-42).
It has often been observed — and the Second Vatican Council, quoting Pope
Pius XII also made the observation — that the sin of our age is the loss of
the sense of sin. We have become blind to our sinful condition. Of course,
man in every age struggles to see his sinfulness clearly, but in our age the
denial is especially forceful. At the heart of the fault is the denial of
the objective and ever-present fact of God. There are no sins, there is only
immorality — and it is the other person who is immoral and unethical. This
blindness must be overcome, for at the heart of religion is the acceptance
of our true condition. On this basis we can welcome our Redeemer with
heartfelt praise and gratitude — and on this basis we are best able to help
our neighbour too.
(E.J.Tyler)
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That little mortification costs you so much! You're in two minds. It's as if
some one were saying: why must you be so faithful to your
plan of life, to
the clock? Listen: have you noticed how easily little children are taken in?
They don't want to swallow their medicine, but 'Come', they are told, 'this
one spoonful for Daddy, and this one for Granny.' And so on, until they have
finished the lot.
Do the same; fifteen minutes more mortification for the souls in purgatory;
five more for your parents; another five for your brothers in the
apostolate... Until, in the end, the allotted time is up.
Your mortification done in this way... is worth so much!
(The Way, no.899)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL
CONSOLATION
Thirty-Fourth Chapter GOD IS
SWEET ABOVE ALL THINGS AND IN ALL THINGS TO THOSE WHO LOVE HIM
THE DISCIPLE
My God and my all! These words are enough for him who understands, and for
him who loves it is a joy to repeat them often. For when You are present,
all things are delightful; when You are absent, all things become loathsome.
It is You Who give a heart tranquillity, great peace and festive joy. It is
You Who make us think well of all things, and praise You in all things.
Without You nothing can give pleasure for very long, for if it is to be
pleasing and tasteful, Your grace and the seasoning of Your wisdom must be
in it. What is there that can displease him whose happiness is in You? And,
on the contrary, what can satisfy him whose delight is not in You?
(Continuing)
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To be dispassionate and cautious, to be fair in discussion, to give to each
phenomenon which nature successively presents its due weight, candidly to
admit those which militate against our own theory, to be willing to be
ignorant for a time, to submit to difficulties, and patiently and meekly
proceed, waiting for farther light … is the only temper in which we can hope
to become interpreters of nature, and it is the very temper which
Christianity sets forth as the perfection of our moral character.
JHN, from the University sermon ‘The Philosophical Temper, First Enjoined by
the Gospel’ (1826)
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Saturday of the twenty third week in Ordinary Time
(September 12) Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin
Mary
This feast is a counterpart to the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus (January 3);
both have the possibility of uniting people easily divided
on
other matters. The feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary began in Spain in 1513
and in 1671 was extended to all of Spain and the Kingdom of Naples. In 1683,
John Sobieski, king of Poland, brought an army to the outskirts of Vienna to
stop the advance of Muslim armies loyal to Mohammed IV in Constantinople. After
Sobieski entrusted himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he and his soldiers
thoroughly defeated the Muslims. Pope Innocent XI extended this feast to the
entire Church.
“Lord our God, when your Son was dying on the altar of the cross, he gave us as
our mother the one he had chosen to be his own mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary;
grant that we who call upon the holy name of Mary, our mother, with confidence
in her protection may receive strength and comfort in all our needs” (Marian
Sacramentary, Mass for the Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary).
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 1 Timothy 1:15-17; Psalm
113:1b-7; Luke 6:43-49
No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a
bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognised by its own fruit. People do
not pick figs from
thorn-bushes,
or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up
in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in
his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. Why do you
call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like
who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man
building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When the
flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was
well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice
is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment
the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.
(Luke 6: 43-49)
The Rock
Very many of the passages of the Gospels give the impression of being
what we might call “sayings” of our Lord. These sayings may sum up teachings
involving many more parables than are given in the Gospels, or they may reduce
to pithy form his more copious explanations and instructions. Perhaps our Lord
repeated these sayings often and thus instilled them into the memory of his
disciples. Often passages give the impression of consisting of such sayings
placed together in a running account. In the Gospels our Lord
is shown making
great use of analogies. I suspect that in his human intellect he gravitated
towards concrete analogy. He continually saw likenesses and had a predilection
for metaphor. He grasped the good with profundity and expressed it simply and
with instinctive artistry. The good tree that produces good fruit illustrates
the good man bringing good things from what is in his heart. A bad tree is
analogous to the bad man whose heart is full of evil things and it is those that
come forth from him. “For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”
His point is that it is the inner heart of man that must be made good. This
having been said, another saying is given which is not necessarily connected
with what immediately precedes it. It means that the Gospels give themselves to
ease of meditation, for one or two sentences can be treated as a unit — and that
is exactly what they often are. They can be memorized gradually and their
connections with other sayings can be noticed. Moreover, elements in each saying
can be brought to life by imagining our Lord drawing directly from his close
contact with the life of ordinary people over many years. “Each tree is
recognised by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn-bushes, or
grapes from briers.” The ordinary course and even the constitution of the world
are shown by Christ as supporting and illustrating fundamental doctrines of
religion.
Following our Lord’s illustration of the fruit that each tree produces, there is
given another of his illustrations, with a different point. Our Lord, we
remember, was by trade a carpenter-builder, to which, humanly speaking, he was
introduced by his foster-father Joseph. We can imagine our Lord and Joseph often
over the many years of life at Nazareth constructing dwellings. The tiny
settlement at Nazareth was near the cosmopolitan city of Sepphoris, which at
this time was undergoing a multi-faceted development. We can imagine Joseph and
Jesus often working together on dwellings and other buildings in the city. The
illustration he gives here perhaps suggests his work in Nazareth: the building
of a dwelling not on sandy or loose soil, but on rock below which required a lot
of digging. This activity rises immediately before our Lord’s mind as an apt
analogy for the fundamental human activity of hearing and obeying the word of
God. This chapter is like the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew in that it follows
Luke’s statement of the Beatitudes (Luke 6:20-26). In this chapter, Christ
speaks especially to his disciples. It is not enough to say to him, Lord! Lord!
(Luke 6: 43-49) Much more is expected of a
disciple than that. Our Lord expects obedience to his word. Just as a house must
be built on rock, rock which must be first reached and made the foundation, so
discipleship must be based on hearing, knowing and accepting Christ’s word and
putting it into practice. Christ, then, is the rock, and building on him means
acknowledging him as Lord precisely by hearing and obeying his word. In a
different Gospel, our Lord would refer to a rock on which he himself would
build. “You are Peter (Rock),” he said to Simon, “and on this Rock I will build
my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
The floods and the elements of Satan will be unable to topple this House Christ
built on this rock. He, Simon, would utter the word of God in Christ’s name, and
men must obey it, for “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.”
Let us build our daily life on rock. That rock is Christ and he is found in the
Church which he himself has built on the rock of Simon Peter. Our daily life
must be, in its essence, accepting and obeying what Christ has revealed, and
this comes to us in his body the Church. In this lies our ultimate security. The
rain and the flood and the fire and all the elements of this world and the
underworld might beat against the house, but if it is founded on Christ and his
word, all will be well. As St Thomas More said, though I lose my head I’ll come
to no harm.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You are not alone. Suffer that tribulation joyfully. It's true, poor child, that
you don't feel your Mother's hand in yours. But... have you never seen the
mothers of this earth, with arms outstretched, following their little ones when,
without anyone's help, they venture to take their first shaky steps? You
(The Way, no.900)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE
INTERNAL CONSOLATION
Thirty-Fourth Chapter GOD IS SWEET
ABOVE ALL THINGS AND IN ALL THINGS TO THOSE WHO LOVE HIM
THE DISCIPLE
The wise men of the world, the men who lust for the flesh, are wanting in Your
wisdom, because in the world is found the utmost vanity, and in the flesh is
death. But they who follow You by disdaining worldly things and mortifying the
flesh are known to be truly wise, for they are transported from vanity to truth,
from flesh to spirit. By such as these God is relished, and whatever good is
found in creatures they turn to praise of the Creator. But great -- yes, very
great, indeed -- is the difference between delight in the Creator and in the
creature, in eternity and in time, in Light uncreated and in the light that is
reflected.
(Continuing)
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When once we have mastered the idea, that Mary bore, suckled, and handled the
Eternal in the form of a child, what limit is conceivable to the rush and flood
of thoughts which such a doctrine involves?
JHN, from A Letter Addressed to the Rev. E. B. Pusey (1865)
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Twenty fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time B
Prayers this week:
Give peace, Lord,
to those who wait for you and your prophets who will proclaim you as you
deserve. Hear the prayers of your servant and of your people Israel. (Sir. 36. 18)
Almighty God our creator and guide, may we serve you with all our
heart and know your forgiveness in our lives.
We ask
this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.
(September 13) St. John Chrysostom (d. 407)
The ambiguity and intrigue surrounding John, the great preacher (his name means
"golden-mouthed") from Antioch, are characteristic of the life of any great man
in a capital city. Brought to Constantinople after a dozen years of priestly
service in Syria, John found himself
the
reluctant victim of an imperial ruse to make him bishop in the greatest city of
the empire. Ascetic, unimposing but dignified, and troubled by stomach ailments
from his desert days as a monk, John became a bishop under the cloud of imperial
politics. If his body was weak, his tongue was powerful. The content of his
sermons, his exegesis of Scripture, were never without a point. Sometimes the
point stung the high and mighty. Some sermons lasted up to two hours. His
lifestyle at the imperial court was not appreciated by many courtiers. He
offered a modest table to episcopal sycophants hanging around for imperial and
ecclesiastical favors. John deplored the court protocol that accorded him
precedence before the highest state officials. He would not be a kept man. His
zeal led him to decisive action. Bishops who bribed their way into office were
deposed. Many of his sermons called for concrete steps to share wealth with the
poor. The rich did not appreciate hearing from John that private property
existed because of Adam's fall from grace any more than married men liked to
hear that they were bound to marital fidelity just as much as their wives were.
When it came to justice and charity, John acknowledged no double standards.
Aloof, energetic, outspoken, especially when he became excited in the pulpit,
John was a sure target for criticism and personal trouble. He was accused of
gorging himself secretly on rich wines and fine foods. His faithfulness as
spiritual director to the rich widow, Olympia, provoked much gossip attempting
to prove him a hypocrite where wealth and chastity were concerned. His actions
taken against unworthy bishops in Asia Minor were viewed by other ecclesiastics
as a greedy, uncanonical extension of his authority. Two prominent personages
who personally undertook to discredit John were Theophilus, Archbishop of
Alexandria, and Empress Eudoxia. Theophilus feared the growth in importance of
the Bishop of Constantinople and took occasion to charge John with fostering
heresy. Theophilus and other angered bishops were supported by Eudoxia. The
empress resented his sermons contrasting gospel values with the excesses of
imperial court life. Whether intended or not, sermons mentioning the lurid
Jezebel (see 1 Kings 9:1—21:23) and impious Herodias (see Mark 6:17-29) were
associated with the empress, who finally did manage to have John exiled. He died
in exile in 407. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Isaiah 50:5-9a; Psalm 116:1-6,
8-9; James 2:14-18; Mark 8:27-35
Jesus and his disciples went on to the
villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, Who do people say I
am? They
replied,
Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the
prophets. But what about you? he asked. Who do you say I am? Peter answered, You
are the Christ. Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. He then began to
teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the
elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and
after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him
aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his
disciples, he rebuked Peter. Get behind me, Satan! he said. You do not have in
mind the things of God, but the things of men. Then he called the crowd to him
along with his disciples and said: If anyone would come after me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.
(Mark 8: 27-35)
In God’s Plan
The movie, The Passion of the
Christ, produced by Mel Gibson, opens with a quotation from the Suffering
Servant Song of the prophet Isaiah: “He was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and
by his bruises we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). The date of the prophecy is given: several
centuries before the birth of Christ. Christ and his passion are presented as
the fulfilment of the prophecies. The movie then moves to the scene of Christ in
agony in the
Garden of Gethsemane. A serpent slithers towards Jesus and he
crushes its head. Jesus is the fulfilment of the prophecy in Genesis 3:15, that
the seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head. The Scriptures had
predicted the coming of the great King, the descendant of David and the occupier
of his throne. He would be the anointed one, the Messiah, and in him the
promises of God would be fulfilled. In our Gospel today, our Lord asks his
disciples who people say he is — and then he asks his disciples who they say he
is. In the words of Simon, he is the coming Messiah. But what was full of
mystery was the exact nature of the Messiah’s mission. Generally it was assumed
that the Messiah would institute a utopian age, in which the people would be
liberated from foreign oppression and given over to the service of God in a
reign of peace. The world would be changed. Christ appeared on the scene,
gradually revealing that he was the promised Messiah, but that much of what they
expected was a complete misinterpretation. Seeing him, his very nature as divine was missed and not
accepted. Altogether new and yet in full accord with the prophecies, was the
revelation that he, as the Servant of Yahweh, would be a Suffering Servant. And
so we have our Lord in today’s Gospel speaking with insistence on his suffering
and death. “Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many
things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and
that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about
this” (Mark 8:27-35).
The violent death of Jesus Christ was not the result of an unfortunate set of
circumstances, but was essential in God’s saving plan. As St Peter explains to
the Jews in his first sermon at Pentecost, “This Jesus was delivered up
according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). God had
his plan for man’s salvation, and in view of this plan he permitted the acts
which flowed from the blindness of Jesus’ enemies. Christ did not simply get
caught and then swiftly executed. The prophet Isaiah (53:11-12) had foretold the
sufferings and death of God’s Servant, the righteous one. Jesus’ redemptive
death fulfils these prophecies. He is the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53:7-8, and
Acts 8:32-35) and Jesus himself explained the meaning of his life and death in
the light of God’s Suffering Servant (Matthew 20:28). After his Resurrection he
gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then
to the Apostles together (Luke 24:25-27, 44-45). As a result, the Apostles and
Peter had a clear understanding, coming from Christ himself, that all are
“ransomed” from sin “with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb
without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:18-20). Referring to a confession of faith
that he himself had received, St Paul professes that “Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3). He wrote that the sin of man is
punishable by death (Romans 5:12), but Christ stood in our place. God “made him
to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of
God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is an astonishing revelation and it brought to
the world a revolutionary understanding of God. Jesus, utterly free of sin, took
to himself our sinful state and was treated accordingly. He entered the river
Jordan to be baptized as one standing in our place, and he cried out from the
Cross asking the Father “why have you abandoned me?” as the one who stood in our
place. As St Paul writes, God “did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us
all,” so that we might be “reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans
8:32, 5:10).
There never has been, nor is there, nor will there ever be, a single human being
for whom Christ did not suffer and die. He suffered for Mary, his own mother. It
was in virtue of the merits of his future sacrifice that his mother was
preserved free from original sin, and endowed with such abundant grace
throughout her sinless life. The death of Christ was not just a sad end. It was
a central element in the redemptive plan of God for mankind. Christ did not lose
his life. He gave it up. He did this in order to take away the sin of the world,
for this was the will of his heavenly Father. It is this which is made present
at Mass, and it is this which we are called to share in.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no.599-605
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Jesus, I could never repay you, even if I died of Love, for the grace you have
spent in me in making me little.
(The Way, no.901)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
Thirty-Fourth Chapter
GOD IS SWEET ABOVE
ALL THINGS AND IN ALL THINGS TO THOSE WHO LOVE HIM
THE DISCIPLE
O Light eternal, surpassing all created brightness, flash forth the lightning
from above and enlighten the inmost recesses of my heart. Cleanse, cheer,
enlighten, and vivify my spirit with all its powers, that it may cleave to You
in ecstasies of joy. Oh, when will that happy and wished-for hour come, that You
may fill me with Your presence and become all in all to me? So long as this is
not given me, my joy will not be complete.
(Continuing)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Henry Newman’s sermon ‘Obedience
the Remedy for Religious Perplexity’ dates from 1830. In it, he looks at
the nature of conversion, the difficulty of following seriously the path of
Christ, and the fruits of perseverance and trust.
Every science has its difficulties at first; why then should the
science of living well be without them? When the subject of religion is new to
us, it is strange. We have heard truths all our lives without feeling them duly;
at length, when they affect us, we cannot believe them to be the same we have
long known. We are thrown out of our fixed notions of things; an embarrassment
ensues; a general painful uncertainty. We say, “Is the Bible true? Is it
possible?” and are distressed by evil doubts, which we can hardly explain to
ourselves, much
less
to others. No one can help us. And the relative importance of present objects is
so altered from what it was, that we can scarcely form any judgment upon them,
or when we attempt it, we form a wrong judgment. Our eyes do not accommodate
themselves to the various distances of the objects before us, and are dazzled;
or like the blind man restored to sight, we “see men as trees, walking.” [Mark
8: 24] Moreover, our judgment of persons, as well as of things, is changed; and,
if not every where changed, yet at first every where suspected by ourselves. And
this general distrust of ourselves is the greater the longer we have been
already living in inattention to sacred subjects, and the more we now are
humbled and ashamed of ourselves. And it leads us to take up with the first
religious guide who offers himself to us, whatever be his real fitness for the
office.
To these agitations of mind about what is truth and what is error, is added an
anxiety about ourselves, which, however sincere, is apt to lead us wrong. We do
not feel, think, and act as religiously as we could wish; and while we are sorry
for it, we are also (perhaps) somewhat surprised at it, and impatient at
it,—which is natural but unreasonable. Instead of reflecting that we are just
setting about our recovery from a most serious disease of long standing, we
conceive we ought to be able to trace the course of our recovery by a sensible
improvement. This same impatience is seen in persons who are recovering from
bodily indisposition. They gain strength slowly, and are better perhaps for some
days, and then worse again; and a slight relapse dispirits them. In the same
way, when we begin to seek God in earnest, we are apt, not only to be humbled
(which we ought to be), but to be discouraged at the slowness with which we are
able to amend, in spite of all the assistances of God’s grace. [...]
But what says the text? “Wait on the Lord and keep His way.” [Psalm 37: 34] And
Isaiah? “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall
mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they
shall walk, and not faint.” [Isaiah 40: 31] And St. Paul? “I can do all things
through Christ which strengtheneth me.” [Phil. 4: 13] The very fruit of Christ’s
passion was the gift of the Holy Spirit, which was to enable us to do what
otherwise we could not do—”to work out our own salvation.” [Phil. 2: 12]—Yet,
while we must aim at this, and feel convinced of our ability to do it at length
through the gifts bestowed on us, we cannot do it rightly without a deep settled
conviction of the exceeding difficulty of the work. That is, not only shall we
be tempted to negligence, but to impatience also … if we be possessed by a
notion that religious discipline soon becomes easy to the believer, and that the
heart is speedily changed.
(John Henry Newman, Parochial and
Plain Sermons Vol 1 (1834) Sermon no. 18, p. 230-32, 234)
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Monday of the
twenty-fourth week in Ordinary Time B-2
click centre arrow
Scripture today: 1 Corinthians 11:
17-26.33; Psalm 39; Luke 7: 1-10
When Jesus had finished all his words to
the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave who was ill and
about to die,
and
he was valuable to him. When he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to
him, asking him to come and save the life of his slave. They approached Jesus
and strongly urged him to come, saying, “He deserves to have you do this for
him, for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us.” And Jesus went
with them, but when he was only a short distance from the house, the centurion
sent friends to tell him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to
have you enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to
come to you; but say the word and let my servant be healed. For I too am a
person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, Go,
and he goes; and to another, Come here, and he comes; and to my slave, Do this,
and he does it.” When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him and, turning, said
to the crowd following him, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such
faith.” When the messengers returned to the house, they found the slave in good
health. (Luke 7:1-10)
Freedom
The man was a pagan. There is no suggestion that he was a convert to the Jewish
faith. I am speaking of the centurion in our Gospel passage today. We are not
told from what country he came - it may have been from Italy, even from Rome,
but it could have been from anywhere in the Empire. There would be future
Emperors who were not Italian - Trajan and Hadrian were from Spain. This
centurion’s religion could have been any one of the many that were rife in the
Empire - it may have been a kind of ancestor
worship,
or he may have approximated to the religion of the Jewish nation. Whatever of
these possibilities, he was a good man. He had regard for his slave and he did
not want him to die - he was not just a pawn in his hands. The Jewish elders of
the place regarded him as a very deserving man, despite their dislike of the
Roman occupation. He had actually built the Synagogue of Capernaum for them. The
elders told Jesus that he “loved” the Jewish nation, which may have been very
unusual for the Roman occupier. Elsewhere in the Gospel, Pilate is reported as
having massacred Jews in the Temple. Furthermore, he did not presume to come to
Jesus himself - he sent “elders of the Jews” to represent him, and they did so
willingly, and actively advocated for him. When he saw, or was told of Jesus
approaching his house, he sent “friends” - not just servants - to Jesus to tell
him he was not worthy to have him enter his home. This was not just an exercise
in politeness. The centurion did not feel up to having Jesus enter his dwelling,
so overwhelmed was he at having such a holy person grace his house. His humility
did not admit of it, and Jesus did not press to enter. The centurion made it
clear, though, that he had no doubt that Jesus had the power simply to command
the mortal sickness to leave his servant, and it would be done. He was a very
good man, religious - for he had built a Synagogue, humble, very respectful
before Jesus of Nazareth, and had unbounded faith in his power. Further, Christ
was absolutely astonished with him. In what mattered, namely, faith, the
centurion had few peers. “When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him and,
turning, said to the crowd following him, ‘I tell you, not even in Israel have I
found such faith’” (Luke 7:1-10).
It is remarkable to think that one man
can make so much of the relatively little that he has, while the other can so
tragically abuse the wondrous blessings he has. The same has obtained in heaven
as on earth. It is generally understood that Satan/Lucifer was among the most
illustriously endowed of the angelic beings. His intelligence must have been of
the highest order, and his gifts of grace of a similar level if not higher. He
came from the creative hand of God a great and holy being, with immense
spiritual potential and an eternity of loving service of God ahead of him. But
he turned out so very, very bad, unspeakably bad, bad beyond description, and
irrevocably set on a course of hatred against his Maker, being the arch-wrecker
till the end of time. He began in the company of others of his heavenly order -
although each angel is his own species. There were those who remained faithful
to God, and those who followed him in rebellion. Again, our first parents came
from the hand of God wholly good, good in nature, and endowed with supernatural
gifts of grace. Inexplicably, they chose, freely chose, to turn against God and
reject his sovereign authority. It is accepted that they repented and are saved,
but the consequences were horrendous for man - he was left bereft of the
supernatural endowments that were his, and limping badly as a result - indeed
doomed to death. How sad! And so we turn to our Gospel today and contemplate our
centurion. Little though he had in terms of revealed teaching, he was so good a
person, and as a consequence so disposed to believe, that he won Christ’s praise
and admiration. But contemplate, on the other hand, many of those blessed with
God’s revelation and his choice. Many of the scribes and Pharisees, many of the
Sadducees, many of the priests and certainly the Temple aristocracy, hated Jesus
the more they saw of him. He was a threat to their preferred sovereignty.
Contemplate Judas Iscariot who began so well as to have been chosen by Christ to
be his special companion and co-worker in establishing and extending the
Kingdom. He turned out so very, very badly. It is remarkable how one man chooses
the good, while the other chooses the bad.
Whatever might be our endowments or lack
of them, we have the power to choose, and to choose well. Let us ensure that we
do choose well! It is a matter of life and death, both now and forever. Let us
appreciate the awesome gift of freedom, which makes us so like unto God our
Father. Let us choose well, then! This means choosing for Christ and his will
day by day. This is the key to being good and to growing in goodness. It is the
work of grace which transforms us into the likeness of Christ, but we on our
part must choose well. We must choose what is right, which is to say, what is
the will of God as it comes from the lips of Christ, brought to us by his
Church.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Tuesday of the twenty-fourth week
in Ordinary Time B-2
click centre arrow
Scripture today: 1 Corinthians 12:
12-14.27-31; Psalm 99; Luke 7: 11-17
Soon
afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd
went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being
carried out — the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd
from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and
he said, "Don't cry." Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying
him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!"
The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared
among us," they said. "God has come to help his people." This news about Jesus
spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.
(Luke 7: 11-17)
God-with-us
In the popular religion of classical times, and in many of the
religions of man over the ages, the world is subject to arbitrary interventions
by the deities. In the religious imagination of peoples unformed by the
Judeo-Christian revelation, the world was not run primarily by law, but
unpredictable forces, and especially by the somewhat unpredictable gods. It was
imperative to get the gods on side, to get them to notice oneself, to keep them
happy, and especially to enlist the interest of the god that had a special
influence in
the
area of one’s concern - be it war, travel, fertility, love, or whatever. The
ancestors, of course, were among these deities. But by and large, if one did not
work at attracting their sympathetic interest, one was in a ticklish position.
Their moods or their lack of interest could cause great mishaps, even loss of
life. The course of the world to a fair extent depended on the gods and
goddesses. But man’s knowledge of the world advanced, changed and the fact of
law loomed in the mind of Western man. The universe was subject to law, and this
law could be discovered by direct examination, experiment and testing. What this
gradually meant, though, was that there were now no gods - so it was assumed.
Indeed, there was no supernatural at all. All there now was, was the world and
its laws. So man was now subject not to the gods, but to the laws. This unspoken
mentality became spoken, and the true God of Judeo-Christian revelation who
superseded the gods of the peoples became the deist god of laws. He was but a
deus-ex-machina, a useful explanation of the design that is seen everywhere in
the universe and its laws, but in terms of the course of one’s life, an
irrelevancy. Life now depended not on a god, but on the universe and its design,
its laws, its necessary course. Thus God became absent. One was on one’s own,
and what one had in God’s place was technology. At most, religion too was but a
technology. What this meant was that the prayer of petition was a nonsense.
Further, any thought of an active and merciful providence, caring for the
suffering individual, faded from the imagination of modern, secular man, the man
of modern times.
That is to say, all there is, is what you see. All there is, is this world. You
are on your own in your troubles, except for your technical equipment, your
latest pills and your computer with its access to the Internet. There is no
unseen and powerful Friend to whom you can appeal, and on whom you can rely.
Well then, this is the modern bind that people are in and as it turns out, the
Gospel is immensely relevant. In Jesus Christ, man is presented with a radically
different spectacle from what his secular environment leads him to expect, and
one in profound harmony with all that for which he yearns. In our Gospel scene
today (Luke 7: 11-17), out of the little
village there appears a sight which is repeated unendingly across the centuries
and the ages: a person dear to his mother, to his relatives, to his
acquaintances, is being carried out for burial. What can be done? Nothing - the
power of death is absolute. There is no use trying to think of some answer, some
remedy - all the world knows from grim experience that nothing can be done. Even
in an age of technology, far removed from the age depicted in our Gospel scene,
nothing can be done when Death arrives. Its powerful arm cannot be resisted.
Something of a fight can be mounted in resistance, but ultimately all such
efforts are futile. When it strikes, and strike it will, there is nothing to be
done. It is symptomatic of man’s ultimate dependence - indeed, his ultimate
contingency. If the gods go, and if the true God is lost from sight because of
the laws of the world, if he has in fact become a figment of the imagination,
what is man to do? Well, the Good News is that God has appeared in person on the
scene amid all the things that strike man down. He is there, he has been seen,
and he takes the initiative to ward off the arm of that which threatens man.
Indeed, he shows that he is far, far the stronger. The funeral is moving out
towards the cemetery, and suddenly Jesus Christ with the crowd of followers in
tow, appears on the scene. He immediately understands. He steps forward and the
funeral procession stops. In a moment everything is transformed. The young man,
blooming now with life, is handed back to his thunderstruck mother, and the
village is in unprecedented rejoicing.
Man now has the revelation not only that God loves him, sees all, and wishes to
assist and save him, but that God himself is with him as his Saviour. Jesus
Christ is the blessing of all blessings on this earth. Nothing can compare with
knowing him as our Lord and Saviour. Indeed, as he said, eternal life is this,
to know you, Father, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. As St Paul writes, in
Jesus Christ is found every heavenly blessing. Our Gospel scene today depicts
this. It portrays a scene that happened once, a long time ago, but its relevance
is immediate to each of us at any point in history. The same Jesus Christ lives
now and as he saw that scene then, so he sees me now. Let us keep our gaze on
him then, and take our part with him every day.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
(September 14) The Victory of the Holy Cross
[picture: inscription of the true cross (the titulus
crucis in Rome )]
Early in the fourth century St. Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor
Constantine, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of
Christ's life.
She razed the Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the
Saviour's tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher over the
tomb. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. The story is that the
one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman. The
cross immediately became an object of veneration. At a Good Friday celebration
in Jerusalem toward the end of the fourth century, according to an eyewitness,
the wood was taken out of its silver container and placed on a table together
with the inscription Pilate ordered placed above Jesus' head: Then "all the
people pass through one by one; all of them bow down, touching the cross and the
inscription, first with their foreheads, then with their eyes; and, after
kissing the cross, they move on." To this day the Eastern Churches, Catholic and
Orthodox alike, celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the September
anniversary of the basilica's dedication. The feast entered the Western calendar
in the seventh century after Emperor Heraclius recovered the cross from the
Persians, who had carried it off in 614, 15 years earlier. According to the
story, the emperor intended to carry the cross back into Jerusalem himself, but
was unable to move forward until he took off his imperial garb and became a
barefoot pilgrim.
"How splendid the cross of Christ! It brings life, not death;
light, not darkness; Paradise, not its loss. It is the wood on which the Lord,
like a great warrior, was wounded in hands and feet and side, but healed thereby
our wounds. A tree has destroyed us, a tree now brought us life" (Theodore of
Studios).
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Numbers 21:4b-9; Psalm 78:1bc-2, 34-38; Phil 2:6-11;
John 3:13-17
Jesus said to Nicodemus, No-one has ever gone into heaven except the one who
came from heaven— the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him
may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only
Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the
world through him.
(John 3:13-17)
The Cross
Two
sisters grow up together in a remote farming property. It is a truly happy
childhood for each. Their parents are good and religious, and a happy spirit
pervades the family life. Their cousins live in the same rural valley and they
go to the small school over the several years of their childhood and early
adolescence. They ride, they help with the farm, they fish, they visit the
metropolis from time to time and stay with relatives. Theirs is a childhood
which they will always recollect with happy feelings, an anchor for the future. The younger sister marries a man she happens to meet, and he is a military man.
She leaves and lives out her married life in the city. Her life becomes
difficult because he is consistently inconsiderate. He worsens in his
selfishness, especially as the children begin to arrive. In fact, the average
woman would have regarded him as impossible. He is moody, unsettled, bad
tempered, very difficult both for her and for the growing children. Her whole
life — a long life — is full of cares and difficulties, but she is faithful to
the last. Anyone would regard her as having had bad luck in life, a life with
much disappointment. The cross loomed large over her. Her older sister also
married and married well. Her husband was a professional man. He had his faults,
of course, but he held down a good job, was a good and religious man, and
supportive of his wife and caring of his children. She could only look on at her
younger sister’s difficult marriage and admire her fidelity. She too had her
crosses, of course, but not the special cross of a particularly difficult
marriage. Now, what is to be made of all these difficulties? Are they just a sad
lacuna in the story of a life? Is suffering and disappointment just a blot, a
negative, something to be forgotten, something that is purely a spoiler? Let us
go beyond this individual I am mentioning, and think of the countless numbers of
people whose course has been one of long travail and sadness. What are we to say
of this?
We have just been thinking of a certain picture, the picture of a difficult
life. Let our minds pass to another picture, the picture of the Man on the hill
outside the city. The thud of the nails is heard and he is hoisted, nailed to
the cross and positioned in full view of all (John
3:13-17). There he hangs, his life at its end. Many are gazing on — the leaders sneering at him in contempt and exhilaration. A small group of women
and a few others gaze on. Others too are watching. The sky is darkening. This is
what it has come to! The man on the cross is full of physical and mental pain,
but unseen is the far greater pain of a spiritual nature. He is bearing a burden
of incalculable proportions — it is the sin of the entire world. What is the
meaning of this despised end which is his? To the onlookers it was the saddest
possible thing, an unspeakable devastation. But no. Unbeknown to the onlookers — with the exception of his most holy mother not far from him
— his sufferings
were turning the tide. The tide of sin, like the water of the red sea, was being
parted and man was being given a way through to God. The critical element that
was at the heart of this cosmic drama, this drama of the duel with sin, was the
Cross. According as the Cross was greater, so the fruit was greater. Suffering,
if accepted in a spirit of obedience to God, was here revealed as redemptive.
There was nothing more positive that Christ could have done for the world than
to have died his ignominious death. The heart and soul of it was his obedience
to his heavenly Father. Mysteriously, he was acting on our behalf. Every person
in the history of the world can say, he died for me! St Paul writes, Christ
loved me and gave himself up for me. It was the highest point in the life of
Jesus Christ, and it was the supreme moment in the history of the world. The
Cross is on the hill — high up, we might say. All else, by comparison, is well
below. Today we think of the one thing which was exalted above all else in
history, the Cross of Christ.
Today we celebrate the exaltation and the triumph of the Cross of
Jesus Christ. Islam will have none of this — death by crucifixion could not have
been possible for Jesus. But no — he died. Suffering — the suffering of
God’s obedient servant — is revealed as being most, most positive in meaning. The seed
falls into the ground and dies, and yields a harvest. So we must not fear
suffering. We must go forward to meet it, but together with Christ and with his
mind. If we suffer with Christ we shall reign with him. By his cross he
triumphed. It is the path to victory for each of his disciples.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Why don't you give yourself to God once and for all... really..., now?
(The Way, no.902)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE
INTERNAL CONSOLATION
Thirty-Fourth Chapter GOD IS
SWEET ABOVE ALL THINGS AND IN ALL THINGS TO THOSE WHO LOVE HIM
THE DISCIPLE
The old man, alas, yet lives within me. He has not yet been entirely crucified;
he is not yet entirely dead. He still lusts strongly against the spirit, and he
will not leave the kingdom of my soul in peace. But You, Who can command the
power of the sea and calm the tumult of its waves, arise and help me. Scatter
the nations that delight in war; crush them in Your sight. Show forth I beg,
Your wonderful works and let Your right hand be glorified, because for me there
is no other hope or refuge except in You, O Lord, my God.
(Concluded)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The plain and simple reason for our preaching and preserving the Faith, is
because we have been told to do so.
JHN, from the sermon ‘The Gospel, a Trust Committed to Us’ (1834)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
The
Sorrows of Mary (September 15)
(September
15) The Sorrows of Mary
For a while there were two feasts in honour of the Sorrowful Mother: one going
back to the 15th century, the other to the 17th century. For a while both were
celebrated by the universal Church: one on the Friday before Palm Sunday, the
other in September. The principal biblical references to Mary's sorrows are in
Luke 2:35 and John 19:26-27. The Lucan passage is Simeon's prediction about a
sword piercing Mary's soul; the Johannine passage relates Jesus' words to Mary
and to the beloved disciple. Many early Church writers interpret the sword as
Mary's sorrows, especially as she saw Jesus die on the cross. Thus, the two
passages are brought together as prediction and fulfilment. St. Ambrose
(December7) in particular sees Mary as a sorrowful yet powerful figure at the
cross. Mary stood fearlessly at the cross while others fled. Mary looked on her
Son's wounds with pity, but saw in them the salvation of the world. As Jesus
hung on the cross, Mary stood there in perfect solidarity with him.
At the cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.
Through her heart, his sorrow sharing,
All his bitter anguish bearing,
Now at length the sword has passed." (Stabat Mater)
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 1 Tim 3:1-13; Psalm 101:1b-3ab,
5, 6; John 19:25-27 or Luke 2:33-35
Jesus’ father and mother
were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary
his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in
Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted and you yourself a sword will
pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
(Luke 2:33-35)
Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s
sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother
and the disciple there whom he loved he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your
son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour
the disciple took her into his home.
(John 19:25-27)
The Woman
The last two decades of the twentieth
century and the first of the present century could be regarded as a heyday of
radical feminism. The figure of the woman has been contested and the issues of
strength and influence have been pivotal. Many women, seeing strength and
influence as lying in the possession of power, have resented what they perceive
to be their lack of power. Now, one feature of the feminist impulse is its
bearing on religion. For instance, the Virgin Mary has been seen by some as not
an appropriate role
for the modern woman who must be allowed much greater power.
The Mary of Scripture and Church teaching is deemed to be passive and lacking in
effective power. She is not the heroine who struggles and overcomes. This is not
the moment to discuss modern feminism, but one may immediately observe that
power is not necessarily influence, and there have been many who have never
gained positions of power but who have had great strength and influence. But let
us consider Mary the mother of Christ by first considering Christ. If we set the
path of Christ alongside the paths of other great figures of history, what is
distinctive about Christ? With good reason most would say it was his Cross. The
most — though not the only — distinctive thing about Christ’s life was his death
on the Cross. He chose the Cross as the privileged means not only of bearing
witness to his revelation, but as the principal means of fulfilling his
redemptive mission. He was the man of incalculable suffering, a suffering that
was the expiation for the sins of the world. His passion and death was his
greatest work, and because of this he was, as man risen and in glory, raised
above every other name and took his place at the right hand of the Father. He
was the “hero” of all time, bearing on his shoulders the sins of all mankind.
This was the greatest work ever done, the source of greatest fruit. When we
think of Mary his mother, we ought think of her as sharing in this heroic work
of Christ the only Redeemer. It required a massive strength of spirit. If we
wish for the figure of a strong woman who did a very great work, Mary is that
figure. But it meant untold suffering.
One of the revolutionary features of
Christ’s example and revelation was the central place given to the suffering of
the one who obeys God. That suffering is redemptive and sanctifying. We do not
see this in, say, Buddha or Mahomet. Buddha’s work was to find a way to freedom
from suffering. Mahomet regarded the suffering and death of the Messiah as
impossible. Jesus could not, therefore, have died on the cross. But no. The
distinctive feature about Christ’s mission was his suffering and death on the
Cross, and it is the distinctive thing about his truest followers. If any man
wishes to be my disciple, he told the crowds, let him take up his cross every
day and follow in my footsteps. That is what Mary his mother did. Her life was a
life of sorrows in her faith in God and obedience to his will. She was
intimately associated with her divine Son in his redemptive work. Silently, full
of love, and with immense power of mind and heart, she followed her Son.
Everything that happened to him happened in spirit to her. At the beginning of
her Son’s course, the holy Simeon prophesied that her Son would be the centre of
a great maelstrom of controversy and rejection, and that a sword would be thrust
deep into her soul (Luke 2:33-35). It would
be a martyrdom of spirit associating her with the Martyr par excellence, and
calling forth the greatest reserves of strength imaginable. So there she stood,
silently in the midst of a few companions on that forlorn hill outside
Jerusalem. She was the Woman of Sorrows. Her adorable Son, the greatest of that
and of all ages, hung nailed to a cross and drowning in the ocean of the world’s
sin. He was, as the prophet foretold, being crushed for our sins. She too was
being crushed (John 19:25-27), and just as
he was the new Adam making things new, she was the new Eve sharing in his work
by her obedient sufferings. Mary the mother of Jesus teaches us that
discipleship means sharing in the Cross of Jesus. It means doing the will of God
in union with Jesus amid suffering.
As we think of the Sorrows of Mary, let
us hear the words of Christ addressed through the beloved disciple to each of
us: There is your Mother! She is our model and mother in all that pertains to
the following of Jesus Christ. Let us hear his words directed to his mother:
There is your son! Mary looks on each of us as her child in Jesus Christ. She
can teach us how to follow Jesus and how to accept the Cross as he did. If we do
this, the fruit flowing from our life will be great indeed.
(E.J.Tyler)
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If you see your way clearly, follow it. Why don't you shake off the cowardice
that holds you back?
(The Way, no.903)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE
INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Fifth Chapter
THERE
IS NO SECURITY FROM TEMPTATION IN THIS LIFE
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
MY CHILD, in this life you are never safe, and as long as you live the weapons
of the spirit will ever be necessary to you. You dwell among enemies. You are
subject to attack from the right and the left. If, therefore, you do not guard
yourself from every quarter with the shield of patience, you will not remain
long unscathed.
(Continuing)
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Miracles are the simple and direct work of God; the worker of them is but an
instrument or organ.
JHN, from the discourse ‘On the Fitness of the Glories of Mary’ (1849)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
Wednesday of the twenty fourth week in Ordinary Time
(September 16) Saint Cornelius, pope and martyr, and
Saint Cyprian, bishop and martyr (d. 253)
Cornelius (d. 253).
There was no pope for 14 months after the martyrdom of St. Fabian (January 20)
because of the intensity of the persecution of the Church. During the interval,
the Church was governed by a college of priests. St. Cyprian, a friend of
Cornelius, writes
that
Cornelius was elected pope "by the judgment of God and of Christ, by the
testimony of most of the clergy, by the vote of the people, with the consent of
aged priests and of good men." The greatest problem of Cornelius's two-year term
as pope had to do with the Sacrament of Penance and centered on the readmission
of Christians who had denied their faith during the time of persecution. Two
extremes were finally both condemned. Cyprian, primate of Africa, appealed to
the pope to confirm his stand that the relapsed could be reconciled only by the
decision of the bishop. In Rome, however, Cornelius met with the opposite view.
After his election, a priest named Novatian (one of those who had governed the
Church) had himself consecrated a rival bishop of Rome—one of the first
antipopes. He denied that the Church had any power to reconcile not only the
apostates, but also those guilty of murder, adultery, fornication or second
marriage! Cornelius had the support of most of the Church (especially of Cyprian
of Africa) in condemning Novatianism, though the sect persisted for several
centuries. Cornelius held a synod at Rome in 251 and ordered the "relapsed" to
be restored to the Church with the usual "medicines of repentance." The
friendship of Cornelius and Cyprian was strained for a time when one of
Cyprian's rivals made accusations about him. But the problem was cleared up. A
document from Cornelius shows the extent of organization in the Church of Rome
in the mid-third century: 46 priests, seven deacons, seven subdeacons. It is
estimated that the number of Christians totalled about 50,000. Cornelius died as
a result of the hardships of his exile in what is now Civitavecchia (near Rome).
Cyprian (d. 258).
Cyprian is important in the development of Christian thought and practice in the
third century, especially in northern Africa. Highly educated, a famous orator,
he became a Christian as an adult. He distributed his goods to the poor, and
amazed his fellow citizens by making a vow of chastity before his baptism.
Within two years he had been ordained a priest and was chosen, against his will,
as Bishop of Carthage (near modern Tunis). Cyprian complained that the peace the
Church had enjoyed had weakened the spirit of many Christians and had opened the
door to converts who did not have the true spirit of faith. When the Decian
persecution began, many Christians easily abandoned the Church. It was their
reinstatement that caused the great controversies of the third century, and
helped the Church progress in its understanding of the Sacrament of Penance.
Novatus, a priest who had opposed Cyprian's election, set himself up in
Cyprian's absence (he had fled to a hiding place from which to direct the
Church—bringing criticism on himself) and received back all apostates without
imposing any canonical penance. Ultimately he was condemned. Cyprian held a
middle course, holding that those who had actually sacrificed to idols could
receive Communion only at death, whereas those who had only bought certificates
saying they had sacrificed could be admitted after a more or less lengthy period
of penance. Even this was relaxed during a new persecution. During a plague in
Carthage, he urged Christians to help everyone, including their enemies and
persecutors.
In relation to the papacy, Cyprian wrote: "There is one
God and one Christ and but one episcopal chair, originally founded on Peter, by
the Lord's authority. There cannot, therefore, be set up another altar or
another priesthood. Whatever any man in his rage or rashness shall appoint, in
defiance of the divine institution, must be a spurious, profane and sacrilegious
ordinance" (St. Cyprian, The Unity of the Catholic Church). A
friend of Pope Cornelius, Cyprian opposed the following pope, Stephen. He and
the other African bishops would not recognize the validity of baptism conferred
by heretics and schismatics. This was not the view of the Church, and was in
fact erroneous, but Cyprian was not intimidated even by Stephen's threat of
excommunication. He was exiled by the emperor and then recalled for trial. He
refused to leave the city, insisting that his people should have the witness of
his martyrdom. Cyprian was a mixture of kindness and courage, vigour and
steadiness. He was cheerful and serious, so that people did not know whether to
love or respect him more. He waxed warm during the baptismal controversy; his
feelings must have concerned him, for it was at this time that he wrote his
treatise on patience. St. Augustine (August 28) remarks that Cyprian atoned for
his anger by his glorious martyrdom.
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 1 Timothy 3:14-16; Psalm
111:1-6; Luke 7:31-35
Jesus said, To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are
they like? They are like children sitting in the market-place and calling out to
each other: 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a
dirge, and you did not cry.' For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor
drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and
drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax
collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is proved right by all her children.
(Luke 7:31-35)
He came eating and drinking
If God were to become man, as man
he must necessarily be of a certain definite form. By this I mean that the
incarnate God must, in assuming a definite human nature, adopt certain
limitations. So it was that he was obviously of a certain height, and not taller
— there were persons who were taller and shorter than he. He had a certain
degree of physical strength — there were others who had greater and lesser
physical strength than he. As man he obviously had a certain manner, a certain
way of smiling, a way
of conversing, a way of looking, a way of walking, a
certain way of thinking, and a way of doing things that meant, of course, that
there were other perfectly legitimate ways of doing things that were not his. In
his humanity he expressed himself in the ways that were his, and as man he was
limited to those ways. He was a divine person and the fulness of the godhead was
present and expressed in his concrete humanity. When he acted divinely — as in
his miracles or divine knowledge of things — he did so as the definite man he
was. When as God he commanded the storm to subside immediately or the demons to
depart forthwith, he did so with his own distinctive tone of voice and Galilean
accent. This concrete character of the humanity of Jesus, divine person though
he was, was also present in his entire apostolic mission. In our Gospel passage
today (Luke 7:31-35), our Lord alludes to
the particular way he prosecuted his mission and it was not the way of, say,
John the Baptist. John the Baptist “came neither eating nor drinking wine” — he
was strikingly ascetic. So unusual was John in his asceticism that some who were
ill-disposed to him said “he has a demon” in him. Jesus, though, was quite
different in his manner and style. He attended wedding feasts. He dined with
publicans and sinners as he did with leading Pharisees. He mixed with all, met
all, and the very surprise of the people of Nazareth at his wisdom and power
shows the degree to which he was part of the ordinary scene all those years at
Nazareth. Yet his holiness was evident. At his baptism John said he, Jesus,
ought be baptizing him, and Christ challenged the leaders to find any sin in
him.
Let us place ourselves in the Gospel scene with Christ. Our Lord says of himself
that “the Son of Man came eating and drinking.” That is to say, he was at one
with all who wished to receive him. Our Lord was immensely approachable. I
remember years ago Cardinal Ratzinger once said of Pope John Paul II that he had
an incredible gift for human relations. Well, so much more could this be said of
Christ. In his humanity Christ was singularly close to his fellow man. He was
brother to all. At his baptism he entered the waters of the Jordan river to
receive the baptism of sinners because he, utterly sinless as he was, had
entered into profound solidarity with all. This solidarity was shown in the
entire style of his public ministry right to its bitter end. He died the worst
kind of death of the time — death by crucifixion — showing the depth of
solidarity with man that was his. Friendships are a great boon to life, and it
cannot be presumed that others will be disposed to be one’s friend. But Christ
was profoundly disposed to be the friend of all. He went through the length and
breadth of the land of God’s chosen people inviting all into the Kingdom, and
what was that Kingdom? It was union with him as his friend and disciple. The
Kingdom of God is union with Jesus. I have not called you servants, he said. I
have called you friends. The vocation of man, he revealed, is to be a friend of
Jesus Christ. What frustrates this is the reluctance or refusal of man himself.
This too is alluded to in our Gospel passage today: “The Son of Man came eating
and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax
collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is proved right by all her children”
(Luke 7:31-35). Our Lord says to all, just as he said to his hearers
at the time, “Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble
of heart.” It is wondrous that God became man. It is also wondrous that in his
entire humanity and ministry he revealed that he, God, is our Friend who comes
asking that we not merely his servant but his friend. Our Gospel today reminds
us again of the great revelation made to us by Christ, that God is love.
Let us understand well that we were made and chosen by God to live in Christ.
Our fulfilment as human beings lies in the direction of love — of loving and
being loved. It is Jesus Christ who, in God’s plan, is the term of this our
calling. We are called to love him with all our heart, and the basis of this is
the love he has for us. He loves each of us with all his heart — a heart that is
both human and divine. Let us approach him then, and remain with him all our
days. We shall find in him our best and truest Friend, as did all those to whom
he came, “eating and drinking.”
(E.J.Tyler)
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'Proclaim the Good News. .. I shall be with you...' It is Jesus who has said
this... and he has said it to you.
(The Way, no.904)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL
CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Fifth Chapter THERE IS NO
SECURITY FROM TEMPTATION IN THIS LIFE
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
Moreover, if you do not steadily set your heart on Me, with a firm will to
suffer everything for My sake, you will not be able to bear the heat of this
battle or to win the crown of the blessed. You ought, therefore, to pass through
all these things bravely and to oppose a strong hand to whatever stands in your
way. For to him who triumphs heavenly bread is given, while for him who is too
lazy to fight there remains much misery.
(Continuing)
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It was no heavenly body which the Eternal Son assumed, fashioned by the angels,
and brought down to this lower world: no; He imbibed, He absorbed into His
Divine Person, [Mary's] blood and the substance of her flesh; by becoming man of
her, He received her lineaments and features, as the appropriate character in
which He was to manifest Himself to mankind.
JHN, from the sermon ‘On the Fitness of the Glories of Mary’ (1849)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
Thursday of the twenty fourth week in Ordinary Time
(September 17) St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621)
When Robert Bellarmine was ordained in 1570, the study of Church history and the
fathers of the Church was in a sad state of neglect. A
promising
scholar from his youth in Tuscany, he devoted his energy to these two subjects,
as well as to Scripture, in order to systematize Church doctrine against the
attacks of the Protestant Reformers. He was the first Jesuit to become a
professor at Louvain. His most famous work is his three-volume Disputations on
the Controversies of the Christian faith. Particularly noteworthy are the
sections on the temporal power of the pope and the role of the laity. He
incurred the anger of monarchists in England and France by showing the
divine-right-of-kings theory untenable. He developed the theory of the indirect
power of the pope in temporal affairs; although he was defending the pope
against the Scottish philosopher Barclay, he also incurred the ire of Pope
Sixtus V. Bellarmine was made a cardinal by Pope Clement VIII on the grounds
that "he had not his equal for learning." While he occupied apartments in the
Vatican, Bellarmine relaxed none of his former austerities. He limited his
household expenses to what was barely essential, eating only the food available
to the poor. He was known to have ransomed a soldier who had deserted from the
army and he used the hangings of his rooms to clothe poor people, remarking,
"The walls won't catch cold." Among many activities, he became theologian to
Pope Clement VIII, preparing two catechisms which have had great influence in
the Church. The last major controversy of Bellarmine's life came in 1616 when he
had to admonish his friend Galileo, whom he admired. Bellarmine delivered the
admonition on behalf of the Holy Office, which had decided that the heliocentric
theory of Copernicus (the sun as stationary) was contrary to Scripture. The
admonition amounted to a caution against putting forward—other than as a
hypothesis—theories not yet fully proved. This shows that saints are not
infallible. Bellarmine died on September 17, 1621. The process for his
canonization was begun in 1627 but was delayed until 1930 for political reasons,
stemming from his writings. In 1930, canonized him and the next year declared
him a doctor of the Church.
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 1 Timothy 4:12-16; Psalm
111:7-10; Luke 7:36-50
Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus
to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the
table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus
was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of
perfume, and
as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her
tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on
them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, If
this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of
woman she is— that she is a sinner. Jesus answered him, Simon, I have something
to tell you. Tell me, teacher, he said. Two men owed money to a certain
money-lender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of
them had the money to pay him back, so he cancelled the debts of both. Now which
of them will love him more? Simon replied, I suppose the one who had the bigger
debt cancelled. You have judged correctly, Jesus said. Then he turned towards
the woman and said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You
did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and
wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the
time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head,
but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have
been forgiven— for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves
little. Then Jesus said to her, Your sins are forgiven. The other guests began
to say among themselves, Who is this who even forgives sins? Jesus said to the
woman, Your faith has saved you; go in peace. (Luke
7:36-50)
A God of humility and love
In one of his early sermons during the 1820s John Henry Newman discusses the
knowledge man may have of God from nature. He points out the great prevalence of
polytheism in human history and opines that one reason for the belief in
numerous gods was that people could not imagine how the entire universe could be
the creation of one only God. It was also his view that the firm conviction of
there being one only Creator of the universe derived primarily from revealed
religion rather than from human
reasoning. It is most certainly a cause of
continuing wonder the immensity of the work of God in creation, and the more
science advances the more ought man’s sense of the power and being of God
increase. To think that the vast system of stars and planets of our universe,
together with mankind, is sustained by the word of the great Being we call God!
What a work is the work of creation! But if it is our conviction that there is
one only God who is creator and lord of all, then our marvelling can only
increase as we contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation. The great God became
one of us. The Man of our Gospel scene today who mixed so easily, humbly and
unassumingly among his fellow men was the Creator and Sustainer of all that is.
Through him everything came to be and continued to be. The universe bespeaks the
power and grandeur of the divine, and power and grandeur is lofty. It is
distant. It is high up. We look up to it and we cower or bow before it, with our
eyes tending to remain lowered. But Jesus, the Son of God made man, approaches
us at our level and as one of us. In him God is approached familiarly, even
without recognition. Jesus is treated with respect, as a respected friend — but
then, he is also ignored and even treated with little dignity. In our Gospel
passage today, our Lord reminds his host that he had not been granted normal
courtesies. “I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet”
and “you did not give me a kiss.” Infinite power is devoid of self-exaltation.
The great God is humble. It all tells us of the amazing character of God.
But there is more to this self-revelation of God. Let us continue to place
ourselves in our Gospel scene today. Our Lord is reclining at the meal in the
house of his host, Simon the Pharisee. There he is, God at the table, eating
with the Pharisee and with his fellow guests. God at the table! But there in
their midst suddenly appears “a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town.”
We read that, learning “that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she
brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet
weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her
hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them” (Luke
7:36-50). God is so very accessible, even to the one whose conduct
has not been pleasing to him. He is near to the sinner who comes to him seeking
reconciliation. That this was a surprise is scarcely to be stated, for the
Pharisee immediately began to reason within himself that Christ’s acceptance of
the action of this sinful woman showed he could not be a prophet at all.
Holiness would have nothing to do with sin. God would not allow the proximity of
sin. Of course, in the final analysis and at the very end this will indeed be
so. At the end, there will be no sin in God’s presence. Those confirmed in sin
will be forever banished from his presence. But consider the lengths to which
the love and humility of God takes him. It takes him to the very pits of sin in
order to redeem mankind from it, and our Gospel scene today illustrates this.
The sinful though profoundly contrite woman freely and unhesitatingly approaches
him and shows the most profound marks of love and respect. But let us
contemplate the fact that Christ readily and out of love allowed this. It was
the greatest surprise to the Pharisee. The great God is so accessible to sinful
man, if man would but turn towards him and repent of his sin. God is humble. He
is loving. He is not just man’s Master but comes to him as his Friend. The
Gospel scene of today is illustrative of the revolutionary truth of revealed
religion that God is pure, humble love.
Jesus Christ constantly referred to the Lord God as his own dear Father. He is
my Father, my own Father, he taught. He, the Son, was sent by the Father to be
with sinful man and to endow him with the gift of the Holy Spirit. So it is that
we too can address God as our Father. St Paul writes that we now address God as
“Abba!”, Father, dear Father! As the woman readily approached Christ and
received forgiveness from him, we too can readily approach the Father knowing
that he is at hand and full of love. Let us never take for granted the wonder of
what God has revealed.
(E.J.Tyler)
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'Proclaim the Good News. .. I shall be with you...' It is Jesus who has said
this... and he has said it to you.
(The Way, no.904)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE
INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Fifth Chapter
THERE IS NO SECURITY FROM TEMPTATION IN THIS LIFE
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
Moreover, if you do not steadily set your heart on Me, with a firm will to
suffer everything for My sake, you will not be able to bear the heat of this
battle or to win the crown of the blessed. You ought, therefore, to pass through
all these things bravely and to oppose a strong hand to whatever stands in your
way. For to him who triumphs heavenly bread is given, while for him who is too
lazy to fight there remains much misery.
(Continuing)
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Narrow minds have no power of throwing themselves into the minds of others. They
have stiffened in one position, as limbs of the body subjected to confinement,
or as our organs of speech, which after a while cannot learn new tones and
inflections. They have already parcelled out to their own satisfaction the whole
world of knowledge; they have drawn their lines, and formed their classes, and
given to each opinion, argument, principle, and party, its own locality; they
profess to know where to find every thing; and they cannot learn any other
disposition.
JHN, from the University sermon ‘‘Wisdom, as Contrasted with Faith and with
Bigotry’’ (1841)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
Friday of the twenty fourth week in Ordinary Time
(September 18) St. Joseph of Cupertino (1603-1663)
Joseph is most famous for levitating at prayer.
Already as a child, Joseph showed a fondness for prayer. After a short career
with the Capuchins, he joined the Conventuals. Following a brief assignment
caring for the friary mule, Joseph began his studies for the priesthood. Though
studies were very difficult for him, Joseph gained a great deal of knowledge
from prayer. He was ordained in 1628. Joseph’s tendency to levitate during
prayer was sometimes a cross; some people came to see this much as they might
have gone to a circus sideshow. Joseph’s gift led him to be humble, patient and
obedient, even though at times he was greatly tempted and felt forsaken by God.
He fasted and wore iron chains for much of his life. The friars transferred
Joseph several times for his own good and for the good of the rest of the
community. He was reported to and investigated by the Inquisition; the examiners
exonerated him. Joseph was canonized in 1767. In the investigation preceding the
canonization, 70 incidents of levitation are recorded. While levitation is an
extraordinary sign of holiness, Joseph is also remembered for the ordinary signs
he showed. He prayed even in times of inner darkness, and he lived out the
Sermon on the Mount. He used his "unique possession" (his free will) to praise
God and to serve God’s creation.
"Clearly, what God wants above all is our will which we received as a free gift
from God in creation and possess as though our own. When a man trains himself to
acts of virtue, it is with the help of grace from God from whom all good things
come that he does this. The will is what man has as his unique possession" (St.
Joseph of Cupertino, from the reading for his feast in the Franciscan breviary).
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 1 Timothy 6:2c-12; Psalm
49:6-10, 17-20; Luke 8:1-3
After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another,
proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and
also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called
Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the
manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping
to support them out of their own means. (Luke 8: 1-3)
The mission
We have in these few sentences a snapshot of Christ and his
apostolic band in action. Jesus was on the move. Notice one thing. Can you think
of a single prophet in the Old Testament — and let us include the last of the
prophets before Christ, John the Baptist — who travelled throughout the country
constantly as did Jesus Christ? John the Baptist awaited the people and they
came to him. Christ went everywhere seeking them out “from one town and village
to another” — and in another Gospel, it is mentioned that he visited “farms”
too. We are given many instances of our Lord visiting private dwellings, whereas
John the Baptist remained in the desert and those who wished to do so sought him
out. But Christ visited the home of Zacchaeus, the leading tax collector. He
visited the home of the synagogue official to heal his daughter. He was on his
way to visit the home of the centurion when the centurion sent a message saying
he was not worthy to have him under his roof. He who is God was revealing how
God, as the Shepherd of his people, takes the initiative and seeks out the
straying sheep. But further, Christ did not do this alone. He travelled in a
band. This is another difference we notice when we compare Christ with many of
the prophets who preceded him. The prophets had disciples, but in general those
disciples were not expected to plunge into the prophet’s ministry and share in
it. Christ expected his disciples to share in his mission — not all in the same
way, but just as he was apostolic, so were they to be apostolic. From the outset
of his ministry Christ called to himself “apostles” — they were to be his
‘envoys’ or ‘ambassadors’. They were to be fishers of men. Being a friend and
disciple of Jesus was a very apostolic business, and it did not let up when he
was gone. Just before he ascended into heaven he charged his disciples to go to
the whole world and make disciples of all the nations. While the Twelve were
most closely associated with him in his grand work, others were involved too.
Some women moved with the troop attending to the support mechanisms.
It was a prelude to the era of the Church. There was Christ, the heart and soul
of the Christian community, leading the way. Without him the great group was
nothing, but the group was an essential part of the mission. It is hard to
imagine Christ at this work without them. He sent seventy-two out ahead of him
in pairs to prepare the way before him. It is a paradigm of the era of the
Spirit when Jesus would be gone from sight but present and active in the midst
of his Church through his Holy Spirit. Do I regard myself as a disciple and
friend of Jesus Christ? Well then, in what sense am I participating in his
apostolic mission? Of course, our Gospel scene today
(Luke 8: 1-3) was not the only way of sharing in his work. The
greatest of our Lord’s disciples was his own mother. She was out of sight, but
oh! How close she was to him, and how totally did she accompany him in his
messianic mission. How powerfully her love and her prayers accompanied all he
did, and how profound was her union with him in all his hopes, his actions, his
sufferings. Christ’s greatest apostolic feat was his passion and death. By this
exploit he redeemed the world. Where was Mary? Mary was with him at the last as
he stood at the breach locked in the ultimate encounter. By his terrible death
he broke the power of the enemy and laid it low, and thus was man set free. No
one associated more closely with him in this supreme moment than did she. But
she was not an Apostle. She was not one of the Twelve. She did not travel with
him to all the towns and villages. She would never be a priest. Yet no one
shared in Christ’s toils as did she. And let us notice a few others. We read
that Jesus loved Lazarus, Martha and Mary of Bethany. They were excellent
disciples, but did not travel in the apostolic band with him. All this is to say
that the particular vocation and circumstances of Christ’s disciples may and
will vary, but all are called to share, in their own way, in his apostolic
mission. We must play our part in bringing Christ to the world and making
disciples of all the nations. What is my part?
So then, whatever be my circumstances, whatever be my particular vocation as a
friend and disciple of Christ, what have I done for him to this point? What am I
doing for him now? What shall I do for him in the future? I must place myself in
the presence of Jesus my Master, my Lord and Friend, and ask myself these very
practical questions. Is there any sense in which I am playing my part in the
grand work that he is leading? My daily life as it is provides me with the arena
to be a guerilla for Jesus Christ, working to establish his Kingdom. I am a
guerilla for him, but working in full concert with his body the Church, at the
head of which are Peter and the Twelve. The unseen Lord of the enterprise is
Jesus my Redeemer. So then, now I begin!
(E.J.Tyler)
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Patriotic fervour — which is praiseworthy — leads many men to turn their lives
into a 'service', a 'crusade'. Do not forget that Christ too has his 'crusaders'
and people chosen for his service.
(The Way, no.905)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE
INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Fifth Chapter THERE IS NO
SECURITY FROM TEMPTATION IN THIS LIFE
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
If you look for rest in this life, how will you attain to everlasting rest?
Dispose yourself, then, not for much rest but for great patience. Seek true
peace, not on earth but in heaven; not in men or in other creatures but in God
alone. For love of God you should undergo all things cheerfully, all labours and
sorrows, temptations and trials, anxieties, weaknesses, necessities, injuries,
slanders, rebukes, humiliations, confusions, corrections, and contempt. For
these are helps to virtue. These are the trials of Christ's recruit. These form
the heavenly crown. For a little brief labour I will give an everlasting crown,
and for passing confusion, glory that is eternal.
(Continuing)
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The light of the Gospel does not remove mysteries in religion.
JHN, from the sermon ‘The Christian Mysteries’ (1829)
--------------Back
to index for this month---------------------------Back to
index to Liturgical Days---------
Saturday of the twenty fourth week in Ordinary Time
(September 19) St. Januarius (d. 305?)
Little is known of Januarius's life. He is believed to have
been martyred in the Diocletian persecution of 305. Legend has it that after
Januarius was thrown to the bears in the amphitheater of Pozzuoli, he was
beheaded, and his blood ultimately brought to Naples.
It is Catholic doctrine that miracles can happen and
can be recognized—hardly a mind-boggling statement to anyone who believes in
God. Problems arise, however, when we must decide whether an occurrence is
unexplainable in natural terms, or only unexplained. We do well to avoid an
excessive credulity, which may be a sign of insecurity. On the other hand, when
even scientists speak about "probabilities" rather than "laws" of nature, it is
something less than imaginative for Christians to think that God is too
"scientific" to work extraordinary miracles to wake us up to the everyday
miracles of sparrows and dandelions, raindrops and snowflakes.
“A dark mass that half fills a hermetically sealed four-inch
glass container, and is preserved in a double reliquary in the Naples cathedral
as the blood of St. January, liquefies 18 times during the year.... This
phenomenon goes back to the 14th century.... Tradition connects it with a
certain Eusebia, who had allegedly collected the blood after the martyrdom....
The ceremony accompanying the liquefaction is performed by holding the reliquary
close to the altar on which is located what is believed to be the martyr's head.
While the people pray, often tumultuously, the priest turns the reliquary up and
down in the full sight of the onlookers until the liquefaction takes place....
Various experiments have been applied, but the phenomenon eludes natural
explanation. There are, however, similar miraculous claims made for the blood of
John the Baptist, Stephen, Pantaleon, Patricia, Nicholas of Tolentino and
Aloysius Gonzaga—nearly all in the neighborhood of Naples” (Catholic Encyclopedia). (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 1 Timothy 6:13-16;
Psalm 100:1b-2, 3, 4, 5; Luke 8:4-15
While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town
after town, he told this parable: A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was
scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds
of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock,
and when it came up, the plants
withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew
up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up
and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown. When he said this, he
called out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. His disciples asked him what
this parable meant. He said, The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God
has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, 'though
seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.' This is the
meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are
the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their
hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the
ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root.
They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed
that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way
they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.
But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear
the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
(Luke 8: 4-15)
Being good soil
We read that “while a large crowd was gathering and people were
coming to Jesus from town after town” that Jesus “told this parable.” Let us for
a moment think of those crowds. Large numbers were involved, and they were drawn
from various parts of the country. Now it is clear that the attitudes and
dispositions represented by these people varied enormously. The very parable
that our Lord proceeds to narrate implies this. He told the crowds that it is
not enough to hear the word of God, which they were doing. They
must be good
soil that retained the word and persevered in it. The implication is plainly
that our Lord could see that many were not of this disposition. Thinking of the
crowds who were listening to Jesus and coming to him, let us think of the many
who were not listening to him, nor coming to him. There must have been many
such. I have often wondered about St Paul prior to his conversion on the road to
Damascus. He would have been a younger contemporary of our Lord, of the Twelve
and of the disciples who had accompanied him. We read that at Stephen’s
martyrdom those who stoned him laid their garments at the feet of “a young man”
named Saul. Perhaps Paul was of the same age as John “the beloved disciple.”
Now, was he in Judaea at the time of our Lord’s public ministry — was he in
Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel his teacher, and had he heard of our Lord at
the time of his ministry? I suspect he had, but he makes no mention of it. In my
view, this implies that his commitment was wholly to that taught to him by his
teachers. At the time he had not been interested in Jesus of Nazareth. That is
mere speculation, but my point is that the undoubtedly mixed disposition of the
crowds that sought our Lord and which is implied in the very parable we have
before us, was characteristic of the nation at large. Herod himself was curious
and wanted to see Jesus. There were various views of Jesus of Nazareth and
various attitudes towards him. Indeed, this profoundly mixed attitude is
characteristic of humanity.
I mention all this as a prompt for a question we ought ask ourselves, what is it
that is driving my life? Can I pinpoint what my life is based upon, as far as
can be seen? What is the abiding interest of my life, and what is it that
constitutes my ultimate choice? Of course, we cannot be too sure of ourselves.
St Paul himself writes in one of his Letters that his conscience is clear but he
does not place his confidence ultimately in that. He places his confidence in
the goodness and mercy of God. In a letter to an acquaintance towards the end of
his life, Cardinal Newman speaks of the first principles of our thinking. He
makes the point that often these first principles or starting points are beyond
our direct sight, and we need to pray to God that he will give us the right
starting points. Let us reflect on that. Is what my life is based on, is what I
am really committed to, is what is driving the direction of my daily life,
objectively correct? Is the foundation of my life the true foundation? Perhaps,
as I have observed, it is too difficult to be absolutely sure of our own hearts,
but at least we can stop and take stock of the foundations we are building our
house upon. We know what it is that will bear fruit and what it is that will
come to nothing. Our Lord speaks plainly and in all simplicity of it in our
Gospel today (Luke 8: 4-15). It is the word
of God as it comes from his lips that bears the harvest. He and his revelation
must be the bedrock of our lives, and this has to mean a great commitment on our
part to hear that word coming from him, and for love of him to retain it, hold
it, and live by it perseveringly. This is the bedrock for every man and woman,
and there are many who do not understand that this is, objectively speaking, the
true and sure bedrock. So vast is the range of religious belief and
philosophical position and so varied the attitudes to Jesus Christ that many
regard objective truth as a chimera. It is a phantom, and the truth is merely
subjective opinion. All that matters is what seems to work. Let those who count
themselves as Christ’s disciples be very clear about their life’s choice. Christ
is their life.
In his parable our Lord describes in simple and broad strokes the human race in
its attitude to him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Humanity is like the
ground on which the seed falls. Let us not be like the patches of ground that
yield little or nothing. We must be good ground, and that will only be the case
if we are absolutely committed to Christ and his word, and Christ and his word
come to us in his body the Church. It is there that he is found. Let us do all
we can to bear witness to this before our often uncertain and harried fellow
man. It is the greatest good we could do for him, to help him find the
objectively true meaning of life, which is Christ and his word.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Et regni ejus non erit finis. His kingdom will have no end.
Doesn't it fill you with joy to work for such a kingdom?
(The Way, no.906)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Fifth Chapter THERE IS NO
SECURITY FROM TEMPTATION IN THIS LIFE
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
Do you think that you will always have spiritual consolations as you desire? My
saints did not always have them. Instead, they had many afflictions, temptations
of various kinds, and great desolation. Yet they bore them all patiently. They
placed their confidence in God rather than in themselves, knowing that the
sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to
come. And you -- do you wish to have at once that which others have scarcely
obtained after many tears and great labours?
(Continuing)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conscience has rights because it has duties.
JHN, from the ‘‘Letter to the Duke of Norfolk’’ (1875)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
Twenty fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time B
Prayers this week:
I am the Saviour
of all people, says the Lord. Whatever their troubles, I will answer their cry,
and I will always be their Lord.
Father, guide us as you guide creation according to your law of love.
May we love one another and come to perfection in the eternal life prepared for
us.
We ask
this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.
(September 20) Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang and
Companions (1821-1846)
This first native Korean priest was the son of Korean converts. His father,
Ignatius Kim, was martyred during the persecution of 1839 and was beatified in
1925. After Baptism at the age of 15, Andrew traveled 1,300 miles to the
seminary in Macao, China. After six years
he
managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed
the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was
assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would
elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured and finally beheaded at the
Han River near Seoul, the capital. Paul Chong Hasang was a seminarian, aged 45.
Christianity came to Korea during the Japanese invasion in 1592 when some
Koreans were baptized, probably by Christian Japanese soldiers. Evangelization
was difficult because Korea refused all contact with the outside world except
for bringing taxes to Beijing annually. On one of these occasions, around 1777,
Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led educated Korean
Christians to study. A home Church began. When a Chinese priest managed to enter
secretly a dozen years later, he found 4,000 Catholics, none of whom had ever
seen a priest. Seven years later there were 10,000 Catholics. Religious freedom
came in 1883. When Pope John Paul II visited Korea in 1984 he canonized, besides
Andrew and Paul, 98 Koreans and three French missionaries who had been martyred
between 1839 and 1867. Among them were bishops and priests, but for the most
part they were lay persons: 47 women, 45 men. Among the martyrs in 1839 was
Columba Kim, an unmarried woman of 26. She was put in prison, pierced with hot
tools and seared with burning coals. She and her sister Agnes were disrobed and
kept for two days in a cell with condemned criminals, but were not molested.
After Columba complained about the indignity, no more women were subjected to
it. The two were beheaded. A boy of 13, Peter Ryou, had his flesh so badly torn
that he could pull off pieces and throw them at the judges. He was killed by
strangulation. Protase Chong, a 41-year-old noble, apostatized under torture and
was freed. Later he came back, confessed his faith and was tortured to death.
Today, there are almost 4.7 million Catholics in Korea.
"The Korean Church is unique because it was founded entirely
by lay people. This fledgling Church, so young and yet so strong in faith,
withstood wave after wave of fierce persecution. Thus, in less than a century,
it could boast of 10,000 martyrs. The death of these martyrs became the leaven
of the Church and led to today's splendid flowering of the Church in Korea. Even
today their undying spirit sustains the Christians in the Church of silence in
the north of this tragically divided land" (Pope John Paul II, at the
canonization). (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Wisdom 2:12, 17-20; Ps 54:3-6
and 8; James 3:16-4:3; Mark 9:30-37
They left that place and passed through
Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was
teaching his
disciples.
He said to them, The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.
They will kill him, and after three days he will rise. But they did not
understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. They came to
Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, What were you arguing about
on the road? But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who
was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, If anyone
wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all. He took a
little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to
them, Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and
whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.
(Mark 9: 30-37)
The dignity of each
In the scene described by St Mark in our Gospel today we have a telling
contrast. It is that between what our Lord is telling his disciples about his
mission to be rejected unto death, and their incomprehension and, indeed, their
mindset which is the very opposite of that teaching. Our Lord was to be
betrayed, was to suffer, be put to death and after three days he would rise. By
this means he would fulfil his mission to serve and not be served. But the
disciples could not comprehend, and it is clear that this was because of their
notion of greatness. Greatness meant, primarily, being served and honoured. Our
Lord saw that on the road they were arguing among themselves who was the
greatest, so he took a child and placed it among them. “If anyone wants to be
first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
(Mark 9: 30-37) Our Lord is the master of simplicity and this is a
simple point, simply expressed, but on it hangs the life of society and the
welfare of man. What is it that so often drives society and national and
international life? Look at human history, consider the cause of strife and
suffering among men, and ask, what was the driving element in this? It is the
quest for greatness, understood implicitly as the possession of honour,
possessions, power and the other elements of position above others. Consider
families, communities, nations and the world order, and notice what is all too
often missing. It is respect for the dignity and rights of each person as the
proper end of the life of both man and society. By his incarnation and by his
atoning death Christ showed forth the dignity of each human person. It was this
that led God to became man and to suffer and die for our salvation. He did this
for me. Christ loved me, St Paul wrote, and gave himself up for me. Christ’s
example sets forth the dignity and rights of each person, understood in the
light of Christ’s revelation.
Man, and therefore society at large, is very prone to miss this point. We each,
and society at large, tend to look on the other, and on all others, as means to
serve my welfare, my position, my needs, my wealth, my desire to be great in one
or other sense of the word. In God’s plan — and therefore in the true interests
of society — this tendency must be resisted and replaced by a profound respect
for the dignity of each individual person. Each and every person possesses equal
dignity and fundamental rights. Society pursues true social justice — which is
linked to the common good and to the exercise of authority — when it endeavours
to provide the conditions that allow associations and individuals to obtain what
is their due. It must be vigilant against a social order which primarily
favours, say, mere business profit or any one of a number of goals that in fact
neglect the rights of the individual human person. A society that recognizes the
dignity of those who are gifted or well-placed, while ignoring the dignity of
those who are poorly endowed or poorly placed, is one in which sin is reigning — not only in personal action but in society and in its institutions. It is a
society that is not pleasing to God, because it is not based on the dignity of
each person. As is manifest to any normally informed person, there are sinful
inequalities which affect millions of human beings. They lack work, food,
education, respect, and many other basic rights. All persons are created in the
image of the one God, are endowed with the same rational self or soul, have the
same nature and origin, and are called in Christ to the same happiness
hereafter. They therefore have equal dignity and fundamental rights. The actual
differences in gifts and opportunities among persons and societies must not lead
to this equal dignity and these rights being neglected. Rather, those gifts and
opportunities enjoyed by some provide the means progressively to respect the
dignity and meet the rights of all. The work and life of each, and the life and
action of all society, ought be based on this fundamental truth about the
dignity of each person — with a special concern for those whose dignity and
rights are discovered to be neglected or unrecognized.
Christ, the Son of God made man, was filled with the sense of the dignity, the
rights and the needs of each and every person. It is the poor man, poor in
whatever sense, which ought rivet the attention of the better endowed. That poor
man has a dignity absolutely equal to that of the better endowed. He is my
brother. God became man and became brother to every man and woman. The full
extent of his solidarity with all can scarcely be imagined. Christ who was rich
made himself poor that we might be rich. We are called to follow his example,
and live in solidarity with all. Let us work to make this same spirit of
solidarity the basis of the life of society and mankind.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no.1929-1938
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father's affairs?'
The reply of Jesus the youth. And a reply made to a mother like his Mother, who
had been seeking him for three days, believing him to be lost. A reply which has
as complement those words of Christ that Saint Matthew records: 'Any who prefers
father or mother to me is not worthy of me'.
(The Way, no.907)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE
INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Fifth Chapter
THERE IS NO
SECURITY FROM TEMPTATION IN THIS LIFE
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
Wait for the Lord, act bravely, and have courage. Do not lose trust. Do not turn
back but devote your body and soul constantly to God's glory. I will reward you
most plentifully. I will be with you in every tribulation.
(Concluded)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1839 John Henry Newman preached his
striking sermon ‘The Yoke of Christ’. In it,
he confronts the challenging nature of the Christian vocation, and shows how
some think it too demanding. How do we attain to the blessedness and joyfulness
that the Christian life promises?
“Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly
in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls; for My yoke is easy, and My
burden is light.” [Matthew 11: 29-30] … If you call to mind some of the traits
of that special religious character to which we are called, you will readily
understand how both it, and the discipline by which it is formed in us, are not
naturally pleasant to us. That
character
is described in the text as meekness and lowliness; for we are told to “learn”
of Him who was “meek and lowly in heart.” The same character is presented to us
at greater length in our Saviour’s sermon on the Mount, in which seven notes of
a Christian are given to us, in themselves of a painful and humbling character,
but joyful, because they are blessed by Him. He mentions, first, “the poor in
spirit;” this is denoted in the text, under the word “lowly in heart;”—secondly,
those “that mourn;” and this surely is their peculiarity who are bearing on
their shoulders the yoke of Christ;—thirdly, “the meek;” and these too are
spoken of in the text, when He bids us to be like Himself who “is
meek;”—fourthly, those which do “hunger and thirst after righteousness;” and
what righteousness, but that which Christ’s Cross wrought out, and which becomes
our righteousness when we take on us the yoke of the Cross? Fifthly, “the
merciful;” and as the Cross is in itself the work of infinite mercy, so when we
bear it, it makes us merciful. Sixthly, “the pure in heart;” and this is the
very benefit which the Cross first does to us when marked on our forehead when
infants, to sever us from the world, the flesh, and the devil, to circumcise us
from the first Adam, and to make us pure as He is pure. Seventhly, “the
peace-makers,” and as He “made peace by the blood of His Cross,” [Col 1: 20] so
do we become peace-makers after His pattern. And, lastly, after all seven, He
adds, those “which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake;” which is nothing but
the Cross itself, and the truest form of His yoke, spoken of last of all, after
mention has been made of its fruits.
A man who is poor in spirit, meek, pure in heart, merciful, peace-making,
penitent, and eager after righteousness, is truly (according to a term in
current use) a mortified man. He is of a character which does not please us by
nature even to see, and much less to imitate. We do not even approve or love the
character itself, till we have some portion of the grace of God. We do not like
the look of mortification till we are used to it, and associate pleasant
thoughts with it. “And when we shall see Him, there is no beauty, that we should
desire Him,” says the Prophet.
To whom has some picture of saint or doctor of the Church any charm at first
sight? Who does not prefer the ruddy glow of health and brightness of the eyes?
“He hath no form nor comeliness,” [Isaiah 53: 2] as his Lord and Master before
him. And as we do not like the look of saintliness, neither do we like the life.
When Christ first announced His destined sufferings, Peter took Him and began to
rebuke Him, saying, “Be it far from Thee, Lord, this shall not be unto Thee.”
[Matthew 16: 22] Here was the feeling of one who was as yet a mere child in
grace; “When he was a child, he spake as a child, he understood as a child, he
thought as a child,” before he had “become a man and had put away childish
things.” [1 Cor 13: 11]
(Reference: John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons Vol 7 (1842) Sermon
no. 8, p. 107-09)
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to index for this month---------------------------Back to
index to Liturgical Days---------
Monday of the
twenty-fifth week of Ordinary Time B-2
click on centre arrow
Scripture today: Proverbs 3: 27-34;
Psalm14; Luke 8:16-18
No
one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts
it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing
hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known
or brought out into the open. Therefore consider carefully how you listen.
Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he
has will be taken from him." (Luke 8:16-18)
Consider how
you listen In the Gospel of St Luke we read that after our Lord
forgave the sins of the paralytic in full view of his enemies, and then
proceeded to heal him of his illness, he left. As he was walking “he saw a
publican, named Levi, sitting at the tax office. He called him, and Levi got up,
left all and followed him.” Let us notice how Levi heard the call of Jesus - he
heard him in such a way that his response was obedient, joyous, immediate. It
was eager, ardent and generous. He then brought others into contact with
Jesus:
he “made a great feast in his own house; and there was a great company of
publicans and others sitting down with them” (Luke 5: 27-29). Let us take
another scene. St John the Evangelist tells us of the first occasion he met our
Lord. He was in the company of John the Baptist, and the Baptist pointed out the
figure of Jesus, saying that there was “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins
of the world.” Let us notice how John and Andrew his companion heard these words
of John - they immediately began to follow Jesus. Shortly after, Jesus stopped
and turned to ask what they were looking for. They heard his words and asked
where he stayed. Again, notice how they heard the words of Jesus - with
eagerness and love. They stayed with him the rest of that day, we read,
listening to him. Imagine the way they listened! As a result, the next day
Andrew brought his brother Simon to Jesus, having told him that “we have found
the Messiah” (John 1:36-42). The next day Jesus found Philip and said to him,
“Follow me.” That is all that is said - but imagine how Philip heard these
words! He immediately followed him and he proceeded to bring Nathanael to Jesus,
just as Andrew had brought his brother Simon to Jesus. Let us consider Nathanael.
Nathanael was a man of sincerity and truthfulness, and we know this because our
Lord said of him that he was a true Israelite, without guile. Notice how
Nathanael listened to the words of Jesus. Our Lord told him that he had seen him
under the fig tree - and it evoked from Nathanael a magnificent profession of
faith: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel!” (John 1:
49). Nathanael heard Christ’s words with such utter guilelessness and openness
to the truth, as to believe without hesitation.
There are many examples in the Gospels of people who heard the word of God
admirably. The example par excellence is Mary the mother of Jesus. She heard the
words of the Angel, which were in effect the words of God, and, having asked for
a clarification (“how will this be, since I do not know man?”), gave her
immediate and obedient assent. She heard the word of God and accepted it in
obedience. But there were many others who did not hear with these dispositions.
Consider how the scribes and Pharisees heard the words of Jesus! They heard with
implacable hostility. Again, we read in the Gospel that the time came when out
of his disciples our Lord chose Twelve to be with him and to share in his
mission as future leaders of his Church. Those Twelve then walked in his
company, listening to him and being formed by him. Consider how they must have
listened! They went on to be filled with the Holy Spirit and spend their lives
bringing his name to the world. But one did not. Consider how he, Judas
Iscariot, must have listened. We read in the Gospel of St John that after our
Lord announced the doctrine of the Eucharist in the Synagogue of Capernaum
(ch.6), many of his disciples walked no more with him. Precisely at that point
our Lord said that one of the Twelve he had chosen was a devil (6:70). Judas was
listening to our Lord - but as a devil. It is a terrible thought. Thereafter,
Judas continued to listen to our Lord for he continued to walk in his company -
but consider how he listened. Our Lord reached the point of warning that it
would have been better had he not been born. So much for his listening to Jesus
Christ. Take another case - the rich young man who enthusiastically came to our
Lord asking what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life. Keep the
commandments, our Lord replied. What more? the young man asked - for he had kept
them since his earliest days. Go, sell and give to the poor, then come back and
follow me, our Lord said. But the face of the young man fell and he left, sad at
heart for he had great wealth. Consider how he heard those words of Christ.
There are vast differences between this man and that in the dispositions with
which the word and will of God is heard. Christ speaks, but how do we hear? With
what state of heart do we hear his words to us? With what readiness to obey with
love do we listen? We must hear the word of God with the intent of putting it
into practice.
There is a detail of great importance in our Gospel passage today. Our Lord
says, “Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given
more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him"
(Luke 8:16-18). If we listen to the words of
Jesus Christ as we should, we shall be filled with blessings. Whoever has the
right dispositions when he listens will be given more, much more. Whoever has
not, will eventually lose all. Let us ask for the grace to listen as we should -
like good soil on to which the seed of God’s word is cast by the divine Sower,
Jesus Christ. If we are good soil, the seed will produce its abundant harvest.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
Feast of St Matthew, apostle and evangelist (Sept 21)
(September 21) St. Matthew
Matthew was a Jew who worked for the occupying Roman forces, collecting taxes
from other Jews. The Romans were not scrupulous
about
what the "taxfarmers" got for themselves. Hence the latter, known as
"publicans," were generally hated as traitors by their fellow Jews. The
Pharisees lumped them with "sinners" (see Matthew 9:11-13). So it was shocking
to them to hear Jesus call such a man to be one of his intimate followers. The
Gospel tells us that "many" tax collectors and "those known as sinners" came to
the dinner in Matthew’s house. The Pharisees were still more badly shocked. What
business did the supposedly great teacher have associating with such immoral
people? Jesus' answer was, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the
sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners" (Matthew 9:12b-13). Jesus is
not setting aside ritual and worship; he is saying that loving others is even
more important. From such an unlikely situation, Jesus chose one of the
foundations of the Church, a man others, judging from his job, thought was not
holy enough for the position. But he was honest enough to admit that he was one
of the sinners Jesus came to call. He was open enough to recognize truth when he
saw him. "And he got up and followed him" (Matthew 9:9b). We imagine Matthew,
after the terrible events surrounding the death of Jesus, going to the mountain
to which the risen Lord had summoned them. "When they saw him, they worshipped,
but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them [we think of him
looking at each one in turn, Matthew listening and excited with the rest], 'All
power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded
you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age'" (Matthew
28:17-20). Matthew would never forget that day. He proclaimed the Good News by
his life and by his word. Our faith rests upon his witness and that of his
fellow apostles. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13; Psalm
19:2-5; Matthew 9:9-13
As
Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax
collector's booth. Follow me, he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and
sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this,
they asked his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and
'sinners'? On hearing this, Jesus said, It is not the healthy who need a doctor,
but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'
For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
(Matthew 9: 9-13)
God’s choice
Every one of the twelve Apostles is celebrated during the course of the
Liturgical Year with a feast day, with the exception, of course, of the tragic
Judas. His replacement, St Matthias, is celebrated on May 14. They were
foundations of the Church, with Simon being the Rock. Theirs, then, was a
calling of immense importance and till the end of time on into eternity they
will be greatly honoured. But, apart from a few of them such as Peter James and
John, what do we know of their subsequent apostolic careers? We
know far more
about St Paul, an Apostle but not one of the Twelve, than any of the Twelve.
Take our man today, Saint Matthew, apostle and evangelist, and let us ask what
we know of his subsequent life and death despite his great importance in God’s
plan. We know very little indeed. Fortunately St Matthew gives us the account of
his call by Christ. He was an ordinary tax collector, with nothing to
distinguish him even in that unhonoured calling. He was born in his town or
village, whatever it was, grew up and obtained his employment in the Roman
administration. He must, though, have been a very good man in his heart and he
must have already loved and revered Christ, for he responded immediately to
Christ’s invitation to follow him. But otherwise he was just an ordinary tax
collector with nothing about him to merit in any special way the attention of
the greatest man in the world. Yet Christ, as he passed along his way, stopped
and invited him to follow him. It was the moment of a lifetime. It was the
chance to become an intimate of Jesus Christ the Son of God become man. Whatever
opportunities life might have brought to Matthew, nothing could compare with
this, and Matthew knew it. He had received the unexpected blessing of being
chosen personally by Jesus Christ to be his direct associate, companion and
friend. Why was he granted this blessing? It was simply God’s free choice. Why
was Judas chosen, for that matter? It was God’s free choice, so tragically and
catastrophically squandered.
The fundamental Fact of life is God’s loving choice. Were it not for this having
been revealed, in all likelihood this would have been missed. There are too many
things that happen in the world that give to too many people the impression that
the world and life are just a conglomerate of coincidences. People are born into
this or that family, whatever be its circumstances, seemingly by chance. They
just happen to have this or that capacity and opportunity and, depending on
whether they have it in them to make their way in an indifferent or even hostile
world, they get on with the business of living. It is largely the luck of the
game — or so it is often deemed. People do have a vague sense of a general
Providence, but this is mixed up with the impression of a world that unfolds in
accord with the forces ruling it. But no. Life is not just a cauldron of
competing pressures and interests, with the strongest getting to the top.
Fundamentally life is a gift from God, a gift spoiled by sin. But the gift
endures, and each person is the direct object of this divine generosity. The
most ordinary and insignificant person needs to discover that I live because God
has chosen me. I continue to live and exist because God continues in his choice
of me. In fact, as St Paul writes, from before the world began, God chose each
of us in Christ to be holy and full of love in his sight. The fundamental Fact
of life is God’s loving choice. God likes me. He loves me. That is why I enjoy
the gift of life and being. More still, this is why he has chosen me to be his
personal friend in Christ. What Christ did to St Matthew
(Matthew 9: 9-13), he does to each of us according to our measure
and particular vocation. He does not call me to be one of the Twelve, but by my
baptism he has called me to be his friend and disciple. If I am not baptised he
is calling me to be his friend and disciple, because he instructed the Twelve to
go to the whole world and make disciples of all the nations. As head of his body
the Church, Christ passes by each person and invites him to be his personal
friend. As St Paul wrote in one of his Letters, Christ loved me and gave himself
up for me. The facts of life are that God has chosen me, as he did Matthew.
Why did Christ call Matthew? It is something of a mystery. Why did God choose
me, even to enjoy the blessing of existence? It is something of a mystery. Why
does Christ invite me, as he did Matthew, to follow him, to love him and to be
his friend day by day, and then enjoy the surpassing blessing of his friendship
for ever hereafter? It is a mystery. But it is the fundamental Fact of life and
it gives a divine meaning to everything. The foundation of everything is God’s
loving choice. Let us appreciate this choice and understand that it is the
treasure of all treasures, and let us, as it were, sell all we have to gain it.
(E.J.Tyler)
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It is childish of you to judge the value of apostolic undertakings by what you
can see of them. With that standard you would have to prefer a ton of coal to a
handful of diamonds.
(The Way, no.908)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE
INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Sixth Chapter
THE
VAIN JUDGMENTS OF MEN
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
MY CHILD, trust firmly in the Lord, and do not fear the judgment of men when
conscience tells you that you are upright and innocent. For it is good and
blessed to suffer such things, and they will not weigh heavily on the humble
heart that trusts in God rather than in itself. Many men say many things, and
therefore little faith is to be put in them.
(Continuing)
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He who charges us with making Mary a divinity, is thereby denying the divinity
of Jesus. Such a man does not know what divinity is. Our Lord cannot pray for
us, as a creature prays, as Mary prays; He cannot inspire those feelings which a
creature inspires. To her belongs, as being a creature, a natural claim on our
sympathy and familiarity, in that she is nothing else than our fellow.
JHN, from A Letter Addressed to the Rev. E. B. Pusey (1865)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
Tuesday of the twenty fifth week in Ordinary Time
(September 22) St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions
(1600?-1637)
Lawrence (Lorenzo) was born in Manila
of a Chinese father and a Filipino mother, both Christians. Thus he learned
Chinese and Tagalog from them and Spanish from the Dominicans whom he served as
altar boy and sacristan. He became a professional calligrapher,
transcribing
documents in beautiful penmanship. He was a full member of the Confraternity of
the Holy Rosary under Dominican auspices. He married and had two sons and a
daughter. His life took an abrupt turn when he was accused of murder. Nothing
further is known except the statement of two Dominicans that "he was sought by
the authorities on account of a homicide to which he was present or which was
attributed to him." At that time three Dominican priests, Antonio Gonzalez,
Guillermo Courtet and Miguel de Aozaraza, were about to sail to Japan in spite
of a violent persecution there. With them was a Japanese priest, Vicente
Shiwozuka de la Cruz, and a layman named Lazaro, a leper. Lorenzo, having taken
asylum with them, was allowed to accompany them. But only when they were at sea
did he learn that they were going to Japan. They landed at Okinawa. Lorenzo
could have gone on to Formosa, but, he reported, "I decided to stay with the
Fathers, because the Spaniards would hang me there." In Japan they were soon
found out, arrested and taken to Nagasaki. The site of wholesale bloodshed when
the atomic bomb was dropped had known tragedy before. The 50,000 Catholics who
once lived there were dispersed or killed by persecution. They were subjected to
an unspeakable kind of torture: After huge quantities of water were forced down
their throats, they were made to lie down. Long boards were placed on their
stomachs and guards then stepped on the ends of the boards, forcing the water to
spurt violently from mouth, nose and ears. The superior, Antonio, died after
some days. Both the Japanese priest and Lazaro broke under torture, which
included the insertion of bamboo needles under their fingernails. But both were
brought back to courage by their companions. In Lorenzo's moment of crisis, he
asked the interpreter, "I would like to know if, by apostatizing, they will
spare my life." The interpreter was noncommittal, but Lorenzo, in the ensuing
hours, felt his faith grow strong. He became bold, even audacious, with his
interrogators. The five were put to death by being hanged upside down in pits.
Boards fitted with semicircular holes were fitted around their waists and stones
put on top to increase the pressure. They were tightly bound, to slow
circulation and prevent a speedy death. They were allowed to hang for three
days. By that time Lorenzo and Lazaro were dead. The three Dominican priests,
still alive, were beheaded. When government officials asked, "If we grant you
life, will you renounce your faith?," Lorenzo responded: "That I will never do,
because I am a Christian, and I shall die for God, and for him I will give many
thousands of lives if I had them. And so, do with me as you please."
Pope John Paul II canonized these six and 10 others, Asians and Europeans, men
and women, who spread the faith in the Philippines, Formosa and Japan. Lorenzo
Ruiz is the first canonized Filipino martyr. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Ezra 6: 7-8.12.14-20; Psalm
121; Luke 8: 19-21
The mother and the brothers of Jesus
came looking for him, but they could not get to him because of the crowd. He was
told, ‘Your mother and brothers are standing outside and want to see you.’ But
he said in answer, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God
and put it into practice.” (Luke 8: 19-21)
The significant life
The achievements of man are always a source of fascination.
There have been great singers and artists at different periods of history, and
Hollywood, for instance, has produced fine movies on the work of many of them — I remember the great movie about the singer Caruso. There have been great
philosophers. I am not sure that any era has produced philosophical
breakthroughs so far reaching as those of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. There
have been great theologians, and one might think of the works of Augustine,
Aquinas or Bellarmine. There have been great religious minds that embraced
several vistas of human thought, and one might think of the works of Newman.
There have been great military generals, and one might think of the victories of
Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, or the Duke of Wellington. There have been
great mathematicians and physicists, and one might think of Albert Einstein. The
world is the scene of human work, and the work of some stands out with special
brightness. It lights up the sky and inspires others to strive. Now, those in
history whose work and persons stand out as being of acknowledged value remind
us that not just they but every single person aspires to a life and a work of
value. But despite this common desire, the overwhelming proportion of human
beings do not attain any notoriety in history. They live out their lives in what
we might call an ordinary, limited and unnoticed scene. They are the common man.
They are the Everyman who is born into his family, makes his mistakes, does his
work often with mixed success, has his friends and his family, grows old and
passes away into the mists of forgotten history. He drops into the water like a
stone and is gone for good. Within a few generations his own descendants have,
perhaps, forgotten his very existence. It is characteristic of man that he wish
in some sense to leave a mark of value, to do something with his life that is of
significance. If this is so, then the common man might think that in the nature
of the case his life must needs be of little significance.
In our Gospel today our Lord — the Lord God who at the same time was man!
— was
with a crowd of people and was teaching. A message came through to him that his
mother and his relatives were standing outside wanting to speak with him. Let us
look on that message as reminding us of what has just been said about a life of
value. Imagine the message being passed through the crowd to the revered Prophet
before them. His mother and his relatives were waiting — the mother and
relatives of Jesus of Nazareth! Now, that would have been a distinction! They
had a claim on the remarkable man before them. They were important, while those
in the crowd, so many there that his family could not reach him, were by
comparison very ordinary indeed. But what does our Lord say in response to the
message? He says that the distinction of being his mother and his relative was
available to all. All can have the supreme distinction of being united with him.
“The mother and the brothers of Jesus came looking for him, but they could not
get to him because of the crowd. He was told, ‘Your mother and brothers are
standing outside and want to see you.’ But he said in answer, ‘My mother and my
brothers are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice’.”
(Luke 8: 19-21). This is the key to
everyone’s desire to live a life of true value and to do work of true
significance. Notoriety is not the necessary mark of distinction. What marks a
valuable and distinguished life, according to Jesus of Nazareth, is hearing the
word of God and putting it into practice. Now, this is open to everyone whatever
be his circumstances, unfavourable or otherwise. A person may never be
remembered but if he has heard the word of God and put it into practice, he will
be loved by Jesus Christ as a member of his own family. The common man can live
a great life and do great work even if this is known to God alone. The key is
knowing God’s word and his will, and doing it. In this sense greatness does not
depend on great talents, great circumstances and great opportunities. It depends
on obedience to God.
Each ordinary day is the opportunity we have been granted to leave our mark
— but it is a mark that God notices, not necessarily man. If the great man — the
man regarded as great in the eyes of society and the world — has not striven to
know the word of God and put it into practice, then for all his fame true
greatness has eluded him. Let everyone, every little person, keep his eyes
steadfastly on the person and teaching of Jesus Christ and make that the key to
his success. The key is simple but full of challenge: it is simply to hear the
word of God and obey it.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Now that you have given yourself to him, ask him for a new life, a 'seal', to
guarantee that your mission as a man of God is authentic.
(The Way, no.909)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE
INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Sixth Chapter
THE VAIN JUDGMENTS OF MEN
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
Likewise, it is impossible to satisfy all men. Although Paul tried to please all
in the Lord, and became all things to all men, yet he made little of their
opinions. He laboured abundantly for the edification and salvation of others, as
much as lay in him and as much as he could, but he could not escape being
sometimes judged and despised by others. Therefore, he committed all to God Who
knows all things, and defended himself by his patience and humility against the
tongues of those who spoke unjustly or thought foolish things and lies, or made
accusations against him. Sometimes, indeed, he did answer them, but only lest
his silence scandalize the weak.
(Continuing)
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The Christian Church is so constituted as to be able to spread itself out in its
separate branches into all regions of the earth; so that in every nation there
may be found a representative and an offshoot of the sacred and gifted Society,
set up once for all by our Lord after His resurrection.
JHN, from the sermon ‘‘The Glory of the Christian Church’’ (1834)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
Wednesday of the twenty fifth week in Ordinary Time
(September 23) St. Padre Pio da Pietrelcina (1887-1968)
In one of the largest such ceremonies in history, Pope John Paul II canonized
Padre Pio of Pietrelcina on June 16, 2002. It was the 45th canonization ceremony
in Pope John Paul's pontificate. More than 300,000 people braved blistering heat
as they filled St. Peter's Square
and
nearby streets. They heard the Holy Father praise the new saint for his prayer
and charity. "This is the most concrete synthesis of Padre Pio's teaching," said
the pope. He also stressed Padre Pio's witness to the power of suffering. If
accepted with love, the Holy Father stressed, such suffering can lead to "a
privileged path of sanctity." Many people have turned to the Italian Capuchin
Franciscan to intercede with God on their behalf; among them was the future Pope
John Paul II. In 1962, when he was still an archbishop in Poland, he wrote to
Padre Pio and asked him to pray for a Polish woman with throat cancer. Within
two weeks, she had been cured of her life-threatening disease. Born Francesco
Forgione, Padre Pio grew up in a family of farmers in southern Italy. Twice
(1898-1903 and 1910-17) his father worked in Jamaica, New York, to provide the
family income. At the age of 15, Francesco joined the Capuchins and took the
name of Pio. He was ordained in 1910 and was drafted during World War I. After
he was discovered to have tuberculosis, he was discharged. In 1917 he was
assigned to the friary in San Giovanni Rotondo, 75 miles from the city of Bari
on the Adriatic. On September 20, 1918, as he was making his thanksgiving after
Mass, Padre Pio had a vision of Jesus. When the vision ended, he had the
stigmata in his hands, feet and side. Life became more complicated after that.
Medical doctors, Church authorities and curiosity seekers came to see Padre Pio.
In 1924 and again in 1931, the authenticity of the stigmata was questioned;
Padre Pio was not permitted to celebrate Mass publicly or to hear confessions.
He did not complain of these decisions, which were soon reversed. However, he
wrote no letters after
1924.
His only other writing, a pamphlet on the agony of Jesus, was done before 1924.
Padre Pio rarely left the friary after he received the stigmata, but busloads of
people soon began coming to see him. Each morning after a 5 a.m. Mass in a
crowded church, he heard confessions until noon. He took a mid-morning break to
bless the sick and all who came to see him. Every afternoon he also heard
confessions. In time his confessional ministry would take 10 hours a day;
penitents had to take a number so that the situation could be handled. Many of
them have said that Padre Pio knew details of their lives that they had never
mentioned. Padre Pio saw Jesus in all the sick and suffering. At his urging, a
fine hospital was built on nearby Mount Gargano. The idea arose in 1940; a
committee began to collect money. Ground was broken in 1946. Building the
hospital was a technical wonder because of the difficulty of getting water there
and of hauling up the building supplies. This "House for the Alleviation of
Suffering" has 350 beds. A number of people have reported cures they believe
were received through the intercession of Padre Pio. Those who assisted at his
Masses came away edified; several curiosity seekers were deeply moved. Like St.
Francis, Padre Pio sometimes had his habit torn or cut by souvenir hunters. One
of Padre Pio’s sufferings was that unscrupulous people several times circulated
prophecies that they claimed originated from him. He never made prophecies about
world events and never gave an opinion on matters that he felt belonged to
Church authorities to decide. He died on September 23, 1968, and was beatified
in 1999. At Padre Pio's canonization Mass in 2002, Pope John Paul II referred to
that day's Gospel (Matthew 11:25-30) and said: “The Gospel image of 'yoke'
evokes the many trials that the humble Capuchin of San Giovanni Rotondo endured.
Today we contemplate in him how sweet is the 'yoke' of Christ and indeed how
light the burden are whenever someone carries these with faithful love. The life
and mission of Padre Pio testify that difficulties and sorrows, if accepted with
love, transform themselves into a privileged journey of holiness, which opens
the person toward a greater good, known only to the Lord.”
"The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against
self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except
at the price of pain" (saying of Padre Pio).
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Ezra 9:5-9; Tobit 13:2, 3-4a,
4befghn, 7-8; Luke 9:1-6
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to
drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the
kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: Take nothing for the journey—
no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. Whatever house you enter,
stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, shake the
dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them. So
they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing
people everywhere. (Luke 9: 1-6)
The Twelve Let us place our Lord’s action as described in this passage within
the context of the Old Testament and the history of God’s chosen people. As St
Paul puts it in one of his Letters, Abraham was their father in faith. The God
of the chosen people was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We may say that
the origins of this chosen people precisely as a people began with the twelve
sons of Jacob and the prophecies pronounced over them by their father Jacob, as
we read at the end of the Book of Genesis. The twelve tribes of
Israel (of
Jacob) begin their providential and varied path towards the arrival of the
Messiah, who would be of the tribe of Judah. To him would pass the sceptre. The
grand covenant of Sinai was that between the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — who revealed his name to Moses as Yahweh
— and the twelve tribes of Israel. In
their common consciousness this people looked especially to this covenant and to
their descent from the twelve patriarchs, who had Abraham for their father. The
people whom God had chosen for his own looked back to the twelve, the twelve
patriarchs. Well now, Jesus of Nazareth calls from among his disciples The
Twelve. Is there any direct parallel with this in all of the Scriptures? Moses
did not call a Twelve. Nor did David or any of the prophets. Elijah, Elisha,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezechiel — none of these called, from among their disciples, a
special Twelve. It would have been very significant if they had. But early in
his ministry Jesus Christ called from among his disciples — at least seventy-two
of whom participated directly in his ministry — an altogether special group who
were the Twelve. He gave them the title of “Apostles”: they were his
ambassadors, his envoys. What did it suggest? It clearly suggested that a new
people was in the making, a people arising from the chosen people who would have
him, Jesus Christ for their father, and the Twelve for their patriarchs. Their
God would be the Father of Jesus Christ, who revealed himself to be the same one
God, together with the Holy Spirit.
But there is more. We see that our Lord “gave them power and authority to drive
out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom
of God and to heal the sick” (Luke 9: 1-6).
He was sharing his messianic mission and powers with the Twelve. At its heart,
of course, the messianic mission could not be shared. There was only one
Messiah, and he alone could save his people from their sins. He alone could take
away the sin of the world. He alone could bring the Kingdom of heaven to
mankind. But others could, according to their measure, be part of the great
enterprise. The people were all struck with the power and the authority of
Christ — they marvelled at the authority he displayed in his teaching. He spoke
as one with authority, not like their scribes. But he also had full authority
over sickness and the demons. He even commands unclean spirits, they said, and
they obey him. In our passage today, our Lord gives this “power and authority”
to drive out demons, to preach and teach what he had been teaching, and to heal
the sick. Now, there is something of a precedent to this in the work of Moses — God at one point poured out the spirit of prophecy on others and Moses declared
himself to be delighted that this had happened. But there is no parallel in
Moses’ ministry to what Christ was doing here. Nor is their any prophet who does
this on such a scale. Elijah did not himself dispense his powers to Elisha — it
came as a gift from God to his disciple. Thus Elisha was handed the mantle of
Elijah. But Christ sovereignly passes on his powers and his teaching ministry to
the Twelve and they proceed to go before him, doing what he had been doing. All
this is to say that a new Thing is appearing. What we read of in today’s Gospel
is a harbinger of what is to come, and that which is coming is none other than
the Church. Jesus Christ is laying the foundation of something very concrete. He
is not just launching a great movement in history, one which will take people to
God. He is founding a great institution, one that will act in his name. He will
be its Head, and it will be his Body. He will be the Bridegroom. It will be his
Spouse.
A great tendency has been forming in Christian thought over the last few
centuries. It is to look to Christ alone and to discount, and even to despise,
the Church. Jesus Christ, yes — the Church, no. But this is all wrong. Christ
comes to us precisely in his body the Church. He is present among us, but in and
by and through his Church. We see its foundations being laid in our Gospel
passage today. Let us then, if we wish to be of Christ, understand that we must
be of the Church. As Christ loved his Church, so we too ought love the Church,
be guided by its authority and nourished by its life.
(E.J.Tyler)
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That — your ideal, your vocation — is madness. And the others — your friends,
your brothers — are crazy. Have you never heard that cry deep down inside?
Answer, firmly, that you thank God for the honour of being one of those
'lunatics'.
(The Way, no.910)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE
INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Sixth Chapter
THE
VAIN JUDGMENTS OF MEN
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
Who are you, then, that you should be afraid of mortal man? Today he is here,
tomorrow he is not seen. Fear God and you will not be afraid of the terrors of
men. What can anyone do to you by word or injury? He hurts himself rather than
you, and no matter who he may be he cannot escape the judgment of God. Keep God
before your eyes, therefore, and do not quarrel with peevish words.
(Continuing)
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It must not be supposed, because the doctrine of the Cross makes us sad, that
therefore the Gospel is a sad religion.
JHN, from the sermon ‘The Cross of Christ the Measure of the World’ (1841)
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Thursday of the twenty fifth week in Ordinary Time
(September 24) St. Pacifico of San Severino (1653-1721)
Pacifico was born into a distinguished family in San Severino
in the Marche of Ancona in central Italy. After joining the Friars Minor, he was
ordained. He taught philosophy for two years and then began a successful
preaching career. Pacifico was an ascetic man. He fasted perpetually, eating no
more than bread, soup or water. His "hair shirt" was made of iron. Poverty and
obedience were two virtues for which his confreres especially remembered him. At
the age of 35, Pacifico contracted an illness that eventually left him deaf,
blind and crippled. He offered his sufferings for the conversion of sinners, and
he cured many of the sick who came to him. Pacifico also served as the superior
of the friary in San Severino. He was canonized in 1839. Pacifico lived out the
words of St. Francis cited below. His preaching and ministry were linked to his
life of penance.
"Moreover, I advise and admonish the friars that in their
preaching, their words should be examined and chaste. They should aim only at
the advantage and spiritual good of their listeners, telling them briefly about
vice and virtue, punishment and glory, because our Lord himself kept his words
short on earth" (St. Francis, Rule of 1223, Ch. 9). (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Haggai 1:1-8;
Psalm 149:1b-6a and 9b; Luke 9:7-9
Now
Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed,
because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, others that
Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had
come back to life. But Herod said, I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear
such things about? And he was eager to see him. (Luke
9: 7-9)
Eager to see him
Years ago I attended a lecture on the religion of ancient
Egypt, given at the Sydney Museum. It was a very interesting lecture and the
speaker was an eminent specialist in his field. People were there who had an
interest in studies in religion — the religions of various cultures of different
eras. I remember one young student who asked a question and in it she referred
to the Christian religion as “European religion.” I could see from the way she
spoke that she did not want to allow that the Christian religion transcended any
particular culture or society. As the religion of ancient Egypt was peculiar to
its society, so the Christian religion was peculiar to Europe. She deemed
Christianity to be, like all religions, just a cultural phenomenon. Of course,
its origins were not in Europe, but in the Middle East, but this small case is
illustrative of the immensely varied attitude of modern man towards God and
religion. For the last half millennium there have arisen from within the heart
of Christian Europe not only various forms of Christianity but various forms of
atheism and agnosticism. In recent times many observers of society and culture
have maintained that religion is returning but again, what is the nature of this
interest in religion? There are numerous university departments of studies in
religion, and one can easily have a student of Islam or Christianity who himself
is philosophically an atheist or an agnostic. I mention this in order to make
what ought be an obvious point. It is that there is a great difference between
having an interest in Jesus Christ and being a Christian. It was precisely when
great crowds were following him that our Lord turned to them and told them that
if anyone wished to come after him he must renounce himself and take up his
cross every day and follow in his footsteps. They were interested in him to the
point of being part of the throng at his heels. But that was nothing like
enough. God had become man to make of all the nations his disciples.
We are reminded of this in our Gospel passage today
(Luke 9: 7-9) which tells us of Herod the
tetrarch. He was dissolute, self-indulgent and immoral. He had put John the
Baptist to death, and now he was hearing of this Jesus. He was nonplussed and
curious, anxious to cast eyes on the wonderworker who was outshining John. Luke
sums up his attitude by saying that he was eager to see Jesus. But of course our
Lord would have nothing to do with him. He referred to him on one occasion as
“that fox,” and when he was hauled before Herod during his Passion he would not
grant him a word. Herod had an interest in Jesus Christ but he was, we might
say, spurned by Jesus Christ. This was because he was sunk in sin and had not
the slightest intention to turn away from it. The kind of interest in Jesus
Christ which Christ himself accepts is that of one who is repentant of sin.
Christ accepts the one who comes to him desiring to hear his word and act on it
with sincerity. If you love me, you will keep my commandments, he said to his
disciples. Herod had nothing of this. When our Lord was criticized by the
scribes and Pharisees for mixing with sinners and even eating with them, by way
of explanation he told the parable of the prodigal son, which is really the
parable of the father who was prodigal with his loving forgiveness. He ran and
embraced his wayward son because he had returned, repentant. He then showered
his son with celebrations. The repentance of the prodigal son is what our Lord
is looking for. Christ came not to satisfy curiosity or to satisfy any one of
countless other forms of interest, but to take away the sin of the world and
reconcile man to God. Who is there in the history of religions who claimed to be
the Redeemer of the world? Mahomet claimed to bring God’s message and Buddha
claimed to bring enlightenment, but Christ is not merely all this but redeems
the world from sin and unites man by grace with God. Let us think of Herod as
embodying all that we must not be in our desire to see and be with Jesus. We
must wish to see Jesus because he is our Redeemer and our God.
We read that after our Lord had fed the crowds with the loaves and fishes, they
wanted to make him king. But he fled to the hills. We too must make him our
king, but not for the wrong reasons. Progressively our Lord would command those
he healed not to make known what he had done for them, because the people were
seeking him out simply to gain healings. His true mission was being ignored and
missed. Christ wishes to unite ourselves with him in the fight with sin. He
wishes to make us saints — which is to say, people with a heart and a mind like
his. Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, St Paul writes. Let us
seek Jesus daily, and for that purpose.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You write: 'Our longing to see it all going ahead and spreading seems about to
turn into impatience. When will things get under way, when will the
break-through come,... when will we see the world ours?'
And you add: 'It won't be a useless longing if we seek an outlet for it in
"coercing", in "pestering" God: then we will have made excellent use of our
time.'
(The Way, no.911)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL
CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Sixth Chapter
THE
VAIN JUDGMENTS OF MEN
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
If it seems, then, that you are worsted and that you suffer undeserved shame, do
not repine over it and do not lessen your crown by impatience. Look instead to
heaven, to Me, Who have power to deliver you from all disgrace and injury, and
to render to everyone according to his works.
(Concluded)
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Grace ever works by few; it is the keen vision, the intense conviction, the
indomitable resolve of the few, it is the blood of the martyr, it is the prayer
of the saint, it is the heroic deed, it is the momentary crisis, it is the
concentrated energy of a word or a look, which is the instrument of heaven.
JHN, from Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England (1851)
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Friday of the twenty fifth week in Ordinary Time
(September 25) St. Elzear (1286-1323) and Blessed
Delphina (1283-1358)
This is the only Franciscan couple to be
canonized or beatified formally. Elzear came from a noble family in southern
France. After he married Delphina, she informed him that she had made a vow of
perpetual virginity; that same night he did the same. For a time Elzear, Count
of Ariano, was a counselor to Duke Charles of Calabria in southern Italy. Elzear
ruled his own territories in the kingdom of Naples and in southern France with
justice. Elzear and Delphina joined the Secular Franciscans and dedicated
themselves to the corporal works of mercy. Twelve poor people dined with them
every day. A statue of Elzear shows him curing several people suffering from
leprosy. Their piety extended to the running of their household. Everyone there
was expected to attend Mass daily, go to confession weekly and be ready to
forgive injuries. After Elzear’s death, Delphina continued her works of charity
for 35 more years. She is especially remembered for raising the moral level of
the king of Sicily’s court. Elzear and Delphina are buried in Apt, France. He
was canonized in 1369, and she was beatified in 1694.
St. Bonaventure wrote: "Francis sought occasion to love God
in everything. He delighted in all the works of God's hands and from the vision
of joy on earth his mind soared aloft to the life-giving source and cause of
all. In everything beautiful, he saw him who is beauty itself, and he followed
his Beloved everywhere by his likeness imprinted on creation; of all creation he
made a ladder by which he might mount up and embrace Him who is all-desirable" (Legenda
Major, IX, 1). (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Haggai 2:1-9; Psalm
43:1, 2, 3, 4; Luke 9:18-22
Once
when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked
them, Who do the crowds say I am? They replied, Some say John the Baptist;
others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has
come back to life. But what about you? he asked. Who do you say I am? Peter
answered, The Christ of God. Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to
anyone. And he said, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by
the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be put to death
and on the third day be raised to life.
(Luke 9: 18-22)
Death
Socrates has always been admired as a seeker
and teacher of the truth. He wrote hardly anything, but by his probing
discussions and by his friendships established a profound philosophical
tradition which quickly flowered in the genius of both Plato and Aristotle.
Socrates is an iconic figure in Western civilization. His end was tragic and yet
it too had its grandeur. He accepted with a certain nobility the demand by the
civil authorities that he put an end to his own life. But for all his nobility,
there was never the slightest question about
the
darkness of his end — it was unnecessary, it should not have been, and it would
have been avoided by him if at all possible. If ever there was a blot, if ever
there was a negative, it was the death of Socrates. Take another iconic figure — not iconic for the West, but for the East. I refer to Buddha, a man of a couple
of centuries before Socrates. His great quest was for enlightenment, the
enlightenment that involved freedom from suffering and evil. He searched for
true happiness and considered that he found it in a total detachment. He passed
on what the world of the East came to regard as a great legacy and his tradition
became a defining perspective for Asian civilization. He too came to his end,
but his death had no special significance. It was simply the end of a noble
earthly quest and the passageway to Nirvana. Let us take yet another iconic
figure, this time between the West and the East — in the Middle East. I refer to
Mahomet. He was a remarkable man and his impact on the world has been great
especially in its counter to the human tendency towards polytheism. There is no
god but Allah, and Mahomet is Allah’s messenger. Allah is great, and all must
submit to him. This was the message of Mahomet and the Qu’ran, the book which
Islam insists came from Allah himself. Again, Mahomet came to his end, and his
death had no special significance. He died and he was buried, and his followers
mourned, but that was all there was to it.
But the death of Jesus Christ! Ah, that is a different matter. There are many,
many things that are utterly new about the person, the life and the teaching of
Jesus Christ. His claims about himself have no parallel in the annals of truly
great men. They far exceeded those of Socrates, Buddha or Mahomet. He who sees
me sees the Father. The Father and I are one. My Lord and my God, Thomas
exclaimed, and the risen Jesus accepted that proclamation. He claimed that the
one only God was three distinct divine persons, and that he was the second among
them — the Son, no less! Whoever claimed and taught such a thing? My flesh is
real food, and unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have no life
in you. Name the man who has said anything like this! Yes, there are numerous
unique aspects to the figure of Christ and among them is the matter of his very
death. His life, his teaching and his saving mission were new, but it all hinged
on his death. His death was the pivotal element in his life, teaching and
mission. The entire redemption depended on it and the disciple of Christ accepts
this and endeavours to apply it to his life. He aims to follow Christ precisely
in his sufferings and death — not of course in its literal circumstances, but in
his daily life and in the way intended by the providence of God. We must not
underestimate the importance precisely of the death of Jesus Christ. His life
reached its climax precisely in his death, which itself was then crowned by his
resurrection and ascension. His death was the climax because his obedience to
the will of his Father attained its climax then, and by his sufferings unto
death he made up for the sins of the world. Thus did he atone for man’s sin. In
our Gospel today our Lord places his sufferings and death at the heart of his
messianic mission. “But what about you? he asked. Who do you say I am? Peter
answered, The Christ of God. Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to
anyone. And he said, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by
the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be put to death
and on the third day be raised to life” (Luke 9:
18-22).
The one who follows Jesus Christ understands that the prospects of the universe
and of human life were radically altered by this otherwise very negative event.
Christ did not, like other men, simply come to his end, having lost his life. He
gave up his life as the supremely positive act of his entire mission. The
ambition of the enlightened Christian is to join with Christ in his obedient
death so as to experience the power of his resurrection. We join with him in his
death most especially in our baptism, then by participating in and partaking of
the holy Eucharist, and then by a life of union with him. Let us then take our
stand with Jesus Christ and in loving union with him go where he has gone.
(E.J.Tyler)
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I can understand how you are suffering when, in the midst of that enforced
inactivity, you consider the work still to be done. Your heart would break the
bounds of the universe, and it has to adapt itself to... an insignificant
routine job.
But, tell me, for when do we keep our fiat, 'Thy will be done'?...
(The Way, no.912)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Seventh Chapter
PURE AND ENTIRE RESIGNATION OF SELF TO OBTAIN FREEDOM OF HEART
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
MY CHILD, renounce self and you shall find Me. Give up your own self-will, your
possessions, and you shall always gain. For once you resign yourself
irrevocably, greater grace will be given you.
(Continuing)
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In most cases when a [doctrinal] definition is contemplated, the laity will have
a testimony to give; but if ever there be an instance when they ought to be
consulted, it is in the case of doctrines which bear directly upon devotional
sentiments. Such is the Immaculate Conception … The faithful people have ever a
special function in regard to those doctrinal truths which relate to the Objects
of worship.
JHN, from the article ‘On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine’ (1859)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
Saturday of the twenty fifth week in Ordinary Time
(September 26) Sts. Cosmas and Damian (d. 303?)
Nothing is known of their lives except that they suffered martyrdom in Syria
during the persecution of Diocletian. A church erected on the site of their
burial place was enlarged by the emperor Justinian. Devotion to the two saints
spread rapidly in both East and West. A famous basilica was erected in their
honour in Constantinople. Their names were placed in the canon of the Mass,
probably in the sixth century. Legend says that they were twin brothers born in
Arabia, who became skilled doctors. They were among those who are venerated in
the East as the "moneyless ones" because they did not charge a fee for their
services. It was impossible that such prominent persons would escape unnoticed
in time of persecution: They were arrested and beheaded. Nine centuries later,
Francis of Assisi (October 4) rebuilt the dilapidated San Damiano chapel outside
Assisi. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Zechariah 2:5-9, 14-15a; Jeremiah
31:10, 11-12ab, 13; Luke 9:43b-45
While everyone was marvelling at all that Jesus did, he said to his disciples,
Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be
betrayed into the hands of men. But they did not understand what this meant. It
was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask
him about it. (Luke 9: 43b-45)
The crown of life
It is clear from the Gospels that our Lord was a cause of
great wonderment. We are told in our Gospel passage today that “everyone was
marvelling at all that Jesus did.” Indeed, this marvelling at him was present
from his very conception and birth. The Angel Gabriel had promised Mary that her
Child would be great, and called the Son of the Most High. Elizabeth, filled
with the Holy Spirit, had said in the presence of Mary, that “blessed is the
fruit of your womb.” When the Child was twelve, after three days searching for
him in Jerusalem, his parents found him in the Temple with the doctors of the
Law marvelling at his intelligence and probing questions. The Child was showing
an astonishing penetration of the meaning of the Scriptures. Back in Nazareth,
our Lord lived in obscurity till the time came for him to be manifested to
Israel. Then it became obvious that a great light had appeared among the people.
It was obvious that in him God was visiting his people. All this appeared
instantly — once his public ministry began with the first divine manifestation
at his baptism in the Jordan. His teaching was remarkable for both its content
and its authority. He spoke not as did the other teachers of the Law, but as one
having an ultimate authority. He needed to appeal to no one else, but spoke as
one who simply knew. You have heard that it was said to the men of old, he
famously began, but I, I tell you the following. He knew all things, and no one
could fault him despite repeated attempts. He routed his opponents in debate and
finally silenced them. All they could do thenceforth was scheme and plan to do
away with him out of sight of the people who hung on his words. Not only did his
teaching cause unending wonderment but his deeds did too. There was nothing he
could not do — but of course, he would not force the free will of others. He
cured the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead, subdued storms, fed vast
crowds. He was a great wonder before the nation.
One wonders what might have been the result had Jesus Christ seen it as his
mission to move to the world stage and apply his powers there. After all, he did
in due course send his disciples to the whole world. He clearly had the
supernatural power to subdue kingdoms. What could an army do against a person
who could at a word subdue a raging storm at sea, or who himself could walk on
the sea? But such was not his mission at all. He came to redeem the world from
sin, and the mystery of mysteries was that this mission was to be accomplished
by what seemed to be the most negative step of all. Several decades before, the
masterly Julius Caesar, conqueror of Pompey and dictator of Rome itself, had
been cut down. His death put an end to his self-chosen mission. His death was
the frustration of all he aspired to be and to do. But what do we see in Jesus
Christ? At the height of the praise and wonderment that his teaching and his
miracles and his very person were evoking, he solemnly warned his disciples that
they must “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is
going to be betrayed into the hands of men.” Christ did not simply fall into the
hands of men. He went forward to bear witness before them to the truth of his
teaching and person, and freely accepted the death which they had implacably
determined. His death was not the sudden end of his mission. It was the highest
and most irreplaceable moment of it, the moment that brought it to its
fulfilment. Jesus Christ transformed the meaning of the darkest, the most
unfortunate and most meaningless thing in the universe: death, the end of life.
In his life, death became the crown of life and the beginning of something
wondrously new. Thus it was necessary that the Son of Man suffer so as to enter
into his glory. Mysteriously his death was necessary, but, we read, his
disciples “did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that
they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it”
(Luke 9: 43b-45). There has never been
anyone comparable to Jesus of Nazareth.
The challenge for the disciple of Jesus Christ is to follow him, and following
him means not only being with him when it involves the praise of men, but when
it involves inconvenience and rejection. There are many ways it can involve
this. Take but one example that could serve as a symbol of many others. A
disciple of Christ feels drawn to a life in politics. He knows that abortion is
an abomination in the sight of God. Is he prepared to suffer in bearing witness
to the truth of God? If he is not, then he has not yet learnt the lesson of our
Lord’s words in today’s Gospel passage. Christ had to suffer, and so does the
one who follows him.
(E.J.Tyler)
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I can understand how you are suffering when, in the midst of that enforced
inactivity, you consider the work still to be done. Your heart would break the
bounds of the universe, and it has to adapt itself to... an insignificant
routine job.
But, tell me, for when do we keep our fiat, 'Thy will be done'?...
(The Way, no.912)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Seventh Chapter PURE AND
ENTIRE RESIGNATION OF SELF TO OBTAIN FREEDOM OF HEART
THE DISCIPLE
How often, Lord, shall I resign myself? And in what shall I forsake myself?
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
Always, at every hour, in small matters as well as great -- I except nothing. In
all things I wish you to be stripped of self. How otherwise can you be mine or I
yours unless you be despoiled of your own will both inwardly and outwardly? The
sooner you do this the better it will be for you, and the more fully and
sincerely you do it the more you will please Me and the greater gain you will
merit.
(Continuing)
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It is plain that, when we confess God as Omnipotent only, we have gained but a
half-knowledge of Him: His is an Omnipotence which can at the same time swathe
Itself in infirmity and can become the captive of Its own creatures. He has, if
I may so speak, the incomprehensible power of even making Himself weak. We must
know Him by His names, Emmanuel and Jesus, to know Him perfectly.
JHN, from the sermon ‘Omnipotence in Bonds’ (1857)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
Twenty sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time B
Prayers this week:
O Lord, you had
just cause to judge men as you did: because we sinned against you and disobeyed
your will. But now show us your greatness of heart, and treat us with your
unbounded kindness
(Daniel 3:
31.29.30.43.42).
Father, you show your almighty power in your mercy and forgiveness.
Continue to fill us with your gifts of love. Help us to hurry toward the eternal
life you promise and come to share in the joys of your kingdom.
We ask
this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.
(September 27) St. Vincent de Paul (1580?-1660)
The deathbed confession of a dying servant opened Vincent's
eyes to the crying spiritual needs of the peasantry of France. This seems to
have been a crucial moment in the life of the man from a small farm in Gascony,
France, who had become a priest with little more
ambition
than to have a comfortable life. It was the Countess de Gondi (whose servant he
had helped) who persuaded her husband to endow and support a group of able and
zealous missionaries who would work among the poor, the vassals and tenants and
the country people in general. Vincent was too humble to accept leadership at
first, but after working for some time in Paris among imprisoned galley-slaves,
he returned to be the leader of what is now known as the Congregation of the
Mission, or the Vincentians. These priests, with vows of poverty, chastity,
obedience and stability, were to devote themselves entirely to the people in
smaller towns and villages. Later Vincent established confraternities of charity
for the spiritual and physical relief of the poor and sick of each parish. From
these, with the help of St. Louise de Marillac, came the Daughters of Charity,
"whose convent is the sickroom, whose chapel is the parish church, whose
cloister is the streets of the city." He organized the rich women of Paris to
collect funds for his missionary projects, founded several hospitals, collected
relief funds for the victims of war and ransomed over 1,200 galley slaves from
North Africa. He was zealous in conducting retreats for clergy at a time when
there was great laxity, abuse and ignorance among them. He was a pioneer in
clerical training and was instrumental in establishing seminaries. Most
remarkably, Vincent was by temperament a very irascible person — even his
friends admitted it. He said that except for the grace of God he would have been
"hard and repulsive, rough and cross." But he became a tender and affectionate
man, very sensitive to the needs of others. Pope Leo XIII made him the patron of
all charitable societies. Outstanding among these, of course, is the Society of
St. Vincent de Paul, founded in 1833 by his admirer Blessed Frederic Ozanam.
"Strive to live content in the midst of those things that
cause your discontent. Free your mind from all that troubles you, God will take
care of things. You will be unable to make haste in this [choice] without, so to
speak, grieving the heart of God, because he sees that you do not honour him
sufficiently with holy trust. Trust in him, I beg you, and you will have the
fulfillment of what your heart desires" (St. Vincent de Paul, Letters).
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Numbers 11: 25-29; Psalm 18 (19): 8.10.12-14; James 5:
1-6; Mark 9:L 38-43. 45. 47-48
At that time, John said to Jesus,
"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to
prevent him because he
does not follow us." Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time
speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us. Anyone who gives you a
cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will
surely not lose his reward. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe
in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around
his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it
off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go
into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin,
cut if off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet
to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes
to be thrown into Gehenna, where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not
quenched.'" (Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48)
Solidarity
Let us notice a detail at the very beginning of this passage. Mark
reports that “John said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in
your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.’” The
detail is that it is John who says this to Jesus. Now, it is generally accepted
that Mark, in writing his Gospel, was passing on Simon Peter’s own account of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We know from the Gospel of St John, from the Acts of
the Apostles and even from St Paul’s Letters that Peter
and John were close
friends in the Lord. They had been business partners, very first disciples of
our Lord, and privileged associates of his during his public ministry. They had
been with him at the last on Calvary (with Simon following from afar), and
together with James were co-pillars of the infant Church. John’s special message
in his Gospel and in his Letters was the love of God for us and Christ’s command
that we love our brothers. Here, now, Simon (through Mark) tells us that John
was corrected by our Lord to the effect that “whoever is not against us is for
us.” It was a stage in John’s learning the great message of the love of God for
us and of the Christian’s love for all others. Christ came to save, rather than
to condemn and he looks in solidarity on all mankind. Here we have Christ
telling John to look positively and with his own spirit of solidarity on the one
whom he found to be driving out demons in his name. Christ did not say that it
was his intention that all and sundry were to act in his name without reference
to him and his appointed representatives, the Apostles. The Gospels show that it
was his intent to build his Church on the Apostles and on the Rock of Simon
Peter. He would be with them and they would act and speak in his name and
exercise his saving powers. But in the case of this individual who obviously did
not know better and had no malice in his unauthorized action, John ought look on
him kindly and as a brother, even if separated. The mind of Christ is one of
brotherhood rather than of condemnation.
It is yet another manifestation of the great revelation that the most high God
is in fact intimately close to us. The utterly transcendent God, who reveals
himself to be beyond us in every way, reveals himself to be wondrously near to
us. He is God with us. The infinity of God is, I think it could be said, a
distinctive feature of the Judaeo-Christian revelation. Those religions which
include this fundamental note in their teaching about the divine have probably
drawn on that revelation. In our contemplation of God we can never exhaust his
limitless transcendence. But by the same token, is it possible to get over the
wonder of his solidarity with puny and fallen man? God is nearer to us than we
are to ourselves. His abiding touch sustains our every thought and pulse. The
great God shows himself to be our Father in the Father and our Brother in the
Son, and all this by the power of the Spirit who is boundless love. The spirit
of God is the spirit of a brother, and it is this which filled the mind and
heart of Jesus Christ. It is this kindly and brotherly mind which the Christian
ought strive to make his own. For this reason Jesus said to John, “Do not
prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at
the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.” The
foundation of this spirit of brotherhood is not only that we are all children of
the one Father in heaven, but also that Christ by his Incarnation and death on
the cross has united himself to every man and woman. He is brother to all,
especially the most needy. We shall be reminded of this with awful consequences
at the Last Judgment, as we read in Matthew 25. In Christ, we too are brother
and sister to all. For this reason our Lord continues, “Anyone who gives you a
cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will
surely not lose his reward” (Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48).
The entire emphasis of a truly Christian spirit is one of brotherhood and
solidarity, after the mind of Christ.
As St Paul writes, God who was rich became poor that we might be rich. The great
God is a God of solidarity with us, especially with the poorest. We ought aim to
be like him in all our dealings with our fellow man. This solidarity, springing
from human and Christian brotherhood, is shown in all sorts of ways, such as by
a just distribution of goods, by a fair remuneration for work, and by zeal and
concern for a more just social order. It is especially shown in our sharing of
all the good things of Christ we have, all our spiritual goods. Let us be a
brother and sister to all, especially in bringing them into the knowledge and
love of Jesus Christ who is our greatest good.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no.1939-1942 (Human solidarity)
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Don't doubt it: your vocation is the greatest grace God could have given you.
Thank him for it.
(The Way, no.913)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Seventh Chapter PURE AND
ENTIRE RESIGNATION OF SELF TO OBTAIN FREEDOM OF HEART
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
Some there are who resign themselves, but with certain reservation; they do not
trust fully in God and therefore they try to provide for themselves. Others,
again, at first offer all, but afterward are assailed by temptation and return
to what they have renounced, thereby making no progress in virtue. These will
not reach the true liberty of a pure heart nor the grace of happy friendship
with Me unless they first make a full resignation and a daily sacrifice of
themselves. Without this no fruitful union lasts nor will last.
(Continuing)
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In an early sermon, ‘Secret Faults,’
preached in 1825, John Henry Newman
preached on the text from Psalm 18 (19) found in this Sunday’s readings: ‘who
can detect all his errors? From hidden faults acquit me.’ According to Newman,
we can understand and penetrate the Christian faith only if we know ourselves
and our sinfulness. How can we understand what salvation is, if we don’t see
our need for it?
Strange as it may seem, multitudes called Christians go through
life with no effort to obtain a correct knowledge of themselves. They are
contented with general and vague impressions concerning their real state; and,
if they have more than this, it is merely such accidental information about
themselves as the events of life force upon them. But exact systematic knowledge
they have none, and do not aim at it.
When I say this is strange, I do not mean to imply that to know ourselves is
easy; it is very difficult to know ourselves even in part, and so far ignorance
of ourselves is not a strange thing. But its strangeness consists in this, viz.
that men should profess to receive and act upon the great Christian doctrines,
while they are thus ignorant of themselves, considering that self-knowledge is a
necessary condition for
understanding
them. Thus it is not too much to say that all those who neglect the duty of
habitual self-examination are using words without meaning. The doctrines of the
forgiveness of sins, and of a new birth from sin, cannot be understood without
some right knowledge of the nature of sin, that is, of our own heart. We may,
indeed, assent to a form of words which declares those doctrines; but if such a
mere assent, however sincere, is the same as a real holding of them, and belief
in them, then it is equally possible to believe in a proposition the terms of
which belong to some foreign language, which is obviously absurd. Yet nothing is
more common than for men to think that because they are familiar with words,
they understand the ideas they stand for. Educated persons despise this fault in
illiterate men who use hard words as if they comprehended them. Yet they
themselves, as well as others, fall into the same error in a more subtle form,
when they think they understand terms used in morals and religion, because such
are common words, and have been used by them all their lives.
Now (I repeat) unless we have some just idea of our hearts and of sin, we can
have no right idea of a Moral Governor, a Saviour or a Sanctifier, that is, in
professing to believe in Them, we shall be using words without attaching
distinct meaning to them. Thus self-knowledge is at the root of all real
religious knowledge; and it is in vain,—worse than vain,—it is a deceit and a
mischief, to think to understand the Christian doctrines as a matter of course,
merely by being taught by books, or by attending sermons, or by any outward
means, however excellent, taken by themselves. For it is in proportion as we
search our hearts and understand our own nature, that we understand what is
meant by an Infinite Governor and Judge; in proportion as we comprehend the
nature of disobedience and our actual sinfulness, that we feel what is the
blessing of the removal of sin, redemption, pardon, sanctification, which
otherwise are mere words. God speaks to us primarily in our hearts.
Self-knowledge is the key to the precepts and doctrines of Scripture. The very
utmost any outward notices of religion can do, is to startle us and make us turn
inward and search our hearts; and then, when we have experienced what it is to
read ourselves, we shall profit by the doctrines of the Church and the Bible.
Of course self-knowledge admits of degrees. No one perhaps, is entirely ignorant
of himself; and even the most advanced Christian knows himself only “in part.”
However, most men are contented with a slight acquaintance with their hearts,
and therefore a superficial faith. This is the point which it is my purpose to
insist upon. Men are satisfied to have numberless secret faults. They do not
think about them, either as sins or as obstacles to strength of faith, and live
on as if they had nothing to learn.
(Reference: John Henry Newman,
Parochial and Plain Sermons Vol 1 (1834) Sermon no. 4, ‘Secret Faults’,
p. 41-43)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
Monday of the twenty sixth week in Ordinary Time
(September 28) St. Wenceslaus (907?-929)
If saints have been falsely characterized as "otherworldly," the life of
Wenceslaus stands as an example to the contrary: He stood for Christian values
in the midst of the political intrigues which characterized 10th-century
Bohemia. He was born in 907 near Prague, son of the Duke of Bohemia. His saintly
grandmother, Ludmilla, raised him and sought to promote him as ruler of Bohemia
in place of his mother, who favored the anti-Christian factions. Ludmilla was
eventually murdered, but rival Christian forces enabled Wenceslaus to assume
leadership of the government. His rule was marked by efforts toward unification
within Bohemia, support of the Church and peace-making negotiations with
Germany, a policy which caused him trouble with the anti-Christian opposition.
His brother Boleslav joined in the plotting, and in September of 929 invited
Wenceslaus to Alt Bunglou for the celebration of the feast of Sts. Cosmas and
Damian (September 26). On the way to Mass, Boleslav attacked his brother, and in
the struggle, Wenceslaus was killed by supporters of Boleslav. Although his
death resulted primarily from political upheaval, Wenceslaus was hailed as a
martyr for the faith, and his tomb became a pilgrimage shrine. He is hailed as
the patron of the Bohemian people and of former Czechoslovakia.
"While recognizing the autonomy of the
reality of politics, Christians who are invited to take up political activity
should try to make their choices consistent with the gospel and, in the
framework of a legitimate plurality, to give both personal and collective
witness to the seriousness of their faith by effective and disinterested service
of men" (Pope Paul VI, A Call to Action, 46).
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Zechariah 8:1-8; Psalm
102:16-21, 29 and 22-23; Luke 9:46-50
An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the
greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and made him stand
beside him. Then he said to them, Whoever welcomes this little child in my name
welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is
least among you all— he is the greatest. Master, said John, we saw a man driving
out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.
Do not stop him, Jesus said, for whoever is not against you is for you.
(Luke 9: 46-50)
Being great There are a few fundamental features of the things
of our experience. One such is that the things of our experience need not be,
and yet they are. Why do they exist, when they need not exist? The same can be
asked of the entire world. Why is there not simply nothing? Another feature is
that there is order everywhere — not perfect order, but order nevertheless.
There is a rationality in things. In fact, we find it almost impossible to
imagine a world that radically lacks order. But why is there not fundamental and
pervasive chaos? Or again, everything we see appears to have a cause. Nothing
stands of itself. The being of our experience is caused being. It is caused and
it is changed, ever being made to do something further and to be something
further. It is what it is, of course, but it is also a vast cauldron in constant
process of alteration. This radical contingency, this radical order, this
radically caused character of everything — in a word the radical dependency of
ourselves and of all else — ought lead us to acknowledge this dependency on the
transcendent Source of all. But we tend to deny it. We tend to acknowledge no
one but ourselves. Let us take another fundamental feature of the world. There
is an astonishing variation pervading all of existence. The universe is
unbelievably vast, a vastness not only of size but of kind. To put it simply,
some things are large and others are small. Some are red and some are yellow.
There is the great eagle and there is the tiny humming bird. Things are of
breathtaking variety in the perfection or degree of being that is theirs. This
is captured in the nature documentaries that never cease to be popular. From the
simplest to the most complex there is variety in the being of our experience.
This all pervasive variety means that each thing is either greater or less than
the next thing. But this tends to be denied by fallen man. What do I mean by
this? I mean that fallen man tends to regard himself as, and wants to be, the
greater. He refuses to be the lesser. He refuses to recognize his due place, but
wishes instead the top place.
In our Gospel today we read that “an argument started among the disciples as to
which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a
little child and made him stand beside him. Then he said to them, Whoever
welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me
welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all— he is the
greatest” (Luke 9: 46-50). The disciples of
Jesus Christ were in dispute among themselves as to which of them was the
greatest. How like mankind they were! In one form or another, however subtle the
form, this dispute lights up the scene of human society with the roar of its
flames. Deep within him and to one degree or another, man tends to think that he
is the greatest. When this is denied by another who thinks he is the greatest, a
war breaks out. Indeed, this happened in heaven itself. Christian thought has
spoken of Lucifer, one of the greatest of God’s Angels, the light-bearer,
declaring that he would not serve. He wished to be the greatest. And so, as we
read in the book of Revelation, war broke out in heaven and he was cast out.
Take the dawn of human history. This same Satan presented himself as the Woman’s
friend. Eat of the tree and you will be like God! However gifted and resplendent
she already was, she would be another god. It was a very great lie but she went
for it and ate. Then she gave it to her husband to eat, and he ate. They both
went for the lie, and it was mankind’s undoing. They wished to be the greatest,
not understanding how to be truly great. Now, man has been given the desire for
perfection, the desire to grow and reach the fullest in his potential — and in
this sense he is called to be great. But this means being great in who we really
are, and we are radically dependent in every possible way on God. We depend on
him for everything, and greatness means recognizing that God is great and that
all we have comes from him. Of ourselves we are nothing.
Our Lord by his practice and by his teaching gave us the key to true greatness.
True greatness lies in acknowledging and living the truth of who we really are.
We are creatures of God, radically dependent on him, having the measure of gifts
and life granted to us, and called to live accordingly. We must, then, pursue
the path of humility after the pattern of Jesus Christ who, though he was rich,
became poor for our sakes. He who is God put aside his glory and became as we
are, and humbler still. Therein lies the path to the greatness that God intends
for us.
(E.J.Tyler)
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How pitiful are those crowds — high and low and middle class — who live without
ideals! They give the impression that they do not know they have souls: they are
a drove, a flock, a herd.
Jesus, with the help of your merciful Love, we will turn the drove into a levy,
the flock into an army, and from the herd we will draw, purified, those who no
longer wish to be unclean.
(The Way, no.914)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Seventh Chapter
PURE AND
ENTIRE RESIGNATION OF SELF TO OBTAIN FREEDOM OF HEART
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
I have said to you very often, and now I say again: forsake yourself, renounce
yourself and you shall enjoy great inward peace. Give all for all. Ask nothing,
demand nothing in return. Trust purely and without hesitation in Me, and you
shall possess Me. You will be free of heart and darkness will not overwhelm you.
(Continuing)
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Christians have sometimes inflicted death from a zeal not according to
knowledge; and sometimes they have been eager for the toleration of heresy from
an ill-instructed charity.
JHN, from the University sermon ‘Wisdom, as Contrasted with Faith and with
Bigotry’ (1841)
--------------Back to index for this month---------------------------Back to index to Liturgical Days---------
Tuesday of the twenty-sixth week in Ordinary Time B-2
click on centre arrow
Scripture today: Job 3: 1-3.11-17.20-23;
Psalm 87; Luke 9: 51-56
As
the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out
for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan
village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him,
because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw
this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy
them?" But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to
another village. (Luke 9: 51-56)
Fire from
heaven It is as plain as the day from the
most cursory reading of the Gospels that Jesus Christ had extraordinary powers.
In fact, there was nothing he could not do, had he so chosen. He could calm
storms at sea at a mere word. He could, at a mere word, drive out demons who had
long held certain persons in their
possession.
He could liberate persons from any kind of illness or disease. He could even, at
a mere word, raise a person from the dead. He could feed multitudes with a
handful of food. He was, on top of this, exceptionally great in personal
holiness. He was magnificent in all respects. We would say, were some of these
qualities found in another, that such a person had the world at his feet - and
that is precisely what the Devil offered him, if he would but acknowledge him,
Satan, as supreme. But the next thing we notice is that our Lord refused to
impose himself, which is to say, force himself and his wishes, on anyone. He
would not use his powers to compel recognition or assent to himself or his
teaching. How different was this to the great ones of the world - take any
example, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Titus, Hadrian, Genghis Kahn - whoever it may
be. My suspicion is that Christ’s enemies, the Temple aristocracy and highest
echelons of the religious leadership, perceived this and were emboldened
accordingly. Christ bore witness to the truth of himself and his teaching to the
uttermost, even to death, but would not compel assent to this witness. He dealt
respectfully with the choice of each person, even with those who wronged him
profoundly. Consider his continuing restraint with respect to Judas Iscariot,
whose heart had turned away from him so much so as to evoke the description of
him by Christ that he was a devil (John 6:70). Our Lord did not expose him and
turn him out of his company in disgrace. In our Gospel today
(Luke 9: 51-56), we read that our Lord,
resolutely on his way to Jerusalem, was refused hospitality by a Samaritan
village - because he was heading for Jerusalem. It was an affront which James
and John felt, and they asked that they appeal to Heaven for a judgment on the
ungracious Samaritans. But this was entirely foreign to the ways of Jesus
Christ. He respectfully, meekly, turned from that village and took another
direction.
Our Lord’s intent was to extend his Kingdom across the face of the earth,
indeed, that it embrace all the nations of the world. Just before he ascended
into heaven, he charged his disciples to go to the whole world and make
disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28:19). The nations were to enter his
Kingdom by baptism, and were to obey all his commands. It was an ambition rarely
held by any other - did Alexander intend to conquer the whole world? It is
uncertain whether, after his conquest of Persia, he intended to direct his
sights against Carthage in the west. Rome, after consolidating its empire, came
to the point of establishing an outer limit. It had a wall across Britain, and
it had a limit at the Germanic tribes. There was no such limit to the Kingdom of
Jesus Christ. It was a Kingdom in this world but not of this world, and it
certainly did not employ the weapons of earthly kingdoms. Its method was to bear
witness under the cross, obedience to God unto death, and following in the
footsteps of the Master himself. Its method of advance was not force, but loving
and respectful witness. As with the Samaritans of our Gospel passage today, the
disciples of Christ were not to impose Jesus Christ, but respectfully to propose
him and his revelation. The witness was to be courageous, intrepid, undaunting,
but never forced by threat of violence - which is what James and John, for love
of their Master, were in effect requesting. As a matter of fact, the life of
Christ reveals that this witness is at its most effective when given under
conditions of persecution. Christ returned to Jerusalem to bear witness, knowing
that it meant death, and knowing that this witness unto death would redeem the
world, lead to his entry into glory, to the sending of the Spirit, and to the
advance of his Kingdom. Christ’s path would be the path of the Church for nearly
three centuries. It would be three centuries of witness amid persecution and
death, and the Empire would be conquered - not by imposing, but by proposing.
The event portrayed in our Gospel today is iconic of what was to come. There is
rejection, and the disciple of Jesus Christ responds with love and respect, and
with that his witness has fruitful effect. As the Master acts, so does the
disciple.
If we wish our lives to bear much fruit, then the path to follow is that
followed by Jesus Christ, and followed for love of him. This is the meaning of
our Lord’s great sayings, that if someone strikes you on the cheek, turn to him
the other as well. They mean that evil is answered by good, hate by love, lies
by the truth. That is the method of bringing Christ to our neighbour, and it is
encapsulated in our Gospel passage today. Let us take Christ’s message to heart
then, and spread it abroad in the way he himself spread it.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Feast
of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels (September 29)
(September 29) Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael,
archangels
Angels—messengers
from God—appear frequently in Scripture, but only Michael, Gabriel and
Raphael are named. Michael appears in Daniel's vision as "the great prince"
who defends Israel against its enemies; in the Book of Revelation, he leads
God's armies to final victory over the forces of evil. Devotion to Michael
is the oldest angelic devotion, rising in the East in the fourth century.
The Church in the West began to observe a feast honoring Michael and the
angels in the fifth century. Gabriel also makes an appearance in Daniel's
visions, announcing Michael's role in God's plan. His best-known appearance
is an encounter with a young Jewish girl named Mary, who consents to bear
the Messiah. Raphael's activity is confined to the Old Testament story of
Tobit. There he appears to guide Tobit's son Tobiah through a series of
fantastic adventures which lead to a threefold happy ending: Tobiah's
marriage to Sarah, the healing of Tobit's blindness and the restoration of
the family fortune. The memorials of Gabriel (March 24) and Raphael (October
24) were added to the Roman calendar in 1921. The 1970 revision of the
calendar joined their feasts to Michael's. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 or Rev
12:7-12ab; Psalm 138:1-5; John 1:47-51
When Jesus saw Nathanael
approaching, he said of him, Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is
nothing false. How do you know me? Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, I saw
you while you were still under the fig-tree before Philip called you. Then
Nathanael declared, Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of
Israel. Jesus said, You believe because I told you I saw you under the
fig-tree. You shall see greater things than that. He then added, I tell you
the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and
descending on the Son of Man. (John 1: 47-51)
The Archangels
It is
a common experience to be looking at something and yet not to see it. That
is to say, because we are thinking of something else, or simply interested
in something else even if we are not explicitly thinking of it, we do not
notice what is before our very eyes. The same thing can happen in religion,
and in particular in the understanding of revealed religion. There can be
whole passages in the Scriptures which of course we are aware of but which
we do not truly notice. We are aware of the text in which our Lord formally
tells Simon that he is the rock on which he will build his Church, and that
he will give to him the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and that whatever he
shall bind on earth will be considered as bound in heaven. But we do not
notice the verse, and so it does not enter into our practical understanding
of what Christ has revealed. Again, we are aware of the text in which the
risen Jesus says to the Eleven that whoever’s sins they forgive, those sins
are forgiven them. But we do not truly notice the verse and so it does not
enter into our practical understanding of what Christ has revealed. All this
is to say that basically we notice what we are interested in. If we are to
live according to the religion Christ has revealed, we must strive to
understand it as fully as possible. But if we are to understand it fully we
must truly want to understand it fully — including those elements of it we
are prone not to want to know and understand. Well then, let us notice — notice, and not simply be aware of
— the Scriptural references to the
Angels, and in particular the Angels who in Scripture are presented with a
more than ordinary role. We even know their names. Just as God himself
revealed his own name to Moses — I am who am — so the Scriptures reveal the
names of certain Angels. I refer to Michael, referred to very explicitly in
the book of Revelation. I refer to Raphael who features so prominently in
the book of Tobit. I refer to Gabriel, who features so prominently in the
infancy narrative of St Luke. Their presence is obvious in the Scriptures,
but we can fail to notice them.
All this means that there is a great invisible world which is filled with
life and activity, and which is — as here on earth — at the service of God
or opposed to him. We are constantly reminded of the vastness of visible
creation by what we ourselves see of the universe and by what is reported to
us by the astronomers. Or consider the extent of the human family — I refer
not merely to the living human family, but to all those who have gone before
us and who are yet to come. All this visible reality is sustained by the
infinite might of the one and only God. But what of the invisible creation?
Every Sunday in the Nicene Creed we profess our faith in almighty God,
creator of all things visible and invisible. The invisible world of the
angels alone (not considering the faithful departed) may be greater than the
human family. Christ refers to the angels, and in our Gospel today he speaks
of them at the beginning of his public ministry in his first encounter with
Nathanael. “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels
of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man”
(John 1: 47-51). What is to be made of this? Well, firstly, we
must advert to their very reality. Angels are real, and the Archangels whose
names we actually know from Scripture especially remind us of their reality.
But then we must understand their mission. One of the curious phenomena of
current popular culture is the belief of many in angels. In this I refer to
many who have no special belief or interest in Christ. For such people the
angels appear to have a role similar to the very minor gods of ancient and
pagan peoples — they are spirits who intervene in various ways and for
various purposes, but Christ and the work of redemption has nothing to do
with it. This is a serious tangle in misunderstanding, for whenever we think
of the angels we ought think of God’s work of creation and redemption. Just
as man has the mission to collaborate in God’s creative and redeeming work,
the Archangels of Scripture show that the angels in their fashion have this
mission too, and they especially serve the redemption of man.
The Christian Creed proclaims the communion of saints. It teaches that there
is a profound communion existing between all those who are in Christ.
Therefore there is a communion between each baptized and believing Christian
and the Angels. We can pray to them and ask their prayers and protection
under God. The Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are presented to us
in Scripture as especially prominent friends and protectors of God’s chosen
people, so let us cultivate our friendship with them in the Lord, and ask
the aid of their prayers and help.
(E.J.Tyler)
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God's works are not a lever, nor a stepping-stone.
(The Way, no.915)
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Continuing The Imitation of Christ
BOOK THREE
INTERNAL CONSOLATION
The Thirty-Seventh Chapter
PURE
AND ENTIRE RESIGNATION OF SELF TO OBTAIN FREEDOM OF HEART
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
Strive for this, pray for this, desire this -- to be stripped of all
selfishness and naked to follow the naked Jesus, to die to self and live
forever for Me. Then all vain imaginations, all wicked disturbances and
superfluous cares will vanish. Then also immoderate fear will leave you and
inordinate love will die.
(Concluded)
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Questions of fact cannot be disproved by analogies or presumptions; the
inquiry must be made into the particular case in all its parts, as it comes
before us.
JHN, from the Apologia pro Vita Sua (1865)
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Wednesday of the twenty sixth week in Ordinary Time
(September 30) St. Jerome (345-420)
Most of the saints are remembered for some outstanding virtue
or devotion which they practiced, but Jerome is frequently remembered for
his bad temper! It is true that he had a temper and could use a vitriolic
pen, but his love for God and his Son Jesus Christ was
extraordinarily
intense; anyone who taught error was an enemy of God and truth, and St.
Jerome went after him or her with his mighty and sometimes sarcastic pen. He
was above all a Scripture scholar, translating most of the Old Testament
from the Hebrew. He also wrote commentaries which are a great source of
scriptural inspiration for us today. He was an avid student, a thorough
scholar, a prodigious letter-writer and a consultant to monk, bishop and
pope. St. Augustine said of him, "What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal has
ever known." St. Jerome is particularly important for having made a
translation of the Bible which came to be called the Vulgate. It is not the
most critical edition of the Bible, but its acceptance by the Church was
fortunate. As a modern scholar says, "No man before Jerome or among his
contemporaries and very few men for many centuries afterwards were so well
qualified to do the work." The Council of Trent called for a new and
corrected edition of the Vulgate, and declared it the authentic text to be
used in the Church. In order to be able to do such work, Jerome prepared
himself well. He was a master of Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Chaldaic. He began
his studies at his birthplace, Stridon in Dalmatia (in the former
Yugoslavia). After his preliminary education he went to Rome, the center of
learning at that time, and thence to Trier, Germany, where the scholar was
very much in evidence. He spent several years in each place, always trying
to find the very best teachers. After these preparatory studies he traveled
extensively in Palestine, marking each spot of Christ's life with an
outpouring of devotion. Mystic that he was, he spent five years in the
desert of Chalcis so that he might give himself up to prayer, penance and
study. Finally he settled in Bethlehem, where he lived in the cave believed
to have been the birthplace of Christ. On September 30 in the year 420,
Jerome died in Bethlehem. The remains of his body now lie buried in the
Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.
"In the remotest part of a wild and stony desert, burnt up
with the heat of the scorching sun so that it frightens even the monks that
inhabit it, I seemed to myself to be in the midst of the delights and crowds
of Rome. In this exile and prison to which for the fear of hell I had
voluntarily condemned myself, I many times imagined myself witnessing the
dancing of the Roman maidens as if I had been in the midst of them: In my
cold body and in my parched-up flesh, which seemed dead before its death,
passion was able to live. Alone with this enemy, I threw myself in spirit at
the feet of Jesus, watering them with my tears, and I tamed my flesh by
fasting whole weeks. I am not ashamed to disclose my temptations, but I
grieve that I am not now what I then was" ("Jerome’s Letter to St.
Eustochium"). (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Nehemiah 2:1-8;
Psalm 137:1-6; Luke 9:57-62
As
they were walking along the road, a man said to Jesus, I will follow you
wherever you go. Jesus replied, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have
nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. He said to another
man, Follow me. But the man replied, Lord, first let me go and bury my
father. Jesus said to him, Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and
proclaim the kingdom of God. Still another said, I will follow you, Lord;
but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family. Jesus replied,
No-one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in
the kingdom of God. (Luke 9: 57-62)
Follow him!
It is said that when Alexander the Great reached his easternmost
point his men refused to go further. He had never lost a battle; he was
brilliant at his craft of generalship; but they would not follow him
further. They had reached the limits of their endurance. So he had to stop
and retrace his steps. In his fashion, Alexander is a Western icon of what
it is to lead and to inspire, but that point of thus far and no further is
symbolic of a recurring pattern in human history. Heroes inspire, but to a
point only. Great philosophers have had their disciples, from Socrates,
Plato, Aristotle, to the leaders of thought of our day. But to none of them
would their