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Wednesday of the eleventh week in Ordinary
Time C/II
(June 16) St. John Francis Regis (1597-1640)
Born into a family of some wealth, John Francis was so impressed by his Jesuit
educators that he himself wished to enter the
Society of Jesus. He did so at age
18. Despite his rigorous academic schedule he spent many hours in chapel, often
to the dismay of fellow seminarians who were concerned about his health.
Following his ordination to the priesthood, he undertook missionary work in
various French towns. While the formal sermons of the day tended toward the
poetic, his discourses were plain. But they revealed the fervour within him and
attracted people of all classes. Father Regis especially made himself available
to the poor. Many mornings were spent in the confessional or at the altar
celebrating Mass; afternoons were reserved for visits to prisons and hospitals.
The Bishop of Viviers, observing the success of Father Regis in communicating
with people, sought to draw on his many gifts, especially needed during the
prolonged civil and religious strife then rampant throughout France. With many
prelates absent and priests negligent, the people had been deprived of the
sacraments for 20 years or more. Various forms of Protestantism were thriving in
some cases while a general indifference toward religion was evident in other
instances. For three years Father Regis travelled throughout the diocese,
conducting missions in advance of a visit by the bishop. He succeeded in
converting many people and in bringing many others back to religious
observances. Though Father Regis longed to work as a missionary among the North
American Indians in Canada, he was to live out his days working for the Lord in
the wildest and most desolate part of his native France. There he encountered
rigorous winters, snowdrifts and other deprivations. Meanwhile, he continued
preaching missions and earned a reputation as a saint. One man, entering the
town of Saint-Andé, came upon a large crowd in front of a church and was told
that people were waiting for "the saint" who was coming to preach a mission. The
last four years of his life were spent preaching and in organizing social
services, especially for prisoners, the sick and the poor. In the autumn of
1640, Father Regis sensed that his days were coming to a conclusion. He settled
some of his affairs and prepared for the end by continuing to do what he did so
well: speaking to the people about the God who loved them. On December 31, he
spent most of the day with his eyes on the crucifix. That evening, he died. His
final words were: "Into thy hands I commend my spirit." He was canonized in
1737. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 2 Kings 2: 1.6-14;
Psalm 30; Matthew 6: 1-6.16-18
Jesus said, “Be careful not to do your
'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have
no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not
announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the
synagogues and on the
streets, to be honoured by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their
reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know
what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your
Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do
not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and
on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have
received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the
door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is
done in secret, will reward you. When you fast, do not look sombre as the
hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I
tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast,
put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men
that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father,
who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
(Matthew 6: 1-6.16-18)
For God alone
Among the range of things man has been
persistently concerned about, the most obvious has been his concern for the
divine. Archaeologists, anthropologists and historians of culture show a common
interest in the religion of the societies they are investigating because it is
recognized that religion has been at the heart of mankind’s culture. The
testimony of mankind is that there is an unseen realm and that we depend on it.
There are powers above that affect our course, however those powers
might be
envisaged. The most advanced religions approach monotheism or have attained it.
Philosophy has critiqued these beliefs and has investigated with great fruit the
ways by which man comes to know God. There is the way of revelation. Man has
often claimed to have received a revelation from God and the greatest instance
of this is Christianity, the Founder of which claimed to be God. His followers
totally accept his claim. Apart from knowing God by his revelation, there is the
way of knowing him from his works — that is, from his creation. There are two
points of departure in such a path. One can start from the external visible
world with its movement, its becoming, its contingency and its order and beauty.
Alternatively, a person may be led to the divine from his very own person, with
his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and
the voice of his conscience. Cardinal Newman, the great apologist for divine
revelation in the nineteenth century, was convinced of the effectiveness of the
way to God from within the person — taking the voice and law of conscience as
one’s starting point. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states
explicitly that “Homo prudens, cum conscientiam moralem exaudit, Deum loquentem
potest audire” (no.1777) — “When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man
can hear God speaking.” It quotes the Second Vatican Council, which states that
in his conscience man “is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths”
(no.1776). Cardinal Newman described the law of the conscience as the natural
representative of Christ prior to Revelation (Norfolk, V).
All this is to say that in his sense of duty man carries with him a path to the
divine, a sense that in the dictate of duty, God is near and commanding. The
precise sense in which this is so requires careful analysis and articulation,
and as Cardinal Newman wrote in one of his works (the Grammar), it
is a way that is difficult to express syllogistically. But it would appear to be
an effective way to God from the world. In any case, and this is my point here,
a lively sense of duty brings with it an abiding sense of the God to whom one is
responsible. It is surely an excellent natural foundation for religion — and in
particular, for revealed religion. The greater the fidelity to a properly
enlightened conscience, the greater the chance of attaining a knowledge of the
God who speaks in the dictate of conscience. This brings us to our Gospel
passage today (Matthew 6: 1-6.16-18) in
which our Lord speaks of our doing what we do, for God alone. Our Lord is
castigating the practitioner of religion who does what he does in the sight of
men in order to win their admiration. Rather, he says, whatever we do we ought
do “in secret,” in our “own room” — which is to say, in the presence of God and
for him alone. Our left hand must not know what our right is doing. It is
typical Semitic hyperbole for a very grave reason. Our Lord is not meaning to be
taken in the literal sense of always living our religion out of the physical
sight of others. In this very same Sermon on the Mount, our Lord has exhorted
his disciples to let their light “shine before men so that they may see your
acts and give praise to your Father in heaven” (5:16). They must set their lamp
“on a stand where it gives light to all in the house” (5:15). Before ascending
into heaven he solemnly charged his disciples to bear witness to him before all
the nations. Our Lord is speaking of the purity of our intention, and of living
always in the presence of the God whom we serve in our religion. By fulfilling
our daily duties, by living according to the dictates of our conscience, and by
bearing in mind Who it is who commands in those dictates, we shall have the
means of living constantly in God’s presence and of doing all things for his
glory alone.
The conscience is a distinguishing feature of the human mind. By it we know what
we should do. Its dictate, we naturally sense, is the echo of God’s voice to us
and the expression of his will. Let us strive to form our conscience aright by
listening to the voice of the Church and the inspirations of the Holy Spirit.
Thus formed, we have in it the means of living constantly in God’s presence and
of doing all that we do for his glory. By our Baptism and by grace, the Holy
Trinity dwells within our souls as in his Temple. The sanctuary of our daily
life is the Lord God who abides within and who speaks to us in our conscience.
Let us live for him, then!
(E.J.Tyler)
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Second reflection
(2 Kings 21: 1.6-14)
The Gift of Christ's Spirit
There are many things in life
we naturally aspire to and hope to gain. But what we hope to gain
will depend on
the kind of person we are: what we regard as our treasure will depend on where
our heart lies. Consider the final request of Elijah's disciple and successor Elisha, as described in our first reading today. He wanted a double share of
Elijah's spirit. As with Elijah and his disciple, so it is with Christ and his
disciples.
We are Christ's disciples, and as those who love Christ, our greatest gift
coming from him would surely be a share in his Spirit. He has granted us a share
in his Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit comes to us in the ministry
of the Church and in the sacraments. Let us treasure this Gift and learn to live
by Him. The Holy Spirit will transform us into the image of Christ, who is the
image of the Father.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Habitual and customary mortifications are a good thing, but don’t become
one—track minded about them.
—They need not necessarily be the same ones all the time. What should be
constant, habitual and customary — without your getting accustomed to it — is to
have a spirit of mortification.
(The Forge, no.154)
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He who obeys God conscientiously, and lives holily, forces all about him
to believe and tremble before the unseen power of Christ.
JHN, from the sermon ‘Witnesses of the Resurrection’ (1831)
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Thursday of the
eleventh week in Ordinary Time C/II
(June 17) St. Joseph Cafasso (1811-1860)
Even
as a young man, Joseph loved to attend Mass and was known for his humility and
fervour in prayer. After his ordination he was assigned to a seminary in Turin.
There he worked especially against the spirit of Jansenism, an excessive
preoccupation with sin and damnation. Joseph used the works of St. Francis de
Sales and St. Alphonsus Liguori to moderate the rigorism popular at the
seminary. Joseph recommended membership in the Secular Franciscan Order to
priests. He urged devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and encouraged daily
Communion. In addition to his teaching duties, Joseph was an excellent preacher,
confessor and retreat master. Noted for his work with condemned prisoners,
Joseph helped many of them die at peace with God. St. John Bosco was one of
Joseph’s pupils. Joseph urged John Bosco to establish the Salesians to work with
the youth of Turin. Joseph was canonized in 1947. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today:
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 48: 1-15; Psalm 96;
Matthew 6: 7-15
Jesus said to his disciples: “when you
pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard
because of their
many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you
need before you ask him. This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in
heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also
have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
the evil one.' For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your
Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6: 7-15)
Forgiveness
It is an interesting paradox that while
the twentieth and twenty-first centuries are noted for their unabashed
secularism, religion is high on the news. Modern secular culture seems
intrigued, respectful, irritated and hostile to religion, which is to say that
religion evokes a crowd of conflicting emotions in the modern age. At times
religion is seen as a bearer of evil and violence. A terrorist is expected to
have been religious — he attacks and destroys in the name of his god. At the
same time, it is
taken for granted that religion stands for what is morally
good. All understand that a religion stands self-condemned if it is immoral in
either belief or practice. Let us take two obvious indicators of the moral life:
justice and love. Instinctively all know that a religious person ought be just
and loving. Of these two eminent virtues, justice is easily understood — all
know that justice should be accorded to all, and that a person’s rights should
be respected. A religion must stand for and support justice among men and within
society. But now, what of love? We expect that religion stands for love of God
and of neighbour, but what does it entail for, say, love for neighbour? A case
in point is the response of the heart to injury. If a person is injured by
another, he might refrain from returning the injury for reasons of prudence. The
aggressor may be much stronger and it could be absolutely futile attempting to
return the aggression, and so for the sake of peace of mind and after weighing
the alternatives the injured one may accept the injustice quietly and just get
on with his life. But if we are speaking of a religious person, will he love the
aggressor? Speaking more concretely, does his religion lead him to forgive
injury gratuitously? Religions will generally command that we love our fellow
man. But a defining indicator of a religion is the response it requires of the
heart to an unjustified injury inflicted by one’s fellow man. In the face of
injury, what will be the response of the heart?
In 2010 Pope Benedict XVI was attacked in copy-cat fashion by the media across
the world. He was maligned and besmeared with accusations, which according as
his defenders had time to catch up on the rampant media story-lines, were shown
to be baseless. As one person wrote, falsehoods, like horses, can bolt and make
off into the distance before one has time to put one’s boots on. But what was
impressive was the response of Benedict himself. He quietly held his peace as
the real truth about him got out. His aides put out a few explanations, but his
response was not to revile in return, but to love humbly. When questioned on the
plane to Fatima, he was asked about the attacks of the media. He said the most
serious enemy of the Church was internal sin. There was no mention of the
attacks on him personally. He gave every indication of having forgiven those who
had insulted him. It was a manifestation of the spirit of Christ in the face of
personal and unjust injury. In our Gospel today, our Lord presents love for
neighbour in the prayer he teaches his disciples. Most religions will stress
love for neighbour, but the defining indicator of this love will be the response
of the heart to unjust injury. Let us listen again to the Prayer which the
divine Founder of the Christian religion taught to his disciples. He begins by
saying that we ought not be like the pagans in our prayer. Then, in the
reference to the attitude we ought have to those about us, he commands
forgiveness. “Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also
have forgiven those who are in debt to us.” Our Lord does not leave it at that,
for at the end of the Prayer he gives a comment, and it is a comment precisely
on this petition of the Prayer. “For if you forgive men when they sin against
you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men
their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins”
(Matthew 6: 7-15). We must forgive those who sin against us, under
pain of not being forgiven ourselves. Forgiveness is a distinguishing feature of
the Christian religion and of Christian prayer. It was a distinguishing feature
of Jesus Christ himself in the face of injury.
Whenever our Lord speaks of injury, he insists we must return injury with love,
and this love must involve forgiveness from the heart. Our Lord is not, of
course, speaking here of civil laws and of how order in society is to be
preserved. The evildoer must be resisted in society, and there have to be civil
sanctions for perpetrators of harm. But our Lord is speaking of the response of
the heart to injury. We must from the heart be forgiving, and we are warned that
if we are not, we ourselves will not be forgiven. Let us, then, resolve to
follow Jesus Christ, and model our hearts on his. Learn from me, he says, for I
am meek and humble of heart.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Second reflection (Ecclesiasticus
48:1-15)
The gift of the Holy Spirit
Our passage today from the book of
Ecclesiasticus (48:1-15) is a eulogy on the prophet Elijah, on
his fortitude and
achievements on God's behalf. This was hundreds of years before the coming of
Christ. What was the secret, the key to his holy and powerful life? It was
twofold: the gift of the Holy Spirit that he, Elijah, had received, and his
readiness, no matter what the cost, to be guided by the Holy Spirit. We read
that "Elijah was shrouded in the whirlwind, and Elisha was filled with his
spirit." Elisha received the same Spirit which had led Elijah. Let us consider
Elisha's relationship to Elijah as, in certain respects, a type of the
relationship that any human being can have with Christ, the giver of the Spirit.
Christ came not simply to give the Holy Spirit to this or that chosen person
(such as the prophet Elijah and his successor Elisha). He came to give the Holy
Spirit to mankind, to anyone who chose to believe in him.
Let us strive to appreciate this Gift, and in faith to become aware of it. It is
a powerful reason to be apostolic — so that as many people as possible will
possess this divine Gift.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You want to follow in Christ’s footsteps, to wear his livery, to identify
yourself with Jesus. Well then, make your faith a living faith, full of
sacrifice and deeds of service, and get rid of everything that stands in the
way.
(The Forge, no.155)
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Thou, O my God, hast a claim on me, and I am wholly Thine! Thou art the Almighty
Creator, and I am Thy workmanship.
JHN, from Meditations and Devotions (1893)
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Friday of the eleventh week in Ordinary Time
C/II
(June 18) Venerable Matt Talbot (1856-1925)
Matt can be considered the patron of men and women struggling with alcoholism.
Matt was born in Dublin, where his father
worked on the docks and had a
difficult time supporting his family. After a few years of schooling, Matt
obtained work as a messenger for some liquor merchants; there he began to drink
excessively. For 15 years—until he was almost 30—Matt was an active alcoholic.
One day he decided to take "the pledge" for three months, make a general
confession and begin to attend daily Mass. There is evidence that Matt’s first
seven years after taking the pledge were especially difficult. Avoiding his
former drinking places was hard. He began to pray as intensely as he used to
drink. He also tried to pay back people from whom he had borrowed or stolen
money while he was drinking. Most of his life Matt worked as a builder’s
labourer. He joined the Secular Franciscan Order and began a life of strict
penance; he abstained from meat nine months a year. Matt spent hours every night
avidly reading Scripture and the lives of the saints. He prayed the rosary
conscientiously. Though his job did not make him rich, Matt contributed
generously to the missions. After 1923 his health failed and Matt was forced to
quit work. He died on his way to church on Trinity Sunday. Fifty years later
Pope Paul VI gave him the title Venerable. On an otherwise blank page in one of
Matt’s books, the following is written: "God console thee and make thee a saint.
To arrive at the perfection of humility four things are necessary: to despise
the world, to despise no one, to despise self, to despise being despised by
others." (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today:
2 Kings 11: 1-4.9-18.20; Psalm 131; Matthew 6: 19-23
Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and
rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do
not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body
will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of
darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
(Matthew 6: 19-23)
Our real treasure
A profound paradox deeply embedded in the human heart is, on
the one hand, the calling to life in eternity, and on the other, the great
desire to remain with and possess the things of this life. Consider our
situation. It is, I suggest, a cause of wonder that we die. We enter life with
much to look forward to and to do, and either very soon, or after a little
while, or at length, we die and are gone from this world. What, then, is the
point? We make a brief appearance on the stage and are then
gone forever, to be
seen no more. We have intimations in our heart that we must expect some kind of
reckoning after we have gone, but it is divine revelation which throws light on
what happens after death, and therefore on the true meaning of this brief life.
This passing life, this flicker that is our appearance, is a trial, we might
say, a test which determines our eternity. So there is something about each day
that ought inspire awe, and it is that the day before us is determining our
eternal lot. We have a calling which is being worked out minute by minute now,
and that calling is to be with God forever, beyond this earthly veil. It has
started now, and is being worked out now. This being the case, one would think
that we would be giving our whole heart, mind, soul and strength to the task of
ensuring that our next life is all that God wishes it to be for us. We know that
the stakes are high, and everything about it is being resolved now. But,
paradoxically, we are strikingly reluctant. We love this life and this world,
and our heart is instinctively deeply attached to it. Our treasure is here, even
though our real treasure is not here at all, but beyond. Generally we have
little appreciation of the depth of our attachment to the things of this world.
We are part of this world; we are deeply material (while being principally
spiritual); we are made to enjoy life here and now; and we do not want to leave
it. In fact, we want to have more. It is difficult to let go and seek the higher
and better.
In his classic Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius of Loyola presents for our
meditation the foundation of a life of union with God — which is to say, the
fundamental challenge in attaining the true end for which we were made. He calls
it the principle and foundation of everything. The challenge is to attain
detachment from the things of this life which we so naturally love either for
their own sakes or for ours, and instead to become entirely attached to the love
and service of God which is where our true happiness lies. The challenge of life
is to use the things of this world to the extent that they assist us attain the
end for which we were made, which is to praise, reverence and serve God our
Lord. This requires that we struggle against and overcome our deep attachment to
the goods of this passing life. All of this brings us to our Gospel passage
today (Matthew 6: 19-23), in which our Lord is simple, blunt and uncompromising.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy,
and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in
and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The
simple fact is that all the treasures of this life will pass away anyway. A
person works long and hard to purchase a beautiful home, or perhaps to ensure
that his children are given a very good education. These goals are worthy as far
as they go, but they can collapse in a moment. The house is built, and a month
later the person who attained his prize has a massive heart attack and is
debilitated for the rest of his short life. His children are provided with their
very good start in life, but they too have numerous vicissitudes. The mistake
was that he gave his heart to purely temporal goods and goals, and did not seek
God and his holy will in these things. Very seriously too, he entirely forgot
the poor, or deliberately ignored them for the sake of attaining his treasure
here on earth. Our Lord says elsewhere that by giving to the poor we shall have
treasure in heaven.
We need light to see these things, and that light comes especially in the gift
of faith. We are blessed by our Baptism with the gift of faith in Jesus Christ,
which inclines us supernaturally to accept his word. This precious light is
within. So we must make it our business to walk in this light, and never to
allow it to darken. As our Lord says, “If then the light within you is darkness,
how great is that darkness!” Christ is the light that enlightens every man, such
that if we walk by his light we shall be saved. St John writes that at the Last
Supper when Judas went out, he went into the dark. If we refuse this light, we
shall be lost in the darkness, and how great will that darkness be!
(E.J.Tyler)
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Sanctity has the flexibility of supple muscles. Whoever wishes to be a saint
should know how to behave so that while he does something that involves a
mortification for him, he omits doing something else — as long as this does not
offend God — which he would also find difficult, and thanks the Lord for this
comfort. If we Christians were to act otherwise we would run the risk of
becoming stiff and lifeless, like a rag doll.
Sanctity is not rigid like cardboard; it knows how to smile, to give way to
others and to hope. It is life — a supernatural life.
(The Forge, no.156)
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Saturday of the
eleventh week in Ordinary Time C/II
(June 19) St. Romuald (950?-1027)
After a wasted youth, Romuald saw his father kill a relative in a duel over
property. In horror he fled to a monastery near Ravenna in Italy. After three
years some of the monks found him to be uncomfortably holy and eased him out. He
spent the next 30 years going about Italy, founding monasteries and hermitages.
He longed to give his life to Christ in martyrdom, and got the pope’s permission
to preach the gospel in Hungary. But he was struck with illness as soon as he
arrived, and the illness recurred as often as he tried to proceed. During
another period of his life, he suffered great spiritual dryness. One day as he
was praying Psalm 31 (“I will give you understanding and I will instruct you”),
he was given an extraordinary light and spirit which never left him. At the next
monastery where he stayed, he was accused of a scandalous crime by a young
nobleman he had rebuked for a dissolute life. Amazingly, his fellow monks
believed the accusation. He was given a severe penance, forbidden to offer Mass
and excommunicated, an unjust sentence he endured in silence for six months. The
most famous of the monasteries he founded was that of the Camaldoli (Campus
Maldoli, name of the owner) in Tuscany. Here he founded the Order of the
Camaldolese Benedictines, uniting a monastic and hermit life. His father later
became a monk, wavered and was kept faithful by the encouragement of his son.
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 2 Chronicles
24: 17-25; Psalm 88;
Matthew 6, 24-34
Jesus said to his disciples: “No-one can
serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be
devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mamon.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what
you will eat or drink;
or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food,
and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do
not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a
single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies
of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even
Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God
clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into
the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not
worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we
wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows
that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all
these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of
its own. (Matthew 6: 24-34)
God and the world
There have been many great advances in
the modern era. For instance, it seems to me that pedagogy — the science, the
art and the understanding of education — has greatly improved over the last
forty years. Fifty years ago the study of languages was straightforward in its
method, and, I believe, not very effective for the general student. Now there is
an entire battery of methods the student of a particular language can avail
himself of. The same can be said of the teaching of religion —
with this
qualification, that the content of what is taught is often less satisfactory.
Another notable advance over the last two or more decades is the rediscovery of
the treasure that is the environment, and of the threat it faces. There is now a
world-wide concern for the quality of man’s physical environment. Leading this
wholesome charge are a variety of movements, some of which, though, bear along
with them intellectual baggage which calls for critique. I refer to what appears
to be the belief that the physical environment is all that there is. One gets
the impression from the actions and statements of some (though not all)
environmental campaigners that there is something divine or ultimate about the
environment. I remember years ago a great Australian novelist — whose novels
celebrated the Australian Aborigine and the Australian land — who saw his own
ultimate resting place as being the land of Australia. The land! This earth, his
home! His remains, his ashes, would be absorbed into the land his Mother, and
that place and state would be his final abode. It was a facet of secularity — a
form, I think, of ancient and persistent pantheism in which God is nothing other
than the world, and the world is God. It is natural and good to love the world
(with, say, its environment), for it is indeed our home, and God loves it as his
creation. But the danger is that we can love and serve it as if it is all that
there is, forgetting that it is meant to point us to the love and service of
something — of Someone — higher and ever so much more grand.
I say this as an introduction to our Lord’s simple and powerful words in our
Gospel today. Our Lord is blunt about this: “No-one can serve two masters.
Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one
and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mamon.” Mamona in
general means wealth or material possessions, but here our Lord sets it up
against the Lord God, as if to personalize it and make it an anti-god. Mamona
is the material realm which one serves in God’s place, a “strange god” in
violation of the very first of the Ten Commandments. This, then, is the danger
facing man who by nature is part of the world. He depends on the world for his
sustenance; he derives pleasure from it and he is fascinated with its beauty. It
can either lure him from the Creator, acting as a false god, or it can act as a
messenger, herald and servant of the Creator. It does one or the other,
depending on the moral disposition of man. If we love God and are determined to
serve him alone, then the world will serve its true purpose of drawing us to a
deeper union with him. We must actively work to gain and preserve a profound
attachment to God. If we lose sight of God and become attached to the world — to
mamona — then the world will gradually seem to be a god, the ultimate
reality, all that there is. The light will fade from our minds and all will be
shadows. In thinking that the world is the ultimate beauty and treasure, we
shall have unconsciously drifted into a land of shadows. So it is that our Lord
warns us not to stake everything on the satisfaction of physical needs and
desires — on possessing the material things around us. Mamona cannot be
our true goal. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you
will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more
important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds
of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them.” In the first and foremost instance, we must depend
on God rather than the world.
Let us be as innocent as doves but as wily as serpents. That is to say, let us
be aware of the danger of putting second things first. The first thing in life
is the will of God and his plan for us — in other words his Kingdom, his rule.
This is what we must seek first and above all, knowing that all is in the hands
of God and if we but endeavour to do his will — which necessarily includes our
work to improve the world and to draw from it the satisfaction of our temporal
needs — then all will be well. “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of
its own” (Matthew 6: 24-34).
(E.J.Tyler)
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Second reflection (2
Chronicles 24:17-25)
Living in the presence of God
In the first reading
(Chronicles 24:17-25) we have the
description of the death of the prophet Zechariah, murdered in the court of the
Temple. As he died the prophet cried out, "The Lord sees and he will avenge!"
The murderers of the prophet ignored and forgot the presence of the all-holy
God. He was present to them, but they chose to ignore him. If we wish to avoid
sin, if we wish to be good, if we wish to grow in holiness, we must learn to
live in the awareness of the presence of God. We are constantly in God's
presence, as is every one of God's creatures. They exist only because he
constantly wills it so. But because we do not see God, we tend to forget him. We
tend not to advert to the constant presence of the all-holy God.
Let us train ourselves to raise our mind and heart frequently to God in brief
prayer. Let us train ourselves to be more faithful to the slightest promptings
of our consciences, because our conscience is the echo of God's voice, and the
sanctuary of the Holy Spirit. As the prophet cried out, "The Lord sees and he
will avenge!" Let us strive to avoid all deliberate sin.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Mother, do not leave me! Let me seek your Son, let me find your Son, let me love
your Son — with my whole being! — Remember me, my Lady, remember me.
(The Forge, no.157)
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Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time C/II
Prayers today: God is the strength of his people. In his, we his chosen live in
safety. Save us, Lord, who share in your life, and give us your blessing; be our
shepherd for ever. (Psalm 27:8-9)
Father, guide and protector of your people, grant us an unfailing respect for
your name, and keep us always in your love. We ask this through Christ our Lord
in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
(June 20) St. Paulinus of Nola (354?-431)
Anyone who is praised in the letters of six or seven saints undoubtedly must be
of extraordinary character. Such a person was Paulinus of Nola, correspondent
and friend of Augustine, Jerome, Melania, Martin, Gregory and Ambrose. Born near
Bordeaux, he was the son of the Roman prefect of Gaul, who had extensive
property in both Gaul and Italy. Paulinus became a distinguished lawyer, holding
several public offices in the Roman Empire. With his Spanish wife, Therasia, he
retired at an early age to a life of cultured leisure. The two were baptized by
the saintly bishop of Bordeaux and moved to Therasia’s estate in Spain. After
many childless years, they had a son who died a week after birth. This
occasioned their beginning a life of great austerity and charity, giving away
most of their Spanish property. Possibly as a result of this great example,
Paulinus was rather unexpectedly ordained a priest at Christmas by the bishop of
Barcelona. He and his wife then moved to Nola, near Naples. He had a great love
for St. Felix of Nola, and spent much effort in promoting devotion to this
saint. Paulinus gave away most of his remaining property (to the consternation
of his relatives) and continued his work for the poor. Supporting a host of
debtors, the homeless and other needy people, he lived a monastic life in
another part of his home. By popular demand he was made bishop of Nola and
guided that diocese for 21 years. His last years were saddened by the invasion
of the Huns. Among his few writings is the earliest extant Christian wedding
song. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Zechariah 12: 10-11;13:1; Psalm 62; Galatians 3: 26-29; Luke
9:18-24
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 killed and on
the third day be raised to life. Then he said to them all: If anyone would come
after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For
whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me
will save it. (Luke 9: 18-24)
Man and God
There is a difference between awareness and knowledge. An animal is
aware of various things, and this awareness can be extraordinary in what, by
instinct, it leads the animal to do. With great cunning the tiger gains its
prey, and its catch is a tribute to the level of its awareness. But the tiger
and any animal does not understand that which it is aware of. That is to say, it
has no understanding of the nature of the object of its awareness, nor does it
know that the object in question is itself an
entity in its own right. The tiger
does not formally know that the animal it has just brought down is a gazelle,
nor that the gazelle is an entity in its own right. The tiger does not even know
anything about itself. In fact, it is not even aware of itself. It is only aware
of other things, and this awareness is not a true knowledge. I say this to
introduce the precious gift which is part of personhood, which is not just
awareness but knowledge. We can know things, including our very selves. We can
know the world about us better, and we can know ourselves better and better.
Further, we have the capacity to do something about what we know — which is to
say, we have the capacity to choose what is right and good. One of the most
important areas of personal choice is precisely the matter of what and who we
choose to know. If I do not exercise my power of choice in this matter — which
is to say, if I allow myself to be governed by others in what I know — then I
will deteriorate as a human being. To take an obvious example, if another is
allowed to prevent me from knowing God, then I shall suffer seriously. This can
happen — a state can prevent a generation of children from knowing God, or at
least from knowing a lot about God and his holy will. The media in a country can
prevent a population from knowing the true situation, and can cause it to be
entirely mistaken. It is the glory of the human being that he can know things as
they are. He must exercise his power of choice to seek to know the most
important things in life, and then be allowed to do something about it.
There are all sorts of things that people choose to know. One man chooses to
research and know history, and, as a teacher, to helping others to know history.
Another chooses to know all sorts of things — certain fields of sport,
languages, certain persons. But absolutely speaking, what is the most important
of all things to be known? Jesus Christ has given the answer to this. He said at
the Last Supper that “eternal life is this, to know you, Father, and Jesus
Christ whom you have sent.” The greatest thing we can possibly know is the
Author of all, God our Creator. Man was made to know, love and serve God here on
earth and thus to see and enjoy him forever in heaven — but this depends in the
first instance on our coming to know him. This means seeking to know the
revelation he has made of himself in Jesus Christ. Have you been with me all
this time, Philip, and still you do not know me? To have seen me is to have seen
the Father, he said. The most wondrous thing of all in the history of the world
is the fact and person of Jesus Christ. The Creator of all, and Son of the
Father, became man. The man Jesus of Nazareth, who lived at a very precise time
in a precise location, who was born in a certain year and died in a certain
year, was truly God and truly man in the unity of his divine Person. As the Son
of God, who is “begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father,” he was made
true man, our brother, without ceasing to be the Lord God. The eternal Son of
the Father, the same in being as the Father, but distinct from him as a Person,
was perfectly man, just as he was perfectly God. As man he was composed of
rational soul and a body. He was like us in all things but sin. He was begotten
from the Father before all ages as to his divinity, and at a certain point in
history was born of the Virgin Mary for our salvation. This, more than anything
else, each person ought strive to know, appreciate and realize. It is the
all-important thing in life. We must strive to grow in the knowledge and love of
Jesus Christ, and on this basis seek to follow him closely.
In our Gospel today our Lord asks a fundamental question. “Who do the crowds say
I am?” The Apostles gave various answers. So he asked them this further
question: “Who do you say I am?” Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ — and as
another Gospel adds — “the Son of the living God.” His mission was to suffer and
to die that we might live. Let us resolve to know him deeply, and to live in his
love by following in his footsteps. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it” (Luke 9:
18-24).
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no.464-469 (Jesus, true God, true Man)
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Second reflection:
“The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously.”
(Luke
9:18-24)
Suffering with Christ
Our Lord’s path was the path of suffering, and God has
revealed many things about suffering. He wants us to work to overcome it — praying and working for the alleviation of hunger and the various forms of
sickness and deprivation. If we do not do this, as we read in the 25th chapter
of Matthew’s Gospel, we are not pleasing to God and we will be judged
accordingly. But of course, experience shows that suffering cannot be avoided
entirely. So what should be our attitude to suffering? Even in nature there are
hints that suffering can become a pathway to blessings, and not simply to death.
A person has a toothache, goes to the dentist, undergoes what might be painful
surgery, but then emerges with a new lease of life. So too with, say, serious
heart pains. A by-pass operation follows and the pain is replaced by a better
life. This is surely a pointer that confirms what God has revealed about
suffering in Christ. God has revealed that death was not intended by God when
creating man. It entered the world because man disobeyed God’s holy will. But
God has transformed the meaning of suffering. It is now not just the path to
death and oblivion, but is the path to life and glory, if this path is traversed
in union with Christ. In the providence and plan of God, Christ had to suffer so
as to enter into his glory. “The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to
be rejected and put to death, and then to be raised up.” Why was this necessary?
We are not told — we are simply told that it was the divine means for attaining
the glory of God and our salvation.
Being a disciple of Christ is the path to our own glory, and he our Master has
told us that the path he followed must be ours. “To all he said, ‘If anyone
wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross
every day and follow me.’..” (Luke 9:18-24) When God permits that we suffer,
that suffering can be the means of a singular fruitfulness, provided we suffer
in a manner obedient to God, in union with Christ. Therefore we must learn to
follow in our Lord’s footsteps in the fundamental matter of human suffering. We
must put on the mind of Christ in our sufferings and deprivations, renouncing
ourselves and taking up the cross that comes our way in the daily fulfilment of
God’s will for us. It could be the cross associated with our daily work
responsibilities, or our health, our family life, our daily apostolate, or
simply lacking the attention and recognition that we see others receiving. If
every day we strive to do God’s will with the mind of Christ our Master,
carrying the crosses associated with that, then our obedient and Christlike
suffering will be the path to life and glory for ourselves and for many others,
just as it was for Christ. It is a turning point in the Christian life of a
person when he at last learns to appreciate this difficult and central point. We
must accept suffering obediently in union with Christ, when that suffering is
clearly necessary. It is a further step again in our spiritual life to embrace
some sufferings and mortifications that are not strictly necessary, in order to
be more closely united to the crucified Christ. The Church helps us to do this
in various ways.
Let us ask our Lord for the grace to be truly his disciples, following him in
suffering. It is the mark of true progress in holiness when we carry our cross
in union with Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)
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A third reflection (Luke 9:18-24)
Discipleship
One thing is clear from the Gospel of today
(Luke 9:18-24). It is
that Christ our Lord wants us to be his genuine disciples, disciples from the
heart: “If any one wishes to be my disciple,” he begins. Just before he ascended
into heaven he commanded his apostles to go and make disciples of all the
nations. What we are, precisely as his disciples, matters more to God than
anything else. It is the one thing necessary and it requires all our attention.
To be his disciples in everything we, each of us,
must understand that we are
sinners and that Christ is our only Saviour. And then we must understand that
Christ loves us — he loves me. We must understand what discipleship involves.
Many people do not feel any need to be saved from sin. “Why do I need a
Saviour?”, they implicitly wonder in their hearts. This is one of the most
striking characteristics of our times: the absence of the sense of sin. And
because we are children of our times, we ought assume that we ourselves are
affected by this lack of the sense of sin, of its reality and dreadful nature,
and of the fact that we are sinners. In the sight of God who loves the world so
much, the striking thing about the world is that it is full of sin, and the
striking thing about each of us whom he loves so much is that we are sinners. It
is for this reason that we need a Saviour. And it is because of the sin of the
world that God sent his Son. If we do not have much sense of sin, then we will
not have an appreciation of Jesus as our Saviour. We will not turn to him to be
cleansed of our sins and for the grace to combat sin resolutely and to overcome
it. We will tend to think that sin is not very important, and if we look to
Jesus for our needs, we will look to him for what in his sight are minor
matters. We think of the crowds who pursued our Lord because he fed the
thousands with bread or because of his healings. They wanted to make him king,
but our Lord fled from them. We too shall find ourselves looking to Christ for
purposes that are not those of God. Christ came precisely to take away the sins
of the world.
What was God’s purpose in creating each of us? St Paul tells us. Before the
world began he chose us to be holy in his sight and full of love. What ruins
this plan of God’s is sin. We must awaken to our sinful condition, and
understand that Christ is our only Saviour. How do we gain this sense that we
are sinners and that we need Christ our Saviour? By striving to keep close to
Christ and by listening to the teaching of the Church, the Church which speaks
in Christ’s name. If you doubt that you are much of a sinner, begin examining
your thoughts, words and deeds with this question in mind: “Would Christ think
or say or do what I am thinking or saying or doing? Do I have the mind of
Christ? But then too, to be his disciple we must understand the personal love of
Jesus for us. Consider all that Jesus suffered for me so as to save me from my
sins. St Paul wrote, Christ loved me and gave himself up for me. He did not just
die for the crowd, he died for me personally, sinner as I am. Until we have a
sense of this, we do not know his love for us. That is to say, sinner though I
am, Jesus loves me as if I were the only person in the world. Jesus loves me, he
really loves me — this Jesus who is my Saviour. We must give time to
contemplating the love of Jesus in the presence of Jesus himself. I would
recommend real time in prayer, best of all before the Tabernacle. In the
presence of the Eucharistic Jesus, think of his love: Christ loves me, and gave
himself up for me as if I were the only person in the world! Then with this
foundation laid, we must learn what is involved in being his disciple. He tells
us in the gospel: “Whoever wishes to be my disciple must deny himself, take up
his cross every day, and follow in my steps.” This means trying to be a really
good person at the level of the heart, out of love for Jesus. Jesus is to be our
model in what we think, what we say, and what we do. It means resolving daily to
avoid deliberate sin, whether mortal or venial. It means repeated acts of sorrow
for sin and regular Confession so as to be cleansed of sin and strengthened in
the daily combat against it.
Let us especially strive to be Christ’s disciple in how and what we think. The
teaching of our Lord is very clear: “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from
the heart, and it is this which defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil
thoughts, and murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.
These are what defile a person.” It is above all in our minds and hearts that we
will love and serve Jesus, or fail to do so. It is above all in our minds and
hearts that we must strive to resist the sin that is certainly there, and it is
there that we must follow Christ most closely. As St Paul says, let this mind be
in you that was in Christ Jesus.
(E.J.Tyler)
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When our vision is clouded, when our eyes have lost their clarity, we need to go
to the light. And Jesus Christ has told us that he is the Light of the world and
that he has come to heal the sick.
—That is why your weaknesses and your falls — when God allows them — should not
separate you from Christ, but rather draw you closer to him!
(The Forge, no.158)
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Monday of the
twelfth week in Ordinary Time C/II
(June 21) St. Aloysius Gonzaga (1568-1591)
The Lord can make saints anywhere, even amid the brutality and license of
Renaissance life. Florence was the “mother of piety” for Aloysius Gonzaga
despite his exposure to a “society of fraud, dagger, poison and lust.” As a son
of a princely family, he grew
up
in royal courts and army camps. His father wanted Aloysius to be a military
hero. At age seven he experienced a profound spiritual quickening. His prayers
included the Office of Mary, the psalms and other devotions. At age nine he came
from his hometown of Castiglione to Florence to be educated; by age 11 he was
teaching catechism to poor children, fasting three days a week and practicing
great austerities. When he was 13 years old he traveled with his parents and the
Empress of Austria to Spain and acted as a page in the court of Philip II. The
more Aloysius saw of court life, the more disillusioned he became, seeking
relief in learning about the lives of saints. A book about the experience of
Jesuit missionaries in India suggested to him the idea of entering the Society
of Jesus, and in Spain his decision became final. Now began a four-year contest
with his father. Eminent churchmen and laypeople were pressed into service to
persuade him to remain in his “normal” vocation. Finally he prevailed, was
allowed to renounce his right to succession and was received into the Jesuit
novitiate. Like other seminarians, Aloysius was faced with a new kind of
penance—that of accepting different ideas about the exact nature of penance. He
was obliged to eat more, to take recreation with the other students. He was
forbidden to pray except at stated times. He spent four years in the study of
philosophy and had St. Robert Bellarmine (September 17) as his spiritual
adviser. In 1591, a plague struck Rome. The Jesuits opened a hospital of their
own. The general himself and many other Jesuits rendered personal service.
Because he nursed patients, washing them and making their beds, Aloysius caught
the disease himself. A fever persisted after his recovery and he was so weak he
could scarcely rise from bed. Yet, he maintained his great discipline of prayer,
knowing that he would die within the octave of Corpus Christi, three months
later, at the age of 23.
"When we stand praying, beloved brethren, we ought to be
watchful and earnest with our whole heart, intent on our prayers. Let all carnal
and worldly thoughts pass away, nor let the soul at that time think on anything
except the object of its prayer" (St. Cyprian, On the Lord's Prayer,
31). (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 2 Kings 17:
5-8.13-15.18; Psalm 59; Matthew 7: 1-5
Jesus said, Do not judge, or you too
will be judged. For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and
with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 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, 'Let me take the speck out of your
eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first
take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the
speck from your brother's eye. (Matthew 7: 1-5)
Anger
It has been observed that a notable
feature of the contemporary world is that very many are angry. If people are
inconvenienced, they get very angry. If there is some natural reversal, some
disaster, and the government does not quickly resolve the problems that ensue,
that government will be the object of the people’s anger. An entire part of the
world — say, the Middle East — can be engulfed in anger for decades, an anger
that is exacerbated by unending copy-cat retaliations. At times the
anger is due
not to personal injury, but due simply to the mistakes of others. This anger can
be fuelled by the press which constantly seeks sensations and story-lines. One
also notices that people are usually angry over issues that are ethical, which
stands to reason. They are angry that someone has not done what he should have
done. He had a duty, and he did not do it — and people are very angry as a
result. Now, what is to be said of all this? To begin with, anger at personal
hurt is the most natural thing in the world, and anger at unethical practice can
have, of course, a certain value. If people are angry at the unethical behaviour
of large corporations that brought on a general economic collapse, their anger
may contribute to the reform of economic standards and institutions. If society
is angry at corruption in politics or policing, its anger may be a force for the
reform of those social institutions. At the same time, anger alone is a very
blunt instrument for righting a wrong. I remember years ago watching a movie,
the theme of which was spiralling revenge. Wrongs were answered by retaliation.
The final scene was a dreadful duel which left one dead and a permanent sense of
injury between all the parties. It was a case of anger and its upshot resolving
nothing. Moreover, very often those who are angry at the unethical actions of
others have a poor recognition of the unethical actions in their own lives. They
are quick to see the beam in their brother’s eye, but are blind to the beam in
their own. So, while it is very natural to man to be angry, it is, to say the
least, problematic.
Let us put it this way. It is not difficult to be angry with others, yet immense
complications can flow from it. We judge others, and we condemn them in our own
hearts — and if we can get away with it, we condemn them to whatever punishment
we can mete out to them before others. Now as a matter of fact, anger (ira) — though not every kind of anger
— is one of the seven deadly sins. It is a
capital or cardinal sin, and like the other deadly sins, if allowed to run its
course freely, it will lead to the death of the soul. Anger can persist in the
soul of a person for decades and indeed for the whole of his life, eating away
at the vitals of love. It can lead to many other sins, and in any case can leave
a person profoundly embittered right to the end of his days. At the last he can
go before his Maker having failed to forgive those who injured him, whether
justly or unjustly. Because of the consuming danger of anger in a person’s life,
it is imperative and urgent that an entirely different model be sought. That
model is, of course, Jesus Christ and his teaching. He commands us to refrain
from judging and condemning our brother. “Jesus said, Do not judge, or you too
will be judged. For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and
with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Our Lord notes how common
it is for us to concentrate on the failings in others, while failing to see
failings in ourselves. “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, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time
there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of
your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your
brother's eye” (Matthew 7: 1-5). While of
course evil and wrongdoing must be resisted, anger should not be our response to
the failings of our fellow-man. Christ and his teaching should be the benchmark
of our thoughts, words and actions.
Christ
won out in his contest with evil, sin, the world and the devil. But his victory
was not due to anger. He was not an angry man — to the contrary, while strong,
he was meek and humble of heart. His invitation to each of us is, Come to me,
you who are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Learn from me for I am meek
and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy
and my burden is light. The great challenge of life is to grow in the likeness
of Jesus Christ, especially in the shape, the spirit, and the character of our
mind and heart. Let this mind be in you, St Paul writes, that was in Christ
Jesus. That is the path to take.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Second reflection
(2 Kings 17: 5-18)
Punishment for sin
One of the greatest of man's problems is
the evil and suffering that he so often experiences. The problem is, why does he
have to experience it if there is a good God? Now, there is no easy answer to
this, nor is there any complete answer outside the answer provided by Christ,
involving faith. However, there are two great facts that we do know: that there
is a good God, and that nevertheless there is suffering.
One part of the answer is suggested by today’s first reading. God, being good,
is not only benevolent (as we could put it), but holy and just and cannot
tolerate sin in the final analysis. Our first reading today from the second book
of Kings (17: 5-18) suggests that this feature of God's nature (his holiness and
justice in respect to sin) appears even in the course of life’s events. "They
(Israel) would not listen, they were more stubborn than their ancestors had been
who had no faith in the Lord their God.. For this, the Lord was enraged with
Israel and thrust them away from him. There was none left but the tribe of Judah
only." That is to say that sin at times is punished here in this lifetime as
well as in the next. The punishment for sin manifests God's holiness and
detestation for sin. Let us humbly accept reversals and suffering as at times
being, perhaps, a judgment on our sins and as an opportunity to make up for them
in union with Christ who atoned for the sin of the world. Other parts of
Scripture also show that suffering is, apart from a punishment, also a merciful
warning of what is to come unless there is repentance. So then, a humble
awareness of sin can throw light on the presence of suffering in life. Suffering
can be accepted humbly as being well-deserved, and as a means of greater union
with Christ who expiated for the sins of the world.
(E.J.Tyler)
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In my wretchedness I complained to a friend of mine, saying that it seemed as if
Jesus were passing me by… and leaving me on my own.
—But immediately I thought better of it and was sorry. Full of confidence, I
said: It is not true, my Love. Quite clearly it is I who have gone away from
you. Never again!
(The Forge, no.159)
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Tuesday of the twelfth week in Ordinary Time C/II
(June 22) St. Thomas More (1478-1535)
His belief that no lay ruler has jurisdiction over the Church of Christ cost
Thomas More his life. Beheaded on Tower Hill, London, July 6, 1535, he
steadfastly refused to approve Henry VIII’s divorce and remarriage and
establishment of the Church of England. Described as “a man for all seasons,”
More was a literary scholar, eminent lawyer, gentleman, father of four children
and chancellor of England. An intensely spiritual man, he would not support the
king’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Nor would
he acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church in England, breaking with
Rome and denying the pope as head. More was committed to the Tower of London to
await trial for treason: not swearing to the Act of Succession and the Oath of
Supremacy. Upon conviction, More declared he had all the councils of Christendom
and not just the council of one realm to support him in the decision of his
conscience. Four hundred years later, in 1935, Thomas More was canonized a saint
of God. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 2 Kings 19:9-11.14-21.31-36; Psalm 47; Matthew 7: 6.12-14
Jesus said, Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.
If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to
pieces. So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for
this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Enter through the narrow gate. For wide
is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter
through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and
only a few find it. (Matthew 7: 6.12-14)
The narrow gate
It occurred in a notorious German concentration camp during the
Second World War. The penalty was that some of the prisoners were to be
executed. The German officer went through the lines of prisoners picking at
random those who were to suffer the ultimate sanction. As one was selected, he
broke down in despair, calling out that his death would leave his wife and
children without him. Undoubtedly he had longingly thought of them during his
incarceration, perhaps taking great care
to avoid all unnecessary risks. Now all
that had gone and he was to go to his death through no fault of his own, and he
was inconsolable. It was the greatest crisis in his life, and it was beyond him.
Suddenly and ever so quietly, a man stepped forward from the ranks of those who
had missed the deadly selection. He went to the officer and asked to replace the
man who had virtually collapsed with grief. Let him go, and I shall take his
place. Who are you? I am the Catholic priest here, he replied. The officer
paused. All right — and turning to the grief-stricken husband and father, he
said, You may return. The priest took his place beside the condemned men, and
spent the rest of the short time remaining to him in sustaining them spiritually
as they all went to their terrible deaths. He was St Maximilian Kolbe. A unique
moment had arisen. It called for heroism, a passing through an especially
difficult and narrow door, and in that instant he made the supreme choice. How
was it possible? No-one would have thought the lesser of him had he not done
this. To understand it, one must think of his history of similar choices during
the course of his life prior to this special moment. He had been passing through
the narrow door, the narrow gate, for a long time. That is to say, he had been
living a life of high virtue day by day, choosing the path of greater generosity
to God and man. When the moment came, he passed through the narrow gate once
again, and that narrow gate led to his glory. In our Gospel today, our Lord asks
us to enter not by the broad gate, but by the narrow one.
Let our minds pass to another crisis moment portrayed in the Gospel. It occurred
in the palace of Herod the tetrarch — the administrator of Galilee, and son of
Herod the Great. He threw a great feast on his birthday, and the leading figures
of Galilee were in attendance. They were men and women of the world, and, we
must assume, far from God. The daughter of Herodias entered and danced in
spectacular fashion. It was something of a sensation and Herod, seized by the
moment and with liquor doing its work, called out that she was magnificent.
Whatever you ask, he bawled, I will give you — he was flaunting his machismo
liking for what pleased men. In two or three moments he had his answer. She
wanted the head of John the Baptist. It was a crisis moment. There was but a
moment allowed, just as there was but a moment allowed for Kolbe. Kolbe passed
through the narrow gate, while Herod long before him passed through the very
broad gate. It was the gate of least resistance to temptation, the temptation of
human respect and of conforming to the perceived expectations of the world
before him. Kolbe took the path that led to life, Herod Antipas the path that
led to destruction. “Enter through the narrow gate,” our Lord tells us in
today’s Gospel, “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to
destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the
road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7: 6.12-14). On other
occasions our Lord warned his hearers to be on the watch always, for no-one
knows the day or the hour of his coming. This is commonly taken to refer to the
coming of our Lord at the end of time, or at the end of our lives, but it also
refers to any of his comings. Christ comes to us in the events of our lives,
indeed he comes in every single duty that is before us. Cardinal Newman in a
famous publication (Norfolk) described the conscience as the “aboriginal vicar
of Christ.” In every moment of duty, Christ is summoning us to obey and to
follow him — in other words, to pass through the narrow gate, not the broad one.
The key to taking the narrow gate whenever it may appear before us is to
endeavour to take that gate always. Every day we ought rise from bed with the
intention of passing through the narrow gate during the day before us. That is
to say, we ought resolve to keep close to Christ, to imitate him, to follow in
his footsteps in all the duties that lie before us. When the crunch time comes — and come it will, most especially at the moment of death
— then we shall be
ready to pass through the narrow gate once more. The time will come when, for
the last time, two gates rise before us. One will be broad of entry, the other
narrow. The one will lead to destruction, the other to life. Let us by our whole
life be preparing for that final passage.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Second reflection (2 Kings 19: 9-36)
Faith in God
At various times in life and in various ways we can find ourselves
confronted with what seem to be
overwhelming odds. It could be a terrible
sickness, or serious reversals in one's work, or very great temptations to sin.
Whatever be the situation we face we must remember that nothing is too much for
God. Our faith in God's power and love must not be allowed to fail, no matter
what he might choose to allow or do. The temptation will be to fail in faith
when things seem too much for us, because we forget that God is God, and that
nothing is too much for him. King Hezekiah (2 Kings 19: 9-36) was faced with
overwhelming odds. The Assyrians faced the city of Jerusalem, urging Hezekiah
not to be so foolish as to trust in his God. Humanly nothing could save the
city. But Hezekiah placed the impossible predicament before God and put his
faith in Him. God saved the city.
Let us put our faith in God, while doing all we can to fulfil his will. We then
trust in whatever God chooses to do, knowing that all is well if secure in his
hands.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Beg the Lord for his grace so that you may be purified by his Love… and by
constant penance.
(The Forge, no.160)
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Wednesday of the
twelfth week in Ordinary Time C/II
(June 23) St. John Fisher (1469-1535)
John Fisher is usually associated with Erasmus, Thomas More and other
Renaissance humanists. His life, therefore, did not have
the
external simplicity found in the lives of some saints. Rather, he was a man of
learning, associated with the intellectuals and political leaders of his day. He
was interested in the contemporary culture and eventually became chancellor at
Cambridge. He had been made a bishop at 35, and one of his interests was raising
the standard of preaching in England. Fisher himself was an accomplished
preacher and writer. His sermons on the penitential psalms were reprinted seven
times before his death. With the coming of Lutheranism, he was drawn into
controversy. His eight books against heresy gave him a leading position among
European theologians. In 1521 he was asked to study the problem of Henry VIII’s
marriage. He incurred Henry’s anger by defending the validity of the king’s
marriage with Catherine of Aragon and later by rejecting Henry’s claim to be the
supreme head of the Church of England. In an attempt to be rid of him, Henry
first had him accused of not reporting all the “revelations” of the nun of Kent,
Elizabeth Barton. John was summoned, in feeble health, to take the oath to the
new Act of Succession. He and Thomas More refused because the Act presumed the
legality of Henry’s divorce and his claim to be head of the English Church. They
were sent to the Tower of London, where Fisher remained 14 months without trial.
They were finally sentenced to life imprisonment and loss of goods. When the two
were called to further interrogations, they remained silent. Fisher was tricked,
on the supposition he was speaking privately as a priest, and declared again
that the king was not supreme head. The king, further angered that the pope had
made John Fisher a cardinal, had him brought to trial on the charge of high
treason. He was condemned and executed, his body left to lie all day on the
scaffold and his head hung on London Bridge. More was executed two weeks later.
Erasmus said of John Fisher: "He is the one man at this time who is incomparable
for uprightness of life, for learning and for greatness of soul."
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 2 Kings 22:
8-13;23:1-3; Psalm 118;
Matthew 7: 15-20
Watch out for false prophets. They come
to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their
fruit you will recognise them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs
from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears
bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good
fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognise them.
(Matthew 7: 15-20)
Good fruit
There are and have been Christians of a
certain tradition who are of the opinion that a good Christian life will bring
material prosperity, such that if there is not this prosperity, it is a sign of
a defective Christian and moral life. Life will go well if one follows Christ
closely and generously. Of course, there is a certain truth in this, in the
sense that, say, many economic upheavals in the lives of individuals and in
societies have their roots in less than ethical practices. But there is a
widespread
tendency to think that if something is done or said that brings on
problems, then because it has brought on those problems it was, and must have
been, imprudently done or said, or it was the result of a less than virtuous
life. It is thought to be a case of a bad tree bearing bad fruit — and by their
fruit you will recognize them. Now, one of the characteristics of the modern
mind is its utilitarianism. If something is useful then it is good, because
usefulness is the criterion of goodness. If a word or deed “works,” then it is
good and should be done — whereas if it has not “worked” or is unlikely to
“work,” then it is not good. What are we to say of this? Of course, there is an
element of truth in it, in the sense that we must be prudent. In one of his
parables our Lord spoke of the five prudent virgins and the five foolish ones.
The prudent ones had oil in their lamps at the time of the Master’s coming. That
is, they took the steps that were needed for success. However, our Lord applies
the point to a higher order, in which there is a supernatural prudence, the
prudence of bearing witness to him, while knowing that the means of spiritual
success is different from that leading to temporal success. When our Lord
announced the startling doctrine of the Eucharist and lost very many of his
disciples as a result, many might have faulted him for being imprudent, to say
the least. He was imprudent because he was not “successful.” What he said did
not “work.” There was little fruit from it. He lost his following.
One of the most notorious legal cases in mid-nineteenth century England was that
launched by Dr Giovanni Giacinto Achilli (c. 1803–c. 1860), ex-Italian Dominican
priest, against the famous Catholic convert, Father John Henry Newman. Achilli
had been supported by the Evangelical Alliance in attacks against Catholicism,
and Newman repeated in a public lecture what Cardinal Wiseman had said of
Achilli. Achilli took Newman to court for libel. It finally resulted in a defeat
for Newman in the courts, but the public regarded Newman as having won his
point. Achilli’s reputation was in tatters. Newman saw himself as having taken a
risk for the sake of Catholic and revealed truth. Now, what was Newman’s
reflection on his legal defeat? He saw in it the pattern of suffering leading to
resurrection. He wrote to a friend that “I am but inheriting the lot of
Catholics, to suffer and to triumph” (June 4, 1852), and to another that “I do
not doubt that the results of the late Trial will be found just what we should
wish them to be. We are poor judges of what is best for the Church and for
ourselves. So many prayers, so many Masses as have been offered in connexion
with it, cannot be lost, cannot fail of their effect” (July 5, 1852). That is to
say, the fruit that will come of a good tree may well be hidden. The prudence of
the world is no measure of the prudence of Christ and his disciples. Why did our
Lord state so openly to the religious leaders that he and the Father were one,
and that before Abraham ever was, I am? Was it not very imprudent? How could he
hope for success in saying such things? There would be no good fruit from such a
course, and the events seemed to bear this out — he was crucified. Such might be
the thinking of the prudent man of the world, but Christ thought with a much
higher prudence. The means to glory was to bear witness to the truth, in
obedience to God, amid suffering and death. The example of Christ and his
closest disciples shows us that there is a higher sense in which we are to
understand our Lord’s words, By their fruit you will know them
(Matthew 7: 15-20).
The fruit that reveals the good tree is a life in conformity with that of Jesus
Christ. We are to imitate him. As St Paul writes in one of his Letters, imitate
me as I imitate Christ. Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, he
writes. The fruit that God wants to see is the fruit of such a mind, a mind that
thinks as Christ thinks. It will not necessarily lead to material or temporal
prosperity, or to the kind of success which the world accepts. It could lead to
apparent oblivion, and in one way or another it will certainly lead to the
cross. But the suffering of the Cross will lead to the resurrection. It is by
this fruit that the disciple of Christ will be known.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Beg the Lord for his grace so that you may be purified by his Love… and by
constant penance.
(The Forge, no.160)
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The Birth of St John
the Baptist (June 24)
C/II
(June 24) Nativity of John the Baptist
Jesus called John the greatest of all those who had preceded him: “I tell you,
among those born of women, no one is greater than John....” But John would have
agreed completely with what Jesus added: “[Y]et the least in the kingdom of God
is greater than
he” (Luke 7:28). John spent his time in the desert, an ascetic.
He began to announce the coming of the Kingdom, and to call everyone to a
fundamental reformation of life. His purpose was to prepare the way for Jesus.
His Baptism, he said, was for repentance. But One would come who would baptize
with the Holy Spirit and fire. John is not worthy even to carry his sandals. His
attitude toward Jesus was: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30). John
was humbled to find among the crowd of sinners who came to be baptized the one
whom he already knew to be the Messiah. “I need to be baptized by you” (Matthew
3:14b). But Jesus insisted, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15b). Jesus, true and humble human as well
as eternal God, was eager to do what was required of any good Jew. John thus
publicly entered the community of those awaiting the Messiah. But making himself
part of that community, he made it truly messianic. The greatness of John, his
pivotal place in the history of salvation, is seen in the great emphasis Luke
gives to the announcement of his birth and the event itself—both made
prominently parallel to the same occurrences in the life of Jesus. John
attracted countless people (“all Judea”) to the banks of the Jordan, and it
occurred to some people that he might be the Messiah. But he constantly deferred
to Jesus, even to sending away some of his followers to become the first
disciples of Jesus. Perhaps John’s idea of the coming of the Kingdom of God was
not being perfectly fulfilled in the public ministry of Jesus. For whatever
reason, he sent his disciples (when he was in prison) to ask Jesus if he was the
Messiah. Jesus’ answer showed that the Messiah was to be a figure like that of
the Suffering Servant in Isaiah (chapters 49 through 53). John himself would
share in the pattern of messianic suffering, losing his life to the revenge of
Herodias. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture (Mass of the Day)
Isaiah 49: 1-6; Psalm 138; Acts 13: 22-26;
Luke 1: 57-66.80
When it was time for Elizabeth to have
her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the
Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. On the eighth day they
came to circumcise the child, and they were going to
name him after his father
Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, No! He is to be called John. They
said to her, There is no-one among your relatives who has that name. Then they
made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He
asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, His name is
John. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began
to speak, praising God. The neighbours were all filled with awe, and throughout
the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone
who heard this wondered about it, asking, What then is this child going to be?
For the Lord's hand was with him. And the child grew and became strong in
spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel
(Luke 1:
57-66.80).
Mercy
Looking back into his family history a
researcher discovers that his great-great-great-great grandparents met by an
unusual accident. The future husband was riding through the town where his
future spouse lived, and his horse stumbled. He fell and was injured. At that
very point she was in the same street walking to the stores and went to his
assistance, going on from there to nurse him. They took a great liking to one
another, married and had a large family and lived out a good and successful
life. They had numerous descendants, of which the researcher was one. The
researcher observed that his own existence, and that of so many others had
depended on that fall from the horse of his ancestor, together with the
coincidence of his future spouse being in the same street at that same moment.
Why did the horse fall? It may have been for the slightest of reasons — indeed,
the entire sequence of events involved the tiniest of coincidences all along the
way. If he had been delayed in his horse-ride for but five minute, everything
may have been different. Indeed, the entire history of the universe depends on
an incalculable number of coincidences. Each of us are products of an unending
number of hair’s-breadth occurrences which may easily have been different. But
by his almighty power those coincidences making up the march of history were the
means whereby God brought into existence every single person, each of whom he
had chosen from all eternity. From before the world, St Paul writes, God chose
us. The thought of the coincidences of history helps us to appreciate the
infinite might of divine providence. God can do anything, and he brought me into
existence at a particular point, even though that point depended on an
incalculable range of factors. I mention this feature of the world to set forth
the might of God in achieving his purposes, and also his mercy. That each of us
exists, is a mercy. We, each of us, need not have existed, and we only have to
think of human history to realize this. But God in his powerful mercy brought us
out of nothing to life.
Our life is a gift of mercy. We ought
look on the life and person of each and every human being as also a gift of
God’s mercy. All of this brings us to our Gospel today
(Luke 1: 57-66.80), which portrays the birth of John the Baptist.
What is the first thing we see others saying of it? It is a gift of the divine
mercy. “When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a
son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy,
and they shared her joy.” The birth of John the Baptist was part of the plan of
God, and was the expression of his love. Let us notice what is said about John’s
boyhood, his youth and his early adulthood. “The neighbours were all filled with
awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all
these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, What then is
this child going to be? For the Lord's hand was with him. And the child grew and
became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly
to Israel.” Especially significant is the statement that “the hand of the Lord
was with him.” John the Baptist had an altogether special mission, and God was
preparing him for it with great gifts of grace. He responded magnificently to
those gifts and became a great saint. But now, the hand of the Lord has been
with each of us too, especially with each and every disciple of Christ. Before
he was born, and at the visit of Mary to Elizabeth, John was filled with the
Holy Spirit. At our Baptism, we were filled with the Holy Spirit. The hand of
the Lord was with us. To a greater or lesser extent we strayed, but the hand of
the Lord did come upon us. Are we now in the state of grace? If we are, the hand
of the Lord is with us still. If we are not, then let us be reconciled to God
and come under his hand once again. The hand of the Lord is available to be with
us, now and in the future. It was once with us; let us then ensure it stays with
us to the end. It will, if we constantly repent of sin and regain the grace of
God. Let us resolve not to fall from grace, but to remain under the hand of the
Lord.
The birth of John the Baptist was the gong that began the pealing of a great
bell. The bell began to sound for the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah has
come and has done his great work, and the world has before it the offer of
redemption. We have the gift not only of life but of a calling to be disciples
of Christ. It is a great mercy, and the hand of the Lord is with us, if we but
stay with him. Let us keep close to God, doing his will every day, living as
disciples of the Master.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Friday of the
twelfth week in Ordinary Time C/II
(June 25) Blessed Jutta of Thuringia (d. 1264?)
Today's patroness of Prussia began her life amidst luxury and power but died the
death of a simple servant of the poor. In truth, virtue and piety were always of
prime importance to Jutta and her husband, both of noble rank. The two were set
to make a pilgrimage together to the holy places in Jerusalem, but her husband
died on the way. The newly widowed Jutta, after taking care to provide for her
children, resolved to live in a manner utterly pleasing to God. She disposed of
the costly clothes, jewels and furniture befitting one of her rank, and became a
Secular Franciscan, taking on the simple garment of a religious. From that point
her life was utterly devoted to others: caring for the sick, particularly
lepers; tending to the poor, whom she visited in their hovels; helping the
crippled and blind with whom she shared her own home. Many of the townspeople of
Thuringia laughed at how the once-distinguished lady now spent all her time. But
Jutta saw the face of God in the poor and felt honoured to render whatever
services she could. About the year 1260, not long before her death, Jutta lived
near the non-Christians in eastern Germany. There she built a small hermitage
and prayed unceasingly for their conversion. She has been venerated for
centuries as the special patron of Prussia. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 2 Kings 25: 1-12;
Psalm 136; Matthew 8: 1-4
When he came down from the mountainside,
large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and
said, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his
hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said. Be clean! Immediately he was
cured of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, See that you don't tell anyone.
But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a
testimony to them. (Matthew 8: 1-4)
God’s will
Our Lord has now completed the Sermon on
the Mount, and in that Sermon St Matthew has presented in a single episode much
of the teaching of Jesus Christ. It concludes with the response of the people
(7: 28-29), that they “were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as
one having authority, and not like the scribes.” Having shown Christ to be the
supreme teacher of God’s Law, Matthew immediately shows him as healer and
saviour. When Moses came down from the Mountain with
the Law of God he was not
approached by the sick for healing, but this is what happened with Jesus Christ.
We read that “when he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed
him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, Lord, if you are
willing, you can make me clean” (Matthew 8: 1-4).
In that prayer of the leper we have one of the prayers of the New Testament
which was immediately heard. Christ’s power answers the prayer of need. There
are a number of other prayers expressed to Christ which are immediately heard.
For instance, at the wedding feast of Cana the mother of Jesus saw that the wine
had run out, and she approached Jesus and simply said, “They have no wine.” The
request was manifest, but it seems to have run counter to our Lord’s plan as to
timing — for he replied, “Woman, what is that to me and to you? My hour has not
yet come.” But the timing changed in response to the prayer, and the first of
the signs were given that showed, St John tells us, his glory (John 2:11). On a
later occasion, our Lord was passing through Jericho with the crowds
accompanying him. Suddenly he heard shouts from a distance away. They were calls
to him. He stopped and asked that the man be brought to him. What do you want me
to do for you? Lord, that I may see! Go, your faith has saved you, our Lord
replied. The man’s sight was immediately restored and he followed our Lord along
the road. In the case of our leper today, what is notable is the form of the
prayer: if you are willing, you can make me clean. Let us consider his
acknowledgment that all depends on the will of Christ.
There is a parallel between this prayer and that of Christ himself in the Garden
of Gethsemane. Christ too, humanly speaking, would like to have been spared the
burden of his indescribable Passion. Father, let this cup pass from me, he
pleaded, sweating blood as he prayed. If ever there was an earnest prayer of
petition, it was this. However much we may describe the intensity of the prayer
of, say, the Canaanite woman who pleaded importunately for her daughter before
Christ; however great was the prayer of the blind man at Jericho; however
earnest the pleas of the ten lepers who asked our Lord for pity — none had the
power and intensity of Christ’s prayer of petition to be spared his coming
Passion and Death. No other prayer pierced the heavens as did his. No other
prayer filled the heavens and resounded in the heart of the Father himself, as
did the plea of his beloved Son. It was the prayer of petition par excellence.
All of Christ’s prayers of petition were beyond compare in their effect. If
Christ exhorted us to pray for what we need, guaranteeing that our prayers would
be heard, what is to be said of his own prayers of petition to his heavenly
Father? They are without peer. But look at the structure of his petition. Let
this cup pass from me, but as you will, not I. The prayer of the leper is not
unlike Christ’s own prayer, granted that Christ’s prayer is immeasurably more
perfect. The leper acknowledged that all depended on the will of Christ himself:
If you are willing — if it is your will — you can make me clean. Christ prayed
in similar fashion: if it is your will, you can spare me this cup. Let it pass
from me, then! But then he adds, not as I will, but as you wish. It was the will
of his heavenly Father that he suffer indescribably and so take away the sin of
the world. We read that an angel came and sustained him in his agony, and we
read in the Letter to the Hebrews that it was by the power of the Holy Spirit
that Christ offered himself as a victim on the cross. We may be sure that the
Father answered the prayer of Christ, but not by taking away the Cross.
What would have been the reaction of the leper had Christ told him that it was
the will of his heavenly Father that, for inscrutably higher reasons, he
continue to suffer with his leprosy? That would have been the test of tests for
him, and yet it is this test that is given to many. There have been countless
fervent Christians whose lot it has been to carry a heavy cross in imitation of
the Master. While there are those who call it the problem of evil and suffering,
there are others who look on it with the mind of Christ and proceed, carrying
their cross. The fundamental thing is that God’s will be done, and while we
ought pray for all our needs, we must realize that God knows far more than do we
what our true needs are. So then! Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven!
(E.J.Tyler)
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Second reflection (Matthew
8:1-4)
On suffering
Consider the simple Gospel scene of our Lord curing the leper
(Matthew 8: 1-4). The leper said, 'If you want to
you
can cure me.' Our Lord
replied, 'Of course I want to. Be cured.'. There are may mysteries about the
problem of evil, but one question that might occur to us is, why did our Lord
not cure this leper (and all other lepers) without being asked? We do not know.
But his response ('Of course I want to!') shows that he wants to cure the world
of suffering, but many things, it seems, lead him not to. At least in this case
of the leper of today’s Gospel, prayer for healing was in some sense necessary.
If he had not asked for healing, he may not have been healed. Our Lord did not
take the initiative in healing him, but healed in response to the leper’s
request. So whatever about the many things we do not understand or that God has
not revealed, it is clear that the healing power of God in respect to suffering
is especially available if we ask for it. If we do not, it may not come our way.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Heavenly Mother, let me regain once more fervour, dedication, self—denial: in
one word, Love.
(The Forge, no.162)
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My own special Father and Patron, St. Philip Neri, lived in an age as traitorous
to the interests of Catholicism as any that preceded it, or can follow it. He
perceived that the mischief was to be met, not with argument, not with science,
not with protests and warnings, not by the recluse or the preacher, but by means
of the great counter-fascination of purity and truth.
JHN, from ‘Idea of a University’ (1852)
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Saturday of the
twelfth week in Ordinary Time C/II
(June 26) Blessed Raymond Lull (1235-1315)
Raymond worked all his life to promote the missions and died a missionary to
North Africa.
Raymond was born at Palma on the island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean Sea. He
earned a position in the king’s court there. One day a sermon inspired him to
dedicate his life to working for the conversion of the Muslims in North Africa.
He became a Secular Franciscan and founded a college where missionaries could
learn the Arabic they would need in the missions. Retiring to solitude, he spent
nine years as a hermit. During that time he wrote on all branches of knowledge,
a work which earned him the title "Enlightened Doctor." Raymond then made many
trips through Europe to interest popes, kings and princes in establishing
special colleges to prepare future missionaries. He achieved his goal in 1311
when the Council of Vienne ordered the creation of chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and
Chaldean at the universities of Bologna, Oxford, Paris and Salamanca. At the age
of 79, Raymond went to North Africa in 1314 to be a missionary himself. An angry
crowd of Muslims stoned him in the city of Bougie. Genoese merchants took him
back to Mallorca where he died. Raymond was beatified in 1514.
Three hundred years later Raymond’s work began to have an influence in the
Americas. When the Spanish began to spread the gospel in the New World, they set
up missionary colleges to aid the work. Blessed Junipero Serra belonged to such
a college. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Lamentations 2: 2.10-14.18-19; Psalm 73; Matthew 8: 5-17
When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.
Lord, he said, my servant lies at home paralysed and in terrible suffering.
Jesus said to him, I will go and heal him.
The centurion replied, Lord, I do not deserve to have you
come under my roof.
But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man
under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and
that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it.
When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, I tell
you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to
you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places
at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the
subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion, Go! It
will be done just as you believed it would. And his servant was healed at that
very hour. When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law
lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she
got up and began to wait on him. When evening came, many who were
demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word
and healed all the sick. This was to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet
Isaiah: He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.
(Matthew 8: 5-17)
Christ and Caesar
Our Gospel today presents us with a meeting between Christ and
the centurion — one who, in his own way, represented Caesar. What can we say of
the relation between Christ and Caesar, Jesus and the supreme temporal power?
Our passage today is taken from the Gospel of St Matthew which is the most
Jewish of the Gospels. It preserves the Jewish character of our Lord’s speech
and manner of expression more than does, say, Luke. It is at pains to show that
Christ fulfilled in
numerous ways the predictions of the Scriptures, and quotes
the Old Testament frequently. It is very Jewish — but now, if there was one
characteristic common to the Jews it was their resentment at the Roman
occupation. Tax Collectors (such as Matthew himself) were despised as virtual
collaborators. This latent hostility would eventually erupt in a terrible
uprising against the Imperial Power, culminating in the stranglehold on
Jerusalem by Rome and its subsequent razing of the City. Well then, how does
this Gospel present the relations between this supreme civil power and Jesus
Christ? The answer to this is a portent of the mission of Christ and his Church.
Let us remember that St Matthew knew the Roman authority, for in the matter of
taxation he had been one of its representatives. In our reading of his Gospel,
we do not get the impression that whenever Rome appears on the scene, it is in
principle hostile to Jesus. The high point of our Lord’s life was, of course,
his Passion and Death, and it is there that Rome enters the scene with impact.
Pilate, the Roman procurator, stood before the King of kings and found him
innocent of the charges of sedition. He regarded it as absurd that the man
before him was a political agitator, claiming to be a king. At a critical moment
(27:19) Pilate’s wife, convinced of Christ’s goodness, pressured him to let him
go. It was not because of hostility but because of fear of a bad report from
grassroots level that Pilate handed Jesus over to the mob with a death sentence.
At this point, Rome was not hostile to Christ, but weak.
In our Gospel today (Matthew 8: 5-17) a centurion approaches our Lord and asks
for help. Is it not a portent of the distant future — some three centuries — when Rome would turn to Jesus Christ for help, and accept his kingship? For his
part, the friendliness and readiness to help by Jesus Christ is immediate. “When
Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. Lord, he
said, my servant lies at home paralysed and in terrible suffering. Jesus said to
him, I will go and heal him.” Our Lord immediately responds to the centurion’s
need. He is the true answer to the world’s need, the world as represented by its
supreme authority. The centurion himself is very respectful and is the
beneficiary of our Lord’s help because of his faith. Let our thoughts turn to
our Lord’s final instructions to his disciples just before he ascended into
heaven. All power in heaven and on earth had been given to him, he explained to
them. He, then, was the Superpower of God, but not the political rival of the
Superpower of the world. Rather he is the world’s Friend and Saviour. This is
surely manifested in our Gospel today. I like to see in the judgment by Pilate
on Jesus — that he was innocent — a symbol of the compatibility and harmony in
principle between Christ and Caesar. Christ is the embodiment of God, Caesar is
the embodiment of the nations of the earth. On one occasion the religious
leaders, attempting to catch Christ out as a man challenging earthly powers,
asked our Lord if it was lawful before God to pay the Roman taxes. Render to
Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s, our Lord calmly replied. In
principle, Caesar need not fear Christ. In fact, over the next few centuries,
Caesar unleashed numerous persecutions on Christ and his Church, because he
(correctly) saw an incompatibility between Christ and the many gods of the
empire. But this enmity is not, of course, as Christ intends. In fact, Rome
would eventually be won over — not by material force as by a competing temporal
king, but by witness and by love. The Roman Empire became Christian.
However hostile the world around us may be, let us look on it with love. The
centurion of today’s Gospel may be regarded as representing the world of our
Lord’s time, the world to be evangelized. Our Lord responded to him with
immediate friendship. There is an old saying that we ought treat our enemies as
if we know that one day they will be our friends. However far from the formal
profession of the faith those around us may be, let us serve them with the same
love and alacrity with which our Lord was ready to serve the centurion of our
Gospel passage today. The heart of man needs Christ. In all our dealings with
others let us remember this.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Second reflection: Lamentations 2:2.10-14.18-19
The wages of sin St Paul writes in the Letter to the Romans that the wages of
sin are death. That is a generalization. It helps in its realization if we have
an image of the utter collapse wrought by offending God. We have such an image
in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (Lamentations
2:2.10-14.18-19). It is repeatedly taught in the inspired pages (and in this
first reading) that it was the sin of God's chosen people that brought about the
destruction of the city of Jerusalem. This destruction, with its death and
havoc, is vividly described. It can even be taken as a distant foreboding of
hell, if there is no repentance. But in the same passage there is hope: the
inhabitants of Jerusalem can still appeal to the Lord, and they are encouraged
to do so: "Stretch out your hands to him for the lives of your children who
faint with hunger at the entrance to every street." So let us ask for the grace
of a horror and detestation of sin, and a vivid appreciation of the fact that
the wages of sin are death.
(E.J.Tyler)
-------------------------------------------------
You shouldn’t be so easy on yourself! Don’t wait until the New Year to make your
resolutions. Every day is a good day to make good decisions. Hodie, nunc! —
Today, now!
It tends to be the poor defeatist types who leave it until the New Year before
beginning afresh… And even then, they never really begin.
(The Forge, no.163)
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It is remarkable that this flower of the Benedictine school died on the same day
as St. Philip Neri, – May 26; Bede on Ascension Day, and Philip on the early
morning after the feast of Corpus Christi. It was fitting that two saints should
go to heaven together, whose mode of going thither was the same; both of them
singing, praying, working, and guiding others, in joy and exultation, till their
very last hour.
JHN, from ‘The Mission of St. Benedict’ (1858)
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Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time C
Prayers today:
All nations, clap your hands. Shout with a voice
of joy to God (Psalm 46:2).
Father, you call your children to walk in the light of Christ. Free us from
darkness and keep us in the radiance of your truth. We ask this through Christ
our Lord in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
(June 27) St. Cyril of Alexandria (376?-444)
Saints are not born with halos around their heads. Cyril, recognized as a great
teacher of the Church, began his career as archbishop of Alexandria, Egypt, with
impulsive, often violent, actions. He pillaged and closed the churches of the
Novatian
heretics, participated in the deposing of St. John Chrysostom
(September 13) and confiscated Jewish property, expelling the Jews from
Alexandria in retaliation for their attacks on Christians. Cyril’s importance
for theology and Church history lies in his championing the cause of orthodoxy
against the heresy of Nestorius.
The controversy centred around the two natures in Christ. Nestorius would not
agree to the title “God-bearer” for Mary. He preferred “Christ-bearer,” saying
there are two distinct persons in Christ (divine and human) joined only by a
moral union. He said Mary was not the mother of God but only of the man Christ,
whose humanity was only a temple of God. Nestorianism implied that the humanity
of Christ was a mere disguise. Presiding as the pope’s representative at the
Council of Ephesus (431), Cyril condemned Nestorianism and proclaimed Mary truly
the “God-bearer” (the mother of the one Person who is truly God and truly
human). In the confusion that followed, Cyril was deposed and imprisoned for
three months, after which he was welcomed back to Alexandria as a second
Athanasius (the champion against Arianism).
Besides needing to soften some of his opposition to those who had sided with
Nestorius, Cyril had difficulties with some of his own allies, who thought he
had gone too far, sacrificing not only language but orthodoxy. Until his death,
his policy of moderation kept his extreme partisans under control. On his
deathbed, despite pressure, he refused to condemn the teacher of Nestorius.
Cyril's theme: "Only if it is one and the same Christ who is consubstantial with
the Father and with men can he save us, for the meeting ground between God and
man is the flesh of Christ. Only if this is God's own flesh can man come into
contact with Christ's divinity through his humanity. Because of our kinship with
the Word made flesh we are sons of God. The Eucharist consummates our kinship
with the word, our communion with the Father, our sharing in the divine
nature—there is very real contact between our body and that of the Word" (New
Catholic Encyclopedia). (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: 1 Kings 19: 16.19-21; Psalm 15; Galatians 5: 13-18; Luke 9:
51-62
As the time approached for Jesus 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,
and they went to another village.
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, 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:
51-62)
Authority and obedience
I have often thought that in the matter of disagreements
that divide Christians, at issue are not only positions that contradict one
another. Of course there are indeed several positions among Christians that
are in contradiction — for instance, there are those who insist on the divine creation of
the Church. The Church is the work of Christ, and its constitution is his
invention. In its fundamental structure it cannot be tampered with. This is
contradicted by others who regard the Church as the
fruit of historical forces,
and is little more than an historical instrument for the propagation of the
message of Jesus Christ. This position is reflected in the oft-repeated
reference to the so-called “movement” which arose from the ministry of Jesus. Or again,
there are those, representing the Catholic position, who insist that the words
of Christ about the Eucharist, as presented both in John 6 and in the Synoptic
accounts of the Last Supper, are to be taken literally. The Eucharist is indeed
the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, which is to say his whole human and divine
reality as risen from the dead. This is directly contradicted by others who
insist that Christ intended the Eucharist to be a symbolic memorial and nothing
more. On the other hand, there are many divergences within Christendom which
have their origin, not in contradictory positions, but in differences of
emphasis. For instance, a Christian view which places great stress on the
experience of personal conversion and on its necessity for any genuine Christian
life may lead to a despising of those who relish and insist on dogma as a
foremost resource for Christian growth. John Newton, the eighteenth-century
Evangelical author of the famous hymn, “Saving Grace,” gave great importance to
personal conversion. Correspondingly, he had less concern for matters of Church
order or the details of Christian dogma. This reminds us that it is important that we maintain the
right stress in the range of the Church’s doctrine and theology.
There is one stress which we of the modern era are likely not to give, and that
is the stress on authority and obedience in religious faith. We will be prone to
pass this over in favour of other emphases, such as personal experience, healing
of hurts, personal discovery of faith, personal testimony to Christ and so forth
— all of which are admittedly part and parcel of religion. Now, John Henry
Newman once wrote that authority and obedience are of the essence of religion.
That is to say, a fundamental feature of an authentic sense of God is the
perception of his absolute authority. At the core of a truly religious response
to him is obedience. In this he was opposing an emphasis on one’s own private
judgment of God’s plan, a religion that develops on the basis of private
judgment. When Abraham was put to the test by God, he “believed in God” (Romans
4:3) and always obeyed. For this reason he is called “the father of all who
believe” (Romans 4:11-18). In him we see a faith that involved a recognition of
God’s authority and obedience to Him. The Virgin Mary, throughout her entire
life, embodied in a perfect way the obedience of faith: “Let is be done to me
according to your word” (Luke 1:38). In their obedience, both Abraham and the
Virgin Mary were but pointing to Jesus Christ who, obeying the Father perfectly,
would ask, “Can any of you convict me of sin?” “I always do what pleases him,”
he stated. Our Lord commanded obedience as the true test of faith and love. “If
you love me, you will keep my commandments.” So it is that the Church, in
explaining the true nature of sanctity, expresses it in terms of obedience.
Sanctity consists in the perfect fulfilment of our daily duties for love of God. This “perfect”
fulfilment of duties refers to the love and care with which we do God’s will, as
expressed in life’s daily and humdrum responsibilities. In our Gospel today
(Luke 9: 51-62), prospective disciples approached our Lord. He asked them to
submit to the exigencies of the Christian calling. His authority and obedience
to him are essential.
Every day we ought rise with the immediate intention to submit ourselves to our
loving Master. Our submission to his authority — an authority expressed in his
word and will — is the test and expression of our love for Jesus Christ. Christ
wants us to be his friends. He has called us to a religion of love. This mutual
love informs every level of Revealed Religion and its practice. But it is a love
that is marked by the recognition of authority and the response of obedience.
The Christian faith involves the obedience of faith. In all things, let us be
obedient to God, then!
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.144-149
(The obedience
of faith)
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A second reflection:
Luke 9:51-62
The Key
The most fundamental feature of the Christian religion is an ardent
devotion to the person of its founder, Jesus Christ. Christ required of his
disciples that they follow him no matter what the cost, which is to say that he
be the great love of their life. In today’s Gospel (Luke 9:51-62) our Lord makes
it clear to three distinct people that their following of him was to be
unconditional. The danger is that while our hearts can warm to this ideal, the
ideal itself can easily remain a “pipe dream,” never
lived out in practice. How
then do we become truly dedicated to Christ? We must remember that for the most
part our lives are made up of small duties. Not many of us are in situations
that command the attention or admiration of the multitude. Most of us are in a
position similar to that of the Holy Family — Jesus, Mary and Joseph — during
those quiet and obscure years at Nazareth. Our lives are usually ordinary lives,
lives filled with an ordinary round of duties. It is by the way we live our
ordinary lives that we can achieve grandeur. The Church teaches that the
perfection of the Christian life, which is to say Christian holiness, consists
in doing as perfectly as possible the duties of one’s state in life for love of
God. For the lack of this key, very many people never gain a sense of the
grandeur of their lives. Being governed by appearances, they think that their
daily round consists of nothing but boredom, difficulty, and insignificance. But
this is not the case, and never should anyone interpret their lives in this
fatalistic way. No matter what our situation might be, in the providence of God,
there is both possibility and purpose in it. There have been many lay
Christians, many priests and bishops who have spent years in solitary
imprisonment because of their Catholic Faith. One might have thought that such a
life was a waste and a tragedy. On the contrary, the Church has regarded their
lives as having been most fruitful. This is because they have made the best use
of their prison for the purpose of witnessing to Jesus and showing charity to
others. We too must make the very best use of every day of our lives, no matter
what be the situation.
We could be suffering from various sicknesses and difficulties of health. Our
family situation could be very disrupted and full of difficulties. Our work
could be very boring, humanly speaking, or could contain failures, and bring
very little recognition from others. Perhaps it is work that many look down on,
and certainly take no notice of, by comparison with the work that others do and
achieve. Yet God has permitted us to be in that situation, with the duties that
every day arise from that situation. The key to discipleship is being focussed
on one’s daily duties whatever they might be, doing them well, and doing them
for love of God. Consider even the case of a person with a terrible drink
problem. He commits a crime and finds himself in prison. How is he to be
dedicated to Christ? He must there and then begin again, saying to himself, “Now
I begin!” He is to begin again by repenting of his past failure in duty, and
then dedicating himself to fulfilling the duties of the present, and for love of
Christ. Matt Talbot, whose Cause for Canonization is in progress, was a reformed
alcoholic. One evening in 1884 Talbot went home in disgust and announced to his
mother that he was going to "take the pledge" (i.e., renounce drink). He went to
Holy Cross College, Clonliffe where he took the pledge for three months. At the
end of the three months, he took the pledge for six months, then for life. It
was the start of his journey towards holiness. Talbot maintained sobriety for
the following forty years of his life. He found strength in prayer, began to
attend daily mass, and read religious books and pamphlets. He repaid all his
debts scrupulously. There is no one who cannot respond to the call of Christ to
be his disciple, his dedicated and ardent disciple. Everyone, even the one on
his sick bed, or the one approaching death through some terminal sickness, or
the person with a very ordinary or unpleasant job, or the person experiencing
the typical difficulties associated with family life, all can say, “Now I
begin!”
The secret lies in a loving attention to detail, the detail involved in
fulfilling our responsibilities really well, with a true perfection, and
fulfilling them out of love for Jesus. It is thus that we sanctify our God-given
work in life, and by means of our work, we sanctify ourselves and others as
well. It is thus that we shall learn to follow Jesus closely — which is what he
asks in our Gospel today.
(E.J.Tyler)
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I agree. You acted badly, out of weakness. — But what I fail to understand is
how, with a clear conscience, you have not repented. You cannot do something
wrong and then say, or think, that it is something holy, or that it is of no
importance.
(The Forge, no.164)
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Let us never forget that in proportion as our love is “rooted and grounded” in
the next world, our faith must branch forth like a fruitful tree into this. The
calmer our hearts, the more active be our lives; the more tranquil we are, the
more busy; the more resigned, the more zealous; the more unruffled, the more
fervent. This is one of the many paradoxes in the world’s judgment of him, which
the Christian realizes in himself. Christ is risen; He is risen from the dead.
We may well cry out, “Alleluia, the Lord
Omnipotent reigneth.” He has crushed
all the power of the enemy under His feet. He has gone upon the lion and the
adder. He has stopped the lion’s mouth for us His people, and has bruised the
serpent’s head. There is nothing impossible to us now, if we do but enter into
the fulness of our privileges, the wondrous power of our gifts. The thing cannot
be named in heaven or earth within the limits of truth and obedience which we
cannot do through Christ; the petition cannot be named which may not be accorded
to us for His Name’s sake. For, we who have risen with Him from the grave, stand
in His might, and are allowed to use His weapons. His infinite influence with
the Father is ours,—not always to use, for perhaps in this or that effort we
make, or petition we prefer, it would not be good for us; but so far ours, so
fully ours, that when we ask and do things according to His will, we are really
possessed of a power with God, and do prevail:—so that little as we may know
when and when not, we are continually possessed of heavenly weapons, we are
continually touching the springs of the most wonderful providences in heaven and
earth; and by the Name, and the Sign, and the Blood of the Son of God, we are
able to make devils tremble and Saints rejoice.
Such are the arms which faith uses, small in appearance, yet “not carnal, but
mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;” [2 Cor. 10:4] despised
by the world, what seems a mere word, or a mere symbol, or mere bread and wine;
but God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty, and
foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and as all things spring from
small beginnings, from seeds and elements invisible or insignificant, so when
God would renew the race of man, and reverse the course of human life and
earthly affairs, He chose cheap things for the rudiments of His work, and bade
us believe that He could work through them, and He would do so. As then we
Christians discern in Him, when He came on earth, not the carpenter’s son, but
the Eternal Word Incarnate, as we see beauty in Him in whom the world saw no
form or comeliness, as we discern in that death an Atonement for sin in which
the world saw nothing but a malefactor’s sentence; so let us believe with full
persuasion that all that He has bequeathed to us has power from Him. Let us
accept His Ordinances, and His Creed, and His precepts; and let us stand upright
with an undaunted faith, resolute, with faces like flint, to serve Him in and
through them; to inflict them upon the world without misgiving, without
wavering, without anxiety; being sure that He who saved us from hell through a
Body of flesh which the world insulted, tortured, and triumphed over, much more
can now apply the benefits of His passion through Ordinances which the world has
lacerated and now mocks.
John Henry Newman, from the sermon ‘Keeping Fast and Festival’ (1838)
(Reference: John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons Vol 4 (1839) Sermon no. 23, p. 341-43)
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Monday of the thirteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II
(June 28) St. Irenaeus (130?-220)
The Church is fortunate that Irenaeus was involved in many of its controversies
in the second century. He was a student, well trained, no doubt, with great
patience in investigating, tremendously protective of apostolic teaching, but
prompted more by a desire to win over his opponents than to prove them in error.
As bishop of Lyons he was especially concerned with the Gnostics, who took their
name from the Greek word for “knowledge.” Claiming access to secret knowledge
imparted by Jesus to only a few disciples, their teaching was attracting and
confusing many Christians. After thoroughly investigating the various Gnostic
sects and their “secret,” Irenaeus showed to what logical conclusions their
tenets led. These he contrasted with the teaching of the apostles and the text
of Holy Scripture, giving us, in five books, a system of theology of great
importance to subsequent times. Moreover, his work, widely used and translated
into Latin and Armenian, gradually ended the influence of the Gnostics. The
circumstances and details about his death, like those of his birth and early
life in Asia Minor, are not at all clear. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Amos 2:
6-10.13-16; Psalm 49;
Matthew 8: 18-22
When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he
gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law
came to him and said, Teacher, 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. Another disciple said to him, Lord, first let me go and bury my
father. But Jesus told him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.
(Matthew 8: 18-22)
All for Jesus
It is a great mystery of human history
that when God became man to do an immense good, he was opposed. In fact, in
heaven itself God was opposed, and that is where sin first made its appearance.
God created the angels, and at his test of obedience, there was a revolt among
many of them. It is the
mystery of freedom. At the dawn of human history, man
revolted against God. It was the catastrophe of the beginnings. The revolt
continued, though many stood with God and in obedience to him. When God sent his
Son to save the world from its sin, he was opposed by many. That is our backdrop
and it is the story presented by the Scriptures and by the Gospels in
particular. The next thing we observe is that those who opposed our Lord were
most especially the religious leaders. Time and again the Gospels show the
scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the chief priests in conflict with
our Lord and mounting an implacable hostility to him. The chief priests put him
to death, a sentence to which he freely submitted as being the divine plan for
the redemption of the world. Now, we can form the impression that it was all the
scribes, and all the Pharisees, and all the priests — in other words, all of the
leaders of the people — who were of this ilk. Not so, and this fact illustrates
that all have received the call to be disciples of Jesus Christ. In our Gospel
today we read that “a teacher of the law came to him and said, Teacher, I will
follow you wherever you go.” That is to say, among the scribes there was this
person who felt within his heart the desire to follow Jesus Christ totally. Our
Lord’s response indicates that he had not considered the cost, but his desire
shows that the appeal of our Lord and his teaching was penetrating the ranks of
the opposition. Who is to say that there were not more? Nicodemus — a secret
disciple of our Lord’s — was a Pharisee, a leading Jew, we read. Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Sanhedrin. St John, who habitually refers to our
Lord’s enemies as “the Jews” explicitly says that “among the rulers (archontoon)
many (polloi) believed in him” (12:42).
This fact illustrates and symbolizes the universal call to Christian
discipleship. All are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ. The “scribe” who
wished to follow our Lord wherever he might go (Matthew
8: 18-22) is surely a representative and reminder of this universal
call. Our Lord’s response to him, and his response to the next disciple, is a
reminder of the radical character of this call. The “scribe” can expect few
comforts, and he must understand this clearly. “Foxes have holes and birds of
the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” We read
that one of our Lord disciples — one who had chosen to be with him, learn from
him, follow him, and share in his mission — asked leave to attend family
matters. He must have been directed by our Lord to participate in some way in
the mission of his ministry. We read that on a different occasion our Lord sent
out seventy-two of his disciples ahead of him to prepare the way by their
preaching and ministry. “Lord, first let me go and bury my father,” the disciple
in question asked. At this point, there must have been nothing more urgent than
the mission, in our Lord’s mind. Moreover, he wanted to make the point to this
disciple — and perhaps to the others too — that he himself and his mission must
take complete precedence over all else in life. Of course, we are not to take
the specific issue that is mentioned here as normative for all future
circumstances. The point that St Matthew is reporting for us is that Jesus
Christ must be supreme in the life of his disciples. His will and work normally
will include all family commitments, but even there, it is precisely his will
and his work that is decisive for his disciple. The disciple is radically
committed to Jesus Christ as the love of his life. Our Gospel passage today
invites us to place ourselves in the presence of Jesus Christ with each of the
two individuals mentioned. There is the prospective disciple in the scribe, and
there is the actual disciple in the one seeking leave. For each of them, and for
each of us, the call of Jesus Christ is a total call. We cannot expect that our
Lord will accept our being part-timers in his service. Everything in life must
be for his sake.
What have I done for Christ to this point? What am I doing for him now? What
shall I do for him in the future? Have I been a part-timer, so far? The
Christian must sanctify everything in his life, which is to say he must do all
for the glory of God, in imitation of him who is the Master. This gets down to
the little things. Life is a mountain of little things, and all together they
make up a big thing. Each and every little thing must be done for Jesus. This
gets down to the work of each part of each day. It is attainable, through
personal decision and the grace of God.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You must always remember that the spiritual faculties are fed by what they
receive from the senses. Guard them well!
(The Forge, no.165)
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Solemnity of Saint Peter and Saint
Paul (June 29)
Saints Peter and Paul (d. 64 & 67)
Peter (d. 64?). St. Mark ends the first half of his Gospel with a triumphant
climax. He has recorded doubt, misunderstanding and the opposition of many to
Jesus. Now Peter makes his great confession of faith: "You are the Messiah"
(Mark 8:29b). It was one of the many glorious moments in Peter's life, beginning
with the day he was called from his nets along the Sea of Galilee to become a
fisher of men for Jesus. The New Testament clearly shows Peter as the leader of
the apostles, chosen by Jesus to have
a special relationship with him. With
James and John he was privileged to witness the Transfiguration, the raising of
a dead child to life and the agony in Gethsemane. His mother-in-law was cured by
Jesus. He was sent with John to prepare for the last Passover before Jesus'
death. His name is first on every list of apostles. And to Peter only did Jesus
say, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed
this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and
upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the nether world shall
not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:17b-19). But the Gospels prove
their own trustworthiness by the unflattering details they include about Peter.
He clearly had no public relations person. It is a great comfort for ordinary
mortals to know that Peter also has his human weakness, even in the presence of
Jesus. He generously gave up all things, yet he can ask in childish self-regard,
"What are we going to get for all this?" (see Matthew 19:27). He receives the
full force of Christ's anger when he objects to the idea of a suffering Messiah:
"Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God
does, but as human beings do" (Matthew 16:23b). Peter is willing to accept
Jesus' doctrine of forgiveness, but suggests a limit of seven times. He walks on
the water in faith, but sinks in doubt. He refuses to let Jesus wash his feet,
then wants his whole body cleansed. He swears at the Last Supper that he will
never deny Jesus, and then swears to a servant maid that he has never known the
man. He loyally resists the first attempt to arrest Jesus by cutting off Malchus's ear, but in the end he runs away with the others. In the depth of his
sorrow, Jesus looks on him and forgives him, and he goes out and sheds bitter
tears. The Risen Jesus told Peter to feed his lambs and his sheep (John
21:15-17).
Paul (d. 64?). If the most well-known preacher today suddenly began preaching
that the United States should adopt Marxism and not rely on the Constitution,
the angry reaction would help us understand Paul's life when he started
preaching that Christ alone can save us. He had been the most Pharisaic of
Pharisees, the most legalistic of Mosaic lawyers. Now he suddenly appears to
other Jews as a heretical welcomer of Gentiles, a traitor and apostate. Paul's
central conviction was simple and absolute: Only God can save humanity. No human
effort—even the most scrupulous observance of law—can create a human good which
we can bring to God as reparation for sin and payment for grace. To be saved
from itself, from sin, from the devil and from death, humanity must open itself
completely to the saving power of Jesus. Paul never lost his love for his Jewish
family, though he carried on a lifelong debate with them about the uselessness
of the Law without Christ. He reminded the Gentiles that they were grafted on
the parent stock of the Jews, who were still God's chosen people, the children
of the promise. In light of his preaching and teaching skills, Paul's name has
surfaced (among others) as a possible patron of the Internet.
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: (Mass of the Day)
Acts 12: 1-11; Psalm 33; 2 Tim 4: 6-8.17-18; Matthew 16: 13-19
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who
do people say the Son of Man is? They replied,
Some say John the Baptist; others
say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But what about
you? he asked. Who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, You are the Christ,
the Son of the living God. Jesus replied, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah,
for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell
you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates
of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of
heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you
loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Matthew 16: 13-19).
Christ
If one compares the curriculum of studies for the Bachelor’s degree of
Oxford at, say, the beginning of the nineteenth century, with the curriculum of
studies for Bachelor’s degrees in English-speaking universities two centuries
later, the differences are remarkable. In the year 1800, by and large there were
two disciplines studied at Oxford in the Bachelor’s programme, mathematics and
classical Latin and Greek literature. By the year 2000 the range of disciplines
was almost unending. There are
strengths and weaknesses in the present
situation, but one advance has been the widespread academic study of the
religions of man. It is now a relatively easy matter to launch into a tertiary
career of the study of comparative religion. I mention this as an introduction
to our Gospel today, because a comparative study of the great leaders of
religion sets forth the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. Prior to Jesus Christ, the
most significant (though not only) personage in the religion of the Hebrews was
the prophet. Israel was what it was in large (though not exclusive) measure
because of the prophet, the man to whom God had spoken his word and to whom God
had given a mission to bring that word to his chosen people. Abraham was the
father of his people, and is our father in faith, as St Paul expresses it. But
he was also a prophet: he received God’s word, acted on it, and brought it to
others. Moses was a great prophet, and other things besides. There was a great
line of prophets in Israel, and they formed the chosen people by pointing to God
and to his will which they announced. Now, this prophetic feature in the
religion of Israel has its parallel, its reflection, in other great religions
too. Mahomet claimed to be, and was accepted by his disciples as being, a
“prophet” — indeed, as the greatest of prophets. Zarathustra centuries before
Mahomet had acted as a “prophet.” The followers of Buddha might claim for him a similar status, and
those of Confucius for him too — though, of course, Buddha and Confucius did not
profess to speak for God. And, it is characteristic of the primal religion to have its
shaman. The prophet or shaman points to the Unseen and makes its will known.
The prophet or shaman fades before the One he represents and of which he
presents himself as the oracle. St John the Baptist had, according to the word
of Jesus Christ, no peer born of woman. Before the coming of Christ, he was the
greatest of the prophets, and he described himself as a mere voice. But Jesus
Christ is no mere voice. He is not just a prophet. He is not just an oracle of
God — though he is all of this as well. He himself is the very Object of
religion. No Muslim would claim that Mahomet is to be worshipped, but that
Christ is to be worshipped is exactly the claim of the Christian. It was the
claim of the two great apostles of Jesus Christ whom we celebrate today, the
Feast of the apostles Peter and Paul. Our Gospel passage today
(Matthew 13:
16-19) is a magnificent passage because it presents the testimony of Simon Peter
about Jesus Christ, and Christ’s acceptance of this testimony. Some were saying
that Jesus was another prophet — among the greatest of them, perhaps, but no
more than a prophet nevertheless. But no. He was the long-awaited Messiah, and — oh!
— the very Son of the living God. This was an extraordinary attainment of
Simon Peter, not only to have perceived that Jesus was the Messiah, but that he
was God’s Son. As we read in the Gospel of St John, the leaders of the Jews
wished to stone our Lord for claiming to be God’s Son, because by that claim he
made himself equal to God. They perceived correctly. That was indeed his claim,
and it was in witness to this truth that our Lord freely submitted to death to
atone for the sin of the world. St Peter and St Paul stand for the truth about
Jesus Christ. He is the long-awaited Messiah who fulfilled God’s saving
promises. He is the Son of the Living God who died for our sins and, by his gift
of the Holy Spirit, gave us a share in his divine life. These two apostles also
stand for the truth of Christ’s Church, founded on the visible rock that is St
Peter and his successors, and brought to the world by her members, so well
represented by the grandest of her missionaries, St Paul. In celebrating Peter
and Paul we celebrate Jesus Christ and his Catholic Church.
“He who sees me, sees the Father,” Jesus said. Whoever among the world’s
prophets and founders of religions claimed this before, and with holiness of
life and numerous miracles to back it up? He went to his death bearing witness
to it, and rose from the dead as he had foretold. His claims were unique and
extraordinary, and he provided all that was needed for conviction as to their
absolute truth. Peter and Paul stand for the Church’s total acceptance that
Jesus Christ is Lord and Redeemer. He is the pearl beyond all price, the one for
whom we ought sell all in order to gain.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Second reflection (Matthew 16: 13-19)
The Church and the Keys
A slogan of many modern Christians is, Christ I accept
but the Church I reject: Christ yes, the Church no! This could be looked on as a
fall-out from the classic Protestant rejection of the Church. Of course Christ
is indeed the great love of the Christian and of the Church. The Church cannot
take the place of Christ. But it is very clear from Scripture that Christ
entrusted to the Church, and in particular to the Church's pastors — and more
particularly still to the chief pastor — the “keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.” “I
will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.” That is to say, people would
gain access to Jesus Christ and to his Kingdom through the Church which is
authorised to unlock the doors to him, and therefore to every heavenly blessing.
So let us love the Church and make it our business to represent the Church well
before others, drawing them to the Church so that they can gain access to the
Redeemer and all he offers mankind. This is exactly what St Peter and St Paul
did.
(E.J.Tyler)
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As you very well know, you lose your peace when you consent in matters which
entail unfaithfulness to your way.
—Make up your mind to be consistent and responsible in your behaviour!
(The Forge, no.166)
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We are by nature what we are; very sinful and corrupt, we know; however, we like
to be what we are, and for many reasons it is
very unpleasant to us to change.
We cannot change ourselves; this too we know full well, or, at least, a very
little experience will teach us. God alone can change us; God alone can give us
the desires, affections, principles, views, and tastes which a change implies:
this too we know; for I am all along speaking of men who have a sense of
religion. What then is it that we who profess religion lack? I repeat it, this:
a willingness to be changed, a willingness to suffer (if I may use such a word),
to suffer Almighty God to change us.
JHN, from “The Testimony of Conscience” Parochial and Plain Sermons, Volume V.
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Wednesday of the
thirteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II
(June 30) First Martyrs of the Church of Rome (d. 68)
There were Christians in Rome within a dozen or so years
after the death of Jesus, though they were not the converts of the “Apostle of
the Gentiles” (Romans 15:20). Paul had not yet visited them at the time he wrote
his great letter in a.d. 57-58. There was a large Jewish population in Rome.
Probably as a result of controversy between Jews and Jewish Christians, the
Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome in 49-50 A.D. Suetonius the
historian says that the expulsion was due to disturbances in the city “caused by
the certain Chrestus” [Christ]. Perhaps many came back after Claudius’s death in
54 A.D. Paul’s letter was addressed to a Church with members from Jewish and
Gentile backgrounds. In July of 64 A.D., more than half of Rome was destroyed by
fire. Rumour blamed the tragedy on Nero, who wanted to enlarge his palace. He
shifted the blame by accusing the Christians. According to the historian Tacitus,
many Christians were put to death because of their “hatred of the human race.”
Peter and Paul were probably among the victims. Threatened by an army revolt and
condemned to death by the senate, Nero committed suicide in 68 A.D. at the age
of 31.
Pope Clement I, third successor of St. Peter, writes: “It was
through envy and jealousy that the greatest and most upright pillars of the
Church were persecuted and struggled unto death.... First of all, Peter, who
because of unreasonable jealousy suffered not merely once or twice but many
times, and, having thus given his witness, went to the place of glory that he
deserved. It was through jealousy and conflict that Paul showed the way to the
prize for perseverance. He was put in chains seven times, sent into exile, and
stoned; a herald both in the east and the west, he achieved a noble fame by his
faith....”
“Around these men with their holy lives there are gathered a great throng of the
elect, who, though victims of jealousy, gave us the finest example of endurance
in the midst of many indignities and tortures. Through jealousy women were
tormented, like Dirce or the daughters of Danaus, suffering terrible and unholy
acts of violence. But they courageously finished the course of faith and despite
their bodily weakness won a noble prize.” (AmericanCatholic.org)
Scripture today: Amos 5:
14-15.21-24; Psalm 49; Matthew 8: 28-34
When he arrived at the other side in the
region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him.
They were so violent that no-one could pass that way. What do you want with us,
Son of God? they shouted. Have you come here to torture us before the appointed
time? Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. The demons
begged Jesus, If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs. He said to
them, Go! So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed
down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. Those tending the pigs
ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened
to the demon-possessed men. Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when
they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.
(Matthew 8: 28-34)
The Venture of faith
There is a slight divergence among the
Gospels (Matthew 8:28; Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26) as to the name of the location of
this dramatic exorcism by Christ. This reflects variations in the Greek
manuscripts. St Matthew has it in “the country of the Gergeseenes,” if we use
the Nestle Greek Text. St Mark has it in the “country of the
Geraseenes,” as does Luke — again, if, again, the Nestle Text is
used. Various translations, such as the New International Version
and the New American
Bible, give “Gadarenes” as the English
rendering (Matthew 8:28). They appear to be using The Greek New Testament
text, which has Gadareenes as the Greek. For the Catholic, it is somewhat
resolved by the Church’s own official translation of the Greek, which is the
New Latin Vulgate text — promulgated by Pope John Paul II. In respect
to our passage today from Matthew (8: 28-34),
the New Vulgate has “in regionem Gadarenorum,” clearly relying on The
Greek New Testament version. So the exorcism by Christ of the two
demoniacs, as presented by Matthew, occurred in the country of the Gadarenes. Of
course, it is not necessary to traverse these textual issues, but there is no
harm in doing so occasionally as it helps us recall the materials we are dealing
with. There are also divergences in some details as to what happened. In Matthew
it is two demoniacs who are exorcised, while in Mark and Luke it is one. In all
three, the demons are allowed to enter the swine which then charge into the
water and drown. In all three, too, the inhabitants ask our Lord to leave. These
agreements and slight differences are instances of textual variations among the
manuscripts. Let us enter into the scene as St Matthew presents it, and notice
one ominous detail. It is the response of the inhabitants. Our Lord has landed
in the country of the Gadarenes, and if any blessing ever came to that district,
it was this arrival. It was pagan territory, and here on the shore was the Son
of God made man. The demons knew that a terrible event for them was afoot. But
it was to be a spectacular liberation for the one whom the demons held in
bondage. Let us contemplate the scene.
It seems that on stepping on the shore, our Lord was forthwith met by two men
coming from the tombs, men of frightening ferocity. It probably caused the
Apostles to freeze in fright, and to stand near our Lord. There he stood, calm
in his imperturbable strength. It is said that generally if a dog barks it is
because it is frightened. The dogs that were the demons were barking
ferociously, because they knew that the One before them was Master. They had
come straight out of their sombre abode among the tombs to shout at the holy
Power that was before them. Their shouts involved an arrogant yet frightened
pleading. Why meddle here, you Jesus, Son of God? This has been our turf! You
have come to annoy and torment us? And before the time? They assumed a
blustering front, an unreal refusal to be humble, yet withal a helplessness
before the defeat which they saw was imminent. In this Man they saw an
invincible host, a strength that meant their days in the area were completely
numbered. Who knows how long the demons had occupied the region, of which the
present possession was but a dramatic manifestation. We know what then happened.
The demons, terrified at being sent into the Abyss, pleaded at least to be sent
into the swine — for Jews, into filthy swine! With perhaps a touch of pity, Our
Lord allowed it and into the swine they went, and into the sea they hurtled. The
two men stood there, liberated and calm, with a new life ahead of them. Oh! The
power of Jesus Christ, power that manifested mercy! This is what had arrived on
the shore of the country of the Gadarenes, a boon beyond belief, good news
beyond telling. But what was the sequence? The inhabitants came out, full of
concern at what had happened. Strangely, they would have nothing of it nor of
him. They did not want to go beyond what was familiar to them — beyond their
comfort zone, as we would now express it. They refused to make any venture for
something much better, the venture of faith in the One who had so signally shown
that such a step would bring blessings beyond compare.
This is the danger in every life. We can so easily prefer what we are familiar
with, which is to say the rut we are presently living in. Every day we are
invited by our Lord to step forth and to follow him, wherever this might lead
us. We do this in the daily duties, fulfilled with love for the One whose will
they make present. On another occasion in the storm, our Lord summoned Peter to
come forth from the boat and to approach him across the water. He began, but his
faith failed and he sank. Let us resolve to have faith, to take the venture, to
take our stand by the side of Jesus Christ. Let us not be like the Gadarenes in
any way at all, no matter how minor the detail.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Second reflection: (Amos
5:14-15, 21-24)
A God of justice
One of the distinguishing features of
the God of the Israelites, when compared with the gods of the other ancient
peoples, was that He required the utmost justice towards others, especially the
poor and the needy (Amos 5:14-15, 21-24). The other gods required almost
exclusive concern for their own divine rights, such as in ritual observance. In
the prophet Amos, an exclusive concern for ritual and a neglect for goodness,
justice and compassion is condemned. Amos (8:4-6.9-12) threatens the severest
sanctions against those "who trample on the needy, and try to suppress the poor
of the country." These words of God uttered by the prophet remind us of our
Lord's description of the Last Judgment in Matthew 25. Christ the Judge will
reward and punish according to our treatment of the least. He will say that
whatever is done to them is done to Him.
This is the God we are called to love, serve, and imitate. Let us apply this to
our everyday life and to all our dealings with others.
(E.J.Tyler)
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The indelible memory of the favours you have received from God should always be
a compelling force within you; especially so in times of tribulation.
(The Forge, no.167)
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