November2 in Year C 10

From 33rd week in Ordinary Time C/II to First week of Advent A-1

Click on any date to go to the Thought for that Day

Morning Offering: O Jesus, through the most pure heart of Mary, I offer you all the prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your divine heart, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass. I offer them especially for the Holy Father's intentions:

Pope Benedict's general intention for November is: "That victims of drugs or of other dependence may, thanks to the support of the Christian community, find in the power of our Saving God strength for a radical life-change."

His mission intention is: "That the Churches of Latin America may move ahead with the continent-wide mission proposed by their bishops, making it part of the universal missionary task of the People of God."

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November 16 St. Margaret of Scotland (1050?-1093)
Margaret of Scotland was a truly liberated woman in the sense that she was free to be herself. For her, that meant freedom to love God and serve others. Not Scottish by birth, Margaret was the daughter of Princess Agatha of Hungary and the Anglo-

Saxon Prince Edward Atheling. She spent much of her youth in the court of her great-uncle, the English king, Edward the Confessor. Her family fled from William the Conqueror and was shipwrecked off the coast of Scotland. King Malcolm befriended them and was captivated by the beautiful, gracious Margaret. They were married at the castle of Dunfermline in 1070. Malcolm was good-hearted, but rough and uncultured, as was his country. Because of Malcolm’s love for Margaret, she was able to soften his temper, polish his manners and help him become a virtuous king. He left all domestic affairs to her and often consulted her in state matters. Margaret tried to improve her adopted country by promoting the arts and education. For religious reform, she instigated synods and was present for the discussions which tried to correct religious abuses common among priests and lay

people, such as simony, usury and incestuous marriages. With her husband, she founded several churches. Margaret was not only a queen, but a mother. She and Malcolm had six sons and two daughters. Margaret personally supervised their religious instruction and other studies. Although she was very much caught up in the affairs of the household and country, she remained detached from the world. Her private life was austere. She had certain times for prayer and reading Scripture. She ate sparingly and slept little in order to have time for devotions. She and Malcolm kept two Lents, one before Easter and one before Christmas. During these times she always rose at midnight for Mass. On the way home she would wash the feet of six poor persons and give them alms. She was always surrounded by beggars in public and never refused them. It is recorded that she never sat down to eat without first feeding nine orphans and 24 adults. In 1093, King William Rufus made a surprise attack on Alnwick castle. King Malcolm and his oldest son, Edward, were killed. Margaret, already on her deathbed, died four days after her husband.
"When [Margaret] spoke, her conversation was with the salt of wisdom. When she was silent, her silence was filled with good thoughts. So thoroughly did her outward bearing correspond with the staidness of her character that it seemed as if she has been born the pattern of a virtuous life" (Turgot, St. Margaret's confessor). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Apocalypse 3: 1-6. 14-22; Psalm 14; Luke 19:1-10

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner'. But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. (Luke 19: 1-10)

Called by name I remember some time back meeting an Archbishop among many people in a crowd. It was a friendly meeting, and he asked my name — and I gave it. Some time later I was in a situation in which, once again, I had occasion to meet that same Archbishop.

To my astonishment he remembered my name. I asked him how he did it, and he said that he simply had a good memory. I thought he might have some technique such as connecting my name with some other image in his mind which would be triggered by the sight of me. But no, it was just that he had a very good memory. On a later occasion again we met and once again, he remembered my name. I was very impressed. The point here, though, is the impression that this gave me. His remembering my name gave me the impression that he had a special concern, interest in, and liking for me. It was a mistaken impression in the sense that any interest in me he might have had certainly did not go beyond that which he had for each and all whom he met. He just had a remarkable facility for remembering names and faces, which he exercised with all and sundry. It was an excellent gift for any person to have and it certainly won friends. I myself felt as if I was a friend to him, simply because he remembered and knew my name. I felt influenced by him and disposed to be influenced by him further, because of the friendship I assumed existed between the two of us. This whole impression was based on his addressing me by my name. It is an intriguing and important feature of human relationships, the use of a person’s name. It can be very embarrassing when we cannot remember the name of a person — and we usually try to hide the fact in some way. Imagine living with a person and never addressing him by name — it would be preposterous. Now, this is a notable feature of Yahweh God’s relationship with his chosen people. He has called them by name. “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine” (Isaiah 43: 1). The Lord God goes on to assure his people that he will be with them. He has named them as belonging to him (vs 7).

It would be profoundly moving to be addressed by God, and to be addressed by name. In the Gospel of St Luke (and our passage today is drawn from that Gospel) the first words uttered from heaven involve addressing someone by name. In the first chapter, the first words spoken are those of the Angel, addressed to Zachariah: Fear not, Zachariah (mee phobou, Zacharia). It must have been a profoundly moving feature of this apparition for Zachariah to have been addressed by name. An Angel had come from the throne of God to give tidings of joy. Zachariah would have a great son, and the Angel informed Zachariah of his name: you will call him by the name of John. The name came from heaven, and it came with the announcement of his grand mission. The scene shifts to a different locality, and it is six months later. The same Angel Gabriel is sent to the virgin of Nazareth, Mary. He addresses her by name: Fear not, Mary! As with Zachariah, it must have been profoundly moving for Mary to have a messenger from heaven address her by name. She is informed by the Angel that her Child will have a name. She will call him Jesus. God addressing his people and his individual children by name is important in the Gospels. Consider that sad scene in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Judas steps forward to kiss Christ. Christ addresses him by name, and with love: Judas, do you betray the Son of man with a kiss?” (Luke 22: 48). I suspect that it was precisely his being addressed by name that led to Judas’s sense of the enormity of what he had done, and his subsequent collapse. Among the first words that John records in his Gospel as having been uttered by the risen Jesus was his addressing Mary of Magdalene by name: Mary! (John 20: 16). It is in this general context that we ought consider our Gospel today (Luke 19: 1-10), and in particular the first word that Jesus Christ addressed to Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of Jericho — the one whom the crowd called a sinner. Christ addresses him by name: “Zacchaeus, come down immediately! I must stay at your house today.” Zacchaeus had been called by name, and he rose to the occasion with gratitude and joy.

Though we do not hear it physically, Jesus Christ addresses each one of us by name. To this one he says, John! I must stay at your house today! To another he says, James, I must stay at your house today! Christ knows and loves each of us personally, and he knows and calls us by name. In one of his Letters, St Paul writes, Christ loved me and gave himself up for me. Christ had called Paul by name. His first word to Paul was to address him by name: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Christ addressed Zacchaeus by name, and Zacchaeus converted, turning away from sin and receiving Christ into his home and his heart. He addresses each of us by name. Let us do the same as did Zacchaeus, turning away from sin and giving our hearts to Jesus Christ.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Put your head frequently round the oratory door to say to Jesus… I abandon myself into your arms.

—Leave everything you have — your wretchedness! — at his feet.

—In this way, in spite of the welter of things you carry along behind you, you will never lose your peace.
(The Forge, no.306)

Wednesday of the thirty-third week in Ordinary Time

(November 17) Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, religious (1207-1231)
In her short life Elizabeth manifested such great love for the poor and suffering that she has become the patroness of Catholic charities and of the Secular Franciscan Order. The daughter of the King of Hungary, Elizabeth chose a life of penance and

asceticism when a life of leisure and luxury could easily have been hers. This choice endeared her in the hearts of the common people throughout Europe. At the age of 14 Elizabeth was married to Louis of Thuringia (a German principality), whom she deeply loved; she bore three children. Under the spiritual direction of a Franciscan friar, she led a life of prayer, sacrifice and service to the poor and sick. Seeking to become one with the poor, she wore simple clothing. Daily she would take bread to hundreds of the poorest in the land, who came to her gate. After six years of marriage, her husband died in the Crusades, and she was grief-stricken. Her husband’s family looked upon her as squandering the royal purse, and mistreated her, finally throwing her out of the palace. The return of her husband’s allies from the Crusades resulted in her being reinstated, since her son was legal heir to the throne. In 1228 Elizabeth joined the Secular Franciscan Order, spending the remaining few years of her life caring for the poor in a hospital which she founded in honour of St. Francis. Elizabeth’s health declined, and she died before her 24th birthday in 1231. Her great popularity resulted in her canonization four years later.
Elizabeth understood well the lesson Jesus taught when he washed his disciples' feet at the Last Supper: The Christian must be one who serves the humblest needs of others, even if one serves from an exalted position. Of royal blood, Elizabeth could have lorded it over her subjects. Yet she served them with such a loving heart that her brief life won for her a special place in the hearts of many. Elizabeth is also an example to us in her following the guidance of a spiritual director. Growth in the spiritual life is a difficult process. We can play games very easily if we don't have someone to challenge us or to share experiences so as to help us avoid pitfalls. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Apocalypse 4: 1-11; Psalm 150; Luke 19:11-28

While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. He said: A man of noble birth went to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and then to return. So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. 'Put this money to work,' he said, 'until I come back.' But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, 'We don't want this man to be our king.' He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it. The first one came and said, 'Sir, your mina has earned ten more.' 'Well done, my good servant!' his master replied. 'Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.' The second came and said, 'Sir, your mina has earned five more.' His master answered, 'You take charge of five cities.' Then another servant came and said, 'Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.' His master replied, 'I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? Why then didn't you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?' Then he said to those standing by, 'Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.' 'Sir,' they said, 'he already has ten!' He replied, 'I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be a king over them— bring them here and kill them in front of me.' After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. (Luke 19: 11-28)

Accepting the King The procedure of a prominent man being granted a kingship was well known in the ancient world. A case in point was Herod the Great, who died during Christ’s infancy — after attempting to eliminate Jesus after his birth in Bethlehem. Herod, born around 74 BC,

was the second son of Antipater the Idumaean. Antipater appointed his son Herod as governor of Galilee at 25. He enjoyed the backing of Rome. To cut a long and turgid story short, after Mark Antony marched into Asia, Herod was named tetrarch of Galilee by the Romans, but was subsequently overthrown by Antigonus who had the help of the Parthians. With that, Herod fled to Rome and won from the Roman Senate the recognition and title of King of the Jews. He then returned and, with the help of Rome, eventually captured Jerusalem and then by Mark Antony’s authority put Antigonus to death. With this he took command of Israel with the title of Basileus (king) in about 36 or 37 BC, ruling for decades and dying in 4 BC. He had effectively received his kingship from Rome, and always depended on that recognition. So too his son Herod Archelaus, who was made ethnarch of Samaria, Judea, and Edom from 4 BCE to 6 CE. However, he was judged incompetent by the Emperor Augustus who then made Herod's other son Herod Antipas ruler of Galilee from 6 CE — 39 CE. Herod Antipas was the ruler of Galilee during Christ’s youth and manhood, and Christ was sent to him by Pilate at the commencement of his Passion. Antipas was an appointment of Rome. The Jews of our Lord’s time, the time of the Roman Empire, were very familiar with the image of a man of high standing going to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and then returning. Herod the Great had returned with his kingship from Rome, and had put to death Antigonus his enemy. Well then, in our Gospel today our Lord uses this familiar scenario to respond to an expectation. We read that “he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.” Now, let us notice an important feature of the Kingdom of God — the attitude we have to the King.

It cannot but be noticed how often divine judgment and retribution appears in the parables and teachings of our Lord. Perhaps the most picturesque description of the Last Judgment is that given in Matthew 25, where the angels assemble the nations before Christ who is the Judge of all. The sheep are separated from the goats, and the decisive issue will be how each treated his neighbour. Those who treated their neighbour well will be received into the Kingdom. Those who did not, will be cast into the everlasting fire. Now, there are those who have said that all that will count is how we treat our neighbour. But let us notice how our Lord casts the words of the Judge: “I was hungry and you never gave me to eat.” It is Christ whom we serve in serving our poor neighbour, and doubtless God wishes us to bear this in mind in a life of service. The greatest servants of the poor among Christ’s faithful do bear this in mind constantly. St Vincent de Paul and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta had it before them all day every day. The Christian is called to love and serve Christ his King and to do so constantly. It is Christ whom he loves when he loves the poor. In our Gospel today, let us notice what the judgment of the new king’s servants and subjects turns on. It turns on their service and acceptance of him. He returns, now the king. He summons his servants and examines their service of him. Those who served him well, received a commensurate reward. The one who served him poorly, lost everything. “‘Why then didn't you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’ Then he said to those standing by, 'Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.'” Then he turned from his servants to his subjects: “But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be a king over them— bring them here and kill them in front of me” (Luke 19: 11-28). The Judgment turned on the faithful service or otherwise of his “servants,” and on the full acceptance of him as king by his “subjects.”

When Christ uttered this parable, he was about to embark on his journey to his heavenly Father. The Passion and Death of Jesus Christ was nigh. He would leave for the distant land of heaven. Then he would come back, and when he did, he explained to his disciples that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him. They were to go, then, and make disciples of all the nations. They were to baptize and to teach all that he had commanded them. History, then, revolves around Jesus Christ and his recognition as Lord of lords and King of kings. Let us resolve to follow him as the Master and Lord of our life, leaving behind all other masters who do not follow in his footsteps.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Pray resolutely using the words of the Psalmist: “Lord, you are my refuge and my strength, I trust in thee!”

I promise you that he will preserve you from the ambushes of the “noontide devil”, when you are tempted and… even when you fall, and when your age and virtues ought to have proved solid and you should have known by heart that He alone is your Strength.
(The Forge, no.307)

Thursday of the thirty-third week in Ordinary Time C-2

(November 18) Dedication of the Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul
St. Peter’s Basilica is probably the most famous church in Christendom.

Massive in scale and a veritable museum of art and architecture, it began on a much humbler scale. Vatican Hill was a simple cemetery where believers gathered at St. Peter’s tomb to pray. In 319 Constantine built on the site a basilica that stood for more than a thousand years until, despite numerous restorations, it threatened to collapse. In 1506 Pope Julius II ordered it razed and reconstructed, but the new

basilica was not completed and dedicated for more than two centuries. St. Paul’s Outside the Walls stands near the Abaazia delle Tre Fontane, where St. Paul is believed to have been beheaded. The largest church in Rome until St. Peter’s was rebuilt, the basilica also rises over the traditional site of its namesake’s grave. The most recent edifice was constructed after a fire in 1823. The first basilica was also Constantine’s doing. Constantine’s building projects enticed the first of a centuries-long parade of pilgrims to Rome. From the time the basilicas were first built until the empire crumbled under “barbarian” invasions, the two churches, although miles apart, were linked by a roofed colonnade of marble columns.
“It is extraordinarily interesting that Roman pilgrimage began at an…early time. Pilgrims did not wait for the Peace of the Church [Constantine’s edict of toleration] before they visited the tombs of the Apostles. They went to Rome a century before there were any public churches and when the Church was confined to the tituli [private homes] and the catacombs. The two great pilgrimage sites were exactly as today—the tombs, or memorials, of St. Peter upon the Vatican Hill and the tomb of St. Paul off the Ostian Way” (H.V. Morton, This Is Rome). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Apocalypse 5: 1-10; Psalm 149; Luke 19:41-44

As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace— but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognise the time of God's coming to you. (Luke 19: 41-44)

Suffering Any of our Lord’s contemporaries steeped in the Scriptures would be aware of the connection of sin with punishment. In chapter 3 of the Book of Genesis, God elicits from the Man and the Woman an admission of their disobedience. They had eaten of the tree which he had forbidden them to eat.

He thereupon condemned the Serpent, and then the Woman, and then the Man, banishing Adam from the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he had been made. Salvation, though, was dimly promised. So sin brought evil, suffering, punishment. The same point is made time and again throughout the books of the Old Testament. Jerusalem is destroyed and the population deported because of the sins and infidelity of the chosen people. In the minds of many, this meant that if one suffered it was due, and to a commensurate degree, to one’s own sins. This was the position of the friends of the suffering Job, and has been commonly held by much of mankind. So it is that we read in chapter 13 of St Luke that on one occasion when our Lord was teaching “there were present some who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.” Our Lord saw that they assumed that, because of the terrible and unique character of their death, they must have been greater sinners than all other Galileans. Because sin brings suffering, it was assumed that one’s personal suffering is due, and commensurately due, to one’s personal sin. Do you think, our Lord continues, that those killed by the Tower of Siloam must have been greater sinners than all others in Jerusalem? No, not at all, our Lord states. In these particular cases, no connection can be made between their personal sins and the tragedy that befell them. On another occasion again, St John reports in his Gospel (9: 1-3) that as our Lord was walking along, “he saw a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked him, Rabbi, was it his sin or that of his parents that caused him to be born blind?” Neither, answered Jesus. He was born blind “to let God’s works show forth in him.”

However, this is in no way to deny that sin brings suffering and death — even though we cannot assume that, inversely, where there is suffering and death it is due, and due commensurately, to the personal sin of the one who is suffering. The Book of Job shows one who was just and yet who was suffering much. Those sufferings allowed God’s glory to be shown in him. Satan burdened him with sufferings, but this was allowed by God as a test of Job’s loving obedience — and Job was proved to be good by his sufferings. Still, sin results in suffering, for the sufferings of Job were brought on by Satan — and Satan is steeped in sin. Christ himself is the One par excellence who, being more just than all, nevertheless suffered more than all. But again, Christ’s sufferings were brought on by sinners. His sinful persecutors caused him to suffer, and we too, who are sinners, caused him to suffer. He suffered because of our sin, and in order to take away our sin. The sufferings and evils of the world are indeed due to sin, but we cannot say, therefore, that any particular person who suffers, suffers because of his own sins, and to a degree commensurate with his own sins. He can be suffering primarily because of the sins of others. Nevertheless, one’s own sufferings can be due to one’s own sins. In our Gospel passage today, Christ himself speaks of the coming destruction of the holy city of Jerusalem as due to the sins of the chosen people. “The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognise the time of God's coming to you” (Luke 19: 41-44). Christ is speaking in the tradition of the great prophets who foretold the doom of the city because of the infidelity of the people. We must learn our lesson from this.

Many of our sufferings in this life could be part of a judgment of God on our sins, but no-one is permitted to assume this of those they see to be suffering. We do not know — and in any case, all suffering may be transformed, in union with Christ, into a process of redemption and sanctification. If we suffer with Christ, we shall rise with him. Suffering, if borne in union with the Redeemer, can sanctify us and can sanctify the world. Suffering is also a moment calling us to conversion. It summons us to turn from sin and live in union with God and his holy will. Let us learn to follow Jesus Christ closely, bearing life’s sufferings as his disciples.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Do you think people are grateful for services rendered only reluctantly? Evidently not. You might even say it would have been better not to have bothered.

—And yet you think you can serve God with sour looks? No! — You have to serve him cheerfully, in spite of your wretchedness, which we will be able to get rid of with God’s grace.
(The Forge, no.308)

Friday of the thirty-third week in Ordinary Time C/II

(November 19) St. Agnes of Assisi 1197-1253
Agnes was the sister of St. Clare and her first follower. When Agnes left home two

weeks after Clare’s departure, their family attempted to bring Agnes back by force. They tried to drag her out of the monastery, but all of a sudden her body became so heavy that several knights could not budge it. Her uncle Monaldo tried to strike her but was temporarily paralyzed. The knights then left Agnes and Clare in peace. Agnes matched her sister in devotion to prayer and in willingness to endure the strict penances which characterized their lives at San Damiano. In 1221 a group of Benedictine nuns in Monticelli (near Florence) asked to become Poor Clares. St. Clare sent Agnes to become abbess of that monastery. Agnes soon wrote a rather sad letter about how much she missed Clare and the other nuns at San Damiano. After establishing other Poor Clare monasteries in northern Italy, Agnes was recalled to San Damiano in 1253 when Clare was dying. Agnes followed Clare in death three months later. Agnes was canonized in 1753. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Apocalypse 10: 8-11; Psalm 118; Luke 19:45-48

Then Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. It is written, he said to them, 'My house will be a house of prayer'; but you have made it 'a den of robbers'. Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words. (Luke 19: 45-48)

Reverence in the temple In our modern period we tend to take holy places somewhat for granted. One of the striking things about England to a visitor is the vast number of venerable village and town churches there are across the country. The smallest villages have impressive and long-standing churches,

which, sadly, are largely unfrequented. It bespeaks a past that was deeply Christian in culture, a culture that crumbled and was replaced by one that is profoundly secular. A religious and Christian substratum is still there and can provide the foundation for a new evangelization, but the phenomenon I wish to point to is the presence of the village, town and city church. From the tiny village church, beautiful, solid, inspiring, to the grand and imposing Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral, what would England look like without its churches? The church is a pivotal component of the character and history of the villages and towns of England, and in this respect, England is typical of the societies and cultures of mankind. It has been typical of a society that it has its temple, its place of prayer and worship, its holy place where its cultic leaders make contact with the divine on behalf of the people, and speak to the people on behalf of the divine. So it was with God’s chosen people. When finally the children of Israel had settled in the Promised Land, with David as king having established its political identity and his son Solomon now upon the throne, a great Temple was contemplated, planned and executed. It stood for centuries, and in a special sense was the dwelling place of Yahweh among his people. But the people were not faithful, and so it was that the divine presence withdrew. The country was sacked by the Babylonians, its Temple destroyed, and the people deported. When the people returned many decades later, the first great task was to rebuild the Temple. The Temple, the abode of the God of Israel, was the centre of the life of the nation. The grandest project of Herod the Great was a spectacular rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem.

How our Lord loved the Temple! It was the House of his heavenly Father. More than a millennium before, God spoke to Moses at the Burning Bush. He told Moses that where he stood was holy ground. Christ viewed the Temple of Jerusalem as holy ground. In our Gospel today, our Lord quotes the Scriptures which speak of the Temple being God’s House: “My House will be a house of prayer.” The Scriptures themselves had, therefore, taught that the God of Israel abode in his Temple, and Christ confirms this by his own word — “but you have made it a den of thieves!” We can imagine the anticipation with which our Lord entered the Temple of Jerusalem. He had come there as a youth of twelve, lingering in it after his mother and foster-father had gone. How it would have pained him to see disregard for the divine presence there! So it is in our Gospel passage today (Luke 19: 45-48). Our Lord launches into the prophetic action of cleansing his Father’s House and imposing religious observance, prayer, teaching and decorum in this most holy place. “Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. It is written, he said to them, 'My house will be a house of prayer'; but you have made it 'a den of robbers'. Every day he was teaching at the temple.” A most obvious lesson for each of Christ’s faithful is the observance of a profound reverence in the church. In every Catholic church where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, in an altogether distinctive and real sense, the church is the house of God. Christ abides there in his full human and divine reality, under the appearances of consecrated Bread. It is Jesus Christ who is there, and there is with him the Father and the Holy Spirit and doubtlessly the angels of God. But what of the reverence that should pervade our churches? I am afraid that all too often it is lacking, and in its place there is talk and distraction.

With what reverence ought we cease our conversation as we approach the door of the church and turn our hearts to God as we enter. With what reverence ought we make the sign of the cross, gaze in adoration towards the Tabernacle, genuflect, kneel to pray, and act as on holy ground. For the Catholic Christian, the member of Christ’s Catholic Church, the summit and source of religion is the holy Eucharist, because the Eucharist is Jesus. This is the pivotal element, and it is this which is the overwhelming factor defining the character and significance of the Catholic chapel, the parish church, the diocesan cathedral, and the greatest of the churches in, say, Rome. The church is the house of the living God because of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament there. Let us all our lives be distinguished for reverence, that reverence which our Lord insists on in our Gospel passage today.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Saturday of the thirty-third week in Ordinary Time C/II

(November 20) St. Rose Philippine Duchesne (1769-1852)
Born in Grenoble, France, of a family that was among the new rich, Philippine learned political skills from her father and a love of the poor from her mother. The dominant feature of her temperament was a strong and dauntless will, which became the

material — and the battlefield — of her holiness. She entered the convent at 19 and remained despite their opposition. As the French Revolution broke, the convent was closed, and she began taking care of the poor and sick, opened a school for street urchins and risked her life helping priests in the underground. When the situation cooled, she personally rented her old convent, now a shambles, and tried to revive its religious life. The spirit was gone, and soon there were only four nuns left. They joined the infant Society of the Sacred Heart, whose young superior, St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, would be her lifelong friend. In a short time Philippine was a superior and supervisor of the novitiate and a school. But her ambition, since hearing tales of missionary work in Louisiana as a little girl, was to go to America and work among the Indians. At 49, she thought this would be her work. With four nuns, she spent 11 weeks at sea en route to New Orleans, and seven weeks more on the Mississippi to St. Louis. She then met one of the many disappointments of her life. The bishop had no place for them to live and work among Native Americans. Instead, he sent her to what she sadly called "the remotest village in the U.S.," St. Charles, Missouri. With characteristic drive and courage, she founded the first free school for girls west of the Mississippi. It was a mistake. Though she was as hardy as any of the pioneer women in the wagons rolling west, cold and hunger drove them out — to Florissant, Missouri, where she founded the first Catholic Indian school, adding others in the territory. "In her first decade in America, Mother Duchesne suffered practically every hardship the frontier had to offer, except the threat of Indian massacre — poor lodging, shortages of food, drinking water, fuel and money, forest fires and blazing chimneys, the vagaries of the Missouri climate, cramped living quarters and the privation of all privacy, and the crude manners of children reared in rough surroundings and with only the slightest training in courtesy" (Louise Callan, R.S.C.J., Philippine Duchesne). Finally, at 72, in poor health and retired, she got her lifelong wish. A mission was founded at Sugar Creek, Kansas, among the Potawatomi. She was taken along. Though she could not learn their language, they soon named her "Woman-Who-Prays-Always." While others taught, she prayed. Legend has it that Native American children sneaked behind her as she knelt and sprinkled bits of paper on her habit, and came back hours later to find them undisturbed. She died in 1852 at the age of 83. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Apocalypse 11: 4-12; Psalm 143; Luke 20:27-40

Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. Teacher, they said, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. The second and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her? Jesus replied, The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection. But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord 'the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive. Some of the teachers of the law responded, Well said, teacher! And no-one dared to ask him any more questions. (Luke 20: 27-40)

Resurrection There is much beauty in the world and much that arouses tremendous commitment on the part of men. It is a beautiful place, and generally people love life. They do wish to live. But they must face up to a mystery at the heart of all visible, living things. That mystery is death.

The greatest trees reach out in life and gradually spread their branches as if about to soar — but then finally they fade, wither and die. The planet is bustling with insect life, with animal life, with human life. But as surely as the sun rises, all that live will die. Death cannot be avoided, and while we take this for granted because it is so universal and unavoidable, is it not a mystery why it is so? We take other things for granted too, without asking why they are so — for instance, the fact of the universe. Why is there a universe at all? We (unconsciously) assume that the universe has had to exist from the mere fact that it does exist, but plainly there is no inherent necessity for its existence. Why is there not nothing? There is nothing in things that requires that they exist, and the mere fact that they do exist does not itself require their existence. In similar fashion, a further question arises in our minds. Why is there death and why do not all things that live, continue to live? That is to say, why must they die? Now, a question like this scarcely ever occurs to the average person. Of course, many do not think much of death at all, and were they brought to the thought of death more often, it would be very good for them. But for so many who do come to think of death and its inevitability, it is simply taken for granted — and understandably so. All men know, or ought to know, that all are under the power of death. Death is the inevitable end for all the living things that we see. What happens beyond death? Generally, the survival of the Self after death is seen to be a bleak and twilight affair, although some world religions offer a brighter prospect. The average secular-minded person would prefer not to think about his state after death, for, as he sees it, there is nothing after death to look forward to. It is the universality of death and its sombre implications that we ought keep in mind if we are to appreciate the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.

The Sadducees approached Jesus with their objection to this doctrine. They insisted on a strict literal interpretation of the Five books of Moses, the Written Torah. In respect to the Sadducees, most of what we know of them comes from Josephus. He writes in his Wars of the Jews that they “take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned with our doing or not doing what is evil; and they say that to act what is good or what is evil, is men's own choice, and .... that they may act as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades.” While we cannot take the Sadduceean position as typical of mankind, nevertheless this is the context of our Lord’s reply reaffirming the doctrine of the resurrection. Now, what must be especially taken to heart is that when our Lord refers to the resurrection, he means that there will be a total resurrection, body and soul of the human person. When he speaks of those judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead, he is not meaning by this simply that there will be an Afterlife with God. When Saul sought information about his coming battle, he went to the witch of Endor and asked her to call up Samuel so as to gain his advice. There was no doubt that the ghost of Samuel lived. In the ensuing conversation between Saul and Samuel, one does not get the impression that Samuel is particularly happy — his spirit appears to be in a kind of twilight repose, not suffering but not in any special happiness, and he seems irritated that he has been disturbed. He has nothing but bad news for Saul, and what he has to say leaves Saul distraught with terror. He then sinks back into Hades, where, it appears, his spirit will stay. There is no expectation evident that Samuel has any other future ahead of him. There were developing views, but the question about the resurrection of the dead was a pressing issue for God’s chosen people.

Christ has assured us that all will be made new. His own resurrection to glory, body and soul, is a harbinger of what will come to mankind and to the world, if we cleave to Jesus Christ. God’s plan is that we shall be in glory, body and soul, and that the universe will be glorious too. This will be our eternity, with the greatest joy of all being our sight of the Lord God. We can scarcely imagine a world in which death has been utterly banished. We imagine it best by thinking of the glorious Jesus, risen from the dead. Let us embrace this wondrous doctrine, and make it a driving thought of our life.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Doubts assail you, temptations, with that gloss of elegance about them.

—I love to hear you say how this shows that the devil considers you his enemy, and that God’s grace will never leave you unprotected. Keep up the struggle!
(The Forge, no.309)

Feast of Christ the King C
(Thirty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time C)

(November 21) The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Mary’s presentation was celebrated in Jerusalem in the sixth century. A church was built there in honour of this mystery. The Eastern Church was more interested in the feast, but it does appear in the West in the 11th century. Although the feast at

times disappeared from the calendar, in the 16th century it became a feast of the universal Church. As with Mary’s birth, we read of Mary’s presentation in the temple only in apocryphal literature. In what is recognized as an unhistorical account, the Protoevangelium of James tells us that Anna and Joachim offered Mary to God in the Temple when she was three years old. This was to carry out a promise made to God when Anna was still childless. Though it cannot be proven historically, Mary’s presentation has an important theological purpose. It continues the impact of the feasts of the Immaculate Conception and of the birth of Mary. It emphasizes that the holiness conferred on Mary from the beginning of her life on earth continued through her early childhood and beyond.
"Hail, holy throne of God, divine sanctuary, house of glory, jewel most fair, chosen treasure house, and mercy seat for the whole world, heaven showing forth the glory of God. Purest Virgin, worthy of all praise, sanctuary dedicated to God and raised above all human condition, virgin soil, unploughed field, flourishing vine, fountain pouring out waters, virgin bearing a child, mother without knowing man, hidden treasure of innocence, ornament of sanctity, by your most acceptable prayers, strong with the authority of motherhood, to our Lord and God, Creator of all, your Son who was born of you without a father, steer the ship of the Church and bring it to a quiet harbour" (adapted from a homily by St. Germanus on the Presentation of the Mother of God). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Prayers today: The Lamb who was slain is worthy to receive strength and divinity, wisdom and power and honour: to him be glory and power for ever. (Revelation 5: 12; 1:6)

Almighty and merciful God, you break the power of evil and make all things new in your Son Jesus Christ, the King of the universe. May all in heaven and earth acclaim your glory and ever cease to praise you. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Scripture today: 2 Samuel 5: 1-3; Psalm 121; Colossians 1: 12-20; Luke 23: 35-43

And the people stood watching and the rulers with them derided him, saying: He saved others; let him save himself, if he is Christ, the chosen one of God. And the soldiers also mocked him and approached him offering him vinegar, saying: If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription above him written in Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. And one of those robbers who were hanging there as well insulted him, saying: If you are the Christ, save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him, saying: Do you not fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we are justly sentenced, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done no evil. And he said to Jesus: Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to you, this day you will be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:35-43)

The King It is difficult for the modern period to appreciate how feared the Turkish military might was in the West prior to and during the Reformation period. Many regarded the Turks as close to invincible. However, the tide turned with Lepanto. The Battle of Lepanto took place on 7 October 1571

when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of Spain (including its territories of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia), the Republic of Venice, the Papacy, the Republic of Genoa, the Duchy of Savoy, the Knights Hospitaller and others, defeated the main fleet of the Ottoman Empire. The engagement was a significant defeat for the Ottomans, who had not lost a major naval battle for more than a century. While this did not stop the military and naval efforts of the Islamic forces, it constituted a decisive turning point. Especially critical for them was the loss of most of their composite bowmen, which, far beyond ship rams and early firearms, were the Ottoman's most fearsome weapon. British historian John Keegan notes that the losses in this highly specialised class of warrior were irreplaceable in a generation, and in fact began the demise of this particular tradition for the Ottomans. Historian Paul K. Davis has argued that this defeat stopped the Turkish expansion into the Mediterranean, and confidence grew in the West that Turks, previously unstoppable, could be beaten. The slow military decline of the Islamic world can be dated as beginning at Lepanto. Now, what is the purpose of my mentioning this? I use all this merely as an image, a dim analogy to illustrate an aspect of the defeat of sin and Satan effected at Calvary. Up to the intervention of God in choosing for himself a special people to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, the forces of Satan and sin were unbeatable. The Spirit of God continued to hover above the waters and move within the nations, but sin and death had entered the world, and the world awaited a Redeemer. Finally the King of kings arrived, and at the commencement of his public ministry he was confronted by his dark Opposite. The battle was joined, and at Calvary the victory went entirely to the King. It spelled defeat for his Opposite, but till the end, his hateful Opponent will struggle to snatch all he can.

In our Gospel today (Luke 23:35-43), the King of kings hangs from his Cross, jeered as one in ignominious defeat — but it was the greatest victory the world has ever seen. The forces of sin were broken. It will never be the same again, even though Satan and sin will struggle and skirmish unremittingly till their inglorious end. Christ’s reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ’s Passover at Calvary. Until everything is subject to him, the pilgrim Church of which we are members, travail while awaiting the full revelation of the triumph of the Kingdom. That is why Christians pray, above all in the holy Eucharist, to hasten Christ’s return by saying to him, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22: 17,20). It is why the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer is that God’s Kingdom will come. It has come in the person of Jesus Christ, but its fulness and perfection is still coming, and the forces that were defeated still fight to get what they can before the end arrives. Let us not be snatched from the hand of the King, then! Entry into the Kingdom is effected by entry into union with Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is found in his Church of which he is the living Head. But according to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Holy Spirit and of witnessing to Jesus, and is a time of “distress.” It is marked by the trial of evil which does not spare the Church. That is to say, while our King has conquered, and while his perfect victory will assuredly come, it is still a time of waiting and watching. Ever since the Ascension, Christ’s coming in glory has been imminent, even though, as he himself said, “it is not for you to know times and seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority” (Acts 1:7). This final coming of the King of kings and Lord of all lords could be accomplished at any moment, even if both it and the final trial spoken of by our Lord are delayed. The kingdom will not be fulfilled by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only through the Cross and through God’s own victory over evil. Though beaten, Satan sustains his hate-filled efforts till the Last Judgment when God will entirely prevail.

Today is the feast of Christ the King, King of kings and Lord of lords. On him has been conferred all authority in heaven and on earth. The field is won, but the enemy fights on, getting what he can before being overtaken completely at the last. So we must every day take our stand with our King, with him who has loved us to the end. We must resolve to serve him and to follow him, doing all we can to make disciples of all the nations so that he will be acknowledged as the King. Let Jesus Christ reign, then! To him be the power and the glory forever! He once hung from the Cross, defeated, but entirely the Victor. He will come again as Lord and Judge, and then his kingdom will have no end. Let us stand by him then, and give every day to him.

(E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.2855-2856 (The Final Doxology); 1130 (The Sacraments of Eternal Life); 671-674 (The Glorious Advent of Christ).

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Second reflection: (Luke 23:35-43)

The example of Dismas Today we have before us the thought of Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords, hanging on the cross. There from the cross he invites us recognize him as our King, the King

who redeemed us on his cross. We are sinners in need of redemption, and in today’s gospel we have a marvellous model in the one who died at his side. He has popularly been given the name of Dismas, the Good Thief. I invite you to meditate on Dismas turning to Jesus as his King. Jesus was on the cross dying for the sins of mankind, while Dismas was on the cross, suffering for his own sins. He said to the other criminal that the two of them deserved what they got, but that Jesus had done nothing wrong. He recognized that he was a sinner and accepted as deserved the sufferings he was undergoing. He feared God. Between the two criminals was Jesus who was suffering for the sins of Dismas himself and for the whole world. But notice this: Dismas recognized that the dying Jesus was the Messiah, and he turned to him as his King. How did he come to do this?

Our Lord said on one occasion, “No one comes to me unless the Father draws him.” We remember what our Lord said to Simon Peter on another occasion: “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in Heaven.” Dismas was led to recognize Jesus by God the Father, who led him by a grace to which he responded. So he turned to Jesus, and what a wonderful request this dying criminal then made! He said to him “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He recognized that Jesus, dying on the cross, was the long awaited Messiah, the King, who would establish God’s kingdom. And he recognized that this dying Messiah was about to enter his Kingdom! And he also witnessed to the greatness of Jesus in what he said about him to his fellow criminal: This man has done nothing wrong! Then turning to Jesus he asked him to remember him when he came into his kingdom. He asked for the gift of salvation from Jesus. He was the first fruit of the Crucifixion. Jesus said to him, “Indeed, I promise you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” By contrast, the other criminal joined in the abuse of Jesus. Lacking a sense of sin and a fear of God, he did not recognize Jesus as the Redeemer, nor did he ask for salvation. We do not know whether he was saved, but we are absolutely certain that Dismas was.

Today on the feast of Christ the King, let us think of Jesus our King nailed to the cross, winning for each of us a place in his kingdom. Let us turn to him in the manner of Dismas, acknowledging that we are sinners, and asking him to lead us to holiness and to a place in his kingdom. Let us daily struggle for Jesus against the world, the flesh and the devil, and reach heaven in company with all others whom God places in our way. Let us make Jesus our King.
(E.J.Tyler)

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The majority of people who have personal problems “have them” because they selfishly think about themselves.
(The Forge, no.310)

Monday of the thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time C-2

(November 22) St. Cecilia (3rd century)

Although Cecilia is one of the most famous of the Roman martyrs, the familiar stories about her are apparently not founded on authentic material. There is no trace of honour being paid her in early times. A fragmentary inscription of the late fourth century refers to a church named after her, and her feast was celebrated at least in 545. According to legend, Cecilia was a young Christian of high rank betrothed to a Roman named Valerian. Through her influence Valerian was converted, and was martyred along with his brother. The legend about Cecilia’s death says that after being struck three times on the neck with a sword, she lived for three days, and asked the pope to convert her home into a church. Since the time of the Renaissance she has usually been portrayed with a viola or a small organ. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Revelation 14:1-3, 4b-5; Psalm 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6; Luke 21:1-4

When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. He said, “I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.” (Luke 21:1-4)

I have my mission Recently there was a video footage released on the media outlets showing a Russian journalist being set upon by two assailants. He was suddenly attacked, felled to the ground, and then kicked and stamped upon till he was near death. Something similar happened to the Catholic

Church in England during and following the reign of Elizabeth I. For nearly two hundred and fifty years, England choked the life of the Catholic community till by, say, 1790, the Catholic Church in England had a fraction of its numbers and strength from what it had been at the beginning of the sixteenth century. That is not to speak of the quality of many of its members. Bishop Richard Challoner, Vicar Apostolic of the London district at the time of Wesley, was a grand and saintly Bishop, but there is no doubt that by the time of his death (1781) the Catholic community was well and truly weak and on its knees in England. Within seventy years all had changed and the Catholic Church in England was in a tremendous resurgence. What caused this? Many put it down primarily to the spectacular entry into the Church of Anglicanism’s leading theological light at the time, John Henry Newman, and those influenced by him. But there was another factor, perhaps much more important. Challoner, the man who held the candle alight at the lowest point, predicted that a new people would come. A new people did come, but from a quarter that Challoner would not have expected — the Irish poor. The Irish poor poured into England following their catastrophes and famines, and this gradually changed the demography of religion in England (and Scotland). The Irish poor treasured their Catholic faith. Across the channel in the United States a strident Catholic voice was being heard — the convert Orestes Brownson. In a book review written in 1849, Brownson wrote that “If, then, we mark a decided improvement in the tone and feelings of Catholics in England and in this country during the last half-century, let us, who are of the old English stock, not forget to give the honour where, under God, it is due,- to the piety, the zeal, and the steadfastness of the poor Irish emigrants.”

I mention all this as an example of a general point arising from today’s Gospel passage (Luke 21:1-4). Our Lord is seated in the Temple, and he is watching those putting money into the Treasury. This included the rich. But then our Lord saw a poor widow approach the Treasury, and put in a negligible two tiny coins. Let us imagine her! Unnoticed, a widow — and therefore presumably without a secure income — clutching her two coins. Our Lord tells his disciples that those two coins were all she had to live on, but she put them into the Treasury. Our Lord tells them that in actual fact she put in more than all the others because she put in all she had to live on, whereas they put in what they had left over. That should tell us what counts before God. What counts in the working out of his Providence is that we give all to him, whether we are people of talent or not. Newman and his earnest followers did indeed give all they had to God, and Newman is the first to be beatified following the martyrs of the English Reformation and its aftermath. But Brownson had a very perceptive point when he brought forward the Irish poor as a factor in the flourishing of the Catholic Church in England and the United States following the long penal period in England. Not all the Irish poor, by any means, treasured and lived their Catholic faith — but a great many did. They were like the poor widow of our Gospel passage, who, having little talent and opportunity, put in for God all they had. They were not afraid to practise their Catholic faith, which meant the Mass, their beads, invoking the saints, and venerating sacred images and relics. They were a vast concourse, very many of whom were, we might say, poor widows of today’s Gospel. All this is to say that every single person counts in the plan and the Providence of God. No matter how much we might be a “nobody,” there are no “nobodies” in the sight of God. Each, no matter how obscure and unnoticed, has his mission in life. That mission is irreplaceable.

In his posthumously published Meditations and Devotions, Blessed John Henry Newman wrote: “God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission--I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his--if indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work: I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.” His words apply to all, including the widow.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Everything seems so peaceful. God’s enemy, however, is not asleep...

—The Heart of Jesus is also awake and watching! There lies my hope.
(The Forge, no.311)

Tuesday of the thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time C-2

(November 23) Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro (1891-1927)
¡Viva Cristo Rey! (Long live Christ the King!) were the last words Father Pro uttered before he was executed for being a

Catholic priest and serving his flock. Born into a prosperous, devout family in Guadalupe de Zacatecas, he entered the Jesuits in 1911 but three years later fled to Granada, Spain, because of religious persecution in Mexico. He was ordained in Belgium in 1925. He immediately returned to

Mexico, where he served a Church forced to go “underground.” He celebrated the Eucharist clandestinely and ministered the other sacraments to small groups of Catholics. He and his brother Roberto were arrested on trumped-up charges of attempting to assassinate Mexico’s president. Roberto was spared but Miguel was sentenced to face a firing squad on November 23, 1927. His funeral became a public demonstration of faith. He was beatified in 1988.
In 1927 when Father Miguel Pro was executed, no one could have predicted that 52 years later the bishop of Rome would visit Mexico, be welcomed by its president and celebrate open-air Masses before thousands of people. Pope John Paul II made additional trips to Mexico in 1990, 1993 and 1999. Those who outlawed the Catholic Church in Mexico did not count on the deeply rooted faith of its people and the willingness of many of them, like Miguel Pro, to die as martyrs. During his homily at the beatification Mass, Pope John Paul II said that Father Pro “is a new glory for the beloved Mexican nation, as well as for the Society of Jesus. His life of sacrificing and intrepid apostolate was always inspired by a tireless evangelizing effort. Neither suffering nor serious illness, neither the exhausting ministerial activity, frequently carried out in difficult and dangerous circumstances, could stifle the radiating and contagious joy which he brought to his life for Christ and which nothing could take away (see John 16:22). Indeed, the deepest root of self-sacrificing surrender for the lowly was his passionate love for Jesus Christ and his ardent desire to be conformed to him, even unto death.” (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Apocalypse 14: 14-19; Psalm 95; Luke 21:5-11

With some people saying of the temple that it was adorned with valuable stones and gifts, Jesus said “These things which you see, the days will come in which there will not be left a stone upon a stone that will not be thrown down.” They asked him, “Master, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign when they will begin to take place?” He replied, “Take heed lest you be seduced; for many will come in my name, saying, I am he; and the time is at hand. Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and seditions, do not be terrified. These things must first come to pass but the end is not so soon.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be great earthquakes in divers places, and plagues and famines and terrors from the heavens, and there will be great signs.” (Luke 21:5-11)

Let us prepare I remember decades ago attending an address given by the editor of a Sydney daily newspaper that had a very wide circulation. He said that his work was to market news. News was his product, and his job was to find ways of selling it.

I have often thought that few people realize the power of the media in forming the minds of people and of populations. When Pope Paul VI visited Sydney at the end of 1970 he addressed the journalists in French, telling them that they were world power number one. News, and commentary on the news, has dominated culture for much of the modern period, but one question that may be asked is, what is the impression left on people and populations of the meaning and destination of history? Day after day we are inundated with the latest news. There is this and that local or national conflict, this and that famine, earthquake or political upheaval. There is an ongoing succession of local news, interesting tit-bits, significant political, economic and social happenings, and world events. But what is it all adding up to in ultimate terms? Such a question would rarely enter the minds of many persons who assiduously follow the news in the press, on their televisions, radios, or on-line. The world is commonly thought to be a mere succession of events, more often than not in some crisis, and lurching on and on as might one drama after another. Time and history is a mere succession, with death intervening and achievements gained, but with history proceeding on nevertheless. Any talk of an ultimate meaning, an end-game to the world’s ongoing story, would be a little meaningless to the average person. Such questions would not occur to them — the world is assumed to be a given process, and more or less without end. But Christ has told us what the end-game will be. The world as we know it will indeed come to an end, and that end will be marked by the coming of Jesus Christ. We are reminded of this by our Lord’s talk of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. It could not be imagined then, but it happened.

All these things you see, our Lord tells his disciples, this spectacular building that is at the heart of the nation’s religious life, this treasure of the nation — it will all come to an end, and will be in pieces (Luke 21:5-11). What our Lord says of the Temple we ought take as an omen of the ultimate course and fate of the world. Just as the Temple was reduced to rubble, with its successor being the person of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and living as Head of his Church, so too the end will entail the passing away of this world and its replacement by a new heaven and a new earth. This present world will be transformed and will be made glorious. How important to gain a place in it! We have been told of the end, and so we ought take daily account of it. The end of each individual life and the end of the world is the coming of Christ to judge. There may or may not be many great moments in the life of any one individual, but one moment will be undeniably and unavoidably great — it will be when Christ comes to judge him at the end, following his death. That moment will be great beyond measure. It will be the climax of all that has gone before, and will determine his eternal future. That moment, that event, is absolutely unavoidable. Buddha cannot avoid it, nor can Mahomet. Every single person on the face of the earth will have for his greatest moment his meeting with Christ at the end. So it will be for the world. There are many striking moments and phases in the history of the world, but at the end of history, all will be gathered before the Judge who will come in glory. He will separate the sheep from the goats, and then there will be heaven for the one, and hell for the other. This will be the climax of all moments for mankind and the world, when this our present scene will pass away. All will be made new, and whatever might have been the splendour of this present world in some of its elements, nothing will compare with the glory of the next. So each individual and all mankind together ought think of the end. There will be an end to the present scene, and that end will be a new beginning, for good or for ill. The defining thing will be our attitude to Jesus Christ.

Just as it is the wise and prudent thing for each individual to live in the light of his coming judgment, so it is the wise thing for the world as a whole to ask, where is all of this ultimately heading? God has revealed the answer to this and it is that all is heading towards the final coming of Jesus Christ the King of kings and Lord of lords. Let the world prepare for it, then! All should be done in such a way that the coming Judgment will pass well. It will be the greatest of all moments, and will be the door to everlasting glory, or to the terrible abyss.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Sanctity is to be found in struggling, in knowing that we have defects and in heroically trying to overcome them.

Sanctity, I insist, consists in overcoming those defects… although we will still have defects when we die; because if not, as I have told you, we would become proud.
(The Forge, no.312)

Wednesday of the thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time

(November 24) Saint Andrew Dung-Lac, priest and martyr, and his companions, martyrs
St. Andrew was one of 117 people martyred in Vietnam between 1820 and 1862. Members of this group were beatified on four different occasions between 1900 and 1951. Now all have been canonized by Pope John Paul II. Christianity came to Vietnam

(then three separate kingdoms) through the Portuguese. Jesuits opened the first permanent mission at Da Nang in 1615. They ministered to Japanese Catholics who had been driven from Japan. The king of one of the kingdoms banned all foreign missionaries and tried to make all Vietnamese deny their faith by trampling on a crucifix. Like the priest-holes in Ireland during English persecution, many hiding places were offered in homes of the faithful. Severe persecutions were again launched three times in the 19th century. During the six decades after 1820, between 100,000 and 300,000 Catholics were killed or subjected to great hardship. Foreign missionaries martyred in the first wave included priests of the Paris Mission Society, and Spanish Dominican priests and tertiaries. Persecution broke out again in 1847 when the emperor suspected foreign missionaries and Vietnamese Christians of sympathizing with a rebellion led by of one of his sons. The last of the martyrs were 17 laypersons, one of them a 9-year-old, executed in 1862. That year a treaty with France guaranteed religious freedom to Catholics, but it did not stop all persecution. By 1954 there were over a million and a half Catholics—about seven percent of the population—in the north. Buddhists represented about 60 percent. Persistent persecution forced some 670,000 Catholics to abandon lands, homes and possessions and flee to the south. In 1964, there were still 833,000 Catholics in the north, but many were in prison. In the south, Catholics were enjoying the first decade of religious freedom in centuries, their numbers swelled by refugees. During the Vietnamese war, Catholics again suffered in the north, and again moved to the south in great numbers. Now the whole country is under Communist rule. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Apocalypse 15: 1-4; Psalm 97; Luke 21:12-19

Jesus said, But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life. (Luke 21: 12-19)

Suffering François-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan was born on 17 April 1928 in the imperial capital of Hue^', Vietnam. In the years to come, his uncle Ngô Dình Diem became South Vietnam’s first President, and another uncle was Archbishop Ngô Dình Thuc.

In 1941, aged 13, Francois-Xavier joined An Ninh Minor Seminary and twelve years later was ordained a priest on June 11, 1953. So he was one of numerous priests who in some way heard the call to the priesthood as a boy, and whose path to the priesthood was direct. During these years of formation he must have impressed his superiors, for he was then sent to Rome for further studies, lasting six years. He then returned to serve as a faculty member and then rector of the Seminary of Nha Trang for the following eight years, as well as doing work as prison and hospital chaplain. He was appointed Bishop of Nha Trang (the diocese of the Seminary) on 13 April 1967 and received episcopal consecration on 4 June 1967 at Hue, his native city. I have seen it stated that in his eight years as bishop there the seminarians in the diocese more than tripled in number. In any case, on 24 April 1975, he was appointed by Pope Paul VI as Coadjutor Archbishop of Saigon. Paul VI had an intense interest in the Vietnam war, and knew the situation well. His appointment of Nguyen Van Thuan to Saigon indicates the esteem in which François-Xavier was held by the Pope himself. On 30 April, barely a week after his appointment, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese Army, and François-Xavier, targeted for his faith as well as his family connection to Ngô Dình Diem, was imprisoned by the Communist Government of Vietnam for 13 years, 9 of them in solitary confinement. But he rose to the occasion, and continued to practise his faith and bear witness to Jesus, exemplifying by his life the words of Jesus Christ in our Gospel today. Finally released, for many years he was refused re-entry to his own country, and died in 2002, the well-known and saintly Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan, highly esteemed by Pope John Paul II. His Cause for Canonization opened in 2007. His spirit flowered amid persecution for his faith.

There are thousands of ways to God, and there are thousands of paths along which divine Providence leads those who determine on being Christ’s disciples. While the paths may be very different, there is one thing in common to them all — suffering. John Henry Newman, illustrious convert of the nineteenth century suffered unremittingly for decades from incessant subterranean criticism, misunderstanding, calumny and gossip that quietly and at times loudly bore on him. He is now beatified, with canonization inevitable in due course. At times the persecution is even posthumous — such as that directed at Pope Pius XII, whose Cause for canonization is proceeding. Christ promises that the person who is truly his disciple will have much to suffer, and a good deal of the suffering will come from others. Even more telling is the fact that it is good men who will often be the source of that very suffering. Of course, the mere fact that a person is suffering does not indicate that he is a disciple of Jesus Christ, but if he is a disciple of Christ, suffering will be part of his course. Suffering is meritorious if it is borne in the spirit of Christ. To such a one, Christ says that your sufferings will become a testimony. Such was the case of Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan, and many other holy persons who could be cited. The word “martyr” is virtually a transliteration from the Greek, meaning a “witness.” In the event, the many minor and several major reversals experienced by many holy persons become themselves the means of witnessing to Jesus — and all is in the hand of God. It could be said that the iconic example of this is the early Church which suffered nearly three centuries of intermittent persecution, often savage and devastating. But the witness of the Church shone through and the triumph came. Our Lord promises divine aid: “make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.” Suffering is now an opportunity.

Let us ponder the words of Jesus Christ on this aspect of discipleship and how bluntly our Lord predicts it. In hyperbolic fashion he drives his point home: “All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish.” Then comes the grand promise: “By standing firm you will gain life” (Luke 21: 12-19). Let us learn from the saints, so varied in their persons, in their histories, in the upshot of their lives, how we must expect something of this if we are to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. By your endurance you will gain life.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Thank you, Lord, because — as well as allowing us to be tempted — you also give us the strength and beauty of your grace so that we can win through! Thank you, Lord, for the temptations you allow us to have so that we may be humble!
(The Forge, no.313)

Thursday of the thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time

(November 25) St. Columban (543?-615)
Columban was the greatest of the Irish missionaries who worked on the European continent. As a young man who was greatly tormented by temptations of the flesh, he sought the advice of a religious woman who had lived a hermit’s life for years. He

saw in her answer a call to leave the world. He went first to a monk on an island in Lough Erne, then to the great monastic seat of learning at Bangor. After many years of seclusion and prayer, he travelled to Gaul (modern-day France) with 12 companion missionaries. They won wide respect for the rigor of their discipline, their preaching, and their commitment to charity and religious life in a time characterized by clerical slackness and civil strife. Columban established several monasteries in Europe which became centres of religion and culture. Like all saints, he met opposition. Ultimately he had to appeal to the pope against complaints of Frankish bishops, for vindication of his orthodoxy and approval of Irish customs. He reproved the king for his licentious life, insisting that he marry. Since this threatened the power of the queen mother, Columban was deported to Ireland. His ship ran aground in a storm, and he continued his work in Europe, ultimately arriving in Italy, where he found favour with the king of the Lombards. In his last years he established the famous monastery of Bobbio, where he died. His writings include a treatise on penance and against Arianism, sermons, poetry and his monastic rule.
Writing to the pope about a doctrinal controversy in Lombardy, Columban said: “We Irish, living in the farthest parts of the earth, are followers of St. Peter and St. Paul and of the disciples who wrote down the sacred canon under the Holy Spirit. We accept nothing outside this evangelical and apostolic teaching.... I confess I am grieved by the bad repute of the chair of St. Peter in this country.... Though Rome is great and known afar, she is great and honoured with us only because of this chair.... Look after the peace of the Church, stand between your sheep and the wolves.” (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Apocalypse 18: 1-2.21-23;19: 1-3.9; Psalm 99; Luke 21:20-28

Jesus said, When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment in fulfilment of all that has been written. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:20-28)

The End In our passage today our Lord speaks in a manner redolent of the Old Testament, predicting terrible calamities for the chosen people. He is obviously referring to the sack of Jerusalem by the Romans — Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles — but this event is also an omen of

sufferings far beyond the fall of the City, “until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” He speaks of cosmic events — “there will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” Our Lord speaks of it being “the time of punishment in fulfilment of all that has been written,” but it would seem to be more than that. It will also be a time of trial for the just who await redemption. The key to the prophecy is Christ’s oft-repeated reference to himself as the “Son of Man.” I am sure that chapter 7 of the Book of Daniel was among those prophetic passages of the Scriptures that were much loved by our Lord. It speaks of “one like a son of man” being given the everlasting kingdom. The chapter opens with the vision of the four beasts coming out of the great sea. Each beast was an ogre and different from the others. The horrifying threat is then eclipsed by the scene of the Ancient One on his throne, full of glory — brightness, whiteness and fire. The books are opened and the beasts lose their dominion, but are granted a season more. Then “one like a son of man” comes on “the clouds of heaven” to the Ancient One, and receives an everlasting kingdom that will never be destroyed. In our Gospel passage today, our Lord describes the terrible confusion and upheaval, and himself “coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” His coming is a cause of rejoicing — just as in Daniel 7, where “the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingship, to possess it forever and ever.” Our Lord at various times spoke of his disciples judging the tribes of Israel — which is to say, sharing in his kingship. In our passage, our Lord confirms the prophecy of Daniel, showing that he is the one being referred to.

In the Book of Daniel, the “one like a son of man” comes on “the clouds of heaven.” That is to say, his status is unique, beyond compare. The “cloud” was an abode of God — in the Book of Exodus, “the cloud covered the meeting tent, and the glory of the Lord filled the Dwelling. Moses could not enter the meeting tent, because the cloud settled down upon it and the glory of the Lord filled the Dwelling. Whenever the cloud rose from the Dwelling, the Israelites would set out on their journey” (Exodus 40: 34-36). The presence of God, shown in the cloud, was their great consolation on their journey. In one of the greatest miracles of the Gospels, the Transfiguration, a cloud overshadows them, and from the cloud is heard the voice of God. “This is my beloved son: hear him!” (Luke 9: 34-35). In our Gospel today (Luke 21:20-28), the “Son of Man,” our Lord himself, will come “in a cloud with great power and glory.” This will be a great consolation to Christ’s faithful: “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” All this is to say that our Lord is predicting many tribulations and the judgment of God, but that he himself is the King to whom we can look, whatever be the course of events in a world marked by good and evil, consolation and suffering. He is near, and he is coming. He will prevail and his kingdom will never end. It is a prediction of the End, which, whatever be our course in life and whatever be the experience of the nations and of the world, will be a coming to us of glory and happiness. This glory and happiness will be founded on Jesus Christ the King of kings and Lord of lords, the one to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been granted. While on the one hand today’s is a sombre prediction, it is, more than anything, a prediction of hope. “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” This applies to the macro-scene and to the micro-scene. It applies to the world in general, and it applies to each of us.

Let us accustom ourselves to looking on life and human history in terms of what, on the word of Jesus Christ, we know to be the End. We ought so live that, were the End to come suddenly, we could look forward to what is at the heart of that End, the coming of the Lord. We ought keep before our minds, that whatever be the tribulations of life, all is in the hands of the Ancient One and the Son of Man to whom has been given the everlasting kingdom. To him be the glory!
(E.J.Tyler)

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Do not abandon me, Lord. Don’t you see the bottomless pit this poor son of yours would end up in?

—My Mother: I am your son too.
(The Forge, no.314)

Friday of the thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time

(November 26) St. Catherine of Alexandria (c. 310)
According to the Legend of St. Catherine, this young woman converted to Christianity after receiving a vision. At the age of 18, she debated 50 pagan philosophers. Amazed at her wisdom and debating skills, they became Christians—as did about 200 soldiers and members of the emperor’s family. All of them were martyred. Sentenced to be executed on a spiked wheel, Catherine touched the wheel and it shattered. She was beheaded. Centuries later, angels are said to have carried the body of St. Catherine to a monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Devotion to her spread as a result of the Crusades. She was invoked as the patroness of students, teachers, librarians and lawyers. Catherine is one of the 14 Holy Helpers, venerated especially in Germany and Hungary. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Apocalypse 20: 1-4.11-21:2; Psalm 83; Luke 21:29-33

Jesus told them this parable: Look at the fig-tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. (Luke 21: 29-33)

The Teacher Take the greatest of philosophers — say, the iconic philosophers for the West, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. However great their teaching in this or that respect — as in, say, the logic or ethics or metaphysics of Aristotle — none of them would claim eternal authority.

None would have said, my words that you are noting down and recording have greater endurance than anything else in all the world. None would have presumed to insist that in his words all persons have a much greater foundation for security than anything else. Such claims, they would have thought, would be preposterous. Or again, take the Hebrew prophets. They uttered the word of God and the authority they claimed was based on their being transmitters of that word. They did not say, it is my word that you must rely upon, my word that is utterly reliable. They were simply messengers. It was the word of Another that they asked the people to obey. Or again, take Mahomet — founder of a religion that looked very much to the Judaeo-Christian revelation, while departing from it in serious respects — he never said to his numerous followers, you must base your lives on my word. No, he saw himself purely as a Messenger, a prophet of Allah. He understood himself to be in the line of the prophets of historical revelation, and indeed as being the definitive prophet, but no more than a Messenger nevertheless. It was God’s word that he understood himself to be proclaiming, not just his own. He was a reporter, and his great book, the Koran, is presented as and taken to be the word of Allah, delivered to him from heaven. There have been plenty of teachers who have, for very good reasons or for very bad ones, been very sure of the truth of what they have said. But I cannot think of any who have presumed to claim the personal authority that Jesus Christ claimed. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Luke 21: 29-33). He possessed an unclouded awareness of his supreme authority. “You have heard it said to those of old... But I say unto you!” (Matt 5: 33).

When thinking of the supreme authority of this Man of the ages, who lived, nevertheless, at a particular time and in a particular place, our minds go to other authorities in the history of the world — not at all his equals, but authorities nevertheless. Let us imagine a scenario, simply as a device to help us form an attitude to those other, lesser authorities. Let us imagine Jesus Christ actually meeting such persons. In the Gospel of St John, not long before Christ’s Passion, we read that “some Greeks” who were in Jerusalem for the Festival, said to Philip, “we would like to see Jesus” — and Philip brought them to him. Those “Greeks” were of the Hebrew faith, but let us imagine a different group of “Greeks,” a pagan group that included, say, Aristotle, or Plato. Let us imagine an eminent Roman among them — say, Cicero. Let us imagine the conversation between them and Jesus — and I am sure our Lord was tri-lingual, speaking Greek and Latin, apart from Aramaic and probably Hebrew. He came from cosmopolitan Galilee, and conversed easily with Pilate when the time came. What would our Lord’s attitude have been towards them? I believe it would have been one of genial, welcoming respect. They would have seen in him a quintessential Hebrew, of the most profound religion and the highest intelligence. Our Lord would have instantly plumbed the state of their hearts, yet he would have spoken to them with courtesy and respect. For instance, he spoke courteously to Pilate. He spoke respectfully about Caesar: Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, he told his enemies among the Jewish leaders. He accorded the highest praise to the Roman centurion who asked the favour of a cure for his servant. No-where in Israel have I found faith like this, he told the Jews. He told the Canaanite woman, Great is your faith! He would have been told by his mother of the veneration accorded him by the Zoroastrian wise men from the East in his early infancy. My point here is that our Lord, the greatest of teachers, would have accorded respect where it was due for teachers of merit, beyond the pale of the faith.

The Christian fully accepts the word of Jesus Christ as being the divine word because he is both man and God. Heaven and earth will pass away — as it were — but his word will never pass away. Nevertheless, the Christian is always open to and interested in any other word of truth. Indeed, the Christian knows that the Spirit of Christ moves among the peoples, working to guide them to the truth, and preparing them for the reception of the word of the supreme Teacher, Jesus Christ. Let us be open and genial to all truth wherever it may be, knowing withal that we have the Blessing of union with the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

(E.J.Tyler)

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It is impossible to live a clean life without God’s help. God wants us to be humble, and to ask him for his help through our Mother who is his Mother.

You should say to Our Lady, right now, speaking without the sound of words, from the accompanied solitude of your heart: “O, my Mother, sometimes this poor heart of mine rebels… But if you help me...” — She will indeed help you to keep it clean and to follow the way God has called you to pursue. The Virgin Mary will always make it easier for you to fulfil the Will of God.
(The Forge, no.315)

Saturday of the thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time

(November 27) St. Francesco Antonio Fasani 1681-1742
Born and raised Lucera in southeast Italy, Francis Anthony was a pious and reserved youth who joined the Conventual

Franciscans at age 14, in 1695. During the novitiate year he befriended a gregarious novice named Antonio Lucci who told him that "the fastest way to become a saint was through laughter." These two young friars remained friends and witnessed the importance of close fraternal bonds in the sanctification of self and the world. Francis Anthony served the community as a theology and philosophy professor, a novice master, and as a minister provincial. He was also a tireless confessor and minister of compassion among prisoners and those condemned to death. Known as "Padre Maestro" among the people of Lucera, Francis Anthony was especially dedicated to his work among the poor and destitute. Likewise, his friend Antonio was called the "Father of the Poor" when he served as the Franciscan bishop of Bovino. Saint Francis Anthony Fasani died in 1742 and was canonized in 1986. His friend Blessed Antonio Lucci died in 1752 and was beatified in 1989.
During his homily at the canonization of Francesco, Pope John Paul II reflected on John 21:15 in which Jesus asks Peter if he loves Jesus more than the other apostles and then tells Peter, "Feed my lambs." The pope observed that in the final analysis human holiness is decided by love. "He [Francesco] made the love taught us by Christ the fundamental characteristic of his existence, the basic criterion of his thought and activity, the supreme summit of his aspirations" (L'Osservatore Romano, vol. 16, number 3, 1986). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Apocalypse 22: 1-7; Psalm 94; Luke 21:34-36

Jesus said to his disciples, Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man. (Luke 21: 34-36)

Excellence Most people would understand that there is a difference between pleasure and happiness, between enjoyment and joy. One can gain pleasure from something — such as a favourite drink, a particular conversation, or a form of recreation — while lacking real happiness.

In fact, a person can proceed through life seeking and gaining various pleasures, and never gaining real happiness. At the same time, one can be happy while having few pleasures. I think of the ordinary, unselfish wife and mother of very moderate means in life who is truly happy, while not far from her, lives a person of great wealth who is unhappy. One can possess various enjoyments, while possessing little joy. Now, it is intriguing to notice that one of the sources of happiness in life is the attainment of excellence in one’s chosen activity. It could almost be said that in a certain sense excellence gives both pleasure and happiness. The jockey spends years of training in a self-denying regime of work in order to excel in his horseracing, and he succeeds. He attains excellence in it, and it gives him real happiness — even though there have been few “pleasures” for him along the road to success in his chosen profession. A youth begins music lessons in piano or violin, and discovers in himself a liking and a propensity for his instrument. He spends years of study and practice and becomes excellent at it — and his excellence in music brings a level of joy to his life. Success in one’s work through excellence in it is undoubtedly a source of human happiness, showing that we were born to work. We were made to work well, to do good work — the question being, then, what ought be our work in life? If we can discover what it is that we are drawn to do for our neighbour, and what our abilities suggest ought be our line of service, then a level of happiness will come if we serve with excellence in that chosen field. To serve our neighbour with the excellence that lies within our capacity, is a very important component of happiness in life. It is a question of degree, though. What gives most happiness?

The musician — Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, whoever — who attains excellence in his renditions and compositions will have served society well in his chosen field, and will have attained a level of happiness as a result. But of course, we know that there are excellent practitioners in this or that field who do have unhappy lives. Actors and actresses can commit suicide. They apply themselves to one field of “work” in life and attain excellence in it, but fail to do so in other — perhaps much more important — fields of “work” in life. A man senses that he is called to a life in politics and he devotes himself to it — but he neglects his family and perhaps his health too. He has neglected to work at one of the most important things of all in his life — his relationship with and service of his wife and children. This neglect and failure in excellence in something central to his life brings a greater unhappiness than the happiness which he has attained through his chosen work. Across the board, this pattern can apply — the musician, the artist, the medical professional, the teacher, the politician. It illustrates the point that while excellence in work brings a degree of happiness (and not just pleasure) in life, it is most important for happiness that a man devote himself to the most important things in life. His greatest happiness will come if he attains excellence in the most important things. What is the most important thing in life? The most important thing in life is what our Lord alludes to when asked what is the greatest of the commandments. He said that the first was that we love God with all our mind, heart and strength. The second was like it, that we love our neighbour as ourselves. So the “work” that above all we ought be dedicating ourselves to in life is the love of God and neighbour. We ought work every day to attain excellence in love. Our most important work in life is to excel in the love of God and neighbour. If we attain excellence in this we shall be truly happy. This is why the saint is the truly happy person, even though he will have had to suffer much — as did Christ himself.

In our Gospel today (Luke 21: 34-36) our Lord warns us against being weighed down by dissipation. We must not be distracted and led astray from the pursuit of excellence. At the same time our pursuit ought be in the right areas of excellence, for life could come to its end suddenly. We must therefore be “always on the watch,” making sure that our path in giving our best is the right path, the path God has indicated. This is the will of God, St Paul writes, your sanctification. We must aim at sanctity, at the love of God in everything we do. We ought aim at excellence in love, depending on the grace of God for its attainment. This excellence in the love of God and neighbour is what ought inform all our efforts to serve others in daily work and career. The saint is the happiest person, the person of true joy. Let us aim at excellence in this sense.

(E.J.Tyler)

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To preserve holy purity and live a clean life you have to love and practise daily mortification.
(The Forge, no.316)

First Sunday of Advent A-1

Prayers this week: To you, my God, I lift my soul, I trust in you; let me never come to shame. Do not let my enemies laugh at me. No one who waits for you is ever put to shame. (Psalm 24:1-3)

All-powerful God, increase our strength of will for doing good that Christ may find an eager welcome at his coming and call us to his side in the kingdom of heaven where he lives and reigns. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God.

(November 28) St. James of the Marche (1394-1476)
James was born in the Marche of Ancona, in central Italy along the Adriatic Sea. After earning doctorates in canon and civil law at the University of Perugia, he joined the Friars Minor and began a very austere life. He fasted nine months of the year; he slept three hours a night. St. Bernardine of Siena told him to moderate his penances. James studied theology with St. John of Capistrano. Ordained in 1420, James began a preaching career that took him all over Italy and through 13 Central and Eastern European countries. This extremely popular preacher converted many people (250,000 at one estimate) and helped spread devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus. His sermons prompted numerous Catholics to reform their lives and many men joined the Franciscans under his influence. With John of Capistrano, Albert of Sarteano and Bernardine of Siena, James is considered one of the "four pillars" of the Observant movement among the Franciscans. These friars became known especially for their preaching. To combat extremely high interest rates, James established montes pietatis (literally, mountains of charity) — non profit credit organizations that lent money at very low rates on pawned objects. Not everyone was happy with the work James did. Twice assassins lost their nerve when they came face to face with him. James was canonized in 1726.
"Beloved and most holy word of God! You enlighten the hearts of the faithful, you satisfy the hungry, console the afflicted; you make the souls of all productive of good and cause all virtues to blossom; you snatch souls from the devil’s jaw; you make the wretched holy, and men of earth citizens of heaven" (Sermon of St. James). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture readings: Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122: 1-9; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44

Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it also be when the Son of man comes. In the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, right up till the day Noah entered the ark. They did not know till the flood came and took them all away. So also will the coming of the Son of man be. Then two shall be in the field: one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and one left. Watch therefore because you do not know not at what hour your Lord will come. But know this that if the master of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would certainly watch and would not allow his house to be broken open. So you also be ready, because you do not know at what hour the Son of man will come.” (Matthew 24:37-44)

Particular Judgment Occasionally we read of intellectual prodigies who attain brilliant grades in their disciplines and at an early age. I remember reading of an Australian mathematician who won great honours while still in his teens and who went on to gain a prestigious professorship when early into his adulthood.

I know of another Australian who gained a professorship in philosophy in one of the renowned universities of the world while still young — a man whose philosophy was, from a religious perspective, anything but satisfactory. However, whatever be the intellectual attainments of this or that person, no-one would consider intellectual brilliance as in any way necessary. If a person is of average intellect, so be it. That person may do well in life, and indeed very well — much better in certain respects (such as, say, his marriage, or in general happiness) than the brilliant scholar, doctor, or professional. However, there is one aspect of human awareness and knowledge that is absolutely necessary for everyone, and it is reflected in ordinary civil law. If a person is charged with some crime, it is not generally to the point to ask if that person is brilliant or ordinary in personal intelligence. What is to the point is if it is asserted of that person that he did not know the difference between right and wrong. If it is demonstrated that a person does not know the difference between right and wrong — whatever be his intelligence in other respects — then that person is judged to be singularly deficient in the most important area of human awareness. He will be acquitted of personal responsibility for the crime and committed to special care. As a human being he is seriously incapacitated, and dangerous — indeed, even more so if his intellectual ability in other respects is considerable. What I am saying is that the conscience of man is the most important feature of his intellectual capacity. If his conscience is sound and highly developed, his intellectual powers, whether moderate or great, will serve for good. Now, an obvious feature of his conscience is its sense of a judgment on him and on his actions.

That is to say, the person with a lively conscience has a lively sense of being judged for the goodness or evil of what he does — and this means for his own goodness or evil. Granted the fallen character of man, generally a sound conscience will be a somewhat guilty one, though not entirely. But the point I am making is that my guilty conscience suggests to me that I am being judged now and will be in the future. In this sense, if I have a lively and sound conscience I shall be led to expect, however vaguely, a future judgment very particular to me. Cardinal Newman made a famous remark about this very personal phenomenon in his classic Letter to the Duke of Norfolk (February, 1875). Conscience, he said, was “the aboriginal vicar of Christ.” It had long been a dictum in English Protestant thought that nature is the voice of God. Butler states this in his master work, The Analogy of Religion (1736). Newman identifies that feature of the mind of man which represents most of all the voice of God, and in particular, the voice of Christ. It is the conscience. As the Second Vatican Council would teach, in his conscience, man “is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.” As The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “when he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking” (no.1777). The point here, though, is that we have a natural sense of a judgment — God’s judgment — on our actions. Now all this is confirmed by Christ in his teaching — reflected in today’s Gospel (Matthew 24: 37-44) — but is made far more certain and explicit by it. The parable of the poor man Lazarus and the words of Christ on the cross to the good thief, as well as other New Testament texts speak of a final destiny of the soul, determined by the judgment of God on his life and deeds. Each of us receives our eternal retribution at the moment of death in a particular judgment that refers our whole life to Jesus Christ. Following death we each face God’s judgment. This will result in the eternal bliss of heaven, either following a purification or immediately, or everlasting damnation. Let our conscience and Christ’s teaching guide us!

There is a beautiful prayer that is commonly said following each decade of the Rosary. It is this: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of hell, and bring all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy!” Repeatedly Christ refers to the judgment of God, indicating that he means us to keep it in mind throughout life. It is the greatest thing that we must face, and all that we think, say and do will come before its examination. The books will be opened and all will receive their just due. Let us not forget our particular judgment!

(E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.1020-1022: (The particular judgment)

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Second reflection: (Matthew 24:37-44)

Materialism The Old Testament looks forward to the coming of the Messiah. Christians know that he has come and has won Redemption for mankind. But we await his coming still, for he comes to us in a variety of ways still in the life of the Church; he will come to each of us at our death, and he will come

finally to judge mankind at the end of the world. We should live as people who are ever prepared for this final coming, were it to occur at any moment. We shall be prepared for his final coming if we live in a way that welcomes him in all his other comings, especially in the graces and calls of every day. During Advent we begin the new liturgical year by welcoming Christ in whatever way he comes to us. But there are factors which prevent us from giving to Christ this welcome, and foremost is a lack of concern for him due to a love for this world. Our Lord in the Gospel refers us to the Genesis story of Noah and those who died in the flood. Our Lord tells us that “In the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, right up till the day Noah entered the ark.” What is wrong with “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage”? Their sin was that they were totally unconcerned about God and his will. God created them to seek happiness in obedience to his will. I am the Lord thy God, he commands. Thou shalt not have anything in your life before me. Their interest was in this life alone, in “eating, drinking and marrying”. It was the ancient sin of materialism.

This ancient sin is ever new, and is especially alive in a secular world in which God is regarded as a purely private persuasion. In such a mindset, this world constitutes the true reality. The greatest need of the modern era is that there be a recapture of belief in God. As children of our era, we can likewise be touched by an overriding interest in the advantages deriving from this world. Advent is the season when we renew our welcome for Christ in each and all of his comings — whether it be in those numerous moments of grace during life, or at our death, or when he finally comes at the end to judge the living and the dead. But if we are to welcome him, we must guard our hearts against materialism, the ever-encroaching love for this world alone.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Whenever you feel the stirrings of your poor flesh, which sometimes attacks with violent assaults, kiss your crucifix, kiss it many times with firm resolve, even if it seems to you that you are doing so without love.
(The Forge, no.317)

Monday of the first week of Advent A-1

Prayers for today: Nations, hear the message of the Lord, and make it known to the ends of the earth: Our Saviour is coming. Have no more fear. (Jeremiah 31:10; Isaiah 35:4)

Lord our God, help us to prepare for the coming of Christ your Son. May he find us waiting eager in joyful prayer. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

(November 29) Servant of God John of Monte Corvino (1247-1328)
At a time when the Church was heavily embroiled in nationalistic rivalries within Europe, it was also reaching across Asia to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Mongols. John of Monte Corvino went to China about the same time Marco Polo was returning. John was a soldier, judge and doctor before he became a friar. Prior to going to Tabriz, Persia (present-day Iran), in 1278, he was well known for his preaching and teaching. In 1291 he left Tabriz as a legate of Pope Nicholas IV to the court of Kublai Khan. An Italian merchant, a Dominican friar and John travelled to western India where the Dominican died. When John and the Italian merchant arrived in China in 1294, Kublai Khan had recently died. Nestorian Christians, successors to the dissidents of the fifth-century Council of Ephesus’ teaching on Jesus Christ, had been in China since the seventh century. John converted some of them and also some of the Chinese, including Prince George from Tenduk, northwest of Beijing. Prince George named his son after this holy friar. John established his headquarters in Khanbalik (now Beijing), where he built two churches; his was the first resident Catholic mission in the country. By 1304 he had translated the Psalms and the New Testament into the Tatar language. Responding to two letters from John, Pope Clement V named John Archbishop of Khanbalik in 1307 and consecrated seven friars as bishops of neighbouring dioceses. One of the seven never left Europe. Three others died along the way to China; the remaining three bishops and the friars who accompanied them arrived there in 1308. When John died in 1328, he was mourned by Christians and non-Christians. His tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage. In 1368, Christianity was banished from China when the Mongols were expelled and the Ming dynasty began. John’s cause has been introduced in Rome.
When John of Monte Corvino went to China, he represented the Church’s desire to preach the gospel to a new culture and to be enriched by it. The travels of Pope John Paul II have demonstrated the universality of the Good News and the urgent need to continue the challenging work of helping the Good News take root in a variety of cultural situations.
In 1975, Pope Paul VI wrote, "The Church evangelizes when she seeks to convert, solely through the divine power of the Message she proclaims, both the personal and collective consciences of people, the activities in which they engage, and the lives and concrete milieus which are theirs" (Evangelization in the Modern World, #18). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Isaiah 2: 1-5; Psalm 121; Matthew 8: 5-11

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. (Matthew 8: 5-11)

The centurion’s faith We read later in this same Gospel of St Matthew that our Lord, in the midst of his intense ministry, came to his home town (Matthew 13: 54-58) of Nazareth and taught in the synagogue. The people knew him very well — “is not this the carpenter’s son?” — but they refused to believe in him. He

“did not work many miracles there because of their unbelief” (13:58). Many of the religious leaders (though not all) absolutely refused belief, and engineered his very death. Many of his own disciples refused to believe his word when he announced the doctrine of the Eucharist in Capernaum. This amazing doctrine was too much for them, even though it came directly from his lips. They abandoned their faith in him such as it was, walked with him no more and returned to their homes (John 6: 66). They had been granted the grace of hearing and seeing the Lord, of being convinced, and of walking with him as his disciples. But this grace was forsaken. Most tragic and most spectacular of all, was the defection of one of the very Twelve. Judas must have had faith in our Lord because Christ chose him from among his many disciples to be one of the Twelve. But he did not advance in faith — indeed, he secretly regressed to the point of scheming the betrayal. There are various instances given in the Gospels of our Lord berating the people for their lack of faith. He warned Capernaum that it was heading for hell. Of course, our Lord had ardent disciples who became the foundation of his Church, and who went on to live lives of heroic service of the Master. The point is that those of God’s special choice, his chosen people, those among whom the Spirit of God assuredly moved and was drawing in the direction of faith in the Messiah and Son of God, could both succeed in faith and could fail miserably. Now, in our Gospel today (Matthew 8: 5-11), our Lord encounters one who is not of the children of Israel — a centurion. The fact that our Lord expresses astonishment at his faith and compares it with the faith of those of Israel, suggests that our centurion was not of the Faith, though a religious man and friendly to the chosen people. Let us consider his faith and its implications.

His faith in Jesus was great — of this we are assured by our Lord’s words. It far exceeded that of a very great number in Israel. He has profound respect for Jesus, regarding him as a very holy man and having great power before the throne of God. He declared himself unworthy to receive a visit from our Lord in his own home. Let us remember that we see our Lord repeatedly in the homes of people. Pharisees invited him to their homes for a meal or feast. Matthew, when called by our Lord arranged a feast in his home, to which he invited his colleagues the tax collectors. Martha, Mary and Lazarus had Jesus visiting them in their home. We read that Christ visited the towns and the “farms” of Galilee. He was received, then, into the homes of farmers. But in our passage today the centurion, a man with power at his command, declares himself unworthy to have Jesus in his own home, for Jesus was so exalted a person. We are surely reminded of John the Baptist’s statement that he was unworthy so much as to undo the sandals Jesus wore. Again, we think of Simon Peter’s protestation following the miraculous catch of fish: Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man! The centurion’s self-abasement before the goodness of Jesus was great, which is to say that his faith in Jesus had a firm foundation in humility. Moreover, he was convinced that there was nothing Jesus could not do. All that was needed was to say the word — nothing more. We are reminded of the pagan official who visited the prophet Elisha to obtain a cure for his leprosy, and left the prophet, offended because all that the prophet did was direct him to wash in a local stream. He changed his mind and obeyed the prophet, but the centurion of today only asked for a simple word from our Lord. That would suffice. All this is to say that the Spirit of God works among the peoples. The high faith of the centurion was but a beginning, of course, and it needed to accept much more of Jesus Christ to reach its full potential. But other instances can be given. The Samaritans — foreigners and heretics — of chapter 4 of the Gospel of St John declared themselves to have accepted that Jesus was the Saviour of the world.

Our Lord speaks of many outside the pale of the Faith coming from East and West to take their places at the table of the Kingdom. The Spirit of God is at work among the peoples, drawing them to a greater or lesser extent to the Saviour of the world, who is found in his body the Church. Within the Church is to be found the fulness of all Christ left for the redemption and sanctification of the world. But we ought preserve in our hearts great respect for the striving and the positive achievements of the peoples. They are not alone. God their common Father has them in hand, and wishes all men to be saved. Let us respect and love all people with the mind of Christ.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Place yourself before the Lord each day and tell him slowly and in all earnestness, like the man in the Gospel who was in such great need, Domine, ut videam! — Lord, that I may see!; that I may see what you expect from me, and struggle to be faithful to you.
(The Forge, no.318)

Feast of St Andrew, the Apostle (November 30)
Tuesday of the first week of Advent B-2 (2010)

Prayers for today: By the Sea of Galilee the Lord saw two brothers, Peter and Andrew. He called them: come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matthew 4: 18-19)

Lord in your kindness hear our petitions. You called Andrew the apostle to preach the gospel and guide your Church in faith. May he always be our friend in your presence to help us with his prayers. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

(30 November) St. Andrew the Apostle
Andrew was St. Peter’s brother, and was called with him. "As [Jesus] was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is now called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, ‘Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed him" (Matthew 4:18-20). John the Evangelist presents Andrew as a disciple of John the Baptist. When Jesus walked by one day, John said, "Behold, the Lamb of God." Andrew and another disciple followed Jesus. "Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come, and you will see.’ So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day" (John 1:38-39a). Little else is said about Andrew in the Gospels. Before the multiplication of the loaves, it was Andrew who spoke up about the boy who had the barley loaves and fishes (see John 6:8-9). When the Gentiles went to see Jesus, they came to Philip, but Philip then had recourse to Andrew (see John 12:20-22). Legend has it that Andrew preached the Good News in what is now modern Greece and Turkey and was crucified at Patras. As in the case of all the apostles except Peter and John, the Gospels give us little about the holiness of Andrew. He was an apostle. That is enough. He was called personally by Jesus to proclaim the Good News, to heal with Jesus' power and to share his life and death. Holiness today is no different. It is a gift that includes a call to be concerned about the Kingdom, an outgoing attitude that wants nothing more than to share the riches of Christ with all people. “...The Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word’” (Acts 6:2-4). (AmericanCatholic.org)

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. (Matthew 4: 18-22)

Missionary Abraham is acknowledged as one of the great religious founders of the world. Mahomet looked to him, as do, of course, those of the Jewish and Christian religions. When we look at the biblical account of his call (Genesis 12: 1-3), we notice that embedded in it is a mission to the world.

God tells Abram to go forth from his fatherland to a land he would show him. Then God tells Moses of his plan for him: I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing... All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.” That is the mission God has set himself, to bless the earth through Abram and his posterity. So Abram went as the Lord directed him. Abram simply obeyed, and through his obedience God would bless the earth. Though there is a mission, it is God who prosecutes it and not Abram himself. Time and again in the history of God’s chosen people, there is a growing prophetic awareness of the universal mission of the children of Israel, but the people themselves do not actively advance this universal mission. That is, as it were, God’s business. Their task is to remain faithful to their calling of truly belonging to the one God of Israel and of obeying his commands, and in this they very often failed. If we take a different scenario, the non-Christian religions, the pattern is similar. Take the case of Buddha — Siddhartha Gautama. The evidence of the early texts suggests that Gautama was born in a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the north-eastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BC. He abandoned the royal life and took up the spiritual quest of seeking a permanent solution to the problem of suffering. By his mid or late thirties he had found his answer, attained enlightenment, had attracted followers and founded a monastic order. He spent the rest of his life teaching the path of awakening that he considered he had discovered, travelling throughout the north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, and dying at the age of 80. The great movement of Buddhism arose from him, but clearly he himself did not institute a religion of missionaries to the world.

My point is that the general pattern with religions, including what are called world religions, is that their spread just happens. Their spread is not by original design. Mahomet did not instantly begin a missionary impulse. That came later after his own position, power and new religion were established in his region. But the case was very different with Jesus Christ. Our Gospel passage today is taken from St Matthew, and the public ministry of our Lord begins at the end of chapter 3, with his baptism. Thereupon, in chapter 4 and in quick succession, there is narrated the encounter with and rebuff of Satan, his departure for Galilee, and the commencement of his public ministry. From the first, Christ actively seeks disciples — and this is not a notable characteristic of the prophets before him. Disciples gather around them, but they do not seem to seek them out in order to make them missionaries too. Moreover, the disciples whom Christ immediately and from the first seeks, are told that they will have a mission to others. This is the notable thing in our Gospel passage today. We read that Christ, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brothers — Simon and Andrew — and he called on them to follow him. Now this is not unlike the call of Abraham which was to leave all and do what God would direct. But Christ immediately announces that their call would be essentially a missionary one. “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4: 18-22). This, I think, is a distinctive feature of Jesus Christ as founder of a world religion. From the very first, he actively calls to himself disciples, members of his religion, and these disciples — from the very first — are on notice as having a share in his mission. It is to be a religion on the move, a religion engaged in a massive outreach, a religion for the world, and its members are to be essentially missionary like their Founder. They know from the very first that their following of Jesus Christ would involve their active and ongoing attempt to bring others to the knowledge and love of him. As disciples they would have the mission to make disciples, and just before our Lord ascended into heaven he told them that this mission was to the world. Make disciples of all the nations, he told them.

It is an essential note of the Christian religion that it is universal and missionary. Christ’s one true Church is a universal one, and by original design has an inner impulse to spread everywhere and to be everywhere. While God the Son was born a Hebrew, a member of God’s chosen people, his mission was to become British, Greek, German, Syrian, Chinese. By his very humanity, there is a sense in which Christ has united himself to every man and woman. But of course, much more so does he do this by means of baptism — the baptism of the believer, which incorporates him into the Church, and simultaneously into Christ. Let each of us, on the Feast of St Andrew the Apostle, take up our mission of bringing Christ to others. If we are not “missionary,” we fail in our faith.

(E.J.Tyler)

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My God, how easy it is to persevere when we know that You are the Good Shepherd, and that we — you and I… — are sheep belonging to your flock!

—For we know full well that the Good Shepherd gives his whole life for each one of his sheep.
(The Forge, no.319)

Liturgical Season	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
33rd week Ordinary Time C/II			16	17	18	19	20
34th week Ordinary Time C/II	21 Christ The King	22	23	24	25	26	27
First Week of Advent A-1	28	29	30 Feast St Andrew