Pope Benedict
XVI'sgeneral prayer intention
for the month of February
2007: "that the goods of
the earth, given by God for all men, may be used wisely and according
to criteria of justice and solidarity."
Pope Benedict
XVI'smissionary prayer
intention for February 2007:
"That the fight against
diseases and great epidemics in the Third World may find, in the spirit
of solidarity, ever more generous collaboration on the part of the
governments of all nations."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fifth
Sunday in Ordinary Time C
(February 4) Today let us think of St John de Britto(Saints)
While the crowd was
pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing
by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake;
the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into
one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a
short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds
from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put
out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in
reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets.” When they had done this,
they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They
signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They
came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” For astonishment at the
catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and
likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of
Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be
catching men.” When they brought their boats to the shore, they left
everything and followed him.(Luke 5:1-11)
In a
recent issue of the Sydney
Morning Herald
(February 1, 2007, p.9) there was a report of excavations at Stonehenge
in southern England, in which dozens of ancient homes have been
uncovered. The settlement has been dated at about 4600 years ago, at
about the time the giant Egyptian pyramid of Giza was being built. Much
of the Stonehenge appears to be of a religious character, reminding us
that religious practice was
almost universal in ancient and prehistoric times. All the evidence
that is available suggests the same for traditional Aboriginal culture
in Australia during the thousands of years of its history. Higher
supernatural beings were acknowledged and ritual and myth shaped
society. There is one thing, though, that seems to me to be worthy of
further study in respect to the non-Christian religions of the world.
It is whether the higher supernatural powers of this or that religion
were understood as truly transcending the world, or whether basically
they were part of it, though occupying a much higher place in it. My
own reading suggests to me that the supernatural beings of, for
instance, traditional Aboriginal religion did not really transcend the
world, but fundamentally were part of it. Whether or not this is so, at
least the question reminds us that because we come to know things in
the first instance through our senses, there is the tendency to accept
as real only that which is part of our world. For many years prior to
his conversion St Augustine could not shake off his image of God as
material. There are serious philosophies that do not allow for anything
that cannot be confirmed empirically. While we reject this notion and
insist on a God who transcends the world, nevertheless it could be that
we barely realize the transcendence of God. That is to say, we need to
work at realizing that God our Father is not on earth but in heaven.
Our Lord
time and again referred to God as his Father, whom more often than not
he called his heavenly Father. I wonder if we ever give much thought to
the importance of the word “heavenly” when used by our Lord of his
Father. On one occasion when our Lord’s disciples saw him praying to
his heavenly Father, they approached him to ask him to teach them how
to pray. The prayer he taught them begins with a few very revealing
words: Our Father, who art in heaven. In addressing God our Father I am
sure we tend not to appreciate the significance of his being in heaven.
That God is in heaven does not mean that he is far away from us in a
distant place. One of the features of many indigenous religions is that
the principal deity is remote and withdrawn. Ritualistic contacts are
more easily made with lesser spirits who are seen as more active and
accessible, and often the myths are more commonly about them. That is
to say, the abode of the supreme being or what we might call heaven, is
often imagined in terms of a very distant land. But the real heaven is
not like this. Heaven is God and his transcendent way of being. Being
in heaven means being face to face with him in an intimate and
permanent union with him. The truth that God is in heaven insists that
he is in no way part of this world which we can unconsciously take him
to be. He is utterly other than his creation. If it were otherwise, if
he were in some sense part of the world though superior to everything
else in it - as is, I think, the implicit notion in many religions -
then he would not be the one only God. Yet at the same time he is
intimately near for he holds in existence everything that is. His
finger, as it were, touches the tiniest particle that exists and in
touching it sustains its being in its allotted span.
All of this
we are reminded of in today’s Gospel (Luke 5:1-11) when Simon, having made
his miraculous catch of fish at the command of our Lord, fell at the
feet of Jesus and said to him, “Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.” His
words bore witness to the transcendent holiness and power of Jesus. In
Christ dwells the fullness of the godhead bodily. In him dwells the
thrice holy God. Christ’s divine person utterly transcends the world,
and in him heaven was present. Yet by becoming man he who transcends
the world became part of it as well. The Christian religion worships a
God who is utterly other, but who as man is God with us and one of us.
As we think of Simon’s words let us pray for a profound realization of
the utter transcendence of God our Father. Our Father is in heaven, a
heaven that is utterly beyond and in Christ is at the same time utterly
near.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the
Catholic Church, no.2794-2796
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Depart
from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." (Catechism of the
Catholic Church § 311-312)
Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey
toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential
love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has
moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered
the world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral
evil.176 He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his
creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it: "For
almighty God. . ., because he is supremely good, would never allow any
evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful
and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself." (Saint Augustine)
In time we can discover that God in his almighty providence can bring a
good from the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his
creatures: "It was not you", said Joseph to his brothers, "who sent me
here, but God. . . You meant evil against me; but God meant it for
good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive."
(Genesis 45:8 ; 50:20)
From the greatest moral evil ever committed - the rejection and murder
of God's only Son, caused by the sins of all men - God, by his grace
that "abounded all the more",179 brought the greatest of goods: the
glorification of Christ and our redemption. But for all that, evil
never becomes a good.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
Get into the habit of praying to the
Guardian Angel of each person you are following up. Their Angel will
help them to be good and faithful and cheerful, so that when the time
comes they will be able to receive the eternal embrace of Love from God
the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and from the Blessed
Virgin.
(The Forge,
no.1012)
Why can venial sins also be the object
of sacramental confession?
The confession of venial sins is strongly recommended by the Church,
even if this is not strictly necessary, because it helps us to form a
correct conscience and to fight against evil tendencies. It allows us
to be healed by Christ and to progress in the life of the Spirit. (CCC
1458)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.306)
(February 5) Saint
Agatha, virgin and martyr (died about 251) She
was martyred in Catania (Sicily) probably during the time of Decius.
Her name appears in the Roman Canon. (Saints)
Scripture today:
Genesis
1:1-19; Psalm
104:1-2a, 5-6, 10 and 12, 24 and 35c;
Mark 6:53-56
After making the
crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his
disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were
leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried
about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to
wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside
he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that
they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched
it were healed. (Mark 6:53-56)
Our Gospel scene
today places us with Jesus and his disciples landing
at Gennesaret and tying up there. As they left the boat those who were
near the shore immediately recognized him and word spread like
wildfire. People hurried throughout the surrounding region and brought
to him all the sick they could (Mark 6:53-56). This was typical of so
many villages
and towns he entered. St Mark writes that all they needed to do was
touch him and healing would come. So many were sick and helpless,
especially in the ancient world when medical science was so
rudimentary, and where in any case so many were far from professional
medical attention. They hungered for life and health, and lacked the
light to see any true meaning in their physical plight. Christ offered
them hope. His power to do good for them seemed (and was) without
limit. Whatever their need, he was able to help them and if he refused
(as occasionally he did) it was for a good purpose and because the
request was not in accord with the will of God. Now, on the one hand
this picture reminds us of the profoundly broken situation of fallen
man stemming from sin. On the other, Christ gave himself to this
ministry of healing but it is clear that he did so to give a sign of
something much greater that he had come to bring. His miracles were a
sign of the coming of God’s Kingdom which would be a Kingdom of
holiness. It is this which he especially had come to offer. St John the
Baptist at the beginning of his public ministry pointed him out and
said of him, “There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world.” Years before this the angel had said of him before he was born
that he would save his people from their sins. It was the evil of sin
which he had come to take away, and his wide ranging healings and his
raising of some from the dead were meant to signal to the people the
coming of God’s kingdom, its establishment in the hearts of men, and
their release from the power of sin.
But the true and
deeper evil of sin which Christ had come to take away,
the holiness of life which would be his gift to all who come to him,
was not of interest to the body of the people. Christ was sent, he told
his disciples on one occasion, to the lost sheep of the House of
Israel, and it was to the people of Israel that he sent his disciples
during the period of his public ministry. But the deeper message
was not accepted. St John in the prologue to his Gospel writes that he
came unto his own and his own did not accept him. For those who did
accept him he gave power to become children of God. St John in his
Gospel speaks of the miracles of Christ as being signs, signs of the
much greater benefits of redemption and sanctification he offers all
who come to him. But let us look on the uncomprehending crowds as a
sign for us too. Let us look on the rapid spread of word about his
arrival which we read of in today’s Gospel (Mark 6:53-56) as a symbolic picture or
sign of the response we and all mankind are called to show to Christ
and the deeper blessings of redemption he has gained for us by his
death and resurrection. The crowds running everywhere spreading the
word of his arrival, their bringing their sick to him, their reaching
out to him for healing and solace, all these scenes can be looked upon
as inspiring pointers to what we ought be doing at a deeper and more
important level. We all suffer from the profoundly debilitating and
lethal disease of sin. It is passed on to each of us as our
inheritance, and we cooperate with it to a greater or lesser extent. It
is a great serpent that has found its way into the heart and soul of
each of us, and only Christ can rid us of its presence. So we should
come to him as our hope. Christ invites us to come to him
unhesitatingly. He has the love and the power to deal with sin and to
make us holy. We ought hurry towards him bringing before him our sinful
selves together with the varied effects of sin in the world. We ought
be like the people who hurried everywhere passing word of his arrival
and bringing to him all we can for his healing touch.
We know where
Christ is to be found. He is to be found in his Church,
the Church he founded and in which he constantly abides. Within the
life of the his Church of which he is the head he acts in the
Sacraments he instituted. Most especially he offers himself and his
sanctifying action in the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance, and
he teaches and preaches in the teaching and the preaching of the
Church’s pastors and all who have a responsibility to hand on his word.
Let us then come to him and find light and life in him.
(E.J.Tyler)
«All
those who touched him were healed»(Mark 6:53-56) Saint Leo the Great
(?-about 461), pope and doctor of the Church
(Letter 28 to
Flavian, 3-4)
Lowliness is assured by majesty, weakness by power, and mortality by
eternity. To pay the debt of our sinful state, a nature that is
incapable of suffering was joined to one that could suffer. Thus, in
keeping with the healing that we needed, one and the same mediator
between God and men, the man Jesus Christ (1Tim 2,5), was able to die
in one nature, and unable to die in the other...
He was born in a new condition, for, invisible in his own nature, he
became visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, he chose to come within our
grasp. Existing before time began, he began to exist at a moment in
time. Lord of the universe, he hid his infinite glory and took the
nature of a servant (Phil 2,7). Incapable of suffering as God, he did
not refuse to be a man, capable of suffering. Immortal, he chose to be
subject to the laws of death. He who is true God is also true man.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
Like
the grain of wheat, we too have to die in order to become fruitful.
You and I, with the help of God's grace, want to open up a deep furrow,
to blaze a trail. That is why we have to leave behind our poor animal
man and launch out into the sphere of the spirit, giving a supernatural
meaning to every human undertaking and, at the same time, to all those
engaged in them.
(The Forge,
no.1013)
Who is the
minister of this sacrament?
Christ has entrusted the ministry of Reconciliation to his apostles, to
the bishops who are their successors and to the priests who are the
collaborators of the bishops, all of whom become thereby instruments of
the mercy and justice of God. They exercise their power of forgiving
sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
(CCC 1461-1466, 1495)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.307)
Jesus summoned the
crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the
things that come out from within are what defile.” When he got home
away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. He
said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not
realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot
defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out
into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) “But what comes
out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his
heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed,
malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All
these evils come from within and they defile.” (Mark 7:14-23)
Recently there were
reports in the news media, especially on television, of the vast
numbers of Hindus in India present at the ceremonial washing in the
Ganges River. It is a most important Hindu ritual which brings together
immense numbers of Hindus, and it manifests strikingly man’s natural
and religious sense of sin - whatever be the word for “sin” that is
used. Hinduism is a great world religion and is a notable indication
of man’s religious sense, and the fact that ritual purification plays
such a significant part in it is itself worthy of reflection. Over the
years of his literary and theological career Cardinal Newman
(1801-1890) gradually worked out the elements of a philosophy of
religion. His philosophy could be said to be based on the natural sense
of sin which is - or normally should be - instinctive to man. He often
made the point that the religion typical of philosophy and civilization
is not particularly authentic because it tends to snuff out the sense
of
sin. Whatever of that theory and of a philosophy which starts with the
instinctive sense of sin, there is surely no doubt of the importance of
a sense of sin. If we are unaware that we are guilty of sin and in need
of purification, if we are unaware of the capital importance of
avoiding sin and being freed of it, then nature itself intimates that
we shall gradually sink into one form or another of spiritual
corruption. Now, beginning from the Old Testament the religion revealed
by God is distinguished by concern for sin. Yahweh God is the Holy One,
and he says to us, “Be holy, for I am holy”. Holiness and moral
goodness is stipulated as a requirement of any relationship with God.
If his people keep his commandments then he will be with them as their
God. It is not enough merely to observe ritual practices (though this
is very necessary) for moral action is also necessary, such as justice
and mercy.
In our Gospel today
our Lord points out the religious aberration which had gradually taken
hold in the religion taught by many of the spiritual leaders of Israel.
The great concern for religious purity before God was an authentic note
of revealed religion, but many had come to understand and teach this as
primarily involving external purity. The Gospel of St Mark shows that
physical cleanliness in its various forms and the avoidance of things
(such as certain foods) which were unclean had become very largely a
substitute for the inner purity of heart which was the true end of
revealed religion. It is sin which defiles, and it is at this level
that purification has to be put into effect. It is sin which has to be
avoided and taken away by some form of purification of the heart and
soul. The religion of the Old Testament was truly revealed but it
awaited fulfilment in its core concern: the redemption and cleansing
from sin. This was to be the supreme work of the Messiah, to take away
the sin of the world and to establish God’s Kingdom in which to him
would be the glory. As John the Baptist said of Jesus, he is the Lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world. He has done this by his
death and resurrection. In our Gospel today our Lord points out that it
is “from within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts,
unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come
from within and they defile.” (Mark 7:14-23).
So we must aim at holiness of the heart and goodness of soul. That is
to say, we must have as the object of our personal religion putting on
the mind of Christ. As St Paul said in one of his Letters, “Let this
mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” It is the heart of Christ
which we must study and come to love. Our whole object in life must be
to attain, with the power of the Holy Spirit, the likeness of Christ
within, at the level of the mind and heart.
It is a common phrase to speak
of the tip of the iceberg. In a sense what we say and do is just the
tip of the iceberg. The bulk of the iceberg is out of sight underneath.
That bulk is what is going on in our mind and heart. Our thoughts, our
desires, our loves and our hates constitute the world of the heart. It
is this inner man which must be made new and shaped in a radical
likeness to the heart of Christ. This is the religion we must live,
and it is the religion our Lord calls us to in today’s Gospel.
(E.J.Tyler)
“A clean
heart create for me, O God” (Psalm
51:12) (Mark 7:14-23) Saint Isaac the Syrian
(7th century), Monk at Nineveh, near Mosul in present-day Iraq
(Spiritual
Discourses, 1st series, no. 21)
It is said that only God’s help saves. When a person knows that there
is no other help, he prays a lot. And the more he prays, the more his
heart becomes humble, for it is not possible to pray and to request
without being humble. “A heart contrite and humble, o God, you will not
spurn.” (Ps 51:19) So long as the heart has not become humble, it is
impossible for it to escape being scattered; humility gathers the heart
together.
When a person has become humble, compassion immediately surrounds him
and his heart then feels God’s help. He discovers a strength rising up
within him, the strength of trust. When a person thus feels God’s help,
when he feels that God is there and that he comes to his aid,
immediately his heart is filled with faith and he then understands that
prayer is the refuge of help, the source of salvation, trust’s
treasure, the port that has been freed of the storm, the light of those
who are in darkness, the support of the weak, the shelter in times of
trial, help at the height of illness, the shield that saves in combat,
the arrow sent out against the enemy. In one word, a multitude of good
enters into him by means of prayer. So from then on, he finds his
delight in the prayer of faith. His heart is radiant with trust.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
You became a bit frightened when you saw
such dazzling light, so bright that you thought it would be difficult
to look, or even to see.
Disregard your obvious weaknesses, and open the eyes of your soul to
faith, to hope and to love. Carry on, allowing yourself to be guided by
God through whoever directs your soul.
(The Forge,
no.1015)
Is a confessor bound to secrecy?
Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due
to people every confessor, without any exception and under very severe
penalties, is bound to maintain “the sacramental seal” which means
absolute secrecy about the sins revealed to him in confession. (CCC
1467)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.309)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday
of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time II
(February 8) St.
Jerome Emiliani (1486-1537). Born in Venice. Converted to
Christianity after a rather dissolute youth, he dedicated himself to
the service of the poor, the sick, and abandoned children. He founded a
religious congregation (Somaschi) which looked after the education of
children, especially orphans. He died of the plague while serving the
afflicted. (Saints)
Scripture today:Genesis
2:18-25; Psalm 128:1-2, 3,
4-5; Mark 7:24-30
Jesus went to the
district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about
it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an
unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The
woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to
drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children
be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and
throw it to the dogs.” She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the
dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her,
“For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the
demon gone.(Mark 7:24-30)
In our Gospel
passage today our Lord goes into the district of Tyre, which was
considerably pagan. His entering a house secretly to avoid being
noticed suggests that he has come to this district to get away from the
crowds in Galilee and Judea and from the persecuting Jewish
authorities. He wanted a respite to continue his intensive
formation of his apostles for time was limited. But the house was not
to be the hide-out he had hoped, for word got around and “soon a woman
whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell
at his feet. The woman was (what Mark calls) a Greek, a
Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of
her daughter.” Let us imagine the scene and contemplate the pagan woman
who comes insisting that he drive the demon out of her daughter. Her
love for her daughter and her helplessness before her plight drove her
in her prayer. She appears out of nowhere and once the favour is
obtained she disappears into nowhere. Her untold story is a picture in
miniature of the broken human condition and Satan’s presence in it.
She, a “Greek” as Mark calls the Gentiles, bespeaks the natural man’s
crying need of a redeemer who will deliver him from the power of the
underworld. In man’s history of superstitions, fortune telling,
astrology, spiritism, New Age, and countless other fetishes the
Syrophoenician woman is surely an example to all of who it is
that man ought to turn to for relief from the thraldom of evil.
Christ was visiting her pagan land and she heard about it. She had the
sense and good fortune to come to him in her desperate situation. Most
importantly, she placed her faith in him, such as that faith with all
its limitations was. She shows that natural man can respond to the news
of Christ and rise to a certain level of faith in him.
But more revealing
is the response of Christ to her words. She came to him and he rebuffed
her with words that did not seem to be kind. Her request did not attain
its goal immediately. Of course we are not told whether Christ said
these words smilingly or somewhat severely, but our immediate
impression suggests that he did not say them with a warm smile - though
we know that charity and compassion filled his sacred heart. His
response was a test, and this test reminds us that God can choose to
test those who come to him including those who come to him for a favour
without what we might call a developed faith. Christ chose to test the
pagan woman with a none-too-flattering image: “He said to her, ‘Let the
children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the
children and throw it to the dogs’.” (Mark 7:24-30) His own mission was
almost exclusively to the children of Israel, especially to their lost
ones. They were the children, and let us say in passing that our Lord’s
words to this effect reminds us of the faithfulness of God in looking
after his own. He sent his own divine Son to dwell among his chosen
people. Our Lord’s words to the pagan woman remind us that those who
are members of the Church he founded are the object of his special
love, a love manifested in the person and abiding presence of his Son
among us. His response to her assuring her with warmth that her faith
had saved her daughter reminds us that all who come to Christ in faith
can expect from him what is best. Therefore, we who are disciples
of Christ ought bring to all word of his person and presence, inviting
them to go to him in their need. But they must go to him in faith. The
challenge is then to believe enduringly, with perseverence. All too
often people came to him in their need and then once the need had been
met, their interest in him diminished, especially if his teaching was
too hard. One presumes the Syro-Phoenecian woman had no more contact
with him.
Christ abides in
the Church, and our mission is to speak of him to all, and to tell them
where he is to be found in his fulness. Christ was there in the region
of Tyre, and in a house unbeknowns to most. But word got around. Let us
do all we can to bring Christ to all, most especially to the poor and
to those who are suffering any form of affliction.
(E.J.Tyler)
“The
woman was a Greek” (Mark 7:24-30) Vatican II
(Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate,
1-2)
In our time, when day by day mankind is being drawn closer together and
the ties between different peoples are becoming stronger, the Church
examines more closely her relationship to non-Christian religions. In
her task of promoting unity and love among men, indeed among nations,
she considers above all in this declaration what men have in common and
what draws them to fellowship.
One is the community of all peoples, one their origin, for God made the
whole human race to live over the face of the earth (cf. Acts 17:26).
One also is their final goal, God. His Providence, his manifestations
of goodness, his saving design extend to all men (cf. Wis 8:1; Acts
14:17; Rom 2:6-7; 1 Tim 2:4), until that time when the elect will be
united in the Holy City, the city ablaze with the glory of God, where
the nations will walk in his light (cf. Rev 21:23ff.).
Men expect from the various religions answers to the unsolved riddles
of the human condition, which today even as in former times deeply stir
the hearts of men… Religions…try to counter the restlessness of the
human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing “ways,” comprising
teachings, rules of life and sacred rites.
The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these
religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and
of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many
aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often
reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she
proclaims and ever must proclaim Christ “the way, the truth, and the
life” (Jn 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life,
in whom God has reconciled all things to himself (cf. 2 Cor 5:18-19).
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
Be generous. Don't ask Jesus for even one
consolation!
You ask me why. And I reply,
because you know very well that even though this God of ours seems to
be far away, he really is seated in the very centre of your soul,
imparting a divine character to your whole life.
(The Forge,
no.1016)
What
are the effects of this sacrament? The effects of the sacrament of Penance
are: reconciliation with God and therefore the forgiveness of sins;
reconciliation with the Church; recovery, if it has been lost, of the
state of grace; remission of the eternal punishment merited by mortal
sins, and remission, at least in part, of the temporal punishment which
is the consequence of sin; peace, serenity of conscience and spiritual
consolation; and an increase of spiritual strength for the struggle of
Christian living. (CCC 1468-1470, 1496)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.310)
Friday
of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time II
(February 9) Today let us think of St Teilo(Saints)
Scripture today: Genesis
3:1-8; Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 6,
7; Mark 7:31-37 Jesus left the
district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into
the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who
had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took
him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the
man(s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to
heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be
opened!”) And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech
impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to
tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they
proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has
done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”(Mark
7:31-37) In the passage
immediately before this one in the Gospel of St Mark our Lord has been
in the region of Tyre in retreat from the throngs of people seeking him
for healing from their afflictions. The purpose of retreats such as
this was above all to provide greater instructions to the Twelve for their
coming mission as the foundation stones of the Church he would found.
Now, in our Gospel today (Mark 7:31-37)
he returns from Tyre and our scene finds him again in a Gentile
district, that of the Decapolis. Once again, some people “brought him a
deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they asked him to lay
his hand on him.” Let us notice this detail that “they asked him to lay
his hand on him.” Our Lord, then, had what we might call a well-known
ritual of placing his hand on the one he was about to heal. Busy as he
was with such requests he rarely just uttered a word of healing and
sent a person off. The exceptions to this in the Gospels seem to have
been for Gentiles whose evangelization had not yet begun. The
Syrophoenician woman was one case - our Lord cured her daughter with a
word. But otherwise the indications we have show that our Lord gave a
very personal touch to his healings. In our case today there is even
more of this personal touch. “He took him off by himself away from the
crowd. He put his finger into the man(s ears and, spitting, touched his
tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
‘Ephphatha!’ (that is, ‘Be opened!’).” Christ is surely showing the
afflicted man that he is the object of very personal attention. He
takes the trouble to show his deliberate involvement in the life of a
suffering individual. Now, if we appeal to Christ, he will attend to us
personally. At various points
in the Gospel we see Christ commanding the one he has healed not to
spread abroad the healing he had been granted, though in this too there
are exceptions. For instance, after having healed the one possessed by
the devils called “Legion” on another occasion here in this Decapolis
region, he told him to go and make known what God in his mercy had done
for him. Nevertheless we do see that time and again Christ commanded
the cured person not to tell others about it. Why was this? This
healing ministry was not Christ’s principal work and he did not want it
to be taken as the primary benefit he was sent by his heavenly Father
to bring to man. His work was something incomparably greater and his
miracles were signs that he had the power and the love to establish the
Kingdom he was announcing. Jesus desired to concentrate - and he wished
others to concentrate - on his principal mission which was to announce,
explain and establish God’s Kingdom. That Kingdom in which God would be
ruler of the hearts of men and in which he would enable them to live
the life preached by Christ, would come above all through his death and
resurrection. Personal holiness, the overcoming of sin, the
transformation of the heart of man, all this was the mission he had
come to fulfil. He had come to bring to each individual the immense
heavenly blessing of God’s kingdom which would be within. The heart of
man would be transformed by the power of God’s grace, and God would be
all in all. As we read of Christ treating the man with the speech
impediment in such a personal and individual way, and as we then read
of his ordering him and his friends not to tell others about this
physical healing, let us focus our lives on the true meaning of
Christ’s person, teaching and ministry. Let us pray for a
knowledge of the person of Christ and for a true understanding of the
plan of God for us. Let us not be sidetracked into looking on Christ in
ways that miss the essential purpose of his coming. He has come above
all to make saints of us, hidden saints immersed in the ordinary life
and transforming that ordinary and humble life into something which
before God has a true grandeur, the grandeur of life in Christ.
(E.J.Tyler) If you wish to
view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “He
put his fingers into the man’s ears and… touched his tongue”(Mark
7:31-37) St Ephrem (306 – 373),
Deacon and Doctor of the Church (Sermon “On our Lord”, 10-11)
Divine strength, which the human being cannot touch, came down; it
covered itself with a palpable body, so that the poor might touch it,
and in touching Christ’s humanity, they might perceive his divinity.
Through the fingers of flesh, the deaf-mute felt that his ears and his
tongue were being touched. Through the palpable fingers, he perceived
the divinity that cannot be touched when his tongue’s bond was broken
and when the closed doors of his ears were opened. For the body’s
architect and artisan came to him, and with a gentle word, without
pain, he created openings in deaf ears. Then the mouth as well, that
had been closed and until then incapable of giving light to the word,
put into the world praise of him who thus caused its sterility to bear
fruit.
In the same way, the Lord made mud with his saliva and spread it over
the eyes of the man born blind (Jn 9:6) so as to make us understand
that, like the deaf-mute, he was lacking something. An inborn
imperfection in our human batter was removed thanks to the leaven that
comes from his perfect body… To fill in what was missing in these human
bodies, he gave something of himself, just as he gives himself to be
aten [in the Eucharist]. By this means he causes the faults to
disappear and raises the dead, so that we might recognize that the
faults of our humanity are filled, thanks to his body in which “the
fullness of deity resides” (Col 2:9), and that true life is given to
mortals by means of this body, in which true life resides.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was telling you that even people who
had not received baptism had been moved to say, ``I can well understand
that saintly souls must be happy, for they look at events with a vision
that is above the things of this world. They see things with the eyes
of eternity.''
May you not lack that same vision, I added afterwards, so that you can
respond to the special love with which the Blessed Trinity has treated
you.
(The Forge,
no.1017) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Can this sacrament be celebrated in some
cases with a general confession and general absolution?
In cases of serious necessity (as in imminent danger of death) recourse
may be had to a communal celebration of Reconciliation with general
confession and general absolution, as long as the norms of the Church
are observed and there is the intention of individually confessing
one’s grave sins in due time. (CCC 1480-1484)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.311) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday
of the fifth week of Ordinary Time II
(February 10) Saint Scholastica,
virgin (480-547). Born at Norcia in Umbria, she was the twin
sister of St Benedict. She followed the rule of her brother in founding
the Order of Benedictine nuns. (Saints)
In those days when
there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus summoned
the disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,
because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to
eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on
the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” His disciples
answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here
in this deserted place?” Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you
have?” They replied, “Seven.” He ordered the crowd to sit down on the
ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and
gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to
the crowd. They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and
ordered them distributed also. They ate and were satisfied. They picked
up the fragments left over—seven baskets. There were about four
thousand people. He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his
disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha. (Mark 8:1-10)
When we read the
Gospels we read with a view to contemplating the living person of
Jesus, and in order to understand his salvific ways. St John in his
Gospel narrates that our Lord in his prayer to his heavenly Father
during the Last Supper said that “eternal life is this, to know you
Father, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” So our purpose in reading
the Gospels is to come to know Jesus in the first instance, and in him to
know the Father and the Holy Spirit. Well then, let us contemplate him.
There was “a great crowd without anything to eat” following him (Mark 8:1-10),
and while those who made up this particular crowd would have been a
mixed lot, surely they can be taken to symbolize the numbers who would
come to follow him down the ages “without anything to eat”, as it were.
That is to say, let us look on them as a pointer to those of Christ’s
faithful who choose to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, and who trust
in God’s loving providence as they find in the person of Christ their
life and their light. The needs of the crowd following Christ evoke
from him a great act of power and compassion. They have nothing to eat,
and practically nothing is at hand to feed them. So Christ blesses his
heavenly Father for the meagre particles of food before him and at a
word proceeds to feed the four thousand people seated in front of him.
The scene is a revelation of the immense power of Christ over all
things - in this case over the limits of nature - and of the merciful
character of this power. Christ shows his power in acts of love, pity
and mercy. In him is revealed a God who is love. Indeed, if we are to
come to know God we ought look on the face of Christ, for as Pope
Benedict is fond of saying in his writings, Christ is the face of God.
Over the course of
life very many things can come our way. There can be consolations,
achievements, vicissitudes, and many disappointments. There can be bad
health, physical operations, financial distress and reversals, anxiety
stemming from various family members, joys and sorrows. But in all of
this there is one thing we are called to do if life is to acquire its
true meaning and if it is to be a success in the sight of God. It is
that we must follow Christ wherever this might lead us and whatever
might be the cost. His person and his teaching and his grace are the
constant in our life. We must exercise all the due prudence that
is pleasing to God but in the last analysis the only truly prudent
thing is to be ready to forego everything for the sake of Christ whom
we are following. We do this knowing that he will look after us. He
does not need much and our Gospel passage today shows our Lord feeding
the crowds with the few loaves and the fish. There is one pattern that
we may well notice when crises bringing great perplexity come. It is
that if we trust in Christ and ask for help in being obedient to the
will of God, we may well be surprised at the sequel as we look back on
it long afterwards. The power and the compassion of God may well be
evident to us. In any case we must trust and this is surely the abiding
lesson from our Gospel passage today. The same Christ who is described
in today’s Gospel, the same one who exercised such power and showed
such pity, lives now in the life of the Church his body. He is present
among us in the Church’s ministry of the word and the Sacraments. He is
in our midst in this way, inviting us to make him and his teaching the
object of our life whatever be the inconvenience and cost, knowing that
he will look after us.
As is often
narrated, St Thomas More on the way to the scaffold said, “though I
lose my head I’ll come to no harm.” Christ who lives now and who is
God-with-us in the Church of which he is the head asks of us that we
give him our faith. He is the constant in our world of flux and
uncertainty. He is the one thing that is certain, the truth that
abides, the grace that will never fail. He invites each of us to come
to him and learn from him, especially from his sacred heart which is
revealed in our Gospel text today, just as it is in the whole sweep of
the Gospels.
(E.J.Tyler)
Our
shepherd gives himself as food (Mark 8:1-10) St John Chrysostom (345 –
407), Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homilies on St. Matthew,
no. 82)
“Who can tell the mighty deeds of the Lord, or proclaim all his
praises?” (Ps 106:2) Which shepherd ever nourished his sheep with his
own body? But what am I saying – a shepherd? Often, mothers entrust
their children to a wet nurse as soon as they are born. But Jesus
Christ cannot accept that for his sheep; he himself nourishes us with
his own blood, and thus he causes us to become one single body with him.
My brothers, consider that Christ was born of our own human substance.
But, you will say, so what? That doesn’t concern all human beings.
Excuse me, my brother; it is a great advantage for all of them. If he
became man, if he came to take on our nature, that concerns the
salvation of all human beings. And if he came for all, he also came for
each one in particular. Perhaps you will say: So why have not all
accepted the fruit that they were supposed to receive through that
coming? Don’t blame Jesus, who chose this means for the salvation of
everyone; the fault lies with those who reject this kindness. For in
the Eucharist, Jesus Christ unites himself to each of his faithful; he
causes them to be reborn, he nourishes them with himself, he does not
abandon them to another, and thus he convinces them once again that he
really took on our flesh.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
I assure you that if we want to, as
children of God, we can make a powerful contribution towards lighting
up the work and the lives of men with the divine and eternal splendour
which it has pleased the Lord to place in our souls.
But “he who says he abides in Jesus ought to
walk the same way He walked” as Saint John teaches. It is a path
which always leads to glory. But it also always passes through
sacrifice.
(The
Forge, no.1018)
What are
indulgences?
Indulgences are the remission before God of the temporal punishment due
to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven. The faithful Christian
who is duly disposed gains the indulgence under prescribed conditions
for either himself or the departed. Indulgences are granted through the
ministry of the Church which, as the dispenser of the grace of
redemption, distributes the treasury of the merits of Christ and the
Saints. (CCC 1471-1479, 1498)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.312)
(February 11) Our
Lady of Lourdes. This day marks the first apparition of the
Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858 to fourteen-year old Marie Bernade (St
Bernadette) Soubirous. There were eighteen apparitions in all, the last
of which was on 16 July 1858. The message of Lourdes is a call to
personal conversion, prayer and charity. (Saints)
(World Day of Prayer for the Sick)
Scripture: Jeremiah
17:5-8; Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6; 1
Corinthians 15:12, 16-20; Luke 6:17, 20-26
Jesus came down
with the twelve and stood on a stretch of level ground with a great
crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea
and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. And raising his
eyes toward his disciples he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for
the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for
you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you
will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude
and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of
Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be
great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same
way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your
consolation. Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe
to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all
speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in
this way.”(Luke 6:17, 20-26)
I remember years ago
when I was a student I was discussing with a fellow student the essence
and necessity of morality. What is it to be moral, and why should we
be moral? In response to this question he said to me that, rather than
this being the issue for him, basically what he wanted was to be happy.
It was
a very good comment because it implied that the fundamental obligation
to be good needs to be connected with our basic desire for happiness.
The profound link between holiness and peace ought be appreciated, and
each provides a yardstick for the other. It is impossible to be happy
if one is not good, and a goodness in which happiness is absent lacks
authenticity. The quest for happiness is a fundamental starting point
in the heart of man. It is instinctive and natural and is implanted in
man by his Creator in order that he may actually find that happiness.
God means us to be happy. So profound a part of human nature is this
that the thought of a human being who does not want to be happy is
almost unimaginable, and wherever there is such a person we know that
something is wrong with him. The critical issue is, how is happiness to
be understood, and what steps are to be taken to gain it? Above all,
what has God revealed in answer to this? From the answers to this will
flow certain choices that will set a person’s course in this life and
in the next.
Let
us turn to our Gospel today (Luke 6:17,
20-26) and notice right away
that our Lord in his beatitudes addresses man’s desire to be happy. In
doing this our Lord is taking up a fundamental theme of the Old
Testament. God had called Abraham from his native country to a new land
which he would give him. He promised Abraham that through him all the
nations would be blessed. He was promising happiness and blessings to
the world through Abraham’s posterity. Then when Abraham’s descendants
were enslaved in Egypt, God sent Moses to lead them out to the promised
land. If they accepted him as their God and kept his commandments, he
would be their God and he would bless them. That is to say, God held
out to his chosen people the promise of happiness if they remained
faithful to their covenant with him as their Lord. So happiness would
flow from obeying God’s commands. Now, in the Old Testament promise of
future happiness and blessings, the emphasis was given to this life. If
they were faithful to God and his covenant with them, they would be
blessed and happy in this life, while, of course including the next.
Now, this emphasis in the Old Testament was true, and we remember how
our Lord himself promised happiness in this life - but together with
the Cross. But the Old Testament revelation was very incomplete and one
which very many of the children of Israel misunderstood, even though
there were outstanding examples of holiness in the Old Testament. That
misunderstanding is one in which we can all share. Our constant
tendency precisely in our religion is to look for happiness in this
world and scarcely beyond it.
In the Beatitudes
according to St Luke today our Lord reveals wherein lies our true
happiness, and his words complete what God had already revealed about
the happiness intended for man. If all we had were the conclusions of
human reason, or the revelation of the Old Testament, our knowledge of
man’s happiness would be very limited. Our Lord promises
a true and authentic happiness, a happiness which is a share in his own
happiness and a share in the beatitude of God himself. It is
centered on
his kingdom. Therein lies the happiness of man, and that kingdom is
present in this life but is to be fully enjoyed in the next. It is the
happiness our Lord himself enjoyed during his years on this earth and
it is especially the happiness he enjoys in his glory. Happy are you
who are
poor: yours is the kingdom of God. The one whose treasure is not in
this world but in God and his kingdom will be truly happy. The one who
hungers, who is deprived of human respect and natural joys, the one who
is persecuted for his belief in Christ, in a word the one who looks to
Christ as his life, will enjoy the truest happiness here while bearing
his daily cross, and will obtain perfect happiness hereafter.
Let us ask
ourselves
what is it that we are seeking in life in order to be happy. If we are
looking to God, let us ask ourselves if we are not putting our bets on
other things as well. Let us look to Christ, and to all else only in
Christ. For me, St Paul said, to live is Christ. Christ is our life and
happiness.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: Catechism of the
Catholic Church, no.1716-1724
"And
raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: "Blessed are you who are
poor, for the kingdom of God is yours." (Luke 6:17,
20-26) Paul VI, pope from 1963 to
1978 (Apostolic Exhortation On Christian Joy
- May 9, 1975)
But it is necessary here below to understand properly the secret of the
unfathomable joy which dwells in Jesus and which is special to Him...
If Jesus radiates such peace, such assurance, such happiness, such
availability, it is by reason of the inexpressible love by which He
knows that He is loved by His Father. When He is baptized on the banks
of the Jordan, this love, which is present from the first moment of His
Incarnation, is manifested: "You are my Son, the Beloved; my favor
rests on you."(Lk 3:22) This certitude is inseparable from the
consciousness of Jesus. It is a presence which never leaves Him all
alone.(Jn 16:32) It is an intimate knowledge which fills Him: "...the
Father knows me and I know the Father."(Jn 10:15) It is an unceasing
and total exchange: "All I have is yours and all you have is mine."(Jn
17:10) "...You loved me before the foundation of the world."(Jn 17:24)
Here there is an uncommunicable relationship of love which is
identified with His existence as the Son and which is the secret of the
life of the Trinity: the Father is seen here as the one, who gives
Himself to the Son, without reserve and without ceasing, in a burst of
joyful generosity, and the Son is seen as He who gives Himself in the
same way to the Father, in a burst of joyful gratitude, in the Holy
Spirit.
And the disciples and all those who believe in Christ are called to
share this joy. Jesus wishes them to have in themselves His joy in its
fullness.(Jn 17:13) "I have made your name known to them and will
continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may
be in them, and so that I may be in them."(Jn 17:26)
This joy of living in God's love begins here below. It is the joy of
the kingdom of God. But it is granted on a steep road which requires a
total confidence in the Father and in the Son, and a preference given
to the kingdom. The message of Jesus promises above all joy—this
demanding joy; and does it not begin with the beatitudes? "How happy
are you who are poor: yours is the kingdom of God. Happy you who are
hungry now: you shall be satisfied. Happy you who weep now: you shall
laugh."
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
What
a disappointment awaited those who saw the light of the pseudo-apostle,
and wishing to come out of their darkness, were drawn to his light.
They raced to get there. They may have left shreds of their skin along
the way. Some in their eagerness for that light may also have left
behind some shreds of their very souls. And now, having reached the
pseudo-apostle, they find cold and darkness. Cold and darkness which
will eventually congeal the broken hearts of those who for a while had
believed in that ideal.
t
is an evil deed the pseudo-apostle has done. Those disappointed men who
had been ready to give their very flesh in exchange for those glowing
fires, for that gleaming ruby of charity, drop once more, instead, back
to the earth from which they had come. Down they go, with a saddened
heart, with a heart that is a heart no longer — just a chunk of ice
shrouded in a darkness which will eventually cloud their minds.
You false paradoxical apostle, see what you have done: because Christ
is on your lips but not in your deeds; because you attract with a light
which you yourself lack; because there is no warmth of charity in you,
and you claim to be concerned about outsiders while all the time you
are neglecting your own; because you are a liar, and lying is the
daughter of the devil. And so, you are working for the devil, causing
bewilderment to those who follow the Master, and even though you may
triumph frequently here on earth, woe to you on that day which is
approaching when our friend Death will come, and you shall see the
anger of the Judge whom you have never deceived. Paradoxes, no, Lord:
paradoxes, never.
(The Forge,
no.1019)
How
was sickness viewed in the Old Testament?
In the Old Testament sickness was experienced as a sign of weakness and
at the same time perceived as mysteriously bound up with sin. The
prophets intuited that sickness could also have a redemptive value for
one’s own sins and those of others. Thus sickness was lived out in the
presence of God from whom people implored healing. (CCC 1499-1502)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.313)
(February 12) Today let us think of Saint Damian(Saints)
Scripture today: Genesis 4:1-15,
25; Psalm 50:1 and 8, 16bc-17,
20-21; Mark 8:11-13
The Pharisees came
forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from
heaven to test him. He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said,
“Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will
be given to this generation.” Then he left them, got into the boat
again, and went off to the other shore.(Mark 8:11-13)
In our Gospel
passage today we find ourselves in a scene which is often repeated in
other parts of the Gospels. “The Pharisees came forward and began to
argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him”(Mark
8:11). Here
we have the noblest and most exalted person who
ever walked the earth being subjected to persistent disputes and
opposition. He is no ordinary human person, rather he is a divine
person. This Jesus who is the subject of the Gospels is God the Son,
the same God as is the Father and as is the Holy Spirit, though as a
person is distinct from each of them. From all eternity his glory was
that of God, a glory shared also by the Father and the Holy Spirit. Yet
he did not hesitate to set aside this glory to become as we are and
humbler still, even to death on the Cross. And here in our Gospel
passage today we see him in his fully human condition subjected to the
unreasonable humiliation of being opposed and taken to task by those
whom as God he constantly holds in existence. Through him, St John
tells us in his prologue, all things came to be. He came unto his own
and his own did not receive him, but to those who did accept him he
gave power to become children of God. So as we think of Christ being
affronted by the attacks and hostile questioning by the Pharisees who
demanded from him a sign from heaven to test him, let us think of the
extent and wonder of the Incarnation. God truly became man, and though
utterly holy, utterly powerful, utterly perfect, he allowed himself to
be treated as if he were an ordinary and flawed man. He became as men
are and humbler still. Gazing on Christ with our mind’s eye and
contemplating him in our scene, let us be filled with amazement that
God has deigned to become man, a man like us in all things but sin, and
in becoming man to subject himself to the indignities so often
characteristic of the human condition.
As we think thus of
the person of Jesus and renew in our hearts our sense of wonder at his
becoming man, let us turn our gaze to the Pharisees who were arguing
with him. Little did they know! When our Lord was dying on the cross he
prayed to his heavenly Father to forgive those who were jeering at him
and who had brought him to this pass because they did not know what
they were doing. They did not know that what they were doing to Jesus
they were doing to one who is a man, yes, but who in his person is God.
They were blind. But the question is, why did they not recognize his
goodness and authority? Their blindness was due to sin. Let us not
attempt to probe the levels of responsibility for their blindness,
their stubbornness and their advancing hatred for Jesus. Their
blindness was due to their sinful hearts and the only answer to sin was
and is the person of Jesus. He had come to take away the sin of the
world, but there had to be a readiness to accept him for who he was and
for his redemptive work and teaching. This readiness the Pharisees
stubbornly refused to have and to show, and so Christ left them. “He
sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, ‘Why does this generation
seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this
generation.’ Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off
to the other shore” (Mark
8:11-13).
The actions of the Pharisees and the response it drew from Christ is a
warning to us. We must come to Christ in all humility and appreciation,
sitting at his feet as before the one who is the Master. We must not
dispute with his teaching and we ought do our very best to determine
where he continues to teach in our day and in every generation. He
continues to teach from within the life of his body the Church, and in
and through the Church’s ministry of the word and the Sacraments.
Let us renounce anything in our dispositions or response that likens us
to the Pharisees, for if we do not put away all such attitudes, Christ
will sigh from his heart and pass us by. If we refuse Christ, we shall
be left in our sins.
Let us then place
ourselves in our Gospel scene and contemplate the person of Jesus. He
is the Lord of lords and King of kings. He is the Son of the
Father, and is the same divine being as the Father and the Holy Spirit.
He is God and man. Let us accept him as the Master of our life, our
true and constant teacher and redeemer. Let us renounce any secret
attitudes in us that calls Christ’s teaching into question and which
prompt our hearts to argue with the Son of God as he speaks to us in
and through his body the Church. Let us throw in our lot with him and
resolve to follow him wherever he might lead us.
(E.J.Tyler)
“Why
does this age seek a sign?” - Believing even in
darkness (Mark 8:11-13)
Saint [Padre] Pio de
Pietrelcina (1887-1968), Capuchin (OP; GF 174; Ep 4,418)
The Holy Spirit tells us: Don’t let your mind succumb to temptation and
sorrow, for joy of the heart is life for the soul. Sorrow is no good
for anything and causes our spiritual death.
It happens sometimes that the darkness of trial overwhelms your soul’s
heaven; but this darkness is light! Thanks to it, you believe even in
darkness; the mind feels lost, it fears no longer being able to see, no
longer understanding anything. But this is the moment when the Lord
speaks and makes himself present to the soul; and the soul listens,
understands and loves in the fear of God. So don’t wait for Tabor to
“see” God when you are already contemplating him on Sinai.
Progress in the joy of a sincere heart that is wide open. And if it is
impossible for you to keep that happiness, at least don’t lose courage
and keep all your trust in God.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
What is the
attitude of the Church toward the sick?
Having received from the Lord the charge to heal the sick, the Church
strives to carry it out by taking care of the sick and accompanying
them with her prayer of intercession. Above all, the Church possesses a
sacrament specifically intended for the benefit of the sick. This
sacrament was instituted by Christ and is attested by Saint James: “Is
anyone among you sick? Let him call in the presbyters of the Church and
let them pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord”
(James 5:14-15). (1506-1513, 1526-1527)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.315)
(February 13) Today let us think of St. Catherine de Ricci(Saints)
Scripture today:
Genesis
6:5-8;
7:1-5, 10; Psalm 29:1a and 2, 3ac-4, 3b and
9c-10; Mark 8:14-21
The disciples had
forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the
boat. Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the
Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” They concluded among themselves
that it was because they had no bread. When he became aware of this he
said to them, “Why do you conclude that it is because you have no
bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts
hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you
not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how
many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?” They answered
him, “Twelve.” “When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand,
how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?” They answered him,
“Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”(Mark 8:14-21)
Saint Jerome once
wrote that ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ. Of
course, he would have been referring to ignorance of the content of
Scripture, rather than simply to the reading of Scripture. Even in his
own day the widespread illiteracy and the very limited number of written copies of the
Scriptures, would have excluded great numbers from a formal reading of
the Scriptures. A considerable knowledge of the contents of the
Scriptures has been handed on to the faithful over the centuries by the
Church’s teaching and preaching, by the Church’s art work, her liturgy,
her popular devotions and by a variety of other means available in the
Church’s life and ministry. For instance, a daily praying of the rosary
involves a prayerful contemplation of Christ in the Gospels scenes. But
of course, the daily, prayerful and assiduous reading of the Scriptures
by those able to do so holds pride of place among the ways of knowing
the content of Scripture and therefore of knowing the person of Christ.
In respect to the Scriptures the reading of the Gospels is especially
important because the person of Christ is set forth especially in the
Gospels. He is the way, the truth and the life, and eternal life is
knowing, loving, serving and being faithful to him. So then, let us
consider Jesus in our Gospel passage today (Mark 8:14-21). One thing we notice
about him in his teaching is his frequent use of analogy and metaphor.
When we think of certain great thinkers in the history of Western
philosophy - such as Plato and Aristotle a few centuries before Christ
- we remember how they made great use of philosophical abstraction. Our
Lord, though, uses stories and analogies drawn from everyday life to
make the most sublime points. He speaks concretely and pictorially and
thus addresses the mind with the aid of the imagination. Newman once
wrote that an essential medium of religion is the imagination.
In our passage
today the disciples noticed that they had forgotten to bring bread (and
the bread of that time was bread of real substance), and Christ said to
them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the
leaven of Herod.” He was using the analogy of bread to warn against the
teaching and example of the Pharisees and the Herodians, which
constituted a principal obstacle to his own ministry. He was being
opposed at every opportunity by them, and their growing hatred of him
was implacable. It would lead to his death, which he would embrace
obediently for the salvation of the world. Let us understand that in
thus warning them against this our Lord warns all his disciples down
through the ages against any teaching which opposes his own. Christ
states plainly in the Gospels that he is the Light of the world and
that anyone who does not walk by his light is walking in the darkness.
Being a disciple of Christ must include a careful and persevering
attempt to know his teaching and to guard against whatever is not in
accord with it. This teaching comes to us through the knowledge of
Scripture, but as read not just with our own private judgment alone but
with the mind of the Church which produced and authenticated these
sacred writings. The Gospels and the New Testament come to the
faithful, as it always has, from the hand of the Church who, in certain
of her inspired and earliest members, wrote them. They are the Church’s
own book, and their acceptance as inspired is due to the Church’s
judgment about them. They are part of the canon of Scripture because
the Church
has discerned this to be the case. So Scripture must be read with the
mind of the Church. Revelation comes to us in two intimately connected
channels, Scripture and the Church’s living Tradition. Each is
understood in light of the other, and we come to know Christ by being
immersed in both.
As we think of
today’s Gospel scene in which our Lord warns his disciples against
false teaching that is not in accord with his own, let us resolve to
abide in the true doctrine of Christ so as to abide in him. The person
of Christ is the object of our life, but if we are to know and love him
we must know and assent to his teaching. Let us learn to recognize the
true channels through which this teaching comes to us, Scripture and
the Church’s living Tradition. By immersing ourselves in these two
intimately connected gifts of God, we shall abide in the true and
living person of Jesus.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Do you
not yet understand or
comprehend?" (Mark
8:14-21) Vincent of Lérins
(d. c. 450), monk (Commonitory,
23)
But some one will say, perhaps, Shall there, then, be no progress in
Christ's Church? Certainly; all possible progress. For what being is
there, so envious of men, so full of hatred to God, who would seek to
forbid it? Yet on condition that it be real progress, not alteration of
the faith… The intelligence, then, the knowledge, the wisdom, as well
of individuals as of all, as well of one man as of the whole Church,
ought, in the course of ages and centuries, to increase and make much
and vigorous progress; but yet only in its own kind; that is to say, in
the same doctrine, in the same sense, and in the same meaning.
The growth of religion in the soul must be analogous to the growth of
the body, which, though in process of years it is developed and attains
its full size, yet remains still the same. There is a wide difference
between the flower of youth and the maturity of age; yet they who were
once young are still the same now that they have become old, insomuch
that though the stature and outward form of the individual are changed,
yet his nature is one and the same, his person is one and the same. An
infant's limbs are small, a young man's large, yet the infant and the
young man are the same…, there were already present in embryo…
In like manner, it behoves Christian doctrine to follow the same laws
of progress, so as to be consolidated by years, enlarged by time,
refined by age… Our forefathers in the old time sowed wheat in the
Church's field. It would be most unmeet and iniquitous if we, their
descendants, instead of the genuine truth of corn, should reap the
counterfeit error of tares (Mt 13:24 sq). This rather should be the
result,—there should be no discrepancy between the first and the last.
From doctrine which was sown as wheat, we should reap, in the increase,
doctrine of the same kind—wheat also; so that when in process of time
any of the original seed is developed, and now flourishes under
cultivation, no change may ensue in the character of the plant…
Therefore,… the same ought to be cultivated and taken care of by the
indus
Pope Benedict
XVI's
religious practice was
almost universal in ancient and prehistoric times. All the evidence
that is available suggests the same for traditional Aboriginal culture
in Australia during the thousands of years of its history. Higher
supernatural beings were acknowledged and ritual and myth shaped
society. There is one thing, though, that seems to me to be worthy of
further study in respect to the non-Christian religions of the world.
It is whether the higher supernatural powers of this or that religion
were understood as truly transcending the world, or whether basically
they were part of it, though occupying a much higher place in it. My
own reading suggests to me that the supernatural beings of, for
instance, traditional Aboriginal religion did not really transcend the
world, but fundamentally were part of it. Whether or not this is so, at
least the question reminds us that because we come to know things in
the first instance through our senses, there is the tendency to accept
as real only that which is part of our world. For many years prior to
his conversion St Augustine could not shake off his image of God as
material. There are serious philosophies that do not allow for anything
that cannot be confirmed empirically. While we reject this notion and
insist on a God who transcends the world, nevertheless it could be that
we barely realize the transcendence of God. That is to say, we need to
work at realizing that God our Father is not on earth but in heaven.