5th October 2019

GOD’S LOST AND FOUND

“For the sins of my children I am left desolate, because they turned from the law of God.” —Baruch 4:12

‘Israel’ meaning ‘to wrestle with’ or ‘to struggle with’ was the name given to Jacob after his night-long struggle with the Angel of God. In time, the name came to refer to the chosen people – the twelve tribes of Israel (Jacob’s offspring). This probably explains why the people of ‘Israel’, over the centuries, constantly struggled in their relationship with God. Baruch, in today’s reading, recounts the infidelity and sinfulness of the people of Israel, who were chosen to witness to God, but instead brought Him shame. However, he struggles to comprehend why Israel had to go through the misery of deportation and exile into Babylon. Yet, he is confident that where there is sin, there is God’s mercy, and so there is hope!

Is there any greater anguish than that of a godly parent who must watch their child choose to forsake God? (Bar 4:8) “With joy” these parents “fostered” the faith in their children (Bar 4:11). Then, after their child has rejected God, they must “let [the child] go” with “mourning and lament” (Bar 4:11).

If you have experienced this, imagine the experience of God the Father. Could anyone foster children (see Hos 11:4) better than the Father raises every human being? If children rebel against the incomparable parental love of God the Father, then don’t feel like a total failure if your guidance is rejected.

Though your children reject your instruction and no longer listen to your appeals, take courage. “Bear patiently” this situation (Bar 4:25). Know that God is even more of a Parent to your child than you are. He will search diligently through “the wasteland” of your child’s life until He has rescued him or her (Lk 15:4).

In today’s Gospel, the chosen seventy-two who Jesus had sent out to witness, are quite the opposite. They allow God to work through them and are able to do great things.

I truly witness to the love of God when I let His Spirit work through me.

So “turn now ten times the more to seek” God (Bar 4:28). Jesus is your only Hope, and “those who hope in” Him “shall never be disappointed” (Is 49:23). “Fear is useless. What is needed is trust” (Mk 5:36). Therefore, “trust in Him at all times” (Ps 62:9). “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, and all your household” (Acts 16:31).

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3rd October 2019

Nehemiah and Ezra proclaim and explain God’s Word to the people enabling them to rejoice because they have understood the Law. This is summarised in the response to the Psalm which reiterates, “The precepts of the Lord gladden the heart.”

Jesus envisions a “great harvest” for the Gospel but also sees the reality of “few labourers”. His solution? Prayer i.e. dependence on the one who is responsible for the great harvest!

Meanwhile, the “few labourers” are given a 5-fold charter for gathering in the harvest:

1. A non-violent approach (i.e. lambs among wolves)

2. Financial and spiritual poverty (i.e. carry no money… greet no one)

3. Be messengers of peace (i.e. your first words must be “Peace be with you”)

4. Do good and comfort people (i.e. eat what is set before you and cure the sick)

5. After your actions have spoken aloud; preach the Good News (i.e. proclaim the Kingdom of God is at hand)

No wonder the people rejoiced when God’s Law was explained by Nehemiah, Ezra and Jesus – they spoke less and did more!

What about YOU?

2nd October 2019

Feast of the Guardian Angels

ON GUARD!

“For to His angels He has given command about you, that they guard you in all your ways.” —Psalm 91:11

When thousands of people are killed in a tragedy, the question arises: “What happened to their guardian angels? They didn’t seem to do such a good job of guarding their charges.” The response to this question is wrapped in another question: “Why did Jesus’ guardian angels let Him be crucified?” Jesus stopped the angels from protecting Him. He said: “Do you not suppose I can call on My Father to provide at a moment’s notice more than twelve legions of angels?” (Mt 26:53) Jesus might also choose to stop angels from protecting others, especially those baptized into Him. He wants to include us in the Paschal mystery of His death and Resurrection. Guarding us from natural evils is insufficient. The Lord wants to guard us from the worst evils: sin and damnation. To do this, He lets us share through suffering in His Paschal mystery.

Although the guardian angels primarily guard us from the worst evils, that is, spiritual evils, they also guard us from natural evils. It may well be that many of us would have died several times but for God’s protection through our guardian angels.

Guardian angels are very active for those living in the Holy Spirit, for their job is to mow down the enemies of those moving in the Holy Spirit (see Ex 23:20ff). If we are what we are called to be, the guardian angels will be able to do what they are called to do.

COMMUNION ON THE TONGUE IS AN APOSTOLIC TRADITION

Statements from Popes, Saints and Church Councils:

St. Sixtus 1 (circa 115): “The Sacred Vessels are not to be handled by others than those consecrated to the Lord.”

St. Basil the Great, Doctor of the Church (330-379): “The right to receive Holy Communion in the hand is permitted only in times of persecution.” St. Basil the Great considered Communion in the hand so irregular that he did not hesitate to consider it a grave fault.

The Council of Saragossa (380): Excommunicated anyone who dared continue receiving Holy Communion by hand. This was confirmed by the Synod of Toledo.

The Synod of Rouen (650): Condemned Communion in the hand to halt widespread abuses that occurred from this practice, and as a safeguard against sacrilege.

6th Ecumenical Council, at Constantinople (680-681): Forbade the faithful to take the Sacred Host in their hand,

threatening transgressors with excommunication.

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): “Out of reverence towards this Sacrament [the Holy Eucharist], nothing touches it, but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest’s hands, for touching this Sacrament.” (Summa Theologica, Part III, Q. 82, Art. 3, Rep. Obj. 8.)

The Council of Trent (1545-1565): “The fact that only the priest gives Holy Communion with his consecrated hands is an Apostolic Tradition.”

Pope Paul VI (1963-1978): “This method [on the tongue] must be retained.” (Memoriale Domini)

Pope John Paul II: “To touch the sacred species and to distribute them with their own hands is a privilege of the ordained.” (Dominicae Cenae, 11)

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873 – 1897)

Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin was born in Alençon, in France, on 2 January 1873. Her mother, who already had breast cancer, died when Thérèse was four, and the family moved to Lisieux. Thérèse became a nun at the Carmelite convent there at the age of 15, after a long battle against the superior, who insisted that 16, or even 21, would be a more sensible age. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 24, and that was that. Another forgotten nun: born, was good, died. Holy, no doubt; but nothing much to write home about.

In 1895 Mother Agnès of Jesus, the prioress, had commanded Thérèse to write her memoirs. Writing “not to produce a literary work, but under obedience,” Thérèse took a year to fill six exercise books. She presented them to the prioress, who put them in a drawer unread. A year after Thérèse’s death, the memoirs were published in a small edition of 2,000: the first spark that ignited a “storm of glory” that swept the world. Miracles started to happen: conversions, cures, even apparitions. “We must lose no time in crowning the little saint with glory,” said the Prefect of the Congregation of Rites, “if we do not want the voice of the people to anticipate us.” The beatification process opened thirteen years after Thérèse’s death. She was canonized in 1925, the Pope having suspended the rule that forbids canonization less than 50 years after someone’s death. Her parents, Louis and Zélie Martin, were canonized by Pope Francis on 18 October 2015. Their feast day is 12 July.

When Thérèse was 17, she confided to a visiting Jesuit her hope of becoming a great saint and to love God as much as the Carmelite Saint Teresa of Ávila. The Jesuit thought he found traces of pride and presumption and advised her to moderate her desires. “Why, Father?” asked Thérèse, “since our Lord has said, Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 100 years after Thérèse’s death, Pope John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church, joining St Catherine of Siena and St Teresa of Ávila.

The very storm of glory that propelled Thérèse into sainthood makes her a difficult saint for many of us to stomach. The late 19th century was a highly sentimental period, and much of the literature about Thérèse has taken that quality and made it sweeter and sicklier still, to the point where you feel like brushing your teeth after reading every page. There are antidotes. One is raw Thérèse: The Story of a Soul is still in print in most languages. Another is a clear and astringent biography such as that by Guy Gaucher, Bishop of Meaux (which may be hard to find but is worth looking for).

What makes St Thérèse so special?

We have grown used to the idea that just as there are people with talents for sport or scholarship, and the rest of us can only admire them without trying to keep up, so there are people with a talent for holiness and heroic virtue, and the rest of us can only bumble along as best we can. We can’t do better because we’re not designed to do better, so there’s no point in trying. We sink into a consoling mediocrity.

Thérèse wrecks this. She was physically weak and psychologically vulnerable. For her the great saints were giants, they were inaccessible mountains, and she was only an “obscure grain of sand;” but she was not discouraged. St John of the Cross taught her that God can never inspire desires that cannot be fulfilled. The Book of Proverbs told her, “If anyone is a very little one, let him come to me.” If you only look, Scripture is permeated with images of our littleness and weakness with respect to God, and of his care for us in our insignificance.

Thérèse’s “Little Way” means taking God at his word and letting his love for us wash away our sins and imperfections. When a priest told her that her falling asleep during prayer was due to a want of fervour and fidelity and she should be desolate over it, she wrote “I am not desolate. I remember that little children are just as pleasing to their parents when they are asleep as when they are awake.”

We can’t all hug lepers or go off and become missionaries and martyrs. But we all do have daily opportunities of grace. Some of them may be too small to see, but the more we love God, the more we will see them. If we can’t advance to Heaven in giant strides, we can do it in tiny little steps. Our weakness is no excuse for mediocrity.

29th September 2019

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Liturgical readings this Sunday focus on the Lazarus Principle.

“Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts: Woe to the complacent in Zion! Lying upon beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches, they eat lambs taken from the flock, and calves from the stall.” (Amos 6: 1, 4).

Sunday of the 26th week in Ordinary Time. All four readings in today’s Liturgy address social conditions and justice. The poverty, ignorance and disease all around us cry for remedy.

In all the hopelessness in the current condition of the world, we are comforted by the truth of Scripture which reminds us of these perennial truths:

#1 God keeps faith forever.

#2 He gives food to the hungry.

#3 The Lord sets captives free.

#4 The Lord protects strangers.

#5 He sustains the widows and the orphans.

The first and second readings pave the way to the Gospel, warning us against indulgence in the material to the detriment of our relationship with God. If we are able to earn and receive more than is necessary, it means that we have been entrusted with taking care of those who have nothing.

The name Lazarus means God is my help. Despite a life of misfortune and suffering, Lazarus did not lose hope in God. His eyes were set on a treasure stored up for him in heaven. The rich man, however, could not see beyond his material wealth and possessions. He not only had everything he needed, he selfishly spent all he had on himself. He was too absorbed in what he possessed to notice the needs of those around him. He lost sight of God and the treasure of heaven because he was preoccupied with seeking happiness in material things. He served wealth rather than God.

In the end the rich man became a beggar!

Sent out on mission

Christianity is not a passive religion. To follow Christ is to accept the mission to proclaim the Gospel to the world. Just as the twelve were sent with specific instructions, given authority to heal in his name and proclaim the good news, we, too, are called. He told them to take only what is essential for the journey. They had to trust Jesus that they would receive what they needed. Often we stall at the beginning of our missions because we do not feel equipped. Sometimes we stall after we start because we lose our way. 

Do you have some mission you feel Christ may be calling you to fulfill? Is something holding you back? Do you feel unworthy, ill-equipped? Certainly, some of the twelve felt that way, yet they set out anyway. What lessons can you take from the apostles about letting go and trusting Jesus.

“No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel basket or under a bed; he puts it on a lampstand so that whoever comes in can see it.” —Luke 8:16  

The Lord enlightens us when we hear or read the Bible and such commentaries on the Scriptures as this book, One Bread, One Body. God’s Word, especially the Scriptures, is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Ps 119:105). “For God, Who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts, that we in turn might make known the glory of God shining on the face of Christ” (2 Cor 4:6).

The Lord holds us accountable to be good stewards of this light. We must not put the light under bushel baskets of selfishness or fear or beds of laziness and complacency. Rather, we should put the light of God’s Word on the lampstand of the Church for all to see (see Rv 1:11-12). In other words, we must not so much go to church and live in the world as live in the Church and go to the world. To let the light of God’s Word shine through us, we must be living in the Church through daily, practical Christian community. In this context, our light shines, and we receive even more light, especially through our brothers and sisters in Christ. This light shines not only to the rest of the Church but also through the Church to a world in darkness.

As light naturally changes the world, we who receive the light of God’s Word supernaturally change the world by making the Church a lighthouse. Then the ancient prophecy is fulfilled: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone” (Is 9:1).

18th September 2019

The Church is the Pillar and Foundation of truth.

“The church of the living God, [is] the pillar and foundation of truth.” (1 Timothy 3: 15).

Wednesday of the 24th week in Ordinary Time. Our Scripture for today makes a huge claim for the body we call the Church: It is the Pillar and Foundation of truth. The Church in fact claims authority to teach the truth. Only one Church claims this authority. Below is how the Church stakes its claim:

“The Church, the “pillar and bulwark of the truth,” “has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles to announce the saving truth.” “To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on any human affairs to the extent that they are required by the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls.” (CCC 2032).

Why would God give such sweeping authority to the Church made up of sinful men like the Apostle Peter or Pope Francis? To understand the mind of Christ, let us see the authority that God gave to sin-prone human beings at the first creation:

“God blessed them [humans] and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth.” (Genesis 1: 28).

In the first creation, God gave humans dominion over the earth. Men went ahead and built the Tower of Babel, went to the moon and experimented with eugenics. Today, man’s stewardship of the earth is highly compromised.

The Church is the Baby of the second creation. Here is the charge from Jesus:

“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 18 – 20).

The Church therefore has the authority to teach all nations what Jesus Christ taught the Apostles.

Could the Church have lasted for decades without this authority?

“Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is very deep indeed.” (1 Timothy 3: 14).

“How great are the works of the Lord.” (Responsorial Psalm 111 Refrain).