Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr

“Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.” (John 12:26.)

Saint Augustine of Hippo comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed during today’s Mass:

“Christ’s servants are those who look out for his things rather than their own. “Let him follow me” means “Let him walk in my ways and not in his own,” as it is written elsewhere. For if he supplies food for the hungry, he should do so in the way of mercy, not to brag about it. He should be looking for nothing else there but to do good and not letting his left hand know what his right hand does. In other words, any work of charity should be utterly devoid of any thought of “what’s in it for me.” The one who serves in this way serves Christ and will have it rightly said to him, “Inasmuch as you did it unto one of the least of those who are mine, you did it unto me.” And the one who serves Christ in this way will be honored by his Father with the peculiar honor of being with his Son and having nothing lacking in his happiness ever again. And so, when you hear the Lord saying, “Where I am, there shall also my servant be,” do not think merely of good bishops and clergy. But you yourselves should also serve Christ in your own way by good lives, by giving to the poor, by preaching his name and doctrine as best as you can too. Every father [or mother] too will be filling an ecclesiastical and episcopal kind of office by serving Christ in their own homes when they serve their families so that they too may be with him forever.” (Tractates on the Gospel of John, 51.)

Collect

O God,
giver of that ardor of love for You
by which Saint Lawrence
was outstandingly faithful in service
and glorious in martyrdom,
grant that we may love what he loved
and put into practice what he taught.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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He ministered the sacred blood of Christ

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Bishop and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Sermon 304

Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr

The Roman Church commends to us today the anniversary of the triumph of Saint Lawrence. For on this day he trod the furious pagan world underfoot and flung aside its allurements, and so gained victory over Satan’s attack on his faith.

As you have often heard, Lawrence was a deacon of the Church at Rome. There he ministered the sacred blood of Christ; there for the sake of Christ’s name he poured out his own blood. Saint John the apostle was evidently teaching us about the mystery of the Lord’s supper when he wrote: Just as Christ laid down his life for us, so we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. My brethren, Lawrence understood this and, understanding, he acted on it. Just as he had partaken of a gift of self at the table of the Lord, so he prepared to offer such a gift. In his life he loved Christ; in his death he followed in his footsteps.

Brethren, we too must imitate Christ if we truly love him. We shall not be able to render better return on that love than by modeling our lives on his. Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in his steps. In saying this, the apostle Peter seems to have understood that Christ suffered only for those who follow in his steps, in the sense that Christ’s passion is of no avail to those who do not. The holy martyrs followed Christ even to shedding their life’s blood, even to reproducing the very likeness of his passion. They followed him, but not they alone. It is not true that the bridge was broken after the martyrs crossed; nor is it true that after they had drunk from it, the fountain of eternal life dried up.

I tell you again and again, my brethren, that in the Lord’s garden are to be found not only the roses of his martyrs. In it there are also the lilies of the virgins, the ivy of wedded couples, and the violets of widows. On no account may any class of people despair, thinking that God has not called them. Christ suffered for all. What the Scriptures say of him is true: He desires all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.

Let us understand, then, how a Christian must follow Christ even though he does not shed his blood for him, and his faith is not called upon to undergo the great test of the martyr’s sufferings. The apostle Paul says of Christ our Lord: Though he was in the form of God he did not consider equality with God a prize to be clung to. How unrivaled his majesty! But he emptied himself, taking on the form of a slave, made in the likeness of men, and presenting himself in human form. How deep his humility!

Christ humbled himself. Christian, that is what you must make your own. Christ became obedient. How is it that you are proud? When this humbling experience was completed and death itself lay conquered, Christ ascended into heaven. Let us follow him there, for we hear Paul saying: If you have been raised with Christ, you must lift your thoughts on high, where Christ now sits at the right hand of God.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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“It is a ghost …”

εὐαγγελίζω (euaggelizo)
"to announce the Good News of victory in battle"

“During the fourth watch of the night,
He came toward them, walking on the sea.
When the disciples saw him walking on the sea
they were terrified.
“It is a ghost (φάντασμα phantasma),”
they said, and they cried out in fear.”

Matthew 14:25-26
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary Year A

θεωρέω (theoreo)
("to perceive, discover, ponder a deeper meaning")

Scholars note that the “fourth watch of the night” is the period of time between 3 and 6 in the morning. This is a time of paradox. Around 3am, intense darkness engulfs all reality. On the Sea of Galilee, darkness is so intense that when you stretch out your arm, you can barely see your fingertips. Without light, it is easy to loose your bearings and wander off course. The heart pounds faster. Breathing quickens as fear of being lost takes hold of life. Add an unexpected storm that tosses a 30-foot fishing boat mercilessly at the whim of wind and waves and you have a recipe for disaster.

Yet as time drifts closer to the 6am hour, the other pole of the paradox dawns. Not only does light gradually transform darkness, it does so with colors that are rarely seen in the brightness of noonday sun. Color, born of atmospheric refraction, take hold of life where there was once fear. The captivating prism of light transforms fear to calm and brings a touch of ‘the wow’ to both body and soul. Water, darkness and light all combine to signal hope: the gift of a new day with all of its surprises and blessings - even more today - a Sunday, the first day of the week, the day of Resurrection.

For a group of first-century Galilean fishermen, a particular day dawned like no other. In the midst of dealing with the wind and sea (traditional images of chaos in the Old Testament over which God alone has power to cause order [cosmos]), the unexpected sight of Jesus triggered fear. The Evangelist records the sight as a φάντασμα (phantasma), translated in the New American Bible as “ghost.” In the ancient world, a phantasma was a vision, appearance or apparition that sparked an immediate and automatic response in the observer. On this point, the difference between the ancient Eastern worldview and the current Western worldview is an important backdrop. Generally speaking, the Western mind analyzes. Hence, questions such as ‘Is the appearance real? If so, how? How can one walk on water? etc...’ The Eastern worldview approaches the event from a ‘big picture’ perspective. Initially, the whole event, not the specific details or mechanics of how, is received at faced value and challenges one to make a decision based on the event. While it is natural for the Western mind to ask ‘how,’ the Sacred Scriptures emerge in their written form within the context of the ancient Eastern world. This approach is important for another reason. As written Christian texts emerge in the Greco-Roman empire, phantasma also speaks to a “showing of God” - an epiphany or a theophany.

All of this - the “fourth watch of the night,” the paradox of time, the metaphor of water and wind for chaos and antiquity's meaning of phantasma - gives us much to ponder this Sunday as God’s Word is proclaimed. While the western mind may want to figure out and perhaps dismiss “walking on water” because it seems so disconnected from our lives, caution is strongly advised and needed. None of us can dismiss the reality of darkness, uncertainty and fear in our lives. We wish we would not have to experience it yet maturity demands that each acknowledges times of aimlessness, confusion, and perhaps even despair that cast gradually intensifying darkness on and in our lives. The same fear that gripped the fishermen in the boat grips us and we look for a way out to experience perhaps just a glimmer, if not the rich colors of life grounded in faith, hope and charity. Faith memories instinctively move us to call out “God, come to my assistance!” as Elijah and the fishermen did. The difficulty is that we often block the God working because “I” am in charge, “I” and in control and so run the risk of Jesus passing us by. We call out for help - AND - at the same time we want the revealing of God and Divine Help on our terms, not on the Lord's terms. It is the ever-present struggle in our lives to be in control, to hold not only the remote-control but the batteries as well.



Faith in the Person Jesus always requires letting go of the false self. The paradox is that when we put our hand in the hand of the Man from Galilee” life’s darkness is transformed bit by bit into dazzling colors enabling us to see, hear, speak and live as Galilee’s famous Carpenter Who managed to teach fishermen a thing or two about life ... as Jesus continues to do today for us.

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea...” (Matthew 14:25.)

Saint Hilary of Poitiers offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel proclamation:

“In the meantime, however, the disciples are harassed by wind and by sea. Amid all the disturbances of the world, in conflict with the unclean spirit, they are tossed about. But the Lord comes in the fourth watch. For the fourth time, then, he will return to a roving and shipwrecked church. In the fourth watch of the night, the measure of his concern is found to be just as great. The first watch was that of the law, the second of the prophets, the third of the Lord’s coming in the flesh and the fourth of his return in splendor. But he will find the church in distress and beleaguered by the spirit of the antichrist and by disturbances throughout the world. He will come to those who are restless and deeply troubled. And since, as we may expect from the antichrist, they will be exposed to temptations of every kind, even at the Lord’s coming they will be terrified by the false appearances of things and crawling phantasms with eyes. But the good Lord will then speak out and dispel their fear, saying, “It is I.” He will dispel the fear of impending shipwreck through their faith in his coming.” (On Matthew)

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
whom, taught by the Holy Spirit,
we dare to call our Father,
bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts
the spirit of adoption
as Your sons and daughters,
that we may merit
to enter into the inheritance
which You have promised.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

The Bonds of Love

Saint Catherine of Siena

Doctor of the Church

An excerpt from her Dialogue on Divine Providence, 4.

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

My sweet Lord, look with mercy upon your people and especially upon the mystical body of your Church. Greater glory is given to your name for pardoning a multitude of your creatures than if I alone were pardoned for my great sins against your majesty. It would be no consolation for me to enjoy your life if your holy people stood in death. For I see that sin darkens the life of your bride the Church—my sin and the sins of others.

It is a special grace I ask for, this pardon for the creatures you have made in your image and likeness. When you created man, you were moved by love to make him in your own image. Surely only love could so dignify your creatures. But I know very well that man lost the dignity you gave him; he deserved to lose it, since he had committed sin.

Moved by love and wishing to reconcile the human race to yourself, you gave us your only-begotten Son. He became our mediator and our justice by taking on all our injustice and sin out of obedience to your will, eternal Father, just as you willed that he take on our human nature. What an immeasurably profound love! Your Son went down from the heights of his divinity to the depths of our humanity. Can anyone’s heart remain closed and hardened after this?

We image your divinity, but you image our humanity in that union of the two which you have worked in a man. You have veiled the Godhead in a cloud, in the clay of our humanity. Only your love could so dignify the flesh of Adam. And so by reason of this immeasurable love I beg, with all the strength of my soul, that you freely extend your mercy to all your lowly creatures.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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Blessings to all DominicanFriars and SistersHappy Feast Day!

On this feast day of Saint Dominic, I express gratitude to all the Dominican Professors I was privileged to have in class during my doctoral studies in Rome at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, commonly known as the Angelicum. In addition, I recall fondly two who have since died: Father Ambrosius Eßer (Esser [Eszer]), OP and Bishop Robert Christian OP.

Fr Eßer OP pictured at his desk in the

Congregation for the Causes of Saints

As a young Dominican friar, Father Eßer studied under the great patristic scholar, Father Irénée Hausherr. I am grateful for the many conversations in which the uber polyglot, stunningly brilliant, witty, humorous and holy Father Eßer ‘handed-on’ the great patristic legacy of the Church and the insights of Father Hausherr. I was blessed to have him for a number of courses in patrology and patristic theology as well as to have him direct my doctoral thesis on Saint Gregory of Nyssa. Fr Eßer died during the Easter Season of 2010 on April 12.

Lord God,
You chose our brother Ambrosius
to serve your people as a priest
and to share the joys and
burdens of their lives.
Look with mercy on him
and give him the reward of his labors,
the fullness of life promised to those
who preach Your holy Gospel.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Fr Robert Christian OP pictured prior
to his ordination as Bishop

On this day, I remember fondly another Dominican mentor, Bishop Robert Christian. His reputation at the Angelicum was universal - an outstanding professor with a breadth and depth of theological wisdom that always left us as his students pondering new insights. The then Father Christian taught an array of courses in Dogmatic Theology, notably in the areas of Ecclesiology, Ecumenism and Sacramental Theology. I am blessed to have been numbered among his students, particularly in the area of Sacramental Theology that I trust benefits the students and seminarians I now teach. Furthermore, I am indebted to him for his administrative help to work through the steps of scheduling my doctoral defense and for ultimately serving as chair of that panel. To the delight of many of us, he was named auxiliary bishop of San Francisco in March 2018 and ordained a bishop 5 June. Sadly, he died in his sleep on 11 July 2019.

O God,
Who chose Your servant Bishop Robert
from among Your Priests and
endowed him with pontifical dignity
in the apostolic priesthood,
grant, we pray,
that he may also be admitted
to their company for ever.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and
let perpetual Light shine upon them.

May their souls and
all the souls of the faithful departed
rest in peace. Amen.

Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest

“When they came to the crowd a man approached, knelt down before him ...” (Matthew 17:14.)

Origen of Alexandria (part 2 of Pope Benedict’s reflections on Origen) comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

”If every disease and weakness which our Savior cured at that time among the people represents different symptoms in the soul, it stands to reason that by the paralytics are symbolized the palsied in soul, who keep it lying paralyzed in the body. By those who are blind are symbolized those who are blind in respect of things seen by the soul alone, and these are really blind. And by the deaf are symbolized those who are deaf in regard to the reception of the word of salvation. On the same principle it will be necessary that the matters regarding the epileptic should be investigated. This disease attacks those who suffer from it at considerable intervals, during which time he who suffers from it seems in no way to differ from the man in good health, at the season when the epilepsy is not working on him. You will find some souls that are often considered to be healthy suffering from symptoms like these in their chastity and the other virtues. But there comes a time when they are attacked by a kind of epilepsy, and then they seem to fall from their solid foundation and are seized by the deceits and other desires of this world.” (Commentary on Matthew, 13.)

Collect

May Saint Dominic
come to the help of Your Church
by his merits and teaching, O Lord,
and may he,
who was an outstanding preacher of Your truth,
be a devoted intercessor on our behalf.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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He spoke with God or about God

Saint Dominic

Priest and Founder of the Dominicans

An excerpt from History of the Order of Preachers

Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest

Dominic possessed such great integrity and was so strongly motivated by divine love, that without a doubt he proved to be a bearer of honor and grace. He was a man of great equanimity, except when moved to compassion and mercy. And since a joyful heart animates the face, he displayed the peaceful composure of a spiritual man in the kindness he manifested outwardly and by the cheerfulness of his countenance.

Wherever he went he showed himself in word and deed to be a man of the Gospel. During the day no one was more community-minded or pleasant toward his brothers and associates. During the night hours no one was more persistent in every kind of vigil and supplication. He seldom spoke unless it was with God, that is, in prayer, or about God, and in this matter he instructed his brothers.

Frequently he made a special personal petition that God would deign to grant him a genuine charity, effective in caring for and obtaining the salvation of men. For he believed that only then would he be truly a member of Christ, when he had given himself totally for the salvation of men, just as the Lord Jesus, the Savior of all, had offered himself completely for our salvation. So, for this work, after a lengthy period of careful and provident planning, he founded the Order of Friars Preachers.

In his conversations and letters he often urged the brothers of the Order to study constantly the Old and New Testaments. He always carried with him the gospel according to Matthew and the epistles of Paul, and so well did he study them that he almost knew them from memory.

Two or three times he was chosen bishop, but he always refused, preferring to live with his brothers in poverty. Throughout his life, he preserved the honor of his virginity. He desired to be scourged and cut to pieces, and so die for the faith of Christ. Of him Pope Gregory IX declared: “I knew him as a steadfast follower of the apostolic way of life. There is no doubt that he is in heaven, sharing in the glory of the apostles themselves.”

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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Friday of the Eighteenth Weekin Ordinary Time

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me…” (Matthew 16:24)

In commenting on this verse from today’s Gospel, Saint John Chrysostom writes:

When did he teach this? When Peter said, “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” And when Peter was told, “Get behind me, Satan,” Jesus did not merely rebuke Peter. He was willing to teach him more fully of the benefit of his Passion and about the exceeding confusion in what Peter had said. So he responds in effect: “Your word to me is that this shall never happen to me, but my word to you is ‘Not only is this hurtful to you, and destructive, to hinder me and be displeased at my Passion.’ But more so it will be impossible for you even to be saved, unless you yourself are continually prepared for death.”

So, lest anyone should imagine that his suffering was unworthy of him, he teaches them what great gain will come from it. This applies not only to his former afflictions but also to those yet to come. Later he will teach in John’s Gospel that “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”8 So he now begins discussing more fully the outworkings of the future, not only with respect to his own suffering and death but with theirs as well. Unwillingness to die is grievous, but to be ready for death is good and of great profit.

Jesus makes this clear by what follows, but for the present he works it out on one side only. Note that he does not say, “You must suffer whether you will it or not.” Rather, he says, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” This is as if to say: “I force no one, I compel no one, but each one I make lord of his own choice. So I say, ‘If any one will.’”(The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 55)

Collect

Draw near to Your servants, O Lord,
and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness,
that, for those who glory in You
as their Creator and Guide,
you may restore what You have created
and keep safe what You have restored.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

I give myself as your spouse for ever.

Saint John of the Cross

Priest and Doctor of the Church

An excerpt from Spiritual Canticle

Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

The soul united to God and transformed in him draws from within God a divine breath, much like the most high God himself. And God, abiding in the soul, breathes forth the life of the soul as its exemplar. This I take to be what Paul meant when he said: Because you are children of God, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father;” this is what takes place in those who have achieved perfection.

One should not wonder that the soul is capable of so sublime an activity. For if God so favors her that she is made God-like by union with the most Holy Trinity, I ask you then, why it should seem so incredible that the soul, at one with the Trinity and in the greatest possible likeness to it, should share the understanding, knowledge and love which God achieves in himself.

How this is possible no other power or wisdom can express, save by explaining how the Son of God obtained this sublime state for us and won for us the power to be the children of God, as he asked of the Father: Father, I desire that where I am those you have given me may also be with me, that they may see the glory you have given me, that is, that they may share with certainty the very task I perform.

And then he said: Not for them alone do I ask but also for those who will come to believe in me through their teaching, that all may be one as you, Father, are one in me and I in you, that they may be one in us; that the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory you have given me I have given them that they may be one as we are. I in them, you in me, that they may be made perfect, and the world will know that you sent me and as you have loved me, so I have loved them.

The Father thus gives them the same love he shares with the Son, though not by nature as with the Son, but through unity and transformation of love. One should not think that the Son is asking the Father to make the saints one with him in essence and nature as the Son is with the Father, but rather that they be united with him in love, just as the Father and Son are one in the essential unity of love. Accordingly, souls possess the same goods by participation that the Son possesses by nature. As a result, they are truly divine by participation, equals and companions of God.

Thus Peter said: May grace and peace be perfected in you in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord. For all things of his divine power, which are given to us for our life and goodness, are given through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and power, by which he has given us great and precious promises, that by these we may be made partakers of the divine nature. So the soul, in this union which God has ordained, joins in the work of the Trinity, not yet fully as in the life to come, but nonetheless even now in a real and perceptible way. O my soul, created to enjoy such exquisite gifts, what are you doing, where is your life going? How wretched is the blindness of Adam’s children, if indeed we are blind to such a brilliant light and deaf to so insistent a voice.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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