Memorial of Saint Barnabas, Apostle



“Then, completing their fasting and prayer, they laid hands on them and sent them off.” (Acts 13:3.)

In commenting on these verses from today’s First Reading, Saint John Chrysostom writes:

“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” What does “worshiping” mean? It means preaching. “Set apart Barnabas and Saul.” What does “set apart for me” mean? It means for the work, for the apostleship. Remember who ordained him? Lucius the Cyrenean and Manaen, or rather, one should say, the Spirit. For the more lowly the personages involved, the more palpable the grace of God. Paul is ordained henceforth to apostleship, to preach with authority. How is it then that he himself says, “Not from men nor by men?” Because it was not humankind that called him or brought him over. This is what “or by men” means. For this reason he says that he was not sent by this man but by the Spirit.” (Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, 27.)


Collect
O God,
Who decreed that Saint Barnabas,
a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit,
should be set apart to convert the nations,
grant that the Gospel of Christ,
which he strenuously preached,
may be faithfully proclaimed by word and by deed.
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.



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

 






You are the light of the world



Saint Chromatius of Aquileia
Bishop and Ancient Christian Writer

An excerpt from Treatise on the Gospel of Saint Matthew

Memorial of Saint Barnabas, Apostle

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp only to put it under a bushel basket; they put it on a stand where it gives light to all in the house. The Lord called his disciples the salt of the earth because they seasoned with heavenly wisdom the hearts of men, rendered insipid by the devil. Now he calls them the light of the world as well, because they have been enlightened by him, the true and everlasting light, and have themselves become a light in the darkness.

Since he is the Sun of Justice, he fittingly calls his disciples the light of the world. The reason for this is that through them, as through shining rays, he has poured out the light of the knowledge of himself upon the entire world. For by manifesting the light of truth, they have dispelled the darkness of error from the hearts of men.

Moreover, we too have been enlightened by them. We have been made light out of darkness as the Apostle says: For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light. He says another time: For you are not sons of the night and of darkness, but you are all sons of light and of the day.

Saint John also rightly asserts in his letter: God is light, and whoever abides in God is in the light just as God himself is in the light. Therefore, because we rejoice in having been freed from the darkness of error, we should always walk in the light as children of light. This is why the Apostle says: Among them you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life.

If we fail to live in the light, we shall, to our condemnation and that of others, be veiling over and obscuring by our infidelity the light men so desperately need. As we know from Scripture, the man who received the talent should have made it produce a heavenly profit, but instead he preferred to hide it away rather than put it to work and was punished as he deserved.

Consequently, that brilliant lamp which was lit for the sake of our salvation should always shine in us. For we have the lamp of the heavenly commandment and spiritual grace, to which David referred: Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Solomon also says this about it: For the command of the law is a lamp.

Therefore, we must not hide this lamp of law and faith. Rather, we must set it up in the Church, as on a lampstand, for the salvation of many, so that we may enjoy the light of truth itself and all believers may be enlightened.

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

 





Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church



“Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala ... ” (John 19:25.)

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

“Mary, the mother of the Lord, stood by her Son’s cross. No one has taught me this but the holy Evangelist John. Others have related how the earth was shaken at the Lord’s passion, the sky was covered with darkness, the sun withdrew itself5 and how the thief was, after a faithful confession, received into paradise.6 John tells us what the others have not told, how the Lord while fixed on the cross called to his mother. He thought it was more important that, victorious over his sufferings, Jesus gave her the offices of piety than that he gave her a heavenly kingdom. For if it is the mark of religion to grant pardon to the thief, it is a mark of much greater piety that a mother is honored with such affection by her Son. “Behold,” he says, “your son.” “Behold your mother.” Christ testified from the cross and divided the offices of piety between the mother and the disciple.

Nor was Mary below what was becoming the mother of Christ. When the apostles fled, she stood at the cross and with pious eyes beheld her Son’s wounds. For she did not look to the death of her offspring but to the salvation of the world. Or perhaps, because that “royal hall”7 knew that the redemption of the world would be through the death of her Son, she thought that by her death she also might add something to that universal gift. But Jesus did not need a helper for the redemption of all, who saved all without a helper.8 This is why he says, “I am counted among those who go down to the pit. I am like those who have no help.”9 He received indeed the affection of his mother but sought not another’s help. Imitate her, holy mothers, who in her only dearly beloved Son set forth so great an example of maternal virtue. For neither have you sweeter children, nor did the Virgin seek the consolation of being able to bear another son.” (Letter 63)



Collect
O God, Father of mercies,
Whose Only Begotten Son,
as He hung upon the Cross, chose the Blessed Virgin Mary, His Mother,
to be our Mother also,
grant, we pray, that with her loving help
Your Church may be more fruitful day by day
and, exulting in the holiness of her children,
may draw to her embrace all the families
of the peoples.
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.



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





Mary’s Motherhood in the Order of Grace



Second Vatican Council

An excerpt from Lumen Gentium, 61-62.

Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

Predestined from eternity by that decree of divine providence which determined the incarnation of the Word to be the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin was on this earth the virgin Mother of the Redeemer, and above all others and in a singular way the generous associate and humble handmaid of the Lord. She conceived, brought forth and nourished Christ. She presented Him to the Father in the temple, and was united with Him by compassion as He died on the Cross. In this singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Saviour in giving back supernatural life to souls. Wherefore she is our mother in the order of grace.

This maternity of Mary in the order of grace began with the consent which she gave in faith at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, and lasts until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this salvific duty, but by her constant intercession continued to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and cultics, until they are led into the happiness of their true home. Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked by the Church under the titles of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix. This, however, is to be so understood that it neither takes away from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficaciousness of Christ the one Mediator.

For no creature could ever be counted as equal with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer. Just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by the ministers and by the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is really communicated in different ways to His creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source.

The Church does not hesitate to profess this subordinate role of Mary. It knows it through unfailing experience of it and commends it to the hearts of the faithful, so that encouraged by this maternal help they may the more intimately adhere to the Mediator and Redeemer.



Collect
O God, Father of mercies,
Whose Only Begotten Son,
as He hung upon the Cross,
chose the Blessed Virgin Mary, His Mother,
to be our Mother also,
grant, we pray, that with her loving help
Your Church may be more fruitful day by day
and, exulting in the holiness of her children,
may draw to her embrace all the families of the peoples.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
one God, for ever and ever.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one 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

 

 





We and the world need peace, but what kind of peace?



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

“On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked,
where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you (εἰρήνη ὑμῖν, eirene humin).”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again,
“Peace be with you (εἰρήνη ὑμῖν, eirene humin).
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”


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

What comes to mind when you hear the word peace? Tranquility? Calmness? A serene mind and ‘quiet’ stomach? Absence of conflict, violence and/or war? The list, no doubt, can go on and on and each word or phrase offers insight into a facet of peace. Both history and contemporary life suggest an elusive quality about peace – we appear to work for peace yet if it happens, it seems to vanish quickly. Even our bodies work for peace (biologically termed homeostasis) in which all bodily processes and operations are ‘standing with each other in balance.’ Yet here again, each of us knows well that such a balance is often temporary.

So what are we to make of Jesus’ address, “Peace be with you”?


As with any of Jesus’ words or action, we must begin any study firmly rooted in the world of His day. As a devout practicing Jewish man, Jesus knew His Tradition well particularly in voicing shalom (peace, εἰρήνη eirene in the Gospel) from the Torah and from the Psalms. Biblically, shalom is about “well being” particularly when it comes to the material necessities of life (cf. salvation from a Hebrew perspective: ‘land that is wide, broad and spacious: so wide, so broad and so spacious that it provides all needed resources to live life). Shalom described the condition wherein all the needed resources for life existed in balance: the right amount of farmable land, a sufficient quantity of food and a proper supply of safe drinking water. When all of these (and other) necessities existed AND existed in balance among each other for the good of living, the condition (or state-of-being) of shalom enveloped life. While a number of cultures in the Ancient Near East would have shared some of this understanding of shalom, the Hebrew people knew that such a condition existed only as God’s gift to them. While they knew there was work involved to bring about and maintain the condition of shalom, no amount of work could bring such a condition into existence if God did not first provide the necessary means for shalom.

With the passing of time, many in Israel viewed shalom in a more political way. Shalom embodied a more immediate concern of ‘absence of conflict,’ particularly with another country. Like many of her contemporaries, Israel knew that when she was not engaged in war with another, prosperity often grew and changed the landscape of life for the better. Yet many of the Prophets reminded Israel of her greater call to live the covenant with God-Who-Is-One. Prophetic shalom instructed Israel that while cessation of conflict is good, there is much more to God’s peace than a practical prosperity. A shalom ‘beyond this world’ soon linked with Israel’s Messianic hopes and dreams to the point that the Messiah would eventually be called ‘He-Who-is-our-shalom.’

In bestowing peace upon the disciples with His address to them, Jesus brings the disciples into a new realm or way of living. The breathing of the Holy Spirit onto and into them not only recalls the “mighty wind sweeping over the waters (Genesis)” at Creation’s birth, but signals an entirely new creation. Imbued with the Holy Spirit, the disciples are drawn more deeply into Trinitarian life and love resulting in being equipped with the necessities for mission, and also to live in a state of “well-being” that unleashes new life, new order, new beauty and new harmony of the Holy Spirit because Jesus is risen and sits now at the right hand of the Father!








Pentecost Sunday



“Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained...” (John 20:23)

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

“Consider the person inspired by Jesus as the apostles were and who can be known by his fruits as someone who has received the Holy Spirit and become spiritual by being led by the Spirit as a son of God to do everything by reason. This person forgives whatever God forgives and retains sins that cannot be healed, serving God like the prophets by speaking not his own words but those of the divine will. So he, too, serves God, who alone has authority to forgive.” (On Prayer, 28.)


Reflections on the Gospel for Pentecost.

Collect
O God,
Who by the mystery of today’s great feast
sanctify your whole Church
in every people and nation,
pour out, we pray, the gifts of the Holy Spirit
across the face of the earth and,
with the divine grace that was at work
when the Gospel was first proclaimed,
fill now once more the hearts of believers.
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.




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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The sending of the Holy Spirit



Saint Irenaeus of Lyons
Bishop, Father of the Church and Martyr

An excerpt from his Against Heresies, Book 1

Pentecost Sunday

When the Lord told his disciples to go and teach all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, he conferred on them the power of giving men new life in God.

He had promised through the prophets that in these last days he would pour out his Spirit on his servants and handmaids, and that they would prophesy. So when the Son of God became the Son of Man, the Spirit also descended upon him, becoming accustomed in this way to dwelling with the human race, to living in men and to inhabiting God’s creation. The Spirit accomplished the Father’s will in men who had grown old in sin, and gave them new life in Christ. Luke says that the Spirit came down on the disciples at Pentecost, after the Lord’s ascension, with power to open the gates of life to all nations and to make known to them the new covenant. So it was that men of every language joined in singing one song of praise to God, and scattered tribes, restored to unity by the Spirit, were offered to the Father as the first-fruits of all the nations.

This was why the Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us as an offering to God. Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above. Through the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body; through the Spirit we have become one in soul.

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of God came down upon the Lord, and the Lord in turn gave this Spirit to his Church, sending the Advocate from heaven into all the world into which, according to his own words, the devil too had been cast down like lightning.

If we are not to be scorched and made unfruitful, we need the dew of God. Since we have our accuser, we need an advocate as well. And so the Lord in his pity for man, who had fallen into the hands of brigands, having himself bound up his wounds and left for his care two coins bearing the royal image, entrusted him to the Holy Spirit. Now, through the Spirit, the image and inscription of the Father and the Son have been given to us, and it is our duty to use the coin committed to

Reflections on the Gospel for Pentecost.


our charge and make it yield a rich profit for the Lord.
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

 






Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs



“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven....” (Matthew 5:10.)

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

“For the sake of justice.” This addition clearly distinguishes the martyr from the robber. For the robber too in return for evil deeds suffers at the law’s hand and doesn’t ask for a prize or garland but instead pays the due penalty. It is not the penalty as such but the basis for the penalty that makes the martyr. Let us first choose the right reason, and then let us endure the penalty without anxiety.

There were three crosses in a single place when Christ suffered: he himself was in the middle, and at his two sides were two robbers. Look at the penalty: it is similar for all three. Yet one of the robbers found paradise on the cross. The man in the middle, judging, condemns the proud man and receives the humble man. That piece of wood served as a judgment seat for Christ. He who judges, who is able to make the judgment correctly, says to the robber who confessed: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” For the robber was humbling himself. Note what he had so simply said, “Remember me, Lord, when you come to your kingdom.” The implication: I know my evil deeds. May I continually be crucified until you come. And because everybody who lowers himself shall be lifted up, Christ immediately expressed his thought and showed his mercy.” (Sermon 53)




Collect
O God, who have made the blood of Martyrs
the seed of Christians,
mercifully grant
that the field which is your Church,
watered by the blood
shed by Saints Charles Lwanga
and his companions,
may be fertile and
always yield you an abundant harvest.
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. 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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Seventh Sunday of Easter



“And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” (John 17:22.)

Saint Gregory of Nyssa (part 2 of the background of Saint Gregory of Nyssa is found here) offers the following insight on this verses from today’s Gospel:

“In giving “all power” to his disciples by his blessing, in his prayer here to the Father he grants many other favors to those who are holy. And he adds this, which is the crown of all blessings, that in all the diversity of life’s decisions they should never be divided greatly in their choice of the good. And so he prays that all “may be one,” united in a single good so that linked “in the bond of peace,” as the apostle says, through “the unity of the [Holy] Spirit,” all might become “one body and one spirit,” through the “one hope” to which they have all been called.

But it would be better here if we would quote the actual words of the Gospel. “That they all may be one,” he says, “as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us.” Now the bond of this unity is glory, and no one who would consider seriously the Lord’s words would deny that this glory is the Holy Spirit. For he says, “The glory that you have given me, I have given to them.” He gave his disciples this glory when he said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And he himself received this glory when he put on human nature, though he had indeed always possessed it since before the beginning of the world. And now that his human nature has been glorified by the Spirit, this participation in the glory of the Spirit is communicated to all who are united with him, beginning with his disciples.” (Homilies on the Song of Songs, 15.)


Collect
Graciously hear our supplications, O Lord,
so that we, who believe
that the Savior of the human race
is with You in Your glory,
may experience, as He promised,
until the end of the world,
His abiding presence among us.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one 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

 


Memorial of Saint Justin of Rome, Martyr



“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Matthew 5:13.)

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

“Salt is useful for so many purposes in human life! What need is there to speak about this? Now is the proper time to say why Jesus’ disciples are compared with salt. Salt preserves meats from decaying into stench and worms. It makes them edible for a longer period. They would not last through time and be found useful without salt. So also Christ’s disciples, standing in the way of the stench that comes from the sins of idolatry and fornication, support and hold together this whole earthly realm.” (Fragment 91.)



Collect
O God, who through the folly of the Cross
wondrously taught Saint Justin the Martyr
the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ,
grant us, through his intercession,
that, having rejected deception and error,
we may become steadfast in the faith.
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.




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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