The double commandment of love

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Bishop and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from A Discourse on John

CHRISTMAS Weekday

The Lord, the teacher of love, full of love, came in person with summary judgment on the world, as had been foretold of him, and showed that the law and the prophets are summed up in two commandments of love.

Call to mind, brethren, what these two commandments are. They ought to be very familiar to you; they should not only spring to mind when I mention them, but ought never to be absent from your hearts. Keep always in mind that we must love God and our neighbor: Love God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

These two commandments must be always in your thoughts and in your hearts, treasured, acted on, fulfilled. Love of God is the first to be commanded, but love of neighbor is the first to be put into practice. In giving two commandments of love Christ would not commend to you first your neighbor and then God but first God and then your neighbor.

Since you do not yet see God, you merit the vision of God by loving your neighbor. By loving your neighbor you prepare your eye to see God. Saint John says clearly: If you do not love your brother whom you see, how will you love God whom you do not see!

Consider what is said to you: Love God. If you say to me: Show me whom I am to love, what shall I say if not what Saint John says: No one has ever seen God! But in case you should think that you are completely cut off from the sight of God, he says: God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God. Love your neighbor, then, and see within yourself the power by which you love your neighbor; there you will see God, as far as you are able.

Begin, then, to love your neighbor. Break your bread to feed the hungry, and bring into your home the homeless poor; if you see someone naked, clothe him, and do not look down on your own flesh and blood.

What will you gain by doing this? Your light will then burst forth like the dawn. Your light is your God; he is your dawn, for he will come to you when the night of time is over. He does not rise or set but remains for ever.

In loving your neighbor and caring for him you are on a journey. Where are you traveling if not to the Lord God, to him whom we should love with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind? We have not yet reached his presence, but we have our neighbor at our side. Support, then, this companion of your pilgrimage if you want to come into the presence of the one with whom you desire to remain for 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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CHRISTMAS: Seventh Day in the Octave

“But you have the anointing that comes from the holy one, and you all have knowledge.” (1 John 2:20.)

Saint Bede the Venerable comments on this verse from today’s First Reading:

“The spiritual anointing is the Holy Spirit himself, who is given in the sacrament of anointing. John says that they all have this anointing and can distinguish good people from evil ones, so that he has no need to teach them what they already know because of their anointing. Because he is talking about heretics in this passage, he points out that they have received their anointing from the Holy One in order to underline the fact that the heretics and all antichrists are deprived of that gift and do not belong to the Lord but rather are servants of Satan.” (On 1 John)

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
Who in the Nativity of Your Son
established the beginning and
fulfillment of all religion,
grant, we pray, that we may be numbered
among those who belong to Him,
in Whom is the fullness of human salvation.
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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In the fullness of time the fullness of divinity appeared

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Abbot and Doctor of the Church

An excerpt from Sermon 1 On the Lord’s Epiphany

Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas

The goodness and humanity of God our Savior have appeared in our midst. We thank God for the many consolations he has given us during this sad exile of our pilgrimage here on earth. Before the Son of God became man his goodness was hidden, for God’s mercy is eternal, but how could such goodness be recognized? It was promised, but it was not experienced, and as a result few have believed in it. Often and in many ways the Lord used to speak through the prophets. Among other things, God said: I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction. But what did men respond, thinking thoughts of affliction and knowing nothing of peace? They said: Peace, peace, there is no peace. This response made the angels of peace weep bitterly, saying: Lord, who has believed our message? But now men believe because they see with their own eyes, and because God’s testimony has now become even more credible. He has gone so far as to pitch his tent in the sun so even the dimmest eyes see him.

Notice that peace is not promised but sent to us; it is no longer deferred, it is given; peace is not prophesied but achieved. It is as if God the Father sent upon the earth a purse full of his mercy. This purse was burst open during the Lord’s passion to pour forth its hidden contents—the price of our redemption. It was only a small purse, but it was very full. As the Scriptures tell us: A little child has been given to us, but in him dwells all the fullness of the divine nature. The fullness of time brought with it the fullness of divinity. God’s Son came in the flesh so that mortal men could see and recognize God’s kindness. When God reveals his humanity, his goodness cannot possibly remain hidden. To show his kindness what more could he do beyond taking my human form? My humanity, I say, not Adam’s—that is, not such as he had before his fall.

How could he have shown his mercy more clearly than by taking on himself our condition? For our sake the Word of God became as grass. What better proof could he have given of his love? Scripture says: Lord, what is man that you are mindful of him; why does your heart go out to him? The incarnation teaches us how much God cares for us and what he thinks and feels about us. We should stop thinking of our own sufferings and remember what he has suffered. Let us think of all the Lord has done for us, and then we shall realize how his goodness appears through his humanity. The lesser he became through his human nature the greater was his goodness; the more he lowered himself for me, the dearer he is to me. The goodness and humanity of God our Savior have appeared, says the Apostle.

Truly great and manifest are the goodness and humanity of God. He has given us a most wonderful proof of his goodness by adding humanity to his own divine nature.

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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CHRISTMAS, Feast of Saint Stephen, First Martyr

“Now Stephen, filled with grace and power, was working great wonders and signs among the people ...” (Acts 6:8)

In commenting upon this verse from today’s Mass Readings, Saint John Chrysostom writes:

“See how even among the seven there was one who was preeminent and who won the first prize. For although the ordination was common to all seven, he drew upon himself greater grace. And notice how he worked no [signs and wonders] before this, but only when he became publicly known. This was to show that the gift of preaching alone is not sufficient and that there is also need of the ordination. Thus was the assistance of the Spirit gained. For if they were full of the Spirit, clearly it came from the bath of baptism.” (Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, 15)

 

Collect

Grant, Lord, we pray,
that we may imitate what we worship,
and so learn to love even our enemies,
for we celebrate the heavenly birthday
of a man who knew
how to pray even for his persecutors.
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

SOLEMNITY: Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one bringing good news, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, saying to Zion, “Your God is King!”” (Isaiah 52:7.)

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

“How are beautiful are the feet of those who announce good things!” Since Isaiah perceived the beautiful and opportune preaching of the apostles who follow the One who said, “I am the way,” he praises the feet that proceed over the intelligible way, which is Christ Jesus, and go in to God through the door. Those whose feet are beautiful announce Jesus as “good tidings.”” (Commentary on the Gospel of John, 1.)

Reflection on Luke 2, ‘an inn’ ...

Collect

O God,
Who wonderfully created
the dignity of human nature
and still more wonderfully restored it,
grant, we pray,
that we may share in the divinity of Christ,
who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
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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ADVENT, Week 4: Saturday (24 December)

“... when your days have been completed and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, sprung from your loins, and I will establish his kingdom. ... ” (II Samuel 7:12.)

Saint Basil the Great offers the following insight on this verse from today's First Reading:

“However, the tribe of Judah did not fail until he came for whom it was reserved, who did not himself sit upon a material throne, for the kingdom of Judea had now been transferred to Herod, the son of Antipater, the Ascalonite, and to his sons, who divided Judea into four provinces when Pilate was governor and Tiberius held the power over the whole Roman province. But his indestructible kingdom he calls the throne of David on which the Lord sat. He himself is “the expectation of nations,” not of the least part of the world. “For there will be the root of Jesse,” it is said, “and he who rises up to rule the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles will hope.” “For I have placed you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.” “And I shall establish,” it is said, “his seed forever, and his throne as the days of the heavens.” (Letter 236)

Collect

Come quickly, we pray, Lord Jesus,
and do not delay,
that those who trust in your compassion
may find solace and relief in your coming.
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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ADVENT, Week 3: Friday

“Them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (Isaiah 56:7.)

Saint Jerome offers the following insight on this verses from today’s First Reading:

“Is it not written, “He says, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’”? We read this in Isaiah: “But you have made it a den of thieves.” Where we read, “You have made it a den of thieves,” John’s Gospel had instead, “You have made it a house of business.” Wherever there are thieves, there is a house of trafficking. Would that it were applied only to the Jews and not the Christians! We would, indeed, weep for them but rejoice for ourselves. But now, in many places, the house of God, the house of the Father, has become a place of business. I who am speaking and each one of you, priest, deacon or bishop, who yesterday was a poor man, who today is a rich man in the house of God!” (Homilies on Mark, 83.)

Collect

May Your grace, Almighty God,
always go before us and follow after,
so that we, who await with heartfelt desire
the coming of Your Only Begotten Son,
may receive Your help
both now and in the life to come. 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 desire of your heart constitutes your prayer

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Bishop and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from A Discourse on the Psalms (Psalm 37)

ADVENT, Week 3: Friday

In the anguish of my heart I groaned aloud. There is a hidden anguish which is inaudible to men. Yet when a man’s heart is so taken up with some particular concern that the hurt inside finds vocal expression, one looks for the reason. And one will say to oneself: perhaps this is what causes his anguish, or perhaps such and such had happened to him. But who can be certain of the cause except God, who hears and sees his anguish? Therefore the psalmist says: In the anguish of my heart I groaned aloud. For if men hear at all, they usually hear only bodily groaning and know nothing of the anguish of the heart from which it issues.

Who then knows the cause of man’s groaning? All my desire is before you. No, it is not open before other men, for they cannot understand the heart; but before you is all my desire. If your desire lies open to him who is your Father and who sees in secret, he will answer you.

For the desire of your heart is itself your prayer. And if the desire is constant, so is your prayer. The Apostle Paul had a purpose in saying: Pray without ceasing. Are we then ceaselessly to bend our knees, to lie prostrate, or to lift up our hands? Is this what is meant in saying: Pray without ceasing? Even if we admit that we pray in this fashion, I do not believe that we can do so all the time.

Yet there is another, interior kind of prayer without ceasing, namely, the desire of the heart. Whatever else you may be doing, if you but fix your desire on God’s Sabbath rest, your prayer will be ceaseless. Therefore, if you wish to pray without ceasing, do not cease to desire.

The constancy of your desire will itself be the ceaseless voice of your prayer. And that voice of your prayer will be silent only when your love ceases. For who are silent? Those of whom it is said: Because evil has abounded, the love of many will grow cold.

The chilling of love means that the heart is silent; while burning love is the outcry of the heart. If your love is without ceasing, you are crying out always; if you always cry out, you are always desiring; and if you desire, you are calling to mind your eternal rest in the Lord.

And all my desire is before you. What if the desire of our heart is before him, but not our groaning? But how is that possible, since the groaning is the voice of our desire? And therefore it is said: My groaning is not concealed from you. It may be concealed from men, but it is not concealed from you. Sometimes God’s servant seems to be saying in his humility: My anguish is not concealed from you. At other times he seems to be laughing. Does that mean that the desire of his heart has died within him? If the desire is there, then the groaning is there as well. Even if men fail to hear it, it never ceases to sound in the hearing 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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Seminarians and the Fathers of the Church

One of the highlights of the Patrology course at Saint Charles Seminary is the semester-ending creative presenation and application of a Church Father. The course is part of the required theology core curriculum for all seminarians in the Theological Seminary. The seminarians in various periods of formation (Pre-Theology, First, and Second Theology) worked this semester on Saint John Chrysostom’s On Marriage and Family Life.

In this patristic text, the saintly Father of the Church addressed pertinent topics associated with marriage and family living over the course of four homilies. The seminarians, divided into 4 groups, were charged with using 1 of Chrysostom’s homilies and incorporating that into a setting and application of their choice. Each presentation made good use of technology and some demonstrated great abilities in the use of video and presentation software. Each group prepared a short annotated bibliography for additional spiritual reading and prayer. With a little tweaking, each presentation is ‘ready-to-go’ and can be used easily in parishes and PreCana gatherings.

John (left, Allentown) and Sean (right, Arlington) used Saint John’s homily on 1 Corinthians 7 (Homily XIX) in the setting of a parish retreat for single young adults. As the first group to present, Sean and John gave a brief overview of Chrysostom’s life, noting that he was raised by a single mom who experienced economic hardships; biographical points quite significant given the Saint’s reflections on marriage and family living. Following the biography, John and Sean stressed Chrysostom’s insistance that whether married or celibate heaven is the singular goal of all that is done in this earthly way of living. Creatively, Sean and John used brief video interviews with young adults to sample their descriptions of heaven and marriage. In doing so, the presentation garnered a sampling of views to frame a response grounded in Saint John’s insights. Life ordered to heaven in Christ Jesus repeatedly surfaced in the presentation as the essential virtue for Christian living.

Frank (left, Trenton), August (center, Philadelphia) and Louis (right, Philadelphia) used the occasion of a men’s retreat to sound Chrysostom’s insights on marriage and family living found in Homily XX (Ephesians 5). In an amusing video capturing a meeting of a young man talking with his parish priest about getting married, the presentation initially explored the meaning of Christian love and the challenge such a love has for both marriage and daily Christian living. Linked to Saint Thomas Aquinas’ description of love as ‘to will the good of the other,’ the presentation challenged men to be models of prayer in the family. A life of prayer within the family necessitates prioritizing the responsibilities of life in such a way that one’s eyes are always on Jesus Christ. The group incorporated reflections from Archbishop Chaput wherein he elucidated 10 specific ways to help put life’s demands in proper order. The presentation ended on a summative note focusing on humility as a way of living vital for marriage, family living and indeed the whole of life in Christ.

The ‘Hebrew trio’ David (left, Philadelphia), Jacob (center, Arlington) and Caleb (right, Lincoln) used clips from film and media to survey contemporary approaches to marriage and family living. The group offered a critique of these clips in light of Saint John’s Homily XXI (Ephesians 6) noting his “firm” and “gentle” wisdom concerning marriage and family living. The presentation called attention to Chrysostom’s insistence that family living is essentially a “pattern of life” in which all members of a family, particularly children, are afforded the opportunity to grow in the ‘immaterial goods’ of Divine grace to become not just ‘good or nice’ persons but “holy people” after the pattern of Jesus Himself. While parents have a duty to form children in the natural virtues, it is imperative that children know and strive for the perfection of holiness initially ‘seeing’ such holiness in their parents who live the supernatural virtues. This ‘pattern of holiness’ will assist children to long for lasting and permanent goods reflecting the very life of Jesus.  

Jamie (left, Philadelphia) and Alec (right, Lincoln), presenting on Chrysostom’s Homily XII (Colossians 4), showed just how practical and timely the Fathers of the Church can be in offering insight to our present age. In this Homily, Saint John strongly critiqued the wedding receptions of his day for their outlandish practices that did not reflect the dignity of the Marriage Rite celebrated earlier in the day. The presentation noted that Chrysostom certainly affirmed joy-filled celebrations of Marriage but railed against festivities that detracted from the mystery and beauty of Marriage. Employing a number of texts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Jamie and Alec demonstrated Marriage’s dignity as a Sacrament and why the Church and Saint John hold marriage in such high regard. The presentation concluded on a note of exhortation to engaged couples to use the time prior to the weddings to grow spiritually as a couple in the Lord.

ADVENT, Week 3: Thursday

“This is for me like the days of Noah: As I swore then that the waters of Noah should never again flood the earth, So I have sworn now not to be angry with you, or to rebuke you.” (Isaiah 54:9.)

Saint Jerome offers the following insight on this verses from today’s First Reading:

“The sense that the Septuagint gives is confused and all things are disordered, so that what is said is hard to understand. It is not that I do not know what that very wise man has said on this chapter but rather that it does not satisfy my mind. For he takes it to be about a figurative flood that means the Savior’s baptism that in baptism he removed all sins. In this figure the water cleanses us, not washing away the dirtiness of flesh but by the appeal of a good conscience to God. The mountains and the hills are those saints who were not moved in the flood of this sort, having accepted the eternal covenant, although in the previous flood they were moved, but they left their weakness behind.” (Commentary on Isaiah, 15.)

Collect

Unworthy servants that we are, O Lord,
grieved by the guilt of our deeds,
we pray that You may gladden us
by the saving advent
of Your Only Begotten 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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Christ brings all revelation to perfection

Second Vatican Council

An excerpt from Dei Verbum, 3-4.

ADVENT, Week 3: Thursday

God, who through the Word creates all things and keeps them in being, provides men with unfailing testimony to himself in creation. With the intention of opening up the way of salvation from above, he also revealed himself to our first parents from the very beginning.

After their fall, he lifted them up to hope for salvation by the promise of redemption, and watched over mankind with unceasing care, in order that he might give eternal life to all who in persevering in good works seek out salvation.

In his own good time God called Abraham, to make of him a mighty nation. After the patriarchs, he taught this nation through Moses and the prophets to acknowledge himself alone as the living and true God, a provident father and just judge, and to look forward to the promised Savior. So, through the ages, he prepared a way for the Gospel. After speaking at various times and in different ways through the prophets, God has finally spoken to us in these days through the Son.

He sent his Son, the eternal Word who enlightens all men, to dwell among men and make known to them the innermost things of God. Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, sent as a man to men, speaks the words of God, and brings to perfection the saving work that the Father gave him to do.

To see him is to see the Father also. By his whole presence and self-revelation, by words and actions, by signs and miracles, especially by his death and glorious resurrection from the dead, and finally by sending the Spirit of truth, he completes revelation and brings it to perfection, sealing by divine testimony its message that God is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to eternal life.

The Christian dispensation, because it is the new and definitive covenant, will never pass away, and no new public revelation is any longer to be looked for before the manifestation in glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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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ADVENT, Week 2: Saturday

“Then the disciples asked him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”” (Matthew 17:10.)

Saint Jerome offers the following insight on this verses from today’s Gospel:

“Unless we know the reasons why the disciples asked about the name of Elijah, their questioning seems foolish and extraordinary. For what does asking about Elijah’s arrival have to do with what was written above? The Pharisees’ tradition, following the prophet Malachi of the twelve minor prophets, is that Elijah comes before the end. He turns the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers and restores everything to its ancient state. So the disciples think that the transfiguration of glory is the one that they have seen on the mountain and say, “If you now have come in glory, why does your precursor not appear?” especially since they had seen Elijah disappear. But when they say, “The scribes say that Elijah must first come,” by the word first they are saying that unless Elijah comes, it is not the advent of the Savior according to the Scriptures.” (Commentary on Matthew, 3.)

Collect

May the splendor of your glory dawn in our hearts,
we pray, almighty God,
that all shadows of the night may be scattered
and we may be shown to be children of light
by the advent of your Only Begotten 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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Optional Memorial: Saint Nicholas, Bishop

“A voice says, “Proclaim!” I answer, “What shall I proclaim?” “All flesh is grass, and all their loyalty like the flower of the field.” (Isaiah 40:6.)

Saint Basil the Great offers the following insight on this verse from today’s First Reading:

“The voice of the Lord is on the waters.” In many places you might find the word voice occurring. Therefore, for the sake of understanding what the voice of the Lord is, we should gather, as far as we are able, from the divine Scripture what has been said about the voice; for instance, in the divine warning to Abraham: “And immediately the voice came to him: He shall not be your heir.” And in Moses: “And all the people saw the voice and the flames.” Again in Isaiah: “The voice of one saying, Cry.” With us, then, voice is either air that has been struck or some form that is in the air against which he who is crying out wishes to strike. Now, what is the voice of the Lord? Would it be considered the impact on the air? Or air, which has been struck reaching the hearing of him to whom the voice comes? Or neither of these but that this is a voice of another kind, namely, an image formed by the mind of people whom God wishes to hear his own voice, so that they have this representation corresponding to that which frequently occurs in their dreams? Indeed, just as, although the air is not struck, we keep some recollection of certain words and sounds occurring in our dreams, not receiving the voice through our hearing but through the impression on our heart itself, so also we must believe that some such voice from God appeared in the prophets.” (Homilies on the Psalms (Psalm 28), 13.)

Collect

We humbly implore your mercy, Lord:
protect us in all dangers
through the prayers
of the Bishop Saint Nicholas,
that the way of salvation
may lie open before us.
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 strength of love ought to overcome the fear of death

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Bishop and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from A Treatise on John

OPTIONAL MEMORIAL: Saint Nicholas, Bishop

When the Lord asks Peter if he loves him, he is asking something he already knows. Yet he does not ask only once, but a second and third time. Each time Peter’s answer is the same: You know I love you. Each time the Lord gives him the same command: Tend my sheep.

Peter had denied Christ three times, and to counter this he must profess his faith three times. Otherwise his tongue would seem quicker to serve fear than love, and the threat of death would seem to have made him more eloquent than did the presence of life. If denying the shepherd was proof of fear, then the task of love is to tend his flock.

When those who are tending Christ’s flock wish that the sheep were theirs rather than his, they stand convicted of loving themselves, not Christ. And the Lord’s words are a repeated admonition to them and to all who, as Paul writes sadly, are seeking their own ends, not Christ’s.

Do you love me? Tend my sheep. Surely this means: “If you love me, your thoughts must focus on taking care of my sheep, not taking care of yourself. You must tend them as mine, not as yours; seek in them my glory, not yours; my sovereign rights, not yours; my gain, not yours. Otherwise you will find yourself among those who belong to the ‘times of peril,’ those who are guilty of self-love and the other sins that go with that beginning of evils.”

So the shepherds of Christ’s flock must never indulge in self-love; if they do they will be tending the sheep not as Christ’s but as their own. And of all vices this is the one that the shepherds must guard against most earnestly; seeking their own purposes instead of Christ’s, furthering their own desires by means of those persons for whom Christ shed his blood.

The love of Christ ought to reach such a spiritual pitch in his shepherds that it overcomes the natural fear of death which makes us shrink from the thought of dying even though we desire to live with Christ. However distressful death may be, the strength of love ought to master the distress. I mean the love we have for Christ who, although he is our life, consented to suffer death for our sake.

Consider this: if death held little or no distress for us, the glory of martyrdom would be less. But if the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for his sheep, has made so many of those same sheep martyrs and witnesses for him, then how much more ought Christ’s shepherds fight for the truth even to death and to shed their blood in opposing sin? After all, the Lord has entrusted them with tending his flock and with teaching and guiding his lambs.

With his passion for their example, Christ’s shepherds are most certainly bound to cling to the pattern of his suffering, since even the lambs have so often followed that pattern of the Chief Shepherd in whose one flock the shepherds themselves are lambs. For the Good Shepherd who suffered for all mankind has made all mankind his lambs, since in order to suffer for them all he made himself a lamb.

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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Monday of the Second Week of Advent

“The wilderness and the parched land will exult; the Arabah will rejoice and bloom ...” (Isaiah 35:1.)

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

“I said, “What are the fire, the gulf, or the other things which are mentioned, if they are not what they are said to be?”

“And where shall we place that oracle of Isaiah, which cries to the wilderness, “Be glad, O thirsty wilderness. Let the desert rejoice and blossom as a lily, and the desolate places of Jordan shall blossom and shall rejoice”? For it is clear that it is not to places without soul or sense that he proclaims the good tidings of joy, but he speaks, by the figure of the desert, of the soul that is parched and unadorned.

And “the excellence of Carmel” is given to the soul that bears the likeness to the desert, that is, the grace bestowed through the Spirit. For since Elijah dwelt in Carmel, and the mountain became famous and renowned by the virtue of him who dwelt there, and since moreover John the Baptist, illustrious in the spirit of Elijah, sanctified the Jordan, therefore the prophet foretold that “the excellence of Carmel” should be given to the river.

And “the glory of Lebanon,” from the similitude of its lofty trees, he transfers to the river. For as great Lebanon presents a sufficient cause of wonder in the very trees that it brings forth and nourishes, so is the Jordan glorified by regenerating people and planting them in the paradise of God. And of them, as the words of the psalmist say, ever blooming and bearing the foliage of virtues, “the leaf shall not wither,” and God shall be glad, receiving their fruit in due season, rejoicing, like a good planter, in his own works.” (On the Baptism of Christ)

Collect

May our prayer of petition
rise before you, we pray, O Lord,
that, with purity unblemished,
we, your servants, may come, as we desire,
to celebrate the great mystery
of the Incarnation of your Only Begotten 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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ADVENT, Week 2: Sunday

“But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.” (Isaiah 11:1.)

Saint Jerome offers the following insight on this verses from today’s First Reading:

“Until the beginning of the vision, or the burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amos saw, his entire prophecy was about Christ, a prophecy that we want to explain piecemeal lest the ideas and discussions thereof together confuse the reader’s memory. The Jews interpreted the branch and the flower from the root of Jesse to be the Lord himself because the power of his governance is demonstrated in the branch and his beauty in the flower. But we understand the branch from the root of Jesse to be the holy Virgin Mary, who had no shoot connatural to herself. About her we read above: “Behold, a virgin will conceive and bear a son.” And the flower is the Lord our Savior, who said in the Song of Songs, “I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys.” In place of “root,” which only the Septuagint translated, the Hebrew text has geza, which Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotus interpret as kormon, that is, “stem.” And they translated “flower,” which the Hebrew text calls nēṣer, as “bud” to show that after a long time in Babylonian captivity, no longer possessing any glory from the sprout of the old kingdom of David, Christ would rise from Mary as though from her stem. The educated of the Hebrews believe that what all the ecclesiastics sought in the Gospel of Matthew but could not find, where it was written “Because he will be called a Nazarene,” was taken from this place. But it should be noted that nēṣer was written here with the [Hebrew] letter ṣade [צ], the peculiar sound of which—somewhere between z and s—the Latin language does not express.” (Commentary on Isaiah, 4.)


Reflection on the command of this Sunday’s Gospel to prepare.

Collect

Almighty and merciful God,
may no earthly undertaking hinder those
who set out in haste to meet your Son,
but may our learning of heavenly wisdom
gain us admittance into his company.
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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MEMORIAL: Saint Francis Xavier, Priest

“Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few...” (Matthew 9:37.)

Saint Jerome offers the following insight on this verses from today’s Gospel:

“An abundant harvest signified the multitude of people. The few laborers signified the dearth of teachers. He commands them to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. These are the laborers of whom the psalmist speaks: “May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy! He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.” And that I may speak in broader terms: an abundant harvest represents all the believing multitude. The few laborers imply the apostles and their imitators who are sent to the harvest.” (Commentary on Matthew, 1.)

Collect

O God,
Who through the preaching of Saint Francis Xavier
won many peoples to Yourself,
grant that the hearts of the faithful
may burn with the same zeal for the faith
and that Holy Church may everywhere rejoice
in an abundance of offspring.
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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Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel

Saint Francis Xavier

Priest and Missionary

An excerpt from Letters to Saint Ignatius

Memorial: Saint Francis Xavier

We have visited the villages of the new converts who accepted the Christian religion a few years ago. No Portuguese live here—the country is so utterly barren and poor. The native Christians have no priests. They know only that they are Christians. There is nobody to say Mass for them; nobody to teach them the Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Commandments of God’s Law.

I have not stopped since the day I arrived. I conscientiously made the rounds of the villages. I bathed in the sacred waters all the children who had not yet been baptized. This means that I have purified a very large number of children so young that, as the saying goes, they could not tell their right hand from their left. The older children would not let me say my Office or eat or sleep until I taught them one prayer or another. Then I began to understand: The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

I could not refuse so devout a request without failing in devotion myself. I taught them, first the confession of faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, then the Apostles’ Creed, the Our Father and Hail Mary. I noticed among them persons of great intelligence. If only someone could educate them in the Christian way of life, I have no doubt that they would make excellent Christians.

Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians. Again and again I have thought of going round the universities of Europe, especially Paris, and everywhere crying out like a madman, riveting the attention of those with more learning than charity: “What a tragedy: how many souls are being shut out of heaven and falling into hell, thanks to you!”

I wish they would work as hard at this as they do at their books, and so settle their account with God for their learning and the talents entrusted to them.

This thought would certainly stir most of them to meditate on spiritual realities, to listen actively to what God is saying to them. They would forget their own desires, their human affairs, and give themselves over entirely to God’s will and his choice. They would cry out with all their heart: Lord, I am here! What do you want me to do? Send me anywhere you like—even to India.

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 ‘problem’ of Advent

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

“They shall beat (כָּתַת, katat) their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks ...”

(Isaiah 2:4.)

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

There is a problem with Advent.

You read it correctly and it bears repeating: there is a problem with Advent! Consider the Church’s description of Advent: “Advent has a twofold character, for it is a time of preparation for the Solemnities of Christmas, in which the First Coming of the Son of God to humanity is remembered, and likewise a time when, by remembrance (recall last week’s Word of THE WORD on the significance of “to remember”) of this, minds and hearts are led to look forward to Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time. For these two reasons, Advent is a period of devout and expectant delight.” (Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and Calendar, 39.) The ‘problem’ lies not in the relatively short span of time, although Advent is the ‘longest’ it can be this year - a full 4 weeks. The ‘problem’ lies not in the hustle and bustle of decorating, gift purchases, parties, food preparation and family gatherings. The ‘problem’ with Advent is that we know how it ends, or so we think.

The Church describes this holy Season as “preparation for the Solemnities of Christmas” and as a period of “expectant delight.” Generally, when any of us prepares for and expects some reality, there are varying levels of certitude concerning the result. Ask anyone in the construction trades. When it comes to building and especially remodeling, there are plans as well as some visualization of the completed project. Invariably though, one runs into unexpected obstacles along the way that necessitate change orders causing a slightly (hopefully!) different outcome. Even when the there are no change orders or the ones that happen to be minimal, it is a wonderful experience to see ‘the look’ on people’s faces when the job is complete. No matter how the end had been pictured in one’s mind, the end reality is always greater and comes as a delightful surprise.

It is this sense of the unexpected or uncertainty that forms Advent’s challenge and opportunity giving rise to the question, ‘how can I be drawn into Advent?’ The question initially sounds odd because the question ‘how’ often returns the answer what I do, what I initiate, plan and execute. Yet Advent, like all dimensions of Christian living, is pure, gratuitous grace. We can only respond, we cannot initiate. This is what got us into trouble in the Garden as an anonymous Rabbi of antiquity mused. ‘While God rested on the Seventh Day humanity, unwilling to accept the Creator’s rest, initiated an attempt to create god’ – the biblical equivalent of idolatry: the fashioning of ‘god’ according to human desire and outlook.

Like Advents before, we will be schooled in ‘Adventing’ this Season of preparing and expecting by the quintessential prophet of hope, Isaiah. He teaches us just about every day of Advent how to respond to the grace of preparing and expecting the Messiah. While always acknowledging and living the otherness of God, Isaiah is also profoundly concrete and earthy in that God is not a distant or disconnected energy, cosmic force or ethereal goo but a Person whose invitations to humanity are always the product of infinite life and love. Isaiah contemplated (saw) this life and love “in days to come” when “They shall beat (כָּתַת, katat) their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” (Isaiah 2:4) Beat as well as swords, plowshares, spears and pruning hooks are graphic, earthy and they recall for Isaiah the reflective teaching of Moses as well as life in the Garden.

Employing a principle from the great Alexandrian scholar, exegete and martyr - Origen - who proposed to let ‘Scripture interpret Scripture,’ the Hebrew verb כָּתַת (katat, to beat) expressed a military objective of ‘beating back’ or ‘keeping the enemy at bay.’ In the journey of the Hebrew people from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land, Moses navigated the Chosen People through many dangers. Sometimes those dangers involved battles like the one with Amalek. In the unfolding of Biblical living and reflecting, such battles became identified with the individual and communal battles against sin in all its forms. One and all had to harness, through proper discernment, all talents, skills, abilities and gifts and place them in the service to combat threats to life and love.

But there was another threat Moses knew too well, idolatry. In Deuteronomy 9, Moses minced no words about how the Golden Calf angered God and himself. But one can also detect in Moses disappointment, hurt and even a broken heart when he saw the idol and the consequent idolatrous living because humanity had once again ingested the toxin of death-dealing sin. “Then, taking the calf, the sinful object you had made, I burnt it and ground (כָּתַת, katat) it down to powder as fine as dust, which I threw into the wadi (stream, source of drinking water in the desert) that went down the mountainside.” (verse 21) The implication here is that the object of their idolatry ultimately was consumed in a way like humanity’s consumption of fruit in the Garden that attempted to create another god the first time. כָּתַת (katat, translated here “to ground”) is couched in the context of idolatry, the failure not only to recognize the One God but to attempt the creation of a god of one’s own making and projecting.

So, in the end one might argue that Advent’s ‘problem’ is our Lord’s gift to us. We intellectually know how this Season of preparing and expecting ends. In this Liturgical Year when the Gospel according to Saint Matthew is proclaimed on Sundays, we know that Saint Joseph is directed to name Mary’s child Yeshua (“Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” [Matthew 1:21]) and as a result “they shall name Him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” (Matthew 1:23). Being drawn into Advent as a way of living is to honestly admit and deal with the idols of our lives: any reality (realities) that is not (are not) the authentic, genuine “God-is-with-us.” And so, each of us must ask: what are the realities that dictate my decisions? (The very fact that that there are multiple realities is an indication of sin as ‘they’ stand in opposition to God Who is One.) Is it ‘my’ time and how it is used even when it comes to the life of God (Worship) and other people (charitable service)? Is it ‘my’ money and its selfish acquisition? Is it ‘my’ possessions and hoarding when I know the poor can benefit? Is it ‘my’ objectifying of people and using them for my pleasure and benefit? Is it ‘my’ sense of entitlement without responsibility and thanksgiving? Is it ‘my’ supposed quest for tolerance that is ultimately an intolerance for Truth? Is it finding ‘my’ comfort in behaviors or substances? Is it ‘my’ quest for power that manipulates and deceives? Obviously, the list to examine where each of us stands can go on and on. The urgent task of Advent is to bring them to the Door of Mercy Who stands open 24/7/365. The Door of Mercy stands open, not because the weapons of swords and spears forcibly move God the Father of mercies. In love, the cosmos came into being and in love humanity was summoned to cultivate and care for that same cosmos. “Plowshares” and “pruning hooks” are the tools we have been given for this cultivating work that keeps sin at bay and eyes fixed always on the One God of love. A plow digs into the earth. There are no pretensions. Earth is earth, life is life and one gets dirty. This “work of human hands” not only keeps one ‘grounded’ but also thankful for the resources provided as gift. The dirt is not the dirt of sin but of authenticity and genuineness, thus the virtue of humility. Similarly, “pruning hooks” (think perhaps of ‘garden shears’) are the “work of human hands” ‘stained’ by what they prune and cut. Again, no pretension, no duplicity, no falsity only an honest admission and genuine embrace of life in an earthy way that, while painful, effects growth (see John 15).

Thus, one may consider the ‘problem’ of Advent to be the challenge to face the idolatry of sin in one’s life and approach this reality non-defensively by admitting, “Lord be merciful to me a sinner.” Idols distort our senses, mind and heart along while numbing us at the same time to the reality of sin. If you do not know what sin is or what your sins are (a question I hear quite often within and without the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation), ask Holy Spirit to bathe you in the light of His healing mercy (Saint Gregory of Nazianzus) and then act IMMEDIATELY on the knowledge you are given. Do not procrastinate! This Advent can be the season when each of us admits what idols do and realize why we need a life-giving relationship with ‘God-in-the-flesh’ — Jesus. As Emmanuel, Jesus is God-with-us most especially as we receive Him in the Most Holy Eucharist. He is the antidote for the poisoned food consumed in the Garden. He is the antidote for the toxic idols we have drunk into our nature. Let today be the Day Isaiah saw when we allow Jesus, Emmanuel to crush all the idols in our lives and so live in the loving freedom He gives as pure gift with senses, mind and heart fixed on Him.

ADVENT Week 1: Sunday and Tertullian of Carthage

“He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again...” (Isaiah 2:4.)

Tertullian of Carthage comments on this verse from the First Reading proclaimed at Mass today:

“The gospel will be this “way” of the new law and the new word in Christ, no longer in Moses. “And he shall judge among the nations,” even concerning their error. “And these shall rebuke a large nation,” that of the Jews themselves and their proselytes. “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares;” in other words, they shall change into pursuits of moderation and peace the dispositions of injurious minds, hostile tongues and all kinds of evil and blasphemy. You learn here that Christ is promised not as powerful in war but pursuing peace.

Long ago did Isaiah declare that “out of Zion should go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,” some other law, that is, and another word. In short, he says, “He shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people,” meaning not those of the Jewish people only, but also of the nations which are judged by the new law of the gospel and the new word of the apostles, and are among themselves rebuked of their old error as soon as they have believed. And as the result of this, “They beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears (which are a kind of hunting instrument) into pruning hooks.” That is to say, minds that once were fierce and cruel are changed by the gospel and the word of the apostles into good dispositions productive of good fruit.” (Against Marcion, 3 and 4.)



Reflections on this Sunday’s First Reading in the context of the Season of Advent.

Collect

Grant Your faithful, we pray, almighty God,
the resolve to run forth to meet Your Christ
with righteous deeds at His coming,
so that, gathered at His right hand,
they may be worthy
to possess the heavenly Kingdom.
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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Thanksgiving Day (USA)

“And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” As they were going they were cleansed.” (Luke 17:14)

In commenting on this verse from the Gospel according to Saint Luke from today’s Gospel, Cyril of Alexandria writes:

“Why did he not say, “I will, be cleansed,” as he did in the case of another leper, instead of commanding them to show themselves to the priests? It was because the law gave directions to this effect to those who were delivered from leprosy. It commanded them to show themselves to the priests and to offer a sacrifice for their cleansing. He commanded them to go as being already healed so that they might bear witness to the priests, the rulers of the Jews and always envious of his glory. They testified that wonderfully and beyond their hope, they had been delivered from their misfortune by Christ’s willing that they should be healed. He did not heal them first but sent them to the priests, because the priests knew the marks of leprosy and of its healing.” (Commentary on Luke, Homily 113-116)

Collect

Father all-powerful,
Your gifts of love are countless and
Your goodness infinite;
as we come before you on Thanksgiving Day
with gratitude for your kindness,
open our hearts to have concern
for every man, woman, and child,
so that we may share your gifts in loving service.
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

Memorial: Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

“When he looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury.” (Luke 21:1.)

Saint Cyprian of Carthage comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“You that are rich cannot do good works in the church, because your eyes, saturated with blackness and covered with the shadows of night, do not see the needy and the poor. Do you, rich and wealthy, think that you celebrate the Lord’s feast? You do not at all consider the offering. You come to the Lord’s feast without a sacrificial offering and take a part of the sacrifice that the poor offered. Look in the Gospel at the widow mindful of the heavenly commandments, doing good in the very middle of the pressures and hardships of poverty. She throws two mites that were her only possessions into the treasury…. She was a greatly blessed and glorious woman, who even before the judgment day merited to be praised by the voice of the Judge. Let the rich be ashamed of their sterility and their misfortunes. A poor widow is found with an offering. Although all things that are given are given to orphans and widows, she who should receive gives that we may know what punishment awaits the rich person. By this teaching, even the poor should do good. We should understand that these works are given to God and that whoever does these deserves well of God. Christ therefore calls these “gifts of God” and points out that the widow has placed two mites among the gifts of God, that it can be more apparent that he who pities the poor lends to God.” (Works and Almsgiving, 15.)

Collect

As we venerate the glorious memory
of the most holy Virgin Mary,
grant, we pray, O Lord,
through her intercession,
that we, too, may merit to receive
from the fullness of Your grace.
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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