Humility: a graced strength, not a door mat

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

“Humbly (πραΰτητι prautēti)
welcome (δέξασθε dexasthe) the word
that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.
Be doers of the word and not hearers only,
deluding yourselves.”


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

With the return to the continuous proclamation from the Gospel according to Mark this Sunday, another blessing befalls us in listening to the Word of God this Sunday: all three proclamations center on the authentic reception of the Lord’s Word and translating that reception into proper action. Deuteronomy records Moses’ instruction concerning the “statues and decrees” and how blessed Israel is to know exactly how to respond to the Lord’s providential care and blessings - especially the land promised (with all of its resources for life) to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. James not only echoes the Commandments but hits the core of them by reminding his listeners of the imperative to care for the vulnerable among us in a proper way. In a similar way, Jesus’ instruction to the crowd addresses distortions that crept into living the Commandments and what exactly defiles a person in the eyes of His and our Father. While all three of these proclamations take up a similar lesson this Sunday, it is important to look at another dimension of ‘doing’ or acting on the Word: just how are the teachings of the Word to be lived? To gain some insight to this question, we turn to God’s Word from the Letter of James.


We are told this Sunday to “Humbly welcome …” πραΰτης (prautes), translated “humbly” in the Sacred Text, is generally understood as “mild,” “meek” or “gentle” in antiquity. It describes an attitude or demeanor regarding how one presents oneself to another. Actions that are πραΰτης are devoid of anger and harshness. As used in some ancient texts, πραΰτης describes how a person expresses himself or herself in speech: ‘soft’ enough so that one is able to listen simultaneously to the word of the other. More typical though, πραΰτης expresses a twofold action characterized by a balance between gentility in reception coupled with strength and conviction to accomplish that which has been received. In other words, πραΰτης is not about being “mild, meek or gentle” to the point of people walking all over you. πραΰτης is not suggesting that a person must become a doormat or never stand up to injustice or oppression; quite the opposite. πραΰτης (prautes) is a thoughtful, insightful acting that listens to the other and seeks the ‘big-picture’ avoiding a mindless (and heartless) rushing head-strong into a situation that imposes ‘my way.’ As far as the Letter of James is concerned, there is certainly a job that needs doing: “to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world (the corporal and spiritual works of mercy).” Doing that work, as important and as necessary as it is, must be done in a certain way and this is where the older, less frequently translated meaning of πραΰτης (softly speaking so as to listen to the other) is helpful.

When Jesus chides the Pharisees for how they have observed religious practices, notice what Jesus says. The various practices in themselves are not bad or evil. At the hands of the Pharisees, Jesus has a problem with how the practices are accomplished. One can say that they are not being done in the sense of πραΰτης: there is no “mild, meek or gentle” receptivity on the part of the Pharisees. This is an attitude of ‘let’s get this done, let’s get this over with – let’s get this out of the way.’ The needed gentleness to listen to the voice of the Other, in this case the Lord Himself, is essential to prevent ‘religious works’ from becoming ‘corrupting’ or even ‘scandalous works.’ At all times, the disciple of Jesus must listen and be attentive to the Word of God not only to know what needs to be done, but how.





Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time



“He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.” (James 1:18.)

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

“God has changed us from being children of darkness into being children of light, not because of any merits of ours but by his own will, through the water of regeneration. But lest we should think that by “begetting” us in this way God has made us somehow a part of his own nature, James goes on to add that the result of the divine activity is that we have become “the first fruits of his creatures,” which means that we have been exalted over the rest of creation.” (Concerning the Epistle of James)

Pondering Jesus’ Word of Victory for this Sunday.



Collect
God of might,
giver of every good gift,
put into our hearts the love of Your Name,
so that, by deepening our sense of reverence,
You may nurture in us what is good and,
by Your watchful care,
keep safe what You have nurtured.
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





Thursday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time



“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time?” (Matthew 24:45.)

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

“We should understand the phrase “faithful and wise servant” as referring to a person who is faithful in the customary sense of the term, not as referring to those who are wise or clever by natural endowment. Many who are clever and wise are not at all faithful. For instance, whoever considers the great number of people who fancy themselves Christians will discover many who are faithful and who have great zeal for the faith but are not very wise. He will thus conclude that “the sons of this world are wiser in their own generation,” knowing that “God chose the foolish of the world to confound the wise.” He will also see that others who are thought to be believers are clever and wise enough but of only limited faith. If they are not unfaithful, they are certainly at least less faithful than the “foolish of the world” whom “God chose.” But it is rare for faithfulness and wisdom to coincide in one person to enable him to “give his fellow servants their food at the proper time.” He needs wisdom to give food to the needy “at the proper time” and faith to refrain from keeping the food for himself in time of need.” (Commentary on Matthew, 61.)




Collect
O God,
Who cause the minds of the faithful
to unite in a single purpose,
grant Your people to love what You command
and to desire what You promise,
that, amid the uncertainties of this world,
our hearts may be fixed on that place
where true gladness is found.
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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You, O God, are everything to us



Saint Columban
Abbot

An excerpt from On Christ: the Font of Life (Instruction 13)

Thursday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Brethren, let us follow that vocation by which we are called from life to the fountain of life. He is the fountain, not only of living water, but of eternal life. He is the fountain of light and spiritual illumination; for from him come all these things: wisdom, life and eternal light. The author of life is the fountain of life; the creator of light is the fountain of spiritual illumination. Therefore, let us seek the fountain of light and life and the living water by despising what we see, by leaving the world and dwelling in the highest heavens. Let us seek these things, and like rational and shrewd fish may we drink the living water which wells up to eternal life.

Merciful God, good Lord, I wish that you would unite me to that fountain, that there I may drink of the living spring of the water of life with those others who thirst after you. There in that heavenly region may I ever dwell, delighted with abundant sweetness, and say: “How sweet is the fountain of living water which never fails, the water welling up to eternal life.”

O God, you are yourself that fountain ever and again to be desired, ever and again to be consumed. Lord Christ, always give us this water to be for us the source of the living water which wells up to eternal life. I ask you for your great benefits. Who does not know it? You, King of glory, know how to give great gifts, and you have promised them; there is nothing greater than you, and you bestowed yourself upon us; you gave yourself for us.

Therefore, we ask that we may know what we love, since we ask nothing other than that you give us yourself. For you are our all: our life, our light, our salvation, our food and our drink, our God. Inspire our hearts, I ask you, Jesus, with that breath of your Spirit; wound our souls with your love, so that the soul of each and every one of us may say in truth: Show me my soul’s desire, for I am wounded by your love.

These are the wounds I wish for, Lord. Blessed is the soul so wounded by love. Such a soul seeks the fountain of eternal life and drinks from it, although it continues to thirst and its thirst grows ever greater even as it drinks. Therefore, the more the soul loves, the more it desires to love, and the greater its suffering, the greater its healing. In this same way may our God and Lord Jesus Christ, the good and saving physician, wound the depths of our souls with a healing wound—the same Jesus Christ who reigns in unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit, 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

 






Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time



“If it is displeasing to you to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve, the gods your ancestors served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15.)

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

“Therefore, what Joshua said to the people when he settled them in the holy land, the Scripture might also say now to us. The text reads as follows, “Now fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and righteousness.” And it will tell us, if we are being misled to worship idols, what follows, “Destroy the foreign gods which your fathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord.” Then in the beginning when you were going to be instructed, it would have been rightly said to you, “And if you be unwilling to worship the Lord, choose this day whom you will worship, whether the gods your fathers worshiped in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites among whom you dwell on the land.” And the catechist might have said to you, “But as for me and my house, we will worship the Lord because he is holy.” He does not have any reason to say this to you now; for then you said, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods. For the Lord our God, he is God, who brought us and our fathers out of Egypt ... and preserved us in all the way that we went.” Moreover, in the agreements about religion long ago you gave your catechist this answer, “We also will worship the Lord, for he is our God.” If, therefore, the one who breaks agreements with men is outside any truce and alien to safety, what must be said of those who by denying make null and void the agreements they made with God, and who run back to Satan, whom they renounced when they were baptized? Such a person must be told the words spoken by Eli to his sons, “If a man sins against a man, then they will pray for him; but if he sins against the Lord, who will pray for him?” (Exhortation to Martyrdom, 17.)



Collect
O God,
Who cause the minds of the faithful
to unite in a single purpose,
grant your people to love what you command
and to desire what you promise,
that, amid the uncertainties of this world,
our hearts may be fixed on that place
where true gladness is found.
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

 


Saturday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time



“The greatest among you must be your servant...” (Matthew 23:11.)

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

“I wish everyone might hear this, and most of all deacons, priests and bishops, especially those who think to themselves that these were not the words written: “He who exalts himself will be humbled.” On this basis, they then act as if they do not know that he said, “He who has humbled himself will be exalted.” They do not hear him who said, “Learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly of heart.” They thought themselves to be self-inspired and through this inspiration fell “into the judgment of the devil.” They had not thought of critically examining their false humility. They would have done better to have remembered the word of wisdom that says, “The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself, and you will find grace before God.” It was the Lord who provided the pattern for this process. No matter how great he was, he humbled himself. For “though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name.” (Commentary on Matthew, 12.)




Collect
O God,
Who have prepared for those who love You
good things which no eye can see,
fill our hearts, we pray,
with the warmth of Your love,
so that,
loving You in all things and above all things,
we may attain Your promises,
which surpass every human desire.
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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Christ has reconciled the world to God by His Own Blood



Saint Ambrose of Milan
Bishop and Great Latin Father of the Church

An excerpt from his treatise, Explanation of the Psalms

Saturday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

In reconciling the world to God, Christ stood in no need of reconciliation for himself. What sin of his was there to atone for, sinless as he was? When he was asked for the temple-tax, a sin-offering imposed by the law, he said to Peter: Simon, from whom do the kings of the earth receive tribute or tax? From their own sons or from strangers? Peter replied: From strangers. The Lord said to him: Then the sons are free. But so as not to give scandal to them, cast a hood and take the first fish that comes; open its mouth, and you will find a shekel. Take it and give it to them for me and for you.

Christ shows that he does not need to atone for sin on his own behalf: he is no slave of sin but, as Son of God, is free from all sin. The Son sets free, a slave remains in his sin. Christ is therefore free of all sin, and does not pay the price of his own redemption. His blood could pay the ransom for all the sins of the whole world. The one who has no debt to pay for himself is the right person to set others free.

It is not only that Christ has no ransom to pay or atonement to make for his own sins; if we apply his words to every individual man they can be taken to mean that individuals do not need to make atonement for themselves, for Christ is the atonement for all, the redemption for all.

Is any man’s blood fit to redeem him, seeing that it was Christ who shed his blood for the redemption of all? Is anyone’s blood comparable to Christ’s? Is anyone great enough to make atonement for himself over and above the atonement which Christ has offered in himself, Christ who alone has reconciled the world to God by his blood? What greater victim, what more excellent sacrifice, what better advocate can there be than he who because the propitiation for the sins of all, and gave his life for us as our redemption?

We do not need, then, to look for an atonement or redemption made by each individual, because the price paid for all is the blood of Christ, that blood by which the Lord Jesus has redeemed us, he who alone has reconciled us to the Father. He has labored even to the end, shouldering our burdens himself. Come to me, he says, all you that labor, and I will refresh you.


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

 





Thursday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time



“But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.” (Matthew 22:11.)

Saint Gregory the Great comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“But since you have already come into the house of the marriage feast, our holy church, as a result of God’s generosity, be careful, my friends, lest when the King enters he find fault with some aspect of your heart’s clothing. We must consider what comes next with great fear in our hearts. But the king came in to look at the guests and saw there a person not clothed in a wedding garment.

What do we think is meant by the wedding garment, dearly beloved? For if we say it is baptism or faith, is there anyone who has entered this marriage feast without them? A person is outside because he has not yet come to believe. What then must we understand by the wedding garment but love? That person enters the marriage feast, but without wearing a wedding garment, who is present in the holy church. He may have faith, but he does not have love. We are correct when we say that love is the wedding garment because this is what our Creator himself possessed when he came to the marriage feast to join the church to himself. Only God’s love brought it about that his only begotten Son united the hearts of his chosen to himself. John says that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for us.” (Forty Gospel Homilies)



Collect
O God,
Who have prepared for those who love You
good things which no eye can see,
fill our hearts, we pray,
with the warmth of Your love,
so that,
loving You in all things and above all things,
we may attain Your promises,
which surpass every human desire.
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

 






A flower rises from the root of Jesse



Baldwin of Canterbury
Archbishop

An excerpt from A Sermon on the «Hail Mary»

Thursday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Every day we devoutly greet the most Blessed Virgin Mary with the angel’s greeting and we usually add: Blessed is the fruit of your womb. After she was greeted by the Virgin, Elizabeth added this phrase as if she were echoing the salutation of the angel: Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. This is the fruit of which Isaiah spoke: On that day the shoot of the Lord shall be splendid and radiant—the sublime fruit of earth. What is this fruit but the holy one of Israel, the seed of Abraham, the shoot of the Lord, the flower arising from the root of Jesse, the fruit of life, whom we have shared?

Blessed surely in seed and blessed in the shoot, blessed in the flower, blessed in the gift, finally blessed in thanksgiving and praise, Christ, the seed of Abraham, was brought forth from the seed of David into the flesh.

He alone among men is found perfected in every good quality, for the Spirit was given to him without measure so that he alone could fulfill all justice. For his justice is sufficient for all nations, according to the Scriptures. As the earth brings forth its buds, and as the garden germinates its own seed, so the Lord God shall bring forth justice and praise before all the nations. For this is the shoot of justice, which the flower of glory adorns with its blessings when it has grown. But how great is this glory? How can anyone think of anything more glorious, or rather, how can anyone conceive of this at all? For the flower rises from the root of Jesse. you ask: “How far?” Surely it rises even to the highest place, because Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. His magnificence is elevated above the heavens so that he, the issue of the Lord, is splendid and glorious, the sublime fruit of earth.

But what is our benefit from this fruit? What other than the fruit of blessing from the blessed fruit? From this seed, this shoot, this flower, surely the fruit of blessing comes forth. It has come even to us; first as a seed it is planted through the grace of pardon, then germinated with the increase of perfection, and finally it flowers in the hope or the attainment of glory. For the fruit was blessed by God, and in God, so that God may be glorified through it. For us, too, the fruit was blessed, so that blessed by God we may be glorified in him through the promise spoken to Abraham. God made the fruit a blessing for all nations.


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

 

 




Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time



“... addressing one another [in] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts...” (Ephesians 5:19.)

Saint Jerome offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Second Reading:

“Our hymns declare the strength and majesty of God. They express gratitude for his benefits and his deeds. Our psalms convey this gratitude also, since the word Alleluia is either prefaced or appended to them. Our psalms properly belong to the domain of ethics, teaching us what is to be done and avoided. The domain of the psalms is the body as an instrument of grace. But the domain of the spiritual canticles is the mind. As we sing spiritual canticles we hear discourses on things above, on the harmony of the world, on the subtly ordered concord of all creatures. These spiritual songs help us express our meaning more plainly for the sake of simple folk. It is more with the mind than with the voice that we sing, offer psalms and praise God.” (Epistle to the Ephesians, 3.)


Collect
O God,
Who have prepared for those who love You
good things which no eye can see,
fill our hearts, we pray,
with the warmth of Your love,
so that, loving You in all things
and above all things,
we may attain Your promises,
which surpass every human desire.
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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Memorial of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, priest and martyr



“Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3.)

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

”Beside this obvious explanation let another be given as well. As an act of theological and ethical reflection, let us ask what sort of a child Jesus called to him and has set in the midst of the disciples. Think of it this way: The child called by Jesus is the Holy Spirit, who humbled himself. He was called by the Savior and set in the middle of the disciples of Jesus. The Lord wants us, ignoring all the rest, to turn to the examples given by the Holy Spirit, so that we become like the children — that is, the disciples — who were themselves converted and made like the Holy Spirit. God gave these children to the Savior according to what we read in Isaiah: “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me.” To enter the kingdom of heaven is not possible for the person who has not turned from worldly matters and become like those children who had the Holy Spirit. Jesus called this Holy Spirit to him like a child, when he came down from his perfect completeness to people, and set it in the middle of the disciples.” (Commentary on Matthew, 13)



Collect
O God,
Who filled the Priest and Martyr
Saint Maximilian Kolbe
with a burning love
for the Immaculate Virgin Mary
and with zeal for souls and love of neighbor,
graciously grant,
through his intercession,
that, striving for Your glory
by eagerly serving others,
we may be conformed,
even until death, to 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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Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time



“He lay down and fell asleep under the solitary broom tree, but suddenly a messenger touched him and said, “Get up and eat!”” (1 Kings 19:5)

Saint Ephrem the Syrian offers the following insight on these verses from today’s First Reading:

“The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’” Elijah was sleeping under a tree. Now an angel came to him and woke him up (sleep was weighing him down because of his fatigue, affliction and discouragement) and provided him with strength and comfort through the meal that he prepared for him. The nourishment of the prophet consisted of bread baked in the ashes and his drink of water. “And he said, ‘The journey will be too much for you,’” that is, “you will not escape the affliction which you fear, through your death, as you believe, but through your flight. Therefore the journey is too long for you, and it is not like going to Cherith, a place close by. Rather, you are leaving for a distant location among foreign people where you will get peace and prosperity. That is why, until you are allowed to do so, you must eat and drink and prepare yourself to be strong enough for a long journey, because in a barren and desert land, you will not find any food.”

Allegorically the bread baked in the ashes, which the vigilant [the angel] offers to Elijah, has two different meanings: on the one side, it immediately shows the toils of penitence which the ashes symbolize perfectly, since they are a figure of mourning and of a contrite heart; the unleavened bread soaked in ashes and the water are also the food of the poor and the miserable. But we can say, with greater accuracy, that they are figures of all the righteous, for whom the providence of the Creator has established a course of life in the paths of privation. Therefore he leads them through much suffering, privation of food and a severe fast in order to purify them completely from all the filth of earthly things. Then he guides them to the mountain, which is the perfection and the accomplishment of the saints.” (On the First Book of Kings, 19.)

 
 
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,
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





Thursday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time



“Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah.” (Matthew 16:20)

Origen of Alexandria comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

”What he intended when he forbade them to publicly declare him Christ is clarified in part by “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples how he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders” and the following thoughts. At the right time and in the right way, he proclaimed to those who knew that Jesus was Christ, Son of the living God (the Father had revealed this to them), that rather than believing in Jesus Christ already crucified, they should believe in Jesus Christ soon to be crucified. So also, instead of believing in Jesus Christ already risen from the dead, they should believe in “Jesus Christ soon to be raised from the dead.”

“Having put off from himself the principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in the cross.” If anyone is ashamed of the cross of Christ, he is ashamed of the agency by which these powers were defeated. The one who both believes and is assured of these things should, more appropriately, glory in the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Through that cross, when Christ was crucified, the principalities (among them, I think, was also the prince of this world) were publicly humiliated and paraded before the eyes of the believing world.” (Commentary on Matthew, 12)



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,
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




Love is as strong as death



Baldwin of Canterbury
Archbishop

An excerpt from
A Treatise

Thursday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Death is strong, for it can rob us of the gift of life. Love too is strong, for it can restore us to a better life. Death is strong, for it can strip us of this robe of flesh. Love too is strong, for it can take death’s spoils away and give them back to us.

Death is strong, for no man can withstand it. Love too is strong, for it can conquer death itself, soothe its sting, calm its violence, and bring its victory to naught. The time will come when death is reviled and taunted: O death, where is your sting? O death, where is your victory?

Love is as strong as death because Christ’s love is the very death of death. Hence it is said: I will be your death, O death! I will be your sting, O hell! Our love for Christ is also as strong as death, because it is itself a kind of death: destroying the old life, rooting out vice, and laying aside dead works.

Our love for Christ is a return, though very unequal, for his love of us, and it is a likeness modeled on his. For he first loved us and, through the example of love he gave us, he became a seal upon us by which we are made like him. We lay aside the likeness of the earthly man and put on the likeness of the heavenly man; we love him as he has loved us. For in this matter he has left us an example so that we might follow in his steps.

That is why he says: Set me as a seal upon your heart. It is as if he were saying: “Love me as I love you. Keep me in your mind and memory, in your desires and yearnings, in your groans and sobs. Remember, man, the kind of being I made you; how far I set you above other creatures; the dignity I conferred upon you; the glory and honor with which I crowned you; how I made you only a little less than the angels and set all things under your feet. Remember not only how much I have done for you but all the hardship and shame I have suffered for you. Yet look and see: Do you not wrong me? Do you not fail to love me? Who loves you as I do? Who created and redeemed you but I?

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

 

 




Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time



“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash [their] hands when they eat a meal.” (Matthew 15:2.)

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

“Now consider with me how they are convicted even by the very act of asking the question. For they do not say, “Why do they transgress the law of Moses?” Instead they say, “Why do they transgress the tradition of the elders?” From this it is clear that the priests were instituting many new practices, even though Moses with great fear and with dreadful words had commanded that one should neither add nor take away anything. For he says, “Do not add to this word that I am commanding you today, and do not take away from it.” But this did not at all stop them from instituting new practices. The issue here provides an example: eating with unwashed hands, which they thought unlawful. They focused inordinately on the outward rites of washing cups and things made of bronze and the rules for washing themselves. By this time they should have been released from needless observances. God’s timing had moved forward to that point. But just at that point they bound people up with many more observances. Why did they turn things upside down? Because they were afraid that someone might take away their power. They wanted others to be more afraid of them. They themselves had become the lawgivers. The issue of transgressing the traditions of the elders had gotten so inverted that they were insisting that their own commandments be kept even if God’s commandment was violated. They exercised so much obsessive control that the issue finally became a matter of formal legal accusation. But the indictment would instead fall against them in two ways. They themselves were instituting new practices and were devising punishments in regard to their own observances while placing no value on those instituted by God. ” (The Gospel of Matthew: Homily, 51.)




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,
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

 






The new creation



Saint Barnabas
Apostolic Father of the Church

An excerpt from Letter of Barnabas, (Chapter 5)

Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

The Lord was willing to hand over his body for destruction so that by the shedding of his blood we might be made holy through the remission of our sins. According to Scripture this refers to both Israel and us. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised by our iniquities; by his wounds we are healed. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, like a lamb that is dumb before its shearer. What a debt of gratitude, then, do we owe to the Lord for letting us see the meaning of the past, for instructing us about the present and not leaving us in ignorance about the future. In the words of Scripture: Not unjustly are nets spread for birds. This means that a man is justly condemned if, knowing the right way, he heads into the way of darkness.

The Lord was ready to undergo suffering for our souls’ sake, even though he is Lord of the whole earth, the one to whom God said at the foundation of the world: Let us make man in our own image and likeness. But, in that case, my brothers, how could he allow himself to suffer at the hands of men? This is the explanation. The prophets inspired by his grace foretold what he would do; he allowed himself to suffer because he had to be seen in the flesh, in order that he might destroy the power of death and manifest the resurrection from the dead. In this way he would carry out the promises that had been made to our forefathers, and while still on earth prepare for himself a new people; he would also show that, after the resurrection, he was to be our judge. Furthermore, by teaching Israel and working such great signs and wonders, he proclaimed the good news and showed the depths of his love for that people.

Having thus renewed us by forgiving our sins, he refashioned us; he gave us the souls of children, as though we had been born anew. For it is to us that Scripture refers when the Father says to the Son: Let us make man according to our own image and likeness; and let him rule over the beasts on the earth and the birds in the air and the fish in the sea. The Lord saw the beauty of our fashioning and added: Increase and multiply and fill the earth.

All this God said to his Son. But let me now point out to you how he also speaks to us. It is indeed a second act of creation that the Lord has performed in these last days; that is why he says: Behold, I am making the last things like the first. It was this that the prophet had in mind when he said: Enter into a land flowing with milk and honey, and rule over it. It is true, you see, that we have been completely remade. This is what God means by the words of another prophet: Behold, says the Lord, I will take the stony hearts out of this people, that is, the people whom the Spirit of the Lord foreknew, and put hearts of flesh into them. For he willed to appear in the flesh and live among us.

And so, my brothers, the dwelling place of our hearts is a temple sacred to the Lord. Again, the Lord says: Let me give thanks to you in the assembly of the people. So it is we whom he has led into a fertile land.

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

 

 





Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord



“... And he was transfigured before them, and His clothes became dazzling white” (Mark 9:3.)

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

”But some may ask, when he was transfigured before those who were led up by him into the lofty mountain, did he appear to them in the form of God or in the preincarnate form that he earlier had? Did he appear to those left below in the form of a servant, but to those who had followed him after the six days to the lofty mountain, did he have not the form of a servant but the form of God? Listen carefully, if you can, and at the same time be attentive spiritually. It is not simply said that he was transfigured, but with a certain necessary addition. Both Matthew and Mark have recorded this: he was transfigured before them. Is it therefore possible for Jesus to be transfigured before some but not before others?

Do you wish to see the transfiguration of Jesus? Behold with me the Jesus of the Gospels. Let him be simply apprehended. There he is beheld both “according to the flesh” and at the same time in his true divinity. He is beheld in the form of God according to our capacity for knowledge. This is how he was beheld by those who went up upon the lofty mountain to be apart with him. Meanwhile those who do not go up the mountain can still behold his works and hear his words, which are uplifting. It is before those who go up that Jesus is transfigured, and not to those below. When he is transfigured, his face shines as the sun, that he may be manifested to the children of light, who have put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. They are no longer the children of darkness or night but have become the children of day. They walk honestly as in the day. Being manifested, he will shine to them not simply as the sun but as he is demonstrated to be, the sun of righteousness. ” (Commentary on Matthew, 12.)




Collect
O God,
Who in the glorious Transfiguration
of Your Only Begotten Son
confirmed the mysteries of faith
by the witness of the Fathers
and wonderfully prefigured
our full adoption to sonship,
grant, we pray, to Your servants,
that, listening to the voice of Your beloved Son,
we may merit to become co-heirs with Him.
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









The searching that is being found

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

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus
nor His disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum
looking (ζητοῦντες, zetountes) for Jesus.
And when they found Him
across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
you are looking (ζητεῖτέ, zeteite)
for Me not because you saw signs (σημεῖα, semeia)
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.” (John 6:24-26)


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

When we left the crowd last week, Jesus fed them with meager portions of food that were transformed into an abundance when He “took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them.” As the episode unfolded, the crowd’s intention was to find Jesus because of the “signs” He was performing for the sick. Jesus’ intention, however, was not to be the object of their search but mercifully to feed them. (see Mark 6:34, Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time). While the crowd sang His praises as a prophet, Jesus seemingly rejected such and withdrew to the solitude of the mountain. Shortly thereafter He walked on water to Capernaum (John 6:15-23) thus setting the stage for the next event in the Bread of Life discourse. While subtle, it is apparent that the crowd was on one page, Jesus was on another. The crowd intended one course of action, Jesus intended a different one.

The Gospel proclamation this Sunday opens with the crowd frantically searching for Jesus by getting into boats when they realize Jesus moved on from the place of the Feeding. When the crowds ‘find’ Jesus, He confronts them: “you are looking (ζητεῖτέ, zeteite) for Me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.”


As far as Jesus is concerned, the Feeding is a σημεῖα (semeia, “sign”) and in view of a sign one must decide a particular course of action. (recall last week’s discussion of σημεῖα) One might argue that the crowd chose a course of action: they searched for Jesus. But were they really looking for Him? Jesus declared that the crowd was not looking for Him, but for the food He provided. Understandably, one can see where the crowd is on the matter of this abundant food. Life in general and the economy specifically were very difficult in first-century Galilee. While some made a good living on the sea, others did not know when or where they would eat next. But as far as Jesus is concerned, the sign of the Feeding requires a particular decision and the decision has little to do with having a full stomach. Once again, the crowd is on one page, Jesus is on another.

The point is underscored further by the use of the Greek verb ζητεω (zeteo). ζητεω, translated in this Sunday’s text as “to seek,” implies more than just looking around for something lost. In contemporary usage, ‘searching’ is practically synonymous with ‘googling’ and tends to be about pieces of data or information. In antiquity, ζητεω (zeteo) was used in reference to people being lost or found — a sense of being lost or found in the living of life, having or loosing a sense of purpose, destiny or direction in life. ζητεω (zeteo) does not necessarily refer to a physical loss or find when referencing people, it speaks more about the connection, the relationship, the link people have with one another and how those connections, links and relationship can be lost and hopefully found.

But even more noteworthy, ζητεω (zeteo) involves searching for the other, on the other’s terms! Yes, this sounds circular and confusing, after all how can you search, guided by the other’s terms, when you are not connected to the other person? Enter Jesus and the signs He performs. When the crowd initially searched for Him, they sought One Who brought a physical cure to a sick man. The crowd saw this chronically suffering man and what Jesus did for him and therefore concluded Jesus is a Healer. For Jesus, however, not so fast. Was the man restored to health? Yes. Is Jesus a healer? Yes. Does healing describe the totality of Who Jesus is? No - and this is the point of the sign. Jesus intends the sign to draw people into communion (in the Gospel according to Saint John communing is the act of believing) with Him. Such believing, though, must happen on Jesus’ terms.

Saint Augustine commented: “It is as if he said, “You seek me to satisfy the flesh, not the Spirit.” How many seek Jesus for no other objective than to get some kind of temporal benefit! One has a business that has run into problems, and he seeks the intercession of the clergy; another is oppressed by someone more powerful than himself, and he flies to the church. Another desires intervention with someone over whom he has little influence. One person wants this, and another person wants that. The church is filled with these kinds of people! Jesus is scarcely sought after for his own sake. Here too he says, you seek me for something else; seek me for my own sake. He insinuates the truth that He Himself is that food “that endures to eternal life.”” (Tractates on the Gospel of John)

Certainly there is much that speaks this Sunday to the heart of living as Jesus’ disciple. At the very heart of discipleship is the encounter with the Person, Jesus Christ. That encounter initially requires 2 response actions: metanoia (the ongoing, daily conversion of heart, mind and body from selfishness to selflessness as lived by Jesus) and believing that Who Jesus is as well as what He says and does is THE only way to live life. In so doing, life unfolds in the mode of response — acting based on the fact that “I” do not search for Jesus. “I” let myself be found by Jesus on His terms and then respond by living life marked by daily conversion and believing. Such an approach to living lessens the possibility of creating a ‘comfortable Jesus’ that is synonymous with mere niceness. Being found by Jesus and responding properly displaces ‘me-centered entitlement’ and opens the horizons of a Divinely animated and abundant life to which I can only respond: ‘thank you — and — how may I serve sacrificially and joyfully in Your Name?’





Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time



“On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, “What is this?” for they did not know what it was. But Moses told them, “It is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.” (Exodus 16:15.)

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

“That this is heavenly food is demonstrated by the person speaking: “I shall rain upon you bread from heaven.” Manna is a cause (aition), because God, who waters minds with the dew of wisdom, uses it as an instrument. And manna is a kind of matter (hyle), because souls that see it and taste it are delighted and ask whence it comes, manna which is more splendid that light and sweeter than honey. They can be answered with a chain of quotations from Scripture: “This is the bread that the Lord gave to you to eat,” and “This is the Word of God which God has established” or ordained. By this bread the souls of the prudent are fed and delighted, since it is fair and sweet, illuminating the souls of the hearers with the splendor of truth and drawing them on with the sweetness of the virtues.” (Letter 55)


View Words of THE WORD study of today’s Gospel



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,
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





Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time



“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.” (Matthew 13:47.)

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

“And this net has been cast into the waves of the sea. The waves toss about persons in every part of the world as they swim in the bitter affairs of life. Before the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, this net was not wholly filled. The net expected by the Law and the Prophets had to be completed by him who says, “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law and the prophets; I came not to destroy but to fulfill.” The texture of the net has been completed in the Gospels and in the words of Christ through the apostles. On this account, therefore, “the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea and gathered every kind of fish.” In addition to what has been said, the expression “gathered from every kind” may refer to the calling of the Gentiles out of every nation. ” (Commentary on Matthew, 10.)


Collect
O God,
protector of those who hope in You,
without whom nothing has firm foundation,
nothing is holy,
bestow in abundance Your mercy upon us
and grant that, with You as our ruler and guide,
we may use the good things that pass
in such a way as to hold fast even now
to those that ever endure.
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


Top





Jesus’ Signs: need for an urgent proper choice



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

“Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs (σημεῖα - semeia)
he was performing on the sick (ἐπὶ τῶν ἀσθενούντων - epi ton asthenounton).”


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

After a rather contentious battle with the crowds over healing on the Sabbath, His works, His relationship with the Father and believing, Jesus headed for the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The saintly Evangelist recorded that the crowds followed and apparently did so, not to continue debating Jesus, but because of the “signs He was was performing on the sick.” Such is the initiatory action that set the stage for what has come to be known as the “Bread of Life Discourse.”

σημεῖον (semeion), translated into English by the word sign, is an important aspect of the The Gospel according to Saint John. Many scripture scholars note the divison of this Gospel into the ‘Book of Signs’ and ‘the Book of Glory.’ Some of Jesus’ actions are recorded as signs, for example: Water to Wine at Cana (chapter 2), Healing of the Man born blind (chapter 9) and the calling forth of Lazarus (chapter 11). Other actions of Jesus are structurally similar to signs but are not explicitly termed such, for example: Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (chapter 5) and Jesus walking on water (chapter 6). While scholarly purests debate the actual signs and their number, in the Fourth Gospel the actions of Jesus from John 1:19 though the end of chapter 12 have a number of common elements.

Signs are ‘of the senses’ in other words, there is something touchable, tangible visible, etc... (might one even say sacramental?) about Jesus’ actions. Secondly, these signs satisfy or provide a remedy for a particular and immediate need. In the Jewish World of Jesus’ day, people would have understood this as ysh (yashaw often translated into English by the word salvation), that is, providing some element of the created world necessary for living. Thirdly, signs - as done by Jesus (an important point!) - ‘carry’ within them a means for being able to look beyond the immediate and ‘see’ or experience a deeper reality. This requires a choice by the recipient of the sign. One can choose to let the sign satisfy on one level without going any further.


Use a stop sign as a comparison. The physical reality of the octagonal red sign or word painted on the road surface calls a driver attention at an intersection. A driver must choose to halt progress. The stop sign or painted word has no power within itself to cause a driver to stop. There is no hook that springs from the sign, grabs an axle and prohibits vehicular movement until the road is clear. In order for the automobile to stap, a driver must make a choice to do so and complete that choice by applying the brake pedal. Jesus’ signs differ. While one must make a choice, the way He performs the sign embues the sign with power, a power initially to establish a connection - should she or he choose - with the Jesus. For Jesus, His signs are intended to spark a relationship with Him, what the Scriptures (especially Saint John’s Gospel) term believing. The concreteness of a given sign ordered initially to remedying a particular emptiness is intended ultimately to draw one into communion with the Person Jesus Who alone satisfies all the hungers of the human heart.

As chapter 6 opens, the crowd followed Jesus because of the “signs He was performing on the sick (chapter 5).” While particular ailments are mentioned in chapter 5 and throughout all the Gospels (for example: blind, lame and paralyzed) there is also the ‘generic’ sick (τῶν ἀσθενούντων - ton asthenounton). Taken from the verb ἀσθενέω (astheneo) and often translated into English as sick, scholars note that in antiquity (especially in terms of Greek medicine), ἀσθενέω (astheneo) meant “to be weak,” “a noticeable loss of strength” or “to be in a weakened condition.” In Greek and Jewish usage, the verb described not only physical fatigue that impeded movement but also a malaise when it came to living a moral or virtuous life (see Mark 14:38, “Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”) ἀσθενέω (astheneo) usage, especially in the early Christian world, also noted a twofold aspect to the weakened condition: on one hand the loss of strength could be attributed to choices made that rendered one physically and morally weak. On the other hand, the human condition itself, fundamentally limited and dependent upon the Father (see Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”) is always in need of assistance to live physically and spiritually.

With their journey across the Sea and their inability (or refusal) to see the deeper meaning of the sign, Jesus makes use of food - 5 barley pieces and 2 morsels of preserved fish (not all that tasty, more on that in the weeks to come) - concrete elements of this world to be another sign hopefully leading the crowd this time to connect with Him. Stay tuned.







Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time



“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” (John 6:9.)

In commenting on this verse from today’s Gospel, Saint Romanus the Melodist writes:

“Master, we can find only five barley loaves;
No one of us brought anything into the desert,
But a child is here who has them.

O Lover of man, no other resource is possible for us.
For an enormous and boundless number of people,
O Man of pity,
How can these five loaves be sufficient?
In addition, he has two fishes.
But hurry and nourish them, since Thou art
The heavenly bread of immortality.”

When Christ heard these words of His disciples,
He answered them in this way:
“You are mistaken if you do not know
That I am the Creator of the universe;
I provide for the world;
I now know clearly what these people need;
I see the desert and that the sun is setting;
Indeed I arranged the setting of the sun;
I understand the distress of the crowd which is here;
I know what I have in mind to do for them.
I myself shall cure their hunger, for I am
The heavenly bread of immortality.

“Even though you consider carefully,
can you as mere men secure nourishment,
Or can you, though you are worried, feed the people?
Or, then, if you cannot feed them, have you the power to keep silent?

I, alone, as Creator take thought for all.
I exist as good, God before the centuries.
And I provide every kind of food for all people;

But you, on beholding the multitude, are worried,
And you do not consider the One who provides abundantly,
As I am set before all, offering
The heavenly bread of immortality.

“I know in advance what you are thinking
and what you are saying to each other,
As you see the people, the means of provision, and the hour.
You are reasoning, ‘Who will feed the entire crowd in the desert?’
Well, know clearly, friends, who I am.

I fed Israel in the desert;
I gave them bread from Heaven;
In a region without water,
I made water to flow from a rock;
Since I am the heavenly bread of immortality.”
(Kontakion on the Multiplication of Loaves, 13.)

Reflection on Jesus’ signs from this Sunday’s Gospel.


Collect
O God,
protector of those who hope in you,
without whom nothing has firm foundation,
nothing is holy,
bestow in abundance your mercy upon us
and grant that, with you as our ruler and guide,
we may use the good things
that pass in such a way
as to hold fast even now
to those that ever endure.
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.

/div>

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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