Saint John Henry Newman

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October 13,  2019, John Henry Newman (1801-1890) was canonized a saint by Pope Francis in Rome. Newman, a member of the  Anglican Church. was received into the Catholic Church by the Italian Passionist, Blessed Dominic Barberi.

Newman admired Dominic, a Passionist missionary recently from Italy. More than a kindly Catholic priest and religious, Dominic represented something Newman treasured, the mystery of the Passion of Jesus. 

For Newman the mystery of the Cross interpreted everything. “ It is the death of the Eternal Word of God made flesh, which is our great lesson how to think and how to speak of this world. His Cross has put its due value upon everything which we see.” 

The mystery of the Cross distinguished Christianity from all other religions for Newman. Shortly after his conversion he reflected on the Word of God made flesh in “The Mystery of Divine Condescension.”  (Discourses to a Mixed Congregation” 14)

“The Eternal Word, the Only-begotten Son of the Father, put off his glory, and came down upon earth, to raise us to heaven. Though He was God, He became man; though He was Lord of all, He became as a servant; though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be rich.”

The first step to understand the mystery of Divine Condescension for Newman is to contemplate through reason and faith “the Almighty in Himself, then we should understand better what His incarnation is to us, and what it is in Him… when you have fixed your mind upon His infinity, then go on to view, in the light of that infinity, the meaning of His incarnation.” 

Through reason and faith, Newman reflects on “the Almighty in himself.”

“Reason teaches you there must be a God; else how was this all-wonderful universe made? It could not make itself; man could not make it, he is but a part of it; each man has a beginning, there must have been a first man, and who made him? 

To the thought of God then we are forced from the nature of the case; we must admit the idea of an Almighty Creator, and that Creator must have been from everlasting. He must have had no beginning, else how came He to be? 

The Creator of the world had no beginning;—and if so, He is self-existing; and if so, He can undergo no change. What is self-existing and everlasting has no growth or decay; It is what It ever was, and ever shall be the same. As It originated in nothing else, nothing else can interfere with It or affect It. Besides, everything that is has originated in It; everything therefore is dependent on It, and It is independently of everything. 

Contemplate then the Supreme Being, the Being of beings, even so far as I have yet described Him; fix the idea of Him in your minds. He is one; He has no rival; He has no equal; He is unlike anything else. He is sovereign; He can do what He will. He is unchangeable from first to last; He is all-perfect; He is infinite in His power and in His wisdom, or He could not have made this immense world which we see by day and by night…

He has lived in an eternity before He began to create anything. What a wonderful thought is this! there was a state of things in which God was by Himself, and nothing else but He. There was no earth, no sky, no sun, no stars, no space, no time, no beings of any kind; no men, no Angels, no Seraphim. His throne was without ministers; He was not waited on by any; all was silence, all was repose, there was nothing but God; and this state continued, not for a while only, but for a measureless duration; it was a state which had ever been; it was the rule of things, and creation has been an innovation upon it. 

Creation is, comparatively speaking, but of yesterday; it has lasted a poor six thousand years, say sixty thousand, if you will, or six million, or six million million; what is this to eternity? nothing at all; not so much as a drop compared to the whole ocean, or a grain of sand to the whole earth. I say, through a whole eternity God was by Himself with no other being but Himself; with nothing external to Himself, not working, but at rest, not speaking, not receiving homage from any, not glorified in creatures, but blessed in Himself and by Himself, and wanting nothing.” 

Like the psalmist who asks “What is man that you are mindful of him, mortal man that you keep him in mind?”Newman dwells on the distance between God and us, a distance that seems to separate us from God.

 “We can hardly understand other human beings, how can we know God so infinitely greater than us? If God has no need of us, why did he create the world, why did he create us?”

Our limited knowledge, our humanity, our human way of knowing things through our senses, makes our relationship to God so challenging, Newman observes. “And hence it is that I am drawn over to sinful man with an intenser affection than to my glorious Maker…and thus does my fellow-man engage and win me; but there is a gulf between me and my great God… It is a want in my nature to have one who can weep with me, and rejoice with me, and in a way minister to me; and this would be presumption in me, and worse, to hope to find in the Infinite and Eternal God.”

Our temptation, Newman says, is to abandon any relationship with God. 

“Perhaps you are tempted to complain that, instead of winning you to the All-glorious and All-good, I have but repelled you from Him. You are tempted to exclaim,—He is so far above us that the thought of Him does but frighten me; I cannot believe that He cares for me. I believe firmly that He is infinite perfection; and I love that perfection, not so much indeed as I could wish, still in my measure I love it for its own sake, and I wish to love it above all things, and I well understand that there is no creature but must love it in his measure, unless he has fallen from grace. 

But there are two feelings, which, alas, I have a difficulty in entertaining; I believe and I love, but without fervour, without keenness, because my heart is not kindled by hope, not subdued and melted with gratitude. Hope and gratitude I wish to have, and have not; I know that He is loving towards all His works, but how am I to believe that He gives to me personally a thought, and cares for me for my own sake? I am beneath His love; He looks on me as an atom in a vast universe. He acts by general laws, and if He is kind to me it is, not for my sake, but because it is according to His nature to be kind…

“Your complaint is answered in the great mystery of the Incarnation,” Newman continues.

“ Never suppose that you are left by God; never suppose that He does not know you, your minds and your powers, better than you do yourselves. Ought you not to trust Him, that, if your complaint be true, He has thought of it before you? “Before they call, I will attend,” says He, “and while they speak, I will hear.” Add this to your general notion of His incomprehensibility, viz., that though He is infinite, He can bow Himself to the finite; have faith in the mystery of His condescension; confess that, though He “inhabiteth eternity,” He “dwelleth with a contrite and humble spirit,” and “looketh down upon the lowly”. 

God discloses himself in nature, first of all, Newman says. The natural world is part of the mystery of Divine Condescension and we should embrace it because it  begins the disclosure of God that’s perfected by revelation:

“Lift up your eyes, I say, and look out even upon the material world, and there you will see one attribute above others on its very face which will reverse your sad meditations on Him who made it. He has traced out many of His attributes upon it, His immensity, His wisdom, His power, His loving-kindness, and His skill; but more than all, its very face is illuminated with the glory and beauty of His eternal excellence…mountains, cliffs, and sea rise up before you like a brilliant pageant, with outlines noble and graceful, and tints and shadows soft, clear, and harmonious, giving depth, and unity to the whole; and then go through the forest, or fruitful field, or along meadow and stream, and listen to the distant country sounds, and drink in the fragrant air which is poured around you in spring or summer; or go among the gardens, and delight your senses with the grace and splendour, and the various sweetness of the flowers you find there; then think of the almost mysterious influence upon the mind of particular scents, or the emotion which some gentle, peaceful strain excites in us, or how soul and body are rapt and carried away captive by the concord of musical sounds, when the ear is open to their power; and then, when you have ranged through sights, and sounds, and odours, and your heart kindles, and your voice is full of praise and worship, reflect— not that they tell you nothing of their Maker,—but that they are the poorest and dimmest glimmerings of His glory, and the very refuse of His exuberant riches, and but the dusky smoke which precedes the flame, compared with Him who made them. Such is the Creator in His Eternal Uncreated Beauty,”

The saints, the mystics have glimpses of God and yearn to see him, like Moses who asked to see God’s face after coming before the burning bush. “ What saints partake in fact, we enjoy in thought and imagination” Newman says, recognizing religious experience as part of the Condescension of God.

But the Condescension of God goes beyond nature, beyond human religious experience. In the mystery of the Word made flesh. The Creator humbles himself to the creature.”Your God has taken on Him your nature.”

What form do we humans expect God to take? “Doubtless, you will say, He will take a form such as “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard of” before. It will be a body framed in the heavens, and only committed to the custody of Mary; a form of light and glory, worthy of Him, who is “blessed for evermore,” and comes to bless us with His presence. 

Pomp and pride of men He may indeed despise; we do not look for Him in kings’ courts, or in the array of war, or in the philosophic school; but doubtless He will choose some calm and holy spot, and men will go out thither and find their Incarnate God. He will be tenant of some paradise, like Adam or Elias, or He will dwell in the mystic garden of the Canticles, where nature ministers its  best and purest to its Creator.”

But, “the Maker of man, the Wisdom of God, has come, not in strength, but in weakness. He has come, not to assert a claim, but to pay a debt. Instead of wealth, He has come poor; instead of honour, He has come in ignominy; instead of blessedness, He has come to suffer. He has been delivered over from His birth to pain and contempt; His delicate frame is worn down by cold and heat, by hunger and sleeplessness; His hands are rough and bruised with a mechanic’s toil; His eyes are dimmed with weeping; His Name is cast out as evil. 

He is flung amid the throng of men; He wanders from place to place; He is the companion of sinners. He is followed by a mixed multitude, who care more for meat and drink than for His teaching, or by a city’s populace which deserts Him in the day of trial. 

And at length “the Brightness of God’s Glory and the Image of His Substance” is fettered, haled to and fro, buffeted, spit upon, mocked, cursed, scourged, and tortured. “He hath no beauty nor comeliness; He is despised and the most abject of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity;” nay, He is a “leper, and smitten of God, and afflicted”. And so His clothes are torn off, and He is lifted up upon the bitter Cross, and there He hangs, a spectacle for profane, impure, and savage eyes, and a mockery for the evil spirit whom He had cast down into hell.”

We also find this face of God hard to understand, Newman says:

“Oh, wayward man! discontented first that thy God is far from thee, discontented again when He has drawn near,—complaining first that He is high, complaining next that He is low!—unhumbled being, when wilt thou cease to make thyself thine own centre, and learn that God is infinite in all He does, infinite when He reigns in heaven, infinite when He serves on earth, exacting our homage in the midst of His Angels, and winning homage from us in the midst of sinners? Adorable He is in His eternal rest, adorable in the glory of His court, adorable in the beauty of His works, most adorable of all, most royal, most persuasive in His deformity. 

Think you not, my brethren, that to Mary, when she held Him in her maternal arms, when she gazed on the pale countenance and the dislocated limbs of her God, when she traced the wandering lines of blood, when she counted the weals, the bruises, and the wounds, which dishonoured that virginal flesh, think you not that to her eyes it was more beautiful than when she first worshipped it, pure, radiant, and fragrant, on the night of His nativity?”

So is it, O dear and gracious Lord, “the day of death is better than the day of birth, and better is the house of mourning than the house of feasting”. Better for me that Thou shouldst come thus abject and dishonourable, than hadst Thou put on a body fair as Adam’s when he came out of Thy Hand. 

Thy glory sullied, Thy beauty marred, those five wounds welling out blood, those temples torn and raw, that broken heart, that crushed and livid frame, they teach me more, than wert Thou Solomon.

The gentle and tender expression of that Countenance is no new beauty, or created grace; it is but the manifestation, in a human form, of Attributes which have been from everlasting. 

Thou canst not change, O Jesus; and, as Thou art still Mystery, so wast Thou always Love. I cannot comprehend Thee more than I did, before I saw Thee on the Cross; but I have gained my lesson. I have before me the proof that in spite of Thy awful nature, and the clouds and darkness which surround it, Thou canst think of me with a personal affection. Thou hast died, that I might live. 

“Let us love God,” says Thy Apostle, “because He first hath loved us.” I can love Thee now from first to last, though from first to last I cannot understand Thee. As I adore Thee, O Lover of souls, in Thy humiliation, so will I admire Thee and embrace Thee in Thy infinite and everlasting power.”

The Sign of Jonah: Luke 11:29-32

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Gospel 

Luke 11:29-32 

While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them,
“This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment 
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation 
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here.”

Our picture above is found in the early Christian catacombs of Rome. From right to left. Jonah is thrown from the boat, swallowed by the whale, vomited up on the shore at Nineveh, then asleep under the vine after his preaching and the city’s conversion

From the beginning Jonah is a prophet who doesn’t appreciate God’s plan, yet he fulfills it. The people of Nineveh believe. At the same time Jonah seems unchanged by the amazing things that occur. He remains a small-minded man.

Jesus uses the story of Jonah in the gospel as a sign of the power of the resurrection. God’s power is at work. It’s not human power. God raises Jesus from the dead, He uses people like Jonah, who don’t altogether grasp God’s plan. They’re not perfect, they’re weak even till the end. God works more than they imagine.

The Jonah story ie commonly portrayed in the Christian catacombs in early Rome over the remains of someone deceased. The whole story is usually there, from Jonah getting thrown off the boat, to being swallowed up by the whale, to Jonah sitting in the shade of the vine.(see above)

Early Christians recognized the wisdom in the stories of the Jewish scriptures more than we do today. Most of the people in the Roman catacombs were ordinary Christians, not heroic saints. Citizens of the great city of Rome, conscious of their weak faith, did they recognize the power of Jesus Christ who, in his resurrection, brought life even to a city of little faith. Did they see themselves and their loved ones who passed on like the citizens of Nineveh in the Jonah story? Outsiders saved by God’s mercy.

The Jonah story was their story. Isn’t it also ours?

Pope John XXIII: October 11

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Three popes who presided over and promoted the Second Vatican Council have been canonized saints: Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II.. They were declared saints, not just because they were popes, but because of their holiness and their role the council. Hard to understand the belittling of the council guided by three saintly popes, isn’t it?

We remember Pope John XXIII today. Three months after his election as pope in 1958, he called for a general council. It was an “aggiornomento” , an updating of the church, bringing its message to the people of our time and the world of today.

His official biography, which  can be found here ends, “ Much has been written and spoken about the warmth and holiness of the beloved Pope John. Perhaps the testimony of the world was best expressed by a newspaper drawing of the earth shrouded in mourning with the simple caption, “A Death in the Family.” 

The popes often describe the council as the path the church must take into the future. Some years ago at a synod of bishops,  Pope Francis described that path as the road Jesus took from Jericho to Jerusalem to enter the  mystery of his death and resurrection.  It’s a winding road, not easy to travel. Here’s a  picture of it from the air in the 1930s.

That’s the road our church is on today. 

I was fortunate to meet Pope John personally in 1962. Father Theodore Foley and I accompanied  Bishop Quentin Olwell, bishop of Cotabato, in the Philippines, on his “ad Limina” visit to Rome. The pope told me to “be like St. Gabriel.” That year Pope John was named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year. 

28th Sunday a: Humble Circumstances

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For this week’s homily please watch the video below.

Sunrise

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The autumn sun, bathing our oak trees, our spruce and cherry trees with morning light, has a special brilliance..

In lyrical language St.Clement of Rome pictures God’s great plan for creation. Fix your gaze on the Father and Creator of the whole world.You can see the Creator in the world he made, he says:

“By God’s direction the heavens are in motion, and they are subject to him in peace. Day and night they fulfill the course God has established. The sun, the moon and the choirs of stars revolve in harmony at his command in their appointed paths without deviation….The earth blossoms in the proper seasons and produces abundant food…”

The destiny of creation is not destruction but resurrection. The world has its fierce, stormy seas, but God commands the seas.

“ Consider, beloved, how the Lord keeps reminding us of the resurrection that is to come, of which he has made the Lord Jesus Christ the first fruits by raising him from the dead. Let us look, beloved, at the resurrection that occurs at its appointed time. Day and night show us a resurrection; the night lies in sleep, day rises again; the day departs, night takes its place.

Let us think about the harvest; how does the sowing take place, and in what manner? The sower goes out and casts each seed onto the ground. Dry and bare, they fall into the earth and decay. Then the greatness of the Lord’s providence raises them up again from decay, and out of one many are produced and yield fruit.”

It’s not nature mysticism Clement recommends. It’s a world seen through the eyes of faith. God’s “great providence” is at work.

Sunrise through the trees in our garden the other day whispered that to me.

Prayer Advice

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Here’s some good advice about prayer from St. Ambrose:

 The Lord Jesus also taught you about the goodness of the Father, who knows how to give good things: and so you should ask for good things from the One who is good. Jesus told us to pray urgently and often, so that our prayers should not be long and tedious but short, earnest and frequent. Long elaborate prayers overflow with pointless phrases, and long gaps between prayers eventually stretch out into complete neglect. 

Next he advises that when you ask forgiveness for yourself then you must take special care to grant it also to others. In that way your action can add its voice to yours as you pray. The apostle also teaches that when you pray you must be free from anger and from disagreement with anyone, so that your prayer is not disturbed or broken into.  

The apostle teaches us to pray anywhere, while the Saviour says Go into your room – but you must understand that this “room” is not the room with four walls that confines your body when you are in it, but the secret space within you in which your thoughts are enclosed and where your sensations arrive. That is your prayer-room, always with you wherever you are, always secret wherever you are, with your only witness being God. 

Above all, you must pray for the whole people: that is, for the whole body, for every part of your mother the Church, whose distinguishing feature is mutual love. If you ask for something for yourself then you will be praying for yourself only – and you must remember that more grace comes to one who prays for others than to any ordinary sinner. If each person prays for all people, then all people are effectively praying for each. 

In conclusion, if you ask for something for yourself alone, you will be the only one asking for it; but if you ask for benefits for all, all in their turn will be asking for them for you. For you are in fact one of the “all.” Thus it is a great reward, as each person’s prayers acquire the weight of the prayers of everyone. There is nothing presumptuous about thinking like this: on the contrary, it is a sign of greater humility and more abundant fruitfulness.

Praying the Rosary

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The Rosary is an excellent prayer to Mary, the Mother of God. It’s a contemplative prayer. Its peaceful rhythm allows our minds to linger over the mysteries of the Lord’s life, death and resurrection. October is a month to recall this beautiful prayer.

“Hail Mary, full of grace.”  Mary, full of grace, knew Jesus intimately all his human life and after he rose from the dead. As we pray, she is with us. She guides us into the deepest mysteries of God. The Rosary is her “school”. 

Tradition suggests certain mysteries to meditate on while praying the Rosary: the Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and the recently added Luminous mysteries. 

Tradition suggests certain days of the week to pray these mysteries. Remember, however, the Rosary is a flexible prayer that can be adapted to the times and circumstances. It’s not a rigid prayer. We can pray the Rosary in different ways.

One suggestion for praying the Rosary, besides the schedule of Joyful, Sorrowful and Luminous mysteries, is to follow the church calendar as the mysteries of Jesus Christ unfold in the year. In the Advent season, for example, meditate on the waiting world that Mary knew so well, described in the scriptures read on the Sundays and weekdays of that season.

The Christmas season recalls the birth of Jesus, the flight into Egypt, the slaughter of the Innocents, the return to Nazareth and the hidden years. “The Word was made flesh.” God’s plan revealed in his Son helps us understand God’s plan for us and our times as well.

The seasons of Lent and Easter reveal further the plan of God in Jesus Christ. Mary was with the women who went up with Jesus and his disciples from Galilee to Jerusalem. She was there when he was taken to be crucified; she stood beneath his Cross. Then, she witnessed his resurrection and the beginnings of his church. She opens up the scriptures that speak of him. 

The Rosary is a beautiful prayer. Originating in the scriptures it leads us into the mysteries and promises contained in them. It also guides us in the unfolding joys and sorrows, the contradictions and questions of our own lives.  “Hail Mary, full of grace.” Quietly, gracefully, as a mother and wise friend Mary brings us into the presence of God. 

Saturdays of the year are days associated with her, because she kept vigil that day after the death of her Son.   Every month of the year a feast of Mary in our calendar reminds us of her continual presence in the unfolding plan of God.  

Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Martha, Martha: Luke 10: 38-42

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St. Luke’s account of Jesus’ visit to Bethany is part of Jesus’ journey from Galilee to Jerusalem (Luke 10,38-42), Luke describes the journey, not by miles, but by the people Jesus meets.

He is a prophet speaking God’s word as he goes. Some reject him outright on his way to Jerusalem.  Jesus enters the house of Martha and Mary as a prophet speaking God’s word. Unfortunately Martha, busy about many things, misses his word and Jesus rebukes her. Mary hears his word and is praised. Good as she is, Martha in the midst of the “cares of this life” when Jesus visits.

That’s what Luke wants us to learn from this gospel- the cares of this life can get in the way of hearing God’s word. But we all know there’s more to Martha than what Luke tells us here. Other New Testament sources praise this good woman.  John’s gospel, for example, says that  Jesus was a long time friend of Lazarus and his sisters in Bethany. Martha is the key participant in the story of the death of Lazarus.

I keep two other sources in mind when I read Luke’s story.  One is a painting (above) by the 13th century Tuscan artist, Giovanni di Milano, showing Jesus with Martha and Mary at Bethany.

The artist imagines a supper at Bethany. The table’s set for four people– that would be Jesus, Lazarus, Mary and Martha. But look at the others coming in the door. Obviously, they’re Jesus’ disciples, led by Peter. One disciple gestures towards Peter, as if saying, “He told us to come.”

Poor Martha in her apron holds up her hands in frustration, “What are we going to do?”
There will be no miracle. The miracle is Martha’s hospitality. Thanks to her,  more than four are going to be fed. We need artists like di Milano to flesh out what the gospels say.

The other source I like is St. Augustine who obviously has a soft spot for Martha and the work she does. Both Martha and Mary had the same holy desire, Augustine says: “ They stayed close to our Lord and both served him harmoniously when he was among them.”

Martha served him as the “Word made flesh,” who was hungry and thirsty, tired and in need of human care and support. She longs to share what Mary enjoys, his presence, his wisdom and his gifts. And she will find her desires fulfilled.

“You, Martha, if I may say so, will find your service blessed and your work rewarded with peace. Now you are much occupied in nourishing the body, admittedly a holy one. But when you come to the heavenly homeland you will find no traveller to welcome, no one hungry to feed or thirsty to give drink, no one to visit or quarreling to reconcile, no one dead to bury.”

“No, there will be none of these tasks there. What you will find there is what Mary chose. There we shall not feed others, we ourselves shall be fed. What Mary chose in this life will be realized there in full. She was gathering only fragments from that rich banquet, the Word of God. Do you wish to know what we will have there? The Lord himself tells us when he says of his servants, Amen, I say to you, he will make them recline and passing he will serve them.”

Want to see Bethany, home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Take a look here.

Blessed Isidore de Loor,CP

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St. Anthony, Kortrijk, Belgium
Tomb of Brother Isidore, St.Anthony Church
isidore-de-loor
Thanksgiving notes for Bro. Isidore

Since their founding in the mid 1800s, the Passionists have given the church a variety of saints and blessed. St. Paul of the Cross, a preacher and mystic, St. Vincent Strambi, a holy bishop during the Napoleanic Suppression, Blessed Dominic Barberi, a fervent missionary to England, St. Gabriel Possenti a young Italian saint who died in his early 20s, Blessed Eugene Bossilkov, a martyr bishop under the Communists in Bulgaria in the 1950s.

October 6th we honor Blessed Isidore de Loor 1881-1916, from the Flemish part of Belgium, who entered the Passionists as a lay brother at 26.

The opening prayer for a feast usually indicates why a saint or blessed is honored.

Lord God,
in Blessed Isidore’s spirit of humility and work
you have given us a life hidden in the shadow of the Cross.
Grant that our daily work be a praise to you
and a loving service to our brothers and sisters.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

A life hidden in the shadow of the Cross. That’s Isidore. He was a humble, hard worker all his life. . He spent the first 26 years of his life working the family farm in Vrasene, Belgium, with his parents, brother and sister. Farming was tough at the time, demanding long hours and offering little to show for it. The agricultural sector in Belgium was near collapse. Yet, Isidore praised God and served his brothers and sisters through hard continuing work.

Prayer was the hidden power in his life. Isidore taught catechism in his parish; prayed at local shrines and made the Stations of the Cross daily. He wanted to enter religious life, but delayed till his brother Franz was free from a call-up for military service and could keep the family farm going.

Entering the Passionists as a brother, Isidore took on whatever responsibilities they gave him to do. At first, they told him to be the community cook. “Before I dug the earth, planted seed and harvested crops, now I cut vegetables, put them in pots on the stove and cook them till they’re ready,” he told his family. Whatever his work, he saw it as God’s will and a way to serve.

In 1911, cancer developed in Isidore’s eye and it had to be removed. He was not cancer free, the doctors said, cancer eventually would take his life. God’s will be done, he said.

As his strength declined, he became porter at the monastery door. World War 1 was beginning and German troops invaded Belgium. The frightened people who came to the monastery found support in the quiet faith of “Good Brother Isidore”.

In late summer 1916 Isidore’s health worsened. He died of cancer October 6, 1916, as German troops occupied the area and some were billeted in the monastery itself. He was buried quietly; his family and religious community were not allowed to attend. Yet, he would not be forgotten.

When the war ended, people came to the “Good Brother’s” grave. Cures from cancer and other illnesses occurred. They recognized a holy man who worked and prayed each day and served his brothers and sisters. A friend of God, hidden in the events of his time.

Letter to the Galatians

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Our first readings this week at Mass are from the Letter to the Galatians, who were non-Jews St. Paul converted probably on his second missionary journey through Asia Minor .Some Jewish Christians arrived after Paul’s departure and were enticing the new converts to adopt Jewish practices, especially that of circumcision. They also called Paul’s authority into question, saying he wasn’t among the original witnesses to Jesus’ life and resurrection.

Paul responds in this emotional letter written in 54 or 55 AD in which he voices amazement that the Galatians are listening to the newcomers and losing sight of the faith they’ve learned. Paul gives an account of his own call; he defends his authority to preach the gospel and his communion with the other apostles.

But the theme of his letter is belief in Jesus Christ, who was crucified. “Stupid Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?” ( Gal 3,1) Don’t lose sight of what’s most important, what’s central to your faith–Jesus Christ!

Of course, the Galatians are not the only ones who lose sight of what’s most important ; we do too. That’s especially true in times like ours today.

Some of Paul’s most beautiful expressions of his own faith are found in this letter.  He describes his own conversion as a “revelation of Jesus Christ,” a grace by which God “revealed his Son to me.” It wasn’t a book he read or a blinding light.  Jesus revealed himself to him and that revelation continued. “I have been crucified with Christ,yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me.” (Gal 2,19-20)

Do  we need to remember too the Lord’s revelation of himself to us today?

Living in Christ means living in his Spirit, Paul continues. The Galatians are enticed by practices of the Jewish law; Paul reminds them of the law Jesus taught. “The whole law is fulfilled in one statement,’ You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Gal 5,14) Bearing one another’s burdens is the way you fulfill the law of Christ, by sharing good things with one another you fulfill his law. Don’t tire of doing good, keep doing it, Paul says to his children in faith. (Gal 6,2;6:9)

Paul doesn’t give the Galatians a book he wrote once about Jesus, he speaks to them from his own faith in Jesus which is living and constantly growing. He’s likely just read the verse from the Old Testament about the curse one bears who hangs on the tree. The Son of God took on that cursed condition of hanging on a tree! What greater love can there be? Paul’s thinking too of the promise Abraham embraced who lived long before the mosaic law existed. That was the promise Abraham saw in faith and that’s the revelation the gentiles see in the Crucified Christ.

The Letter to the Galatians is about forgotten essentials that are replaced by something else. Paul recalls the essentials. “I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me.”

Keep before your eyes Jesus crucified.