We read from the Book of Ezra and the Prophet Haggai this week, two important sources describing the Restoration period in Jewish history,, when a small Jewish community returns to Judea around 520 after exile in Babylon, thanks to the Persian king Cyrus.
Jewish history, like Christian history afterwards, is not unrelated to our own experience as a church today. The restoration of the temple and its liturgy is a key task Ezra and Nehemiah undertakes. It was a key task undertaken by the Second Vatican Council.
This week’s readings from Luke’s gospel are from chapters 8-9, part of Jesus’ Galilean ministry, which prepares his disciples for his great journey to Jerusalem.
Padre Pio is remembered on Tuesday, The Passionist bishop, Vincent Strambi is remembered on Wednesday, September 24. Vincent De Paul on Saturday.
The founders of churches throughout the world have an important place in our church calendar, because they did what Jesus commanded: “Go out to the whole world and preach the gospel, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 25 )
Church founders are apostles like Peter and Paul, founders of the church in Rome, (June 29), or monk-bishops like Boniface, founder of the church of the Germanic peoples, (June 5), Patrick, founder of the church in Ireland, (March 17) Ansgar, founder of the church in Scandanavia, (February 3), Cyril and Methodius, founders of the church in the Slavic nations (February14).
The church in Korea, whose founding we celebrate today, can be traced back to the 17th century. Its foundation is special, as Pope John Paul II noted at the canonization of the Korean Martyrs, May 6, 1984:
“The Korean Church is unique because it was founded entirely by laypeople. This fledgling Church, so young and yet so strong in faith, withstood wave after wave of fierce persecution. Thus, in less than a century, it could boast of 10,000 martyrs. The death of these many martyrs became the leaven of the Church and led to today’s splendid flowering of the Church in Korea. Even today their undying spirit sustains the Christians of the Church of Silence in the north of this tragically divided land.” – Pope John Paul II at the canonization of the Korean Martyrs, May 6, 1984.
A priest, Andrew Kim Taegon and a layman Paul Chong Hasang, head the list of 103 martyrs canonized in 1984, but the early Korean church was from the first a church of laypeople. Decades before those celebrated today, it was without priests or bishops. All lay people, they kept faith alive at great cost and offered it to others.
By its nature, the Catholic Church draws from its member churches the gifts God has given them. The church is the body of Christ. May our churches today, old and new, be blessed with lay people like those who founded the church in Korea.
The Second Vatican Council, 60 years or so ago, called for increasing the role of the laity in the Catholic Church. It seems to me that goal has still to be met, at least in my country.
“Once again, Jesus sends lay people into every town and place where he will come (cf.Luke 10:1) so that they may show that they are co-workers in the various forms and modes of the one apostolate of the Church, which must be constantly adapted to the new needs of our times. Ever productive as they should be in the work of the Lord, they know that their labor in him is not in vain (cf. 1 Cor.15:58).” (Decree on Laity, 33)
O God, who have been pleased to increase your adopted children in all the world, and who made the blood of the Martyrs Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gǒn and his companions a most fruitful seed of Christians, grant that we may be defended by their help and profit always from their example.Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.Amen.
I like the way psalms say it all. “Rejoice in the Lord, you just!” one psalm says. No need to make a prayer up on your own or think hard about saying something to God. Let the psalms help you. “Rejoice in the Lord, you just!”
“Let the earth rejoice in God, our king.” Why not join the earth praying? The “many isles are glad.” Be glad with them. The psalms call you to creation. They’re good prayers for the Season of Creation.
The psalms still our souls and draw them into the quiet grace of God’s presence. We think everything depends on us. No, it doesn’t. God “melts the mountains like wax” and “guards the lives of his faithful ones.” We think we have to know everything. No, we don’t. But God does.
The psalms draw us closer to God. They feed our minds and hearts, little by little. Their special grace is their simplicity as they tell us, for example, “rest in God as a child in a mother’s arms.”
Most of the psalms in our liturgy are songs of praise. “Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good.” Other psalms cry for help. Cry to the Lord, they say. “I cry to the Lord that he may hear me.”
The psalms call to a simple, deep prayer. Keep your eye on them in the liturgy of the Mass, Use them in your daily prayer. They’re wonderful basic prayers for everyone.
“Although the whole of Scripture breathes God’s grace upon us, this is especially true of that delightful book, the book of the psalms.” (St. Ambrose)
Every day the church meets the morning praying the psalms; every evening we end the day with these great prayers. A good way to pray always, as Jesus asks us to do.
A number of us reflect on the weekday lectionary readings each Monday morning. We share our reflections for about an hour after silently reading the scriptures for about 20 minutes. There’s a wisdom that comes from that kind of sharing.
Tuesday of this week we hear the tender story of Jesus raising the widow’s son. Monday was the Feast of the Our Lady of Sorrows. Someone wondered if Jesus was especially sensitive to the widow who lost her son, because he knew his own mother was likely to lose her Son.
It’s interesting the connections you make by reading the scriptures and feasts together over the week. Our reading for Thursday is Luke’s account of the sinful woman who stands behind Jesus in the Pharisee’s house, bathes his feet with her tears and anoints him with precious oil.
“Doesn’t he know who this woman is?” the Pharisee says to himself. “This woman has great love because she has been forgiven,” Jesus tells him. She knows the gift of mercy given her.
Jesus went through the towns and villages of Galilee with his disciples and women accompanied him, Luke writes, and names three: Mary Magdalene, who was delivered from seven devils, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Cusa, and Susanna. Yes, many other women were with him, but those three are mentioned. Why those three? Were they influential women, big donors? Is that why they’re mentioned?
Or were they women like the one in the Pharisee’s house, Women who knew the great gift of mercy they were given?
As Jesus goes through Galilee his reception is mixed. Some are like little children in the marketplace, who won’t even look up from their games. (Wednesday)
Saturday’s reading describes the Sower casting seed on all kinds of soil, seeds of mercy and love. He casts seed in the house of the Pharisee, in the marketplace and on the soil of Galilee’s town’s and villages.
Readings from Luke’s 7th and 8th chapters this week sum up Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. We can see certain themes of Luke’s gospel in the readings.
Luke wants us to know that Jesus reached out to the gentiles even in his early ministry in Galilee, and so he relates the cure of the centurion’s slave -Monday’s reading. “I have not found faith like this in Israel,” Jesus says, praising the gentile centurion.
Luke then tells us Jesus raised the widow’s son to life-Tuesday’s reading. Jesus takes care of the poor.
On Wednesday we have Jesus’ short description of the reception he’s received from his generation. They are like children playing in the marketplace, so intent on their own games that they pay little attention to him. Does that also describe our generation today too? In the western world it seems Jesus himself, not just his church, is given scant attention. Jesus’ answer to John’s disciples, who ask if he is the one who is to come.The blind, the lame, the deaf are healed and the poor have the gospel preached to them, Jesus tells them.
On Friday, Luke offers an interesting picture of the followers of Jesus. As he journeys for one town to another some women, Mary Magdalene is most prominent among the, follow him and support him from their resources. Now only the twelve men, but women are his followers. Another theme of Luke’s gospel.
The feast of Our Mother of Sorrows is Monday. Saints Cornelius and Cyprian is Tuesday and the Martyrs of Korea Saturday. Even as the feasts of saints occur, it’s good to follow the gospels and see them in perspective.
Today the church celebrates two early saints and martyrs, Cornelius, a pope who died in 253, and Cyprian, a bishop who was martyred in Roman Africa shortly after in 258.
At the time barbarian tribes in the west and the Persians in the east were invading Roman territory; the Roman emperors Decius and Valerian called for absolute loyalty from their people. The empire was imperiled.
To prove their loyalty, Roman citizens lined to offer sacrifice in honor of the emperor. Christians refused, and so at first church leaders were executed or imprisoned, wealthy, influential Christians lost their property, their positions and possibly their lives. Finally, all Christians could expect punishment for not performing the rites of sacrifice.
Not every Christian remained loyal to the faith at the time. Many offered sacrifice, betraying their faith, then afterwards sought to return to the church. Hard liners called for them to be banned for life for their lack of loyalty. Let God judge them when they die, they said. Others, like Cornelius and Cyprian, called to reconcile them after a time of penance, since God is all merciful.
Mercy and justice are always hard to reconcile. The gospels come down on the side of mercy. So should we.
In the persecution, Cornelius, bishop of Rome, was executed first, Cyprian, bishop of Carthage in Africa, was executed a few years later. The two men were from different social backgrounds and not always on good terms, historians say, but they found support in their common faith, as this letter of Cyprian to Cornelius, written shortly before Cornelius’ death, reveals:
“Cyprian to my brother Cornelius,
Dearest brother, bright and shining is the faith which the blessed Apostle praised in your community. He foresaw in spirit the praise your courage deserves and the strength that can not be broken; he was heralding the future when he testified to your achievements; his praise of the fathers was a challenge to the sons.
Your unity, your strength have become shining examples of these virtues to the rest of us. Divine providence has now prepared us. God’s merciful design has warned us that the day of our own struggle, our own contest, is at hand. By that shared love which binds us close together, we are doing all we can to exhort our congregation, to give ourselves unceasingly to fastings, vigils and prayers in common. These are the heavenly weapons which give us the strength to stand firm and endure; they are the spiritual defences, the God-given armaments that protect us.
Let us then remember one another, united in mind and heart. Let us pray without ceasing, you for us, we for you; by the love we share we shall thus relieve the strain of these great trials.”
As far as I remember there are three miracles in which Jesus raises someone from the dead. The most famous is the raising of Lazarus, his friend. His sisters, Mary and Martha, were also well known to him. Jesus stayed with them at Bethany, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. That miracle led his enemies to plot to put him to death.
Earlier, in Capernaum, Jesus raised the little daughter of Jairus, an official of the synagogue, from the dead. The official pleaded with him. Jesus goes to his house, where the mourning had already begun, and took the little girl by the hand and raised her up and told her parents to give her something to eat.
Today’s reading at Mass recalling the miracle in which Jesus raises the widow’s son as they carry him through the gates of the town of Naim seems somewhat different. The mother and son are strangers to him. We don’t know their names; they have no claim of friendship or position that may influence him. It’s the very opposite. The mother is a widow. Her son was the last asset she had and now he’s dead. She has nothing. Absolutely poor.
Our reading from Luke (Luke 7,11-17) provides the answer Jesus will give to John’s disciples as they approach him after this incident and ask “Are you he who is to come?” Tell John, Jesus says, “the blind see, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
“The poor have the gospel preached to them.” Those who have nothing and who know they have nothing, like the widow, are given the greatest gifts. God notices them. God’s heart goes out to them.
That was an important teaching of St. Paul of the Cross, the founder of the Passionists. “Go to God in your nothingness,” he said to people looking for guidance. Learn from the poor widow. Go to God with nothing.
In the years Paul of the Cross founded the Passionists, a lot of men left his community for one reason or another, and Paul respected them, but he reacted when someone left for the wrong reasons.
St Vincent Strambi, his biographer, tells about a priest who left the Passionists to make a career for himself in the church. He wanted to be a success so he got a string of degrees and began to climb the church bureaucracy. He wrote Paul a very self-congratulatory letter informing him how much better he was now for leaving the Passionists. At the end he signed his name, noting all his new degrees and honors after it.
Paul answered his letter, thanking him for letting him know how he was making out and wishing him well. But at the end of the letter he simply signed his name: “Paolo, n,n.n”– “Paul, a nobody, no one, having nothing.”
Our first reading today is all about bishops and deacons. (1 Timothy 3,1-13) Our gospel is about a widow. Who’s more important?
The Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows is celebrated the day after the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14). Eight days after Mary’s birth (September 7) her sorrows are recalled, her lifelong sorrows.
The old man Simeon spoke of her lifelong sorrows when hetold Mary a sword would pierce her heart when Jesus was born. Her greatest sorrow, of course, came when she stood beneath the Cross of her Son.
What, then, were her lifelong sorrows? The gospels indicate some of them, but perhaps more important was Mary’s experience of the sorrow every human being experiences. An infant cries as it enters this world. “Our life is over like a sigh. Our span is seventy years, or eighty for those who are strong. And most of these are emptiness and pain.” (Psalm 90) Everyone experiences the human sorrow the psalms describes. Mary experienced that human sorrow.
The sword of sorrow struck Mary most deeply at the death of her Son. Some of Jesus followers stood at a distance when he was crucified. But John’s gospel describes Mary as the first of those standing close by, beneath the cross itself. “Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.”
Mary stands by the Cross of Jesus, close by, not at a distance. She’s not absorbed in her own suffering, not afraid to see. Her closeness to the Cross is significant. She enters the mystery of her Son’s suffering through compassion.
She stood by him. Compassion doesn’t experience another’s suffering exactly, and it may not take another’s suffering away. Compassion enters suffering to break the isolation suffering causes. It helps someone bear their burden. The sword, the spear, the sorrow, pierces both hearts, in different ways.
Our prayer for today’s feast says that when her Son “was lifted high on the Cross” his mother stood by and shared his suffering. “Grant that your Church, participating with the Virgin Mary in the Passion of Christ, may merit a share in his Resurrection.
Basil (Ocimum basilicum), a sweet smelling herb that heals the body and flavors our foods, has been associated for centuries with the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, September 14.
Stories from the Orthodox tradition say that when the Empress Helena went to the Holy Land in the 4th century to pray where Jesus lived and died and rose again, she wanted, above all, to find the Cross on which he died. At first, she found nothing, but then on a bare hill in Jerusalem she smelled a basil bush and ordered workers to dig where the basil grew. They found the remains of the Cross.
Today, in many eastern churches, a relic of the Cross surrounded by basil leaves and plants is carried in procession through the church on the feast.
Another story says the women who went to the tomb on Easter Sunday found a basil plant in the tomb where the body of Jesus was placed. Stories like this illustrate how the eastern churches brought creation into the mystery of salvation.
Basil is a sign of life. it deserves to be before our altar as we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.
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