Catholic from Myanmar to be beatified

                A leading archbishop in Myanmar has hailed the upcoming beatification of the south-east Asian nation’s first native son as a sign of the Pope’ love for the Church in Myanmar, formerly Burma.
          "We are delighted to know that the first Burmese Blessed will be Isidore Ngei Ko Lat. The Holy Father is close to Myanmar and this first Blessed is the sign of Pope Francis and the Holy See's love and attention," said Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon.
          His remarks came soon after Pope Francis on Monday authorized a decree recognizing the martyrdom of Italian priest Fr. Mario Vergara of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME ) and Isidore Ngei Ko Lat, a lay catechist, martyred in Shadaw (Myanmar) May 24, 1950.
The recognition of their martyrdom was among 12 decrees, including a miracle and 10 heroic virtues, that Pope Francis authorized. The other upcoming beatification is of 19^th century Italian nun, Giovannina Franks, through whose intercession a miracle has been recognized.
           Speaking to AsiaNews, Archbishop Bo described the "great joy and happiness," of the Catholic community, caught by surprise by the long-awaited announcement. The journey began in May 2008, when the Catholic Bishops' Conference wrote a letter to Pope Benedict XVI to "humbly ask the Pope to authorize the study of the cause."
           The beatification of Fr. Vergara and his catechist, the bishops wrote, will be a source of " encouragement" for the whole community to live" a faith more in line " with the Gospel and to witness to it "in a brave and heroic" way, even at the cost of dying because of hatred for the faith and giving their lives "for the Gospel."
                  Archbishop Bo said the Church in Myanmar is preparing to celebrate 500 years of history and hopes for a visit by Pope Francis to the country. He said that the beatification is a first step on a long journey and “there are many others", because they have many martyrs in Myanmar, who deserve sainthood.
 

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Sunday, 01 September 2013

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

St. Giles of Castaneda, Abbot (640-720)

Commentary of the day
Saint Bruno of Segni : « Behold, I have prepared my banquet…, everything is ready : come to the feast » (Mt 22,4)

Lk 14:1.7-14.

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully.
He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table.
When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,
and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, 'Give your place to this man,' and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place.
Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, 'My friend, move up to a higher position.' Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
Then he said to the host who invited him, "When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day :

Saint Bruno of Segni (c.1045-1123), Bishop
Commentary on Saint Luke's Gospel, 2, 14 ; PL 165, 406 (trans. ©Friends of Henry Ashworth)

« Behold, I have prepared my banquet…, everything is ready : come to the feast » (Mt 22,4)

Invited to a wedding feast, the Lord looked round and noticed how all were choosing the first and most honorable places, each person wanting to take precedence of the others and to be raised above them. He then told them this parable (Lk 14,16f), which even taken literally is most useful and appropriate for all who like to be honored, and fear being put to shame...

However, since it is called a parable, it must have some other interpretation besides the literal one. Let us see then what this wedding feast is, and who are the people invited to it. This wedding feast takes place in the Church every day. Every day the Lord makes a wedding feast, for every day he unites faithful souls to himself. some coming to be baptized, others leaving this world for the kingdom of heaven. We are all invited to this wedding feast - all of us who have received faith in Christ and the seal of baptism This table set before us is that of which it is said: “You have prepared a table before me in the sight of those who trouble me” (Ps 23[22],5). Here is the showbread, here the fatted calf, here the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world (Ex 25,30; Lk 15,23; Jn 1,29). Here is the living bread come down from heaven; here placed before us is the chalice of the New Covenant (Jn 6,51; 1Co 11,25); here are the gospels and the letters of the apostles, here the books of Moses and the prophets. It is as though a dish containing every delight was brought and set before us.

What more then can we desire? What reason is there for choosing the first seats? There is plenty for all no matter where we sit. There is nothing we shall lack.

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Daily Gospel

Sunday, 18 August 2013

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

St. Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, Priest (1901-1952)

Commentary of the day
Vatican Council II: « My peace I give you » (Jn 14,27)

Lk 12:49-53.

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day :

Vatican Council II
Constitution on the Church in the modern world, « Gaudium et spes », § 78 (©trans. Libreria Vaticana editrice)

« My peace I give you » (Jn 14,27)

Peace is not merely the absence of war; nor can it be reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies; nor is it brought about by dictatorship. Instead, it is rightly and appropriately called a “deed of justice” (Is 32,17). Peace results from that order structured into human society by its divine Founder, and actualized by men as they thirst after ever greater justice... Peace is never attained once and for all, but must be built up ceaselessly. Moreover, since the human will is unsteady and wounded by sin, the achievement of peace requires a constant mastering of passions and the vigilance of lawful authority. But this is not enough... A firm determination to respect other men and peoples and their dignity, as well as the studied practice of brotherhood are absolutely necessary for the establishment of peace. Hence peace is likewise the fruit of love, which goes beyond what justice can provide.That earthly peace which arises from love of neighbor symbolizes and results from the peace of Christ which radiates from God the Father. For by the cross the incarnate Son, the “prince of peace” (Is 9,5) reconciled all men with God. By thus restoring all men to the unity of one people and one body, He “slew hatred in His own flesh” (Eph 2,16); and, after being lifted on high by His resurrection, He poured forth the spirit of love into the hearts of men. For this reason, all Christians are urgently summoned to do in love what the truth requires, and to join with all true peacemakers in pleading for peace and bringing it about...Insofar as men are sinful, the threat of war hangs over them, and hang over them it will until the return of Christ. But insofar as men vanquish sin by a union of love, they will vanquish violence as well and make these words come true: "They shall turn their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into sickles. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Is 2,4).

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Sunday, 11 August 2013

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

St. Clare, Virgin (1194-1253)

Commentary of the day
Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe : "Stewards of the mysteries of God"

Lk 12:32-48.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.
Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.
For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.
Gird your loins and light your lamps
and be like servants who await their master's return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.
Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.
And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants.
Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.
You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."
Then Peter said, "Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?"
And the Lord replied, "Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute (the) food allowance at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.
Truly, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed in coming,' and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk,
then that servant's master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful.
That servant who knew his master's will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely;
and the servant who was ignorant of his master's will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly. Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day :

Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (467-532), Bishop in North Africa
Homily 1, on the Lord's servants ; CCL 91A, 889 (trans. breviary Common of pastors)

"Stewards of the mysteries of God"

Wishing to emphasize the special office of the servants whom he has placed in charge of his people, the Lord says, 'Who, do you think, is the faithful and wise steward whom the Lord sets over his household, to give to them their measure of wheat at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.” Who is that master, brethren? Without a doubt it is Christ, who says to his disciples: “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right for so I am” (Jn 13,13). What, too, is the master's household? Doubtless it is the one which the Lord himself ransomed... This sacred household is the holy, Catholic Church, which is spread through the whole earth with abundant fertility and glories in the fact that she has been redeemed by the precious blood of her Master. As he himself says: “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10,45). He is, too, the good shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep” (Jn 10,11)...As to who the steward is who ought to be faithful as well as wise, the Apostle Paul shows us, when, speaking of himself and his companions, he says: “This is how one should regard us, as the servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they should be found trustworthy” (1Cor 4,1-2). Now, lest anyone of us should think that it is only the apostles who have been made stewards..., the blessed Apostle Paul shows us that the bishops also are stewards, when he says: “For a bishop, as God's steward, must be blameless” (Tt 1,7)...We, therefore, who are the servants of the master of the household, we are the stewards of the Lord, we have received the measure of wheat to disburse to you.

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Daily Gospel

Sunday, 30 June 2013

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C
In England and Wales: solemnity of Ss Peter and Paul, Apostles - Proper readings

1st Martyrs of Rome (+ 1st century)

Commentary of the day
Blessed John XXIII : "I will follow you wherever you go"

Lk 9:51-62.

When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem,
and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there,
but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.
When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?"
Jesus turned and rebuked them,
and they journeyed to another village.
As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."
Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."
And to another he said, "Follow me." But he replied, "(Lord,) let me go first and bury my father."
But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God."
And another said, "I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home."
(To him) Jesus said, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God."

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day :

Blessed John XXIII (1881-1963), pope
Journal of a soul, June 1957 [before his election as Pope] (trans.©Geoffrey Chapman, 1965)

"I will follow you wherever you go"

“Give me more light as evening falls.” O Lord, we are now in the evening of our life. I am in my seventy-sixth year. Life is a great gift from our heavenly Father. Three-quarters of my contemporaries have passed over to the far shore. So I too must always be ready for the great moment. The thought of death does not alarm me... My health is excellent and still robust, but I cannot count on it. I want to hold myself ready to reply “adsum” at any, even the most unexpected moment. Old age, likewise a great gift of the Lord's, must be for me a source of tranquil inner joy, and a reason for trusting day by day in the Lord himself, to whom I am now turned as a child turns to his father's open arms. My poor life, now such a long one, has unwound itself as easily as a ball of string, under the sign of simplicity and purity. It costs me nothing to acknowledge and repeat that I am nothing and worth precisely nothing. The Lord caused me to be born of poor folk, and he has seen to all my needs. I have left it to him... Truly, “the will of God is my peace” (Dante Alighieri). And my hope is all in Jesus' mercy... I think the Lord Jesus has in store for me, before I die, for my complete mortification and purification and in order to admit me to his everlasting joy, some great suffering and affliction of body and spirit. Well, I accept everything and with all my heart, if it is for his glory and the good of my soul and for the souls of my dear spiritual children. I fear my weakness in bearing pain; I implore him to help me, for I have little faith in myself, but complete faith in the Lord Jesus. There are two gates to paradise: innocence and penance. Which of us, poor frail creatures, can expect to find the first of these wide open? But we may be sure of the other: Jesus passed through it, bearing his Cross in atonement for our sins, and he invites us to follow him.

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Sunday, 23 June 2013

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

St. Etheldreda, abbess (7th century)

Commentary of the day
Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross [Edith Stein] : "He must take up his cross daily and follow me"

Lk 9:18-24.

Once when Jesus was praying in solitude, and the disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say that I am?"
They said in reply, "John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, 'One of the ancient prophets has arisen.'"
Then he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter said in reply, "The Messiah of God."
He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone.
He said, "The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised."
Then he said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day :

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross [Edith Stein] (1891-1942), Carmelite, martyr, co-patron of Europe
«Love of the Cross», meditation of 24/11/1934 (©Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, 2002)

"He must take up his cross daily and follow me"

The burden of the cross that Christ assumed is that of corrupted human nature, with all its consequences in sin and suffering to which fallen humanity is subject. The meaning of the way of the cross is to carry this burden out of the world... But because being one with Christ is our sanctity, and progressively becoming one with him our happiness on earth, the love of the cross in no way contradicts being a joyful child of God. Helping Christ carry his cross fills one with a strong and pure joy, and those who may and can do so, the builders of God's kingdom, are the most authentic children of God. And so those who have a predilection for the way of the cross by no means deny that Good Friday is past and that the work of salvation has been accomplished. Only those who are saved, only children of grace, can in fact be bearers of Christ's cross. Only in union with the divine Head does human suffering take on expiatory power... To have one's feet on the earth, to walk on the dirty and rough paths of this earth and yet to be enthroned with Christ at the Father's right hand, to laugh and cry with the children of this world and ceaselessly to sing the praises of God with the choirs of angels, this is the life of the Christian until the morning of eternity breaks forth.

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A story of a baby

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An Ex-abortionist's Conversion, who was a key to America's legalization of abortion

Bernard Nathanson's Conversion 

by Julia Duin 

------------------------------------------------------------------
One cold January morning in 1989, Bernard Nathanson, famous Jewish 
abortionist-turned-atheistic-pro-lifer, began to entertain 
seriously the notion of God. Seven years later, thanks to a 
persistent Opus Dei priest, the sixty-nine-year-old doctor, author 
of Aborting America and The Abortion Papers, is becoming a Roman 
Catholic.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Even though pro-lifers have had him on their prayer lists for some 
time, Nathanson is still considered quite a big fish to reel in. 
Unique in the medical profession for having made a public 
turnabout on the abortion issue in the 1970s, he had been aware of 
being a spiritual target for nearly a decade. 

"I was not unmoved as time wore on," he now says. But back then, 
he was not letting on that he was gripped by despair, waking up 
mornings at 4 or 5 a.m., staring into the darkness or reading from 
St. Augustine's Confessions along with heavy-duty fare from other 
intellectuals: Dostoyevsky, Tillich, Kierkegaard, Niebuhr, Lewis 
Mumford, and Waldo Frank; what he termed the "literature of sin." 
As he read and pondered, the doctor realized his despondency had 
to do with just that, a worthy consideration in that, in his time, 
he had presided over 75,000 abortions and had helped sculpt the 
landscape from whence emerged Roe v. Wade in 1973. Sixteen years 
later, there was no escaping the interior dialogue that haunted 
and accused, then pointed out Albert Camus's central question of 
the twentieth century: Whether or not to commit suicide. A 
grandfather and sister had gone that route; his father had 
attempted to. 

Along came the fateful January morning at a Planned Parenthood 
Clinic on Manhattan's Lower East Side, where he witnessed 1,200 
Operation Rescue demonstrators wrapping their arms around each 
other, singing hymns, smiling at the police and the media. 
Nathanson, who was already well known for founding the National 
Abortion Rights Action League in 1968 and overseeing the world's 
largest abortion clinic before the advent of ultrasound in the 
1970s changed his mind forever on the subject, was writing a 
magazine article on the morality of clinic blockades. He circled 
about the demonstrators, doing interviews, taking notes, observing 
the faces. 

"It was only then," he writes in his new book, The Hand of God, 
"that I apprehended the exaltation, the pure love on the faces of 
that shivering mass of people, surrounded as they were by hundreds 
of New York City policemen." He listened as they prayed for the 
unborn, the women seeking abortions, the doctors and nurses in the 
clinic, the police, and reporters covering the event. 

"They prayed for each other but never for themselves," he writes. 
"And I wondered: How can these people give of themselves for a 
constituency that is (and always will be) mute, invisible and 
unable to thank them? 

"It was only then," he adds, "that I began seriously to question 
what indescribable Force generated them to this activity. Why, 
too, was I there? What had led me to this time and place? Was it 
the same Force that allowed them to sit serene and unafraid at the 
epicenter of legal, physical, ethical and moral chaos?" 

Prodded by an intellectual compulsion to find out more, Nathanson 
changed his reading material. His conversion was by now not "if;" 
it was "when." He plunged into Malcolm Muggeridge, Walker Percy, 
Graham Greene, Karl Stern, C. S. Lewis, Simone Weill, Richard 
Gilman, Blaise Pascal, and Cardinal Newman, all of whom had taken 
the path he was considering. 

By then he had already gotten to know John McCloskey, an Opus Dei 
priest based in Princeton with a doctorate in theology and a 
reputation for helping intellectual seekers. 

"He'd heard I was prowling around the edges of Catholicism," the 
doctor says. "He contacted me and we began to have weekly talks. 
He'd come to my house and give me reading materials. He guided me 
down the path to where I am now. I owe him more than anyone else." 

Other than McCloskey, the biggest influence on Nathanson's 
decision was Karl Stern, a world-renowned psychoanalyst who was 
one of his professors in the 1940s at McGill University Medical 
College in Montreal. Stern had converted from Orthodox Judaism to 
Catholicism in 1943 and later chronicled his spiritual journey in 
Pillar of Fire. Nathanson never knew of this until 1974, when he 
discovered a tattered copy of Stern's book. Nathanson would return 
to this book again and again, fascinated with how Stern could use 
his brilliant mind to embrace faith and adopt as his heroine 
Teresa of Avila, a doctor of the Church. Nathanson found Stern's 
demeanor exquisitely sensitive to the doubts and questions of 
intellectuals who struggled with how much to allow for reason, how 
much to turn over to faith. 

By then, Nathanson had been involved in abortion for nearly thirth 
years, beginning in 1945 when he persuaded a pregnant girlfriend 
to abort their child, which, he says, "served as excursion into 
the satanic world of abortion." Years later, he impregnated 
another woman and aborted that child himself. He was directing the 
country's largest abortion clinic in New York. 

"What is it like to terminate the life of your own child?" he 
writes in the book. "I have aborted the unborn children of my 
friends, my colleagues, casual acquaintances, even my teachers. 
There was never a shred of self-doubt, never a wavering of the 
supreme self-confidence that I was doing a major service to those 
who sought me out." 

Still, his confidence was wavering by the early 1970s. Ultrasound, 
a new technology, was making it clear that what was in the womb 
could suck its thumb and do other human-like things, and thus 
Nathanson began distancing himself first from the clinic, then 
from abortions altogether. In 1984, he premiered a movie, The 
Silent Scream, that showed an ultrasound of a child being aborted. 
The spectacle of such film backed by a cofounder of NARAL lent it 
credibility and created a sensation. Pro-lifers scrambled to watch 
it; pro-choicers repudiated their former ally. 

But Nathanson was no angel of light. He had already broken the 
Hippocratic Oath, which forbids abortions; he was failing at the 
upbringing of his one son, Joseph, now thirty, and he was plowing 
through his second and third marriages with a vengeance. His 
divorce from his third wife, Adelle, is final this spring. 

For a while, he tried therapy, self-help books, counseling, and 
spiritualities ranging from theosophy to Swedenborgianism while 
finding his Judaism inadequate at best. Except for his first 
marriage in a Jewish ceremony and getting his son bar mitzvahed, 
he had hardly functioned as a Jew after his midteens. Still he 
went to speak with two rabbis, one Orthodox and the other 
Conservative, about his doubts. 

"I was looking for a way to wash away my sins," he says. "There's 
no such formal mechanism for doing that in Judaism. One can atone 
for sins, as in Yom Kippur, but that doesn't absolve you. That's 
not to condemn the religion but I just didn't find in it what I 
needed." 

Another Orthodox rabbi, David Lapin, founder of the Mercer Island, 
Wash.-based Toward Tradition, wonders if Nathanson ever understood 
his Jewish faith. 

"Atonement is the action that leads to absolution," he says, "and 
absolution is only granted during the Day of Atonement. Then there 
are steps taken throughout the year that include rejecting the 
wrong and resolving not to repeat it again." 

There may be a deeper reason to Nathanson's disenchantment, the 
rabbi guesses, which has to do with the high level of Jews 
involved in the abortion business. Nathanson has written of the 
high percentage of Jewish abortionists. The new national leader of 
Planned Parenthood, who comes on board in June, is Gloria Feldt, a 
Jew. 

"I believe that Bernard Nathanson's conversion to Catholicism is 
spurred not by theological deficiencies in a Judaism I don't 
believe he knew but by a deep compelling desire to distance 
himself from a faith whose secular wing has embraced abortion with 
a fervor," Lapin says. 

"And there's no question about it. Boston Herald columnist Don 
Feder points out nearly half of the religious organizations 
endorsing abortion are Jewish in spite of Jews being 2.3 percent 
of the U.S. population, not 50 percent. The Jewish community is 
disproportionately represented in the pro-abortion movement. This 
taking up the cudgels for abortion is not by any means an 
expression of Judaism. It is a rejection of God and a rejection of 
the religious core of Judaism, and in those terms I understand why 
Bernard Nathanson had to seek another faith." 

Nathanson also felt he had to seek something that had the 
theological construct he needed to face his sin. Life's twilight 
was approaching and inexorable judgment looming, and the doctor 
was entranced by the idea of going round and round in one of 
Dante's seven circles of hell. 

"I felt the burden of sin growing heavier and more insistent," he 
writes. "I have such heavy moral baggage to drag into the next 
world that failing to believe would condemn me to an eternity 
perhaps more terrifying than anything Dante envisioned in his 
celebration of the redemptive fall and rise of Easter. I am 
afraid." 

He began casting about for a system that provided space for guilt 
and could assure him "that someone died for my sins and my evil 
two millennia ago. 

"The New Testament God was a loving, forgiving, incomparably 
cossetting figure in whom I would seek, and ultimately find, the 
forgiveness I have pursued so hopelessly, for so long." 

McCloskey, now 42, was half Nathanson's age when he met the doctor 
nine years ago and was all too glad to help along the way. The 
well-read priest was Nathanson's intellectual equal, able to 
discuss everything from medieval Jewish philosophers like Spinoza 
to Etienne Gilson, a twentieth century French philosopher as 
Nathanson wrestled with his questions. 

"He's receptive, he's a listener, and he speaks the language of 
reason and erudition," Nathanson says of his instructor. "He's 
simpatico with someone like myself who's seeking faith but still 
wants reason - a difficult language to speak simultaneously. 

"I needed faith but I needed reason to prop me up. Reason was a 
safety net for the leap of faith," he said, borrowing the term 
from Kierkegaard. "You can remove the net, but only after you've 
made the leap." 

Nathanson was likewise fascinated with Luke the evangelist, who 
besides being a physician was also a credible first-century 
historian. Reading Luke and Acts was essential to Nathanson's slow 
switch to Christianity as he grasped Luke's point that the 
unbelievable events such as a physical resurrection of the dead 
were possible and had actually happened. 

"It requires true courage to admit not only you're wrong but 
you're awfully wrong," McCloskey says. "He is a man of goodwill 
and a man interested in pursuing the truth no matter what the 
cost. I think he's been doing enormous penance for the pro-life 
cause since the late '70s when he changed his mind. In a human 
sense, he's been making reparation. The cross of Jesus Christ and 
the sacrament of baptism washes away any guilt and temporal 
punishment for his sins. Once he's baptized, he's a different man. 
That's the whole essence of Christianity." 

Nathanson has since taken off a year to take courses at the 
Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. He then 
wrote the book, floating through which are occasional references 
to his new love: Jesus Christ, as opposed to his old love: 
himself. He is considering changing careers and taking up a 
teaching position at a hospital, possibly a Catholic one. There 
are several offers. He attends a parish in Manhattan's Chelsea 
district where soon he will stand before the baptismal font and 
renounce forever the world, the flesh, and the devil. 

"I will be free from sin," he says. "For the first time in my 
life, I will feel the shelter and warmth of faith." 

Julia Duin is the culture page editor for The Washington Times.

© 1995-1996 Crisis Magazine

This article was taken from the June 1996 issue of "Crisis" 
magazine. To subscribe please write: Box 1006, Notre Dame, IN 
46556 or call 1-800-852-9962. Subscriptions are $25.00 per year. 
Editorial correspondence should be sent to 1511 K Street, N.W., 
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The Silent Scream

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Sunday, 16 June 2013

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

St. John Francis Regis, Priest (1597-1640)

Commentary of the day
Saint Ambrose : "Your faith has saved you; go in peace"

Lk 7:36-50.8:1-3.

A Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at table.
Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment,
she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner."
Jesus said to him in reply, "Simon, I have something to say to you." "Tell me, teacher," he said.
Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days' wages and the other owed fifty.
Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?"
Simon said in reply, "The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven." He said to him, "You have judged rightly."
Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered.
You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment.
So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little."
He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
The others at table said to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"
But he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
Afterward he journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Accompanying him were the Twelve
and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources.

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Daily Gospel

Sunday, 09 June 2013

Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

St. Ephrem the Syrian, Deacon and Doctor of the Church (c.306-373)

Commentary of the day
Vatican Council II: "The Lord was moved with pity for her and said to her, 'Do not weep' "

Lk 7:11-17.

Soon afterward he journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him.
As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was with her.
When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, "Do not weep."
He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, "Young man, I tell you, arise!"
The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.
Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, exclaiming, "A great prophet has arisen in our midst," and "God has visited his people."
This report about him spread through the whole of Judea and in all the surrounding region.

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day :

Vatican Council II
Constitution on the Church in the modern world « Gaudium et spes» § 22 (©Libreria vaticana editrice)

"The Lord was moved with pity for her and said to her, 'Do not weep' "

He who is "the image of the invisible God", is himself the perfect man. To
the sons of Adam he restores the divine likeness which had been disfigured
from the first sin onward. Since human nature as he assumed it was not
annulled, by that very fact it has been raised up to a divine dignity in
our respect too. For by his incarnation the Son of God has united himself
in some fashion with every man. He worked with human hands, he thought with
a human mind, acted by human choice and loved with a human heart. Born of
the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like us in all things
except sin.

As an innocent lamb he merited for us life by the free shedding of his own
blood. In him God reconciled us to himself and among ourselves; from
bondage to the devil and sin he delivered us, so that each one of us can
say with the Apostle Paul: The Son of God "loved me and gave Himself up for
me". By suffering for us he not only provided us with an example for our
imitation, he blazed a trail, and if we follow it, life and death are made
holy and take on a new meaning.

The Christian, conformed to the likeness of that Son who is “the
firstborn of many brothers,” receives "the first-fruits of the Spirit" by
which he becomes capable of discharging the new law of love. Through this
Spirit, who is "the pledge of our inheritance", the whole person is renewed
from within, even to the achievement of "the redemption of the body": "If
the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the death dwells in you, then he
who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also bring to life your mortal
bodies because of his Spirit who dwells in you" ... Such is the mystery of
man, and it is a great one, as seen by believers in the light of Christian
revelation. Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death
grow meaningful. Apart from his Gospel, they overwhelm us. Christ has
risen, destroying death by his death; he has lavished life upon us so that,
as sons in the Son, we can cry out in the Spirit: “Abba, Father!”

( Biblical references : Col 1,15; Gal 2,20; 1P 2,21; He 10,20;  Rm
8,29.23; Eph 1,14; Rm 8,23.11; byzantine paschal liturgy; Rm 8,15)

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Sunday, 02 June 2013
The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) - Solemnity - Year C

Sts. Peter & Marcellinus, Martyrs (+ c. 304)



Commentary of the day
Saint Augustine : «Be what you see, and receive what you are»

Readings

Lk 9:11b-17.


           The crowds, meanwhile, learned of this and followed him. He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured.

As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, "Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here."
He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves." They replied, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people."
Now the men there numbered about five thousand. Then he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of (about) fifty."
They did so and made them all sit down.
Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.


Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day

Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 272 (©Friends of Henry Ashworth)

«Be what you see, and receive what you are»

You see on God's altar bread and a cup. That is what the evidence
of your eyes tells you, but your faith requires you to believe that the
bread is the body of Christ, the cup the blood of Christ. In these few
words we can say perhaps all that faith demands. Faith, however, seeks
understanding... How can bread be his body? And the cup, or rather what is
in the cup, how can that be his blood?" These things, my friends,
are called sacraments, because our eyes see in them one thing, our
understanding another. Our eyes see the material form; our understanding,
its spiritual effect. If, then, you want to know what the body of Christ
is, you must listen to what the Apostle tells the faithful: «Now you are
the body of Christ, and individually you are members of it» (1Cor 12,17).
If that is so, it is the sacrament of yourselves that is placed on the
Lord's altar, and it is the sacrament of yourselves that you receive. You
reply "Amen" to what you are, and thereby agree that such you are. You hear
the words "The body of Christ" and you reply "Amen." Be, then, a member of
Christ's body, so that your "Amen" may accord with the truth. Yes,
but why all this in bread? Here let us not advance any ideas of our own,
but listen to what the Apostle says over and over again when speaking of
this sacrament: «Because there is one loaf, we, though we are many, form
one body» (1Cor 10,17). Let your mind assimilate that and be glad, for
there you will find unity, truth, piety, and love. He says, «one loaf»:
and who this one loaf? «We, though we are many, form one body». Now bear
in mind that bread is not made of a single grain, but of many. Be, then,
what you see, and receive what you are.

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Daily Gospel

Sunday, 10 March 2013
Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare) - Year C

St. Marie Eugenie of Jesus, foundress of the Religious of the Assumption (1817-1898) ,  The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste († c. 320)



Commentary of the day
Saint John-Mary Vianney : "He was lost and has been found"

Reading

Lk 15:1-3.11-32.


Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."
So to them he addressed this parable.
Then he said, "A man had two sons,
and the younger son said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.' So the father divided the property between them.
After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.
When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need.
So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.
And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any.
Coming to his senses he thought, 'How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger.
I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers."'
So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.
His son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.'
But his father ordered his servants, 'Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast,
because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.' Then the celebration began.
Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing.
He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean.
The servant said to him, 'Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'
He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him.
He said to his father in reply, 'Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends.
But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.'
He said to him, 'My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.
But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.'"

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Daily Gospel

Sunday, 03 March 2013
Third Sunday of Lent - Year C

St. Cunegundes, Empress (+ 1040)



Commentary of the day
Asterius of Amasea : Imitating God's patience

Reading

Lk 13:1-9.


Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.
He said to them in reply, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?
By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!
Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them --do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?
By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!"
And he told them this parable: "There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none,
he said to the gardener, 'For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. (So) cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?'
He said to him in reply, 'Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;
it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.'"


Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day

Asterius of Amasea (?-c.410), Bishop
Homily no.13, on conversion ; PG 40, 356-357,361 (trans. breviary 1st Thursday of Lent rev.)

Imitating God's patience

If you want to live up to the standard set by God, you must imitate his
example in whose likeness you are made. You are Christians and that very
name means that “friend of man” (cf. Wsd 1,6). You must imitate the charity
and love of Christ. Meditate carefully on the richness of Christ's
charity... Look at how he received those who listened to his voice. He
gave them a ready pardon for their sins and in a moment he quickly freed
them from those who troubled them... Let us be shepherds after the style
of our Lord... Sketched out in the gospel in parables and hidden sayings, I
find a man who is shepherd of a hundred sheep (Lk 15,4). When one of them
left the flock and wandered off the shepherd did not stay with those who
stayed grazing in the flock without wandering. On the contrary, he went off
to search for the single stray. He followed it through countless valleys
and ravines, climbed many difficult mountains, searched with great trouble
in lonely places, until he found it. When he had found the lost sheep, far
from beating it or driving it to return to the flock, he laid it on his
shoulders and gently carried it back and returned it to its fellows. The
Good Shepherd rejoiced more over this one that was found, than over all the
others.Let us think over the hidden meaning of this parable... The whole
story has a sacred meaning and it warns us not to think of any man as lost
or beyond hope. We must not easily despair of those who are in danger or be
slow to help them. If they stray from the path of virtue, we should lead
them back and rejoice in their return and make it easy for them to rejoin
the community of those who lead good and holy lives.

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Daily Gospel

Sunday, 24 February 2013
Second Sunday of Lent - Year C

Bl. Thomas Mary Fusco, Priest (1831-1891)



Commentary of the day
Saint Leo the Great : The glory of the Cross

Reading

Lk 9:28b-36.


About eight days after he said this, he took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray.
While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.
And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." But he did not know what he was saying.
While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud.
Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my chosen Son; listen to him."
After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They fell silent and did not at that time tell anyone what they had seen.


Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day

Saint Leo the Great (?-c.461), Pope and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 51, 2-3, 7-8 ; PL 54, 310-313, SC 74 bis (Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers rev.)

The glory of the Cross

The Lord displays his glory before chosen witnesses and invests that bodily
shape which he shared with others with such splendor rthat his face was
like the sun's in brightness and his garments white as snow. And in this
Transfiguration the foremost object was to remove the offense of the cross
from his disciples' hearts and to prevent their faith being disturbed by
the humiliation of his voluntary Passion by revealing to them the
excellence of his hidden dignity.But with no less foresight, the foundation
was laid of holy Church's hope that the whole body of Christ might realize
the character of the change which it would have to receive, since each
member is called to share one day in the glory seen shining beforehand in
its head...“This is my beloved Son...; listen to him... Listen to him who
opens the way to heaven, and by the punishment of the cross prepares for
you the steps of ascent to the Kingdom. Why tremble to be redeemed? Why
fear to be healed of your wounds, you who were wounded? Let that happen
that Christ wills and I will. Cast away all fleshly fear and arm yourselves
with the constancy that inspires faith. For it is unworthy for you to fear
in the Savior's Passion what, by his good gift, you will not have to fear
in your own death...”In these three apostles the whole Church has learned
everything that their eyes saw and their ears heard (cf. 1Jn 1,1). Let the
faith of all, then, be established according to the preaching of the holy
Gospel, and let no one be ashamed of Christ's cross, through which the
world has been redeemed.

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Daily Gospel

Sunday, 17 February 2013
First Sunday of Lent - Year C

The Seven Holy Founders of the Order of Servites



Commentary of the day
Saint Raphael Arnaiz Baron : The Son of God rejects the temptations of other ways and obeys the Father's will

Reading

Lk 4:1-13.


Filled with the holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry.
The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."
Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"
Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.
The devil said to him, "I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish.
All this will be yours, if you worship me."
Jesus said to him in reply, "It is written: 'You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.'"
Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,
for it is written: 'He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,'
and: 'With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus said to him in reply, "It also says, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.'"
When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.


Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day

Saint Raphael Arnaiz Baron (1911-1938), a Spanish Trappist monk
Spiritual writings, 15/12/1936 (trans. 'To know how to wait', Mairin Mitchell)

The Son of God rejects the temptations of other ways and obeys the Father's will

I, too, once went tearing along the roads of Spain, with the idea of making
the speedometer register ninety kilometers an hour: how foolish! When I was
conscious that for me, the horizon marked earth's uttermost limit, I
suffered the disappointment of one who enjoys earthly freedom, for the
earth is small and moreover quickly comes to an end. Man is bounded by
narrow and limited horizons, and for him whose soul aspires after infinite
horizons, earthly ones aren't enough, they throttle him; the world isn't
sufficient for him, and only in the vastness and immensity of God will he
find what he is seeking. You free men, making journeys around this planet,
I don't envy you your life in the world; enclosed in a convent at the foot
of a Crucifix I have boundless freedom, I have Heaven, I have God. What a
great blessing it is to have a heart that is in love with Him!...Poor
Brother Rafael!... Go on waiting, waiting with that sweet serenity which
sure hope gives. Keep calm, unshaken, a prisoner of your God at the foot of
his tabernacle. Listen to the distant uproar coming from men enjoying a few
short days of freedom in the world, listen from afar to their voices, their
laughter, their lamentations, their wars. Listen, and meditate for a
moment. Meditate on a God who is infinite, who made the earth and mankind,
He, the supreme Lord of skies and lands, rivers and seas, who in an
instant, simply by willing it created out of the void all that exists.
Mediate for a moment on the life of Christ and you will see that it has no
freedom, no outcry or clamor; you will see the Son of God subject to
humankind, you will see Jesus, obedient, submissive, and with what
steadfast calm he keeps as the only law of his life the fulfillment of the
Father's will. And lastly, look on Christ nailed to a cross. And we talk of
freedom!

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Daily Gospel

Sunday, 10 February 2013
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

St. Scholastica, Abbess (+ c. 543)



Commentary of the day
Blessed John Henry Newman : He calls you by name

Reading

Lk 5:1-11.


While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch."
Simon said in reply, "Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets."
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that they were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men."
When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.


Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day

Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890), priest, founder of a religious community, theologian
Sermon « A Particular Providence as Revealed in the Gospel » PPS vol.3, no.9

He calls you by name

God beholds thee individually, whoever thou art. He "calls thee by thy
name." He sees thee, and understands thee, as He made thee. He knows what
is in thee, all thy own peculiar feelings and thoughts, thy dispositions
and likings, thy strength and thy weakness. He views thee in thy day of
rejoicing, and thy day of sorrow. He sympathizes in thy hopes and thy
temptations. He interests Himself in all thy anxieties and remembrances,
all the risings and fallings of thy spirit. He has numbered the very hairs
of thy head... He compasses thee round and bears thee in his arms; He takes
thee up and sets thee down. He notes thy very countenance, whether smiling
or in tears, whether healthful or sickly. He looks tenderly upon thy hands
and thy feet; He hears thy voice, the beating of thy heart, and thy very
breathing...Thou art man redeemed and sanctified, His adopted son, favored
with a portion of that glory and blessedness which flows from Him
everlastingly unto the Only-begotten. Thou art chosen to be His... What is
man, what are we, what am I, that the Son of God should be so mindful of
me? What am I, that He should have raised me... to the nature of an Angel?
that He should have changed my soul's original constitution, new-made me,
who from my youth up have been a transgressor, and should Himself dwell
personally in this very heart of mine, making me His temple? (Biblical
references : Jn 10,3; Mt 10,30; Ps 8,5; cf Gn 8,21, Ps 51[50],7; 1Co 3,16)

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Daily Gospel

Sunday, 03 February 2013
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

St. Blase, Bishop & Martyr (+ 316)



Commentary of the day
Saint Augustine : "He passed through the midst of them and went away"

Reading

Lk 4:21-30.


He said to them, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, "Isn't this the son of Joseph?"
He said to them, "Surely you will quote me this proverb, 'Physician, cure yourself,' and say, 'Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'"
And he said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."
When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away.


Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day

Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 61, 14-18 (Dolbeau)

"He passed through the midst of them and went away"

A doctor came amongst us to restore us to health: our Lord Jesus Christ. He
discovered blindness in our hearts and promised the light that “eye has not
seen and ear has not heard, and has not entered the heart of man” (1Cor
2,9).     The humility of Jesus Christ is the cure for your pride. Don't
scorn what will bring you healing; be humble, you for whom God humbled
himself. Indeed, he knew that the medicine of humility would cure you, he
who well understood your sickness and knew how to cure it. While you were
unable to run to the doctor's house, the doctor in person came to your
house... He is coming, he wants to help you; he knows what you need.God has
come with humility precisely in order that man might imitate him. If he had
remained above you, how would you have been able to imitate him? And,
without imitating him, how could you be healed? He came with humility
because he knew the nature of the remedy he had to administer: a little
bitter, it is true, but healing. And do you continue to scorn him? He who
holds out the cup to you and you say: “But what sort of God is this God of
mine? He was born, suffered, was covered with spittle, crowned with thorns,
nailed on the cross!” O miserable soul! You see the doctor's humility and
not the cancer of your pride. That is why humility displeases you...It
often happens that mentally ill people end up by beating their doctor. When
that happens, the unfortunate doctor not only is not distressed by the one
who beat him but attempts to treat him... As for our doctor, he did not
fear being killed by sick people afflicted with madness: he turned his own
death into their remedy. Indeed, he died and rose again.

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Interesting Bible Facts

            

Jesus made his living as a carpenter with hammer, wood, and nails.

 Jesus was killed by the Romans who used a hammer, wood, and nails.

In 1 Peter 5:8, St. Peter says that the devil is a roaring lion and wants to eat us.

In John 6:53-58, Jesus says that in order to be saved we have to eat His flesh and drink His blood.

At the tower of Babel, God confused the language so that people could not communicate with each other any more. The tower to heaven that Nimrod was trying to build was abandoned. (Genesis 11:7- 8). The people all scattered across the world.

At Pentecost, the languages were unconfused by God, so that people of different tongues could all understand each other. Peter converted 3000 with this technique.(Acts 2:6, 41)

 After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, “their eyes were opened’ to the fact that they were naked (Genesis 3:7)

  On the way to Emmaus, after they ate the blessed bread, the followers of Jesus' “eyes were opened” and they recognized Jesus (Luke 24:30-31).

In Leviticus 21:10, it was forbidden for the High Priest to tear his garment.

In Matthew 26:65, Caiaphas, the High Priest for that year, tore his robes in protest of Jesus proclaiming himself to be the Son of God.  In John 19:24, the Roman soldiers did not tear Jesus' robe (Jesus is the eternal High Priest). In Matthew 27:51, God tore the curtain of the temple in two following the crucifixion.

Moses and the Israelites  came up out of the water of the Red Sea and went into the desert (Exodus 15), where they were tested by God regarding their faith.  They failed the test.  Deuteronomy 6 and 8 talk about this sojourn and testing.

Jesus came up out of the waters of the Jordan  following his Baptism (Matthew 3) and went out into the desert to be tested by satan (Matthew 4).  Jesus passed the test by quoting scripture from Deuteronomy 6 and 8 (6:13, 6:16, and 8:3).

Moses changed the water of the Nile into blood (Exodus 7:20).

Jesus changed the purification water into wine (John 2:6-9), and then changed wine into His blood (Matthew 26:27-28). 

Jacob fooled his blind father Isaac into getting Esau’s blessing, by wearing hairy skins (Esau was the hairy brother) (Genesis 27).                                             In return, Jacob’s future father-in-law fooled Jacob into marrying his ugly daughter Leah, by hiding her face with veils (Genesis 29).

 Melchizidek, the King of Salem (King of Peace) offered bread and wine to God as worship (Genesis 14:18).

 Jesus, the King of Kings, at the Last Supper, offered consecrated bread and consecrated wine to God as worship (Mark 14:22-24).

In Ezekiel 9, God marked all of the believers in Jerusalem with a Tau, the last letter of the old Hebrew Alphabet (the last letter now is Omega), on their foreheads, in order to save them from destruction. A Tau is represented as T, or an incomplete cross. During Baptism, we are marked with the sign of the cross on our foreheads to save us from the destruction of Satan.

 Jesus Christ was born in the town of Bethlehem, which means “House of Bread”. His mother put him in a feeding trough (a manger) for a crib (Luke 2).

Jesus Christ later claimed to be the “Bread of Life” (John 6:48), and said that we had to “eat his body” to have life (John 6:53). At the Last Supper, Jesus consecrated a piece of bread and said – “This is my Body” (Mark 14:22).

 In the desert, God provided bread from Heaven (manna) to feed the Israelites (Exodus 16).

 In the book of John 6 , Jesus Christ said that He was the bread of life, and if we eat this bread, we shall live forever (John 6:48-50).

 In the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant contained 3 items – The Word of God (the 10 Commandments), manna (bread from heaven), and the rod of Aaron, which came back to life and re-sprouted (Hebrews 9:4).

  In the New Testament, the Blessed Virgin Mary’s womb contained Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, who is The Bread of Life, and who is a ruler with an iron rod that came back to life after being crucified ( Luke 1:31, John 6:48, Revelation 12:5).

In Psalm 22:1, David says “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 22:16 says that "They have pierced my hands and my feet". Psalm 22:18 also talks about casting lots for his clothes.

In the New Testament, Jesus Christ repeats "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me", after they pierce His hands and His feet. (Matthew 27:46) And the Roman soldiers cast lots for the clothes of Jesus (Matthew 27:35).

 In the Book of Wisdom, chapter 2, the plotters say that they want to torture and kill the one who claims to be the son of God, because if he really is the son of God, then God will save him.”

 In the New Testament, the murders of Jesus do torture and kill him for claiming to be the son of God, and utter these words – “If you are the son of God, then come down from that cross (Matthew 27:42).

  In Genesis 3, Eve, an immaculately created virgin,  says yes to Lucifer and allows Adam to bring sin into the world. Eve came forth from Adam.

 In the New Testament, Mary, an immaculately created virgin,  says yes to Gabriel, which allows Jesus to bring salvation to the world (Luke 1).  Jesus came forth from Mary.

 The book of Genesis starts out with the three words, “In the beginning”. It then goes through a series of next days to describe the creation of the world from nothing as well as the creation of new life. It talks about “the light” and the dark. On the seventh day, God rests.

The book of the Gospel of John also starts out with the three words, “In the beginning”. It then goes through a series of next days (John 1:29, 35, 43) to describe “the light of the world”, Jesus Christ, who leads us out of darkness and gives new life to the world. On the seventh day (the third day after the fourth day, John 2:1) there is a wedding feast, with Jesus creating wine from water.

In Exodus 12, the Jews celebrate the first Passover by killing a spotless lamb, and then they smear its blood over their door with a hyssop branch. They also had to eat bitter herbs. This saved their first born from the angel of death.

In John 19, Jesus Himself is sacrificed as the new spotless Passover lamb (Pilate said "I find no guilt in him (John 18:38)) and His blood now saves us from death. In John 10:7, Jesus says that he is the door for His sheep. The Roman soldier used a hyssop branch to give him bitter vinegar to drink.

In Luke 2:42-46, the 12 year old Jesus is nowhere to be found. After 3 days, Mary and Joseph find Jesus in the temple, preaching to the elders.

After the crucifixion, Jesus was dead for three days and nowhere to be found. Peter says that he was preaching to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:18-19). 

 

 In James 2:26, the bible says that faith without works is dead.

 In Matthew 25:31-46, at the final judgment, Jesus tells us all now exactly what those works are. 

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 Joseph, in the Old Testament, was forced to go to Egypt in Genesis 37:28 (his brothers sold him as a slave).   God's purpose in this was so that Joseph, later on, would befriend the King (Pharaoh) and save Israel. Joseph received messages in dreams, and could interpret them.  Joseph's father was named Jacob.

Joseph, Mary’s betrothed, in Matthew 2:14, was forced to go to Egypt (to avoid Herod).  God's purpose in this was so that Joseph would save the King (Jesus) as well as Israel.  In Matthew 2:13, Joseph receives his message to go to Egypt in a dream.  Joseph's father was named Jacob.

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In Matthew 26: 65, the high priest tore his robes in protest of Jesus proclaiming Himself to be the son of God.

In Matthew 27:51, following the murder of Jesus, God tore the curtain of the temple in two, from top to bottom.

In John 18:18ff, Peter denied Jesus 3 times beside a charcoal fire.

In John 21:9ff, Jesus asks Peter 3 times, beside a charcoal fire, if he loves him....

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In  Genesis  3:18  -19,  God tells Adam in the garden that the ground shall bring thorns  and  thistles to him,  and  that by the sweat of his face he shall eat bread from the ground.

In 1 Corinthians  15:45,    St. Paul says that Jesus is the new Adam, bringing life into the world  instead of death.   At the  crucifixion,  Jesus,  the  Bread  of  Life (John 6), wears a crown of thorns after sweating blood in a garden.

In Exodus 24:18, Moses went up the mountain and entered the cloud of God. 

In Matthew 17:5, a cloud on the mountain enveloped Jesus.

In Exodus 31:18ff, Moses went up the mountain and brought down the Word of God.

In Matthew 5:1ff, Jesus, the Word of God made Flesh,  went up on the mountain and preached the Word of God (the Sermon on the mount).

In Exodus 34, Moses face shone so bright that everyone was afraid to look at him.

In Matthew 17, Jesus' face shone like the sun. The long dead Moses then appeared to him.

Moses wandered in the desert for 40 years (Numbers 32:13) after coming up out of the water of the Red Sea.

Jesus wandered in the desert for 40 days (Mark 1:13) after coming up out of the water of the Jordan River.

Eve became the mother of the living at the foot of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:20). 

Mary became our mother at the foot of the cross (John 19:26-27)..........

NOTE** The cross was called a tree in  Acts 5:30.  In the passage above, the apostle John was standing in for the Church.

In Genesis 2:23, Adam names his mate "Woman". 

In the New Testament, Jesus always referred to Mary as "Woman".     

(NOTE** Just as Jesus is the new Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45), Mary is the new Eve).

In Luke 1:42, Elizabeth says to Mary - "Blessed is the fruit of your womb."

In Matthew 12:33, Jesus says that a tree is known by its fruit. 

In Luke 1:27, we learn that Mary is betrothed (not married) to Joseph.

In 1 Corinthians 7:36-38, Paul says that it is better to stay betrothed and not get married (have carnal relations).

In Genesis  2:7, God breathed on Adam to bring him to life. 

In John  20:22-23, Jesus breathed on the apostles to give them the gift of bringing spiritual life to others through confession.

In  Genesis 22,  Isaac carried wood up a hill that was to be used for his  sacrificial death.  His father Abraham was stopped from killing Isaac by God.  Abraham says that God Himself would provide the sacrificial lamb.

In  Matthew 27, Jesus carried wood up a hill (Golgotha) for his own sacrificial death.  Jesus is the Lamb of God who was sacrificed in our place.

In Matthew 27:26, Pontius Pilate released Barabbas, whose name means "Son of the Father" (bar Abbas).

Jesus, the real Son of THE Father, was put to death in his place.

In 2 Maccabees 6: 4-5, it says: "For the temple was filled with debauchery  and reveling by the Gentiles, who dallied with harlots and had intercourse with women within the sacred precincts, and besides brought in things for sacrifice that were unfit.  The altar was covered with abominable offerings which were forbidden by the laws. "

In 1 Corinthians 6:19ff, Paul says that our bodies are a temple  to the Holy Spirit, and we are to shun immorality and to glorify God in our bodies.

In Genesis 28:12, Jacob (Israel) says that he had a dream where angels were descending to earth and ascending to heaven on a ladder. 

In John 1:51, Jesus says  "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."

In John 15:4, Jesus says, " Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it  abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

In John 6:56, Jesus tells us how to do that- "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

In Genesis 9:22ff, Ham saw his father's (Noah's) nakedness. Noah awoke and was very upset at Ham, and placed a curse on Canaan, Ham's son. 

In Leviticus 20:11, the Bible says that to uncover your father's nakedness means that you have slept with your father's wife (your own mother).

In Genesis 37, Joseph is stripped of his garment by his own brothers and then sold into slavery for 20 pieces of silver.

Jesus was also sold by his own apostle (Judas) for 30 pieces of silver, and then stripped of his garment at the cross.

In Exodus 1:22, Pharoah orders that every son that is born to the Hebrews shall be drowned in the Nile.

In Exodus 12:29, God strikes down Pharoah's own son and the other first born Egyptians. In Exodus 14, Pharoah's male soldiers were all drowned in the Red Sea.

The second book of Maccabees, chapter 7, talks about a mother and her 7 sons being tortured and killed, one by one, by the evil king who had defiled the temple and wanted his captives to eat pork.  They refused to transgress the law, and paid the ultimate price. 

Hebrews 11:35 refers to this incident - "Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life." 

In Exodus 32, Moses and the Levites slay 3,000 of their own people who worshipped the golden calf. 

At Pentecost in Acts 2, Peter and the apostles converted 3,000 people.

In John 12:24, Jesus said that unless a  grain of wheat  falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

In the Old Testament, the Feast of Pentecost was a harvest festival of the first fruits  (Exodus 23:16) that took place 50 days (7 weeks)  after Passover .   Jesus died during Passover, and 50 days later, on Pentecost, 3000 new souls were brought to Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:41).

In Isaiah 60:6, Isaiah predicts that those from Sheba will bring gold and frankincense  to the King, whom they will praise.                                      

       In Matthew 2:11, the three Wisemen bring gold (symbolizing royalty), frankincense (incense is used for worship), and myrhh (used for burial) and worship Jesus.

In 1 Kings 1:37-38, King Solomon, the son of King David, rides a mule while the people rejoice and proclaim him to be their new King.                               

In John 12:13-14 and Matthew 21:7-9,  Jesus rides into Jerusalem on an ass, while the people proclaim him to be the son of David and the King of Israel.

At the Passover in Exodus 12:5 the Jews had to eat an unblemished male lamb to be saved.                                                                                               

 In John 18:38, Pilate says of Jesus - "I find no guilt in Him". Jesus, the Lamb of God (John 1:29) then says in John 6:53 that we have to eat His flesh to have life in us (a reference to the reality of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist)

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