October 25, 2009
God’s voice that we hear in Jeremiah today is one that emits a longing desire – full of hope and happiness. This voice, we are told, is from a caring, protective father’s voice proudly calling everyone back home – with a welcoming, inviting hospitality. Delight fills his heart. The turbulent exile is over and every single person can return to his embrace – all the people, even the blind and the lame, the pregnant mother and families with children. God tells us that the kingdom is open for all and that God desperately longs for us.
We see this desire incarnated with the blind Bartimaeus in Mark’s Gospel. The person of Jesus is fulfilling the plan for God’s kingdom in actual circumstances. Originally, Bartimaeus calls out to Jesus, but notice that Jesus turns it around and call the blind man back. The hospitality of the kingdom is indiscriminate. All are welcome. Jesus is able to ask him for what he most wants and Bartimaeus receives the healing that he needs in order to follow Jesus to Jerusalem where he will undergo his Passion. In Mark’s Gospel, seeing is equated with believing, and through this dialogue Bartimaeus is able to demonstrate that he believes Jesus is the Son of God. Those who have faith are warmly welcomed into this new community established by Jesus.
We don’t always seem to act with this rich hospitality because many do not feel welcome in our church today. In some parts of our country, the pews are burgeoning with new faces, yet in other parts of the country, like New England, we cannot fill our pews and we are in the process of consolidating parishes and closing churches. Additionally, many do not feel as if their voices matter a whole lot today or that their concerns are responded to in with pastoral finesse. Regardless of where we live or of the circumstances under which we find ourselves, we are to bring others to the Lord just as the disciples did with Bartimaeus. We do this so Christ can welcome us and ask the question that he desperately wants to pose to us, “What do you want me to do for you?” Do we have a ready answer for him?
Quote for the Week
As we continue to delve into Romans, I select a moving passage that assures us of Christ’s abiding presence, even in the midst of terrible adversity.
It is Christ (Jesus) who died, rather, was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.
What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written: "For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:34-39
Themes for this Week’s Masses
Paul’s Letter to the Romans tells us that we have received a spirit of adoption through which we can call upon Abba, just as Jesus did. The Spirit groans for us too, calling out to Abba to have the perfect completion that eagerly awaits us and all of creation. And in the famous Romans 8 passage, no one can separate us from the love of God made manifest in Christ, therefore we can risk ourselves for the sake of the Gospel and in service to the faithful ones.
Luke tells us the touching story of the woman who was cured on the Sabbath after 18 long years of suffering. We are reminded of the liberating power of Jesus. We then hear what the kingdom of heaven is like: a tiny mustard seed or expanding yeast, and then Luke reminds us that a prophet of God cannot die outside of Jerusalem. Jesus continues to teach about the kingdom of heaven asking his dinner part host about their mercy to a son or an ox that needs help. He concludes by teaching that everyone who humbles him or herself will be exalted.
Saints of the Week
On Wednesday, we honor Simon and Jude, Apostles. Simon is known as the “zealot” and was born in Cana. He was thought to be a Jewish nationalist. Jude, is also referred to as Thaddeus, and is one of the Twelve in John’s Gospel who asks Jesus if he was going to manifest himself to the disciples alone and not to the whole world.
Although Saturday does not have a particular memorial, we celebrate the day as Halloween, the evening before All Saints Day. The ancient custom was to vest oneself in frightening costumes to ward off the evil spirits that were roaming around and looking for a righteous person on which to settle. The custom has certainly be adapted as a commercial holiday, but it is still a good evening to be mindful of the evil spirits that seek to inhabit our souls.
This Week in Jesuit History
· Oct 25, 1567. St. Stanislaus Kostka arrived in Rome and was admitted into the Society by St Francis Borgia.
· Oct 26, 1546. The Province of Portugal was established as the first province in the Society, with Simao Rodriguez as its first provincial superior.
· Oct 27, 1610. The initial entrance of the Jesuits into Canada. The mission had been recommended to the Society by Henry IV.
· Oct 28, 1958. The death of Wilfrid Parsons, founder of Thought magazine and editor of America from 1925 to 1936.
· Oct 29, 1645. In the General Chapter of the Benedictines in Portugal, a statement published by one of their order, that said St Ignatius had borrowed the matter in his Spiritual Exercises from a Benedictine author, was indignantly repudiated.
· Oct 30, 1638. On this day, John Milton, the great English poet, dined with the Fathers and students of the English College in Rome.
· Oct 31, 1602. At Cork, the martyrdom of Dominic Collins, an Irish brother, who was hanged, drawn, and quartered for his adherence to the faith.
Diaconate Ordination
George Collins, S.J., of the New England Province, is ordained a transitional deacon. His ordination liturgy was at St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco, California where George studies for the priesthood. Eleven other men from Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley are also ordained. Last week six men from Boston College School of Ministry and Theology were welcomed into the diaconate. Congratulations, George, and the 17 new deacons of the Church.
“Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you now are. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.” – Ordination Rite.
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