September 12, 2010
Each of the readings today illustrate that one of God’s biggest desires is that sinners be saved from their own actions. In Exodus, Moses intercedes like a priest on behalf of the wayward people who are worshipping a golden calf instead of the one true God. Moses implores God to remember the covenant he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In 1 Timothy, Paul makes it abundantly clear that the reason Christ Jesus came into the world was to save sinners. In the 15th chapter of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells three stories to illustrate how the “once-lost” has now been found, that is, how a sinner has returned to the good graces of the one true God. The shepherd leaves the 99 to search for the one missing sheep; the woman scours her house for the precious lost coin; the wayward son who should have been disinherited by his father is welcomed back into the family. In each of these examples we are told of God’s great joy that one more person has been reconciled to God’s nonjudgmental mercy.
We are left with some perplexing questions about these situations, namely, ‘what is sin?’ and ‘what does it mean to be saved?’ Since Vatican II, we have seen two situations occur with regards to our understanding of sin: (1.) we have lost our sense of sin and reconciliation as church teachings seems inadequate as arbiters of our moral lives, and (2.) at the same time, we have a richer, deeper perspective of social, systemic sin, but with few ways to liturgically express our sorrow for these types of collective sin. We no longer have a common understanding of sin or the conditions by which it may occur. We no longer fear the threat of hell the way our forbears did. Thus, we are filled with presumption because we no longer see our sin as anything that needs to be forgiven. We chalk it up to a mistake or an imprudent judgment. Few can tell you what it means to be saved. Few have experienced the atoning, reconciling power of the sacrament in which one’s sins are wiped away and completely absolved and forgiven. Few will tell you of their experience of living anew in a blessed, loving state in which no laws can bind them or shackle them. Few experience the happy state of being liberated from the weights that society, friends and family place upon them. It takes a special person to step forward into that new life that is so accessible to us if we only learn to say ‘yes’ to our possibilities.
It would be good for each of us to struggle to define sin for ourselves. The best way I have heard sin defined is as a “failure to bother to love.” When we no longer even try anymore to set our lives right or to help another in terrible need, we simply sin. We do not see the pervasive effects of sin and when we live with unresolved tensions, we learn habits of going through life with indifference and apathy and disappointment. Our spirits are dampened and it is easy for our souls to get lost. We need to be saved. When we do bother to love, we are like that sheep that is returned to the fold, like the coin that is safely stored in the woman’s purse, or like the boy who returns to the grateful embrace of his accepting father’s arms. This is the type of love the world needs. This is the type of love that we need extended to us and extended by us. When we can become agents of these types of powerful reconciliations, we help others feel the warm love of God and God can only be happy with that. We have the possibility to live fulfilling, healthy lives if we only allow ourselves to be reconciled to God’s reach and really experience the type of mercy and acceptance we all crave.
Quote for the Week
From Deuteronomy 4:9
Take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live … teach them to your children and to your children’s children.
Themes for this Week’s Masses
First Reading: Paul addresses the divisions among the church in Corinth especially in the area of gathering for the memorial of the Lord’s Supper. Paul reminds them that this meal is very different and is handing onto them by the Lord himself. He encourages their unity by asking them to consider whether their actions to one another are loving – for charity has to be the determinant in all their moral choices. Paul imparts the mystery of faith to them and explains the manner in which he is called to be an apostle. God’s raising of Christ from the dead raises the dead to eternal life and removes the stain of our sins. The resurrection of the body takes on an incorruptible, glorious, powerful, spiritual nature in contrast to the body of the earthly life. God’s grace transforms the body into the image of a heavenly body.
Gospel: In Luke, the Centurion exhibits laudable faith when he trusts that Jesus can and will cure his deathly ill slave. A sinful woman reveals the outward nature of her faith when she enters uninvited into Simon the Pharisee’s house to anoint the feet of Jesus with oil and tears. As the holy caravan moves from one town to the next, the disciples take time for rest and spend a restful time with Jesus. The Twelve were with him and also many women who were cured by Jesus. Jesus then preaches to the gathering crowd about the sower and the seed.
Saints of the Week
Monday: John Chrysostom, bishop and doctor, joined a hermitage that practiced austerity that ruined his health. He returned to his native Antioch and was ordained in 386. He was a powerful preacher, as Chrysostom means “golden mouth,” and was named bishop of Constantinople in 398 where he began a program of reform.
Tuesday: The Exaltation of the Holy Cross commemorates the finding of the true cross by Emperor Constantine’s mother, Helen. The feast remembers the dedication of the original church of the Holy Sepulcher in 335 and the significance of Christ’s victory of death by crucifixion. Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire due to Constantine’s conversion and the Roman church soon began to celebrate this day.
Wednesday: Our Lady of Sorrows was originally called the Seven Sorrows of Mary by the Servite Friars who began a new devotion in 1668. The devotion’s popularity increased to recall: Simeon’s prophecy, the flight into Egypt, losing the boy Jesus in the Temple, the road to Calvary, the crucifixion, deposition, and entombment.
Thursday: Cornelius, pope, was elected to the papacy after Pope Fabian was martyred. The priest Novatian tried to become bishop of Rome, but Cyprian came to the defense of Cornelius. Under a further persecution, Cornelius was killed in 253. Cyprian, bishop, reigned over Carthage and wrote on the unity of the church, the role the bishops, and the significance of the sacraments. The Emperor Valerian renewed a persecution and arrested Cyprian before putting him to death in 258.
Friday: Robert Bellarmine, bishop and doctor, became a Jesuit in 1560 a few years after Ignatius Loyola’s death. He was a professor of Controversial Theology at the Louvain and in Rome where he wrote the “Disputations on the Controversies of the Christian Faith Against the Heretics of the Age.” Even Protestant reformers respected his balanced and well-argued presentation. He further developed the Latin Bible, oversaw the publication of two catechisms, ran the Roman College and the Vatican library. The Jesuits name their house of studies in Rome after him.
This Week in Jesuit History
• Sep 12, 1744. Benedict XIV's second Bull, Omnium Sollicitudinum, forbade the Chinese Rites. Persecution followed in China.
• Sep 13, 1773. Frederick II of Prussia informed the pope that the Jesuits would not be suppressed in Prussia and invited Jesuits to come.
• Sep 14, 1596. The death of Cardinal Francis Toledo, the first of the Society to be raised to the purple. He died at age 63, a cardinal for three years.
• Sep 15, 1927. Thirty-seven Jesuits arrived in Hot Springs, North Carolina, to begin tertianship. The property was given to the Jesuits by the widow of the son of President Andrew Johnson.
• Sep 16, 1883. The twenty-third General Congregation opened at Rome in the Palazzo Borromeo (via del Seminario). It elected Fr. Anthony Anderledy Vicar General with the right of succession.
• Sep 17, 1621. The death of St Robert Bellarmine, bishop and doctor of the Church.
• Sep 18, 1540. At Rome, Pedro Ribadeneira, aged fourteen, was admitted into the Society by St Ignatius (nine days before official papal confirmation of the Society).
Earthquake Relief in Christchurch, New Zealand
The people near Christchurch, New Zealand are still experiencing great challenges. Five days of frequent aftershocks and another earthquake on a different fault line is taking a toll on the inhabitants. Many people have had successive nights of undisturbed sleep and there is some toll on families who cannot weather these challenges. Current estimates of the cost of rebuilding are around four billion dollars.
Donations to Caritas for Christchurch earthquake relief can be made by:
• Phoning 0800 22 10 22 to make credit card donations or
• Donating online using a credit card at www.caritas.org.nz or
• Posting to Caritas, PO Box 12193, Thorndon, Wellington 6144, New Zealand.
Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is a member of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 165 Catholic aid, development and social justice agencies active in over 200 countries and territories.
No comments:
Post a Comment