Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 10:24-33
Jesus said to his Apostles: “No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household!
“Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: Jesus assures his apostles that if people treated him badly, his apostles ought not to expect that people will treat them well: “No student is greater than the teacher.” Jesus warns his followers that they can’t expect better treatment than Jesus received.
Even so, the Good News does not anticipate universal rejection. Many audiences will receive the message if only we have the courage to tell it: sometimes what the message requires is the right place, the right moment, the right disposition. If Jesus often taught his disciples away from the crowds, he could encourage them to teach boldly what he privately told them. While the crowds in Jesus’ day were not ready to receive everything Jesus had to tell them, time would prepare large parts of the world to hear what the Lord’s followers had to say.
But ultimately and in the final analysis, we should not let our fear of how the message will be received get in our way. Even if we need to teach people where they are, there are some lines we must never cross. Jesus teaches that we must not compromise the message for fear of our own safety. Even if the apostles’ hearers never were prepared to hear the gospel, better that the apostles should allow their bodies to be killed than to forfeit their personal integrity. Jesus suggests that the gospel is that important: all of us eventually must die, so it is better to live an honorable if short life than to live a dishonorable but longer one. Such is the weight of the gospel that it is to be preferred even to the breath of our bodies.
Saint of the day: It is unfortunate that no contemporary biography was written of a man who has exercised the greatest influence on monasticism in the West. Benedict is well recognized in the later Dialogues of St. Gregory, but these are sketches to illustrate miraculous elements of his career.
Benedict was born of a distinguished family in central Italy, studied at Rome and early in life was drawn to the monastic life. At first he became a hermit, leaving a depressing world—pagan armies on the march, the Church torn by schism, people suffering from war, morality at a low ebb.
He soon realized that he could not live a hidden life in a small town any better than in a large city, so he withdrew to a cave high in the mountains for three years. Some monks chose him as their leader for a while, but found his strictness not to their taste. Still, the shift from hermit to community life had begun for him. He had an idea of gathering various families of monks into one “Grand Monastery” to give them the benefit of unity, fraternity, permanent worship in one house. Finally he began to build what was to become one of the most famous monasteries in the world—Monte Cassino, commanding three narrow valleys running toward the mountains north of Naples.
The Rule that gradually developed prescribed a life of liturgical prayer, study, manual labor and living together in community under a common father (abbot). Benedictine asceticism is known for its moderation, and Benedictine charity has always shown concern for the people in the surrounding countryside. In the course of the Middle Ages, all monasticism in the West was gradually brought under the Rule of St. Benedict.
Today the Benedictine family is represented by two branches: the Benedictine Federation and the Cistercians.
Spiritual reading: God is not only the Father of all good things but he is the mother of all things as well. He is father, for he is the cause of all things and their creator.
He is the mother of all things as well, for when creatures have gotten their being from him he still stays with creatures to keep them in being. (Meister Eckhart)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 10:16-23
Jesus said to his Apostles: “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to another. Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: Jesus in today’s gospel speaks about the radical commitment the gospel demands of the baptized. Jesus does not tell us to go out and look for trouble, but he cautions us that if troubles do come as the result of our commitment to the gospel, we must remain true to the Good News. Officials may bring charges against us, we may suffer physical abuse, our families even may break apart: still, we are to remain faithful. There is a wonderful scene in the 1966 film about Thomas More, A Man for All Seasons, where More and his daughter have an exchange about commitment to conscience. More says to his daughter:
When a man takes an oath, he’s holding his own self in his hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then — he needn’t hope to find himself again. Some men aren’t capable of this, but I’d be loath to think your father one of them
Such is the nature of what Jesus asks of us in our baptismal waters.
Saint of the day: Anthony Pechersky was a Ukranian hermit. Born in 983 in Ljibeck in the Ukraine, Anthony went to the famed monastic community on Mt. Athos in Greece to become a hermit, remaining there for several years.
He returned to the Ukraine and built a hermitage in Kiev. The site became the “Caves of Kiev,” the first Ukrainian monastery founded by Ukrainians. Land for the monastery was given to Anthony by a local prince. He founded another monastery in Chernagov but died in the Caves of Kiev. Anthony is called one of the fathers of Ukrainian monasticism.
Spiritual reading: All action ends in passion because the response to our action is out of our hands. That is the mystery of work, the mystery of love, the mystery of friendship, the mystery of community – they always involve waiting. And that is the mystery of Jesus’ love. (From Action to Passion by Henri J.M. Nouwen)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 10:7-15
Jesus said to his Apostles: “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave. As you enter a house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you. Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: The gospel reading today focuses on two themes: the first is security, and the second is hospitality. Jesus calls the apostles in today’s gospel reading to trust that God will provide; he asks the apostles to let go of material things to gain the freedom to be disposed ever before everything else to the needs of the kingdom. Implicit in the gospel is the recognition that material concerns can anchor us in a place and time, but if we are unattached to the things we own, we ever are disposed before all else to the concerns that the kingdom places upon us.
Jesus also asks us to put our material belongings at the disposal of the gospel. When someone who works for the establishment of God’s reign needs our assistance, the gospel that Jesus preaches places on us the duty of hospitality.
So today the gospel leaves us with a twofold lesson. We are to be free of our possessions if we serve best the kingdom. And we are to be free with our possessions if we serve best the kingdom.
Saint of the day: Christianity arrived in China by way of Syria in the 600s. Depending on China’s relations with the outside world, Christianity over the centuries was free to grow or was forced to operate secretly. Saint Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese diocesan priest. Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese soldier who accompanied Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse (Paris Foreign Mission Society) to his martyrdom in Beijing. Augustine was baptized and not long after was ordained as a diocesan priest. He was martyred in 1815.
Among the 120 martyrs the Church today celebrates was an eighteen year old boy, Chi Zhuzi, who cried out to those who had just cut off his right arm and were preparing to flay him alive: “Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian.” The 120 martyrs whom the Church recognizes today died between 1648 and 1930. Most of them (eighty-seven) were born in China and were children, parents, catechists or laborers, ranging from nine years of age to seventy-two. This group includes four Chinese diocesan priests. The thirty-three foreign-born martyrs were mostly priests or women religious, especially from the Order of Preachers, the Paris Foreign Mission Society, the Friars Minor, Jesuits, Salesians and Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. Beatified in groups at various times, these 120 martyrs were canonized in 2000.
Spiritual reading: All speech and reasoning, all slogans and suggestions are not worth that minute of silence in which the soul yields itself to the embrace of the Spirit. For it is in solitude and silence that Christ speaks to the heart. (Dorothy Day)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 10:1-7
Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. The names of the Twelve Apostles are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus.
Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
Reflection on the gospel reading: In the Greek, an apostle is someone who is sent. Here Jesus sends the 12 to proclaim the coming of the kingdom of heaven. Matthew, along with the other evangelists, tells us that Jesus selected 12 apostles. Twelve, of course, is the number of tribes that existed prior to the Assyrian disbursement in the 9th century BC of the 10 northern tribes of Israel. Jesus, who here tells the 12 to go out and proclaim to the house Israel that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, symbolically reconstitutes in his selection of 12 apostles the 12 tribes of Israel. Just as God gave the 12 tribes the Law, Jesus gives the 12 apostles a commission to preach the Good News. The apostles thus symbolically reconstituted the totality of Israel, and we baptized, who also are sent to share our faith with others, in doing so establish heaven’s reign here on earth.
Saint of the day: Aquila was a Jewish tentmaker. He and his wife Priscilla were forced to leave Rome when Emperor Claudius forbade Jews to live there. They went to Corinth, where St. Paul lived with them during his stay there and may have converted them to Christianity.
They accompanied Paul to Ephesus and remained there; Paul stayed with them on his third missionary journey. They then returned to Rome, where their house was also used as a church and then went back to Ephesus. They suffered martyrdom in Asia Minor, according to the Roman Martyrology, but a tradition has them martyred in Rome.
Spiritual reading: Let everyone understand that the real love of God does not consist in tear-shedding, nor in that sweetness and tenderness for which we often long, just because they console us, but in serving God by serving those around us, in justice, fortitude of soul, and humility. (Teresa of Avila)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 9:32-38
A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus, and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke. The crowds were amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons by the prince of demons.”
Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: Today’s gospel continues Matthew’s depiction of Jesus’ reaction to the problems that afflict human beings. In the gospel, Jesus makes a mute man to speak. The narrative ends the section of 10 healing miracles we have visited the last couple of weeks with a description of Jesus’ sense of the troubles and abandonment that afflict human beings, that we are like sheep without a shepherd. He tells the apostles to pray that the Father will send laborers into the field. It is true that every generation needs its priests and religious, but all of the baptized are potentially laborers in the vineyard.
Saint of the day: One of eight children born to a wealthy, upper-class family; Maria Romero Meneses’s father was a government minister. Educated by her family, tutors, and at the local Salesian Sisters’ school, she could play piano and violin. She studied drawing and loved to learn. At the age of 12, she spent a year extremely sick from rheumatic fever and was paralyzed for six months. As a result of the illness, her heart was permanently damaged. She was cured by the intercession and apparition of Our Lady, Help of Christians, during which vision she understood her vocation to be a Salesian sister.
On December 8, 1915, Maria joined the Marian Association’s Daughters of Mary. She joined the Daughers of Mary, Help of Christians in 1920, and on January 6, 1929 in Nicaragua, Maria made her final profession as a Salesian. She transferred to San Jose, Costa Rica in 1931. Maria taught music, drawing, and typing to rich school girls. She trained catechists and trades for the poor. Many of her students were won over to her way of life, and she labored to help the poor and abandoned.
Maria developed a ministry of fund raising and of showing the wealthy practical ways to bring their charity to the poor. She began to set up recreational centers in 1945 and food distribution centers in 1953. She opened a school for poor girls in 1961 and in 1966, a clinic staffed by volunteer doctors. In 1973 she organized the construction of seven homes, which became the foundation of the village of Centro San Jose, a community were poor families could have decent homes. An excellent teacher, manager, and fund-raiser, she was known for her way of bringing God to people one on one as well as bringing love and devotion to the Eucharist to social improvements.
Spiritual reading: Far from being irrelevant, prayer, meditation and contemplation are of the utmost importance in America today . . . (and) have an important part to play in opening up new horizons.
If our prayer is the expression of a deep and grace-inspired desire for newness of life–and not the mere blind attachment to what has always been familiar and “safe”–God will act in us and through us to renew the Church by preparing, in prayer, what we cannot yet imagine or understand. In this way our prayer and faith today will be oriented toward the future which we ourselves may never see fully realized on earth (Contemplation in a World of Action by Thomas Merton)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 9:18-26
While Jesus was speaking, an official came forward, knelt down before him, and said, “My daughter has just died. But come, lay your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus rose and followed him, and so did his disciples. A woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the tassel on his cloak. She said to herself, “If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.” Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, “Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.” And from that hour the woman was cured.
When Jesus arrived at the official’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd who were making a commotion, he said, “Go away! The girl is not dead but sleeping.”
And they ridiculed him. When the crowd was put out, he came and took her by the hand, and the little girl arose. And news of this spread throughout all that land.
Reflection on the gospel reading: We read today Matthew’s version of a story we read a week ago Sunday in the Gospel of Mark. Matthew’s account is far more spare than Mark’s and changes certain of the details. For instance, in Mark’s account, we learn that a synagogue official named Jairus comes to Jesus, but here it is only a nameless official. In Mark’s account, Jairus says his daughter is sick and only later does she die before Jesus raises her. In this account, she is dead at the outset of the story. In Mark’s account of the woman with a hemorrhage, Jesus feels power go when the woman touches him but does not see the woman; in this narrative, Jesus sees the woman and heals her by his will because of her faith. In Mark’s account, we learn that Jesus says to the little girl, “Little girl, get up.” But here, Jesus simply takes her hand.
Faith is an element in Mark’s account, but Matthew crafts the narrative in a way that focuses on it. When the official comes to Jesus to ask him to raise his daughter, it is a great act of faith, because to this point, Jesus has never raised anyone from the dead. And when Jesus heals the hemorrhagic woman, he specifically attests to her faith as the reason that he does it. Let pray that Jesus will make us whole, and as Matthew would have it, let us believe in Jesus’ power to do it.
Saint of the day: Thomas Alfield was born in Gloucester, England. An English martyr and a native of Gloucester, he was educated at Eton and Cambridge. While raised as an Anglican, he eventually was converted to Catholicism and left England to study for the priesthood at Douai and Reims, France, receiving ordination in 1581. Returning to England, he was soon arrested while handing out copies of the polemic True and Modest Defence by Dr. Allen. Condemned, he was hanged at Tybum in 1585.
Spiritual reading: We Christians cannot exclude anyone; we cannot segregate or classify souls. “Many will come the East and the West.” All find a place in Christ’s heart. (Christ Is Passing By, Homilies by Jose Maria Escriva)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Mark 6:1-6
Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples. When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Reflection on the gospel reading: It seems in Jesus’ nature to surprise people. Today’s gospel suggests that the people who knew him as he grew up never anticipated what it was that he was to become. His wisdom and mighty deeds caught them off guard. So too it is with us, that Jesus can catch us up short as we make our way through life: surprise us when we least expect it. The people who lived with him would have benefited from an openness to the possibilities in their encounter with Jesus. So also it is with us: remaining radically open to Jesus requires a prodigious effort, but we will do nothing other than benefit from the encounter is we remain open to the possibility of it.
Spiritual reading: We crave greatness for our lives, and God asks us to become little. To pass through the door that leads to his kingdom, we must go down on our knees . . . .
This is a moment of choice. It is one of many such moments, for we will be called choose every day of our lives until we die. (From Soul of My Soul, Reflections from a Life of Prayer by the Servant of God Catherine de Hueck Doherty)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 9:14-17
The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: Today’s gospel talks about putting new wine into old wine skins. Jesus’ ideas are like new wine, but the old wine skins of his critics couldn’t contain his new ideas. The metaphor refers to trying to receive a new message with an old set of values. It doesn’t work. Our understanding of the message of Jesus Christ continually evolves. At certain points in history, it reaches a critical moment when we need to get new wine skins to contain the new wine. Jesus always challenges us to deepen our understanding of what it means to be a Christian, and sometimes this requires radical new ways of containing the message in our lives.
Saint of the day: Joseph Kowalski was born in March 1911 at Siedliska, Poland. He was educated at the local state elementary school and the Salesian school in Auschwitz. A member of the Holy Brigade, an unofficial group dedicated to the spiritual life of the school, Joseph joined the Salesians in 1927 and was ordained a priest in 1938. Personal secretary of the Salesian provincial, he was noted for his youth ministry, conducting conferences, teaching, hearing confessions, and forming a youth choir. Arrested with eleven other Salesians at the church of Mary Help of Christians in Krakow, Poland by the Nazis on May 23, 1941, he was charged with providing non-approved youth programs. He was prisoner 17.350 at Auschwitz.
In June 1942, he was scheduled for shipment to Dachau, but a Nazi officer who didn’t like his attitude beat him and ordered him to stomp on his rosary; Joseph refused and was assigned to a hard labor gang. In his remaining months, he spent non-work time ministering to other prisoners. Beaten, tortured, and drowned by camp guards for no particular reason, he was one of the 108 Polish Martyrs of World War II. He was drowned in a cesspool on July 3, 1942.
Spiritual reading: Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
John 20:24-29
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But Thomas said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: One of the Eleven, Thomas, is not with the disciples when the Lord appears; he refuses to credit the disciples’ testimony and goes so far as to say that unless he can probe the Lord’s wounded side with his hand, he will not believe. A week later, the apostles are assembled again in the Upper Room, and this time, Thomas is among them. Jesus appears again and offers to Thomas the opportunity to test his wounds. This time, Thomas actually moves far beyond his earlier position of intransigent doubt. Only one time in the gospels does anyone to Jesus’ face call him, “God,” and it is Thomas, who had doubted, who does it when in his expression of awe and wonder, he says to Jesus, “My Lord and my God.”
Saint of the day: St. Thomas was called to be one of the twelve Apostles. He was a dedicated but impetuous follower of Christ. When Jesus said he was returning to Judea to visit his sick friend Lazarus, Thomas immediately exhorted the other Apostles to accompany him on the trip which involved certain danger and possible death because of the mounting hostility of the authorities. At the Last Supper, when Christ told his Apostles that he was going to prepare a place for them to which they also might come because they knew both the place and the way, Thomas pleaded that they did not understand and received the beautiful assurance that Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. But Thomas is best known for his role in verifying the Resurrection of his Master. Thomas’ unwillingness to believe that the other Apostles had seen their risen Lord on the first Easter Sunday merited for him the title of “doubting Thomas.” Eight days later, on Christ’s second apparition, Thomas was gently rebuked for his scepticism and furnished with the evidence he had demanded – seeing in Christ’s hands the point of the nails and putting his fingers in the place of the nails and his hand into the Lord’s side. At this, Thomas became convinced of the truth of the Resurrection and exclaimed: “My Lord and my God,” thus making a public profession of his faith in the divinity of Jesus. Thomas is also mentioned as being present at another Resurrection appearance of Jesus – at Lake Tiberias when a miraculous catch of fish occurred. This is all that we know about Thomas from the New Testament.
Tradition says that at the dispersal of the Apostles after Pentecost, this saint was sent to evangelize the Parthians, Medes, and Persians; he ultimately reached India, carrying the Faith to the Malabar coast, which still boasts a large native population calling themselves “Christians of St. Thomas.” He capped his left by shedding his blood for his Master, speared to death at a place called Calamine. His feast day is July 3rd, and he is the patron of architects.
Spiritual reading: The realization of this omnipresence of goodness and beauty, of Him who I love, has made life a very beautiful and rich thing for me . . . . As a more integral vision grew in me over the years, the residue of earlier prejudices against blacks and Jews and non-Catholics slipped away, and later induced prejudices against gays, activists, and communists were invalidated.
I enjoy the beauty of all persons now; I touch the goodness in them. We may see things very differently, but at root we are all children of one Father. We all share one humanity, we sincerely seek what seems good to us, and we struggle with our human frailty. I enjoy the beauty of each created thing. (A Place Apart by Fr. M. Basil Pennington, OCSO)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 9:1-8
After entering a boat, Jesus made the crossing, and came into his own town. And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.” At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, “Why do you harbor evil thoughts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he then said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” He rose and went home. When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe and glorified God who had given such authority to men.
Reflection on the gospel reading: In the ancient world, people viewed illness as a punishment from God for sin, so it was natural for Jesus to make the connection between the forgiveness of sin and physical healing. In our own time, of course, we do not believe God works this way, so what are we to make of the story? The scribes accuse Jesus, at least accuse him in their own minds, of blasphemy when Jesus says the sins of the paralytic are forgiven him. Ultimately, however, Jesus reduces the scribes to silence when he changes his formula from the forgiveness of sin to a command that the paralytic stand up and walk. For the paralytic does just that. Jesus proves his power to forgive sin in an equation where he proves his power to heal broken bodies. All of us are broken in some way, perhaps physically, perhaps spiritually, perhaps both, but the healing ministry is available to us no matter what dimension of injury we present to the Lord. It is for stories like the one that we read today that we should be confident in the Lord’s power to heal us no matter what wounds we bear.
Saint of the day: Born in 1628 in France, Jacques Fermin, S.J. joined the Jesuits in 1646. After his ordination to the priesthood, he went to Canada to serve as a missionary.
He worked with the Onodaga, Cayuhoga, and Mohawk tribes. He established a mission on Isle La Motte in present day Vermont. It is believed that he brought as many as 10,000 locals to Christianity. He died on July 2, 1691 in Quebec.
Spiritual reading: You are fed up with words, and I don’t blame you. I am nauseated by them sometimes. I am also, to tell the truth, nauseated by ideals and with causes. This sounds like heresy, but I think you will understand what I mean. It is so easy to get engrossed with ideas and slogans and myths that in the end one is left holding the bag, empty, with no trace of meaning left in it.
And then the temptation is to yell louder than ever in order to make the meaning be there again by magic. Going through this kind of reaction helps you to guard against this. Your system is complaining of too much verbalizing, and it is right . . . . The big results are not in your hands or mine, but they suddenly happen, and we can share in them; but there is no point in building our lives on this personal satisfaction, which may be denied us and which after all is not that important. (Thomas Merton)
