Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Luke 8:19-21
The mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd. He was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you.” He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: Luke makes clear elsewhere in his gospel, particularly in the infancy narratives, that he greatly esteems the faithfulness of the mother of Jesus. We can imply from that fact that Jesus in today’s gospel does not critique the behavior of his mother or brothers. We are to draw another lesson from this text.
The gospel demands from us a complete commitment that creates ties among the baptized which are deeper than the bonds in a family. What Jesus says in this passage is that those who hear God’s word and act upon it are his truest family.
Saint of the day: Augustinian bishop Thomas of Villanueva was born in 1488 at Fuentellana, Castile, Spain, as the son of a miller. He studied at the University of Alcala, earned a licentiate in 
theology, and became a professor there at the age of twenty-six. He declined the chair of philosophy at the university of Salamanca and instead entered the Augustinian Canons in Salamanca in 1516.
Ordained in 1520, he served as prior of several houses in Salamanca, Burgos, and Valladolid, as provincial of Andalusia and Castile, and then court chaplain to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. During his time as provincial of Castile, he dispatched the first Augustinian missionaries to the New World. They subsequently helped evangelize the area of modern Mexico. He was offered but declined the see of Granada but accepted appointment as archbishop of Valencia in 1544. As the see had been vacant for nearly a century, Thomas devoted much effort to restoring the spiritual and material life of the archdiocese. He was also deeply committed to the needs of the poor. He held the post of grand almoner of the poor, founded colleges for the children of new converts and the poor, organized priests for service among the Moors, and was renowned for his personal saintliness and austerities. While he did not attend the sessions of the Council of Trent, he was an ardent promoter of the Tridentine reforms throughout Spain. He died in 1555.
Spiritual reading: Facing outward, human existence is spiritual insofar as it intentionally engages reality as a maximally inclusive whole and makes the cosmos an intentional object of thought and feeling. Facing inward, life has a spiritual dimension to the extent that it is experienced as the project of one’s most vital and enduring self, and it is structured by experiences of sudden transformation and subsequent slow development. (Spirituality, Diversion and Decadence: The Contemporary Predicament by Peter H. Van Ness)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 22:1-14
Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables saying, “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. 
A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’ Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: Scholars tend to believe that we have in this passage the conflation of two parables. In one of them, a king, who represents God, sends out invitations to his guests (the children of Israel) to attend the wedding feast of his son (Jesus). The guests, of course, refuse to attend the wedding feast, so the king invites other guests (the Gentiles.) The intent of this parable is to encourage Christians to persist in their mission in the face of reverses, failure, and even open opposition.
The passage grows a little difficult because Matthew has joined it to a passage in which the king rejects the presence of one of the guests because the guest didn’t to wear a wedding garment to the feast. After all, how could the poor guests rounded up on the streets and brought as a crowd be expected to have the proper garments? The king’s reaction to his guest’s attire seems unfair. It is this very incongruity which suggests Matthew has melded two allegories. In this second one, the garment stands for Christian life. It well may be the garment we acquire in our baptism. In accepting baptism, symbolized by the garment, we assume the obligation to clothe ourselves with heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience (Col. 3:12). In the second parable, then, we are counseled to stay faithful to the commitments we have made through our baptisms to wear Christ like a garment (Gal. 3:27).
Saint of the day: Bernard of Clairvaux was born at the castle of Fontaines, in Burgundy. The grace of his person and the vigor of his intellect filled his parents with highest hopes, and the world lay bright and smiling before him when he renounced it forever and joined the monks at Citeaux. All his brothers followed Bernard to Citeaux except Nivard, the youngest, who was left to be the stay of his father in his old age. “You will now be heir of everything,” said they to him, as they departed. “Yes,” said the boy; “you leave me earth, and keep heaven for yourselves; do you call that fair?” And he too left 
the world. At length their aged father came to exchange wealth and honor for the poverty of a monk of Clairvaux. One only sister remained behind; she was married, and loved the world and its pleasures. Magnificently dressed, she visited Bernard; he refused to see her, and only at last consented to do so, not as her brother, but as the minister of Christ. The words he then spoke moved her so much that, two years later, she retired to a convent. Her husband’s holy example attracted so many novices that other monasteries were erected; Bernard became abbot of Clairvaux. Unsparing with himself, he at first expected too much of his brethren, who were disheartened at his severity; but soon perceiving his error, he led them forward, by the sweetness of his correction and the mildness of his rule, to the imitation of the Lord. In spite of his desire to lie hid, the fame of his sanctity spread far and wide, and many churches asked for him as their Bishop. He escaped this dignity; yet his retirement was continually invaded: the poor and the weak sought his protection; bishops and kings applied to him for advice; and at length he went to preach a crusade. By his fervor, eloquence, and miracles Bernard kindled the enthusiasm of Christendom. Bernard died in 1153. His writings have earned for him the titles of the last of the Fathers and a Doctor of Holy Church.
Spiritual reading: We find rest in those we love, and we provide a resting place for those who love us. (Bernard of Clairvaux)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 6:7-15
Jesus said to his disciples: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“This is how you are to pray:
‘Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.’
“If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: The gospels give us two accounts of Jesus teaching his disciples the prayer that we now know as the Lord’s Prayer, or more commonly in the Catholic tradition, the Our Father. The version of the Lord’s Prayer in Luke’s account is comparably spare. The one here, in Matthew’s account, is slightly more elaborate, and we use this version most frequently both in private and public recitation.
The prayer has various characteristics that teach us much about praying: it evokes reliance on God as a parent common to us all, acknowledges God’s greatness, submits to God’s will, and requests the things that sustain our lives: food, the dual graces of personal forgiveness and compassion toward others, being spared, and being saved from evil.
In this gospel passage, Jesus emphasizes the need for mercy: how can we expect mercy if we fail to show mercy?
Saint of the day: Born in 1126 at Germany, Elizabeth of Schonau was a Benedictine abbess who was a gifted mystic. She had her first vision in 1152 and was known for ecstasies, prophecies, and diabolical visitations. She became abbess in 1157.
Her cult was never formalized, but she is listed as a saint in the Roman Martyrology. Her brother, Ethbert, a Benedictine abbot, wrote her biography and recorded her visions in three books. She died June 18, 1164 at Bonn, Germany.
Spiritual reading: Loving your neighbor means living in voluntary poverty, stripping yourself, putting off the old Adam, denying yourself, etc. It also means non-participation in those comforts and luxuries which have been manufactured by the exploitation of others. While our brothers and sisters suffer, we must be compassionate with them, suffer with them. While they suffer from lack of necessities, we will refuse to enjoy comforts.
These resolutions, no matter how hard they are to live up to, no matter how often we fail and have to begin over again, are part of the Vision. And we must keep this vision in mind, recognize the truth of it, the necessity for it, even though we do not, cannot, live up to it…though in our execution we may fall short of the mark over and over. St. Paul says it is by little and by little that we proceed. (“Meditations” by Dorothy Day)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Mark 12:35-37
As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, “How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said:
The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet.’
David himself calls him ‘lord’; so how is he his son?” The great crowd heard this with delight.
Reflection on the gospel reading: Jesus in today’s passage demonstrates his sense of irony. The messiah, of course, is David’s son, and a father does not ascribe lordship to his son, but David in the psalm does just that when he calls his son, the messiah, lord. Moreover, this passage represents a rare instance where Mark’s gospel hints at Jesus’ divinity, because the Greek word used for lord typically replaces an equivalent term in Hebrew used to describe God.
In any event, we see that Jesus has the capacity to use a teaching moment to entertain his listeners. This is a very human thing, to be amusing, and our Lord shows here that he has this ability, too. We are engaged in serious business, this project of being alive, but it includes the many pleasures of our diversions. Let us pray to God that we may make light of our project in the midst of the seriousness of it, that we never take ourselves so seriously that we fail to find the humor in ourselves and the rest of the whole thing, as well.
Saint of the day: Boniface was born around 673-680 at Crediton, Devonshire, England. Educated at the Benedictine monastery at Exeter, England, he became a Benedictine monk at Exeter. A misissionary to Germany from 719, he was assisted by Saints Albinus, Abel, and Agatha. Boniface destroyed idols and pagan temples, and built churches on the sites. He became a bishop and the archbishop of Mainz. He reformed churches in his see and built religious houses in Germany. Among the people he ordained to the priesthood was Saint Sola. He founded or restored the dioceses of Bavaria, Thuringgia, and Franconia. He evangelized in Holland, but was set upon by a troop of pagans, and he and 52 of his new flock, including Saints Adaler and Eoban, were martyred. He died June 5, 754.
In Saxony, Boniface encountered a tribe worshipping a Norse deity in the form of a huge oak tree. Boniface walked up to the tree, removed his shirt, took up an axe, and without a word he hacked down the six foot wide wooden god. Boniface stood on the trunk, and asked, “How stands your mighty god? My God is stronger than he.” The crowd’s reaction was mixed, but some conversions were begun.
One tradition about Saint Boniface says that he used the customs of the locals to help convert them. There was a game in which they threw sticks called kegels at smaller sticks called heides. Boniface bought religion to the game, having the heides represent demons, and knocking them down showing purity of spirit.
Spiritual reading: Forgiveness creates an obligation for which there are no exceptions allowed. Love is a fire which goes out if it does not kindle others.
Thou hast burned with joy; kindle those who come near you with the same, lest thou becomest like a stone, hard and cold. You have received much; you must also give. (Giovanni Papini)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
John 16:20-23
Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: In this passage from the discourse at the Last Supper, Jesus repeats the themes that we read in yesterday’s gospel. There is the prediction of the disciple’s sorrow and the promise of their inevitable joy. There also is the new assurance that when joy comes, no one will be able to take it away. Finally, there is the reason why we pray in Jesus’ name, the promise we have received that what we ask in Jesus’ name, the Father will give us. Let us pray today, then, that we may be filled with the joy the Lord promises us in awareness of his resurrection.
Saint of the day: Saint Rita of Cascia was an Augustinian nun; she also is called Margarita. She was born in Roccaporena, near Spoleto, Italy, in 1381, and expressed from an early age the desire to become a nun. Her elderly parents insisted that she be married at the age of twelve to a man described in accounts of her life as cruel and harsh. She spent eighteen extremely unhappy years, had two sons, and was finally widowed when her husband was killed in a brawl. Both sons also died, and Rita, still anxious to become a nun, tried unsuccessfully to enter the Augustinians in their convent at Cascia. She was refused because she was a widow and because of the requirement that all sisters should be virgins.
Finally, in 1413, the order gave her entry, and she earned fame for her austerity, devotion to prayer, and charity. In the midst of chronic illnesses, she received visions and wounds on her forehead which resembled the crown of thorns. She died on May 22 at Cascia, and many miracles were reported instantly. She is honored as a patron saint of hopeless causes.
Spiritual reading: You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading. And as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed by his progress. (Athanasius)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
John 16:16-20
Jesus said to his disciples: “A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.” So some of his disciples said to one another, “What does this mean that he is saying to us, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” So they said, “What is this ‘little while’ of which he speaks? We do not know what he means.” Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing with one another what I said, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: Jesus, in his discourse at the Last Supper, warns the disciples that they are about to be disappointed. The disciples had clear expectations about what they thought the messiah would be, and Jesus was about to disappoint them as he endured his passion. Even so, Jesus promises his disciples that their sorrow will turn to joy. Jesus’ promise to his followers on the night before he died is his promise to us now. We shall taste tears: this is true. But Jesus promises us that our tears in the end will become joy. We simply must trust and wait on the Lord.
Saint of the day Adílio Daronch, the third of Pedro Daronch and Judite Segabinazzi’s eight children, was born on 25 October 1908 at Dona Francisca in the Cachoeira do Sul municipality of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. In 1911 the family moved to Passo Fundo and in 1913 to Nonoai. Adílio was one of the adolescents who accompanied Fr González on his long and tiring pastoral visits, which also included the native Kaingang Indians. He was also a faithful altar server and a student in the school founded by Fr Manuel.
On 21 May 1924 at nearly 16 years of age this youth courageously gave his witness for Christ alongside his mentor. The Bishop of Santa Maria asked the Spanish priest to visit the Teutonic colonies in the Três Passos forest, close to the boarder of Uruguay. After celebrating Holy Week in the parish of Nonoai and notwithstanding that the area was rife with revolutionary movements, Fr Manuel set out on this dangerous missionary journey, accompanied by his brave altar server and protégé, Adílio.
Along the route the priest stopped in Palmeria, where he administered the sacraments and exhorted the local revolutionaries to mutual respect, if for no other reason than the common Christian faith that they shared. The worst extremists did not appreciate his message, nor the fact that he gave Christian burial to the victims of the local bands. Thus, Fr Manuel began to be viewed with suspicion. Continuing their missionary journey, they again stopped along the way to ask directions and to celebrate Holy Mass; the day was 20 May 1924. Desiring to bring God’s grace and to proclaim the Good News, the ardent missionaries did not heed the warning of the locals, who tried to dissuade them from venturing into the forest. Therefore, they accepted the “kind assistance” of the military personnel who offered to accompany them to Três Passos. In this way they fell into the trap prepared for them and were taken to a remote area of the forest, where they were bound to separate trees and shot on 21 May 1924, martyrs of the Faith.
Although human beings refused to accept the holy martyrs’ message of mutual respect, it seems nature did, since no wild beast or animal touched them: the inhabitants of Três Passos found their bodies still intact four days later. Their remains were buried nearby for 40 years. In 1964 their bodies were exhumed and translated to the parish church of Nonoai, and a monument was erected on the place of their martyrdom.
Spiritual reading: All those who openly embrace the blessing of peace, and loath and despise its contrary, strife, are close to God and things divine. (Gregory of Nyssa)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Mark 9:2-13
Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, looking around, the disciples no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.
As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant. Then they asked him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” He told them, “Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things, yet how is it written regarding the Son of Man that he must suffer greatly and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him.”
Reflection on the gospel: The gospel tells us a story with a deeper meaning than we might first see. Jesus takes a walk. Up the mountain he goes with three of his disciples. At the top of mountain, a big change comes over him. Mark tell us, that Jesus “was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no bleach on earth could make them.” Theologians believe that the deeper meaning of the Transfiguration is a prediction of the resurrection of Jesus. Here we have the story of Jesus, shimmering, glowing with life and light. Even so, the gospel contains suggestions of the Lord’s suffering, so it speaks indirectly both to the death and resurrection of the Lord.
What shall we take away from this gospel narrative? In the 13th century, there was a woman in England name Dame Juliana of Norwich. At one point in her life, Dame Juliana was given a series of mystical visions. In one of these visions, she saw our Lord on the Cross. Jesus was in great pain. The nails pierced His hands and feet. The crown of thorns cut into His forehead. The sweat from His face stung His eyes. Despite His pain, in the greatest tenderness, Jesus looked down from His cross at Dame Juliana. With true sweetness in His voice, He said to her, “All shall be well, and everything shall be well, and every manner of thing shall be well.”
Today, Peter tells Jesus that he is going to set up tents for the Lord, Moses, and Elijah. Peter has the best of intentions. But he really doesn’t get what’s going on. In life, we frequently just muddle through. We often do not get it. But God gets it. God sees the big picture. God makes everything turn out alright. God uses our imperfections and mistakes, all of them, to create the big picture. And so the message of today’s gospel is just this: All shall be well. And everything shall be well. And every manner of thing shall be well.
Saint of the day: Born in about 1561 at Horsham St. Faith’s in Norfolk, England, Robert Southwell was an English Jesuit priest and poet. He was brought up in a Catholic family and educated at Douai. From Douai, he moved to Paris, where he was placed under a Jesuit father, Thomas Darbyshire. In 1580, he joined the Society of Jesus after a two-year novitiate passed mostly at Tournai. In spite of his youth, he was made prefect of studies in the English college of the Jesuits at Rome and was ordained priest in 1584.
It was in that year that an act was passed forbidding any English-born subject of Queen Elizabeth, who had entered into priests’ orders in the Roman Catholic Church since her accession, to remain in England longer than forty days on pain of death. But Southwell, at his own request, was sent to England in 1586 as a Jesuit missionary with Henry Garnett. He went from one Catholic family to another, administering the rites of his Church, and in 1589 became domestic chaplain to Ann Howard, whose husband, the first earl of Arundel, was in prison convicted of treason. It was to him that Southwell addressed his Epistle of Comfort. This and other of his religious tracts, A Short Rule of Good Life, Triumphs over Death, Mary Magdalen’s Tears and a Humble Supplication to Queen Elizabeth, were widely circulated in manuscript. That they found favor outside Catholic circles is proved by Thomas Nash’s imitation of Mary Magdalen’s Tears in Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem.
After six years of successful labor, Southwell was arrested. He was in the habit of visiting the house of Richard Bellamy, who lived near Harrow and was under suspicion on account of his connection with Jerome Bellamy, who had been executed for sharing in Anthony Babington’s plot. One of the daughters, Anne Bellamy, was arrested and imprisoned in the gatehouse of Holborn. She revealed Southwell’s movements to Richard Topcliffe, who immediately arrested him. He was imprisoned at first in Topcliffe’s house, where he was repeatedly put to the torture in the vain hope of extracting evidence about other priests. Transferred to the gatehouse at Westminster, he was so abominably treated that his father petitioned Elizabeth that he might either be brought to trial and put to death, if found guilty, or removed in any case from that filthy hole. Southwell was then lodged in the Tower of London, but he was not brought to trial until February 1595.
There is little doubt that much of his poetry, none of which was published during his lifetime, was written in prison. On the 20th of February 1595, he was tried before the court of King’s Bench on the charge of treason and was hanged at Tyburn on the following day. On the gallows he denied any evil intentions towards the Queen or her government. He was hanged at Tyburn, and became a Catholic martyr on February 21, 1595)
Spiritual reading: My heart is transformed by the smile of trust given by some people who are terribly fragile and weak. They call forth new energies from me. They seem to break down barriers and bring me a new freedom. It is the same with the smile of a child: even the hardest heart can’t resist. Contact with people who are weak and who are crying out . . . is one of the most important nourishments in our lives. When we let ourselves be really touched by the gift of their presence, they leave something precious in our hearts. As long as we remain at the level of doing things for people, we tend to stay behind our barriers of superiority. We ought to welcome the gift of the poor with open hands. Jesus says, “What you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.” (Jean Vanier)
Responsibilities of a believer within civil society.
The readings from the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time address the responsibilities of a believer within civil society. The first reading speaks of the great king Cyrus who ruled Babylon during the exile of the Jews there. It observes that though Cyrus possesses great powers, subdues nations, and even commands kings, Cyrus must serve the Lord of All who is greater than Cyrus is. The gospel of this Sunday comes to us from Matthew’s hand and speaks to us about the need to be responsible members of our nation as well as responsible members of the Kingdom of God. Jesus tells us in this Sunday’s readings that we should give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God, what belongs to God.We are nearing a national election of great consequence to the nation, as national elections typically are. Today’s readings place upon us a moral duty. Sometimes the noise, the accusations, the finger pointing, the charges, and counter-charges may tempt us to turn the whole thing off. But today’s readings suggest that our participation in the ordinary governance is a duty that we owe to God. A part of our debt to God is to pay our debt to the secular community in which we live.
We are called upon to think about the issues before us and pray that we may understand and behave wisely. There are many issues before us, and no one candidate is likely to have every answer that we believe is in accord with our understanding of the duties of a baptized Christians. Anyone who proposes to you that there is some cookie cutter answer to the great issues of the day that comes straight from God has not subjected the entirety of our problems to a subtle analysis. No party has embraced the whole message of the gospel, and every candidate struggles, just as we struggle, to understand the demands of justice and mercy. Each of us is likely to have to compromise on some part of what we hold dear and true to obtain the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people.
But what is clear is that the readings tell us that our duty to civil government is an obligation we assume as daughters and sons of God. This fact calls upon us to behave responsibly as we weigh all the issues of consequence not just to our own households but the households of each and every other person in our national and local communities. I earnestly call upon all of you to embrace this part of the mission: consider your vote and vote. Voting is truly a godly action, one that fulfills Christ’s call to render to Caesar.
