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Christian

Service, not status, is the measure of a true Christian

November 6, 2023 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

In this Gospel we see Jesus under fire.  In turn, He speaks sternly to the religious leaders of Israel accusing the scribes and Pharisees of seeking the glory that rightly belongs to God.  In their misguided zeal for religion, they sought respect and honor for themselves rather than for God.

Jesus raises three objections.  They do not practice what they preach, they adopt a very narrow and burdensome interpretation of the Torah, and they seek public acknowledgment of their presumed spiritual superiority.  Instead of allowing any relaxation, they “built a fence around the Law.”  They fail to realize the truth that when religion becomes a depressing affair of burdens and prohibitions, individualistic dictums or endless rote prayers it ceases to be true religion.  Jesus condemns the lack of compassion of religious leaders, evidenced in their unwillingness to apply laws in a way that would make obedience less oppressive.  By contrast, Jesus says: “My yoke is easy; my burden is light and I will give you rest.”

The Pharisees Jesus is speaking to liked to be seated in places of privilege, prized seats on the left and right of their host.  You remember the request posed by the mother of James and John?  “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.”

The Pharisees preferred to be addressed as “Rabbi.”  They liked to be called “Father”, to be known as the fathers of the faith.  They overlooked that respect has to be earned.  However, in spite of their personal failings, Jesus recognizes that the scribes and Pharisees are stewards of a great spiritual treasure.  He teaches respect for them for their role as official teachers and interpreters of the Torah.  Jesus demands that his disciples honor the office that these men occupy and to do what they teach, at least insofar as their teachings accord with the Torah.  Jesus taught, honored and applied two principles: reverence and respect i.e. reverence for God, the name of God and God’s due.  Jesus modeled respect for one’s parents and for a person’s life, the other’s possessions, and good name, lessons sadly lacking in many segments of our society today.

Jesus’ criticism was mainly a warning to future Christian leaders about possible abuses of authority in their ministry.  His words are a strong invitation and challenge to render humble, loving service without expecting honor or rewards.  Benedict echoes this attitude in The Rule in the opening lines of Chapter 7 on humility recalling the words of Scripture: “Whoever exalts themselves shall be humbled, and whoever humbles themselves shall be exalted.”  Jesus and Benedict remind us that service, not status, is the measure of a true Christian.  It’s not how many servants we have, but how many persons we serve.  

In today’s society where smear campaigning and negative comparative advertising are rampant, it is easy to unconsciously assimilate this style of language and attitude as acceptable.  Jesus may not have used these words but remember what you learned as a child: “When you point one finger at someone else, you have three fingers pointing back at yourself.”  Beware of being the “pot” calling the “kettle” black.  The Gospel message reminds us that whatever we are and have is not simply a birthright, but a gift given to us by our loving God.  Hence, let us use everything we are and have for the greater honor and glory of God.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Have a good week.

 

 

First Reading:   Malachi 1:14- 2:2, 8-10         Second Reading:  James 2:14-18
Gospel:   Matthew 23:1-12
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Filed Under: Blog, Front Page, Homily Tagged With: Christian, God, Jesus, My yoke is easy and my burden is light, Pharisees, respect

A New Balance

October 8, 2019 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

When Jesus’ disciples cry out for an increase in faith Jesus offers them two related teachings.  The first is the familiar reminder that faith, even just a little, will enable the followers of Jesus to do wondrous things.  But this uplifting and inspiring teaching is quickly followed by the second teaching, a caution about knowing one’s place in God’s plans.  Even when God works wonders through us, with our mustard seed-sized faith, we must not seek praise.  Our participation in God’s plans is God’s grace to us—nothing more, nothing less.

Yesterday we celebrated St. Francis day so I want to tell you a St. Francis story – maybe only part truth.  This is not the story of how his father disowned him and he stripped naked in court and walked away.  It’s not the story of how he received the stigmata.  Nor is it the story of the Wolf of Gubbio.  This is a story you may not have heard; this is the story of St. Francis and the Sultan Al-Kamil.  It takes place during the Fifth Crusade – when Francis’ pilgrimage took him across the battle lines in ancient Egypt.  He was immediately captured and brought before Sultan.  According to some versions of the story, he challenged the Muslim clerics to a trial by fire: both he and they would preach from the heart of a bonfire and whoever was not burned alive would be the one preaching the true God.  The Muslim clerics declined the challenge.  Francis then offered to go into the fire by himself, with the proviso that if he was not burned up the Sultan and all his followers would have to convert to Christianity.  The Sultan did not take Francis up on this offer.

Whether or not that’s true, it is known that Francis preached to the Sultan and his household, who were so impressed by Francis that the Sultan offered him numerous gifts — which Francis refused — and gave him safe conduct back to the Crusader camp.  When in time the Crusader Kingdoms fell, the Muslim rulers granted permission for Christians to tend the Christian holy sites in the Holy Land, but that permission was not given to the Church as a whole, it was given specifically to the Franciscans.  In fact this arrangement persists to this day — there is a Catholic office called “Custodian of the Holy Land,” and it is always held by a Franciscan; and in places where custody is shared by different Christian denominations — like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher — it is Franciscans who represent the Roman Catholic church.  All because of that one visit between St. Francis and the Sultan.

Jesus says, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”  St. Francis acted out of this spirit of courage and faith when he crossed the battle lines in Egypt.  He had no idea what would happen to him; he had every reason to expect to be taken prisoner at the very least.  Afterward, he doubtless thought his mission had failed.  But — he had made a connection — a moment of authentic human connection, two people meeting each other face to face — that has had consequences to this very day – over 800 years!

The world is full of people who are divided from us, even opposed to us — because of religion, or nationality, or ethnicity, or political views, or any of a thousand things.  God calls us to reach out to these people in a spirit of courage and love, unashamed of our testimony about our Lord and our mission, our way of life.  We may not convince them — we may not bring them around to our point of view.  We may not even make peace.  The world being what it is, the odds are against it.

The big problems in the world — hunger, war, religious conflict, and so on — often seem too big for us.  Maybe they are. But we have to have faith that if we can move the pebble — then God will move the mountain.

In an interview shortly after his election, Pope Francis advises us: “Instead of being just a church that welcomes and receives by keeping the doors open, let us try also to be a church that finds new roads, that is able to step outside itself…”  Sounding like his patron Francis, he says: “We need to proclaim the Gospel on every street corner, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing…   focusing on the essentials… We have to find a new balance; otherwise we will lose the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.”

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

First Reading   Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4        Second Reading 2 Timothy 1:6-8,13-14
Gospel Reading  Luke 17:5-10                   Intention  The Jewish people
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Filed Under: Blog, Front Page Tagged With: Christian, Church, God, Jesus, Pope Francis, Sultan

Message of His Holiness Pope Francis

May 8, 2017 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

[An adaptation of excerpts from] Pope Francis’

MESSAGE FOR THE 54th WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS

Sunday, May 7, 2017

 

In the last few years, we have considered two aspects of the Christian vocation: the summons to “go out from ourselves” to hear the Lord’s voice, and the importance of the ecclesial community as the privileged place where God’s call is born, nourished and expressed.

Now, on this 54th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, I would like to reflect on the missionary dimension of our Christian calling. Those drawn by God’s voice and determined to follow Jesus soon discover within themselves an irrepressible desire to bring the Good News to their brothers and sisters through proclamation and the service of charity.

Commitment to mission is not something added on to the Christian life as a kind of decoration, but is instead an essential element of faith itself. A relationship with the Lord entails being sent out into the world as prophets of his word and witnesses of his love.

In the depths of their hearts, all disciples hear this divine voice bidding them to “go about,” as Jesus did, “doing good and healing all.”

To be a missionary disciple means to share actively in the mission of Christ. Jesus himself described that mission in the synagogue of Nazareth in these words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” This is also our mission: to be anointed by the Spirit, and to go out to our brothers and sisters in order to proclaim the word and to be for them a means of salvation.

Our mission might appear to be mere utopian illusion or at least something beyond our reach. Yet if we contemplate the risen Jesus walking alongside the disciples of Emmaus, we can be filled with new confidence. Jesus transformed the disciples’ discouragement. He made their hearts burn within them, and he opened their eyes by proclaiming the word and breaking the bread. In the same way, we do not bear the burden of mission alone.  We come to realize, even amid weariness and misunderstanding, that “Jesus walks with us, speaks to us, breathes with us, works with us”.

The seed of the Kingdom, however tiny, unseen and at times insignificant, silently continues to grow, thanks to God’s tireless activity.  God surpasses all our expectations and constantly surprises us by his generosity. He makes our efforts bear fruit beyond all human calculation.

With this confidence born of the Gospel, we become open to the silent working of the Spirit. There can be no promotion of vocations apart from constant contemplative prayer.  Our life needs to be nourished by attentive listening to God’s word and, above all, by the cultivation of a personal relationship with the Lord in the Eucharist, our privileged encounter with God.

I wish heartily to encourage this kind of profound friendship with the Lord, above all for the sake of imploring from on high new vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life. I ask parish communities, associations and the many prayer groups present in the Church, not to yield to discouragement but to continue praying that the Lord will send workers to his harvest.

Dear brothers and sisters, today too, we can regain fervor in preaching the Gospel and we can encourage young people in particular to take up the path of Christian discipleship. Despite a widespread sense that the faith is listless or reduced to mere “duties to discharge,” our young people desire to discover the perennial attraction of Jesus, to be challenged by his words and actions, and to cherish the ideal that he holds out: a life that is fully human, happy to spend itself in love.

Mary Most Holy, the Mother of our Savior, had the courage to embrace this ideal, placing her youth and her enthusiasm in God’s hands. Through her intercession, may we be granted that same openness of heart, that same readiness to respond, “Here I am,” to the Lord’s call, and that same joy in setting out, like her, to proclaim him to the whole world.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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Filed Under: Homily Tagged With: Christ, Christian, God, Jesus, Pope Francis, Prayer, World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Why is Jesus called by this strange title, “the Lamb of God”?

January 17, 2017 by Holy Name Monastery 1 Comment

First Reading Isaiah 49:3,5-6    Second Reading  1 Corinthians 1:1-3
Gospel John 1:29-34
Today we hear the story of what John the Baptist witnessed when Jesus, his cousin, approached him in the river Jordan where John was baptizing those who came forward.   Last Monday we heard Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism.  The two accounts differ because the evangelist we hear today does not describe the baptism.  Instead, in John’s account, John the Baptist announces that he knows that Jesus is the Son of God. He cries out, giving witness about who Jesus is. He says that he saw the Spirit descend upon Jesus. By this sign, John the Baptist knew that Jesus was the one who was to come after him.

We hear two familiar titles for Jesus. John calls Jesus the “Lamb of God” and the “Son of God” identifying Jesus’ ultimate purpose is to redeem humanity. We need to know who Jesus is, if we want to be his disciples. We also need to know what his mission is, if we want to be good disciples.

Why is Jesus called by this strange title, the Lamb of God? It refers back to the origins of the great Jewish feast of the Passover that commemorates when the people were told, in order to escape punishment, that they should smear the doorposts of their houses with the blood of a lamb. When God’s angel struck, he passed over the blood-painted houses of the Israelites and their children were spared. They had, in effect, been saved by the “blood of the lamb.”  The lamb then becomes the sign and symbol of the liberation of God’s people from slavery and oppression. But for us – and this is what John the Baptist’s means – Jesus is the new Lamb which brings freedom and liberation.

The purpose of John’s baptism was to make Jesus known to Israel.  John’s witness is an excellent example of what it means to be a disciple. By our Baptism, we are called to be disciples – to make Jesus known to all the world by our words and by the witness of our lives.

This Wednesday we will begin the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  The theme for 2017, “Reconciliation – The Love of Christ Compels Us” was chosen to mark the 500th anniversary year of the beginning of the Reformation.  Two accents are reflected: the main concerns marked by Martin Luther’s Reformation and our recognition of the pain of the subsequent deep divisions which continue to afflict the unity of the Church.  Christians are encouraged to pray and to view this week as a first step toward reconciliation.

Each year on his birthday, our nation takes time to stand back and contemplate the impact of Martin Luther King on the course of history. It may be tempting to treat this day like any other.   But, many of us cannot forget; we grew up in a segregated society.  Most of us remember attending – or for that matter teaching in – racial segregated school. We went to all-white schools.  We can remember “whites only” water fountains, lunch counters and seats on the bus.  The name of Martin Luther King, Jr. represents the blood, sweat and tears of many, many people.  Praise God for people who live by the courage of their convictions.

Tuesday evening, in his farewell address, President Obama reminded our nation:  “For white Americans, it means acknowledging that the effects of slavery and Jim Crow didn’t suddenly vanish in the ’60s; that when minority groups voice discontent, they’re not just engaging in reverse racism or practicing political correctness; when they wage peaceful protest, they’re not demanding special treatment, but the equal treatment that our founders promised.”

In 1956, Rev. King realized just how parched he was, how needy he was for a drink from God’s fountain of live-giving water.  On January 27 of that year, he received a phone call: “Nigger, we are tired of you and your mess now, and if you are not out of Montgomery in three days, we’re going to blow your brains out and blow up your house.”  Dr. King was so disturbed by this threat to his family and was especially concerned for his newborn daughter.  He went to the kitchen seeking solace from a steaming cup of coffee.  As he began to muse he was confronted with a vision in the kitchen.

In his words: Rationality left me…and I started thinking about many things.  Something said to me, you can’t call on daddy now; he’s in Atlanta – You’ve got to call on that something, on that person that your daddy used to tell you about, that power that can make a way out of no way.  And I discovered then that religion had to become real to me and I had to know God for myself.  I bowed down over that cup of coffee, I never will forget it.  I prayed out loud: Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right.  I think the cause that we represent is right.  But Lord, I must confess that I’m faltering.  I’m losing courage.

Almost out of nowhere I heard a voice.  “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness.  Stand up for justice.  Stand up for truth.  And lo, I will be with you, even until the end of the world.”   Dr. King recounts that he was ready for anything after this.  He experienced renewal from the fountain of life.

Tuesday is a national day of prayer for reconciliation and healing.  Let us take this opportunity to renew our baptismal commitment.  With all these celebrations (this week)  we are impelled to revisit our own “vision in the kitchen” and like genuine messengers of God to respond with the sentiments of tomorrow’s responsorial psalm: “I will announce your justice in the vast assembly; I will not restrain my lips, as you, O Lord, know.” Further, with the words of the psalmist we pray: “I waited, waited for the Lord, and God stooped toward me and heard my cry. He put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God. “

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: Christian, God, Jesus, Lamb of God, National Prayer Day, Prayer, Rev. Martin Luther King, Son of God

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