Blog by-the-Sea

Father Cantalamessa's Lenten Sermons and Good Friday Homily

ZENIT has posted English translations of Father Raniero Cantalamessa's Lenten sermons and Good Friday homily given as preacher of the Pontifical Household.  I have moved this post up each week so that I can post links to all of them together.  That seems like a good idea because people sometimes look for them weeks or months later, and it makes it easier for them to find what they are looking for.

First Lenten Sermon: "And Being in Agony He Prayed More Earnestly", Part 1 and Part 2:  Gethsemane

Second Lenten Sermon: "To Obey God Is What He Wants"

Third Lenten Sermon: "The Rocks Were Split"

Good Friday Homily: "God Manifests His Love for Us"

In his Good Friday homily, Father Cantalamessa spoke about the recent hype over the Gnostic "Gospel of Judas", alluded to the approaching release of the Da Vinci Code movie, and called upon Catholics to not respond in silence:

There is much talk about Judas' betrayal, without realizing that it is being repeated. Christ is being sold again, no longer to the leaders of the Sanhedrin for thirty denarii, but to editors and booksellers for billions of denarii. No one will succeed in halting this speculative wave, which instead will flare up with the imminent release of a certain film, but being concerned for years with the history of Ancient Christianity, I feel the duty to call attention to a huge misunderstanding which is at the bottom of all this pseudo-historical literature.

Setting aside those fictional works, he said that the best way to reflect on the mystery of Good Friday this year would be to re-read the entire first part of the recent Papal Encyclical Deus Caritas Est. 

Photo:  Seventeenth century German crucifix from the Chapel of Reconciliation of the Church of the Nativity, Rancho Santa Fe, California.

Way of the Cross - Good Friday 2006

On April 11, I first posted a link here to ZENIT's text of the Way of the Cross meditations that Pope Benedict XVI led at the Colosseum today.  I have moved this post up because the Vatican has now posted a beautiful version of the text here.  Click on the pictures to see the prayers and meditations for each of the stations.  I am changing the link in the Way of the Cross category in the sidebar from the ZENIT text to the visually beautiful Vatican version.  The Vatican website has also posted words of Presentation by Archbishop Angelo Comastri, who composed this year's prayers and meditations for the Way of the Cross, and an introductory prayer by Pope Benedict XVI, both here.

Archbishop Comastri is Vicar General of His Holiness for Vatican City and President of the Fabric of St. Peter's.  The earlier ZENIT text can be found here. 

Washing One Another's Feet: Forgiving Tirelessly

Here are links and quotes from the Pope's homilies today:

Today's Chrism Mass:

The Asia News story is here.  ZENIT has the whole homily in English here.  The Vatican website has only the Italian so far, and translations into other languages (including English) will be posted later here.  Here is an excerpt from ZENIT's translation:

To be a priest means to become a friend of Jesus Christ, and this ever more with the whole of our existence. The world has need of God -- not of any god, but of the God of Jesus Christ, of the God who became flesh and blood, who has loved us to the point of dying for us, who rose and has created in himself a space for man. This God must live in us and we in him. This is our priestly call: Only in this way can our action of priests bear fruits.

The Mass of the Lord's Supper:

The Mass of the Lord's Supper at the St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome is discussed by Asia News here.  The Vatican has the Italian and will have an English translation soon here.  Here is an excerpt from the Asia News article:

"The Lord wipes away our filth with the purifying force of his goodness. Washing one another’s feet means above all forgiving one another other tirelessly, always ready to start together anew even when it seems pointless. It means purifying one another by helping each other and accepting that others help us; [it means] purifying one another by giving each other the hallow strength of God’s word and introducing ourselves to the Sacrament of Divine Love."

Updated April 15: A ZENIT transcript of the homily from the Mass of the Lord's Supper is now available online here. 

New Against the Grain Posting Online

Christopher has posted a new collection of links for Holy Week on Against the Grain, including links to posts on this blog reflecting on St. Boniface and the photos and quotations for The Stations of the Cross.  I am always happy when I see that he has liked something I wrote or quoted, and always appreciate the excellent collections of blog posts and articles he works so hard to collect.  It is well worth seeing for links to other good blog posts for Holy Week.

Evil Does Not Have the Last Word

Asia News has posted its article about Pope Benedict XVI's message at today's General Audience here.  In today's message, the Pope explained the meaning of each of the days of the Easter Triduum, which will begin tomorrow evening, and looked forward to Easter.  Here is an excerpt:

"'Despite all the darkness in the world, evil does not have the last word,' said Benedict XVI, frequently changing his prepared text off the cuff. 'For our part, let’s commit ourselves to create a more just world with more courage.' The pope then invited the faithful to participate in celebrations of the Triduum starting tomorrow. 'These days are intended to re-ignite in us an urgent desire to follow and to serve Christ, mindful of the fact that he loved us to the point of giving up his life for us.'”

The ZENIT translation is here.  The Vatican translation is here.  Keep in mind that they may differ both because of the translators' preferences and also because one may be based on the prepared text while the other is translated from the message as actually delivered. 

From Sea to Sea to the Ends of the Earth

ZENIT's English translation of Pope Benedict XVI's Palm Sunday homily is online here.  The Italian text is on the Vatican website here.  Here is an excerpt from ZENIT's English translation:

"Penetrating with a glance the clouds of history, we see emerge from afar in the prophecy the network of Eucharistic communities that embraces the whole world, a network of communities that constitute Jesus' "Kingdom of peace" from sea to sea to the ends of the earth. He comes to all cultures and to all parts of the world, everywhere, to the miserable huts and poor peoples, as well as to the splendor of cathedrals. Everywhere, he is the same, the Only One, and in this way, all those gathered in prayer, in communion with him, are also united among themselves in one body. Christ rules making himself our bread and giving himself to us. Thus he builds his Kingdom."

"Where Hope Lies"

The Carmelites of Indianapolis' website, praythenews.com, has featured Carmelite sisters' perspectives on events in the news for years now.  The latest is a perspective on Holy Week, drawn from an article about Holy Week that appeared in The Voice.  Sister Ruth's perspective is well worth reading:

"For too many people, there is that mistaken belief that Easter was something that happened long ago and that it's merely a once a year commemoration. A day to show off a new spring outfit, consume chocolate bunnies and revel in the joy of a spring break. But the true significance of what happened has not been totally saturated within for so many. Especially in these times of terrorist bombings, wars in distant lands, people are wondering where hope lies.

"In every age, there has been evil done by human beings in the name of God. Those who think they were doing God's will instead inflicted terror on those who had different beliefs, never realizing that these too were God's children. In the death of Jesus, those responsible must have felt they were doing the will of God in getting rid of this "troublemaker," this One who was advocating justice for the poor and the afflicted, who insisted that all people were to be held in reverence, who came with the universal message of love. Or so they thought they were going to get rid of him. But God had another plan. Truth could not be denied, justice would not wait and love was not to be squelched. The message of Easter is a message that is not confined by space and time. Karl Rahner writes in a meditation on the Easter event:

"'Easter is not the celebration of a past event. The alleluia is not for what was; Easter proclaims a beginning which has already decided the remotest future. The resurrection means that the beginning of glory has already started. And what began in that way is in process of fulfillment. Does it last long? It lasts thousands of years because at least that short space of time is needed for an incalculable plentitude of reality and history to force itself through the brief death agony of a gigantic transformation (which we call natural history and world history) to its glorious fulfillment.'

"We live in that eschatological tension that the reign of God is both realized and not yet. There is both the agony and the ecstasy, that which is fulfilled and that which is in the process of fulfillment. But in all this, there is for me, that one core belief, that the Lord is truly risen. And in believing that, believing that truly all will come to its glorious fulfillment. For as the Exultet proclaims "Christ has conquered! Glory fills you! Darkness vanishes forever!"

Reflections on the Bl. Angela of Foligno's Instruction on the Crucifixion

"He who is totally light, and from whom all light comes, and without whom there is only darkness, gave a veil the power to cover him.  He bestowed upon whips the power to beat him unmercifully.  He bestowed upon nails the power to enter and pierce the most divine hands and feet of the God who made everything.  He gave power to the gibbet, called the cross, to hold up its maker and Lord, pierced and bloodied.  He bestowed upon the sponge, the vinegar, the gall, and many insensible creatures, the power to insult their God and maker and have full dominion over him.  Finally, he bestowed upon the lance the power to enter, open and pierce his most divine side.

"These created things should have and could have been obedient to their own Lord and maker, and not to the creature who was misusing them.  But the most profound, most faithful, and totally extraordinary humility of this most high and majestic God deflates and confounds our pride-filled nothingness!  The very author of life, who alone is, wished to be annihilated and made subject to all creatures, even the insensible ones, so that you, who were dead and had become insensible to divine realities, might have life through his humility and abasement.  And you, O man, who were nothing, know that he, who alone is, has loved you with a love so pure and so faithful that solely out of love for you he wished to be annihilated, in order to give you most perfect being.

"The nails and the lance should and could have bent and not obeyed a creature’s misuse of them; and not pierced and wounded the most divine hands, feet, and side of their own Lord and maker.  They, and other insensible objects, obeyed a creature in opposition to their Lord and maker, only because they had received power over him."

- Angela of Foligno, The Book of the Blessed Angela (Instructions), Instruction XXII (an excerpt from a circular letter to her spiritual “sons”), ca. 1298 a.d., translated from the Latin by Paul Lachance, O.F.M., as published in Angela of Foligno Complete Works, Paulist Press, Classics of Western Spirituality series, c. 1993 by Paul Lachance, O.F.M., pp. 278-279.

From the Gospel for Good Friday:

"So Pilate said to him,
  “Do you not speak to me?
Do you not know that I have power to release you
  and I have power to crucify you?”
Jesus answered him,
  “You would have no power over me
  if it had not been given to you from above.
For this reason the one who handed me over to you
  has the greater sin.” (John 19:10-11)

Reflections:

There is a contrast between Jesus and Barabbas that Jesus seems to have foreseen.  The one, Jesus, was the good shepherd who gave up His life for His sheep.  The other, Barabbas, was freed in His place while Barabbas’s disciples apparently remained behind in jail (Mark 15:7).  Jesus might have been seen as a Captain, as Peter and another disciple carried swords for battle, and yet Jesus told them not to fight (John 18:11).  He presented Himself to the Roman soldiers who came with Judas and asked them to let his men go free (John 18:1-8), and they fled.  It would take a Captain to sacrifice Himself to let His disciples go free (John 18:8), and thereby they escaped death and injury while He went to the cross. 

Angela wrote near the dawn of the Italian Renaissance, when the miraculous and the artistic beauty of the faith held sway.  It is one thing to believe that Jesus could have fled silently during the night and did not do so (as might more often be observed in our own time), and quite another to believe that He could have simply commanded the nails not to pierce His flesh (Angela's observation).  Whatever excesses there were in medieval Christianity, they had great acceptance of the poetic, the beautiful and the miraculous.   In a later age, people often see primarily Christ's humanity, although they could also see his divinity.  Angela saw primarily Christ’s divinity, although she also saw His humanity.

“If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out,” we read at Luke 19:40.  Inanimate objects obey His commands.  Psalm 96:12 speaks of trees rejoicing, and Isaiah 35:1 says the desert shall rejoice.  Creation praises Him.  He who commanded the dead Lazarus to come forth from the tomb, He who healed the sick and cast out demons, could command the nails, the sword, the soldiers and the cross, but He chose not to do so.  He who had the power of God over all things, who created all things (John 1:2), chose to die in a created human body, chose to accept nails. 

His love is unfathomable.  He who said of His church “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it,” (Matt. 16:18) also said “I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20)  He who died for us did so out of love for us.  The good shepherd gave up His life for His sheep, and did so willingly from love.  “ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.”  (John 10:18)

The battle with Satan was won on the Cross.  Jesus cried, “It is finished,” as He died.  He is the light that shines in the darkness, “and the darkness does not comprehend it.”  (John 1:5)   He who loved us and gave up His life for us said the gates of hell will not prevail against His Church.  However dark it has sometimes seemed to be, His word prevails.  We abide, not only in growth and sunlight, but in the darkness of the battle, and He again calls His sheep by name and saves us from the wolves, when we are His instruments and when we act as fallen creatures.

He “prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground” as He prayed in Gethsemane (Luke 22:44).   He accepted the Father’s will in the crucifixion, in order to give eternal life to those who were fallen. 

Together at the table of the spotless Lamb

"Jesus told his disciples that he longed to  celebrate the Passover with them before He died.  What does this reference from the Gospel of Luke have to say to us?  I want to see us together at the table of the spotless Lamb, who is food, table, and also waiter.  The fruits on this table are the true solid virtues.  No other table bears fruit, but this one does; and its fruit is splendid and life-giving because this table is Life. 

"A groove has been beveled into this table, and this one channel flows with blood and water mixed with fire; and if you rest your eye on this channel, you can see the secret of God's heart.  I mean, the pierced side of His Son.

"This blood is a wine on which our soul gets drunk, and the more we drink, the more we want.  We're never fully satisfied becasue Christ's flesh and blood are joined with the infinite God.  Those of us who eat at this table and become like the food we eat begin to love as God does.  That's why we run enthusiastically to God's table!"

- St. Catherine of Siena, Letters, from Incandescence: 365 Readings with Women Mystics compiled by Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Paraclete Press, 2005.

"It was then that he thought himself begin to look great."

"All the four evangelists take notice of this passage of Christ's riding in triumph into Jerusalem, five days before his death. The passover was on the fourteenth day of the month, and this was the tenth; on which day the law appointed that the paschal lamb should be taken up (Exod. xii. 3), and set apart for that service; on that day therefore Christ our Passover, who was to be sacrificed for us, was publicly showed. So that this was the prelude to his passion. He had lodged at Bethany, a village not far from Jerusalem, for some time; at a supper there the night before Mary had anointed his feet, John xii. 3. But, as usual with ambassadors, he deferred his public entry till some time after his arrival. Our Lord Jesus travelled much, and his custom was to travel on foot from Galilee to Jerusalem, some scores of miles, which was both humbling and toilsome; many a dirty weary step he had when he went about doing good. How ill does it become Christians to be inordinately solicitous about their own ease and state, when their Master had so little of either! Yet once in his life he rode in triumph; and it was now when he went into Jerusalem, to suffer and die, as if that were the pleasure and preferment he courted; and then he thought himself begin to look great."

- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), comments on Matthew 21:1-11, first published 1721, Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

St. Teresa of Avila on the Passion

Some souls imagine they cannot meditate even on the Passion, still less on the most blessed Virgin or on the saints, the memory of whose lives greatly benefits and strengthens us.  I cannot think what such persons are to meditate upon, for to withdraw the thoughts from all corporeal things like the angelic spirits who are always inflamed with love, is not possible for us while in this mortal flesh; we need to study, to meditate upon and to imitate those who, mortals like ourselves, performed such heroic deeds for God. How much less should we wilfully endeavour to abstain from thinking of our only good and remedy, the most sacred Humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ? I cannot believe that any one really does this; they misunderstand their own minds and so harm both themselves and others. Of this at least I can assure them: they will never thus enter the last two mansions of the castle. If they lose their Guide, our good Jesus, they cannot find the way and it will be much if they have stayed safely in the former mansions. Our Lord Himself tells us that He is ‘the Way’; He also says that He is ‘the Light’; that no man cometh to the Father but by Him; and that ‘He that seeth Me, seeth the Father also.’

- The Interior Castle, Chapter VII, para. 8, translated by the Benedictines of Stanbrook, from Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

"I think the good Jesus was right to ask this for Himself, for we know how weary of this life He was when at the Supper He said to His Apostles: “With desire I have desired to sup with you”—and that was the last supper of His life.  From this it can be seen how weary He must have been of living; yet nowadays people are not weary even at a hundred years old, but always want to live longer.  It is true, however, that we do not live so difficult a life or suffer such trials or such poverty as His Majesty had to bear. What was His whole life but a continuous death, with the picture of the cruel death that He was to suffer always before His eyes?  And this was the least important thing, with so many offenses being committed against His Father and such a multitude of souls being lost.  If to any human being full of charity this is a great torment, what must it have been to the boundless and measureless charity of the Lord?  And how right He was to beseech the Father to deliver Him from so many evils and trials and to give Him rest for ever in His Kingdom, of which He was the true heir."

- The Way of Perfection, Chapter 42, para. 1, translated by E. Allison Peers, from Christian Classics Ethereal Library

Sidebar Update

I moved the Way of the Cross links and the Stations of the Cross photos closer to the top of the sidebar to draw more attention to them between now and Easter.

The Church of Love is Also the Church of Truth

The Asia News story on today's general audience is here.  Continuing his catechesis about Christ and the Church, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the need for the Church to adhere to both truth and love, and saying that there is a “clear duty of whoever believes the Church of love, and who wants to live within it, to interrupt communion with he who has distanced himself from the saving doctrine”. 

A transcript of today's message is already available on the Vatican website.  Here is an excerpt from that transcript: 

"As we see in the Book of Acts, truth and love converged in the life of the early Church: the first Christians “devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). Thanks to the apostolic ministry, this communion in truth and love is constantly preserved in the Church. Through the Apostles and their successors, we encounter the love of the Triune God and the truth that makes us free (cf. Jn 8:32)!”

Also, since I did not post it on Monday, here is a link to Monday's Asia News article about the Holy Father's homily at Monday's Mass which followed the Sunday evening homily in memory of Pope John Paul II.  The Monday Mass, celebrated with about 50 cardinals, again included reflections on John Paul II.  An excerpt from that homily:

“His faith was strong and true, free from fears and compromises, and struck the hearts of so many people thanks to his many apostolic pilgrimages around the world, and especially thanks to the last “journey” that was his agony and death.”

And, lastly, the Vatican's plans for Holy Week have been announced.  They will include the program that Pope John Paul II followed before health made that impossible.  Palm Sunday will also be World Youth Day, celebrated locally this year.  Pope Benedict XVI has also added a Celebration of Penance in St. Peter's Basilica on Holy Tuesday.  The ZENIT article is here. 

A collection of Vatican information on Lent and Holy Week is here.  The Office of Liturgical Celebrations calendar is here.  For broadcasts by television, radio, and internet, see the Vatican Television Center and EWTN websites.   

Astonishing

"'A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I have loved you.'  And 'In this,' He said, 'is my Father glorified; that you bring forth much fruit, and become my disciples.'

"Is it not of itself astonishing, beloved, that God can be glorified by works of ours—and what love He pours out upon us, wretches that we are: “As the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you. . . . Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends”; and, “You are my friends.”  What then should we, miserable men, be like?  Does not our heart burn, hearing these words? . . . What good did we do to Him, that he has chosen us and rescued us from this transient life?  For have not we all gone astray and became useless in His work, following our lusts?  Yet He did not despise us in such an evil condition; he did not abhor our nature, but having taken the form of a slave, became like us.  And all this He did that we may be saved. . . ."

- St. Theodosius of the Kiev Caves, excerpt from his sermon “On Patience and Love,” late 11th century, translated from the Russian by Helen Iswolsky,  and edited by G.P. Fedotov, compiled in G.P. Fedotov’s book A Treasury of Russian Spirituality, pp. 48-49 (The ellipses appear in Dr. Fedotov’s text and apparently indicate illegible or missing portions from the manuscript available to the translator).

From the readings for this coming Sunday, April 9:

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
  did not regard equality with God
    something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
  taking the form of a slave,
  coming in human likeness;
  and found human in appearance,
  he humbled himself,
  becoming obedient to the point of death,
  even death on a cross.
(Phil. 2:6-8 NAB)

Reflections on St. Boniface, Blindness and Our Lenten Fast

"There is one other comfort for my missionary labours that I should like to ask from you. May I be so bold as to beg of you to send me the Book of the Prophets which Winbert, of revered memory, my former abbot and teacher, left behind when he departed this life?  It contains the text of the six prophets bound together in one volume, all written out in full with clear letters. Should God inspire you to do this for me, no greater comfort could be given me in my old age, nor could any greater reward be earned by yourself.  A Book of the Prophets, such as I need, cannot be procured in this country, and with my failing sight it is impossible for me to read small, abbreviated script.  I am asking for this particular book because all the letters in it are written out clearly and separately.

"In the meantime I am sending you by the priest Forthere a letter and a small gift as a token of affection, a towel, not of pure silk but mixed with rough goat's hair, for drying your feet. . . .

"News was brought to me recently by a priest who came to Germany from your parts that you had lost your sight. You, my Lord, are more aware than I am who it is who said: "Where he loves, he bestows correction." And St. Paul says: " When I am weakest, then I am strongest of all "; and: "My strength is increased in infirmity." The author of the psalms adds: " Many are the trials of the innocent", etc.  You, my father, have eyes like those of Didimus, of whom Antony is related to have said that his eyes saw God and His angels and the blessed joys of the heavenly Jerusalem.  On this account, and because I know your wisdom and your patience, I believe that God has permitted you to be afflicted in this way so that your virtue and merit may increase and that you may gaze with the eyes of the spirit on those things which God loves and commands, whilst seeing less of the things God hates and forbids.  What are our bodily eyes in this time of trial but the windows of sin through which we observe sins and sinners, or, worse still, behold and desire them and so fall into sin?

'Farewell, my lord, and pray for me in Christ."

       

- St. Boniface, an excerpt from a Letter from Archbishop/St. Boniface to Bishop Daniel of Winchester, ca. 742-746, from The Correspondence of St. Boniface, ed. Tangl, from the Internet Medieval Sourcebook.

"The Life of Boniface" by Willibald

Reflections:

In the course of his ministry, St. Boniface won more than 100,000 people to Christianity, and he is said to have “had a deeper influence on the history of Europe than any Englishman who has ever lived,” carrying Romano-Christian civilization beyond the furthest reaches of the Roman Empire.  Always, correspondence with men and women he knew in England helped to sustain him.  The quoted text is a portion of a letter from Boniface to Bishop Daniel of Winchester (Boniface’s own beloved former bishop) written between 742 and 746, expressing concerns about Bishop Daniel’s blindness and asks for a volume of the Prophets.  Ordaining more than 300 clergy and forming monasteries with more than 2,000 monks and nuns, Boniface was often seeking books for his own use and books to be copied for his clergy and for people in the monasteries.  He carried his own books with him wherever he went, reading the Bible and singing Psalms and hymns, giving alms to the poor.   (Biographical sources: (Greenaway, Sladden).

Most American Christians today have several complete copies of the Bible, professionally bound, translated into our own language.  Most of us have more than one translation of the Bible into English, all of them scholarly versions prepared by groups of scholars knowledgeable about the original languages.  The translators have at their disposal copies of collections of manuscripts in the original languages.  We assure people of the accuracy of the text now available because of the meticulous care taken by copyists over the centuries in transcribing the Bible from one manuscript to another, slowly and tediously making sure that very few errors were made over the centuries. 

We forget the cost.  Not until Gutenburg’s invention of the printing press in 1451 did it make much sense to expect that every Christian would have access to even one complete copy of the Bible.  Even Boniface, as bishop and archbishop, did not have the luxury of possessing a complete copy of the prophets carefully printed and legibly written so that a 60-year old far-sighted man could read it.  He wrote to a fellow bishop in England asking if he could have a copy of such a book that he knew existed in that country.  The volume he wanted had once belonged to his teacher, and must have been passed on to the fellow bishop who could no longer use it in his blindness.  It was probably beautifully hand printed, with beautiful designs, and it may have had a very costly cover hand-made by a loving nun or monk.  Boniface was careful to explain that he wanted it because it was legible.  Although books were then part of wealth, his request was not from greed.

From his letter, it appears that the copies of the Prophets that were available in Germany at that time were transcribed in small handwriting with abbreviations, probably reflecting that the copyists would spend less time preparing a copy of those less essential books than they commonly spent on the New Testament texts and the Psalms.  There were only so many copyists, tediously and carefully copying the Bible from one manuscript to a new manuscript as Christianity spread through Europe.  Surely an archbishop could have instructed copyists to make a legible copy of the prophets for him.  It would take some speculation to imagine why he did not do so.  However, Christianity was spreading quickly through the region under his authority, and he would have had to take copyists away from the work of making new copies of the Psalms, Gospels and Epistles in order to have them make a new copy of the Prophets.   

We take for granted what we have today.  We take our literacy for granted.  We forget how many men and women in earlier centuries and in other parts of the world could not read a Bible even if they had one.

We take our eyesight for granted.  Eighth century people had no vision correction comparable to what we have today even if they were literate.  Life could be difficult and fleeting.  An English abbess once wrote to Boniface about poverty, lack of food, and exactions of the king, saying “our life is weariness to us and it is almost a burden to live.”

I remind myself to be thankful.  They whose names I will never know, and who had so little, labored to make accurate copies of the Scripture for the good of the future, for us whose real lives are easier than their dreams.

Reflections on the Prayer of St. Richard of Chichester

April 3 is the memorial of St. Richard of Chichester.  He is best remembered for his prayer from his deathbed:   

Thanks be to you, my lord, Jesus Christ,
    For all the benefits that you have given me;
    For all the pains and insults you have borne for me.

O, most merciful redeemer, friend and brother,
    May I know you more clearly;
    Love you more dearly;
      And follow you more nearly.

Dom Richard Oliver, OSB's Page on St. Richard of Chichester

I wrote about this prayer in an earlier post here, in connection with the tools of good works in the Rule of St. Benedict, and the growth day by day in faith and holiness.

Its simplicity seeks growth without pretense and without regret, without arrogance or hypocrisy.  Beneath the simplicity -- indeed, its source -- is an unpretensious prayer for “more” love, and not perfect love; of “more” ability to see Jesus, and not perfect brilliance; of “more” closely following Him, and not easy discipleship.

There are temptations of blindness: blindness to our own sins, in which we do not see how much we need to change in our lives; blindness to our progress, in which we do not see how much God has changed us already; and blindness to our future, in which we do not see the person God intends us to be and who we one day will be, in eternity, when the dross of our lives has been removed beyond the grave.  St. Richard's prayer has a simple acceptance, like a child's acceptance, of that complexity of living.  He does not try to over-simplify it, nor does he pretend to be a master of its complexity.  It has a recognition of the necessity of grace and of the necessity of obedience, without trying to work through all the theological details. 

As Lent moves toward its conclusion for this year, my wish for all who read these words, and my prayer for you and for me, is that each of us may have grown in that way through this year's Lenten journey; and that we will reach Easter with a greater thankfulness.

"Everything indeed is for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God. Therefore, we are not discouraged; rather, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day." (II Cor. 4:15-16)

Foot Fight History & Trivia

Dr. Ed Peters' canon law blog In the Light of the Law has a lengthy and informative post about the question of whether women can have their feet washed in the Holy Thursday foot washing.  In his post, titled Our Lenten foot fight: it's time to resolve the mandatum rubric debate, Ed addresses the canon law issues and some history of the issue.  After explaining the present debate, and explaining that "this matter is purely one of ecclesiastical law (which means it is changeable, albeit only by Rome per 1983 CIC 838)", Ed expresses a hope that the matter will be studied and resolved outside of Lent.  He concludes: "There are many more important things to ponder during the Church's holiest season."  It is an interesting and informative article about an issue that sometimes has been divisive during Lent. 

Although my area of practice has never included canon law, and I thus accept Ed's explanation of the legal issue without question, I will offer an eighth century letter showing that the question of washing women's feet has been asked at least as far back as the bishopric of St. Boniface.  Personally, over the last decade, I have spent Holy Thursday in parishes where the foot washing was limited to men and in one Episcopal Church parish where it included women, and was content with either decision.  It is the sort of issue in which I am inclined to follow the preference of my own priest and bishop while my own interest lies in the spiritual meaning of Holy Week.  However, it would be an interesting historical topic for someone to put together a study of the history of this rite, when it first began to be observed as a rite on  Holy Thursday, and how its Biblical meaning has been understood over the centuries.

A little of the history given in Ed's posting, supplemented by an article he links to, is:

13th century - Foot washing became a customary part of the Holy Thursday liturgies (this according to  a linked article from boston.com and not according to Dr. Peters)

1955 - Pope Pius XII re-introduces the foot washing rite after it fell into disuse in some churches

1987 - USCCB declared that it has become customary in some places to allow both men's and women's feet to be washed.

While boston.com may be correct that the Holy Thursday liturgy including this rite has a thirteenth century origin, the rite itself has a much older history associated with Holy Thursday.  In the middle of the eighth century, Bishop/St. Boniface of Mainz/Devon asked Pope Zacharias whether it was permissible for nuns to wash each other's feet on Holy Thursday, presumably in abbeys where there were no men's feet to wash.  The Pope's answer, written November 4, 751, is preserved in the collection of The Letters of St. Boniface.

Given that the reference was to the women washing each other's feet, the practice does not assume the involvement of a priest.  It was, by then, connected with Holy Thursday, and not with the rite of baptism.  The form of the ceremony is not mentioned in the letter.  However, the eighth century pope's answer saw no reason why nuns could not wash each other's feet.  The fact that St. Boniface raised the question is indicative that the issue of washing women's feet was already discussed more than 1200 years ago, and that even then, there was no rule limiting the rite to men in all circumstances.  Boniface strictly enforced canon law.  His question was limited to nuns observing the rite in women's religious houses and thus implies that the rite was limited to men in churches and cathedrals where there were enough men's feet to wash.  Pope Zachariah's perspective is interesting for its simplicity:

"You inquire whether nuns are to wash each other's feet, as men do, on Holy Thursday as well as on other days.  It is the Lord's teaching that he who does good works by faith shall receive praise.  Men and women have one God, who is in heaven." (Letter LXXI, translated by Ephraim Emerton)

That was all that Pope Zacaharias had to say about the matter in the course of a lengthy letter.  He said nothing about the rite symbolizing the twelve Apostles, a frequent basis now for arguing that only men should be included. 

A careful study of the rite would have to go back even before St. Boniface and the eighth century, at least as far back as the fourth century to follow how the rite moved from a regional part of the baptismal rite to a part of the Holy Thursday observance, to its present place in the liturgy. 

In the fourth century, it was mentioned by St. Ambrose as part of the baptism ritual and not particularly associated with Holy Thursday or Easter at all.  According to historian F. Homes Dudden (The Life and Times of St. Ambrose in 2 volumes, 1935), the ceremony of foot washing at that time was practiced in Spain, Northern Italy, Gaul, and Africa, but not in Rome.  The bishop washed the feet of the newly baptized, and the presbyters did the same for others, while the Gospel lesson, John 13:4ff, was read.  As part of the baptismal rite, following the chrism, it would naturally have included both men and women.  Dudden gives the fourth century view of the rite (pp. 340-341, see also pp. 623-624 and 706):

"As regards the significance of the action, Ambrose appears to teach that, while personal or actual sin is removed by baptism, transmitted or original sin is removed by the 'foot-washing'; thus, of Peter he says that 'his foot is washed that hereditary sins may be removed, for our own sins are loosed through baptism'.  The author of De Sacramentis silently corrects this doctrine by affirming with emphasis that all sins are washed away in baptism; he explains the ceremony, partly as a lesson in humility, and partly as a means of special sanctification at that point where Adam was poisoned and tripped up by the serpent. Augustine also regards the action as a lesson in humility, but not as an essential part of the sacrament of baptism."

By the eighth century, when St. Boniface wrote to Pope Zachariah, the rite was no longer part of the baptismal rite, and the question of washing women's feet, at least in women's religious houses, existed then.  There is a much older issue about including women than is often understood.  I do agree with Ed Peters that a careful study and resolution of the issue, outside of Lent, would be beneficial.

More on St. Boniface:

Greenaway, George William, Saint Boniface: Three Biographical Studies for the Twelfth Centenary Festival

Reuter, Timothy, ed., The Greatest Englishman: Essays on St. Boniface and the Church at Crediton

Sladden, John Cyril Boniface of Devon

Reflections on St. Thérèse of Lisieux's Prayer to Know God's Will

Lord grant that I may always allow myself to be guided by you, always follow your plans, and perfectly accomplish Your holy will.  Grant that in all things, great and small, today and all the days of my life, I may do whatever you may require of me.  Help me to respond to the slightest prompting of Your grace, so that I may be your trustworthy instrument.  May Your will be done in time and eternity, by me, in me, and through me.  Amen

- St. Therese of Lisieux, Prayer to Know God's Will

Some Related Scripture References:

Phil. 2:12-13

Luke 1:38 (from the daily readings for March 25):

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.

About St. Thérèse of Lisieux:

carmelite.com information on St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Reflections:

St. Therese of Lisieux’s prayer to know God’s will was on a card on my refrigerator door for a long time, and then carried in my purse for a long time, until it became ragged.  I put the tattered card into the small storage space beneath the seat of a bench where I keep booklets and brochures from churches and abbeys I have visited.  A Carmelite convent somewhere in the United States sent me that little card, and the card doesn’t say who translated the prayer from French.  I don’t even remember which convent sent it to me.  However, the card has become a favorite of mine.

A few months ago, the play "The Story of a Soul" was performed at Church of the Nativity, and everyone was given a holy card with a picture of Thérèse.  Same card.  I had a new one.  I found out later that there were at least 2 different types of Thérèse cards given out, but I wanted another one with the same prayer on it.

St. Therese of Lisieux asked God to make her “respond to the slightest prompting of Your grace.”  The slightest promptings of His grace may be known through tuning ourselves in prayer to hear His still, small voice when He wishes to guide us.  However, I could really move much further as a Christian if I would only be more careful to obey the more explicit Word of God that I have from Scripture and from the Church already.  The Ten Commandments, from last Sunday's readings, prompt us to do God's will.  Those words can seem easier until I consider how they impact my life in practice, and then it can become more apparent where my life falls short and what I ought to change.

Reflections on a Sermon by Martin Luther King, Jr.

"And I say to you this morning in conclusion (Lord have mercy) that I'm not going to put my ultimate faith in things.  I'm not going to put my ultimate faith in gadgets and contrivances.  As a young man with most of my life ahead of me, I decided early (Oh yeah) to give my life to something eternal and absolute.  (All right)  Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow, (Come on) but to God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Amen, Amen.)

"Not in the little gods that can be with us in a few moments of prosperity, (Yes) but in the God who walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death, (That's right) and causes us to fear no evil (All right)  That's the God.  (Come on)"

- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Rediscovering Lost Values", first delivered to the Second Baptist Church of Detroit, Michigan, February 28, 1954, published in Clayborne Carson and Peter Holloran, eds. A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

Some Related Scripture References:

Psalm 23

I Peter 1:24-25

Isaiah 58:6-8

Reflections:

A lot of people saw Martin Luther King, Jr. only as a civil rights leader.  This early sermon, from before the incident involving Rosa Parks, sets out his own view of the reasons why he did what he did in life.  Father Richard John Neuhaus, who personally knew Dr. King, commented on this in First Things.  Neuhaus recalled “rallies when, in the course of his preaching, King would hold forth on the theological and moral foundations of the movement.  The klieg lights and cameras shut down, only to be turned on again when he returned to specifically political or programmatic themes.  ‘Watch the lights,’ he commented.  ‘They’re not interested in the most important parts.’” (Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, “The Public Square: Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.” in First Things, October, 2002, at 98. 

Isaiah tells us that the fast God has chosen is to “let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke.”  Is it not the essence of the Christian life to struggle against oppression?  Jesus healed the sick on the Sabbath, He ministered to women who were rejected by society, and He approached the Samaritans who were ethnic outcasts in the world in which He lived.  He freed the oppressed, and it angered the authorities.  We follow in His footsteps when we free the oppressed, when we oppose injustice based upon racial or ethnic prejudice for example. 

Yet we have to remember why we do so.   The world around us now, as then, may not be interested in the most important parts.  Catholic social action begins with God's love, and follows in the steps of Jesus, with a focus on eternal things, and it does so in obedience to God and in keeping with God's values that much of our surrounding society has lost.

Reflections on a Chapter by St. Clement of Alexandria

"And that you may be still more confident, that repenting thus truly there remains for you a sure hope of salvation, listen to a tale, which is not a tale but a narrative, handed down and committed to the custody of memory, about the Apostle John. For when, on the tyrant's death, he returned to Ephesus from the isle of Patmos, he went away, being invited, to the contiguous territories of the nations, here to appoint bishops, there to set in order whole Churches, there to ordain such as were marked out by the Spirit.

"Having come to one of the cities not far off (the name of which some give), and having put the brethren to rest in other matters, at last, looking to the bishop appointed, and seeing a youth, powerful in body, comely in appearance, and ardent, said, "This (youth) I commit to you in all earnestness, in the presence of the Church, and with Christ as witness." And on his accepting and promising all, he gave the same injunction and testimony. And he set out for Ephesus. And the presbyter taking home the youth committed to him, reared, kept, cherished, and finally baptized him. After this he relaxed his stricter care and guardianship, under the idea that the seal of the Lord he had set on him was a complete protection to him. But on his obtaining premature freedom, some youths of his age, idle, dissolute, and adepts in evil courses, corrupt him. First they entice him by many costly entertainments; then afterwards by night issuing forth for highway robbery, they take him along with them. Then they dared to execute together something greater. And he by degrees got accustomed; and from greatness of nature, when he had gone aside from the right path, and like a hard-mouthed and powerful horse, had taken the bit between his teeth, rushed with all the more force down into the depths. And having entirely despaired of salvation in God, he no longer meditated what was insignificant, but having perpetrated some great exploit, now that he was once lost, he made up his mind to a like fate with the rest. Taking them and forming a hand of robbers, he was the prompt captain of the bandits, the fiercest, the bloodiest, the cruelest.

"Time passed, and some necessity having emerged, they send again for John. He, when he had settled the other matters on account of which he came, said, "Come now, O bishop, restore to us the deposit which I and the Saviour committed to thee in the face of the Church over which you preside, as witness." The other was at first confounded, thinking that it was a false charge about money which he did not get; and he could neither believe the allegation regarding what he had not, nor disbelieve John. But when he said "I demand the young man, and the soul of the brother," the old man, groaning deeply, and bursting into tears, said, "He is dead." "How and what kind of death? ""He is dead," he said, "to God. For he turned wicked and abandoned, and at last a robber; and now he has taken possession of the mountain in front of the church, along with a band like him." Rending, therefore, his clothes, and striking his head with great lamentation, the apostle said, "It was a fine guard of a brother's soul I left! But let a horse be brought me, and let some one be my guide on the way." He rode away, just as he was, straight from the church. On coming to the place, he is arrested by the robbers' outpost; neither fleeing nor entreating, but crying, "It was for this I came. Lead me to your captain; "who meanwhile was waiting, all armed as he was. But when he recognized John as he advanced, he turned, ashamed, to flight. The other followed with all his might, forgetting his age, crying, "Why, my son, dost thou flee from me, thy father, unarmed, old? Son, pity me. Fear not; thou hast still hope of life. I will give account to Christ for thee. If need be, I will willingly endure thy death, as the Lord did death for us. For thee I will surrender my life. Stand, believe; Christ hath sent me."

"And he, when he heard, first stood, looking down; then threw down his arms, then trembled and wept bitterly. And on the old man approaching, he embraced him, speaking for himself with lamentations as he could, and baptized a second time with tears, concealing only his right hand. The other pledging, and assuring him on oath that he would find forgiveness for himself from the Saviour, beseeching and failing on his knees, and kissing his right hand itself, as now purified by repentance, led him back to the church. Then by supplicating with copious prayers, and striving along with him in continual fastings, and subduing his mind by various utterances of words, did not depart, as they say, till he restored him to the Church, presenting in him a great example of true repentance and a great token of regeneration, a trophy of the resurrection for which we hope; when at the end of the world, the angels, radiant with joy, hymning and opening the heavens, shall receive into the celestial abodes those who truly repent; and before all, the Saviour Himself goes to meet them, welcoming them; holding forth the shadowless, ceaseless light; conducting them, to the Father's bosom, to eternal life, to the kingdom of heaven."

- Clement of Alexandria, Who Is the Rich Man Who Shall Be Saved?, Chapter XLII, Christian Classics Ethereal Library

Some Related Scripture References:

Matthew 25:14-30

John 18:37 

About St. Clement of Alexandria

Reflections:

A master story-teller, Clement must have told this story to Christians gathered in second century houses for entertainment as well as for the point he made about forgiveness.  It is a film writer's version of the aging Apostle John that he gives us, as if played by John Wayne:  "Bring me a horse and a guide!" 

The end of the story gives a vivid picture of redemption, the heavens opening:  "A great example of true repentance and a great token of regeneration, a trophy of the resurrection for which we hope; when at the end of the world, the angels, radiant with joy, hymning and opening the heavens, shall receive into the celestial abodes those who truly repent; and before all, the Saviour Himself goes to meet them, welcoming them." 

But his point was not just to tell a story.  He reports it as an actual event in the life of St. John, perhaps a century or so before St. Clement put it in writing.  The incident was applied to resolve the hotly disputed issue of what would become of those who wandered from the faith in time of persecution, and whether they could be forgiven and restored to the Church.  Where St. John himself had brought such a person back into the Church, it could not be disputed, said St. Clement of Alexandria, that a person who has wandered away from the Church can come home again, and can receive God's forgiveness.

Clement was known for “his patient study of Holy Scriptures" according to Eusebius.  He also studied the writings of Justin Martyr and of Justin’s followers Tatian and Irenaeus.  The image this story gives of St. John as archbishop rings true in its display of his energy and determination.  It may give us a glimpse of why Jesus might have given John and his brother the name “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17).  That fiery side of John shows in the gospels at Luke 9:54 and Mark 9:38.  The story may be well told and still rooted in an actual event in the life of St. John. 

It is a picture somewhat like that of the prodigal son coming home.  It is a story of redemption and forgiveness of sins.  Yet it is also a story of repentance.  St. John is said to have baptized the young man again in his tears.  It is a story of St. John treating the lost sheep as having more importance than his own position as a bishop, as he pursued him into the mountains, even at the risk of his own life.  He threw aside his bishop's attire to go riding into the mountains among thieves, echoing the words of Jesus, "For this cause I am come."  St. John's (and Clement's) approach to the importance of one young man's need for repentance take sin and forgiveness more seriously than is sometimes the case today. 

He affirmed God's capacity to forgive and to take people back even in the face of very serious departures from the faith.  But he also affirmed that departures from the faith are serious, and that repentance is no trivial thing.  Yet, when the young man came back to the faith, crying in St. John's arms, St. Clement sees in it the assurance that, in the end, " the Saviour Himself goes to meet them, welcoming them; holding forth the shadowless, ceaseless light."

Reflections on a Chapter by Tertullian

"This if you doubt, unravel the meaning of "what the Spirit saith to the churches." He imputes to the Ephesians "forsaken love; " reproaches the Thyatirenes with "fornication," and "eating of things sacrificed to idols; " accuses the Sardians of "works not full; " censures the Pergamenes for teaching perverse things; upbraids the Laodiceans for trusting to their riches; and yet gives them all general monitions to repentance-under comminations, it is true; but He would not utter comminations to one unrepentant if He did not forgive the repentant. 

"The matter were doubtful if He had not withal elsewhere demonstrated this profusion of His clemency. Saith He not, "He who hath fallen shall rise again, and he who hath been averted shall be converted? "He it is, indeed, who "would have mercy rather than sacrifices." The heavens, and the angels who are there, are glad at a man's repentance. Ho! you sinner, be of good cheer! you see where it is that there is joy at your return.

"What meaning for us have those themes of the Lord's parables? Is not the fact that a woman has lost a drachma, and seeks it and finds it, and invites her female friends to share her joy, an example of a restored sinner? There strays, withal, one little ewe of the shepherd's; but the flock was not more dear than the one: that one is earnestly sought; the one is longed for instead of all; and at length she is found, and is borne back on the shoulders of the shepherd himself; for much had she toiled in straying. That most gentle father, likewise, I will not pass over in silence, who calls his prodigal son home, and willingly receives him repentant after his indigence, slays his best fatted calf, and graces his joy with a banquet. Why not? He had found the son whom he had lost; he had felt him to be all the dearer of whom he had made a gain. Who is that father to be understood by us to be? God, surely: no one is so truly a Father; no one so rich in paternal love.

"He, then, will receive you, His own son, back, even if you have squandered what you had received from Him, even if you return naked-just because you have returned; and will joy more over your return than over the sobriety of the other; but only if you heartily repent-if you compare your own hunger with the plenty of your Father's "hired servants"-if you leave behind you the swine, that unclean herd-if you again seek your Father, offended though He be, saying, "I have sinned, nor am worthy any longer to be called Thine." Confession of sins lightens, as much as dissimulation aggravates them; for confession is counselled by (a desire to make) satisfaction, dissimulation by contumacy."

- Tertullian, On Repentance, Chapter VIII, Christian Classics Ethereal Library (paragraphing added).

Some Related Scripture References:

Revelation 3:1-3

Hosea 6:6

Matthew 9:13

Luke 15:3-24

Reflections:

Tertullian wrote fairly early in church history.  The issue of his day was whether a Christian who denied Christ in order to avoid persecution could repent and return to the church, and whether a Christian who had abandoned the faith could return and find forgiveness and acceptance once again.  Tertullian, and the church of his day, founded their answer upon the words of Christ that He was sent to call the lost to repentance.  They found their answer in the shepherd who seeks out the one lost sheep and returns it to His protection, and in the loving father of the prodigal son who rejoices when his rebellious son returns home.  Our Father in heaven is most loving and forgiving.  He calls us to return. 

God is holy, God is loving, and God seeks our repentance for our sins and our mercy toward others around us.  It is not enough to give up certain things for Lent, if my only reason for doing that is to show my own self-discipline, to guide myself into a time of self-examination, and to be drawn toward repentance.  If I truly understand my own sinfulness and unworthiness, and if I am truly and honestly repentant for my own sins, it will be much harder to be critical of the sins of others.  The product of repentance is not so much the willingness to give up foods as it is the willingness to show mercy toward others who are in need of grace.  Those who see their own unworthiness do not so quickly complain that someone else has wandered from the fold.   

Reflections on an excerpt from "Mere Christianity"

"Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, as we had during [World War II].  And then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger.  It is not that people think this too high and difficult a virtue: it is that they think it hateful and contemptible.  'That sort of talk makes them sick,' they say.  And half of you already want to ask me, 'I wonder how you'd feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew?'

"So do I.  I wonder very much.  Just as when Christianity tells me that I must not deny my religion even to save myself from death by torture, I wonder very much what I should do when it came to the point.  I am not trying to tell you in this book what I could do -- I can do precious little -- I am telling you what Christianity is.  I did not invent it.  And there, right in the middle of it, I find 'Forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin against us.'  There is no slightest suggestion that we are offered forgiveness on any other terms.  It is made perfectly clear that if we do not forgive we shall not be forgiven.  There are no two ways about it.  What are we to do?

"It is going to be hard enough, anyway, but I think there are two things we can do to make it easier.  When you start mathematics you do not begin with the calculus; you begin with simple addition.  In the same way, if we really want (but all depends on really wanting) to learn to forgive, perhaps we had better start with something easier than the Gestapo.  One might start with forgiving one's husband or wife, or parents or children, or the nearest N.C.O., for something they have done or said in the last week.  That will probably keep us busy for the moment."

- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pp. 115-116, Harper San Francisco, 1952.

Some Related Scripture Passages:

Matthew 18:21-22 (from the daily readings for March 21):

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
      “Lord, if my brother sins against me,
      how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.

About C.S. Lewis:

From Pegasos

Reflections:

Jack takes our thoughts away from the difficult issue of forgiving someone who has inflicted death and oppression on millions of innocent people, as Hitler did.  Instead, he takes the ideal of forgiveness to a simpler, more common example.  In trying to become more forgiving, we can start with the people God has brought into our day-to-day lives who may have done some small thing to offend us.  We don’t expect an apology, discussion, and repentance from every minor offense we encounter from day to day, and yet we forgive and forget the offense.  Forgiveness does not necessarily mean that we give in to all of the other person’s requests, or that we begin to tolerate injustice silently toward ourselves or others. 

In a global political situation or in a personal situation, we may still need to act to protect ourselves or others.  Forgiveness has to do with attitude and motivation.  If we have forgiven someone, we do not rejoice to see him suffer misfortune.  We give each other small graces of forgiveness that reflect, in very small ways, the whole forgiveness that God seeks to give to us.

Reflections on a Letter of St. Francis de Sales

"Of a hundred thousand delicious fruits, Eve chose that which had been forbidden to her; and doubtless if it had been allowed, she would not have eaten of it.  The fact is, in a word, that we want to serve God, but after our will, and not after His.

Saul was commanded to spoil and ruin all he found in Amalek.  He destroyed all, except what was precious; this he reserved, and offered in sacrifice.  But God declared that He would have no sacrifice against obedience.  God commands me to help souls, yet I want to rest in contemplation.  The contemplative life is good, but not in opposition to obedience.  We are not to choose at our own will.  We must wish what God wishes; and if God wishes me to serve Him in one thing, I ought not to wish to serve Him in another.  God wishes Saul to serve Him as king and as captain, and Saul wishes to serve Him as priest.  There is no doubt that the latter is more excellent than the former; yet God does not care about that.  He wants to be obeyed."

St. Francis de Sales , letter 233 to Madame Brulart, October 13, 1604, as published under the title of "Do the will of God joyfully," in Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World.

Some Related Scripture References:

I Samuel 13:9-13

I Samuel 15:10-23

About St. Francis de Sales:

Pope Pius XI - Rerum Omnium Perturbationem - St. Francis de Sales - 26 January  1923

Reflections:

It is not always clear what God’s will is.  Even in the case of Saul, it is not all that clear why God did not want Saul to be a priest as well as a king.  God did not impose that limitation on every king.  But in Saul’s case, acting as a priest was a sin.  He was not supposed to be a priest.  He was a king in wartime, and he was supposed to be preparing his army for war.  Saul was in rebellion when he acted as priest instead of king.  God’s will for each of us individually has to be understood and obeyed.

When my life is going badly, I find comfort in the letters of Francis de Sales, who urged people to follow God’s will even when it was not what they really wanted for their lives.  He describes his own active ministry in the lives of many lay people as one that was different from the life of a contemplative monk that he might have once wanted.  The woman whose letter he was answering, Madame Brulart, was a wife and mother in the early 17th century, who might have rather been a nun.  In our present era, we have more choices than most people had in the 17th century.  St. Francis' letter is about obeying God in what follows from those choices, fulfilling duties that we have taken on in family, in career, in duty to country, even when tempted to disregard those obligations by something ostensibly more spiritual.

Reflections on an Excerpt by Brother Lawrence

"When we are busied, or meditating on spiritual things, even in our time of set devotion, whilst our voice is rising in prayer, we ought to cease for one brief moment, as often as we can, to worship GOD in the depth of our being, to taste Him though it be in passing, to touch Him as it were by stealth.  Since you cannot but know that GOD is with you in all you undertake, that He is at the very depth and centre of your soul, why should you not thus pause an instant from time to time in your outward business, and even in the act of prayer, to worship Him within your soul, to praise Him, to entreat His aid, to offer Him the service of your heart, and give Him thanks for all His loving-kindnesses and tender-mercies?"

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, The Spiritual Maxims of Brother Lawrence, translated by Fleming H. Revell

Some Related Scripture References:

Psalm 139

Proverbs 3:6

About Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

Reflections:

God is with us in all we do.  He is “at the very depth and centre of [our] soul.”  He has searched us and known us.  He compasses our paths when we walk, and our lying down when we rest.  The idea of stopping in the midst of my own busy day at my office to worship and thank Him is a simply appealing concept.  As the Psalmist wrote, “I will praise you, so wonderfully you made me.” 

Light, darkness, stillness and the cross are powerful symbols.  It is possible, during Lent, to be caught up in the symbols, in what I have given up, in what I have taken on, and in what is coming up during Holy Week at my parish.  Brother Lawrence says to stop for a few minutes, even in the midst of meditating on spiritual things, even in the midst of worship, or in the midst of a busy work day, and just worship God from the depth of my soul.  Stop and praise the God who made us.  And then let go of words and reason and just silently worship God.

Reflections on a Chapter from The Imitation of Christ

"He who follows Me, walks not in darkness,” says the Lord.  John 8:12.  By these words of Christ we are advised to imitate His life and habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness of heart.  Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ.

The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a hidden manna.  Now, there are many who hear the Gospel often but care little for it because they have not the spirit of Christ.  Yet whoever wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his whole life on that of Christ.

What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God.  I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it.  For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the love of God?  Vanity of vanities and all is vanity, except to love God and serve Him alone.

This is the greatest wisdom—to seek the kingdom of heaven through contempt of the world.  It is vanity, therefore, to seek and trust in riches that perish.  It is vanity also to court honor and to be puffed up with pride.  It is vanity to follow the lusts of the body and to desire things for which severe punishment later must come.  It is vanity to wish for long life and to care little about a well-spent life.  It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come.  It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides.

Often recall the proverb: 'The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing.'  Try, moreover, to turn your heart from the love of things visible and bring yourself to things invisible.  For they who follow their own evil passions stain their consciences and lose the grace of God."

- Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Chapter 1, Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Some Related Scripture References:

John 6:30-35

John 8:12

About Thomas à Kempis:

Catholic Encyclopedia

Reflections:

Thomas à Kempis points to Christ, as the bread of life, and to the process of discipleship as we move on from knowing Him to following Him.  In so doing, Thomas relies heavily on grace and on the inner working of the Holy Spirit.  We do not rely on our own frail human efforts.  Indeed, Thomas says that some people find little sweetness in the Gospels precisely because they “do not have the spirit of Christ.”  He relies on grace to open our eyes to the truth of the Gospels.

However, ultimately, Thomas points to discipleship as the process of following Christ and conforming our own lives more closely to His, as a means of increasing our faith and our knowledge of Him.  This is a step or two beyond the initial faith of the new Christian, which may prompt someone for the first time to desire to follow Him.  There is a process whereby our faith bids us to seek and follow Him, and whereby following Him in turn increases our faith and our understanding of His ways.

There is a process in the quoted excerpt, drawn heavily from scripture.  We meditate on the life and teachings of Christ, who is the bread of life and the light of the world.  By His grace, the inner eye of our soul is opened to understand them.  We follow Him, and in the act of following, we receive from Him the light of understanding, and we develop more fully the Spirit of Christ within us.

Reflections on a Chapter from the Cloud of Unknowing

132"IN the gospel of Saint Luke it is written, that when our Lord was in the house of Martha her sister, all the time that Martha made her busy about the dighting of His meat, Mary her sister sat at His feet. And in hearing of His word she beheld not to the business of her sister, although her business was full good and full holy, for truly it is the first part of active life; nor yet to the preciousness of His blessed body, nor to the sweet voice and the words of His manhood, although it is better and holier, for it is the second part of active life and the first of contemplative life.

But to the sovereignest wisdom of His Godhead lapped in the dark words of His manhood, thither beheld she with all the love of her heart. For from thence she would not remove, for nothing that she saw nor heard spoken nor done about her; but sat full still in her body, with many a sweet privy and a listy love pressed upon that high cloud of unknowing betwixt her and her God. For one thing I tell thee, that there was never yet pure creature in this life, nor never yet shall be, so high ravished in contemplation and love of the Godhead, that there is not evermore a high and a wonderful cloud of unknowing betwixt him and his God. In this cloud it was that Mary was occupied with many a privy love pressed. And why? Because it was the best and the holiest part of contemplation that may be in this life, and from this part her list not remove for nothing. Insomuch, that when her sister Martha complained to our Lord of her, and bade Him bid her sister rise and help her and let her not so work and travail by herself, she sat full still and answered not with one word, nor shewed not as much as a grumbling gesture against her sister for any plaint that she could make. And no wonder: for why, she had another work to do that Martha wist not of.  And therefore she had no leisure to listen to her, nor to answer her at her plaint.

Lo! friend, all these works, these words, and these gestures, that were shewed betwixt our Lord and these two sisters, be set in ensample of all actives and all contemplatives that have been since in Holy Church, and shall be to the day of doom. For by Mary is understood all contemplatives; for they should conform their living after hers. And by Martha, actives on the same manner; and for the same reason in likeness."

- Anonymous, The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapter xvii, Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

The Scripture Reference:

Luke 10:38-42

About The Cloud of Unknowing:

Introduction by Evelyn Underhill (CCEL)

Reflections:

In our era, when women's rights and the role of women in the Church can be so controversial, it might seem surprising that a fourteenth century monk wrote of Mary and Martha -- women -- as examples of the contemplative and active life for men and women alike.  He seemed to think nothing of it.  It does not seem to have occurred to him that, in some other era or some other place, people might tend to read about Mary and Martha and apply them specifically as examples for Christian women to follow.  He was probably writing for monks.  Nor does it seem to have dawned on him that, in some other place and some other era, anyone might read what he wrote as "feminist".  The concept we call "feminism" was outside of his frame of reference.

Yet, Mary and Martha both became examples of the Christian life, for men and women alike.  The language is still in our vocabulary.  Men still described themselves as “sitting at the feet” of some respected Christian teacher or mentor.  From New Testament times on, it would seem, neither Mary nor Martha was regarded solely as a role model for Christian women.  Rather, they became role models for all Christians. 

They never went about it quite the same way as the men.  No one ever suggested making either Mary or Martha one of the 12 disciples.  No one ever suggested making them apostles.  There is nothing in the stories of Mary and Martha that would support the ordination of women -- far from it.  They influence by the way they lived and by their love for Jesus, not for positions of authority.  And yet, we know more about them than we know about most of the 12 disciples of Jesus, and they influence us in their way.

Mary seems to me to have been quite different from the Jewish concept of a woman of faith.   Proverbs 31 talks about the value of a “worthy wife” as being far above pearls, and goes on to describe her diligence in providing for her household.  Martha was a Proverbs 31 woman, actively doing everything that a good wife was supposed to do according to the Old Testament Scriptures.

Mary was not a Proverbs 31 wife, if she was ever married at all.  Proverbs 31 says nothing about a woman praying, worshiping, or studying at the feet of the rabbi.  It does not mention the contemplative life of prayer and meditation.  It says nothing of knowing who God is.  Jesus transcended the law -- as He did other times in some other ways -- when He told Martha that Mary had chosen the better part in sitting at His feet and listening to Him.   And Mary became an example for both men and women in the contemplative life, while Martha became an example of the active life. 

Jesus later did something similar when Mary broke a bottle of perfume and poured it over Jesus' feet before his death (John 12:3).  This was not the Proverbs 31 woman, who should be so careful in managing financial affairs.  She did not spend her money to buy a parcel of land or to plant a vineyard; she had an expensive bottle of perfume and broke it, spilling the whole bottle over his feet, leaving those around her aghast at the financial waste.  But Jesus said she had done the right thing, as she had prepared him for his burial.  Mary is not remembered for being the kind of woman who would have made anyone a perfect Proverbs 31 wife.  She is remembered for having loved Jesus and for having sat at His feet to learn from Him.

In John's Gospel, it was Judas who objected to Mary's use of the expensive perfume because he was a thief and would have taken the money for himself.  In Mark 14, another account of the same incident, we are told that there were "some" who were indignant at the waste (not just Judas), and that it was immediately after this occurred that Judas went to the chief priests to hand Jesus over to them.  Something about this incident, in particular, seems to have really offended Judas.  Jesus had said that Mary anointed Him for His death, and neither the idea of a suffering messiah nor the use of money for extravagant worship appear to have set well with Judas, and perhaps the fact that a woman was involved did not set well with him either.

However, the fact that Mary did some things that were not common for a first century Palestinian woman was not the point that interested the author of The Cloud of Unknowing in Chapter xvii.  He took it for granted that Mary and Martha were persons, and that as such, they could represent active and contemplative persons without it being an issue of gender equality.  The example of Mary and Martha was, instead, an example of how each one of us, men and women, best serve God and do God's will.

The Pope's Comments about Last Week's Spiritual Exercises

Vatican Information Service has posted a press release on the Holy Father's remarks after Saturday's completion of the week of spiritual exercises:

BRING THE WORLD THE JOYFUL NEWS OF CHRIST

VATICAN CITY, MAR 11, 2006 (VIS) - This morning, the Pope and the Roman Curia concluded their spiritual exercises, which occupied all of the past week and were held in the Vatican's "Redemptoris Mater" Chapel.

In off-the-cuff remarks addressed to the participants at the end of the final session, Benedict XVI expressed particular thanks to Cardinal Marco Ce, patriarch emeritus of Venice, Italy and preacher of the spiritual exercises.

The Pope recalled how the preacher had begun by guiding them "in the footsteps of St. Mark, walking the road with Jesus towards Jerusalem" and by highlighting "the profoundly ecclesial nature" of the spiritual exercises.

"We cannot," the Pope said, "bring the world the joyful news that is the person of Christ if we ourselves are not profoundly united to Christ, if we do not know Him deeply and personally, if we do not live from His Word."

Cardinal Ce, the Holy Father added, also dwelt upon "the Christological nature" of the exercises. "He helped us to listen to the Master Who speaks with us and within us; he helped us to respond, to speak with the Lord and listen to His Word."

What the preacher did, the Pope concluded, was to guide us "on a Marian journey, a journey that calls us to become part of the Word of G