The 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 21, 2012

Isaiah 53:10-11; Hebrews 4:14-16; Mark 10:35-45

          How long does it take to understand another person? To grasp another’s idea or concept? To understand his or her vision, to know weather to agree or disagree with his or her opinion?

          Most of the time this is accomplished in a matter of minutes. We enter into dialogue with another and emerge understanding what he or she is saying, of course if we are capable of dialogue and are capable of listening.

We have been traveling with Mark’s Jesus for six months now. Repeatedly and consistently Jesus has been teaching his disciples about authority, honor, and power. He has been teaching them that the authentic follower or disciple of his embraces what the world considers the way of powerlessness.

But after all these Jesus’ teaching, what do James and John do?

          They want positions of power; they want to sit on the right and left of Jesus when He comes into His glory. Exactly the opposite of what Jesus has been teaching them. In addition to that when the ten find out about that they become indignant. Perhaps they are afraid that they will be left without power or authority?

          Many of us are inspiring to be Jesus disciples for years, sometimes many decades. But truly:

·       how many of us have not dreamed at one or another point of our lives about having power or greatness?

·       how many of us does not want to be first in line, or to rank first?

·       how many of us like to be served rather to serve others?

But Jesus’ way is one, which the world considers, of no importance, no authority, and no power. And Jesus not only teaches this way, but He demonstrates it. He dies powerless on the cross – abandoned by all His disciples.

Our discipleship is to be based on the attitude of humble and joyful service to others.  For most of us it is often based on simple acts of such goodness as:

·       a smile

·       a text message, an email, or a phone call

·       a spoken compliment

·       a lifting spirit conversation

·       a visit.

In the reign of God true power is possessed by those who embrace the role of servants, the way Jesus did. In the gospel scheme of things greatness is measured not in the ways we are able to reduce or manipulate or just simply enjoy the service of others, but in our service to them. The service to our neighbors, classmates, coworkers, friends, members of our family.

The 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 14, 2012

Wisdom 7:7-11; Hebrews 4:12-13; Mark 10:17-30

          Today's gospel story might cause different responses from us, depending on our socioeconomic status. For some the story might be encouraging. It might explain the difficulty they have in dealing with wealthy people regarding many issues of Christian social teaching. For some it might be discouraging for although they have lived justly more and more is demanded of them and their wealth. It seems as with the election campaigns taking place at this time;  this story contains some very important lessons for all of us. 

          One of those lessons is very obvious, Jesus does not force the wealthy man to give away what he has, Jesus invites him to make this choice freely.

          It does not seem that most of us are called to such radical sacrifice, but this story asks us to think seriously about our stewardship of money and material possessions. It is difficult for many of us today to resist our consumer culture generating perpetual needs for more and newer possessions. It is more difficult for many of us to part with our possessions easily, and even if we do quite often we still want to have much control in regard to its usage. 

I wonder what are the results of our Total Stewardship Drive will be?

          But sometimes it is not only money and our possessions that we are asked by God to share, to sacrifice but also our time, our desires, our dreams, our lives. Today I would like to talk to you about  two saints who did exactly that.  I am mentioning two of them at the same time for I will not have a chance to do it in November when I will be gone to Nepal.

Isaac Jogues, was born in France on January 15, 1607 and died being only 39 year old. He was the fifth of nine children and was born in a prosperous family that included notaries, lawyers, apothecaries, and merchants. Instead of choosing any of those professions he became  a Jesuit and at the age of 29 on April 8, 1636 sailed to the New World as a missionary. He proclaimed the gospel to the Hurons who were constantly warred upon by the Iroquis. On August 2, 1642 his missionary party was captured and taken as prisoners into Mohawk territory where they were subjected to tortures: floggings, bites, mutilations, strippings, forced marches, and insults. This is how Isaac describes what happened to him at that time as decided to become a prisoner with the others:

“I was watching this disaster from a place very favorable for concealing me from the sight of the enemy, being able to hide myself in thickets and among very tall and dense reeds; but this thought could never enter my mind. ‘Could I, indeed,’ I said to myself, ‘abandon our French and leave those good Neophytes and those poor Catechumens, without giving them the help which the Church of my God has entrusted to me?’ Flight seemed horrible to me; ‘It must be,’ I said in my heart, ‘that my body suffer the fire of earth, in order to deliver those poor souls from the flames of Hell; it must die a transient death, in order to procure for them an eternal life.’ My conclusion being reached without great opposition from my feelings, I called the one of the Hiroquois who had remained to guard the prisoners.”

         During his 13 months of captivity an old Iroquis woman had adopted Isaac and he became her servant. Isaac had been so weakened by blows and hardships that the only work he could do was gathering wood

           Finally Isacc escaped. He was 36 year old and so changed that when he reached the Jesuit house, his superiors were unable to recognize him.

          Despite the torment which he suffered from the hands of the Iroquois he asked his superiors to send him back to the New World to evangelize them.

          The earthly life of Issac came to the end when he was 39. He was tomahawked and beheaded by the Mohawks.

Saint Isaac Jogues  is a patron saint of North America.

Francesca Xavier Cabrini was born on the same day I was, July 15th, but in the year 1850 in Italy, not Poland, and died at the age of 67. Francesca was the tenth of eleven brothers and sisters, only four of whom survived beyond adolescence. Small and weak as a child, born two months premature, she remained in delicate health all her life.

          Her parents’ strong faith was transmitted to her by word and example. Her father would read to the family from the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, telling stories of the great missionaries. The stories of the missions in China made a particularly strong impression on Francesca and at an early age, she desired to travel there as a missionary.

          Francseca applied to several religious orders  to be a missionary but because of her health she was not admitted to any of them.

          When she was 27 year old she took religious vows of being consecrated to God, added to her name Xavier to honor the Jesuit saint, Francis Xavier, and finally at the age of 30 she herself  established a religious order of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

          At that time Italian immigrants faced many hardships in the United States. They worked at the most menial labor and experienced discrimination. Uprooted, without pastoral care, they were as strangers in their own church and the systematic targets of Protestant proselytism. Despite all, the great majority of Italians maintained an eagerness to return again to their Catholic faith and devotions. Seeking the help of religious women, Bishop Scalabrini asked Mother Cabrini to go to New York to work with the Italian immigrants. She hesitated because she planned to go to the Orient to evangelize. But bishop was persistent and showed her a letter from Archbishop Corrigan of New York, formally inviting the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart to establish a house there.

  Mother Cabrini sought an audience with Pope Leo XIII and posed her missionary dilemma to him; his response was: “Not to the East, but to the West.” Exchanging her dreams of going to China for the reality of going to New York, she embarked with six of her Missionary Sisters almost immediately for New York.

          Upon arrival, she learned that Archbishop Corrigan did not expect her so soon. When they first met, he suggested that she return to Italy. She refused, saying that the Pope had sent her. She and her companions spent the first night in a dingy tenement in the heart of the Italian ghetto. They could not sleep and stayed awake, tired, yet peacefully engaged in prayer. Afterwards, the Sisters of Charity gave them hospitality and guided their first steps through the city.

          In a new world, another culture, without contacts, not knowing the language, Mother Cabrini set out to establish her mission beginning with an orphanage for Italian children and a free school in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where the poorest Italians lived.

In 35 years of her life, including 28 years living in America, Frances Xavier Cabrini founded 6 institutions for the poor, the abandoned, the uneducated and the sick, and organized schools and adult education classes for formation in the Catholic Faith.

She died of malaria in Chicago in 1917, and is the first United States Citizen to be canonized.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini is the patron saint of: hospital administrators, immigrants, and impossible causes.

          But what is it what God is calling you to do?

         

The 27th Sunday in Ordianry Time, October 07, 2012

Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-12

         

          Today during this time of reflections  I would like to read  the passages taken from the Apostolic letter of   our pope Benedict XVI entitled Porta Fidei announcing The Year of Faith for the universal Catholic Church:

"1. The “door of faith” (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace. To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime. It begins with baptism (cf. Rom 6:4), through which we can address God as Father, and it ends with the passage through death to eternal life, fruit of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, whose will it was, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, to draw those who believe in him into his own glory (cf. Jn 17:22). To profess faith in the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is to believe in one God who is Love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8): the Father, who in the fullness of time sent his Son for our salvation; Jesus Christ, who in the mystery of his death and resurrection redeemed the world; the Holy Spirit, who leads the Church across the centuries as we await the Lord’s glorious return.

2. Ever since the start of my ministry as Successor of Peter, I have spoken of the need to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ. During the homily at the Mass marking the inauguration of my pontificate I said: “The Church as a whole and all her Pastors, like Christ, must set out to lead people out of the desert, towards the place of life, towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the One who gives us life, and life in abundance.”[1] It often happens that Christians are more concerned for the social, cultural and political consequences of their commitment, continuing to think of the faith as a self-evident presupposition for life in society. In reality, not only can this presupposition no longer be taken for granted, but it is often openly denied.[2] Whereas in the past it was possible to recognize a unitary cultural matrix, broadly accepted in its appeal to the content of the faith and the values inspired by it, today this no longer seems to be the case in large swathes of society, because of a profound crisis of faith that has affected many people.

3. We cannot accept that salt should become tasteless or the light be kept hidden (cf. Mt 5:13-16). The people of today can still experience the need to go to the well, like the Samaritan woman, in order to hear Jesus, who invites us to believe in him and to draw upon the source of living water welling up within him (cf. Jn 4:14). We must rediscover a taste for feeding ourselves on the word of God, faithfully handed down by the Church, and on the bread of life, offered as sustenance for his disciples (cf. Jn 6:51). Indeed, the teaching of Jesus still resounds in our day with the same power: “Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life” (Jn 6:27). The question posed by his listeners is the same that we ask today: “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (Jn 6:28). We know Jesus’ reply: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (Jn 6:29). Belief in Jesus Christ, then, is the way to arrive definitively at salvation.

4. In the light of all this, I have decided to announce a Year of Faith. It will begin on 11 October 2012, the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, and it will end on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King, on 24 November 2013. The starting date of 11 October 2012 also marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a text promulgated by my Predecessor, Blessed John Paul II,[3] with a view to illustrating for all the faithful the power and beauty of the faith. This document, an authentic fruit of the Second Vatican Council, was requested by the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in 1985 as an instrument at the service of catechesis[4] and it was produced in collaboration with all the bishops of the Catholic Church. Moreover, the theme of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops that I have convoked for October 2012 is “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”. This will be a good opportunity to usher the whole Church into a time of particular reflection and rediscovery of the faith....

5. In some respects, my venerable predecessor saw this Year as a “consequence and a necessity of the postconciliar period”,[8] fully conscious of the grave difficulties of the time, especially with regard to the profession of the true faith and its correct interpretation. It seemed to me that timing the launch of the Year of Faith to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council would provide a good opportunity to help people understand that the texts bequeathed by the Council Fathers, in the words of Blessed John Paul II, “have lost nothing of their value or brilliance. They need to be read correctly, to be widely known and taken to heart as important and normative texts of the Magisterium, within the Church's Tradition ... I feel more than ever in duty bound to point to the Council as the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century: there we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century now beginning.”...

 6. The renewal of the Church is also achieved through the witness offered by the lives of believers: by their very existence in the world, Christians are called to radiate the word of truth that the Lord Jesus has left us.....

The Year of Faith, from this perspective, is a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Saviour of the world....

Today too, there is a need for stronger ecclesial commitment to new evangelization in order to rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith. In rediscovering his love day by day, the missionary commitment of believers attains force and vigour that can never fade away. Faith grows when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy. It makes us fruitful, because it expands our hearts in hope and enables us to bear life-giving witness: indeed, it opens the hearts and minds of those who listen to respond to the Lord’s invitation to adhere to his word and become his disciples. Believers, so Saint Augustine tells us, “strengthen themselves by believing”....

Only through believing, then, does faith grow and become stronger;....

In fact, there exists a profound unity between the act by which we believe and the content to which we give our assent...

Confessing with the lips indicates in turn that faith implies public testimony and commitment. A Christian may never think of belief as a private act. Faith is choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with him. This “standing with him” points towards an understanding of the reasons for believing. Faith, precisely because it is a free act, also demands social responsibility for what one believes. The Church on the day of Pentecost demonstrates with utter clarity this public dimension of believing and proclaiming one’s faith fearlessly to every person. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit that makes us fit for mission and strengthens our witness, making it frank and courageous.

Profession of faith is an act both personal and communitarian....

Evidently, knowledge of the content of faith is essential for giving one’s own assent, that is to say for adhering fully with intellect and will to what the Church proposes. Knowledge of faith opens a door into the fullness of the saving mystery revealed by God...

In its very structure, the Catechism of the Catholic Church follows the development of the faith right up to the great themes of daily life. On page after page, we find that what is presented here is no theory, but an encounter with a Person who lives within the Church. The profession of faith is followed by an account of sacramental life, in which Christ is present, operative and continues to build his Church. Without the liturgy and the sacraments, the profession of faith would lack efficacy, because it would lack the grace which supports Christian witness. By the same criterion, the teaching of the Catechism on the moral life acquires its full meaning if placed in relationship with faith, liturgy and prayer...

13. One thing that will be of decisive importance in this Year is retracing the history of our faith, marked as it is by the unfathomable mystery of the interweaving of holiness and sin. While the former highlights the great contribution that men and women have made to the growth and development of the community through the witness of their lives, the latter must provoke in each person a sincere and continuing work of conversion in order to experience the mercy of the Father which is held out to everyone...

14. The Year of Faith will also be a good opportunity to intensify the witness of charity....

Faith without charity bears no fruit, while charity without faith would be a sentiment constantly at the mercy of doubt. Faith and charity each require the other, in such a way that each allows the other to set out along its respective path. Indeed, many Christians dedicate their lives with love to those who are lonely, marginalized or excluded, as to those who are the first with a claim on our attention and the most important for us to support, because it is in them that the reflection of Christ’s own face is seen. Through faith, we can recognize the face of the risen Lord in those who ask for our love..."

These are some of the words of the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, directed to us. This is what I would like to propose to all of us as the parish Community of St. Mary's in Blacksburg in regard to The Year of Faith:

1.  Once a month during our liturgical celebrations here we will talk about, one at a time, the important documents of Vatican II.

2. Once a month during those celebrations we will also talk about the saints, again one at a time, who are considered by the American bishops as very important to our church in the United States of America.

3. During the daily masses we will be learning more about different saints of the universal Catholic Church.

4. We will learn more during this year about all 7 sacraments of the church.

5. We will switch to using the Nicene Creed for the profession of our faith instead of the Apostolic Creed we have used so far.

6. 30minutes before each mass the Rosary will be said in different intentions of our parish and our community.

7. I am hoping that in consultation with the Christian Formation Committee the programs will be developed to help all us to know better the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the documents of Vatican II, the saints of our church.

8. I am hoping that all of this will lead us with the help of our Justice and Peace Committee to strengthening our commitment not only to our brothers and sisters in Haiti but also to our local community in regard to the ways we express our charity, which pope Benedict XVI talked about in his letter.