Faith

Signs of the time –  Tuesday, 34th week in ordinary time – Luke 21:5-11

Jesus is talking to his disciples in the temple which is where he has been teaching since the beginning of chapter twenty. He is seated opposite the treasury from where he observed the widow who threw her whole life into the temple treasury. Overhearing someone speak of the grandeur of the temple and their fascination for the things seen, he predicts its destruction. The disciples like us are piqued in their curiosity. They want a time line, perhaps a chart or a time table to read these predictions down to the last second. It is in this scenario that Jesus speaks of the end times.

Our text of today forms part of a larger narrative which begins in verse five and ends at verse thirty-eight. Jerusalem has not only rejected the heeding of God’s prophets but also the teachings of Jesus; it will now will face the consequences.  By the time Luke puts the finishing touches on these verses, the temple had already been a smouldering ruin which had been razed to the ground by Romans. The disaster that is forecast has already taken place in 70 AD. Looking back at the destruction of the temple, this larger text also stands as a vindication of the rejected Son of Man and also as a means to strengthen the disciples who followed him and who will face a similar rejection because of their allegiance to him.

Essentially Jesus is warning about what is to come but most importantly he wants his disciples and us to realise what it will take to prepare for what is to come. Jesus moves from discussing a specific catastrophic event to more general statements about the coming of false prophets, wars, and other calamities (21:7-12). Luke employs language and imagery that is conventional in apocalyptic literature from this period. Apocalyptic literature uses unsettling language and imagery as a means to assure the faithful that they should keep their trust in God even when facing the most challenging of circumstances. Sure enough, while describing the terrible events, Jesus tells his listeners not to be afraid (Luke 21:9). Despite its language and imagery of destruction, Luke 21:5-11 and following is ultimately a passage grounded in hope; in the hope that God remains present in the world and in one’s life even when things have gotten so bad that it feels like the world is closing in on us.

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Faith

Give out of your means not your meanness? Monday, 34th week in ordinary time -Luke 21:1-4

Jesus is in the temple having cleansed it. It is here that he observes the behaviour of those giving alms; both rich and poor. A few verses prior to this text we find Jesus launching an all-out attack on the scribes. They were giving our Lord a hard time. He responded to his disciples and to others listening in by exposing the scribes. They are greedy with an eye on the possessions of the widows, devouring the homes of these widows. (verse 47).

We are also told that Jesus literally kept watching (imperfect tense in Greek) the people putting money into the temple treasury. This therefore, was a studied observation of our Lord. It was Passover and there would have been a large number of pilgrims from all over the Empire and many of them would be wealthy.

The treasury was around the court of the women where men and women were allowed to go. There were 13 trumpet-shaped boxes that served as the treasury. People could bring in their offerings and drop them in one of these 13 offering boxes. As the offering boxes were made of metal and the opening to the box was a horn, the sound of any coin being put in these boxes would be amplified drawing the crowds attention especially to very generous contributors. It is here that Jesus notice a poor widow and the contribution she puts in.

Let us talk about the widow as a person and then her offering. Widows had it very tough in Jesus’ day. The status of every wife in the community depended on the status of her husband. When her husband died all her status and security died with him. In many cases the woman was cast out for she was no longer useful.

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Faith

The presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Matthew 12:46-50

Many of the celebrations in honour of Mary are squarely based on Gospel texts.  But the Evangelists tells us nothing about Mary’s early life. The scriptures make no mention of the event celebrated each year on November 21st, her Presentation in the Temple. This devotion is testified by a tradition that comes from a century after her life. The Presentation of Our Lady in the Temple is told in a delightful Apocryphal text, the Protoevangelium of James, which may be dated around the year 200 AD.

This book offers a colourful account of many aspects of Mary’s early life. Her father, Joachim, tells Anna his wife that he wishes to bring their child to serve in the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. Anna gets him to wait until the child is three years old, before having her live away from her parents. When the day arrived, a group of chaste Hebrew girls accompany Mary to the Temple, with their lamps burning. There the priest receives her, blesses her, and kisses her in welcome. The focus of the book is clear: from her earliest childhood Mary was completely dedicated and given over to God. It is to this beautiful apocryphal account that we owe the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady.

At that time, there were two ways of consecrating children: one was ordained by the law, which required every male child to be offered to God, forty days, and every female child, eighty days after its birth. This ceremony was called the consecration of the child and the purification of the mother. The second kind of consecration was a voluntary self-oblation by which some persons devoted themselves to the Almighty. There were also many parents who either before, or immediately after their child’s birth, consecrated it to the service of the Lord, sometimes for a few years, sometimes for life.

As part of their duties, they would devote themselves to decorating the temple and making the garments which the priests and Levites wore during their sacred functions. Thus we read in the first book of Kings, that Anne the spouse of Elkana, made a vow that if she gave birth to a male child, she would consecrate it to the Lord. The Lord blessed her and she brought forth a son, whom she named Samuel, and afterwards consecrated to the Most High, through the hands of the High Priest, Heli. 

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Art/ Heritage

THE BOMBAY SEMINARY: Tribute to the Jesuits

To speak of the Administration and Staff of the Diocesan Seminary of Bombay necessarily leads one to speak first of the Society of Jesus. The association of the members of the Society of Jesus with the Seminary has over the centuries, been of a close and intimate character. Fr. Comes, son of Ignatius, though he did not employ the exact phrase, regarded that association in terms of a “love relationship”-the relationship of a mother for her child.

Expanding that analogy we see that love relationship between the Jesuits and Seminary as passing through three stages: (a) the first stage ended with the death of their adopted child; (b) in the second stage they brought the child they were entrusted with to the stage adolescence and (c) in the third stage, they have released the adolescent that it may develop toward mature adulthood under the direction of Diocesan Clergy.

 The First Period of Jesuit Administration (1855-1900)

…the relationship between the Society of Jesus and the Seminary goes way back to February 1855, when the Seminary returning from Surat, was…entrusted to the Jesuits who housed it in the original St. Peter’s building at Bandra…it traveled from Bandra to Cavel, to Mazagon, and then to Dhobitalao all through the days of Fathers Anthony Pereira, Serraset, Meurin, Willy, Peterson, Leiter, and others whose names are unknown. They fed, nourished, and sacrificed for their child, at great costs, and with many tears, as they struggled to find it a permanent home…But notwithstanding all their diligence and sacrifice their adopted child died in 1900 when the Seminary was closed and its students sent to the Papal Seminary newly-opened at Kandy.

 The Second Period of Jesuit Administration (1936-1971)

…With the location of the Seminary settled by the end of 1935…the Archbishop (Lima) approached Fr. Conget, the new Jesuit Superior, and asked him if the Society of Jesus was prepared to run the Seminary. Fr. Conget consulted his General in Rome who answered saying that he considered the work of the Seminary of such importance for the glory of God and the good of the Church that the Fathers should not hesitate to undertake it, even at the cost of any sacrifice. From hindsight now, we cannot but rejoice in the General’s wisdom and prophetic insight!

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Faith

Lethal Jesus, mad and riled – Friday, 33rd week in ordinary time – Luke 19:45-48

The first act of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke upon the completion of his journey to Jerusalem (9:51-19:27) is to enter the temple and take possession of it. Now the Temple is really the temple!  The temple was the place for true worship of God; for instruction on the meaning of God’s will and especially the place where God was present. The first act of Jesus, on entering the temple is to cleanse it.

The cleansing of the temple is found in all four Gospels; the Lucan account is the briefest.     Quoting from Isaiah 56:7, Jesus is protesting the lack of prayer in what ought to be the ground zero of prayer. Like the prophets, he speaks on God’s behalf and as God’s own Son. He stands as a counter-witness to all that is against truth, love and justice and as such inevitably incurs the anger and hostility of those who have power.

John W. Everett once said, “Carnal men are content with the ‘act’ of worship; they have no desire for communion with God.” In today’s text we see how true this statement is and can feel the growing tension as Jesus forcefully challenges the way things were done in the holiest place of Judaism. It is so easy to lose sight of the real value of religious actions and rituals, ending up sometimes in shameful compromises.

So, what has got gentile Jesus so riled up?

This was Passover, the holiest and most important Jewish festival which means only one thing; there were pilgrims flocking to Jerusalem in droves. According to Exodus 30:11–16, every Israelite, twenty years and above was required to pay an annual temple tax of a half-shekel into the treasury of the sanctuary. Some scholars say this amount was equivalent to two days of a laborer’s wage.

Due to the enormity of the Roman Empire, many types of currencies were in circulation. Since only special temple coins were acceptable, moneychangers could charge a fee for the necessary exchange. Moneychangers could make handsome profits at the expense of the people. This exchange became a source of extortion for the High Priest’s family who personally controlled it. In reality, it amounted to a public bazaar and was even nick named Annas’ courtyard.

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