Faith

The attitude of gratitude – Wednesday, 32nd Week in ordinary time – Luke 17:11-19

Jesus has begun a long road to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51) which will end in chapter 19. Somewhere on that route we are told of this encounter with the ten lepers. As he enters a village, they approach him calling out to him “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” but keeping their distance because they are unclean.

If they were addressing an ordinary traveler, their cry for mercy might be a simple plea for alms. Here, they know Jesus by name and address him as master, (Greek: epistata)—a person of authority and a term used in every other instance in Luke by the disciples. It is striking that they don’t ask for alms or even ask for healing. Just mercy! Mercy is what you ask for when you face the limits of changing your life.

Jesus immediately sends them to show themselves to the priests to confirm the healing. Priests were responsible for diagnosing leprosy, and the Torah provided specific guidelines for doing so (Leviticus 13:1-44). A diagnosis of leprosy was treated as a death sentence. En route they are made clean and we are told that only one returns to give thanks and he is a Samaritan.

It is quite evident that Luke was unfamiliar with the topography of Palestine. He seems to indicate that Jesus was in a region between Samaria and Galilee when in reality their regions border each other. But then again, the Gospel was not written to communicate biographic details as much as it was meant to be the communication the faith to a people that lived in a post resurrection period.

This border location explains why the lepers include both Jews and Samaritans; a no-man’s” land for those who were socially, religiously, and physically unclean. Under normal circumstances, Jews would have nothing to do with Samaritans, but these Jewish and Samaritan lepers are drawn together by their common misery. Leprosy made misery their common denominator, and they joined together in a community of woe.

Spread the love ♥
       
Continue Reading
Faith

  Just do it! – Tuesday, 32nd week in ordinary time – Luke 17:7-10

Throughout the Gospel of Luke, Jesus has repeatedly been critical of the witness and teachings of the Pharisees. There was a duplicity in the way they lived and he often condemned them as false spiritual shepherds leading people astray while abusing their power. Jesus now turns to his disciples as he does to all of us today. He speaks to what a true servant of God must understand.

The pericope of today must be read in its entirety starting from verse one.  The reality as Jesus lays out for us is that we are all tempted as leaders and prone to stumbling (skandalon =scandal in Greek) but woe to the leader who does stumble and causes others to do the same.  Jesus calls the Christian disciple to pay attention to oneself. But then there is also a shared responsibility for one another; hence the call to pay attention to the moral life of all the members of the community while constantly finding it in one’s heart to forgive seven times a day. It is no wonder that such a tall order made the disciple feel overwhelmed asking the Lord to increase their faith.

They ask for more faith, just as we do. Yet, Jesus does not offer help, at least not the kind the apostles seek. The Greek syntax of 17:6 implies a criticism of the apostles. Jesus scolds them for lacking faith even the size of a mustard seed. Jesus tells them that they didn’t need “more” faith. They simply had to be able to tap into the faith that they already had, they simply needed to put it to work.  

Spread the love ♥
       
Continue Reading
Faith

Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica –  John 2: 13-22

Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, the oldest and highest ranking of the four major basilicas in Rome. The Basilica of St. John Lateran is the cathedral of the diocese of Rome, the official ecclesiastical seat of the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome, not St. Peter’s Basilica as so many mistakenly believe.

Built in the time of Constantine and was consecrated by Pope Sylvester in 324 originally to Christ the Redeemer but after destruction by an earthquake in 896 A.D., the church was rebuilt by Pope Sergius III, who dedicated it to St. John the Baptist. In ancient Rome this was the church where everyone was baptized.

It was during the reign of the Emperor Constantine that the laws restricting the practice of the Church’s faith were removed from Roman law and the Church went from being an illegal cult, whose profession of faith was considered an act of treason, to being the favoured religion of the Roman emperor.

The present basilica stands on the site of an ancient palace on the Caelian Hill (one of the famous seven hills) of Rome which formerly belonged to the family of the Laterani. This palace was part of the dowry of Fausta, the wife of the Emperor Constantine; and, Constantine gave it to the Church when he converted a portion of the Laterani palace to serve as the papal residence.

Today the liturgy celebrates the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, called “mother and head of all the churches of the city and the world.” Initially the observance of this feast was confined to the city of Rome; then, beginning in 1565, it was extended to all the Churches of the Roman rite as a sign of love for and union with the See of Peter.

Spread the love ♥
       
Continue Reading
Faith

Examining your heavenly holdings – Saturday, 31st Week in ordinary time – Luke 16: 9-15

The pericope of today flows from the text of yesterday. In presenting the parable of the ‘prodigal servant’ Jesus is asking his disciples to be as shrewd as the people of this world. We know that the ‘children of light’ (verse 8) refers to the disciples and verse 14 gives us an insight in to the who the children of this world are; namely those like the Pharisees, referred to in the text as “lovers of money.”

But more than that he is contrasting (as Luke does throughout the Gospel) the passion that people have for making money even by evil means as compared to the lack of passion that the children of light should have about the promotion of the Kingdom of God.

Today’s pericope continues with the teaching meant for the children of light. They are not only to be shrewd but they are called to be faithful. The parable highlights the infidelity of the unfaithful steward or manager and if there was any doubt in the listeners mind who heard yesterday’s text, that doubt has been mitigated with Jesus’ call to fidelity even in little things. The steward of yesterday’s passage surely was extremely unfaithful and dishonest.

Speaking tongue in cheek in verse nine and as a lesson to the children of light, Jesus exhorts those who have made great wealth via dishonest means to at least share it with the poor. This way, when life has been snuffed out, these poor will appeal to God for a place to be made in heaven for those on earth who helped them even with dishonest money. Even the dishonest know how to ‘invest’ in capital in the life to come.

Once again Jesus is not making a case for people to be dishonest but highlighting that if the children of this world work and think astutely then how much more should the children of light? Jesus had a deep concern for the poor. The society he lived in was extremely divided. Jesus saw this inequality as something against the message of the Kingdom of God. Wealth is given so we act as stewards, it is not our own. It has been entrusted to us by God to use wisely and to share.

Spread the love ♥
       
Continue Reading
Art/ Heritage

THE BOMBAY SEMINARY: Why St. Pius X?

 The Bombay Seminary at Goregaon is dedicated to St. Pope Pius X. The modern reader may wonder at this affiliation. Why was St. Pope Pius X chosen as the patron of the Goregaon Seminary? How did he inspire the builders of this great institution and how does he continue to inspire young hearts and willing spirits?

Giuseppe Sarto (his birth name) was born in a humble peasant family in Riese, Treviso in 1835. Post studying at the Seminary in Padua, he was ordained a priest when he was 23 years old. Later, as Cardinal and patriarch, he described his seminary years as ‘the best years in all my life’. He was the curate in Tombolo, then parish priest at Salzano and then canon of the Cathedral of Treviso with the offices of episcopal chancellor and spiritual director of the Diocesan Seminary.

He held a deep love for the ministry of preparing young men to serve the Priesthood. It is recorded that when elevated to Bishop, Msgr Sarto protested for he did not want to leave the Seminary. He is said to have written to the Vatican to request reconsideration. The Vatican sent a one-word reply – ‘Obey!’ Bishop Sarto was elevated on November 10, 1884.

As Bishop of Mantua, his chief care was the formation of the clergy at the seminary where for several years he taught dogmatic and moral theology. He adopted the teaching methodologies of St. Thomas Aquinas and is said to have given copies of the ‘Summa Theologica’ to the students. Bishop Sarto also instituted the Gregorian chants for Mass and on October 15, 1997, he founded the school of the seminarist singers.

Spread the love ♥
       
Continue Reading