Faith

 ‘Gospel Gestapo’? Wednesday, 19th week in ordinary time- Matthew 18: 15- 20

Chapter eighteen of the Gospel of Matthew, is the fourth of the five great discourses found in the Gospel. This discourse is addressed to Peter and other leading disciples and covers community relations. It is for this reason that this discourse is called the community discourse or the discourse on ethics.  It gives rules for God’s household until the kingdom comes and also covers relations with outsiders. ( JBC)

The Gospel of today covers three pericopes, bound as one. It begins with the three stage procedure for trials for disciplining a recalcitrant brother (15-17) then elucidates the divine backing for these judicial decisions (18-20) and ends with divine assurance of Jesus’ presence.   

Unfortunately, this chapter is often misunderstood as a hand book for resolving conflicts and by extension this pericope is certainly not a step by step procedure for the trial of an errant brother. One needs to always place the teachings of Jesus within its context. The wider context of the pericope is, living in the kingdom of God; the immediate context is drawn from the parable of the lost sheep which precedes this text.

If the shepherd goes over hill and valley to find the one lost, would he so glibly find a three step methodology to excommunicate another brother? The procedure for dealing with a ‘sinful’ brother was not designed to execute a time tested methodology to mete out justice; on the contrary it was designed to win him over.

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Faith

    Ceiling of the Assumption of Mary in Santa Maria Immacolata, Rome

MARY: “HAND MADE” by God – Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Solemnities are of the highest degree in the liturgy of the Church and are usually reserved for the most important mysteries of faith.  The word comes from Latin sollemnitas, derived from sollus (whole) and annus (year), indicating an annual celebration. There are 17 solemnities inscribed in the General Roman Calendar  which are observed throughout the Latin Church . The Assumption of the BVM, is one of the seventeen.

On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII formally defined and promulgated the dogma of the Assumption in his encyclical Munificentissimus Deus. The world was living in a post-World War II era and the Pope clearly wanted to express his hope that meditation on Mary’s assumption would lead the faithful to a greater awareness of our common dignity as the human family. 

Pope Pius XII defined the Assumption of Mary to be a dogma of faith: “We pronounce, declare and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma that the immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, (note the silence regarding her death) was assumed body and soul to heavenly glory.”  The Church never explicitly says Mary did not die.

Make no mistake; Pope Pius XII did not just wake up one day to pronounce this definition as claimed by the Pentecostals.   The tradition of the Assumption goes back to as early as the sixth century when we find homilies on the Assumption.  In 749 St. John Damascene recorded an interesting story concerning the Assumption:  “St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (451), made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven” (Second Homily on the Dormition of Mary)

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Art/ Heritage

THE MASTER OF THE SEA: ‘Jesus walks on water’ by Ivan Aivazovsky

Undoubtedly, one of the greatest marine artists of all times is Ivan Aivazovsky. His paintings reflect his ability to capture the ever changing moods of the sea with brilliance and conviction. A Russian Romantic painter, he was born in the Black Sea port of Feodosia in 1817. Situated on the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula, he grew up literally by the waves. Thus began his affair with the wonders of the waters. In the mid – 1840’s, he was appointed the main painter of the Russian Navy.

When Aivazovsky began his career, the world of art was dominated by Romanticism. Well, for those who are new to artistic nuances, the word Romanticism has nothing to do with the Romans. Nor has it anything to do with adorable cupids, cruised in the clouds, poised with bows and arrows ready to make two people fall in love.

Rather Romanticism was an intellectual, literary, artistic and musical movement that originated in Europe in the late 18th century. It reached its peak in the 1850’s. Romantic art stressed on emotions, feelings, individualism, spirituality, imagination and fervour. In most of his paintings, Aivazovsky deals with Dark Romanticism. This lays emphasis on feelings of fear, uncertainty, obscurity, horror, despair, pain, and loneliness.

In today’s painting, Aivazovsky features the duality of Romanticism. On one end are the apostles in a precarious position. The atmosphere is sinister and the men at peril. As strong winds wage the sea, the gloominess of the horizon suggests that the weather is going to worsen. On the opposite end stands hope. Christ categorically calms the apostles and the storm by His extraordinary presence. Thus collide the dialectics of Romanticism, of turbulence and peace.

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Faith

Desperation to deliverance- Saturday, 18th week in ordinary time- Matthew 17: 14 – 20

The Italian High Renaissance master, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, in his last earthly masterpiece, captured this narrative in the lower register of the great painting of the Transfiguration.  In the upper register of the painting and dominating it, is the narrative of the Transfiguration; and then there is this story, in the bottom register. While the painter may have subordinated this narrative to the great narrative of the Transfiguration, he certainly understood the importance of the issue at stake. Faith after all, is no trivial matter.

Jesus has taken Peter, James and John up the mountain. It is here that they experience the Transfiguration. Already we get a sense of a personal transformation, as a result of the Transfiguration experience. Petulant Peter, who had been chastised in Caesarea Philippi for harbouring his own ambitions, is now a humbled man. He address Jesus as “Lord” not teacher and is now submissive and suggestive; “If you wish, I will make three dwellings.”

The nine other apostles were still at the foot of the mount. They had no idea what had just taken place and are blissfully unaware of the deep personal experience of the three apostles.  While this great mystical experience was taking place on the mount, they were struggling to heal an epileptic on the plains. It’s ironic that they could not heal the boy, for they had already received in chapter ten, the power to cast out demons. What then seemed to be the problem?

Interestingly, what the disciples failed to recognize, the father of the boy with epilepsy did. He does not greet Jesus with the customary “rabbi” but calls Jesus “Lord”. This is the same title that Peter greeted the transfigured Lord. This simple man of faith had not trudged with Jesus over the Galilean countryside as He preached and healed; he must have simply heard of Jesus, had faith and believed.

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Faith

When ‘I’ can be hard to go – Friday, 18th Week in ordinary time- Matthew 16: 24-28

Chapters 14 to 17 of the Gospel of Matthew have the disciples of Jesus acknowledging who He truly is; the Son of God.  The passage of today is a section of what is called, ‘Jesus’ first passion prediction’. The pericope of humiliation, suffering and death is sandwiched between two great narratives. These narratives reveal Jesus as the “Beloved Son of the Living God.”; namely the confession of Peter and the Transfiguration.

The passage of today has five saying, all addressed to the disciples. The first three which address the issues of the cost of discipleship, can be understood as a commentary on the great commandment to love God with all ones heart, soul and strength. The last two saying in verse 27 and 28 involve an apocalyptic picture (dealing with the end times) of the rewards of discipleship. (Taken from the JBC)

Jesus is highlighting two approaches to life. We can deny self and take up the cross or love self and ignore the cross. Interestingly, the cross is always at the centre of our decisions as Christians.  Perhaps the reason why people seem alarmed when they read this text is because they do not recognize the meaning of the text and merely see it as five demands that Jesus makes on a disciple. Or perhaps, on reading verses like verse 26, which is greatly quoted as the verse of scripture that St Ignatius said to St Francis Xavier, in order to win him over to Christ, we think that such demands of discipleship are reserved for the saints and not for us.

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