Faith

Stop moving, be rooted – Tuesday, 23rd week in ordinary time- St Paul’s letter to the Colossians  2:6-15 ( these reflections make more sense if your read the scripture before you embark on the explanation)

In 2003, when Dan Brown’s ‘Da Vinci code’ hit the book stores, a number of Catholics were either perturbed or intrigued by the contents of the book.  A friend even thrust it in my hand like he had found the ‘Holy Grail’. Was the Church ‘hiding’ events in history and were there those dark corners in the Church that the Church did not want us to know? Interestingly there were many others that were not ‘disturbed’ at all; I for one found it an interesting piece of fiction and that’s where I placed the book once I was done with it. No self-respecting library would place Da Vinci’s figment of imagination beside Shakespeare, even though it may be a great page turner!

It’s time Christians stop jumping up and down each time a new fad comes along. The dark corners of the Church exist in our minds and not in reality especially if we paid little attention to Catechism class or a Sunday homily; which we may have duly dismissed on merely seeing a preacher we don’t like.

Dan Brown, as do many new fad-clad beliefs, follows a simple but effective way of fooling people. You tell a series of ‘unknown truths’ which the wide eyed believer will fire up the internet to ‘Google’ (our newest ‘Gospel truth’ for many of us) and then we are told that one lie. So this is how it works; tell an ‘unknown truth’ (unknown more because you never paid attention to Catechism), followed by several such ‘fascinating unknown truths’, and then finally tell a big fat lie.

The results are astounding. Lo and behold you have a lot of new found ‘believers’ who are ready to drop their Christian faith for the ‘truth’ they now have discovered! The warnings of Christ stand ever before us; build your house on solid rock; make a firm foundation on solid stone. 

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Faith

No mystery to God’s plan of History- Monday, 23rd week in ordinary time- St Paul’s letter to the Colossians 1:24–2:3

The letter of St Paul to the Colossians arrived hand delivered by Tychicus. This gent was no courier boy or a side kick of Paul. He was, in Paul’s own words, “a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant”. It is he who now comes with the letter to the Colossians, but even more to explain Paul’s mind to the community; for Paul himself has not evangelized this community. Hence, Paul feels compelled to present his credentials of suffering, as proof of his commitment to the teachings that he holds and propagates.

When Paul wrote this letter, he was in Rome, awaiting trial. He suffered much, all through his missions for the sake of Christ. Among many others sufferings, he had been beaten with rods, scourged on five occasions, stoned once, shipwrecked thrice, arrested several times, bitten by a snake, kidnapped, threatened, accused in lawsuits, interrogated, ridiculed and ignored.

Like Christ, Paul too suffers willingly; a suffering in which he rejoices for the sake of the Colossians and for the sake of the Church at large. Paul is not asking for a reprieve from his sufferings; rather he suggests that if in any way there was still some suffering that could have been inflicted on Christ and was not; he is willing to accept it now, for the sake of the Colossians. Therefore, verse 24 does not imply in any way that Christ’s atoning death on the cross was defective.

What then is Paul’s interest in the Colossians? Why is he willing to go out on a limb for them? The newly converted Colossians are plagued by false teachers from within the community. These teachers have dabbled in other religions and cults and have proposed a fusion of the teachings of Christ with different religions, cultures and philosophies, often known as the mystery religions.

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Art/ Heritage

AVE MARIA: ‘The Nativity of Mary’ by Ghirlandaio

 Florence during the 15th century boasted of more artists than butchers. It signified that art was a necessity. It was a need driven by 2 P’s: Passion and Power. Passion on the part of the artist and Power on the part of the wealthy bankers who commissioned religious art as penance for usury which the Church condemned but which was ingrained to their profession.

One such powerful banker and patron of art was Giovanni Tornabuoni. He served as the Florentine ambassador to the Papal court in 1480 and 1484. As remission for his sins he decided to commission a grand cycle of frescoes in what is now the Tornabuoni Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.

He got on board one of the most famous artist in town: Domenico Ghirlandaio. The theme was dedicated to the life of the Virgin and the life of John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence. Ghirlandaio worked on the frescoes from 1485 to 1490. One of his best known works is undoubtedly, ‘The Nativity of Mary.’

The scene is set in a luxurious Renaissance room within an intricate architectural setting. The relief carving of fruits and foliage announces spring-time. A frieze of cherubs garlands the fringes while ornate pilasters divide the room into two halves, the before and the after. The story goes thus:

In Nazareth lived a pious couple Joachim and Hannah. They were childless. On being repulsed by the high priest in the temple, Joachim in grief took off to the mountains in solitude. Hannah too cried out to the Lord, promising to dedicate her child to the service of the Almighty. Behold, then appeared the angel declaring the nativity.

The first scene of the painting at the left displays the embrace of Joachim and Anne as they reunite at the Golden Gate. Scene two is the bed chamber where St. Anne gives birth to the clement, loving and sweet Virgin Mary. A panel of cherubs rejoice with music and dance to the tunes of the harp, the bagpipe, the timbrel and the organetto. As they delight at her birth, a Latin inscription at their feet proclaims, ‘Thy birth, O Virgin and Mother of God, brings joy to all the world.’

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Faith

Christ Alone- Saturday, 22nd week in ordinary time – St Paul’s letter to the Colossians 1:21-23

It was Epaphras who brought the ‘Good News’ of Jesus Christ to the Colossians, and not Paul. We know, from the letter to Philemon, that this new Church met in the home of Philemon, his wife Apphia and their son Archippus. It is from this home that a slave by the name of Onesimus had run away and come to serve Paul who was under house arrest, necessitating the letter of Paul to Philemon, asking him to take Onesimus back as a brother, not merely a slave (Colossians 4:9, Philemon 8-21).

This community of Colossae is now under threat. Heretical (false) teaching had crept in no sooner than Epaphras left to labour with Paul in the mission field. Perhaps Epaphras thought that Paul and not he, would be best suited to clarify the matter to the new converts ‘in Christ’; after all Paul was the apostle ‘of Christ’.

The content of the heresy or false teaching was eclectic. It contained a mixture of Jewish legalism, Greek speculation, and the mysticism of the Orient, and this false teaching was causing problems in the ‘knowledge of God’ that Epaphras has sown in them. Paul now writes to correct the problem; an inadequate theology, which he calls a philosophy and an empty deceit (Col 2:8).

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Faith

Fresco Painting – Nativity Of The Blessed Virgin Mary by Guido Ren

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary- 8th September.

It all began with an angel, good news always does! Angels show up rarely but when they do, it’s breaking news. Ask Abraham or Lot or the shepherds in the field or for that matter Joseph, to whom an angel appeared in his dreams.

Gabriel must have been a special angel, for he brings the news of a birth to both, Zacharias, telling him of the coming birth of St. John the Baptist and then to Mary, telling her of the birth of her own son. The annunciation must have shot Gabriel into the spotlight. This is what broadcasters live for; ‘the news story’ of all times and Gabriel could not stop harping that he was picked. Gabriel now had the ‘dream job’ but this one had to be executed in real time. 

Nazareth was a small town in the mountains of Galilee but Gabriel had no difficulty finding this place; especially when you’re fitted with divinely supplied GPS. It is no wonder that Gabriel is recognized as the patron saint of messengers, telecommunication and postal workers.

The house in Nazareth was small and modest made of mortar-and-stone walls, cut into a rocky hillside.  There were just two rooms and a small courtyard in which a rock-hewn cistern collected rainwater. It was this place that Yehoyaqim (Joaquim), Hannah (Anna) and Miriam (Mary) called home.

Gabriel certainly knew how to make an entrance and this time he was most pleased with the form he took on; he was after all, the divine messenger. But for the sixteen year old Miriam all this was a bit too much. So frightened was she, that Gabriel’s presence almost caused her to fall off the bench she was sitting on. It was a special bench for Yosef (Joseph’s Hebrew name) had given it to her as their betrothal present.  He was a carpenter by trade and something about this match, suggested by her father, seemed perfect.

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