Feast of Mary Magdalene

The readings from mass this morning include a section from the Song of Songs (this translation is from the USCCB books of the bible, and not the daily mass readings):

On my bed at night I sought him* whom my soul loves — I sought him but I did not find him.
“Let me rise then and go about the city,* through the streets and squares;  Let me seek him whom my soul loves.”  I sought him but I did not find him.

The Gospel is from an Easter Passage regarding Mary Magdalene at the tomb:

Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping.

And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb

and saw two angels in white sitting there,

one at the head and one at the feet

where the Body of Jesus had been.

And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

She said to them, “They have taken my Lord,

and I don’t know where they laid him.”

As noted in an earlier post:

Mary is seeking the Lord, the one whom she loves.

She had gone to the tomb, she was seeking him whom she loved, whom her soul loved.

This is the story of every human heart. God has made us for himself, and our hearts are ever restless, until they rest in God, as St Augustine has written. 

All of philosophy is a reasoned, structured, ordered search for God.  It is a search begun from the human perspective, from the human plain, from below.  But it can never fully reach or find the Truth or God on its' own.  Because eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love him.

But:

No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.

God, in the person of Jesus, has come into the world, revealing God to man, and also revealing the fullness of man to man.  Or as Pope St John Paul II often quoted from the Second Vatican Council, Christ reveals what it means to be fully human.

Man, without this Divine Revelation, would be unable to satisfy the longing within himself, a longing placed there by his Creator, so that we might seek him (whom our soul loves).  In His great love for us, God has come to us, in the Person of Jesus, and by his passion, death and resurrection, has opened the gate of heaven, so that we might be with him, whom our soul loves, forever.

Jesus, the living bread come down from heaven, the Word of God, the way the truth and the life, the Light of the World, reveals to us how much God loves us, and makes it possible for us to share in the Divine nature, and the life of God.

The Bishops of the Catholic Church, gathered at the Vatican in Council in 1965, promulgated Dei Verbum.  They write much more eloquently, completely and correctly than I ever could and I encourage you to read it, think on it, and meditate on it frequently.

St Nicholas -- 6 Dec 2021: A Reflection

The readings from Mass today include a section from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah:

            Here is your God,

                he comes with vindication;

            With divine recompense

                he comes to save you.

The psalm (85) includes:

        Truth shall spring out of the earth,

            and justice shall look down from heaven.

And, the Gospel (from St Luke) contains the question:

Who but God alone can forgive sins?

Jesus, the living bread come down from heaven, the way the truth and the life, who is one with the Father, the Son of Man, has the authority on Earth to forgive sins.

The passage from Isaiah is fulfilled in Christ, because HERE IS OUR GOD, who come to saves us.  The psalm is fulfilled in Christ's resurrection and ascension because he who is the Truth has sprung out of the tomb, out of the Earth.  And He who is our justice has ascended into heaven where he looks down upon heaven and earth.

And even more telling the passage about God is fulfilled that says He speaks and worlds are created.  You see, Jesus says to the paralyzed man "rise, pick up your stretcher and go home."  The Gospel then says:

He stood up immediately before them,

picked up what he had been lying on,

and went home, glorifying God. 

We have seen incredible things today.  Yes who would believe what we have heard?  To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

A new world was created, a paralyzed man rose and walked.

The Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist

 In the Office of the Readings for today, 24 June, the non-biblical reading is portion of a sermon by St Augustine where he contrasts Jesus, the word of God, with John, a voice crying in the wilderness:

John was born of a woman too old for childbirth;  Christ was born of a youthful virgin.

Along this line of thought I offer you a poem entitled Voice and Verb:

Children sing tra la tra lay

The meaning lost not found

Empty sounds fill hallowed grounds 

and echo back all day

Passion plays are full of sound

Yet meaning passes on

One, not Juan, a mother's son

From heav'n to earth did bound

Voices carry sound upon

the wind, to distant ears

Welling tears surpassing fears

for hearts so full of song

Verb is keening yet it sears

A heart to mark its' place

Amazing grace, the long embrace

will kiss away your tears

Eschatology or is it "S"chatology

The other day, Monday of the second week of Advent, the readings from Mass included a section from the book of the prophet Isaiah:

                The desert and the parched land will exult;

                the steppe will rejoice and bloom.                

                They will bloom with abundant flowers,

                and rejoice with joyful song.

                The glory of Lebanon will be given to them,

                the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;

This, of course, reminded me of my poem "S"chatology, which I posted five (5) years ago today:

                            'S'chatology

                              Sharon, desert spring and bloom
                                 the respite on the walk
                              Smiling rays that fill the room
                                 with laughter and with talk

                              Sing over by the window
                                 She's sure to help you out
                              Speaking softly, voice so low
                                 Too intimate to shout


                               Sitting close with lives entwined
                                  with whispered dreams exchanged
                               Slowly breathing love enshrines
                                  the hearts both scared and pained


                               Sharon's splendor, Carmel's fruit
                                  A wearied, anguished love
                               Softly spoken words take root
                                  Bring mercy from above.

Zacchaeus revisited

Last year I posted a reflection regarding Zacchaeus. On Tuesday of this week, the Gospel reading from Mass was again the story of Zacchaeus.

This prompted me to think again about several things.  

The Gospel reading includes:

At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.

Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. 

Zacchaeus was a wealthy man.

About 25 years ago, when my daughter was taking CCD in our parish, she told me one day (and I assumed it was because she had been taught this) that rich people can't be saved.

About 15 years ago, I was teaching CCD to 6th graders in my parish, and they said exactly the same thing to me:  Rich people can't be saved.

I told my daughter at the time that she better hope that what she thought wasn't the case because she was 'rich.'

To the 6th graders I took a different approach.  We were using a pamphlet provided by the CCD office dicussing saints.  On the cover of the pamphlet were images of several Saints, including Francis of Assisi, Katherine Drexel among others.

I pointed out that both Francis, and Katherine were extremely wealthy young people, yet the Church had declared them Saints.  I pointed out how Francis had renounced his inheritance, while Katherine had used hers in service of the Church's mission to educate black and indian children.

Zacchaeus was a wealthy man.  But it was to him that Jesus came and spoke:

Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.

He followed up that statement and ended the Gospel passage by saying:

Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.   For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.

The rich are called to salvation too.

Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the so-called "Common Era"

 Rosh Hashanah, the head of the Jewish Year, began at sundown on 18 Sept 2020.  My calendar, the 2020 Religious Arts Calander, indicates that this began year 5781.

Yom Kippur begins this evening, 27 Sept 2020, at sundown.  On Friday of the 25th week in ordinary time, 25 Sept 2020, the office of the readings included a section from the book of the Prophet Ezekiel:

On the tenth day of the month beginning the twentyfifth year of our exile, fourteen years after the city was taken, that very day the hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me in divine visions to the land of Israel, where he set me down on a very high mountain.

Yom Kippur is the 10th day after Rosh Hashanah, the head or beginning of the Jewish year.  Ezekiel is having these visions on Yom Kippur.

It is interesting to note he doesn't say the year is 571 BC, or 571 BCE.  No, he sets the year as relating to the year "the city was taken," and the "year of our exile."

The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, is not the 1st of January, and it doesn't begin at midnight with a ball drop at Times Square in NYC.

The Jewish calendar is not 'common' with the calendar that we use.  The Jewish year is 5781, not 2020.  The Jewish day is not midnight to midnight, nor are the months in the Jewish calendar named January, February, March etc.  The Jewish months are named Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, etc.

Jewish months do not follow the rule:

Thirty days has September, April, June and November...

No, Jewish months are a lunar cycle, new moon to new moon.  Islamic months are also lunar.

It is an error to label the years in our calendar CE for Common Era, and BCE for Before Common Era.

We follow the Gregorian Calendar.  In the Gregorian Calendar it is appropriate to use the terms Before Christ (BC), and the Year of our Lord, Anno Dominum (AD).

Would that we as a culture would recognize this truth, and act accordingly.

Our Temporary Home

The other day, Wednesday 13 May 2020, the non-biblical reading from the Office of readings in the Liturgy of the Hours was a section of a letter to Diognetus.  Liturgically, it was an optional memorial for Our Lady of Fatima, but I read from the Wednesday of the fifth week of Easter.

The letter includes:

Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs.  They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life.  Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men.  Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine.  With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in whether it is Greek or foreign.

And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives.  They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through... 

This little subsection reminded me of several things.  

Firstly, there is my Bishop, George Murry SJ, who is currently facing his third bout with Leukemia, and has written a regular column in the Diocesan newspaper with the heading On The Road to Jerusalem.  You understand, that we are on the road to the Heavenly Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.

Secondly, I recalled the video below by Kerry Underwood entitled Temporary Home.

Windows in rooms we're passing through.
This is just a stop on the way to where we're going
I'm not afraid because I know
This is our temporary home.

My dad reminded me several times, maybe many times, that  "This too shall Pass."

The heavenly Jerusalem shall never pass away, but all the difficulties of this place will pass away.  

So, whether it is school shootings, World Wars, Race riots, or the Wuhan virus and the consequences of the governments response to it, THIS TOO SHALL PASS.

Because, this is our temporary home, not where we belong, windows in rooms we're passing through.  This is just a stop, on the way to where we're going......