Existence

In today’s first reading (Exodus 3:13-20), Moses asks God His name and God responds:

God replied, "I am who am."
Then he added,
"This is what you shall tell the children of Israel:
I AM sent me to you."

No matter where we may find ourselves in our lives, God is there, loving us.

"I am who am."

Mount Carmel

In the Holy Land, high above the waters of the Mediterranean rises Mount Carmel, a special place of spirituality and contemplation since the time of the prophet Elijah.

This tradition flowered powerfully in the 12th century A.D. A small band of hermits developed into a thriving group of monasteries.

The Carmelites eventually established monasteries throughout Europe and eventually around the world. Living out the Gospel in both active and contemplative ways, the Carmelites hold as their exemplars both the prophet Elijah and the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus – remembering her under the title of "Our Lady of Mount Carmel", celebrated on this very day: the Feast day for all Carmelites.

(from a previous post)

Think you’re smart?

Some of us are very confident about the level of our intelligence.

Especially if we are incessant users of the Internet (myself included).

In today’s Gospel (Matthew 11:25-27), our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ reminds us that the most important knowledge – knowledge of God – is a gift.

At that time Jesus exclaimed:

"I give praise to you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.

"Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.

"All things have been handed over to me by my Father.

"No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."

Controversial religious order

John joined that relatively new and controversial religious order while he was a young man. The order sent him to Paris for his studies and eventually he obtained a teaching position there.

Several years later, serious accusations were lodged against his religious order and he was forced to stop teaching.

Shortly after that, at the age of 36, he was elected head of the order.

John defended the order against its detractors, dealt with serious divisions within the order, and made important changes within it.

After about ten years, the Pope vindicated John’s order and formally condemned its greatest critic.

The Pope would eventually force John to become a Bishop and then a Cardinal.

John became widely known for his theological wisdom and personal holiness (there were many stories of miracles). He went on to have a great influence on the Universal Church: advising Popes and acting as the guiding force of an Ecumenical Council.

Suddenly, while the Council was still in session, John died, still in his early 50's. He may have been poisoned by his enemies, but they could not conquer him: his order - the Franciscans - would continue and his theological writings would be venerated as among the best of all time.

But John's name would not be remembered, for he had stopped being known by his baptismal name.

There were many different stories about where he got the new name. One story says that when John was a little boy, his parents had brought him to the great St. Francis, not long before his death, and that St. Francis himself was the origin of John’s new name: Bonaventure.

Bonaventure was recognized as a saint with little delay. In due course, he was listed as a "Doctor of the Church."

His memory is celebrated on this day - the anniversary of his death in 1274.

(from an earlier post)

Cradle stupidity

What do I mean by “cradle stupidity”?

I am not referring to today’s first reading (Exodus 2:1-15a) in which the baby Moses is put into a basket in the river.

I am referring to a lesson from today’s Gospel (Matthew 11:20-24) in which our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ denounces places that have witnessed His mighty works and yet have not repented.

These were places populated by people raised in the faith given by God through Moses: cradle believers.

Pagans would have responded better, our Lord says.

If the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.

I myself am a “cradle Catholic” – born and raised in the Faith given by God through Jesus Christ – so I hear our Lord’s condemnation with great unease.

Those of us raised in the faith – cradle believers – can tend to coast, take for granted, or rely only on whatever we remember from whatever we learned when we were children.

To be sure, some among us have been blessed with continued growth in the faith, from childhood to old age. Also, being a convert is no guarantee of perfect wisdom and fidelity.

None of us, however, should take our faith for granted.

By the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we need to rise above cradle stupidity or neophyte ignorance and grow in the knowledge, wisdom, and love of God.

Teenage girl with a ravaged face

Pockmarks scarred her face and her eyesight was bad. Her family tried to hook her up with one young man after another, but to no avail.

It was not simply a matter of her "unattractive" face and poor vision: she herself had something else in mind for her life. Her heart was set on a very special man to whom she had been introduced when she was a little girl: Jesus Christ.

When she turned 18, she was baptized and dedicated herself to a life of holiness. She met with great opposition and eventually had to be taken away from her hometown for her own safety.

She came to live in a Christian house and many came to be impressed by her spiritual beauty.

She would die at the age of 24 and would be instantly revered by all who knew of her.

Three hundred years later, on June 22, 1980, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American to be proposed for sainthood, was beatified by the great Pope John Paul II. Her memory is celebrated on this day.

(from an earlier post)

Real peace, not a cartoon

Some people’s concept of Christ as Prince of Peace is more like a cartoon.

In last Monday’s Gospel (Matthew 10:34-11:1), our Lord deflates that cartoon image decisively.

"Do not think that I have come
to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace
but the sword.
For I have come to set
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one's enemies will be those of his household."

Peace cannot come at the expense of truth, nor of course can full truth exist without godly love.

We should not seek conflict for its own sake, but we cannot let fear of conflict cause us to betray Christ’s truth.

Above all and before all and in spite of all, we must be faithful to Christ, to his truth, and to his love.

(adapted from an earlier post)

I'm Henry the...

When he was a young man, Henry was headed for the priesthood, but everyone eventually decided that his destiny lay elsewhere.

He subsequently found himself in a leadership position in the public sector. He did a reasonably good job, although he sometimes clashed with others (he worked in a very poisonous environment).

In his work, he generally tried to uphold the common good, with mixed success. In his personal life, he and his wife were very pious and were generous to the poor.

Henry died in his early fifties on this very day in 1024: the second Holy Roman Emperor of that name (hence, Henry the second). St. Henry was canonized in 1146.

(from an earlier post)

“Is not my job”

Many times we hear people say, “It’s not my job, man.”

Many times when it comes to proclaiming the truth of Christ in the world around us we too think “It’s not my job, man.”

In today’s first reading (Amos 7:12-15), the prophet Amos says that he thought very much the same thing.

But God told him otherwise.

I was no prophet,
nor have I belonged to a company of prophets;
I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores.

The LORD took me from following the flock,
and said to me,
Go, prophesy to my people Israel.

It is our job, if God says.

May we respond what God has to say and be faithful in carrying out the tasks he lays before us.

Party house on campus

This was not the higher education that the young man from a small town had expected.

Nobody really cared about studies. All they cared about was partying (and there were more than a few togas).

So the young man left school and went to spend a little quiet time in the country.

He ended up spending a long time there and he became very close to God.

His holiness became so well known that when the abbot of a nearby monastery died, the monks begged him to become their new abbot.

It was not a happy house: some of the monks sometimes acted like animals and they ended up trying to kill him. The young man was saved only by a miracle.

He knew there had to be a better way to run a monastery, so he gathered some likeminded men around him and wrote a rule for monastic living.

It turned out to be a tremendous success.

Many, many more monasteries would be established, following that same rule.

These monasteries would not only become spiritual havens for the monks, but when the civilization of the outside world came crashing down, these monasteries preserved the light of knowledge and education as well as the Gospel of Christ.

The memory of St. Benedict, founder of Western Monasticism and Father of Europe, is celebrated on this day.

(from an earlier post)

“Before governors and kings”

Today, the leader of the world’s richest nation and most powerful military force will meet with the Vicar of Christ.

It will be a friendly meeting – or at least diplomatic – yet, as today’s Gospel reminds us (Matthew 10:16-23), conflict is inevitable between faithful Christians and this world’s powerful.

Beware of men,
for they will hand you over to courts
and scourge you in their synagogues,
and you will be led before governors and kings
for my sake
as a witness before them and the pagans....

You will be hated by all because of my name....

Yet with these warnings, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ also gives guidance and comfort:

Behold,
I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves;
so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.

But beware of men,
for they will hand you over to courts
and scourge you in their synagogues,
and you will be led before governors and kings
for my sake
as a witness before them and the pagans.

When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
You will be given at that moment what you are to say.

For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Brother will hand over brother to death,
and the father his child;
children will rise up against parents
and have them put to death.

You will be hated by all because of my name,
but whoever endures to the end will be saved.

“Let your peace return to you”

People nowadays seem very quick to make and express opinions about other people, even when they truly know little about them.

On the other hand, it seems that we rarely hear people openly wishing other people well and then only to friends, acquaintances, and allies.

In today’s Gospel (Matthew 10:7-15), our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ calls us to extend good wishes of peace even before we get to know the people or the places.

As you enter a house, wish it peace.
If the house is worthy,
let your peace come upon it;
if not, let your peace return to you.

He is not talking about blind endorsements or taking imprudent risks.

He is simply talking about wishing peace upon people and places.

May you and I always be instruments of Christ’s truth, love, and peace.

Priest dies in Chinese prison

Augustine Zhao Rong a former soldier later ordained Catholic priest, died of mistreatment in a prison, caught up in a crackdown by Chinese authorities... one hundred and ninety-four years ago.

Nine years ago, he became one of 120 victims of that crackdown to be canonized by the great Pope John Paul II (to the indignation of the current Chinese authorities).

The memorial of the Chinese Martyrs is celebrated today.

(from an earlier post)