Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings,09-03-04 Mem. St. Gregory the Great, Pope & dr. of the church

From: 1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Servant of Christ

[1] This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and
stewards of the mysteries of God. [2] Moreover it is required of
stewards that they be found trustworthy. [3] But with me it is a very
small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do
not even judge myself. [4] I am not aware of anything against myself,
but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. [5]
Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord
comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and
will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then every man will receive
his commendation from God.

Commentary:

1-2. The features of every apostle, as outlined here by St Paul--
"servants of Christ", "stewards of God's mysteries"--put this ministry
beyond the reach of grudges and petty squabbles. "Servants of Christ",
that is, ministers of Christ, are people to whom he has entrusted his
property--his teaching and his sacraments--for them to protect it
faithfully and, acting as his agents, to manage it, pass it on and
"disperse" it to others (cf. "Commentary on 1 Cor, ad loc."). As Paul
stresses, a basic qualification for being a servant or steward is
trustworthiness: "Those are untrustworthy stewards who when it comes to
dispensing the divine mysteries do not seek the welfare of the people,
the honor of Christ or the advantage of his members [...]. Trustworthy
stewards are those who always seek the honor of God and the welfare of
his members" ("ibid., ad loc.").

The Magisterium of the Church has often applied these words to the
Christian priesthood: "The Apostle of the Gentiles thus perfectly sums
up what may be said of the greatness, the dignity and the duty of the
Christian priesthood: 'This is how one should regard us, as servants of
Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God' (1 Cor 4:1). The priest is
the minister of Christ, an instrument, that is to say, in the hands of
the divine Redeemer. He continues the work of the redemption in all its
universality and divine efficacy, that work that wrought so marvelous a
transformation in the world. Thus the priest, as is said with good
reason, is indeed 'another Christ', for, in some way, he is himself a
continuation of Christ: 'As the Father has sent me, even so I send you'
(Jn 20:21), is spoken to the priest, and hence the priest, like Christ,
continues to give 'glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace
among men with whom he is pleased' (Lk 2:14). A priest is appointed
'steward of the mysteries of God' (cf. 1 Cor 4:1 ) for the benefit of
the members of the mystical body of Christ, since he is the ordinary
minister of nearly all the sacraments--those channels through which the
grace of the Savior flows for the good of humanity. The Christian, at
almost every important stage of his mortal career, finds at his side
the priest with power received from God, for the purpose of
communicating or increasing that grace which is the supernatural life
of his soul" (Pius XI, "Ad Catholici Sacerdotii").

3-5. A servant, an employee, is obviously answerable for his actions--
but he is answerable only to his master; only his master can judge
him. Therefore, referring to the minister of Christ, St Paul declares
that only our Lord can be his judge, because it is to him his service
is owed. This teaching applies in the first place to Church ministers;
but it also applies to all the faithful, for all should serve God by
putting their talents to good use. Therefore, it is not for us to judge
others, unless we have some special position which obliges us to do so.
And certainly any judgment we do make is valid only if it accords with
the will of God; any type of rash judgment would lead to very
unfortunate results. Even that judgment we make about
ourselves--examination of conscience, which St Paul seems to be hinting
at when he says that he is not aware of anything against himself--
should be made with the help of grace. It is not a matter of subjective
introspection, but rather a sincere review made in the presence of
God. It is not meant to be a reply to the question, What do I think of
my behavior?; but rather to a different question, What does God think
of it? Thus, a Christian should not be trying to meticulously measure
his conduct, but to have recourse to God, who is rich in mercy. If so,
the end-product of his examination will never be like that of the
Pharisee, "God, I thank thee that I am not like other men", but
instead, like the publican's "God, be merciful to me, a sinner" (Lk
18:11, 13).

The Apostle, as we can see, is speaking of his own experience, and
speaking from a heart full of pastoral solicitude: he is not merely
giving advice or taking people to task.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: Luke 5:33-39

A Discussion on Fasting

[33] And they (the scribes and the Pharisees) said to Him (Jesus), "The
disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples
of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink." [34] And Jesus said to
them, "Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is
with them? [35] The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away
from them, and then they will fast in those days." [36] He told them a
parable also: "No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it upon
an old garment; if he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from
the new will not match the old. [37] And no one puts new wine into old
wineskins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be
spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. [38] But new wine must be put
into fresh wineskins. [39] And no one after drinking old wine desires
new; for he says, `The old is good.'"

Commentary:

33-35. In the Old Testament God established certain days as days of
fasting--the main one being the "day of atonement" (Numbers 29:7; Acts
27:9). Fasting implied total or partial abstinence from food or
drink. Moses and Elijah fasted (Exodus 34:28; 1 Kings 19:8) and our
Lord Himself fasted in the desert for forty days before beginning His
public ministry. In the present passage Jesus gives a deeper meaning
to the word "fasting"--the deprivation of His physical presence which
His Apostles would experience after His death. All through His public
life Jesus is trying to prepare His disciples for the final parting.
At first the Apostles were not very robust and Christ's physical
presence did them more good than the practice of fasting.

Christians should sometimes abstain from food. "Fast and abstain from
flesh meat when Holy Mother Church so ordains" ("St. Pius X Catechism",
495). That is the purpose of the fourth commandment of the Church, but
it has a deeper meaning, as St. Leo the Great tells us: "The merit of
our fasts does not consist only in abstinence from food; there is no
use depriving the body of nourishment if the soul does not cut itself
off from iniquity and if the tongue does not cease to speak evil"
("Sermo IV in Quadragesima").

FEAST OF THE DAY

Pope St. Gregory the Great was born in Rome around the year 540
and served much of his early life in civil office. Around the age of 30,
he retired from his public duties, joined the Benedictine order and
formed several monasteries for the order on his own property.

After several years, he was ordained to the priesthood and began to
move back into public life, but this time working for God. For a time,
he served as one of the Pope's major assistants and later was later
named to serve as the papal nuncio at Constantinople. After several
years as legate, he was called back to Rome to become abbot.
Around the age of 50 he was elected to the Papacy, consecrated the
64th pope, and ruled for 14 years.

During his reign, Gregory pushed for many reforms and
evangelization. Gregory removed unworthy priests from parishes,
forbade taking money for certain services, and spent much of the
papal treasury to ransom prisoners of the Lombards, care for
persecuted Jews and aid the sick and dying. Gregory is also
responsible for reforming the liturgy and strengthening support for
moral and theological doctrine. Pushing for the conversion of
England, Gregory sent more than 40 monks from his own monastery
to evangelize there. These monks, who included St. Augustine of
Canterbury, were successful in converting much of Anglo-Saxon
England.

Gregory died March 12, 604 and is considered one of the four great
doctors of the church. He is the patron saint of music and
traditionally is one who coined the phrase saying that the pope is the
"servant of the servants of God."

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great
things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist. -Pope St. Gregory the
Great

TODAY IN HISTORY

1914 Cardinal Giacome della Chiesa becomes Pope Benedict XV
1954 Pope Pius X canonized a saint
1978 Pope John Paul I officially installed as 264th supreme pontiff

TODAY'S TIDBIT

With St. Albert the Great, St. Basil the Great and Pope St. Leo the
Great, Gregory is recognized as one of the four doctors of the
Church who have earned the title "magnus" or "great" for his impact
on the whole of the Church.

INTENTION FOR THE DAY

Please pray for all who are battling cancer

From http://www.missionstclare.com/english/people/mar12.html

Only two popes, Leo I and Gregory I, have been given the popular title of "the Great." Both served during difficult times of barbarian invasions in Italy; and during Gregory's term of office, Rome was also faced with famine and epidemics.

Gregory was born around 540, of a politically influential family, and in 573 he became Prefect of Rome; but shortly afterwards he resigned his office and began to live as a monk. In 579 he was made apocrisiarius (representative of the Pope to the Patriarch of Constantinople). Shortly after his return home, the Pope died of the plague, and in 590 Gregory was elected Pope.

Like Leo before him, he became practical governor of central Italy, because the job needed to be done and there was no one else to do it. When the Lombards invaded, he organized the defense of Rome against them, and the eventual signing of a treaty with them. When there was a shortage of food, he organized the importation and distribution of grain from Sicily.

His influence on the forms of public worship throughout Western Europe was enormous. He founded a school for the training of church musicians, and Gregorian chant (plainchant) is named for him. The schedule of Scripture readings for the various Sundays of the year, and the accompanying prayers (many of them written by him), in use throughout most of Western Christendom for the next thirteen centuries, is largely due to his passion for organization. His treatise, On Pastoral Care, while not a work of creative imagination, shows
a dedication to duty, and an understanding of what is required of a minister in charge of a Christian congregation. His sermons are still readable today, and it is not without reason that he is accounted (along with Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine of Hippo) as one of the Four Latin Doctors (=Teachers) of the ancient Church. (Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzen, Basil the Great, and John Chrysostom are the Four Greek Doctors.)

English-speaking Christians will remember Gregory for sending a party of missionaries headed by Augustine of Canterbury (not to be confused with the more famous Augustine of Hippo) to preach the Gospel to the pagan Anglo-Saxon tribes that had invaded England and largely conquered or displaced the Celtic Christians previously living there. Gregory had originally hoped to go to England as a missionary himself, but was pressed into service elsewhere, first as apocrisiarius and then as bishop of Rome. He accordingly sentothers, but took an active interest in their work, writing numerous letters both to Augustine and his monks and to their English converts.

I here mention something that was not Gregory's doing, but is an important part of Church history. It was in Gregory's lifetime that Rome, and with it the Western Empire, with astonishing suddenness, and for no reason that I know of, went monolingual. For more than six centuries previously, Greek had been spoken at Rome along with Latin. Every Roman with pretensions to being educated could speak it. Everyone involved in shipping and commerce, from banker to stevedore, could speak it. The list of the early Bishops of Rome
has a fair proportion of Greek names. When Paul wrote an epistle to the Romans, he wrote in Greek as a matter of course. But in Gregory's lifetime this changed. Gregory was ambassador to the Eastern Patriarch at Constantinople for six years, but he never bothered to learn Greek. And in his day (not, as far as I have any reason to believe, as a result of his example or influence) most other Latin-speakers did not trouble to learn Greek either. The already existing difficulties of communication between Latin and Greek theologians were greatly exacerbated by this development. Increasingly, Latins did not read the commentaries and other writings of Greek Christians, and vice versa. Thus differences between the two that dialogue might have resolved were left to accumulate, culminating in the formal split between Latin and Greek Christendom in 1054.

If I were to select a ground on which this devout Christian of great accomplishments might reasonably be censured, it would be that his Dialogues, a book on the Lives of the Saints, is full of accounts of dreams and visions that various persons were said to have had of souls in Purgatory. Gregory, a man of keen critical judgement on many matters, was completely uncritical in his acceptance of these stories. A general belief in Purgatory was standard among Christians when he wrote; but his reliance on "ghost stories" to fill in the
imaginative details gave the doctrine as held thereafter in Latin Christendom both a prominence and a coloring that it had not previously had, with results that many Christians, including adherents of the Pope, have thought regrettable.

written by James Kiefer

Kieffer makes two excellent points: Gregory understood the necessity of taking up arms to defend civilization against the terrorists of the sixth century; and his treatise on Pastoral Care is far better preparation for ministry than the psychobabble that is called "Clinical Pastoral Education".

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