Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 11-22-02, Memorial, St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr

Reading I
Rev 10:8-11

I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me.
Then the voice spoke to me and said:
"Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel
who is standing on the sea and on the land."
So I went up to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll.
He said to me, "Take and swallow it.
It will turn your stomach sour,
but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey."
I took the small scroll from the angel's hand and swallowed it.
In my mouth it was like sweet honey,
but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.
Then someone said to me, "You must prophesy again
about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings."

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 119:14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131

R (103a) How sweet to my taste is your promise!
In the way of your decrees I rejoice,
as much as in all riches.
R How sweet to my taste is your promise!
Yes, your decrees are my delight;
they are my counselors.
R How sweet to my taste is your promise!
The law of your mouth is to me more precious
than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
R How sweet to my taste is your promise!
How sweet to my palate are your promises,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
R How sweet to my taste is your promise!
Your decrees are my inheritance forever;
the joy of my heart they are.
R How sweet to my taste is your promise!
I gasp with open mouth
in my yearning for your commands.
R How sweet to my taste is your promise!

Gospel
Lk 19:45-48

Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out
those who were selling things, saying to them,
"It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves."
And every day he was teaching in the temple area.
The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile,
were seeking to put him to death,
but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose
because all the people were hanging on his words.

The Word Among Us

Friday, November 22, 2002

Meditation
Revelation 10:8-11

The girl rushed home from school in great excitement. “Dad,” she announced, “I got straight A’s on my report card!” But her father’s only response was a grunt and a comment about how her classes must have been too easy. The girl grew up to be a successful businesswoman, yet thirty years later, she still remembers the sting of her father’s words.

If human words can have such an impact, consider the impact God’s words can have! We see an illustration of this in the Book of Revelation, when John eats a little scroll containing God’s words. The bittersweet experience is so powerful that it turns him into a prophet (Revelation 10:7-11).

Through the Scriptures and by the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s word reaches across millennia and continues to speak to us, just as Jesus’ teachings still do. In his own day, people who listened to Jesus “hung upon his words” (Luke 19:48). And yet, although Jesus always spoke out of deep love, his words weren’t always pleasant! He did, after all, ask his followers to look into their hearts and repent of their sins. And he had a few choice words for the religious hypocrites of his day. The words may sometimes seem bitter, but they are always tinged with hope and promise. When God speaks, everything he says becomes possible—even miraculous transformations!

God wants all of us to be attentive to his word and to act on it. He also wants us to speak his words to the world. Each of us in our own way is called to be a prophet, announcing the promises of God to those around us. We can proclaim God’s love to our children and teach them his ways. We can speak God’s promises to our neighbors. We can remind coworkers that God cares for them and that he has a plan for their lives. People all around us are hungry to hear words that comfort and encourage. Let’s not deny them. Today, look for an opportunity to share a Scripture verse or offer a word of compassion and understanding. Let God speak to you, and he will give you his words for others.

“Lord Jesus, your words are life to me! Open my ears to hear you. Open my mouth to speak out. I want your promises to flow through me and release your freedom, hope, love, and power.”

From: Revelation 10:8-11

The Author Is Given the Little Scroll to Eat

[8] Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying,
"Go, take the scroll which is open in the hand of the angel who is
standing on the sea and on the land." [9] So I went to the angel and
told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, "Take it and
eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your
mouth." [10] And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel
and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it
my stomach was made bitter. [11] And I was told, "You must again
prophesy about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings."

Commentary:

8-11. Cf. note on 10:2. The book described by Ezekiel 2:8-3:3 was sweet
as honey when eaten; but when Ezekiel began to prophesy, his heart was
filled with bitterness (cf. Ezek 3:14). The same symbolism of the two
kinds of taste is used here--no doubt to indicate that the prophecy
contains grace and blessing, and also judgment and condemnation. The
sweetness can also be interpreted as reflecting the triumph of the
Church, and the bitterness its affliction.

Although nothing is said about what is written on scroll John is given
to eat, it is reasonable to suppose that it has to do with the passage
about the two witnesses which now follows, before the blowing of the
seventh trumpet; this would make it a prophetic oracle, brought in
here as a preview of the final eschatological battles, to show that
evil apparently triumphs on earth.

[The note on 10:2 states:

2. The open scroll carried by the angel is different from the sealed
scroll in the vision recounted in Revelation 5:2. It is more like the
scroll described by the prophet Ezekiel (cf. Ezek 2:9-3:1) which was
also meant to be eaten by the seer. The fact that it is open indicates
that its content is not secret. The eating of the scroll symbolizes
that what the prophet has to say after he eats it is really the word of
God. It also indicates that God speaks through the medium of a written
text. So, this imagery helps to strengthen people's faith in the divine
inspiration of sacred writings, that is, the Bible, and to recognize
them for they are--holy books because they are the very word of God
which reaches the Church in written form via inspired authors: by
reading these books publicly the Church is in fact proclaiming their
divine inspiration.

We are not told what this little scroll contains; so, the only reason
the writer brings in this symbol is to make it clear that he is a
prophet. He wants people to be in no doubt about the fact that his
prophecies apply to all creation--both heaven and earth (v. 6).]

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 19:45-48

Jesus in the Temple

[45] And He (Jesus) entered the temple and began to drive out those who
sold, [46] saying to them, "It is written, `My house shall be a house
of prayer'; but you have made it a den of robbers."

[47] And He was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and
the scribes and the principal men of the people sought to destroy Him;
[48] but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people
hung upon His words.

Commentary:

45-48. Jesus' indignation shows His zeal for the glory of His Father,
to be recognized at this time in the temple itself. He inveighs
against the traders for engaging in business which has nothing to do
with divine worship (cf. Matthew 21:12; Mark 11-15). Even the priests
allowed some of these abuses to go on--perhaps because they benefited
from them in the form of taxes. The traders did perform services
necessary for divine worship but this was vitiated by their excessive
desire for gain, turning the temple into a marketplace.

"My house shall be a house of prayer": Jesus uses these words from
Isaiah (56:7; cf. Jeremiah 7:11) to underline the purpose of the
temple. Jesus' behavior shows the respect the Temple of Jerusalem
deserved; how much more reverence should be shown our churches, where
Jesus Himself is really present in the Blessed Sacrament. (cf. notes on
Matthew 21:12-13; and Mark 11:15-18).

[The notes on Matthew 21:12-13 states:

12-13. Although God is present everywhere and cannot be confined within
the walls of temples built by man (Acts 17:24-25), God instructed Moses
to build a tabernacle where He would dwell among the Israelites (Exodus
25:40). Once the Jewish people were established in Palestine, King
Solomon, also in obedience to a divine instruction, built the temple of
Jerusalem (1 Kings 6-8), where people went to render public worship to
God (Deuteronomy 12).

Exodus (23:15) commanded the Israelites not to enter the temple
empty-handed, but to bring some victim to be sacrificed. To make this
easier for people who had to travel a certain distance, a veritable
market developed in the temple courtyards with animals being bought and
sold for sacrificial purposes. Originally this may have made sense,
but seemingly as time went on commercial gain became the dominant
purpose of this buying and selling of victims; probably the priests
themselves and temple servants benefited from this trade or even
operated it. The net result was that the temple looked more like a
livestock mart than a place for meeting God.

Moved by zeal for His Father's house (John 2:17), Jesus cannot tolerate
this deplorable abuse and in holy anger He ejects everyone--to show
people the respect and reverence due to the temple as a holy place. We
should show much greater respect in the Christian temple--the Christian
churches--where the eucharistic sacrifice is celebrated and where Jesus
Christ, God and Man, is really and truly present, reserved in the
tabernacle. For a Christian, proper dress, liturgical gestures and
postures, genuflections and reverence to the tabernacle, etc. are
expressions of the respect due to the Lord in His temple.

[The notes on Mark 11:15-18 states:

15-18. Our Lord does not abide lack of faith or piety in things to do
with the worship of God. If He acts so vigorously to defend the temple
of the Old Law, it indicates how we should truly conduct ourselves in
the Christian temple, where He is really and truly present in the
Blessed Eucharist. "Piety has its own good manners. Learn them. It's
a shame to see those `pious' people who don't know how to attend
Mass--even though they go daily,--nor how to bless themselves (they
throw their hands about in the weirdest fashion), nor how to bend the
knee before the Tabernacle (their ridiculous genuflections seem a
mockery), nor how to bow their heads reverently before a picture of our
Lady" ([Blessed] J. Escriva, "The Way", 541).]

The bittersweet experience is so powerful that it turns him into a prophet (Revelation 10:7-11).

Salvation, with all respect, I know this is a Catholic Thread, but I read most of the devotionals and meditations that are posted on this forum for edification of scripture. I am not trying to start a debate, I just want your take on this comment and then I will let it go.

When I looked this passage up in verse 11 it says that John is to prophesy again. So does the comment above mean that the scroll turned him into a prophet or that he is to just prophesy some more.

This is probably a silly question, but as you probably know I will have to say that I disagree with the whole take on this passage in this meditation, there is alot I agree with each day. I am trying to figure out where the differences start in our intrepretations. Hoping this is not taken in the sense of arguing, but just a search for the truth:)

Becky

Catholic Online Saints
St. Cecilia
Third Century
Feastday: November 22

In the fourth century appeared a Greek religious romance on the Loves of Cecilia and Valerian, written, like those of Chrysanthus and Daria, Julian and Basilissa, in glorification of the virginal life, and with the purpose of taking the place of the sensual romances of Daphnis and Chloe, Chereas and Callirhoe, etc., which were then popular. There may have been a foundation of fact on which the story was built up; but the Roman Calendar of the fourth century, and the Carthaginian Calendar of the fifth make no mention of Cecilia.

It is said, however, that there was a church dedicated to S. Cecilia in Rome in the fifth century, in which Pope Symmachus held a council in 500. But Symmachus held no council in that year. That held at Easter, 502, was in the "basilica Julii"; that on September 1, 505, was held in the "basilica Sessoriana"; that on October 23, 501, was in "porticu beati Petri apostoli que appelatur Palmaria." The next synod, November 6, 502, met in the church of St. Peter; that in 533, "ante confessionem beati Petri"; and that in 503 also in the basilica of S. Peter. Consequently, till better evidence is produced, we must conclude that S. Cecilia was not known or venerated in Rome till about the time when Pope Gelasius (496) introduced her name into his Sacramentary. In 821, however, there was an old church fallen into decay with the dedication to S. Cecilia; but Pope Paschal I dreamed that the body of the saint lay in the cemetery of S. Celestas, along with that of her husband Valerian. He accordingly looked for them and found them, or, at all events, some bodies, as was probable, in the catacombs, which he was pleased to regard as those of Cecilia nd Valerian. And he translated these relics to the church of S. Cecilia, and founded a monastery in their honor.

The story of S. Cecilia is not without beauty and merit. There was in the city of Rome a virgin named Cecilia, who was given in marriage to a youth named Valerian. She wore sackcloth next to her skin, and fasted, and invoked the saints and angels and virgins, beseeching them to guard her virginity. And she said to her husband, "I will tell you a secret if you will swear not to reveal it to anyone." And when he swore, she added, "There is an angel who watches me, and wards off from me any who would touch me." He said, "Dearest, if this be true, show me the angel." "That can only be if you will believe in one God, and be baptized."

She sent him to Pope S. Urban (223-230), who baptized him; and when he returned, he saw Cecilia praying in her chamber, and an angel by her with flaming wings, holding two crowns of roses and lilies, which he placed on their heads, and then vanished. Shortly after, Tibertius, the brother of Valerian, entered, and wondered at the fragrance and beauty of the flowers at that season of the year.

When he heard the story of how they had obtained these crowns, he also consented to be baptized. After their baptism the two brothers devoted themselves to burying the martyrs slain daily by the prefect of the city, Turcius Almachius. [There was no prefect of that name.] They were arrested and brought before the prefect, and when they refused to sacrifice to the gods were executed with the sword.

In the meantime, S. Cecilia, by preaching had converted four hundred persons, whom Pope Urban forthwith baptized. Then Cecilia was arrested, and condemned to be suffocated in the baths. She was shut in for a night and a day, and the fires were heaped up, and made to glow and roar their utmost, but Cecilia did not even break out into perspiration through the heat. When Almachius heard this he sent an executioner to cut off her head in the bath. The man struck thrice without being able to sever the head from the trunk. He left her bleeding, and she lived three days. Crowds came to her, and collected her blood with napkins and sponges, whilst she preached to them or prayed. At the end of that period she died, and was buried by Pope Urban and his deacons.

Alexander Severus, who was emperor when Urban was Pope, did not persecute the Church, though it is possible some Christians may have suffered in his reign. Herodian says that no person was condemned during the reign of Alexander, except according to the usual course of the law and by judges of the strictest integrity. A few Christians may have suffered, but there can have been no furious persecutions, such as is described in the Acts as waged by the apocryphal prefect, Turcius Almachius.

Urbanus was the prefect of the city, and Ulpian, who had much influence at the beginning of Alexander's reign as principal secretary of the emperor and commander of the Pretorian Guards, is thought to have encouraged persecution. Usuardus makes Cecilia suffer under Commodus. Molanus transfers the martyrdom to the reign of Marcus Aurelius. But it is idle to expect to extract history from romance.

In 1599 Cardinal Paul Emilius Sfondrati, nephew of Pope Gregory XIV, rebuilt the church of S. Cecilia.

St. Cecilia is regarded as the patroness of music [because of the story that she heard heavenly music in her heart when she was married], and is represented in art with an organ or organ-pipes in her hand.

From The Lives of the Saints by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, M.A., published in 1914 in Edinburgh.

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