Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 4-28-03, Optional St. Louis Mary deMontfort, St. Peter Chanel

Reading I
Acts 4:23-31

After their release Peter and John went back to their own people
and reported what the chief priests and elders had told them.
And when they heard it,
they raised their voices to God with one accord
and said, "Sovereign Lord, maker of heaven and earth
and the sea and all that is in them,
you said by the Holy Spirit
through the mouth of our father David, your servant:

Why did the Gentiles rage
and the peoples entertain folly?
The kings of the earth took their stand
and the princes gathered together
against the Lord and against his anointed.

"Indeed they gathered in this city
against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed,
Herod and Pontius Pilate,
together with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
to do what your hand and your will
had long ago planned to take place.
And now, Lord, take note of their threats,
and enable your servants to speak your word
with all boldness, as you stretch forth your hand to heal,
and signs and wonders are done
through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook,
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 2:1-3, 4-7a, 7b-9

R (see 11d) Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord.
or:
R Alleluia.
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples utter folly?
The kings of the earth rise up,
and the princes conspire together
against the Lord and against his anointed:
"Let us break their fetters
and cast their bonds from us!"
R Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord.
or:
R Alleluia.
He who is throned in heaven laughs;
the Lord derides them.
Then in anger he speaks to them;
he terrifies them in his wrath:
"I myself have set up my king
on Zion, my holy mountain."
I will proclaim the decree of the Lord.
R Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord.
or:
R Alleluia.
The Lord said to me, "You are my Son;
this day I have begotten you.
Ask of me and I will give you
the nations for an inheritance
and the ends of the earth for your possession.
You shall rule them with an iron rod;
you shall shatter them like an earthen dish."
R Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord.
or:
R Alleluia.

Gospel
Jn 3:1-8

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
He came to Jesus at night and said to him,
"Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God,
for no one can do these signs that you are doing
unless God is with him."
Jesus answered and said to him,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God."
Nicodemus said to him,
"How can a man once grown old be born again?
Surely he cannot reenter his mother's womb and be born again, can he?"
Jesus answered,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless one is born of water and Spirit
he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
What is born of flesh is flesh
and what is born of spirit is spirit.
Do not be amazed that I told you,
‘You must be born from above.'
The wind blows where it wills,
and you can hear the sound it makes,
but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes;
so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

From: Acts 4:23-31

The Church's Thanksgiving Prayer

[23] When they (Peter and John) were released they went to their
friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to
them. [24] And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together
to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who didst make the Heaven and the
earth and the sea and everything in them, [25] who by the mouth of our
father David, Thy servant, didst say by the Holy Spirit, `Why did the
Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? [26] The kings of
the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were gathered
together, against the Lord and against His Anointed' [27] for truly in
this city there were gathered together against Thy Holy Servant Jesus,
whom Thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the
Gentiles, and the peoples of Israel, [28] to do whatever Thy hand and
Thy plan had predestined to take place. [29] And now, Lord, look upon
their threats, and grant to Thy servants to speak Thy word with all
boldness, [30] while Thou stretchest out Thy hand to heal, and signs
and wonders are performed through the name of Thy Holy Servant Jesus."
[31] And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered
together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and
spoke the word of God with boldness.

Commentary:

24-30. This prayer of the Apostles and the community provides
Christians with a model of reliance on God's help. They ask God to
give them the strength they need to continue to proclaim the Word
boldly and not be intimidated by persecution, and they also entreat Him
to accredit their preaching by enabling them to work signs and
wonders.

The prayer includes some prophetic verses of Psalm 2 which find their
fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The psalm begins by referring to earthly
rulers plotting against God and His Anointed. Jesus Himself
experienced this opposition, as the Apostles do now and as the Church
does throughout history. When we hear the clamor of the forces of
evil, still striving to "burst their bonds asunder, and cast their
cords from us" (verse 3), we should put our trust in the Lord, who
"holds them in derision. [...] He will speak to them in His wrath, and
terrify them in His fury" (verses 4-5); in this way we make it possible
for God's message to be heard by everyone: "Now, therefore, O kings, be
wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, with
trembling kiss His feet. [...] Blessed are all who take refuge in Him"
(verses 10-12).

Meditation on this psalm has comforted Christians in all ages, filling
them with confidence in the Lord's help: "Ask of Me, and I will make
the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession"
(verse 8).

31. The Holy Spirit chose to demonstrate His presence visibly in order
to encourage the nascent Church. The shaking that happens here was,
St. John Chrysostom comments, "a sign of approval. It is an action of

God to instill a holy fear in the souls of the Apostles, to strengthen
them against the threats of senators and priests, and to inspire them
with boldness to preach the Gospel. The Church was just beginning and
it was necessary to support preaching with wonders, in order the better
to win men over. It was needed at this time but not later on. [...]
When the earth is shaken, this sometimes is a sign of Heaven's wrath,
sometimes of favor and providence. At the death of our Savior the
earth shook in protest against the death of its Author.... But the
shaking where the Apostles were gathered together was a sign of God's
goodness, for the result was that they were filled with the Holy
Spirit" ("Hom. on Acts", 11).

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: John 3:1-8

The Visit of Nicodemus

[1] Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of
the Jews. [2] This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi,
we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these
things that You do, unless God is with Him." [3] Jesus answered him,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the
Kingdom of God." [4] Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when
he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be
born?" [5] Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is
born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
[6] That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit. [7] Do not marvel that I said to you, `You must
be born anew.' [8] The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the
sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes and whether it goes;
so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit."

Commentary:

1-21. Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem (cf. John
7:50). He must also have been an educated man, probably a scribe or
teacher of the Law: Jesus addresses him as a "teacher of Israel". He
would have been what is called an intellectual--a person who reasons
things out, for whom the search for truth is a basic part of life. He
was, naturally, much influenced by the Jewish intellectual climate of
his time. However, if divine things are to be understood, reason is
not enough: a person must be humble. The first thing Christ is going
to do in His conversation with Nicodemus is to highlight the need for
this virtue; that is why He does not immediately answer his questions:
instead, He shows him how far he is from true wisdom: "Are you a
teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand this?" Nicodemus
needs to recognize that, despite all his studies, he is still ignorant
of the things of God. As St. Thomas Aquinas comments: "The Lord does
not reprove him to offend him but rather because Nicodemus still relies
on his own learning; therefore He desired, by having him experience
this humiliation, to make him a fit dwelling-place for the Holy Spirit"
("Commentary on St. John, in loc."). From the way the conversation
develops Nicodemus obviously takes this step of humility and sits
before Jesus as disciple before master. Then our Lord reveals to him
the mysteries of faith. From this moment onwards Nicodemus will be
much wiser than all those colleagues of his who have not taken this
step.

Human knowledge, on whatever scale, is something minute compared with
the truths--simple to state but extremely profound--of the articles of
faith (cf. Ephesians 3:15-19; 1 Corinthians 2:9). Divine truths need
to be received with the simplicity of a child (without which we cannot
enter the Kingdom of Heaven); then, they can be meditated on right
through one's life and studied with a sense of awe, aware that divine
things are always far above our heads.

1-2. Throughout this intimate dialogue, Nicodemus behaves with great
refinement: he addresses Jesus with respect and calls Him Rabbi,
Master. He had probably been impressed by Christ's miracles and
preaching and wanted to know more. The way he reacts to our Lord's
teaching is not yet very supernatural, but he is noble and upright.
His visiting Jesus by night, for fear of the Jews (cf. John 19:39) is
very understandable, given his position as a member of the Sanhedrin:
but he takes the risk and goes to see Jesus.

When the Pharisees tried to arrest Jesus (John 7:32), failing to do so
because he had such support among the people, Nicodemus energetically
opposed the injustice of condemning a man without giving him a hearing;
he also showed no fear, at the most difficult time of all, by honoring
the dead body of the Lord (John 19:39).

3-8. Nicodemus' first question shows that he still has doubts about
Jesus (is He a prophet, is He the Messiah?); and our Lord replies to
him in a completely unexpected way: Nicodemus presumed He would say
something about His mission and, instead, He reveals to him an
astonishing truth: one must be born again, in a spiritual birth, by
water and the Spirit; a whole new world opens up before Nicodemus.

Our Lord's words also paint a limitless horizon for the spiritual
advancement of any Christian who willingly lets himself or herself be
led by divine grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are infused
at Baptism and enhanced by the Sacraments. As well as opening his soul
to God, the Christian also needs to keep at bay his selfish appetites
and the inclinations of pride, if he is to understand what God is
teaching him in his soul: "therefore must the soul be stripped of all
things created, and of its own actions and abilities--namely, of its
understanding, perception and feelings--so that, when all that is
unlike God and unconformed to Him is cast out, the soul may receive the
likeness of God; and nothing will then remain in it that is not the
will of God and it will thus be transformed in God. Wherefore,
although it is true that, as we have said, God is ever in the soul,
giving it, and through His presence conserving within it, its natural
being, yet He does not always communicate supernatural being to it.
For this is communicated only by love and grace, which not all souls
possess; and all those that posses it have it not in the same degree;
for some have attained more degrees of love and others fewer.
Wherefore God communicates Himself most to that soul that has
progressed farthest in love; namely, that has its will in closest
conformity with the will of God. And the soul that has attained
complete conformity and likeness of will is totally united and
transformed in God supernaturally" (St. John of the Cross, "Ascent of
Mount Carmel", Book II, Chapter 5).

Jesus speaks very forcefully about man's new condition: it is no longer
a question of being born of the flesh, of the line of Abraham (cf. John
1:13), but of being reborn through the action of the Holy Spirit, by
means of water. This is our Lord's first reference to Christian

Baptism, confirming John the Baptist's prophecy (cf. Matthew 3:11; John
1:33) that He had come to institute a baptism with the Holy Spirit.

"Nicodemus had not yet savored this Spirit and this life. [...] He
knew but one birth, which is from Adam and Eve; that which is from God
and the Church, he did not know; he knew only the paternity which
engenders to death; he did not yet know the paternity which engenders
to life. [...] Whereas there are two births, he knew only of one. One
is of earth, the other is of Heaven; one is of the flesh, the other of
the Spirit; one of mortality, the other of eternity; one of male and
female, the other of God and the Church. But the two are each unique;
neither one nor the other can be repeated" (St. Augustine, "In Ioann.
Evang"., 11, 6).

Our Lord speaks of the wonderful effects the Holy Spirit produces in
the soul of the baptized. Just as with the wind--when it blows we
realize its presence, we hear it whistling, but we do not know where it
came from, or where it will end up--so with the Holy Spirit, the Divine
"Breath" ("pneuma") given us in Baptism: we do not know how He comes to
penetrate our heart but He makes His presence felt by the change in the
conduct of whoever receives Him.

FEAST OF THE DAY

St. Peter Chanel was born into a poor family, living in the French
diocese of Belley, in the year 1803. As a youth he was needed by
the family to help make ends meet and took care of the family's
sheep. One day while Peter was tending the family flocks, the parish
priest met him and was impressed by his intelligence and deepness
of faith. The priest asked Peter's parents if he could be allowed to
educate the boy. Peter excelled in his studies and decided to
continue his education in the seminary.

St. Peter received his ordination to the priesthood and was sent to a
parish where many of the parishioners had fallen away from the faith.
Peter devoted his days to prayer, patience and providing a good
example in holiness for the people. Within three years Peter began
to reap the fruits of his labor and more people became on fire with
their faith. Peter saw his success at reconverting people to the faith
and became filled with zeal for the missionary life to convert new
souls to the Faith.

In 1831, St. Peter Chanel joined the newly founded Society of Mary
but was asked to teach in the seminary rather than work in the
mission fields. In the year 1836, the Marists were given leave to work
in the New Hebrides islands in the Pacific and St. Peter was
appointed superior of the first group sent to the area. St. Peter and
his group were well received at first but once they began to learn the
native language and gain support from the people the king began to
fear them. The king realized that acceptance of the Christian Faith
was a threat to his power and began to persecute the missionaries.
After the king's own son expressed a desire to be baptized the king
fell into a rage and sent a group of warriors to kill the missionaries.
On April 28, 1841 St. Peter was clubbed to death. Through his
excellent example and later missionaries, the island became
converted to the Faith a short time after Peter's death. St. Peter was
canonized in 1954 by Pope Pius XII. St. Peter Chanel is the
protomartyr and patron of Oceania.

St. Louis Mary Grignion was born to a poor family of Montfort,
France in the year 1673. Louis was blessed with the opportunity to
receive a Jesuit education and took this chance. In the year 1700 he
was ordained to the priesthood and assigned as chaplain to a
hospital in Poiters. This position did not last long because after trying
to reorganize the hospital staff Louis became the target of great
resentment.

After resigning from his position at the hospital, Louis was appointed
by Pope Clement XI as missionary apostolic and sent him to preach
in Brittany. Louis was greatly effective as a speaker and won many
souls with his emotional and heart filled preaching style. St. Louis
greatly emphasized devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the
Rosary. Although Louis accomplished great good through his
preaching, he received much opposition. During his lifetime he used
both spoken and written word to convey his message. His book True
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is still in print and is a popular book
for spiritual reading. St. Louis died in 1716 and was canonized in 1947.

----

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Pray with great confidence, with confidence based upon the
promises of Jesus Christ. God is a spring of living water which flows
unceasingly into the hearts of those who pray. -St. Louis de Montfort

----

TODAY IN HISTORY

1788 Maryland becomes the 7th state to ratify the constitution
1841 Death of St. Peter Chanel

-------

TODAY'S TIDBIT

St. Louis de Montfort, in addition to his preaching and teaching, is
known for founding several religious orders. While he was working
as a hospital chaplain, he founded the Congregation of the
Daughters of Divine Wisdom, and in the year 1715 he founded a
group of priests into the Missionaries of the Company of Mary.

-----

INTENTION FOR THE DAY

Please pray for anyone who has an addiction. May they overcome
their addiction with the help of God.

The Word Among Us

Monday, April 28, 2003

Meditation
John 3:1-8

A Jewish leader, Nico-demus sought Jesus out at night, possibly to avoid discovery by his peers. He believed that there was something of God’s work in what Jesus said and did, something worth pursuing. Yet, even though he took a risk to meet Jesus, and even though he detected God’s work through this rabbi, Jesus insisted that this noble-minded religious leader be “born anew” (John 3:3) in order to see the kingdom of God.

“How can a man be born when he is old?” (John 3:4). The statement baffled Nicodemus’ logic. It may even have moved him to reconsider Jesus’ credentials. But Jesus explained that until Nicodemus was “born anew” by the Spirit of God, he would remain bound by the shadowy limitations of human reasoning. Just as he came to Jesus under the cover of physical darkness, he would remain in spiritual darkness without the transforming effect of this new birth.

Nicodemus’ encounter with Jesus shows that without the intervention of the Holy Spirit, we can miss out on the fullness of truth. We can be good people with good intentions, but our relationship with Jesus will be determined more by how well we obey the commandments and love others than it will simply by our intentions. But when we seek the transforming power of the Spirit, we become partakers of the very nature of God, empowered by the Spirit not only to obey God, but to become like God.

As Christians, we have chosen to accept the Apostles’ Creed, renounce sin, and receive Christ as our Savior and Lord. Yet every day, we need to acknowledge and live according to the spiritual “new birth” that is ours. We were “born anew” in the Spirit so that we could walk in the Spirit with increasing maturity (Galatians 5:16-25). Let us pursue the Holy Spirit every day in prayer as we experience a living relationship with Jesus, the lover of our souls.

“Holy Spirit, I need your revelation. I don’t want to rely only on my understanding. Let me experience your divine love, and let that love transform my life.”

One Bread, One Body

<< Monday, April 28, 2003 >>

St. Peter Chanel
St. Louis Marie de Montfort

Acts 4:23-31

Psalm 2

John 3:1-8

View Readings

EASTER PRESENTS

“Grant to Your servants, even as they speak Your words, complete assurance.” —Acts 4:29

On the ninth day of Easter, our true Love, Jesus (see 1 Jn 4:8, 16), gives us holy boldness, complete assurance, absolute confidence (Acts 4:29; Heb 10:22), “parrhesia,” “straightforward simplicity, filial trust, joyous assurance, humble boldness, the certainty of being loved” (Catechism, 2778). When we pray with this assurance and confidence, the place where we pray shakes and we are “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:31).

Will you accept the risen Jesus’ gift of holy boldness? If you accept this gift, you are committing yourself to use it — to witness for the risen Christ even if you will be persecuted. If you are in love with the risen Christ, that love will impel you (2 Cor 5:14) to speak up for Jesus. Therefore, holy boldness is just what you want and need. But if your love for God, Who is Love, is cold (see Mt 24:12), then you would not want holy boldness from your true Love on this ninth day of Easter.

The risen Jesus is asking us the same question He asked Peter: “Do you love me?” (Jn 21:15, 16, 17) Jesus is breathing on you and commanding you: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22) of love (see Gal 5:22). Say “yes” to Love. Receive the gift of love. Then you will want the gift of holy boldness.

Prayer: Father, on this Easter day, give me a greater love for You than ever before.

Promise: “I solemnly assure you, no one can enter into God’s kingdom without being begotten of water and Spirit.” —Jn 3:5

Praise: St. Peter was martyred by the Indians of the South Pacific island where he had spent several years as a moderately successful missionary. Shortly after his martyrdom, the entire population of the island joined the Catholic Church.

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