Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 9-09-03, Memorial, St. Peter Claver

Reading I
Col 2:6-15

Brothers and sisters:
As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him,
rooted in him and built upon him
and established in the faith as you were taught,
abounding in thanksgiving.
See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy
according to the tradition of men,
according to the elemental powers of the world
and not according to Christ.

For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily,
and you share in this fullness in him,
who is the head of every principality and power.
In him you were also circumcised
with a circumcision not administered by hand,
by stripping off the carnal body, with the circumcision of Christ.
You were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the power of God,
who raised him from the dead.
And even when you were dead in transgressions
and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
he brought you to life along with him,
having forgiven us all our transgressions;
obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims,
which was opposed to us,
he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross;
despoiling the principalities and the powers,
he made a public spectacle of them,
leading them away in triumph by it.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 145:1b-2, 8-9, 10-11

R (9) The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
I will extol you, O my God and King,
and I will bless your name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
R The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
R The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.

Gospel
Lk 6:12-19

Jesus departed to the mountain to pray,
and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles:
Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew,
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus,
Simon who was called a Zealot,
and Judas the son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground.
A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon
came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;
and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.
Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him
because power came forth from him and healed them all.

From: Colossians 2:6-15

A Warning About Empty Philosophies

[6] As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him,
[7] rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as
you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

[8] See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty
deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental
spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

Defense of Sound Teaching in the Face of Heresy

[9] For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, [10] and you
have come to fullness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and
authority. [11] In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision
made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the
circumcision of Christ; [12] and you were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of
God, who raised him from the dead. [13] And you, who were dead in
trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive
together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, [14] having
canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this
he set aside, nailing it to the cross. [15] He disarmed the
principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing
over them in him.

Commentary:

4-8. These verses reveal the Apostle's pastoral solicitude for the
faithful of Colossae. Although physically absent, he is with them in
spirit. He rejoices and gives thanks to God for their steadfastness,
but he leaves them in no doubt about the dangers which threaten their
faith. Clearly he is referring to those who were adulterating the
Colossians' faith by intruding erroneous ideas. By sophistry and deceit
they were trying to convince the faithful that it was better to have
recourse to angels rather than to Christ, arguing that angels were the
chief mediators between God and men.

The Christian faith is not opposed to human scholarship and science, it
rejects only vain philosophy, that is, philosophy which boasts that it
relies on reason alone and which fails to respect revealed truths.

Over the centuries, people have often tried to adapt the truths of
faith to the philosophies or ideologies which happen to be in vogue. In
this connection Leo Xlll said: "As the Apostle warns, 'philosophy and
empty deceit' can deceive the minds of Christians and corrupt the
sincerity of men's faith; the supreme pastors of the Church, therefore,
always see it as part of their role to foster as much as they can
sciences which merit that name, and at the same time to ensure by
special watchfulness, that human sciences are taught in keeping with
the criteria of Catholic faith--particularly philosophy, because proper
methodology in the other sciences is largely dependent on [correctness
in] philosophy" ("Aeterni Patris", 1).

"The elemental spirits of the universe": see the note on Gal 4:3.

9. This is such an important verse that it deserves close analysis.
"Dwell": the Greek word means a stable way of living or residing, as
distinct from a transitory presence: in other words, the union of
Christ's human nature with his divine nature is not just something
which lasts for a while; it is permanent. "Deity": the Greek word can
also be translated as "divinity"; in either case, the sentence means
that God has taken up a human nature, in such a way that, although it
was only the second divine Person, the Son, who became incarnate, by
virtue of the unity of the divine essence, where one divine person is
present the other two persons are also present.

This verse enunciates the profound mystery of the Incarnation in a
different way to John 1:14: "And the word became flesh and dwelt among
us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory; glory as of the
only Son from the Father" (cf. also 1 in 1:1-2).

When the sacred text says that in Christ "the whole fullness of deity
dwells bodily", it means, St John of Avila explains, "that it does not
dwell in him merely by grace-as in the case of the saints (men and
angels both), but in another way of greater substance and value, that
is, by way of personal union" ("Audi, "Filia", 84).

In Jesus Christ, then, there are two natures, divine and human, united
in one person, who is divine. This "hypostatic union" does not prevent
each nature from having all its own proper characteristics, for, as St
Leo the Great defined, "the Word has not changed into flesh, nor has
flesh changed into Word; but each remains, in a unity" ("Licet Per
Nostros", 2).

10. Since Christ is head of angels and men, the head of all creation
(cf. Eph 1:10) and especially head of the Church (cf. Col 1:18), all
fullness is said to reside in him (cf. note on Col 1:19). Hence, not
only is he pre-eminent over all things but "he fills the Church, which
is his body and fullness, with his divine gifts (cf. Eph 1:22-23), so
that it may increase and attain to all the fullness of God (cf. Eph
3:19)" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 7).

Union with Christ makes Christians sharers in his "fullness", that is,
in divine grace (of which he is absolutely full and we have a partial
share), in a word, in his perfections.

That is why the members of the Church who "through the sacraments are
united in a hidden and real way to Christ" ("Lumen Gentium", 7) can
attain the fullness of the Christian life.

It was very appropriate for St Paul to be instructing the Colossians in
these truths at this time, because it put them on their guard against
preachers who were arguing for exaggerated worship of angels, to the
detriment of Christ's unique, pre-eminent mediation.

11-12. This is a reference to another error which the Judaizers were
trying to spread at Colossae and which was already treated in detail in
the letters to the Galatians and the Romans--the idea that it was
necessary for Christians to be circumcised. Physical circumcision
affects the body, whereas what the Apostle, by analogy, calls "the
circumcision of Christ", that is, Baptism, puts off the "body of flesh"
(an expression which seems to refer to whatever is sinful in man). "We,
who by means of (Christ) have reached God, have not been given fleshly
circumcision but rather spiritual circumcision [...]; we receive it by
the mercy of God in Baptism" (St Justin, "Dialogue with Trypho", 43,
2). "By the sacrament of Baptism, whenever it is properly conferred in
the way the Lord determined and received with the proper dispositions
of soul, man becomes truly incorporated into the crucified and
glorified Christ and is reborn to a sharing of the divine life, as the
Apostle says: [Col 2:12 follows]" (Vatican II, "Unitatis
Redintegratio", 22).

As on other occasions (cf. Rom 6:4), St Paul, evoking the rite of
immersion in water, speaks of Baptism as a kind of burial (a sure sign
that someone has died to sin), and of resurrection to a new life, the
life of grace. By this sacrament we are associated with Christ's death
and burial so as to be able to rise with him. "Christ by his
resurrection signified our new life, which was reborn out of the old
death which submerged us in sin. This is what is brought about in us by
the great sacrament of Baptism: all those who receive this grace die to
sin [...] and are reborn to the new life" (St Augustine, "Enchiridion",
41-42).

13-14. This is one of the central teachings of the epistle--that Jesus
Christ is the only mediator between God and men. The basic purpose of
his mediation is to reconcile men with God, through the forgiveness of
their sins and the gift of the life of grace, which is a sharing in
God's own life.

Verse 14 indicates how Christ achieved this purpose--by dying on the
Cross. All who were under the yoke of sin and the Law have been set
free through his death.

The Mosaic Law, to which the scribes and Pharisees added so many
precepts as to make it unbearable, had become (to use St Paul's
comparison) like a charge sheet against man, because it imposed heavy
burdens but did not provide the grace needed for bearing them. The
Apostle very graphically says that this charge sheet or "bond" was set
aside and nailed on the Cross--making it perfectly clear to all that
Christ made more than ample satisfaction for our crimes. "He has
obliterated them," St John Chrysostom comments, "not simply crossed
them out; he has obliterated them so effectively that no trace of them
remains in our soul. He has completely canceled them out, he has nailed
them to the Cross [...]. We were guilty and deserved the most rigorous
of punishments because we were all of us in sin! What, then, does the
Son of God do? By his death on the Cross he removes all our stains and
exempts us from the punishment due to them. He takes our charge-sheet,
nails it to the Cross through his own person and destroys it" ("Hom. on
Col, ad loc.").

15. Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. The angelic
principalities and powers are insignificant by comparison with him: God
has overpowered them and publicly exposed them through the death of his
Son. The sentence seems to evoke the idea of the parade of a victorious
general complete with trophies, booty and prisoners.

Some scholars interpret this passage differently; the "public
spectacle", according to their interpretation, would refer to the fact
that the good angels had been mediators in the revelation of the Mosaic
Law (cf. Gal 3:19) and were being venerated by some contemporary Jews
(among them some converts from Colossae) with a form of worship
bordering on superstition. God would have caused them to become "a
public spectacle" when they acted as a kind of escort in Christ's
victory parade. Thus, both interpretations lead to the conclusion that
angels, who are Christ's servants, should not be rendered the worship
due to him alone, even though they do play an important part in God's
plan of salvation. One of the missions entrusted to them is that of
continually interceding on behalf of mankind.

At the time this epistle was being written there was need to emphasize
first that Jesus Christ is the only mediator. The mediation of angels
depends on him (it is something revealed in fact in the Old Testament:
cf. Tob 12:3, 12ff; Dan 9:2ff; 10:13; Ezek 49:3; Zech 1:9; etc.). The
Blessed Virgin Mary's mediation, also subordinate to that of Christ,
is something which becomes clearer as the events of the New Testament
unfold. Mary's mediation is, however, on a higher level than that of
the angels. Pope Pius XII says this, echoing earlier teachings: "If, as
he does, the Word works miracles and infuses grace by means of the
human nature he has taken on, if he uses the sacraments, and his
Saints, as instruments for the saving of souls, how could he not use
the office and action of his most blessed Mother to distribute the
fruits of the Redemption?

"With a truly maternal spirit (our predecessor Pius IX of immortal
memory says), having in her hands the business of our salvation, she
concerns herself with all mankind, for she has been made by the Lord
Queen of heaven and earth and is raised above all the choirs of Angels
and all the degrees of the Saints in heaven; she is there at the right
hand of her only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, in most effective
supplication, obtaining whatever she asks; she cannot but be heard"
("Ad Caeli Reginam", 17).

"Principalities and powers": see the note on Eph 6:12.

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 6:12-19

The Calling of the Apostles

[12] In these days He (Jesus) went out into the hills to pray; and all
night He continued in prayer to God. [13] And when it was day, He
called His disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom He named
Apostles: [14] Simon, whom He named Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and
James and John, and Philip and Bartholomew, [15] and Matthew, and
Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the
Zealot, [16] and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became
a traitor.

The Sermon on the Mount

[17] And He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a
great crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all
Judea and Jerusalem and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to
hear Him and to be healed of their diseases; [18] and those who were
troubled with unclean spirits were cured. [19] And all the crowd
sought to touch Him, for power came forth from Him and healed them
all.

Commentary:

12-13. The evangelist writes with a certain formality when describing
this important occasion on which Jesus chooses the Twelve, constituting
them as the apostolic college: "The Lord Jesus, having prayed at length
to the Father, called to Himself those whom He willed and appointed
twelve to be with Him, whom He might send to preach the Kingdom of God
(cf. Mark 2:13-19; Matthew 10:1-42). These Apostles (cf. Luke 6:13) He
constituted in the form of a college or permanent assembly, at the head
of which He placed Peter, chosen from among them (cf. John 21:15-17).
He sent them first of all to the children of Israel and then to all
peoples (cf. Romans 1:16), so that, sharing in His power, they might
make all peoples His disciples and sanctify and govern them (cf.
Matthew 28:16-20; and par.) and thus spread the Church and,
administering it under the guidance of the Lord, shepherd it all days
until the end of the world (cf. Matthew 28:20). They were fully
confirmed in this mission on the day of Pentecost (cf. Act 2:1-26)
[...]. Through their preaching the Gospel everywhere (cf. Mark 16:20),
and through its being welcomed and received under the influence of the
Holy Spirit by those who hear it, the Apostles gather together the
universal Church, which the Lord founded upon the Apostles and built
upon Blessed Peter their leader, the chief cornerstone being Christ
Jesus Himself (cf. Revelation 21:14; Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 2:20).
That divine mission, which was committed by Christ to the Apostles, is
destined to last until the end of the world (cf. Matthew 28:20), since
the Gospel, which they were charged to hand on, is, for the Church, the
principle of all its life for all time. For that very reason the
Apostles were careful to appoint successors in this hierarchically
constituted society" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 19-20).

Before establishing the apostolic college, Jesus spent the whole night
in prayer. He often made special prayer for His Church (Luke 9:18;
John 17:1ff), thereby preparing His Apostles to be its pillars (cf.
Galatians 2:9). As His Passion approaches, He will pray to the Father
for Simon Peter, the head of the Church, and solemnly tell Peter that
He has done so: "But I have prayed for you that your faith may not
fail" (Luke 22:32). Following Christ's example, the Church stipulates
that on many occasions liturgical prayer should be offered for the
pastors of the Church (the Pope, the bishops in general, and priests)
asking God to give them grace to fulfill their ministry faithfully.

Christ is continually teaching us that we need to pray always (Luke
18:1). Here He shows us by His example that we should pray with
special intensity at important moments in our lives. "`Pernoctans in
oratione Dei. He spent the whole night in prayer to God.' So St.
Luke tells of our Lord. And you? How often have you persevered like
that? Well, then...." ([Blessed] J. Escriva, "The Way", 104).

On the need for prayer and the qualities our prayer should have, see
the notes on Matthew 6:5-6; 7:7-11; 14:22-23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16;
11:1-4; 22:41-42.

12. Since Jesus is God, why does He pray? There were two wills in
Christ, one divine and one human (cf. "St. Pius X Catechism", 91), and
although by virtue of His divine will He was omnipotent, His human will
was not omnipotent. When we pray, what we do is make our will known to
God; therefore Christ, who is like us in all things but sin (Hebrews
4:15), also had to pray in a human way (cf. "Summa Theologiae", III, q.
21, a. 1). Reflecting on Jesus at prayer, St. Ambrose comments: "The
Lord prays not to ask things for Himself, but to intercede on my
behalf; for although the Father has put everything into the hands of
the Son, still the Son, in order to behave in accordance with His
condition as man, considers it appropriate to implore the Father for
our sake, for He is our Advocate [...]. A Master of obedience, by His
example He instructs us concerning the precepts of virtue: `We have an
advocate with the Father' (1 John 2:1)" ("Expositio Evangelii sec.
Lucam, in loc.").

14-16. Jesus chose for Apostles very ordinary people, most of them poor
and uneducated; apparently only Matthew and the brothers James and John
had social positions of any consequence. But all of them gave up
whatever they had, little or much as it was, and all of them, bar
Judas, put their faith in the Lord, overcame their shortcomings and
eventually proved faithful to grace and became saints, veritable
pillars of the Church. We should not feel uneasy when we realize that
we too are low in human qualities; what matters is being faithful to
the grace God gives us.

19. God became man to save us. The divine person of the Word acts
through the human nature which He took on. The cures and casting out
of devils which He performed during His life on earth are also proof
that Christ actually brings redemption and not just hope of
redemption. The crowds of people from Judea and other parts of Israel
who flock to Him, seeking even to touch Him, anticipate, in a way,
Christians' devotion to the holy Humanity of Christ.

FEAST OF THE DAY

St. Peter Claver was born in Spain in the year 1581 and joined the
Jesuit order as a young man and was ordained to the priesthood in
1615. In 1610, Peter left his homeland of Spain to become a
missionary in the Americas, he never returned home. St. Peter
arrived in the Americas at the port of Cartagena in what is now
Columbia. At this time Cartagena was one of the major centers of
slave trade in the New World. When Peter Claver landed, he was
struck by the plight of the slaves and decided to devote the rest of
his life to them, calling himself "the slave of the slaves forever."

Peter decided to help the slaves in any way he could. Peter first
ministered to their physical needs, then he ministered to their
spiritual needs. When a new ship of slaves came into harbor, Peter
would board it, go into the hold, and help the slaves. He started by
giving them food, including bread and fruit, and drink, administered
medicine to those who needed it, and offering brandy and tobacco to
those who wanted it. Once physical needs were attended to, he
began serving the slaves spiritually. Through interpreters, he
instructed them in the faith, teaching about human dignity and God's
saving love, he would then baptize the saves into the Catholic faith.
In this way, he helped more than 300,000 souls.

After the slaves left the ships and were sold, he still worked to help
them. He visited the plantations to continue teaching and to help
physical needs, and he served as a thorn in the conscience of
people dealing with the slave trade reminding them of their moral
duties to fellow humans. After a drawn out sickness, Peter died on
September 8, 1654. St. Peter Claver was canonized in 1888 by Pope
Leo XIII. He is the patron of Columbia, and missionary work to black
peoples.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

We must speak to them with our hands before we speak to them with
our lips. -St. Peter Claver

TODAY IN HISTORY

438 Death of St. Issac the Great
1224 Franciscan friars land in England
1585 Pope Sixtus V deprives Henry of Navarre of his right to the French Crown

TODAY'S TIDBIT

An annulment is a decree issued by an appropriate Church authority
or tribunal that rules that a sacrament or ecclesiastical act is invalid
and therefore lacking in all legal or canonical consequences.

INTENTION FOR THE DAY

Please pray, through the intercession of St. Peter the "slave of the
slaves" for all who are enslaved to any addiction.

The Word Among Us

Tuesday, September 09, 2003

Meditation
Luke 6:12-19

The scorching sun stood high above the eager crowd as they gathered to hear the traveling rabbi preach. Hour after hour, ignoring hunger and exhaustion, the people listened intently to his gentle yet powerful voice sounding out over the plain, echoing from the nearby hills—and reverberating in their hearts.

If you imagined yourself in the crowd surrounding Jesus, what would you see? What would you hear, smell, and feel? Picture the landscape. Picture Jesus. What does he look like? How do you react as you see him coming down the mountain toward you? As he passes by, do you say anything to him? Do your eyes meet, or do you turn away and try to conceal yourself in the crowd? Maybe you’re one of the multitude pressing in on him from every side, trying desperately to touch him. What are your thoughts as you see him healing the sick and curing the demon-possessed?

Watching this gospel episode unfold in your imagination and mentally putting yourself into the action can be a very helpful way of getting in touch with Jesus and responding to him. For many who have tried it, this type of prayerful meditation has brought new insights to the text and even led to a new understanding of Jesus as someone who is present for each of us, here and now. Give it a try. You don’t have to have the most vivid imagination in the world or know lots of details about first-century Palestine. Simply begin with the framework in the gospel account and then fill in some of your own details. The important thing is to dwell on Jesus himself, to observe him, and then to interact with him.

Take a moment to reread today’s gospel, then let the Holy Spirit and your imagination guide you through the scene. Let the characters come alive on the stage of your mind. Allow yourself to encounter Jesus as he walks about ministering to the crowd—and to you! With your eyes closed to the world and your heart open to God, you never know what blessings the Lord has in store!

“Lord, send your Spirit to guide me as I seek to draw closer to you in prayer. Fill my mind with your presence. Refresh my faith and make your word ever new and alive to me.”

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

One Bread, One Body