Posted on 07/24/2014 8:59:46 PM PDT by Salvation
July 25, 2014
Reading 1 2 Cor 4:7-15
Brothers and sisters:
We hold this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.
We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.
For we who live are constantly being given up to death
for the sake of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So death is at work in us, but life in you.
Since, then, we have the same spirit of faith,
according to what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke,
we too believe and therefore speak,
knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus
will raise us also with Jesus
and place us with you in his presence.
Everything indeed is for you,
so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people
may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 126:1bc-2ab, 2cd-3, 4-5, 6
R. (5) Those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. Those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing.
Then they said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. Those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those that sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. Those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. Those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing.
Gospel Mt 20:20-28
The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons
and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.
He said to her,
“What do you wish?”
She answered him,
“Command that these two sons of mine sit,
one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom.”
Jesus said in reply,
“You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”
They said to him, “We can.”
He replied,
“My chalice you will indeed drink,
but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give
but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
When the ten heard this,
they became indignant at the two brothers.
But Jesus summoned them and said,
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and the great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.
Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served
but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Feast Day: July 26
Born: Canaan
Died: 251, Asia Minor
Patron of: bachelors, transportation (drivers, sailors, etc.), travelling (especially for long journeys), storms, epilepsy, gardeners, holy death, toothache
Feast Day: July 25
Born: 368 Constantinople
Died: 25 July 408 at Nicomedia
St. James the Greater
Feast Day: July 25
Born: (around the time of Jesus) :: Died: (around 44 AD)
James was the son of Zebedee and Salome and the brother of St. John the Apostle. Fishermen like their father, James and John were on their father's boat mending his nets when the Lord passed by. Jesus called James and John, and asked them to follow him. He told them, as his disciples they would become fishers of men. They would help him to spread the Good News about God’s kingdom. Zebedee watched as his two sons left the boat to follow Jesus.
With St. Peter and St. John, James was a special companion of Jesus. Along with them James was allowed to see what the other apostles did not see. Together they watched as Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus to life. They went up the mountain with Jesus and saw him shining like the sun, with his robes white as snow. Then they heard God’s voice telling them this was his beloved son. This event is called Jesus' Transfiguration.
On Holy Thursday, the night before he died, Jesus led the apostles into the garden of Gethsemane. Matthew's Gospel tells us he invited Peter, James and John to go with him to a quiet area to pray. They watched as the Jesus’ face became sad with grief. Then in his great sorrow, his brow began to sweat drops of blood. It was heartbreaking to watch.
But the apostles were very tired and they fell asleep. When the enemies of Jesus finally came to take him away, St. James ran in fear. He was nowhere around when Jesus died on the cross on Good Friday. But on Easter Sunday evening in the upper room Jesus appeared to his apostles again. The resurrected Jesus came through the locked door and said, "Peace be to you."
St. James and the other apostles found that deep peace after the Holy Spirit's came upon them on Pentecost. St. James began his ministry as an in a very strong way. He asked Jesus for a seat of honor in his kingdom. He demanded that Jesus send fire down on the villages that did not receive the Lord. But he also had great faith in Jesus.
Eventually, James learned to become more humble and gentle. He traveled to Samaria, Judea and Spain preaching the Good News of salvation. He was given the honor of being the first apostle to die for Jesus. Chapter 12 of the Acts of the Apostles tells us that King Herod Agrippa had St. James put to death by the sword. As a martyr James gave the greatest witness of all.
Reflection: Despite St. James' weaknesses, Jesus loved him. Today we can pray for the grace to deeply recognize the love of Jesus.
Wednesday, July 25
Liturgical Color: Red
Pope Paul VI issued the encyclical
Humane Vitae on this day in 1968.
Although he was severely criticized for
the Church's stance against
contraception and abortion, his grim
predictions of their effects have sadly
proven true.
"You shall not have strange Gods before me." What does that mean?
This commandment forbids us: to adore other gods and pagan deities or to worship an earthly idol or to devote oneself entirely to some earthly good (money, influence, success, beauty, youth, and so on) to be superstitious, which means to adhere to esoteric, magic, or occult or New Age practices or to get involved with fortune telling or spiritualism, instead of believing in God's power, providence, and blessings to provoke God by word or deed to commit a sacrilege to acquire spiritual power through corruption and to desecrate what is holy through trafficking (simony).
Is esotericism as found, for example in New Age beliefs, compatible with the Christian faith?
No. Esotericism ignores the reality of God. God is a personal Being; he is love and the origin of life, not some cold cosmic energy. Man was willed and created by God, but man himself is not divine; rather, he is a creature that is wounded by sin, threatened by death, and in need of redemption. Whereas most proponents of esotericism assume that man can redeem himself, Christians believe that only Jesus Christ and God's grace redeem them. Nor are nature and the cosmos God (pantheism). Rather, the Creator, even though he loves us immensely, is infinitely greater and unlike anything he has created.
Many people today practice yoga for health reasons, enroll in a meditation course so as to become more calm and collected, or attend dance workshops so as to experience their bodies in a new way. These techniques are not always harmless. Often they are vehicles for doctrines that are foreign to Christianity. No reasonable person should hold an irrational world view, in which people can tap magical powers or harness mysterious spirits and the "initiated" have a secret knowledge that is withheld from the "ignorant". In ancient Israel, the surrounding peoples' beliefs in gods and spirits were exposed as false. God alone is Lord; there is no god besides him. Nor is there any (magical) technique by which one can capture or charm "the divine", force one's wishes on the universe, or redeem oneself. Much about these esoteric beliefs and practices is superstition or occultism. (YOUCAT questions 355-356)
Dig Deeper: CCC section (2110-2128) and other references here.
Part 3: Life in Christ (1691 - 2557)
Section 2: The Ten Commandments (2052 - 2557)
Chapter 1: You Shall Love the Lord Your God with All Your Heart, and with All Your Soul, and with All Your Mind (2083 - 2195)
Article 1: The First Commandment (2084 - 2141)
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them.3
It is written: "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve."4 ⇡
III. "YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME" ⇡
The first commandment forbids honoring gods other than the one Lord who has revealed himself to his people. It proscribes superstition and irreligion. Superstition in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion; irreligion is the vice contrary by defect to the virtue of religion.
3.
Ex 20:2-5; cf. Deut 5:6-9.
4.
Superstition ⇡
Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.41
41.
Cf. Mt 23:16-22.
Idolatry ⇡
The first commandment condemns polytheism. It requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one true God. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of "idols, [of] silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see." These empty idols make their worshippers empty: "Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them."42 God, however, is the "living God"43 who gives life and intervenes in history.
42.
Ps 115:4-5, 8; cf. Isa 44:9-20; Jer 10:1-16; Dan 14:1-30; Bar 6; Wis 13:1-15:19.
43.
Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon."44 Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast"45 refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.46
44.
45.
Cf. Rev 13-14.
46.
Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. The commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an endless disintegration. Idolatry is a perversion of man's innate religious sense. An idolater is someone who "transfers his indestructible notion of God to anything other than God."47
47.
Origen, Contra Celsum 2,40:PG 11,861.
Divination and magic ⇡
God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.
All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future.48 Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
48.
Cf. Deut 18:10; Jer 29:8.
All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others even if this were for the sake of restoring their health are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity.
Irreligion ⇡
God's first commandment condemns the main sins of irreligion: tempting God, in words or deeds, sacrilege, and simony.
Tempting God consists in putting his goodness and almighty power to the test by word or deed. Thus Satan tried to induce Jesus to throw himself down from the Temple and, by this gesture, force God to act.49 Jesus opposed Satan with the word of God: "You shall not put the LORD your God to the test."50 The challenge contained in such tempting of God wounds the respect and trust we owe our Creator and Lord. It always harbors doubt about his love, his providence, and his power.51
49.
Cf. Lk 4:9.
50.
51.
Cf. 1 Cor 10:9; Ex 17:2-7; Ps 95:9.
Sacrilege consists in profaning or treating unworthily the sacraments and other liturgical actions, as well as persons, things, or places consecrated to God. Sacrilege is a grave sin especially when committed against the Eucharist, for in this sacrament the true Body of Christ is made substantially present for us.52
52.
Cf. CIC, cann. 1367; 1376.
Simony is defined as the buying or selling of spiritual things.53 To Simon the magician, who wanted to buy the spiritual power he saw at work in the apostles, St. Peter responded: "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God's gift with money!"54 Peter thus held to the words of Jesus: "You received without pay, give without pay."55 It is impossible to appropriate to oneself spiritual goods and behave toward them as their owner or master, for they have their source in God. One can receive them only from him, without payment.
53.
Cf. Acts 8:9-24.
54.
55.
Mt 10:8; cf. already Isa 55:1.
The minister should ask nothing for the administration of the sacraments beyond the offerings defined by the competent authority, always being careful that the needy are not deprived of the help of the sacraments because of their poverty."56 The competent authority determines these "offerings" in accordance with the principle that the Christian people ought to contribute to the support of the Church's ministers. "The laborer deserves his food."57
56.
CIC, can. 848.
57.
Mt 10:10; cf. Lk 10:7; 2 Cor 9:5-18; 1 Tim 5:17-18.
Atheism ⇡
"Many ... of our contemporaries either do not at all perceive, or explicitly reject, this intimate and vital bond of man to God. Atheism must therefore be regarded as one of the most serious problems of our time."58
58.
GS 19 § 1.
The name "atheism" covers many very different phenomena. One common form is the practical materialism which restricts its needs and aspirations to space and time. Atheistic humanism falsely considers man to be "an end to himself, and the sole maker, with supreme control, of his own history."59 Another form of contemporary atheism looks for the liberation of man through economic and social liberation. "It holds that religion, of its very nature, thwarts such emancipation by raising man's hopes in a future life, thus both deceiving him and discouraging him from working for a better form of life on earth."60
59.
GS 20 § 2.
60.
GS 20 § 2.
Since it rejects or denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin against the virtue of religion.61 The imputability of this offense can be significantly diminished in virtue of the intentions and the circumstances. "Believers can have more than a little to do with the rise of atheism. To the extent that they are careless about their instruction in the faith, or present its teaching falsely, or even fail in their religious, moral, or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than to reveal the true nature of God and of religion."62
61.
Cf. Rom 1:18.
62.
GS 19 § 3.
Atheism is often based on a false conception of human autonomy, exaggerated to the point of refusing any dependence on God.63 Yet, "to acknowledge God is in no way to oppose the dignity of man, since such dignity is grounded and brought to perfection in God. ... "64 "For the Church knows full well that her message is in harmony with the most secret desires of the human heart."65
63.
Cf. GS 20 § 1.
64.
GS 21 § 3.
65.
GS 21 § 7.
Agnosticism ⇡
Agnosticism assumes a number of forms. In certain cases the agnostic refrains from denying God; instead he postulates the existence of a transcendent being which is incapable of revealing itself, and about which nothing can be said. In other cases, the agnostic makes no judgment about God's existence, declaring it impossible to prove, or even to affirm or deny.
Agnosticism can sometimes include a certain search for God, but it can equally express indifferentism, a flight from the ultimate question of existence, and a sluggish moral conscience. Agnosticism is all too often equivalent to practical atheism.
Daily Readings for:July 25, 2014
(Readings on USCCB website)
Collect: Almighty ever-living God, who consecrated the first fruits of your Apostles by the blood of Saint James, grant, we pray, that your Church may be strengthened by his confession of faith and constantly sustained by his protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
RECIPES
o Green String Beans Saint Jacques
ACTIVITIES
o Family and Friends of Jesus Scrapbook Album
PRAYERS
o Book of Blessings: Blessing of Pilgrims
o Book of Blessings: Blessing of Travelers
o Litany of the Fourteen Holy Helpers
o Motorist's Prayer to St. Christopher
LIBRARY
o James, the Greater | Pope Benedict XVI
· Ordinary Time: July 25th
· Feast of St. James, apostle
Old Calendar: St. James, apostle; St. Christopher
St. James, known as the Greater, in order to distinguish him from the other Apostle St. James, our Lord's cousin, was St. John's brother. With Peter and John he was one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration, as later he was also of the agony in the garden. He was beheaded in Jerusalem in 42 or 43 on the orders of Herod Agrippa. Since the ninth century Spain has claimed the honour of possessing his relics, though it must be said that actual proof is far less in evidence than the devotion of the faithful. The pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella in the Middle Ages attracted immense crowds; after the pilgrimage to Rome or the Holy Land, it was the most famous and the most frequented pilgrimage in Christendom. The pilgrim paths to Compostella form a network over Europe; they are dotted with pilgrims' hospices and chapels, some of which still exist. St. James is mentioned in the Roman Canon of the Mass.
According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is also the feast of St. Christopher who suffered martyrdom in Asia Minor about the year 250. The devotion of our fathers, taking its due from his name (Christopher means bearer of Christ), caused them to place colossal statues of the saint bearing the infant Christ on his shoulders at the entrance to cathedrals. Thus arose the legend of the giant who carried the child Jesus over a river... and the devotion to St. Christopher as the patron of motorists and all forms of transport. He is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
St. James
In Spain, he is called El Senor Santiago, the patron saint of horsemen and soldiers, and his great shrine at Santiago de Compostela in that country has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries. He is one of those that Jesus called Boanerges, "son of thunder," the brother of John the Evangelist and the son of Zebedee the fisherman from Galilee.
St. James the Greater and his brother John were apparently partners with those other two brothers, Peter and Andrew, and lived in Bethsaida, on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. How and where James first met Jesus, we do not know; but there is an old legend that makes Salome, his mother, a sister of Mary, and if this were the case, he would have known Jesus from childhood.
Along with Peter and his brother John, James was part of the inner circle of Jesus, who witnessed the Transfiguration, were witnesses to certain of His miracles, like the raising of the daughter of Jairus, and accompanied Him to the Garden of Gethsemani. Like his brother, he was active in the work of evangelization after the death of Jesus, and one legend, very unlikely, even has him going to Spain after Jesus' resurrection.
His prominence and his presence in Jerusalem must have been well known, for scarcely a dozen years after the Resurrection, he became involved in the political maneuverings of the day and was arrested and executed by King Herod Agrippa. This was followed by the arrest of Peter also, so his death must have been part of a purge of Christian leaders by Agrippa, who saw the new Christian movement as a threat to Judaism.
Jesus had foretold this kind of fate when He prophesied that James and his brother John would "drink of the same chalice" of suffering as Himself. The two brothers had asked to be seated at the right of Jesus and at His left in His kingdom, and Jesus told them that they would be with Him in a far different way than they expected.
James's death is the only biblical record we have of the death of one of the Apostles, and he was the first of that chosen band to give his life for his Master.
Excerpted from The One Year Book of Saints by Rev. Clifford Stevens
Patron: Against arthritis; against rheumatism; Antigua, Guatemala; apothecaries; blacksmiths; Chile; Compostela, Spain; druggists; equestrians; furriers; Galicia, Spain; Guatemala; horsemen; knights; laborers; Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Nicaragua; pharmacists; pilgrims; Pistoia, Italy; rheumatoid sufferers; riders; soldiers; Spain; Spanish conquistadors; tanners; veterinarians.
Symbols: Cockle shell; dark-bearded man holding a book; dark-bearded man holding a scroll; dark-bearded man holding a sword; dark-bearded man with a floppy pilgrim's hat, long staff, water bottle, and scallop shell; elderly, bearded man wearing a hat with a scallop shell; key; man with shells around him; mounted on horseback, trampling a Moor; pilgrim with wallet and staff; pilgrim's hat; pilgrim's staff; scallop shell; sword.
Things to Do:
St. Christopher
St. Christopher, one of the "Fourteen Sainted Helpers," has been highly venerated since ancient times in both the Eastern and Western Churches. The older martyrologies say that he suffered death for Christ; in more recent centuries piety has woven garlands of legend about his name. Christopher has become a giant who wished to enter the service of the most powerful of lords. He first thought that the emperor qualified; later he selected the devil, and finally he discovered Christ to be the most powerful Sovereign over all the world. From then on he served Him with greatest fidelity.
Because Christopher was of giant stature, he practiced charity by carrying pilgrims across a certain river. Once a child asked to be taken across. He complied as usual. While carrying the child on his shoulders through the river, it became heavier and heavier, and finally he could hardly support it. Then the revelation was made: "You are carrying the Lord of the world!" It was Christ (Christopher means "Christ-carrier").
The legend has the nature of a symbol. Bishop Vida gives the following exposition: "Because you, O Christopher, always carried Christ in your heart, the artists place Christ on your shoulders. Because you suffered much, they paint you standing deep in the waters. And because you could not accomplish this without being large of stature, they have made you a giant, bigger than great temples; therefore do you live under the open heavens during the greatest cold. And since you conquered all that is difficult, they have given you a blossoming palm as traveling staff."
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
Patron: Archers; automobile drivers; automobilists; bachelors; boatmen; bus drivers;, cab drivers; floods; fruit dealers; fullers; hailstorms; holy death; lorry drivers; mariners; market carriers; motorists; porters; Rab, Croatia; sailors; storms; sudden death; taxi drivers; toothache; transportation; transportation workers; travellers; truck drivers; truckers; watermen.
Symbols: Giant; torrent; tree; man with Christ on his shoulders.
Things to Do:
Matthew | |||
English: Douay-Rheims | Latin: Vulgata Clementina | Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000) | |
Matthew 20 |
|||
20. | Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, adoring and asking something of him. | Tunc accessit ad eum mater filiorum Zebedæi cum filiis suis, adorans et petens aliquid ab eo. | τοτε προσηλθεν αυτω η μητηρ των υιων ζεβεδαιου μετα των υιων αυτης προσκυνουσα και αιτουσα τι παρ αυτου |
21. | Who said to her: What wilt thou? She saith to him: Say that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom. | Qui dixit ei : Quid vis ? Ait illi : Dic ut sedeant hi duo filii mei, unus ad dexteram tuam, et unus ad sinistram in regno tuo. | ο δε ειπεν αυτη τι θελεις λεγει αυτω ειπε ινα καθισωσιν ουτοι οι δυο υιοι μου εις εκ δεξιων σου και εις εξ ευωνυμων σου εν τη βασιλεια σου |
22. | And Jesus answering, said: You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink? They say to him: We can. | Respondens autem Jesus, dixit : Nescitis quid petatis. Potestis bibere calicem, quem ego bibiturus sum ? Dicunt ei : Possumus. | αποκριθεις δε ο ιησους ειπεν ουκ οιδατε τι αιτεισθε δυνασθε πιειν το ποτηριον ο εγω μελλω πινειν η το βαπτισμα ο εγω βαπτιζομαι βαπτισθηναι λεγουσιν αυτω δυναμεθα |
23. | He saith to them: My chalice indeed you shall drink; but to sit on my right or left hand, is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father. | Ait illis : Calicem quidem meum bibetis : sedere autem ad dexteram meam vel sinistram non est meum dare vobis, sed quibus paratum est a Patre meo. | και λεγει αυτοις το μεν ποτηριον μου πιεσθε και το βαπτισμα ο εγω βαπτιζομαι βαπτισθησεσθε το δε καθισαι εκ δεξιων μου και εξ ευωνυμων μου ουκ εστιν εμον δουναι αλλ οις ητοιμασται υπο του πατρος μου |
24. | And the ten hearing it, were moved with indignation against the two brethren. | Et audientes decem, indignati sunt de duobus fratribus. | και ακουσαντες οι δεκα ηγανακτησαν περι των δυο αδελφων |
25. | But Jesus called them to him, and said: You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that are the greater, exercise power upon them. | Jesus autem vocavit eos ad se, et ait : Scitis quia principes gentium dominantur eorum : et qui majores sunt, potestatem exercent in eos. | ο δε ιησους προσκαλεσαμενος αυτους ειπεν οιδατε οτι οι αρχοντες των εθνων κατακυριευουσιν αυτων και οι μεγαλοι κατεξουσιαζουσιν αυτων |
26. | It shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister: | Non ita erit inter vos : sed quicumque voluerit inter vos major fieri, sit vester minister : | ουχ ουτως δε εσται εν υμιν αλλ ος εαν θελη εν υμιν μεγας γενεσθαι εσται υμων διακονος |
27. | And he that will be first among you, shall be your servant. | et qui voluerit inter vos primus esse, erit vester servus. | και ος εαν θελη εν υμιν ειναι πρωτος εστω υμων δουλος |
28. | Even as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many. | Sicut Filius hominis non venit ministrari, sed ministrare, et dare animam suam redemptionem pro multis. | ωσπερ ο υιος του ανθρωπου ουκ ηλθεν διακονηθηναι αλλα διακονησαι και δουναι την ψυχην αυτου λυτρον αντι πολλων |
Central panel (157 x 180 cm): Coronation of the Virgin; side panels (117 x 40 cm each): St Jerome, St Francis, St Dominic, Mary Magdalene; upper panels, whose sequence has not been definitively reconstructed (49 x 38 cm each): St John the Baptist in the Desert, The Execution of St Peter Martyr, St Thomas Aquinas, St Francis Receiving the Stigmata.
...
In the central panel the Virgin is shown being crowned by Christ, in the presence of God the Father and the Holy Ghost.
...
Saint James, Apostle
… that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)
Pirates stored their treasure in chests bound with chains and heavy padlocks. Banks and casinos store cash in high-security vaults. But God? He has placed his treasure in “earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:7). In us! He doesn’t need chains and locks, laser beams or retina scans, to protect it. He’s God! Whatever we lack in security, whatever weaknesses we bring to the life he has called us to, his power is more than enough to carry us through!
James was an ordinary fisherman. Strong, passionate, and simply educated—how could he ever take on the responsibilities that Jesus wanted to give him? But he did. This common fisherman became the second head of the Jerusalem church. The same James who wanted to call fire down on the Samaritans who had snubbed Jesus became a chief advocate for opening the Church to Gentiles. Scheming James, who connived with his brother John to seek a special seat in Jesus’ kingdom, was the one trusted disciple St. Paul visited on his final trip to Jerusalem.
James wasn’t, at first, most likely to become head of the Church, most willing to include outsiders, or most eager to see others succeed in their ministry. He had no formal training in administration for what God had called him to. (So few of us do!) But God doesn’t depend on what you can do for him. His life and power will work in and through you as you yield to him. Just acknowledge that you need him and are willing to walk with him.
God always begins where your human ability ends. If you think he has called you to reach out to someone you find it difficult to be in the same room with, tell him. He’ll supply the patience and the wisdom you need. If you need to go on loving and serving your family when you’re bone tired, ask him for the strength. And if you’re too scared to do anything at all, tell him. He will help you. Take a step, and watch him take it with you. He’s all-sufficient; give him the chance to show you!
“Lord, I open my heart to you today. I am determined to walk with you. I trust your power to see me through!”
Psalm 126:1-6; Matthew 20:20-28
JAMES, THE SON OF ZEBEDEE [MATTHEW 20:20-28]
JESUS told the apostles what kind of leaders He wanted them to be. Like Him, they were to be servants of others, even to the point of giving their lives (Matthew 20:26-28). James was one who responded to Jesus call as he decided to set aside his ambitions for earthly glory (Matthew 20:20-21). Like other leaders of the early Church, he learned to die to his own desires and live for the sake of his sisters and brothers, so that grace might extend to more and more people (2 Corinthians 4:15).
James did indeed drink the cup of suffering that Jesus offered him. As a leader of the infant Church in Jerusalem, he faced daily the call to die to his own ideas and desires so that he could minister according to the power of the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, James drank the cup fully, being martyred by Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:1-2).
As Jesus disciples today, we too are called to give our lives so that others may know the grace and power of the Holy Spirit within them. Of course, we cannot save people as Jesus did. He is the only one who could give His life as our ransom from sin and death. Nevertheless, whenever we let the cry of the poor pierce our hearts and move us to action, we are giving our lives for the sake of Gods people. Whenever we let the Holy Spirits call to holiness and purity move us to repentance, we are giving our lives for the sake of the Church and its witness to Jesus.
The call to lay down our lives for the Lord is so high a calling that we can do it only through the power of the Holy Spirit. Like James and Paul, we are called to put to death our old nature each day and to let the life of Christ shine through us (2 Corinthians 4:11). Every time we allow the demands of the life in the Spirit to penetrate our hearts, we will bear more fruit for the Kingdom of God not because of our goodness, but because of the life of Christ in us.
Daily Marriage Tip for July 25, 2014:
My husband, Frank, and I have learned that our sexual union should be focused on giving rather than getting. NFP provided the environment to live this out. Jennifer, from Signs of Grace.
The Knowledge of the Glory of God
Friday, 25 July 2014 08:17
Treasure in Earthen Vessels
“We have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor 4:7). Another translation puts it this way: “We have a treasure, then, in our keeping, but its shell is of perishable earthenware; it must be God, and not anything in ourselves, that gives it its sovereign power.” The contrast is striking: treasure held in earthen vessels. But what is the treasure? In verse 6, Saint Paul says, “It is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the Face of Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). The treasure, then, is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shining in the Face of Christ.
An Eye-Witness of the Transfiguration
When one considers that James was an eye-witness of the Transfiguration, the deeper meaning of today’s First Reading comes into focus. While James looked on, together with Peter and with his brother John, Jesus “was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light” (Mt 17:2). The splendour of Jesus’ Face burned itself indelibly into the heart of James. Contemplating the Face of the transfigured Jesus, James was filled with “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Cor 4:6). This is the treasure that Saint James carried in a shell of fragile earthenware: his own human weakness.
Gethsemani
The Transfiguration reveals the treasure; the agony in the garden of Gethsemani reveals to us the fragility of the earthen vessels. To Peter, James, and John, Jesus said, “Remain here and watch with me” (Mt 26:38), but after His prayer to the Father, he found them sleeping. Again, a second time, He asked these, his intimate companions, to watch and pray, warning them of the weakness of the flesh, and again He came and “found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy” (Mt 26:43). And so it happened a third time but, by then, the hour of Jesus’ betrayal was already at hand (Mt 26:45). The radiant memory of Jesus transfigured, “the knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Cor 4:6), was held in earthen vessels: in the hearts of men who could not watch even one hour with their Master in his agony.
Discouraged and Weary
Tradition recounts that after Pentecost Saint James went to preach the Gospel in far off Spain. There his work met with little response. In fact, the Apostle found hostility and active resistance to his preaching. James grew discouraged and, in his weariness, began to question his mission. In this, there is not a priest alive who, at certain moments, cannot identify with Saint James.
Our Lady of the Pillar
The Apostle was painfully aware of his own weakness; he knew himself to be an earthen vessel and, for a time, the bright memory of the Transfiguration seemed to have been eclipsed in his heart. It was at that moment that the Mother of Jesus — still alive at the time and living with his brother, Saint John — appeared to Saint James to comfort him in his mission. He saw the Blessed Virgin Mary atop a pillar. This tradition is at the origin of the sanctuary of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza, a place of pilgrimage even to the present day.
Prayer for Priests
Today’s feast invites us to pray for all priests who, in their mission, encounter indifference, resistance, criticism, hostility, and even persecution. So many priests suffer dejection. Some are called to share in the loneliness of Jesus in Gethsemani; their particular vocation is to repeat the words of their Master, brokenhearted in His solitude: “Insults have broken my heart so that I am in despair. I looked for pity but there was none; and for comforters but I found none” (Ps 68:20).
Mary, Comforter of Priests
All priests are in need of the encouraging presence of the Mother of God. She appeared to Saint James on a pillar of stone to give him something to lean on in his weakness and dejection. Strengthened by the Blessed Virgin, Saint James pursued his preaching in Spain, and then returned to Jerusalem to face his final sufferings.
The Science of the Cross: Mary and the Eucharist
Jesus said to the sons of Zebedee, “My chalice indeed you shall drink” (Mt 20: 23). For Saint James, the highest degree of the knowledge of the glory of God was found in Jerusalem: in drinking of the chalice of suffering and of a violent death. Suffering — what Saint Teresa-Benedicta of the Cross calls “the science of the Cross”– fills the soul with a dark brightness that, for all its obscurity, is nonetheless “knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Cor 4:6). It is nonetheless foolhardy and presumptuous to seek “the science of the Cross” without two things: consecration of oneself to the all-holy Mother of God, and the sustenance of the Most Holy Eucharist.
Never at a Loss
Saint Paul describes the disciple’s participation in the Cross. “We are being hampered everywhere, yet still have room to breathe, are hard put to it, but never at a loss; persecution does not leave us unbefriended, nor crushing blows destroy us; we carry about continually in our bodies the dying state of Jesus, so that the living power of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies too” (2 Cor 4:8-11).
The Chalice of the Knowledge of the Glory of God
The Precious Blood of Christ, that flows eucharistically through the Church, is the communication to each one of us of the life of “the Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). The knowledge of the glory of God is found in the face of the transfigured Christ; it is just as truly found in the chalice of the Blood that soaked the earth in Gethsemani and flowed on Calvary. And we, like Saint James, comforted by the Mother of Jesus, carry that treasure in earthen vessels.
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July 25, 2014, Feast of Saint James, Apostle
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Matthew 20: 20-28 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him. And he said to her, "What do you want?" She said to him, "Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom." But Jesus answered, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?´´ They said to him, "We are able." He said to them, "You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, in spite of my many failures, I know you continue to call me. Your Spirit continues to guide me. I trust in you, love you and praise you for all your gifts to me. Amen. Petition: Lord Jesus, grant me a renewed sensitivity to the deepest needs of others. 1. Called to Serve: In an era of Catholicism in which catch-phrases such as “called to serve” have been overused to the point of becoming clichés, we risk forgetting how central service is to the Christian life. The minutes of our lives are consumed in an incessant cascade of apparently important and urgent things to do. Doesn’t it happen, however, that in the midst of all this we actually miss any number of opportunities to serve? Called to serve, yes, but we miss the call! And our service gets sidelined. If service to my brothers and sisters is not an ordinary element of my daily life as a Christian, I can be sure that I have succumbed to self-deception or taken a critically wrong turn somewhere. 2. A Continuation of Christ: We are called to give ourselves unreservedly to others as a continuation of Christ. “A continuation of Christ”: now, wouldn’t that make a wonderful epitaph?! For truly, if our Christian service is not a prolongation, an extension of Jesus’ love, if we are not giving him to others, if those whom we serve are not discovering him in us, then our service is simply not service. It might be philanthropy, it might be empathy, but it falls short of genuine Christian service if those whom we serve do not discover Christ in us. Like John the Baptist, we must become less so that Jesus can become more in us, so that our brothers and sisters are not cheated out of encountering that Christ whom they secretly long to discover in each of us. 3. What Service Means: Here it will be helpful simply to examine ourselves on some of the essentials of Christian service. Is my daily life characterized by a concern for the genuine good of others and by a readiness to do all the good I can for my brothers and sisters? Do I actually engage in daily acts of service, whether big or small? Do I examine myself frequently on the sin of omission? Do I strive, in carrying on the ordinary service required by my state in life, to do so with extraordinary deliberateness and full, conscious self-giving? Conversation with Christ: Father, you call me to serve, and I know that service also means suffering at times. If suffering is to be a part of your plan for me, give me the grace to collaborate with Christ your son in the salvation of souls by offering that suffering generously to you. I ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Resolution: Out of love for Christ, present in the least of my brothers and sisters, I will examine myself on what genuine Christian service means to me in practice, and what place it usually has in my daily life. |
July 25, 2014
In teaching his disciples, our Lord never failed to use real life events to illustrate certain salient points of what he wanted to impart. Like all mothers, the mother of the two ambitious brothers – James the Great also known as the “son of thunder” and John the Evangelist, tried to intercede for her sons to advance their careers. Jesus took this opportunity to teach his disciples the great paradox of life. This time it was about service. He said that the Lord must also be a servant. He demonstrated this to his disciples when he washed their feet during that last Passover meal the night before he died. Ultimately by his Passion, Death and Resurrection, he definitively showed us the only Way, Truth and Life. To be the least is to be great. To die is to live. To lose is to gain. This was what St. Paul wanted to pass on to his church in Corinth when he exhorted them to remember that even if trials come, the life of Jesus must still be manifested in them because they carry in their persons the death of Jesus.
For us who are beneficiaries of twenty centuries of our Church’s reflection on the teachings and life of our Lord Jesus, what are the things that prevent you and me from following him who came not to be served but to serve, and who gave His life to redeem us all?
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