Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
GospelLuke 17:11-19 (English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was passing along between
Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who
stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have
mercy on us.’ When he saw them he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the
priests.’ And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw
that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on
his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus
answered, ‘Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to
return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ And he said to him, ‘Rise
and go your way; your faith has made you well.’
I've told this story before on this blog, in homilies, and on retreats I have given because the incident in question had a profound impact on me. It happened on the morning of Holy Thursday 1990 atHoly Family Retreat House, Lahug, Cebu City, which is run by the Redemptorists. I had gone up there after breakfast to do some business and as I was going in a woman approached me asking for some help. I made an excuse as I entered.
When I was inside I could see the woman through the glass doors sitting on the step (in photo above), her daughter, aged 13 or 14, beside her and resting her head on her mother's shoulder. I could see that, like the two peasant girls in Millet's painting above, they were heavily burdened - but with tiredness and hunger.
My business didn't detain me and when I was going out the two stood up. I gave the mother enough to buy breakfast for the two of them. The daughter looked at me with the most beautiful smile I've ever seen and said,'Salamat sa Ginoo - Thanks to the Lord!'
The radiance of this girl's smile compared to the look of dejection she had earlier was like the contrast between the colours of the painting by Adolf Fényes and the darkness of that of Jean-François Millet above. What struck me profoundly was that she wasn't thanking me. She was thanking the Lord, and inviting me to do the same, because he had responded to her prayer and that of her mother, Give us this day our daily bread.
In the First Reading, which on Sundays and solemnities is always related to the Gospel, Elisha reacts very strongly to Naaman's gratitude after he was cured of leprosy: Then [Naaman] returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, 'Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant'.But he said, 'As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.' And he urged him to take it, but he refused (2 Kings 5:15-16).
Naaman was grateful to God for his cure but wanted to reward Elisha. In de Grebber's painting we see Elisha turning away from Naaman almost in horror. Perhaps he overreacted but he had a profound sense of the fact that it wasn't he who had healed the Syrian general but God whose servant and instrument he was. Elisha wanted only God to be praised and thanked.
And indeed it was a young girl, probably around the same age as the one I met in Cebu City, who had directed Naaman to the Lord through his servant Elisha. In the verses preceding those read today we read: Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife.She said to her mistress, 'Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.' (2 Kings 5:2-3 ESVUK).
The young girl in Cebu expressed her gratitude for what I had given her mother by praising God directly and by inviting me to join her in her prayer of praise and thanksgiving. In doing so she gave me a far greater gift than any that Naaman could have offered Elisha, a profound awareness that everything we have is a gift from God.
I had never met the girl and her mother before nor did I ever see them again. But that meeting has been for me ever since what I call an 'ongoing grace from God'. The girl would now be in her late 40s. Please say a prayer for her and her mother and for their family. And may we thank God each day for everything we have, above all for the gift of our Catholic Christian faith.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest act of thanksgiving - Eucharist - that we can offer to God.
Ave verum corpus, natum de Maria Virgine, vere passum, immolatum in cruce pro homine cuius latus perforatum fluxit aqua et sanguine: esto nobis praegustatum in mortis examine.
Hail, true Body, born of the Virgin Mary, having truly suffered, sacrificed on the cross for mankind, from whose pierced side water and blood flowed: Be for us a foretaste [of the Heavenly banquet] in the trial of death!
Traditional Latin Mass
What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful (Benedict XVI).
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-12-2025 if necessary).
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:4-8. Gospel: Matthew 9:1-8.
GospelMatthew 28:16-20(English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
Now the eleven
disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed
them.And when they saw him they worshipped
him, but some doubted.And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the
age.”
Benedictus sit Deus Pater, Unigenitusque Dei Filius, Sanctus quoque Spiritus, quia fecit nobiscum misericordiam suam.
Blest be God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son of God, and also the Holy Spirit, for he has shown us his merciful love.
This is also the Offertory Verse in the Traditional Latin Mass on Trinity Sunday.
Twelve years ago around this time I gave a retreat to a group of Canossian Daughters of Charity in the Philippines. They included four novices and seven professed Sisters, including one from Malaysia. Their foundress, St Magdalene of Canossa bequeathed to the Sisters the mission of 'making Jesus known and loved above all'. This comes from a stance of standing at the foot of the Cross with Mary.
During my talks
each morning I shared many stories of individuals who had made Jesus known to
me, usually with no awareness that they were doing so. Some were persons I
knew. Some are now dead. Some I met only once in passing, never learning their
names. Most were poor. I know that my stories triggered off similar memories
among the Sisters of people who had made Jesus known to them as the Sisters in
turn had made him known to those they were serving.
I
see this in the context of the Communion of Saints, the angels and saints in
heaven, the members of the Church on earth, the souls in purgatory. The story
of creation tells us that we are made in the image of God. But what the author
of that first account of creation didn't know is that God is a Community of Three
Persons. Made in God's image, we are made to be in community with others.
Jusepe
de Ribera's painting of the Holy Trinity above, like a number of other
paintings, shows the dead Christ. The expression on the face of the Father
shows suffering. It is very similar to the face of the father in
Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son, painted about
thirty years later. I don't know if Rembrandt was familiar with de Ribera's
painting.
The Blessed Trinity call us into the circle of their life through suffering. We know the suffering of Jesus. Some of the great artists show to us something of the suffering of the Father.
One of the stories I told involved two persons I met only once, a mother and her daughter aged about 13 or 14. When they first approached me outside a retreat house in Cebu City on the morning of Holy Thursday 1990. I made an excuse that I was only visiting. While inside I saw the two of them sitting on the steps. The daughter had her head on her mother's shoulder. Clearly, they were tired and hungry. When I was leaving I gave them enough to buy breakfast. The young girl looked at me with the most beautiful smile I've ever seen and said to me, Salamat sa Ginoo! 'Thanks to the Lord!' She wasn't thanking me but inviting me to thank the Lord with her and her mother for his goodness. Through her hunger and tiredness she had come to know something of God's bountiful love, the love of the Father that Rembrandt reveals so powerfully.
As I reflect on this incident now, 34 years later, I see it in the light of today's Second Reading, Romans 8:14-17. St Paul writes, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God . . . When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness. That young girl was led by the Spirit of God to thank the Father for having provided her and her mother with breakfast that day, for having listened to their prayer, Give us this day our daily bread. And she invited me as her brother in Christ to do the same. Without being aware of it she was celebrating the reality of the Holy Trinity.
And she has been calling me into the life of the Holy Trinity for all those year. I've no idea what became of her. I went to the Philippines in 1971 to do my part in making disciples of all nations and have baptised many in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But that young girl, and many others like her, have been constantly teaching me to observe all that I have commanded you and assuring me in the name of Jesus, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Benedictus sit Deus
This is Mozart's setting of today's Entrance Antiphon, composed when he was twelve.
On Thursday 23 May Pope Francis cleared the way for the canonisation of Blessed Carlo Acutis. He died from leukaemia at the age of 15. He was a computer 'geek', a skill which he used to be a 'web missionary', as the title of the video below states. If you google his name on YouTube you will find a number of videos about him, most of them short. The one below is just over 30 minutes but is very comprehensive, showing many aspects of his life as seen by others, young people of his own age who were friends of his, and others, young and older, on whose life Blessed Carlo had a huge influence, some while he was alive, others who came to know about him after his death, people drawn closer to Jesus Christ because of him. I've watched the video a number of times and each time it has been a prayerful experience, of being closer to God and with a sense of wonder at how the Blessed Trinity invites us into eternal life.
Young people can draw us into the life of the Holy Trinity, as did the 13- or 14-year old girl in Cebu City with me, as does the 12-year-old Mozart with his setting of Benedictus sit Deus, as has Blessed Carlo Acutis been doing before and after his death. Mozart and Blessed Carlo are known internationally, the young girl known only by her family and neighbours. We never know who may be drawing us into the eternal life of the Blessed Trinity.
Blessed Carlo, pray for us!
Blessed Carlo Acutis
Traditional Latin Mass
Trinity Sunday
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-26-2024 if necessary).
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; Gospel).
GospelLuke 17:11-19 (English Standard Version
Anglicised: India)
On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along
between Samaria and Galilee.And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distanceand lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus,
Master, have mercy on us.”When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And
as they went they were cleansed.Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned
back, praising God with a loud voice;and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him
thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.Then Jesus answered, “Were
not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?Was no one found to return and give praise to God
except this foreigner?”And he said to him, “Rise
and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
I've told this story before on this blog and on retreats I have given but the incident in question had a profound impact on me. It happened on the morning of Holy Thursday 1990 atHoly Family Retreat House, Lahug, Cebu City, which is run by the Redemptorists. I had gone up there after breakfast to do some business and as I was going in a woman approached me asking for some help. I made some excuse as I entered.
When I was inside I could see the woman through the glass doors sitting on the step (in photo above), her daughter, aged 13 or 14, beside her and resting her head on her mother's shoulder. I could see that, like the two peasant girls in Millet's painting above, they were heavily burdened - but with tiredness and hunger.
My business didn't detain me and when I was going out the two stood up. I gave the mother enough to buy breakfast for the two of them. The daughter looked at me with the most beautiful smile I've ever seen and said,'Salamat sa Ginoo - Thanks to the Lord!'
The radiance of this girl's smile compared to the look of dejection she had earlier was like the contrast between the colours of the painting by Adolf Fényes and that of Jean-François Millet above. What struck me profoundly was that she wasn't thanking me. She was thanking the Lord, and inviting me to do the same, because he had responded to her prayer and that of her mother, Give us this day our daily bread.
In the First Reading, which on Sundays and solemnities is always related to the Gospel, Elisha reacts very strongly to Naaman's gratitude after he was cured of leprosy: Then [Naaman] returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant”.But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused (2 Kings 5:15-16).
Naaman was grateful to God for his cure but wanted to reward Elisha. In de Grebber's painting we see Elisha turning away from Naaman almost in horror. Perhaps he overreacted but he had a profound sense of the fact that it wasn't he who had healed the Syrian general but God whose servant and instrument he was. Elisha wanted only God to be praised and thanked.
And indeed it was a young girl, probably around the same age as the one I met in Cebu City, who had directed Naaman to the Lord through his servant Elisha. In the verses preceding those read today we read: Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife.She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” (2 Kings 5:2-3 ESVUK).
The young girl in Cebu expressed her gratitude for what I had given her mother by praising God directly and by inviting me to join her in her prayer of praise and thanksgiving. In doing so she gave me a far greater gift than any that Naaman could have offered Elisha, a profound awareness that everything we have is a gift from God.
I had never met the girl and her mother before nor have I seen them since. But that meeting has been for me what I call an 'ongoing grace from God' ever since. The girl would now be in her mid 40s. Please say a prayer for her and her mother and for their family. And may each of us thank God each day for everything we have, above all for the gift of our Catholic Christian faith.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest act of thanksgiving - Eucharist - that we can offer to God.
Ave verum corpus, natum de Maria Virgine, vere passum, immolatum in cruce pro homine cuius latus perforatum fluxit aqua et sanguine: esto nobis praegustatum in mortis examine.
Hail, true Body, born of the Virgin Mary, having truly suffered, sacrificed on the cross for mankind, from whose pierced side water and blood flowed: Be for us a foretaste [of the Heavenly banquet] in the trial of death!
Traditional Latin Mass
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-09-2022 if necessary).
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:4-8. Gospel: Matthew 9:1-8.
Entrance to Holy Family Retreat House, Cebu City
Peasant Girl Bringing Basket
Apostle Paul
