'The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good.' Sunday Reflections, 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Regina Pacis - Queen of Peace

University of Bonn [Wikipedia; photo]

Our Lady, Queen of Peace, pray for peace in Ukraine.

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,) 

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland) 

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 6:39-45 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

At that time: Jesus told his disciples a parable: ‘Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye”, when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

‘For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.’

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Peach Tree in Blossom

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

I have used this story before on Sunday Reflections. I heard it from the late Fr Giuseppe Raviolo SJ, an Italian Jesuit who worked in Mindanao, Philippines, for many years and was one of the founders, in 1985, of St John Vianney Theological Seminary in Cagayan de Oro City there. About 45 years ago he and I and some other priests were on a team together giving a directed retreat to seminarians. We stayed in a dormitory that was far from being 'Five Star'. He reminded me very much of St Pope John XXIII in girth and in personality and was always a delight to be with. I feel a great sense of gratitude to God for having known this wonderful man who lived his priesthood so joyfully.

Fr Giuseppe Raviolo SJ 

[Source]

During the Vietnam War Father Joe, as we called him, had been rector of the major seminary in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, when it was capital of the then South Vietnam. When the North Vietnamese army moved into Saigon the soldiers were divided into groups of three with a standing order that if any of the three tried to surrender the others were to kill him. One particular group of three found themselves surrounded by soldiers either of the American army or the army of South Vietnam, I forget which. One of them ran forward and surrendered and his two comrades did not shoot him. They two were captured. 

Later the other two asked the soldier who had surrendered why he had taken such a risk. He told them that he knew they were Christians and would not shoot. This man was a Buddhist and his two companions were Catholics. These two had discussed the order to kill and had decided that it would be wrong to do so. As Catholic Christians they saw that as murder. These were soldiers of a Communist army, without any chaplains.

Clearly they had been well formed as followers of Jesus despite living under a Communist regime that restricted the activities of the Church. Vietnam has a long history of persecution with figures of between 100,000 and 300,000 martyrs being given. The second-century theologian Tertullian wrote, The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church. Jesus says to us in today's gospel, No good tree bears bad fruit. The two Catholic Vietnamese soldiers were the fruit of the tree produced by the seed that was the countless martyrs among their ancestors.

And their Buddhist companion showed that he understood Jesus who said, The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good. He put his life in the hands of his two companions because he knew they were Christians. Would anyone do the same with me simply because I am a Christian?

I see some of the words of Pope Benedict XVI in his Angelus reflection in 2007 on last Sunday's gospel being lived out in the incident involving the three North Vietnamese soldiers: One then understands that for Christians, non-violence is not merely tactical behaviour but a person's way of being, the attitude of one who is so convinced of God's love and power that he is not afraid to tackle evil with the weapons of love and truth alone. 

The way of being of those two Catholic soldiers as followers of Jesus was evident to their Buddhist comrade. Is my way of being as a follower of Jesus evident to those around me? 

The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good. 

The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good. 

The Sorrowful Mother, Страдальна Мати

Ukrainian Lenten Hymn

Lent

Lent begins on Wednesday 5 March. For the people of Ukraine it has begun in a very real sense three years ago. Pope Francis asked us that year to make Ash Wednesday a day of prayer and fasting for Ukraine. There seems to be movement towards peace as I write this.

It is a day of fasting and abstinence every year. The Pope has asked us to focus through that on the urgency of the situation in Ukraine where the majority of people are Christian, mostly Orthodox. About ten per cent are Catholics, most of them members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

You will find the rules for fasting and abstinence here. The rule about abstinence on Fridays during Lent may vary from one country to another.

These rules are not an expression of legalism but a call to generosity and to share in the fasting and abstinence of Jesus himself during his forty days in the desert.

Traditional Latin Mass

Quinquagesima Sunday 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 03-02-2025 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.  Gospel: Luke 18:31-43.

Christ Healing the Blind

Nicolas Colombel [Web Gallery of Art]

And Jesus stopped, and commanded him to be brought to him; and when he came near, he asked him, 'What do you want me to do for you?' He said, 'Lord, let me receive my sight (Luke 18:40-41; Gospel).

'Smudged Foreheads' - a reflection for Ash Wednesday

US Navy 080206-N-7869M-057 Electronics Technician 3rd Class Leila Tardieu receives ashes during an Ash Wednesday celebration.

This fine reflection for Ash Wednesday by Cebu-based columnist Juan L. Mercado appeared in yesterday's Visayan Daily Star and in other newspapers. I have highlighted some parts and [added comments].

“Get real” is the jolt that Ash Wednesday delivers. Dust returns to dust is one of the day’s overarching themes. “Death plucks my ears and says Live – I am coming,” Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote on his 90th birthday.

Ashes will be traced tomorrow, in the form of a cross, on the forehead of President Benigno Aquino, on those who’ll never be president, thieves in costly barongs to beggars we half see. In a society where over 4.3 million scrounge below poverty thresholds, they blend into the woodwork. [All of us are equal as sinners in need of God's forgiving love].

“Your friend died last night,” a panhandler lisped to the wife as we walked by. Periodically, the wife would hand him some rice, coins or gaudy T-shirts we cringed to wear. Chronic hunger shriveled him into a scrawny man with a gap-toothed smile. “We never learned his name,” the wife murmured.

Tomorrow’s ashes come from burnt Palm Sunday 2010 fronds. With oil of the catechumen, ashes are stirred into a paste. [I don't think this is accurate. The oil of catechumens isn't used]. As priest or lay minister traces the cross on foreheads, he then reaches across the centuries, to echo a shattering sentence first heard in an Eden marred by disobedience: “Remember man, that you are dust. And unto dust you shall return.” [Mr Mercado has no difficulty with 'exclusive' or 'non-inclusive' English!]

Wednesday’s rites remind us of two friends: a young lieutenant and an equally young political activist. They never met. But their paths crossed briefly at the boarding gate for “Mount Pinatubo”, President Ramon Magsaysay’s plane.

President Ramon Magsaysay of the Philippines (31 August 1907 - 17 March 1957)



This was midnight of March 17, fifty four years back. Jesus Rama, younger brother of Journalist Napoleon Rama, came to Cebu’s Lahug airport, to see the President off. Standing in that same crowd was Lt. Julian Ares, then aide-de-camp to Gen. Cornelio Bondad. Both were to fly with the president to Manila.

As Magsaysay strode towards the ramp, he spotted Rama. “Jess,” he said clasping arms around Rama. “Come with me to Manila.” Rama, who had a phobia for flying, pulled back. Friends tut-tutted Rama, advising him: “Just accommodate the president, Jess.” Reluctantly, Rama climbed aboard.

“At Mt. Pinatubo’s door, presidential aide-de-camp Lt. Leopoldo Regis supervised loading,” Ares recalls from his Chicago retirement home. “President Magsaysay was already aboard.”

But at a Club Filipino rally, the President asked Senator Tomas Cabili and Cebu Congressman Pedro Lopez: “Join me.” The plane’s engines idled until Cabili and Lopez hurried aboard.

“Sorry, sir, we must leave you behind,” Lt. Regis apologetically said to the general. “Bondad’s satchel and mine were tossed off the plane.” The door slammed shut. And the reconfigured C47 took off – only to slam into Mt. Mannungal 20 minutes later.

Toiling half way up Mount Mannugal the next day, Ares’ search party met villagers hefting a hammock. In it was the only survivor: Nestor Mata of the Philippines Herald. Ares' team was also the first to reach the still-smoldering wreckage and human ashes just as the sun set.

“Presume not to promise yourself the next morning,” Thomas a’ Kempis counseled. . “And in the morning, consider that you may not live till nightfall…Many die when they least think of it....A man is here today. And tomorrow, he is gone. And when he is taken out of sight, he is also quickly out of mind."…

Ash Wednesday’s counsel is imparted without discrimination: generals who creamed off armed forces funds, pliable justices and ombudsmen, jueteng overlords, even former presidents, who ward off trial while bunkered behind squads of midnight appointees. ['Jueteng' is an illegal form of gambling that makes its organizers rich].

This sacramental signals start of the penitential season of Lent. Fasting for renewal is shared by major faiths. Muslims observe Ramadan. Hindus and Buddhists set aside days for fasting. Jews fast on Yom Kippur. Like Catholics, Anglicans designate Lent as a penitential season.

By the 8th century, “Day of Ashes” rites had become common in the church. But the use of ashes goes way back. “I heard of Thee by hearing of the ear. But now, mine eye seeth Thee,” says an anguished Job to the Voice from the whirlwind. “Wherefore, I …repent in dust and ashes.”

Imelda Marcos receives, in all sincerity, ashes on Wednesday. On Thursday, she scoffs at the US Federal Court’s decision that found the Marcos regime “liable for torture, summary executions and disappearances”. It awarded 7,526 victims token $1,000 checks from the ill-gotten loot.

The class suit “turned into a business,” Imelda sneered. “You spit on the blood of thousands who died for freedom,” snapped Inquirer’s Ma. Ceres Doyo, a martial law victim. “You have no shame.” The English translation loses the Tagalog pungency. Sayang...

Those smeared foreheads mean three things, writes Jesuit Father Danny Huang in an earlier paper: “Writing In The Dust”. We confess. [Lent is a time to take personal responsibility for our sins and to go to confession]. We promise. We hope.

We live in dark times: from Maguindanao murders, abortions to massive theft. “The ashes acknowledge that, in the end, it's not the fault of MILF, Abu Sayyaf or Al Qaeda. It is our fault. Cruelty to utter self-preoccupation, in our hearts, produced bitter fruits. We must face the truth of ourselves and refuse to “practice our Filipino expertise in palusot.” [Social psychologist Dr Patricia Licuanan describes 'palusot' thus: 'We (Filipinos) are impatient and unable to delay gratification or reward, resulting in the use of short cuts, skirting the rules (the palusot syndrome) and in foolhardiness.]

With fasting, almsgiving and prayer, we pledge to move beyond suffocating self-absorption to compassion. We must not remain paralyzed by self-pitying powerlessness. Ganito na talaga ako. Di ko na kayang magbago, it says. Instead, “we move on, one small, faltering, but real step at a time.”

Third, we hope. “We know that the world is not changed by the brute force of arms, but by the power of those whose spirits are made new.” That’s what those smudged foreheads mean.*