27 September 2024

What is the 'hand', the 'foot', the 'eye' that causes me to sin, especially in the use of power? Sunday Reflections, 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B


The Harvest
Auguste-Xavier Leprince [Web Gallery of Art]

Behold, the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts (James 5:4; Second Reading).

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland) 

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)

John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.

“And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Abbey Road, Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity, Huntsville, Utah, USA
The Abbey, opened in 1947, closed in 2017
[Wikipedia, photo by Exorcisio Te]

In August 1982, after a year’s study in Toronto and before three months of Clinical Pastoral Education in Minneapolis, I supplied in a number of parishes for short periods in the Diocese of Boise, which covers the whole of the state of Idaho in the western USA. One of my purposes for this was to visit the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity, Huntsville, Utah, where I had spent ten days or so in August 1970. There I had met some of the monks who were to be part of the community that would open the first Trappist foundation in the Philippines, in Guimaras island, now Our Lady of the Philippines Trappist Monastery

I spent a week in one parish where the parish priest was from India, there were  reservations of two different indigenous tribal nations, many Spanish-speaking immigrants working on farms in the area. The majority of the people in the town proper were Mormons. The local newspaper carried photos of young Mormons from the area going on mission to other countries.

Just after lunch one day the doorbell rang. A young woman asked me to go to the hospital where an old woman, a Catholic and a relative of hers, had been in a coma for a long time, and was dying. I immediately went to the hospital and, to my surprise, the patient was fully awake and participated joyfully in the Last Sacraments, including Holy Communion, as I had brought the Blessed Sacrament with me. I learned later that she died about twenty minutes after I left.

The young woman who had asked me to go to the hospital was a Mormon. I was able to thank her later.

Finn Street, Dublin

When I was a child we lived in a street of terraced houses in Dublin where no one had a telephone. One time one of our neighbours, Jem Norris, got gravely ill in the middle of the night. Charlie Brooks who lived across the street went for the priest, whose house was about a kilometre away. (The Norris house is the one on the far left above. Ours was the one on the right.)

Charlie was a Protestant, a member of the Church of Ireland (Anglican). Earlier this year I met his eldest child, David, for the first time in more than 60 years. He told me that his Dad read the Bible every day of his life.

I have posted in Sunday Reflections before about a Mass in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Germany, shortly after it was liberated in 1945. The account, published in 2004 in The Daily Telegraph (London) but no longer online, is by James Molyneaux (1920 -2015), then a young officer in the Royal Air Force and later leader of the Ulster Unionist Party in Northern Ireland. He wrote:

The most moving experience came on the second morning as I was walking from what had been the luxury SS barracks which our troops had transformed into a hospital. My attention was drawn to two packing cases covered by a worn red curtain. A young Polish priest was clinging to this makeshift altar with one hand, while celebrating Mass. Between his feet lay the body of another priest who probably died during the night. No one had had the energy to move the body.

I had no difficulty in following the old Latin Mass, having been educated at St James's Roman Catholic School in County Antrim, and, although an Anglican, I had gained a working knowledge of all the rituals. Still supporting himself against the altar, the young priest did his best to distribute the consecrated elements [Holy Communion] Some recipients were able to stumble over the rough, scrubby heathland. Others crawled forward to receive the tokens [Sacred Hosts, the Body of  Christ] and then crawled back to share them with others unable to move. Some almost certainly passed on to another - probably better - world before sunset. Whatever one's race or religion one can only be uplifted and impressed by that truly remarkable proof of the ultimate triumph of good over evil.

When I first read this article I was deeply moved in a number of ways. I was surprised to discover that the author had gone to a Catholic school in a community where for centurie  there has been a deep divide between Catholics and Protestants, for historical reasons that are not entirely theological. But here was an Anglican from that background giving a powerful testimony to the Mass as the Holy Sacrifice. And he noticed how those who were barely able to crawl shared the Body of Christ with those who couldn't move at all.

I find in the three stories above an illustration of the response of Jesus to the complaint of St John, Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.  Jesus says, For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward. 

St John's complaint reflects that of Joshua to Moses in the First Reading. the response of Jesus reflects that of Moses: Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them! (Numbers 11:29).

Memorial Stone, Bergen

Near the ramps where prisoners for Belsen were unloaded from goods [freight] trains. [Wikimedia]

James Molyneaux's article also illustrates the reality of hell that Jesus speaks about today. He writes:

On arrival at Tactical Headquarters, we had been briefed on the discovery of the Belsen prison camp nearby. In company with our RAF medical unit and the two 2nd Army Field hospitals, we wasted no time. Briefed though we were, the shock excelled all the horrors of the battles of the 12 months since Normandy.

As we passed through the camp gates, the Royal Military Police requested us to drive very slowly to avoid the numerous disoriented prisoners. We were handed adhesive tape to put over the vehicle horns in order to prevent them going off accidentally, lest the shock would cause still more deaths. [This little detail is surely telling.]

The British liberators were staggered and shocked by the inhuman behaviour of some of the former guards, who continued to abuse and torment prisoners nearing death when they assumed we were looking the other way. I confess that on such occasions I may have breached the Geneva Convention to prevent further ill treatment of helpless victims. Their behaviour after we had arrived contradicted the excuse that the SS had forced them to carry out orders. Our new orders to them were ‘Stop acting like savages’. 

The 'Thousand Year Reich' of Hitler was in ruins after twelve years, and millions dead all over the world. These deaths, like countless deaths since, were caused by persons who chose evil over good. Each choice we make for sin is not at the level of choosing the evil of Belsen but it moves us towards that. Other dictators have tried their hand at their own version of Hitler's distorted vision and people have gone along with them.

Each of us likes to have power. We may not be conscious of this and in many instances there's no sin at all. I remember once  seeing in a Catholic magazine a cartoon  of people assembled for Mass where you were asked to 'spot the errors'. One was the proverbial 'little old lady' kneeling in the middle of a pew instead of blocking it at one end! There are times, especially as I grow older, when I can see the 'little old lady' in myself, trying to subtly ensure that things are done my way. Indeed, in the parish in Idaho where that kind young Mormon woman asked me to go to the dying elderly woman, the housekeeper asked me what time I'd like to have dinner at each day. I told her - but she always served it thirty minutes earlier.

But if I am a spouse, a parent, a teacher, a boss, a priest who doesn't listen to the other, who rules my little domain with a heavy hand, the words of Jesus are directed at me. 

What is the 'hand', the 'foot', the 'eye' that causes me to sin, especially in the use of power?


Antiphona ad Communionem
Communion antiphon Cf Pas 118[119]:49-50

Memento etiam verbi tui servo tuo, Domine,
Remember your word to your servant, O Lord,
in quo mihi spem dedisti,
in which you have given me hope.
haec me consolata est in humilitate mea,
This is my comfort when I am brought low.

Choir of St Benedict's Monastery, São Paulo, Brazil

Traditional Latin Mass 

Dedication of St Michael the Archangel 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 09-29-2024 if necessary).

Lesson: Apocalypse 1:1-5.  Gospel: Matthew 18:1-10.

The Archangel St Michael
Jaume Huguet [Web Gallery of Art]



26 September 2024

Happy Birthday, Louella 'Lala' Vicente!


Lala with Jordan who died last November



I try to mark Lala's birthday every year. Fewer and fewer persons with Down Syndrome are being born in European countries. This is because more and more children with Down Syndrome are being aborted. Below, with some minor changes, is what I posted last year and the year before.

+++

I first wrote this post in October 2008 and used it again in 2011 under the title Lala and Queen Elizabeth II. I have re-posted it a number of times, with variations, because Lala's story is one that should be told over and over again. This year I am re-posting what I posted the last two years and also five years ago, with a couple of updates on ages. As I post this it is already Lala's birthday in the Philippines, 27 September, the feast of St Vincent de Paul. No doubt, the occasion will be marked at Punla, Ang Arko, where Lala lives, the only L'Arche community in the Philippines, in Cainta, Rizal, part of the metropolitan sprawl of Manila. 

The Pope's Universal Prayer Intention for September 2014 was: That the mentally disabled may receive the love and help they need for a dignified life. The truth is that persons with mental or learning disabilities can teach the rest of us about the dignity of life, as the photo above of Lala helping Jordan with his meal shows.

Let us show our service to the poor, then, with renewed ardour in our hearts, seeking out above all any abandoned people, since they are given to us as lords and patrons. (St Vincent de Paul, used in the Office of Readings for his feast day, 27 September.)

St Vincent de Paul, (24 April 1581 - 27 September 1660)
Simon François de Tours [Wikipedia]


Lala has have two birthdays, the real one and the official one, as did the late Queen Elizabeth. Lala’s official birthday is 27 September, the feast day of St Vincent de Paul, and she turns 47 this year. Queen Elizabeth’s official birthday was celebrated in 53 Commonwealth countries, but not on the same date. Only the Falkland Islands observed her official birthday on her real one, 21 April. In the United Kingdom her official birthday could be on the first, second or third Saturday in June. She turned 96 on her most recent birthday, to be her last. May she rest in peace.


Queen Elizabeth II [Wikipedia]


While there’s no confusion about the date of birth of Queen Elizabeth, there is about that of Lala. The young Princess Elizabeth was born in a palace in London. Lala was found shortly after birth in a trashcan in Cebu City in the central Philippines. Those who found her took her to the Asilo De La Milagrosa, the orphanage of the Daughters of Charity there. The Sisters noticed that the little girl had Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome) and took her in and raised her. Since they didn’t know who her parents were they had to choose a name for her.

The Sisters chose 'Vicente' as her family name, in honour of St Vincent de Paul, and 'Louella' as her Christian name, in honour of St Louise de Marillac. The two saints founded the Daughters of Charity in France in 1633. Lala, as all her friends know her, probably has something else in common with St Louise. She was almost certainly born out of wedlock, as the saint was, and, like St Louise, never knew her mother. I suspect that Lala’s mother, probably very young and unmarried, panicked – her panic possibly added to when she saw that her daughter wasn’t 'normal' - and left her baby where someone could find her and take care of her.

And the Sisters made the feast of St Vincent de Paul, 27 September, Lala's official birthday.

St Louise de Marillac (15 August 1591 - 15 March 1660) [Wikipedia]

I first met Lala in Cebu in 1992 at a Faith and Light celebration. We had just begun a community there, after a retreat given by the co-founder of the movement, Jean Vanier, a Canadian layman, in Holy Family Retreat House, Cebu City, in October 1991. During the retreat he gave a public talk in the auditorium of St Theresa’s College, as I recall, and a group of interested people got together after that. The gathering at which Lala was present included members of Faith and Light from Manila who had come to tell us more about the movement.

I could see immediately that Lala had a special gift: she’s a natural 'ice-breaker'. Though she seldom says anything, she lights up any group into which she comes, unless she’s in a bad mood, which happens from time to time.

Lala became a member of our Faith and Light community in Cebu but I lost contact with her when I went to Lianga, Surigao del Sur, in 1993 as parish priest and to Manila the following year to become vocation director of the Columbans. But one day when I visited the L’Arche community in Cainta, Rizal, known as 'Ang Arko', I was surprised to see Lala there. L’Arche, the French for 'The Ark' as in Noah’s Ark, was founded by Jean Vanier, in 1964 when he invited two men with learning disabilities, Raphael Simi and Philippe Seux, who had been living in an institution, to join him in a small cottage he had bought and was renovating in the town of Trosly-Breuil, France. Jean had no intention of founding anything, but he realized very quickly that he had made a commitment to these two men. One of them, I forget which, chose to live independently some years later, something he could never have done had he stayed in the institution and not met Jean. Out of these small beginnings has grown an international movement of about 130 residential communities where those with learning disabilities are enabled to live in a family-type situation and to develop their abilities to the greatest extent possible.


Jordan and Raymon, another young man, were welcomed by Ang Arko when they were very young. Both have physical as well as learning disabilities. Others have also been welcomed down the years. The original house was in Manila but the community moved later to Cainta.

Lala and Hachiko, each looking more content than the other!

Sadly, this beautiful dog died not long afterwards, choking on a chicken bone.

In Holy Week 2001 I attended the international pilgrimage of Faith and Light to Lourdes as chaplain to the group from the Philippines. Lala was one of the twelve or so Filipinos. I was based in England at the time and travelled with a group from there

The Easter Vigil was celebrated in the underground basilica. Some of the Old Testament Vigil readings were dramatized. During the account of creation when the words God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him were read, a spotlight shone on a young man in a wheelchair. But what moved me most was when Lala was part of a group dramatizing the reading of the Exodus.

I simply marveled at the fact that a young woman who should never have been born, according to the 'wisdom' of so many, left after birth among garbage, was on the other side of the world helping to proclaim the Word of God to thousands of people, many like herself, and doing so with the joy that permeates her soul.

Queen Elizabeth, Queen of Canadain Toronto in 2010 [Wikipedia]

Ever since I was a small child I've just loved the scarlet jackets of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the 'Mounties'. I used to draw Mounties with crayons but never developed into an El Greco or a Van Gogh!

Queen Elizabeth was blessed by God with a long and healthy life in which she continued to serve her people with dignity until her death. Though she was among the richest people in the world, Lala, also with her two birthdays, enjoys even greater riches, because the words of Mary’s prayer, the Magnificat, have been revealed in her life: 'God has lifted up the lowly'.

The Visitation 
El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Magnificat, (Luke 1:46-55)
form Catholic Television of Nigeria

The version above is an adaptation of the text of the prayer. Below is the translation in the Breviary used in the Philippines and in the USA during Evening Prayer (Vespers).

  
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.

'The clouds parted and Your light, oh Lord, shone down upon us.'

 

19 September 2024

'The last word belongs to God and to his Son, the conqueror of sin and death.' Sunday Reflections, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time


First Steps (after Millet)

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]


Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me. (Mark 30:37; today's gospel).


Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 9:30-37 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)

Jesus and his disciples went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge


Bishop Joseph Nathanel Perry on Men and Mass

Bishop Perry is an auxiliary bishop emeritus of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

From March 2020 people in most parts of the world were not able to take part in Mass in church on Sundays or weekdays while the Covid pandemic lasted. Parish priests were celebrating Mass in empty churches. Funeral Masses here in Ireland were open only to the immediate families of the deceased during the strict lockdown periods. 

Many became used to online Masses, which were a great comfort to people and still are for many who cannot attend Mass in person because of illness or age. But have we come to see this as a normal way of participating in the Holy Sacrifice?

Families were communicating by Zoom, Facebook and the like, and these were truly a blessing in the situation we were going through. But this is not the same as meeting in person. (I recently heard of a priest who quipped that in the days of lockdown it was all 'gloom and Zoom'!)

In the video above Bishop Perry is talking about Sunday Mass in the context of the family. A number of times he says husbands and fathers or husband and father emphasising that in God's plan a man is meant to be a husband before he becomes a father. The same holds for a woman. She is meant to be a wife before she becomes a mother. Marriage is the primary vocation of a couple. They are first called by God to be spouses. As spouses they are then, in most cases, called to be parents. The Church honours St Joseph above all as the Husband of Mary. It was as such that in a very real sense he fulfilled the role of being a father to Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary.

Bishop Perry speaks of the importance of the husband/father leading the family by taking part in Sunday Mass. Though I have memories of my mother taking me to Mass when I was a young child, my abiding memories are of my father taking me to Sunday Mass - my mother would be taking care of my baby brother and went to a later Mass - and seeing him attend Mass every weekday morning before preparing my mother's breakfast and then going off to work.

Archbishop Youhanna Boutros Moshe celebrates First Mass in freed Qaraqosh, Iraq, 30 October 2016

Archbishop Moshe is now the Archbishop Emeritus of  the Syrian Catholic Archeparchy of Mosul.

We want to be Christ's witnesses here. Words of Archbishop Youhanna Boutros Moshe of Mosul. He belongs to the Syrian Catholic Church, one of the Eastern churches in full communion with Rome.

Mass had been celebrated in Qaraqosh without break since the early days of Christianity until ISIS drove out its Christians - the majority in the town - in 2014. ISIS gave Christians three options: pay a tax, convert to Islam or be executed. 

When churches were closed because of the pandemic none of us were faced with those choices.

Pope Francis visited Qaraqosh on 7 March 2021. Here is part of his address to the people there in the Church of the Immaculate Conception.

Our gathering here today shows that terrorism and death never have the last word. The last word belongs to God and to his Son, the conqueror of sin and death. Even amid the ravages of terrorism and war, we can see, with the eyes of faith, the triumph of life over death. You have before you the example of your fathers and mothers in faith, who worshipped and praised God in this place. They persevered with unwavering hope along their earthly journey, trusting in God who never disappoints and who constantly sustains us by his grace.

Now that we have returned to normality, maybe we can reflect on what it means to us to take part in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, particularly in Sunday Mass, whether we attend it on Saturday evening or on Sunday itself. We have before us the example of our fathers and mothers in faith. In the words of Bishop Perry, Sunday is the day when husbands and fathers can lead their families to the Lord.

Visit of Pope Francis to Iraq, 5-8 March 2021

Traditional Latin Mass 

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 09-22-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:4-8.  Gospel: Matthew 9:1-8.

Christ Healing the Paralytic
Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini [Web Gallery of Art]

'But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins'—he then said to the paralytic—'Rise, take up your bed and go home' (Matthew 9:6; Gospel).