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).
Showing posts with label Columban Lay Missionaries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Columban Lay Missionaries. Show all posts
The Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord has four different Mass
formularies, each with its own prayers and readings. Any of the four fulfils
our obligation to attend Mass. These are:
Vigil Mass, celebrated 'either before or after
First Vespers (Evening Prayer) of the Nativity'; that means starting between
5pm and 7pm.
Mass During the Night, known before as 'Midnight Mass'.
Mass at Dawn.
Mass During the Day.
The
readings from the Jerusalem Bible for the four Masses are all on one page but
with links to each individual Mass. When you click on 'Readings' below from the
New American Bible you will find links to the readings for each of the four
Masses.
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia,
England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
Gospel(Mass During the Night) Luke 2:1-14 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
In those days a decree went out from Caesar
Augustus that all the world should be registered.This was
the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.And all went to be registered, each to his
own town.And
Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea,
to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of
the house and lineage of David,to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with
child.And while
they were there, the time came for her to give birth.And she gave birth to her firstborn son
and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because
there was no place for them in the inn.
And in the same region there were
shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.And an
angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone
around them, and they were filled with fear.And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for
behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.And this will be a sign for you: you
will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”And suddenly there was with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among
those with whom he is pleased!”
Linus quotes Luke 2:8-14 (Authorized [King James] Version):
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Charlie Brown finds satisfaction in Linus’ answer. He is made joyful. So why is this television special so enduring? Linus’ answer is the perfect Advent message for Christians awaiting the birth of Christ during a time taken over by commercialism [emphasis added]. That’s what Christians who watch this special take away from it.
The above is a quotation from an article by Clemente Lisi, Why 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' Remains Beloved by both Christians and Non-believers. A very perceptive comment on the article reads: I watched the original airing of the show in 1965 as an 8-year-old. Many, many times since then. It just occurred to me as I read your story that one of the main reasons for the profundity of Linus' speech is the silence before and after he quotes Luke. No piano, no laughter, no groaning. Just silence. It sets in our minds the importance of what is about to be said and subsequently what was said [emphasis added].
In his book Jesus of Nazareth, The Infancy Narratives, Pope Benedict XVI writes on pages 66-67 as follows [emphases added].
'And while they were there [Bethlehem], the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn (Luke 2:6-7, RSV).
'Let us begin our exegesis with the concluding words of this passage: there was no room for them in the inn. Prayerful reflection over these words has highlighted an inner parallel between this saying and the profoundly moving verse from St John's Prologue (read in the Mass During the Day): He came to his own home, and his own people received him not (1:11). For the Saviour of the World, for him in who all things were created (cf Col 1:16), there was no room. Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head (Mt 8:20). He who was crucified outside the city (cf Heb 13:12) also came into the world outside the city.
'This should cause us to reflect - it points toward the reversal of values found in the figure of Jesus Christ and his message. From the moment of his birth, he belongs outside the realms of what is important and powerful in worldly terms. Yet it is this unimportant and powerless child that proves to be the truly powerful one, the one on whom ultimately everything depends. So one aspect of becoming a Christian is having to leave behind what everyone else thinks and wants, the prevailing standards, in order to enter the light of the truth of our being, and aided by that light to find the right path.'
+++
Both Rembrandt's painting above and Murillo's at the top beautifully show this unimportant and powerless child to be truly the light of the truth of our being.
2020 has been a very dark year for people throughout the world and most of us have felt powerless at times, in varying degrees. May the words of St John's Gospel be a beacon of hope for all of us:
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it(John 1:5).
Agus tá
an solas ag taitneamh sa dorchadas, ach níorghabh an
dorchadas é (Eoin 1:5).
Extraordinary Form of the Mass
Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
Christmas Day.
The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 12-25-2020, if necessary). Click on the circle in front of 'Missa prima', 'Missa secunda' or 'Missa tertia' for the specific Mass texts.
Authentic beauty,
however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know,
to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.
Kyung-Ja Lee from Korea and Angie Escarsa from the Philippines, two Columban Lay Missionaries assigned to Ireland, along with some of the priests here in St Columban's, Dalgan Park, where I live, sing Oíche
Chiúin, Silent Night, in Irish.
‘Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;and whoever does not take up the
cross and follow me is not worthy of me.Those who find their life will lose
it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me
welcomes the one who sent me.Whoever welcomes a prophet in the
name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a
righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of
the righteous;and whoever gives even a cup of cold
water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you,
none of these will lose their reward.’
Whoever loves father or mother . . . son or daughter more than me . . .and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
These words of Jesus in today's Gospel speak to the hearts of missionaries who leave their homelands and who give up the right to have their own families. Up to maybe a hundred years or so ago it was not uncommon for missionaries, and emigrants, never to return home. When I entered the Columban seminary in Ireland in 1961 our priests came home only after seven years. And they travelled by ship across the Atlantic and Pacific. We were, and are, inspired by our patron saint, St Columban, whose motto was Peregrinari pro Christo, 'To be an exile/pilgrim for Christ'.
Times have changed and long-distance travel by plane has replaced journeys on ocean liners and freighters and is much cheaper. People fly across the Atlantic for weekends. And people are living much longer, which has led to many missionaries spending their latter days in the country of their birth. For some, this is a second experience of going into exile.
My Columban confrere Fr Eamonn Horgan went to Japan as a young priest in 1954 and came back to Ireland for good in 2013. He writes about these two experiences in his article Two Sorrows.
Fr Eamonn Horgan with Japanese friends
Father Eamonn writes: The months since my ordination the previous December (1953) had been pleasantly spent finishing my seminary course and visiting friends and relatives. My mission destination was to be Japan, where, God willing, I would spend the rest of my active life as a Columban missionary.
But then: The year since ordination had slipped by without much concern on my part about facing the ordeal of leaving kin, friends and country. Exile was something I had only read about, but here I was about to embark on my own. I’m afraid that during those final months before leaving, the missionary spirit in me had noticeably faded. Any tint of glamour attached to a missionary career suddenly grew dim. I had heard many tales of missionaries who, through accident, sickness or even martyrdom, had never come home. Would I someday find myself joining that brave company?
However, his experience in Japan gradually lifted his spirits: Little by little the clouds of melancholy began to lift. It has been said that Japanese have difficulty understanding foreigners. My experience of them belies that opinion. On so many occasions I have found the Japanese understanding my peculiarities and idiosyncrasies better than I understood them myself. Their loyalty was inspiring and the virtues they displayed at every turn would match or surpass those of many ‘official’ Christians.
A farewell party
Father Eamonn gradually found that he had a new homeland: Time and again, when overseas folk came to visit me, local friends or mere acquaintances insisted that I bring them to their homes. The welcome was ever genuine, the hospitality lavish. Over the years as Japan ‘grew on me’, I learned to appreciate more and more how kind the Lord had been to me, in bringing me to so charming a land and so loving a people. Almost imperceptibly I found myself feeling more and more at home among them. They seemed to reciprocate the feeling.
But then came the second sorrow, 'exile' once again: Forward to April 2013: the scene, a train station in Minamata City, South Japan. A group of 40 or so Japanese, men and women, baptised and non-baptised, bidding farewell to their pastor as he departs for retirement to the land of his birth. As the train pulls out, copious tears, theirs and mine, flow freely.
This scene is similar to that in Acts 20:36-37, When he had finished speaking, he knelt down with them all and prayed. There was much weeping among them all; they embraced Paul and kissed him.
Another farewell
The pain, though mixed with joy, continues: The heartbreak of separation still persists, not just on my side but on theirs too I think. Frequent letters and emails, genuinely nostalgic, continue to arrive here. January 1, 2016 brought two members of an English conversation group of mine [Father Eamonn used to teach English to adults] who had sacrificed their Japan New Year festivities, the biggest of the year, to fly all the way here to visit their departed friend.
Richard King's set of four Irish airmail stamps published in 1948-9 feature the Angel Victor over four sacred sites bringing the 'Voice of Ireland' to St Patrick asking him to come among the Irish once again as an exile, this time freely as a missionary unlike his first six years in Ireland when he was kidnapped and brought there as a slave. The great saint let go of all the pain of his first exile and embraced the pain of his second at the call of Jesus in order to bring the Gospel to the Irish people.
St Columban for many years begged his abbot in Bangor, Ireland, to allow him to go into exile to the European continent. His abbot finally relented and twelve other monks, including St Gall went with the great missionary. St Columban was driven out of a number of places by various authorities who did not like the demands of the Gospel. But he brought a renewal of the Catholic Christian faith to much of western Europe because he had embraced the grace of the call to be an exile/pilgrim for Christ.
Father Eamonn followed the example of the patron saint of the Missionary Society of St Columban in embracing his first exile from Ireland in going to Japan and his second 59 years later when leaving Japan in order to return to the land of his birth.
Please pray for all overseas missionaries and for the millions of people who have been forced from their home places by war or by economic necessity. We missionaries have been able to make a choice and accept or reject God's invitation. For far too many refugees there has been no choice.
Kim Jung-hae, Roberta, a Korean, served in Japan as a Columban lay missionary.
Now the birth of Jesus the Messiahtook
place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before
they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to
expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.But just when he had resolved to do this,
an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of
David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in
her is from the Holy Spirit.She will bear a son, and you are to name
him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’All this took place to fulfil what had
been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
‘Look, the virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
which
means, ‘God is with us.’When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the
Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife.
Responsorial Psalm [NAB Lectionary]
In December 2002 I met a man in Manila, Mang Pepe, and his daughter Ligaya whose story reminded me so much of that of Joseph and Jesus in today's gospel. The story of Mang Pepe and Ligaya is told here by a Columban lay missionary from Korea, Columba Chang, who worked for many years in the Manila area and whose ministry at the time she wrote this story was to families affected by HIV/AIDS. The names used aren't their real names. 'Pepe' is a nickname for a man named Jose or Joseph. 'Mang' is a Tagalog term of respect for a man older than oneself. 'Aling' is the equivalent term for a woman. The name 'Ligaya' means 'Joy'. The story was first published, as I recall, in a newsletter of Caritas Manilaand I used it in the November-December 2003 issue of MISYON, the Columban magazine in the Philippines that I edit. I republished it in the November-December 2015 issue of the magazine, now called MISYONonline.com. I think it is a story worth telling over and over again. Columba is now based in Myanmar as a member of a small team of Columban Lay Missionaries there. I have updated the introduction.
According toofficial Philippine government figuresthere were more than ten million Filipinos, about ten percent of the population, overseas as of December 2012, more than half of them temporary or irregular in the countries where they are staying. These temporary and irregular residents are mostly Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). They greatly help our country’s economy by the money they send home. However sometimes we seem to take them for granted, thinking that they have an easy life abroad. Read Aling Maria’s story and find out the dangers our OFWs face and the abuses they experience. We thank ‘Mang Pepe’ for his help in writing this article in which we’ve changed the names.
I met Mang Pepe and his daughter Ligaya through my work with Caritas Manila. I visit the family regularly. They live in a poor part of the city and Mang Pepe makes a living by doing odd jobs. My work takes me to families affected by HIV/AIDS. I knew Mang Pepe’s story before he shared it with the congregation at the Saturday evening Mass in Baclaran Church on 7 December 2002 at the end of a celebration organized by Caritas Manila for World AIDS Day. (Baclaran Church is the huge Redemptorist church in Parañaque City, Metro Manila, filled to capacity all day every Wednesday when the Perpetual Novena to the Mother of Perpetual Help is celebrated from morning till evening.)
Mang Pepe and his wife Aling Maria were having difficulties putting their five children through school. This sometimes led to arguments. Eventually Aling Maria decided to work in the Middle East. She felt happy when accepted as a nursing aide with a two-year contract in the UAE. She prepared her documents. She and Pepe sold their house and lot for her fare and placement fee. She flew out on 5 February 1989, full of hope for her family’s future financial stability.
Aling Maria soon discovered that her contract as a nursing aid was terminated just a few months after she arrived, without any hope of renewal. But she didn’t want to go back to the Philippines with an empty pocket. She decided to take the ‘TNT’ ('Tago ng tago', a Tagalog expression meaning to be an illegal immigrant worker) route. She managed to find a series of jobs as a saleslady, cashier and office worker.
Columba (inset) when working in Metro Manila
Hope turns into a nightmare
As an illegal worker, Aling Maria was often subjected to different abuses like underpayment, long hours of working without a day off and so on. But the worst thing was when one of her employers took advantage of her and made her pregnant. When she came home to the Philippines in October 1993 Mang Pepe and the family were very shocked to learn that Aling Maria carried a child in her womb. She hadn’t mentioned anything about this before. However, despite this they still welcomed her and the child with joy . . . but deep in their hearts there was a shadow of sadness, fear and uncertainty.
After a few days the tabloids reported that three Filipino overseas workers had been sent home because of being infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS – and that one of them was Aling Maria. These stories, and the rumors they spawned, continued for a month. Some relatives, neighbors and friends rejected Aling Maria. The children of Mang Pepe and Aling Maria were torn apart. Some wanted to quit school and leave the area. The family suffered greatly because of the stigma.
Columba with a friend in Manila
Confirmed HIV
Aling Maria and Mang Pepe went to the Department of Health (DOH) for a series of blood tests. The tests confirmed what Aling Maria knew already, that she and her ‘little mercy child,’ as Mang Pepe called his wife’s daughter had HIV. The doctor gave them counseling and advice and information about HIV/AIDS.
Ligaya is born
Aling Maria decided not to say in the hospital and continued to work as a pension plan insurance agent. In time she gave birth to a baby girl whom they named Ligaya. Gradually, however, Mang Pepe saw his dear wife turning into a picture of misery as she suffered from constant headaches and flu. Aling Maria was hoping for a miracle that would ease her agony. It was not to be. The HIV developed into full-blown AIDS. Her appetite disappeared until she couldn’t eat anymore. Mang Pepe and the children saw Aling Maria slowly dying. He prepared the family to accept her death as the will of God. She died on 15 December 1997, aged 46.
Like everyone else in Baclaran Church, I was deeply touched by Mang Pepe’s story, even though he had told it to me many times. I was touched by the great love of this simple man who accepted as his own a daughter who was the fruit of the brutal violation of his wife. Mang Pepe is ‘Tatay’ to Ligaya. Her schoolmates sometimes tease her because her features clearly show her Middle Eastern origins. But her Tatay stands by her, as do her brothers and sisters.
Tatay Pepe is proud of Ligaya’s singing ability and smiled as she sang at the celebration in Baclaran. Ligaya is very proud of her Tatay and knows the depth of his love as a father. She has very uncertain health and is often in the hospital. The shadow of AIDS hangs over her.
St Joseph named Jesus, the Son of Mary, and thereby became his legal father. He loved Mary, his wife, and raised Jesus as his own son. Mang Pepe has gone through the agony of knowing that his wife was violated overseas, after dishonest employers had taken advantage of her in other ways. When she brought home a child who was not his, he made her his own. This latter-day St Joseph in Manila has given much joy to his daughter Ligaya as she has given much joy to him and others, like myself, who have come to know and love her.
I was in Baclaran Church that day at the invitation of Columba and, during an activity before Mass, came to know ‘Ligaya’ as a friend. Shortly before she died towards the end of 2004 I had the privilege of talking to her on Columba’s cellphone. She was a delightful child. The light of heaven upon her.
The late American Scripture scholar Fr Raymond E. Brown SS points out that St Joseph, by taking Mary as his wife and by naming her Son, as the angel in today's gospel told him to do, in Jewish law, became the legal father of Jesus, something more than being his foster-father, as he is often described. And because St Joseph was of the line of David, so was Jesus, as the Messiah was foretold to be.
The Church honours St Joseph above all as the Husband (or Spouse) of Mary. Pope Francis has underlined this by adding the words 'and blessed Joseph her spouse' to Eucharistic Prayers I, II and III, as they were added to the Roman Canon (now also known as 'Eucharistic Prayer I') by Blessed Pope John XXIII.
Mang Pepe totally welcomed Aling Maria back from the Middle East as his wife whom he loved, despite his initial shock at what had happened to her. And he totally welcomed her daughter Ligaya as his own, as St Joseph welcomed the Son of Mary as his own.
Today's Gospel reminds us of the fact that the basic vocation, ie, call from God, of every married couple is to be spouses, not to be parents. Being parents is a consequence of their being spouses. I'm well aware that there are single parents, many of whom have never been married, who are heroically raising their children, often in very difficult circumstances. But it is God's will that children be born within marriage.
St Joseph was a loving husband to Mary and a loving father to her Son Jesus, God who became Man. Mang Pepe continued to be a loving husband to Aling Maria until she died and was a proud and loving father to her daughter Ligaya, as I could see so clearly.
Today's Gospel shows us something of the wonder of being called to be a husband and father and of the immense responsibility that goes with that. St Joseph as husband and father enabled Mary and Jesus to carry out the mission that God the Father had given them.
What applies to husbands/fathers applies equally to wives/mothers.
And the Gospel reminds us very clearly that in God's plan the foundation of the family is marriage, that is, of husband and wife, of man and woman. It can never be anything else.
Motet for five voices (SATTB) by William Byrd (c. 1540-1623)
