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 St Martin of Tours. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St Martin of Tours. Show all posts
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia,
England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,
Scotland, South Africa)
GospelMatthew 25:31-46 (English
Standard Version Anglicised: India)
Jesus said to his
disciples:
“When the Son of Man comes in his
glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious
throne.Before him will be gathered all the
nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats.And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on
the left.Then the
King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world.For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and
you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,I was naked and you clothed me, I was
sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’Then the righteous will answer him, saying,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?And when did we see you a stranger and
welcome you, or naked and clothe you?And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’And the King will answer
them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of
these my brothers, you did it to me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me,
you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his
angels.For I was hungry and you gave me no
food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,I was a stranger and you did not welcome me,
naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord,
when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in
prison, and did not minister to you?’Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as
you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’And these will go away into eternal
punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
In November 1974 some members of the Praesidium of the Legion of Mary of which I was spiritual director came to me and told me of two starving children, a brother and sister, that they had come across on home visitation. The Legionaries were students in the college department of what was then Immaculate Conception College, Ozamiz City, where I was chaplain. At the time ICC was run by the Columban Sisters. It is now La Salle University, under the care of the De La Salle Brothers.
We arranged with the parents to take the two children to the local government hospital. When I saw Linda, as I will call her, I thought she was a malnourished eight-year-old. I was utterly shocked when I learned that she was twelve. Her brother, whom I'll call Nonoy, was five. His ribs were sticking out and his stomach severely bloated. The eldest in the family, a girl aged 13 or 14, showed no signs of malnutrition. This was the first time I had ever met anyone with signs of starvation. I never discovered why the children were in such a state.
After a few days Linda began to shyly smile and slowly got a little better, due to the nourishment and attention she was getting. But Nonoy showed no signs of improvement. He died two days before Christmas, without once smiling. We buried him on Christmas Eve.
Linda was able to go home and on at least one occasion we took her on an outing. She was still very small for her age but always cheerful whenever we met her. However, the severe malnutrition had taken its toll and she died in September 1976 while I was at home in Ireland.
Fearful, because Jesus speaks such harsh language: Depart
from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the
devil and his angels. This is not 'the Church of nice'.
Hopeful, because Linda and Nonoy will be there at the Last Judgment to speak on my behalf.
This portrait was painted during his lifetime or very soon after his death, hence it is probably the most true to his appearance.
During November the Church honours three saints noted for their extraordinary love for the poor, St Martin de Porres (1579 - 1639) on the 3rd, St Martin of Tours (316 - 397) on the 11th and St Elizabeth of Hungary (1207 - 1231) on the 17th. These three gave of their very self. These exemplified in their lives what Jesus is teaching us in today's gospel.
El Greco is one of many artists who have depicted the scene of St Martin of Tours, then a young soldier and preparing for baptism, giving half of his cloak in the depths of winter to a beggar clad only in rags. The following night,the story continues, Martin in his sleep saw Jesus Christ, surrounded by angels, and dressed in the half of the cloak he had given away. A voice bade him look at it well and say whether he knew it. He then heard Jesus say to the angels, 'Martin, as yet only a catechumen, has covered me with his cloak.' Sulpicius Severus, the saint's friend and biographer, says that as a consequence of this vision Martin 'flew to be baptized'.
Sándor Liezen-Mayer in his painting of St Elizabeth of Hungary above, shows her protecting a young mother and baby with her cloak. The saint herself was a young mother. She married at 14, bore three children and was widowed at 20. The painting reminds me of a beautiful Irish blessing, Faoi bhrat Mhuire thú/sibh ('May thou/you be protected by the cloak of Mary'). The young saint, who was only 24 when she died, followed the example of St Francis, with the blessing of her husband, lived very simply and served the poor and the sick each day personally and ate with them at the same table.
St Martin de Porres, born outside of marriage and of mixed blood, learned some of the medical arts by working with a barber/surgeon in his young days. He devoted his life as a Dominican lay brother to caring for the sick, whether they were rich or poor. It was mostly the latter who came to him and whom he went looking for. Like St Francis he had a special closeness to animals and people brought these to him to be healed. He is often depicted carrying a broom, with a dog, a cat and a mouse at his feet eating from the same plate.
These three saints from different social backgrounds wrestled with situations we wrestle with today. They spent themselves in bringing about the Kingdom of God by serving the very poorest. St Martin of Tours, who like St Elizabeth was born in Hungary, asked himself as a soldier if it was proper to engage in battle, where he would kill others.Wikipedia tells us: Regardless of whether or not he remained in the army, academic opinion holds that just before a battle with the Gauls at Borbetomagus (now Worms, Germany), Martin determined that his faith prohibited him from fighting, saying, 'I am a soldier of Christ. I cannot fight.' He was charged with cowardice and jailed, but in response to the charge, he volunteered to go unarmed to the front of the troops. His superiors planned to take him up on the offer, but before they could, the invaders sued for peace, the battle never occurred, and Martin was released from military service.
Conscientious objection doesn't only concern those called to join an army. A Swedish midwife, Ellinor Grimmark, was fired in 2014 for refusing to do abortions. This is an area where, more and more, individuals will have to make choices that may involve losing their jobs, or even worse. (In 2017 a Swedish court ruled against Ellinor Grimmark). The world is still overwhelmed with the needs of those trapped in poverty, victims of wars, of natural calamities. Pope Francis has spoken of the Church as being 'a field hospital'. He has asked priests and others to know 'the smell of the sheep'. St Elizabeth of Hungary and St Martin de Porres immersed themselves in that every day, seeing in each one they served Jesus Christ himself. And those they took care of, whether they were aware of it or not, were being served by Jesus himself through those saints and through the many others down the centuries who have been doing the same.
I am certain that Linda and Nonoy will hear Jesus say to them, Come, you who are blessed by my Father . . . I hope and pray that they and others like them who have crossed my path down the years will put in a good word for me so that I will hear Jesus say the same to me.
This very ancient Latin hymn, which is a litany, is also known asLaudes Regiae. In the video above it is sung in St Mary's Cathedral, Tokyo.
Extraordinary Form of the Mass
Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
This Sunday, 22 November, is the Twenty-fourth and Last Sunday after Pentecost in the calendar that uses the TLM.
The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 11-22-2020, if necessary).
Epistle: Colossians 1:9-14. Gospel: Matthew 24:13-35.
St Columban's Day
23
November
At the Crypt of St Columban, Bobbio, Italy, June 2015
Be helpful when you are at the bottom of the ladder and be the lowest when you are in authority . . . Be submissive to good, unbending to evil, gentle in generosity, untiring in love, just in all things. Be respectful to the worthy, respectful to the poor. Be mindful of favours, unmindful of wrongs. Be a lover of the ordinary man, and don't wish for riches, but cool down excitement and speak your mind.
From a letter of St Columban to a young disciple, c. AD. 610.
Happy St Columban's Day to my fellow Columbans and to our benefactors!
Authentic Beauty
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.
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia,
England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,
Scotland, South Africa)
GospelMark 12:38-44 [or 41-44] (New
Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)
[As
Jesus taught, he said, ‘Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long
robes, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and
places of honour at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of
appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.’]
He sat down opposite the treasury, and
watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in
large sums. A poor
widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly
I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing
to the treasury. For all of
them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has
put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’
There are moments that remain a grace from God for a person for the rest of his life, moments when he was simply an observer rather than a participant. One such moment for me happened one night more than forty years ago in Ozamiz City, Mindanao. It was quite late and I was looking out through an upstairs window in the convento (presbytery/rectory) of the Cathedral. As we say in Ireland, 'there wasn't a sinner to be seen' on the cathedral plaza except for two persons. One was a man, a beggar, maybe in his 30s. The other was Gregoria, known to everyone as 'Guria', a 'simple' woman and very gentle who would often wander in an out of classrooms in schools, doodle on the board and leave without having distracted anyone.
I noticed Guria, who was perhaps in her 40s, approach the man. She had two small pieces of bread, what is called pandesal in the Philippines. She gave one to the beggar, just like St Martin of Tours when still a soldier cutting his ample cloak in two and giving one half to a beggar. (St Martin's feast day is 11 November but is not observed this year as it is a Sunday.)
What Guria did was pure, unselfish love. And yet she was probably unaware of this and certainly totally unaware of the fact that someone was observing her. She did not have a strong gift of reflection whereas God has given this to me and to most of us. But we don't always use that gift.
St Mark tells us, Jesus satdown opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. And he saw 'Guria' there. Perhaps the widow in the gospel looked like the peasant woman in Van Gogh's painting above. But it would seem that his disciples hadn't observed her until Jesus drew their attention to her.
It is said that St Martin, after he had shared his cloak with the beggar, saw Jesus in a dream wearing that half-cloak. The reality is that Christ shows himself frequently to us, if we have eyes to see, as he showed himself to me through Guria more than forty years ago, and on many other similar occasions down the years.
Potijze
Chateau Grounds Cemetery,
Ieper (Ypres), Belgium, where my great-uncle Corporal Lawrence Dowd is buried.
This Sunday, 11 November, is the centennial of the Armistice, when the Great War, later to be known as World War One, ended at 11am on the eleventh of the eleventh, 11 November 1918.
I have posted a number of
times about finding the grave of my great-uncle, Corporal Lawrence Dowd, an
older half-brother of my maternal grandmother Annie Collins (née Dowd),
who died in the war on 6 August 1917. You will find one of those posts here.
May we remember in our prayers the millions who died in that terrible, pointless war, mostly soldiers, the vast majority of whom on both sides were in their teens and early 20s. Every one of them was an 'Uncle Larry', a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a nephew, a cousin, a grandson, a best friend, each with a name.
At the grave of Lawrence Dowd September 2001.
Uncle Larry was killed on the Feast of the
Transfiguration, 6 August 1917. I was the first relative to visit his grave.
‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all
the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he
will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from
the goats, and he
will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.Then the king will say to those at his right
hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty
and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and
you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when
was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you
something to drink? And when
was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you
clothing? And when
was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just
as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you
did it to me.” Then he
will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into
the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was
thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and
you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we
saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did
not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as
you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but
the righteous into eternal life.’
In November 1974 some members of the
Praesidium of the Legion of Mary of which I was spiritual director came to me
and told me of two starving children, a brother and sister, that they had come
across on home visitation. The Legionaries were students in the college
department of what was then Immaculate Conception College, Ozamiz City, where I
was chaplain. At the time ICC was run by the Columban Sisters. It is now La
Salle University, under the care of the De La Salle Brothers.
We arranged with the parents to take
the two children to the local government hospital. When I saw Linda, as I will
call her, I thought she was a malnourished eight year old. I was utterly
shocked when I learned that she was twelve. Her brother, whom I'll call Nonoy,
was five. His ribs were sticking out and his stomach severely bloated. The
eldest in the family, a girl aged 13 or 14, showed no signs of malnutrition.
This was the first time I had ever met anyone with signs of starvation. I never
discovered why the children were in such a state.
After a few days Linda began to shyly
smile and slowly got a little better, due to the nourishment and attention she
was getting. But Nonoy showed no signs of improvement. He died two days before
Christmas, without once smiling. We buried him on Christmas Eve.
Linda
was able to go home and on at least once occasion we took her on an outing. She
was still very small for her age but always cheerful whenever we met her.
However, the severe malnutrition had taken its toll and she died in September
1975 while I was at home in Ireland.
Fearful, because Jesus speaks such harsh language: You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. This is not 'the Church of nice'.
Hopeful, because Linda and Nonoy will be there at the Last Judgment to speak in my behalf.
This
portrait was painted during his lifetime or very soon after his death, hence it
is probably the most true to his appearance.
During November the
Church honours three saints noted for their extraordinary love for the poor, St Martin de Porres(1579
- 1639) on the 3rd,St Martin of
Tours(316 - 397) on the 11th andSt Elizabeth of
Hungary(1207 - 1231) on the 17th. These three gave of their
very self. These exemplified in their lives what Jesus is teaching us in today's
gospel.
El Greco is one of many
artists who have depicted the scene of St Martin of Tours, then a young soldier
and preparing for baptism, giving half of his cloak in the depths of winter to
a beggar clad only in rags. The following night,the story
continues, Martin in his sleep saw Jesus Christ, surrounded
by angels, and dressed in the half of the cloak he had given away. A voice bade
him look at it well and say whether he knew it. He then heard Jesus say to the
angels, 'Martin, as yet only a catechumen, has covered me with his cloak.'
Sulpicius Severus, the saint's friend and biographer, says that as a
consequence of this vision Martin 'flew to be baptized'.
Sándor Liezen-Mayer in his
painting of St Elizabeth of Hungary above, shows her protecting a young mother
and baby with her cloak. The saint herself was a young mother. She married at
14, bore three children and was widowed at 20. The painting reminds me of a
beautiful Irish blessing, Faoi bhrat Mhuire thú/sibh ('May thou/you be protected by
the cloak of Mary'). The young saint, who was only 24 when she died, followed
the example of St Francis, with the blessing of her husband, lived very simply
and served the poor and the sick each day personally and ate with them at the
same table.
St Martin de Porres,
born outside of marriage and of mixed blood, learned some of the medical arts by
working with a barber/surgeon in his young days. He devoted his life as a
Dominican lay brother to caring for the sick, whether they were rich or poor.
It was mostly the latter who came to him and whom he went looking for. Like St
Francis he had a special closeness to animals and people brought these to him
to be healed. He is often depicted carrying a broom, with a dog, a cat and a
mouse at his feet eating from the same plate.
These three saints
from different social backgrounds wrestled with situations we wrestle with
today. They spent themselves in bringing about the Kingdom of God by serving
the very poorest. St Martin of Tours, who like St Elizabeth was born in
Hungary, asked himself as a soldier if it was proper to engage in battle, where
he would kill others.Wikipedia tells us: Regardless
of whether or not he remained in the army, academic opinion holds that just
before a battle with the Gauls at Borbetomagus
(now Worms, Germany), Martin
determined that his faith prohibited him from fighting, saying, 'I am a soldier
of Christ. I cannot fight.' He was charged with cowardice and jailed, but in
response to the charge, he volunteered to go unarmed to the front of the
troops. His superiors planned to take him up on the offer, but before they
could, the invaders sued for peace, the battle never occurred, and Martin was
released from military service.
Conscientious
objection doesn't only concern those called to join an army. A Swedish
midwife, Ellinor
Grimmark, was fired in 2014 for refusing to do abortions. This is an area where, more and
more, individuals will have to make choices that may involve losing their jobs,
or even worse. (This year a Swedish court ruled against Ellinor Grimmark).
The world is still overwhelmed with the needs of those trapped in poverty,
victims of wars, of natural calamities. Pope Francis has spoken of the Church
as being 'a field hospital'. He has asked priests and others to know 'the smell
of the sheep'. St Elizabeth of Hungary and St Martin de Porres immersed
themselves in that every day, seeing in each one they served Jesus Christ
himself. And those they took care of, whether they were aware of it or not,
were being served by Jesus himself through those saints and through the many
others down the centuries who have been doing the same.
I am certain that Linda and
Nonoy will hear Jesus say to them, Come, you that are blessed by my Father . . . I hope and pray
that they and others like them who have crossed my path down the years will put
in a good word for me so that I will hear Jesus say the same to me.
