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).
For God so
loved the world that he gavehis only Son, so that everyone who believes in
him might not perish but might have eternal life.For God did not send his Son into the world to
condemnthe
world, but that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16-17, NABRE).
From today’s Gospel for the
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
Crime against humanity? In the first place, I’d
like to be frank with you: are they (drug addicts) humans? What is your
definition of a human being? (The President of the Philippines, 26 August 2016).
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemnthe world, but that the world might be saved through him (Jesus Christ, John 3:17).
(UPDATED) As of the 2nd week of September 2016, there have been over 3,500 deaths, both from legitimate police operations and extrajudicial or unexplained killings.
Here
are the latest numbers based on data from the Philippine National Police (PNP).
3,526 total
number of persons killed in #WarOnDrugs since July 1
1,491 drug
personalities killed in police operations, as of September 13
2,035 victims
of extrajudicial or vigilante killings, as of September 14
Data
below is as of August 22.
10 police
personnel killed during operations
18 police
personnel wounded during police operations.
'This campaign (of) shoot-to-kill will remain until the last day of my term if I'm still alive by then,' the 71-year-old (President) said, adding: 'I don't care about human rights, believe me.' He also announced that he was offering his soldiers and police personnel 'official and personal guarantee' of immunity from these prosecutions. In his crack down on drug peddlers, the president has even authorised citizens to shoot culprits to punish them for their crime. (The President of the Philippines, 6 August 2016).
A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly (Jesus Christ, John 10:10).
Pietá, Our Lady of Remedies Church, Malate, Manila
This commemorates the 100,000 or so, mostly civilians and including five Columban priests, who died in the Battle of Manila, February 1945.
For a long time I have wondered and been at a loss to understand why the evangelists should have spoken at such length about John the Baptist and the apostles, and yet told us so little about the Virgin Mary, who in life and distinction excels them all.
Being at a loss, as I say, to understand this, all I can think is that it pleased the Holy Spirit that it should be so. It was by the providence of the Holy Spisit that the evangelists kept silent, because the glory of the Virgin, as we read in the psalms, was all within, and could more truly be thought of than described.
The most important fact of her life, that Jesus was born of her, is enough to tell her whole story. What more do you want to know? What further inquire would you make concerning the Virgin? It is enough for you that she is the Mother of God. What beauty, I as you, what virtue, what perfection, what grace, what glory does not befit the Mother of God? (St Thomas of Villanova OSA)
From Tradition Day By Day, compiled and edited by John E. Rotelle OSA, Augustinian Press 1994
Now
all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus.And the Pharisees and the scribes
were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So he told them this parable:“Which one
of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the
ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds
it?When he has found it, he lays it on his
shoulders and rejoices.And when he comes home, he calls together his
friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my
sheep that was lost.’Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one
sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no
repentance.
“Or what woman having
ten silver coins,if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house,
and search carefully until she finds it?When she has
found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with
me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner who repents.”
[Then Jesussaid, “There was a man who had two
sons.The younger
of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that
will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them.A few days
later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country,
and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.When he had
spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he
began to be in need.So he went
and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to
his fields to feed the pigs.He would
gladly have filled himself withthe pods that the pigs were eating;
and no one gave him anything.But when he
came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough
and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!I will get
up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against
heaven and before you;I am no
longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’So he set
off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him
and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.Then the son
said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no
longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his slaves,
‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his
finger and sandals on his feet.And get the
fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;for this son of mine was dead and is
alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
“Now his
elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard
music and dancing.He called
one of the slaves and asked what was going on.He replied,
‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he
has got him back safe and sound.’Then he became angry and refused to
go in. His father came out and began to plead with him.But he
answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a
slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never
given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.But when
this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes,
you killed the fatted calf for him!’Then the fathersaid to him, ‘Son, you are always
with me, and all that is mine is yours.But we had to celebrate and rejoice,
because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and
has been found.’”]
This week I'm going to borrow from others. Fr Paul Andrews SJ is a regular contributor to The Sacred Heart Messenger, a monthly publication of the Irish Jesuits. The general title of his column is One Page Wisdom and the specific title of his column in the September 2016 issue is Messy Families. I'm quoting it in full.
We know about families. We have all survived them, more or less. You remember the Gospel parable about the father of the prodigal son - and here Jesus is talking about God. the boy made a fool of him by squandering the family fortune and reputation. His older son was so envious of the kid brother that he would not attend the homecoming party.
God knows about troubled families. They are nothing out of the ordinary. In that lovely parable, the father enjoys the being of his son even when he is in every way a thorn in the father's heart. Scanning the horizon from his window he sees a forlorn, debauched figure slouching towards home, and runs out to meet him, speechless with joy.
We may dream of an ideal family with lively, intelligent, obedient children - who line up with their parents for Church on Sunday, pass their exams, compete in community sports, and visit their granny.
Move away from such rosy pictures. There is no such thing as perfect parents, or perfect children. God is not the presenter of prizes at a high-powered graduation, but the one who helps us clean up the mess or live with it, and then approach the future as a friend, without a wardrobe (closet) of excuses.
Rembrandt's painting is in The Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia [Web Gallery of Art]
Fr Andrews writes: His older son was so envious of the kid brother that he would not attend the homecoming party.I would disagree with him on that. Part of the genius of this parable is that it's open-ended. We don't know if the older son reflected on the matter and decided to join the celebration. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But the story that Jesus told invites each of us to ask ourselves a number of questions. Which of the two sons am I more like? If there's more of the older brother in me do I rejoice when my younger brother comes home? Do I thank God for his daily blessings? If there's more of the younger brother in me do I trust in God's mercy and decide to come home?
My other 'guest' this week is the late Swiss theologian Fr Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905 - 1988). Here is part of his reflection on the Sunday readings from his book Light of the Word, published by Ignatius Press, San Francisco, USA.
In the third parable the father does not wait at home for the lost son, rather, he hurries to meet him and throws his arms around his neck. God's search for the lost does not mean that he does not know where the lost one is. Instead, it tells us that he searches to find which paths will be effective, which paths will permit the sinner to find his way back. This is God's 'exertion', which expresses itself in the culminating risk of giving his Son for the lost world. If the Son descends into the most profound abandonment of sin, to the point of losing the Father, then this is God exerting himself to the uttermost in his search for the lost. 'when we were still sinners, God had mercy on us through the sacrifice of his Son' (Romans 5:8).
Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defence of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded. She was committed to defending life, ceaselessly proclaiming that 'the unborn are the weakest, the smallest, the most vulnerable'. She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity; she made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime – the crimes! – of poverty they created. For Mother Teresa, mercy was the 'salt' which gave flavour to her work, it was the 'light' which shone in the darkness of the many who no longer had tears to shed for their poverty and suffering. [Pope Francis, homily at canonisation of St Mother Teresa of Kolkata, 4 September 2016].
Misa Criolla, Kyrie
Señor ten piedad de nosotros. Lord, have mercy on us.
Cristo ten piedad de nosotros. Christ, have
mercy on us.
Señor ten piedad de nosotros. Lord, have mercy on us.
A setting in Spanish of the Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy) from Misa Criolla by Argentinian composer Ariel Ramírez (1921 - 2010).
Columban missionary has uncovered and exposed widespread child sexual abuse and human trafficking involving children as young as 9 years abused by US personnel and sex tourists including local men.
from the website of the Hugh O'Flaherty
Memorial Society.
Well known Irish Columban missionary Fr Shay Cullen has been selected as this year’s winner of the Hugh O’Flaherty Humanitarian Award. Fr Cullen has worked tirelessly over his lifetime in the Philippines battling for the rights of children to be respected and trying to stem the depredations of child traffickers, paedophiles and the sex industry.
The award was set up in honour of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, an Irish prelate, who was based in the Vatican from 1938 until 1960, and who courageously helped save the lives of 6,500 Jews and Allied soldiers from the Nazis via the Rome Escape Line.
In 1974, Fr Cullen set up the PREDA Foundation to help child victims and trafficked women who were being exploited in the sex trade that flourished alongside the huge United States Naval Base on Subic Bay in Olongapo City and at the US Clarke airbase in Angeles City. He uncovered and exposed widespread child sexual abuse and human trafficking involving children as young as 9 years abused by US personnel and sex tourists including local men. Believing that poverty, violence and child abuse are barriers to peace and give rise to extremism, he strives to eliminate child abuse and promote respect for children’s rights.
He works for peace by working to change the unjust economic political and social structures and attitudes that allow such abuse. His mission for justice and peace is ecumenical; open to people of all faiths. It is based on taking a stand for human rights and protecting the dignity of every person, in particular exploited women and children.
Announcing the Hugh O’Flaherty Memorial Committee’s decision, chairperson Jerry O’Grady said, “Fr Shay has given his life to protecting the human rights of oppressed and exploited children and has fearlessly challenged those who were not prepared to shoulder their responsibilities, including local vested interests, local and national government in the Philippines and the USA Government.”
Fr Cullen said the award was a recognition of the children PREDA has rescued and “those human rights workers who, like Monsignor Hugh [O’Flaherty], continue to work for the unjustly imprisoned, the refugees trying to escape from Isis and war and those risking their lives to help them escape.”
This year’s award will be presented to Fr Shay Cullen by Cllr Brendan Cronin, Mayor of Killarney on Saturday evening November 5th 2016 at a ceremony in the Killarney Avenue Hotel.
Preda Handicrafts
Fr Shay and Preda has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. He has received the Ireland Meteor Award, Irish Personality of the year award, German City of Weimar and Italian city of Ferreira Human Rights awards and is an internationally recognised human rights and child rights advocacy organisation for social justice, peace, dialogue and human dignity.
The People’s Recovery Empowerment and Development Assistance (PREDA) Foundation is an active social development organisation today with 54 professional Filipino paid employees implementing projects that save children from sexual abusers, human traffickers and from life in the brothels and sex bars frequented by Filipino men and foreigners of all nationalities. It provides residential care with therapy education, empowerment and legal action for the children in two centres one for abused girls in Subic, Zambales and one for the boys rescued from jails and detention centres situated in Nagbayan, Castelljos, Zambales.
Preda social workers save children from jails and detention centres and give them a new life of dignity and self-esteem. The Preda boy’s home offers protection and therapeutic homes and services for the child victims and operates a therapeutic community for boys saved from jails, ages 7 to 15 years of age. They are victims of abuse and neglect in government jails and detention centres called Bahay Pagasa.
The Preda boy’s home in Catellijos, Zambales is an open home community and family in a farm setting without fences or walls. Children are free to choose to stay or leave. Most choose to stay. They receive full support, therapy and education at the Bukang Liwayway home. There is an average of 35 children there with a full staff of 15 therapists and social workers and qualified male nurses.
Hundreds of children have been rescued from sex bars and clubs and sex abusers of all kinds: paedophiles, child rapists, cybersex bars, abusive parents and relatives. There are as many an average of 44 girls victims’ of sexual abuse and commercial exploitation 8 to 17 years-old in the Girls home in Subic, Zambales.
The Preda Girls Home in Subic provides a therapeutic home in a natural environment for children raped, sexually and physically exploited and the therapeutic life style gives full therapy, recovery, healing and educational support and family reconciliation and reintegration with supportive relatives when possible.
An Awareness and Reporting System has been activated. A hot phone line alerts Preda to a child in need and Preda rescue team is sent to rescue the child with the help of the government social worker and police if needed.
The firstHugh O'Flaherty International Humanitarian Awardwas given in 2009. The second
recipient, in 2010, wasColumban Fr Michael Sinnott. On 11 October 2009 he was
kidnapped just outside the gate of the Columban house in Pagadian City in
western Mindanao. He was released, unharmed, on 12 November that year. He was
79 at the time. He is now retired and in good health at St Columban's, Dalgan
Park, Navan, County Meath, Ireland.
Yesterday, 4 September, Pope Francis canonised St Teresa of Kolkata (Calcuttat). Today is her feast day, the anniversary of her death in 1997. My Columban classmate and close friend, Fr Michael Mohally from the city of Cork, Ireland, wrote the article below for the September-October 2003 issue ofMISYON, the Columban magazine in the Philippines of which I have been editor for 14 years now. We have re-published it in the current September-October issue of the magazine, now known as MISYONonline.com. Fr Michael is based in Manila.
Towards the end of his homily at the canonisation Mass Pope Francis made an off-the-cuff comment about what we should call the new saint and figured that everyone would still refer to her as' Mother Teresa'. Very few Catholics would know who St Pius of Pietrelcina is but they would know who 'Padre Pio' is. And in Chile San Alberto Hurtado SJ is still known to everyone as 'Padre Hurtado'.
Incidentally, Mother Teresa and Padre Hurtado spent some time in Rathfarnham, now a suburb of Dublin, within a few years of each other. Mother Teresa had her initial formation as a Loreto Sister in Loreto Abbey there in the late 1920s.
Padre Hurtado lived in nearby Rathfarnham Castle, where the Jesuits had a retreat house, for some time in the early 1930s studying English.
The first time I was to have met Mother Teresa was in Hong Kong. I was asked to bring a package to her there from where she was to accompany Sisters into China to set up the first foundation of the Missionaries of Charity there. When I got to the convent I was told that the China foundation was on ‘hold’. Newspapers had got hold of the story and said that she was going there as the representative of the Pope. Rather than wait around, Mother Teresa had gone to Hanoi to set up a new foundation there.
One evening back home in Manila I received a phone call from the Missionaries of Charity asking if I would preach at the community Mass the following morning. Mother Teresa had just arrived on a visit to the Philippines and was tired after her long journey. They were not sure if she’d be at the early Mass but since all the Sisters in the Manila area would be there, it would be a very special community celebration. I accepted the invitation very reluctantly. I was in awe of Mother Teresa and her reputation as a rather unique person. I discovered that the principal celebrant wouldn’t preach because of his awe for her.
I arrived the following morning and entered the oratory from the rear. The senior Sisters sat at the rear and novices and juniors at the front. A quick glance told me Mother Teresa wasn’t with the seniors so I gave a sigh of relief – she must be having a sleep after her long journey.
We began the Mass and I preached. In my homily I imitated the way a little baby kicks a blanket and holds on to one’s finger and won’t let go. A child finds his identity in what he ‘owns.’ I was aware that one ‘novice’ was really enjoying what I was saying. I was encouraged that the point I was making was being understood. I focused on the ‘novice’ and suddenly recognized the face. It was Mother Teresa. There she was sitting amongst her novices with this winning smile on her face. She seemed tiny to me. I mentioned in my homily what had transpired between her and Jesus on a train journey to Darjeeling many years before when Mother Teresa was still a Loreto Sister teaching in an exclusive girls’ school. Jesus had told her that the thirst for love, acceptance and respect in the hearts of the poor was His thirst and could be their experience also asked for it. Mother Teresa nodded vigorously in agreement.
After Mass we spoke a little about our not meeting in Hong Kong. I recall her telling me how she had insisted with the Chinese authorities that the Sisters should wear their habit and she mentioned particularly the blue band around the sari, as she wanted it as a symbolic reminder that Our Lady was their protector.
Later that morning as the crowds gathered around for her blessing, she was distributing Miraculous Medals. I was standing some distance away from her and she beckoned to me to come over. With that smile and gentle laughter she said, ‘Father, I must tell you about these medals.’
She was once in Lourdes giving out some medals when a man approached her asking if he could help. She said that what she needed now was more medals. He promised there and then to keep her supplied with a few thousand medals each month. And then she said, ‘You know, Father, they arrive every month just as I am about to run out of them.’
I noticed a Middle Eastern couple in the crowd that morning. Their clothing spoke of wealth. I arranged that they be photographed with her. Later I discovered the man was very wealthy and had suffered a heart attack. He reflected on life and his accumulation of wealth, wondered with whom he could share this and had become a sponsor of the Missionaries of Charity. The feeling I had was that he and his wife had flown to the Philippines just to see and be near her.
Reflecting on the few occasions I met her, I would have to say it was her humanity that touched me. She was just a small, chatty old lady with a smile and a gentle sense of humor. She seemed to wear the same worn sandals all the time. She was the personification of her own saying, ‘Peace begins with a smile.’
Plaque of Mother Teresa, Wenceslas Square, Olomouc, Czech Republic[ Wikipedia]
A little child holds on to things to find its identity. ‘This is mine, that is mine’ is what gives it its sense of identity. Our journey through life is meant to lead us to our letting go of things that we think give us identity – status, wealth, degrees or whatever – and discover that it is God’s creative love that gives each of us our true identity.
Mother Teresa understood the story of the little baby. She understood the struggle of letting go and could laugh at it. What kind of sandals she wore did not really matter. She had grown to true Christian adulthood.
