Christ in Majesty
c. 1100
Fresco, height c. 400 cm
Château des Moines, Berzé-la-Ville
Posted on 07/10/2013 8:20:11 PM PDT by Salvation
Saint Benedict (detail of Crucifixion)
Fra Angelico
1441-42
Convento di San Marco, Florence
"Listen, O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of thy heart, and cheerfully receive and faithfully execute the admonitions of thy loving Father, that by the toil of obedience thou mayest return to Him from whom by the sloth of disobedience thou hast gone away.
“To thee, therefore, my speech is now directed, who, giving up thine own will, takest up the strong and most excellent arms of obedience, to do battle for Christ the Lord, the true King.
“In the first place, beg of Him by most earnest prayer, that He perfect whatever good thou dost begin, in order that He who hath been pleased to count us in the number of His children, need never be grieved at our evil deeds."
- The Rule of St. Benedict - Prologue
Saint Benedict, who revitalized monastic life, was born c. 480, in Norcia (near Spoleto, Italy), during the declining years of the Roman Empire. He was sent to be educated in Rome, but he left his studies for a solitary life in a mountain cave at Subiaco, where he remained for three years living life of prayer and aceticism. After this formation, he organized a form of monastic life in twelve monasteries. Those monks who joined Benedict devoted themselves to prayer and work (ora et labora, the motto of the Benedictine order). In the abbey of Monte Cassino, which he founded, Benedict wrote his Rule that became a guide for monastic life. Benedict died at Monte Cassino c. 547, where he is buried with his sister, Scholastica.
Only thirty-three years after the death of St. Benedict, and almost exactly one century after the date of his birth, the Monastery of Monte Cassino was razed by the invading Lombards. According to tradition the resident monks fled to Rome and found refuge near the Lateran Basilica. It may have been there that the future pope Gregory I (the Great) was first introduced to the Rule of St. Benedict which he adopted as his own way of life, and later served as abbot. Gregory, the last of the Latin Fathers of the Western Church, reigned from 590 to 604, at a time when the Western world was in great turmoil.
In 1964 Pope Paul VI proclaimed Benedict “patron of Europe”, because of his influence in the formation of Christendom in the Middle Ages. The Pope’s letter, Pacis Nuntius (‘Messenger of Peace), issued October 24, 1964 during the reconsecration of the rebuilt monastery of Monte Cassino. Pacis Nuntius declares:
“Messenger of peace, creator of unity, master of civilization and above all, herald of the religion of Christ and founder of monastic life in the West: these are the proper titles with which to acclaim St Benedict Abbott. On the fall of the Roman Empire, by then exhausted, Europe seemed to fall into darkness ... bereft of civilization and spiritual values”.
Benedict, the Pope’s letter said, “gave birth to the dawn of a new era ... bonded the spiritual unity of Europe ... this unity is an exemplary type of absolute beauty ...”. The Pope hailed St Benedict as the Father of Europe: “Through the merits of this great Saint Our same Predecessor desired God to support the efforts of those trying to unite the European nations ... John XXIII also fervently desired that this would come about”.
On April 19, 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope, and chose the name Benedict (Latin: the Blessed). In his first general audience on April 27, Pope Benedict XVI explained why he chose the name:
“Filled with sentiments of awe and thanksgiving, I wish to speak of why I chose the name Benedict. Firstly, I remember Pope Benedict XV, that courageous prophet of peace, who guided the Church through turbulent times of war. In his footsteps I place my ministry in the service of reconciliation and harmony between peoples. Additionally, I recall Saint Benedict of Norcia, co-patron of Europe, whose life evokes the Christian roots of Europe. I ask him to help us all to hold firm to the centrality of Christ in our Christian life: May Christ always take first place in our thoughts and actions!"
Collect:
O God, who made the Abbot Saint Benedict
an outstanding master in the school of divine service,
grant, we pray,
that putting nothing before love of you,
we may hasten with a loving heart
in the way of your commands.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. +Amen.First Readng:
Proverbs 2:1-9
My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
yes, if you cry out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures;then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of his saints.Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path.
Gospel Reading
Matthew 19:27-29
Then Peter said in reply, "Lo, we have left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?" Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of man shall sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.
Related Links on the Vatican Website:
Fulgens Radiatur, Encyclical of Pope Pius XII on St. Benedict, March 21, 1947
The Holy Rule of St. Benedict
St. Benedict and St. Scholastica (Twins)
Jubilee Medal of St. Benedict [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus}
On St. Benedict of Norcia
St.Benedict And His Order: A Brief History
Today's the Feast of St. Benedict
Applying St. Benedict's Rule to Fatherhood and Family Life - Using 6th-Century Wisdom Today
Saint Benedict-Abbot, Founder of Western Monasticism-480-550 AD
The Jubilee Medal of St. Benedict
Moritur et Ridet
Information: St. Benedict of Nursia
Feast Day: July 11
Born: 480, Norcia (Umbria, Italy)
Died: 21 March 547 at Monte Cassino, Italy
Canonized: 1220
Major Shrine: Monte Cassino Abbey, with his burial
Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, near Orléans, France
Sacro Speco, at Subiaco, Italy
Patron of: Against poison, Against witchcraft, Cavers, Civil engineers, Coppersmiths, Dying people, Erysipelas, Europe, Farmers, Fever, Gall stones, Inflammatory diseases, Italian architects, Kidney disease, Monks, Nettle rash, Schoolchildren, Servants who have broken their master's belongings, Speliologists, Spelunkers, Temptations
St. Benedict
Feast Day: July 11
Born: 480 :: Died: 547
St. Benedict was born at Narsia in Umbria, Italy. Coming from a rich Italian family, his life was full of adventure and wonderful events. As a boy, he was sent to Rome to study in the public schools but was troubled by the bad behavior of the other students. When he was a young man, he became disgusted with the terrible lifestyle of pagan Rome (Romans who believed in false gods).
Benedict left the city and went looking for a place where he could be alone with God. He found the right spot. It was a cave in the mountain of Subiaco. Benedict spent three years there alone. The devil often tempted him to go back to his rich home and easy life. But Benedict prayed and did penance and did not give in to these temptations.
One day, when the devil sneakily tried to tempt him with bad thoughts and Benedict almost gave in to the temptation. Then he felt so sorry for the sin he would have committed that he threw himself into a bush of long, sharp thorns. He rolled around in the thorns until he was covered with scratches. From then on, his life was calm. He did not feel powerful temptations like that again.
After three years, people started coming to Benedict. They wanted to learn how to become holy. He became the leader of some men who asked for his help. But when he tried to make them do penance, they grew so angry that they even tried to poison Benedict. He made the Sign of the Cross over the poisoned wine and the glass shattered to pieces.
Later, Benedict became the leader of many good monks. He started twelve monasteries. Then he went to Monte Cassino where he built his most well-known monastery. It was here that St. Benedict wrote the wonderful rules for the Benedictine order. He taught his monks to pray and work hard. He taught them especially to be humble always.
Benedict and his monks greatly helped the people of their times. They taught them how to read and write, how to farm, and how to work at different trades. St. Benedict was able to do good because he prayed all the time. He could read minds, could tell the future and drive out demons. He destroyed many pagan statues and altars where they worshiped the false gods. He died on March 21, 547. The pope proclaimed him the patron of Europe.
Reflection: "Put Christ before all else."- the Rule of St. Benedict
Thursday, July 11
Liturgical Color: Green
Today is the optional memorial of Bl.
Pope John XXIII. In order to bring the
Gospel more effectively to the modern
world, he convened the Second Vatican
Council, which opened on this day in
1962.
Ordinary Time: July 11th
Memorial of St. Benedict, abbot
Daily Readings for: July 11, 2013
(Readings on USCCB website)
Collect: O God, who made the Abbot Saint Benedict an outstanding master in the school of divine service, grant, we pray, that, putting nothing before love of you, we may hasten with a loving heart in the way of your commands. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
RECIPES
ACTIVITIES
o Importance (for parents) of a Good Example
o Namedays
o Religion in the Home for Elementary School: July
o Religion in the Home for Preschool: July
o The Medal or Cross of St. Benedict
PRAYERS
o Blessing of Bees on the Feast of St. Benedict
o July Devotion: The Precious Blood
o Blessing of the Medal of St. Benedict
o Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel
o Childlike Recommendation to the Patronage of St. Benedict
LIBRARY
o Applying St. Benedict's Rule to Fatherhood and Family Life | Dwight Longenecker
o Benedict Contra Nietzsche: A Reflection on Deus Caritas Est | Dr. Benjamin D. Wiker
o Fulgens Radiatur (On St. Benedict) | Pope Pius XII
o Order Of Saint Benedict | Helen Walker Homan
» Enjoy our Liturgical Seasons series of e-books!
Old Calendar: St. Pius I, pope and martyr
St. Benedict was born at Nursia in Umbria in about 480 and was sent to Rome to be educated, but soon left the world to live a solitary life at Subiaco. After living in a cave in the mountains for two years as a hermit, he had acquired such a reputation that disciples came in numbers to join him and important Roman families entrusted him with the education of their children. He organized a form of monastic life in twelve small monasteries. Under his guidance, as abbot, the monks vowed to seek God and devoted themselves to work and prayer. A few years later St. Benedict left the district of Subiaco to found the great abbey of Monte Cassino on the heights of Campania. There he wrote his Rule in which are wonderfully combined the Roman genius and the monastic wisdom of the Christian East. St. Benedict died in 547.
Before the reform of the General Roman Calendar St. Benedict's feast was celebrated on March 21. Today was the feast of St. Pius I who was pope from 140 to 155. He was possibly the brother of Hermas, the author of the book known as the Shepherd of Hermas, one of the earliest books extant on penance. During his pontificate Pius experienced the difficulties caused by the heretic Marcion who came to Rome and broke away from the Church; he is also the contemporary of the Roman apologist St. Justin. He was buried at the Vatican.
St. Benedict
Born in Nursia, Italy, he was educated in Rome, was repelled by the vices of the city and in about 500 fled to Enfide, thirty miles away. He decided to live the life of a hermit and settled at mountainous Subiaco, where he lived in a cave for three years, fed by a monk named Romanus.
Despite Benedict's desire for solitude, his holiness and austerities became known and he was asked to be their abbot by a community of monks at Vicovaro. He accepted, but when the monks resisted his strict rule and tried to poison him, he returned to Subiaco and soon attracted great numbers of disciples. He organized them into twelve monasteries under individual priors he appointed, made manual work part of the program, and soon Subiaco became a center of spirituality and learning. He left suddenly, reportedly because of the efforts of a neighboring priest, Florentius, to undermine his work, and in about 525 settled at Monte Cassino.
He destroyed a pagan temple to Apollo on its crest, brought the people of the neighboring area back to Christianity, and in about 530 began to build the monastery that was to be the birthplace of Western monasticism. Soon disciples again flocked to him as his reputation for holiness, wisdom, and miracles spread far and wide. He organized the monks into a single monastic community and wrote his famous rule prescribing common sense, a life of moderate asceticism, prayer, study, and work, and community life under one superior. It stressed obedience, stability, zeal, and had the Divine Office as the center of monastic life; it was to affect spiritual and monastic life in the West for centuries to come.
While ruling his monks (most of whom, including Benedict, were not ordained), he counseled rulers and Popes, ministered to the poor and destitute about him, and tried to repair the ravages of the Lombard Totila's invasion. He died at Monte Cassino on March 21.
Excerpted from the Dictionary of Saints, John J. Delaney
Born in Norcia about 480, Benedict's first studies were in Rome but, disappointed with city life, he retired to Subiaco, where he stayed for about three years in a cave—the famous sacro speco—dedicating himself wholly to God. In Subiaco, making use of the ruins of a cyclopean villa of the emperor Nero, he built some monasteries, together with his first disciples, giving life to a fraternal community founded on the primacy of the love of Christ, in which prayer and work were alternated harmoniously in praise of God.
Years later, he completed this project in Monte Cassino, and put it in writing in his Rule, the only work of his that has come down to us. Amid the ashes of the Roman Empire, Benedict, seeking first of all the kingdom of God, sowed, perhaps even without realizing it, the seed of a new civilization which would develop, integrating Christian values with classical heritage, on one hand, and the Germanic and Slav cultures on the other.
There is a particular aspect of his spirituality, which today I would particularly like to underline. Benedict did not found a monastic institution oriented primarily to the evangelization of barbarian peoples, as other great missionary monks of the time, but indicated to his followers that the fundamental, and even more, the sole objective of existence is the search for God: "Quaerere Deum."
He knew, however, that when the believer enters into a profound relationship with God he cannot be content with living in a mediocre way, with a minimalist ethic and superficial religiosity. In this light, one understands better the expression that Benedict took from St. Cyprian and that is summarized in his Rule (IV, 21)—the monks' program of life: Nihil amori Christi praeponere. Prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
Holiness consists in this valid proposal for every Christian that has become a true pastoral imperative in our time, in which one perceives the need to anchor life and history in solid spiritual references.
Excerpted from Benedict XVI's Angelus address of July 10, 2005
Patron: Against nettle rash; against poison; against witchcraft; agricultural workers; cavers; coppersmiths; dying people; erysipelas; Europe; farm workers; farmers; fever; gall stones; Heerdt, Germany; inflammatory diseases; Italian architects; kidney disease; monks; nettle rash; Norcia, Italy; people in religious orders; schoolchildren; servants who have broken their master's belongings; speliologists; spelunkers; temptations.
Symbols: Bell; broken cup; broken cup and serpent representing poison; broken utensil; bush; crosier; man in a Benedictine cowl holding Benedict's rule or a rod of discipline; raven.
Things to Do:
From Catholic Culture's Library: Rule of St. Benedict, Fulgens Radiatur (On St. Benedict) Pius XII, Order of St. Benedict, The Holy Father's Message of July 7, 1999 sent to the Abbot of Subiaco for the celebration of the 1,500th anniversary of the foundation of St. Benedict's first monastery there.
St. Pius I
The Holy See remained vacant for three days, then Pius, an Italian from Aquileia, stepped into the shoes of the Fisherman. His father's name was Rufinus, and his brother Hermas was a former slave and the author of the early Christian document, The Shepherd, whose contents would seem to indicate that a monarchial episcopate was now recognized in Rome.
Pius was preoccupied with the challenge of the Gnostic leaders who by this time had been joined by Marcion of Pontus, and who continued to disseminate their system of belief widely. In July of 144, Pius presided over the assembly of presbyters that excommunicated Marcion from the orthodox community. But just as tormented as Pius was with the Gnostics, he was comforted in his friendship with Justin Martyr, that tremendous defender of Christ's doctrines, who now resided in Rome. A converted pagan, Justin sought the truth and through various schools of philosophy found it in Christianity.
An early source credits Pius with the decree that all heretics willing to repent should be received and baptized. Tradition holds that he died a martyr and was buried on Vatican Hill.
Excerpted from The Popes: A Papal History, J.V. Bartlett
Things to Do:
Saint Benedict, Abbot
“The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 10:7)
At hand—within reach, close by, right there for the taking. What a marvelous way to describe the kingdom! It’s available to everyone who reaches out for it. This truth continues to echo through time, right from the moment Jesus first spoke these words. God loves his people and pours grace on everyone who calls on him or holds fast to him. Each one of us can live in the assurance that God himself is at hand!
Today’s first reading tells the story of one fellow who learned this lesson in a dramatic way. Joseph had been sold into slavery by his brothers and taken into Egypt. Through a series of mishaps, he found himself in jail, cut off from everyone and everything he had loved. You can just imagine him asking why it all had to happen to him.
But in today’s reading, we see Joseph, now set free from prison and slavery, looking back and seeing how God had been at work the whole time, even when Joseph couldn’t see it. The only thing constant for Joseph was that he tried to keep his heart set on God, in bad times as well as good times. He held on to the truths that that God is almighty, God is good, and God is in control. And as he did so, God formed Joseph’s heart and prepared him to become a savior to his people. Joseph discovered just how “at hand” God really was—even in a dank prison cell!
If Joseph could discover Jesus in prison, think of how present he is to you every time you celebrate Mass. What better place to discover that the kingdom is at hand! That’s where you can hear God’s word telling you how close your Father is to you and how deeply he wants to work in your heart. It’s also where you can receive Jesus himself, the author and architect of the kingdom, into your very body and soul.
So the next time you receive communion, know that Jesus is filling you up. Like Joseph, you don’t need to figure everything out. You just need him. Someday you too will look back and stand in awe at how much Jesus has done for you.
“Jesus, I believe that you are always with me. I believe that your kingdom truly is at hand!”
Psalm 105:16-21; Matthew 10:7-15
Daily Marriage Tip for July 11, 2013:
Are you and your spouse retired? Humbly offer your life’s wisdom for the good of others. Your experience is priceless. Consider sharing it with your church or community.
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Memorial of Saint Benedict, abbot
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Matthew 10:7-15 Jesus sent out the Twelve with the following instructions, “As you go, make this proclamation: ´The kingdom of heaven is at hand.´ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave. As you enter a house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you. Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words -- go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the Day of Judgment than for that town.” Introductory Prayer: Lord, in your presence I break away from the spiritual laziness and indifference that deprives me of the fruit of this prayer which I need so much. I know my poverty, and you are immensely rich in all that I need. I am so slow to give, whereas you are prompt and total in your gifts to me. I offer you this unruly heart of mine to do all that you wish of me today. Petition: Lord, please grant me the grace to be a better apostle today than I was yesterday. 1. Go Out: The command is “Go.” The Kingdom cannot be spread while sitting in an easy chair. We cannot wait for the world that needs Christ to come to our door. Letting opportunities where we can serve pass by, hoping someone else will take the initiative, is simply a “no” to Christ’s command. “Go” means sensitizing our heart and eyes to those who are hungry for Christ, seeing in the faces of our family members and co-workers a hunger for his power and grace. In this culture that is sick and waning, “go” means reaching out to those who need to know Christ, so that his Kingdom will expand. We cannot take the easy route of preaching to the choir; we must reach out to those professions and fields of study that have lost all sense of the dignity of the human person – especially medicine, law, politics and education. This is what the King is asking. What is the response which I am giving to my King? 2. “Nobody Gives What He Doesn’t Possess”: Christ’s command is to give from what we have received. If every day we make ourselves more aware of the gifts we have been given through Christ’s power, we will be better at giving Christ to others. As apostles, we go not with our own power; rather, we carry Christ’s power to heal, save and conquer evil. It is he who drives the mission, who makes the apostles a team. How often do I calculate what I can contribute to the mission based only on the strength of my human qualities? How often do I give only from what is just me, rather than from the graces I have received from the Holy Spirit? Moreover, do I measure my effectiveness solely from an individual perspective, rather than from that of the whole body of the Church, in which other apostles are locked arm-in-arm with me for the cause of Christ? God’s saving power is found where obedience and unity are, not where only natural talents, gifts and abilities are at play. 3. Failures and Disappointments: Christ affirms that when we reach an impasse in our lives, this is, in and of itself, no sign of the lack of the authenticity of our mission. Its results are tied to the free-will choices of others, as well as to a plan where apparent barrenness is part of God’s economy of salvation. A period of few fruits in the mission can be a period of consolidation of our commitment to follow him in season and out of season. Take this time to repel all discouragement and doubt and to prove how authentic our “yes” is. A pure “yes” will seek God’s will and the mission at hand simply because he wants it, not for any easy or short-term results. Conversation with Christ: Jesus, I wish to ignite my own zeal for your Kingdom from the furnace of divine love which burns in your heart. I offer you the promise of a soldier in combat: to be courageous, honorable, persevering, and worthy of the name I bear – “Apostle of the Kingdom of Christ.” I work aware of the fact that I have only one life to live on this earth. Not one minute must be wasted in comfort-seeking and selfishness. My heart is ready for the mission, Lord; please sustain it today with the strength of your own. Resolution: Today I will review my daily and weekly time commitments before Christ, and I will ensure that I am using my time as fruitfully as I can to expand his Kingdom in the world. |
Opening prayer
Father,
through the obedience of Jesus,
your servant and your Son,
you raised a fallen world.
Free us from sin
and bring us the joy that lasts for ever.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2) Gospel Reading – Matthew 10,7-15
Jesus said to his disciples: “As you go, proclaim that the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those suffering from virulent skin-diseases, drive out devils.
You received without charge, give without charge. Provide yourselves with no gold or silver, not even with coppers for your purses, with no haversack for the journey or spare tunic or footwear or a staff, for the labourer deserves his keep.
‘Whatever town or village you go into, seek out someone worthy and stay with him until you leave.
As you enter his house, salute it, and if the house deserves it, may your peace come upon it; if it does not, may your peace come back to you. And if anyone does not welcome you or listen to what you have to say, as you walk out of the house or town shake the dust from your feet. In truth I tell you, on the Day of Judgement it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.”
3) Reflection
• The Gospel today presents the second part of the sending out of the disciples. Yesterday we have seen that Jesus insists in directing them first toward the lost sheep of Israel. Today, we see the concrete instructions to carry out the mission.
• Matthew 10, 7: The objective of the mission: to reveal the presence of the Kingdom. “Go and announce the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand”. The principal objective is that of announcing that the Kingdom is close at hand. This is the novelty which Christ brings to us. For the other Jews there was still a long time before the coming of the Kingdom. It would have come only after they would have done their own part. The coming of the Kingdom depended, according to them, on their effort. For the Pharisees, for example, the Kingdom would be attained only after the perfect observance of the Law. For the Essences, when the country would have purified itself. But Jesus thinks in a different way. He has a different way of reading the facts of life. He says that the hour has already arrived (Mk 1, 15). When he says that the Kingdom is close at hand or that the Kingdom is already among us, in our midst, he does not mean to say that the Kingdom was just arriving at that moment, but that it was already there, independently of the effort made by the people. What they all expected was already present among the people, gratuitously, but the people did not know it, nor perceived it (cf. Lk 17, 21). Jesus is aware of this, because he sees reality with different eyes. He reveals and announces to the poor of his land this hidden presence of the Kingdom in our midst (Lk 4, 18). It is the mustard seed which will receive the rain of his word and the warmth of his love.
• Matthew 10, 8: The signs of the presence of the Kingdom: accept the excluded.How should the presence of the Kingdom be announced? Only through words and discourses? No! The signs of the presence of the Kingdom are above all concrete gestures or acts, done gratuitously: “Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out the devils. You received without charge, give without charge”. This means that the disciples should accept within the community those who have been excluded. This practice of solidarity criticizes both the religion and society which exclude, and indicates concrete solutions.
• Matthew 10, 9-10: Do not take anything for the journey. Contrary to other missionaries, the disciples of Jesus should not take anything: “Provide yourselves with no gold or silver, not even with coppers for your purses, with no haversack for the journey or a spare tunic or footwear or a staff, for the labourer deserves his keep”. This means that they have to trust in the hospitality of the people. Because the disciples who go without anything, taking only peace (Mk 10, 13), show that they trust the people. It is certain that they will be welcomed, that they will be able to participate in the life and the work of the people of the place and that they will be able to survive with what they will receive in exchange, because the labourer deserves his keep. This means that the disciples should trust in sharing. By means of this practice they criticize the laws of exclusion and recover the ancient values of community living together.
• Matthew 10, 11-13: To share peace in the community. The disciples should not go from house to house, but should seek persons of peace and remain in that house. That is, they should they in a stable manner. Thus, through that new practice, they criticise the culture of accumulation which characterized the politics of the Roman Empire, and they announced a new model of living together. Once all these requirements were respected, the disciples could cry out: The Kingdom of God has arrived! To announce the Kingdom does not mean, in the first place, to teach truths and doctrine, but lead toward a new fraternal manner of living and of sharing starting from the Good News which Jesus has brought to us: God and Father and Mother of all men and women.
• Matthew 10, 14-15: The severity of the menace. How is such a severe menace to be understood? Jesus has brought us something completely new. He has come to rescue the community values of the past: hospitality, sharing, communion around the table, acceptance of the excluded. That explains the severity against those who reject the message. Because they do not reject something new, but their own past, their own culture and wisdom! The objective of the pedagogy of Jesus is to dig out from the memory, to recover the wisdom of the people, to reconstruct the community, to renew the Covenant, to reconstruct life.
4) Personal questions
• Today, how can we put into practice the recommendation not to take anything for the journey when going to a mission?
• Jesus orders to seek for persons of peace, so as to be able to remain in their house. Today, who would be a person of peace to whom to address oneself in the announcement of the Good News?
5) Concluding Prayer
God Sabaoth, come back, we pray,
look down from heaven and see,
visit this vine;
protect what your own hand has planted. (Ps 80,14-15)
This reflection is by the good Carmelites at ocarm.org
Language: English | Español
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Pro life video — What It Means to Be Pro Life.
St. Benedict, Pray for Us!
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