February 20, 2014

Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 Jas 2:1-9

My brothers and sisters, show no partiality
as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.
For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes
comes into your assembly,
and a poor person with shabby clothes also comes in,
and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes
and say, “Sit here, please,”
while you say to the poor one, “Stand there,” or “Sit at my feet,”
have you not made distinctions among yourselves
and become judges with evil designs?

Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.
Did not God choose those who are poor in the world
to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom
that he promised to those who love him?
But you dishonored the poor.
Are not the rich oppressing you?
And do they themselves not haul you off to court?
Is it not they who blaspheme the noble name that was invoked over you?
However, if you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture,
You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.
But if you show partiality, you commit sin,
and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

R. (7a) The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.

Gospel Mk 8:27-33

Jesus and his disciples set out
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that I am?”
They said in reply,
“John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets.”
And he asked them,
“But who do you say that I am?”
Peter said to him in reply,
“You are the Christ.”
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Interactive Saints for Kids

St. Eucherius

Feast Day: February 20
Born:696 :: Died:743

St. Eucherius was born in Orleans, France. He was very pious in his youth as he received a Christian upbringing and he was also highly educated.

A sentence from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians made a big impression on him: "This world as we see it is passing away" (1 Corinthians 7:31). It made Eucherius realize that our lives on this earth are very short and that heaven and hell last forever. He decided to seek the joys of heaven by living for God alone.

In 714, St. Eucherius left his rich home and entered a Benedictine abbey as a monk. There he spent seven years in close union with God. After the death of his uncle, the bishop of Orleans, the people asked for Eucherius to take his place.

Eucherius was then only twenty-five and he was very humble. He did not want to leave his beloved abbey. With tears, he begged to be allowed to remain alone with God in the monastery. But finally, he gave in for love of obedience. Eucherius became a holy, wise bishop and did much good to his priests and people.

A powerful man Charles Martel sold some of the Church's property to support his wars. Because Bishop Eucherius told him that was wrong, when Charles won the war, he had Eucherius taken prisoner.

He was sent away to Cologne in Germany. The people there greeted him with joy and he was given the job of distributing the governor's alms. Later he was transferred to a fort near Liege.

But the governor in whose charge Martel had placed the bishop was touched by Eucherius' meekness toward his enemies. Some time later, the governor quietly released the bishop from prison and sent him to a monastery. Here the saint spent all his time peacefully in prayer until his death in 743.

Day 73 - What is the connection between the Feast of Passover and Jesus' Passion?

Note: Day 73 was delayed, we were doing some work behind the scenes. Sorry about that. We are still on track! Thanks everyone.

Why did Jesus choose the date of the Jewish feast of Passover for his death and Resurrection?

Jesus chose the Passover feast of his people Israel as a symbol for what was to happen through his death and Resurrection. As the people Israel were freed from slavery to Egypt, so Christ frees us from the slavery of sin and the power of death.

The Passover was the feast celebrating the liberation of Israel from slavery in Egypt. Jesus went to Jerusalem in order to free us in an even deeper way. He celebrated the Paschal feast with his disciples. During this feast, he made himself the sacrificial Lamb. "For Christ, our Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Cor 5:7), so as to establish once and for all the definitive reconciliation between God and mankind. (YOUCAT question 95)

Dig Deeper: CCC section (571-573) and other references here.

Part 1: The Profession of Faith (26 - 1065)

Section 2: The Profession of the Christian Faith (185 - 1065)

Chapter 2: I Believe in Jesus Christ, the Only Son of God (422 - 682)

Article 4: "Jesus Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried" (571 - 630)

1067
(all)

571

The Paschal mystery of Christ's cross and Resurrection stands at the center of the Good News that the apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the world. God's saving plan was accomplished "once for all"³¹³ by the redemptive death of his Son Jesus Christ.

313.

Heb 9:26.

599
(all)

572

The Church remains faithful to the interpretation of "all the Scriptures" that Jesus gave both before and after his Passover: "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?"³¹⁴ Jesus' sufferings took their historical, concrete form from the fact that he was "rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes", who handed "him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified".³¹⁵

314.

315.

Faith can therefore try to examine the circumstances of Jesus' death, faithfully handed on by the Gospels³¹⁶ and illuminated by other historical sources, the better to understand the meaning of the Redemption.

316.

Catholic Culture

Daily Readings for:February 20, 2014
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: O God, who teach us that you abide in hearts that are just and true, grant that we may be so fashioned by your grace as to become a dwelling pleasing to you. 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

o Portuguese Almond Torte

ACTIVITIES

o Teaching Self-Denial

PRAYERS

o Fatima Prayer of Reparation

LIBRARY

o Why the Christian Must Deny Himself | Austin G. Murphy

· Ordinary Time: February 20th

· Thursday of the Sixth Week of Ordinary Time; Bls. Francisco & Jacinta Marto (Portugal)

This feast can only be celebrated publicly in Portugal at the moment, but assuming Bl. Francisco and Jacinta Marto are eventually canonized, it will be then be possible to celebrate it universally. It is, however, possible to celebrate in privately in other parts of the world now.

Blessed Francisco & Jacinta Marto
Between May 13 and October 13, 1917, three children, Portuguese shepherds from Aljustrel, received apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria, near Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon. At that time, Europe was involved in an extremely bloody war. Portugal itself was in political turmoil, having overthrown its monarchy in 1910; the government disbanded religious organizations soon after.

At the first appearance, Mary asked the children to return to that spot on the thirteenth of each month for the next six months. She also asked them to learn to read and write and to pray the rosary “to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.” They were to pray for sinners and for the conversion of Russia, which had recently overthrown Czar Nicholas II and was soon to fall under communism. Up to 90,000 people gathered for Mary’s final apparition on October 13, 1917.

Less than two years later, Francisco died of influenza in his family home. He was buried in the parish cemetery and then re-buried in the Fatima basilica in 1952. Jacinta died of influenza in Lisbon, offering her suffering for the conversion of sinners, peace in the world and the Holy Father. She was re-buried in the Fatima basilica in 1951. Their cousin, Lucia dos Santos, became a Carmelite nun and was still living when Jacinta and Francisco were beatified in 2000. Sister Lucia died five years later. The shrine of Our Lady of Fatima is visited by up to 20 million people a year.

— Excerpted from Saint of the Day: Lives, Lessons and Feast by Leonard Foley, O.F.M.; revised by Pat McCloskey, O.F.M.

The Word Among Us

Meditation: James 2:1-9

6th Week in Ordinary Time

Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom? (James 2:5)

Many years ago, a husband and wife felt called by the Lord to adopt needy children into their family. They wanted to care for children who had no other recourse, children who were facing a grim future. They decided against the first child offered to them: a healthy baby from a good home. “He’s not needy enough,” the mother said. “Plenty of other couples will take him.” Instead, they chose a daughter from a very poor country and a son with physical handicaps.

By making such a generous decision, this couple showed that they were uniting their hearts with the heart of God, who has a “preferential option” for the poor.

We can easily identify with the behavior James describes in today’s first reading: warmly greeting the rich while dismissing or ignoring the poor. We all know what it’s like to shy away from the needy, whether their need manifests itself in physical handicaps, tattered clothing, or uncouth speech. We are tempted to be suspicious of strangers and outsiders. We find ourselves drawn to people who resemble us or who look like the kind of people we want to be.

And yet the truth is, we are all needy before God. We are all poor and dependent on God’s mercy. We have nothing we have not received at his hand. Every one of our talents and gifts comes from his storehouse of grace and blessing.

James tells us that those who are poor are “rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom” (James 2:5). The point is not that God wants us to suffer grinding poverty and go without our basic needs. It’s that he wants us to see how much we depend on him and on each other, so that we can begin to build a kingdom of justice and kindness on this earth. Only the needy, only the “poor” in this sense, have room in their hearts for the Lord and his people. Only they will band together to build the kingdom.

So how poor do you feel today?

“Jesus, you chose to come among us as a poor man. Open my eyes to my poverty so that I can receive the riches of your love and share them with others.”

Psalm 34:2-7; Mark 8:27-33

Mark
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	Mark 8
27.	And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi. And in the way, he asked his disciples, saying to them: Whom do men say that I am?	Et egressus est Jesus, et discipuli ejus in castella Cæsareæ Philippi : et in via interrogabat discipulos suos, dicens eis : Quem me dicunt esse homines ?	και εξηλθεν ο ιησους και οι μαθηται αυτου εις τας κωμας καισαρειας της φιλιππου και εν τη οδω επηρωτα τους μαθητας αυτου λεγων αυτοις τινα με λεγουσιν οι ανθρωποι ειναι
28.	Who answered him, saying: John the Baptist; but some Elias, and others as one of the prophets.	Qui responderunt illi, dicentes : Joannem Baptistam, alii Eliam, alii vero quasi unum de prophetis.	οι δε απεκριθησαν ιωαννην τον βαπτιστην και αλλοι ηλιαν αλλοι δε ενα των προφητων
29.	Then he saith to them: But whom do you say that I am? Peter answering said to him: Thou art the Christ.	Tunc dicit illis : Vos vero quem me esse dicitis ? Respondens Petrus, ait ei : Tu es Christus.	και αυτος λεγει αυτοις υμεις δε τινα με λεγετε ειναι αποκριθεις δε ο πετρος λεγει αυτω συ ει ο χριστος
30.	And he strictly charged them that they should not tell any man of him.	Et comminatus est eis, ne cui dicerent de illo.	και επετιμησεν αυτοις ινα μηδενι λεγωσιν περι αυτου
31.	And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the ancients and by the high priests, and the scribes, and be killed: and after three days rise again.	Et cœpit docere eos quoniam oportet Filium hominis pati multa, et reprobari a senioribus, et a summis sacerdotibus et scribis, et occidi : et post tres dies resurgere.	και ηρξατο διδασκειν αυτους οτι δει τον υιον του ανθρωπου πολλα παθειν και αποδοκιμασθηναι απο των πρεσβυτερων και των αρχιερεων και των γραμματεων και αποκτανθηναι και μετα τρεις ημερας αναστηναι
32.	And he spoke the word openly. And Peter taking him, began to rebuke him.	Et palam verbum loquebatur. Et apprehendens eum Petrus, cœpit increpare eum.	και παρρησια τον λογον ελαλει και προσλαβομενος αυτον ο πετρος ηρξατο επιτιμαν αυτω
33.	Who turning about and seeing his disciples, threatened Peter, saying: Go behind me, Satan, because thou savorest not the things that are of God, but that are of men.	Qui conversus, et videns discipulos suos, comminatus est Petro, dicens : Vade retro me Satana, quoniam non sapis quæ Dei sunt, sed quæ sunt hominum.	ο δε επιστραφεις και ιδων τους μαθητας αυτου επετιμησεν τω πετρω λεγων υπαγε οπισω μου σατανα οτι ου φρονεις τα του θεου αλλα τα των ανθρωπων

27. And Jesus went out, arid his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying to them, Whom do men say that I am?
28. And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets.
29. And he said to them, But whom say you that I am? And Peter answered and said to him, You are the Christ.
30. And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.
31. And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
32. And he spoke that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.
33. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for you savor not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

THEOPHYL. After taking His disciples afar from the Jews He then asks them concerning himself, that they might speak the truth without fear of the Jews; wherefore it is said, And Jesus entered, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi.

BEDE; Philip was that brother of Herod, of whom we spoke above, who in honor of Tiberius Caesar called that town, which is now called Paneas, Caesarea Philippi. It goes on, And by the way he asked his disciples, saying to them, Whom do men say that I am?

PSEUDO-CHRYS. He asks the question with a purpose, for it was right that His disciples should praise Him better than the crowd.

BEDE; Wherefore He first asks what is the opinion of men, in order to try the faith of the disciples, lest their confession should appear to be founded on the common opinion. It goes on, And they answered, saying, Some say John the Baptist, some Elias, and others, One of the prophets.

THEOPHYL. For many thought that John had risen from the dead, as even Herod believed, and that he had performed miracles after his resurrection. After how ever having inquired into the opinion of others, He asks them what was the belief of their own minds on this point; wherefore it continues, And he said to them, But whom say you that I am?

CHRYS. From the manner, however, itself, of the question, He heads them to a higher feeling, and to higher thoughts, concerning Him, that they might not agree with the multitude. But the next words show what the head of the disciples, the mouth of the Apostles, answered; when all were asked, Peter answers and said to to him, You are the Christ.

THEOPHYL. He confesses indeed that He is the Christ announced by the Prophets; but the Evangelist Mark passes over what the Lord answered to his confession, and how He blessed him, lest by this way of relating it, he should seem, to be favoring his Master Peter; Matthew plainly goes through the whole of it.

ORIGEN; Or else, Mark and Luke, as they wrote that Peter answered, You are the Christ, without adding what is put down in Matthew, the Son of the living God, so they omitted to relate the blessing which was conferred on this confession. It goes on, And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.

THEOPHYL. For He wished in the mean time to hide His glory, lest many should be offended because of Him, and so earn a worse punishment.

CHRYS. Or else, that He might wait to fix the pure faith in their minds, till the Crucifixion, which was an offense to them, was over for after it was once perfected, about the time of His ascension, He said unto the Apostles, Go you and teach all nations.

THEOPHYL. But after the Lord had accepted the confession of the disciples, who called Him the true God, He then reveals to them the mystery of the Cross. Wherefore it goes on, And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again; and he spoke that saying openly, that is, concerning His future passion. But His disciples did not understand the order of the truth, neither could they comprehend His resurrection, but thought it better that He should not suffer.

CHRYS. The reason, however, why the Lord told them this, was to show, that after His cross and resurrection, Christ must be preached by His witnesses. Again, Peter alone, from the fervor of his disposition had the boldness to dispute about these things. Wherefore it goes on, And Peter took him up, and began to rebuke him.

BEDE; This, however, he speaks with the feelings of a man who loves and desires; as if he said, Thus cannot he, neither can my ears receive that the Son of God us to be slain.

CHRYS. But how is this, that Peter, gifted with a revelation from the Father, has so soon fallen, and become unstable? Surely, however, it was not wonderful that one who had received no revelation concerning the Passion should be ignorant of this. For that He was the Christ the Son of the living God, he had learnt by revelation, but the mystery of His cross and resurrection had not yet been revealed to him. He Himself, however, showing that He must come to His Passion, rebuked Peter; wherefore there follows, And when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, &c.

THEOPHYL. For the Lord, wishing to show that His Passion was to take place on account of the salvation of men, and that Satan alone was unwilling that Christ should suffer, and the race of man be saved, called Peter Satan, because he savored the things that were of Satan, and, from unwillingness that Christ should suffer, became His adversary; for Satan is interpreted 'the adversary.'

PSEUDO-CHRYS. But He said not to the devil, when tempting Him, Get you behind me, but to Peter He said, Get you behind me, that is, follow Me, and resist not the design of My voluntary Passion. There follows, For you savour not the things which be of God, but which be of men.

THEOPHYL. He says that Peter savors the things which be of men, in that he in some way savored carnal affections, for Peter wished that Christ should spare Himself and riot be crucified.

Catena Aurea Mark 8

Vultus Christi

Let nothing be preferred to the Work of God

Thursday, 20 February 2014 20:16

Father Hugh Somerville-Knapman, a Benedictine monk of Douai Abbey, has posted a brilliant essay on the sacred liturgy. For vast numbers of the faithful, the liturgy has become something unsettled and unsettling. Dom Hugh writes:

Monks live liturgy. “Let nothing be preferred to the Work of God” (Rule of St Benedict 43:3) our holy father St Benedict bids us. The Divine Office and the Mass punctuate and structure our day, uniting our lives with Christ’s sacrifice of perfect praise in his Body and Blood on the Cross. This union is what gives the monk’s life its truest and deepest value. A monk with no taste for liturgy is akin to a bird who fears to fly: things can only be difficult and frustrating. So if some of us monks seem to be endlessly focusing on liturgy, you might cut us some slack. For us, the liturgy is the privileged way to live in Christ’s Body, a privilege which necessarily imposes demands on our daily living outside the liturgy. These demands we spare no effort to meet faithfully, though we so often fail.

Father Thomas Kocik‘s article of 9 February 2014 (see The New Liturgical Movement) discussing his long–standing and courageous commitment to the “reform of the reform” and his disillusionment with the possibility of it being realised dovetails with Father Hugh’s observations. I was, at one time, as deeply committed to the reform of the reform as was Father Kocik, having contributed to the Beyond the Prosaic conference at Oxford in 1996 and to the book that followed it. Like Father Kocik, although several years earlier, I came to see the futility of trying to repair something that, at bottom, is structurally unsound. Nowhere is the old adage, “Haste makes waste”, truer than when applied to the precipitous reform of liturgical rites and the books that contain them. In most places the liturgical landscape has become a dreary wasteland. The liturgical rites and books prepared so feverishly in the wake of the Second Vatican Council have been tried and found wanting.

There are, it is true, liturgical oases here and there, where the reformed rites are carried out intelligently, with dignity, reverence, and devotion — I am thinking of certain communities, monasteries, and parishes, the Communauté de Saint–Martin, for example — but these subjective qualities cannot make up for the objective flaws and structural weaknesses inherent in the same rites.

Although I am content with the sacred liturgy as we celebrate it here at Silverstream Priory, using the 1962 Missal and the traditional Benedictine choir books for the Divine Office — however modestly and humbly, and with limited means — I affirm and share the conclusions and aspirations of both Father Hugh and Father Kocik. The passing of the years has demonstrated the intrinsic inadequacies of the reformed liturgical books of the last post–conciliar era. The cracks in the post–conciliar liturgical edifice became evident almost as soon as the new rites began to be “lived in.” Today, the same edifice appears like so many shabby buildings put up hastily during an economic boom, now revealing their structural flaws, and threatening imminent collapse.

Regnum Christi

Can Christ Count on Me?

| SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY

Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Mark 8:27-33

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah." And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

Introductory Prayer: Lord, reveal to me the awesome mystery of your person. In you is hidden my beginning; in you is hidden the mission for my life; in you is hidden my future happiness. Let me not measure the future by what I think I can do for you, but rather by what your power can do with my generosity. May this prayer convince me of the necessity of welcoming you daily through prayer, contemplation, and a sacramental life of grace and conversion.

Petition: Lord, grant me an experience of you strong enough to overcome all spiritual laziness and tepidity.

1. Who Has Christ Been for You? -Our prayer must lead us to respond to Christ’s question, “Who do you say that I am?” This is the only test, the only examination question we need to pass in life. We must reflect and respond to the question from this perspective: “Who has Christ been for you?” This question does not so much define Christ, but the one who answers it. What experiences have we had of him? What have we been learning about Christ personally, through experiences that we cannot have known by solemn definitions, by routine external piety or by what others say? Christ’s history and our personal history must intertwine to become a single chapter which we both share.

2. Who Have You Been for Christ? - If I have little to say as far as my firsthand knowledge of Jesus, if my interior experiences have been eclipsed by a mundane and materialistic spirit, I must take Christ’s question to the next level: “Who have I been for Christ?” Who I have been for Christ will be determined largely by who I have been for him in prayer. The “inner Christ” is known only by those to whom it is revealed. It will not happen by a merely flesh-and-blood approach, nor by just going with the flow of human events. Peter’s interior life was fertile ground for the Father. His testimony was not luck, but was a divine intervention in his soul from which his faith drew its strength. “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). May I seek in a special way the grace of greater sensitivity to let my interior life of prayer define me and shape my character.

3. Can Christ Count on Me? -Poor Peter! In one moment he is revealing the thoughts of the Father, in the next, Satan’s. Peter’s living experience of Christ is the target of Satan’s attempts to break his faith. Christ’s suffering will be the pledge that the faith of the apostle will not fail: “I have prayed for you…” (Luke 22:32). Ultimately Christ’s prayer would prevail: Peter is reborn on Pentecost, fearlessly accepting and launching the mission of the Church. A strong interior foundation in Christ ultimately leads to one last reality check of the spiritual life: Can Christ build on me because I am built on him? Christ’s fidelity will uphold me if I stay in the battle, if I hold firm and don’t let the reality of my falls keep me from advancing. Satan cannot break my faith if I keep fighting, and for this I always have to have new goals, to begin fresher, better and more generously than before.

Conversation with Christ: Lord, according to the riches of your glory, grant that I may be strengthened in my inner being with power through your Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith. Being rooted and grounded in love, I pray that I may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that I may be filled with all the fullness of you. (Cf. Ephesians 3:16-20)

Resolution: I will spend some time before our Lord in the Eucharist today, asking that he deepen my experience of him.

Homily of the Day

February 20, 2014

For the Jews, the messiah they were expecting was envisioned as a triumphant king who was to restore the Davidic kingdom and not a convicted criminal. Now, if we put ourselves in the shoes of Peter with his first century Jewish mindset, would we have reacted any differently from the way he did? Furthermore, why did the evangelist who was supposed to be Peter’s interpreter and companion put his mentor in a very bad light? According to biblical scholars, these must also be authentic because there is no good reason to include these verses which tend to put the first pope in a very negative situation. Therefore there must have been a very good reason for its inclusion.

Through this episode, the evangelist emphasized our Lord’s teaching that to be his follower is to follow him on the way of the cross. There is no other way. The way of love entails sacrifice, pain and suffering. God, who is love, stripped himself of his divinity to be one of us, vulnerable to pain, hunger, and all the weaknesses which come with being human. Incidentally, there is a Chinese word for love which can also mean pain or hurt.

Who then is God for us? Can we who claim to be followers of Christ also accept the way of the cross? Are we prepared to respond to his love which led him to a horrible and painful death on the cross

One Bread One Body

One Bread, One Body

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All Issues > Volume 30, Issue 2

<< Thursday, February 20, 2014 >>

James 2:1-9
View Readings

Psalm 34:2-7

Mark 8:27-33
Similar Reflections

FLUNKING THE THIRD GRADE?

"He began to teach them that the Son of Man had to suffer much." —Mark 8:31

The first grade in the school of Jesus is concerned with Jesus' question: "Who do people say that I am?" (Mk 8:27) In the second grade, Jesus asks each of us personally: "You...who do you say that I am?" (Mk 8:29) To answer this question properly, we must not only have knowledge of Jesus but also total faith in Him as Messiah and Lord (Mk 8:29). In the third grade, Jesus brings up the cross. Again, this is not merely a matter for discussion; it is a radical decision to live a new life of love. "Jesus said to all: 'Whoever wishes to be My follower must deny his very self, take up his cross each day, and follow in My steps. Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will save it' " (Lk 9:23-24).

Peter flunked the third grade. He wanted a cross-less Christianity. Jesus temporarily expelled Peter from school, saying to him: "Get out of My sight, you satan!" (Mk 8:33)

After denying Christ three times, Peter cried tears of repentance (Lk 22:62) and finally got back into the third grade. Eventually, Peter was crucified himself. He made the grade, graduated, and rose into the everlasting happiness of heaven.

What grade are you in? Have you flunked out? Will you repent? Will you graduate? Give your life totally to the crucified and risen Messiah and Lord.

Prayer: Jesus, I believe in You — Messiah, Lord, and God!

Promise: "Did not God choose those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom He promised to those who love Him?" —Jas 2:5

Praise: Every Holy Thursday, Pete leads each of the shifts in his plant in prayers and devotions.

Prayer for Life

Dearest Lady of Guadalupe, fruitful Mother of Holiness, teach me your ways of gentleness and strength. Hear my prayer, offered with deep-felt confidence to beg this favor...

O Mary, conceived without sin, I come to your throne of grace to share the fervent devotion of your faithful Mexican children who call to thee under the glorious Aztec title of "Guadalupe"--the Virgin who crushed the serpent.

Queen of Martyrs, whose Immaculate Heart was pierced by seven swords of grief, help me to walk valiantly amid the sharp thorns strewn across my pathway. Invoke the Holy Spirit of Wisdom to fortify my will to frequent the Sacraments so that, thus enlightened and strengthened, I may prefer God to all creatures and shun every occasion of sin.

Help me, as a living branch of the vine that is Jesus Christ, to exemplify His Divine charity always seeking the good of others. Queen of Apostles, aid me to win souls for the Sacred Heart of my Savior. Keep my apostolate fearless, dynamic and articulate, to proclaim the loving solicitude of Our Father in Heaven so that the wayward may heed His pleading and obtain pardon, through the merits of your merciful Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Day 73 - What is the connection between the Feast of Passover and Jesus' Passion?

Meditation: James 2:1-9

Marriage=One Man and One Woman 'Til Death Do Us Part

One Bread, One Body

FLUNKING THE THIRD GRADE?