Pages Menu
RssFacebook
Categories Menu

Posted by on Oct 17, 2007

Saint of the Day – St. Ignatius of Antioch

Saint of the Day – St. Ignatius of Antioch

saint_ignatius_of_antioch.jpg

October 17 is the feast day of St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, also known as Theophorus. He was a disciple of the Apostle St. John the Evangelist and was thrown to the lions in Rome as a martyr for the faith in 108 A.D.

St. Ignatius’ journey from Antioch in Syria to Rome took 7 years as he traveled in chains and visited Christian communities along the way. He also wrote letters to churches, encouraging them to stay united under the leadership of their bishop.

St. Ignatius of Antioch was an early formative influence in the church on the importance of bishops as leaders and as the definitive teachers of the faith. He accorded a special respect to the church of Rome and its bishop. He was also the first to use the Greek word katholikos (meaning “universal”) in reference to the church.

Ignatius summarized the meaning of his martyrdom in this prayer:

“I am a kernel of wheat for Christ. I must be ground by the teeth of beasts to be found bread (of Christ) wholly pure.”

St. Ignatius of Antioch would become one of the fathers of the Church and his writings would inspire Christians through the ages. One of the people whom he would inspire with his sense of the Church and the giving of one’s life to be found the wholly pure bread of Christ was Iñigo de Loyola who would change his baptismal name to Ignatius in his later years. As St. Ignatius Loyola, he would go forth to offer his life in the service to the Church to be ground into the pure bread of Christ.

Read More

Posted by on Oct 11, 2007

Saint of the Day – St. Ignatius of Antioch

Saint of the Day – Blessed Pope John XXIII

October 11 is the feast day of Blessed Pope John XXIII (1881-1965). The son of Italian share croppers who worked in the fields with his brothers and served as a stretcher bearer in World War I, he became a Church diplomat, Cardinal Archbishop of Venice, and Pope. This might seem like enough for more than one lifetime. Yet Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli would launch an institutional and cultural revolution unprecedented in Church history. By convening the Second Vatican Council (1961 -1965) and calling for “aggiornamento,” a renewal and updating of the Catholic Church, Angelo Roncalli opened the door to the Post Modern Church. Although he did not live to convene the second session of the Council, it is hard to appreciate the depth of the change Pope John XXIII and his successor Pope Paul VI brought about.

It is not enough to say that the Mass changed from Latin to the everyday languages of the faithful, because the change in the liturgy only symbolized a much deeper change of mentality. Christ is present among His people in their signs and symbols, in their language. “The Church” referred not only to the leadership of the Pope and bishops, but to its body – the faithful. We now use the term “faith community” somewhat lightly, without realizing the complete change of thinking the term represents.

Pope John Paul II, who declared Pope John XXIII Blessed, represented a completely different mentality. The difference is aptly summarized by Tom Fox in the National Catholic Reporter.

“How seemingly different is the mood among the hierarchy in Rome today. If images speak, then in place of the smiling John XXIII, we see a pained John Paul II, his face grimaced, his tired body leaning on his crosier, carrying the world’s burdens on his shoulders. Pope John gave us Pacem in Terris, a map to worldwide human understanding. Pope John Paul II gives us an analysis of the “culture of death,” an acknowledgment of global human failure.

This is not to say John did not understand the cross or John Paul the resurrection. It is to say their views of how grace operates in the world are radically different. John saw the church as an instrument of cooperative acts. John Paul sees the church as a fortress tested by evil. John saw the world, the playground of God’s love, as primary. John Paul sees the church, instrument of salvation, as primary. Operating out of John’s vision, the church not only can but also must adapt. It changes because the world changes. Operating out of John Paul’s vision, the church must strengthen itself by purification. It must not adapt because to do so is to blur the sign of contradiction.”…

“The late NCR Vatican Affairs Writer Peter Hebblethewaite once said the deeper underlying problem with John Paul’s black and white assessment is not that the world is so black but it makes the church so white. So unrepentive. So resisting of change. The perfect instrument of God requires no change. Further, it must not change.”

– Tom Fox – Analysis – Second Special Synod for Europe, October 1999.

Blessed Pope John XXIII, pray for us.

Read More

Posted by on Oct 5, 2007

Saint of the Day – St. Ignatius of Antioch

Saint of the Day – St. Faustina Kowalska and The Divine Mercy

October 5 is the feast day of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska (1905 – 1938) whose brief life and spiritual journal inspired The Divine Mercy Movement in the Catholic Church. She was baptized Helen Kowalska and came from a small village Glogowiecz near Lodz, Poland. She was the third of ten children and had only 3 years of formal education. At 14 she began working in well to do house holds as a governess. (Given her limited education she was probably more of a domestic servant.) Helen Kowalska was known as a pleasant, cheerful, and talkative young woman. When she was almost 20 she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy in Cracow as a lay sister on August 1, 1925. She worked mainly in the kitchen and the garden. She pronounced her first vows on April 30, 1926 and became Sr. Mary Faustina of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

In the convent she was pleasant, cheerful, and obedient according to her fellow sisters. She was pleasantly unremarkable until the evening of February 22, 1931 when she had her first vision of Christ, as the King of Mercy. In the years that followed she received her call to be an apostle and secretary of Christ in promoting an awareness of the Divine Mercy and living a life a life of mercy. It was not smooth sailing by any means. She was honest with her spiritual directors and confessors but no one could reassure her that the visions were really legitimate. Her fellow sisters generally viewed her experience with a high degree of skepticism. St. Faustina kept her pleasant disposition and continued to carry out all of her tasks with industry. Nevertheless, she became a social outcast and her life became miserable. Understandably, she identified with Christ in His Passion.

Relief came in 1933 after St. Faustina professed her perpetual vows. Her spiritual advisors helped her to have confidence in the visions and her relationship with Christ. When the first painting of her vision was completed she was disappointed that it conveyed very little of the great beauty of her vision. The painting was first publicly displayed in 1935 in Vilnius which was in Poland at the time and is now the capital of Lithuania. The devotion really took off with outbreak of World War II in 1939 a year after St. Faustina’s death and grew steadily for the next 20 years. The Holy See banned the devotion in 1959 due to wording in translations of devotional material. Carol Wojtyla the Archbishop of Cracow worked unceasingly for 20 years to get the ban lifted. He succeeded six months before he was elected Pope John Paul II.

In a way it not surprising that Pope John Paul II the first Polish pope, would have been inspired by her as young man. In fact John Paul II canonized (declared her a saint) St. Faustina in 2000 as the first saint of the new millenium and as a model for Christians in the third millenium. The pope also designated the second Sunday after Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday for the entire church. The day the Pope made these pronouncements, he said that it was the happiest day of his life. John Paul II would later die on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday in 2005.

What is surprising is that such a devotion, which focuses on helping others in physical and spiritual need, would become so strong in Poland at a time when it was about to be ripped asunder by Hitler and Stalin and would reappear in a different shape and location behind the Iron Curtain as a Communist country.

Unlike many devotional movements in the Catholic Church which focus on the individual’s relationship with Christ, the Divine Mercy movement emphasizes a ministry of service to others and society. Christians are called to be the compassion of God here and now. The movement focuses on the spiritual and corporal works of mercy as outlined in Matthew 25: 35-46. ( For a list of the Works of Mercy, please scroll down to the bottom of this link in American Catholic.)

Like many Catholic devotional movements, there is an emphasis on a particular image of Christ, there is a chaplet of prayers, and a novena. Divine Mercy Sunday is now becoming a day of special devotional observance in churches which enshrine the image. The challenge for Catholic culture will be to meet the discomfort and privation of the following of Christ as promoted and lived by St. Faustina Kowalska and Pope John Paul II. If the Divine Mercy becomes yet another icon of personal comfort we will have found yet another way to say no to Christ politely.

Read More

Posted by on Oct 4, 2007

Saint of the Day – St. Ignatius of Antioch

Saint of the Day – St. Francis of Assisi

October 4 is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226). I once heard a priest ( a non-Franciscan) say that St. Francis was one of the great religious figures of all time. Francis left a life of privilege and comfort to adopt a radical Christian lifestyle of poverty and service to the poor. Francis became the reluctant head of a major religious movement of men and women. Today he is revered by Christians and non-Christians around the world as a model of peace, humility, and compassion.

Francis was one of seven children and he was baptized Giovanni di Bernadone. His parents were Pietro di Bernardone and Pica Bourlemont. His father called him Francesco – an apparent reference to his mother’s French heritage. Francis’ father was a successful cloth merchant and Francis had the benefit of a good education. He ran with a group of young well-to-do friends who spent their time drinking, partying, and chasing women. From time to time his charity got the better of him, and his friends – as well as his father – mocked him for his foolishness in giving to the needy.

The story of his conversion is a gradual one involving a year in Perugia as a prisoner of war, illness, and a constant sense of calling. Franco Zefirelli’s film biography of St. Francis, “Brother Son, Sister Moon” (1973), presents a young idealistic, impractical man. To many, Zefirelli’s St. Francis was a hippie. As “mature” (read “jaded”) sophisticates, it is easy to be condescending to St. Francis as portrayed by his biographers and the facts of his actual life. However, if we dismiss St. Francis as a gentle fool, we do so to his model – Christ.

The early impact of St. Francis on the Church was to renew personal devotion to Christ as the Incarnate Word dwelling with us. He invented the “creche,” or nativity scene, as an opportunity and aid to contemplation of the human birth of God in poverty to the powerless of the world. Service to the outcast – lepers, the homeless, the mentally ill, the destitute – became service to Christ in our midst. The presence of God in His creation and all life forms, is a hallmark of his spirituality. St. Francis’ tangible sense of God would continue to ripple down the centuries, not only through members of the Franciscan family – St. Bonaventure and John Duns Scotus – but also St. Dominic, St, Thomas Aquinas, St. Ignatius Loyola, and St. Vincent de Paul. The work of Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr is a good example of the spirituality of St. Francis today. The life and example of St. Francis permeates western Christianity – both Catholic and Protestant – in such a way that it is difficult to conceive of Christianity without him.

Today, St. Francis is important to people around the world facing issues of hunger, nuclear war, and environmental collapse. Every year in September in Assisi, the United Nations holds a peace conference and Pope John Paul II led inter-faith peace services on more than one occasion. St. Francis continues to challenge those who are religious and mystical to encounter the living God in the messiness of everyday life and problems which seem completely beyond our control.

Read More

Posted by on Oct 2, 2007

Saint of the Day – St. Ignatius of Antioch

St. Jerome – Humanist, Scholar, and Saint

St. Jerome (331-420) was a man steeped in classical learning who produced the first Latin translation of the Bible. His feast day is September 30. Leslie J. Hoppe, OFM, in his article on St. Jerome, “The Perils of a Bible Translator,” shows that this vocation is not for the faint of heart.

In the first place, understanding and translating the scriptures requires a secular knowledge of languages, history, and culture that can challenge faith. St. Jerome had a nightmare in which he came before Christ on Judgment Day and was found not to be a Christian but a Ciceronian. (This was a nightmare that became a reality for centuries of Christian students who had to master Classical Ciceronian Latin.)

Sometimes the translator or the Christian scholar finds things that might be better left alone. For example, what if some of the books appear to not be part of the original collection?

Today we often get upset if a translator changes the phrasing of passages which we love. When St. Jerome came out with his translation in the everyday language of the people, enough of them got so upset that there were riots in Tripoli. St. Augustine and other major teachers were very critical.

It is all very modern if it weren’t so ancient.

Portraying St. Jerome with a lion appears to have come from a medieval legend in with the saint pulls the thorn out of the paw of a lion and lives to tell the tale. Even if it is not true, it presents a very good picture of what it means to be a scripture scholar and translator.

Read More

Posted by on Oct 1, 2007

Saint of the Day – St. Ignatius of Antioch

St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Saint of the Day

Today, October 1, is the feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower. This is a picture of her as a child.

As faithful readers will recall, St. Thérèse is one of my favorite saints. I have already written about her (see my post for September 4, 2007, Triumph of the Lowly) and will not go into great detail here. Suffice it to say that in her short 24 years, she gave to the church a great gift, the Little Way. She delighted in the small things of life and determined that her calling was to love God in all His creatures and in all of creation. Although she entered a convent at the age of 15 and died there at 24, her writings have reached beyond the convent walls and touched people great and small since her death from tuberculosis in 1897.

Her Little Way to holiness is one to which all of us are called. It consists of doing the everyday things in “mindful” ways, paying attention and acting in love as we go about our everyday routines.

As she said, “I am a very little soul, who can offer only very little things to the Lord.”

In another place she wrote,”Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.”

As she neared her death, in the midst of a great time of personal spiritual darkness, she assured her sisters, “I will spend my Heaven doing good on earth,” and, “After my death I will let fall a shower of roses.”

When she overheard two of the other nuns wondering what would ever be said about her at her funeral, since she was so young and had really not done anything of note in her life, she was delighted. She had never wanted to be noticed as any different than the other sisters with whom she lived. Yet within just a few years of her death, her autobiography and other writings were being translated into all the major languages of the world. Her Little Way influenced theologians, popes, bishops, priests, and thousands of others both inside and outside the Church. In recognition of the depth of her contribution to the Church, Pope John Paul II, named her a Doctor of the Church in 1997.

For a more complete biographies, see:

http://therese.kashalinka.com

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=105

http://www.thereseoflisieux.org/

Read More

Posted by on Sep 27, 2007

Saint of the Day – St. Vincent de Paul

Saint of the Day – St. Vincent de Paul

 

St. Vincent de Paul (1576? 1580? – 1660) is justifiably remembered as a great model of charity. However, his charity addressed not only the immediate needs of people but also focused on longer term solutions.

Born to poor parents at Pouy, Gascony in France, St. Vincent de Paul’s life was an amazing adventure. Working his way through school he was ordained a priest. He spent two years as a slave in Tunisia after having been captured aboard ship by Turks. He managed to escape and made his way home via Italy and Rome. He preached to the rural poor, ministered to galley slaves, and rose to the Royal Court while becoming the hero of the poor of Paris.

St. Vincent de Paul organized groups of men and women, priests and nuns to expand his mission of preaching, feeding, housing, nursing, and teaching the most abject members of society. He had influence with some of history’s most powerful men – Cardinal Richelieu and Cardinal Mazarin who, as first ministers to the King, made France the dominant power in Europe. King Louis XIII asked for St. Vincent de Paul’s assistance on his deathbed. After the king’s death, he managed to prevent a violent crackdown on the people of Paris, who had protested the interim rule of Louis XIII’s widow, Ann of Austria, as Regent.

St. Vincent de Paul organized massive relief efforts for areas of France devastated by the 30 Years War. He raised incredible amounts of money from nobles and the merchant class by letters and publications. He built hospitals, old age homes, and orphanages that also had endowments to fund their continued service. Certainly, these achievements alone would have make him one of the greatest figures of the early Modern period.

However, St. Vincent de Paul’s lasting legacy is his sense of creating organizations and institutions to meet longer term needs. The organizations include the Daughters of Charity, founded by St. Louise de Marillac, The Congregations of the Mission (Vincentian Fathers and Brothers) and various lay groups, such as the Ladies of Charity, which now operate in 40 countries.

St. Vincent shaped the emergence of the Catholic Church in the Modern period by his establishment of training programs for priests and his efforts to stem the gloominess of Jansenism.

The Council of Trent (1545 -1563) mandated several major reforms. One of these was the establishment of special schools or seminaries for the training of priests. Previously, priests might have been educated in monasteries and universities or received very little formal education. Of the 20 seminaries established after the Council of Trent, only 10 had survived by the early 1600’s due to the wars of religion.

Theologically, St. Vincent made a lasting impact by his opposition to Jansenism. He used his influence to make sure that priests who subscribed to this heresy did not receive funded positions (benefices). St. Vincent de Paul was especially active in securing the censure of the Jansenist heresy. He got the support of 85 bishops to condemn the teaching, which obliterated free will and left people predestined to heaven or hell by a grim and capricious God. St. Vincent de Paul was instrumental in securing the censure of Jansenism by Pope Innocent X in 1655 and Pope Alexander VII in 1656.

Although much of his wonderful work was swept away by the French Revolution, the institutions he founded now operate in 40 countries. St. Vincent de Paul’s spirituality – the love of God for all – is the gift that keeps giving.

St. John’s University presents an excellent portrait of St. Vincent de Paul’s spiritual journey on its website.

In the interests of transparency, I must disclose my debt to St. Vincent de Paul as well, since I received my high school education from a mixed faculty of diocesan priests and Vincentian Fathers (the Congregation of the Mission) at Our Lady Queen of the Angels Seminary in San Fernando, CA. How do you say thank you to those who not only taught you to write but to think critically and live compassionately? All I can hope to do is to pay it forward.

Read More

Posted by on Sep 25, 2007

Saint of the Day – St. Ignatius of Antioch

Saint of the Day: St. Elzear & Bl. Delphina – The Happy Couple

Today, an unconsummated marriage would probably not be considered advisable by the Church and mental health experts. St. Elzear and Blessed Delphina were a couple who were married and lived together chastely. They are saints because of their care of the poor and the suffering. This couple is also known for their conscientious exercise of their duties as members of the nobility. Interestingly, they were known and remembered as a happy couple.

Personally, I don’t think that I would have responded by taking a vow of chastity on my wedding night the way St. Elzear did when he found out the Delphina had already made one. We have a contemporary theology of marriage that stresses and endows love making and sex within marriage as sacramental.

Certainly the late Middle Ages (St. Elzear 1286 -1323, Bl. Delphina 1283- 1358) was not a “puritanical” time. In fact, Puritanism would not happen for another 200 years and would never take root in the Mediterranean.

St. Elzear was born at the family castle in Ansouis, Provence, in the south of France. At 23, he became lord of Ansouis and Count of Ariano in the Kingdom of Naples. The Count and Contessa became influential in the court of King Robert of Naples and Elzear was the tutor to the King’s son Charles. He was also the “justiciar” or head of law enforcement and justice for southern Abruzzi under King Robert. St. Elzear died on September 27, 1323 while on a diplomatic mission to Paris to arrange the marriage of Charles to Mary of Valois. Blessed Delphina would survive him for another 35 years and spend the time in continued acts of charity.

As nobles, producing children was a serious responsibility. Even when having children was precluded due to medical reasons, noblemen usually had some illegitimate sons at hand. William the Conqueror was one such son. Since the marriage of the Count and Contessa of Ariano (St. Elzear and Blessed Delphina) was so atypical by the standards of their day and ours, how do we relate to it?

Perhaps it was a marriage of convenience, in the sense that due to their social station they were obliged to marry but would have really preferred monastic vocations. Since their state in life was determined when they were young children of a noble family, they simply found a way around it.

Young children at the ages of 5 -7 were sent as oblates to monasteries and convents. Hildegard of Bingen and St. Thomas Aquinas are two examples. We also know, of course, that many people who found themselves in “enforced” monastic vocations would do their best to bend or break the rules.

Then as now, marriages – especially those among the rich and powerful -were not happy affairs. Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204) and her Church sanctioned marriages to King Louis VII of France and King Henry II of England demonstrates the far from Romantic character of such marriages. In fact, Eleanor of Aquitaine was a major promoter of the troubadour movement. The origins of what we today experience as romantic love originally began as songs of chaste love for the unattainable woman. As we know, the reality of courtly love was far from chaste, but it seemed to provide some fluidity in a tight social structure. That doesn’t mean that it didn’t cause feelings of betrayal and rejection resulting in duels, beatings, and death. The case of King Henry VIII in the early modern period (1491 -1547) provides a window onto the complexity of marriage in Europe in previous centuries.

The Count and Contessa feeding the poor, living as lay Franciscans, and in the case of St. Elzear healing lepers were definitely unusual for the time. What was probably most striking about them is that they were known as a happy couple. Their marriage – even if its lack of consummation might not adhere to the Church’s definition of one – was a partnership for a radical living of the Gospel.

In our own culture and time, can we say as much about our marriages and the joy, happiness and moral guidance they bring to others?

There are two slightly different accounts of these saints, with some inconsistencies. Please see Saint of the Day at AmericanCatholic.org and Catholic Online.

Read More

Posted by on Sep 22, 2007

Saint Thomas of Villanova: Almsgiver, Father of the Poor, and Model of Bishops

Saint Thomas of Villanova was born to a family of modest means in Fuentellana, Spain in 1488. His father was a miller and his parents were known for their generosity to the poor.

Thomas was educated as a child and at sixteen entered the University of Alcalá. While there, he earned advanced degrees in Theology. By 1514, he received the chair of arts, logic and philosophy. He was offered the chair of natural philosophy at the University of Salamanca, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Europe, but declined it in order to enter the Augustinian order in 1516. He was ordained a priest in 1518. His new duties included teaching scholastic theology at the Salamanca Convent of his order. As the years passed, his duties expanded to include preaching in many areas of Spain. Eventually he was named to the position of court preacher to Emperor Charles V (Charles I of Spain).

Thomas held many positions of responsibility among the Augustinians, including the position of provincial-prior in Andalusia and Castile. During those years, he sent the first Augustinian missionaries to Mexico (1533). In 1544, he was nominated to serve as Archbishop of Valencia, a post that had been open for nearly one hundred years. He had declined the position of Bishop of Granada previously, but this time he accepted the position as a matter of obedience to his superiors.

Thomas of Villanova was the thirty-second bishop and eighth archbishop of Valencia. He served in this role for eleven years. During his time as archbishop, he began a series of reforms and initiatives in service of the poor, for which he received the titles of “Almsgiver,” “Father of the Poor,” and “Model of Bishops” from Pope Paul V at his beatification in 1618. The reforms included abolition of excessive privileges and unreasonable exemptions for the clergy, visits to parishes in the archdiocese, and abolition of underground prisons. He set up institutions to serve the poor in practical ways, including rebuilding Valencia’s general hospital that had been destroyed by fire, setting up two colleges, including one for the children of the poor, founding a home for orphans and children whose parents could not support them, and having Mass offered early in the morning, so working-class people could attend before going to their jobs.

The palace in which Thomas lived as archbishop was always open to the poor. Anyone who came for help received it, with hundreds of people receiving meals through the years. In every city, he appointed people to seek out those “respectable” people who were in need but hesitated or did not think to ask for help. To these he provided clothing, food, or money to help them get back on their feet. To workmen, farmers, and mechanics, he provided tools, seeds, livestock and other items they needed to be able to earn their livings again.

Thomas himself lived simply, mending his own clothing and repairing things as needed. He spent much time in prayer and study. He was known for his supernatural gifts, including healing the sick, resolving conflicts, and bringing people closer to God. He was a mystic and his writings and sermons include practical rules and reflections regarding mystic theology.

Despite his education and commitment to reform in the Church, Thomas did not participated in the Council of Trent (1545-1563). Many reasons have been given for his absence, including illness, the difficulty of travel, and the press of his duties to his people and as advisor to the emperor.

Thomas of Villanova died of angina pectoris at the age of 67, at the end of his daily Mass. He was buried in the cathedral of Valencia. Pope Alexander VII canonized him on November 1, 1658.

Descriptions of the life and works of Thomas of Villanova, while impressive, may not have as dramatic a ring of heroic sanctity today as they did in his day. Bishops who lord it over the people, live lives of conspicuous consumption, and spend most of their time living and acting as princes are not the norm today, as they were in his lifetime. The ideal of bishops has come to be one that more closely resembles the life of Thomas of Villanova. The title, “Model of Bishops,” was well bestowed. The example he gave has borne fruit into our days. When we intercede for our bishops, we would do well to ask his intercession for them too.

Read More

Posted by on Sep 21, 2007

Saint of the Day – St. Ignatius of Antioch

St. Matthew the Apostle

St. Matthew by Caravaggio

According to tradition and some internal evidence, St. Matthew was the author of the Gospel that bears his name. He was also the tax collector referred to in the Gospels who turned to follow Christ. Tax collectors of the time were the most reviled of all sinners.

According to Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish writer (30 BC – 45 AD), as cited by Maureen B. Cavanaugh in her article, “Private Tax Collectors: A Roman, Christian, and Jewish Perspective”

“They [Romans] deliberately choose as tax collectors men who are absolutely ruthless and savage, and give them the means of satisfying their greed. These people who are mischief-makers by nature, gain added immunity because of their “superior orders,” obsequious in everything where their masters are concerned, leave undone no cruelty of any kind and recognize no equity or gentleness . . . as they collect the taxes they spread confusion and chaos everywhere. They exact money not only from people’s property but also from their bodies by means of personal injuries, assault and completely unheard of forms of torture.”

Tax collectors were independent contractors who frequently got out of control, since there were few safeguards to protect the local populace in ancient society. Interestingly, Ms. Cavanaugh’s article is a cautionary history lesson in the context of plans by the United States government to outsource tax collection to independent contractors.

Jesus’ association with tax collectors was even more scandalous than his association with prostitutes and members of terrorist organizations such as Simon the Zealot. Tax collectors were so despicable that their ritual “dirtiness” defiled everything in a house that they entered. In contrast, a thief only defiled those things that he touched in the house.

After his conversion, Matthew was not free from controversy. His Gospel established a hostile attitude toward Jews that persisted for almost 2,000 years. Since the Gospel According to Matthew refers to the temple and city of Jerusalem in their state before their obliteration in 70 A.D., some scholars conclude that the Gospel was written prior to that year. St. Matthew’s stance toward Jews can be understood in the context of a struggle between Jews regarding adherence to their traditional faith or conversion to Christianity. St. Paul lists himself as a persecutor of early Christians. In fact, his conversion occured while he was on a mission to track down believers.

Douglas R. A. Hare’s monograph “The Theme of Jewish Persecution in the Gospel According to St. Matthew,” asks whether St. Matthew exaggerated the persecution and what effect it had on his theology. Using Christian and Rabbinic sources, Hare concludes that the persecution was directed at Christian missionaries, as opposed to Christians in general.

We see this continuing contest after the destruction of 70 AD in the efforts of St. John Chrysostom to stem Jewish influence in the Christian community in Antioch in the fourth century. It was not until 1965 that the Second Vatican Council, in its decree on relations with non-Christians, “Nostra Aetate” (“In Our Time”), that the Church told her members to adopt a posture of respect and dialog with Jews.

The Gospel of St. Matthew, in its beauty, is a central document in Christianity. The emphasis on Christ as the Messiah and the passing away of Judaism are central themes. Pharisees, those staunch guardians of Judaism from the rampant Hellenistic paganism of the time, won’t make it into the Kingdom before repentant tax collectors and prostitutes.

If we substitute  the words “Faithful Christians” for “Pharisees” we get some idea of how incendiary the message still is today.

Read More

Posted by on Sep 20, 2007

Saint of the Day – St. Ignatius of Antioch

Saints of the Day – Korean Martyrs

Kim Dae Geon (1822 - 1846) Priest & Martyr

If you ever wonder about the power of books, the church in Korea owes its start to them. It is probably unique in this regard. Korea was closed to outside trade and influences at the time. Unfortunately, this is still the case in Communist North Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The Christian books were obtained by Korean scholars from the Korean embassy in China. The first convert Ni-seoung-houn was baptized in 1784 in Beijing, where he had gone to study Catholicism. He returned to Korea and converted many others. Most of these first Christians were later killed in 1791. However in 1794, when a Chinese priest, Fr. James Tsiou, arrived, he found 4,000 Catholics. Subsequent waves of persecution and martyrdom followed in 1836, 1846, and 1867. The martyrdom of French missionaries, in part, led to to a war called the French Campaign Against Korea.

Their stories are compelling. It is especially interesting to see how a sacramental and liturgical church can grow without any ordained clergy. It is even more interesting how they adapted with relative ease to a foreign clergy and developed their own.

Pope John Paul II canonized (designated as saints) the martyrs of 1836, 1846, and 1867 in Seoul on May 6, 1984. The Pope began his homily with Luke 24:26 from the story of the disciples on the way to Emmaus after the death of Christ. “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?” He went on to relate the rest of this story of encouragement and also incorporated a history of the church in Korea. and the testimony of the martyrs.

The faith demonstrated by these Christians, and their statements prior to their deaths, are very reminiscent of the early Church. They should also be a reminder that in many parts of the world today, Christians are still being persecuted. In China, Sudan, and even Latin America, the faith remains something to die for.

Read More

Posted by on Sep 18, 2007

Saint of the Day – St. Ignatius of Antioch

Saint of the Day: St. Joseph of Cupertino

Joseph Desa (1603-1663) was born in Cupertino, near Brindisi in the Kingdom of Naples.

St. Joseph of Cupertino is a challenge to anyone of an intellectual bent. His life is the prototypic story of an uneducated child, beset by poverty, who has ecstatic experiences beginning at age 8 which leave his mouth agape. His school mates called him “voca aperta.” The young child had quite a temper, which his mother tried to moderate, and he was later apprenticed to a shoemaker. At 17 he was turned away from the Friars Minor Conventual because of his ignorance. The Capuchins at first accepted him as a lay brother but his continued ecstasies made it impossible for him to do his work, so he found himself out on the street again. His mother and his uncles had given up on him and abused him as a good for nothing. Finally, after repeated prayers and a lot of tears he was allowed to work in the stable at the Franciscan convent of La Grotella near Cupertino. He was basically a lay servant. His humility, obedience, and love of penance must have impressed the friars because he was not only allowed to became a cleric but he was also ordained a priest over a period of years. Despite his lack of education, he demonstrated an amazing knowledge which appeared to be infused as a mystical gift. He was able to solve intricate problems.

His life was one long series of episodes of ecstasy, vision, and levitation. His superiors had to keep sending him from convent to convent to escape the curious.

John Coulson in his brief biography relates an incident that was all too typical.

“In 1645 the Spanish ambassador to the Holy See, the High Admiral of Castile, having spoken for some time with him in his cell at Assisi, said that his wife too would like to meet him. The Father Guardian told him to go down to the church: Joseph said he would obey but did not know whether he would be able to speak to her. He entered the church, saw a statue of our Lady over the altar and straightway flew some twelve paces above the onlookers to its feet, and after a while, ‘uttering his customary shrill cry’, returned to the floor and then his cell, having said nothing to the Admiral, his wife and their large retinue. Instances could be multiplied up to the last month of Joseph’s life.”

Through it all St. Joseph of Cupertino kept his sense of peace and humility. It almost seems as if his life was written as an object lesson about the need for men in religious orders to temper and even validate their spirituality through obedience. This is not an uncommon theme of the time. How much of this is history, legend, and myth?

The art of writing about the lives of saints – hagiography – has undergone extensive criticism in the last 100 years. St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, was removed from the Church calendar by the Vatican in 1969 because there wasn’t enough historical evidence that he had existed or had lived a life of holiness. Many lives of saints had become embellished over the centuries. For example, St. Nicholas was said to have stood up in the bathtub as an infant and preached a sermon.

In the 17th century, a group of Jesuit scholars, the Bollandists, were commissioned by the Pope to prepare a definitive collection of the Acta Sanctorum, The Lives of the Saints – or literally, the Deeds of the Saints. In a bow to the Enlightenment and rationalism, the resulting investigations cleared away a lot of misinformation and also validated significant historical information.

We might expect that the flying Franciscan would have been relegated to the dustbin of history. However, the historical testimony of Pope Urban VIII, who saw St. Joseph of Cupertino in ecstasy, the accounts of powerful nobles and officials who saw his miracles, and the records of the Inquisition, bear historical witness to a saint who baffled his contemporaries as much as he baffles us today.

St. Joseph of Cupertino defies our psychological categories. We could use the terms: hysteria, seizure disorders, aphasia, schizophrenia. Yet he certainly did not fit the social norm of insanity. Against the odds, his superiors judged him worthy of ordination to the priesthood, although his paranormal behavior prevented him from saying Mass in church and participating in processions. In 35 years he could not eat in the common dining room (refectory) or participate in the “choir” or singing of the Liturgy of the Hours (The Divine Office). His creativity in solving problems seems to remove him from the idiot savant category.

If we can’t explain away his behavior as a mental illness, then perhaps we are getting a glimpse of what it means to have a lifestyle of intense religious experience. If we leave science behind, we enter into the language of faith itself, or at a minimum, we enter the language of theoretical physics by talking about additional dimensions beyond the space-time continuum or the notion of parallel universes.

As I wrestle for some type of explanation, I feel that at any moment people will come rushing forward to tell me that I have made a fool of myself in front of some hidden camera. On the other hand, maybe that is what St. Joseph of Cupertino is all about.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Read More

Posted by on Sep 17, 2007

Saint of the Day – St. Ignatius of Antioch

Saint of the Day: St. Robert Bellarmine

Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino (1542 – 1621), a Jesuit who became a Cardinal and Doctor of the Church, was one of the major figures of the Counter Reformation. St. Robert Bellarmine has influenced Catholic Church positions on Protestantism, church-state relations, and the temporal power of the Church for 500 years.

St. Robert Bellarmine’s major contribution to Catholic theology was his organization and presentation of this large body of knowledge. The motivation was clearly to counter the position of the Protestant reformers. However, his work was part of a larger re-vitalization and reform movement within the Catholic Church. As the Archbishop of Capua, he implemented the reforms of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) which were to define Catholicism until the later part of the 20th century.

Although the Counter Reformation technically ended with the Thirty Years War in 1648, its general anti-Protestant thrust did not end until Protestants were admitted as observers and non-voting participants in the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 1965).

St. Robert Bellarmine’s extensive systematic writing defined a culture and world view which has not been displaced by Vatican II. His writing spells out clear boundaries and centralizes all authority, ultimately, with the Papacy. The limits of what is Catholic and Protestant are clear and all of the reasons as to why the non-Catholic position in any matter is wrong are also abundantly clear.

There is now a definite nostalgia for the security and limits of the pre-Vatican II Tridentine Catholic world, particularly among priests who have been ordained more recently. Pope Benedict XVI, who attended Vatican II as a theological adviser, has recently announced the revival of the Tridentine Latin Mass. Although the number of Catholics in the United States who support the return of the Latin Mass is only about 2%, there are substantial minority who fear that there has been too much deviation of belief and practice from the standards of the Counter Reformation.

The Vatican II Catholic Church endorsed certain points of the Protestant view that St. Robert Bellarmine and the Tridentine Church opposed. Liturgy in the language of the people, receiving the consecrated wine of communion, emphasizing the role of the laity, and simplifying or eliminating ritual were all opposed by the Council of Trent. To a great extent, Pope John Paul II occasioned the Restorationist movement by silencing dissent, forbidding discussion of the ordination of women, and training priests and appointing bishops who espoused more Tridentine views and devotional practices.

Whether one is a traditionalist or a progressive, the systematic theology of St. Robert Bellarmine forms a core of the identity of the Christian movement’s largest church.

Read More

Posted by on Sep 14, 2007

Saint of the Day – St. Ignatius of Antioch

Feast of the Day: The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Exhaltation of the Holy Cross

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

It is almost impossible for Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, and many other liturgical Christians to say these words without performing the gesture of blessing – the Sign of the Cross.

I have always liked the stories I first heard in childhood about Constantine’s vision of the Holy Cross –in hoc signo vinces, you will conquer by this sign – and the discovery of the True Cross by his mother, St. Helen.

The images are still fresh in my mind. It is also reassuring to see that there is some historical support for these stories from early church sources. We definitely know that St. Helen (Helena) dedicated the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on September 14, 335 on the site of the Tomb of the Resurrection. The location has the support of many archaeologists as the actual site.

The use of the cross as a central symbol by Christians began early in the life of the church. Early accounts from the first and second century indicate that Christians marked their homes with this sign and blessed themselves and others with it.

For millions of us, this symbolic gesture, like the prayer itself, marks beginnings and endings of liturgy, life, and rites of passage. When we went away on a trip or off to college or on those last steps to our weddings – the parental words still echo – “Here let me bless you” – followed by the sign, the words, a prayer, and a kiss.

My favorite form of the blessing for others came from a Spanish Jesuit. He said that it was used by St. Ignatius’ first companions at times of parting. “May the Holy Trinity bless you, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit – And as far as I am able, I bless you.”

Sites of Interest:

How the feast continues to be celebrated: Antiochian.org

Early uses of the Sign of the Cross: Justus.anglican.org

Catholic Encyclopedia: Newadvent.org

Read More

Posted by on Sep 14, 2007

Saint of the Day – St. Ignatius of Antioch

St John Chrysostom – Saint of the Day

St. John Chrysostom - Early Byzantine mosaic

St. John Chrysostom (347 – 407) was born in Antioch and spent his life there until he was elected Patriarch of Constantinople. He received a broad education by non-Christian masters in a city teaming with many diverse religious groups.

John Chrysostom was one of the most eloquent speakers and prodigious writers of his time and has had few equals throughout the centuries of Christianity. He was called”Chrysostomos, or “the golden-mouth” because of his eloquence

Points to Remember and Ponder:

  • After Baptism at age 29 he left a promising career as a lawyer and became a monk.
  • Throughout his life he spoke truth to power, calling everyone to a more faithful Christian life. He ran afoul of the powerful and wealthy in Antioch and Constantinople and was harrassed and exiled for his efforts by civil and church authorities.
  • St. John Chrysostom’s preaching was known for its practical application of scripture to everyday life. Earlier approaches had looked at scripture as more of an allegory pointing to a higher truth. He took it more at face value.
  • One of his greatest achievements was the ordering of the liturgy, its music and cycle of readings and prayers. To this day the liturgy of the Orthodox and eastern rite Catholic churches is known as the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and has not been changed significantly.
  • St. John Chrysostom worked very hard to differentiate Christians from Jews in Antioch since there was still a very fluid movement between the groups. Some think that this may have set a definite anti-semitic tone in emerging Christianity.
  • St. John Chrysostom is regarded as a towering figure in the Eastern and Western branches of the Church. His feast day is September 13 in the West and November 13 in the East. The three major leaders and teachers of the Eastern church: Sts. John Chrysostom, St. Basil, and St. Gregory the Theologian share a common feast of the Three Holy Hierarchs on January 30.

For more information see:

John Chrysostom – Orthodox website

John Chrysostom – Wikipedia

Read More