MATTHEW WAS TRANSFORMED BY JESUS
(A biblical reflection on the FEAST OF SAINT MATTHEW, APOSTLE & EVANGELIST, Monday, 21 September 2015)
Gospel Reading: Matthew 9:9-13
First Reading: Ephesians 4:1-7,11-13; Psalms: Psalm 19:2-5
 The Scripture Text
As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and He said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed Him.
And as he sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when He heard it, He said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:9-13 RSV)
Let’s imagine Matthew sitting at his customs post along the road that passed Capernaum, totally absorbed in his work. In the opinion of the Jewish farmers and fishermen who had to pay him a toll to carry their products down the road to market. Matthew probably seemed like a traitor: He was raising taxes for the regime that held them in subjection. In addition, tax collectors enriched themselves by charging higher fees than they were required to turn over to the Roman Government. Thus, Matthew was probably regarded as a thief (corruptor) as well. Tax collectors were barred from the synagogue, just like robbers and murderers.
Jesus had just healed a man of paralysis and, as He left Capernaum, He had to walk by Matthew’s toll office. Probably to Matthew’s astonishment – certainly to the astonishment of Jesus’ followers – Jesus went up to Matthew and invited him to become one of His followers! We can only imagine what went through Matthew’s heart and mind. No doubt Matthew had heard about Jesus before this encounter. Perhaps, like Zacchaeus, his fellow tax collector (Luke 19:1-4), Matthew had stood on the periphery of the crowd and listened to Jesus. Had his heart been touched by what he heard? Had Matthew asked himself, “Who is this man, Jesus?” Did he feel some vague desire to break free of the sin of his outcast way of life?
We cannot read Matthew’s thoughts, but we know that this worldly man did not delay a minute in responding to Jesus’ invitation. As soon as Jesus said, “Follow Me,” Matthew got up and followed Him (Matthew 9:9). By day’s end, Matthew invited Jesus to join him and his fellow tax collectors at a dinner in his home.
Jesus saw Matthew as He sees all of us – not just for what we are, but for what we can become with His help. Jesus loved Matthew and had a specific task waiting for him in the Kingdom. Jesus turned this hated, hardened tax collector into an apostle of love. No personal transformation is impossible with God!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for calling me to leave behind my selfish ways and follow You. Give me the grace to respond to You today without hesitation. Change me as much as You changed Matthew! Amen.
Jakarta, 21 September 2015
A Christian Pilgrim
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Monday, September 21, 2015
Monday September 21 Feast of Saint Matthew
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Sunday September 20
"Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me." (Mark 9:37 RSV)
Today's Gospel in the Mass: Mark 9: 30-37
Jakarta, 20 September 2015
A Christian Pilgrim
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Sunday, September 20
"Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me." (Mark 9:37 RSV)
Today's Gospel in the Mass: Mark 9: 30-37
Jakarta, 20 September 2015
A Christian Pilgrim
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Saturday, September 19, 2015
Friday, September 18, 2015
Friday September 18 Feast of Saint Joseph of Cupertino
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Thursday, September 17, 2015
Vocations
To young consecrated persons: prophecy, closeness, memory and adoration
Vatican City, 17 September 2015 (VIS) – This morning the Holy Father received in audience the participants in the World Meeting of Young Consecrated Men and Women, which took place within the context of the Year of Consecrated Life. During the audience, and after special greetings for those from Syria and Iraq in which he recalled the martyrs of these countries, the Pope answered three questions posed to him by those present.The first question, asked by a woman religious, related to the problem of instability and mediocrity in the vocational path. Francis recalled that, according to St. Teresa of Jesus, strict observance removed freedom. “The Lord calls you – and calls all of us – to the 'prophetic way' of freedom, that is the freedom that is to be united with witness and fidelity. A mother who raises her children in a strict fashion … and does not let them dream … annuls their creative future, rendering them barren. Consecrated life, too, can be barren, when it is not truly prophetic, when dreaming is not permitted. … Prophecy, the capacity to dream, is the opposite of rigidity. And observance must not be rigid: if it is, it is personal egoism. … Always keep your heart open to what the Lord says to you and bring it into your dialogue with the superior, the teacher or your spiritual guide, the Church, the bishop. Openness, an open heart, dialogue, and also community dialogue. … I tell you sincerely, one of the sins I most frequently encounter in community life is the incapacity for forgiveness between brothers and sisters. … Gossip in a community obstructs forgiveness and puts distance between people. … It is the scourge of community life. … It is a bomb that destroys the reputation of others who are unable to defend themselves as gossip takes place in obscurity, not in the light of day”.
The Pope went on to affirm that ever since the beginning of consecrated life there have been moments of instability. “There will always be temptations … and returning to St. Teresa of Jesus, she said that one must pray for those who are about to die, as this is the moment of greatest instability, in which the temptations arise with force. Culturally it is true, we live in a very unstable time … we live in a culture of the provisional. … And this culture has also entered into the Church, into religious communities, into the family and marriage. … Instead there is the culture of the definitive – God sent His Son for ever, not in a temporary way, to one generation or country, but rather to all and forever. And this is a criterion of spiritual discernment … taking on definitive commitments so as not to disintegrate”.
In response to another question on evangelisation, the Pope emphasised that apostolic zeal comes from a wish to evangelise that inflames the heart. “Evangelising is not the same as proselytism”, he remarked. “We are not a football team seeking members and supporters. … Evangelisation is not about simply convincing, it is about bearing witness that Jesus lives. … And this witness is given with the flesh, with one's own life. And here – forgive me if I am a bit of a feminist – I would like to give thanks for the witness of consecrated women. You always have the wish to go to the front line, as you are mothers, you have the maternity of the Church, that brings you close to people. … You are the icons of the Church's tenderness and love, of the maternity of the Church and of Our Lady”.
“Another key word in consecrated life is memory. I do not think that James and John ever forgot their first encounter with Jesus, and nor did the other apostles. … The memory of one's own vocation. In the darkest moments, the moments of temptation, in the difficult moments of our consecrated life, return to the source, treasure the memory and wonder of when the Lord looked upon us”.
The Pope was asked to share his memory of the first calling he received. “I don't know how it was. I entered the Church by chance, I saw a confessional and I left changed, I left in a different way. My life changed then. And what attracted me to Jesus and the Gospel? I don't know … their closeness to me. The Lord has never left me alone, not even in dark and difficult moments, nor in moments of sin … because the Lord always meets us definitively. He is not part of the culture of the provisional: He loves us for ever and He accompanies us always”.
“So, proximity to the people, prophecy in our witness, with an ardour, with the apostolic zeal that warms the hearts of others, even without words … and memory, always returning to the source”.
“I would like to end with two words”, Francis concluded. “One is … among the worst attitudes of the religious: gazing upon one's own reflection in the mirror, narcissism. Be on your guard against this. … And yes, instead, to the contrary, to what despoils us of all narcissism, yes to adoration. I think this is one of the central themes. We all pray and give thanks to the Lord, we ask favours, we praise the Lord … but do we adore the Lord? The prayer of silent adoration: 'You are the Lord', is the opposite of narcissism. I would like to finish with this word, adoration. Be men and women of adoration”.
The Church cannot remain silent as women and children live on the streets
Vatican City, 17 September 2015 (VIS) – This morning in the Clementine Hall the Holy Father received the participants in the International Symposium on the Pastoral Care of the Street, organised by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant Peoples. The aim of the meeting was to draw up a plan of action to respond to the phenomenon of women and children – and their families – who live mainly on the streets.
Among the often sad causes of the phenomenon, the Pope lists indifference, poverty, family and social violence, and human trafficking. “They involve the pain of marital separations and the birth of children out of wedlock, frequently doomed to a life of 'vagrancy'. Street children and street women are not numbers, or 'packets' to be traded; they are human beings, each with his or her own name and face, each with a God-given identity”.
“No child chooses to live on the streets. Sadly, even in our modern, globalised world, many children continue to be robbed of their childhood, their rights and their future. Lack of legal protection and adequate structures only aggravates their state of deprivation: they have no real family or access to education or health care. Every child abandoned or forced to live on the streets, at the mercy of criminal organisations, is a cry rising up to God, Who created man and woman in His own image. It is an indictment of a social system which we have criticised for decades, but which we find hard to change in conformity with criteria of justice”.
He also spoke about the troubling increase in the number of young girls and women forced to earn a living on the street by selling their own bodies, victims of exploitation by criminal organisations and at times by parents and family members. “This is a shameful reality in our societies, which boast of being modern and possessed of high levels of culture and development. Widespread corruption and unrestrained greed are robbing the innocent and the vulnerable of the possibility of a dignified life, abetting the crime of trafficking and other injustices which they have to endure. No one can remain unmoved before the pressing need to safeguard the dignity of women, threatened by cultural and economic factors”.
He asked, “please: do not be disheartened by the difficulties and the challenges which you encounter in your dedicated work, nourished as it is by your faith in Christ, Who showed, even to death on the cross, the preferential love of God our Father for the weak and the outcast. The Church cannot remain silent, nor can her institutions turn a blind eye to the baneful reality of street children and street women. The Christian community in the various countries needs to be involved at all levels in working to eliminate everything which forces a child or a woman to live on the street or to earn a livelihood on the street. We can never refrain from bringing to all, and especially to the most vulnerable and underprivileged, the goodness and the tenderness of God our merciful Father. Mercy is the supreme act by which God comes to meet us; it is the way which opens our hearts to the hope of an everlasting love”.
The Holy Father concluded by offering to the participants in the congress “prayerful good wishes for the fruitfulness of your efforts, in your various countries, to offer pastoral and spiritual care, and liberation, to those who are most frail and exploited; I likewise pray for the fruitfulness of your mission to advance and protect their personhood and dignity”.
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Thursday September 17 Vocations
Vocations Come From Families
To young consecrated persons: prophecy, closeness, memory and adoration
Vatican City, 17 September 2015 (VIS) – This morning the Holy Father received in audience the participants in the World Meeting of Young Consecrated Men and Women, which took place within the context of the Year of Consecrated Life. During the audience, and after special greetings for those from Syria and Iraq in which he recalled the martyrs of these countries, the Pope answered three questions posed to him by those present.
The first question, asked by a woman religious, related to the problem of instability and mediocrity in the vocational path. Francis recalled that, according to St. Teresa of Jesus, strict observance removed freedom. “The Lord calls you – and calls all of us – to the 'prophetic way' of freedom, that is the freedom that is to be united with witness and fidelity. A mother who raises her children in a strict fashion … and does not let them dream … annuls their creative future, rendering them barren. Consecrated life, too, can be barren, when it is not truly prophetic, when dreaming is not permitted. … Prophecy, the capacity to dream, is the opposite of rigidity. And observance must not be rigid: if it is, it is personal egoism. … Always keep your heart open to what the Lord says to you and bring it into your dialogue with the superior, the teacher or your spiritual guide, the Church, the bishop. Openness, an open heart, dialogue, and also community dialogue. … I tell you sincerely, one of the sins I most frequently encounter in community life is the incapacity for forgiveness between brothers and sisters. … Gossip in a community obstructs forgiveness and puts distance between people. … It is the scourge of community life. … It is a bomb that destroys the reputation of others who are unable to defend themselves as gossip takes place in obscurity, not in the light of day”.
The Pope went on to affirm that ever since the beginning of consecrated life there have been moments of instability. “There will always be temptations … and returning to St. Teresa of Jesus, she said that one must pray for those who are about to die, as this is the moment of greatest instability, in which the temptations arise with force. Culturally it is true, we live in a very unstable time … we live in a culture of the provisional. … And this culture has also entered into the Church, into religious communities, into the family and marriage. … Instead there is the culture of the definitive – God sent His Son for ever, not in a temporary way, to one generation or country, but rather to all and forever. And this is a criterion of spiritual discernment … taking on definitive commitments so as not to disintegrate”.
In response to another question on evangelisation, the Pope emphasised that apostolic zeal comes from a wish to evangelise that inflames the heart. “Evangelising is not the same as proselytism”, he remarked. “We are not a football team seeking members and supporters. … Evangelisation is not about simply convincing, it is about bearing witness that Jesus lives. … And this witness is given with the flesh, with one's own life. And here – forgive me if I am a bit of a feminist – I would like to give thanks for the witness of consecrated women. You always have the wish to go to the front line, as you are mothers, you have the maternity of the Church, that brings you close to people. … You are the icons of the Church's tenderness and love, of the maternity of the Church and of Our Lady”.
“Another key word in consecrated life is memory. I do not think that James and John ever forgot their first encounter with Jesus, and nor did the other apostles. … The memory of one's own vocation. In the darkest moments, the moments of temptation, in the difficult moments of our consecrated life, return to the source, treasure the memory and wonder of when the Lord looked upon us”.
The Pope was asked to share his memory of the first calling he received. “I don't know how it was. I entered the Church by chance, I saw a confessional and I left changed, I left in a different way. My life changed then. And what attracted me to Jesus and the Gospel? I don't know … their closeness to me. The Lord has never left me alone, not even in dark and difficult moments, nor in moments of sin … because the Lord always meets us definitively. He is not part of the culture of the provisional: He loves us for ever and He accompanies us always”.
“So, proximity to the people, prophecy in our witness, with an ardour, with the apostolic zeal that warms the hearts of others, even without words … and memory, always returning to the source”.
“I would like to end with two words”, Francis concluded. “One is … among the worst attitudes of the religious: gazing upon one's own reflection in the mirror, narcissism. Be on your guard against this. … And yes, instead, to the contrary, to what despoils us of all narcissism, yes to adoration. I think this is one of the central themes. We all pray and give thanks to the Lord, we ask favours, we praise the Lord … but do we adore the Lord? The prayer of silent adoration: 'You are the Lord', is the opposite of narcissism. I would like to finish with this word, adoration. Be men and women of adoration”.
The Church cannot remain silent as women and children live on the streets
Vatican City, 17 September 2015 (VIS) – This morning in the Clementine Hall the Holy Father received the participants in the International Symposium on the Pastoral Care of the Street, organised by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant Peoples. The aim of the meeting was to draw up a plan of action to respond to the phenomenon of women and children – and their families – who live mainly on the streets.
Among the often sad causes of the phenomenon, the Pope lists indifference, poverty, family and social violence, and human trafficking. “They involve the pain of marital separations and the birth of children out of wedlock, frequently doomed to a life of 'vagrancy'. Street children and street women are not numbers, or 'packets' to be traded; they are human beings, each with his or her own name and face, each with a God-given identity”.
“No child chooses to live on the streets. Sadly, even in our modern, globalised world, many children continue to be robbed of their childhood, their rights and their future. Lack of legal protection and adequate structures only aggravates their state of deprivation: they have no real family or access to education or health care. Every child abandoned or forced to live on the streets, at the mercy of criminal organisations, is a cry rising up to God, Who created man and woman in His own image. It is an indictment of a social system which we have criticised for decades, but which we find hard to change in conformity with criteria of justice”.
He also spoke about the troubling increase in the number of young girls and women forced to earn a living on the street by selling their own bodies, victims of exploitation by criminal organisations and at times by parents and family members. “This is a shameful reality in our societies, which boast of being modern and possessed of high levels of culture and development. Widespread corruption and unrestrained greed are robbing the innocent and the vulnerable of the possibility of a dignified life, abetting the crime of trafficking and other injustices which they have to endure. No one can remain unmoved before the pressing need to safeguard the dignity of women, threatened by cultural and economic factors”.
He asked, “please: do not be disheartened by the difficulties and the challenges which you encounter in your dedicated work, nourished as it is by your faith in Christ, Who showed, even to death on the cross, the preferential love of God our Father for the weak and the outcast. The Church cannot remain silent, nor can her institutions turn a blind eye to the baneful reality of street children and street women. The Christian community in the various countries needs to be involved at all levels in working to eliminate everything which forces a child or a woman to live on the street or to earn a livelihood on the street. We can never refrain from bringing to all, and especially to the most vulnerable and underprivileged, the goodness and the tenderness of God our merciful Father. Mercy is the supreme act by which God comes to meet us; it is the way which opens our hearts to the hope of an everlasting love”.
The Holy Father concluded by offering to the participants in the congress “prayerful good wishes for the fruitfulness of your efforts, in your various countries, to offer pastoral and spiritual care, and liberation, to those who are most frail and exploited; I likewise pray for the fruitfulness of your mission to advance and protect their personhood and dignity”.
Posted by sister florence vales at 3:55 PM
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Post a Comment
Older Poo
Vocations Come From Families
Vocations Come From Families
To young consecrated persons: prophecy, closeness, memory and adoration
Vatican City, 17 September 2015 (VIS) – This morning the Holy Father received in audience the participants in the World Meeting of Young Consecrated Men and Women, which took place within the context of the Year of Consecrated Life. During the audience, and after special greetings for those from Syria and Iraq in which he recalled the martyrs of these countries, the Pope answered three questions posed to him by those present.
The first question, asked by a woman religious, related to the problem of instability and mediocrity in the vocational path. Francis recalled that, according to St. Teresa of Jesus, strict observance removed freedom. “The Lord calls you – and calls all of us – to the 'prophetic way' of freedom, that is the freedom that is to be united with witness and fidelity. A mother who raises her children in a strict fashion … and does not let them dream … annuls their creative future, rendering them barren. Consecrated life, too, can be barren, when it is not truly prophetic, when dreaming is not permitted. … Prophecy, the capacity to dream, is the opposite of rigidity. And observance must not be rigid: if it is, it is personal egoism. … Always keep your heart open to what the Lord says to you and bring it into your dialogue with the superior, the teacher or your spiritual guide, the Church, the bishop. Openness, an open heart, dialogue, and also community dialogue. … I tell you sincerely, one of the sins I most frequently encounter in community life is the incapacity for forgiveness between brothers and sisters. … Gossip in a community obstructs forgiveness and puts distance between people. … It is the scourge of community life. … It is a bomb that destroys the reputation of others who are unable to defend themselves as gossip takes place in obscurity, not in the light of day”.
The Pope went on to affirm that ever since the beginning of consecrated life there have been moments of instability. “There will always be temptations … and returning to St. Teresa of Jesus, she said that one must pray for those who are about to die, as this is the moment of greatest instability, in which the temptations arise with force. Culturally it is true, we live in a very unstable time … we live in a culture of the provisional. … And this culture has also entered into the Church, into religious communities, into the family and marriage. … Instead there is the culture of the definitive – God sent His Son for ever, not in a temporary way, to one generation or country, but rather to all and forever. And this is a criterion of spiritual discernment … taking on definitive commitments so as not to disintegrate”.
In response to another question on evangelisation, the Pope emphasised that apostolic zeal comes from a wish to evangelise that inflames the heart. “Evangelising is not the same as proselytism”, he remarked. “We are not a football team seeking members and supporters. … Evangelisation is not about simply convincing, it is about bearing witness that Jesus lives. … And this witness is given with the flesh, with one's own life. And here – forgive me if I am a bit of a feminist – I would like to give thanks for the witness of consecrated women. You always have the wish to go to the front line, as you are mothers, you have the maternity of the Church, that brings you close to people. … You are the icons of the Church's tenderness and love, of the maternity of the Church and of Our Lady”.
“Another key word in consecrated life is memory. I do not think that James and John ever forgot their first encounter with Jesus, and nor did the other apostles. … The memory of one's own vocation. In the darkest moments, the moments of temptation, in the difficult moments of our consecrated life, return to the source, treasure the memory and wonder of when the Lord looked upon us”.
The Pope was asked to share his memory of the first calling he received. “I don't know how it was. I entered the Church by chance, I saw a confessional and I left changed, I left in a different way. My life changed then. And what attracted me to Jesus and the Gospel? I don't know … their closeness to me. The Lord has never left me alone, not even in dark and difficult moments, nor in moments of sin … because the Lord always meets us definitively. He is not part of the culture of the provisional: He loves us for ever and He accompanies us always”.
“So, proximity to the people, prophecy in our witness, with an ardour, with the apostolic zeal that warms the hearts of others, even without words … and memory, always returning to the source”.
“I would like to end with two words”, Francis concluded. “One is … among the worst attitudes of the religious: gazing upon one's own reflection in the mirror, narcissism. Be on your guard against this. … And yes, instead, to the contrary, to what despoils us of all narcissism, yes to adoration. I think this is one of the central themes. We all pray and give thanks to the Lord, we ask favours, we praise the Lord … but do we adore the Lord? The prayer of silent adoration: 'You are the Lord', is the opposite of narcissism. I would like to finish with this word, adoration. Be men and women of adoration”.
The Church cannot remain silent as women and children live on the streets
Vatican City, 17 September 2015 (VIS) – This morning in the Clementine Hall the Holy Father received the participants in the International Symposium on the Pastoral Care of the Street, organised by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant Peoples. The aim of the meeting was to draw up a plan of action to respond to the phenomenon of women and children – and their families – who live mainly on the streets.
Among the often sad causes of the phenomenon, the Pope lists indifference, poverty, family and social violence, and human trafficking. “They involve the pain of marital separations and the birth of children out of wedlock, frequently doomed to a life of 'vagrancy'. Street children and street women are not numbers, or 'packets' to be traded; they are human beings, each with his or her own name and face, each with a God-given identity”.
“No child chooses to live on the streets. Sadly, even in our modern, globalised world, many children continue to be robbed of their childhood, their rights and their future. Lack of legal protection and adequate structures only aggravates their state of deprivation: they have no real family or access to education or health care. Every child abandoned or forced to live on the streets, at the mercy of criminal organisations, is a cry rising up to God, Who created man and woman in His own image. It is an indictment of a social system which we have criticised for decades, but which we find hard to change in conformity with criteria of justice”.
He also spoke about the troubling increase in the number of young girls and women forced to earn a living on the street by selling their own bodies, victims of exploitation by criminal organisations and at times by parents and family members. “This is a shameful reality in our societies, which boast of being modern and possessed of high levels of culture and development. Widespread corruption and unrestrained greed are robbing the innocent and the vulnerable of the possibility of a dignified life, abetting the crime of trafficking and other injustices which they have to endure. No one can remain unmoved before the pressing need to safeguard the dignity of women, threatened by cultural and economic factors”.
He asked, “please: do not be disheartened by the difficulties and the challenges which you encounter in your dedicated work, nourished as it is by your faith in Christ, Who showed, even to death on the cross, the preferential love of God our Father for the weak and the outcast. The Church cannot remain silent, nor can her institutions turn a blind eye to the baneful reality of street children and street women. The Christian community in the various countries needs to be involved at all levels in working to eliminate everything which forces a child or a woman to live on the street or to earn a livelihood on the street. We can never refrain from bringing to all, and especially to the most vulnerable and underprivileged, the goodness and the tenderness of God our merciful Father. Mercy is the supreme act by which God comes to meet us; it is the way which opens our hearts to the hope of an everlasting love”.
The Holy Father concluded by offering to the participants in the congress “prayerful good wishes for the fruitfulness of your efforts, in your various countries, to offer pastoral and spiritual care, and liberation, to those who are most frail and exploited; I likewise pray for the fruitfulness of your mission to advance and protect their personhood and dignity”.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Wednesday September 16
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Monday, September 14, 2015
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