In a final, urgent plea to prevent the passage of the current form of the Senate health care bill, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on Saturday evening sent a letter to Congressmen asking them to vote “no.”Source.
“For decades,” the letter says, “the United States Catholic bishops have supported universal health care. The Catholic Church teaches that health care is a basic human right, essential for human life and dignity.”
“Our community of faith,” the bishops continue, “provides health care to millions, purchases health care for tens of thousands and addresses the failings of our health care system in our parishes, emergency rooms and shelters. This is why we as bishops continue to insist that health care reform which truly protects the life, dignity, consciences and health of all is a moral imperative and an urgent national priority.”
Nevertheless, they add, “we are convinced that the Senate legislation now presented to the House of Representatives on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis sadly fails this test and ought to be opposed.”
...the bishops argue that health care reform “must protect life and conscience, not threaten them." The Senate bill "extends abortion coverage, allows federal funds to pay for elective abortions (for example, through a new appropriation for services at Community Health Centers that bypasses the Hyde amendment), and denies adequate conscience protection to individuals and institutions."...
..."With deep regret, but clear in our moral judgment, we are compelled to continue to urge House members to oppose the Senate bill unless these fundamental flaws are remedied. At this critical moment, we urge Representatives to take the steps necessary to ensure that health care reform respects the life and dignity of all, from conception to natural death," the letter concludes.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
U.S. Bishops’ final plea to Congressmen: Do not pass pro-abortion health care bill
As if CONgress critters ever listen to anyone - far too many ignore their constituents in order to lick Zero's boots!
Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Lent
John 8:1-11
Different Opinions About Jesus (Continuation)
[1] But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
The Adulterous Woman
[2] Early in the morning He came again to the temple; all the people came to Him, and He sat down and taught them. [3] The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst [4] they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. [5] Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?" [6] This they said to test Him, that they might have some charge to bring against Him. Jesus bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground. [7] And as they continued to ask Him, He stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." [8] And once more He bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground. [9] But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before Him. [10] Jesus looked up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" [11] She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again."
_______________
Commentary:
1-11. This passage is absent from many ancient codexes, but it was in the Vulgate when the Magisterium, at the Council of Trent, defined the canon of Sacred Scripture. Therefore, the Church regards it as canonical and inspired, and has used it and continues to use it in the liturgy. It is also included in the New Vulgate, in the same position as it occupied before.
St. Augustine said that the reason doubts were raised about the passage was that it showed Jesus to be so merciful that some rigorists thought it would lead to a relaxation of moral rules--and therefore many copyists suppressed it from their manuscripts (cf. "De Coniugiis Adulterinis", 2, 6).
In commenting on the episode of the woman caught in adultery Fray Luis de Granada gives these general considerations on the mercy of Christ: "Your feelings, your deeds and your words should be akin to these, if you desire to be a beautiful likeness of the Lord. And therefore the Apostle is not content with telling us to be merciful; he tells us, as God's sons, to put on `the bowels of mercy' (cf. Colossians 3:12). Imagine, then, what the world would be like if everyone arrayed themselves in this way.
"All this is said to help us understand to some degree the great abundance of the goodness and compassion of our Savior, which shine forth so clearly in these actions of His, for [...] in this life we cannot know God in Himself; we can know Him only through His actions. [...] But it should also be pointed out that we should never act in such a way in view of God's mercy, that we forget about His justice; nor should we attend to His justice forgetting about His mercy; for hope should have in it an element of fear, and fear an element of hope" ("Life of Jesus Christ", 13, 4).
1. We know that on a number of occasions our Lord withdrew to the Mount of Olives to pray (cf. John 18:2; Luke 22:39). This place was to the east of Jerusalem; the Kidron Valley (cf. John 18:1) divided it from the hill on which the temple was built. It had from ancient times been a place of prayer: David went there to adore God during the difficult period when Absalom was in revolt (2 Samuel 15:32), and there the prophet Ezekiel contemplated the glory of Yahweh entering the temple (Ezekiel 43:1-4). At the foot of the hill there was a garden, called Gethsemane or "the place of the oil-press", an enclosed plot containing a plantation of olive trees. Christian tradition has treated this place with great respect and has maintained it as a place of prayer. Towards the end of the fourth century a church was built there, on whose remains the present church was built. There are still some ancient olive trees growing there which could well derive from those of our Lord's time.
6. The question put by the scribes and Pharisees has a catch: our Lord had often shown understanding to people they considered sinners; they come to Him now with this case to see if He will be equally indulgent--which will allow them to accuse Him of infringing a very clear precept of the Law (cf. Leviticus 20:10).
7. Jesus' reply refers to the way stoning was carried out: those who witnessed the crime had to throw the first stones, and then others joined in, to erase the slur on the people which the crime implied (cf. Deuteronomy 17:7). The question put to Jesus was couched in legal terms; He raises it to the moral plane (the basis and justification of the legal plane), appealing to the people's conscience. He does not violate the law, St. Augustine says, and at the same time He does not want to lose what He is seeking--for He has come to save that which was lost: "His answer is so full of justice, gentleness and truth. [...] O true answer of Wisdom. You have heard: Keep the Law, let the woman be stoned. But how can sinners keep the Law and punish this woman? Let each of them look inside himself and enter the tribunal of his heart and conscience; there he will discover that he is a sinner. Let this woman be punished, but not by sinners; let the Law be applied, but not by its transgressors" (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 33, 5).
11. "The two of them were left on their own, the wretched woman and Mercy. But the Lord, having smitten them with the dart of justice, does not even deign to watch them go but turns His gaze away from them and once more writes on the ground with His finger. But when the woman was left alone and they had all gone, He lifted up His eyes to the woman. We have already heard the voice of justice; let us now hear the voice of gentleness. I think that the woman was the more terrified when she heard the Lord say, `Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her,' [...] fearing now that she would be punished by Him, in whom no sin could be found. But He, who had driven away her adversaries with the tongue of justice, now looking at her with the eyes of gentleness asks her, `Has no one condemned you?' She replies, `No one, Lord.' And He says, `Neither do I condemn you; I who perhaps you feared would punish you, because in Me you have found no sin.' Lord, can it be that You favor sinners? Assuredly not. See what follows" `Go and sin no more.' Therefore the Lord also condemned sin, but not the woman' (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 33, 5-6).
Jesus, who is the Just One, does not condemn the woman; whereas these people are sinners, yet they pass sentence of death. God's infinite mercy should move us always to have compassion on those who commit sins, because we ourselves are sinners and in need of God's forgiveness.
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
Different Opinions About Jesus (Continuation)
[1] But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
The Adulterous Woman
[2] Early in the morning He came again to the temple; all the people came to Him, and He sat down and taught them. [3] The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst [4] they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. [5] Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?" [6] This they said to test Him, that they might have some charge to bring against Him. Jesus bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground. [7] And as they continued to ask Him, He stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." [8] And once more He bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground. [9] But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before Him. [10] Jesus looked up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" [11] She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again."
_______________
Commentary:
1-11. This passage is absent from many ancient codexes, but it was in the Vulgate when the Magisterium, at the Council of Trent, defined the canon of Sacred Scripture. Therefore, the Church regards it as canonical and inspired, and has used it and continues to use it in the liturgy. It is also included in the New Vulgate, in the same position as it occupied before.
St. Augustine said that the reason doubts were raised about the passage was that it showed Jesus to be so merciful that some rigorists thought it would lead to a relaxation of moral rules--and therefore many copyists suppressed it from their manuscripts (cf. "De Coniugiis Adulterinis", 2, 6).
In commenting on the episode of the woman caught in adultery Fray Luis de Granada gives these general considerations on the mercy of Christ: "Your feelings, your deeds and your words should be akin to these, if you desire to be a beautiful likeness of the Lord. And therefore the Apostle is not content with telling us to be merciful; he tells us, as God's sons, to put on `the bowels of mercy' (cf. Colossians 3:12). Imagine, then, what the world would be like if everyone arrayed themselves in this way.
"All this is said to help us understand to some degree the great abundance of the goodness and compassion of our Savior, which shine forth so clearly in these actions of His, for [...] in this life we cannot know God in Himself; we can know Him only through His actions. [...] But it should also be pointed out that we should never act in such a way in view of God's mercy, that we forget about His justice; nor should we attend to His justice forgetting about His mercy; for hope should have in it an element of fear, and fear an element of hope" ("Life of Jesus Christ", 13, 4).
1. We know that on a number of occasions our Lord withdrew to the Mount of Olives to pray (cf. John 18:2; Luke 22:39). This place was to the east of Jerusalem; the Kidron Valley (cf. John 18:1) divided it from the hill on which the temple was built. It had from ancient times been a place of prayer: David went there to adore God during the difficult period when Absalom was in revolt (2 Samuel 15:32), and there the prophet Ezekiel contemplated the glory of Yahweh entering the temple (Ezekiel 43:1-4). At the foot of the hill there was a garden, called Gethsemane or "the place of the oil-press", an enclosed plot containing a plantation of olive trees. Christian tradition has treated this place with great respect and has maintained it as a place of prayer. Towards the end of the fourth century a church was built there, on whose remains the present church was built. There are still some ancient olive trees growing there which could well derive from those of our Lord's time.
6. The question put by the scribes and Pharisees has a catch: our Lord had often shown understanding to people they considered sinners; they come to Him now with this case to see if He will be equally indulgent--which will allow them to accuse Him of infringing a very clear precept of the Law (cf. Leviticus 20:10).
7. Jesus' reply refers to the way stoning was carried out: those who witnessed the crime had to throw the first stones, and then others joined in, to erase the slur on the people which the crime implied (cf. Deuteronomy 17:7). The question put to Jesus was couched in legal terms; He raises it to the moral plane (the basis and justification of the legal plane), appealing to the people's conscience. He does not violate the law, St. Augustine says, and at the same time He does not want to lose what He is seeking--for He has come to save that which was lost: "His answer is so full of justice, gentleness and truth. [...] O true answer of Wisdom. You have heard: Keep the Law, let the woman be stoned. But how can sinners keep the Law and punish this woman? Let each of them look inside himself and enter the tribunal of his heart and conscience; there he will discover that he is a sinner. Let this woman be punished, but not by sinners; let the Law be applied, but not by its transgressors" (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 33, 5).
11. "The two of them were left on their own, the wretched woman and Mercy. But the Lord, having smitten them with the dart of justice, does not even deign to watch them go but turns His gaze away from them and once more writes on the ground with His finger. But when the woman was left alone and they had all gone, He lifted up His eyes to the woman. We have already heard the voice of justice; let us now hear the voice of gentleness. I think that the woman was the more terrified when she heard the Lord say, `Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her,' [...] fearing now that she would be punished by Him, in whom no sin could be found. But He, who had driven away her adversaries with the tongue of justice, now looking at her with the eyes of gentleness asks her, `Has no one condemned you?' She replies, `No one, Lord.' And He says, `Neither do I condemn you; I who perhaps you feared would punish you, because in Me you have found no sin.' Lord, can it be that You favor sinners? Assuredly not. See what follows" `Go and sin no more.' Therefore the Lord also condemned sin, but not the woman' (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 33, 5-6).
Jesus, who is the Just One, does not condemn the woman; whereas these people are sinners, yet they pass sentence of death. God's infinite mercy should move us always to have compassion on those who commit sins, because we ourselves are sinners and in need of God's forgiveness.
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
Principles and Practices - March 21
What Our Lord Wants
How are we to account for Jesus' wi1lingness, nay, anxiety, to be thus received by sinful men? It is because in thus communicating Himself to us, He makes us more like to what He Himself is, and what He desires us to be. The Precious Blood imparts to our souls all heavenly gifts and graces if we receive it as we ought. O Jesus! grant that I may receive Thee frequently, fervently, with complete oblation of my whole self.
-Father Clarke, S.J.
_________________
From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930
How are we to account for Jesus' wi1lingness, nay, anxiety, to be thus received by sinful men? It is because in thus communicating Himself to us, He makes us more like to what He Himself is, and what He desires us to be. The Precious Blood imparts to our souls all heavenly gifts and graces if we receive it as we ought. O Jesus! grant that I may receive Thee frequently, fervently, with complete oblation of my whole self.
-Father Clarke, S.J.
_________________
From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930
The School of Love, March 20
TROUBLE
IT is easy to read what St. Teresa is said to have written:
Even to ourselves, in our moments of consolation, or in our times of courage and resolution, it is easy to make up our minds that from this hour we will not let ourselves be troubled any more.
Trouble is so opposed, peace of mind is so inculcated by all spiritual writers, that
we almost come to think that there is something wrong in being troubled; and often enough, perhaps always, some of us actually measure our spiritual state by the degree of peace or of trouble that reigns within our souls.
This may be very well as a gauge to a certain extent, and with a certain class of people; but for many, perhaps for the great majority, it contains a great fallacy.
Without any doubt it is a life time of trouble - I mean internal trouble, and not merely external difficulties that has been the salvation and perfection of many....
[continued tonorrow]
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
IT is easy to read what St. Teresa is said to have written:
"Let nothing trouble thee, let nothing annoy thee; all things pass away."It is easy for those who are at peace themselves to preach to others the importance of not suffering themselves to be troubled.
Even to ourselves, in our moments of consolation, or in our times of courage and resolution, it is easy to make up our minds that from this hour we will not let ourselves be troubled any more.
Trouble is so opposed, peace of mind is so inculcated by all spiritual writers, that
we almost come to think that there is something wrong in being troubled; and often enough, perhaps always, some of us actually measure our spiritual state by the degree of peace or of trouble that reigns within our souls.
This may be very well as a gauge to a certain extent, and with a certain class of people; but for many, perhaps for the great majority, it contains a great fallacy.
Without any doubt it is a life time of trouble - I mean internal trouble, and not merely external difficulties that has been the salvation and perfection of many....
[continued tonorrow]
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
Prayers Needed!
Passing along an email:
I am sitting here at the dining room table -- more like the War Room -- planning with our SBA List team what could be the culminating battle of the fight to defeat this abortion-laden health care bill. Every minute, new information comes in about a wavering member of Congress or a tidbit of strategic information from Republican or Democratic leadership.
Having jumped in, I realize now it is important to step back out for just a few minutes.
Without prayer, I am 100 percent sure we will lose. With it, the consciences of wavering members can be lifted up and emboldened. While we are not a religious organization, we cannot succeed without prayer as the wind in our sails. So will you please take just a few minutes, join the 280,760 members of our SBA List family around our virtual dining room table and pray that this bill fails and our nation's children will be protected from the carnage that would result from its passage? This is a defining moment when prayer -- our most powerful lobbying tool-- cannot be left on the table.
The leaders -- especially Bart Stupak, Eric Cantor, Michele Bachmann, John Boehner and Mike Pence who have led the charge in these final days to protect Life and warn others that THIS IS NOT A GAME, need our support and prayer. Pray that they enter the battle this weekend with the same energy and courage and love they have shown thus far.
Also, here is a list of undecided Members of Congress that so you can pray for each by name. These folks are under intense pressure on all sides. Their struggles do not go unnoticed, but pray that through all the clutter they see the clearest reminder of what this is about: the babies that will be lost if this bill passes.
Kathy Dahlkemper
Marcy Kaptur
Paul Kanjorski
Baron Hill
Solomon Ortiz
Earl Pomeroy
Chris Carney
Lincoln Davis
Alan Mollohan
My Dannenfelser family here will join you, and we will also be lifted up by this community, as I know you will.
For Life,
Marjorie Dannenfelser
President, Susan B. Anthony List
www.sba-list.org
P.S. If you haven’t had a chance to yet, please take a look at our powerful add running in 8 districts this weekend. It puts this whole debate in perspective. www.sba-list.org/baby
Friday, March 19, 2010
Gospel for Saturday, 4th Week of Lent
John 7:40-53
Different Opinions About Jesus (Continuation)
[40] When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This is really the prophet." [41] Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee? [42] Has not the Scripture said that the Christ is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?" [43] So there was a division among the people over Him. [44] Some of them wanted to arrest Him, but no one laid hands on Him.
[45] The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why did you not bring Him?" [46] The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this man!" [47] The Pharisees answered them, "Are you led astray, you also? [48] Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in Him? [49] But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed." [50] Nicodemus, who had gone to Him before, and who was one of them, said to them, [51] "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" [52] They replied, "Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee." [53] They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
__________________
Commentary:
40-43. "The prophet" refers to Deuteronomy 18:18, which predicts the coming of a prophet during the last times, a prophet to whom all must listen (cf. John 1:21; 6:14); and "the Christ" ("the Messiah") was the title most used in the Old Testament to designate the future Savior whom God would send. This passage shows us, once again, the range of people's attitudes towards Jesus. Many Jews--not taking the trouble to check--did not know that He had been born in Bethlehem, the city of David, where Micah (5:2) says the Lord will be born. It was their own fault that they used this ignorance as an excuse for not accepting Christ. Others, however, realized from His miracles that He must be the Messiah. The same pattern obtains throughout history: some people see Him simply as an extraordinary man, not wanting to admit that His greatness comes precisely from the fact the He is the Son of God.
46. The truth begins to influence the straightforward souls of the servants of the Sanhedrin but it cannot make headway against the obstinacy of the Pharisees. "Notice that the Pharisees and scribes derive no benefit either from witnessing miracles or reading the Scriptures; whereas their servants, without these helps, were captivated by a single discourse, and those who set out to arrest Jesus went back under the influence of His authority. And they did not say, `We cannot arrest Him, the people will not let us'; instead they extolled Christ's wisdom. Not only is their prudence admirable, for they did not need signs; it is also impressive that they were won over by His teaching on its own; they did not say, in effect, `No man has ever worked such miracles,' but `No man ever spoke like this man.' Their conviction also is worthy of admiration: they go to the Pharisees, who were opposed to Christ, and address them in the way they do" (St. John Chrysostom, "Hom. On St. John", 9).
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
Different Opinions About Jesus (Continuation)
[40] When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This is really the prophet." [41] Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee? [42] Has not the Scripture said that the Christ is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?" [43] So there was a division among the people over Him. [44] Some of them wanted to arrest Him, but no one laid hands on Him.
[45] The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why did you not bring Him?" [46] The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this man!" [47] The Pharisees answered them, "Are you led astray, you also? [48] Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in Him? [49] But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed." [50] Nicodemus, who had gone to Him before, and who was one of them, said to them, [51] "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" [52] They replied, "Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee." [53] They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
__________________
Commentary:
40-43. "The prophet" refers to Deuteronomy 18:18, which predicts the coming of a prophet during the last times, a prophet to whom all must listen (cf. John 1:21; 6:14); and "the Christ" ("the Messiah") was the title most used in the Old Testament to designate the future Savior whom God would send. This passage shows us, once again, the range of people's attitudes towards Jesus. Many Jews--not taking the trouble to check--did not know that He had been born in Bethlehem, the city of David, where Micah (5:2) says the Lord will be born. It was their own fault that they used this ignorance as an excuse for not accepting Christ. Others, however, realized from His miracles that He must be the Messiah. The same pattern obtains throughout history: some people see Him simply as an extraordinary man, not wanting to admit that His greatness comes precisely from the fact the He is the Son of God.
46. The truth begins to influence the straightforward souls of the servants of the Sanhedrin but it cannot make headway against the obstinacy of the Pharisees. "Notice that the Pharisees and scribes derive no benefit either from witnessing miracles or reading the Scriptures; whereas their servants, without these helps, were captivated by a single discourse, and those who set out to arrest Jesus went back under the influence of His authority. And they did not say, `We cannot arrest Him, the people will not let us'; instead they extolled Christ's wisdom. Not only is their prudence admirable, for they did not need signs; it is also impressive that they were won over by His teaching on its own; they did not say, in effect, `No man has ever worked such miracles,' but `No man ever spoke like this man.' Their conviction also is worthy of admiration: they go to the Pharisees, who were opposed to Christ, and address them in the way they do" (St. John Chrysostom, "Hom. On St. John", 9).
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
Let me get this straight...
...Radical extremists, marxists and statists are trying to pass a "health care" plan
What could possibly go wrong?
HT PS
written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it,And we haven't even discussed the abortion funding, death panels, rationing, and taxes...
passed by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts themselves from it,
to be signed by a 'pres__ent' who is also exempt from it, hasn't read it, and who smokes,
with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes,
all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese,
and financed by a country that's broke.
What could possibly go wrong?
HT PS
Orthodox Priest: Appeal for Prayer and Fasting, Fight Demonic ObamaCare Bill
As a Greek Orthodox priest, I am compelled – in the Holy Name of our Lord Jesus – to rebuke and renounce this Bill as being demonic. [my emphasis]Read more here
Although there might be some good things within the Bill, they are totally negated by the presence of this ungodly attempt to make every working American culpable to the blood of these precious little ones, who are being slaughtered by the thousands– for PROFIT – everyday of the year! Would you drink a glass of the most expensive bottled water, if you knew that a drop of deadly poison had been placed in it? Of course not! You would dispose of the entire contents, and get a new bottle that contained no deadly additive.
In like manner, the entire health care bill must be scrapped; and the process of health care reform must start over with a fresh “bottle” — untainted by the deadly “poison” of government funded abortions....
Unbelievable Sacrilege! Pelosi Prays To St. Joseph To Pass Health Care
What a DISGRACEFUL HERETIC!!! May God have mercy on her soul!!!
Abortion is Not Healthcare: Call your representative today!
Here's an email I received:
This has been a long and difficult battle since we began targeting members and drawing attention to constituent opposition to federal funding of abortion in a healthcare reform bill more than a year ago, said Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of Susan B. Anthony List. Our latest ad targets those whose vote will make or break this bill: pro-life Democrats sitting on the fence.
Call your representatives today and tell them, Abortion is NOT healthcare.
Just received the tv ad. Mallory called and said that we've almost reached our $100,000 online fundraising goal. Pls send our supporters the tv ad and ask if they can close the gap, we have to get this ad on the air tonight, we need to saturate throughout the weekend.Pray and then pray some more! This demonic takeover needs to be stopped!
www.sba-list.org/baby
My Hill contacts are saying Pelosi needs 6 more votes out of a pool of 15 undecided. We have to move fast.
marjorie
This has been a long and difficult battle since we began targeting members and drawing attention to constituent opposition to federal funding of abortion in a healthcare reform bill more than a year ago, said Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of Susan B. Anthony List. Our latest ad targets those whose vote will make or break this bill: pro-life Democrats sitting on the fence.
Call your representatives today and tell them, Abortion is NOT healthcare.
Principles and Practices - March 20
Our Dependence
To be a creature is to have an existence but not to be independent. God could not create a being, and thrust it away, so that it would be entirely outside of, and away from, God. Every creature is encompassed by the power, wisdom, goodness, and love of Him who first gave it being. The Creator's hand is the creature's home. The creature has primary, essential relations with the Creator.
-J. Teefy, C.S.B.
_________________
From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930
To be a creature is to have an existence but not to be independent. God could not create a being, and thrust it away, so that it would be entirely outside of, and away from, God. Every creature is encompassed by the power, wisdom, goodness, and love of Him who first gave it being. The Creator's hand is the creature's home. The creature has primary, essential relations with the Creator.
-J. Teefy, C.S.B.
_________________
From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930
The School of Love, March 19
LIVING IN THE PRESENT
[continued from yesterday]
Meanwhile the present alone is ours, and we are letting it slip through our fingers.
The past is gone, whether for evil or for good, to be stored up in better hands than ours. The future still belongs to God alone; and it is not the least of His wonderful mercies that He keeps it entirely to Himself.
It is what I am now, not what I have been or shall be; what I do now, not what I have done or shall do; that here and now matters most, to me, and to God, and to all the world besides.
Those who face that which is actually before them, unburdened by the past, undistracted by the future, these are they who live, who make the best use of their lives; these are those who have found the secret of contentment.
For such there is no day but it can be lived through, no matter what it may bring; there is no circumstance but it can be put to the best advantage, no matter how contrary and galling.
"Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation," cried out St. Paul; and he pushed on from day to day, saying every morning with the Psalmist: "Now I have begun," until he discovered that his many beginnings had enabled him to fight the good fight and to complete his course.
To be ready for each day's duty as it comes, that will make us ready, when it comes, for the duty of the last day of all.
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
[continued from yesterday]
Meanwhile the present alone is ours, and we are letting it slip through our fingers.
The past is gone, whether for evil or for good, to be stored up in better hands than ours. The future still belongs to God alone; and it is not the least of His wonderful mercies that He keeps it entirely to Himself.
It is what I am now, not what I have been or shall be; what I do now, not what I have done or shall do; that here and now matters most, to me, and to God, and to all the world besides.
Those who face that which is actually before them, unburdened by the past, undistracted by the future, these are they who live, who make the best use of their lives; these are those who have found the secret of contentment.
For such there is no day but it can be lived through, no matter what it may bring; there is no circumstance but it can be put to the best advantage, no matter how contrary and galling.
"Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation," cried out St. Paul; and he pushed on from day to day, saying every morning with the Psalmist: "Now I have begun," until he discovered that his many beginnings had enabled him to fight the good fight and to complete his course.
To be ready for each day's duty as it comes, that will make us ready, when it comes, for the duty of the last day of all.
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Gospel for the Solemnity: St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Old Calendar: St. Joseph, Spouse of the Virgin Mary
From: Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a
The Ancestry of Jesus Christ (Continuation)
[16] And Jacob, (was) the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, ofwhom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
The Virginal Conception of Jesus, and His Birth
[18] Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; [19] and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly. [20] But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; [21] she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." [24a] When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
__________________________
Commentary:
16. Jewish genealogies followed the male line. Joseph, being Mary's husband, was the legal father of Jesus. The legal father is on a par with the real father as regards rights and duties. This fact provides a sound basis for recognizing St. Joseph as Patron of the whole Church, since he was chosen to play a very special role in God's plan for our salvation; with Joseph as his legal father, Jesus the Messiah has David as his successor.
Since it was quite usual for people to marry within their clan, it can be concluded that Mary belonged to the house of David. Several early Fathers of the Church testify to this--for example, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Irenaeus, St. Justin and Tertullian, who base their testimony on an unbroken oral tradition.
It should also be pointed out that when St. Matthew comes to speak of the birth of Jesus, he uses an ___expression which is completely different from that used for the other people in the genealogy. With these words the text positively teaches that Mary conceived Jesus while still a virgin, without the intervention of man.
18. St. Matthew relates here how Christ was conceived (cf. Luke 1:25-38): "We truly honor and venerate (Mary) as Mother of God, because she gave birth to a person who is at the same time both God and man" ("St. Pius V Catechism", I, 4, 7).
According to the provisions of the Law of Moses, engagement took place about one year before marriage and enjoyed almost the same legal validity. The marriage proper consisted, among other ceremonies, in the bride being brought solemnly and joyously to her husband's house (cf. Deuteronomy 20:7).
From the moment of engagement onwards, a certificate of divorce was needed in the event of a break in the relationship between the couple.
The entire account of Jesus' birth teaches, through the different fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 (which is expressly quoted in verses 22-23) that: 1) Jesus has David as His ancestor since Joseph is His legal father; 2) Mary is the Virgin who gives birth according to the prophecy; 3) the Child's conception without the intervention of man was miraculous.
19. "St. Joseph was an ordinary sort of man on whom God relied to do great things. He did exactly what the Lord wanted him to do, in each and every event that went to make up his life. That is why Scripture praises Joseph as `a just man'. In Hebrew a just man means a good and faithful servant of God, someone who fulfills the divine will (cf. Genesis 7:1; 18:23-32; Ezekiel 18:5ff.; Proverbs 12:10), or who is honorable and charitable toward his neighbor (cf. Tobias 7:6; 9:6). So a just man is someone who loves God and proves his love by keeping God's commandments and directing his whole life towards the service of his brothers, his fellow men" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 40).
Joseph considered his spouse to be holy despite the signs that she was going to have a child. He was therefore faced with a situation he could not explain. Precisely because he was trying to do God's will, he felt obliged to put her away; but to shield her from public shame he decided to send her away quietly.
Mary's silence is admirable. Her perfect surrender to God even leads her to the extreme of not defending her honor or innocence. She prefers to suffer suspicion and shame rather than reveal the work of grace in her. Faced with a fact which was inexplicable in human terms she abandons herself confidently to the love and providence of God. God certainly submitted the holy souls of Joseph and Mary to a severe trial. We ought not to be surprised if we also undergo difficult trials in the course of our lives. We ought to trust in God during them, and remain faithful to Him, following the example they gave us.
20. God gives His light to those who act in an upright way and who trust in His power and wisdom when faced with situations which exceed human understanding. By calling him the son of David, the angel reminds Joseph that he is the providential link which joins Jesus with the family of David, according to Nathan's messianic prophecy (cf. 2 Samuel 7:12). As St. John Chrysostom says: "At the very start he straightaway reminds him of David, of whom the Christ was to spring, and he does not wish him to be worried from the moment he reminds him, through naming his most illustrious ancestor, of the promise made to all his lineage" ("Hom. on St. Matthew", 4).
"The same Jesus Christ, our only Lord, the Son of God, when He assumed human flesh for us in the womb of the Virgin, was not conceived like other men, from the seed of man, but in a manner transcending the order of nature, that is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that the same person, remaining God as He was from eternity, became man, which He was not before" ("St. Pius V Catechism", I, 4, 1).
21. According to the Hebrew root, the name Jesus means "savior". After our Lady, St. Joseph is the first person to be told by God that salvation has begun.
"Jesus is the proper name of the God-man and signifies `Savior'--a name given Him not accidentally, or by the judgment or will of man, but by the counsel and command of God" [...]. All other names which prophecy gave to the Son of God--Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (cf. Isaiah 9:6)--are comprised in this one name Jesus; for while they partially signified the salvation which He was to bestow on us, this name included the force and meaning of all human salvation" ("St. Pius V Catechism", I, 3, 5 and 6).
________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
From: Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a
The Ancestry of Jesus Christ (Continuation)
[16] And Jacob, (was) the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, ofwhom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
The Virginal Conception of Jesus, and His Birth
[18] Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; [19] and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly. [20] But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; [21] she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." [24a] When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
__________________________
Commentary:
16. Jewish genealogies followed the male line. Joseph, being Mary's husband, was the legal father of Jesus. The legal father is on a par with the real father as regards rights and duties. This fact provides a sound basis for recognizing St. Joseph as Patron of the whole Church, since he was chosen to play a very special role in God's plan for our salvation; with Joseph as his legal father, Jesus the Messiah has David as his successor.
Since it was quite usual for people to marry within their clan, it can be concluded that Mary belonged to the house of David. Several early Fathers of the Church testify to this--for example, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Irenaeus, St. Justin and Tertullian, who base their testimony on an unbroken oral tradition.
It should also be pointed out that when St. Matthew comes to speak of the birth of Jesus, he uses an ___expression which is completely different from that used for the other people in the genealogy. With these words the text positively teaches that Mary conceived Jesus while still a virgin, without the intervention of man.
18. St. Matthew relates here how Christ was conceived (cf. Luke 1:25-38): "We truly honor and venerate (Mary) as Mother of God, because she gave birth to a person who is at the same time both God and man" ("St. Pius V Catechism", I, 4, 7).
According to the provisions of the Law of Moses, engagement took place about one year before marriage and enjoyed almost the same legal validity. The marriage proper consisted, among other ceremonies, in the bride being brought solemnly and joyously to her husband's house (cf. Deuteronomy 20:7).
From the moment of engagement onwards, a certificate of divorce was needed in the event of a break in the relationship between the couple.
The entire account of Jesus' birth teaches, through the different fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 (which is expressly quoted in verses 22-23) that: 1) Jesus has David as His ancestor since Joseph is His legal father; 2) Mary is the Virgin who gives birth according to the prophecy; 3) the Child's conception without the intervention of man was miraculous.
19. "St. Joseph was an ordinary sort of man on whom God relied to do great things. He did exactly what the Lord wanted him to do, in each and every event that went to make up his life. That is why Scripture praises Joseph as `a just man'. In Hebrew a just man means a good and faithful servant of God, someone who fulfills the divine will (cf. Genesis 7:1; 18:23-32; Ezekiel 18:5ff.; Proverbs 12:10), or who is honorable and charitable toward his neighbor (cf. Tobias 7:6; 9:6). So a just man is someone who loves God and proves his love by keeping God's commandments and directing his whole life towards the service of his brothers, his fellow men" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 40).
Joseph considered his spouse to be holy despite the signs that she was going to have a child. He was therefore faced with a situation he could not explain. Precisely because he was trying to do God's will, he felt obliged to put her away; but to shield her from public shame he decided to send her away quietly.
Mary's silence is admirable. Her perfect surrender to God even leads her to the extreme of not defending her honor or innocence. She prefers to suffer suspicion and shame rather than reveal the work of grace in her. Faced with a fact which was inexplicable in human terms she abandons herself confidently to the love and providence of God. God certainly submitted the holy souls of Joseph and Mary to a severe trial. We ought not to be surprised if we also undergo difficult trials in the course of our lives. We ought to trust in God during them, and remain faithful to Him, following the example they gave us.
20. God gives His light to those who act in an upright way and who trust in His power and wisdom when faced with situations which exceed human understanding. By calling him the son of David, the angel reminds Joseph that he is the providential link which joins Jesus with the family of David, according to Nathan's messianic prophecy (cf. 2 Samuel 7:12). As St. John Chrysostom says: "At the very start he straightaway reminds him of David, of whom the Christ was to spring, and he does not wish him to be worried from the moment he reminds him, through naming his most illustrious ancestor, of the promise made to all his lineage" ("Hom. on St. Matthew", 4).
"The same Jesus Christ, our only Lord, the Son of God, when He assumed human flesh for us in the womb of the Virgin, was not conceived like other men, from the seed of man, but in a manner transcending the order of nature, that is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that the same person, remaining God as He was from eternity, became man, which He was not before" ("St. Pius V Catechism", I, 4, 1).
21. According to the Hebrew root, the name Jesus means "savior". After our Lady, St. Joseph is the first person to be told by God that salvation has begun.
"Jesus is the proper name of the God-man and signifies `Savior'--a name given Him not accidentally, or by the judgment or will of man, but by the counsel and command of God" [...]. All other names which prophecy gave to the Son of God--Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (cf. Isaiah 9:6)--are comprised in this one name Jesus; for while they partially signified the salvation which He was to bestow on us, this name included the force and meaning of all human salvation" ("St. Pius V Catechism", I, 3, 5 and 6).
________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
Principles and Practices - March 19
Christ the King
Try but in the smallest thing to imitate Him, to please Him, and your Christian life develops with indescribable rapidity because of the ever more intimate inhabitation of His spirit. Try, then, in small and simple actions to do what you think He would like, and tell Him that you do so in order to become what He wishes you to be, and your reward is sure.
-Martindale
_________________
From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930
Try but in the smallest thing to imitate Him, to please Him, and your Christian life develops with indescribable rapidity because of the ever more intimate inhabitation of His spirit. Try, then, in small and simple actions to do what you think He would like, and tell Him that you do so in order to become what He wishes you to be, and your reward is sure.
-Martindale
_________________
From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930
The School of Love, March 18
LIVING IN THE PRESENT
[continued from yesterday]
...Again, for the most part, looking into the past we repeat the mistake of the magnified room.
"When I was a child," says St. Paul, "I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away the things of a child."
So we, when we were children, may indeed have done evil as children; but let us remember it was "as children," and not as mature men and women. And so of every step after; we are always older than we were, always more mature than we were, and the resolve now, if only we will make it, is the act of a more matured creature than the evil we d.id yesterday. No matter who we are, if we will, it is always in our power to restore the balance.
In the same way dreaming of the future, of what might be and what may be, has at least three paralysing effects. It requires no great imagination to picture to ourselves some state or condition better than that which is now ours.
If only this obstacle were removed, if that arrangement were made, if we ourselves were placed in such or such surroundings, how happy we should be! How much good we should be able to do! And we compare our lot with this mirage of our own making; we lose sight of the opportunities that are actually around us; we forget how much worse is the lot of many others; we ignore how little we deserve even of that which is ours; we are depressed at what we have not, neglecting that which we have; our strength is enfeebled, our activity grows slack; we have chosen to live in dreamland, and we reap a dreamer's harvest.
Or there is the other side, the dwelling on imaginary fears. If we are inclined to magnify the pleasures that are past, no less do we magnify the troubles that may be before us. It is a common saying that pain in prospect is greater pain than pain which actually is upon us; or to put it in another way, it is not so much pain, as the prospect of its long continuance that will break a man down.
So it is in most things else. If only this will not happen, we shall be happy and content! We have no reason to suppose that it will; but we must worry ourselves with this shadow. If we lose this friend we lose everything; if we lose this situation we are doomed; if this thing goes wrong the rest is hopeless; with these and a thousand other "ifs" we shatter our moral nerve, we take the heart out of our life's work, and render ourselves very puny things indeed....
[coninued tomorrow]
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
[continued from yesterday]
...Again, for the most part, looking into the past we repeat the mistake of the magnified room.
"When I was a child," says St. Paul, "I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away the things of a child."
So we, when we were children, may indeed have done evil as children; but let us remember it was "as children," and not as mature men and women. And so of every step after; we are always older than we were, always more mature than we were, and the resolve now, if only we will make it, is the act of a more matured creature than the evil we d.id yesterday. No matter who we are, if we will, it is always in our power to restore the balance.
In the same way dreaming of the future, of what might be and what may be, has at least three paralysing effects. It requires no great imagination to picture to ourselves some state or condition better than that which is now ours.
If only this obstacle were removed, if that arrangement were made, if we ourselves were placed in such or such surroundings, how happy we should be! How much good we should be able to do! And we compare our lot with this mirage of our own making; we lose sight of the opportunities that are actually around us; we forget how much worse is the lot of many others; we ignore how little we deserve even of that which is ours; we are depressed at what we have not, neglecting that which we have; our strength is enfeebled, our activity grows slack; we have chosen to live in dreamland, and we reap a dreamer's harvest.
Or there is the other side, the dwelling on imaginary fears. If we are inclined to magnify the pleasures that are past, no less do we magnify the troubles that may be before us. It is a common saying that pain in prospect is greater pain than pain which actually is upon us; or to put it in another way, it is not so much pain, as the prospect of its long continuance that will break a man down.
So it is in most things else. If only this will not happen, we shall be happy and content! We have no reason to suppose that it will; but we must worry ourselves with this shadow. If we lose this friend we lose everything; if we lose this situation we are doomed; if this thing goes wrong the rest is hopeless; with these and a thousand other "ifs" we shatter our moral nerve, we take the heart out of our life's work, and render ourselves very puny things indeed....
[coninued tomorrow]
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Gospel for Thursday, 4th Week of Lent
John 5:31-47
Christ Defends His Action (Continuation)
(Jesus said to the Jews,) [31] "If I bear witness to Myself, My testimony is not true; [32] there is another who bears witness to Me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to Me is true. [33] You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. [34] Not that the testimony which I receive is from man; but I say this that you may be saved. [35] He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. [36] But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has granted Me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear Me witness that the Father has sent Me. [37] And the Father who sent He has Himself borne witness to Me. His voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen; [38] and you do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He has sent. [39] You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to Me; [40] yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life. [41] I do not receive glory from men. [42] But I know that you have not the love of God within you. [43] I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. [44] How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? [45] Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; it is Moses who accuses you, on whom you set your hope. [46] If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me. [47] But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?"
______________
Commentary:
31-40. Because Jesus is Son of God, His own word is self-sufficient, it needs no corroboration (cf. 8:18); but, as on other occasions, He accommodates Himself to human customs and to the mental outlook of His hearers: He anticipates a possible objection from the Jews to the effect that it is not enough for a person to testify in his own cause (cf. Deuteronomy 19:15) and He explains that what He is saying is endorsed by four witnesses--John the Baptist, His own miracles, the Father, and the Sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament.
John the Baptist bore witness that Jesus was the Son of God (1:34). Although Jesus had no need to have recourse to any man's testimony, not even that of a great prophet, John's testimony was given for the sake of the Jews, that they might recognize the Messiah. Jesus can also point to another testimony, better than that of the Baptist--the miracles He has worked, which are, for anyone who examines them honestly, unmistakable signs of His divine power, which comes from the Father; Jesus' miracles, then, are a form of witness the Father bears concerning His Son, whom He has sent into the world. The Father manifests the divinity of Jesus on other occasions--at His Baptism (cf. 1:31-34); at the Transfiguration (cf. Matthew 17:1-8), and later, in the presence of the whole crowd (cf. John 12:28-30).
Jesus speaks to another divine testimony--that of the Sacred Scriptures. These speak of Him, but the Jews fail to grasp the Scriptures' true meaning, because they read them without letting themselves be enlightened by Him whom God has sent and in whom all the prophecies are fulfilled: "The economy of the Old Testament was deliberately so orientated that it should prepare for and declare in prophecy the coming of Christ, Redeemer of all men, and of the Messianic Kingdom (cf. Luke 24:44; John 5:39, 1 Peter 1:10), and should indicate it by means of different types (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:11). [...] Christians should accept with veneration these writings which give _expression to a lively sense of God, which are a storehouse of sublime teaching on God and of sound wisdom on human life, as well as a wonderful treasury of prayers; in them, too, the mystery of our salvation is present in a hidden way" (Vatican II, "Dei Verbum", 15).
41-47. Jesus identifies three obstacles preventing His hearers from recognizing that He is the Messiah and Son of God--their lack of love of God, their striving after human glory and their prejudiced interpretation of sacred texts. His defense of His own actions and of His relationship with the Father might lead His adversaries to think that He was looking for human glory. But the testimonies He has adduced (the Baptist, the miracles, the Father and the Scriptures) show clearly that it is not He who is seeking His glory, and that the Jews oppose Him not out of love of God or in defense of God's honor, but for unworthy reasons or because of their merely human outlook.
The Old Testament, therefore, leads a person towards recognizing who Jesus Christ is (cf. John 1:45; 2:17, 22; 5:39, 46; 12:16, 41); yet the Jews remain unbelievers because their attitude is wrong: they have reduced the Messianic promises in the sacred books to the level of mere nationalistic aspirations: this outlook, which is in no way supernatural, closes their soul to Jesus' words and actions and prevents them from seeing that the ancient prophecies are come true in Him (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:14-16).
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
Christ Defends His Action (Continuation)
(Jesus said to the Jews,) [31] "If I bear witness to Myself, My testimony is not true; [32] there is another who bears witness to Me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to Me is true. [33] You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. [34] Not that the testimony which I receive is from man; but I say this that you may be saved. [35] He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. [36] But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has granted Me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear Me witness that the Father has sent Me. [37] And the Father who sent He has Himself borne witness to Me. His voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen; [38] and you do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He has sent. [39] You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to Me; [40] yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life. [41] I do not receive glory from men. [42] But I know that you have not the love of God within you. [43] I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. [44] How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? [45] Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; it is Moses who accuses you, on whom you set your hope. [46] If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me. [47] But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?"
______________
Commentary:
31-40. Because Jesus is Son of God, His own word is self-sufficient, it needs no corroboration (cf. 8:18); but, as on other occasions, He accommodates Himself to human customs and to the mental outlook of His hearers: He anticipates a possible objection from the Jews to the effect that it is not enough for a person to testify in his own cause (cf. Deuteronomy 19:15) and He explains that what He is saying is endorsed by four witnesses--John the Baptist, His own miracles, the Father, and the Sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament.
John the Baptist bore witness that Jesus was the Son of God (1:34). Although Jesus had no need to have recourse to any man's testimony, not even that of a great prophet, John's testimony was given for the sake of the Jews, that they might recognize the Messiah. Jesus can also point to another testimony, better than that of the Baptist--the miracles He has worked, which are, for anyone who examines them honestly, unmistakable signs of His divine power, which comes from the Father; Jesus' miracles, then, are a form of witness the Father bears concerning His Son, whom He has sent into the world. The Father manifests the divinity of Jesus on other occasions--at His Baptism (cf. 1:31-34); at the Transfiguration (cf. Matthew 17:1-8), and later, in the presence of the whole crowd (cf. John 12:28-30).
Jesus speaks to another divine testimony--that of the Sacred Scriptures. These speak of Him, but the Jews fail to grasp the Scriptures' true meaning, because they read them without letting themselves be enlightened by Him whom God has sent and in whom all the prophecies are fulfilled: "The economy of the Old Testament was deliberately so orientated that it should prepare for and declare in prophecy the coming of Christ, Redeemer of all men, and of the Messianic Kingdom (cf. Luke 24:44; John 5:39, 1 Peter 1:10), and should indicate it by means of different types (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:11). [...] Christians should accept with veneration these writings which give _expression to a lively sense of God, which are a storehouse of sublime teaching on God and of sound wisdom on human life, as well as a wonderful treasury of prayers; in them, too, the mystery of our salvation is present in a hidden way" (Vatican II, "Dei Verbum", 15).
41-47. Jesus identifies three obstacles preventing His hearers from recognizing that He is the Messiah and Son of God--their lack of love of God, their striving after human glory and their prejudiced interpretation of sacred texts. His defense of His own actions and of His relationship with the Father might lead His adversaries to think that He was looking for human glory. But the testimonies He has adduced (the Baptist, the miracles, the Father and the Scriptures) show clearly that it is not He who is seeking His glory, and that the Jews oppose Him not out of love of God or in defense of God's honor, but for unworthy reasons or because of their merely human outlook.
The Old Testament, therefore, leads a person towards recognizing who Jesus Christ is (cf. John 1:45; 2:17, 22; 5:39, 46; 12:16, 41); yet the Jews remain unbelievers because their attitude is wrong: they have reduced the Messianic promises in the sacred books to the level of mere nationalistic aspirations: this outlook, which is in no way supernatural, closes their soul to Jesus' words and actions and prevents them from seeing that the ancient prophecies are come true in Him (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:14-16).
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
Vatican Newspaper: U.S. Bishops Speaks for Church on Health Bill
VATICAN CITY, March 17, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An article in L'Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Vatican, has weighed in on the side of U.S. bishops in the debate over the abortion-expanding Senate health care bill. The article by L'OR's Marco Bellizzi helps explode efforts by Democrats to hold up support for the bill from the Catholic Health Association (CHA) as evidence of the measure's moral acceptability.Not only is it a "disservice", it's a MAJOR SCANDAL and such actions are designed to lead others into confusion or sin. More needs to be done to address these "Catholic" groups.
Bellizzi pointed to a statement by USCCB president Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, in which he directly disagreed with CHA's support. Over the weekend, CHA president Sr. Carol Keehan had thrown the weight of her organization behind the Senate version of the bill - despite the fact that pro-life leaders having condemned the measure as the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.
“[George's statement] clears the field of some misconceptions springing from the position taken by the Catholic Health Association," wrote Bellizzi, as reported by the Catholic News Agency Tuesday. “The CHA’s position does not reflect in any way the convictions of the United States Bishops Conference.”
“The health care bill approved by the US Senate is not acceptable," he noted. “It cannot be supported and the moral objections raised by the project cannot be postponed for a later moment.
“While the congress, pressed by President Obama, is at a crucial moment for the destiny of the reform, in which the White House has invested lots of energy and lots of political credibility, the bishops of the US clarify again the position of the Catholic Church, repeatedly explained with frequent messages addressed to the senators and the congressmen, as well as to Obama himself.”
The article also quotes Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, who said the "most painful feature" of the health care debate "has been those ‘Catholic’ groups that by their eagerness for some kind of deal undercut the witness of the Catholic community and help advance a bad bill into a bad law."
Bellizi concluded with Chaput's warning that “groups, trade associations and publications describing themselves as ‘Catholic’ or ‘prolife’ that endorse the Senate version – whatever their intentions – are doing a serious disservice to the nation and to the Church, undermining the witness of the Catholic community.”
Source here.
Principles and Practices - March 18
The Sacrament of Comfort
The Sacrament of Penance is essentially a sacrament of humiliation; but secondarily, though not less truly, a sacrament of consolation. Many overlook this altogether; some grasp the former, and yet lose sight of the latter.
-Selley.
_________________
From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930
The Sacrament of Penance is essentially a sacrament of humiliation; but secondarily, though not less truly, a sacrament of consolation. Many overlook this altogether; some grasp the former, and yet lose sight of the latter.
-Selley.
_________________
From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930
The School of Love, March 17
LIVING IN THE PRESENT
[continued from yesterday]
...Obviously in neither of these ways do we benefit ourselves or others, or promote our good or happiness; by both we only wreck ourselves in the present, so far as we are able.
Looking backward has many dangers. In the first place we easily magnify the things that are gone. We forget that in the past we were younger; and the younger we were, the greater do small things appear.
Who has not experienced that sense of disappointment which often comes to one who returns to a spot after a long lapse of years? In his childhood he has been in some room or building; he has retained the memory of his visit; in his manhood he visits the spot again, and is oppressed with a sense of its narrowness, its puny size.
So it is with much that is past. We retain the recollection, but we forget that we have grown; if time could go backwards, and put us again in the circumstances after which we hanker, how narrow they would seem! how great would be our disappointment!
If this is true of past delights how much more is it true of past miseries!
Of all delusions perhaps none is so great as the thought that our past has ruined our present, that the evils we have done, the mistakes we have committed, have made all further hope impossible....
[Continued tomorrow]
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
[continued from yesterday]
...Obviously in neither of these ways do we benefit ourselves or others, or promote our good or happiness; by both we only wreck ourselves in the present, so far as we are able.
Looking backward has many dangers. In the first place we easily magnify the things that are gone. We forget that in the past we were younger; and the younger we were, the greater do small things appear.
Who has not experienced that sense of disappointment which often comes to one who returns to a spot after a long lapse of years? In his childhood he has been in some room or building; he has retained the memory of his visit; in his manhood he visits the spot again, and is oppressed with a sense of its narrowness, its puny size.
So it is with much that is past. We retain the recollection, but we forget that we have grown; if time could go backwards, and put us again in the circumstances after which we hanker, how narrow they would seem! how great would be our disappointment!
If this is true of past delights how much more is it true of past miseries!
Of all delusions perhaps none is so great as the thought that our past has ruined our present, that the evils we have done, the mistakes we have committed, have made all further hope impossible....
[Continued tomorrow]
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Gospel for Wednesday, 4th Week of Lent
March 17: Optional Memorial: St Patrick. Bishop
(Preference Given to Liturgical Season)
From: John 5:17-30
The Cure of a Sick Man at the Pool at Bethzatha (Continuation)
[17] But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working still, and I am working." [18] This was why the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath but also called God His Father, making Himself equal with God.
Christ Defends His Action
[19] Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing; for whatever He does, that the Son does likewise. [20] For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all that He Himself is doing; and greater works than these will He show Him, that you may marvel. [21] For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will. [22] The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, [23] that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. [24] Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
[25] "Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. [26] For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself, [27] and has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. [28] Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice [29] and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.
[30] "I can do nothing on My own authority; as I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not My own will but the will of Him who sent Me."
_______________
Commentary:
17-18. "My Father is working still, and I am working": we have already said that God is continually acting. Since the Son acts together with the Father, who with the Holy Spirit are the one and only God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can say that He is always working. These words of Jesus contain an implicit reference to His divinity: the Jews realize this and they want to kill Him because they consider it blasphemous. "We all call God our Father, who is in Heaven (Isaiah 63:16; 64:8). Therefore, they were angry, not at this, that He said God was His Father, but that He said it in quite another way than men. Notice: the Jews understand what Arians do not understand. Arians affirm the Son to be not equal to the Father, and that was why this heresy was driven from the Church. Here, even the blind, even the slayers of Christ, understand the works of Christ" (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang., 17, 16). We call God our Father because through grace we are His adopted children; Jesus calls Him His Father because He is His Son by nature. This is why He says after the Resurrection: "I am ascending to My Father and your Father" (John 20:17), making a clear distinction between the two ways of being a son of God.
19. Jesus speaks of the equality and also the distinction between Father and Son. The two are equal: all the Son's power is the Father's, all the Son does the Father does; but they are two distinct persons: which is why the Son does what He has seen the Father do.
These words of our Lord should not be taken to mean that the Son sees what the Father does and then does it Himself, like a disciple imitating his master; He says what He says to show that the Father's powers are communicated to the Son through generation. The word "see" is used because men come to know things through the senses, particularly through the sight; to say that the Son sees what the Father does is a way of referring to all the powers which He receives from Him for all eternity (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, "Comm. on St. John, in loc.").
20-21. When He says that the Father shows the Son "all that He Himself is doing", this means that Christ can do the same as the Father. Thus, when Jesus does things which are proper to God, He is testifying to His divinity through them (cf. John 5:36).
"Greater works": this may be a reference to the miracles Jesus will work during His lifetime and to His authority to execute judgment. But THE miracle of Jesus was His own resurrection, the cause and pledge of our own (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:20ff), and our passport to supernatural life. Christ, like His Father, has unlimited power to communicate life. This teaching is developed in verses 22-29.
22-30. Authority to judge has also been given by the Father to the Incarnate Word. Whoever does not believe in Christ and in His word will be condemned (cf. 3:18). We must accept Jesus Christ's lordship; by doing so we honor the Father; if we do not know the Son we do not know the Father who sent Him (verse 23). Through accepting Christ, through accepting His word, we gain eternal life and are freed from condemnation. He, who has taken on human nature which He will retain forever, has been established as our judge, and His judgment is just, because He seeks to fulfill the Will of the Father who sent Him, and He does nothing on His own account: in other words, His human will is perfectly at one with His divine will; which is why Jesus can say that He does not do His own will but the Will of Him who sent Him.
22. God, being the Creator of the world, is the supreme Judge of all creation. He alone can know with absolute certainty whether the people and things He has created achieve the end He has envisaged for them. Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, has received divine authority (cf. Matthew 11:27; 28:18; Daniel 7:14), including the authority to judge mankind. Now, it is God's will that everyone should be saved: Christ did not come to condemn the world but to save it (cf. John 12:47). Only someone who refuses to accept the divine mission of the Son puts himself outside the pale of salvation. As the Church's Magisterium teaches: "He claimed judicial power as received from His Father, when the Jews accused Him of breaking the Sabbath by the miraculous cure of a sick man. [...] In this power is included the right of rewarding and punishing all men, even in this life" (Pius XI, "Quas Primas, Dz-Sch 3677"). Jesus Christ, therefore, is the Judge of the living and the dead, and will reward everyone according to his works (cf. 1 Peter 1:17).
"We have, I admit, a rigorous account to give of our sins; but who will be our judge? The Father [...] has given all judgment to the Son. Let us be comforted: the eternal Father has placed our cause in the hands of our Redeemer Himself. St. Paul encourages us, saying, Who is [the judge] who is to condemn us? It is Jesus Christ, who died [...] who indeed intercedes for us (Romans 8:34). It is the Savior Himself, who, in order that He should not condemn us to eternal death, has condemned Himself to death for our sake, and who, not content with this, still continues to intercede for us in Heaven with God His Father" (St. Alphonsus Liguori, "The Love of Our Lord Jesus Christ Reduced To Practice", Chapter 3).
24. There is also a close connection between hearing the word of Christ and believing in Him who sent Him, that is, in the Father. Whatever Jesus Christ says is divine revelation; therefore, accepting Jesus' words is equivalent to believing in God the Father: "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me, but in Him who sent Me.... For I have not spoken on My own authority; the Father who sent Me has Himself given Me the commandment what to say and what to speak" (John 12:44, 49).
A person with faith is on the way to eternal life, because even in this earthly life he is sharing in divine life, which is eternal; but he has not yet attained eternal life in a definitive way (for he can lose it), nor in a full way: "Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him" (1 John 3:2). If a person stays firm in the faith and lives up to its demands, God's judgment will not condemn him but save him.
Therefore, it makes sense to strive, with the help of grace, to live a life consistent with the faith: "If men go to so much trouble and effort to live here a little longer, ought they not strive so much harder to live eternally?" (St. Augustine, "De Verb. Dom. Serm.", 64).
25-30. These verse bring the first part of our Lord's discourse to a close (it runs from 5:19 to 5:47); its core is a revelation about His relationship with His Father. To understand the statement our Lord makes here we need to remember that, because He is a single (divine) person, a single subject of operations, a single I, He is expressing in human words not only His sentiments as a man but also the deepest dimension of His being: He is the Son of God, both in His generation in eternity by the Father, and in His generation in time through taking up human nature. Hence Jesus Christ has a profound awareness (so profound that we cannot even imagine it) of His Sonship, which leads Him to treat His Father with a very special intimacy, with love and also with respect; He is aware also of His equality with the Father; therefore when He speaks about the Father having given Him life (verse 26) or authority (verse 27), it is not that He has received part of the Father's life or authority: He has received absolutely all of it, without the Father losing any.
"Do you perceive how their equality is shown and that they differ in one respect only, namely, that one is the Father, while the other is the Son? The _expression `He has given' implies this distinction only, and shows that all other attributes are equal and without difference. From this it is clear that He does everything with as much authority and power as the Father and is not endowed with power from some outside source, for He has life as the Father has" (St. John Chrysostom, "Hom. on St. John", 39, 3).
One of the amazing things about these passages of the Gospel is how Jesus manages to express the sentiments of God-Man despite the limitations of human language: Christ, true God, true man, is a mystery which the Christian should contemplate even though he cannot understand it: he feels bathed in a light so strong that it is beyond understanding, yet fills his soul with faith and with a desire to worship his Lord.
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
(Preference Given to Liturgical Season)
From: John 5:17-30
The Cure of a Sick Man at the Pool at Bethzatha (Continuation)
[17] But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working still, and I am working." [18] This was why the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath but also called God His Father, making Himself equal with God.
Christ Defends His Action
[19] Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing; for whatever He does, that the Son does likewise. [20] For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all that He Himself is doing; and greater works than these will He show Him, that you may marvel. [21] For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will. [22] The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, [23] that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. [24] Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
[25] "Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. [26] For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself, [27] and has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. [28] Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice [29] and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.
[30] "I can do nothing on My own authority; as I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not My own will but the will of Him who sent Me."
_______________
Commentary:
17-18. "My Father is working still, and I am working": we have already said that God is continually acting. Since the Son acts together with the Father, who with the Holy Spirit are the one and only God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can say that He is always working. These words of Jesus contain an implicit reference to His divinity: the Jews realize this and they want to kill Him because they consider it blasphemous. "We all call God our Father, who is in Heaven (Isaiah 63:16; 64:8). Therefore, they were angry, not at this, that He said God was His Father, but that He said it in quite another way than men. Notice: the Jews understand what Arians do not understand. Arians affirm the Son to be not equal to the Father, and that was why this heresy was driven from the Church. Here, even the blind, even the slayers of Christ, understand the works of Christ" (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang., 17, 16). We call God our Father because through grace we are His adopted children; Jesus calls Him His Father because He is His Son by nature. This is why He says after the Resurrection: "I am ascending to My Father and your Father" (John 20:17), making a clear distinction between the two ways of being a son of God.
19. Jesus speaks of the equality and also the distinction between Father and Son. The two are equal: all the Son's power is the Father's, all the Son does the Father does; but they are two distinct persons: which is why the Son does what He has seen the Father do.
These words of our Lord should not be taken to mean that the Son sees what the Father does and then does it Himself, like a disciple imitating his master; He says what He says to show that the Father's powers are communicated to the Son through generation. The word "see" is used because men come to know things through the senses, particularly through the sight; to say that the Son sees what the Father does is a way of referring to all the powers which He receives from Him for all eternity (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, "Comm. on St. John, in loc.").
20-21. When He says that the Father shows the Son "all that He Himself is doing", this means that Christ can do the same as the Father. Thus, when Jesus does things which are proper to God, He is testifying to His divinity through them (cf. John 5:36).
"Greater works": this may be a reference to the miracles Jesus will work during His lifetime and to His authority to execute judgment. But THE miracle of Jesus was His own resurrection, the cause and pledge of our own (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:20ff), and our passport to supernatural life. Christ, like His Father, has unlimited power to communicate life. This teaching is developed in verses 22-29.
22-30. Authority to judge has also been given by the Father to the Incarnate Word. Whoever does not believe in Christ and in His word will be condemned (cf. 3:18). We must accept Jesus Christ's lordship; by doing so we honor the Father; if we do not know the Son we do not know the Father who sent Him (verse 23). Through accepting Christ, through accepting His word, we gain eternal life and are freed from condemnation. He, who has taken on human nature which He will retain forever, has been established as our judge, and His judgment is just, because He seeks to fulfill the Will of the Father who sent Him, and He does nothing on His own account: in other words, His human will is perfectly at one with His divine will; which is why Jesus can say that He does not do His own will but the Will of Him who sent Him.
22. God, being the Creator of the world, is the supreme Judge of all creation. He alone can know with absolute certainty whether the people and things He has created achieve the end He has envisaged for them. Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, has received divine authority (cf. Matthew 11:27; 28:18; Daniel 7:14), including the authority to judge mankind. Now, it is God's will that everyone should be saved: Christ did not come to condemn the world but to save it (cf. John 12:47). Only someone who refuses to accept the divine mission of the Son puts himself outside the pale of salvation. As the Church's Magisterium teaches: "He claimed judicial power as received from His Father, when the Jews accused Him of breaking the Sabbath by the miraculous cure of a sick man. [...] In this power is included the right of rewarding and punishing all men, even in this life" (Pius XI, "Quas Primas, Dz-Sch 3677"). Jesus Christ, therefore, is the Judge of the living and the dead, and will reward everyone according to his works (cf. 1 Peter 1:17).
"We have, I admit, a rigorous account to give of our sins; but who will be our judge? The Father [...] has given all judgment to the Son. Let us be comforted: the eternal Father has placed our cause in the hands of our Redeemer Himself. St. Paul encourages us, saying, Who is [the judge] who is to condemn us? It is Jesus Christ, who died [...] who indeed intercedes for us (Romans 8:34). It is the Savior Himself, who, in order that He should not condemn us to eternal death, has condemned Himself to death for our sake, and who, not content with this, still continues to intercede for us in Heaven with God His Father" (St. Alphonsus Liguori, "The Love of Our Lord Jesus Christ Reduced To Practice", Chapter 3).
24. There is also a close connection between hearing the word of Christ and believing in Him who sent Him, that is, in the Father. Whatever Jesus Christ says is divine revelation; therefore, accepting Jesus' words is equivalent to believing in God the Father: "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me, but in Him who sent Me.... For I have not spoken on My own authority; the Father who sent Me has Himself given Me the commandment what to say and what to speak" (John 12:44, 49).
A person with faith is on the way to eternal life, because even in this earthly life he is sharing in divine life, which is eternal; but he has not yet attained eternal life in a definitive way (for he can lose it), nor in a full way: "Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him" (1 John 3:2). If a person stays firm in the faith and lives up to its demands, God's judgment will not condemn him but save him.
Therefore, it makes sense to strive, with the help of grace, to live a life consistent with the faith: "If men go to so much trouble and effort to live here a little longer, ought they not strive so much harder to live eternally?" (St. Augustine, "De Verb. Dom. Serm.", 64).
25-30. These verse bring the first part of our Lord's discourse to a close (it runs from 5:19 to 5:47); its core is a revelation about His relationship with His Father. To understand the statement our Lord makes here we need to remember that, because He is a single (divine) person, a single subject of operations, a single I, He is expressing in human words not only His sentiments as a man but also the deepest dimension of His being: He is the Son of God, both in His generation in eternity by the Father, and in His generation in time through taking up human nature. Hence Jesus Christ has a profound awareness (so profound that we cannot even imagine it) of His Sonship, which leads Him to treat His Father with a very special intimacy, with love and also with respect; He is aware also of His equality with the Father; therefore when He speaks about the Father having given Him life (verse 26) or authority (verse 27), it is not that He has received part of the Father's life or authority: He has received absolutely all of it, without the Father losing any.
"Do you perceive how their equality is shown and that they differ in one respect only, namely, that one is the Father, while the other is the Son? The _expression `He has given' implies this distinction only, and shows that all other attributes are equal and without difference. From this it is clear that He does everything with as much authority and power as the Father and is not endowed with power from some outside source, for He has life as the Father has" (St. John Chrysostom, "Hom. on St. John", 39, 3).
One of the amazing things about these passages of the Gospel is how Jesus manages to express the sentiments of God-Man despite the limitations of human language: Christ, true God, true man, is a mystery which the Christian should contemplate even though he cannot understand it: he feels bathed in a light so strong that it is beyond understanding, yet fills his soul with faith and with a desire to worship his Lord.
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
‘Abortion Changes You’ Messages Meet Commuters in St. Louis
From LifeSiteNews:
ST. LOUIS, Missouri, March 16, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The city immortalized by the Judy Garland musical “Meet Me in St. Louis” will now meet a new message over the next few weeks: “abortion changes you.”Continued here.
Five different billboards have been set up on the thoroughfares of the city, and form part of the same outreach appearing this month in New York City subways to offer those struggling after an abortion hope for healing.
The billboards echo some of the experiences of men and women after an abortion. One woman shares, “I thought my life would be the way it was before,” while another says, “We made the decision together but I’ve never felt so alone.” An ad featuring a young man states, “I thought I was helping my girlfriend”.
Principles and Practices - March 17
The Right View
Do not resent temptation; do not be perplexed because it seems to thicken round you more and more, and ceases neither for effort, nor for agony or for prayer. That is your practice, which God appoints you, and it is having its effect in making you patient, and humble, and generous, and unselfish, and kind and courteous.
-H. Drummond.
_________________
From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930
Do not resent temptation; do not be perplexed because it seems to thicken round you more and more, and ceases neither for effort, nor for agony or for prayer. That is your practice, which God appoints you, and it is having its effect in making you patient, and humble, and generous, and unselfish, and kind and courteous.
-H. Drummond.
_________________
From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930
The School of Love, March 16
LIVING IN THE PRESENT
[continued from yesterday]
...We have the present always with us; yet we are always endeavouring to live in a half-forgotten past or a fancied future. We live in the past, recalling pleasures that are no more, magnifying them out of all proportion, contrasting with them in their magnified state the trifling pleasures of to-day, and by the contrast robbing these pleasures of their meaning.
Or again we look along the past, and count up the mistakes we have made. We tell ourselves of all the opportunities we have lost; our old self scolds our juvenile self for all the foolish things it has done; we weep over all that is past and gone; even when we smile at happy recollections it is with the smile that lingers round the mouth of a corpse.
And the result of each and all is the same. We look at the present with a long and sour face. We say we have spoiled ourselves, or that our chance is over and will not return, or that evidently we are doomed to disappointment; and beneath this self-accumulated burden we just sit down and do nothing.
Or else we live in the future. Weare something at present, but it is nothing in comparison with what we may yet hope to be; we can do something today, but compared with what we might do, or yet may do, or but for this or that interference would do, it is not worth consideration.
We peer into the darkness to discover that which we can never know: We imagine strange things which we know very well may never come to pass. We look down imaginary vistas, build our castles in the air, and fret because we are not permitted to live in them.
Or last of all, as a last perversion, if for the moment all is going well with us, we deliberately spoil the content we might enjoy by dwelling on the time when we shall be no longer happy, or even, if we are extreme, by making ourselves miserable because we are not so....
[continued tomorrow]
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
[continued from yesterday]
...We have the present always with us; yet we are always endeavouring to live in a half-forgotten past or a fancied future. We live in the past, recalling pleasures that are no more, magnifying them out of all proportion, contrasting with them in their magnified state the trifling pleasures of to-day, and by the contrast robbing these pleasures of their meaning.
Or again we look along the past, and count up the mistakes we have made. We tell ourselves of all the opportunities we have lost; our old self scolds our juvenile self for all the foolish things it has done; we weep over all that is past and gone; even when we smile at happy recollections it is with the smile that lingers round the mouth of a corpse.
And the result of each and all is the same. We look at the present with a long and sour face. We say we have spoiled ourselves, or that our chance is over and will not return, or that evidently we are doomed to disappointment; and beneath this self-accumulated burden we just sit down and do nothing.
Or else we live in the future. Weare something at present, but it is nothing in comparison with what we may yet hope to be; we can do something today, but compared with what we might do, or yet may do, or but for this or that interference would do, it is not worth consideration.
We peer into the darkness to discover that which we can never know: We imagine strange things which we know very well may never come to pass. We look down imaginary vistas, build our castles in the air, and fret because we are not permitted to live in them.
Or last of all, as a last perversion, if for the moment all is going well with us, we deliberately spoil the content we might enjoy by dwelling on the time when we shall be no longer happy, or even, if we are extreme, by making ourselves miserable because we are not so....
[continued tomorrow]
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
NEW ABORTION SCANDAL at Catholic College
From America Needs Fatima:
Ask this Catholic college to take Planned Parenthood off its web site - sign your protest here
The University of Detroit Mercy - a Catholic institution - lists Planned Parenthood on its web site under "Career & Professional Resources." Another pro-abortion group called the National Organization for Women (NOW) is also listed.
SIGN THIS E-PROTEST to get these listings removed
-- Fact #1:
Further investigation shows that Dr. Jane Schaberg, Professor of Religious Studies at the same university is a member of NOW and the dissident group Catholics for Free Choice.
Hard to believe. But it gets worse.
-- Fact #2:
Referred to as a "feminist biblical scholar," Prof. Schaberg authored a blasphemous book, first published in 1987, titled: The Illegitimacy of Jesus: A Feminist Theological Interpretation of the Infancy Narratives. The offensive work argues that Jesus was not conceived by the Holy Spirit, but most likely the offspring of a r a p e.
-- Fact #3:
On page 95, the book states: "…Mary, in the tradition Luke inherited, experienced a disaster worse than barrenness: sexual violation."
As far as I know, Prof. Schaberg has not publicly retracted this opinion. Her book is still available online through Amazon. Yet, she continues teaching religious studies.
Your instant protest message will go directly to Fr. Gerard L. Stockhausen, S.J., the president of the University of Detroit Mercy, urging him to remove every mention of Planned Parenthood from the university's web site.
I'd like to mention our recent victory at Rosemont College. Yes. In fact, Planned Parenthood was DELETED from the college website in less than 24-hours after we launched our protest.
A second victory is possible.
Will you help me ramp up this protest?
Let's delete Planned Parenthood - right now - here
And to give this peaceful effort much more impact, help me spread the word by forwarding this message to your pro-life friends (or even your entire address book).
With God's help, the truth will triumph.
Sincerely in Jesu et Maria
Robert E. Ritchie
America Needs Fatima
www.ANF.org
Catholic Health Assoc. Health Bill Support 'Utterly Un-Catholic': HLI President
WASHINGTON, DC, March 15, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As the U.S. bishops step up their opposition to the abortion-expanding Senate health bill this month, the Catholic Health Association (CHA) has again muddled the pro-life Catholic response by issuing warm support for the bill - despite its not being "perfect" on the abortion issue. The president of Human Life International responded by condemning CHA's support for the bill as "utterly un-Catholic" and "a grave insult" to Catholics.Idiotic morons welcome those like Keehan...While she may be infatuated with a pathological liar and malignant narcissist who supports murdering unborn children, she should, at the very least, read the 2300+ monstrous pages of deathcare BEFORE she proclaims that this Trojan horse will provide " an historic opportunity to make great improvements in the lives of so many Americans."
In remarks posted on the CHA website, president and CEO Sr. Carol Keehan wrote: "As I watched our president present his plan to pass the health reform legislation, it was clear this is an historic opportunity to make great improvements in the lives of so many Americans....
Only an incompetent imbecile could make such a claim.
Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, a leading commentator on social issues among Catholic bishops, on Monday slammed Catholic organizations who are backing the bill for providing moral cover for a deeply problematic measure.Read more.
In an On The Square blog post, Chaput wrote that, "Groups, trade associations, and publications describing themselves as 'Catholic' or 'prolife' that endorse the Senate version—whatever their intentions—are doing a serious disservice to the nation and to the Church, undermining the witness of the Catholic community and ensuring the failure of genuine, ethical health care reform."
"By their public actions, they create confusion at exactly the moment Catholics need to think clearly about the remaining issues in the health care debate. They also provide the illusion of moral cover for an unethical piece of legislation," wrote Chaput....
Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, told LifeSiteNews.com that while he could not say whether Keehan is "really acting on bad faith" or "just deeply confused" about the radically pro-abortion health care bill, "Her organization stands to gain a great deal by its passage, and they regulary collaborate with the proponents of this legislation, so her credibility on this issue is, to put it mildly, less than rock solid."
"It is a grave insult to Sister's fellow Catholics that she would stoop to lend what some will see as a Catholic stamp of approval to this destructive and, if enacted, irreversible assault on life," he continued. "Nothing in this bill merits for it the support of any thinking, faithful Catholic. Period.
"To pretend otherwise not only places one in opposition to the bishops, but requires that one disregard the right to life of the the weakest and most vulnerable among us. This is utterly un-Catholic."
Is the cover-up is worse than the scandal?
From RealCatholicTV:
There is no other word except OUTRAGE for what is occurring inside the US Bishops' Conference at the Office of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
On top of the past six weeks of scandalous revelations, there's even more terrible news.
The Stations of the Cross have now been hi-jacked in the name of "social justice" - as the lay staff at the CCHD now tries to hide its transgressions by covering up its insulting agenda.
Please watch this Vortex to learn about the blasphemy and subsequent attempt to cover it up.
http://www.realcatholictv.net/cia/coverup.php
Then feel free to contact CCHD headquarters and ask for an accounting of what's going on.
The direct phone line is 202-541-3367.
God bless,
Michael Voris
~senior executive producer, RealCatholicTV.com
Monday, March 15, 2010
Dr Edward Peters: Resources for Understanding and Applying Canon 915.
Dr. Peters writes:
Serious discussion of Canon 915 requires access to key documents on the law and awareness of the positions taken thereon by qualified commentators. I have developed a webpage for those who wish to understand, and perhaps contribute to, the discussions on the application of Canon 915 in the life of the Church. I will try to update the page as feasible.More here.
Gospel for Tuesday, 4th Week of Lent
John 5:1-16
The Cure of a Sick Man at the Pool at Bethzatha
[1] After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. [2] Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethzatha, which has five porticoes. [3] In these lay a multitude of invalid, blind, lame, paralyzed. [5] One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. [6] When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there for a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be healed?" [7] The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me." [8] Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your pallet, and walk." [9] And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath. [10] So the Jews said to the man who was cured, "It is the Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet." [11] But he answered them, "The man who healed me said to me, `Take up your pallet, and walk.'" [12] They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, `Take up your pallet, and walk'?" [13] Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. [14] Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you." [15] The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. [16] And this was why the Jews persecuted Jesus, because He did this on the Sabbath.
__________________
Commentary:
1. We cannot be certain what festival this was; it probably refers to the Passover, known the world over at the time as the national festival of the Jewish people. But it could refer to another festival, Pentecost, perhaps.
2. This pool was also called the "Probatic" pool because it was located on the outskirts of Jerusalem, beside the Probatic Gate or Sheep Gate (cf. Nehemiah 3:1-32; 12:39) through which came the livestock which was going to be sacrificed in the temple. Around the end of the nineteenth century the remains of a pool were discovered: excavated out of rock, it was rectangular in shape and was surrounded by four galleries or porches, with a fifth porch dividing the pool into two.
3-4. The Fathers teach that this pool is a symbol of Christian Baptism; but that whereas the pool of Bethzatha cured physical ailments, Baptism cures those of the soul; in Bethzatha's case only one person was cured, now and again; shown through the medium of water (cf. Chrysostom, "Hom. on St. John", 36, 1).
The Sixto-Clementine edition of the Vulgate includes here, as a second part of verse 3 and all of verse 4: "waiting for the moving of the water; [4] For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and troubled the water' whoever stepped in first after the troubling of the water was healed of whatever disease he had." The New Vulgate, however, omits this passage, assigning it to a footnote, because it does not appear in important Greek codexes and papyri, nor in many ancient translations.
14. The man may have come to the temple to thank God for his cure. Jesus goes over to him and reminds him that the health of the soul is more important than physical health.
Our Lord uses holy fear of God as motivation in the struggle against sin: "Sin no more, that nothing worse may befall you". This holy fear is born out of respect for God our Father; it is perfectly compatible with love. Just as children love and respect their parents and try to avoid annoying them partly because they are afraid of being punished, so we should fight against sin firstly because it is an offense against God, but also because we can be punished in this life and, above all, in the next.
16-18. The Law of Moses established the Sabbath as a weekly day of rest. Through keeping the Sabbath the Jews felt they were imitating God, who rested from the work of creation on the seventh day. St. Thomas Aquinas observes that Jesus rejects this strict interpretation: (The Jews), in their desire to imitate God, did nothing on the Sabbath, as if God on that day had ceased absolutely to act. It is true that He rested on the Sabbath from His work of creating new creatures, but He is always continually at work, maintaining them in existence. [...] God is the cause of all things in the sense that He also maintains them in existence; for if for one moment He were to stop exercising His power, at that very moment everything that nature contains would cease to exist" ("Comm. on St. John, in loc.").
"My Father is working still, and I am working": we have already said that God is continually acting. Since the Son acts together with the Father, who with the Holy Spirit are the one and only God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can say that He is always working. These words of Jesus contain an implicit reference to His divinity: the Jews realize this and they want to kill Him because they consider it blasphemous. "We all call God our Father, who is in Heaven (Isaiah 63:16; 64:8). Therefore, they were angry, not at this, that He said God was His Father, but that He said it in quite another way than men. Notice: the Jews understand what Arians do not understand. Arians affirm the Son to be not equal to the Father, and that was why this heresy was driven from the Church. Here, even the blind, even the slayers of Christ, understand the works of Christ" (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang., 17, 16). We call God our Father because through grace we are His adopted children; Jesus calls Him His Father because He is His Son by nature. This is why He says after the Resurrection: "I am ascending to My Father and your Father" (John 20:17), making a clear distinction between the two ways of being a son of God.
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
The Cure of a Sick Man at the Pool at Bethzatha
[1] After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. [2] Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethzatha, which has five porticoes. [3] In these lay a multitude of invalid, blind, lame, paralyzed. [5] One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. [6] When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there for a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be healed?" [7] The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me." [8] Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your pallet, and walk." [9] And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath. [10] So the Jews said to the man who was cured, "It is the Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet." [11] But he answered them, "The man who healed me said to me, `Take up your pallet, and walk.'" [12] They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, `Take up your pallet, and walk'?" [13] Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. [14] Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you." [15] The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. [16] And this was why the Jews persecuted Jesus, because He did this on the Sabbath.
__________________
Commentary:
1. We cannot be certain what festival this was; it probably refers to the Passover, known the world over at the time as the national festival of the Jewish people. But it could refer to another festival, Pentecost, perhaps.
2. This pool was also called the "Probatic" pool because it was located on the outskirts of Jerusalem, beside the Probatic Gate or Sheep Gate (cf. Nehemiah 3:1-32; 12:39) through which came the livestock which was going to be sacrificed in the temple. Around the end of the nineteenth century the remains of a pool were discovered: excavated out of rock, it was rectangular in shape and was surrounded by four galleries or porches, with a fifth porch dividing the pool into two.
3-4. The Fathers teach that this pool is a symbol of Christian Baptism; but that whereas the pool of Bethzatha cured physical ailments, Baptism cures those of the soul; in Bethzatha's case only one person was cured, now and again; shown through the medium of water (cf. Chrysostom, "Hom. on St. John", 36, 1).
The Sixto-Clementine edition of the Vulgate includes here, as a second part of verse 3 and all of verse 4: "waiting for the moving of the water; [4] For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and troubled the water' whoever stepped in first after the troubling of the water was healed of whatever disease he had." The New Vulgate, however, omits this passage, assigning it to a footnote, because it does not appear in important Greek codexes and papyri, nor in many ancient translations.
14. The man may have come to the temple to thank God for his cure. Jesus goes over to him and reminds him that the health of the soul is more important than physical health.
Our Lord uses holy fear of God as motivation in the struggle against sin: "Sin no more, that nothing worse may befall you". This holy fear is born out of respect for God our Father; it is perfectly compatible with love. Just as children love and respect their parents and try to avoid annoying them partly because they are afraid of being punished, so we should fight against sin firstly because it is an offense against God, but also because we can be punished in this life and, above all, in the next.
16-18. The Law of Moses established the Sabbath as a weekly day of rest. Through keeping the Sabbath the Jews felt they were imitating God, who rested from the work of creation on the seventh day. St. Thomas Aquinas observes that Jesus rejects this strict interpretation: (The Jews), in their desire to imitate God, did nothing on the Sabbath, as if God on that day had ceased absolutely to act. It is true that He rested on the Sabbath from His work of creating new creatures, but He is always continually at work, maintaining them in existence. [...] God is the cause of all things in the sense that He also maintains them in existence; for if for one moment He were to stop exercising His power, at that very moment everything that nature contains would cease to exist" ("Comm. on St. John, in loc.").
"My Father is working still, and I am working": we have already said that God is continually acting. Since the Son acts together with the Father, who with the Holy Spirit are the one and only God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can say that He is always working. These words of Jesus contain an implicit reference to His divinity: the Jews realize this and they want to kill Him because they consider it blasphemous. "We all call God our Father, who is in Heaven (Isaiah 63:16; 64:8). Therefore, they were angry, not at this, that He said God was His Father, but that He said it in quite another way than men. Notice: the Jews understand what Arians do not understand. Arians affirm the Son to be not equal to the Father, and that was why this heresy was driven from the Church. Here, even the blind, even the slayers of Christ, understand the works of Christ" (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang., 17, 16). We call God our Father because through grace we are His adopted children; Jesus calls Him His Father because He is His Son by nature. This is why He says after the Resurrection: "I am ascending to My Father and your Father" (John 20:17), making a clear distinction between the two ways of being a son of God.
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
Principles and Practices - March 16
Gently
A man takes contradiction and advice much more easily than people think, only he will not bear it when violently given, even though it is well founded. Hearts are flowers, they remain open to the softly falling dew, but shut up in the violent downpour of rain.
-Richter.
_________________
From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930
A man takes contradiction and advice much more easily than people think, only he will not bear it when violently given, even though it is well founded. Hearts are flowers, they remain open to the softly falling dew, but shut up in the violent downpour of rain.
-Richter.
_________________
From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930
The School of Love, March 15
LIVING IN THE PRESENT
OUR Lord said, at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount: "Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof;" and He went on to explain the practical application of His words: "Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself."
By this He does not encourage carelessness, or want of foresight; He does not condemn thrift and prudence; He only warns us against the commonest source of all our vainest anxieties, the imaginary fear of what may be.
Of all the many kindnesses of God to man, is there any kindness greater than the permission to live each day as a life apart, to make of each day a perfect thing, unspoiled by what may have been, still more by what may be? And yet is there any kindness of God more commonly neglected, more recklessly thrown away?
We human beings are strange creatures. We are for ever crying for the moon, and neglect the solid earth on which we stand. We make nothing of that which is in our hands; our eyes are for ever wandering abroad, seeing phantoms through the mist, turning life into a nightmare, paralysing action by the fear of that which is not....
[continued tomorrow]
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
OUR Lord said, at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount: "Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof;" and He went on to explain the practical application of His words: "Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself."
By this He does not encourage carelessness, or want of foresight; He does not condemn thrift and prudence; He only warns us against the commonest source of all our vainest anxieties, the imaginary fear of what may be.
Of all the many kindnesses of God to man, is there any kindness greater than the permission to live each day as a life apart, to make of each day a perfect thing, unspoiled by what may have been, still more by what may be? And yet is there any kindness of God more commonly neglected, more recklessly thrown away?
We human beings are strange creatures. We are for ever crying for the moon, and neglect the solid earth on which we stand. We make nothing of that which is in our hands; our eyes are for ever wandering abroad, seeing phantoms through the mist, turning life into a nightmare, paralysing action by the fear of that which is not....
[continued tomorrow]
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Gospel for Monday, 4th Week of Lent
John 4:43-54
[43] After two days Jesus departed to Galilee. [44] For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. [45] So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him, having seen all that He had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they too had gone to the feast.
The Cure of the Royal Official's Son
[46] So He came again to Cana in Galilee, where He had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. [47]When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. [48] Jesus therefore said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." [49] The official said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." [50] Jesus said to him, "Go, your son will live." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way. [51] As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was living. [52] So he asked them the hour when he began to mend, and they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." [53] The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live"; and he himself believed, and all his household. [54] This was now the second sign that Jesus did when He had come from Judea to Galilee.
_______________
Commentary:
46. St. John is speaking about a royal official, probably in the service of Herod Antipas who, although he was only tetrarch or governor of Galilee (cf. Luke 3:1), was also referred to as king (cf. Mark6:14). The official, therefore, would have been someone of high rank(verse 51), who lived in Capernaum, a town with a customs post. This is why St. Jerome thought he must have been a "palatinus", a palace courtier, as the corresponding Greek word implies.
48. Jesus seems to be addressing not so much the official as the people of Galilee who flock to Him to get Him to perform miracles and work wonders. On another occasion our Lord reproaches the towns of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum for their disbelief (Matthew11:21-23), because the miracles He worked there would have been enough to move the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon, and even Sodom itself, to do penance. The Galileans in general were more inclined to watch Him perform miracles than listen to His preaching. Later on, after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, they will look for Jesus to make Him king--but they are slower to believe when He tells them about the Eucharist (John 6:15, 53, 62). Jesus asks people to have a strong, committed faith which, though it may draw support from miracles, does not require them. Be that as it may, in all ages God continues to work miracles, which help bolster our faith.
"I'm not one for miracles. I have told you that in the Holy Gospel I can find more than enough to confirm my faith.--But I can't help pitying those Christians--pious people, `apostles' many of them--who
smile at the idea of extraordinary ways, of supernatural events. I feel the urge to tell them: Yes, this is still the age of miracles: we too would work them if we had faith!" ([St] J. Escriva, "The Way", 583).
49-50. In spite of Jesus' apparent coldness, the official keeps trying: "Sir, come down before my child dies". Although His faith is imperfect, it did bring him to travel the thirty-three kilometers(twenty miles) between Capernaum and Cana, and despite his important position here he was, begging our Lord for help. Jesus likes the man’s perseverance and humility; he rewards his faith: "`Si habueritis fidem,sicut granum sinapis! If your faith were the size of a mustard seed!...' What promises are contained in this exclamation of the Master!" ([St] J. Escriva, "The Way", 585).
The Fathers compare this miracle with that of the centurion's servant, contrasting the amazing faith of the centurion--from the start--with the initially imperfect faith of this official from Capernaum. St.John Chrysostom comments: "Here was a robust faith [in the case of this official]; therefore, Jesus made him the promise, so that we might learn from this man's devotion; his faith was as yet imperfect, and he did not clearly realize that Jesus could effect the cure at a distance; thus, the Lord, by not agreeing to go down to the man's house, wished us to learn the need to have faith" ("Hom. on St. John", 35).
53. The miracle is so convincing that this man and all his family become believers. All parents should do what they can to bring their household to the faith. As St. Paul says, "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever" (1 Timothy 5:8). Cf. Acts16:14, where we are told that Lydia brought her whole household along with her to be baptized; Acts 18:8 mentions Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue doing the same thing, as does the prison warden (Acts16:33).
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
[43] After two days Jesus departed to Galilee. [44] For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. [45] So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him, having seen all that He had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they too had gone to the feast.
The Cure of the Royal Official's Son
[46] So He came again to Cana in Galilee, where He had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. [47]When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. [48] Jesus therefore said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." [49] The official said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." [50] Jesus said to him, "Go, your son will live." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way. [51] As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was living. [52] So he asked them the hour when he began to mend, and they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." [53] The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live"; and he himself believed, and all his household. [54] This was now the second sign that Jesus did when He had come from Judea to Galilee.
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Commentary:
46. St. John is speaking about a royal official, probably in the service of Herod Antipas who, although he was only tetrarch or governor of Galilee (cf. Luke 3:1), was also referred to as king (cf. Mark6:14). The official, therefore, would have been someone of high rank(verse 51), who lived in Capernaum, a town with a customs post. This is why St. Jerome thought he must have been a "palatinus", a palace courtier, as the corresponding Greek word implies.
48. Jesus seems to be addressing not so much the official as the people of Galilee who flock to Him to get Him to perform miracles and work wonders. On another occasion our Lord reproaches the towns of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum for their disbelief (Matthew11:21-23), because the miracles He worked there would have been enough to move the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon, and even Sodom itself, to do penance. The Galileans in general were more inclined to watch Him perform miracles than listen to His preaching. Later on, after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, they will look for Jesus to make Him king--but they are slower to believe when He tells them about the Eucharist (John 6:15, 53, 62). Jesus asks people to have a strong, committed faith which, though it may draw support from miracles, does not require them. Be that as it may, in all ages God continues to work miracles, which help bolster our faith.
"I'm not one for miracles. I have told you that in the Holy Gospel I can find more than enough to confirm my faith.--But I can't help pitying those Christians--pious people, `apostles' many of them--who
smile at the idea of extraordinary ways, of supernatural events. I feel the urge to tell them: Yes, this is still the age of miracles: we too would work them if we had faith!" ([St] J. Escriva, "The Way", 583).
49-50. In spite of Jesus' apparent coldness, the official keeps trying: "Sir, come down before my child dies". Although His faith is imperfect, it did bring him to travel the thirty-three kilometers(twenty miles) between Capernaum and Cana, and despite his important position here he was, begging our Lord for help. Jesus likes the man’s perseverance and humility; he rewards his faith: "`Si habueritis fidem,sicut granum sinapis! If your faith were the size of a mustard seed!...' What promises are contained in this exclamation of the Master!" ([St] J. Escriva, "The Way", 585).
The Fathers compare this miracle with that of the centurion's servant, contrasting the amazing faith of the centurion--from the start--with the initially imperfect faith of this official from Capernaum. St.John Chrysostom comments: "Here was a robust faith [in the case of this official]; therefore, Jesus made him the promise, so that we might learn from this man's devotion; his faith was as yet imperfect, and he did not clearly realize that Jesus could effect the cure at a distance; thus, the Lord, by not agreeing to go down to the man's house, wished us to learn the need to have faith" ("Hom. on St. John", 35).
53. The miracle is so convincing that this man and all his family become believers. All parents should do what they can to bring their household to the faith. As St. Paul says, "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever" (1 Timothy 5:8). Cf. Acts16:14, where we are told that Lydia brought her whole household along with her to be baptized; Acts 18:8 mentions Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue doing the same thing, as does the prison warden (Acts16:33).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
Principles and Practices - March 15
Courage - And Go On
When thou art beginning to correct a fault, an evil habit, and thou shouldst transgress thy law a first, a second, a third, nay, a twentieth time, do not despair, but rise up again, and resume the same diligence, and thou shalt surely prevail.
-St. Chrysostom.
_________________
From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930
When thou art beginning to correct a fault, an evil habit, and thou shouldst transgress thy law a first, a second, a third, nay, a twentieth time, do not despair, but rise up again, and resume the same diligence, and thou shalt surely prevail.
-St. Chrysostom.
_________________
From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930
The School of Love, March 14
PIETY AND PIETISM
[Continued from yesterday]
...I do not know whether in our hearts there are any other pious people we blame. At first we incline to blame all, sweeping all into one condemnation. Later we discover that not all are included; some good people are also good sorts.
Gradually, if we are patient, we limit very much our sentence; we begin to discover that it is not so much piety we condemn, or so much piety that rouses us, as either piety eccentric, or else piety gone mad, or lastly piety that has frozen into pietism.
Man is too true to be easily mistaken; truth recognises truth and always loves it; if then there is antagonism there will be untruth on one side or the other. But if piety is genuine, if it goes deep down and is therefore spontaneous, then it is always welcome; and that chiefly because it is scarcely, if at all, recognised.
It is blended with the character of the owner, and the character, chastened by it, dominates. Such a character we call real, and are prepared to accept all the rest.
All this leads us to two conclusions. In the first place let us not be in too great a hurry to condemn all piety as pietism. If we have a natural prejudice against piety, and cannot account for its origin, if we have here and there met a pious individual who has got very much on our nerves, let us not hastily assume that all piety is annoying, that all good people are wet blankets, but let us look around and count the number of those whom we revere, not in spite of, but because of their piety.
And secondly let us look to ourselves. It may be that pious people are a trouble to us, chiefly because our piety is a trouble to them. We ourselves may not be immaculate in that matter. Or again it may be that they trouble us, because we do not want to be troubled. We have settled down in a comfortable little puddle of our own, and object to being disturbed. In either case the fault may be ours; if it is, do not let piety suffer for it, even if we ourselves do not aspire so high.
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
[Continued from yesterday]
...I do not know whether in our hearts there are any other pious people we blame. At first we incline to blame all, sweeping all into one condemnation. Later we discover that not all are included; some good people are also good sorts.
Gradually, if we are patient, we limit very much our sentence; we begin to discover that it is not so much piety we condemn, or so much piety that rouses us, as either piety eccentric, or else piety gone mad, or lastly piety that has frozen into pietism.
Man is too true to be easily mistaken; truth recognises truth and always loves it; if then there is antagonism there will be untruth on one side or the other. But if piety is genuine, if it goes deep down and is therefore spontaneous, then it is always welcome; and that chiefly because it is scarcely, if at all, recognised.
It is blended with the character of the owner, and the character, chastened by it, dominates. Such a character we call real, and are prepared to accept all the rest.
All this leads us to two conclusions. In the first place let us not be in too great a hurry to condemn all piety as pietism. If we have a natural prejudice against piety, and cannot account for its origin, if we have here and there met a pious individual who has got very much on our nerves, let us not hastily assume that all piety is annoying, that all good people are wet blankets, but let us look around and count the number of those whom we revere, not in spite of, but because of their piety.
And secondly let us look to ourselves. It may be that pious people are a trouble to us, chiefly because our piety is a trouble to them. We ourselves may not be immaculate in that matter. Or again it may be that they trouble us, because we do not want to be troubled. We have settled down in a comfortable little puddle of our own, and object to being disturbed. In either case the fault may be ours; if it is, do not let piety suffer for it, even if we ourselves do not aspire so high.
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
Dr Edward Peters: Abps. Dolan and Listecki on Holy Communion for pro-aborts
Dr Peters writes:
Archbishops Dolan of New York and Listecki of Milwaukee recently came under fire for comments they made seeming to express reluctance to withhold holy Communion from Catholic politicians under various conditions. Particularly in open-forum comment boxes (always to be taken with shovel-fulls of salt, those!), there's a lot of sky-is-falling carping against the prelates for shirking their duties, abandoning babies, betraying Pope Benedict, and so on. Hogwash.Read why here.
Reflections for the 4th Week of Lent
Lost and Found
A Reflection for the 4th Sunday of Lent
Adapted from Plain Sermons by Practical Preachers, Vol. II(©1916)
Homily by Rev H. T. Henry, Litt. D.
Nihil Obstat: Remegius Lafort, S.T.D
Imprimatur: John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
The Way of the Cross
"There followed him a great crowd." St. John, 6:2
"He suffered under Pontius Pilate." Creed.
Adapted from Talks on the Creed
by Fr. Arthur Tonne, 1946
Temporal Duties Toward Children
"Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?" St. John, 6:5
Adapted from Talks on the Commandments, (1948)
by Fr. Arthur Tonne
Holy Mary
"This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world." St. John, 6:14.
Adapted from Prayers, Precepts and Virtues
by Fr. Arthur Tonne, 1949
A Reflection for the 4th Sunday of Lent
Adapted from Plain Sermons by Practical Preachers, Vol. II(©1916)
Homily by Rev H. T. Henry, Litt. D.
Nihil Obstat: Remegius Lafort, S.T.D
Imprimatur: John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
The Way of the Cross
"There followed him a great crowd." St. John, 6:2
"He suffered under Pontius Pilate." Creed.
Adapted from Talks on the Creed
by Fr. Arthur Tonne, 1946
Temporal Duties Toward Children
"Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?" St. John, 6:5
Adapted from Talks on the Commandments, (1948)
by Fr. Arthur Tonne
Holy Mary
"This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world." St. John, 6:14.
Adapted from Prayers, Precepts and Virtues
by Fr. Arthur Tonne, 1949
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