OXYGEN

10 Feb – Memorial of St Scholastica, Virgin

Scholastica (480-543) was the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia. Born to Italian nobility, her mother died in childbirth. She became a nun and led a community of women at Plombariloa near Montecassino.

- Patron Saint Index

From her earliest years, she had been consecrated to God. She was accustomed to visiting her brother once a year, and he would come down to meet her at a place on the monastery property, not far outside the gate. One day, she came as usual and her saintly brother went with some of his disciples; they spent the whole day praising God and talking of sacred things.

As night fell, they had supper together. Their spiritual conversation went on and the hour grew late. The holy nun said to her brother, “Please do not leave me tonight; let us go on until morning talking about the delights of the spiritual life.” “Sister,” he replied, “what are you saying? I simply cannot stay outside my cell.”

When she heard her brother refuse her request, the holy woman joined her hands on the table, laid her head on them and began to pray. As she raised her head from the table, there were such brilliant flashes of lightning, such great peals of thunder and such a heavy downpour of rain that neither Benedict nor his brethren could stir across the threshold of the place where they had been seated.

Sadly, he began to complain, “May God forgive you, sister. What have you done?” “Well,” she answered, “I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen. So now go off, if you can, leave me and return to your monastery.” So it came about that they stayed awake the whole night, engrossed in their conversation about the spiritual life.

Three days later, Benedict was in his cell. Looking up to the sky, he saw his sister’s soul leave her body in the form of a dove, and fly up to the secret places of heaven. Rejoicing in her great glory, he thanked almighty God with hymns and words of praise. He then sent his brethren to bring her body to the monastery and lay it in the tomb he had prepared for himself.

- from Dialogues by Pope St. Gregory the Great
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1 Kings 10:1-10

The fame of Solomon having reached the queen of Sheba, she came to test him with difficult questions. She brought immense riches to Jerusalem with her, camels laden with spices, great quantities of gold, and previous stones. On coming to Solomon, she opened her mind freely to him; and Solomon had an answer for all her questions, not one of them was too obscure for the king to expound. When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, the palace he had built, the food at his table, the accommodation for his officials, the organisation of his staff and the way they were dressed, his cup-bearers, and the holocausts he offered in the Temple of the Lord, it left her breathless, and she said to the king, ‘What I heard in my own country about you and your wisdom was true, then! Until I came and saw it with my own eyes I could not believe what they told me, but clearly they told me less than half: for wisdom and prosperity you surpass the report I heard. How happy your wives are! How happy are these servants of yours who wait on you always and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God who has granted you his favour, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because of the Lord’s everlasting love for Israel, he has made you king to deal out law and justice.’ And she presented the king with a hundred and twenty talents of gold and great quantities of spices and previous stones; no such wealth of spices ever came again as those given to King Solomon by the queen of Sheba.
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Mark 7:14-23

Jesus called the people to him and said, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean. If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this.’

When he had gone back into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, ‘Do you not understand either? Can you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot make him unclean, because it does not go into his heard but through his stomach and passes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he pronounced all foods clean.) And he went on, ‘It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge; fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.’
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If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this

Amongst my colleagues who are school teachers, we always joke amongst ourselves that our students say ‘yes’ to all our questions but when we ask them again, they will not be able to recall whatever they have been taught. In certain ways, today’s readings are a reminder to us that the possession of ears does not necessarily mean that we will be able to hear the word of God.

God’s instructions to us are clear; He wants us to love Him and not to commit sin because such behaviour will offend Him. We read this in today’s Gospel where Jesus reminds us that it is the inside of a person when all forms of sin came from. It always amazes me on how much evil the hearts of men have. I always believed that such evil is always due to pride because there is a desire to demonstrate ourselves to be superior. Maybe we should consider the opposing virtue to pride: humility. Sometimes we think too much of ourselves and forget that we are creatures of God; as such we depend on God for everything. This requires us to be humble and submit ourselves to the will of God.

Clearly this is not an easy task but we should consider trying because it is in trying, failing and picking ourselves up that we learn to become docile to the voice of God in our daily lives.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Nicholas Chia)
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Prayer: Lord, we pray for ears that can hear Your voice.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks for the presence of spiritual directors.

Upcoming Readings:
Thu, 11 Feb – 1 Kings 11:4-13; Mark 7:24-30; Memorial for Our Lady of Lourdes; World Day of Prayer for the Sick
Fri, 12 Feb – 1 Kings 11:29-32;12:19; Mark 7: 31-37
Sat, 13 Feb – 1 Kings 12:26-32;13:33-34; Mark 8:1-10
Sun, 14 Feb – 1 Jeremiah 17:5-8; 1 Corinthians 15:12.16-20; Luke 6:20-26; Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time; Chinese New Year