Daily Archives: August 14, 2017

15 August, Tuesday – Fulfilment

Solemnity, Special days, ,

Aug 15 – Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Mary is taken up body and soul into the glory of Heaven, and with God and in God she is Queen of Heaven and earth. And is she really so remote from us? The contrary is true. Precisely because she is with God and in God, she is very close to each one of us. While she lived on this earth she could only be close to a few people. Being in God, who is close to us, actually, “within” all of us, Mary shares in this closeness of God. Being in God and with God, she is close to each one of us, knows our hearts, can hear our prayers, can help us with her motherly kindness and has been given to us, as the Lord said, precisely as a “mother” to whom we can turn at every moment. – Pope Benedict XVI

  • http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2005/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20050815_assunzione-maria_en.html

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Apocalypse 11:19,12:1-6,10

The sanctuary of God in heaven opened and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside it. Then came flashes of lightning, peals of thunder and an earthquake, and violent hail.

Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown. She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth. Then a second sign appeared in the sky, a huge red dragon which had seven heads and ten horns, and each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet. Its tail dragged a third of the stars from the sky and dropped them to the earth, and the dragon stopped in front of the woman as she was having the child, so that he could eat it as soon as it was born from its mother. The woman brought a male child into the world, the son who was to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre, and the child was taken straight up to God and to his throne, while the woman escaped into the desert, where God had made a place of safety ready, for her to be looked after in the twelve hundred and sixty days.

Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, ‘Victory and power and empire for ever have been won by our God, and all authority for his Christ, now that the persecutor, who accused our brothers day and night before our God, has been brought down.’

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1 Corinthians 15:20-26

Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. Death came through one man and in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man. Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ; but all of them in their proper order: Christ as the first-fruits and then, after the coming of Christ, those who belong to him. After that will come the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, having done away with every sovereignty, authority and power. For he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death, for everything is to be put under his feet.

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Luke 1:39-56

Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’
And Mary said:

‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
and my spirit exults in God my saviour;
because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid.
Yes, from this day forward all generations will call me blessed,
for the Almighty has done great things for me.
Holy is his name,
and his mercy reaches from age to age for those who fear him.
He has shown the power of his arm,
he has routed the proud of heart.
He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly.
The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich sent empty away.
He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his mercy
– according to the promise he made to our ancestors –
of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back home.

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“All generations shall call me blessed, for the Almighty has done great things for me.”

There is so much to be said about Mary, her life, prophesies about her, her death (or lack of a bodily death as some scholars propose), her assumption and her queenship now.

In my reversion to the Catholic faith, initially I did not have any inclination to Mary, now I have a four foot tall painting of her in my living room. So as my reversion was taking place, the rosary found a place in my heart during a 54 day novena that Pope Francis called for early in his pontificate. When you pray 53 Hail Mary’s for 54 consecutive days, you start to contemplate on the mysteries from every angle.

I started to realise that Mary fulfilled so much of what was written in scripture. What I would like to focus on for today, is the Magnificat, this prayer inspired by the Holy Spirit when she met with her cousin Elizabeth. “ Yes, from this day forward all generations will call me blessed, for the Almighty  has done great things for me.”

I see that line being fulfilled in her Assumption and Coronation, the 4th and 5th glorious mysteries of the rosary. We adopted the first half of the Hail Mary from Luke chapter 1, but really it finds it fulfilment after she passed from this world. Whether she was assumed into heaven, or died then was taken up, the point is that we now call her Blessed and full of grace, for she had become Queen of heaven and just like Solomons mother in 1 Kings, where King Solomon had a throne on his right for his mother and when he said to her “make your request my mother for I will not refuse you” (1 Kings 2:20), sounds a little like the wedding at Cana.

The mother of the King, all throughout history has had a prominent place in the kingdom. Rightly so, Our Blessed Mother has that place too and all her life she sought to do the will of God, The King. We have been called heirs to the Kingdom, and our job is simple, to do the will of the Father, as Jesus said. And in The Queen of Heaven we have an example to follow, humility, obedience & submission will get us there.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Daryl De Payva)

Prayer: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” (Luke 1: 46-55)

Thanksgiving: Thank you Lord, for providing a human example of grace and humility and obedience. In your mother we have roadmap to help us join you in heaven.

14 August, Monday – Strangers Passing Through this World

Ordinary Time

14 Aug – Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest, Martyr (1894 – 1941)

He was born on 8 January 1894 in occupied Poland: he joined the Franciscans in Lwów in 1910, and was ordained eight years later, as his country became free and independent for the first time in over 120 years.

  He believed that the world was passing through a time of intense spiritual crisis, and that Christians must fight for the world’s salvation with all the means of modern communication. He founded a newspaper, and a sodality called the Knights of Mary Immaculate, which spread widely both in Poland and abroad.

  In 1927 he founded a community, a “city of Mary,” at Teresin: centred round the Franciscan friary, it attracted many lay people, and became self-supporting, publishing many periodicals and running its own radio station.

  In 1930 he went to Japan, studied Buddhism and Shintoism, and through the Japanese edition of his newspaper spread the Christian message in a way that was in harmony with Japanese culture. In Nagasaki, he set up a “Garden of the Immaculate,” which survived the atomic bomb.

  He also travelled to Malabar and to Moscow, but was recalled to Poland in 1936 for reasons of health.

  When the Germans invaded in 1939, the community at Teresin sheltered thousands of refugees, most of them Jews.

  In 1941 he was arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, where he helped and succoured the inmates. In August of that year a prisoner escaped, and in reprisal the authorities were choosing ten people to die by starvation. One of the men had a family, and Maximilian Kolbe offered to take his place. The offer was accepted, and he spent his last days comforting his fellow prisoners.

  The man he saved was present at his canonization.

Maximilian Kolbe’s martyrdom is the least important thing about him. We are none of us likely to find ourselves in a position to emulate his sacrifice, and speculation as to the heroic way in which we would have behaved in his place is a pernicious waste of time. What is important is that he acted the way he did because of who he was – or, rather, because of who he had become. It is because of who he had become that we revere him as a saint: he would have been a saint (though perhaps not canonized) even if he had not been martyred. And that process of becoming is something we can all emulate. We can all become people for whom doing the right thing is obvious, natural, and easy. It requires no heroism, no special gifts: just perseverance, and prayer.

Source: Universalis

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Deuteronomy 10:12-22

Moses said to the people:

  ‘Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you? Only this: to fear the Lord your God, to follow all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the commandments and laws of the Lord that for your good I lay down for you today.

  ‘To the Lord your God belong indeed heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth and all it contains; yet it was on your fathers that the Lord set his heart for love of them, and after them of all the nations chose their descendants, you yourselves, up to the present day. Circumcise your heart then and be obstinate no longer; for the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, triumphant and terrible, never partial, never to be bribed. It is he who sees justice done for the orphan and the widow, who loves the stranger and gives him food and clothing. Love the stranger then, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. It is the Lord your God you must fear and serve; you must cling to him; in his name take your oaths. He it is you must praise, he is your God: for you he has done these great and terrible things you have seen with your own eyes; and though your fathers numbered only seventy when they went down to Egypt, the Lord your God has made you as many as the stars of heaven.’

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Matthew 17:22-27

One day when they were together in Galilee, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of men; they will put him to death, and on the third day he will be raised to life again.’ And a great sadness came over them.

  When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the half-shekel came to Peter and said, ‘Does your master not pay the half-shekel?’ ‘Oh yes’ he replied, and went into the house. But before he could speak, Jesus said, ‘Simon, what is your opinion? From whom do the kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from foreigners?’ And when he replied, ‘From foreigners’, Jesus said, ‘Well then, the sons are exempt. However, so as not to offend these people, go to the lake and cast a hook; take the first fish that bites, open its mouth and there you will find a shekel; take it and give it to them for me and for you.’

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Love the stranger then, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Are you a foreigner where you live? Maybe you have studied or worked abroad at some point in your life, or even now. Maybe you have just returned from living overseas for a period of time. How did you feel when you first arrived? Can you recall those tentative, uncertain, shy, and anxious moments of wondering if you would fit in? Were you terrified of sorely sticking out and being targeted or stared at?

I have just returned from living in the USA for the past year. It has been just two weeks since my return to Singapore. While this has not been a long arrangement, coming home entailed much adjustment. Why? My husband and I relocated for his work right after we were married. We spent a couple of months finding our footing in a foreign land, setting up a brand new (short term) first home in a strange neighbourhood, finding a church community, etc. After we had struggled and established a wonderful routine there, we had to start making plans to leave, pack up, and return home. All in a span of 12 months! Upon our return home, we have been without a place to call our home until we found a rental apartment. We moved temporarily back into our respective parental homes and adjusted to living apart until we could find a place. Essentially, we were pilgrims or wanderers. I truly felt like a stranger passing through all manners of foreign lands, living with this season of feeling up-rooted and un-rooted.

I am acutely aware of the scripture readings today, which speak of the transient nature of our earthly sojourn. So often we take for granted our privilege of living in our own country, or having a home of one’s own. This is especially true when one lives in a place of general prosperity and stability. Yet as Christians, who may live in all parts of the world with such diverse circumstances and experiences, we are reminded constantly of the Israelites and their endless desert wandering. Though they are God’s chosen people, He never gave them the cushy life of permanence and stability. This is the reality of life we must acknowledge. It unnerves, yet matures us.

I believe that more than a mere literal reading, us modern Christians are also given a heritage example of what our earthly time really means. We are all strangers in this foreign land of the world. Our true eternal address, if we so desire, is heaven-bound with God our Father. This cannot be a contrite statement of tokenism. None of us will live on this earth forever! In fact, this should hit us squarely between the eyes that we are stewards of our homelands, families, and our environment. Likewise, our fellow commuter on the bus or train, who may clearly be of a different nationality, is no lesser than us in the eyes of God who has so graciously ordained the very soil on which you and I happened to be born in.

How then have we chosen to treat the man on the street; the one who is also our brother and sister in Christ? As I write this, I am reflecting on the terrible wars, civil unrest, and terrorist sieges happening over the world. Though we condemn these actions, some of us are so far removed (physically) from the events that we think it is something the ‘others’ have failed at. But what have we personally chosen to do in our own department of lives? Where have we been sounding like clanging cymbals and gongs about ‘Love’ but have not acted ‘IN Love’?

I have been challenged indubitably for the past few days in my own microcosm of life. We must not reduce the racism, violence, or terrorism that is happening on this large scale to ‘loving thy neighbour/stranger’ in tokenism. But instead, to think specifically of that ‘neighbour/stranger’ you are tempted to distance or hate, or the one who seems to deserve your wrath for a transgression. Is it possible to try and love that one whom, for some reason, you just cannot find mercy for in your heart? Try that. Then try to radiate that same sensibility outwards. It’s easier to condemn others for larger faults, than to admit to one’s own cosy hypocrisy.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Debbie Loo)

Prayer: I pray for peace in the world. I pray that I will choose to be at peace with the people I live with and the many others who cross my path.

Thanksgiving: I give thanks for my lot in life. I continue to be grateful for my daily portion, even if a part of it may taste sour or bitter.