Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

St. Joachim and St. Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, had prayed for a child, and part of their prayer was the promise that they would dedicate their child to the service of God. Little did they know at that time what great service would be given by their infant daughter.

When Mary reached the age of three, her parents fulfilled their vow. Together with their family and friends, they took her to the Temple. The High Priest and other Temple priests greeted the procession, and tradition says that the child was brought before the fifteen high steps which led to the sanctuary. It is said that the child Mary made her way to the stairs and, strengthened by the Holy Spirit, ascended all fifteen steps, coming to the Holy of Holies where only the High Priest could enter. Tradition then says that the High Priest, acting outside every rule he knew, led the Holy Virgin into the Holy of Holies, astonishing everyone present in the Temple. So it was that she, whose own womb would become the Holy of Holies, came into the presence of the God Whom she would bear.

St. Joachim and St. Anne returned to their home, but the Handmaid of the Lord remained in the Temple until her espousal, where she was prepared by God and protected by angels.

O God, who on this day didst vouchsafe that blessed Mary Ever-Virgin, the dwelling-place of the Holy Ghost, should be presented in the Temple: Grant, we beseech thee; that by her intercession we may be found worthy to be presented unto thee in the temple of thy glory; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Each year on the Sunday before Advent we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King, but the reality of Christ’s Kingship is a truth which is woven throughout the year in every liturgy, throughout the pages of Holy Scripture, integral to our prayers. Our royal Saviour is in front of our eyes constantly; whether at Christmastime when we speak of the Prince of Peace; or at Epiphany when we celebrate the revelation of the royal Christ as being a “light to the Gentiles;” or during Holy Week when we are brought face to face with our Lord as the King who reigns from the cross; or on the Ascension, when we celebrate His enthronement in heaven; or on Corpus Christi when we honour the King and High Priest hidden in the Holy Eucharist. In fact, not a day passes without the Church commemorating the kingship of Jesus Christ, as we pray in the name of Him who “liveth and reigneth with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost…” In the scriptures we find a multitude of references to Christ’s kingship, especially in the Psalms of King David, where there are so many references to the Messiah-King.

In fact, Christ was first presented to the Blessed Virgin Mary as a king, when the archangel said to her, “…the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” And Christ, when facing condemnation and death, spoke to Pilate who was judging Him, “You have said I am a king… although my kingdom is not of this world,” by which our Lord meant that his realm was no temporal kingdom, like that of earthly rulers, but rather, a supernatural kingdom. And to uphold this title to kingship He willingly accepted death, even enduring the mockery of the crowning with thorns. On the cross itself there was nailed the inscription in three languages, which expressed the main reason for His condemnation; and what did it say? “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”

A king must have a kingdom to rule. Christ is not a king in title only. He has a kingdom which is a tremendous empire, embracing all of creation. In that kingdom, He must rule and govern, and it is our obligation is to see to it that He is acknowledged as King throughout His entire realm; therefore we must understand something of the nature of Christ’s kingdom.

It is a kingdom which is on earth, but it is not of the earth. It is a kingdom with a two-fold aspect: one is external, and the other internal. The external aspect of it is the Church, which was founded by Christ, with her visible head, the Pope, with those bishops in communion with him, and her priesthood, along with all the sacraments, those visible instruments of grace, which are ministered through the Church’s visible organization. The internal aspect is the Mystical Body of Christ, of which Christ is the head, we are the members, and the Holy Spirit is the soul, the life-giving principle, of sanctifying grace.

When Christ appears on the Last Day in great power and majesty, surrounded by a multitude of angels, his kingdom will be fully revealed. Every day until then we are to honour and give glory to Christ the King by being faithful and by being obedient. Remember our Lord’s words, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” So simple, so beautiful, so straightforward. His commandment is that we should love – with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. In doing that, we give witness to the kingdom of our divine and glorious King.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in thy well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

St. Rose Philippine Duchesne

Rose Philippine Duchesne was born in Grenoble, France in 1769. After preparing for her first communion at the Visitation convent nearby, her desire to give her life to God led her to join the Visitation community, a cloistered, contemplative order, despite her longing to serve God in missionary lands. In the aftermath of the French revolution, her convent was closed by the government. For ten years Philippine served the destitute of Grenoble as she searched for God’s desires for her.

In 1804 Madeleine Sophie Barat was told about Philippine Duchesne, a woman of uncommon gifts and grace. Their first meeting led to an immediate soul friendship. Philippine joined the Society of the Sacred Heart and her desire to bring God to distant lands was realized in 1818 when she and four companions sailed to the New World. Here she longed to work among the Native Americans but it would be 23 years before she went to live among the Potawatomi. Before realizing her heart’s desire Philippine established the first Catholic schools west of the Mississippi and oversaw the growth of the Society of the Sacred Heart in the United States.

Frontier life exacted an enormous toll both physical (hunger, cold, poverty, sickness) and psychological (the difficulties of distance and communication, letters sometimes delayed six months or more). Philippine never believed she had the gift of leadership and died in 1852 thinking herself a failure. History reveals otherwise: Native Americans saw in her a woman “who prays always”; the schools she founded became part of a network of Sacred Heart Schools around the world; and the Society of the Sacred Heart remains an international community, bound together across six continents as much by relationships as by a common spirituality and mission.

Rose Philippine Duchesne was named a saint of the Church in 1988.

- from the website of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Almighty God, who didst fill the heart of Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne with charity and missionary zeal, and gave her the desire to make thee known among all peoples: grant us to follow her way, and fill us with that same love and zeal to extend thy kingdom to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Dedication of the Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul

We commemorate the Dedication of the Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul because the Church wants us to remember the importance of consecrated places in which the worship of God takes place. It is a testimony to the importance of the consecration of every Catholic Church throughout the world. It is a reminder to us of the incarnational principle on which our faith is based – that God extends His spiritual blessings to us through the use of physical things. He took human flesh upon Himself. He has instituted seven sacraments which use outward forms to communicate inward grace. He has established a hierarchical Church, with a physical presence in the world, to be a sign of His own presence with us.

Defend thy Church, O Lord, by the protection of the holy Apostles: that, as she received from them the beginnings of her knowledge of things divine; so through them she may receive, even to the end of the world, an increase in heavenly grace; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

St. Elizabeth of Hungary

St. Elizabeth lived in the 13th century, and she was a princess, the daughter of the King of Hungary. She married the young man she had loved for as long as she could remember, Ludwig of Thuringia, and their life together was blessed with three children. 

St. Elizabeth took seriously her duties as wife and mother, and because of her deep love for Christ, she took seriously also her duty toward the poor. She embraced the words of our Lord, “Whatever you do to the least of these, you have done it to me.” She put herself at the service of widows and orphans, she cared for the sick and the needy. Her life was really an expression of her deep love – love for God, love for her husband and children, and love for those who had no one else to love them. Hers was a very beautiful life, and no doubt she would have liked it to go on like that forever.

But sometimes things can change dramatically – we might not understand why, but it is always for God’s purpose. St. Elizabeth experienced an especially painful change in her life when her husband, whom she so deeply loved, went off to the Crusades, and there he was killed. Elizabeth was devastated – and not only was she sorrowing for the death of her husband, but her husband’s family, who never approved of her charitable works, cast her and her children out of the family home, and left her with no means of support.

So Elizabeth, a princess and the widow of a nobleman, reduced to poverty, was reduced to wandering with her children with no place to live, until a poor man whom she had helped previously was able to offer her shelter in an abandoned pig sty. Her faith sustained her – not only was she not bitter, but she put in even more effort to caring for the poor, with a renewed feeling for them, since she and her children were now counted among them. She supported herself and her children, as well as her works of charity, by spinning wool and making cloth to sell. She exhausted herself, and was only 24 years old when she died. Her feast day is November 16th.

O Lord God, who didst teach Saint Elizabeth of Hungary to recognize and to reverence Christ in the poor of this world: grant that we, being strengthened by her example and assisted by her prayers, may so love and serve the afflicted and those in need that we may honour thy Son, the servant King; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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Painting: "St. Elizabeth of Hungary Spinning Wool for the Poor"

by Marianne Stokes (1855–1927)

St. Gertrude the Great

At the General Audience in Saint Peter’s Square on Wednesday, 6 October 2010, Pope Benedict XVI offered this reflection on the life and witness of St. Gertrude:

“St Gertrude the Great, of whom I would like to talk to you today, brings us once again this week to the Monastery of Helfta, where several of the Latin-German masterpieces of religious literature were written by women. Gertrude belonged to this world. She is one of the most famous mystics, the only German woman to be called “Great”, because of her cultural and evangelical stature: her life and her thought had a unique impact on Christian spirituality. She was an exceptional woman, endowed with special natural talents and extraordinary gifts of grace, the most profound humility and ardent zeal for her neighbor’s salvation. She was in close communion with God both in contemplation and in her readiness to go to the help of those in need.

Gertrude was born on 6 January 1256, on the Feast of the Epiphany, but nothing is known of her parents nor of the place of her birth. Gertrude wrote that the Lord himself revealed to her the meaning of this first uprooting: “I have chosen you for my abode because I am pleased that all that is lovable in you is my work…. For this very reason I have distanced you from all your relatives, so that no one may love you for reasons of kinship and that I may be the sole cause of the affection you receive” (The Revelations, I, 16, Siena 1994, pp. 76-77).

Gertrude was an extraordinary student, she learned everything that can be learned of the sciences of the trivium and quadrivium, the education of that time; she was fascinated by knowledge and threw herself into profane studies with zeal and tenacity, achieving scholastic successes beyond every expectation. If we know nothing of her origins, she herself tells us about her youthful passions: literature, music and song and the art of miniature painting captivated her. She had a strong, determined, ready and impulsive temperament. She often says that she was negligent; she recognizes her shortcomings and humbly asks forgiveness for them. She also humbly asks for advice and prayers for her conversion. Some features of her temperament and faults were to accompany her to the end of her life, so as to amaze certain people who wondered why the Lord had favoured her with such a special love.

On 27 January 1281, a few days before the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, towards the hour of Compline in the evening, the Lord with his illumination dispelled her deep anxiety. She had a vision of a young man who, in order to guide her through the tangle of thorns that surrounded her soul, took her by the hand. In that hand Gertrude recognized “the precious traces of the wounds that abrogated all the acts of accusation of our enemies” (ibid., II, 1, p. 89), and thus recognized the One who saved us with his Blood on the Cross: Jesus.

Looking forward to never-ending communion, she ended her earthly life on 17 November 1301 or 1302, at the age of about 46.”

O God, who didst prepare a delightful dwelling for thyself in the heart of the Virgin Saint Gertrude: graciously bring light, through her intercession, to the darkness of our hearts; that we may joyfully experience thee present and at work within us; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

St. Margaret of Scotland

St. Margaret lived in the 11th century, and she was the great-niece of St. Edward the Confessor. She was a Saxon princess, but she was raised in Hungary in exile. Eventually, she and her parents returned to England, but she was forced flee once again after the Battle of Hastings. She went to the court of Malcolm, who was the King of Scotland.

Malcolm was an unrefined man, and Scotland was a wild place – but Margaret and Malcolm came to love one another, and they were married. Margaret, in her gentle way and through her exemplary life, lived her Catholic faith in such a way that Malcolm and the people of Scotland gradually changed their ways to be more conformed to Christ’s teaching.

Margaret was a model mother and queen who brought up her eight children in an atmosphere of great devotion and she continued to work hard to improve the lives of the people of Scotland. She had a particular love for the poor, and provided for them out of her own resources, very often serving them herself.

O God, who didst call thy servant Margaret to an earthly throne that she might advance thy heavenly kingdom, and didst endue her with zeal for thy Church and charity towards thy people: mercifully grant that we who ask her prayers and commemorate her example may be fruitful in good works, and attain to the glorious fellowship of thy Saints; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

St. Albert the Great

The life of St. Albert covered almost all of the 13th century. His father was a very wealthy German nobleman, and Albert was able to receive an excellent education at the best universities of his day. He was a philosopher, a bishop, a prolific writer, and one of the most influential scientists of the Middle Ages. We are familiar with the phrase, “a know-it-all” – but St. Albert really was, and in the best sense. He was able to compile a complete system of all the knowledge of his day. The subjects he encompassed included astronomy, mathematics, economics, logic, rhetoric, ethics, politics, metaphysics and all branches of natural science. It would take him more than 20 years to complete this phenomenal presentation.

St. Albert taught that there is no discrepancy between theology and science; rather, they are simply different aspects of a harmonious whole. Among his most important contributions to the development of scientific thought in the Middle Ages was helping the scholarly community to recognize the value of Aristotle’s philosophy, and he had as one of his chief students, St. Thomas Aquinas. It was Thomas who carried St. Albert’s teaching out to its logical conclusions.

St. Albert was appointed by Pope Alexander IV to be the bishop of Regensburg and he was installed in January 1260, but he found life as a bishop to be unsuitable and after the death of the pope in 1261, Albert was able to resign his episcopal see and return to the life he loved most - that of being a scholar and teacher.

St. Albert is the only scholar of his time to have earned the title "Great" - a title that was applied to him even during his lifetime.

O God, who gavest grace unto blessed Albert, thy Bishop and Doctor, to become truly great in the subjection of human wisdom to divine faith: grant us, we beseech thee, so to follow in the footsteps of his teaching; that we may enjoy the perfect light in heaven; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Trinity XXII: God In Control

 

As some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, Jesus said, "As for these things which you see, the days will come when there shall not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down." And they asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign when this is about to take place?"

- St. Luke 21:5-7

Our Lord is standing with His disciples before the great Temple in Jerusalem. This was the Temple begun by Herod some forty or so years before. It wasn’t yet finished, but already – with its immense wealth – it was on its way to becoming one of the wonders of the world. Its huge blocks of marble were in beautiful shades of green and white. The eastern front and part of the side walls were covered with gold leaf, brilliant in the sunlight. In fact, the whole Temple gleamed, which made it an amazing site even from a distance. Within the Temple, it was highly ornamented with votive offerings. Surely the disciples must have thought, “This is none other than the House of God; and this is the Gate of Heaven!” when they said to Jesus, “Look, Master!”

But what they saw wasn’t what Christ saw when He looked. What they saw in all its glory, He saw in its destruction, which would happen some forty years in the future. And He saw also another temple which was even then being fashioned – a temple “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” Even before the old Jerusalem was laid waste, the walls of another city were rising, which would be that new Jerusalem seen by St. John the Divine in his vision, “coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

So as Christ speaks of this destruction, the disciples ask, “When will this be?” If it was just idle curiosity which prompted their question, Christ certainly wouldn’t give them a satisfactory answer – after all, He wasn’t about to act like a soothsayer or fortuneteller, pulling aside the curtain of the future for a momentary glimpse of things which were hidden by God.

Christ’s purpose was much more serious than that. As Scripture records, “No man knows the day nor the hour...” His answer to them was really a warning: “There will be many who will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘the time is at hand.’” “Do not go after them,” He instructs them. How often people seem to be willing to give themselves over to other allegiances. The tragedy of Israel’s history is the tragedy of a people given to running off in pursuit of other gods; indeed, the long history of mankind is exactly that – a record of man’s blindness, of his fickleness, of his willingness to run after the latest thing, as though salvation can be found there.

Christ goes on: “You will hear of wars and tumults…nation will rise against nation; there will be great earthquakes, famines, pestilences… but do not be terrified.” All that would come to pass, even before the end of the century in which Christ lived on earth. In 63 AD Vesuvius erupted, destroying the city of Pompeii; there were earthquakes in Greece and in Asia Minor and even in Judea and Samaria; under the Emperors Claudius and Nero there were pestilences and famines – and there have been such things throughout history – as we know all too well, even in our own day.

How could Christ have said, “Do not be terrified”? Because in the rising of nation against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, Christ wants us to see not the forerunner of ultimate disaster, but of the breaking through of the Messianic age – just as the pain of a woman in childbirth isn’t the harbinger of death, but rather of life. These signs spoken of by Christ are, in reality, promises. “You will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake...you will be delivered up…some of you they will put to death…you will be hated by all for my name’s sake...but not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.”

This is the point of Christ’s words: that in the midst of the uncertainty and danger of this world – even with its pain and problems and persecution...even in the midst of confusion and calamities...God is in control.

Unfortunately, people tend not to learn the lesson that life is at its most insecure and dangerous when we’re trying to handle it by ourselves, and that life is most safe and secure when we leave it in God’s hands.

As Jesus warned His disciples, “The days will come when there shall not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” In other words, every one of us will experience times of darkness and confusion and difficulty: a beloved spouse dies; a child goes off in a direction which causes great distress; a body becomes racked with pain; a job is lost. But Christ makes a promise: “By your endurance you will gain your lives.” He’s not talking about mere human stoicism here, where we simply face the odds and outstare them. No, He’s talking about real Christian heroism in the face of adversity – that heroic spirit which is ours in Christ, when we know God really is near, when we place our faith in Him, and give Him real control over our lives. That’s why it’s so important for us to turn ourselves over to Him – to give Him ourselves – our souls and bodies, our resources and all we hold precious – knowing that when we do that He will always bring good out of evil, light out of darkness, healing out of pain.

By Christ’s sacrifice, we have been made whole. Let’s return that to Him, by giving back to Him all that we are and all that we have, as an acknowledgement that we want Him to be in control of our lives. Giving ourselves to Him is our act of love to the God Who truly loves us.

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Image: "Christ Enthroned" from the Westminster Psalter, c.1200

St. Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr

St. Josaphat was born about the year 1580 in what was the Polish province of Lithuania and was raised as an Eastern Rite Catholic. He had a deep devotion to the suffering of Christ, and looked at the schism between East and West as a wound in the Church as the Sacred Body of our Lord. As a young man in his mid-twenties he entered religious life, joining the Ukrainian Order of Saint Basil (known as the Basilians), and as a monk he gave himself over to penance and mortification, going barefoot even in winter, and eating only the poorest food.

In 1618, after living as a monk for nearly fifteen years, he was appointed to be archbishop of the Eastern Rite Diocese of Polotzk, and he devoted his energies to work for the reunion of the Church, all the while deepening the faith of his people through his preaching and his example. There were those in the Orthodox Church, not in union with Rome, who were very much against his work towards unity, and a group of them decided he must be stopped, making plans to assassinate him. In fact, St. Josaphat knew there were many who did not want unity, and he knew his life was in danger; however, he pressed forward in his work to heal the rift between East and West.

One day when he was visiting part of his diocese in territory which is now in Russia, his enemies made an attack on the place where he was staying, and many of those who were traveling with St. Josaphat were killed. Quietly and with humility, St. Josaphat went toward the attackers and asked them why they had done such a thing, saying to them, “If you have something against me, see, here I am.” The crowd screamed at him saying, “Kill the papist!” They ran towards him with their weapons, killing him with an axe-blow to his head.

St. Josaphat's body was thrown into the river, but it remained on the surface of the water, surrounded by rays of light, and was recovered. Those who had murdered him, when they were sentenced to death, repented of what they had done. Through the gentle example of St. Josaphat and helped by his heavenly intercession, through the grace of God they became Catholics.

Stir up in thy Church, we pray, O Lord, the Spirit that filled Saint Josaphat: that, as he laid down his life for the sheep; so through his intercession we, too, may be strengthened by the same Spirit and not fear to lay down our life for our brethren; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

St. Martin of Tours

When he was merely a boy, Martin became a Christian catechumen against his parents' wishes, and at the age of fifteen he was forced by his father, a pagan soldier, to be enrolled in the army.

It was on a winter's day, while stationed at Amiens, that Martin met a beggar almost naked and frozen with cold. Having nothing to give him, Martin cut his cloak in two and gave poor man half.

That night in a dream Martin saw Our Lord clothed in the half cloak, and heard Him say to surrounding angels: "Martin, yet only a catechumen, has wrapped Me in this garment." He decided to be baptized, and shortly after this he left the army.

Martin succeeded in converting his mother, but he was driven from his home by the Arian heretics who were powerful in that place, and he took shelter with the bishop, St. Hilary. Near Poitiers they founded first monastery in France, and in the year 372 St. Martin was made Bishop of Tours. The people of that area, though Christian in name, were mostly still pagan in their hearts and in their daily practice. Unarmed and attended only by his monks, St. Martin destroyed the heathen temples and groves, and then completed this courageous act by preaching the Gospel.

After witnessing many miracles at the hand of their bishop St. Martin, there was a complete conversion of the people. St. Martin’s last eleven years were spent in the humble work of travelling throughout Gaul, preaching and manifesting the power of God through his works and by the purity of his life.

O God, who seest that we are not able to stand in our own strength: mercifully grant that, through the prayers of blessed Martin thy Confessor and Bishop, we may be defended from all adversities; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Pope St. Leo and Attila the Hun

Pope St. Leo reigned twenty-one years as pope in the 5th century, and is the first pope to be titled "the Great." He truly was a great Pope, defending the Faith, and confirming the primacy of the Successors of St. Peter. But perhaps the most exciting thing Pope Leo did was when he had a confrontation with the infamous and cruel military leader, Attila the Hun. This is the story.

The Huns were a nomadic people, originating probably in Mongolia, but they migrated westward, sacking and pillaging whatever cities or towns that were in their way. Until the time of Attila in the 5th century, the Huns were comprised of a loose confederation of tribes, not really a unified people at all – that is, until Attila came on the scene. He unified them, and they were making their sweep across Europe. By the time of Pope Leo, Attila the Hun was busy ransacking most of Italy, and his plan included the sack of Rome. Attila hoped to add it to his possessions, not only for the riches it would give him, but he was also trying add to his number of wives, and the young woman he had his eye on would be impressed with his taking Rome, or so he thought.

Pope Leo, of course, wanted to protect Rome and keep its citizens alive, but here was Attila, looking to attack and plunder the city, and destroy the Church. With the approach of Attila and his mob of soldiers, Pope Leo went into prayer, committing his papacy to the patronage and protection of St. Peter, the apostle and first pope, and then Leo did a very brave thing – he arranged a meeting with Attila just outside the city of Rome. No one thought this was a very good idea – in fact, everyone in Rome was sure that Pope Leo would be immediately martyred by this conqueror who never hesitated to murder and destroy anything or anyone who got in his way.

Nonetheless, Pope Leo went to meet Attila. And then, one of the most dramatic moments in Christian history takes place: Attila calls off the sack of Rome. And Leo goes safely back to Rome. What happened? What made Attila retreat?

This is the account of that meeting: while Attila and Leo were conversing, Attila was shaking in his boots, because that during that conversation, Attila saw a vision like he had never seen before! Attila saw St. Peter himself hovering over Leo's head . . . with a huge sword drawn and pointed directly at him! Attila was certain he would be immediately killed if he didn’t withdraw and leave the area, so to save his own skin, Attila ran away from the Pope, who was armed only with the Truth.

And that's the story of how Pope Leo the Great saved Rome from being destroyed.

O Lord Jesu Christ, who didst strengthen thy holy Bishop and Doctor, Pope Leo, to maintain both by word and deed the verity of thy sacred Humanity: grant, we beseech thee; that guided by the light of his doctrine, we may earnestly defend the faith of thy holy Incarnation; who livest and reignest with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Dedication of St. John Lateran: Cleansing the Temple

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for thy house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign have you to show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.

- St. John 2:13-22

One of the suggested Gospel readings for the Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran is St. John 2:13-22, which puts before us the commanding figure of Jesus Christ striding into the great Temple in Jerusalem. He cleanses it, making a whip of cords and driving out the sellers of animals and the money-changers, overturning their tables and telling them, “Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”

Christ did this because those who were buying and selling within the temple of God were not doing it for the glory of God; they were not doing it for the worship of God or for the good of man; rather, it was for personal gain and for selfish reasons.

The Church teaches us that religion is more than just the vertical dimension of the spiritual life – it’s more that simply “God and me.” Ethics and morality must be the practical expression of a true and living faith. How we conduct ourselves in the marketplace reflects our relationship with God. Certain business practices may be legal but that doesn’t insure they are ethical. Certainly, making a profit isn’t condemned in Scripture, but accumulating great wealth by unjustly taking advantage of someone else is.

So, with the crack of a whip, Christ drove the money changers from the temple. And He did it not only because of the contempt that was being shown to the Temple – a place consecrated to God – but also because of the injustice being shown to the people who were there to worship the God in whose honour the Temple had been built. Christ was not kind and gentle that day.

When good people are faced with evil, it would seem that our Lord has given something of an example to follow. He did not limit himself to prayer or to talk; He also did something about it. “To everything there is a season,” the Scripture tells us, and we can see that even in the life of Christ that there was a season to make a stand against evil by taking specific action.

It was necessary for Christ to drive the money-changers out of the temple because of the evil they had brought into the lives of honest people, and because of the dishonour those actions brought to the House of God. It is necessary at times that evil must be faced squarely by taking positive action, so that the common good might be preserved. Sometimes, for the triumph of good, the whip must be cracked, and evil must be beaten back.

Whether it be civil leaders inflicting injustice on people; or those who steal the right to life from the unborn; or the unfaithful cleric who cheats people from knowing the fullness of the Gospel and from worshipping according to the mind of the Church; or the gossip who destroys the reputation of another – we are called to stand up for the good, and against the evil.

The Gospel tells us that after Christ had cleansed the Temple, “his disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for thy house will consume me...’” And so should zeal for the things of God consume us.

Zeal is the business side of love, whether it be love of God or love of man. “Zeal,” says St. Thomas Aquinas, “is the energy of love.” Zeal, as an ardent love of God, is to be shown in our lives as a desire to promote the love of God, to promote the worship of God, to promote the praise of God, to promote the glory of God. It is to be shown in our spiritual lives as we perform those Christian works of mercy and love that we have been taught by our Lord. And zeal, also, is to be shown in practical ways, as we accept our responsibility for the support and work of Christ’s Body the Church.

This is one of the reasons we have places of beauty, consecrated first and foremost to the glory of God – but also that you and I can be inspired to be zealous for God and for the things of God; so that we can work for justice in this world; so that we can spread the truth of the Gospel by our words and our actions – and also, to give us a glimpse of the eternity of heaven.

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Painting: "Jesus Cleansing the Temple"

by Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834-1890)

Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica

On November 9th the Catholic Church throughout the world celebrates the anniversary of the consecration of the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour in the city of Rome, known also as St. John Lateran. On the façade is carved the proud title “Omnium Urbis et Orbis Ecclesiarum Mater et Caput” – “The Mother and Head of all Churches of the City and of the World.” It is the cathedral of Rome – it is the Pope’s Cathedral, and so is, in a sense, the Cathedral of the world – senior in dignity even to St. Peter’s Basilica.

One of the reasons we celebrate this Feast is because the Church wants us to remember the importance of consecrated places in which the worship of God takes place. It reminds us of the importance of the consecration of every Catholic Church throughout the world. It is a reminder to us of the Incarnational principle on which our faith is based – that God extends His spiritual blessings to us through the use of physical things. He took human flesh upon Himself. He has instituted seven sacraments which use outward forms to communicate inward grace. He has established a hierarchical Church, with a physical presence in the world, to be a sign of His own presence with us.

O Most blessed Saviour, who didst vouchsafe thy gracious presence at the Feast of Dedication: be present with us at this time by thy Holy Spirit, and so possess our souls by thy grace; that we may be living temples, holy and acceptable unto thee; who livest and reignest with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Trinity XXI: Jesus and the Sophisticated Elites

It happened that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine's flesh. One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, "What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers."

- II Maccabees 7:1,2

Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”

- St. Luke 20:34-36

There’s something in us – no doubt, it’s a result of the fall of our first parents Adam and Eve – that makes us try to conform things to our own expectations. As a result of the disobedience of our first parents we seem to spend great amounts of time trying to dignify things which are unworthy, and bring down to a low level those things and ideas which are lofty, until we have everything right where we want it, on our own terms. It’s like an infection which has poisoned our society, so that things like easy divorce and remarriage become a “quest for personal happiness,” artificial contraception is transformed into “the responsible thing to do,” and the killing of unborn children is seen as “an issue of women’s health.” Such things as that make it more and more of a challenge to proclaim what we know to be objectively true. Of course, this disintegration of values and moral truths isn’t surprising. As St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, there are “wicked and evil men, for not all have faith.”

What we experience in the world today isn’t new. We see an ancient example of this in the Second book of Maccabees. King Antiochus wanted there to be only one religion in his kingdom – one religion which would be established on his own terms. And as he began to implement his own self-defined religion, the Jews wouldn’t submit to it. There was no place in the kingdom of Antiochus for the revealed law of the God of Israel, and so the king spent an enormous amount of energy trying to destroy the faith of the Jews, attempting to drag their understanding of truth down his own definition, so that their modified and emasculated faith would fit into his own plan for his kingdom. This has an uncomfortably familiar sound to it, when we consider the development of some of our own society’s laws and the prevailing attitudes today, even coming out of the mouths of many of the politicians who want to lead us.

St. Luke records an occasion when some Sadducees came to Jesus, pretending they had a serious question. The Sadducees were the Jewish aristocrats of their day. They were refined. They were sophisticated. They were knowledgeable about the law. And their faith consisted of simply obeying whatever their personal understanding of the law was. Their religion was for the “here and now,” and certainly there was no room in their understanding for things they considered to be ridiculous, such as the resurrection of the body, which was being preached by Jesus.

So the Sadducees came to our Lord – not with instruments of torture like those used by King Antiochus against the Jews – but with an instrument which was sharp and destructive in other ways. They came with their biting sarcasm, using it to ridicule the teaching of Christ.

We can picture them. In their sophistication and sarcasm, they pretended to have an interest in the resurrection. We can only imagine what Jesus was thinking as they were speaking. Here were individuals about whom it was well-known that they completely disbelieved the reality of the resurrection of the dead, and yet they composed this elaborate story about a woman who successively married seven brothers. And after constructing this involved story, they ask, with a feigned innocence and interest, “Whose wife will she be after the resurrection?”

Jesus could have turned on them, calling them the hypocrites that they were, asking them why they were bothering Him with questions about something in which they didn’t even believe. But Christ didn’t do that. Instead, He used the opportunity to teach the truth. Even if the Sadducees themselves didn’t have the ears to hear what He was saying, nonetheless He stated the truth. Patiently, He explains things to them. He acts as though they truly are interested in the answer. “She’ll be no one’s wife,” He says, “because there is no need of marriage in heaven; they have become equal to the angels, as children of the resurrection.”

And then Jesus goes on to beat the Sadducees at their own game. These individuals who prided themselves on their knowledge of Scripture and the prophets were led into a trap which they didn’t see coming. Christ tells them, “Surely you remember that Moses referred to the Lord as the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob – and you revere the words of Moses – surely Abraham, Isaac and Jacob must be children of the resurrection, or else how could the Lord be called their God, if they’ve ceased to exist?” The trap which the Sadducees had laid for Jesus backfired on them, because as Christ pointed out to them, God is not the “God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”

To this very day, we’re confronted by Sadducees under various guises and titles. There have always been, and there will probably always be, those who disbelieve important teachings of the faith, and who attempt to attack various revealed doctrines by trying to point out how ridiculous they are, or how meaningless they are, or how irrelevant they are. The Sadducees of Christ’s day are nothing more than the ancestors of those in our own day who try to modify the teaching of the Church in a misguided effort to bring the revealed faith down to a purely human level. They attack the basic tenets of the Church; they ridicule the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament; they scoff at the reality of heaven and hell; they deny the existence of sin; they ignore the need for repentance; they manufacture the myth that what once was considered to be true no longer is, because “times have changed.”

What a lesson we can learn from Christ when He was dealing with the Sadducees. He didn’t wring His hands; He didn’t get upset at their disbelief; He didn’t raise His voice. All He did was counter their heresy with the truth. When we’re faced with those who try to drag the faith down to the level of the world, we must do what Jesus did: proclaim the truth, plant the seed, and let God give the increase.

Of course, this means that we must know our faith. We must be people who know the scriptures. We must be people who know how the Church interprets those Scriptures. We must be people who know what the Church’s moral teaching is. We must be people who make God and His Church central in their lives. It’s easy to fall into the trap which gets laid in our path: that of reducing God’s truth to personal opinion. But we have been called to something greater. We’ve been called to the high purpose of raising the world and ourselves up to the level of God’s revealed truth, as it is revealed through His Holy Catholic Church. And we can do this, because we are children of the living God – the God who has planted His truth in our lives, as living witnesses to Him in the midst of an unbelieving world.

And how can we best accomplish this? By binding ourselves irrevocably to the Church; by remaining close to God through the sacraments; by supporting those voices which speak the truth; by giving our support to those parishes where God is worshipped in spirit and in truth; by standing in support of those bishops, priests, deacons and religious who teach God’s truth, and not some hybrid version of their own. You and I must be vigilant and courageous in remaining faithful, because as we are faithful to God, so He will always be faithful to us.

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Image: "The Question of the Sadducees"

by Harold Copping (1863-1932)