Biyernes, Mayo 31, 2013

THE BANQUET OF THE FAITH


SCRUTATIO SCRIPTURAE
  
THE BANQUET OF THE FAITH 


A Scrutatio for the 2nd Sunday of the CHRISTIAN SEASON OF ORDINARY TIME/TIME OF THE CHURCH

Readings from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer
I Kings 8:22-23, 27-30 and 41-43 / Psalm 96 / Galatians 1:1-10 / Luke 7:1-10

Readings for the Pauline/Vatican II Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
I Kings 8:41-43 / Psalm 117:1-2. / Galatians 1:1-2 and 6-10 / Luke 7:1-10

Readings for the Tridentine Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
Introit: Psalm 18:19 and 1-2
Epistle: I John 3:13-18
Gradual and Alleluia: Psalm 120:1-2 and 18:3

Gospel
Luke 14:16-24

Offertory:
Psalm 7:6
Communion Antiphon: Psalm 13:6


For today’s Scrutatio, I would like to share with you this story, experienced and narrated by His Eminence, the Most Reverend Luis Antonio “Chito” Gokim Tagle, the Blessed Roman Catholic Cardinal-Archbishop of Manila and Venerable Primate of the Philippines:
 


I recall a dark day when I was still a priest serving in my home diocese. One morning a young priest, 32 years of age, was found dead. His body, stabbed 32 times, was left in a rice field. He was a former student of mine. At the wake I walked his mother toward the coffin. Upon seeing her lifeless son she shed tears of sorrow and cried out in prayer, “My God, you know how heavy my heart was when my son entered the seminary. But you prevailed. So I surrendered him to you. Now you took him again from me. If it is your wish, then I give him totally to you. He is all yours.” I could not believe what I was hearing. A few days later, in a forum on justice that we attended, someone asked her, “What would you do if the killer of your son is presented to you?” I thought it was an insensitive question but before I could stop her, she already responded, “Dear police do not hesitate to bring my son’s killer to me. Do not fear. I will not hurt him. I just want to know why he did it. I will observe the dictates of justice but deep in my heart, I will forgive for Jesus tells me to forgive. My love might help make the killer a better person.” Once again, I could not believe what was happening. But I know we were again at the foot of the cross and hearing the same words, “Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother.” Those days were followed by many more weeks of listening to the stories of the priest’s mother about her son and her family, stories that I would hear for the first time. I could not help but think then that I have come to know the priest much better now that he is gone but made more vividly present by his mother’s stories.

Through this mother we see the IMMACULATE HEART OF OUR IMMACULATE MOTHER perfectly united with the SACRED HEART OF JESUS CRUCIFIED.

Though suffering with tremendous and unbearable pain, her heart was open to THE BANQUET OF FAITH, the BANQUET OF RECONCILIATION , the BANQUET OF THE GOSPEL OF OUR BLESSED LORD!

May we be challenged to open our hearts, just like the centurion and the guests who have faithfully hearkened to OUR BLESSED LORD’S invitation in the VENERABLE GOSPEL PASSAGES of today.

May this BANQUET OF FAITH be a LIVING TRUTH in our simple, ordinary, day-to-day lives!

Let THIS LIVING FAITH make our ordinary lives EXTRAORDINARY!

And now, to close this meditation, let us again hearken to these words of our very own kababayan who is also a Venerable Prince of HOLY MOTHER CHURCH:

“When communion consists in JESUS WHO IS THE WORD OF LIFE then the common good becomes central. And that is PLEASING TO GOD’S EYES.”

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From the Taize Community


Bible texts with commentary
These Bible meditations are meant as a way of seeking God in silence and prayer in the midst of our daily life. During the course of a day, take a moment to read the Bible passage with the short commentary and to reflect on the questions which follow. Afterwards, a small group of 3 to 10 people can meet to share what they have discovered and perhaps for a time of prayer.

June 2013

Genesis 25:20-34: Rivalry Between Brothers
Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the greater will serve the lesser.”
When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.) Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright. (Genesis 25:20-34)
The God of the Bible is a God who wants to lead human beings towards a fuller life without taking away their freedom. But since that life is of necessity a life with others, it is not obvious how to use one’s freedom correctly. In the Book of Genesis, this theme of life together is illustrated, in a kind of microcosm, by stories of brothers or sisters. The narratives of Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, Leah and Rachel, and finally Joseph and his brothers help us reflect on the possibility of a common life between beings who are similar and yet different, where it is not always easy to get along together and where jealousy is always a menace.
The story of Jacob and his brother Esau is particularly eloquent in this regard. When, after a time of barrenness, God hears Isaac’s prayer for his wife and allows Rebekah to give birth, the new life springing up in her is not without problems. Instead of a peacefully flowing river it is more like a whirlpool, leading Rebeka to the point of despair. When she brings her distress to the Lord in prayer, the only answer she receives is an enigmatic promise (v. 23): she will have two sons who will become two nations and, in the end, the greater will serve the lesser.
Here we have in a nutshell the entire history of humanity, seen from the angle of rivalry. This begins already at the moment of birth, for the younger son emerges while tightly grasping his older brother’s heel, as if he were trying to get ahead of him. This is also, incidentally, a play on words on the name Jacob, which contains the word “heel.” The rest of the story emphasizes the difference between the two brothers—one is a man of action, dynamic, always outdoors, his father’s favorite; the other is a thinker, more introverted, staying at home, the darling of his mother.
The divine promise, however, contains an unexpected reversal: the greater will serve the lesser. This is a leitmotiv found throughout the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures: God’s entry into the world causes an overturning of human values. Abel (Genesis 4), Isaac (Genesis 21), Joseph (Genesis 37ff) and David (1 Samuel 16) are preferred by God against the rules of society. This theme is brought to a climax in Jesus, in whom, according to the song of his mother, “[God] has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1:52). It continues in the existence of the Christian Church, where “God has chosen what is weak to shame what is strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27). The law of “might makes right” is thus not inexorable, and so a space for reconciliation and solidarity can open up.
This story, though, does not depict this truth of the faith in an unequivocal manner. Although Esau is stronger physically, Jacob is cleverer, more focused on his final victory. The biblical author is obviously less sympathetic to the older brother, who thinks only of his immediate needs and is unconcerned with more important questions. Nonetheless, Jacob’s success is only fleeting. Esau will get his revenge, and Jacob will need the journey of an entire lifetime before everything superfluous is stripped away, making possible a reconciliation and the fulfillment of the divine promise.
- Which of the two brothers do I find more appealing? Why?
- Are jealousy and rivalry inevitable? What ways does Scripture suggest to escape them?
- Do I know any examples where God raises up the humble, where human power and intelligence do not have the last word?
- Can we get along with people very different from us? What makes this possible?
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Lunes, Mayo 27, 2013

לחם הפנים

SCRUTATIO SCRIPTURAE

 לחם הפנים
LECHEM HA'PANIM
(THE BREAD OF PRESENCE)

Scrutatio
for
the
CHRISTIAN FEAST OF THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT
OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR
+JESUS+CHRIST+
(May 30, 2013. Thursday)


Readings from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer
Genesis 14:18-20 / Psalm 116:10-17 / I Corinthians 11:23-26 / John 6:51-58

Readings for the Pauline/Vatican II Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass         
Genesis 14:18-20 / Psalm 110:1, 2, 3 and 4. / I Corinthians 11:23-26 / Luke 9:11b-17

Readings for the Tridentine Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
Introit: Psalm 81:16 and 1
Epistle: I Corinthians 11:23-29
Gradual and Alleluia: Psalm 145:15-16 and John 6:56-57
Sequence: Lauda Sion


Gospel
John 6:56-59

 Offertory: Leviticus 21:6
Communion Antiphon: I Corinthians 11:26-27


For today's FEAST OF THE LECHEM HA'PANIM-Exodus 25:23-30, WHO IS NO OTHER THAN OUR BLESSED LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, THE ETERNAL BREAD OF LIFE-Matthew 26-26-28, Mark 14:22-24, Luke 22:19-20, John 6:25-69, Acts 2:42, I Corinthians 10:14-22 and 11:17-34, let us MEDITATE on this with the great "dumb ox" of the Order of Preachers: Thomas Aquinas in his 13th Century A.D. sermon entitled:


O PRECIOUS AND WONDERFUL BANQUET

"Since it was the will of God's only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.
O precious and wonderful banquet that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.
It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his passion. It was the fulfillment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation."

Thomas Aquinas, Opusculum 57, in festo Corporis Christi, lectures 1-4

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News from Taizé!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





News from Taizé 
Wednesday 22 May 2013
  • Taizé: from Easter to Pentecost
  • France: Lourdes and Lyon - an ecumenical weekend for Brother Alois
  • Britain: Various visits
  • Canada and California: One brother’s journey before the meeting in Pine Ridge
  • Brasil: World Youth Day
  • Commented Bible Passage: "A Burden that Lightens our Load"
  • Short Writings: "Unfailing Faith"
  • For the Diary
  • Prayer

Taizé: from Easter to Pentecost

With the feasts of Ascension and Pentecost we reach the second great peak of the year in terms of numbers taking part in the meetings, with a great majority of those people coming from Germany. Several volunteers who will stay until the end of the summer have already arrived from India, Benin, Madagascar and Colombia. One week after the Orthodox churches celebrated Easter, a group from two Moscow parishes have also been here. The young people from the group led a workshop at the end of their time here entitled "Being Christian in Russia Today".
For the community the last few weeks have seen us losing Brother Jean-Pierre and coming to terms with his loss. A native of Switzerland, at 94 years old he was the oldest brother in the community.
And good news came in the form of the entry into the community of a young man from Tanzania, who is living with the brothers in the fraternity in Nairobi, Kenya. Brother Alois made the trip to Kenya to give him the brothers’ white prayer robe.

France: Lourdes and Lyon - an ecumenical weekend for Brother Alois

At Ascension Brother Alois was in Lourdes to take part in the "Diaconia 2013" gathering, organised by the Catholic church in France. The theme was solidarity with those who are poor, those excluded from society, and many of them were also able to take part themselves.
Elsewhere, on Friday and Saturday night, an all-night prayer vigil was taking place in Lyon, in preparation for the Inaugural Service of the new United Protestant Church of France. On Saturday morning, Brother Alois gave a word of send-off at the end of the service. The same evening, back in Taizé, he described it as the celebration of "a beautiful event: the unity of Lutheran and Calvinist-Reformed Christians" in France.

Britain: Various Visits

In march two volunteers spent two weeks travelling around England. They visited 18 schools and took part in evening prayer at the University of Bath. At the same time one of the brothers took part in evening prayers in various cities, as well as meeting chaplains and school teachers in Salisbury and Birmingham to talk about the trips to Taizé that they are preparing for the summer.

Canada and California: One brother’s journey before the meeting in Pine Ridge

One of the brothers spent 10 days in California before going on for a two week visit to Canada: "The last stop on my journey was in Ottawa. In Sacred Heart Church, just next to the campus of the University of Ottawa, a prayer with Taizé songs is celebrated every month of the university year. [...] Several people from Canada, among them Native Canadians, are preparing to take part in the gathering on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota from 24th to 27th May 2013".

Brazil: World Youth Day

Brothers of the community will be present during the WYD in Brazil during the month of July. They will be in Curitiba during the "days in the dioceses" before the event itself where they will lead prayers for a mission week. In Rio de Janeiro, from Tuesday 23 until Friday 26 July, the brothers will welcome people and lead prayers throughout the afternoon at the Church of the Candelária (Praça Pio X – Centro. Metro : Uruguaiana). Brother Alois will be in Rio from 22 to 28 July.

Commented Bible Passage: "A Burden that Lightens our Load"

In a sense, we are all weary and overburdened. In our depths lies hidden a poverty which, because it frightens us, oppresses us and drags us down.In the words of this passage, Christ welcomes us in our vulnerability and does not seem to be afraid of it. “Come to me,” he says, and later on he will say: “Let the little children come to me, for the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like them” (Matthew 19:14).

Short Writings: "Unfailing Faith"

If faith is a gift from God, why do we usually see it as the result of human effort? And where does this gift come from? Why do some people have it and others apparently not? This short writing attempts to answer these questions based on an investigation of the vocabulary of faith in the Bible. We discover that faith is first of all an attribute of God – God’s reliability, God’s faithfulness – that awakens in us a response of trust. It is both the unshakeable Rock and the act of building one’s house on that rock. And it is Jesus, the true and faithful Witness, who shows us both these dimensions of faith in exemplary fashion.

For the Diary

  • Germany: The Protestant and Catholic Theology Faculties of Tübingen have jointly invited Brother Alois to speak to them about "Young People and Spirituality" (3rd June, Festssal der Neuen Aula, 6.15pm). It will be followed by a prayer at the Stiftskirche at 8.15pm, organised by students and the youth services of the two churches.
  • Poland: From 24 to 26 May, at Grębocin, a meeting is being organised (as it is regularly) by the young people of this little village close to Torún. The theme for the weekend will be "Abandoning ourselves to God". Common prayer, sharing using the Word of God and welcome by local families will help them to live the three days in the joy of the resurrection and in communion with others. Those who helped to prepare for the meeting in Rome, as well as those wanting to help this year with the preparations for the meeting in Strasbourg, are particularly invited.
  • Japan. There are prayers using the songs from Taizé organised in several cities in the country. Two prayers led by students, will take place in June and July in a new place.

Prayer

Everliving God, you send the Holy Spirit out through all creation and in the heart of each person. Through your Spirit you wish to bring all humans to you. It is the spirit which unites us all in one communion and who leads us to go beyond our limits in a way we could never hope for. And so from the depths of our being we say: Come, Holy Spirit.
Taizé website: http://www.taize.fr
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