January 13: 1st Week, Tuesday,: Saint Hilary
1 Sam 1:9-20 / Mark 1:21-28
Hannah asks God for a child; she gave birth to Samuel.
Twelve-year-old Irmgard Wood lived
in Stuttgart, Germany, during World War II. One morning her mother and sisters
saw an American plane catch fire and fall from the sky. Instinctively, they
prayed for the pilot, even though he was an American. Years later, the Woods
migrated to America. Irmgard’s mother got a job in a hospital in the San
Fernando Valley in California. One day a patient detected her
German accent and asked her where she lived in Germany. “Stuttgart,” she said. The
patient replied, “I almost got killed in Stuttgart during World War II. One
morning my plane caught fire and fell from the sky. Somebody must have been
praying for me.”
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How much faith do we have in
prayer? Do we pray for our enemies? “More things are wrought through prayer
than this world dreams of.” Alfred Lord Tennyson
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There are many reasons why people
come to church. Besides coming to church for Mass, people come to church in
times of need. In a time of desperation and desolation, they come to church so
as find some direction and consolation and an answer to their prayers. For
them, the church is the visible and tangible presence of God and it is where
they take refuge in the midst of their troubles.
In the 1st reading, Hannah in her
distress went before the Lord, and Eli the priest was observing her and
wondering about her intention.
In the gospel, a man possessed by
an unclean spirit, began making a scene in the synagogue, with that unclean
spirit making a confrontation with Jesus. But as Jesus expelled the unclean
spirit out of the possessed man, the people were astonished and they started
asking each other what it all meant. But we should know what all that means.
Whether it was Hannah in her bitterness of soul or the possessed man struggling
with the evil spirit within, they have come before the Lord seeking for help.
The church is like a
field hospital where people come to seek God and to be healed of the wounds of
the heart and to be delivered from whatever evil that is affecting them.
May we offer these people some
understanding and consolation and help so that they will truly experience Jesus
as their Lord and Saviour and find peace and healing in the House of God.
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Saint Hilary
Feast day January 13
Hilary was born to pagan parents of Poitiers, France, in 315. After training in the classics and philosophy, Hilary married. He and his wife had one daughter, Afra. All who knew Hilary said he was a friendly, charitable, gentle man. Hilary’s studies led him to read Scripture. He became convinced that there was only one God, whose Son became man and died and rose to save all people. This led him to be baptized along with his wife and daughter.
The people of Poitiers chose Hilary to be their bishop in 353. He spoke out against Arianism, a heresy that denied the divinity of Christ. When Emperor Constantius II wanted him to sign a paper condemning Saint Athanasius, the great defender of the faith, he refused. The emperor was furious and exiled Hilary to Phrygia. In exile, he preached, wrote, and suffered, and even asked to debate the Arian bishops. Fearing Hilary’s arguments, Arian’s followers begged the emperor to send Hilary home. The emperor, believing Hilary was also undermining his authority, recalled him. Hilary’s writings show that he could be fierce in defending the faith, but in dealing with the bishops who had given in to the Arian heresy, he was charitable. He showed them their errors and helped them to defend their faith. Though the emperor called Hilary “disturber of the peace,” Saints Jerome and Augustine praised him as “teacher of the churches.”
