5th Week, Tuesday, Feb 7; St Gonzalo Garcia (Vasai,
Mumbai)
Genesis 1:20 - 2:4 / Mark 7:1-13
Let birds fly across the sky; And God made all kinds of winged birds.
The Manx shearwater, a seagull-like bird, makes its home in
tiny holes in a cliff on an island off the coast of Wales. One day a researcher
caught one of these birds, put a band on its leg, and had it flown 3,000 miles
to Boston.
There it was released by another researcher. Twelve and a
half days later, it showed up again at the exact tiny hole from which it was
taken. Scientists still can’t figure out how these birds have acquired such a
remarkable power of navigation. The most logical answer is the one given in
today’s reading: They are creations of God, who gave them this remarkable
power.
****
Do we hold birds in reverence as signs of God’s creative
love for us? “Nature is too thin a screen; the glory of the omnipresent God
bursts through everywhere.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
****
After the creation of inanimate beings comes the creation of
living beings: fish, birds, land animals, and the crowning achievement, man and
woman, made in God’s image and likeness. They are special, for they are also
put in charge of the whole of creation, for the task of working for the
integrity of creation is heavy with responsibilities.
After a period of initial fervour, the teaching
of the Pharisees began to imply that people were to be sacrificed for the sake
of the temple, that religious traditions (made by people and juridical) were
more important than God’s laws, which are supposed to be interior to people and
express a personal relationship. Jesus takes them to task for it. For the
temple of the Lord is there for people, not people for the temple.
****
Children are always thrilled with balloons. More so if the
balloons are filled with helium because they rise and you have to keep it
attached to a string if you don't want to lose the helium balloons. It might
sound like a silly question if I were to ask this question: Which helium
balloon will rise faster - the red, the green, the blue or the yellow coloured
one? Of course we will say that it is not the colour that mattered but what is
inside the balloon. That may be obvious to us, but in other matters, things may
become blurred. The gospel cites one instance of the emphasis on
washing of hands but neglecting the purity of heart. As Jesus puts it so
profoundly - You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human
traditions. Yet the basis of the teachings of Jesus and His ministry
is stated in the 1st reading. We are all created in the image and likeness of
God and it is this image and likeness that Jesus came to save and restore.
External appearances are necessary but they can never replace the internal
essence of what we are made of and who made us. May our words and actions flow from
the essence of the image and likeness of God within us.
***
1. “This people honors me only with lip service, while
their hearts are far from me.” Jesus calls his disciples to
authenticity. Too often so-called disciples give the impression of following
him, while at the same time accepting sensual loves and lusts in their heart.
Although the Pharisees display the outward trappings of holiness, the way they
treat Jesus and others betrays their true character. Jesus would call them
“whitewashed tombs” (Matthew 15:27): clean and bright on the outside, but full
of dead men’s bones within. Self-righteousness would be their downfall. Such
dispositions may lend the proud man certain short-term security, but it will
always be illusory since it is not rooted in the truth. Is there any way in
which I also pay tribute to God with my lips but say something else in my
heart, or behave contrariwise in my actions?
2. “The worship they offer me is worthless.” True
worship begins with humility when the soul recognizes that it possesses no good
in and of itself, but that all of its goodness comes from God. The Pharisees
offered no real worship to God since, in effect, they worshipped only
themselves by relying more on their talents and goodness than on the goodness
that comes from God. It is not insignificant that when Jesus describes a
Pharisee’s prayer in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, he says
“The Pharisee prayed this prayer to himself” (Luke 18:11).
How can I make sure that my prayer is truly devoted, meaning that I am
addressing Our Lord with the words of my heart?
3. "You make God’s word null and void.” The
Pharisees used the talents and gifts God had given them not for God’s glory,
but for their own personal gain, whether that gain consisted of praise and
admiration or personal comfort and ease. True worship of God, truly placing God
above all else, involves using the things God created as means to reaching him.
As number 226 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “It means making
good use of created things: faith in God, the only One, leads us to use
everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to
detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him:
My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you.
My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you.
My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you.”
Conversation with Christ: Lord, thank you for my
life and all the good things you have given me. Help me to realize that you
have created everything and that all I have is from you. May I use all I have
to serve others and as a means to come closer to you, the source of all good.
Resolution: I will examine my conscience to see
if I am using any of my gifts and talents to glorify or serve only myself. If
so, I’ll strive to put these same gifts at the service of God.
****
Opening Prayer
Father, God of the ever-new covenant, you have tied us
to yourself with leading strings of lasting love; the words you speak
to us are spirit and life. Open our hearts to your words, that
they may touch us in the deepest of ourselves. May they move us to
serve you not in a slavish way, but as your sons and daughters who
love you and whom you have set free through your Son, Jesus Christ, our
Lord. Amen
***
St Gonzalo Garcia and Companions, Martyrs (c. 1556-1597)
Not much is known of the early years of this first and only Indian Martyr of
the Catholic Church except that he was a native of Bassein (now Vasai), which
was part of Bombay (now Mumbai). He is known to have had his early education at
the then Jesuit College in Bassein before proceeding to Japan at the young age
of 15 or 16 in the company of a certain Jesuit priest named Sebastian Gonsalves
in the year 1574.
The next 8 years saw Gonzalo active as Fr Sebastian’s Catechist, while
at the same time repeatedly seeking admission into the Society of Jesus, a
request that was for some strange reason persistently turned down by the Society.
Weary of patiently waiting in vain, Gonzalo finally decided to join the
Franciscan Friars.
Having joined the Franciscan Friars, Gonzalo’s modesty and humility seemed to
have been put to the maximum test as he assisted in the kitchen, served in the
dining room, did the marketing and fulfilled other such tasks. Soon he
became a familiar figure in the Manila markets. It was while he was about his
lawful duties that he came in contact with the sizeable Japanese community in
Manila. Needless to say, his fluency in the Japanese language, honed during his
eight long years in Japan, stood him in good stead as he ministered to their
sick in hospital.
Before long, the Manila Franciscans were making plans to open a mission in
Japan and whose support did they bank on but Brother Gonzalo Garcia’s!
Having been appointed to accompany Fr Pedro Baptista, Gonzalo sailed with
him from Manila to Japan in 1592. From official interpreter to his
Superior, he soon went on to become the official “Contractor” of the mission in
Japan, bringing into focus his acumen at building Franciscan churches and
friaries, as well as hospitals for lepers, in Macao and Osaka.
The ill-famed persecution that had unexpectedly broken out in Japan in 1587,
brought martyrdom a decade later to Gonzalo and 5 other Franciscans, viz.,
Friars Peter Baptist, Martin de Aguirre, Francis Blanco, Francis of St Michael
and Philip de las Casas, and 3 Jesuits, viz., Fr Paul Miki, Brs John Goto and
James Kisai, besides 17 Japanese laymen, most of whom were either catechists or
interpreters. On 5 February 1597, on a hill near Nagasaki, “The crosses were
set in place . . .” and the 26 hoisted up. “Then according to Japanese custom,
the four executioners began to unsheathe their spears. At this dreadful sight,
all the Christians cried out, “Jesus! Mary!” And the storm of anguished weeping
then rose to batter the very skies. The executioners killed them one by
one.”
These 26 exemplary Catholics were beatified on 14 September 1627 by Pope
Urban VIII and solemnly canonized by Pope Pius IX on 8 June 1862.
Reflection: “They (the 26 martyrs) triumphed over death with an
insuperable act of praise to the Lord. Like Christ, they were taken to a place
where common criminals were put to death. Like Christ, they gave of their lives
so that all of us might believe in the love of the Father, in the salvific
mission of the Son, in the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit” (John Paul
II at the monument to the martyrs).
