28th Week, Thursday, Oct 16; Saint Alacoque & Bl Augustine
Romans 3:21-30 / Luke 11:47-54
Paul talks about salvation. Salvation is a gift from God.
Someone compared people in this world to people on a television screen. Television figures owe their existence to the television screen. Suppose those television figures rebelled. Suppose they said to the television screen, “We declare our independence from you; we no longer need you.” Such a situation would be ludicrous. It would be like an echo saying to a voice, “I declare my independence from you; I no longer need you." Paul reminds us that the same is true of us. Without God, we would be like an echo without a voice. Everything we are is pure “gift.”
***
How do we show our appreciation to God for his many gifts to
us? “What greater grace could God have made to dawn on us than to make his Son
become a son of man so that the son of man might in turn become the Son of
God.” Augustine of Hippo
***
The one question which Paul wants to answer in this whole letter is: What does God want us to be? or: How does a man get the right relationship with God? His answer is: by faith in Jesus Christ. What Jesus is doing is that by faith in Him, we become what God wants us to be Actually before God all, Jews and pagans, were sinners. As sinners they are guilty, and since they are guilty, they are condemned. To explain what Christ did to make us right before God, Paul uses three words:
Justification by faith: We identify ourselves with Jesus. We must be what He is and in Jesus, the Father was well pleased. God sees us no more as sinners. He sees in us Jesus who takes our place before the Father. In this way, we are made just: and justified.
Sacrifice: Christ gave His life that we may live. He sacrificed Himself for us. In the Old Testament, animals were offered to God to make good for sins. But now God takes no delight in the spilled blood of animals. He accepts the obedience of Christ as an offering for the sins of people.
Redemption: The Latin word "emere" means 'to buy'. Here with the prefix ‘re', - it means 'to buy back”. This is taken from the slave market, where a slave can buy his freedom by paying the price. Whatever a slave earned by his work or the master's generosity, he could take to the temple and deposit it there. When he had enough money to buy his freedom, his master would collect the money he had earned from the temple treasury. The same expression is used in the Old Testament in the context of God freeing His people from the servitude of Egypt. God does it out of love and in fidelity to the promises made by Him to their forefathers. There is no question of God paying any price to anyone to free His people. The same idea is expressed by the word Redemption in the New Testament. God, out of His bounteous mercy and love for mankind in servitude of sin, frees or liberates the sinful people through the blood of Christ shed on the cross in total obedience. The "Price" Christ "paid" was the price of love. We, sinners, were very "dear" (= "beloved" as well as "costly") to Him and to the Father,
This is how we become what God wants us to be. We must so accept Christ and join ourselves to him. He is our mediator, our sacrifice, our redeemer.
***
We cannot save ourselves by observing laws and relying on
our religious practices. We are saved simply by the goodness of God who
revealed himself to us in Christ.
***
To be reprimanded is not a pleasant experience. But when someone is reprimanded, it is because something wrong has been done, and the fault is pointed out so that some corrective action can be done.
In the gospel, Jesus reprimanded the Pharisees and the scribes and those who claim to know the Law of God. More than just a wrong-doing, it was something really terrible as lives are lost as prophets were killed and slaughtered and persecuted.
Blood was shed, and it was the prophets' blood, prophets who were sent by God. Being reprimanded like this should have an awakening effect, but on the contrary, the Pharisees and scribes began a furious attack on Jesus and tried to force answers from Him on innumerable questions, setting traps to catch Him out in something He might say. Before we shake our heads in disgust, we also need to know that when we are reprimanded, we too will get defensive and try to get off from it.
But from the 1st reading, let us remember that we have received the free gift of grace by being redeemed in Christ Jesus who was appointed by God to sacrifice His life so as to win reconciliation through faith.
So, whenever we are reprimanded, let us hear the voice of
God, and let us know that it is Jesus who wants to correct our faults and heal
our wounds of sin, so that the mercy and compassion of God can flow into our
hearts.
***
Even our faith is a gift from God and this faith will set us free from sin and make us share in God’s goodness and love. This is difficult to understand for the scribes, the legalists of Christ’s day, and also for the legalists of our time. They cannot understand that everything is grace...
***
Prayer
Lord God of the covenant, we thank you for the gift of faith
in your Son Jesus Christ, in the forgiveness and love which he brought us from
you. All you let us touch and feel is pure grace and a free gift. Give us
grateful hearts, Lord, that recognize your goodness in nature, in people around
us, and above all in your Son Jesus Christ, who lives with you and with us now
and forever. Amen
***
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
Margaret Mary was chosen by Christ to arouse the Church to a realization of the love of God symbolized by the heart of Jesus.
Her early years were marked by sickness and a painful home situation. “The heaviest of my crosses was that I could do nothing to lighten the cross my mother was suffering.” After considering marriage for some time, Margaret Mary entered the Order of the Visitation nuns at the age of 24.
A Visitation nun was “not to be extraordinary except by being ordinary,” but the young nun was not to enjoy this anonymity. A fellow novice termed Margaret Mary humble, simple, and frank, but above all, kind and patient under sharp criticism and correction. She could not meditate in the formal way expected, though she tried her best to give up her “prayer of simplicity.” Slow, quiet, and clumsy, she was assigned to help an infirmarian who was a bundle of energy.
On December 21, 1674, three years a nun, she received the first of her revelations. She felt “invested” with the presence of God, though always afraid of deceiving herself in such matters. The request of Christ was that his love for humankind be made evident through her.
During the next 13 months, Christ appeared to her at intervals. His human heart was to be the symbol of his divine-human love. By her own love Margaret Mary was to make up for the coldness and ingratitude of the world—by frequent and loving Holy Communion, especially on the first Friday of each month, and by an hour’s vigil of prayer every Thursday night in memory of his agony and isolation in Gethsemane. He also asked that a feast of reparation be instituted.
Like all saints, Margaret Mary had to pay for her gift of holiness. Some of her own sisters were hostile. Theologians who were called in declared her visions delusions and suggested that she eat more heartily. Later, parents of children she taught called her an impostor, an unorthodox innovator. A new confessor, the Jesuit Claude de la Colombière, recognized her genuineness and supported her. Against her great resistance, Christ called her to be a sacrificial victim for the shortcomings of her own sisters, and to make this known.
After serving as novice mistress and assistant superior, Margaret Mary died at the age of 43, while being anointed. She said: “I need nothing but God, and to lose myself in the heart of Jesus.”
***
Blessed Kunjachan of Palai (Bl. Augustine)
Blessed Kunjachan was born as Augustine Thevarparampil on April 1, 1891, near Palai, Kerala. He was the youngest of five children. Although his father was an ordinary farmer, villagers respected him. He had a special love for the "dalits" or "lower-class people" of his day. He used to visit their huts daily, walking long distances. He learned their names and problems, befriended their children and ate in their huts. To treat their sick, he learned the inexpensive herbal medicines, which he would give them after praying over them. The Dalits were not admitted in public schools, because the caste Hindus feared of getting polluted. This forced Father Augustine to open schools for them. He also persuaded them to avoid superstitious practices and social evils like drinking.
The men wore only loincloths, and the women only some chains of
shells and stones around their bare breasts. The young priest made the men wear at least towels and women to wear ‘chatta’ (a kind of blouse) and to be
neat. Starting cooperatives for their self-reliance, he made them elect their members as office-bearers. This brought unity among them.
As a missionary, Kunjachan led the Dalit to accept Christ,
baptizing some 5,000, much to the opposition of the Hindus and some Dalits, who
abused him. Some relapsed from the faith. He however kept good relationship
with the caste Hindus and those Dalits and Catholics who reviled against him.
Even the high caste Brahmins approached him for prayers and
blessings. Many sough his blessings on their agricultural yield. He would often
sprinkle holy water on crops, ensuring a plentiful harvest.
Maintaining a register about the status of each Catholic
family, he took keen interest in catechizing them. Demanding them to come to
church on Sundays, he himself said Mass for them, after hearing their
confessions. Organizing retreats for them, he encouraged religious vocations,
making the ancient Christian-center parish, a nursery of religious vocations.
The annual meetings of the Dalit Christian Organization
became an occasion to foster their varied talents. When his neophytes came to
the parish for any special occasions, he offered them simple food or money to
return. He called them “my children” and they referred to him, “our father.”
All his successive bishops encouraged and supported his work.
He got his spiritual strength from spending a long time
praying before the Blessed Sacrament in the church, presenting to the Lord the
people’s problems. He also had a great devotion to Our Lady of the Perpetual
Help, Mount Carmel and to saints like Therese of Lisieux.
Kunjachan lived as one of the three assistant priests in
Ramapuram for nearly 47 years. He had devoted his entire life to the material
and spiritual liberation of the Dalits. He did this, not by preaching eloquent
sermons or organizing big meetings, but by his practical charity to them.
Leading a simple life, he spent all he had on his people.
At the end, after being a priest for 52 years, he wrote, “I
do not possess anything either as landed property or as cash account… After my
death, my funeral must be conducted in the simplest way. Ever since 1926, I had
been staying with the Harijan Christians. Even after death, I would like to be
with them. Therefore my dead body should be buried where the Harijan Christians
are buried.”
His weakening health forced his family members to take him
home, against his will. Kunjachan died Oct 16, 1973, aged 82. In the absence of
Bishop Sebastian Vayalil of Palai, the funeral Mass was officiated by Auxiliary
Bishop Joseph Pallikaparampil, who had been baptized by Kunjachan, and a
relative from his maternal side.
Preaching at his funeral, Carmelite Father Valerian hailed
Kunjachan’s holiness, apostolic zeal, kindness of heart and love for the poor.
At the end he said, “We are participating in the funeral of a saint. We have
one more mediator in heaven.”
Though he had willed to be buried amid the Dalit Christians, they buried him under the altar in the old St. Augustine’s Church, Ramapuram, where he used to say the daily Mass.
