6th Week, Saturday, Feb 18: St. Chavara Kuriakose
Hebrews 11:1-7 / Mark 9:2-13
Faith makes the difference; Faith made Abel's sacrifice special.
Joan Cinelli and her mother had just listened to today's
reading at Mass. On their way home Joan said, "I wish that I had
lived at a time when people had such great faith." "You
do!" said her mother. With that, she shared these thoughts with
Joan: "By faith, John works two jobs to support his young family . .
and still finds time to work with fatherless boys. By faith, Alma cheers (her
nursing patients) even though she's single-handedly raising a retarded
son. By faith, Lucille takes it upon herself to run a meal program for
needy folks in our county." Joan got the point.
***
Do we, also, overlook the deep faith of so many people
around us? "Without faith we are a stained-glass window in the
dark."
Author unknown
***
The
Lectionary takes today an excerpt from the Letter to the Hebrews that praises
the faith of the holy persons from the first pages of the Old Testament.
After he
has announced his coming suffering and answered Peter’s protest, Jesus is
transfigured before the eyes of his intimate friends among the apostles who
will also watch his agony in the garden. This is how he strengthens their
faith. Then, he speaks again with them about his approaching passion. Let us
ask the Lord in this Eucharist to give us courage in difficult moments.
***
The one word that keeps recurring in the 1st reading is the
word "faith". It begins the passage as well as ends it off. It talks
about the faith of Biblical characters like Abel, Enoch and Noah. By their
faith they came to know who God is, and by their faith they experienced His
presence, and it was by their faith they did God's will. In the broadest sense
of the word, faith can be said as believing in what cannot be seen and hoping
in what cannot be fully explained. In other words, faith is a gift from God to
experience a mystery that is revealed and yet keeps revealing.
In the gospel, the disciples had their faith brought to
another dimension when they saw the mystery of who Jesus is being revealed in
His Transfiguration. But still they don't understand what was meant
"rising from the dead" and that Jesus will suffer grievously and be
treated with contempt. There may be still many things about our faith that we
do not understand.
But still let us give thanks to God and hold firm to our faith.
With faith, we will be able to see beyond the ordinary to a mystery in which
God reveals Himself and will keep revealing Himself to us.
***
Prayer
Lord our
God, when your Son was transfigured, you gave eyes of faith to the apostles to
see beyond appearances and to recognize Jesus as your beloved Son. This vision
gave them courage for the hour of trial. When our faith and trust seem to
desert us in dark moments, let your Son take us up to the mountain and give us
a glimpse of his light, that with fresh courage and generosity, we may see
where he wants us to go. We ask this through Christ, our Lord.
***
St. Chavara Elias Kuriakose (1805-1871)
St. Chavara Kuriakose, co-founder and first prior
general of the Congregation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, was born on
10th February 1805 at Alleppey district of Kerala. St. Chavara Kuriakose was
instrumental in founding two Catholic religious Congregation-one for men,
Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) and the other for woman Congregation of
Mother of Carmel (CMC), for the spiritual renewal and all-round development of
the society.
Starting seven ashrams and a convent in different parts of
Kerala, Chavara initiated a spiritual movement among the people of Kerala. He
established the first Catholic Sanskrit School, a major seminary and a printing
and publishing house at Mannanam. He directed that every church should start a
school (Pallikku pallikkoodam) attached to it and encouraged children of very
poor sections to attend the schools by supplying midday meal and dress. He
found a “Home of Charity” to take the destitute, the beggars, the uncared sick
and the old. He also organized the first voluntary charitable association in
Kerala for self-help among the needy.
Even in the midst of such manifold activities he found time
to write several literary and spiritual books in prose as well as verse. Among
them was the first chronicle of history in Malayalam. He knew seven languages-
Malayalam, Tamil, Sanskrit, Syrian, Latin, Italian and Portuguese. Essentially,
however, St. Chavara Kuriakose was a man of prayer and great charity. He lived
for 65 years and died on 3rd January 1871.
