10th Week, Tuesday, June 13
2 Cor 1:18-22 / Matthew 5:13-16
God is trustworthy; He has sealed us.
Ancient peoples used to put a mark or a seal on their property. For example, shepherds branded the sheep in their flocks. Slave owners also put marks on their slaves. The Roman army followed a similar practice. It tattooed the hand or the forearm of recruits with an abbreviation of the name of the general under whom the recruits would serve. Writers like Clement of Alexander (ca. A.D. 200) urged Christians to use symbolic marks, like doves and fish. Paul has this "marking system" in mind when he says that God has "sealed us." In baptism, we were made God's property and given God's mark of ownership.
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Do we act as though we belong to God? "We became 'the anointed ones' when we received the sign of the Holy Spirit. Thus, we ourselves are images of Christ." Jerusalem Catechesis (adapted)
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What people expect from their leaders is that they are reliable - and they are right to expect this. Without reliability there can be no trust. That is what the Judaizing Christians accuse Paul of: He is fickle-minded. He had promised a visit to Corinth, and he changed his mind. From the vehemence of his defense we can see how seriously he took this accusation. It was a danger to his apostolic effectiveness. He quotes Jesus: Let your word be "yes, yes" or "no, no" and let people be clear about it. He cannot be double-tongued. The apostle must reflect in his life the fidelity of God. This is the Spirit of God. In this Spirit we are baptized and confirmed. In these sacraments God impressed in us his seal. By stamping a document, we pledge that it is official, that it states the truth, that it keeps what it promises. Paul uses the deepest insights into theology to impress on his readers: An apostle has to be reliable. He must reflect the fidelity of God.
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During the communist regime in Poland, only a dozen or so Catholic secondary schools for girls remained under the direction of religious sisters. They had to follow the state program without any religion. When asked whether there was still any sense in their work, a sister directress answered: “We stay with the girls, we are a presence among them. If we try to be good Christians, we automatically let the light shine. Light is its own proof. One has not to talk about it.” Her words echo those of Christ in the Gospel. A Christian has not necessarily to preach from a pulpit. Authentic Christian living is a proclamation all by itself.
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Jesus says: We are to be salt for the earth, light for the world. We Christians have a responsibility towards the world: not the whole wide world, but my little world. "My world" are the persons who know me and whom I not necessarily by name. To them I have to be salt and light. Salt changes the taste of food. It has to be added in the right proportion. Too much or too little makes the difference of good or bad. Light makes us see reality correctly. Light gives men a sense of security, just as darkness begets fear. Light is joy. So, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and praise not you, but the Father in heaven.
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Prayer
Lord our God, your Son asks of every disciple to be the salt and the light of the world. Season our lives and words with the salt of the Gospel, that all those who encounter us may taste how good it is to live in your love and to work in joy and hope towards a world and a heaven of justice, peace and friendship. We ask this in the name of Jesus, the Lord. Amen
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Saint Anthony of Padua, 1195-1231
One of the most loved friends in heaven is St. Anthony of Padua. Your church might have a statue of him, and you might even have a holy card with his picture on it. People ask St. Anthony for help all the time, and for the most ordinary things, and that’s okay. Like a good friend, St. Anthony is always willing to help. People especially like to ask St. Anthony to help them find things that are lost. In a minute, we’ll find out why.
We turn to St. Anthony for help with our ordinary problems, but his life was really anything but ordinary. St. Anthony was born in Portugal, and when he grew up, he studied to be a priest. He was a brilliant student and knew the Bible backward and forward. Someone once said that if all the Bibles in Europe were burned, it wouldn’t be a terrible problem. People could just go to St. Anthony, and he could write the Scriptures down for them!
Anthony was a good teacher, but one day something happened that inspired him to follow Jesus in a slightly different way. Five Franciscan priests had traveled to Morocco, a country in Africa, to preach the good news about Jesus. They were brutally killed, and what was left of their bodies was brought to the town where Anthony lived.
Anthony couldn’t sit still any longer. More than anything, he wanted to go to Morocco himself and try to give the love of Jesus to the people who had done this terrible thing. No one seemed to need Christ’s love more than people who would torture and kill innocent men.
So Anthony joined the Franciscan order, got on a ship, and sailed to Morocco. Things didn’t work out as he had hoped, though. He fell ill soon after he arrived and had no choice but to return to Europe.
Anthony’s plans weren’t working out, but perhaps that’s because God had something else in mind for him. The ship Anthony was on, the one he thought was taking him back to university life in Portugal, got blown off course by a sudden strong wind. It went straight to the island of Sicily, where a huge meeting of Franciscan brothers happened to be taking place at that very moment.
Anthony didn’t speak at the meeting, since he was really an outsider. He sat silently and listened. Perhaps he even heard St. Francis of Assisi speaking of holy poverty as the way to follow Jesus and of how important it is to preach the love of Jesus to all people, especially the poor.
After the meeting, Anthony continued to live a quiet life as a friar, working in a hospital in Italy, taking the humblest jobs of all. Back in Portugal, Anthony had already begun to gain fame as a scholar and teacher, but he said not a word about that in the hospital. He worked hard in the kitchen and the garden, helping the sick in the most ordinary, everyday ways.
Then one day something happened that was almost as strange as the ship wandering off course. There was a large meeting of Franciscans and Dominicans, but oddly enough, the plans for who would give the sermon at the meeting fell through. There were plenty of fine preachers present, but none of them were prepared.
Those in charge of the meeting went down the line of friars. “Would you care to give the sermon, Brother? No? What about you, Father? No? Well, what about you, Fr. Anthony—is that your name?”
Slowly, Anthony rose, and just as slowly, he began to speak. The other friars sat up to listen. There was something very special about Anthony. He didn’t use complicated language, but his holiness and love for God shone through his words. He was one of the best preachers they had ever heard!
From that point on, Anthony’s quiet life in the hospital kitchen was over. For the rest of his life, he traveled around Italy and France, preaching sermons in churches and town squares to people who came from miles around.
His listeners heard Anthony speak about how important it is for us to live every day in God’s presence. As a result of his words, hundreds of people changed their lives and bad habits, bringing Jesus back into their hearts.
Anthony wasn’t always successful, though. In most cities, businesspeople would shut down their shops to come listen to Anthony. But in one city the townspeople closed their hearts to him and listened with hard faces and harsh eyes.
St. Anthony had done his best. He shrugged and turned around. The fish in the bay poked their heads out of the water to see what was going on, and St. Anthony started preaching to them instead!
Now, back to the first question. Why do we ask St. Anthony to help us find lost things?
St. Anthony had a book of psalms that was quite special to him. It was special because in those days before the printing press, books were rare and expensive. But it was also special because it contained many notes Anthony had made to help him in his preaching and teaching.
Late one night, a young Franciscan decided to leave the community. He’d had enough of that life, so he made plans to just sneak out in the middle of the night. He saw Anthony’s book of psalms on his way out, and he snatched it up and ran. He knew that he could sell this precious book for a good deal of money.
Of course, Anthony was quite upset. He prayed that God would change the young man’s heart and bring him back to the Franciscan life. He also hoped that while God was at it, he would return Anthony’s book too.
The next day, the young man returned, tired and ashamed, with Anthony’s book. He also brought back his own gifts and talents, which he decided once more to offer to the Franciscan community.
So that’s why we like to ask St. Anthony to help us find lost things. He was an extraordinary man who can still help us from heaven, even in the most ordinary ways.
