27th Week, Monday, Oct 6; Saint Bruno
Jonah 1:1 - 2:1, 11 / Luke 10:25-37
God calls Jonah: Jonah fled from God.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow says that most of us suffer from
the Jonah Complex. He explains it this way: Just as Jonah fled from God’s call,
so many of us flee inner calls and dreams. Our reason for fleeing them is that
we think they are beyond our grasp. Maslow makes his point with students by
asking them, “Which of you hopes to write the great American novel or be
senator or governor someday?” The students always giggle and laugh. They think
such goals are out of the question.
****
Are we like Jonah? Are we fleeing from some inner call or
dream? “A blind man’s world is bounded by the limits of his touch; an ignorant
man’s world by the limits of his knowledge; a great man’s world by the
limits of his vision.” E. Paul Harvey
****
The late Cardinal John Henry Newman struggled to understand
the mystery of his own life, as well as the meaning and purpose of life. As he
prayed, he came to this conclusion: God has created him to do some definite
service. God has committed some work to him which He has not committed to
another. Hence, he has a particular mission in life.
Cardinal Newman was an Anglican cleric, but after
researching and studying Scriptures and Church doctrines, he felt that he had
to return to the roots of the Church. Subsequently, he became a Catholic and
devoted his life and intellectual talents to teaching and explaining the
Catholic faith. That was what he felt was his mission and meaning of his life.
As we reflect on today's readings, we also see two
characters who had to struggle with their mission and finding the meaning of
their lives. The prophet Jonah tried to avoid his mission but God's call was
just too strong to evade.
In the gospel, Jesus portrayed the Samaritan as someone who
faced the basic human mission of helping another human being who was in need,
and that called for the putting aside of the discrimination and the animosity.
So, God has a mission for us, for each one of us. Certainly, each of us has a
particular calling to a particular service to God. But let us also not forget
our basic human mission, and that is to be a neighbor of love to those in need.
***
According to an old Jewish story, a father tells his small
son: “I think that God made people because he likes to tell stories and he
wanted someone to tell them to.” We have Jesus with us today to tell us the
immortal story of the Good Samaritan. Who is my neighbor? Anyone who needs me,
whoever he or she may be. And “go and do the same.”
***
Prayer: Our God and Father, in signs and stories
your Son Jesus made it clear to us that love of you and our neighbor is the
heart of the Christian life. Make it indeed clear and obvious to us that anyone
in need is our neighbor and that in serving those around us we love and serve
you, our Lord and God forever. Amen
***
Feast day October 6
Bruno was an 11th-century theology teacher who taught for more than 18 years and headed schools. He wrote essays on the psalms and Saint Paul’s letters. Bruno risked his reputation by opposing Manasses, the archbishop of Rheims in modern-day Germany. Manasses had acquired this position unfairly by buying it, which is known as simony.
When Manasses was removed from his role as archbishop, he confiscated Bruno’s property. Bruno hid in an associate’s house where he was joined by two friends. One day, Bruno left his post as a teacher and joined six companions to go to a hermitage and live a life of prayer. On the way, Bruno stopped to see an old friend, Hugh of Grenoble. Hugh greeted him with amazement. The night before, Hugh had dreamed of seven stars settling on the Chartreuse Alps, which he interpreted to mean Bruno with six companions. So Hugh took the group to the mountains, where they built a chapel.
Six years later, Pope Urban II called Bruno to Rome, where Bruno influenced the pope on Church matters. The pope offered to make him a bishop, but Bruno declined. He agreed to found another hermitage in Italy, where he died in 1101. Bruno was never formally canonized. In 1623, his feast was put in the Roman calendar. Though Bruno wrote no rule and never intended to start an order, he is considered the founder of the Carthusian monks.
Suggestions
- The Carthusian monk lives in a hermitage consisting of a workroom and a private garden on the ground floor and a living room above. Here he prays, works, studies, eats, and sleeps. He rises at midnight and prays the Divine Office in church. Then he returns to his room to sleep for about three hours. He rises at dawn for Mass, and in the evening, he prays Vespers. The day is given to prayer, study, silence, and manual labor. In winter, one meal is taken at noon, and bread and beverage are taken in the evening. In the summer, there are two meals. No meat is eaten. The monks eat together only on major feast days. Ask the students how monks help us and why we need people who give their lives in penance and prayer for the world. Write on the board the Carthusian motto, “While the world changes, the cross stands firm.”
- Saint Bruno saw penance as something that frees the spirit to be close to God. Suggest that the students fast from snacks for one day.
***
Bruno Hartenfaust was ordained priest at 25, and received a canonry at Cologne but was recalled by the Bishop of Rheims to assist in directing his former school.
In 1075 he was appointed Chancellor and Canon-theologian for the diocese. But after the death of his friend, Bishop Gervais, the See was occupied by the worldly and violent Manasses I who, when later suspended, fled for his life in a popular uprising. Bruno and his six companions thereupon carried out a vow made some years before to leave the world and embrace the monastic life in the Alpine solitude of the Chartreuse given to them by St Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, commencing in 1084 a life of silence, prayer, labour, study, mortification, and poverty. That was the beginning of the Eremitical Order of Carthusians.
