18th Week, Friday, Aug 8: Saint Dominic
God blessed greatly: "You must keep his commandments."
Deuteronomy 4:32-40 / Matthew 16:24-28
Henry Ward Beecher makes this observation. Suppose someone gave you a dish a sand mixed with tiny iron filings. You look for the filings with your eyes and you comb for them with your fingers. But you can't find them. Then you take a small magnet and draw it through the sand in the dish. Suddenly the magnet is covered with filings. The ungrateful person is like our fingers combing the sand and finds nothing in life to be thankful for. That person finds hundreds of things in life to be grateful for. The grateful person, on the other hand, is like the magnet sweeping through the sand. That person finds hundreds of things in life to be grateful for.
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Do we look upon God's commandments as opportunities for expressing gratitude to him? "God has two dwellings: one in heaven and the other in the meek and thankful heart. Izaak Walton
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Our experiences in life are mostly with people and with the events that happen around us. Nonetheless there are also spiritual experiences when we get an enlightenment or a deep internal stillness that we know is not fabricated by ourselves. Those kinds of experiences can be termed as experiences of God and usually there is a message for us in that experience. In the 1st reading, Moses recounted for the people how God had revealed and spoken to them. Their experience is God is beyond their own fabrication and as God spoke and revealed Himself to them, He also gave them laws and commandments so that the people will know how to relate with God.
In the gospel, Jesus gave the requirements of being His disciple, or what is often called, the cost of discipleship. So, if we really want to follow Jesus, then we have to renounce ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him. And that might mean even putting our needs aside and make sacrifices for others without thinking of gaining any benefit for ourselves. That would sound difficult and challenging especially when we are so used to thinking of ourselves and having things our way and even making others give way to us. But for all that we might gain, it will be a gain in vain because we cannot offer what we gain in exchange for our lives. But when we lose our lives for Jesus, what we will gain will be a revelation of God's love for us. It is a love that we will gain not just in this world but also in the world to come.
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Saint Dominic
Feast Day August 8
Dominic might have lived his whole life in that monastery if he had not gone with his bishop to northern Europe in 1204. As they travelled, Dominic saw that many people were following heretics, or false teachers. One heresy was Albigensianism, named for the French town of Albi where it had begun. These who followed this heresy taught that people do not have a free will. They taught that marriage was bad, but suicide and the killing of elderly or fatally ill people could be good. Because these heretics lived strict lives with little comfort, people believed them.
Dominic saw that the Catholics sent by the pope to preach against the heresies lived in comfort. The people would not accept their teaching because their lives did not support what they taught. Dominic, his bishop, and three Cistercian monks went from city to city preaching the truth of Christ, using the Bible. They went on foot, depending on others for food and a place to sleep. Soon people returned to the faith—not only because of what these preachers said, but because of how they lived.
In 1206 Dominic began an order of religious women. At one point the bishop died, and the three monks left Dominic. To make matters worse, war broke out between the heretics and some Church members. Dominic’s mission seemed to be failing. At this time he was greatly supported by the prayers and encouragement of the Sisters.
By 1215 a few men had joined Dominic in his work of preaching. He founded the Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominicans. Dominic urged his members to study and to pray. Then they would be ready to preach. Dominic realized that to be true witnesses of the Gospel, Dominicans could not be wealthy. His followers also deeply loved the Blessed Virgin Mary and spread devotion to her through the rosary.
Dominic’s community was different from most because his friars traveled and preached instead of staying in their monastery. Dominic’s order tried to reach the well-educated who were deceived by heresy, while the Franciscans went to the poor and uneducated.
While St. Dominic was on a preaching mission through northern Italy, he died, only six years after he had founded his community.
Dominic was able to draw the members of this community together and inspire them to love and forgive one another. He was outstanding for his love of truth, his clear thought, his organizing ability, and his sensitive, loving nature. For Dominic, love for people was part of his love for God.
