28th Week, Monday, Oct 13; St Edward
Romans 1:1-7 / Luke 11:29-32
Paul discusses his calling; God called me to preach to the Gentiles.
Edward R. Murrow was one of the first news commentators to use the media with real power and skill. Recently a television spokesman recalled a prediction Murrow made in the 1950s: “Someday we'll be able to talk to our audience from any place in the world almost any time we want. When that day comes, what will we say?" The television spokesman then observed: “Murrow's prediction has come true, but we still haven't figured out what to say.”
Paul would know what to say to the world. It would be what he says in effect in today's reading: “Jesus is the Lord, and he calls all people to holiness.”
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Do we support efforts to use the media to spread the Gospel in our time? Jesus said, “What you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.” Matthew 10:27
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Starting today and for the next four weeks, we shall listen to Paul’s letter to the Romans. Today he presents himself as the Lord’s apostle, especially for the gentiles, and then he goes straight to the heart of the message he has to proclaim: that Jesus Christ is the son of David and our risen Savior.
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There are many lessons we can learn from the events of history and from the peoples of the past. These events also help us to create a greater awareness of our current situation and we also see that we have many advantages over the peoples of the past. We may feel anything from feeling sorry to being critical of the people in the gospel passage.
They were asking Jesus for a sign when THE sign was standing right before them. Jesus could only ask them to reflect upon the events of their own history and upon the lessons of their past, and He quoted two figures of the past for their reflection - Jonah and the Queen of the South.
Similarly, Jesus is also asking us to reflect on the events of our history so as to be more aware of our present spiritual state. Events like our baptism and our experiences of God all point to God's love for us and His mercy and forgiveness of our sins. We don't need more signs from God. We only need to remember and reflect upon the marvellous deeds He has done for us.
May we also respond to the call of Jesus for repentance and conversion.
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Jesus reprimands the Jews for not believing unless they see spectacular signs. But Christ proclaims that faith consists in trust in the word and in the person of the one who is sent. The early Christian community specified further: faith rests in confidence in the risen Christ. The preeminent sign is Jesus Christ himself. We believe not because of this or that wonder or proof but because Jesus makes God visible to us.
Prayer
Lord God, our Father, we too wish at times we could see signs that brace our hesitant faith. Give us a faith that is strong enough not to ask for wonders and proofs but simply to trust in you and in your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Deepen this faith and make it the very foundation of the whole of our life. We ask you this through Christ our risen Lord. Amen
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Oct 13, St Edward the Confessor King (1004 -1066)
A saintly, conscientious man, much given to prayer and works of mercy, Edward’s early misfortunes taught him to deprecate all earthly ambitions, and he now concentrated fully on governing his people with Christian gentleness, justice and prudence. Long abandoned monasteries were restored, and in the interest of better education it was decreed that schoolmasters, like clerics, were to be regarded as inviolable. Except for the occasion when Edward gave aid to Malcolm II of Scotland against usurper Macbeth, and another when he repelled a Welsh invasion, his 23¬year reign was one of peace and prosperity.
Canonized in 1161, Edward was the first English King to touch and heal scrofulous sores, “the King’s Evil”, with his ring—a power which had been conferred originally on the Kings of France by St Remi. Edward’s famous death-bed vision of his country’s future has seen remarkable fulfilment: “When the measure of wickedness will have become full, then will God in his wrath send wicked spirits among the English people, and they will punish and afflict them with great severity by separating the green branch from the parent trunk for the space of three furlongs; but in the end, through the compassionate mercy of God, and without any governmental assistance, this same branch will return to its original fruit, will flourish anew and bear abundant fruit.” The period of time from Henry VIII’s break with Rome in 1534 and the rule of the Protestant innovators until 1850 when Pope Pius IX re-established the Catholic hierarchy in England, is in fact slightly more than three centuries.
