2nd Week, Wednesday: Jan 21: Saint Agnes
****
DOING GOOD ON THE LORD’S DAY
Introduction
David and Goliath! A boy and a professional military leader. Often in the Bible, the weak are more powerful than the strong. What is weak and small attracts God’s strength. It is not really the underdog who beats the bragging man of violence, but God who makes his greatness known, for he is the God and Savior of his people.
We sometimes reduce our religion to a matter of casuistic laws: Is it permitted to heal on Sundays? When does it become a mortal sin if I am late for Mass? Is it wrong if I do not raise my hands for the Our Father? We sometimes behave like immature kids. God wants us to grow up in our faith. Where is the Good News of Jesus? Where is our love for the Lord and for people?
Opening Prayer
Gracious and holy God, you have chosen us to be your kingdom of peace and mature love. But we have to acknowledge with shame that there is still much room for growth. Make our love richer, more sensitive; Complete the work you have begun in us, that we may have a permanent place in your heart and reflect the adult, healing goodness of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Most of us know the story of David and Goliath. We probably learned it at an early age in our religion class. Who do you think is the true victor, David or the Philistine? The answer is “Neither.” It is God who is the hero. On the human level, Goliath has the upper hand in terms of skill and size. He scoffs at the shepherd boy who has been sent to oppose him. Yet he is felled by a stone from David’s sling. David overcomes his adversary because God wills it.
When our favored team loses in football, we try to justify the loss. Our quarterback was injured in the first quarter. Or our team was affected by two preceding losses. Whatever the reason, the loss stands. In the biblical narrative, we are often invited to see the hand of God at work. And very often it is a case of God making greatness out of nothing. Human agents become secondary when the hand of God is in the ascendancy.
When Jesus appears in the synagogue, his opponents are already prepared to kill him. At this point in Mark’s Gospel it appears to be very early for such a violent reaction. It should be remembered that, in assembling his material, the evangelist is not usually following a time sequence. What may have occurred later in Jesus’ ministry is drawn here, where the context is a series of events dealing with opposition to Jesus.
For Jesus there is no doubt about the rightness of performing a good deed on the Sabbath. He does not hesitate to heal regardless of the reaction. Respect for Sunday rest is a good thing; to look upon it slavishly is not.
Points to Ponder
The faithful David
The caustic Goliath
Attitudes toward the Sabbath
Intercessions
– That people everywhere may be given the time to rest and recover from the pressure of their work, and be given the opportunity to worship God and help people, we pray:
– That the faithful who go to Mass on Sundays will also live according to the Gospel on weekdays, we pray:
– That the Eucharistic celebration on Sundays may be to all Christian communities a source of great joy as we deeply encounter the Lord and receive the strength to follow him on his ways, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Our healing God, you set the table of your Son not merely for a select few but for all, for the sick and the suffering, for the weak and the lonely. Let Jesus’ love, his acceptance of people, his spirit of sharing and healing be ours in all our Christian communities. Teach us to set the table of ourselves, as Jesus did, your Son and our brother, who lives with you and stays with us, now and for ever.
Saint Agnes
Feast day January 21
“A new kind of martyrdom!” exclaimed St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan. The assembly cheered and applauded. He was celebrating St. Agnes because she was a virgin, a martyr—and a child. She was executed at Rome in 304 during the Emperor Diocletian’s vicious persecution. Here are Ambrose’s observations on her death:
St. Agnes is said to have suffered martyrdom at age 12. The cruelty that did not spare so young a child was hateful, but the power of faith in the child was greater. Was there room for a wound in that small body? The sword could barely strike her, yet she had the inner strength to strike back. Girls of her age usually can’t even bear a parent’s angry glance. They cry at needles’ pricks as though they were wounds. Agnes, however, faced her persecutors fearlessly. When they attempted to force her to worship at the pagan altars, she stretched out her hands and made the sign of the cross over the sacrificial fires. She was not fazed by the heavy weight of the chains they wrapped around her. And she freely offered her body to the executioner’s sword.
The executioner used both threats and allurements to try to change her mind. He encouraged young men to beg her to marry them. But she answered, “I already have a spouse, and I will not offend him by pretending that another might please me. I will give myself only to him who first chose me. So, executioner, what are you waiting for? Destroy this body that unwanted eyes desire.”
Agnes stood and prayed. Then she bent down her neck. The executioner trembled as though he himself had been condemned. His right hand shook and his face grew pale, but the virgin showed no fear at all.
So in one victim we have a twofold martyrdom of purity and faith, for Agnes both remained a virgin and also obtained martyrdom. Historians say that legends have embroidered the few facts we know about Agnes. But the stories are rooted in actual events and convey kernels of truth about her. These legends tell that Agnes was a beautiful and soon-to-be-marriageable young woman. Many eager young men pursued her, but she rebuffed them because she had consecrated her virginity to Christ.
One spurned suitor took revenge by reporting to the authorities that Agnes was a Christian. She was brought before a judge who tried to persuade her to recant. He threatened her with fire and torture, but she did not flinch. Then he had her stripped at a brothel and urged young men to seduce her. “You may stain your sword with my blood,” she said, “but you will never profane my body that I have consecrated to Christ.” All were so stunned by her presence that only one boy tried to touch her. Legend says he was struck blind, and that Agnes healed him.
Exasperated and egged on by her first accuser, the governor ordered her execution. Agnes was taken to the Stadium of Domitian, where she courageously faced a nervous soldier who hacked her to death with his sword. Over the centuries the little virgin martyr became one of the most popular saints in Christian history.
St. Agnes’s death was “a new kind of martyrdom!” She taught us adults the meaning of valor while she was still a child. Agnes hurried to the place of her execution more joyfully than a bride goes to her wedding. And she was adorned not with plaited hair, but with Christ himself.
