Ecclesiastes 11:9 - 12:8 / Luke 9:43-45
Dr. Wilder Penfield, director of Montreal's Neurological Institute, made an amazing discovery.
One day while performing an operation with local anesthesia, he accidentally touched the patient's brain. Instantly and vividly, the patient recalled an exciting experience from childhood. A similar touch to another person caused the patient to relive in perfect detail the experience of having her baby.
Penfield and other scientists now believe that every action of our lives even the feelings we had during the action is stored in our brain. In other words, there is a physiological basis for the theological concept of a personal judgment after death.
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How much does the idea of a final, personal judgment influence our daily actions? "Do not wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day." Albert Camus
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The author of the Book of the Preacher is in many ways a modern man. He is a believer, he looks for meaning in life, he seeks happiness, not wildly but in relation to the God of the covenant, and yet life disappoints him constantly. He asks questions: how come? He has no full answer because he lacks the perspective of life beyond death. How to reconcile life and happiness with faith, lack of fulfilment in life with death, which seems to end all?
“They did not understand it at all,” says the gospel about the disciples, when Jesus told them about his coming passion. Jesus speaks of himself as the “Son of Man,” the mysterious person of heavenly origin predicted by Daniel. “He must be delivered up,” for he is also the Suffering Servant of the songs of Second Isaiah. Indeed, all this, about one who comes from God, is a servant, and has to suffer and die, is hard to reconcile and accept, at least from the human viewpoint. And to be told to follow his example is difficult to take too.
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Generally speaking, as one gets older, one would also get wiser. Having crossed many bridges in life and eaten as much salt as rice, the older one gets, the more experience one would have garnered. From those experiences of life, one would attain some depth of wisdom. So how the 1st reading would be understood depends on whether the reader or the listener is a young person or one who has the seniority of years. Nonetheless the wisdom and the realities expressed in the 1st reading need to be constantly revisited in order to grasp it fully.
In the gospel, Jesus told His disciples to keep these words constantly in their minds: The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the powers of men. But they did not understand it there and then. But later they would. And later they would also realise that what their Master went through, they too would have to go through. Indeed the wisdom and experience of life tells us this - If there is no suffering to hollow out our hearts, there would be no room for joy.
Whether for the young or for those well on in years, that is the reality. Choosing or hoping otherwise would be vanity of vanities.
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Opening Prayer
Lord our God, it remains to us on occasion a cause for wonderment that your own Son had to suffer and die. But of this we are sure: that you knew what was best, that you loved him very much, and that he died to bring us your life and love. Accept our thanks, Father, and help us to keep always in mind how dear we are to you in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Saints Cosmas and Damian
Feast day September 26
There are some saints of whom we know very little. People from all over the world may honour them. Shrines and churches may be built in their names. But the facts and details of their lives have faded from our memories or their stories may never have been recorded.
Cosmas and Damian are saints like these. Little is known about them except that they suffered martyrdom for their faith in Syria sometime during the persecutions of Diocletian (around 303). We may never know exactly what happened, but we do know that their witness to the faith was so strong that people turned to them for prayerful help and passed their story on to others.
Legends about these two saints abound. According to these stories, Cosmas and Damian were twin brothers, born in Arabia, who went to Syria to study and practice medicine. But they were concerned about more than healing bodies. They brought their belief in Christ to those to whom they ministered. Not only that, but they also served people without charging any fees. Lysias, the governor of Celicia, heard about these two brothers and he summoned them before him. When Cosmas and Damian proclaimed they were Christians, Lysias had them tortured and finally beheaded. Devotion to these two brothers grew, and many cures were said to have been worked through their intercessions. Later a church in their honour was constructed over the site of their burial. When the Emperor Justinian was sick, he prayed to Saints Cosmas and Damian for a cure. Out of gratitude for receiving this favour, he enlarged the city of Cyr and its church. Numerous other churches were erected for them at Constantinople and Rome. Their names are also included in the First Eucharistic Prayer.
If so little about these saints is actually known, why do we honour them? Part of the answer can be found in tradition. When so many believers continue to honour the memory of martyrs, year after year and all over the world, there is good reason to believe that their lives were true witnesses to the Gospel. People who live and die according to their convictions and faith give hope to the world long after their deaths. Their lives can inspire us and encourage us to be faithful during our little trials and sorrows.
