September 10, 2011 Marie Reine du Canada Pilgrimage Part 3: One Very Special MomentBy Michael HayesGlory to Jesus Christ!Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,In the previous two posts I discussed briefly the spiritual benefits and graces of pilgrimage, and the significance of the location of the Marie Reine du Canada pilgrimage (Quebec). Now I wish to relay one story
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Marie Reine du Canada Pilgrimage Part 3: One Very Special Moment
September 10, 2011
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
In the previous two posts I discussed briefly the spiritual benefits and graces of pilgrimage, and the significance of the location of the Marie Reine du Canada pilgrimage (Quebec). Now I wish to relay one story. This is the story of a moment which struck many of us on the pilgrimage, and more than one of us said that this one moment made the whol pilgrimage worth the effort.
It was the final leg of our walk, the last 5 or 6 kilometers or so. We had already passed through downtown Trois-Rivieres where we stopped for lunch, and we were getting excited since our destination was near. We were walking through some neighbourhood streets and approaching a corner where we would turn left. From afar, I could see that on that corner stood an elderly lady.
I was very interested to see her reaction once she noticed what we were doing. As we approached, her eyes lit up. She saw the statue of the Mother of God at the front. She saw the banners of Catholic New France, the St. Jean Baptiste Society, and of the Marie Reine du Canada pilgrimage. She heard us singing the rosary in French. She looked like she was about to cry. Maybe she did begin to cry once the last of the several dozen young people passed by her. As we passed, she clapped in approval, and we greeted her.
This woman was of the last generation of Catholic Quebec. Her children would have been of the generation which turned from the faith and towards the new anti-clerical Quebecois nationalism. Her grandchildren would be of the generation which is increasingly asking who that guy on the cross is. I can only imagine the trauma she suffered when her entire world collapsed around her. I can only imagine how much she suffers to see her children and grandchildren so far from Christ and His salvation.
At that moment, all of this went through my mind and I attempted to place myself into her shoes. If nothing else, perhaps we showed her that there is hope. After experiencing what she experienced, seeing 70 or so young people praying and walking must have been very encouraging.
For us who were walking, we realized that we had touched someone very deeply that moment. We have no idea how many others were touched that weekend by our presence, but we know that there was at least that one elderly lady.
Moments such as this help us realize why we do the pilgrimage. We do it for our own spiritual benefit, but others need us too. Thousands of people saw us that weekend providing a witness for our Christian faith. Who knows how many were moved in their heart by the Holy Spirit.
Original article:
Marie Reine du Canada Pilgrimage Part 3: One Very Special Moment
So, I haven’t really fallen off the face of the earth, no worries. It’s just been kind of busy with the transition saying goodbye to my friars, friends, co-workers and parishioners in Toronto and then saying hello to my new home and ministry in Syracuse, New York. There’s lots to say for sure.
At the moment I’m in Costa Rica with our new volunteers who will begin their volunteer work on Monday. I return home tomorrow. I promise to write more. In the meantime I want to share a video that was sent to me by Carolyn, one of the Costa Rica volunteers. We were at the Cathedral in San José today and looking a beautiful window of the story of the woman at the well, mentioned that it was one of my favourite Gospel passages. Carolyn then mentioned this rap that I’ve attached. This “spoken word” captures everything that I like about that passage in the scripture.
If I can live this in my ministry I will be a very happy man, and blessed friar and a good priest.
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A friend sent me this as a joke, but considering the source, I expected something more than just a laugh, and I was not disappointed.
See what you think:
An atheist was seated next to a little girl on an airplane and he turned to her and said,”Do you want to talk? Flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.”
The little girl, who had started to read her book, replied to the stranger, “What would you want to talk about?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said the atheist. “How about why there is no God, no Heaven or Hell, or no life after death?” as he smiled smugly.
“OK,” she said. “Those could be interesting topics but first let me ask you a question. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff–grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, but a horse produces clumps. Why do you suppose that is?”
The atheist, visibly surprised by the little girl’s intelligence, thinks about it and says, “Hmmm, I have no idea.”
To which the little girl replies, “Do you really feel qualified to discuss why there is no God, no Heaven or Hell, or no life after death, when you don’t know shit?” And then she went back to reading her book.
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Friday, September 9, 2011
Optional Memorial of St. Peter Claver, Priest; Friday of the Twenty-Third Week of Ordinary Time
Readings: 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14; Psalm 16:1-2a+5, 7-8, 11 (R: see 5a); Luke 6:39-42
One might find it difficult to see mercy as the focal point of the words of Jesus that we hear in today’s Gospel: “How can you say to your neighbour, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite…”[1] That last word, “hypocrite,” is especially harsh to my– to our– ears, yet by criticizing his hearers and calling them hypocrites, Jesus draws attention beyond the criticism itself to the mercy of God.
However difficult it is to see mercy in these severe words, in between the metaphors of the blind person leading another blind person[2] and of the speck or log in one’s eye,[3] Jesus speaks words of warning against pride, but then words of consolation. On one hand we, Jesus’ disciples, cannot be “above the teacher.”[4] To think we could be greater than God is foolish as it is futile but, despite the logical impossibility of exceeding God in any particular divine quality, for example mercy, Jesus tells us on the other hand that “everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher.”[5]
How, though, does one become “qualified” and thus “like the teacher?” Let us take up again the example of mercy, and how we might become as merciful as Jesus, the incarnate God; our teacher. In the Gospel of Luke mercy is singled out among the most important attributes of God. Moreover, this Gospel’s author teaches that mercy is not just characteristic of God, but that we, too, are expected to act mercifully toward one another. Just three verses before the beginning of today’s Gospel reading, Jesus teaches his disciples: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”[6]
One who is merciful does not hold grudges against another for small (and often not-so-small) wrongs, the proverbial specks in the eyes of other people. One who is merciful is at once mature and continuing to grow in self-knowledge. By self-knowledge, I do not mean a narcissistic self-flattery that fails to recognize our own wrongs, but an awareness of where we stand before God and openness to the mercy of God, who knows us even better than we could ever know ourselves. Only by God’s mercy, in which we are called to be “like the teacher,” are the logs in our eyes– our more grievous faults compared to the specks of others that might escape our awareness but for God’s grace toward us– removed. Only then are we disposed to lead the blind toward God in mercy and in purity of heart.
I have long been both challenged and encouraged by the fact that, while Matthew’s Gospel includes the extensive Sermon on the Mount, more than half of Luke’s Chapter 6 from which we hear today is taken up by the Sermon on the Mount’s Lukan parallel, the Sermon on the Plain. Many exegetes contend that Matthew portrays a more transcendent God (this is debatable) with Jesus teaching from the mount.[7] In contrast, Luke writes of Jesus teaching on a level plain, in the midst of the crowds. Luke’s lesson is that the instruction of Jesus on the plain is not too lofty for us; in fact, again, the more “accessible” Jesus of Luke’s Gospel expects us to follow after his example and his teachings, especially that on the abundance of mercy that God has toward us and asks us to have toward others.
We have great examples in the saints in how to follow Christ’s teachings: “Be merciful… everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher.”[8] One such saintly example is Peter Claver, a prophetic voice for the African slaves in colonial Cartagena in what is now Colombia. Born in Barcelona, Spain, St. Peter Claver’s missionary vocation was recognized by Alfonso Rodriguez, another saint who was a Jesuit lay brother and mystic in Mallorca. After arriving in Cartagena in 1610, St. Peter Claver’s advocacy for the humane treatment of the Africans and indeed for the abolition of the slave trade that saw one third of African slaves die in transit between Africa and the Americas, drew the ire of slave traders and even of many of his own Jesuit brothers. After forty-four years in Cartagena, Peter Claver died, bedridden and neglected. Peter Claver, patron saint of Colombia, is nevertheless one of the Church’s great messengers of God’s mercy, giving his life as one “like the teacher.”[9]
As we continue this Eucharistic celebration, let us pray that, through the intercession of St. Peter Claver, our Basilian apostolates in Colombia and throughout the world might be beacons of mercy to the disadvantaged. May we be to all people “fully qualified” in the mercy of God, following after our Teacher, Lord, and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
[1] Luke 6:42
[2] v 39
[3] vv 41-42
[4] v 40
[5] Ibid.
[6] v 36
[7] John L. McKenzie, “The Gospel According to Matthew,” in The Jerome Biblical Commentary, edited by Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968), 2:69. Carroll Stuhlmueller, “The Gospel According to Luke,” in The Jerome Biblical Commentary, 2:115.
[8] vv 36, 40
[9] Pierre Suau, “St. Peter Claver.” In The Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11763a.htm. Accessed 9 September 2011.
Tags: Catholic Church, Colombia, Gospel of Luke, Jesus, Religion, Saints and Blesseds, Scripture
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Like the Teacher in Mercy- Reflection for Mass of September 9, 2011
