SEPTEMBER 13, 2013 : MEMORIAL OF SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, BISHOP AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH

Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Lectionary: 441

Reading 11 TM 1:1-2, 12-14

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our savior
and of Christ Jesus our hope,
to Timothy, my true child in faith:
grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father
and Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord,
because he considered me trustworthy
in appointing me to the ministry.
I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant man,
but I have been mercifully treated
because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief.
Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant,
along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Responsorial PsalmPS 16:1B-2A AND 5, 7-8, 11

R. (see 5) You are my inheritance, O Lord.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, “My Lord are you.”
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord.
I bless the LORD who counsels me;
even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord.
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord.

GospelLK 6:39-42

Jesus told his disciples a parable:
“Can a blind person guide a blind person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?
How can you say to your brother,
‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’
when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”

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Meditation: "Do you not see the log in your own eye?"

Are you clear-sighted, especially in your perception of sin and the need for God’s grace? Jesus' two parables about poor vision allude to the proverb: Without vision the people perish! (Proverbs 29:18) What does the illustration of a blind guide and a bad eye (the log in the eye) say to us? A bad eye left untreated and a blind guide can cause a lot of trouble that will only end in sure disaster! We can only teach others what we have been taught ourselves. And how can we help others overcome their faults if we are blinded by our own faults? We are all in need of a physician who can give us vision, insight, and clarity for overcoming the blindspots of sin and ignorance in our own lives.
True disciples of Christ are those who listen to the voice of their Master and who submit to the skillful help of Jesus, the Divine Physician, who heals us and removes the cancer of sin from our lives. If we are to be guides and teachers for others, then we need good vision, both spiritual and moral vision, and a clear map that shows us the right path and destination for our life's journey. Jesus tells us that he is the way, the truth, and the life – no one comes to the Father except through him (John 14:6). If our destination is heaven – our true home and union with God – then there is only one way to get there and that way is through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the cross of Christ sin is pardoned and the sinner is made whole, darkness and corruption give way to light and truth, death is defeated and new life in Christ is restored. The cross of Christ frees us from condemnation and guilt and shows us the way of perfect love and unity with God and with our neighbor.
If Christ has truly freed us from guilt and condemnation, then why is judgmentalism and a critical spirit so rampant today, even among Christians? "Thinking the best of other people" is necessary if we wish to grow in love. And kindliness in judgment is nothing less that a sacred duty. The Rabbis warned people: "He who judges his neighbor favorably will be judged favorably by God." How easy it is to misjudge and how difficult it is to be impartial in judgment. Our judgment of others is usually "off the mark" because we can't see inside the other person, or we don't have access to all the facts, or we are swayed by instinct and unreasoning reactions to people. It is easier to find fault in others than in oneself. Jesus states a heavenly principle we can stake our lives on: what you give to others (and how you treat others) will return to you (Mark 4:24). The Lord knows our faults and he sees all, even the imperfections and sins of the heart which we cannot recognize in ourselves. Like a gentle father and a skillful doctor he patiently draws us to his seat of mercy and removes the cancer of sin which inhabits our hearts. Do you trust in God's mercy and grace? Ask the Lord to flood your heart with his loving-kindness and mercy that you may only have room for charity, forbearance, and kindness towards your neighbor.
"O Father, give us the humility which realizes its ignorance, admits its mistakes, recognizes its need, welcomes advice, accepts rebuke. Help us always to praise rather than to criticize, to sympathize rather than to discourage, to build rather than to destroy, and to think of people at their best rather than at their worst. This we ask for thy name's sake." (Prayer of William Barclay, 20th century)

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God So Loves Me

Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, bishop and doctor of the Church

Father Patrick Butler, LC   Luke 6: 39-42 He also told them a parable: "Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor´s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ´Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,´ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor´s eye. Introductory Prayer: God the Father, thank you for the gift of creation, including my own life. God the Son, thank you for redeeming me at the price of your own Body and Blood. God the Holy Spirit, thank you for being the sweet guest of my soul, enlightening my mind, strengthening my spirit and kindling the fire of your love in my heart. Petition: Lord, help me to grow in humility. 1. Blind Guides: Jesus poses a rhetorical question to the crowd: “Can a blind person guide a blind person?” It is obvious that a guide needs to see. If we are talking about guiding people to the kingdom of God, then Jesus is the way. He is the one who has come from his Father; he knows the way. First, we can reflect on his importance and centrality to our journey to heaven. Second, we can also think about ourselves as guides for others. There should be a certain hesitancy, which is not reluctance, when we consider the task of leading others to God. We should be humble and remain very close to the Church that Christ founded to continue his mission on earth. 2. Disciples: Christ’s next statement emphasizes that while the disciple is not above his teacher, he can learn as much as the teacher. The disciple of Jesus can learn from him the steps which lead to salvation and eternal life. Christ not only founded the Church to continue his teaching, but he also endowed her with the gift of his Spirit to preserve her from error. Our confidence in teaching others should derive from the knowledge that we are in union with the Church and seek to follow her teachings. Learning is a lifelong process, but religious instruction often ceases with First Communion or Confirmation, and many adults have only the religious formation of a child. What are we doing to become fully qualified in our knowledge of the faith? 3. Hypocrites: Evangelization begins with us. It does seem that we are much quicker to detect faults in others than to notice them in ourselves. We can even be really irritated by another person’s faults, even though we ourselves possess them in greater measure than does the person about whom we are complaining. The proud person complains loudly of the conceit and arrogance he sees in his neighbor, but he is blind to his own vice. We need to consider our own condition first – humbly –, and then we need to work on truly becoming more Christ-like. The more we allow God’s grace to transform our lives, the more we can help others. Conversation with Christ: Lord, I am very proud. I so easily get wrapped up in myself, my perspective, my needs and my wants. I put myself before others. Help me to see the faults in myself that you want me to start working on. Give me the courage to address them before I start looking at others. Resolution: I will identify two or three practical things I can do this week to grow in the virtue of humility.

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13
LUKE 6:39-42
(1 Timothy 1:1-2,12-14; Psalm 16)

KEY VERSE: "Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?" (v 41).
READING: Jesus taught his disciples to love their enemies (v 27-36) and to be forgiving, non-judgmental and generous toward others (v 37-38). His disciples must be clear-sighted in their understanding of the gospel. They would be hypocrites if they criticized the mistakes of others and were blind to their own faults. A blind person would be unable to guide another blind person as both might stumble and fall. The disciples could not lead others unless they were able to see their own defects and limitations. Then they would be compassionate when others failed, and could help them overcome their wrongdoings. When these future leaders of the Churchwere fully trained, they would resemble their teacher, Jesus. 
REFLECTING: Am I quick to point out the mistakes of others that I make myself?
PRAYING: Lord Jesus, open my eyes to my own faults so that I will not be judgmental of another's shortcomings.

Memorial of John Chrysostom, bishop and doctor of the Church

John, named Chrysostom (golden-tongue) on account of his eloquence, was born about the year 344, in the city of Antioch. In 374, he began to lead the life of an anchorite in the mountains near Antioch, but in 386 the poor state of his health forced him to return to Antioch, where he was ordained a priest. In 398, he was elevated to the See of Constantinople and became one of the greatest lights of the Church. John criticized the rich for not sharing their wealth, fought to reform the clergy, revised the Greek Liturgy, prevented the sale of ecclesiastical offices, called for fidelity in marriage and encouraged practices of justice and charity. But he had enemies in high places and he was sent into exile. In the midst of his sufferings, like the apostle, St. Paul, whom he so greatly admired, he found the greatest peace and happiness. He had the consolation of knowing that the Pope remained his friend, and did for him what lay in his power. His enemies banished him still further, to Pythius, at the very extremity of the Empire. He died on his way there on September 14, 407.  John Chrysostom is one of the Greek Fathers of the Church. He was proclaimed Doctor of the Church in 451.

YOM KIPPUR BEGINS AT SUNSET

Yom Kippur is the most important holiday of the Jewish year. Yom Kippur  occurs on the 10th day of the month of Tishri (September / October). The holiday was instituted in Leviticus 23:26-32. The name "Yom Kippur" means "Day of Atonement," a day set aside to atone for the sins of the past year. Yom Kippur atones only for sins between people and God, not for sins against another person. To atone for sins against another person, the person must first seek reconciliation with another, righting the wrongs committed against them, if possible, before Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is a complete Sabbath; no work can be performed on that day. It is a complete fast beginning before sunset on the evening before Yom Kippur and ending after nightfall on the day of Yom Kippur. Most of the holiday is spent in the synagogue, in prayer. In Orthodox synagogues, services begin early in the morning (8 or 9 AM) and continue until about 3 PM. People then usually go home for the afternoon and return around 5 or 6 PM for the afternoon and evening services, which continue until nightfall, ending with the blowing of a long blast on the shofar, or ram's horn.

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You are my inheritance, O Lord

A fully trained disciple will be like their teacher.
Jesus is teaching honesty and integrity in today’s gospel. What right have we to think we can criticise another’s character if we haven’t looked into our own self and recognised our sinfulness. John McKinnon calls this self-knowledge ‘the core of conversion’.

Paul’s conversion shows the power of God’s mercy. Paul says that God had judged him and found him trustworthy. This gave him the strength and fortitude to face the certainty of persecution, and to continue to bless and encourage his followers as he does here in his letter to Timothy.

Today let us strive to face the truth of our own flaws and to be careful not just about what we say about others but also what we think, for the thought lies close behind the word.

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September 13
St. John Chrysostom
(d. 407)

The ambiguity and intrigue surrounding John, the great preacher (his name means "golden-mouthed") from Antioch, are characteristic of the life of any great man in a capital city. Brought to Constantinople after a dozen years of priestly service in Syria, John found himself the reluctant victim of an imperial ruse to make him bishop in the greatest city of the empire. Ascetic, unimposing but dignified, and troubled by stomach ailments from his desert days as a monk, John became a bishop under the cloud of imperial politics.

If his body was weak, his tongue was powerful. The content of his sermons, his exegesis of Scripture, were never without a point. Sometimes the point stung the high and mighty. Some sermons lasted up to two hours.

His lifestyle at the imperial court was not appreciated by many courtiers. He offered a modest table to episcopal sycophants hanging around for imperial and ecclesiastical favors. John deplored the court protocol that accorded him precedence before the highest state officials. He would not be a kept man.

His zeal led him to decisive action. Bishops who bribed their way into office were deposed. Many of his sermons called for concrete steps to share wealth with the poor. The rich did not appreciate hearing from John that private property existed because of Adam's fall from grace any more than married men liked to hear that they were bound to marital fidelity just as much as their wives were. When it came to justice and charity, John acknowledged no double standards.

Aloof, energetic, outspoken, especially when he became excited in the pulpit, John was a sure target for criticism and personal trouble. He was accused of gorging himself secretly on rich wines and fine foods. His faithfulness as spiritual director to the rich widow, Olympia, provoked much gossip attempting to prove him a hypocrite where wealth and chastity were concerned. His actions taken against unworthy bishops in Asia Minor were viewed by other ecclesiastics as a greedy, uncanonical extension of his authority.

Theophilus, archbishop of Alexandria, and Empress Eudoxia were determined to discredit John. Theophilus feared the growth in importance of the Bishop of Constantinople and took occasion to charge John with fostering heresy. Theophilus and other angered bishops were supported by Eudoxia. The empress resented his sermons contrasting gospel values with the excesses of imperial court life. Whether intended or not, sermons mentioning the lurid Jezebel (1 Kings 9:1—21:23)  and impious Herodias (Mark 6:17-29) were associated with the empress, who finally did manage to have John exiled. He died in exile in 407.

Comment:

John Chrysostom's preaching, by word and example, exemplifies the role of the prophet to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. For his honesty and courage he paid the price of a turbulent ministry as bishop, personal vilification and exile.

Quote:

Bishops "should set forth the ways by which are to be solved very grave questions concerning the ownership, increase and just distribution of material goods, peace and war, and brotherly relations among all people" (Vatican II, Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops, 12).

Patron Saint of:

Orators
Preachers
Speakers

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LECTIO: LUKE 6,39-42

Lectio: 

 Friday, September 13, 2013  

Ordinary Time

1) Opening prayer

God our Father,
you redeem us
and make us your children in Christ.
Look upon us,
give us true freedom
and bring us to the inheritance you promised.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading - Luke 6,39-42

Jesus also told them a parable, ‘Can one blind person guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit? Disciple is not superior to teacher; but fully trained disciple will be like teacher.
Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the great log in your own? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out that splinter in your eye,” when you cannot see the great log in your own? Hypocrite! Take the log out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter in your brother’s eye.

3) Reflection

• Today’s Gospel gives us some passages of the discourse which Jesus pronounced on the plains after having spent the night in prayer (Lk 6, 12) and after he had called the twelve to be his apostles (Lk 6, 13-14). Many of the phrases in this discourse had already been pronounced on other occasions, but Luke, imitating Matthew, puts them together in this Discourse of the Plains.
• Luke 6, 39: The parable of the blind man who guides another blind man. Jesus tells a parable to the disciples: “Can a blind man guide another blind man? Will not both of them fall into a hole?” A parable of one line, quite similar to the warnings which, in Matthew’s Gospel, are addressed to the Pharisees: “Alas for you, blind guides!” (Mt 23, 16.17.19.24.26) Here in the context of the Gospel of Luke, this parable is addressed to the animators of the communities who consider themselves the masters of truth, superior to others. Because of this they are blind guides.
• Luke 6, 40: Disciple – Master. “The disciple is not greater than the teacher, but the well prepared disciple will be like the teacher” Jesus is the Master, not the professor. The professor in class teaches different subjects, but does not live with the pupils. The Master or Lord does not teach lessons, he lives with the pupils. His subject matter is himself, his life witness, his way of living the things that he teaches. Living together with the Master, the Lord has three aspects: (1) the Master is the model or example to be imitated (cf. Jn 13, 13-15). (2) The disciple not only contemplates and imitates, he commits himself to the same destiny of the Master, with his temptations (Lk 22, 28). His persecution (Mt 10, 24-25), his death (Jn 11, 16); (3) He not only imitates the model, he not only assumes the commitment, but arrives at identifying himself with him: “I live, but it is not I who live, but Christ lives in me!” (Ga 2, 20). This third aspect is the mystical dimension of the following of Jesus, fruit of the action of the Spirit.
• Luke 6,41-42: The splinter in the brother’s eye. “Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the great log in your own? How can you say to your brother: ‘Brother, let me take out that splinter in your eye, when you cannot see the great log in your own? Hypocrite! Take the log out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter in your brother’s eye”. In the Sermon on the Mountain, Matthew treats the same theme and explains a bit better the parable of the splinter in the eye. Jesus asks for a creative attitude which will make us capable to go and encounter the others without judging them, without preconceptions and rationalizing, but accepting the brother (Mt 7, 1-5). This total openness toward others considering them as brothers/sisters will arise in us only when we are capable of relating with God with total trust as his children (Mt 7, 7-11).

4) Personal questions

• Splinter and log in the eye. How do I relate with others at home and in my family, in work and with my colleagues, in community and with the brothers and sisters?
• Master and disciple. How am I a disciple of Jesus?

5) Concluding Prayer

Lord, how blessed are those who live in your house;
they shall praise you continually.
Blessed those who find their strength in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. (Ps 84,4-5)

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