NOVEMBER 11, 2016 : MEMORIAL OF SAINT MARTIN OF TOURS, BISHOP

Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop
Lectionary: 495

Reading 12 JN 4-9

[Chosen Lady:]
I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth
just as we were commanded by the Father.
But now, Lady, I ask you,
not as though I were writing a new commandment
but the one we have had from the beginning:
let us love one another.
For this is love, that we walk according to his commandments;
this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning,
in which you should walk.

Many deceivers have gone out into the world,
those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh;
such is the deceitful one and the antichrist.
Look to yourselves that you do not lose what we worked for
but may receive a full recompense.
Anyone who is so “progressive”
as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God;
whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son.

Responsorial PsalmPS 119:1, 2, 10, 11, 17, 18

R. (1b) Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
With all my heart I seek you;
let me not stray from your commands.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Within my heart I treasure your promise,
that I may not sin against you.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Be good to your servant, that I may live
and keep your words.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Open my eyes, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!

AlleluiaLK 21:28

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Stand erect and raise your heads
because your redemption is at hand.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelLK 17:26-37

Jesus said to his disciples:
“As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be in the days of the Son of Man;
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage up to the day
that Noah entered the ark,
and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot:
they were eating, drinking, buying,
selling, planting, building;
on the day when Lot left Sodom,
fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.
So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day, someone who is on the housetop
and whose belongings are in the house
must not go down to get them,
and likewise one in the field
must not return to what was left behind.
Remember the wife of Lot.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it,
but whoever loses it will save it.
I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed;
one will be taken, the other left.
And there will be two women grinding meal together;
one will be taken, the other left.” 
They said to him in reply, “Where, Lord?”
He said to them, “Where the body is,
there also the vultures will gather.”

www.usccb.org

Meditation:  "One will be taken and the other left"

What can nature teach us about the return of the Lord Jesus on the day of final judgment at the end of the world? Jesus quoted a familiar proverb to his audience: Where the body is, there the eagles (or vultures) will be gathered together (Luke 17:37). Eagles, like vultures, are attracted to carrion - the carcass of dying or dead animals. The Book of Job describes the eagle spying out its prey from afar (Job 39:29). The eagles swoop to catch their prey when the conditions are right, especially if the prey is exposed and vulnerable to a surprise attack. Severely weakened or dying prey have no chance of warding off forces that can destroy and kill. 

Sign of the gathering eagles and vultures
What's the point of this analogy? When the day of God's final judgment and vindication comes, the scene and location will be obvious to all.  Those who have rejected God and refused to believe in his Son the Lord Jesus Christ will perish on the day of judgment - just like the beasts of prey who are cut off from the land of the living. The Lord Jesus will vindicate those who have believed in him and he will reward them with everlasting joy and happiness in his kingdom. The return of the Lord Jesus at the close of this present age is certain, but the time is unknown. The Day of the Lord's judgment and final verdict will come swiftly and unexpectedly. Jesus warns his listeners to not be caught off guard when that day arrives. It will surely come in God's good time!

Those who accept Jesus Christ as Lord will enter his everlasting kingdom
What does Jesus mean when he says that one person will be taken and another left? God judges everyone individually on how each person has  responded to his gracious mercy and invitation to accept his Son as Lord and Ruler over all. The Lord Jesus gives us personal freedom to accept or reject him as Lord and Savior. We are free to live as citizens of his kingdom or to choose for the kingdom of darkness that stands in opposition to God and his rule. No one can pass off their personal responsibility to someone else - no matter how close the ties may be in this present life. We will each have to give an account to the Judge of All for how we have accepted or rejected him as our lord and savior. 

The good news is that the Lord Jesus freely offers each one of us the grace, strength, and help we need to turn to him to receive pardon for our sins and healing for our minds and hearts so we can embrace his good will for our lives and find the way to our heavenly Father's home. The Lord Jesus gives us his Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in his wisdom, truth, and love. The Holy Spirit helps us to turn away from sin and rebellion and to embrace God's way of love, righteousness (moral goodness), and holiness. 

The Lord's warning of judgment is motivated by his love for each one of us. He does not desire the death of any one (Ezekiel 18:23 and 33:11). He bids us to choose for life rather than death - for goodness and righteousness rather than sin and evil (Deuteronomy 30:19). The Lord's 'Day of Judgment' will bring terror and disaster for those who have not heeded his warning or who have refused his gracious help. The Day of the Lord's Return will be a cause for great joy and vindication for those who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus.

The choices we make now - for or against Christ - will either lead us on the path of life or death - heaven or hell
God's Day of Judgment is a cause for great joy and reward for those who have waited with patient hope and longing for the Lord Jesus to return again in glory and power. The people in Noah's time ignored the Lord's warning of judgment because their hearts were hardened and they were rebellious towards God. When the great flood swept over the earth, they missed the boat, literally! Whose boat or safety net are you staking your life on - the world's life-raft to short-lived success and happiness or to the indestructible Ark of God whose foundation is Jesus Christ and his victorious cross? Those whose hope is firmly anchored in heaven will not be disappointed when the day of final judgment comes. They rejoice even now that their names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20) and they look with eager longing for the day when they will see the Lord face to face (Revelation 22:4). Is your hope firmly placed in the Lord Jesus and his return in glory?

"Lord Jesus Christ, I place all my hope in you because you have redeemed the world by your death on the cross and by your victory over the grave. Help me to never lose sight of the goal of heaven that I may live each day in joyful anticipation of your return in glory."

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: Those working in the field are sowing the Word of God, by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D.

"'He that will be on the housetop, do not let him go down. He that will be in the field, do not let him turn back.' How may I understand what is the field unless Jesus himself teaches me? He says, 'No one putting his hand to the plough (plow) and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God' (Luke 9:62). The lazy person sits in the farmhouse, but the industrious person plants in the field. The weak are at the fireplace, but the strong are at the plough. The smell of a field is good, because the smell of Jacob is the smell of a full field (Genesis 27:27). A field is full of flowers. It is full of different fruits. Plough your field if you want to be sent to the kingdom of God. Let your field flower, fruitful with good rewards. Let there be a fruitful vine on the sides of your house and young olive plants around your table (Psalm 127:3). Already aware of its fertility, let your soul, sown with the Word of God and tilled by spiritual farming, say to Christ, 'Come, my brother, let us go out into the field' (Song of Solomon 7:11). Let him reply, 'I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my vintage of myrrh'  (Song of Solomon 5:1). What is better than the vintage of faith, by which the fruit of the resurrection is stored and the spring of eternal rejoicing is watered?" (excerpt from  EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 8.43.27)

www.dailyscripture.net

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, LUKE 17:26-37
​(2 John 4-9; Psalm 19)

KEY VERSE: "Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it" (v 33).
TO KNOW: Throughout salvation history, the prophets warned the people of God's imminent judgment, yet they ignored these messengers of God. In Noah's day, the people continued with their ordinary activities right up to the moment the flood engulfed them (Gn 6-7). Abraham's nephew Lot had to be dragged from the city of Sodom because he did not heed the warnings of its impending destruction (19:16). Jesus alerted his followers to flee Jerusalem at the first sign of the city's coming destruction. When Jerusalem fell in 70 CE, thousands died in the siege while those who heeded Jesus' counsel fled to Pella and were saved. God's judgment swiftly separated the righteous from the unjust. Those who trusted in God would find life everlasting.
TO LOVE: Do I heed the warnings of today's prophets?
TO SERVE: Lord Jesus, help me to place my life in your hands.

Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours

When Martin was in his early teens, he discovered Christianity and became a catechumen. He joined the Roman imperial army at age 15. Once, while on horseback in Gaul (modern France), he encountered a half-naked beggar and gave half of his officer's cloak to him. Later Martin had a vision of Christ wearing the cloak. Martin was released from military service at Worms, and became a student of Saint Hilary at Poitiers. Learning that the Arians had gained the upper hand in Gaul and had exiled Hilary, Martin fled to the island of Gallinaria (modern Isola d'Albenga). Later, the Emperor authorized Hilary's return. Martin became a hermit for ten years and had a reputation for holiness which attracted other monks. They formed what would become the Benedictine Abbey of Ligugé. When the bishop of Tours died in 371, Martin was the immediate choice to replace him. Martin declined, citing his unworthiness, yet when he arrived in the city, he was declared bishop by popular acclamation, and consecrated on 4 July 372. Martin moved to a hermit's cell near Tours. Other monks joined him, and he rarely left his monastery.
NOTE: Arianism taught that Christ was a creation of the Father, a creature, and not part of God. Athanasius formulated the doctrine of homoousianism which said that Christ was "consubstantial with the Father,” as we pray in the Nicene Creed. 

VETERAN'S DAY (USA) 

Veterans Day is the American name for the international day of remembrance called Armistice Day. It falls on November 11, the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War 1. All major hostilities of World War 1 were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Armistice Day was first commemorated in the United States by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, and many states made it a legal holiday. Congress passed a resolution in 1926 inviting all Americans to observe the day, and made it a legal holiday nationwide in 1938. Today, Veterans Day is a celebration to honor all of America's veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good. 

Remembrance Day (Canada)

Every year on November 11, Canadians pause in a silent moment of remembrance for the men and women who have served, and continue to serve their country during times of war, conflict and peace. More than 1,500,000 Canadians have served their country in this way, and more than 100,000 have died. They gave their lives and their futures so that all may live in peace.

www.togetherwithgodsword.com

Friday 11 November 2016

Fri 11th. St Martin of Tours. Day of penance. 
2 John 4-9. Happy are they who follow the law of the Lord!—Ps 118(119):1-2, 10-11, 17-18. Luke 17:26-37.

Readings

'Happy are the people whose God is the Lord'

A sign at Disneyland claims that it is 'The Happiest Place on Earth.' If this were true, it would be the obvious place to go to exercise what the US Declaration of Independence calls the inalienable right to 'the pursuit of happiness'. However, can one truly be said to pursue happiness, what for St Augustine is 'joy in the truth'? As the psalmist proclaims in the responsorial psalm, happiness is a by-product of our lifelong quest for God with all our hearts and of our determination to conform our lives to his will in all things. I pray today in the words of that psalm: 'Bless your servant and I shall live and obey your word. Open my eyes that I may see the wonders of your law.'

www.pray.com.au

ST. MARTIN OF TOURS

On Nov. 11, the Catholic Church honors St. Martin of Tours, who left his post in the Roman army to become a “soldier of Christ” as a monk and later bishop.

Martin was born around the year 316 in modern-day Hungary. His family left that region for Italy when his father, a military official of the Roman Empire, had to transfer there. Martin's parents were pagans, but he felt an attraction to the Catholic faith which had become legal throughout the empire in 313. He received religious instruction at age 10, and even considered becoming a hermit in the desert.

Circumstances, however, forced him to join the Roman army at age 15, when he had not even received baptism. Martin strove to live a humble and upright life in the military, giving away much of his pay to the poor. His generosity led to a life-changing incident, when he encountered a man freezing without warm clothing near a gate at the city of Amiens in Gaul.

As his fellow soldiers passed by the man, Martin stopped and cut his own cloak into two halves with his sword, giving one half to the freezing beggar. That night, the unbaptized soldier saw Christ in a dream, wearing the half-cloak he had given to the poor man. Jesus declared: “Martin, a catechumen, has clothed me with this garment.”

Martin knew that the time for him to join the Church had arrived. He remained in the army for two years after his baptism, but desired to give his life to God more fully that the profession would allow. But when he finally asked for permission to leave the Roman army, during an invasion by the Germans, Martin was accused of cowardice.

He responded by offering to stand before the enemy forces unarmed. “In the name of the Lord Jesus, and protected not by a helmet and buckler, but by the sign of the cross, I will thrust myself into the thickest squadrons of the enemy without fear.” But this display of faith became unnecessary when the Germans sought peace instead, and Martin received his discharge.

After living as a Catholic for some time, Martin traveled to meet Bishop Hilary of Poitiers, a skilled theologian and later canonized saint. Martin's dedication to the faith impressed the bishop, who asked the former soldier to return to his diocese after he had undertaken a journey back to Hungary to visit his parents. While there, Martin persuaded his mother, though not his father, to join the Church.

In the meantime, however, Hilary had provoked the anger of the Arians, a group that denied Jesus was God. This resulted in the bishop's banishment, so that Martin could not return to his diocese as intended. Instead Martin spent some time living a life of severe asceticism, which almost resulted in his death. The two met up again in 360, when Hilary's banishment from Poitiers ended.

After their reunion Hilary granted Martin a piece of land to build what may have been the first monastery in the region of Gaul. During the resulting decade as a monk, Martin became renowned for raising two people from the dead through his prayers. This evidence of his holiness led to his appointment as the third Bishop of Tours in the middle of present-day France.

Martin had not wanted to become a bishop, and had actually been tricked into leaving his monastery in the first place by those who wanted him the lead the local church. Once appointed, he continued to live as a monk, dressing plainly and owning no personal possessions. In this same spirit of sacrifice, he traveled throughout his diocese, from which he is said to have driven out pagan practices.

Both the Church and the Roman Empire passed through a time of upheaval during Martin's time as bishop. Priscillianism, a heresy involving salvation through a system of secret knowledge, caused such serious problems in Spain and Gaul that civil authorities sentenced the heretics to death. But Martin, along with the Pope and St. Ambrose of Milan, opposed this death sentence for the Priscillianists.

Even in old age, Martin continued to live an austere life focused on the care of souls. His disciple and biographer, St. Sulpicius Severus, noted that the bishop helped all people with their moral, intellectual and spiritual problems. He also helped many laypersons discover their calling to the consecrated life of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Martin foresaw his own death and told his disciples of it. But when his last illness came upon him during a pastoral journey, the bishop felt uncertain about leaving his people.

“Lord, if I am still necessary to thy people, I refuse no labour. Thy holy will be done,” he prayed. He developed a fever, but did not sleep, passing his last several nights in the presence of God in prayer.

“Allow me, my brethren, to look rather towards heaven than upon the earth, that my soul may be directed to take its flight to the Lord to whom it is going,” he told his followers, shortly before he died in November of 397.

St. Martin of Tours has historically been among the most beloved saints in the history of Europe. In a 2007 Angelus address, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his hope “that all Christians may be like St Martin, generous witnesses of the Gospel of love and tireless builders of jointly responsible sharing.”

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=50

LECTIO DIVINA: LUKE 17,26-37

Lectio Divina: 

 Friday, November 11, 2016

Ordinary Time

1) Opening prayer

God of power and mercy,
protect us from all harm.
Give us freedom of spirit
and health in mind and body
to do your work on earth.
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 17,26-37

Jesus said to his disciples: 'As it was in Noah's day, so will it also be in the days of the Son of man. People were eating and drinking, marrying wives and husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and the Flood came and destroyed them all.
It will be the same as it was in Lot's day: people were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but the day Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and it destroyed them all. It will be the same when the day comes for the Son of man to be revealed.
'When that Day comes, no one on the housetop, with his possessions in the house, must come down to collect them, nor must anyone in the fields turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Anyone who tries to preserve his life will lose it; and anyone who loses it will keep it safe.
I tell you, on that night, when two are in one bed, one will be taken, the other left; when two women are grinding corn together, one will be taken, the other left.'
The disciples spoke up and asked, 'Where, Lord?' He said, 'Where the body is, there too will the vultures gather.'

3) Reflection

• Today’s Gospel continues the reflection on the coming of the end of time and presents to us the words of Jesus about how to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Kingdom. This was an affair which produced much discussion at that time. God is the one who determines the hour of the coming of the end of time. But the time of God (kairós) is not measured according to the time of our clock (chronos). For God one day can be equal to one thousand years, and one thousand years equal to one day (Ps 90, 4; 2 P 3, ­8). The time of God goes by invisibly in our time, but independently of us and of our time. We cannot interfere in time, but we have to be prepared for the moment in which the hour of God becomes present in our time. It could be today, it could be in one thousand years. What gives us security is not to know the hour of the end of the world, but the certainty of the presence of the Words of Jesus present in our life. The world will pass, but the word of God will never pass (cf. Is 40, 7-8).
• Luke 17, 26-29: “As it was in the day of Noah and of Lot. Life goes by normally: eating, drinking, getting married, buying, selling, sowing, harvesting. Routine can include so much that we do not succeed to think about anything else. And the consumerism of the neo-liberal system contributes to increase in many of us that total lack of attention to the more profound dimensions of life. We allow the moths to enter into the beam of faith which holds up the more profound dimensions of life. When the storm destroys the house, many of us blame the carpenter: “It was badly made!” In reality, it crumbled down due to our continual lack of attention. The reference to the destruction of Sodom, as a figure of what will happen at the end of time, is a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the years 70’s AD (cf. Mk 13, 14).
• Luke 17, 30-32: So it will also be in the days of the Son of Man. “So it will be in the days when the Son of Man will reveal himself”. It is difficult for us to imagine the suffering and the trauma that the destruction of Jerusalem caused in the communities, both of the Jews and of the Christians. In order to help them to understand and to face this suffering Jesus uses a comparison taken from life: “When that Day comes, no one on the housetop, with his possessions in the house, must come down to collect them, nor must anyone in the fields turn back”. The destruction will take place so rapidly that it is not worth while to go down to look for something in the house (Mk 13, 15-16). “Remember Lot’s wife” (cf. Gn 19, 26), that is do not look back, do not lose time, decide and advance, go ahead: it is a question of life or death.
• Luke 17, 33: To lose one’s life in order to save it. “Anyone who tries to preserve his life will lose it, and anyone who loses it will keep it safe”. Only the person who has been capable of giving himself/herself completely to others will feel totally fulfilled in life. Anyone who preserves life for self alone loses it. This advice of Jesus is the confirmation of the most profound human experience: the source of life is found in the gift of life. In giving one receives. “In all truth I tell you: unless a wheat grain falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single grain, but if it dies it yields a rich harvest”. (Jn 12, 24). The motivation which Mark’s Gospel adds is important: “for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel” (Mk 8, 35). Saying that no one is capable of preserving his life by his own efforts, Jesus recalls the Psalm in which it is said that nobody is capable of paying the price for the ransom of his life: “No one can redeem himself or pay his own ransom to God. The price for himself is too high, it can never be that he will live on for ever and avoid the sight of the abyss”. (Ps 49, 8-10).
• Luke 17, 34-36: Vigilance. “I tell you, on that night, when two are in one bed, one will be taken, the other left; when two women are grinding corn together one will be taken, the other left”. This recalls the parable of the ten Virgins. Five were prudent and five were foolish (Mt 25, 1-11). What is important is to be prepared. The words “One will be taken and the other left” recall the words of Paul to the Thessalonians (1Th 4, 13-17), when he says that with the coming of the Son of Man, we will be taken to Heaven at the side of Jesus. These words “left behind” furnished the title of a terrible and dangerous romance of the fundamentalist extreme right of the United States: “Left Behind! This is a romance which has nothing to do with the real sense of the words of Jesus.
• Luke 17, 37: Where and when? “The disciples asked: Where, Lord?” “And Jesus answered: Where the body is, there too will the vultures gather”. This is an enigmatic response. Some think that Jesus recalled the prophecy of Ezekiel, taken up in the Apocalypse, in which the prophet refers to the final victorious battle against the force of evil. The birds of prey or the vultures will be invited to eat the flesh of the bodies (Ez 39, 4. 17-20; Rv 19, 17-18). Others think that it is a question of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where the final judgment will take place according to the prophecy of Joel (Ga 4, 2.12). Others think that it is simply a question of a popular proverb which meant more or less what our proverb says: “Where there is smoke, there is also fire!”

4) Personal questions

• Am I from the time of Noah or from the time of Lot?
• A Romance of the extreme right. How do I place myself before this political manipulation of the faith in Jesus?

5) Concluding prayer

How blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the Law of Yahweh!
Blessed are those who observe his instructions,
who seek him with all their hearts. (Ps 119,1-2)

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