JANUARY 28, 2020 : MEMORIAL OF SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS, PRIEST AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH

Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church
Lectionary: 318

Reading 12 SM 6:12B-15, 17-19

David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom
into the City of David amid festivities.
As soon as the bearers of the ark of the LORD had advanced six steps,
he sacrificed an ox and a fatling.
Then David, girt with a linen apron,
came dancing before the LORD with abandon,
as he and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD
with shouts of joy and to the sound of the horn.
The ark of the LORD was brought in and set in its place
within the tent David had pitched for it.
Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
When he finished making these offerings,
he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts.
He then distributed among all the people,
to each man and each woman in the entire multitude of Israel,
a loaf of bread, a cut of roast meat, and a raisin cake.
With this, all the people left for their homes.

Responsorial Psalm24:7, 8, 9, 10

R.    (8)  Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!
Lift up, O gates, your lintels;
reach up, you ancient portals,
that the king of glory may come in!
R.    Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!
Who is this king of glory?
The LORD, strong and mighty,
the LORD, mighty in battle.
R.    Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!
Lift up, O gates, your lintels;
reach up, you ancient portals,
that the king of glory may come in!
R.    Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!
Who is this king of glory?
The LORD of hosts; he is the king of glory.
R.    Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!

AlleluiaMT 11:25

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;
you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelMK 3:31-35

The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house.
Standing outside, they sent word to Jesus and called him.
A crowd seated around him told him,
“Your mother and your brothers and your sisters
are outside asking for you.”
But he said to them in reply,
“Who are my mother and my brothers?”
And looking around at those seated in the circle he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother.”

For the readings of the Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, please go here.

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Meditation: "Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister"

Who do you love and cherish the most? God did not intend for us to be alone, but to be with others. He gives us many opportunities for developing relationships with family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Why did Jesus, on this occasion, seem to ignore his own relatives when they pressed to see him? His love and respect for his mother and his relatives was unquestionable. Jesus never lost an opportunity to teach his disciples a spiritual lesson and truth about the kingdom of God. On this occasion when many gathered to hear Jesus he pointed to another higher reality of relationships, namely our relationship with God and with those who belong to God.

What kind of relationship does God want with us?
What is the essence of being a Christian? It is certainly more than doctrine, precepts, and commandments. It is first and foremost a relationship - a relationship of trust, affection, commitment, loyalty, faithfulness, kindness, thoughtfulness, compassion, mercy, helpfulness, encouragement, support, strength, protection, and so many other qualities that bind people together in mutual love and unity. God offers us the greatest of relationships - union of heart, mind, and spirit with himself, the very author and source of love (1 John 4:8,16).

What is the true nature of God's love?
God's love never fails, never forgets, never compromises, never lies, never lets us down nor disappoints us. His love is consistent, unwavering, unconditional, and unstoppable. We may choose to separate ourselves from him, but nothing will make him ignore us, leave us, or treat us unkindly. He will pursue us, love us, and call us to return to him no matter what might stand in the way. It is his nature to love. That is why he created us - to be united with him and to share in his love and unity of persons (1 John 3:1). God is a trinity of persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and a community of love. That is why Jesus challenged his followers and even his own earthly relatives to recognize that God is the true source of all relationships. God wants all of our relationships to be rooted in his love.

The Lord Jesus offers each one of us a personal relationship with himself
Jesus is God's love incarnate - God's love made visible in human flesh (1 John 4:9-10). That is why Jesus describes himself as the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep and the shepherd who seeks out the sheep who have strayed and lost their way. God is like the father who yearns for his prodigal son to return home and then throws a great party for his son when he has a change of heart and comes back (Luke 15:11-32). Jesus offered up his life on the cross for our sake, so that we could be forgiven and restored to unity and friendship with God. It is through Jesus that we become the adopted children of God - his own sons and daughters. That is why Jesus told his disciples that they would have many new friends and family relationships in his kingdom. Whoever does the will of God is a friend of God and a member of his family - his sons and daughters who have been ransomed by the precious blood of Christ.

The Lord wants to transform all of our relationships so we can love as he loves
An early Christian martyr once said that "a Christian's only relatives are the saints" - namely those who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and adopted as sons and daughters of God. Those who have been baptized into Jesus Christ and who live as his disciples enter into a new family, a family of "saints" here on earth and in heaven. Jesus changes the order of relationships and shows that true kinship is not just a matter of flesh and blood. Our adoption as sons and daughters of God transforms all of our relationships and requires a new order of loyalty to God first and to his kingdom of righteousness and peace. Do you want to grow in love and friendship? Allow God's Holy Spirit to transform your heart, mind, and will to enable you to love freely and generously as he loves.

"Heavenly Father, you are the source of all true friendship and love. In all my relationships, may your love be my constant guide for choosing what is good and for rejecting what is contrary to your will."

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: The cross of Christ as victory, by Augustine of Hippo, 430-543 A.D.

"[Mary] did the Father's will. It was this in her that the Lord magnified, not merely that her flesh gave birth to flesh... When he said, 'Blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it' (Luke 11:28), he was in effect saying: 'My mother whom you have called blessed is blessed for the reason that she keeps the Word of God, not that the Word was made flesh in her and dwelt among us (John 1:14), but that she keeps the very Word of God through which she was made and which was made flesh in her." (excerpt from TRACTATE ON JOHN 10.3.2)

www.dailyscripture.net

TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, MARK 3:31-36
Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church
(2 Samuel 6:12b-15, 17-19; Psalm 24)

KEY VERSE: "Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother" (v 35).
TO KNOW: In the early Christian community, there was an influential group called the "Brothers of the Lord" who were counted among Jesus' relatives. One of them was James, who became the leader of the Church in Jerusalem. When Jesus was informed that his mother and his "brothers and sisters" were “outside” the house asking for him, he told his followers that it took more than blood relationships to bind them together. The disciples were a very mixed group but they were bound to one another because they had accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord. They had a common goal: that of seeking to win men and women for Jesus Christ. Those "inside" God's household were those who were obedient to God's will. Jesus' mother Mary exemplified this in all she said and said.
TO LOVE: Are others able to recognize me as a member of Jesus' family?
TO SERVE: Mary my mother, teach me to be God's child so that I can be a brother or sister to your Son.
​
NOTE: In Semitic language, "brothers" or "sisters" can mean children of the same parent, but can also imply extended members of a family such as cousins, etc. If Mark intended to say that Mary had other children, he would have said, "the sons and daughters of your mother are here," which would explain that they were Jesus' natural brothers and sisters. The doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity was defined by the Lateran Council in 649 CE.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church

Thomas Aquinas was born in the family castle in Lombardy near Naples. He joined the mendicant Dominican friars in 1244 (a  religious order that practiced poverty, preaching, evangelization, and ministry, especially to the poor). He studied in Paris from 1245-1248 under Saint Albert the Great and was ordained in 1250 and taught theology at University of Paris. Thomas obtained his doctorate, and was recalled to Naples in 1272 where he was appointed regent of studies while working on his Summa Theologica. On December 6, 1273 he experienced a divine revelation that so enraptured him that he abandoned the Summa saying that his writings were so much straw in the wind compared to the reality of the divine glory. He died four months later while en route to the Council of Lyons. His works have been seminal to the thinking of the Church as they systematized great thoughts and teaching, and combined Greek wisdom and scholarship with the truth of Christianity. Pope Leo VIII commanded that his teachings be studied by all theology students. Thomas Aquinas was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1567. "Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you." - Saint Thomas Aquinas

www.togetherwithgodsword.com

Tuesday 28 January 2020

2 Samuel 6:12-15, 17-19. Psalm 23(24): 7-10. Mark 3:31-35.
Who is this king of glory? It is the Lord! – Psalm 23(24): 7-10.
‘Anyone who does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’

Dear Lord, it can be breathtaking to think that by doing your will we can be as close to you as brother, sister or even mother. It is not easy to discern what is your will since we are inclined sometimes to think that your will and our own are one and the same.

Our common sense tells us that we can only know your will by getting close to you in prayer and by paying attention to your words. We were created to grow into what you meant us to become. You, Lord, are our way towards doing this. We want your way to be our way, so we turn to you in love and trust.

Lord Jesus, be with me this day as I call upon your name. Help me to discern day by day so that I may be more and more energetic as your disciple.

www.pray.com.au

Saint Thomas Aquinas

Saint of the Day for January 28

(1225 – March 7, 1274)

Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Story

By universal consent, Thomas Aquinas is the preeminent spokesman of the Catholic tradition of reason and of divine revelation. He is one of the great teachers of the medieval Catholic Church, honored with the titles Doctor of the Church and Angelic Doctor.

At five he was given to the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino in his parents’ hopes that he would choose that way of life and eventually became abbot. In 1239, he was sent to Naples to complete his studies. It was here that he was first attracted to Aristotle’s philosophy.

By 1243, Thomas abandoned his family’s plans for him and joined the Dominicans, much to his mother’s dismay. On her order, Thomas was captured by his brother and kept at home for over a year.

Once free, he went to Paris and then to Cologne, where he finished his studies with Albert the Great. He held two professorships at Paris, lived at the court of Pope Urban IV, directed the Dominican schools at Rome and Viterbo, combated adversaries of the mendicants, as well as the Averroists, and argued with some Franciscans about Aristotelianism.

His greatest contribution to the Catholic Church is his writings. The unity, harmony, and continuity of faith and reason, of revealed and natural human knowledge, pervades his writings. One might expect Thomas, as a man of the gospel, to be an ardent defender of revealed truth. But he was broad enough, deep enough, to see the whole natural order as coming from God the Creator, and to see reason as a divine gift to be highly cherished.

The Summa Theologiae, his last and, unfortunately, uncompleted work, deals with the whole of Catholic theology. He stopped work on it after celebrating Mass on December 6, 1273. When asked why he stopped writing, he replied, “I cannot go on…. All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me.” He died March 7, 1274.

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Reflection

We can look to Thomas Aquinas as a towering example of Catholicism in the sense of broadness, universality, and inclusiveness. We should be determined anew to exercise the divine gift of reason in us, our power to know, learn, and understand. At the same time we should thank God for the gift of his revelation, especially in Jesus Christ.

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Saint Thomas Aquinas is the Patron Saint of:

Catholic Schools
Colleges
Schools
Students

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/

Lectio Divina: Mark 3:31-35

Lectio Divina

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Ordinary Time

1) Opening prayer

All-powerful and ever-living God,
direct Your love that is within us,
that our efforts in the name of Your Son
may bring the human race to unity and peace.
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 - Mark 3:31-35

The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house. Standing outside, they sent word to Jesus and called him. A crowd seated around him told him, "Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you." But he said to them in reply, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

3) Reflection

• The family of Jesus. The relatives reached the house where Jesus was. They have probably come from Nazareth. From there to Capernaum there is a distance of forty kilometers. His mother also comes with them. They do not enter, but they send a messenger: “Look, Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for You!” Jesus’ reaction is clear: “Who are My mother and My brothers?” And He Himself responds by turning to look toward the crowd who is there around Him: “Here are My mother and My brothers! Anyone who does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother!” To understand the meaning of this response it is necessary to look at the situation of the family at the time of Jesus.
• In old Israel, the clan (the large family, the community), was the basis of  living together. It was protection for families and people, the guarantee of possession of the land, the principle vehicle of tradition, and the defense of identity. It was the concrete way on the part of the people of that time to incarnate the love of God and the love toward neighbor. To defend the clan was the same as to defend the Covenant.
• In Galilee at the time of Jesus, because of the system established during the long periods of government of Herod the Great (37 BC to 4 BC) and his son Herod Antipas (4 BC to 39 AD), the clan (the community), was becoming weaker. The taxes to be paid, both to the government and to the Temple, the debts which were increasing, the individualistic mentality of Hellenism, the frequent threats of violent repression on the part of the Romans and the obligation to accept the soldiers and give them hospitality, and the ever growing problem of survival, impelled families to close themselves in on themselves and to think only of their own needs. This closing up was strengthened by the religion of the time. For example,  one who gave his inheritance to the Temple could leave his parents without any help. This weakened the fourth commandment which was the backbone of the clan (Mk 7:8-13). The observance of the norms of purity was a factor in the marginalization of many people too, such as women, children, Samaritans, foreigners, lepers, possessed people, tax collectors or publicans, the sick, mutilated people and paraplegics.
• The concern over the problems of one’s own family prevented people from meeting in community. Now, in order that the Kingdom of God could manifest itself in community living, people had to overcome the narrow limits of the small family and open themselves to the larger family, and the community. Jesus gave the example. When His own family tried to take control of Him, He reacted and extended the family: “Who are My mother and My brothers?”  And He Himself gave the answer, turning His look toward the crowd, “Here are My mother and My brothers! Anyone who does the will of God is My brother, sister and mother!” (Mk 3:33-35). He created a community.
• Jesus asked the same thing from all those who wanted to follow Him. Families should not close themselves in on themselves . The excluded and the marginalized had to be accepted in life with others and feel accepted by God (Lk 14:12-14). This was the path to attaining the objective of the Law, which said , “There must, then, be no poor among you” (Dt 15:4). Like the great prophets of the past, Jesus tries to consolidate community life in the villages of Galilee. He takes back the profound sense of the clan, the family, and the community as an expression of the incarnation of the love toward God and toward neighbor.

4) Personal questions

• What place and what influence does the community have in my way of living the faith ?
• Today, in the large city, overcrowding promotes individualism which is at odds with life in community. What am I doing to counteract this? How does one reconcile personal physical safety with community involvement in these urban areas?

5) Concluding prayer

I waited, I waited for Yahweh,
then He stooped to me
and heard my cry for help.
He put a fresh song in my mouth,
praise of our God. (Ps 40:1.3)

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