Readings & Reflections with Cardinal Tagle’s Video: 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time A & St. Francis of Assisi, October 4,2020
The landowner who planted a vineyard presupposes that hired tenants can be trusted, that additional servants will be able to obtain his produce, and that, when all else fails, treacherous people will respect the sacrosanct relationship of the father and son. In short, the man is looking only for common decency. But in us even that fails. That is why Saint Paul pleads: “Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.” For at one time, he was like those murderous servants. But, converted to what is true, honorable, just, pure, and gracious, he proclaims that we are the cherished vineyard to whom the Father sends his Son.
AMDG+
Opening Prayer
“Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits which you have given us; for all the pains and insults which you have borne for us. O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, may we know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, for you own sake.” Amen. (prayer of St. Richard of Chichester , 13th century)
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October 4,2020 Toronto, Canada
October 4,2020
October 4,2020 English Mass, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
https://youtu.be/GT4sqsjX9rg?t=2
Reading I
Is 5:1-7 – The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.
Let me now sing of my friend,
my friend’s song concerning his vineyard.
My friend had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside;
he spaded it, cleared it of stones,
and planted the choicest vines;
within it he built a watchtower,
and hewed out a wine press.
Then he looked for the crop of grapes,
but what it yielded was wild grapes.
Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard:
What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I had not done?
Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes,
did it bring forth wild grapes?
Now, I will let you know
what I mean to do with my vineyard:
take away its hedge, give it to grazing,
break through its wall, let it be trampled!
Yes, I will make it a ruin:
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
but overgrown with thorns and briers;
I will command the clouds
not to send rain upon it.
The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah are his cherished plant;
he looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed!
for justice, but hark, the outcry!
The word of the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20
R. (Is 5:7a) The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
A vine from Egypt you transplanted;
you drove away the nations and planted it.
It put forth its foliage to the Sea,
its shoots as far as the River.
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Why have you broken down its walls,
so that every passer-by plucks its fruit,
The boar from the forest lays it waste,
and the beasts of the field feed upon it?
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see;
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
O LORD, God of hosts, restore us;
if your face shine upon us, then we shall be saved.
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Reading II
Phil 4:6-9 – Do these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Brothers and sisters:
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters,
whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,
if there is any excellence
and if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.
Keep on doing what you have learned and received
and heard and seen in me.
Then the God of peace will be with you.
The word of the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia. I have chosen you from the world, says the Lord,/ to go and bear fruit that will remain. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Mt 21:33-43 – He will lease his vineyard to other tenants.
Bishop Robert Barron’s Homily – The Lord’s Vineyard click below:
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:
“Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned.
Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another,
‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?”They answered him,
“He will put those wretched men to a wretched death
and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.” Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures:The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
We need to take care that we don’t let ourselves be overgrown with the thorns and briers of worldly anxiety. As today’s Epistle advises, we need to fill our hearts and minds with noble intentions and virtuous deeds, rejoicing always that the Lord is near. – Read the source: https://stpaulcenter.com/living-on-the-vine-scott-hahn-reflects-on-the-twenty-seventh-sunday-in-ordinary-time/
Reflection 2 – The Story of a nun
As of October 1,2020, COVID-19 deaths worldwide – 1,018,793; USA – 211,740; Philippines – 5,504 (For other countries click this link: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1093256/novel-coronavirus-2019ncov-deaths-worldwide-by-country/). Compared to abortion deaths worldwide as of October 1st in the year 2020 is more than 32 million and growing with 125,000 abortions per day (Source: https://www.worldometers.info/abortions/). Either Covid-19 deaths or Abortion deaths, do you have a sense of empathy to the victims?
Here is the story of a nun, a nursing sister, who had been in an accident. Two young teens had stolen a car and were weaving recklessly all over the road; at one point, they plowed straight into the sister’s car. She was badly injured, and several bones were broken. She was in the hospital a long time; she still limps and suffers a great deal. Since the two boys were underage, they were not charged with a crime. When the nun got out of the hospital she went to the police station and asked for the names of those two boys. Then she went to see them both. The nun spoke movingly and tearfully to them about her pain, her long hospital stay, and her inability to continue her work as a nurse. She was hoping for some sympathy, if not an apology. After she has done speaking, the kids simply looked at her and said “Look, lady, that’s your problem.” Then they laughed, got up, and left. What is your feeling with this story? Do you have the empathy for the victim? I want to suggest that part of it is a shocking lack of empathy for other people, for the victims, an inability to feel what those who are hurt or dying are feeling. We lack empathy and we hurt and kill others because we have divided the world into “us” and “them”- that is high on Jesus’ list of what is horribly and terribly evil in the world (cf. Fr. William Bausch, The Word In and Out of Season).
For Jesus, there was no Jew and Samaritan. Jesus taught that our neighbor is everyone–especially everyone who is hurting. Empathy for victims is Christianity’s cardinal virtue. With this loss comes an inability to be compassionate. And when there is no empathy and no compassion, there is easy violence. This is the story in today’s Gospel (Mt 21:33-43): Jesus the son of God was rejected and killed. He came into the world after a long line of prophets in the era of the Old Testament had been rejected by the people of their own time. They were treated like servants. The parable was about the landowner who sent his servants to collect what was rightly his from the tenant farmers but they were treated shamefully. Finally, the landowner sent his own son because he expected that they would respect him. But they killed his son. This parable is about the story of Jesus. After the rejection and death of Jesus came the glory of resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father. This is our faith and hope. And the Lord blesses us and we will bear much fruit if we abide in him (Jn 15:1-11). He promises that our labor will not be in vain if we persevere with faith to the end (1 Cor 15:58). We can expect trials and even persecution. But in the end we will see triumph.
Pope Francis has a reflection for us today: “The global situation engenders a feeling of instability and uncertainty, which in turn become ‘a seedbed for collective selfishness.’ When people become self-centered and self-enclosed, their greed increases. The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume. It becomes almost impossible to accept the limits imposed by reality. In this horizon, a genuine sense of the common good also disappears. As these attitudes become more widespread, social norms are respected only to the extent that they do not clash with personal needs. So our concern cannot be limited merely to the threat of extreme weather events, but must also extend to the catastrophic consequences of social unrest. Obsession with a consumerist lifestyle, above all when few people are capable of maintaining it, can only lead to violence and mutual destruction. Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start, despite their mental and social conditioning. We are able to take an honest look at ourselves, to acknowledge our deep dissatisfaction, and to embark on new paths to authentic freedom. No system can completely suppress our openness to what is good, true, and beautiful, or our God-given ability to respond to his grace at work deep in our hearts. I appeal to everyone throughout the world not to forget this dignity which is ours. No one has the right to take it from us” (‘Encyclical Laudato Si,’ Magnificat, Vol. 19, No. 8, p. 122). For more watch the video on God is dead by Archbishop Fulton Sheen click this link: http://www.pagadiandiocese.org/2014/05/16/archbishop-fulton-sheen-the-death-of-god/
Reflection 3 – What can jealous heart do to a man?
“My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside; he spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted the choicest vines; within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press. Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes.”
There is not one of us who cannot look back on certain moments in our past that make us blush with embarrassment or downright shame. One of them can be the wild berries of our lives that suddenly sprouted from out of nowhere in the vineyard we personally cleared, prepared, cultivated and planted with the choicest vine in the best location ever.
After feeling so confident that we are doing God’s work, we ask ourselves which of our wrong and sinful ways have caused us to harvest the bitter and sour fruit of wild berries and grapes. The sadness and shame brought about by the pain of reaping such ‘fruit’ can run deep and can linger for days and months, even years, leaving us with the feeling that we never produced the fruits God wanted us to have.
Such can be what our hearts could be feeling after nobly pursuing our pastoral roles over our family and brothers and sisters whom God has given us to guide and bring closer to Him. Expectant of the best grapes all we got were wild berries and grapes and just like the landowner in today’s gospel, we thought that we will reap the harvest of righteousness and love, all we got were disobedience, rebellion, betrayal and pride. With sadness and remorse in our hearts, we may ask: “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done?”
In today’s readings, God is speaking to that very kind of experience. He knows the darkness of soul that our mistakes can burden us with, and the loss of heart as well. God sees into our souls and knows our sins and shortcomings even more clearly than we do. He wants to heal our hearts and to wash away our sins. He wants to make us new, from the inside out, and He can do that if we will let Him into our lives.
Amidst our ‘wrong’ and ‘undesired’ harvest which could burden us, it should be a consolation to us who were born in sin and still continue to be in sin, that Jesus Who is perfect and whose every deed was good and holy was betrayed unto the cross by His very own people. When those moments of frustration or impatience at the slow pace of our own unfolding do come and our own failure to bear the right fruit impedes our lives, we can find comfort in looking at Jesus’ own ministry who despite His perfection and all His goodness, love and holiness, did not reap the same but was made to die on the Cross. That’s where He ended up, amidst the hardened hearts and stubborn nature of man.
If we feel low for our failures to bear what we believe we should be offering our Lord, He comforts us and tells to persevere in doing good and loving our neighbor. He gave us the direction He wants us to take from what St Paul expressed to the Philippians, Brothers and sisters: “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you.”
Direction
We should never give up in our works for the Lord but persevere. “Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you.”
Prayer
Heavenly Father, give me the grace to transcend my unworthiness and sinfulness so that may be able continue with my humble work of bringing more souls into your vineyard. In Jesus, I pray. Amen.
Reflection 4 – Business as usual
This Sunday, let us reflect on the conduct of business. The parable of the vineyard is, after all, talking about business. At the time of Jesus, there were no huge commercial buildings and manufacturing corporations. What the people had then were vast tracts of agricultural lands, such as vineyards. Having a large vineyard means big business.
Nowadays we all are aware that business is not good, even in affluent countries such as in Europe and in America. The entire world is undergoing global economic crisis. Big economies are in severe financial troubles. Perhaps we can relate the Gospel lesson with the concrete economic situation of the world.
Let us take America as a case in point. I am sure the lessons will also be applicable to other countries as well. God has abundantly blessed America with many and varied gifts: freedom, the Christian faith, democracy, natural and human resources and the values of honesty and hard work. In grateful acknowledgement of this truth, the forefathers of this nation have engraved the words “In God We Trust” on the mighty American dollar. We can rightly say that this land is the beloved vineyard of the Lord.
But why is this vineyard becoming fruitless and barren? The number of good jobs continues to decline, more stores are closing, incomes continue to go down, defaults on credit card debts and student loans are soaring, the housing market is agonizing, the number of Americans living in poverty continues to rise and government debt is at unprecedented levels. We now miss the products marked “Made in USA”. Almost all the products found in the market, from household items and garments to machineries and computers are “Made in China.” What is happening to America, the biggest economy in the world?
The parable mentions several important reasons. First, the walls are gone. These walls are supposed to keep rapacious wolves and animals away from the vineyard. Such are the negative effects of free trade and globalization that have taken down the protective walls of this country, and made itself open and vulnerable to the unmitigated influx of criminal and immoral activities in the economy.
Second, the wine press or vat is gone. It is built inside the walls of the vineyard so that at vintage time the pressing of the grapes will be done within its walls. And again, invoking globalization and succumbing to the attraction for more profits, big business corporations opted to close their domestic operations and outsourced their production to China and other countries outside the US for much cheaper labor and windfall profits. This resulted in huge capital flight and loss of jobs to millions of American workers. The rise in unemployment further weakened the people’s buying capacity, consequently resulting in the steep drop in sales of products and services.
Third, the watchtower is also gone. It was put up as the guardhouse of the vineyard so that any danger will be averted. But unbridled capitalism and corporate greed have eradicated all administrative safeguards and monitoring systems, again in the guise of free trade. This was one major factor in the Wall Street disaster several years ago.
And fourth, the tenants, blinded by greed and selfishness, chose to turn against the owner of the vineyard, killing his servants and even his own son. God is still the owner of all that we are and all that we have. We are only His tenants and we are expected to give an accounting of our stewardship to Him in the end. Unfortunately, many people willfully ignore this, blinded as they are by the insatiable desire for worldly wealth and power.
St. Paul, in his Letter to the Philippians, said, “Such as these will end in disaster! Their god is their belly and their glory is in their shame. I am talking about those who are set upon the things of this world” (Phil 3:19). Obviously, the cause of all the troubles that the world undergoes now is man’s selfishness and greed.
The words “In God We Trust” may as well become “In Gold We Trust”! Many people trust more in their money and gold, than in God. And worse, there are those who are bent on eradicating God from the Constitution, from the schools and from all public places. These are systematic attempts to erase God from society! This is what is truly frightening, for we all know there is no real freedom and success without God! The late President Ronald Reagan warned, “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
The Gospel this Sunday invites us to bring back the true meaning of business, that is, business as usual, business as it should be. The letters of the word “business” give us important lessons. In “business”, it is not all about the “I”; rather, “U” and “I” are in it. In fact, the “U” comes before the “I”, and the “I” is silent. And finally, the “U” is pronounced as “I”. In other words, in dealing with business, we should be concerned about the welfare of the others. In the end, we also benefit from serving others. Ignoring these lessons, as what is happening nowadays, will invariably result in severe injustice and more human misery.
And so in this Mass, let us resolve to observe the real purpose of business. Let us renew our loyalty and obedience to God in all our human endeavors. Let us acknowledge that we are simply his tenants; He is still the owner of the vineyard. May the words “In God We Trust” be forever engraved in our hearts and in the entire human society.
The Shorter Version – Business as unusual
The Gospel this Sunday gives us the parable of the vineyard. It is actually a disturbing parable because it refers to the rejection of the prophets and the Son of God by the people of Israel, the Chosen People of God. This finally led to the death of Jesus on the cross.
But today, let us look at this parable from another angle. It is actually talking about business. At the time of Jesus, there were no huge commercial buildings and manufacturing corporations. What the people had then were vast tracts of agricultural lands, such as vineyards. Having a large vineyard means big business.
Nowadays we all are aware that business is not good, even in affluent countries such as Europe and America. The entire world is undergoing global economic crisis especially with the current pandemic. Even big economies are in severe financial troubles. Perhaps we can relate the Gospel lesson with the concrete economic situation of the world.
God has abundantly blessed this world with many and varied gifts, especially natural and human resources. In fact, this world is the wonderful ‘Vineyard of the Lord’. But why is this vineyard becoming a wasteland? There is pollution everywhere, forests are denuded, the seas and waterways are poisoned, and the natural resources are abused and are on the verge of extinction. Most of the calamities, therefore, that have wreaked havoc all over are man-made. And even the economic system of the world, due to man’s unbridled greed, has undergone drastic changes that have disastrous consequences on the lives of people.
And worst of all, the absolute owner of this wonderful vineyard, is not anymore recognized and accepted by many people. This is illustrated in the attitude of the tenants. Blinded by greed and selfishness, they turned against the owner of the vineyard, killing his servants and even his own son. We need to remember always that God is the absolute owner of this world and everything in it. We are only His tenants and we are expected to give an accounting of our stewardship to Him in the end.
Unfortunately, many people ignore this. And instead, they want to be the owners and landlords. And so, they try to kick God out as well. They try to ban God from the Constitution, from the schools and from all public places – in short, to erase God from society! This is what is truly frightening, for without God, society is doomed! A vineyard without the Lord surely becomes a wasteland. The late US President Ronald Reagan warned, “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
The truth of this statement is there for us all to see: wars, mass murder of children in schools, killing of unborn babies, rampant immorality and amorality, graft and corruption, terrorism and countless evil acts. And then, people ask: ʹWhere is God? Does God never care?ʹ The truth is, God never abandons His people. It is they who kicked God out of their society in the first place.
Obviously, the cause of all the troubles in the world is man’s rejection of God due to his selfishness and greed. St. Paul, in his Letter to the Philippians, said, “Their end is destruction! Their god is their stomach; their glory is in their ‘shame’. Their minds are occupied with earthly things” (Phil 3:19).
We are now in the month of October, the Month of the Rosary. We are once again reminded to renew and intensify this wonderful and truly effective devotion. It is just sad that many Catholics are not so interested in praying the Rosary simply because they find it so repetitious and boring. But there are important reasons behind the repetition.
First, it helps put ourselves into a meditative state so that we can pray better. But more importantly, it helps us grow in love and humility. We repeat the Our Father and the Hail Mary over and over again as our way of saying ‘I love you, Jesus and Mary’. And this also helps us develop a childlike disposition. As a little child never gets tired of repeatedly calling out to his mother throughout the day, so also we call out to our heavenly Mother over and over again when we pray the Rosary.
Needless to say, therefore, with these valuable lessons, the Rosary is the most effective antidote to pride and selfishness that is destroying our world, the wonderful ‘Vineyard of the Lord’. Hence, Pope Leo XIII rightly said, “The Rosary is the most excellent form of prayer and the most efficacious means of attaining eternal life. It is the remedy for all our evils, the root of all our blessings. There is no more excellent way of praying.”
As we begin the Month of the Rosary, may today’s Gospel lesson help us make a firm resolution to reject pride and greed in all its forms. And as we pray the Rosary, may we imbibe the values it contains, especially humility and love, and be constantly assured of the Blessed Mother’s protection and assistance as we journey towards our eternal home. (Source: Fr. Mike Lagrimas, St. Michael the Archangel Parish, Amsterdam St., Capitol Park Homes, Matandang Balara, Quezon City 1119).
Reflection 5 – Jesus is still with us
If Jesus were to return to earth in the manner in which he first came, what kind of reception do you think he would get? Would the reception be different today in our own country from what it was centuries ago in Judea?
Jesus came into the world after a long line of prophets in the era of the Old Testament had been rather generally rejected or ignored by the people of their own time. They were treated like the slaves in the parable which Jesus tells in today’s Gospel. These slaves, whom the property owners sent to collect what was rightly his from the tenant farmers, were treated shamefully. In frustration the owner sent his own son because he expected that they would respect him. But his son they killed.
We need no imagination at all to recognize that the son in the parable represents Jesus himself. What about today? Would Jesus coming anew into our world suffer the same fate which he endured twenty centuries ago?
We need, not imagination, but faith to answer the question. The truth is, according to our Catholic faith that Jesus is constantly coming among us, especially in the unwanted, the despised, and the destitute members of our society.
Jesus comes in the person of every child in the womb. He is trying to be born again into our world, but the abortion movement is rejecting him by destroying him in what should be the safest sanctuary on this earth, the womb. Is God the Father still saying, with the property owner, “Surely they will respect my son”?
Historically Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Just the sound of the name of that city recalls a beautiful story of our religion. And yet within the tender story of Bethlehem is a tragic admission about the holy family: There was no room for them in the inn.” Actually Mary and Joseph were immigrants. They were from Nazareth, far to north. Even though Jesus was born in his ancestral city of Bethlehem, he was treated like a foreigner. Was the inn really crowded, or was the truth simply that they were not welcome? “There was no room for them.”
Still today Jesus tries to be welcomed by us in the person of immigrants to our country, those children of God who are rejected as foreigners even though they have come to a land, which like all the earth, belongs to God their Father.
Jesus’ public life was filled with controversy because of his teaching and preaching. His compassion for the poor and the sick aroused indignation because he did good deeds on the Sabbath. His promise of the Eucharist required his listeners to accept or reject him. Many turned and walked away. Rejection turned to hatred and hatred built to frenzy: Jesus they crucified as a criminal.
Is it too much of a leap of faith for us to see Christ in a criminal? If so, can we not at least remember that Jesus forgave the repentant thief and excused those who crucified him by saying, “They do not know what they are doing”? Do we know what we are doing when we favor capital punishment and countenance an act which reduces us to barbarism?
A parable Jesus told long ago has meaning for us today if we are humble enough to let it challenge us to question whether, like many in our country, we fail to find Christ in others. (Source: Charles E. Miller, CM, Sunday Preaching. New York: Alba House, 1997, pp. 120-121).
Reflection 6 – Praise the Lord
The parable of the vineyard is the dominant theme of today’s Mass. This parable is common to both the Old Testament and the New Testament. First the prophets, and then Jesus, used it to speak of God’s love for his people and of their ingratitude. The parable emphasizes that God is very patient, but even his patience has a limit. Because of Israel’s infidelity God took the vineyard (his Kingdom) from her and gave it to the Gentiles (the Church). He will do the same thing to us if we are not faithful to him by keeping the Ten Commandments and being faithful to the duties of our state of life.
In the first reading Isaiah says that God did everything he could for his vineyard (Israel); he cleared away the stones, planted choice vines, built a wall around it, erected a watchtower and built a winepress. And what happened? Instead of good grapes he got useless wild grapes; that is, Israel was not faithful to the covenant. What will God do? He will destroy that vineyard – this is a prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity in Babylon.
The same idea and image are used in the responsorial, Psalm 80. One of the changes in the liturgy after Vatican II was the addition of the responsorial psalm after the first reading. The Psalms help us to pray better because they are divinely inspired prayers that give utterance to every sentiment of the human heart. There are 150 of them. Some are songs of praise of God; others are lamentations and pleas for assistance from God. There are wisdom Psalms, songs of thanksgiving and also royal Psalms.
In the Bible the Psalms are usually attributed to King David. He certainly compose some of them, perhaps even one third, but the rest were composed by priests and Levites associated with the Temple in Jerusalem during the centuries after David.
The Psalms have been called “the prayer book of the Church.” The reason is that the Liturgy of the Hours, or the Divine Office, is composed mainly of the Psalms. Priests and monks are bound by their state in life to pray the Liturgy of the Hours everyday. Monks and cloistered nuns pray them together and sing some of them. This has been going on since the time of the apostles. Also, the New Testament tells us that Jesus often prayed the Psalms. Since Vatican II many lay people have taken up the habit of praying the Liturgy of the Hours. This is highly to be recommended because it puts one in touch with the daily prayer of the Church.
The gospel reading today continues Isaiah’s metaphor of the vineyard and develops it. The vineyard is Israel; the tenant farmers are Jewish religious leaders; the servants are the prophets; the son is Jesus sent by the property owner (God) to get his hare of the grapes (good works). The tenants abuse their position. They reject the prophets and kill the son. This refers to Jesus being crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem.
The sin and ingratitude of the chosen people were great. Isaiah spoke of the destruction of the vineyard; Jesus says that the kingdom “will be taken from you and given to a nation that will yield a rich harvest.” So now the Church takes the place of the synagogue. But are the new people of God more faithful than the old? The parable also applies to us. If the members of the Church do not produce the fruits God expects (i.e. good works), they will suffer the same fate as Israel.
So the parable applies to each one of us. Each baptized person must be a “vine of the Lord” and must bear fruit by imitating Jesus and being grafted into him, the “true vine,” apart from whom is only death. For he said in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he it is who bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”
If we are faithful to him, he will be with us as Emmanuel and will comfort us. We all seek love and peace of mind – and God is the source of both.
Finally, the parable of the vineyard applies to each one of us. What happened to Israel will not happen to the Church, which was instituted by Christ to last till the end of time as his own Mystical Body. But it will happen to us individually if we do not bear fruit in good works of fidelity, humility, obedience – and especially the essential theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. (Source: Rev. Kenneth Baker, S.J., “Homilies on the Liturgies of Sundays and Feasts,” Homiletic & Pastoral Review, Vol. CVIII, No. 11-12. New Jersey: Ignatius Press, Aug/Sept 2008, pp. 42-43; Suggested reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2585-2589).
Reflection 7 – Care of the Vineyard
Purpose: The vineyard symbolizes God’s chosen people. The crop yielded by the vineyard and the conduct of the tenants are both disappointing. Moreover, the symbolism can be extended to us: How do we care for the vineyard? What are the obstacles that keep us from responding as we might?
Like all good teachers, Jesus often used images easily understood by his listeners. In today’s Gospel, he uses the image of a vineyard. The Gospel parable is built upon the vineyard song of Isaiah. At the end of the song, the friend and his vineyard are identified as Yahweh and Israel.
The vineyard is carefully prepared and well cared for. The outcome, however, is one of bitter disappointment. The parable symbolizes the fact that the people of Israel were not faithful to the covenant Yahweh made with them. In the Gospel parable, Israel remains God’s people, and Yahweh is the absentee landlord. God’s covenant was an offer of salvation, and that offer is open to all people. God invites everyone into the kingdom.
When we reflect on this parable of the vineyard, a question naturally arises. How could those tenants be so ungrateful? How could they react in such a selfish, unjust, and, eventually, murderous way? We tend to interpret the parable as primarily reflecting the refusal of Jewish leaders of that time to accept Jesus as the Messiah.
But we need to look beyond that historical event. It helps to ask what the parable means for us. The vineyard can also be seen as something entrusted to our care. How do we care for the vineyard? What do we return to the owner? What are some of the obstacles that keep us from responding as we should?
Whether we have been conscious of it or not, we have all been objects of special care, of God’s loving providence. Unfortunately, we have often enough failed to yield the expected crop of grapes. We have all been given use of a well-prepared vineyard, as described in this Gospel passage and, often, we have failed to return the owner’s share of the grapes.
What is it that keeps us from responding as we should? There are various obstacles that hinder or prevent us from encountering God, and responding as we should. An obstacle we all have to overcome is self-centeredness. The more we are wrapped up in ourselves, the more isolated we become from God, and the less likely we are to encounter God in our lives. It is as though Jesus, encountering a completely self-centered person, is led to say: “This person is so full of self, there is no room for me.” If we don’t encounter God, how can we possibly respond to God’s invitation?
Self-centeredness is closely aligned with sin. Sin can be understood as a negative response to God’s invitation. Sin separates us from God. Traditionally, we speak of sin as an offense against God. If we think about it, we have to realize that is not exactly the case, not the best way to describe what is involved in sin.
Strictly speaking, God is beyond being offended or hurt in the ordinary sense of those terms. It seems more accurate to see sin as a barrier which makes it impossible for Jesus to enter into our lives, and for us to encounter God in a life-giving way. Another physical image that is helpful in understanding what sin involves is to think of sin as a hard crust on the soul, which renders it impervious to God’s grace.
There is another obstacle to encountering God, and responding to God’s invitation, which is more subtle but, nonetheless, effective. It is indifference, lack of care or concern about whether we encounter God or not. It consists in being oblivious to the ways of encountering God because we are preoccupied with so many other things. We miss his invitations.
The Cathedral of Chartres in France is world-renowned for its architecture, for the beauty of its design and workmanship. One of the carved stone figures high up in an arch of that cathedral depicts God holding Adam ever so tenderly in his lap. Adam is asleep with his chin on his chest, and his arms and legs drawn up closely to his body, almost in a fetal position. God is looking at him with deep care and compassion, as though he longed for his grace to awaken Adam from his sleep and, thus, to become aware of the one whose arms hold him, and of how much he is loved.
What a beautiful image! It suggests in a symbolic way the beautiful and consoling truth that God holds each and every one of us in a longing gaze, seeking to awaken us from our sleep of preoccupation and self-absorption, so that we might encounter him and realize who it is that loves us. – (Source: Homiletic and Pastoral Review)
Reflection 8 – He called us into the vineyard
The Jewish Scriptures tell us that God drove out wicked nations and gave a country to the Hebrews whom He had delivered from slavery in Egypt, God’s own chosen people. Today, for both Isaiah and Jesus, God’s people are a cultivated vineyard. But those same Scriptures also say that when the chosen abandoned God and chose their own ways, God used wicked nations as His instrument to drive them out into exile. The antiphon for this Mass reminds us, “Within your will, O Lord, all things are established, and there is none that can resist your will.” God is in control, will not be mocked, and intimately bound up with his vineyard.
There can be no misunderstanding Jesus. His parable is about Israel — who rejected God’s prophets and the landowner’s son. The psalmist says is no uncertain terms: “The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.” Jesus says of it in terrifying words, “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”
So, is this an anti-Semitic message from Scripture? During the last two thousand years, many Christians have taken just that interpretation — judging Israel as unworthy, and then smugly, self-complacently, congratulating themselves as worthy, as better than anyone else. But this Mass paints a different picture. The Collect implores God “for mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer dares not ask.” Our act of Contrition at the beginning of the Mass, our prayer “Lord have Mercy,” our prayer before Communion: “Lord I am not worthy that you come under my roof” are not self-congratulatory; they are not a declaration of our worthiness or goodness, but a frank recognition of who we are.
Israel was chosen to bear the knowledge of God for the whole world, to be the vehicle by which all of us can accept God’s calling and invitation. God brought a vine out of Egypt and sent out its branches everywhere, and God’s Church, planted by Jesus, has spread throughout the world extending that invitation through the chosen people to everyone. When we accept that invitation, we become the new vineyard called to yield good fruit in the Church and in the world. To do that, God gives us the Scriptures, the teaching authority of the Church, the Sacraments so that each one of us can choose God’s ways rather than our own ways in our daily lives.
But the reality is that our fallen human nature can often yield not good grapes, but wild grapes — not good grain, but weeds. And what was true of Isaiah’s vineyard is no less true of ours. “He expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry.” Each of us has the possibility of choosing or not choosing Him. When we do choose Him we come into our own; we bear good fruit. But when we decide for ourselves what is good and evil, we go our own way. The whole story of the garden of Eden is played out every day in our souls. Deep down in that inner room of our soul, we know what God wants us to do or not do, or to say or not say. Each time we turn away from that, and put ourselves first — put ourselves in the driver’s seat to go where we want, to live in ways that we know that God does not want from us — we become those to whom God says: “What more was there to do for my vineyard? I expected it to yield grapes; why did it yield wild grapes?”
But it seems so hard, doesn’t it? The truth is that we cannot bear good fruit on our own. Oh, for a time, we might do reasonably well — but sooner or later we find ourselves going our own way. We can’t help ourselves. We are, after all, only human. And that is why we are here — in this church, at this Mass — because we know that we cannot bear good fruit on our own. That is why God gives us the Sacraments, that is why we pray for each other. We come here relying upon the promise of today’s Communion Antiphon: “The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks Him.” That goodness comes to us not because we earn it through never falling or making mistakes, or congratulating ourselves on being Catholic Christians. It comes to us when, recognizing how short we fall from the mark, we pick ourselves up, reorient ourselves to God’s ways, and once again continue to hope, trust and seek Him — so that with the help of Him who called us into the vineyard, we might bear good fruit. – Read the source: https://www.hprweb.com/2020/10/homilies-for-october-2020/
Reflection 9 – The stone which the builders rejected
What is the message of the parable of the vineyard? Jesus’ story about an absentee landlord and his not-so-good tenants would have made sense to his audience. The hills of Galilee were lined with numerous vineyards, and it was quite common for the owners to let out their estates to tenants. Many did it for the sole purpose of collecting rent.
The Lord’s vinyeard in the house of his people
Why did Jesus’ story about wicked tenants cause offense to the scribes and Pharisees? It contained both a prophetic message and a warning. Isaiah had spoken of the house of Israel as “the vineyard of the Lord” (Isaiah 5:7). Jesus’ listeners would have likely understood this parable as referring to God’s dealing with a stubborn and rebellious people.
This parable speaks to us today as well. It richly conveys some important truths about God and the way he deals with his people. First, it tells us of God’s generosity and trust. The vineyard is well equipped with everything the tenants need. The owner went away and left the vineyard in the hands of the tenants. God, likewise trusts us enough to give us freedom to run life as we choose. This parable also tells us of God’s patience and justice. Not once, but many times he forgives the tenants their debts. But while the tenants take advantage of the owner’s patience, his judgment and justice prevail in the end.
Gift of the kingdom
Jesus foretold both his death on the cross and his ultimate triumph. He knew he would be rejected and put to death, but he also knew that would not be the end. After rejection would come glory – the glory of his resurrection from the grave and his ascension to the right hand of the Father in heaven.
The Lord blesses his people today with the gift of his kingdom – a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. And he promises that we will bear much fruit if we abide in him (see John 15:1-11). He entrusts his gifts and grace (unmerited favor and blessing) to each of us and he gives us work to do in his vineyard – the body of Christ in our midst today. He promises that our labor for him will not be in vain if we persevere with faith to the end (see 1 Corinthians 15:58).
We can expect trials and even persecution. But in the end we will see triumph. Do you follow and serve the Lord Jesus with joyful hope and confidence in the victory he has won for you and the gift of abundant new life in the Holy Spirit?
“Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits which you have given us – for all the pains and insults which you have borne for us. O most merciful redeemer, friend, and brother, may we know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, for your own sake.” (Prayer of St. Richard of Chichester, 13th Century) –Read the source: http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/2020/oct4.htm
Reflection 10 – Why is there violence?
What a mess this gospel is! The storyline is full of violence; people beating and killing and stoning servants, then killing a king’s son, and then the king, wreaking vengeance by “putting those wretched men to a wretched death,” as the gospel says. There is plenty of murder, revenge, and blood in this unsettling parable.
Today’s gospel can be interpreted on many levels, but today I want to focus on the violence it contains. This is, as you sadly know, a timely topic. Violence forms the subtext of our daily lives. Nations, peoples, individuals of all ages–even kids–are routinely hurting, maiming, and killing one another. It has all become so commonplace that we hardly pay attention anymore.
What is behind this proliferation of violence in our world? I want to suggest that part of it is a shocking lack of empathy for other people, for the victims, an inability to feel what those who are hurt or dying are feeling. We lack empathy and we hurt and kill others because we have divided the world into “us” and “them”–a distinction, mind you, that is high on Jesus’ list of what is horribly and terribly evil in the world.
For Jesus, there was no “us” and “them,” no Hutus and Tutsis, no northern and southern Irish, no blacks and whites, no Crips and Warlords, no gay and straight, no Jew and Samaritan. Jesus taught that our neighbor is everyone–especially everyone who is hurting. We must understand and appreciate his or her pain. In fact, it is not too far-fetched to say that empathy for victims is Christianity’s cardinal virtue. Yet more and more, especially among the young, a sense of empathy is evaporating. With this loss comes an inability to be compassionate. And when there is no empathy and no compassion, there is easy violence.
Here’s an example. I was listening to a therapist the other day, who was telling the story of a nun, a nursing sister, who had been in an accident. Two young teens had stolen a car and were weaving recklessly all over the road; at one point, they plowed straight into the sister’s car. She was badly injured, and several bones were broken. She was in the hospital a long time; to this day, she still limps and suffers a great deal.
Since the two boys were underage, they were not charged with a crime. When the nun got out of the hospital she went to the police station and asked for the names of those two boys. Then she went to see them both. The nun spoke movingly and tearfully to them about her pain, her long hospital stay, and her inability to continue her work as a nurse. She was hoping for some sympathy, if not an apology. After she was done speaking, the kids simply looked at her and said “Look, lady, that’s your problem.” Then they laughed, got up, and left.
This story shows the measurable and growing lack of empathy among people: the inability to care, to feel for the victim, to show remorse, to enter into another’s pain and humiliation. Psychopaths, sociopaths, deviants–indeed, more and more kids and adolescents and young adults–all have this in common: no empathy, no feeling, no conscience. It is a growing problem.
So, here is a question: where does this lack of empathy come from, people doing horrible things and not even batting an eye? Kids killing kids and wondering what the fuss is about, conscienceless killers? People cheering when someone is brutally hurt? Such moral deadness, such moral apathy, used to be confined to hit men. Now, even children experience this state.
What happened? There are many reasons why this condition is so prevalent today: I’ll mention two.
First, there is the pervasive philosophical vacuum in our society, which has its origin in the universities. The university professorate is largely agnostic, and so what is their message to students? That there is no truth. Nothing can be known. There are no objective standards, only culturally conditioned attitudes. All institutions, the places that used to mediate meaning, are corrupt. Religion is slavery.
In time, this type of reasoning leads to what we have today: a situation where, lacking any objective standards, the only way left to decide right and wrong is by one’s own personal criteria. “If it feels good, do it. You do your thing, I do mine. Who is to say who is right? Don’t impose your morality on me: we are all equally right.” When truth is totally in the eye of the beholder, college kids become hesitant to condemn Hitler or to feel for his victims.
A well-publicized case in point is Professor Peter Singer, who was recently installed as professor of bioethics in Princeton. Singer teaches that it’s all right to kill a handicapped infant. He has said that “Killing a disabled infant is not morally equivalent to killing a person.…Very often it is not wrong at all.” The belief that human life is sacred is, as he calls it, “speciesist”; humans are just one animal among many.
You would think, by the way, that his fellow Jews would be in an uproar over Singer’s comments–like the president of Princeton, Harold Shapiro, who hired him–because it is well documented that this is exactly the way Hitler began. (Singer himself lost three of his grandparents in the Holocaust.) The first systematic attempt by the Nazis to eliminate a defined population group was directly at severely disabled children. Babies judged to be defective were routinely starved to death or killed by drugs or gas. Eventually, the philosophy that some lives were not worthy to be lived became ingrained in many of the people of Germany, and the Holocaust was able to become a reality.
If Singer’s university students buy into his philosophy of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia as acceptable practices, then a lack of empathy is given legitimization. If the students accept that human beings are just one animal among many, then killing other humans should cause no more concern than killing a rat.
The second reason for the lack of empathy today is because of the media, which is, as you know, a powerful influence on how kids develop empathy as a basis for morality. We see this most prominently in the message of most advertising: anything goes. And if anything goes, then nothing counts. We see this attitude everywhere; “whatever” is its common expression. We are only consuming animals going nowhere. Life is meaningless so grab your gusto as you go around. Look out for Number One.
The media celebrates being “cool.” You are in control. You show power, have power. People move aside for you or fawn all over you. You don’t show emotion when someone is riddled with bullets or the life blood is draining out of him or her. You’re cool. In promoting this type of attitude, the media consistently and routinely promotes desensitization, the opposite of empathy. After the umpteenth murder, how much can you feel for the victim? It is estimated that the average child witnesses over 200,000 acts of violence on television by the time he or she is eighteen years old.
Here is something to attend to. Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman is an Army expert on the psychology of killing. Ironically, he’s from Jonesboro, Arkansas, where, as you might recall, two boys, ages eleven and thirteen, killed four girls and a teacher and left ten others injured. In a talk given in Kansas recently, Grossman pointed out that violent crime is occurring at record levels here and elsewhere in the world. He told the audience that, “Although we should never downplay child abuse, poverty, or racism, there is only one new variable present [today which can promote violent behavior]: media violence presented as entertainment for children.”
Throughout his Army career, Grossman’s job was to condition soldiers how to kill. He said that killing is a learned skill because there is an innate resistance to it. Around the time of World War II, Army research showed that only fifteen to twenty percent of individual riflemen could bring themselves to fire at exposed enemy soldiers. To make soldiers more effective in battle, the Army had to fix this problem. And fix it they did. They were so successful that by the Korean War, fifty-five percent of the soldiers were willing to fire and kill; by Vietnam, that number had jumped to ninety percent.
How did they do it? Grossman outlined the process. In the first step, the men are brutalized at boot camp. Their heads are shaved and they are herded together, naked. Then they are all dressed alike. In this way, they begin to lose all individuality and become desensitized to violence. Grossman pointed out that the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrated the very same brutalization and desensitizing happened to children as they watched TV. There is a definite correlation, the study said, between watching violent TV and violent actions.
The second step used by the Army is classic conditioning. Remember Psychology 101, when you were taught about the dogs that learn to associate food with the ringing of a bell? Thereafter, the dogs could not hear the bell without drooling with pleasure in anticipation of food.
Grossman pointed out that our kids watch vivid pictures of human suffering and death. They see graphic depictions of stabbings, garroting, kicking in the groin and head, vomit, blood, and decapitations and they learn to associate all this with their favorite soft drink or candy bar which immediately pops up on the TV screen during the endless commercials. The success of this conditioning can be observed when you go to the movies. Listen to the young people laugh and cheer when there is bloody violence and someone is painfully hurt or gruesomely dying. They keep right on eating popcorn. Empathy, feeling for the victim, is a non-issue, a non-emotion.
A mother adds her testimony: Recently, a thirteen-year-old in our community was raped by a group of teenage boys. Actually, the technical term was “sexual assault with a foreign object”–in fact, several foreign objects–but it still sounds like rape to me. It makes my thighs clap together and my guts shudder. But the comments I have since overheard by other teenagers–how she probably deserved it, how it’s kind of funny (a cucumber, you heard? ha, ha, ha!), how they were just having some fun while their parents were out of town–make me queasy. They are chillingly nonchalant. They’ve seen it all before, anyway.
Desensitization negatively shapes the moral lives of children and opens the door to violence.
The third step in making soldiers killers is deploying what is called “operant conditioning.” This means that one no longer shoots at a bulls eye in a neutral round paper or straw target, but at realistic, human-shaped targets. Now think about this: in the video games, the kids do exactly the same thing and therefore get the same “operant conditioning.” They shoot at lifelike figures.
Grossman commented, “It came as no surprise to me when I read that the two shooters in the Littleton massacre had allegedly been avid players of Doom and Quake, two popular computer games full of realistic violence in which players stalk their opponents through dungeon-like environments to kill them with high-powered weapons.” One video game has the player kill children. The only way to exit this game is to put the simulated gun in your mouth and pull the trigger.
The fourth and last component in training killers is role models, that is, the drill sergeant who personifies violence and aggression. And who are the role models for our young people today? Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and Jean Claude van Damme.
We, as a culture, are conditioned to violence. Our children are conditioned to violence. We find it hard to feel for “the enemy,” those nasty TV or video characters whom we dispatch as we pleasurably sip our soda. Empathy comes hard in a world made up of “us” and “them.” Compassion comes not at all in a world made up of “us” and “them.” Violence, the fruit of the absence of empathy and compassion, comes easy in a world made up of “us” and “them.”
The answer to ending the violence present in the world today must come not only in turning away from a media which trains our minds to callous indifference. More positively, it must come from a return to Jesus’ teaching: there is no “us” and “them.”
Put into the words of his disciple, St. Paul: “There is neither male or female, Gentile or Jew, slave or free. All are one in Christ.” When we, like Mother Teresa, can look into the face of a victim and see Christ, violence will cease.
Bear with me as I close with the words of the great Russian poet, Yevgeny Yevtushenko:
In 1941, Mama took me back to Moscow. There I saw our enemies for the first time. If my memory serves me right, nearly 20,000 German war prisoners were to be marched in a single column through the streets of Moscow. The pavement swarmed with onlookers, cordoned off by police and soldiers. The crowd was mostly women. Every one of them must have had a father or a husband, a brother or a son killed by the Germans. They gazed with hatred in the direction in which the column was to appear. At last we saw it.
The generals marched at the head, massive chins stuck out, lips pursed disdainfully, their whole demeanor meant to show superiority over their plebeian victims. The women were clenching their fists. The soldiers and policemen had all they could do to hold them back….All at once something happened to them. They saw the German soldiers, thin, unshaven, wearing dirty, blood-stained bandages, hobbling on crutches or leaning on the shoulders of their comrades. The soldiers walked with their heads down. The street became dead silent. The only sound was the shuffling of boots, the thumping of crutches.
Then I saw an elderly woman in broken-down boots push herself forward and touch a policeman’s shoulder saying, “Let me through.” Something about her made him step aside. She went up to the column, took from inside her coat something wrapped in a colored handkerchief, and unfolded it. It was a crust of black bread. She pushed it awkwardly into the pocket of a soldier so exhausted that he was tottering on his feet. And now, suddenly from every side, women were running towards the soldiers, pushing into their hands bread, cigarettes, whatever they had. The soldiers were no longer enemies. They were people.
When the women saw the men hobbling through the streets, they were no longer the enemy; they were no longer those who killed their relatives. They were just victims, and the women felt for them. There was an outpouring of empathy and compassion. The violence they intended was no longer in their hearts.
Jesus Christ would approve. (Source: William J. Bausch, The Word in and out of Season. Connecticut: Twenty-Third Publications, 2000, pp. 199-205).
REFLECTION 11 – THE FAITHFUL GOD AND THE FAITHFUL OF GOD
1) The faithful God.
This Sunday’s first reading, taken by Isaiah 5: 1-71, is a masterpiece and introduces the parable of Jesus who speaks of the vineyard and tells us that the punishment of God is in order to convert and not to destroy.
This prophet of the Old Testament uses the allegory of the vineyard to describe the story of the people of Israel when they betray the love of God who had chosen them as the people elected to announce that He had not forgotten humanity and to give flesh to the Son of God.
This story of infidelity – Isaiah says – cannot go on forever. God’s patience has a limit and there will be a judgment (5.3). God expected fine grapes, and instead got poor grapes (5.2). Without metaphors: he expected justice and there was oppression, he expected righteousness and here is dishonesty (5: 7). At this point there is nothing but punishment: the vine will fall in ruin and will no longer be cultivated and brambles and blackthorns will grow. But God’s punishment is not forever.
God’s threats are to convert, not to destroy.
This is evident in the parable narrated by Christ who, inspired by Isaiah’s song on the vineyard, points out that the sin of winemakers does not simply consist in a tough but generic disobedience to God. Their sin lies in the fact that the prophets and even the Messiah, the Son of God, are killed.
In addition, while on Isaiah’s song the master was expecting high quality grapes and got poor grapes, in the parable it is not primarily a matter of fruit. Farmers do not want to recognize the master as such. This is their sin. They behave as if the vineyard belonged to them. And when they kill their son, they say it is clear: they want to become heirs and masters.
However, refusing the Lordship of God, they reject the cornerstone, the only one that supports the world. Without the recognition of God, the world cannot exist and coexistence crumbles: “You can build a world without God, but it will always be against man “(Cardinal Henri de Lubac)
2) The poor of spirit: the faithful of God
God is always faithful to his merciful love and to his promises. His design of salvation is not interrupted and his demands of truth and justice are not put aside. For this reason, Jesus, the Son of God, ends the parable with a positive vision: the perennial story of the God’s love and man’s betrayal does not end in defeat. Sin does not stop God’s plan. The outcome of the story will be good, the vine will be generous in fruits and the Master will not waste in revenge the days of eternity. To reveal his goodness that does not react against evil but proposes good things, the Messiah says that the vineyard is given to a New People, the left out of Israel and the poor in spirit who would humbly have accepted Jesus and his happy Gospel of love.
In these little ones, “discarded” by the people as the “builders’ scraped the stones” crumpled and unsuitable for the building of the Temple, the Lord becomes the “Cornerstone” of the New Temple with his body risen and alive in history. The victory of God’s infinite patience over every religious or social criterion of justice is revealed in them.
Today, there is still the possibility of being part of this “remnant of Israel”, of these poor in spirit. It is enough to acknowledge to be sinners, as did Peter on the banks of the Lake of Galilee when he delivered to Christ his pain and Christ confirmed him in his love. As long as we welcome the invitation to go to work in the vineyard even if it is only one hour before the end of the working day. It is enough to convert our hearts to turn our “no” into a loving “yes”.
Then, the “Vineyard” will be removed from our old self and will be donated to the new self, poor and therefore capable of welcoming forgiveness with astonishment and gratitude, humble to obey the Church and holy because united with Christ, the fruit we are called to offer to the world.
In God’s vineyard, in his Church, everything is free. Free are the innocence and the virginity of Theresa of the Child Jesus, the testimony to the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, the conversion of Augustine and Charles de Foucauld, the theological science of Thomas Aquinas and John-Henry Newman, the ministry of mercy of Fr. Pius da Pietrelcina, the mission of charity of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the long list of the consecrated Virgins, the one knowns by the Church as Saint Geneviève and Marcellina, Saint Ambrose’s sister, and the ones only known to God in whose heart their name is written.
Following their example, the consecrated virgins of today, and us with them, do not claim merit or pretense before God. He does not look at the amount of our performances. He looks at the heart and expects to find in it only our love, our trust, our adherence to his total call made with abandonment and loving trust. The important thing is that we humbly pray: “Protect me, O Jesus, and accept me with your holy hand. Open the door of your mercy so that, marked by your deep wisdom, I may be free from all earthly envy, and, according to your sweet precepts, may serve you in the holy Church in joy, day by day, progressing from virtue to virtue “(Gertrude of Helfta).
To him who said “I am the vine and you the branches that I make fertile”, we give thanks from the deepest of our heart and humbly ask that He gives us the grace of being always united to him in the eternal mystery of dying and resurrecting and of offering ourselves to the Father.
The consecrated Virgins in the world have offered and renew the offer of themselves “as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” (Rm12, 1). With this offer they adhere to Christ like the branches to the vine and their being with Christ is the secret of their spiritual fertility.
Along with Christ, these consecrated women are close to their brothers and sisters in humanity whom they “cultivate” by taking care of their good.
Patristic Reading: Saint John Chrysostom
Homely 68 on Mathew 21, 33 44
“Hear another parable. There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.1 And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to receive the fruits. And the husbandmen took the servants, and beat some, and killed some, and stoned some. Again he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last he sent unto them his son, saying, It may be they will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir, come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do to those husbandmen? They say unto Him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The Stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?”2
Many things doth He intimate by this parable, God’s providence, which had been exercised towards them from the first; their murderous disposition from the beginning; that nothing had been omitted of whatever pertained to a heedful care of them; that even when prophets had been slain, He had not turned away from them, but had sent His very Son; that the God both of the New and of the Old Testament was one and the same; that His death should effect great blessings; that they were to endure extreme punishment for the crucifixion, and their crime; the calling of the Gentiles, the casting out of the Jews.
Therefore He putteth it after the former parable, that He may show even hereby the charge to be greater, and highly unpardonable. How, and in what way? That although they met with so much care, they were worse than harlots and publicans, and by so much.
And observe also both His great care, and the excessive idleness of these men. For what pertained to the husbandmen, He Himself did, the hedging it round about, the planting the vineyard, and all the rest, and He left little for them to do; to take care of what was there, and to preserve what was given to them. For nothing was left undone, but all accomplished; and not even so did they gain, and this, when they had enjoyed such great blessings from Him. For when they had come forth out of Egypt, He gave a law, and set up a city, and built a temple, and prepared an altar.
“And went into a far country;” that He bore long with them, not always bringing the punishments close upon their sins; for by His going into a far country,3 He means His great long-suffering.
And “He sent His servants,” that is, the prophets, “to receive the fruit;” that is, their obedience, the proof of it by their works. But they even here showed their wickedness, not only by failing to give the fruit, after having enjoyed so much care, which was the sign of idleness, but also by showing anger towards them that came. For they that had not to give when they owed, should not have been indignant, nor angry, but should have entreated. But they not only were indignant, but even filled their hands with blood, and while deserving punishment, themselves inflicted punishment.
Therefore He sent both a second, and a third company, both that the wickedness of these might be shown, and the love towards man of Him who sent them.
And wherefore sent He not His Son immediately? In order that they might condemn themselves for the things done to the others, and leave off their wrath, and reverence Him when He came. There are also other reasons, but for the present let us go on to what is next. But what means, “It may be they will reverence?” It is not the language of one ignorant, away with the thought! but of one desiring to show the sin to be great; and without any excuse. Since Himself knowing that they would slay Him, He sent Him. But He saith, “They will reverence,” declaring what ought to have been done, that it was their duty to have reverenced Him. Since elsewhere also He saith, “if perchance they will hear;”4 not in this case either being ignorant, but lest any of the obstinate should say, that His prediction was the thing that necessitated their disobedience, therefore He frames His expressions in this way, saying, “Whether they will,” and, “It may be.” For though they had been obstinate towards His servants, yet ought they to have reverenced the dignity of the Son.
What then do these? When they ought to have run unto Him, when they ought to have asked pardon for their offenses, they even persist more strongly in their former sins, they proceed to add unto their pollutions, forever throwing into the shade their former offenses by their later; as also He Himself declared when He said, “Fill ye up the measure of your fathers.”5 For from the first the prophets used to charge them with these things, saying, “Your hands are full of blood;”6 and, “They mingle blood with blood;”7 and, “They build up Sion with blood.”8
But they did not learn self-restraint, albeit they received this commandment first, “Thou shalt not kill;” and had been commanded to abstain from countless other things because of this, and by many and various means urged to the keeping of this commandment.
Yet, for all that, they put not away that evil custom; but what say they, when they saw Him? Come, let us kill Him. With what motive, and for what reason? what of any kind had they to lay to His charge, either small or great? Is it that He honored you, and being God became man for your sakes, and wrought His countless miracles? or that He pardoned your sins? or that He called you unto a kingdom?
But see together with their impiety great was their folly, and the reason of His murder was full of much madness. “For let us kill Him,” it is said, “and the inheritance shall be ours.”
And where do they take counsel to kill Him? “Out of the vineyard.”
- Seest thou how He prophesies even the place where He was to be slain. “And they cast Him out, and slew Him.”
And Luke indeed saith, that He declared what these men should suffer; and they said, “God forbid;” and He added the testimony [of Scripture]. For “He beheld them, and said, What is it then that is written? The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner; and every; one that falleth upon it shall be broken.”9 But Matthew, that they themselves delivered the sentence. But this is not a contradiction. For indeed both things were done, both themselves passed the sentence against themselves; and again, when they perceived what they had said, they added, “God forbid;” and He set up the prophet against them, persuading them that certainly this would be.
Nevertheless, not even so did He plainly reveal the Gentiles, that He might afford them no handle, but signified it darkly by saying, “He will give the vineyard to others.” For this purpose then did He speak by a parable, that themselves might pass the sentence, which was done in the case of David also, when He passed judgment on the parable of Nathan. But do thou mark, I pray thee, even hereby how just is the sentence, when the very persons that are to be punished condemn themselves.
Then that they might learn that not only the nature of justice requires these things, but even from the beginning the grace of the Spirit had foretold them, and God had so decreed, He both added a prophecy, and reproves them in a way to put them to shame, saying, “Did ye never read, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes;” by all things showing, that they should be cast out for unbelief, and the Gentiles brought in. This He darkly intimated by the Canaanitish woman also; this again by the ass, and by the centurion, and by many other parables; this also now.
Wherefore He added too, “This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes,” declaring beforehand that the believing Gentiles, and as many of the Jews as should also themselves believe, shall be one, although the difference between them had been so great before.
Then, that they might learn that nothing was opposed to God’s will of the things doing, but that the event was even highly acceptable, and beyond expectation, and amazing every one of the beholders (for indeed the miracle was far beyond words), He added and said, “It is the Lord’s doing.” And by the stone He means Himself, and by builders the teachers of the Jews; as Ezekiel also saith, “They that build the wall, and daub it with untempered mortar.”10 But how did they reject Him? By saying, “This man is not of God;11 This man deceiveth the people;”12 and again, “Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil.”13
Then, that they might know that the penalty is not limited to their being cast out, He added the punishments also, saying, “Every one that falleth on this stone, shall be broken; but upon whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder.”14 He speaks here of two ways of destruction, one from stumbling and being offended; for this is, “Whosoever falleth on this stone:” but another from their capture, and calamity, and utter destruction, which also He clearly foretold, saying, “It will grind him to powder.” By these words He darkly intimated His own resurrection also.
Now the Prophet Isaiah saith, that He blames the vineyard, but here He accuses in particular the rulers of the people. And there indeed He saith, “What ought I to have done to my vineyard, that I did not;”15 and elsewhere again, “What transgression have your fathers found in me?”16 And again, “O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I grieved thee?”17 showing their thankless disposition, and that when in the enjoyment of all things, they requited it by the contraries; but here He expresses it with yet greater force. For He cloth not plead, Himself, saying, “What ought I to have done that I have not done?” but brings in themselves to judge, that nothing hath been wanting, and to condemn themselves. For when they say, “He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out the vineyard to other husbandmen,” they say nothing else than this, publishing their sentence with much greater force.
With this Stephen also upbraids them, which thing most of all stung them, that having enjoyed always much providential care, they requited their benefactor with the contraries, which very thing itself was a very great sign, that not the punisher, but the punished, were the cause of the vengeance brought upon them.
This here likewise is shown, by the parable, by the prophecy. For neither was He satisfied with a parable only, but added also a twofold prophecy, one David’s, the others from Himself. What then ought they to have done on hearing these things? ought they not to have adored, to have marvelled at the tender care, that shown before, that afterwards? But if by none of these things they were made better, by the fear of punishment at any rate ought they not to have been rendered more temperate? But they did not become so, but what do they after these things? “
When they had heard it,” it is said, “they perceived that He spake of them. And when they sought to lay hands on Him, they were afraid because of the multitudes, for they took Him for a prophet.”18 For they felt afterwards that they themselves were intimated. Sometimes indeed, when being seized, He withdraws through the midst of them, and is not seen; and sometimes while appearing to them He lays a check upon their laboring eagerness; at which indeed men marveled, and said, “Is not this Jesus? Lo, He speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto Him.”19
But in this instance, forasmuch as they were held in restraint by the fear of the multitude, He is satisfied with this, and doth not work miracles, as before, withdrawing through the midst, and not appearing. For it was not His desire to do all things in a superhuman way, in order that the Dispensation20 might be believed.
But they, neither by the multitude, nor by what had been said, were brought to a sound mind; they regarded not the prophet’s testimony, nor their own sentence, nor the disposition of the people; so entirely had the love of power and the lust of vainglory blinded them, together with the pursuit of things temporal. 3. For nothing so urges men headlong and drives them down precipices, nothing so makes them fail of the things to come, as their being riveted to these decaying things. Nothing so surely makes them enjoy both the one and the other, as their esteeming the things to come above all. For, “Seek ye,” saith Christ, “the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.”21 And indeed, even if this were not joined, not even in that case ought we to aim at them. But now in obtaining the others, we may obtain these two; and not even so are some persuaded, but are like senseless stones, and pursue shadows of pleasure. For what is pleasant of the things in this present life? what is delightful? For with greater freedom do I desire to discourse with you to-day; but suffer it, that ye may learn that this life which seems to you to be a galling and wearisome life, I mean that of the monks and of them that are crucified, is far sweeter, and more to be desired than that which seems to be easy, and more delicate.
And of this ye are witnesses, who often have asked for death, in the reverses and despondencies that have overtaken you, and have accounted happy them that are in mountains, them that are in caves, them that have not married, them that live the unworldly life; ye that are engaged in crafts, ye that are in military services, ye that live without object or rules, and pass your days at the theatres and orchestras. For of these, although numberless fountains of pleasures and mirth seem to spring up, yet are countless darts still more bitter brought forth.
For if any one be seized with a passion for one of the damsels that dance there, beyond ten thousand marches, beyond ten thousand journeys from home, will he undergo a torture more grievous, being in a more miserable state than any besieged city.
However, not to inquire into those things for the present, having left them to the conscience of those that have been taken captive, come let us discourse of the life of the common sort of men, and we shall find the difference between either of these kinds of life as great as between a harbor, and a sea continually beaten about with winds.
And observe from their retreats at once the first signs of their tranquillity. For they have fled from market places, and cities, and the tumults amidst men, and have chosen the life in mountains, that which hath nothing in common with the things present, that which undergoes none of the ills of man, no worldly sorrows, no grief, no care so great, no dangers, no plots, no envy, no jealousy, no lawless lusts, nor any other thing of this kind.
Here already they meditate upon the things of the kingdom, holding converse with groves, and mountains, and springs, and with great quietness, and solitude, and before all these, with God. And from all turmoil is their cell pure, and from every passion and disease is their soul free, refined and light, and far purer than the finest air.
And their work is what was Adam’s also at the beginning and before his sin, when he was clothed with the glory, and conversed freely with God, and dwelt in that place that was full of great blessedness. For in what respect are they in a worse state than he, when before his disobedience he was set to till the garden? Had he no worldly care? But neither have these. Did he talk to God with a pure conscience? this also do these; or rather they have a greater confidence than he, inasmuch as they enjoy even greater grace by the supply of the Spirit.
Now ye ought indeed by the sight to take in these things; but forasmuch as ye are not willing, but pass your time in turmoils and in markets, by word at least let us teach you, taking one part of their way of living (for it is not possible to go over their whole life). These that are the lights of the world, as soon as the sun is up, or rather even long before its rise, rise up from their bed, healthy, and wakeful, and sober (for neither cloth any sorrow and care, nor headache, and toil, and multitude of business, nor any other such thing trouble them, but as angels live they in Heaven); having risen then straightway from their bed cheerful and glad, and having made one choir, with their conscience bright, with one voice all, like as out of one mouth, they sing hymns unto the God of all, honoring Him and thanking Him for all His benefits, both particular, and common.22 So that if it seem good, let us leave Adam, and inquire what is the difference between the angels and this company of them who on earth sing and say, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.”23
And their dress is suitable to their manliness. For not indeed, like those with trailing garments, the enervated and mincing, are they dressed, but like those blessed angels, Elijah, Elisha, John, like the apostles; their garments being made for them, for some of goat’s hair, for some of camel’s hair, and there are some for whom skins suffice alone, and these long worn.
Then, after they have said those songs, they bow their knees, and entreat the God who was the object of their hymns for things, to the very thought of which some do not easily arrive. For they ask nothing of things present, for they have no regard for these, but that they may stand with boldness before the fearful judgment-seat, when the Only-Begotten Son of God is come to judge quick and dead, and that no one may hear the tearful voice that saith, “I know you not,” and that with a pure conscience and many good deeds they may pass through this toilsome life, and sail over the angry sea with a favorable wind. And he leads them in their prayers, who is their Father, and their ruler.
After this, when they have risen up and finished those holy and continual prayers, the sun being risen, they depart each one to their work, gathering thence a large supply for the needy.
- Where now are they who give themselves to devilish choirs, and harlot’s songs, and sit in theatres? For I am indeed ashamed to make mention of them; nevertheless, because of your infirmity it is needful to do even this. For Paul too saith, “Like as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.24
Come let us also therefore compare the company that is made up of harlot women, and prostituted youths on the stage, and this same that consists of these blessed ones in regard of pleasure, for which most of all, many of the careless youths are taken in their snares. For we shall find the difference as great as if any one heard angels singing above that all-harmonious melody of theirs, and dogs and swine howling and grunting on the dunghill. For by the mouths of these Christ speaketh, by their tongues25 the devil.
But is the sound of pipes joined to them with unmeaning noise, and unpleasing show, when cheeks are puffed out, and their strings stretched to breaking? But here the grace of the Spirit pours forth a sound, using, instead of flute or lyre or pipes, the lips of the saints.
Or rather, whatever we may say, it is not possible to set forth the pleasure thereof, because of them that are riveted to their clay, and their brick-making? Therefore I would even wish to take one of those who are mad about these matters, and to lead him off there, and to show him the choir of those saints, and I should have no more need for these words. Nevertheless, though we speak unto miry ones, we will try, though by word, still by little and little, to draw them out of the slime and the fens. For there the hearer receives straightway the fire of illicit love; for as though the sight of the harlot were not enough to set the mind on fire, they add the mischief also from the voice; but here even should the soul have any such thing, it lays it aside straightway. But not their voice only, nor their countenance, but even their clothes do more than these confound the beholders. And should it be some poor man of the grosser and heedless sort, from the sight he will cry out ten thousand times in bitter despair, and will say to himself, “The harlot, and the prostituted boy, children of cooks and cobblers, and often even of slaves live in such delicacy, and I a freeman, and born of freemen, choosing honest labor, am not able so much as to imagine these things in a dream;” and thus he will go his way inflamed with discontent.
But in the case of the monks there is no such result, but rather the contrary altogether. For when he shall see children of rich men and descendants of illustrious ancestors clothed in such garments as not even the lowest of the poor, and rejoicing in this, consider how great a consolation against poverty he will receive as he goes away. And should he be rich, he returns sobered, become a better man. Again in the theatre, when they see the harlot clothed with golden ornaments, while the poor man will lament, and bemoan, seeing his own wife having nothing of the kind, the rich will in consequence of this spectacle contemn and despise the partners of their home. For when the harlot present to the beholders garb and look, and voice and step, all luxurious, they depart set on fire, and enter into their own houses, thenceforth captives.
Hence the insults, and the affronts, hence the enmities, the wars, the daily deaths; hence to them that are taken captive, life is insupportable, and the partner of their home thenceforth unpleasing, and their children not as much objects of affection, and all things in their houses turned upside down, and after that they seem to be thrown into disorder by the very sunbeam.
But not from these choirs does any such dissatisfaction arise, but the wife will receive her husband quiet and meek, freed from all unlawful lust, and will find him more gentle to her than before this. Such evil things doth that choir bring forth, but this good things the one making wolves of sheep, this lamb: of wolves. But as yet we have perhaps said nothing hitherto touching the pleasure.
And what could be more pleasant than not to be troubled or grieved in mind, neither to despond and groan? Nevertheless, let us carry on our discourse still further, and examine the enjoyment of either kind of song and spectacle; and we shall see the one indeed continuing until evening, so long as the spectator sits in the theatre, but after this paining him more grievously than any sting; but in the other case forever vigorous in the souls of them that have beheld it. For as well the fashion of the men, and the delightfulness of the place, and the sweetness of their manner of life, and the purity, of their rule, and the grace of that most beautiful and spiritual song they have for ever infixed in them. They at least who are in continual enjoyment of those havens, thenceforth flee as from a tempest, from the tumults of the multitude.
But not when singing only, and praying, but also when riveted to their books, they are a pleasing spectacle to the beholders. For after they have ended the choir, one takes Isaiah and discourses with him, another converses with the apostles, and another goes over the labors of other men, and seeks wisdom concerning God, concerning this universe, concerning the things that are seen, concerning the things that are not seen, concerning the objects of sense, and the objects of intellect, concerning the vileness of this present life, and the greatness of that to come.
- And they are fed on a food most excellent, not setting before themselves cooked flesh of beasts; but oracles of God, beyond honey and the honey comb, a honey marvellous, and far superior to that whereon John fed of old in the wilderness. For this honey no wild bees collect, settling on the flowers, neither do lay it up in hives digesting the dew, but the grace of the Spirit forming it, layeth it up in the souls of the saints, in the place of honeycombs, and hives, and pipes, so that he that will may eat thereof continually in security. These bees then they also imitate, and hover around the honeycombs of those holy books, reaping therefrom great pleasure.
And if thou desirest to learn about their table, be near it, and thou shalt see them bursting forth26 with such things, all gentle and sweet, and full of a spiritual fragrance. No foul word can those spiritual mouths bring forth, nothing of foolish jesting, nothing harsh, but all worthy of Heaven. One would not be wrong in comparing the mouths of them that crawl about in the market places, and are mad after worldly things, to ditches of some mire; but the lips of these to fountains flowing with honey, and pouring forth pure streams.
But if any felt displeased that I have called the mouths of the multitude ditches of some mire, let him know that I have said it, sparing them very much. For Scripture hath not used this measure, but a comparison far stronger. “For adder’s poison,” it is said, “is under their lips,27 and their throat is an open sepulchre.” But theirs are not so, but full of much fragrance.
And their state here is like this, but that hereafter what speech can set before us? what thought shall conceive? the portion of angels, the blessedness unspeakable, the good things untold?
Perchance some are warmed now, and have been moved to a longing after this good rule of life. But what is the profit, when whilst ye are here only, ye have this fire; but when ye have gone forth, ye extinguish the flame, and this desire fades. How then, in order that this may not be? While this desire is warm in you, go your way unto those angels, kindle it more. For the account that we give will not be able to set thee on fire, like as the sight of the things. Say not, I will speak with my wife, and I will settle my affairs first. This delay is the beginning of remissness. Hear, how one desired to bid farewell to them at his house,28 and the prophet suffered him not. And why do I say, to bid farewell? The disciple desired to bury his father,29 and Christ allowed not so much as this. And yet what thing seems to thee to be so necessary as the funeral of a father? but not even this did He permit.
Why could this have been? Because the devil is at hand fierce, desiring to find some secret approach; and though it be but a little hindrance or delay he takes hold of, he works a great remissness. Therefore one adviseth, “Put not off from day to day.”30 For thus shalt thou be able to succeed in most things, thus also shall the things in thine house be well ordered for thee. “For seek ye,” it is said, “the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.”31 For if we establish in great security them that overlook their own interests, and prefer the care of ours, much more doth God, who even without these things hath a care for us, and provides for us.
Be not thoughtful then about thine interests, but leave them to God. For if thou art thoughtful about them, thou art thoughtful as a man; but if God provide, He provides as God. Be not so thoughtful about them as to let go the greater things, since then He will not much provide for them. In order therefore that He may fully provide for them, leave them to Him alone. For if thou also thyself takest them in hand, having let go the things spiritual, He will not make much provision for them.
In order then that both these things may be well disposed for thee, and that thou mayest be freed from all anxiety, cleave to the things spiritual, overlook the things of the world; for in this way thou shalt have earth also with heaven, and shalt attain unto the good things to come, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might world without end. Amen.
Read the source: Archbishop Francesco Follo https://zenit.org/articles/the-faithful-god-and-the-faithful-of-god/
____________
1 [R. V., “another country.”]2).
2 [The Greek text agrees, as a rule, with the received: but a few peculiarities appear: aujtou`omitted at the close of verse 34; the close of verse 35, is altered isw” is inserted from Lc in verse 37, and the beginning of verse 39 is abridged. The Oxford edition adds verses 43, 44, which are not given in the Greek text of the Homily in Migne, but added in Field’s edition.—R.]page 4151).
3 [The verb ajpedhvmhse means “went into another country.” But Chrysostom here speaks of the ajpodhmivan as th;n pollhvnthus agreeing with the interpretation of the A. V.—R.]2).
4 Ez 2,5 Ez 2,3.
5 Mt 23,30 Mt 23,4.
6 Is 1,15 Is 1,5.
7 Os 4,2 Os 4,6 Os 4,
Mi 3,10.page 4161).
9 Lc 20,17 Lc 18,2.
10 Ez 13,3.
11 Jn 9,16 Jn 9,4.
,12 Jn 7, Jn 5.
13 Jn 8,48 Jn 8,6.
14 [R. V., “scatter him as dust.” Chrysostom seems to acceptverse 44 as part of Matthew’s account but as he has just cited the parallel passage in Lk (where this occurs), it is not certain that he refers to Matthew’s here.—R.]7).
15 Is 5,4 Is 5,8.
16 Jr 2,5 Jr 2,9.
17 Mi 6,3, Mi 4171.
18 Mt 21,45-46. [“because of” (diav) is peculiar to this citation.—R.]2).
19 [Jn 7,25-26.]3).
20 Gr). oivkonomia, The verity of the Incarnation.4).
21 Mt 6,33. [“first” is omitted; inserted by the Oxford translator against the Greek text.—R.]page 4181).
22 “ For all Thy goodness and loving kindness to us, and to all men.” Thanksgiving Prayer. See the Morning Thanksgiving; Const. Apost. 8,38, and The Eucharistic Prayer, ib. c. 12.2).
23 [Lc 2,14, as in the received text. But “among men” is the only possible rendering, whichever reading he accepted.—R.]3).
24 Rm 6,19. [R. V., “sanctification.”]4).
25 [“by the tongues of those;” there being a contrast in the Greek, which is obsured in the English rendering.—R.]page 4191).
26 ejprugomevou”.2).
27 Ps 140,3 and 5,9.page 4201).
28 1R 19,20 1R 19,2.
29 .3).
30 Si 5,7 Si 5,4. 31 Mt 6,33 Mt 6,1.
1 “Let me now sing of my friend, my friend’s song concerning his vineyard. My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside; he spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted the choicest vines; within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press. Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes.
Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard: What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done? Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? Now, I will let you know what I mean to do with my vineyard: take away its hedge, give it to grazing, break through its wall, let it be trampled!
Yes, I will make it a ruin: it shall not be pruned or hoed, but overgrown with thorns and briers;
I will command the clouds not to send rain upon it.
The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished plant;
he looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry! “(Is 5,1-7)
Reflection 12 – On the parable of the wicked tenants
This Sunday’s liturgy proposes to us the parable of the tenants, to whom the householder entrusts the vineyard that he had planted and then goes away (Cf. Matthew 21:33-43). Thus the loyalty of these tenants is put to the test: the vineyard is entrusted to them, who must look after it, make it fruitful and deliver the harvest to the householder. The time of the harvest having arrived, the householder sends his servants to gather the fruits. However, the tenants assume a possessive attitude: they don’t consider themselves simple managers, but rather proprietors, and they refuse to deliver the harvest. They mistreat the servants, to the point of killing them. The householder is patient with them: he sends other servants, more numerous than the first; however, the outcome is the same. In the end, given his patience, he decides to send his own son, but those tenants, prisoners of their possessive behaviour, also kill the son, thinking that thus they would have the inheritance.
This story illustrates allegorically those reproaches that the Prophets voiced about the history of Israel. It’s a story that belongs to us: it speaks of the covenant that God wished to establish with humanity and in which He has also called us to participate. This covenant story, however, as every story of love, has its positive moments but is also marked by betrayals and rejections. To make one understand how God the Father responds to refusals opposed to His love and to His proposed covenant, the evangelical passage puts a question on the lips of the owner of the vineyard: ”When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” (v. 40). This question underscores that God’s disappointment over the evil behaviour of men isn’t the last word! Here is the great novelty of Christianity: A God that, although disappointed by our mistakes and our sins, does not fail in His word; He doesn’t stop and, above all, He doesn’t retaliate!
Brothers and sisters, God doesn’t retaliate! God loves, He doesn’t retaliate, He waits to forgive us, to embrace us. Through the “rejected stones” — and Christ is the first stone that the builders have rejected — through situations of weakness and sin –, God continues to put in circulation the “new wine” of his vineyard, namely mercy; this is the new wine of the Lord’s vineyard: mercy. There is only one impediment in face of God tenacious and tender will: our arrogance and our presumption, which sometimes even becomes violence! In face of these attitudes and where no fruit is produced, the Word of God keeps all its force of reproach and admonition: “the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it” (v. 43).
The urgency to respond with fruits of goodness to the Lord’s call, who calls us to become His vineyard, helps us to understand what is new and original in Christianity. It’s not so much the sum of precepts and moral norms, but it is first of all a proposal of love that God, through Jesus, has made and continues to make to humanity. It’s an invitation to enter in this story of love, becoming a vivacious and open vineyard, rich in fruits and hope for all. A closed vineyard can become wild and produce wild grapes. We are called to come out of the vineyard and to put ourselves at the service of brothers that are not with us, to shake one another and encourage each other, to remind ourselves to be the Lord’s vineyard in every environment, including the most distant and uncomfortable.
Dear brothers and sisters, we invoke the intercession of Mary Most Holy, to help us to be everywhere, especially in the peripheries of society, the vineyard that the Lord has planted for the good of all, and to bring the new wine of the Lord’s mercy. – Read the source: Pope Francis https://zenit.org/articles/angelus-address-on-the-parable-of-the-wicked-tenants/
Reflection 13 – The fruits of Heaven in our lives today
“The kingdom of God is given to those who produce its fruit.” That’s the moral of the story that Jesus gives us in this Sunday’s Gospel reading. And what is this kingdom of God, given to us while we’re still on earth? What are its fruits, which we produce during our earthly lives?
Anything we do in imitation of Christ is a fruit that has grown as a result of following Christ on our journey toward heaven. If we love as he loves, forgive as he forgives, minister to others, teach the truth, and heal the hurting, we are living in the kingdom of God now.
When I ask Catholics if they believe they’re going to heaven, most feel very uncertain, either because they’re afraid they might lose their salvation through some future grave sin, or because they’re afraid it’s not humble enough to answer with a firm “yes.”
Granted, we do not imitate Christ perfectly. Most of us will need to spend time in Purgatory being purged of whatever is unheavenly about us, but when the purging is finished, we’ll be fully alive in the wonderfulness of God. If we make it to Purgatory, of course we’ll reach the glories of heaven. And if our desire to be Christ-like is genuine, then of course our sins will never be so “grave” that we turn completely away from Christ. Of course we’ll gladly embrace him when he comes for us at the moment of our death.
Whatever you do because of Christ and out of love for Christ, this is evidence that you are living in and will eternally live in God’s kingdom.
Questions for Personal Reflection:
What good fruits are you producing in your life now? List them; get out a pen and start writing them down. During the week, as you think of more good fruits, add those to the list.
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
Look at the list you produced for the above question. How do these fruits give evidence of God’s goodness within you? How do they provide the kingdom of God for the benefit of others? How do they assure you that you are truly a heaven-bound follower of Christ? -Read the source: http://gnm.org/good-news-reflections/?useDrDate=2017-10-07
Reflection 14 – Parable of murderous vintners
In today’s Gospel passage (see Mt 21:33-43) Jesus, foreseeing His passion and death, tells the parable of the murderous vintners, to admonish the chief priests and elders of the people who are about to take the wrong path. Indeed, they have bad intentions towards Him and are seeking a way of eliminating Him.
The allegorical story describes a landowner who, after having taken great care of his vineyard (see v. 33), had to depart and leave it in the hands of farmers. Then, at harvest time, he sends some servants to collect the fruit; but the tenants welcome the servants with a beating and some even kill them. The householder sends other servants, more numerous, but they receive the same treatment (see vv. 34-36). The peak is reached when the landowner decides to send his son: the winegrowers have no respect for him, on the contrary, they think that by eliminating him they can take over the vineyard, and so they kill him too (cf. vv. 37-39).
The image of the vineyard is clear: it represents the people that the Lord has chosen and formed with such care; the servants sent by the landowner are the prophets, sent by God, while the son represents Jesus. And just as the prophets were rejected, so too Christ was rejected and killed.
At the end of the story, Jesus asks the leaders of the people: “When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” (v. 40). And, caught up in the logic of the narrative, they deliver their own sentence: the householder, they say, will severely punish those wicked people and entrust the vineyard “to other tenants who will deliver the produce to him at the proper time” (v. 41).
With this very harsh parable, Jesus confronts his interlocutors with their responsibility, and He does so with extreme clarity. But let us not think that this admonition applies only to those who rejected Jesus at that time. It applies to all times, including our own. Even today God awaits the fruits of His vineyard from those He has sent to work in it. All of us.
In any age, those who have authority, any authority, also in the Church, in God’s people, may be tempted to work in their own interests instead of those of God. And Jesus says that true authority is when carries out service; it is in serving, not exploiting others. The vineyard is the Lord’s, not ours. Authority is a service, and as such should be exercised, for the good of all and for the dissemination of the Gospel. It is awful to see when people who have authority in the Church seek their own interests.
Saint Paul, in the second reading of today’s liturgy, tells us how to be good workers in the Lord’s vineyard: that which is true, noble, just, pure, loved and honored; that which is virtuous and praiseworthy, let all this be the daily object of our commitment (cf. Phil 4:8). Repeat: that which is true, noble, just, pure, loved, and honored; that which is virtuous and praiseworthy, let all this be the daily object of our commitment. It is the attitude of authority and also of each one of us, because every one of us, even in a small, tiny way, has a certain authority. In this way we shall become a Church ever richer in the fruits of holiness, we shall give glory to the Father who loves us with infinite tenderness, to the Son who continues to give us salvation, and to the Spirit who opens our hearts and impels us towards the fullness of goodness.
Let us now turn to Mary Most Holy, spiritually united with the faithful gathered in the Shrine of Pompeii for the Supplication, and in October let us renew our commitment to pray the Holy Rosary. -Read the source: https://zenit.org/2020/10/04/angelus-pope-on-parable-of-murderous-vitners-full-text/
Please follow Romeo Hontiveros at Twitter click this link: https://twitter.com/Trumpeta
Reflection 15 – St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226 A.D.)
Francis of Assisi was a poor little man who astounded and inspired the Church by taking the gospel literally—not in a narrow fundamentalist sense, but by actually following all that Jesus said and did, joyfully, without limit and without a sense of self-importance.
Serious illness brought the young Francis to see the emptiness of his frolicking life as leader of Assisi’s youth. Prayer—lengthy and difficult—led him to a self-emptying like that of Christ, climaxed by embracing a leper he met on the road. It symbolized his complete obedience to what he had heard in prayer: “Francis! Everything you have loved and desired in the flesh it is your duty to despise and hate, if you wish to know my will. And when you have begun this, all that now seems sweet and lovely to you will become intolerable and bitter, but all that you used to avoid will turn itself to great sweetness and exceeding joy.”
From the cross in the neglected field-chapel of San Damiano, Christ told him, “Francis, go out and build up my house, for it is nearly falling down.” Francis became the totally poor and humble workman.
He must have suspected a deeper meaning to “build up my house.” But he would have been content to be for the rest of his life the poor “nothing” man actually putting brick on brick in abandoned chapels. He gave up all his possessions, piling even his clothes before his earthly father (who was demanding restitution for Francis’ “gifts” to the poor) so that he would be totally free to say, “Our Father in heaven.” He was, for a time, considered to be a religious fanatic, begging from door to door when he could not get money for his work, evoking sadness or disgust to the hearts of his former friends, ridicule from the unthinking.
But genuineness will tell. A few people began to realize that this man was actually trying to be Christian. He really believed what Jesus said: “Announce the kingdom! Possess no gold or silver or copper in your purses, no traveling bag, no sandals, no staff” (Luke 9:1-3).
Francis’ first rule for his followers was a collection of texts from the Gospels. He had no idea of founding an order, but once it began he protected it and accepted all the legal structures needed to support it. His devotion and loyalty to the Church were absolute and highly exemplary at a time when various movements of reform tended to break the Church’s unity.
He was torn between a life devoted entirely to prayer and a life of active preaching of the Good News. He decided in favor of the latter, but always returned to solitude when he could. He wanted to be a missionary in Syria or in Africa, but was prevented by shipwreck and illness in both cases. He did try to convert the sultan of Egypt during the Fifth Crusade.
During the last years of his relatively short life (he died at 44), he was half blind and seriously ill. Two years before his death, he received the stigmata, the real and painful wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and side.
On his deathbed, he said over and over again the last addition to his Canticle of the Sun, “Be praised, O Lord, for our Sister Death.” He sang Psalm 141, and at the end asked his superior to have his clothes removed when the last hour came and for permission to expire lying naked on the earth, in imitation of his Lord.
Comment:
Francis of Assisi was poor only that he might be Christ-like. He recognized creation as another manifestation of the beauty of God. In 1979, he was named patron of ecology. He did great penance (apologizing to “Brother Body” later in life) that he might be totally disciplined for the will of God. His poverty had a sister, humility, by which he meant total dependence on the good God. But all this was, as it were, preliminary to the heart of his spirituality: living the gospel life, summed up in the charity of Jesus and perfectly expressed in the Eucharist.
Quote:
“We adore you and we bless you, Lord Jesus Christ, here and in all the churches which are in the whole world, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world” (St. Francis).
Patron Saint of: Animals, Ecology, Italy, Merchants
Francis was born in 1182 A.D. in Assisi, Italy. Widespread heresy, scandals among the clergy, and a decline in attendance threatened the Church of Francis’ day. The son of a rich cloth merchant, Francis converted to a life of prayer in his early twenties. In a dream, God told him, “Go and repair my church, which, as you can see, is in ruins,” Francis began rebuilding the crumbling structure of San Damiano. But his great work of renewal was the new form of life he embraced in 1208 A.D. in which Christ sends his disciples forth, telling them to take “no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick” (Mt 10:10). Immediately, Francis went out to preach on the streets of Assisi as Christ instructed. His radical poverty and passionate preaching drew five thousand men to the Friars Minor in the next twelve years. A young Clare of Assisi came to him, too; she became the superior of the contemplative Poor Clares. At he end of his life, Francis received the stigmata, a sign of intimate union with the Savior. Francis died in 1226 A.D. in Assisi, and was canonized just two years later.
Related Article:
SPOTLIGHT ON ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI: Saint of joyful love http://www.pagadiandiocese.org/2019/10/04/spotlight-on-st-francis-of-assisi-saint-of-joyful-love/
Lessons From The Life Of St. Francis http://www.pagadiandiocese.org/2020/10/05/lessons-from-the-life-of-st-francis/
Related St. Anthony Messenger article(s)
Teenagers Following Francis, by Jan Dunlap
Francis of Assisi’s Song of Praise, by Patti Normile
In Pursuit of Saints Francis and Clare, by Christopher Heffron
Francis of Assisi: Saint for a New Millennium, by Pat McCloskey, OFM
St. Francis and the Millennials: Kindred Spirits, by Dan Horan, OFM
Francis of Assisi: Why’s He’s the Patron of Ecology, photo story by Jack Wintz, OFM
Franciscans and Muslims: Eight Centuries of Seeking God, by Jack Wintz, OFM and Pat McCloskey, OFM
Read the source: http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1158
SAINT OF THE DAY
Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives. Each saint the Church honors responded to God’s invitation to use his or her unique gifts. God calls each one of us to be a saint.
| SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, O.F.M. CO-PATRON OF ITALY, FOUNDER OF THE SERAPHIC ORDER |
|
|---|---|
The Stigmata of Saint Francis
by Bartolomeo della Gatta, tempera on wood circa 1487 |
|
| RELIGIOUS, DEACON, CONFESSOR STIGMATIST AND RELIGIOUS FOUNDER |
|
| BORN | Giovanni di Bernardone 1181 or 1182 Assisi, Duchy of Spoleto, Holy Roman Empire |
| DIED | 3 October 1226 (aged 44) Assisi, Umbria, Papal States[1] |
| VENERATED IN | Roman Catholic Church Anglican Communion Lutheran Church Old Catholic Church |
| CANONIZED | 16 July 1228, Assisi, Italy byPope Gregory IX |
| MAJOR SHRINE | Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi |
| FEAST | 4 October |
| ATTRIBUTES | Tau cross, dove, birds, animals, wolf at feet, Pax et Bonum, Poor Franciscan habit, stigmata |
| PATRONAGE | animals; the environment; Italy;merchants; stowaways;[2] Cub Scouts; San Francisco, California, Naga City, Cebu,tapestry workers[3] |
Saint Francis of Assisi (Italian: San Francesco d’Assisi), born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, informally named asFrancesco(1181/1182 – 3 October 1226),[1][4] was an Italian Roman Catholicfriar and preacher. He founded the men’sOrder of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of Saint Clare, the Third Order of Saint Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land.[1] Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history.[1]
Pope Gregory IX canonised Francis on 16 July 1228. Along with Saint Catherine of Siena, he was designated Patron saint of Italy. He later became associated with patronage of animals and the natural environment, and it became customary for Catholicand Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of 4 October.[5]
In 1219, he went to Egypt in an attempt to convert the Sultan to put an end to the conflict of the Crusades.[6] By this point, the Franciscan Order had grown to such an extent that its primitive organizational structure was no longer sufficient. He returned to Italy to organize the Order. Once his community was authorized by the Pope, he withdrew increasingly from external affairs. Francis is also known for his love of the Eucharist.[7] In 1223, Francis arranged for the first Christmas livenativity scene.[8][9][10] According to Christian tradition, in 1224 he received the stigmata during the apparition of Seraphicangels in a religious ecstasy [8] making him the first recorded person in Christian history to bear the wounds of Christ’s Passion.[11] He died during the evening hours of 3 October 1226, while listening to a reading he had requested of Psalm 142 (141).
Contents
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Early life[edit]
The house where Francis of Assisi lived when young
Francis of Assisi by Cimabue
Francis considered his stigmatapart of the Imitation of Christ.[12][13]Cigoli, 1699
The Pope approving the statutes of the Order of the Franciscans, byGiotto, 1295–1300
Pope Innocent III has a dream of St. Francis of Assisi supporting the tilting church (attributed to Giotto)
Saint Francis Abandons His Father. Francis of Assisi breaking off his relationship with his father and renouncing his patrimony, laying aside publicly even the garments he had received from him.
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Francis of Assisi’s last resting place at Assisi
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Contemporary Franciscan friar
Legend of St. Francis, Sermon to the Birds, upper Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi
Habit of Francis of Assisi
Life of Francis of Assisi by José Benlliure y Gil
Francis of Assisi Francisco de Zurbarán. Saint Francis’ feast day is observed on October 4. TheEvangelical Church in Germany, however, commemorates St. Francis’ feast day on his death day, October 3.
Francis of Assisi was one of seven children born in late 1181 or early 1182 to Pietro di Bernardone, a prosperous silk merchant, and his wife Pica de Bourlemont, about whom little is known except that she was a noblewoman originally from Provence.[15]Pietro was in France on business when Francis was born in Assisi, and Pica had him baptized as Giovanni.[5][16] Upon his return to Assisi, Pietro took to calling his son Francesco (“the Frenchman”), possibly in honor of his commercial success and enthusiasm for all things French.[17] Since the child was renamed in infancy, the change can hardly have had anything to do with his aptitude for learning French, as some have thought.[4]
While going off to war in 1202, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life.[8]In 1205, Francis left for Apulia to enlist in the army of Walter III, Count of Brienne.
Francis lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi.[8] In 1201, he joined a military expedition against Perugia and was taken as a prisoner at Collestrada, spending a year as a captive.[18] It is possible that his spiritual conversion was a gradual process rooted in this experience. Upon his return to Assisi in 1203, Francis returned to his carefree life. In 1204, a serious illness led him to a spiritual crisis.
A strange vision made him return to Assisi, deepening his ecclesiastical awakening.[4] On a pilgrimage to Rome, he joined the poor in begging at St. Peter’s Basilica,[8] an experience that moved him to live in poverty.[8] Francis returned home, began preaching on the streets, and soon gathered followers. His Order was authorized by Pope Innocent III in 1210. He then founded the Order of Poor Clares, which became an enclosed religious order for women, as well as the Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance (commonly called the Third Order). As a youth, Francesco became a devotee of troubadours and was fascinated with all things Transalpine.[4][17] Although many hagiographers remark about his bright clothing, rich friends, and love of pleasures,[15] his displays of disillusionment toward the world that surrounded him came fairly early in his life, as is shown in the “story of the beggar”. In this account, he was selling cloth and velvet in the marketplace on behalf of his father when a beggar came to him and asked for alms. At the conclusion of his business deal, Francis abandoned his wares and ran after the beggar. When he found him, Francis gave the man everything he had in his pockets. His friends quickly chided and mocked him for his act of charity. When he got home, his father scolded him in rage.[19]
According to the hagiographic legend, thereafter he began to avoid the sports and the feasts of his former companions. In response, they asked him laughingly whether he was thinking of marrying, to which he answered, “Yes, a fairer bride than any of you have ever seen”, meaning his “Lady Poverty”. He spent much time in lonely places, asking God for spiritual enlightenment. By degrees he took to nursing lepers, the most repulsive victims in the lazar houses near Assisi. After a pilgrimage to Rome, where he joined the poor in begging at the doors of the churches, he said he had a mystical vision of Jesus Christ in the country chapel of San Damiano, just outside Assisi, in which the Icon of Christ Crucified said to him, “Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins.” He took this to mean the ruined church in which he was presently praying, and so he sold some cloth from his father’s store to assist the priest there for this purpose.[4][20]
His father, Pietro, highly indignant, attempted to change his mind, first with threats and then with beatings. In the midst of legal proceedings before the Bishop of Assisi, Francis renounced his father and his patrimony, laying aside even the garments he had received from him in front of the public. For the next couple of months he lived as a beggar in the region of Assisi. Returning to the countryside around the town for two years, he embraced the life of a penitent, during which he restored several ruined chapels in the countryside around Assisi, among them the Porziuncola, the little chapel of St. Mary of the Angelsjust outside the town, which later became his favorite abode.[20]
Founding of the Franciscan Orders[edit]
The Friars minor[edit]
At the end of this period (on February 24, 1209, according to Jordan of Giano), Francis heard a sermon that changed his life forever. The sermon was about Matthew 10:9, in which Christ tells his followers they should go forth and proclaim that theKingdom of Heaven was upon them, that they should take no money with them, nor even a walking stick or shoes for the road. Francis was inspired to devote himself to a life of poverty.[4]
Clad in a rough garment, barefoot, and, after the Gospel precept, without staff or scrip, he began to preach repentance.[4] He was soon joined by his first follower, a prominent fellow townsman, the jurist Bernardo di Quintavalle, who contributed all that he had to the work. Within a year Francis had eleven followers. Francis chose never to be ordained a priest, and the community lived as “lesser brothers”, fratres minores in Latin.[4] The brothers lived a simple life in the deserted lazar house of Rivo Torto near Assisi; but they spent much of their time wandering through the mountainous districts of Umbria, always cheerful and full of songs, yet making a deep impression upon their hearers by their earnest exhortations.[4]
Francis’ preaching to ordinary people was unusual since he had no license to do so.[1] In 1209 he composed a simple rule for his followers (“friars”), the Regula primitiva or “Primitive Rule”, which came from verses in the Bible.
The rule was “To follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps”. In 1209, Francis led his first eleven followers to Rome to seek permission from Pope Innocent III to found a new religious Order.[21] Upon entry to Rome, the brothers encountered Bishop Guido of Assisi, who had in his company Giovanni di San Paolo, the Cardinal Bishop of Sabina. The Cardinal, who was the confessor of Pope Innocent III, was immediately sympathetic to Francis and agreed to represent Francis to the pope. Reluctantly, Pope Innocent agreed to meet with Francis and the brothers the next day. After several days, the pope agreed to admit the group informally, adding that when God increased the group in grace and number, they could return for an official admittance. The group was tonsured.[22] This was important in part because it recognized Church authority and prevented his following from possible accusations of heresy, as had happened to the Waldensians decades earlier. Though Pope Innocent initially had his doubts, following a dream in which he saw Francis holding up the Basilica of St. John Lateran(the cathedral of Rome, thus the ‘home church’ of all Christendom), he decided to endorse Francis’ Order. This occurred, according to tradition, on April 16, 1210, and constituted the official founding of the Franciscan Order.[1] The group, then the “Lesser Brothers” (Order of Friars Minor also known as the Franciscan Order), preached on the streets and had no possessions. They were centered in the Porziuncola and preached first in Umbria, before expanding throughout Italy.[1]
The Poor Clares and the Third Order[edit]
From then on, the new Order grew quickly with new vocations.[23]Hearing Francis preaching in the church of San Rufino in Assisi in 1211, the young noblewoman Clare of Assisi became deeply touched by his message and realized her calling.[23] Her cousin Rufino, the only male member of the family in their generation, was also attracted to the new Order (which he joined). On the night of Palm Sunday, March 28, 1212, Clare clandestinely left her family’s palace. Francis received her at the Porziuncola and thereby established the Order of Poor Ladies, later called Poor Clares.[23] This was an Order for women, and he gave Clare a religious habit, or garment, similar to his own, before lodging her and a few female companions in a nearby monastery of Benedictine nuns. Later he transferred them to San Damiano.[1] There they were joined by many other women of Assisi. For those who could not leave their homes, he later formed the Third Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance, a fraternity composed of either laity or clergy whose members neither withdrew from the world nor took religious vows. Instead, they observed the principles of Franciscan life in their daily lives.[1] Before long, this Third Order grew beyond Italy.
Travels[edit]
Determined to bring the Gospel to all God’s creatures, Francis sought on several occasions to take his message out of Italy. In the late spring of 1212, he set out for Jerusalem, but he was shipwrecked by a storm on the Dalmatian coast, forcing him to return to Italy. On May 8, 1213, he was given the use of the mountain of La Verna (Alverna) as a gift from Count Orlando di Chiusi, who described it as “eminently suitable for whoever wishes to do penance in a place remote from mankind”.[24][25] The mountain would become one of his favourite retreats for prayer.[25]
In the same year, Francis sailed for Morocco, but this time an illness forced him to break off his journey in Spain. Back in Assisi, several noblemen (among them Tommaso da Celano, who would later write the biography of St. Francis) and some well-educated men joined his Order. In 1215, Francis went again to Rome for the Fourth Lateran Council. During this time, he probably met a canon, Dominic de Guzman[2] (later to be Saint Dominic, the founder of the Friars Preachers, another Catholic religious order). In 1217, he offered to go to France. Cardinal Ugolino of Segni (the future Pope Gregory IX), an early and important supporter of Francis, advised him against this and said that he was still needed in Italy.
In 1219, accompanied by another friar and hoping to convert the Sultan of Egypt or win martyrdom in the attempt, Francis went to Egypt during the Fifth Crusade where a Crusader army had been encamped for over a year besieging the walled city ofDamietta two miles (3.2 km) upstream from the mouth of one of the main channels of the Nile. The Sultan, al-Kamil, a nephew of Saladin, had succeeded his father as Sultan of Egypt in 1218 and was encamped upstream of Damietta, unable to relieve it. A bloody and futile attack on the city was launched by the Christians on August 29, 1219, following which both sides agreed to a ceasefire which lasted four weeks.[26] It was most probably during this interlude that Francis and his companion crossed the Saracen lines and were brought before the Sultan, remaining in his camp for a few days.[27] The visit is reported in contemporary Crusader sources and in the earliest biographies of Francis, but they give no information about what transpired during the encounter beyond noting that the Sultan received Francis graciously and that Francis preached to the Saracens without effect, returning unharmed to the Crusader camp.[28] No contemporary Arab source mentions the visit.[29] One detail, added by Bonaventure in the official life of Francis (written forty years after the event), has Francis offering to challenge the Sultan’s “priests” to trial-by-fire in order to prove the veracity of the Christian Gospel.
Such an incident is alluded to in a scene in the late 13th-century fresco cycle, attributed to Giotto, in the upper basilica at Assisi (see accompanying illustration).[30] It has been suggested that the winged figures atop the columns piercing the roof of the building on the left of the scene are not idols (as Erwin Panofsky had proposed) but are part of the secular iconography of the sultan, affirming his worldly power which, as the scene demonstrates, is limited even as regards his own “priests” who shun the challenge.[31][32] Although Bonaventure asserts that the sultan refused to permit the challenge, subsequent biographies went further, claiming that a fire was actually kindled which Francis unhesitatingly entered without suffering burns. The scene in the fresco adopts a position midway between the two extremes.
According to some late sources, the Sultan gave Francis permission to visit the sacred places in the Holy Land and even to preach there. All that can safely be asserted is that Francis and his companion left the Crusader camp for Acre, from where they embarked for Italy in the latter half of 1220. Drawing on a 1267 sermon by Bonaventure, later sources report that the Sultan secretly converted or accepted a death-bed baptism as a result of the encounter with Francis.[33] The Franciscan Order has been present in the Holy Land almost uninterruptedly since 1217 when Brother Elias arrived at Acre. It received concessions from the Mameluke Sultan in 1333 with regard to certain Holy Places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and (so far as concerns the Catholic Church) jurisdictional privileges from Pope Clement VI in 1342.[34]
Reorganization of the Franciscan Order and death[edit]
By this time, the growing Order of friars was divided into provincesand groups were sent to France, Germany, Hungary, and Spain and to the East. Upon receiving a report of the martyrdom of five brothers in Morocco, Francis returned to Italy viaVenice.[35] Cardinal Ugolino di Conti was then nominated by the Pope as the protector of the Order. Another reason for Francis’ return to Italy was that the friars in Italy were causing problems. The Franciscan Order had grown at an unprecedented rate compared to prior religious orders, but its organizational sophistication had not kept up with this growth and had little more to govern it than Francis’ example and simple rule.[1] To address this problem, Francis prepared a new and more detailed Rule, the “First Rule” or “Rule Without a Papal Bull” (Regula prima, Regula non bullata), which again asserted devotion to poverty and the apostolic life. However, it also introduced greater institutional structure though this was never officially endorsed by the pope.[1]
On September 29, 1220, Francis handed over the governance of the Order to Brother Peter Catani at the Porziuncola, but Brother Peter died only five months later, on March 10, 1221, and was buried there. When numerous miracles were attributed to the deceased brother, people started to flock to the Porziuncola, disturbing the daily life of the Franciscans. Francis then prayed, asking Peter to stop the miracles and to obey in death as he had obeyed during his life.
The reports of miracles ceased. Brother Peter was succeeded by Brother Elias as Vicar of Francis. Two years later, Francis modified the “First Rule”, creating the “Second Rule” or “Rule With a Bull”, which was approved by Pope Honorius III on November 29, 1223.[1]As the official Rule of the Order, it called on the friars “to observe the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, living in obedience without anything of our own and in chastity”. In addition, it set regulations for discipline, preaching, and entry into the Order.[1] Once the Rule was endorsed by the Pope, Francis withdrew increasingly from external affairs.[1]During 1221 and 1222, Francis crossed Italy, first as far south as Catania in Sicily and afterwards as far north as Bologna.
While he was praying on the mountain of Verna, during a forty-day fast in preparation for Michaelmas (September 29), Francis is said to have had a vision on or about September 14, 1224, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, as a result of which he received the stigmata.[36] Brother Leo, who had been with Francis at the time, left a clear and simple account of the event, the first definite account of the phenomenon of stigmata.[4][36] “Suddenly he saw a vision of a seraph, a six-winged angel on a cross. This angel gave him the gift of the five wounds of Christ.”[36] Suffering from these stigmata and from trachoma, Francis received care in several cities (Siena, Cortona, Nocera) to no avail. In the end, he was brought back to a hut next to the Porziuncola. Here, in the place where it all began, feeling the end approaching, he spent the last days of his life dictating his spiritual Testament. He died on the evening of Saturday, October 3, 1226, singing Psalm 142 (141), “Voce mea ad Dominum”. On July 16, 1228, he was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX (the former cardinal Ugolino di Conti, friend of St. Francis and Cardinal Protector of the Order). The next day, the Pope laid the foundation stone for the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. Francis was buried on May 25, 1230, under the Lower Basilica, but his tomb was soon hidden on orders of Brother Elias to protect it from Saracen invaders. His exact burial place remained unknown until it was re-discovered in 1818. Pasquale Belli then constructed for the remains a crypt in neo-classical style in the Lower Basilica. It was refashioned between 1927 and 1930 into its present form by Ugo Tarchi, stripping the wall of its marble decorations. In 1978, the remains of St. Francis were examined and confirmed by a commission of scholars appointed by Pope Paul VI, and put into a glass urn in the ancient stone tomb.
Character and legacy[edit]
It has been argued that no one else in history was as dedicated as Francis to imitate the life, and carry out the work of Christ, in Christ’s own way.[1] This is important in understanding Francis’ character and his affinity for the Eucharist and respect for the priests who carried out the sacrament.[1]
He and his followers celebrated and even venerated poverty. Poverty was so central to his character that in his last written work, the Testament, he said that absolute personal and corporate poverty was the essential lifestyle for the members of his Order.[1]
He believed that nature itself was the mirror of God. He called all creatures his “brothers” and “sisters”, and even preached to the birds[37][38] and supposedly persuaded a wolf to stop attacking some locals if they agreed to feed the wolf. In his “Canticle of the Creatures” (“Praises of Creatures” or “Canticle of the Sun”), he mentioned the “Brother Sun” and “Sister Moon”, the wind and water, and “Sister Death”. He referred to his chronic illnesses as his “sisters”. His deep sense of brotherhood under God embraced others, and he declared that “he considered himself no friend of Christ if he did not cherish those for whom Christ died”.[1]
Francis’ visit to Egypt and attempted rapprochement with the Muslim world had far-reaching consequences, long past his own death, since after the fall of the Crusader Kingdom, it would be the Franciscans, of all Catholics, who would be allowed to stay on in the Holy Land and be recognized as “Custodians of the Holy Land” on behalf of the Catholic Church.
At Greccio near Assisi, around 1220, Francis celebrated Christmas by setting up the first known presepio or crèche (Nativity scene).[39]His nativity imagery reflected the scene in traditional paintings. He used real animals to create a living scene so that the worshipers could contemplate the birth of the child Jesus in a direct way, making use of the senses, especially sight.[39] Thomas of Celano, a biographer of Francis and Saint Bonaventure both, tell how he used only a straw-filled manger (feeding trough) set between a real ox and donkey.[39] According to Thomas, it was beautiful in its simplicity, with the manger acting as the altar for the Christmas Mass.
Nature and the environment[edit]
Francis preached the teaching of the Catholic Church, that the world was created good and beautiful by God but suffers a need for redemption because of the primordial sin of man. He preached to man and beast the universal ability and duty of all creatures to praise God (a common theme in the Psalms) and the duty of men to protect and enjoy nature as both the stewards of God’s creation and as creatures ourselves.[37] On November 29, 1979, Pope John Paul II declared St. Francis the Patron Saint of Ecology.[40] Many of the stories that surround the life of St. Francis say that he had a great love for animals and the environment.[37]
Perhaps the most famous incident that illustrates the Saint’s humility towards nature is recounted in the “Fioretti” (“Little Flowers”), a collection of legends and folklore that sprang up after the Saint’s death. It is said that, one day, while Francis was travelling with some companions, they happened upon a place in the road where birds filled the trees on either side. Francis told his companions to “wait for me while I go to preach to my sisters the birds.”[37] The birds surrounded him, intrigued by the power of his voice, and not one of them flew away. He is often portrayed with a bird, typically in his hand.
Another legend from the Fioretti tells that in the city of Gubbio, where Francis lived for some time, was a wolf “terrifying and ferocious, who devoured men as well as animals”. Francis had compassion upon the townsfolk, and so he went up into the hills to find the wolf. Soon, fear of the animal had caused all his companions to flee, though the saint pressed on. When he found the wolf, he made the sign of the cross and commanded the wolf to come to him and hurt no one. Miraculously the wolf closed his jaws and lay down at the feet of St. Francis.
“Brother Wolf, you do much harm in these parts and you have done great evil”, said Francis. “All these people accuse you and curse you … But brother wolf, I would like to make peace between you and the people.” Then Francis led the wolf into the town, and surrounded by startled citizens made a pact between them and the wolf. Because the wolf had “done evil out of hunger, the townsfolk were to feed the wolf regularly. In return, the wolf would no longer prey upon them or their flocks. In this mannerGubbio was freed from the menace of the predator. Francis even made a pact on behalf of the town dogs, that they would not bother the wolf again. Finally, to show the townspeople that they would not be harmed, Francis blessed the wolf.
Then during the World Environment Day 1982, John Paul II said that St. Francis’ love and care for creation was a challenge for contemporary Catholics and a reminder “not to behave like dissident predators where nature is concerned, but to assume responsibility for it, taking all care so that everything stays healthy and integrated, so as to offer a welcoming and friendly environment even to those who succeed us.” The same Pope wrote on the occasion of the World Day of Peace, January 1, 1990, the saint of Assisi “offers Christians an example of genuine and deep respect for the integrity of creation …” He went on to make the point that: “As a friend of the poor who was loved by God’s creatures, Saint Francis invited all of creation – animals, plants, natural forces, even Brother Sun and Sister Moon – to give honor and praise to the Lord. The poor man of Assisi gives us striking witness that when we are at peace with God we are better able to devote ourselves to building up that peace with all creation which is inseparable from peace among all peoples.”[41]
Pope John Paul II concluded that section of the document with these words, “It is my hope that the inspiration of Saint Francis will help us to keep ever alive a sense of ‘fraternity’ with all those good and beautiful things which Almighty God has created.”
Feast day[edit]
_-_St._Francis_of_Assisi_relic.jpg)
A relic of Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis’ feast day is observed on October 4. A secondary feast in honor of the stigmata received by St. Francis, celebrated on September 17, was inserted in the General Roman Calendar in 1585 (later than the Tridentine Calendar) and suppressed in 1604, but was restored in 1615. In the New Roman Missal of 1969, it was removed again from the General Calendar, as something of a duplication of the main feast on October 4, and left to the calendars of certain localities and of the Franciscan Order.[42] Wherever the traditional Roman Missal is used, however, the feast of the Stigmata remains in the General Calendar.
On June 18, 1939, Pope Pius XII named Francis a joint Patron Saintof Italy along with Saint Catherine of Siena with the apostolic letter “Licet Commissa”.[43] Pope Pius also mentioned the two saints in the laudative discourse he pronounced on May 5, 1949, in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.
St. Francis is honored in the Church of England, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Episcopal Church USA, the Old Catholic Churches, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and other churches and religious communities on October 4. TheEvangelical Church in Germany, however, commemorates St. Francis’ feast day on his death day, October 3.[citation needed]
Papal name[edit]
On 13 March 2013, upon his election as Pope, Archbishop and Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina chose Francis as his papal name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, becoming Pope Francis.[44]
At his first audience on 16 March 2013, Pope Francis told journalists that he had chosen the name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, and had done so because he was especially concerned for the well-being of the poor.[45][46][47] He explained that, as it was becoming clear during the conclave voting that he would be elected the new bishop of Rome, the Brazilian CardinalCláudio Hummes had embraced him and whispered, “Don’t forget the poor”, which had made Bergoglio think of the saint.[48][49]Bergoglio had previously expressed his admiration for St. Francis, explaining that “He brought to Christianity an idea of poverty against the luxury, pride, vanity of the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the time. He changed history.”[50] Bergoglio’s selection of his papal name is the first time that a pope has been named Francis.[a]
Protestantism[edit]
Even in Protestantism, the name and legacy of Saint Francis have endured.
Main writings[edit]
- Canticum Fratris Solis or Laudes Creaturarum; Canticle of the Sun.
- Prayer before the Crucifix, 1205 (extant in the original Umbrian dialect as well as in a contemporary Latin translation);
- Regula non bullata, the Earlier Rule, 1221;
- Regula bullata, the Later Rule, 1223;
- Testament, 1226;
- Admonitions.
For a complete list, see The Franciscan Experience.[52]
Saint Francis is considered the first Italian poet by literary critics.[53]He believed commoners should be able to pray to God in their own language, and he wrote often in the dialect of Umbria instead of Latin. His writings are considered to have great literary and religious value.[54]
The anonymous 20th-century prayer “Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace” is widely but erroneously attributed to St. Francis.[55][56]
In art[edit]
The Franciscan Order promoted devotion to the life of Saint Francis from his canonization onwards, and commissioned large numbers of works for Franciscan churches, either showing St Francis with sacred figures, or episodes from his life. There are large early frescocycles in the Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi, parts of which are shown above.
- Francis of Assisi in art
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St. Francis and scenes from his life, 13th century
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Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata, Jan van Eyck, c. 1430–32. 29.3 cm × 33.4 cm (11.5 in × 13.1 in), Turin version
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The Stigmatization of St Francis by Domenico Veneziano, (1445)
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Saint Francis with the Blood of Christ Carlo Crivelli, c. 1500
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El Greco – Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, 1585 until 1590
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Francisco Ribalta,Francis of Assisi with angel music, c. 1620
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Saint Francis in Meditation, oil painting byFrancisco de Zurbarán(1639)
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Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy by Jusepe de Ribera, (1639)
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Francis of Assisi visiting his convent while far away, in a chariot of fire byJosé Benlliure y Gil, (1855–1937)
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The Ecstasy of St. Francis,Stefano di Giovanni (1392–1450) 1444
_-_WGA06432.jpg)
.jpg)
Media[edit]
Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi
.jpg)
St. Francis Abbey, Kilkenny
Statue of St. Francis in front of the Catholic church of Chania.
A garden statue of Francis of Assisi with birds
Films[edit]
- The Flowers of St. Francis, a 1950 film directed by Roberto Rossellini and co-written by Federico Fellini[57]
- Francis of Assisi, a 1961 film directed by Michael Curtiz, based on the novel The Joyful Beggar by Louis de Wohl[57]
- Francis of Assisi, a 1966 film directed by Liliana Cavani[57]
- Uccellacci e uccellini (The Hawks and the Sparrows), a 1966 film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini[57]
- Brother Sun, Sister Moon, a 1972 film by Franco Zeffirelli[57]
- Francesco, a 1989 film by Liliana Cavani, contemplatively paced, follows Francis of Assisi’s evolution from rich man’s son to religious humanitarian, and eventually to full-fledged self-tortured saint. Saint Francis is played by Mickey Rourke, and the woman who later became Saint Clare, is played by Helena Bonham Carter[57]
- St. Francis, a 2002 film directed by Michele Soavi, starring Raoul Bova and Amélie Daure[57]
- Clare and Francis, a 2007 film directed by Fabrizio Costa, starring Mary Petruolo and Ettore Bassi[57]
- Pranchiyettan and the Saint, a 2010 satirical Indian Malayalam film[57]
- Finding Saint Francis, a 2014 film directed by Paul Alexander, starring Peter Stickney
Music[edit]
- Franz Liszt:
- Cantico del sol di Francesco d’Assisi, S.4 (sacred choral work, 1862, 1880–81; versions of the Prelude for piano, S. 498c, 499, 499a; version of the Prelude for organ, S. 665, 760; version of the Hosannah for organ and bass trombone, S.677)
- St. François d’Assise: La Prédication aux oiseaux, No. 1 of Deux Légendes, S.175 (piano, 1862–63)
- William Henry Draper: All Creatures of Our God and King (hymn paraphrase of Canticle of the Sun, published 1919)
- Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Fioretti (voice and orchestra, 1920)
- Gian Francesco Malipiero: San Francesco d’Assisi (soloists, chorus and orchestra, 1920–21)
- Amy Beach: Canticle of the Sun (soloists, chorus and orchestra, 1928)
- Paul Hindemith: Nobilissima Visione (ballet 1938)
- Leo Sowerby: Canticle of the Sun (cantata for mixed voices with accompaniment for piano or orchestra, 1944)
- Francis Poulenc: Quatre petites prières de Saint François d’Assise(men’s chorus, 1948)
- Seth Bingham: The Canticle of the Sun (cantata for chorus of mixed voices with soli ad lib. and accompaniment for organ or orchestra, 1949)
- William Walton: Cantico del sol (chorus, 1973–74)
- Olivier Messiaen: Saint François d’Assise (opera, 1975–83)
- Juliusz Łuciuk: Święty Franciszek z Asyżu (oratorio for soprano, tenor, baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra, 1976)
- Michele Paulicelli: Forza Venite Gente (musical theater, 1981)
- Karlheinz Stockhausen: Luzifers Abschied (1982), scene 4 of the opera Samstag aus Licht
- Libby Larsen: I Will Sing and Raise a Psalm (SATB chorus and organ, 1995)
- Sofia Gubaidulina: Sonnengesang (solo cello, chamber choir and percussion, 1997)
- Juventude Franciscana (JUFRA): Balada de Francisco (voices accompanied by guitar, 1999)
- Lewis Nielson: St. Francis Preaches to the Birds (chamber concerto for violin, 2005)
Books[edit]
- Francis of Assisi, The Little Flowers (fioretti), London, 2012. limovia.net ISBN 978-1-78336-013-0
- Saint Francis of Assisi, written and illustrated by Demi, Wisdom Tales, 2012, ISBN 978-1-937786-04-5
- Francis of Assisi: A New Biography, by Augustine Thompson, O.P., Cornell University Press, 2012, ISBN 978-080145-070-9
- Francis of Assisi in the Sources and Writings, by Robert Rusconi and translated by Nancy Celaschi, Franciscan Institute Publications, 2008. ISBN 978-1-57659-152-9
- The Stigmata of Francis of Assisi, Franciscan Institute Publications, 2006. ISBN 978-1-57659-140-6
- Francis of Assisi – The Message in His Writings, by Thaddee Matura, Franciscan Institute Publications, 1997. ISBN 978-1-57659-127-7
- Saint Francis of Assisi, by John R. H. Moorman, Franciscan Institute Publications, 1987. ISBN 978-0-8199-0904-6
- First Encounter with Francis of Assisi, by Damien Vorreux and translated by Paul LaChance, Franciscan Institute Publications, 1979. ISBN 978-0-8199-0698-4
- St. Francis of Assisi, by Raoul Manselli, Franciscan Institute Publications, 1985. ISBN 978-0-8199-0880-3
- Saint Francis of Assisi, by Thomas of Celano and translated by Placid Hermann, Franciscan Institute Publications, 1988. ISBN 978-0-8199-0554-3
- Francis the Incomparable Saint, by Joseph Lortz, Franciscan Institute Publications, 1986, ISBN 978-1-57659-067-6
- Respectfully Yours: Signed and Sealed, Francis of Assisi, by Edith van den Goorbergh and Theodore Zweerman, Franciscan Institute Publications, 2001. ISBN 978-1-57659-178-9
- The Admonitions of St. Francis: Sources and Meanings, by Robert J. Karris, Franciscan Institute Publications, 1999. ISBN 978-1-57659-166-6
- We Saw Brother Francis, by Francis de Beer, Franciscan Institute Publications, 1983. ISBN 978-0-8199-0803-2
- Sant Francesc (Saint Francis, 1895), a book of forty-three Saint Francis poems by Catalan poet-priest Jacint Verdaguer, three of which are included in English translation in Selected Poems of Jacint Verdaguer: A Bilingual Edition, edited and translated by Ronald Puppo, with an introduction by Ramon Pinyol i Torrents (University of Chicago, 2007). The three poems are “The Turtledoves”, “Preaching to Birds” and “The Pilgrim”.
- Saint Francis of Assisi (1923), a book by G. K. Chesterton
- Blessed Are The Meek (1944). a book by Zofia Kossak
- Saint Francis of Assisi a Doubleday Image Book translated by T. O’Conor Sloane, Ph.D., LL.D. in 1955 from the Danish original researched and written by Johannes Jorgensen and published in 1912 by Longmans, Green and Company, Inc.
- Saint Francis of Assisi (God’s Pauper) (1962), a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis
- Scripta Leonis, Rufini Et Angeli Sociorum S. Francisci: The Writings of Leo, Rufino and Angelo Companions of St. Francis (1970), edited by Rosalind B. Brooke, in Latin and English, containing testimony recorded by intimate, long-time companions of St. Francis
- Saint Francis and His Four Ladies (1970), a book by Joan Mowat Erikson
- The Life and Words of St. Francis of Assisi (1973), by Ira Peck
- The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi (1996), a book by Patricia Stewart
- Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi (2002), a book by Donald Spoto
- Flowers for St. Francis (2005), a book by Raj Arumugam
- Chasing Francis, 2006, a book by Ian Cron
- John Tolan, St. Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
- Vita di un uomo: Francesco d’Assisi (1995) a book by Chiara Frugoni, preface by Jacques Le Goff, Torino: Einaudi.
- Francis, Brother of the Universe (1982), a 48-page comic book by Marvel Comics on the life of Saint Francis of Assisi written by Father Roy Gasnik O.F.M. andMary Jo Duffy, artwork by John Buscema and Marie Severin, lettering by Jim Novak and edited by Jim Shooter.
Other[edit]
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- In Rubén Darío‘s poem Los Motivos Del Lobo (The Reasons Of The Wolf) St. Francis tames a terrible wolf only to discover that the human heart harbors darker desires than those of the beast.
- In Fyodor Dostoyevsky‘s The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan Karamazov invokes the name of ‘Pater Seraphicus,’ an epithet applied to St. Francis, to describe Alyosha’s spiritual guide Zosima. The reference is found in Goethe’s “Faust”, Part 2, Act 5, lines 11918–25. [1]
- Rich Mullins co-wrote Canticle of the Plains, a musical, with Mitch McVicker. Released in 1997, it was based on the life of St. Francis of Assisi, but told as a western story.
- Bernard Malamud‘s novel The Assistant (1957) features a protagonist, Frank Alpine, who exemplifies the life of St. Francis in mid-20th-century Brooklyn, New York City.
See also[edit]
- Pardon of Assisi
- Fraticelli
- Society of Saint Francis
- Saint Juniper, one of Francis’ original followers
- St. Benedict’s Cave, which contains a portrait of Francis made during his lifetime
- Saint-François d’Assise, an opera by Olivier Messiaen
- Saint-François (disambiguation) (places named after Francis of Assisi in French-speaking countries)
- List of places named after Saint Francis
- Prayers
- Canticle of the Sun, a prayer by St. Francis
- Prayer of Saint Francis, a prayer not by St. Francis
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Brady, Ignatius Charles. “Saint Francis of Assisi.”Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Chesterton (1924), p.126
- Jump up^ House & Garden – Volume 158 – Page 86, 1986
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j
Paschal Robinson (1913). “St. Francis of Assisi“. In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. - ^ Jump up to:a b “Blessing All Creatures, Great and Small”. Duke Magazine. November 2006. Retrieved 2007-07-30.
- Jump up^ Tolan, John (2009). St. Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199239726.
- Jump up^ “St. Francis of Assisi – Franciscan Friars of the Renewal”. Franciscanfriars.com. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Cross, F. L., ed. (2005). “Francis of Assisi”. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199566712.
- Jump up^ The Christmas scenes made by Saint Francis at the time were not inanimate objects, but live ones, later commercialised into inanimate representations of the Blessed Lord and His parents.
- Jump up^ “CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Christmas”.
- Jump up^ Cross, F. L., ed. (2005). “Stigmatization”. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN 0199566712.
- Jump up^ Saint Francis of Assisi by Jacques Le Goff 2003 ISBN 0-415-28473-2 page 44
- Jump up^ The Word made flesh: a history of Christian thought by Margaret Ruth mi 2004ISBN 978-1-4051-0846-1 pages 160–161
- Jump up^ “Italy/Subiaco”. www.paradoxplace.com.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Englebert, Omer (1951). The Lives of the Saints. New York: Barnes & Noble. p. 529. ISBN 978-1-56619-516-4.
- Jump up^ Robinson, P. (2009). St. Francis of Assisi. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 2011-10-17 from New Advent.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Chesterton, Gilbert Keith (1924). “St. Francis of Assisi” (14 ed.). Garden City, New York: Image Books: 158.
- Jump up^ Chesterton (1924), pp. 40–41
- ^ Jump up to:a b Chesterton (1924), pp. 54–56
- Jump up^ Chesterton (1924), pp. 107–108
- Jump up^ Galli(2002), pp. 74–80
- ^ Jump up to:a b c Chesterton (1924), pp. 110–111
- Jump up^ Fioretti quoted in: St. Francis, The Little Flowers, Legends, and Lauds, trans. N. Wydenbruck, ed. Otto Karrer (London: Sheed and Ward, 1979) 244.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Chesterton (1924), p.130
- Jump up^ Steven Runciman, History of the Crusades, vol. 3: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades, Cambridge University Press (1951, paperback 1987), pp. 151–161.
- Jump up^ Tolan, pp. 4f.
- Jump up^ e.g., Jacques de Vitry, Letter 6 of February or March 1220 and Historia orientalis(c. 1223–1225) cap. XXII; Tommaso da Celano, Vita prima (1228), §57: the relevant passages are quoted in an English translation in Tolan, pp. 19f. and 54 respectively.
- Jump up^ Tolan, p.5
- Jump up^ e.g., Chesterton, Saint Francis, Hodder & Stoughton (1924) chapter 8. Tolan (p.126) discusses the incident as recounted by Bonaventure which does not extend to a fire actually being lit.
- Jump up^ Péter Bokody, “Idolatry or Power: St. Francis in Front of the Sultan”, in:Promoting the Saints: Cults and Their Contexts from Late Antiquity until the Early Modern Period, ed. Ottó Gecser and others (Budapest: CEU Press, 2010), 69-81, esp. at pp. 74 and 76-78. The views of Panofsky (idols: see Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art, New York 1972, p.148, n.3) and Tolan (undecided: p.143) are cited at p.73.
- Jump up^ Bonaventure, Legenda major (1260–1263), cap. IX §7–9, criticized by, e.g., Sabatier, La Vie de St. François d’Assise (1894), chapter 13, and Paul Moses, The Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam, and Francis of Assisi’s Mission of Peace, Doubleday Religion (2009) excerpted in a restricted-view article in Commonwealthmagazine, September 25, 2009 “Mission improbable: St. Francis & the Sultan”, accessed 4 April 2015
- Jump up^ For grants of various permissions and privileges to Francis as attributed by later sources, see, e.g., Tolan, pp. 258–263. The first mention of the Sultan’s conversion occurs in a sermon delivered by Bonaventure on October 4, 1267. See Tolan, pp. 168
- Jump up^ Bulla Gratias agimus, commemorated by Pope John Paul II in a Letter dated November 30, 1992. See also Tolan, p.258. On the Franciscan presence, including an historical overview, see, generally the official website at Custodia andCustodian of the Holy Land
- Jump up^ Bonaventure (1867), p. 162
- ^ Jump up to:a b c Chesterton (1924), p.131
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d Bonaventure (1867), pp. 78–85
- Jump up^ Ugolino Brunforte (Brother Ugolino). The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi.Calvin College: CCEL. ISBN 978-1-61025212-6.
Quote.
- ^ Jump up to:a b c Bonaventure (1867), p. 178
- Jump up^ Pope John Paul II (November 29, 1979). “Inter Sanctos (Apostolic Letter AAS 71)” (PDF). Retrieved August 7, 2014.
- Jump up^ Pope John Paul II (December 8, 1989). “World Day of Peace 1990”. RetrievedOctober 24, 2012.
- Jump up^ Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana), p. 139
- Jump up^ Pope Pius XII (June 18, 1939). “Licet Commissa” (Apostolic Letter AAS 31, pp. 256–257)
- Jump up^ Pope Francis (March 16, 2013). “Audience to Representatives of the Communications Media”. Retrieved August 9, 2014.
- Jump up^ “Pope Francis explains decision to take St Francis of Assisi’s name”. London: The Guardian. 16 March 2013. Archived from the original on 16 March 2013.
- ^ Jump up to:a b “New Pope Fra[n]cis visits St. Mary Major, collects suitcases and pays bill at hotel”. NEWS.VA. 14 March 2013. Archived from the original on 16 March 2013.
- Jump up^ Michael Martinez, CNN Vatican analyst: Pope Francis’ name choice ‘precedent shattering’, CNN (13 March 2013). Retrieved 13 March 2013.
- Jump up^ Laura Smith-Spark et al. : Pope Francis explains name, calls for church ‘for the poor’ CNN,16 March 2013
- Jump up^ “Pope Francis wants ‘poor Church for the poor’”. BBC News. BBC. 16 March 2013. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Jump up^ Bethune, Brian, “Pope Francis: How the first New World pontiff could save the church”, macleans.ca, 26 March 2013, Retrieved 27 March 2013
- Jump up^ Alpert, Emily (13 March 2013). “Vatican: It’s Pope Francis, not Pope Francis I”.Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 16 March 2013.
- Jump up^ “Writings of St. Francis – Part 2”.
- Jump up^ Brand, Peter; Pertile, Lino, eds. (1999). “2 – Poetry. Francis of Assisi (pp. 5ff.)”.The Cambridge History of Italian Literature. Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0-52166622-0. Retrieved 2015-12-31.
- Jump up^ Chesterton, G.K. (1987). St. Francis. Image. pp. 160 p.ISBN 0-385-02900-4.http://wayback.archive.org/web/20151117034706/http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/stf01010.htm
- Jump up^ Renoux, Christian (2001). La prière pour la paix attribuée à saint François: une énigme à résoudre. Paris: Editions franciscaines.ISBN 2-85020-096-4.
- Jump up^ Renoux, Christian. “The Origin of the Peace Prayer of St. Francis”. RetrievedAugust 9, 2014.
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i See Francis of Assisi at the Internet Movie Database.
Bibliography[edit]
- Scripta Leonis, Rufini et Angeli Sociorum S. Francisci: The Writings of Leo, Rufino and Angelo Companions of St. Francis, original manuscript, 1246, compiled by Brother Leo and other companions (1970, 1990, reprinted with corrections), Oxford, Oxford University Press, edited by Rosalind B. Brooke, in Latin and English,ISBN 0-19-822214-9, containing testimony recorded by intimate, long-time companions of St. Francis