lundi, juin 09, 2008

Sermon for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost

The Mass of this 4th Sunday after Pentecost brings to my mind many memories. First, it was the first solemn Mass I offered, a week after my Ordination and such a day can never be forgotten by a priest. I remember the words of Father Gaudray, my spiritual director when I was a seminarian – Father Gaudray will celebrate the 60th anniversary of his Ordination in a few days, so please, pray for him. He spoke about the life of a priest as the accomplishment of the mysteries of the Rosary. I often think about what he said at the end: now you have to live the joyful and sorrowful mysteries, but the glorious mysteries will be later.
What he told me is true for each one of us. We received the life of Christ on the day of our Baptism. Now we still have to live the same life as Jesus did in order to be another Christ, as we are supposed to be. We do this when we renew in our own lives the mysteries of the life of Jesus and Mary that we meditate on when we pray our rosary.
Dear Brethren, the rosary is not only a devotion or a habit of prayer that we do every day. It should be what I dare to call an appropriation of the life of Jesus and Mary. In fact it is the true meaning of the word devotion which is the act of being totally devoted to a cause, and in our case this cause is someone: Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at the children! Our Lord says that we have to be like them in order to go to heaven. Children all have their heroes, someone they would like to be like. They like to be dressed like him – or like her, for the girls – and to imitate him. They play his character and become him in a certain way. Well, if Jesus and Mary are truly our heroes – and they are more than this – why don’t we imitate them? There is a book, one of the most known in the world, translated into many languages, called The Imitation of Christ. I would say that it is like the script of our character that we should play as actors, except that it is not cinema, but true life. When an actor has to play a character, he likes to know about him and reads a lot, trying to find the most information that he can, so that he can act as authentic as possible. When he is really good, he usually gains a reward for his performance.
Well, we have a reward to gain too, which is not an academy award but an imperishable crown as Saint Paul says. But for this, we have to do more than playing a role. We have to live a life, which has been well summarized in one sentence by Saint Paul: mihi vivere Christus est - For to me, to live is Christ. (Phil. 1:21)

The Disciples by Eugène Burnand


Praying the rosary is a very good work; living the rosary is much better. The Father does not want us to honor Him only with our lips. He wants to see the image of His Son in each one of us. This won’t be possible as long as we refuse to be totally transformed by His grace. We have to accept to living the sorrowful mysteries, which means to accept His cross. This is the supreme act of charity and charity supposes acts such as forgiving those who have trespassed against us, helping the poor and renouncing sin. Let us not allow Our Lord to say about us: This people honors me with their lips: but their heart is far from me. (Mark 7:6)

May Our Blessed Mother teach us how to be other Christs by living the life of Jesus day after day. This is truly the only thing that matters. The rest is just vanity!

2 commentaires:

Anonyme a dit…

Words of wisdom from Fr. Gaudray! How amazing that we tend to want the Glorious mysteries now on earth...
Be assured of my prayers for this priest and the other priests who reminds us that the Glorious mysteries are for later on. However God is so good, He already makes us taste the future glory already on this earth... (cf. Elisabeth of the Trinity's writings). We just have to persevere a little harder to see Him in His full glory.

Anonyme a dit…

OK, it's time for those who deny Jesus to close their eyes again.

http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/
TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 2008

Synod on Scripture 3 Months Away
The upcoming synod of bishops on Scripture has finally registered on the trad radar--now that it's only 3 months away. "Better late than never," they say. But I prefer to say, early is better than late. That's why I was warning people about this matter 13 months ago when there was still time bring pressure to bear on the Judaizing elements who will now, no doubt, run amok at the synod--that is, barring a miracle. I leave it to the reader to guess whether such a miracle is deserved.

I wonder when the trads will address the Vatican document which implies that the Talmudic "Noahide Laws" are found in the New Testament. Perhaps, sometime after the "Noahide Laws" are written into the Catechism ...

Kosher Catholic Exegesis
http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/05/
kosher-catholic-exegesis.html

What to Expect From 2008 Synod
http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/05/
what-to-expect-in-2008.html

Highlights From Itinerary For 2008 Synod
http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/05/
highlights-from-itinerary-for-2008.html

Vatican: "Christians Can Learn Much From 'Jewish' Exegesis of Past 2000 Years"
http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/05/
vatican-christians-can-learn-much-from.html

More Signs of What to Expect from the October Synod
http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2008/01/
more-signs-of-what-to-expect-from.html

Papal Commission Promotes Noahide Laws
http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/03/
theyre-making-their-move.html


TUESDAY, MAY 22, 2007

Vatican: "Christians Can Learn Much From 'Jewish' Exegesis of Past 2000 Years"
The Vatican sez:

... Christians can and ought to admit that the Jewish reading of the Bible is a possible one ...

... Christians can, nonetheless, learn much from Jewish exegesis practised for more than two thousand years ...

(The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible, Pontifical Biblical Commission, Vatican, May 24th, 2001)

... Jewish biblical scholarship in all its richness, from its origins in antiquity down to the present day, is an asset of the highest value for the exegesis of both Testaments ...

(The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church, Pontifical Biblical Commission, Vatican, March 18, 1994)


Here is a representative example of Judaic exegesis of Old Testament scripture from the past 2000 years. I leave it to the readers to draw their own conclusions as to the Vatican's statements in reference to it:

Rabbi Eleazar further stated: What is meant by the Scriptural text, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh? (Genesis 2;23) This teaches that Adam had intercourse with every beast and animal but found no satisfaction until he cohabited with Eve. (Babylonian Talmud, Yebamoth, 63a, London, The Soncino Press, 1961)