November 11, 2016

Martin of Tours

November 11, 2016

St. Martin of Tours, Bishop / Veterans' Day

See 12 connections with today?
Legend below

Listen

Pope Francis
Homily:  A love that doesn't recognize that Jesus came in the Flesh is a worldly, philosophical, abstract, soft, or weak love, not the love God asks of us.  The criterion of Christian love is the Incarnation of the Word.  God sent his Son, who became flesh and lived like us.  The only way to love as Jesus loved and taught, to love by journeying along the path of Jesus, the path that gives life, is to cast aside our selfishness and help others; Christian love is concrete love, one with acts of mercy.
When the Church goes beyond the Incarnation of the Word, ideologies on love and the Church spring that strip Christ's Flesh from the Church.  Love must always be interior and concrete.  Whoever doesn't love selflessly as Christ did loves in an ideological manner.  Those who theorize or intellectualize love ruin the Church and lead to a situation where we have God without Christ, Christ without the Church, and Church without people.
Pray that our love never becomes abstract; may it be concrete with works of mercy whereby we touch the Flesh of Christ.  Deacon Lawrence said "The poor are the treasure of the Church!"  Because they're the suffering flesh of Christ!  Ask for the grace to not enter into the seductive process of intellectualizing and ideologizing love, stripping away the Flesh of the Church, stripping away Christian love.
La Repubblica interview:  I don't judge individual politicians but want to see how their policies affect the poor and marginalized.  Alongside refugees fleeing from poverty and conflict, many poor people suffer in rich countries and fear the arrival of these immigrants.  Let's stop this vicious cycle by breaking down walls of inequality and building bridges to allow greater liberty and human rights.  Inequality is the greatest evil in the world.
I admire Martin Luther King.  Love alone can break the cycle of hatred and evil.  Christians must share their faith by following Jesus' example.  Many Christian martyrs have died at the hands of so-called Islamic State terrorists.  Wars of religion only occur when people put political power in place of faith and mercy.  Faith unites all, while individuals may see things from different perspectives. 
Read
  • 2 Jn 4-9  Let us love one another:  walk according to his commandments.  Many deceivers have gone out; they don't acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.  Remain in the teaching of Christ.
  • Ps 119:1, 2, 10, 11, 17, 18  "Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!"  With all my heart I seek you.  Open my eyes, that I may consider the wonders of your law.
  • Lk 17:26-37  “As it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so too in the days of the Son of Man:  they were eating and drinking, then the flood came or fire and brimstone rained.  On the day the Son is revealed, don't go back to get what you left behind.  Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it....
      San Martín y el mendigo
      El Greco
    • Creighton:  In the gospel Jesus stresses that his listeners wouldn't know when the Son of Man would be revealed; they'd need to stop what they were doing and leave belongings and loved ones behind.  We need to heed the Lord's coming and follow him.
    St. Martin of Tours, first a soldier, was moved to divide his cloak to share it with a beggar, a small gesture that likely saved the beggar’s life.  Martin was less comfortable, but neither died.  His actions teach us to keep loving one another.
    • One Bread, One Body:  "What we need to know about the end":  Jesus tells us about the world's end because we need to know:  some people will be prosperous, but the world will end in a blaze of fire, so let's not let prosperity corrupt and blind us.  Many will be suffering, while others will be enjoying themselves....
    • Passionist:  No signs will announce Christ's coming.  Many won't be prepared.  God told Noah to build an ark to escape the flood, but while he was building, people were going about their business and weren't ready when the flood came.  In Lot's time, people went about their normal activities, but "fire and brimstone rained on them all."  Don't be weighed down by attachments.  Prepare for Advent and the Second Coming by being vigilant and detached from possessions.  The Good News is that God wants us to enter into his eternal love and joy....
    • DailyScripture.net:  "One will be taken and the other left":  Eagles are attracted to carrion; they swoop to catch their prey when conditions are right, especially if the prey is vulnerable to attack.  Nobody knows when judgment day will be, but it'll be obvious when it comes:  those who have rejected God will perish, and believers will be vindicated and rewarded.  The Day will come unexpectedly; may we not be caught off guard.  The Lord gives us freedom to accept or reject him, to live as citizens of his kingdom or to oppose him, but he offers us grace, strength, and help to turn to him and gives us us his Spirit to lead and guide us.  The Lord's warning is motivated by his love for us.  He doesn't want anyone's death but wants us to choose life.  The Day of the Lord will be a cause for great joy for those who have put their trust in the Lord.  The choices we make now will lead us on the path of life or death....
    Dress legend
    • 'Walker' tie pin:  Walk according to his commandments (1st reading)
      • 'Commandments' tie: Walk according to God's commandments (1st reading); Blessed they who follow the Lord's law (psalm)
      • 'Heart' pin:  Love one another (1st reading); blessed they who seek the Lord with all their heart (psalm)
      • 'Eyeball' pin:  Open my eyes, that I may consider the wonders of your law (psalm)
      • 'Boat' tie bar:  Noah's ark (gospel)
      • 'Silverware' tie bar:  They were eating and drinking...  (gospel)
      • 'Fire' pin:  "Fire and brimstone rained to destroy them" (gospel)
      • 'US flag' pin:  Veterans' Day
      • White shirt:  liturgical color for St. Martin memorial
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