On October 26, 2008 the Archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Collins visited St. Edith Stein Parish. The occasion was the 10th anniversary of the canonization of our patron St. Edith Stein. This was the first visit of an Archbishop to our small parish but during the mass His Grace said that he was a long way from retiring and planned on coming back.
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| Archbishop's Visit to St. Edith Stein |
Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI
| Lord Jesus, |
My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
His Grace Archbishop Thomas Collins recently celebrated mass for the Knights of Columbus. The Gospel reading was that of the Good Samaritan. One of the Archbishop’s messages in the homily was that to be Catholic you just need to “Love God and love your neighbour”.
As Christians, we are called to love God and our neighbour as our self. This is not an easy task, especially when our neighbour appears different from us. So often we tend to judge and exclude people, rather than loving them as our neighbour. Today’s readings invite our attention to these aspects.
The first reading (Ex 22: 21-27) calls the attention of the Israelites to the fact that they were aliens in the land of Egypt and asks them not to oppress a resident alien, not to abuse any widow or orphan. They are further instructed to consider the poor as their “neighbour” and love them. The gospel (Mt. 22:34-40) reminds us of the twin laws that are to govern our lives: Love God; love your neighbour as yourself. These laws should govern every word we say, every decision we make, and everything we do. In fact, we should consider aliens, widows, orphans and the poor as our “neighbour”. In our love for these, our love for God is manifest and real. Our love should make us think about the hunger, the homelessness and the daily indignities that the poor are made to endure.
To prompt our sensitivity to the plight of the poor and to more deeply authenticate our love for God, the following illustration may prove helpful. Once a Rabbi overheard the conversation of two men seated at a nearby table. Both had a fair amount to drink and both were feeling quite mellow. With their arms around one another, they were professing how much they loved the other. Suddenly, the older of the two, Ivan, looked at his friend and asked “Peter, tell me what hurts me?”. Peter looked at Ivan and answered with a question of his own: “How do I know what hurts you?”. Ivan’s response came quickly “If you don’t know what hurts me, how can you say you love me?”. As is poignantly reflected in this brief anecdote, the love Jesus calls us to have for our neighbour, i.e. for the poor and needy, cannot be a mere passive platitude that speaks of love, but does not live and give love. That love required of us must dare to ask the hard questions about hurts and needs. This love must be willing to hear the answers, meet the needs and tend the hurts that are therein revealed.
Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI
| Lord Jesus, |
My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As we celebrate World Mission Sunday 2008 on October 19th, the liturgical readings invite us to reflect on our mission in this world. It is one of involvement in a world and a culture imbued with the principle of separation of Church and State.
The 1st reading from Isaiah (45:1-6) refers to God’s constant and continuous involvement in human history. Though Cyrus was not Israel’s king, it was his efforts at re-establishing political exiles in their own lands that brought about the freedom and restoration of Israel. In a word, prophet Isaiah regarded Cyrus as messiah i.e. anointed one of God (v.1). Verses 4-6 give us God’s intervention in the life of Cyrus. “I call you by your name,…though you do not know me… I arm you, though you do not know me”. All people in the world are called by God and strengthened by God to fulfill their mission.
Consider these prophetic words spoken by the late Archbishop Oscar Romero:
“Our hope for a new world must not deaden but rather increase our concern (and our efforts) to improve this world, where the new human family is taking shape and which will in some way, be a dim prefiguring of a new age. Although we must distinguish carefully between temporal progress and the growth of the kingdom of Christ, the former, nevertheless, has a lot to do with the latter in so far as it can contribute to improving society… May Jesus, whose body was offered up and whose blood was shed for mankind give us the strength to offer ourselves in suffering and in sorrow, just as Jesus did, not for himself but in order that the world might know true justice and peace.
God’s reign is already present on our earth in mystery. When the Lord comes, it will be brought to perfection. That is the hope that inspires Christians. We know that every effort to better society, especially when injustice and sin are so ingrained, is an effort that God blesses, that God wants, that God demands of us”.
Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI
| Lord Jesus, |
My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In today’s Gospel (Mt 22:1-14) we see one man coming to the wedding banquet improperly dressed. He might have thought he was correctly attired. But the host spotted an outsider right away and banished him. The feelings of the host behind that can be thus expressed. “You think you look like one of us, but your eyes are blind to see what you miss”. It is about this missing factor I would like to reflect on at the end of this year of the Eucharistic Congress.
Many of us look and talk like we belong to the inner circle of God, close enough to be invited to this memorial feast of his Son’s death and resurrection. We try to belong; sometimes, we even spruce up our souls and start out on a spiritual programme in search of God. But most of us get tired quickly, lose interest and give up the chase. Do you know why? Because we haven’t seen God; we haven’t experienced God.
An example from hunting will illustrate. When the first dog caught sight of a rabbit, it let out a howl and hurtled off barking. Other dogs got excited by the noise and joined the chase. There are few sights as exciting as a hound on the scent, flinging its body about with wild abandon. Leaping in the air, burrowing through briars, wiggling under barbed wire, scurrying through drain pipes. But most dogs tire of the chase and turn back after a while. Do you know why? Because they never actually saw the rabbit. They just got excited by the barking and enthusiasm of the first dog; they acted as if they had seen the rabbit and their enthusiasm would make up for their lack of sight. But it cannot. Either they see the rabbit or they don’t. And no amount of enthusiasm and effort can substitute.
It’s the same with humans in chase of God. We have to actually see God. Instead, we see the saints in search of God and think we can imitate them. But even if we become faithful as Moses or as poor as Francis or compassionate as Vincent de Paul, we finally quit trying, knowing we will never succeed. Because Moses saw God in the bush, Francis saw God in the leper, Vincent saw God in the poor. But all we see is other people seeing God. Second-hand sight does not cure blindness. We have to see God with our own eyes.
Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI
| Lord Jesus, |
My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
What do you think of celebrating this Sunday’s liturgy having two banners depicting a vineyard on either side of the church? Today’s readings present us with a fine example of the power of a good symbol. In the 1st reading from Isaiah (Is 5:1-7), the prophet uses the image of the vineyard to speak about the state of God’s people, who had not been producing good fruit for the Lord. Jesus picks up the same image to speak about his own experience of being rejected by the leaders of the Jewish people. And as we read that in today’s Gospel passage (Mt 21:33-43), we rightly hear it as a warning to our own time that God expects us to produce good fruit, too.
The image of the vineyard is clearly a symbol in these passages. Like all symbols, it has more than one simple meaning. Notice that the parables in the two readings, though similar, differ in significant ways. In the 1st reading, the vineyard is destroyed because it produced wild grapes. In the Gospel the tenants (chief priests and elders) are destroyed and the vineyard is given to other tenants (Gentiles). In the first reading, the challenge is to all of Judah. In the Gospel the challenge is to the Jewish leaders who oppose Jesus and his mission.
It is this multivalence, this ability to carry many levels of meaning, that distinguishes a true symbol from a mere sign. Symbols are rich carriers of meaning, allowing people to enter into them and draw from them a variety of insights and meanings.
Since good liturgy relies on symbols, we have to make ourselves aware of tapping the power of symbols. For an effective participation in liturgy, sometimes a theme is chosen and the whole liturgy is based on that. Though this is a good practice in itself, the use of symbols in liturgy may serve the purpose better. The problem with a theme, at least one narrowly conceived, is that it attempts to make the liturgy say one thing to everybody. Good use of symbols, by contrast, invites us to engage the symbols in a context of mystery. This means that different people may draw very different meanings from the symbol, as the Holy Spirit touches the minds and hearts of each member of the worshiping community.
The liturgy does have its own dynamics and demands, but it also must remain open enough for the wide variety of people who celebrate it to enter into with their own backgrounds and abilities. That’s what good symbols allow.
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