22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s gospel, a continuation of Matthew 16 that we began last week, shows Peter falling out of grace before he had any time to settle in. Last Sunday we heard in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans 11: 33 -36, that God’s judgments are “inscrutable” and God’s ways “unsearchable.” St. Paul asks: “who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor”? In today’s gospel, Jesus rebukes Peter because he is “thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." Of course, none of us can think exactly like God, not even Peter

Last week Peter was the hero of the gospel. His confession of faith earned him a new name, Rock, the rock on which Jesus planned to build his church. This week Peter is still a rock; however, he is now a stumbling block, an “obstacle” to Jesus and his mission. Like Jeremiah in the first reading, Peter, who received Jesus’ blessing last week, now finds himself heaped with “derision and reproach.” Although Peter recognized Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” he could not comprehend the reality of the cross. He was thinking in terms of a champion King, a triumphant Messiah, not a suffering servant. He did not understand that Jesus’ victory could only come through sacrifice, suffering, death and resurrection.

Jesus told the disciples repeatedly that there is a cost to discipleship. Just as he had to take up the cross and die in order to fulfill his mission, the disciples had to be willing to deny themselves and take up their crosses in order to follow him. They had to clear away their very human mental and physical stumbling blocks so they could carry on the mission of Jesus and build the Kingdom here. We have to do the same. Jesus reminds us that we will be held accountable, “For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct.”

Father, help us to seek the values 

 that will bring us lasting joy in this changing world. 

 In our desire for what you promise, 

 make us one in mind and heart. 

 Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

 Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, 

 God, forever and ever.

Amen

August 28 - Memorial of St. Augustine

Today, August 28, the Church honors St. Augustine. St. Augustine was born at the town of Thagaste (now Souk-Ahras in modern day Algeria) on November 13, 354 and grew to become one the most significant and influential thinkers in the history of the Catholic Church. His teachings were the foundation of Christian doctrine for a millennium.

The story of his life, up until his conversion, is written in the autobiographical Confessions, the most intimate and well-known glimpse into an individual's soul ever written, as well as a fascinating philosophical, theological, mystical, poetic and literary work.

Augustine, though being brought up in early childhood as a Christian, lived a dissolute life of revelry and sin, and soon drifted away from the Church - thinking that he wasn't necessarily leaving Christ, of whose name he acknowledges "I kept it in the recesses of my heart; and all that presented itself to me without that Divine name, though it might be elegant, well written, and even replete with truth, did not altogether carry me away" (Confessions, I, iv).

He went to study in Carthage and became well-known in the city for his brilliant mind and rhetorical skills and sought a career as an orator or lawyer. But he also discovered and fell in love with philosophy at the age of 19, a love he pursued with great vehemence.

He was attracted to Manichaeanism at this time, after its devotees had promised him that they had scientific answers to the mystery of nature, could disprove the Scriptures, and could explain the problem of evil. Augustine became a follower for nine years, learning all there was to learn in it before rejecting it as incoherent and fraudulent.

He went to Rome and then Milan in 386 where he met Saint Ambrose, the bishop and Doctor of the Church, whose sermons inspired him to look for the truth he had always sought in the faith he had rejected. He received baptism and soon after, his mother, Saint Monica, died with the knowledge that all she had hoped for in this world had been fulfilled.

He returned to Africa, to his hometown of Tagaste, "having now cast off from himself the cares of the world, he lived for God with those who accompanied him, in fasting, prayers, and good works, meditating on the law of the Lord by day and by night."

On a visit to Hippo he was proclaimed priest and then bishop against his will. He later accepted it as the will of God and spent the rest of his life as the pastor of the North African town, where he spent much time refuting the writings of heretics.

Augustine also wrote, The City of God, against the pagans who charged that the fall of the Roman empire, which was taking place at the hands of the Vandals, was due to the spread of Christianity.

On August 28, 430, as Hippo was under siege by the Vandals, Augustine died, at the age of 76. His legacy continues to deeply shape the face of the Church to this day.

{Catholic News Agency)

Feast Day of St Monica

On August 27, one day before the feast of her son St. Augustine, the Catholic Church honors St. Monica, whose holy example and fervent intercession led to one of the most dramatic conversions in Church history.

Monica was born into a Catholic family in 332, in the North African city of Tagaste located in present-day Algeria. She was raised by a maidservant who taught her the virtues of obedience and temperance. While still relatively young, she married Patricius, a Roman civil servant with a bad temper and a disdain for his wife's religion.

Patricius' wife dealt patiently with his distressing behavior, which included infidelity to their marriage vows. But she experienced a greater grief when he would not allow their three children – Augustine, Nagivius, and Perpetua – to receive Baptism. When Augustine, the oldest, became sick and was in danger of death, Patricius gave consent for his Baptism, but withdrew it when he recovered.

Monica's long-suffering patience and prayers eventually helped Patricius to see the error of his ways, and he was baptized into the Church one year before his death in 371. Her oldest son, however, soon embraced a way of life that brought her further grief, as he fathered a child out of wedlock in 372. One year later, he began to practice the occult religion of Manichaeism.

In her distress and grief, Monica initially shunned her oldest son. However, she experienced a mysterious dream that strengthened her hope for Augustine's soul, in which a messenger assured her: “Your son is with you.” After this experience, which took place around 377, she allowed him back into her home, and continued to beg God for his conversion.

But this would not take place for another nine years. In the meantime, Monica sought the advice of local clergy, wondering what they might do to persuade her son away from the Manichean heresy. One bishop, who had once belonged to that sect himself, assured Monica that it was “impossible that the son of such tears should perish.”

These tears and prayers intensified when Augustine, at age 29, abandoned Monica without warning as she passed the night praying in a chapel. Without saying goodbye to his mother, Augustine boarded a ship bound for Rome. Yet even this painful event would serve God's greater purpose, as Augustine left to become a teacher in the place where he was destined to become a Catholic.

Under the influence of the bishop St. Ambrose of Milan, Augustine renounced the teaching of the Manichees around 384. Monica followed her son to Milan, and drew encouragement from her son's growing interest in the saintly bishop's preaching. After three years of struggle against his own desires and perplexities, Augustine succumbed to God's grace and was baptized in 387.

Shortly before her death, Monica shared a profound mystical experience of God with Augustine, who chronicled the event in his “Confessions.” Finally, she told him: “Son, for myself I have no longer any pleasure in anything in this life. Now that my hopes in this world are satisfied, I do not know what more I want here or why I am here.”

“The only thing I ask of you both,” she told Augustine and his brother Nagivius, “is that you make remembrance of me at the altar of the Lord wherever you are.”

St. Monica died at age 56, in the year 387. In modern times, she has become the inspiration for the St. Monica Sodality, which encourages prayer and penance among Catholics whose children have left the faith.

Envy

If the angels were capable of envy, they would envy us for two things: one is the receiving of Holy Communion, and the other is suffering.

~ St Maria Faustina

Waiting for the Bus

There's an old story of the boy who stood on a sidewalk, waiting for a bus. A man walking by spotted the boy, and gave him some gentle instruction. "Son," he said, "if you're waiting for the bus, you need to move to the street corner. That's where the bus stops for passengers."

"It's OK," said the boy. "I'll just wait right here, and the bus will stop for me."

The man repeated his argument, but the boy never moved. Just then, the bus appeared. Amazingly, the bus pulled over to where the boy stood, and the child hopped on. The man on the sidewalk stood speechless. The boy turned around in the doorway and said, "Mister, I knew the bus would stop here, because the bus driver is my dad!"

When you've got a family relationship with the bus driver, you don't need a bus stop. If you've given your heart to the King of Kings, you're in a royal family of unspeakable proportions.

Today I would like to remind you that, when you know the driver of life you can take the bus of life anywhere. He will stop and pick you up where people thought it is not possible.

There are people who think you can’t make it from where you are right now but they will be surprised when they see you make it.

There are those who think you are not in the right frame of mind, or the right status or the right career to succeed but they don’t know that the success giver is you father and your friend.

Just like the man in the story above they will be surprised to see you succeed even though you are single, or married, or divorced, or widowed. What matters is that you know Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above what we can think or even imagine.

Prayer for Departed Loved Ones

God our Father,

Your power brings us to birth,

Your providence guides our lives, and by Your command, we return to dust.

Lord, those who die still live in Your presence, their lives change but do not end.

I pray in hope for my family, relatives and friends, and for all the dead known to You alone.

In company with Christ, who died and now lives, may they rejoice in Your kingdom, where all our tears are wiped away.

Unite us together again in one family, to sing Your praise forever and ever.

Amen.

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

To describe someone or something as rock solid implies firm, sound, dependable, trustworthy and reliable. In the Old Testament God is described as “the Rock of Israel (Gen 49:24),” and an “eternal Rock” (Is 26:4). God is “the righteous and faithful rock” (Deut 32:4) and “our rock, in whom there is no wrong"(Ps 92: 16). Jesus describes himself as a rock. He is “the stone the builders rejected” that is now the “cornerstone” (Matt 21: 42) on which our faith is built. When Jesus pronounces that Simon is now Peter, petros which means rock, he gives Peter the greatest of compliments.

Peter clearly was not the smartest disciple. His erratic behavior got him in lots of trouble with Jesus and probably everyone else. However, Peter had tremendous faith. His declaration that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God” catapulted him into a leadership position he did not seek. This “confession of faith” made Peter the first and founding member of the church that he and the other disciples would build. Peter’s faith earned him the trust and confidence of Jesus. Recognizing Peter’s special strengths, Jesus followed his own advice and “built his house on rock” (Matt. 7: 24).

St. Peter, himself, tells us that Jesus’ house is built with more than one stone. The church is built of living stones, “chosen and precious in the sight of God” (1 Peter 2: 4). We are the living stones “built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2: 5). In his Letter to the Ephesians St. Paul reminds us that Jesus is the cornerstone of the household of God and “through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2: 21 – 22).

God, well-spring of all wisdom, 

 and source of every insight, 

 you inspired Simon Peter to confess

that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

On this rock of faith, you have built your church.

Pour out your Spirit in abundance,

that all may join in this profession,

and become living stones

standing firm upon the one foundation,

which is our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever.

AMEN