Reflections: September 29 – October 4, 2014 Sept 29 Monday: Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael: Jn 1: 47 Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" 48 Nathaniel said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." 49 Nathaniel answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"50… 51 And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." The archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael: The angels are spirits created by God before He created man. They are meant to be extensions of God’s love and provident care. Their role is to praise and worship God, act as God’s messengers, do God’s will and protect human beings. “He will give His angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways (Psalm 91: 1). God sent his angels to destroy the evil cities Sodom and Gomorrah and to save Lot’s family. God gave Moses an angel to support and guide him: "My angel shall go before you” (Ex 32:34). It was an angel who helped Jesus in the desert and encouraged Jesus during his agony in Gethsemane. The Acts of the Apostles (1:14), describes how God sent an angel to liberate Peter from the prison. The archangels form one of the nine orders of angels. The most prominent among them are Michael the protector, Gabriel the messenger of God and Raphael, the healer and guide for humans. Michael: Michael means “Who is like God,” from the challenge he flung at the rebel angels Lucifer and his supporters. In Daniel, he is the great prince who defended Israel. In the Book of Revelation, he is the mighty prince who fought with Lucifer and who dragged the serpent into hell. Gabriel: He is God’s messenger. It was Gabriel who announced to Elizabeth’s husband, the priest Zechariah, the happy news that his barren wife would conceive a son, John the Baptist. He announced the “good news” to Mary that she was to bear the Son of God. Gabriel also announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. Raphael: He is man’s God-appointed guide and healer. He guided Tobiah’s journey, did Tobiah’s task of collecting his father’s money from Gabael of Rhages, arranged his marriage with Sarah, gave Tobiah the means to heal Tobit’s blindness and protected Sarah from the devil. Life messages: 1) Dependable angelic assistance is a salutary, encouraging thing for us to remember in our fears. 2) The truth that an angel is always watching us is an incentive to do good and to avoid evil. 3) Angelic protection and assistance form a great provision for which we must be always thankful to God. Sept 30 Tuesday: Mt 13: 47-53: 47 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind; 48 when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad. 49 So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, 50 and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. 51 "Have you understood all this?" They said to him, "Yes." 52 And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old." 53 And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there. The context: Today’s Gospel gives the third of a set of three parables Jesus preached on the kingdom of God/Heaven and the conditions for entering it. The parable of the fishing net: In Palestine, there were two main ways of fishing. The first was with the casting-net, which required a keen eye and great skill in throwing the net at the correct moment. The second was with a dragnet or seine. Galilean seine nets were tied to two boats and drawn through the water. The catch was sorted only afterwards, with edible or kosher fish going to market and unacceptable fish being thrown away. Just as a dragnet collects good and bad fish indiscriminately, so the Church is bound to be a mixture of all kinds of people, good and bad, useless and useful. This parable encourages the Church to adopt an open approach to Evangelism. The parable also teaches that the time of separation will come in the Final Judgment, when the good and the bad will be sent to their respective destinies. This parable is, thus, a counterpart to the parable of the weeds and the wheat. The concluding simile: Jesus concludes his parables by advising the listeners to imitate wise scribes (Jewish scholars -- the experts in the Law and/or Scriptures.) A scholar need not give up his scholarship when he becomes a Christian; rather he should use it for Christ. A businessman need not give up his business; rather he should run it as a Christian would. Christians are also expected to be like scholars who consider both the old and the new. Life messages: 1) A lesson in tolerance and compassionate understanding. The lesson of this parable is that the Church is a mixed body of saints and sinners (good and rotten fish). There will be always a temptation on the part of some who feel they are more "faithful" to separate themselves from the “unfaithful.” But Jesus reminds us that the final judgment resulting in reward or punishment is the work of God. Thus, we must learn to be tolerant, compassionate and understanding of those who seem to us to fall far below the requirements of the Gospel and the Kingdom. Let us humbly admit the fact that only Jesus and Mary were not a mixture of good and evil. Let us admit as St. Paul did, “I am what I am with the grace of God Oct. 1 Wednesday: Therese of Child Jesus: Mt 18: 1-4: 1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them, 3 and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Marie Therese Martin was born on Jan 2, 1873 as the youngest of nine children of a silk merchant, Louis Martin, and his wife, Zelie Guerin. Therese lost her mother at 4 and four of her siblings in their early childhood. She was the ‘little flower” of her father. One of her older sisters joined the Visitation convent and three others became Carmelite nuns. Therese joined the Carmelite convent at Lisieux at 15 with special permission from Pope Leo XIII. She died of tuberculosis when she was 24 years and 9 months old on September 30, 1897. Pope Pius XI declared her a saint on May 17, 1925, just 28 years after her death. Pope John Paul II declared her a “Doctor of the Church” in 1997. Sources of her life history: 1) Autobiography of a Little Flower (The Story of a Soul); 2) 300 letters; 3) 8- One act Plays; 4) 50 poems. Secret of her Little Way and short-cut to heaven: Do ordinary things in an extraordinary way out of love for God, with 100% dedication and child-like trust, ever ready to undertake any type of sacrifice. Convert suffering into redemptive suffering and use it for the apostolate. Conditions: 1) Be child-like and innocent with trusting faith in a loving Heavenly Father. 2) Do everything with 100% dedication as being done for our caring and forgiving God, our Father. 3) Be ready to undertake sacrifice for others. St. Therese offered all her sacrifices a) for the reparation of sins of others and for her own sins b) for missionaries c) for the conversion of sinners. Message: Let us follow the shortcut of Little Flower by becoming child-like in our relationship with God and by doing His will with 100% sincerity and love. Oct 2 Thursday: The Holy Guardian Angels: Holy Guardian Angels: Mt 18: 1-5, 10:1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them, 3 and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; 10 "See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven 1 angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. The Guardian Angel: Although the doctrine and traditional belief in the Guardian Angel is not a dogma of faith, it is based on the Bible.