Daily Meditation - Friday 25April 2008 - 5th Week Easter - ST. PAUL MAKES AN ALMOST DREADFUL MISTAKE

[BarbaraTherese]

Readings
usccb.org/nab/readings/042508.shtml

Meditation
wau.org/meditations/meditations.asp?month=4&day=25&year=2008&x=12&y=4

1 Peter 5:5-14

Feast of St. Mark

When we see “Saint” in front of someone’s name, we may think they got that way by themselves.

But St. Mark, whose feast day we celebrate today, tells a different story. He might have been completely forgotten if someone else hadn’t believed in him

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• Mark was the son of Mary, a widow in whose house the early Christians often gathered (Acts 12:12).
• Although not one of the twelve apostles, it’s likely that he was one of Jesus’ followers.
• Mark accompanied his cousin Barnabas and Paul on their first missionary journey, but for some reason, he left them prematurely (13:13).

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• When it was time for Paul’s next trip, he didn’t want to take Mark along

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• In his eyes, Mark had deserted the cause of the gospel (15:38).
• Fortunately, Barnabas didn’t give up on him.
• While Paul went on to Syria with Silas, Barnabas took Mark to Cyprus (Acts 15:39-41).

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A second chance

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*** was all Mark needed.

• Tradition tells us that Mark went on to Rome, became Peter’s interpreter, and later wrote his Gospel based on Peter’s preaching.
• Paul eventually forgave Mark, commending him for his service and calling his companionship a “comfort” (2 Timothy 4:11). Tradition also holds that Mark founded the church in Alexandria and was martyred there.
  What if Barnabas had rejected Mark because of his early failure? He might never have become Peter’s “son” in the faith (1 Peter 5:13). What’s worse, he might never have written his Gospel—which means that Matthew and Luke might not have written their Gospels either! If Barnabas hadn’t shown Mark a little compassion, who knows what kind of Bible we would be reading today?

The lesson here is that we should never give up on anyone. We’re not just individuals. We are family, and we need each other. God’s grace and love can cover “a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8)—and not only sins but desertions, weaknesses, failures, and individual quirks as well.

• Our willingness to mend relationships can make a difference not only in our lives but in eternity.
• We never know who the next Mark might be, so let’s keep encouraging and building up our brothers and sisters!

“Father, help me to see the gifts in others, and not their shortcomings. Show me how to love, encourage, and inspire them to serve you better!”

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Sometimes I can think that saints should be sinless and perfect which, of course, is far from the truth. Many of our saints in their writings call themselves dreadful names and this is not pious platitude - saints are not faultless nor necessarily sinless. They have lived lives, however, of heroic virtue despite their humanity and ours is a faulted nature prone to mistakes and failure.

The story of St. Mark illustrates how St. Paul - our great(est?) theologian and teacher - almost made a really dreadful mistake and as the meditation relates, if St. Barnabas had not seen something worthwhile in Mark, who knows what would have happened to him. St. Paul judged and then condemned
Mark. (the blush is for St. Paul! ) And again as the meditation tells us, this tells us something important too…also that The Lord is forever teaching us in very many ways, even through our faults and failings. I read somewhere that the reason we faul and fail and that God allows it is because there is something we need to learn we have not learnt as yet. Someone here has a beautiful signature from Scripture which runs something like “The Lord does whatever He wants on the earth, in the seas, under the seas and in the Heavens”.
The theology of God’s Permissive Will is not difficult to grasp and is a beautiful theology.

I like mischieviously to tell true blue Aussie Catholics that Blessed Mary MacKillop stole a piano! And if they dispute this with shock, then I tell them to read her life story, which is a way of getting them to pore over the heroic and very human life of Mary MacKillop. The story runs that a parish priest lent her a piano as she wanted to have music lessons for her students. The convent ran into dire need of money and Mary sold the piano. When accused of theft, she said that she had forgotten the piano was only on loan. Perhaps this is holding up her canonization, which we are hoping and praying The Holy Father will announce here in Australia on World Youth Day…my hope and prayer is that by then the Devil’s Advocate after years of pouring over the story will decide perhaps she really did forget the piano was only on loan. …and Mary’s canonization can go ahead.
Now that assessment of the dear old Office of The Devil’s Advocate is all purely in jest!!!

If you want to be a saint, just never give up, no matter what, on the hope. One of our great saints said “to be a saint, will it”. The life of St. Therese reveals that to be a saint it is not hard in that one has to do hard or grand things…her life shows rather that one does very ordinary things (she was a very ordinary type nun to all around her) but do the ordinary extra ordinary well. And goodness knows we could do with heaps more saints who are married and lay peole as role models for the rest of us.

…and on we go…

Blessings as Easter draws to a close…Barb

 

[LSK]

Thank you, Barbara. You have made it very clear that all of us…and I mean ALL…are called to holiness…and we cannot use the ‘we are not saints’ excuse, because apparently none of the saints were saints all the time!

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Thank you, Barbara. You have made it very clear that all of us…and I mean ALL…are called to holiness…and we cannot use the ‘we are not saints’ excuse, because apparently none of the saints were saints all the time!

No, they weren’t…the title “saint” does not mean sinless or faultless, rather heroic in virtue…quite a lot of our saints had faults and being me I delight in reading these things…and yes every one of us has a call from God to sanctity and the Grace to support that call in every moment, every day to fulfill it…so when you write your diary, be honest, so that when you are canonized others will be able to see openly your faults and failings, commissions and omissions and feel encouraged to keep on striving for sanctity themselves. After all, when it is published after your canonization, you don’t have to worry about confronting your next door neighbour at the local supermarket …don’t worrry about the dear old Office of The Devil’s Advocate either, for God alone makes saints…
I seem to be in silly mood tonight…although even in stupidity there can still be an element of truth…

…somewhere…maybe…http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/15/15_8_11.gif…

Thank you for the Post, LSK!

…and on we go…

Blessings this Easter drawing to a close…Barb
Goodness, I have just noticed your link on your signature and accessed it and had a very quick look…
I was not alluding to your journal in my Post above , rather having a giggle over my diaries if they were ever published:hypno:…

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Just in case someone reading my Posts should be confused, the following explains the role of the Office of The Devil’s Advocate in the canonization process. This Office is now abolished.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil’s_advocate

Formerly, during the canonization process of the Roman Catholic Church, both the Promoter of the Faith (Latin Promotor Fidei) and the Devil’s Advocate (Latin advocatus diaboli) were canon lawyers appointed by the Church to argue for and against the canonization of the candidate, respectively. It was the latter’s job to take a skeptical view of the candidate’s character, to look for holes in the evidence, to argue that any miracles attributed to the candidate were fraudulent, etc. The Devil’s advocate was opposed by God’s advocate, whose job was to make the argument in favor of canonization. The office was established in 1587 during the reign of Pope Sixtus V and was abolished by Pope John Paul II in 1983.

This abolition streamlined the canonization process considerably, helping John Paul II to usher in an unprecedented number of elevations: nearly 500 individuals were canonized and over 1,300 were beatified during his tenure as Pope as compared to only 98 canonizations by all his 20th-century predecessors.

Such a dramatic increase suggests that the office of the Devil’s Advocate had served to reduce the number of canonizations by complicating the process. Some argue that it served a useful role in ensuring that canonizations did not proceed without due care and hence the status of sainthood was not easily achieved. In cases of controversy the Vatican may still seek to informally solicit the testimony of critics of a candidate for canonization.