John the Baptist’s preaching
Prepare for God’s coming
Luke 3:1-6
1. Opening prayer
Lord Jesus, send Your Spirit to help us to read the Scriptures with the same mind that You read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the bible, You helped them to discover the presence of God in the disturbing events of Your sentence and death. Thus, the cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life and of resurrection.
Create silence within us so that we may listen to Your voice in creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the poor and suffering. May Your word guide us so that we too, like the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, may experience the force of Your resurrection and witness to others that You are alive in our midst as source of fraternity, justice and peace. We ask this of You, Jesus, Son of Mary, who revealed the Father to us and sent us Your Spirit. Amen.
2. Reading
a) A key to the reading:
The Gospel text of the second Sunday of Advent speaks to us of John the Baptist, prophet, in the desert preparing the way for the Lord. For centuries, people were living in expectation of the coming of the Messiah, and the ever more burdensome Roman occupation increased the desire for the coming of the Liberator, the Savior. The presence of John in the desert was a sign that God was once more visiting His people. Redemption was close at hand!
Luke is careful to place the coming of John the Baptist within the socio-political and religious context of the time. On the socio-political level, Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod governor of Galilee, and Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests. Then, using a biblical text, Luke places John within the religious context of God’s plan and says that he came to prepare the realization of the secular hopes of the Messiah’s coming.
b) A division of the text to help with the reading:
Luke 3:1-2: Placing John’s action in time and space
Luke 3:3: A summary of John’s political activities
Luke 3:4-6: Biblical light shed on John’s activities
c) Text:
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
3. A moment of prayerful silence
that the Word of God may penetrate and enlighten our life.
4. Some questions
to help us in our personal reflection.
a) What pleased or struck you most in this text? Why?
b) Where and when does John come on the scene? What is the significance of this specifying of the time and place?
c) What is the significance of the biblical references for an understanding of John’s activities?
d) Desert, way, paths, valley, mountain, hill, winding ways, rough roads: what is the significance of these images to understand better Jesus’ activities?
e) What is this text’s message for us today?
5. For those who wish to go deeper into the theme
a) Yesterday’s and today’s contexts:
* Luke places John’s activities in the 15th year of Tiberius, Emperor of Rome. Tiberius was emperor from 14 to 37 A.D. In 63 B.C., the Roman emperor had invaded Palestine and imposed a severe form of slavery on the people. Popular uprisings followed each other, especially in Galilee, but were harshly suppressed by the Roman legions. From 4 B.C. to 6 A.D., that is, while Archelaus was governor, violence broke out in Judea. This fact forced Joseph and Mary go back to Nazareth in Galilee and not to Bethlehem in Judea (Mt 2:22). In 6 A.D., Archelaus was deposed and Judea became a Roman province whose procurator was appointed directly by the Emperor of Rome. Pilate was one of these procurators. He ruled from 25 to 36. This change in the political regime brought a great calm, but occasional uprisings, such as the one of Barabbas (Mk 15:7), and their immediate repression by the Romans (Lk 13:1) were reminders of the extreme seriousness of the situation. Any little spark was enough to create the fire of revolt! Calm was just a truce, an occasion offered by history, by God, for people to look again at the journey they had undertaken (cf. Lk 13:3, 5) and thus, avoid complete destruction. Rome was cruel. Any revolt would spell the end of the Temple and the Nation (Jn 11:48; cf. Lk 13:34-35; 19:41-44).
* It is in this context, about the year 28 A.D., that John the Baptist comes on the scene as prophet in the desert. Luke speaks of the great expectation that arose among the people concerning the preaching of John the Baptist, who proclaimed a baptism of conversion for the forgiveness of sin. Today, too, there is a great desire for conversion and reconciliation with God, which manifests itself in various ways: the search for meaning in life, the search for spirituality, the international movement of the World Social Forum: “A different world is possible!”, and many other religious movements. Social workers and politicians are searching for a more human world and thus confirm this desire for conversion or reconciliation with God. Advent is the proper time to renew in us this desire for change, for conversion and for coming closer to God.
b) A commentary on the text:
Luke 3:1-2: Recalling the old prophets.
The way Luke introduces the preaching of John is very similar to the introduction to the books of the old prophets. These mentioned the names of the kings of the time of the prophets’ activities. See, for instance, Isaiah (Isa 1:1), Jeremiah (Jer 1:1-3), Hosea (Hos 1:1), Amos (Am 1:1) and others. Luke does the same thing so as to say that if for nearly 500 years there was no prophet, now a new prophet has come by the name of John, son of Zachary and Elizabeth. Luke is concerned with placing these events in time and space. He introduces the names of the governors and describes the places where John worked. In fact, salvation history is not separate from human and personal history.
This concern of Luke’s arouses our curiosity. Today, when a person is ordained to the priesthood or professes final vows, it is customary to print a holy card recalling the date and place of ordination or profession, and some meaningful phrase from the Bible or a saint is included to express the significance of the ordination or profession in the life of the person concerned. However, we never come across a holy card saying, for instance, “In the fifth year of Bush, president of the United States; Blair being president of the council of the United Kingdom; Prodi president of the council of Italy; Zapatero president of the council of Spain; and Joseph Ratzinger Pope, named Benedict XVI, I received my priestly ordination to proclaim the Good News to the poor, to give sight to the blind, to free the oppressed and to proclaim a year of grace of the Lord!” Why does Luke choose to give the dates of salvation history together with those of the history of humankind?
Luke 3:3: Repentance and forgiveness.
John goes through the region of the Jordan preaching a baptism of penance so as to obtain pardon for one’s sins. Repentance (in Greek: metanoia) means change, not just in one’s moral behavior, but also and above all in one’s mentality. Change in one’s way of thinking! People were to become aware that their way of thinking, influenced by the “yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod” (Mk 8:15), that is, by the government’s propaganda and by the official religion, was wrong and had to change. Pardon brings with it reconciliation with God and with the neighbor. In this way, John was proclaiming a new way for the people to relate to God. Reconciliation will also be the mark of Jesus’ preaching: reconciliation even “seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22).
Luke 3:4-6: A definition of John’s mission.
Luke quotes the following text from Isaiah to assist readers to better understand the meaning of John’s preaching: “A voice cries, ‘Prepare in the desert a way for Yahweh. Make straight path for our God across the wastelands. Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be leveled, every cliff become a plateau, every escarpment a plain; then the glory of Yahweh will be revealed and all humanity will see it together for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken’” (cf. Isa 40:3-5). In this text, Isaiah proclaimed the people’s return from exile to Palestine and he described it as though it were another Exodus. It was as if the people, coming back from the servitude of Babylon, were leaving Egypt and entering once more into the desert. For Luke, Jesus begins a new exodus prepared by the preaching of John in the desert.
The Gospels of Matthew (Mt 3:3) and Mark (Mk 1:3) also quote the same section of Isaiah, but they only quote the first part (Isa 40:3). Luke quotes the full text up to the point where Isaiah says, “and all humanity will see the glory of the Lord” (Isa 40:5). The expression “all humanity” means every human being. This little difference shows Luke’s concern for the communities, that the prophets had already foreseen this openness to the pagans! Jesus came not only for the Jews but so that “every human being” might see the saving power of God. Luke wrote his Gospel for the community in Greece who, for the most part, were converted pagans.
c) Further information:
John, the prophet – Since the sixth century before Christ, prophecy had ceased. "No prophet any more", it was said (Ps 74:9). People lived in expectation of the prophet promised by Moses (Deut 18:15; 1 Mac 4:46; 14:41). This long waiting period ended with the coming of John (Lk 16:16). The people did not consider John as a rebel like Barabbas, or like a scribe or Pharisee, but as a prophet longed for by all (Lk 1:76). Many thought he was the Messiah. Even in Luke’s time, in the 80’s, there were still those who thought John was the Messiah (Acts 19:1-6).
John appears and proclaims, "Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand!" (Mt 3:2). He was jailed because of his courage in denouncing the errors of the people and of those in authority (Lk 3:19-20). When Jesus heard that John was in prison, He went back to Galilee and proclaimed the same message as John: "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent and believe the gospel" (Mk 1:15). Jesus carries on from where John left off and goes further. The Old Testament ends with John and in Jesus the New Testament begins. Jesus even says, “I tell you, of all the children born to women, there is no one greater than John, yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Lk 7:28).
The content of John’s preaching (Luke 3:7-18) – John draws the crowds by preaching a baptism of change and forgiveness of sins. This shows that people were ready to change and wanted to relate to God in a new way. John denounced errors and attacked privileges. He said that being children of Abraham was no guarantee nor did it give any advantage before God. For God, he said, the stone and the child of Abraham were the same, because "God can raise children of Abraham from these stones!" (Lk 3:8) What advances a person in God’s sight is not the privilege of being a child of Abraham but actions that produce good fruit.
Luke talks of three categories of people who ask of John, “What must we do?”: the people (Lk 3:10), the publicans (Lk 3:12) and the soldiers (Lk 3:14). The answer for the people is simple: “Anyone who has two tunics must share with the one who has none, and anyone with something to eat must do the same!” (Lk 3:11) This is a clear answer: sharing of goods is the condition for receiving God’s presence and to pass from the Old to the New Testament. In his answer to the publicans (Lk 3:13) and to the soldiers (Lk 3:14), John asks for the same thing, but applies it to their situation. The publicans must not receive more than is permitted. The exploitation of the people by the publicans was a plague in the society of those days. Soldiers must not resort to extortion or false accusations and must be satisfied with their wages.
In the 80’s, when Luke is writing, many people still thought that John was the Messiah (cf. Acts 19:3). Luke quotes John’s own words to help readers to place the figure of John within the framework of salvation history. John acknowledges that Jesus is stronger. The difference between him and Jesus is in the gift of the Spirit who will be transmitted through Jesus. Luke shows that John’s concept of the Messiah was incomplete. For John, the Messiah would be a severe judge, ready to pass judgment and to punish (Lk 3:17). Perhaps that is why John, later, had difficulty recognizing Jesus as the Messiah (Lk 7:18-28), since Jesus did not behave like a severe judge who punished. Rather He said, “I judge no one!” (Jn 8:15; 12:47) Rather than judging and punishing, Jesus showed tenderness, welcomed sinners and ate with them.
6. Praying Psalm 15 (14)
Lord, who can enter your sanctuary?
Yahweh, who can find a home in Your tent,
who can dwell on Your holy mountain?
Whoever lives blamelessly,
who acts uprightly,
who speaks the truth from the heart,
who keeps the tongue under control,
who does not wrong a comrade,
who casts no discredit on a neighbor,
who looks with scorn on the vile,
but honors those who fear Yahweh,
who stands by an oath at any cost,
who asks no interest on loans,
who takes no bribe to harm the innocent.
No one who so acts can ever be shaken.
7. Final Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank You for the word that has enabled us to understand better the will of the Father. May Your Spirit enlighten our actions and grant us the strength to practice that which Your Word has revealed to us. May we, like Mary, Your mother, not only listen to but also practice the Word. You who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
1) Opening prayer
God our Father,
through Your Son You made us a new creation.
He shared our nature and became one of us;
with His help, may we become more like Him,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2) Gospel Reading - John 3:22-30
Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing. John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there, and people came to be baptized, for John had not yet been imprisoned. Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew about ceremonial washings. So they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing and everyone is coming to him." John answered and said, "No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said that I am not the Christ, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease."
3) Reflection
• Both John the Baptist and Jesus indicated a new way to the crowds. But Jesus, after having adhered to the movement of John the Baptist, and after having been baptized by him, advanced a step ahead and created His own movement. He baptized people in the Jordan River when John the Baptist was also doing it. Both of them attracted the poor and abandoned people of Palestine by announcing the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
• Jesus, the new preacher, had a certain advantage over John the Baptist. He baptized more people and attracted more disciples. Thus, a tension arose between the disciples of John and those of Jesus, concerning the “purification,” that is, concerning the value of baptism. The disciples of John the Baptist experienced a certain envy and went to John to speak to him and informed him about the movement of Jesus.
• John’s response to his disciples is a beautiful response, which reveals his great spirit. John helps his disciples to see things more objectively. He uses three arguments: a) Nobody receives anything which is not given by God. If Jesus does such beautiful things, it is because he receives them from God (Jn 3:27). Instead of having envy, the disciples should feel joy. b) John reaffirms once again that he, John, is not the Messiah but only the precursor (Jn 3:28). c) In the end, he uses a comparison taken from the wedding feast. At that time, in Palestine, on the day of the wedding, in the house of the bride, the so called “friends of the bridegroom” waited for the arrival of the bridegroom to present him to the bride. In this case, Jesus is the bridegroom, the crowd is the bride, John the friend of the bridegroom. John the Baptist says that, in the voice of Jesus, he recognizes the voice of the bridegroom and can present him to the bride, to the crowds. At this moment, the bridegroom, the people, leave the friend of the bridegroom and follow Jesus, because they recognize in Him the voice of their bridegroom! And for this reason the joy of John is great, “complete joy”. John wants nothing for himself! His mission is to present the bridegroom to the bride! The last sentence summarizes everything: “He must increase, I must decrease!” This statement is also the program for anyone who follows Jesus.
• At the end of the first century, in Palestine as well as in Asia Minor, where there were some communities of Jews, there were also people who had been in contact with John the Baptist or who had been baptized by him (Acts 19:3). Seen from outside, the movement of John the Baptist and that of Jesus were very similar to one another. Both of them announced the coming of the Kingdom (cf. Mt 3:1-2; 4:17). There must have been some confusion between the followers of John and those of Jesus. And because of this, the witness of John about Jesus was very important. The four Gospels are concerned about transmitting the words of John the Baptist saying that he is not the Messiah. For the Christian communities, the Christian response, John’s response, “He must increase but I must decrease” was valid not only for the disciples of John at the time of Jesus, but also for the disciples of the Batiste or Cambric community of the end of the first century.
4) Personal questions
• “He must increase, I must decrease”. This is John’s agenda. Is this also my agenda?
• What is important is that the bride finds the bridegroom. We are only spokespersons, nothing more. Am I this?
• Here John shows the essence of humility, which has many forms. In what ways do I exemplify humility?
5) Concluding prayer
They shall dance in praise of His name,
play to Him on tambourines and harp!
For Yahweh loves His people,
He will crown the humble with salvation. (Ps 149:3-4)
1) Opening prayer
All-powerful Father,
You have made known the birth of the Savior
by the light of a star.
May He continue to guide us with the light,
for He lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2) Gospel Reading - Luke 5:12-16
It happened that there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where Jesus was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, "Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean." Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, "I do will it. Be made clean." And the leprosy left him immediately. Then he ordered him not to tell anyone, but "Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them." The report about him spread all the more, and great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments, but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.
3) Reflection
• A leper came close to Jesus. He had to live far away from others, because whoever touched him remained impure! But that leper had great courage. He transgressed the norms of religion so as to be able to get close to Jesus. He said, “Sir, if You want, You can heal me!”That is to say, “It is not necessary for You to touch me.” It is sufficient for the Lord to want it, and He cured him! The sentence reveals two evils: a) the evil of leprosy which renders him impure; b) the evil of isolation, to which he was condemned by society and by religion. This also reveals the man’s great faith in the power of Jesus. Jesus, profoundly moved, heals him from both evils! In the first place, to cure the isolation, He touches the leper. It is as if He said, “For Me you are not excluded. I accept you as a brother!” And then He cures the leper saying, "I do will it. Be made clean."
• The leper, in order to be able to enter in contact with Jesus, had transgressed the norms of the law. Jesus also, in order to be able to help that excluded man and reveal to him a new face of God, transgresses the norms of His religion and touches the leper. At that time, whoever touched a leper became impure according to the religious authority and by the law of the time.
• Jesus, not only cures, but also wants the cured person to be able to live with others. He once again inserts the person in society so that he can live together with others. At that time for a leper to be accepted again in the community, he needed a certificate from a priest, that he had been cured. It is the same today. The sick person leaves the hospital having a document signed by the doctor. Jesus obliges the person to go and look for the document, so that he can live normally with the others. He obliges the authority to recognize that this man has been cured.
• Jesus forbids the leper to speak about the healing. The Gospel of Mark informs us that this prohibition was not effective and went unheeded. The leper went away, but then started freely proclaiming and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but stayed outside in deserted places (Mk 1:45) Why? Jesus had touched a leper. For this reason, according to the opinion of the religion of the time, now He Himself was impure and should be far away from everybody. He could no longer enter into the cities. Mark says that the people did not care at all about these official norms, in fact, people came to Him from all parts (Mk 1:45).
• The two-fold message which Luke and Mark give the community of their time and to all of us is the following: a) to announce the Good News means to give witness of the concrete experience that one has of Jesus. What does the leper announce? He tells the others the good that Jesus has done to him. That is all! All this! This is the witness which impels others to accept the Good News of God, that brought by Jesus. b) In order to take the Good News to people, it is necessary to not be afraid to transgress the religious norms which are contrary to God’s project and which render communication, dialogue and the lived experience of love difficult, even if this implies difficulty for the people, as happened with Jesus.
4) Personal questions
• In order to help the neighbor, Jesus transgresses the law of purity. In the Church today, are there any laws which render difficult or prevent the practice of love toward neighbor?
• In order to be cured, the leper had the courage to challenge the public opinion of his time. Do I have such courage?
• Do I treat the homeless on the street as a leper? Think of all the times. Do I reach out and hold a hand, or give a hug, or do I cross the street or pretend they aren't there?
• Jesus gave what the leper needed, not a donation or some money. When I am asked for help, do I take the time to give the help that is needed to “cure” the problem, or do I offer some token donation (if at all) and just keep walking?
5) Concluding prayer
Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem, Zion, praise your God.
For He gives strength to the bars of your gates,
He blesses your children within you. (Ps 147:12-13)
1) Opening prayer
God our Father,
through Christ Your Son
the hope of eternal life dawned on our world.
Give to us the light of faith
that we may always acknowledge Him as our Redeemer
and come to the glory of His kingdom,
where He lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2) Gospel Reading - Luke 4:14-22a
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
3) Reflection
• Animated by the Spirit, Jesus returns toward Galilee and begins to announce the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Being in the community and teaching in the synagogues, He reaches Nazareth where He grew up. He was returning to the community where, since the time He was small, had participated in the celebration - for thirty years. The following Saturday, according to His custom, He went to the synagogue to be with the people and to participate in the celebrations.
• Jesus rises to read. He chooses a text from Isaiah which speaks about the poor, of prisoners, of the blind and the oppressed. The text reflects the situation of the people of Galilee in the time of Jesus. In the name of God, Jesus takes a stand to defend the life of His people, and with the words of Isaiah, He defines His mission: to proclaim the Good News to the poor, to proclaim freedom to prisoners, to restore sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed. Going back to the ancient tradition of the prophets, He proclaims “a year of grace of the Lord”. He proclaims a jubilee year. Jesus wants to reconstruct the community, the clan, in such a way that once again it may be the expression of their faith in God! And then, as God is Father of all, we should all be brothers and sisters of one another.
• In ancient Israel, the great family, the clan or community, was the basis of living together. It was the protection of families and of the people, the guarantee of the possession of the land, the principal channel of tradition, and the defense of the people. It was a concrete way of embodying the love of God in the love for neighbor. To defend the clan, the community, was the same as defending the Covenant with God. In Galilee at the time of Jesus, there was a two-fold segregation, that of the politics of Herod Antipas (4 BC to 39 AD) and the segregation of the official religion. This became the system of exploitation and of repression of the politics of Herod Antipas supported by the Roman Empire. Many people were homeless, excluded, and without work (Lk 14:21; Mt 20:3, 5-6). The result was that the clan, the community, was weakened. The families and the people remained without any help, without any defense. The official religion maintained by the religious authorities of the time, instead of strengthening the community in a way in which it could receive and accept the excluded, strengthened this segregation even more. The law of God was used to legitimize the exclusion of many people: women, children, Samaritans, foreigners, lepers, the possessed, publicans, the sick, the mutilated, the handicapped. It was all the opposite of the fraternity which God had dreamt for all! This was the political and economic situation, as well as the religious ideology. Everything conspired to weaken the local community and hinder the manifestation of the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ program, based on the prophecy of Isaiah, offered an alternative.
• After finishing the reading, Jesus updated the text applying it to the life of the people, saying, “Today, this reading, which you have heard with your own ears, has been fulfilled!” His way of joining the bible to the life of the people produced a two-fold reaction. Some remained surprised and amazed. Others had a negative reaction. Some were scandalized and wanted to have nothing more to do with Him. They said, “Is He not the son of Joseph?” (Lk 4:22). Why were they scandalized? They were because Jesus says to accept and receive the poor, the blind, the oppressed. But they did not accept His proposal. And thus, when He presented His project to accept the excluded, He Himself was excluded!
4) Personal questions
• Jesus joined faith in God with the social situation of His people. How do I live my faith in God?
• Where I live, are there any blind, prisoners, or oppressed? How do I treat them?
• How do I treat immigrants and foreigners? Is it with inclusion and love, or not? Do I also use “the law” to segregate people?
5) Concluding prayer
May His name be blessed for ever,
and endure in the sight of the sun.
In Him shall be blessed every race in the world,
and all nations call Him blessed. (Ps 72:17)
The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Antequera, Spain, was held 8 November 2012. The following were elected:
- Prioress: Sr. Liliana Mª Campos Rosa, O.Carm.
- 1st Councilor: Sr. Angelina Ngina Muli , O.Carm.
- 2nd Councilor: Sr. Teresa Ngusye Mbuvi, O.Carm.
- Treasurer: Sr. Angelina Ngina Muli , O.Carm.
- Sacristan: Sr. Juliana Kavithe Mwololo, O.Carm.
From 26 October to 4 November 2012 seventeen formators from the Asia-Australia-Oceania region gathered at the Provincial House of the Saint Thomas Province in Thrissur, India. They listened, discussed, and studied three important topics presented by three excellent facilitators: Fr. Stanislaus Swammikannu, SDB (formation for formators), Fr. John Keating, O.Carm. (Carmelite formation based on the RIVC), and Fr. Leopold Glueckert, O.Carm. (Carmelite history).
This regional formators gathering also formed a New Regional Formation Committee whose main task is to organize regional collaboration in the area of formation such as organizing the next regional formators gathering and the next regional Carmelite student friars meeting. They also proposed that the regional superiors consider a common preparation for solemn profession for Carmelites at regional level.
The group enjoyed the fraternal hospitality and were very grateful to the Carmelites from the Saint Thomas Province. They also visited Carmelaram, the community of the Delegation of Indian Latin and some communities of the Saint Thomas Province at Carmel Nivas (Minor Seminary), Carmel Book Stall, and Carmel Bhavan Retreat House (Karukutty).
The third congress of ALACAR (Latin American Association of Carmelites) was held in São Paulo, Brazil from the 22nd to 27th October. The theme of the meeting was "Community life in Carmel: gift and sign of joy and hope." More than 120 participants attended, including friars, nuns, sisters and lay Carmelites from both branches of the Order (O. Carm., and OCD).
The main speakers were the Prior General, Fr. Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., and former Superior General, Fr. Felipe Sainz de Baranda, O.C.D. Other presentations were given by Sister Marian Ambrosio, President of the Conference of Religious of Brazil, and Frs. Edênio Vale, SVD, Rafael Santamaría, OCD, Marío Naranjo, OCD and Antônio da Silvio Costa Jr., O. Carm. The speakers addressed the theme starting from different perspectives, personal experiences, and communities. The participants, meanwhile, worked in groups, deepening the topics covered in the talks and suggesting practical ways for strengthening the fraternal life in their communities.
During the meeting the participants made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, where Bishop Antônio Muniz, Carmelite Archbishop of Maceió in the northeast of Brazil, presided at the Eucharistic celebration. This was followed by a guided tour of this beautiful Brazilian shrine.
The next ALACAR congress will be held in 2015 and will be organized by the executive members of the association Fr. Raúl Maraví, O. Carm., and Fr. Marcos Juchem, O.C.D, and their collaborators. This meeting is an important initiative in the development and interaction among all members of the great Carmelite Family in Latin America.
Lectio Divina November 2012
General Intention: Ministers of the Gospel. That bishops, priests, and all ministers of the Gospel may bear the courageous witness of fidelity to the crucified and risen Lord.
Missionary Intention: Pilgrim Church. That the pilgrim Church on earth may shine as a light to the nations.
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- Thursday, November 1, 2012
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A meeting was held in “Il Carmelo”, Sassone, Italy from 16 to 19 October of all the provincial bursars of the Order. Also present were around a dozen lay people who work as business managers or finance directors in various provinces. There were a number of presentations made by different speakers: the Prior General addressed the group on the challenges facing the Order; the General Treasurer of the Jesuits, Father Thomas McClain spoke on “The Vow of Poverty and the Role of the Treasurer today”; Senior Vatican Analyst from CNN, John Allen Jr. outlined the four of the major trends he sees in the Church today; PCM Investment advisor Ted Disabato provided an analysis of the current financial crisis and suggested some strategies that might be adopted to meet our needs. The assembly also received an updates from the four General Councillors that represent the geographical areas of the Order. Proposals were also drawn up for the General Chapter that will be celebrated in 2013.
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Nomination of the first Prior Provincial and Councillors of the German Province
Written byFrom the 1st of January 2013 the provinces of Lower and Upper Germany will be united into one single German Province. Following a consultation of the brothers in both provinces, the Prior General, Fr. Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., with the consent of his Council, nominated the first Prior Provincial and Councillors of the united province.
They will take up office on the 1st January 2013 and remain in office until the first Provincial Chapter in 2015. The nominations were as follows:
- Prior Provincial: Fr. Dieter Lankes, O.Carm.
- First Councillor: Fr. Wilfried Wanjek, O.Carm.
- Second Councillor: Br. Andreas Scholten, O.Carm.
- Third Councillor: Fr. Roland Hinzer, O.Carm.
- Fourth Councillor: Br. Günter Benker, O.Carm.
The Elective Chapter of the Carmelite Monastery of Paranavaí, Brazil, was held 10 October 2012. The following were elected:
- Prioress: Sr. Derly de Paula Moreira, O.Carm.
- 1st Councilor: Sr. Maria do Carmo da Conceição, O.Carm.
- 2nd Councilor: Sr. Edna Maria Lopes de Sousa, O.Carm.
- Treasurer: Sr. Maria Alice Pereira Lopes, O.Carm.
- Sacristan: Sr. Maria do Carmo da Conceição, O.Carm.
Preparations are already well under way for a Carmelite youth gathering in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in July 2013 during the World Youth Day (WYD). Fr. Raul Maravi, O.Carm., Councillor General for the Americas has been working with a committee of the Rio Province and they will soon publish details of the Carmelite event. The icon of “Our Lady of Hope”, which was in Madrid during the Carmelite Day in 2011, is now travelling from community to community in Brazil and will finally arrive in Rio for the WYD itself. In North America a committee has been working towards a “Pilgrimage of Hope” for the Carmelite youth in Canada and the United States.
The Carmelite Youth Committee of Europe, established by the General Council and led by Fr. John Keating, O.Carm., Councillor General for Europe, continues its meetings towards a pan European Carmelite Youth Programme in this continent. A plan, approved by the General Council this year, has been sent to all the Provincials, Commissaries and Delegates General in Europe. From the 27th September to 1st October 2012, this committee met in Taizé, France, to work on the final details of the plan, which is being offered to Carmelite youth leaders and young participants. During their time in Taizé, the committee was helped by Brother Emile, who was former assistant to the founder of Taizé, Brother Roger Schutz.
Pope Benedict XVI
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today I would like to talk to you about St Thérèse of Lisieux, Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, who lived in this world for only 24 years, at the end of the 19th century, leading a very simple and hidden life but who, after her death and the publication of her writings, became one of the best-known and best-loved saints. “Little Thérèse” has never stopped helping the simplest souls, the little, the poor and the suffering who pray to her. However, she has also illumined the whole Church with her profound spiritual doctrine to the point that Venerable Pope John Paul II chose, in 1997, to give her the title “Doctor of the Church”, in addition to that of Patroness of Missions, which Pius XI had already attributed to her in 1939. My beloved Predecessor described her as an “expert in the scientia amoris” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, n. 42). Thérèse expressed this science, in which she saw the whole truth of the faith shine out in love, mainly in the story of her life, published a year after her death with the title The Story of a Soul. The book immediately met with enormous success, it was translated into many languages and disseminated throughout the world.
I would like to invite you to rediscover this small-great treasure, this luminous comment on the Gospel lived to the full! The Story of a Soul, in fact, is a marvellous story of Love, told with such authenticity, simplicity and freshness that the reader cannot but be fascinated by it! But what was this Love that filled Thérèse’s whole life, from childhood to death? Dear friends, this Love has a Face, it has a Name, it is Jesus! The Saint speaks continuously of Jesus. Let us therefore review the important stages of her life, to enter into the heart of her teaching.
Thérèse was born on 2 January 1873 in Alençon, a city in Normandy, in France. She was the last daughter of Louis and Zélie Martin, a married couple and exemplary parents, who were beatified together on 19 October 2008. They had nine children, four of whom died at a tender age. Five daughters were left, who all became religious. Thérèse, at the age of four, was deeply upset by the death of her mother (Ms A 13r). Her father then moved with his daughters to the town of Lisieux, where the Saint was to spend her whole life. Later Thérèse, affected by a serious nervous disorder, was healed by a divine grace which she herself described as the “smile of Our Lady” (ibid., 29v-30v). She then received her First Communion, which was an intense experience (ibid., 35r), and made Jesus in the Eucharist the centre of her life.
The “Grace of Christmas” of 1886 marked the important turning-point, which she called her “complete conversion” (ibid., 44v-45r). In fact she recovered totally, from her childhood hyper-sensitivity and began a “to run as a giant”. At the age of 14, Thérèse became ever closer, with great faith, to the Crucified Jesus. She took to heart the apparently desperate case of a criminal sentenced to death who was impenitent. “I wanted at all costs to prevent him from going to hell”, the Saint wrote, convinced that her prayers would put him in touch with the redeeming Blood of Jesus. It was her first and fundamental experience of spiritual motherhood: “I had such great trust in the Infinite Mercy of Jesus”, she wrote. Together with Mary Most Holy, young Thérèse loved, believed and hoped with “a mother’s heart” (cf. Pr 6/ior).
In November 1887, Thérèse went on pilgrimage to Rome with her father and her sister Céline (ibid., 55v-67r). The culminating moment for her was the Audience with Pope Leo XIII, whom she asked for permission to enter the Carmel of Lisieux when she was only just 15. A year later her wish was granted. She became a Carmelite, “to save souls and to pray for priests” (ibid., 69v).
At the same time, her father began to suffer from a painful and humiliating mental illness. It caused Thérèse great suffering which led her to contemplation of the Face of Jesus in his Passion (ibid., 71rc). Thus, her name as a religious — Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face — expresses the programme of her whole life in communion with the central Mysteries of the Incarnation and the Redemption. Her religious profession, on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, 8 September 1890, was a true spiritual espousal in evangelical “littleness”, characterized by the symbol of the flower: “It was the Nativity of Mary. What a beautiful feast on which to become the Spouse of Jesus! It was the little new-born Holy Virgin who presented her little Flower to the little Jesus” (ibid., 77r).
For Thérèse, being a religious meant being a bride of Jesus and a mother of souls (cf. Ms B, 2v). On the same day, the Saint wrote a prayer which expressed the entire orientation of her life: she asked Jesus for the gift of his infinite Love, to be the smallest, and above all she asked for the salvation of all human being: “That no soul may be damned today” (Pr 2).
Of great importance is her Offering to Merciful Love, made on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity in 1895 (Ms A, 83v-84r; Pr 6). It was an offering that Thérèse immediately shared with her sisters, since she was already acting novice mistress.
Ten years after the “Grace of Christmas” in 1896, came the “Grace of Easter”, which opened the last period of Thérèse’s life with the beginning of her passion in profound union with the Passion of Jesus. It was the passion of her body, with the illness that led to her death through great suffering, but it was especially the passion of the soul, with a very painful trial of faith (Ms C, 4v-7v). With Mary beside the Cross of Jesus, Thérèse then lived the most heroic faith, as a light in the darkness that invaded her soul. The Carmelite was aware that she was living this great trial for the salvation of all the atheists of the modern world, whom she called “brothers”.
She then lived fraternal love even more intensely (8r-33v): for the sisters of her community, for her two spiritual missionary brothers, for the priests and for all people, especially the most distant. She truly became a “universal sister”! Her lovable, smiling charity was the expression of the profound joy whose secret she reveals: “Jesus, my joy is loving you” (P 45/7). In this context of suffering, living the greatest love in the smallest things of daily life, the Saint brought to fulfilment her vocation to be Love in the heart of the Church (cf. Ms B, 3v).
Thérèse died on the evening of 30 September 1897, saying the simple words, “My God, I love you!”, looking at the Crucifix she held tightly in her hands. These last words of the Saint are the key to her whole doctrine, to her interpretation of the Gospel the act of love, expressed in her last breath was as it were the continuous breathing of her soul, the beating of her heart. The simple words “Jesus I love you”, are at the heart of all her writings. The act of love for Jesus immersed her in the Most Holy Trinity. She wrote: “Ah, you know, Divine Jesus I love you / The spirit of Love enflames me with his fire, / It is in loving you that I attract the Father” (P 17/2).
Dear friends, we too, with St Thérèse of the Child Jesus must be able to repeat to the Lord every day that we want to live of love for him and for others, to learn at the school of the saints to love authentically and totally. Thérèse is one of the “little” ones of the Gospel who let themselves be led by God to the depths of his Mystery. A guide for all, especially those who, in the People of God, carry out their ministry as theologians. With humility and charity, faith and hope, Thérèse continually entered the heart of Sacred Scripture which contains the Mystery of Christ. And this interpretation of the Bible, nourished by the science of love, is not in opposition to academic knowledge. The science of the saints, in fact, of which she herself speaks on the last page of her The Story of a Soul, is the loftiest science.
“All the saints have understood and in a special way perhaps those who fill the universe with the radiance of the evangelical doctrine. Was it not from prayer that St Paul, St Augustine, St John of the Cross, St Thomas Aquinas, Francis, Dominic, and so many other friends of God drew that wonderful science which has enthralled the loftiest minds?” (cf. Ms C 36r). Inseparable from the Gospel, for Thérèse the Eucharist was the sacrament of Divine Love that stoops to the extreme to raise us to him. In her last Letter, on an image that represents Jesus the Child in the consecrated Host, the Saint wrote these simple words: “I cannot fear a God who made himself so small for me! […] I love him! In fact, he is nothing but Love and Mercy!” (LT 266).
In the Gospel Thérèse discovered above all the Mercy of Jesus, to the point that she said: “To me, He has given his Infinite Mercy, and it is in this ineffable mirror that I contemplate his other divine attributes. Therein all appear to me radiant with Love. His Justice, even more perhaps than the rest, seems to me to be clothed with Love” (Ms A, 84r).
In these words she expresses herself in the last lines of The Story of a Soul: “I have only to open the Holy Gospels and at once I breathe the perfume of Jesus’ life, and then I know which way to run; and it is not to the first place, but to the last, that I hasten…. I feel that even had I on my conscience every crime one could commit… my heart broken with sorrow, I would throw myself into the arms of my Saviour Jesus, because I know that he loves the Prodigal Son” who returns to him. (Ms C, 36v-37r).
“Trust and Love” are therefore the final point of the account of her life, two words, like beacons, that illumined the whole of her journey to holiness, to be able to guide others on the same “little way of trust and love”, of spiritual childhood (cf. Ms C, 2v-3r; LT 226).
Trust, like that of the child who abandons himself in God’s hands, inseparable from the strong, radical commitment of true love, which is the total gift of self for ever, as the Saint says, contemplating Mary: “Loving is giving all, and giving oneself” (Why I love thee, Mary, P 54/22). Thus Thérèse points out to us all that Christian life consists in living to the full the grace of Baptism in the total gift of self to the Love of the Father, in order to live like Christ, in the fire of the Holy Spirit, his same love for all the others.
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
