Reflection on Today’s Gospel – Lk 12:5-38. Optional Memorial of Saint Paul of the Cross, Priest
“Gird your loins and light your lamps " - these two simple pictures perfectly reflect the truth that Christ's disciples live in the world but are not of this world. The image of girded loins is a sign of readiness for work or travel: a long robe was slightly tucked up with the belt so that it would not interfere with movement.
We read in the Book of Exodus that on the Passover night, the night they left Egyptian bondage, God's people ate the lamb with girded garments and walking sticks in their hands. So, the words of the Lord Jesus, "let your loins be girded," mean: Do not seek the final rest on this earth. Life on this earth is short, 120 years at most. You have been called to eternal life. Let your mortal life be a quest for eternal life. It would be a disaster if someone on this earth were looking for his ultimate goal. Rather, make sure that you are ready to accept your Lord each day and give Him account of your life, for He may come unexpectedly.
On the other hand, the image of lit torches contains a call not to stay in the dark even if we are surrounded by night. Ignorance of God's truth is called Night in the Scripture. The Scriptures vividly tell about those who do not know God that they sit in darkness and in the shadow of death - they do not know from where they came to this world or where they are going, they do not even know which way to go. But you, Jesus tells us today, have your torches lit. After all, you have come to know the truth that God has loved you and called you out of darkness into his true light. Hold to this truth and strive to walk through life in the ways illuminated by God's commandments.
The Apostle Paul wrote about it movingly in his First Letter to the Thessalonians. Let us try to listen to these words as if they were a commentary to these words of the Lord Jesus, so that we would try to have lit torches with us: “But you, brothers, are not in darkness, for that day to overtake you like a thief. For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober. Those who sleep go to sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet that is hope for salvation” (1 Tess 5: 4-8).
And this is the basic question that arises from reading today's Gospel: Do I really belong to the day? Because maybe I fell asleep on the hope of eternal life? Maybe I am drunk in the world and nothing beyond that matters to me? Maybe my torch has gone out and I am sitting in the dark and in the night of death? If so, it is time to wake up and find your torch.
Optional Memorial of Saint Paul of the Cross, Priest
On the hill of Celio, near the Colosseum, in the Basilica of St. John and St. Paul in Rome there is the body of an 81-year-old man who passed into eternal rest on October 18, 1775. This is Paul Francis Danei - St. Paul of the Cross, as he called himself at the moment when he became the first Passionist as a 25-year-old man.
He was asking himself a persistent question: Why? He had known pain, hunger and setbacks since he was a child. Sensitive to human problems, he had heard this question and read it in human eyes. Searching –he found the answer. Not in philosophical systems, not in older or newer theories, but in the person of the Crucified Jesus. The truth that he discovered was too great and demand for it too widespread, that it was impossible to keep it to oneself.
He gave up the idea of marriage and families to start a religious family. "He gathered his companions to live together and to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to men" (Constitutions of the Congregation of the Passionists, 1). Christ on the Cross - is the starting point in the activity and life of Paul, and the reaching point is human confusion in the troubles of life and in the search for the meaning of existence. Martyred Jesus and the people. From people to Christ - with Christ to people - this is the subject of his activity, astonishing in its scope and effects. And so, he added preaching to contemplation, and combined his passion for hermitism and penitential life with the dynamic apostolate of the word of the cross. Looking at the cross in this way, Paul consciously entered the way of the cross, because he knew perfectly well that only in this way could he become closely to be one with the Crucified. From the very first moments he loved the cross, embraced it tightly with his arms and pressed it to his heart.
To constantly meditate on the mystery of the Savior's Passion, he asked that it be engraved on his heart. However, he did not stop at himself, but always made sure that the cross of Christ and his saving passion were shown to people. He required the monks to live in deep friendship with Jesus Crucified first, thatin this way, they could better bear witness to Him among the people. The entire external organization was subordinated to this ideal. Constant contact with Jesus Crucified left an imprint on Paul's mentality, on his way of speaking and even on his lifestyle.
Saint Paul of the Cross, originally named Paolo Francesco Daneii, was born on January 3, 1694, in the town of Ovado, in northwestern Italy. Initially, he fought in the Venetian army against the Turks. He became a clergyman, even though this resulted in the loss of property, which he was to inherit on the condition of finding a wife. He claimed that the Passion of Jesus Christ is the greatest work of God's love. After taking monastic vestments, he took the name of Paul of the Cross. In 1737, St. Paul founded the first religious house of Passionists Ritiro, i.e., Seclusion. As a spiritual testament to his sons, he left what he himself had realized throughout his life: the command to constantly remember the Passion of Christ and to proclaim this Mystery to others. "He wanted his disciples to live like the Apostles ", caring for a deep spirit of prayer, penance and solitude" (Constitutions of the Congregation of Passionists, 1). The monastic rule of the new congregation was approved on May 15, 1741 by Benedict XIV.
Paul of the Cross was one of the greatest preachers of the eighteenth century. His piety was characterized by passion, that is, contemplating and participating in the mystery of the Lord's Passion. He died in Rome on October 18, 1775. He was buried in the Basilica of Saints John and Paul. Even though the canonical process began quickly, it took a long time. To the glory of the blessed Paul of the Cross was elevated by Pius IX in 1853; the same pope solemnly canonized him in 1867. St. Paul of the Cross is a patron of thePassionists and an advocate of the devotion to the Passion of Christ.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george