DAVID BELLUSCI
  • Home
    • About Father Bellusci
    • Contact
  • TALKS
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
  • ARTICLES
    • Homilies
    • Catholic Pilgrim >
      • Photos
    • Book Reviews
  • FRASSATI
    • Reflections
  • Books
    • Pier Giorgio Frassati Truth, Love and Sacrifice
    • Roman Incense
    • Love Deformed, Love Transformed
    • Ontology Of Blue
    • Amor Dei in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
    • Beating The Drums
    • Readers Review
  • Sexuality
    • Humanae Vitae
    • Theology of the Body >
      • Introduction
      • Lessons 1-9
  • Guest Bloggers
    • Andrzej Skulski
    • Br. Gavin Rodrigues, O.P.
    • Lara Paniagua

Spread the good news

John 20: 11-18
"But Mary was standing outside near the tomb, weeping. Then, as she wept, she stooped to look inside, and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, the other at the feet. They said, 'Woman, why are you weeping?' 'They have taken my Lord away,' she replied, 'and I don't know where they have put him.' As she said this she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not realise that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?' Supposing him to be the gardener, she said, 'Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.' Jesus said, 'Mary!' She turned round then and said to him in Hebrew, 'Rabbuni!' -- which means Master. Jesus said to her, 'Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to the brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' So Mary of Magdala told the disciples, 'I have seen the Lord,' and that he had said these things to her." 

faith and pride

8/11/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Sunday | 27 | OT | C
Vancouver, October 6, 2019

What is a prophet? Prophets are sent by God and have the duty to look at first what is happening in the lives of the people, if they are faithful to God, and then, to discern God’s voice. The prophet warns of punishment, but he also gives hope. Warning is related to the need to make changes in sinful habits of the people. And God’s people need to be reminded because they are forgetful. Interior conversion is for all the faithful throughout one’s entire life. We are forgetful because we can easily be side-tracked, fall into sin and sinful habits. 


What is happening in our first reading? The prophet Habakkuk is writing sometime between the early-7th century and early 6th century BC the time of the Assyrian conquest in the north, and the rise of the Babylonians in the south who are referred to in Habakkuk as the Chaldeans. Israel and the people of God seem to be falling a part. The prophet Habakkuk speaks out!

Adults are no different than children in needing to be reminded. I had to remind a student -- the other day to be on time for class. I asked him why he was late: was it work? No. Was it a long walk across campus? No. Was it his bus connection? No. He simply did not see the importance of being on time -- he did not understand the value of punctuality. And asked me, with honest and sincerity, “Is it important to be at class on time?” Of course, I said.

Now I mention this because it demonstrates that even adults need to be reminded -- not just children -- of virtue. Things that we were taught, we forget, and so they are repeated by teachers, or parents or priests.

We all need to make changes if we want to grow in holiness. We cannot say, our life is perfect, or we are perfect, and we are pleasing to God. We please God, by turning to Christ and the Sacraments -- with increased fervour. But what is worse than not making changes, is not even recognising there are changes that need to be made.

And this is the role of the prophet: Who asks, look at your life, does it please God? Are your choices making you, god-like? In other words, holy. Be holy as your heavenly Father is holy. But Habakkuk also presents us with the challenge to our faith, when it seems that we are not heard, “O Lord, for how long shall I cry out for help, and you will not listen?” How does God correct the people, so they change their ways? In the Old Testament, it is essentially by teaching and by punishment.

Notice the last line of Habakkuk in our first reading: the righteous person lives by their faith. Habakkuk addresses God on behalf of the people. Habakkuk does not understand how even though the people may be sinful, God allows them to be punished by pagans – their enemies?

It seems strange. You believe in God but because you are sinning and you refuse to change your sinful ways, God sends your enemy to punish you.

This is what Habakkuk is reacting to: God, how can you do this? “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?” Habakkuk contrasts the faith of the righteous to the proud person. Faith means not only to believe in God, but also to trust in God.

Faith and Pride. The two are opposed to each other. Faith says I will listen to God, obey His commands, walk with Christ, striving for a life of holiness which is possible by God’s grace, trust is knowing that God loves me, He sent His Son to save me, and wants me to be saved so that I can have eternal life with Him. We were created to be with God.

More and more Israelites in the north were abandoning their God for pagan gods. And so, they were being punished to the point of the people in the south, in Judah, were also subjected to the sins of the north. Sins spread, like poison through the body that kills… And God’s response is to put an end to this venom which is infidelity to God’s Commands.
Pride is opposed to all these things. Pride is about me. About me knowing best. About me putting myself above God. Putting my truth above revealed Truth. Putting my definition of love, above the love that Jesus Christ teaches us which is self-giving love. Pride is the perversion of the image of God. We are created God’s image and our sins pervert this image.

In the second reading, the 2nd Letter of Paul to Timothy, notice what Paul tells Timothy, and us: God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love and of self-discipline. Power is related to love and self-discipline because the power of which St. Paul speaks is the power given to us by the Holy Spirit. Laying on of hands, sacramentally through Ordination to the Priesthood which gives the Priest the power to consecrate the bread and wine, and to absolve sins, and anoint the sick and dying.

But the laying of hands in a healing ministry, a non-sacramental sense, so the person experiences, the power of the Holy Spirit, cleansing, strengthening, healing… Power is not to be understood as human power, the power associated with dominance and pride, but the power to resist the devil, the power to overcome the devil, the power to exercise courage, the opposite of cowardice. Courage is a key virtue associated with power because it means we are not afraid to speak, proclaim and defend the truth. This is what power truly means: to be a person of courage, to resist temptation, to overcome, to defend truth… I always say that Catholicism is not for wimps. 

Catholicism is for people with courage, and guts. Catholicism is the most gutsy form of Christianity because Catholicism is bold with the truth, and Catholic teaching as laid out in the Catholic Catechism refuses to submit to errors – even the most popular, widespread, social approved errors.

It’s easy to follow trends. To speak before an audience and get an applause as the movie and music celebrities so often get: because they say what people want to hear. Jesus Christ spoke the truth, and He was crucified for it. He did not get an applause. That’s what it means to be a Catholic. Truth is not about an applause.

“Increase our faith,” the Apostles ask Jesus Christ in St. Luke’s Gospel. 

This is a wonderful request and desire, a very holy one. Imagine, you are asked to wish for whatever you want, and you reply, “increase my faith.” You believe you already have faith but faith can always be increased. Increasing faith means loving God more, loving others more. 

The Saint especially known for her faith and love is St. Therese of Lisieux whom we celebrated last Monday. She is the Doctor of Divine Love. She was willing to give up her entire family and her comfortable home to live in a very cold Carmelite cloister. And even as she died, very young, she repeated, “Jesus I love you.” And what truly mattered to St. Therese in her short life was to love Jesus. This is a testimony of faith.

But why does Jesus respond to the Apostles the way he does? “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”? Not because the Apostles are lacking in faith, but the desire for increased faith is motivated from the wrong reasons. Jesus reminds them they are “worthless slaves” and to have faith is to grow in humility, the very opposite of pride. 

Jesus puts them in their place, “no matter how great your faith, true faith leads to humility, the virtue that reverses the sin of pride.” To repeat what Jesus taught is difficult, “we are worthless slaves.” This keeps us humble. Our duties reflect our Christian responsibility. Faith – leads to humility.
​
In this month of the Holy Rosary which we celebrate tomorrow, let us turn to Mary, that we can grow in courage, humility and faith. Amen. 
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Fr. David Bellusci, O.P.
    is a Roman Catholic Priest, and Assistant Professor 
    of Philosophy and Theology at Catholic Pacific College in Langley, B.C.

    List by Titles



    Who are the people on your list?
    The Language that Builds
    The Joy in the midst of Uncertainty
    Angels and Stars
    On Silence
    New Circumcision
    Here I am
    ​Remember me in Paradise
    Authority Christ Entrusts to Peter
    Sacrificing Isaac
    Us And Them
    ​Joy of Boasting in the Cross
    ​
    The 12 Apostles

    Are you saved?
    ​Follow Christ: obey the Commandments...
    ​Joy of Holiness
    ​Seeing Beyond Addiction
    Who is My God?

    Are we too secure, too comfortable to think about God and the poor?
    ​Faith and Pride
    ​Fighting the Enemy: Satan
    ​Time for Conversion
    What are your Weapons?
    ​​Presentation of the Lord - Day of Consecrated Life
    Love--it's not about me
    ​Word of God - preserved and transmitted
    Time to Move On!
    ​Gaudete Sunday
    ​Ressurection in Crist
    Observers and Participants
    ​
    Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia
    ​Jesus, I love You
    Moved by the Spirit
    Going to Heaven by the power of the Holy Spirit

    ​Immaculate Heart of Mary
    Who Is Your Treasure
    What is Your Fear
    "Blessed Are You Among
    Women": Mary Taken Up to Heaven
    ​The One with the Keys
    Challenged-Corrected-Cleansed
    ​O
    ur-Lady-of-Victory Our-Lady-of-the-Rosary
    All Saints! All Souls! Our Prayers!
    A Capable Woman

    Removing the Clutter
    ​Does the Birth of Christ change our lives?

    ​

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019

    Categories

    All
    Advent
    All Saints
    All Souls
    Battle Of Lepanto
    Catholic League
    Catholic Schools
    Christmas
    Church
    Cleansing
    Community
    Confession
    Correction
    Cross
    Divine Mercy
    Dominicans
    End Times
    Ezekiel 33
    Falsehood
    Fear
    Gossip
    Holiness
    Holy Trinity
    Homilies
    Humility
    Immaculate Conception
    Immaculate Heart
    Jesus
    Mary
    Matthew 18
    Original Sin
    Our Lady Of Rosary
    Papacy
    Pentecost
    Pride
    Purification
    Reconciliation
    Repentance
    Rosary
    St
    St. John The Baptist
    St. Pope Pius V
    Vocation
    Wife
    Wisdom

    RSS Feed

Contact
Books
Frassati

    Get the latest from Fr. Bellusci delivered to your inbox:

Join our email list
© David Bellusci
  • Home
    • About Father Bellusci
    • Contact
  • TALKS
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
  • ARTICLES
    • Homilies
    • Catholic Pilgrim >
      • Photos
    • Book Reviews
  • FRASSATI
    • Reflections
  • Books
    • Pier Giorgio Frassati Truth, Love and Sacrifice
    • Roman Incense
    • Love Deformed, Love Transformed
    • Ontology Of Blue
    • Amor Dei in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
    • Beating The Drums
    • Readers Review
  • Sexuality
    • Humanae Vitae
    • Theology of the Body >
      • Introduction
      • Lessons 1-9
  • Guest Bloggers
    • Andrzej Skulski
    • Br. Gavin Rodrigues, O.P.
    • Lara Paniagua