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." 

What is your fear?

8/8/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Roma, August 9, 2020

We have all been shocked and devastated with the massive explosion in Beirut. Ammonium nitrate that had been stocked at the port was ignited and triggered a blast visually comparable to an atomic bomb! Over 150 people killed and 300, 000 left homeless. The port explosion has stretched Lebanese to its limits. Fragmented by religious strife between Christians and Muslims since the outbreak of the civil war in the 1975, southern Lebanon became the base of Hezbollah, Muslim extremists targeting Israel; Lebanon absorbed Palestinian refugees and more recently refugees from Syria. This Middle Eastern democracy is associated more with the Christian west in terms of religious outlook, freedom and tolerance, and is home to the earliest Christian communities. Decades of political instability and regional havoc, compounded with rising inflation have been catastrophic enough. Now a chemical earthquake!
 
Besides Beirut, another tragic event appears on the list of “what’s going on?” News reports more interested in celebrity lawsuits and royal disputes meant few people heard about the Cathedral chapel explosion in Managua, Nicaragua. At the end of July a petrol bomb was thrown into the Cathedral where the Blessed Sacrament was kept with the Blood of Christ Crucifix. The sacred image had been preserved and venerated in the Chapel for four hundred years, an image of popular devotion among Nicaraguans. In the year 2020 hatred for Catholicism manifests itself with a petrol bomb burning up the Chapel. All the sacred objects in the Cathedral chapel were destroyed by the bomb. This is not an isolated incident in Nicaragua but a series of sacrilegious acts showing hatred towards Catholic beliefs and practices.
 
In the month of June, anarchists across the United States vandalised, desecrated, and succeeded in removing Roman Catholic figures: statues of Queen Isabel of Spain and the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, while mindless mobs drummed, “take it down.” Vandals sacked Rome in the 5th century, and once again vandals are taking down statues of Monarchs, Explorers and Saints. St. Junípero Serra who was canonised by Pope Francis had in the 1700s established missions across California to evangelise the indigenous population. Once again vandals hostile to Catholicism desecrated St. Junípero’s statue to the three-word beat, “take it down.” But it does not end here. In July, Jewish, Muslim and Black protestors in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, a city named after St. Louis of France, mobilised themselves to have the statue of St. Louis removed from the city. 
But to kick-off the Spring we had the Coronavirus. As the world sat in front of their screens watching China, the lock down, airport closures, and restrictions; then, in Europe, Catholic Italy saw the suspension of worship and the Sacraments, bodies of the deceased put into trucks sent straight to cemeteries without the ritual Mass. Suddenly, in our own neighbourhoods we hear about hoarders where we go shopping clearing out shelves of sanitizers and toilet paper, wondering what is happening as graphics of statistics of cases and deaths change daily, like ping pong, not knowing what would be the next measures. Lifting restrictions seemed to be followed by outbreaks then measures reinstated. “You can travel… but there are risks. And then back home… to quarantine.”
 
If all this is not the ingredients for anxiety and depression, what is? Yes, ultimately, fear. Am I symptomatic? Or someone at work? Will Masses ever return to normal? Why the hatred manifested for things Catholic? Will the beat continue, “take it down,” until Catholic history is erased? The people in Lebanon are already suffering, why another disaster?
 
Can we hear God in the wind that splits mountains and breaks rocks? Or can we see God in the devastating power of an earthquake? Is God there in the fire? God is in the silence. In 1 Kings 19 this is where Elijah encounters God: in silence. The reckless drama of nature, the grating noise of the world, is not where we encounter God. We need to listen in “sheer silence.” If we don’t listen, we will neither hear God nor see God.
 
And this is precisely what occurs in Matthew 14 on the Sea of Galilee. A boat battered by the waves and wind, disciples are so swept away by fear they cannot see Jesus. And even though Jesus calls Peter, noticing the strong wind, Peter becomes frightened, and he begins to sink. Instead of focussing on Jesus, Peter is terrified by the strong wind. Peter loses sight of Jesus because of fear. And Jesus “immediately reached out his hand and caught him.”
 
Focus on Jesus, trust in Jesus, have faith. Don’t be washed away by your fears. God is in charge. And Jesus will reach out and catch us. We have the assurance of Our Blessed Mother and she loves us.

 

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