Apocalypse 10:8-11 / Luke 19:45-48
The eating of the scroll symbolizes that John has assimilated its content. The content is sweet while he assimilates it, but turns sour in his stomach. John's reaction reveals a twofold fact about the Christian life. The revelation of the scroll contains the sweet promise of victory for the Christian. But the price of the victory is a certain amount of pain and suffering. There is a basic principle of Christianity at work here. The Christian life contains the sweet promise of heaven, but the Christian must be prepared to pay the price of pain that the struggle for heaven will involve.
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How willing are we to struggle and suffer in the present to attain eternal life in the future? "No Christian escapes a taste of wilderness on the way to the promised land." Evelyn Underhill
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Today the author of Revelation reflects, like Jeremiah and Ezekiel before him, on his prophetic role. The word of God is sweet-tasting to him, but contains a bitter message of warning he has to preach.
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No matter how wonderful or awesome someone or something might be, after some time we will get used to it. Whether it is a new relationship or a new interest, after a while, the initial fervour will cool off. And then we begin to take it for granted and become rather casual with it. It can even happen to something sacred and holy. And that was the situation that Jesus was addressing in the gospel passage.
The Temple, which was the house of God, which was also a profound sign of the presence of God among His people, was being taken for granted and even the religious authorities were rather casual with it. The Temple was not just a building but it was to be a house of prayer where God meets His people. But Jesus made this remark - "you have turned it into a robbers' den. We may not be so brazen as to turn God's house into a robbers' den. But we may be complacent and take things for granted because we have gotten used to it and become casual in our relationship with God.
Jesus reminds us that God's house is to be a house of prayer and worship. Our attitude in the house of God also reflects our relationship with God. May we not take that for granted and become too casual or used to it.
Jesus drove out the merchants from the Temple and it might be a good time to ask ourselves: What has the Lord to drive out from us to make us better Christians? What stands in the way of being closer to him in the life of every day? What matters for us Christians is that we are attached to the Lord and close to the people he has entrusted to us. Then we can worship him with our whole life.
Let us Pray
God our Father, we often turn our hearts into houses of pride and greed rather than into homes of love and goodness where you can feel at home. Destroy the temple of sin in us, drive away all evil from our hearts, and make us living stones of a community in which can live and reign your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord forever and ever.
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Saint Cecelia
Feast Day November 22
For centuries St. Cecelia has remained one of the church’s most beloved saints. Parents give their daughters her lovely name, which means “lily of heaven.” However, all we know about Cecelia comes from a fifth-century legend that has no historical evidence to support it. Except that two young men featured in the story, Valerian and Tiburtius, were known to have been martyred in the third century and buried in the catacombs. However, no catacomb grave or contemporary writer validates the fascinating tale of St. Cecelia.
However, the story still charms and inspires us. Cecelia, a patrician maiden, dedicated her virginity to Christ, but her father betrothed her to Valerian, a young pagan. Forced into marriage, Cecelia determined to keep her commitment. According to the legend:
As the wedding day approached, she fasted for two or three days. On her nuptial day she wore a hair shirt next to her flesh, concealed by her gown of cloth of gold. She sang in her heart to God alone, saying, “O Lord, let my heart and my body be undefiled.” That night, when with her spouse she sought the secret silences of the bridal chamber, she spoke to him as follows: “O sweetest and most loving youth, there is a secret that I may confess to you, if only you will swear to guard it faithfully.” Then Valerian swore that no necessity would make him betray it in any way. Then she said: “I have for my lover an angel of God, who guards my body with exceeding zeal! If he sees you but lightly touch me for sordid love, he will smite you, and you will lose the fair flower of your youth. But if he knows that you love me with a pure love, he will love you as he loves me, and will show you his glory!”
Then Valerian, guided by the will of God, said: “If you will have me believe you, show me the angel! If I find that he is really an angel, I shall do as you ask me!”
We might wonder if bad breath from fasting and the stink of the hair shirt might not have been enough to protect Cecelia from Valerian’s touch. However, the youth followed Cecelia’s directions and sought baptism from Pope Urban I. Upon his return Valerian saw Cecelia’s angel, who crowned both of them with floral wreaths. Then Valerian’s brother, Tiburtius, was also converted. The two new Christians were soon beheaded for burying the bodies of those who had been martyred.
Cecelia herself was condemned for refusing to worship the gods. An attempt to suffocate her in her own bathroom failed. So a soldier was ordered to behead her, but he bungled the job. Cecelia lay dying for three days, during which she bequeathed her property to the church.
The Cecelia legend may be purely fictitious, but this fiction conveys truths that stimulate our faith. St. Cecelia testifies to the supernatural realities that penetrate our lives and invite us to live for God alone no matter what it costs.
