25th Week, Wednesday, Sept 27: Saint Vincent de Paul
Ezra 9:5-9 / Luke 9:1-6
Ezra prays to God; We sinned, but you forgave us.
A saintly woman was taking a short walk outside before going to bed. As the woman strolled along under the stars, she was touched by the beauty of the night sky. Since it was dark and no one was around, she knelt down and prayed, "Father in heaven, I ask you to keep me from ever offending you, even in the smallest way.” The woman had hardly completed the prayer when she heard a voice say, “My child, you asked me to keep you from ever offending me. If I granted that request to everyone, how could I ever show my merciful forgiveness to my children?”
The story makes the same point that Ezra makes in his prayer. It is the fact of God's merciful forgiveness.
***
How often do we thank God for his merciful forgiveness toward us? “You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness.” Psalm 86:15
***
In his prayer of penance, Ezra focuses his attention more on the goodness of God and his constant forgiveness notwithstanding the infidelities of his people, rather than on people’s sinfulness. Sin should make us turn to God in humility rather than make us withdraw within ourselves. We are what we are by what the Bible calls God’s mercy, this is, not only compassion and forgiveness, but also tenderness, pity, clemency, goodness, fidelity. It also demands that people must have that attitude towards others that God shows towards them.
***
Whenever we talk about cause and effect, we will understand that it is meant to find out the cause or causes from what was manifested or the effects that are seen. This is especially important in medical science as the manifestations of effects of a disease is analysed so as to determine the cause of the disease. If we lived during the time of Ezra of the 1st reading, we may wonder if that was the time of the end of the world. There was war and destruction, and the people, from the king downwards, were given to the sword, to captivity, to pillage and to shame.
But when Ezra saw all that happening, he knew what was the cause as he said this: My God, I am ashamed, I blush to lift my face to you, my God. For our crimes have increased, until they are higher than our heads, and our sin has piled up to heaven. So, the cause of the turmoil and the distress that were happening is clear, and that is the sins of the people were overwhelming, and hence the effects were also overwhelming.
***
Now the training of the apostles for their future work becomes more practical. This is not yet the sending out to the whole world. It is still an exercise in the real-life condition, an experiment. They have to learn and come back to report to Jesus (9.10) and exchange their experiences. They are given clear instructions. He told them what they can and may do. He gave them power and authority. They are sent to preach the kingdom and to heal. He cares for the soul and the body. As throughout history, Church and charity go hand in hand. Faith and love lead to each other. Vocation leads to mission. Vocation calls towards Jesus. Mission sends them Jesus stresses out to men. poverty. His apostles have to live simple lives. Take nothing for the journey: neither staff not haversack, neither bread nor money. Neither should they make demands. They should not waste their time when they are rejected, shake the dust from their feet as the orthodox Jews do when they had to enter the house of a pagan. They should not make demands. Accept the hospitality that is offered, but do not go and change the house just because this new house would be more comfortable. That is what they are told.
***
In the gospel, Jesus gave His apostles the power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases. This is to clear the obstacles that evil and illness have caused so that the Good News of the kingdom of God can be proclaimed. So as we see the turmoil and distress of our present world, let us turn to God and ask for mercy and forgiveness. The Good News is that God wants to save us. May God save us from what causes us to sin so that we can truly receive healing and forgiveness.
***
Luke, more than the other evangelists, stresses the poverty of the apostle and thus spiritualizes the mission of the herald of the gospel. Still, he has to take people in the concrete. They are to be healed from illness, which expresses the power of evil over sinful humanity; for the Bible considers sickness a consequence of sin through this link: that the spiritual illness of sin leads to physical illness. The apostle, then, must go to the whole person in a spirit of poverty. All he has to offer is the good news, and nothing may obscure it.
***
Opening Prayer
Lord our God, your mercy extends to everyone. Let your missionary Church go out to all without any self-imposed, useless baggage that obscures the pure message of the gospel but with great humility before the goodwill and the hospitality of people. May thus our receptivity to people make them in turn receptive to the good news of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
***
Saint Vincent de Paul
Feast day September 27
St. Vincent de Paul spent the early years of his priesthood ministering among the wealthy in the French countryside near Paris. In 1609 he became tutor to the children of the Gondi family, an involvement that taught him a principle for his work: evangelize the rich and direct them to serve the poor. At that time, Vincent observed that many poorly catechized peasants were not making good confessions. He also noticed that inadequately trained priests did not know how to administer the sacrament of Penance. Encouraged by Madame Gondi, in 1617, Vincent preached a parish mission that pointed to his future. He stirred so many people to repentance that Jesuits from a nearby town had to help hear confessions.
In 1625, Vincent founded the Congregation of the Mission, a community of priests with a threefold commitment. Members obligated themselves to pattern their lives on Christ, to take the gospel to the rural poor, and to help educate priests in their practical duties. The priests mainly conducted parish missions, preaching and hearing confessions
With the collaboration of St. Louise de Marillac, in 1633, Vincent founded the Sisters of Charity, the first community of “unenclosed” women dedicated to care of the sick and the poor. To support the sisters, Vincent recruited rich women, who as Ladies of Charity gave their time and money.
In his last years Vincent was confined to an armchair because of his swollen and ulcerous legs. But he remained cheerful, directing his charitable works by writing hundreds of letters. He was nearly eighty years old when he died in 1660.
Vincent de Paul stumbled into his life’s work. Thus he is a healthful model for those who suffer stress trying “to find God’s plan” for their lives. Vincent did not start with grandiose plans. He began much more simply. When he observed a need, he figured out a Christian way to meet it. If we would do more of that, we would be better Christians with lower blood pressure.
