Philippians 2:5-11 / Luke 14:15-24
Jesus became one of us: He took the form of a servant.
An Islamic parable tells of a traveller who strayed into the "Land of the Fools." There he saw a mob shouting hysterically. "A monster is in our field," they cried. The traveller drew nearer and saw that the monster was only a watermelon, a fruit the fools had never seen before.
To show how fearless he was, the traveller cut up the melon and ate it. The villagers became even more terrified. "He's worse than the monster," they said. And they drove the traveller out of their land. Months later the scene repeated itself with another traveller. This time the traveller showed the same fear like the people unlike the first traveller and ran along with the fools. He took up residence among the fools and taught them eventually to overcome their fear of watermelons. Before he left, the villagers began not only eating them, but learned to cultivate them.****
Which traveller are we like? "If you stop to be kind, you must often swerve from your path." Mary Webb
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Nowhere does St Paul show us as tender a love for Christ as here. It is the love that formed his mentality. He puts it in the words of an early Christian hymn: We sing it still in the Carol: "He left all his glory behind, to be born and to die for mankind". Christ is God from all
One of the main distractions in our prayer time is that our minds are filled with thoughts about almost anything and everything. But it is not just about anything and everything; it is anything and everything about ourselves. Our thoughts will just surface when we want to settle down for prayer and we will start thinking of the things we have not yet done and the things that we want to do but have not found the time for. And on top of that there are also the worries and the anxieties of life that come flooding in and often we feel that prayer time is a distressful time instead of a peaceful time. We get discouraged because we feel we are not going anywhere in prayer and we may eventually give up on prayer.
Yet the gospel parable tells us that God is inviting us to sit down at the banquet with Him and feast on the riches of His love.
Just as the 1st reading said of Jesus in that He did not cling to His equality with God but emptied Himself to assume the condition of a slave, we too need to empty our hearts in prayer and to know that we can't solve all the problems of our lives just by thinking about them. We have to put it into the God's hands in prayer and then to let God's love and peace fill our hearts. When our hearts are filled with God's love and peace at prayer, then we will know what to do.
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Let us pray: Lord, mighty God, people – that is we –often want to be their own gods; we want to decide for ourselves what we want to be and what is right and wrong. Thank you for sending us your Son who is God and wanted to be a human being, to serve people, to suffer for people, to save people from their pride and self-sufficiency. Thank you for upsetting our values and holding out the promise to us that you will raise us up with Jesus, and that we may acclaim him as our Lord to give you glory for ever and ever.
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Saint Bertilla
Feast Day November 5
Sometime in the mid-seventh century, St. Bertilla entered a convent in France. Bertilla’s eighth-century biographer presented her as a model of perfect obedience for nuns and monks. He fashioned the story of her impeccable conduct to encourage them to conform eagerly to their rule of life. But he heaped so much praise on Bertilla’s virtuous behavior that she seemed to be more angelic than human. He did not succeed, however, in concealing completely the real Bertilla:
Once, when a troubled sister spoke angry words to her, Bertilla called down divine judgment upon her. Although the fault was forgiven, Bertilla worried about her curse. Then the sister died unexpectedly, choked by asthma. Not having heard the signal for the funeral, Bertilla asked the reason for the resounding chorus of psalms. When she learned of the sister’s death, she trembled fearfully. She hurried to the place where the little body lay lifeless and with great faith laid her hand on the dead nun’s breast. Bertilla ordered her receding soul through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, not to leave, but before she spoke with him, to forgive her anger against her. And God permitted the spirit that had left the body to return to the corpse. To the amazement of all, the revived cadaver drew breath. Looking at the servant of God, she said: “What have you done, sister? Why did you retrieve me from the way of light?”
“I beg you sister,” said Bertilla humbly, “to give me words of forgiveness, for once I cursed you when you had a troubled spirit.”
“May God forgive you,” said the nun. “I harbor no resentment in my heart against you now and I love you. Please entreat God for me and permit me to go in peace and don’t hold me back. For I am ready for the bright road and now I cannot start without your permission.”
“Go then in the peace of Christ,” said Bertilla, “and pray for me, sweet sister.”
Nestled among Bertilla’s virtues was a problem—anger so strong that it could cause her to damn a sister. Her unpredictable behavior endeared the saint to her charges, but also made them wary. They loved her, writes the biographer cryptically, “when she was angry and feared when she laughed.” As the saint aged she apparently overcame her flaw of anger, as her reputation for humility and gentleness spread widely. She died around the year 700.
Bertilla’s story has a special interest for Christians who are fascinated with near-death experiences. The nun she called back from death spoke of “the way of light” and of “the bright road.” So this ancient account seems to corroborate the testimony of many twentieth-century witnesses who say they “died” and traveled along a pathway to the Light.
