September 13—St. John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

The Greek word “Chrysostom” means Golden-mouth.  St. John Chrysostom had a golden mouth, meaning that he spoke with great eloquence.  He started out as a monk in Antioch and became very popular due to his homilies.  He was ordained Patriarch, or Archbishop, of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire in 398.  Constantinople was a place of intrigue and luxury.  Once ordained he began to reform the discipline of the church in Constantinople.  He also preached for better morals among the elite of government, including the empress.  Others, including some bishops in the East, feared his power in deposing corrupt bishops, and wanted him out.  Eventually, the displeasure of the empress along with those who opposed him in the Eastern Church led to his exile and ultimately to his death.

St. John Chrysostom’s homilies, writings, and letters were extensive and influential in supporting Church dogma and doctrine.  Thus, he is a Doctor of the Church.  They were also what led him to his exile because he spoke for greater moral behavior, especially among the rich, who were told to share their wealth with the poor, as befits Christians who should care for others.  In other words, St. John spoke truth, earning him enemies among the powerful.

We are called to seek truth.  We are called to live truth.  We are called to speak truth.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  When we seek Him; when we live the truth of his love; when we speak the truth of caring for others, especially the poor, even at the risk of sacrificing money, comfort, possessions, and reputation, we will also make enemies among those who think we go too far.  But love also means standing up for the truths of the faith.  We cannot have a “social” Gospel and leave it at that.  Jesus was not a social worker.  He is our Savior.  We must have the fullness of the Gospel and the fullness of the truth it contains.  The Catholic Church teaches the fullness of the Gospel and has been blessed with a magisterium that, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, can guide us in truth.  St. John Chrysostom was a preeminent member of the magisterium because of his words, but also because of his deeds.  We would do well to follow our bishop and pray for him.

If you are interested in reading more about the saints, go to Mr. Mueting’s Saint Weblog at http://mrmuetingsaints.blogspot.com/.

September 3--St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

There are only four popes who have been called “Great”, St. Leo the Great, St. Nicholas the Great, soon to be St. John Paul the Great, and St. Gregory the Great.  St. Gregory was born in Rome at the end of the sixth century.  After serving in various public offices in Rome, he quit public life to become a Benedictine monk.  But his diplomatic skills required his services as an ambassador to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.  He was elected pope in 590 and served until 604.  In that time he wrote extensively on theological and moral subjects as well as writing hundreds of letters.  He is credited with introducing Gregorian Chant into the liturgy.  He sent missionaries to England to evangelize the Germanic tribes there.  He organized the processes of giving donations and food to the poor in Rome.  He is also considered the pope who revitalized the papacy and brought the institution of the papacy to its central place in the Church as first in charity and authority.  He introduced the title Servum servorum Dei, “Servant of the Servants of God”, which is the last of the eight titles of a pope.

There is a great deal that St. Gregory accomplished for the Church.  As pope he had care for all people’s spiritual needs, but he also cared for the physical needs of those in Rome who had been brought low by bad economics and war.  He even cared for the needs of those who weren’t Christian by sending missionaries.  Servanthood is founded upon Jesus’ commitment to serve us:  “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.  I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do” (Jn. 13:14-15).

We are servants and friends of Jesus if we do as he commands.  What greater thing can we do than serving each other and our society by our lives of Christian love and fellowship?  Our worship together on Sunday solidifies our solidarity in living as Christ calls us:  “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34).  This is the true legacy that St. Gregory the Great, and all the saints, gives us.

August 29—The Passion of St. John the Baptist

August 29—The Passion of St. John the Baptist

St. John the Baptist is commemorated in two feasts, his birth and his death.  We know from Scripture that he died due to the whims of Herodias, the invalid wife of Herod Antipas, and the acquiescence of her daughter, who is traditionally known as Salome.  Salome danced before Herod, who was so delighted that he promised to give her anything she wanted, up to half of his kingdom.  Herodias told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist, who had condemned her marriage to Herod because she was wife to Herod’s brother, Philip.  John the Baptist was not killed for his love for Christ as such; as the last of the prophets, he was killed because he witnessed to God’s truth of the sanctity of marriage.

Marriage is a sacred covenant, symbolic of Jesus’ love for the Church.  Marriage freely vows the husband and wife to a life of love as demonstrated in their acceptance of fidelity, permanence, and openness to each other in fertility, that is, willingness to accept children as gifts from God.  Jesus raised the institution of marriage to a sacrament and stated, “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.  For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother [and be joined to his wife], and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate” (Mark 10:6-9).  

Marriage is not about the fulfillment of a sexual desire, or a statement of civil rights, but rather it is a witness to the love of Christ for the Church.  Therefore, every sacramentally married couple participates in a special way in the very love of Christ for us, his Church.  And so it is up to every sacramentally married couple to witness to that love by their faithfulness to each other, by the permanence of their marriage until death do them part, and in their willing acceptance of children as conceived in accord with the great gifts of unity and potential procreation in each act of marital love.  These are the truths for which St. John the Baptist died.  He can be called the patron and defender of marriage in our day and age.

August 20—St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor of the Church

St. Bernard of Clairvaux was the most famous man of the 12th century. When he was about 23 he joined the monastery at Citeaux with thirty other young noblemen. However, three years later he was sent out to establish a new monastery, at Clairvaux, whereupon he was chosen abbot. He became known as a persuasive writer and speaker even to the point that he was asked by the bishops of France to judge between two rival claimants to the papacy. St. Bernard decided that Innocent II was the legitimate pope and succeeded in helping Innocent be recognized as such. He even counseled the successor to Innocent, Eugenius III on how to be a good pope. Pope Eugenius had previously been a follower of St. Bernard. He also asked St. Bernard to preach the Second Crusade. After its failure, many blamed St. Bernard, but he attributed the failure to the sins of the crusaders. St. Bernard is called the last of the Church Fathers, a group of men who taught theology based on Scripture from the time of the early Church. He was also named Doctor Mellifluous, or “Honey-voiced” Doctor due to his eloquence in speaking and writing truths of the faith.

We have much to be thankful for regarding St. Bernard. He had a great devotion to Our Lady and composed the Memorare. He wrote many volumes on Scripture, especially about the Song of Songs, in which he saw the main characters as allegories, or symbols, of Jesus and the Church. The love shared between the two is the same as the love of Christ for his Church. St. Bernard was no stranger to controversy, pointing out error where he saw it. He also founded 163 monasteries which, by the time of his death, had expanded to number 343. We can look to St. Bernard as a saint who was deeply in love with God and deeply involved in the affairs of man for the sake of God. We need to be as deeply in love with God as he was and as willing to be involved in making our society holier.

August 14—St. Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr

August 14—St. Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a martyr in the new age of martyrs, the 20^th century.  But as with all martyrs, St. Maximilian showed love, God’s love, in his martyrdom.  Imprisoned at Auschwitz, Fr. Kolbe volunteered to take the place of another prisoner chosen to be starved to death in retribution for an escape.  After two weeks with no food or water St. Maximilian was still alive when the other nine chosen to be killed with him had died.  He then was given an injection of carbolic acid, whereupon he entered into heavenly glory.

Some may say that the age of martyrs was over sixteen hundred years ago when the Romans killed men and women who stood up for their faith.  Actually, the 20^th century is THE age of the martyrs.  Blessed Pope John Paul II canonized or beatified 266 martyrs of that century.  The situations varied:  the Spanish Civil War, Communist persecution, the Mexican Revolution, Nazi occupation.  But each man, woman, or child died due to hatred of the faith or hatred of the Church.  Each also died forgiving those who persecuted them.

Blessed Pope John Paul II declared in Tertio Millennio Adveniente (On the Preparation for the Jubilee Year 2000) that, “At the end of the second millennium, the Church has once again become a Church of martyrs. The persecutions of believers —priests, Religious and laity—has caused a great sowing of martyrdom in different parts of the world. The witness to Christ borne even to the shedding of blood has become a common inheritance of Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants, as Pope Paul VI pointed out in his Homily for the Canonization of the Ugandan Martyrs” (37).

Martyrs are honored as witnesses to Christ, as those who love one another as Christ loved us, with their very lives.

August 10--St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr

August  10—St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr

“Bring me the treasure of the Church!”  This was the charge made by the prefect of Rome to St. Lawrence in A.D. 258.  As first among the seven deacons of Rome, St. Lawrence was responsible for the goods of the Church, its treasury and monies, as well as distributing alms to the poor.  Thus it was most likely that he be the one to hand over (traditore—from which we get the word “traitor”) the wealth of the Church.  He requested three days to gather the wealth.  In that time he distributed all that he could to the poor of the Church and on the third day presented the true wealth of the Church to the prefect:  the poor, the suffering, the blind and crippled, saying that these were the treasures of the Church.  It is said that he declared to the prefect:  “The Church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor.…  This is the Church’s treasure.”  With that, according to legend, he was sentenced to death by being grilled alive on a gridiron.

Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount: “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be (Mt. 6:21).  The Church’s treasure is Jesus, himself.  And where do we find Jesus?  In our families, in our neighbors, but especially in the poor and downtrodden.  “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours“(Lk 6:20). 

Moreover, Pope Francis reminds us about poverty and the connection to Jesus when he spoke on June 7, 2013 to students from Jesuit schools in Italy and Albania:  “You can't speak of poverty in the abstract: that doesn't exist. Poverty is the flesh of the poor Jesus, in that child who is hungry, in the one who is sick, in those unjust social structures. Go forward; look there upon the flesh of Jesus. But don't let well being rob you of hope, that spirit of well being that, in the end, leads you to becoming a nothing in life. Young persons should bet on their high ideals, that's my advice. But where do I find hope? In the flesh of Jesus who suffers and in true poverty. There is a connection between the two.”

Jesus is our treasure.  We are the Body of Christ.  The poor and the suffering are our special members for through them Jesus calls us to put our hearts where our treasure is, in Him.

July 31--St. Ignatius of Loyola, Priest

July 31—St. Ignatius of Loyola, Priest

As founder of the Society of Jesus, St. Ignatius of Loyola has exerted influence on the Church and the world that is matched by few others.  Starting out as a soldier until wounded in battle, St. Ignatius read two books as he was recovering, the Bible and the lives of the saints.   Inspired by their dedication and heroism he decided to dedicate his life to God.  He eventually gathered a group of likewise dedicated men and they presented themselves to the pope.  He asked them to teach and be missionaries, two charisms, or gifts, for which they have been known ever since.

St. Ignatius was a talented administrator.  After he founded the Jesuits, he spent much of his time directing the order, founding schools, sending missionaries across the globe, and writing letters. Administration is not seen by many as a glamorous job.  It involves paperwork, logistics, communication, bureaucracy, and so forth.  Yet, due to his skills in all these areas, St. Ignatius was able to establish and promote the largest group of male religious in the world today.  There are over 17,000 men who are Jesuit priests, scholastics (men training to become priests), brothers, and novices.  There are 28 Jesuit universities and colleges in the United States and over 50 high schools.  The time and expertise of the men and the strength of these institutions have impacted the lives of many throughout the country.  St. Ignatius had as his motto, Ad majorem dei gloriam, “To the greater glory of God”.  Would that we dedicated ourselves, as did St. Ignatius and the Jesuits, to the greater glory of God.