In this holy time of Lent, we reflect on the message of His Beatitude Mar Bechara Boutros Rai in which he says that “Lent is a time of change in three directions: the change in our relationship with God through prayer and repentance in order to restore the splendor of our ‘sonship’ of God; and change in the relationship with ourselves through fasting and mortification in order to liberate ourselves from everything that damages the image of God in us…; and change in our relationship with every human being, especially with those in need, through works of love, compassion and charity…”. May this time be truly a time of change in our lives where we discard our vices and start anew.
Starting this week, Kadishat will include a series of articles on the Maronite History. We hope you enjoy reading them and learning more about the history of our church.
May God bless you always!
In Christ,
Fr. Dr. Antoine Tarabay
Rector
St. Charbel’s College and Church
142 Highclere Avenue
PUNCHBOWL NSW 2196
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20th Year—Number 997 Sunday 26/02/2012
Season of the Great Lent
Sunday of the Leper Man
Sunday’s Readings: Roma 6: 12-23 & Mark 1: 35-45
Stretched out his hand and touched him
“ In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.” Mark 1: 35-45
The Saviour touches and purifies
For the Jews of Jesus' time, leprosy was not just an incurable physical ailment, but it amounted to social and religious death.
The victim became an outcast who was shunned by society, while anyone who touched a leper would be considered unclean and had to go through a process of purification before being able to enter public life again. Leprosy was viewed as the severest sentence God could pass on a sinner.
For this reason, the meeting between Jesus and the leper becomes highly significant. Impurity meets up with the 'Holy'. The outcast meets the Servant, Himself a future outcast; leprosy, which defiles comes into contact with the One who makes pure.
In this deeply moving scene, the Gospel writer captures something of the heart and character of Jesus. The leper sensed that Jesus would not reject him and trusted in his power. Jesus is deeply distressed and disturbed by the man's condition but more especially by the way the man is treated by a society that has failed to believe in the compassion of God. From Jesus we learn that compassion and a sense of solidarity with the suffering person, is the key to healing. Compassion and unity are signs that the Kingdom of God is present.
This meeting of Jesus and the leper is highly significant. In the person of the leper, the Saviour touches and purifies the whole sinful world. Through Jesus, the social outcasts and the living-dead are rehabilitated. As God's Messiah, Jesus alone has the power to heal leprosy, as He alone has the power to heal sin.
In differing degrees the lepers of today are the various outcasts and rejects of our society. We must learn from Jesus. Each of us is leprous; each one of us has a hidden uncleanness, which we need to reveal to Jesus in order to obtain healing and wholeness from Him and to be readmitted into the society of the saved. Once we have been touched and cleansed, we must proclaim God's Word and following in the example of Jesus, welcome in their human dignity those who before were cast out or rejected.
In the footsteps of Jesus
"Their words are bold but there deeds are few" (cf. Matthew 23:1-12) If we are to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we need to seek integrity and wholeness of body, mind and spirit - of word and deed. To move towards this integrity, we need to focus ourselves on one Teacher, one Lord. Jesus is our example of integrity - a Teacher of words and a Healer of persons, living by the Word of God and moved with compassion for the needs of others.
Lent - A Time of Renewal
The Season of Lent affords us the opportunity to look closely at ourselves as God's favoured people. Our looking often reveals our inadequacies and our failure to live up to being so specially regarded by the Creator. Christ challenges our habits and our lifestyle. In Him on this Lenten journey, the face of God appears to us and mysteriously, the face that we are called to put on. We pray that by the closing of this journey, we will gladly put into practice what Christ, our brother, will have taught us by His life, by His death, and by His love.
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Reading - Romans 6: 12 - 23
Are we still slaves to sin and death, or do we realize that through Baptism into the Christian community we have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, and so of righteousness. Through Baptism we have been granted the grace to turn away from sin. As Christians, our life should be one of moral growth.
We are guided by the teachings of Christ in the Gospel, and our goal is the acceptance of the gift of eternal life. Sometimes we stray off the right path, but we should always have confidence that God is all love and mercy and is always ready to forgive if we just seek to be reconciled with Him.
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The Maronites and Lebanon
Who are the Maronites?
Where did they come from?
How was the Maronite Church founded?
What are the connections between the Ma-ronites and Lebanon?
These questions and many others have been repeatedly asked by many youths and adults who have not been introduced to the history of the Maronites.
Kadishat, under the direction of Rev Fr Antoine Tarabay, will republish over the next few issues, a series of articles that The Word, the parish magazine that the parish use to issue in the nineties, published.
Topics will be:
1 Lebanon in the Bible
2 Lebanon and the church before the Maronites
3 Maronites: indigenous Lebanese descendants of the Phoenicians
4 From paganism to Christianity from Adoun to Maroun
5 The foundation of the Maronite Church
6 Maronites first Patriarch
7 Lebanon for the Maronites
8 The struggle to keep the right faith
9 The Maronites’ Spirituality: a journey to in seeing
10 The Maronites’ liturgy: Awaiting the second coming of the Lord
“It is our intention to look at some interesting events, people and facts that have coloured our past and formed what we proudly call our Maronite history. From this basis we can know our roots and try to learn from the past to help us in understanding the direction we wish to go in the future.”
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Saints of the week
Saint John Maroun (+707)
The first Maronite Patriarch
Maronite Feast Day: March 2
Saint John Maroun, monk of the Monastery of St. Maroun and Bishop of Batroun and Mount Lebanon, was elected the first Patriarch of the Maronite Church during the second half of the seventh century AD (c 686 AD), when the See of Antioch lay vacant.
He was the first Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, and the 63rd in succession to St. Peter, who founded the See of Antioch in the first cen-tury AD. This marked the beginning of the ecclesi-astical, national, and organizational structure of the Maronite church.
St. John Maroun and his followers were forced to migrate to Lebanon following assault by imperatorial troops and persecution during the Muslim conquest. The Patriarchal Seat was then transferred to kfarhai, batroun, where a monastery was built (Rich Mro = “Head of Maroun”) to house the skull of St. Maroun. Traditionally, this was where St. John Maroun died and was buried on 9 March 707 AD. His feast is now celebrated on the second day of March in the Maronite calendar.
St. John Maroun was endowed with a militant apostolic zeal, and under his leadership, a decisive victory was won by the Maronites, which drew the population of Lebanon around the Patriarch. However, St. John Maroun was not only a national leader; he was also a Saint who was active in apostolic missions, teaching, preaching and visiting his people, especially during a time of plague (685AD), for which he wrote a special mass. He also wrote a book on theological doctrine.
Saint Domnina (455)
Maronite feast day: March 1.
There are several Saint Domninas in history. The one referred to died about 455 and is known as ‘Domnina the Younger’ from Kyra, near Antioch. Saint Domnina came from a wealthy family, and she convinced her parents to spend their money on the poor. She lived as a hermit and was a sworn virgin who lived in a hut behind her mother’s house where she wept many tears constantly. She kept her face veiled and would not look at the faces of others. She was known to live a simple life, accepting only lentils in water as her food. She was known to help travelers. She was inspired by Saint Maroun’s way of life and chose to follow this life. She attracted many people who followed her.
We are inspired by Saint Domnina’s purity and complete devotion to God and neighbour.
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