On the 10th Sunday of Pentecost, we read in Matthew 12:22-32 that Jesus wants the crowd to make a stark choice: are they with Him or against Him? That choice is one for us to make too. We have to live our Christianity to the full consecrating our lives and actions to God or we cannot call ourselves Christians. We cannot pick and choose the Christian teachings that suit us and obey them and ignore the teachings that do not please us. Our faith is a commitment and a lifestyle. Being Catholic is who we are; it is not an activity or an avocation.
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Annual Fundraising Dinner- 13 October 2012
As you may be aware by now, our parish is holding a fundraising dinner on Saturday 13 October 2012 at St Charbel's Multi-Purpose Hall.
All funds raised from this event will go towards the launch of St Charbel's Nursing Home, a project that is greatly needed by our community. The project will also comprise a medical centre and other services.
Tickets for the dinner are $75 per person and they include dinner and drinks. Sponsorship packages are also available by contacting the Parish Office on 9740 0998.
Car Raffle- 2012 Ford Fiesta valued at $21,500
A raffle on a 2012 Ford Fiesta will also be drawn at the Fundraising Dinner. Raffle tickets are $5 each and are available outside the Church after masses and in the Parish Office.
We thank you for your support and ask the Lord to reward you with His blessings and graces.
I entrust you all to the love of God and wish you a blessed week! In God’s Love,
Fr. Dr. Antoine Tarabay
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20th Year—Number 1019 Sunday 29/07/2012
Season of the Pentecost
10th Sunday
Sunday’s Readings: 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11 & Matthew 12: 22-32
'Anyone who is not with me is against me'
“Then they brought to him a blind and dumb demoniac; and he cured him, so that the dumb man could speak and see. All the people were astounded and said, 'Can this be the son of David?' But when the Pharisees heard this they said, 'The man drives out devils only through Beelzebul, the chief of the devils.'
Knowing what was in their minds he said to them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin; and no town, no household divided against itself can last.
Now if Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself; so how can his kingdom last? And if it is through Beelzebul that I drive devils out, through whom do your own experts drive them out? They shall be your judges, then. But if it is through the Spirit of God that I drive out devils, then be sure that the kingdom of God has caught you unawares. 'Or again, how can anyone make his way into a strong man's house and plunder his property unless he has first tied up the strong man? Only then can he plunder his house. 'Anyone who is not with me is against me, and anyone who does not gather in with me throws away. And so I tell you, every human sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And anyone who says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but no one who speaks against the Holy Spirit will be forgiven either in this world or in the next.” Matthew 12: 22-32
Reflection of the week
“Whoever is not with me is against me”
In today’s Gospel Jesus faces the crowd with a stark choice - are you with me or are you against me? That choice is one for us to make too.
Today’s Gospel is about commitment, about taking sides, and about the obedience that is the test of that commitment. It is about recognising and accepting God’ work in us through the Holy Spirit.
Whose side are you on?
In today’s gospel the choice is addressed to the crowd at large. But it is in the end a choice which each one of us has to make for ourselves. There are many occasions when Jesus gently draws out from an individual a very simple confession of faith in him. It seems to be a necessary condition for the exercise of his power – again and again we hear the refrain, your faith has made you whole. Even now, as we come to him in our need, he makes it easy for us to say yes. And when we say: Lord, I believe, we discover that his love is indeed able to meet our need, in the healing of our troubled souls and bodies. Each one of us, in our own way and in our own time, needs to take that step. And most of us need a personal invitation.
Have you given your heart to the Lord Jesus?
Whether we are young or old, however much or little we may understand, Jesus still invites us to make that choice, to join his side, to accept his gentle rule. Yet what he seeks is not so much our submission as our love, for it is in the giving and receiving of that love that we discover that obedience is not a burden after all, but a gift and whoever hears and obey the word of God will be blessed.
What is the unpardonable sin of which Jesus warns?
The Holy Spirit is God’s final contact, God’s last attempt to reach man and save him from sin. The Holy Spirit is God in the world today showing us the great love and offering us God’s salvation. According to Jewish teaching the Spirit of God had two supreme functions.
First, the Holy Spirit brought God’s truth to men; the Holy Spirit was God’s instrument in helping us come to know God’s will for us. Second, the Holy Spirit enabled men to recognize and understand God’s truth.
Therefore, man needs the Holy Spirit both to receive and to recognize God’s truth. But the Pharisees had so long been blind and deaf to the guidance of God’s hand; they had insisted on their own way for so long; that they had come to a stage where they could not recognize God’s truth and goodness when they saw it.
They could look at God’s goodness and call it Satan’s evil. They could look on the Son of God and call Him the servant of the devil.
What is the sin against the Holy Spirit?
The sin against the Holy Spirit is the sin of so often and so consistently refusing God’s will that in the end we no longer even recognize it, even when it comes in all of its power.
The Holy Spirit is the last divine Agent through whom the Father intends to work for the salvation of the human race. His God-given work is to bring people to Christ, defend Christ, defend the truth of God's word in an unbelieving world. The work of the Holy Spirit is the last hope the world has. God will say no more to the world other than what the Holy Spirit has revealed in the Bible. The Holy Spirit does His work though the Bible.
This sin can be committed today in three ways. Blasphemy against the Spirit is possible by speaking against the Holy Spirit Himself, against His person, against His Divinity as the third Person in Godhead.. He may also be blasphemed by speaking against His work. He works among and with Christians. The Bible says, ”As many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God.” His work is to bring people to Christ and teach them how to live. We can also blaspheme the Spirit by speaking against His word. He directed and oversaw the writing of the entire Bible. Let no one doubt the truth of the Bible or the honesty of the apostles. Let men be careful what they say about the Bible, for what they say against the Bible they say against the Holy Spirit. If they speak against the Bible they are hindering His work, they are trying to destroy His influence in the world and that is blasphemy. Such people will not be forgiven either in this life or in the world to come. The most powerful way to hinder His work, to injure Him and to insult Him is to speak against the Bible.
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Saints Of The Week
31st July
the 350 Martyrs
Disciples of St Maroun
After the Council of Chalcedon, Syria was divided between those who upheld the Council and those who opposed it. The monastery of Saint Maron and those who gathered around it supported the declarations of the Council. Patriarch Severus, however, was the head of those who rejected the teaching of the Council that in the person of Christ there was both a human nature and a divine nature. Severus and his followers held that in Christ, the incarnate Word of God, there was but a single human-divine nature. In the year 517 a group of monks left the monastery of Saint Maron and went to the monastery of Saint Simon the Stylite near Alepo. The monks were arrested by a troop or partisons of the "one nature" of Christ who killed three hundred and fifty of the monks. Many of the monks who were wounded in the attack were able to escape. Alexander, the superior of the monastery of Saint Maron, and the superiors of the neighboring monasteries wrote to Pope Hormisdas in order to inform him of the events that had taken place.The Pope responded on February 10, 518 and encouraged them to persevere in the Catholic faith and praised the faith of the martyred monks.
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The Maronites and Lebanon (20)
The Years of Difficulties (3)
The Years of Difficulties (3)
Before Qannoubine, The monks lived in inaccessible and trackless mountain fastness and considered themselves happy if they were able to live in peace among their faithful people, treasuring the Christian teaching that had been handed down to them. They did not even have any fixed Patriarchal seat. They went from Yanuh down to Mayfuq, then to Lehfed, to Habil, back to Yanuh, to Kfifan, to Kfarhay, to Kafre, to Yanuh again, and to Hardine, and to Mayfuq again. Thirty-four Patriarchs resided in the region of Jbeil or Batroun, through the troubled times, they were:
John-Maron II, Gregory, Stephen, Mark, Eusebius, John, Joshua, David, Gregory, Theofelix, Joshua, Dumith, Isaac, John, Simon, Joseph El Gergessi (1110-1120), Peter (1121-1130), Gregory of Halate (1130-1141), Jacob of Ramate (1141-1151), John (1151 -1154), Peter (1154-1173), Peter of Lehfed (1173-1199), Jeremiah of Amshit (1199-1230), Daniel of Shamat (1230-1239), John of Jaje (1239-1245), Simon (1245-1277), Daniel of Hadshit (1278-1282), Jeremiah of Dmalsa (1282-1297), Simon (1297-1339), John (1339-1357), Gabriel of Hjula (1357-1367), John (1367- 1404), John of Jaje (1404-1445).
We note the tradition which includes the name of the village which the monk has come from and that before the 12th century they had no villages mentioned because it took a while for the community to settle down in properly formatted villages. The Maronite Monks still follow the tradition of linking the name of the Monk to the village that he came from.
The Sacred Valley
As one advances into the deep-cut valley of Kadisha, one is surrounded by mountains towering over the gorge, leaving only a patch of the sky visible over-head, it is all crag and mountain rock, soaring heights and plunging depths. It is a land still bearing the imprint of its Creator, and is a source of revelation and inspiration to action. If one looks down from the shoulder of one of the great mountains into the three-thousand-foot depths of the gorge below, one is over-whelmed by a sense of power, and one wants to seize some twisted tree- trunk or jutting crag so as not go falling into the vast space between plunging cliffs. One European traveler recounted how the Patriarch, like a second Moses risen from the pages of the Old Testament, guided his people from his austere re-treat among the rocks.
All of those named above were God-fearing men, servants of their people. The valley stands witness to their holiness and the sincerity of their quest for God through austerity and frugality. People said of them, 'Their crosses are made of wood, but their hearts are made of gold.'
Next Sunday: The Years of Difficulties (4)
In Wadi Qannoubine (2)
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