Welcome to this week's edition of Kadishat!
This Sunday, we read from the Gospel of St Matthew about the Final Judgment at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ where the Shepherd separates the sheep from the goat. This Gospel tells us that we are not saved by faith alone but also by our works. As such, it is not enough that we proclaim our faith in words but that we also put it into practice in our works and actions.
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All Saints Day
This Thursday, November 1, the Catholic Church celebrates All Saints Day where we honour all saints, known and unknown. May we, on this feast and always, remember that we are all called to sainthood.
All Souls Day
The following day, November 2, is All Souls Day, where we pray for all the deceased especially those who have no one to pray for them. The doctrine of the Communion of Saints teaches us that, although as Christians, we may be physically separated from each other by the barrier of death, we remain united to each other in one Church, and support each other in prayer.
A mass will be offered on Friday 2 November at 6pm at St Charbel's Church for all the deceased.
I wish you all a blessed week!
In God’s Love,
Fr. Dr. Antoine Tarabay
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20th Year—Number 1032 Sunday 28/10/2012
Season of the Cross
7th Sunday
Sunday’s Readings: Roma 12: 9-21 & Matthew: 25: 31-46
Come, you whom my Father has blessed“'When the Son of man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory. All nations will be assembled before him and he will separate people one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left.
Then the King will say to those on his right hand, "Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome, lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me."
Then the upright will say to him in reply, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome, lacking clothes and clothe you? When did we find you sick or in prison and go to see you?" And the King will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me." Then he will say to those on his left hand, "Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you never gave me food, I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to drink, I was a stranger and you never made me welcome, lacking clothes and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you never visited me." Then it will be their turn to ask, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or lacking clothes, sick or in prison, and did not come to your help?"
Then he will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me." And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the upright to eternal life.'” Matthew: 25: 31-46”
Reflection Of The Week
In our hands
Matthew describes the great scene of the Last Judgement as a warning to Christians about how we should conduct our life in the present.
In this scene the Son of Man is emphatically described as a King who sits in judgement. However this image of Christ is far from being the dominant one in the New Testament. And if we look closely at this passage, it will be seen that judgement is really that of us judging ourselves by our omissions or our deeds.
Our destiny is in our own hands. God is a God of Love and he wishes our salvation but God, in his goodness, has given us the gift of free will and so we choose to follow on the path of Jesus or to go down the wrong road. Any Christian who is to gain eternal life must not be concerned with self, but must be characterized by lov-ing concern for the poor as Jesus teaches.
In today's Gospel, Matthew spells out what it means to be watchful and ready and faithful. It means be able to recognise the Son of Man in all those in need, it means to show love towards the Son of Man in those in need and to translate this love into deeds of concern. Salvation hinges on our performance of or neglect of these works of mercy.
What Jesus did and said becomes the standard of judgment. Jesus had become a human being, into our human history, to tell us of the goodness of God. Jesus taught and lived that the reality of God is revealed in the realization of more humanity between fellow human beings. What is at stake in the last judgement is not our knowledge of or standard of religion, but our attitude towards the little ones, the humble and the needy. The criterion of judgement will be: Has one helped those in need?
The truth is that the King who is Judge of all is the crucified King and he is met in everyone who suffers. This Jesus, the crucified one, is the Son of Man who utters judgement - but what kind of judgement? He is the one who identifies with the lowly. He is the loving and living expression of God's concern for humankind. A God bent on humankind, and nothing short of that, becomes the standard of our concern for those in need. That is why just this concern is the criterion of judgement.
Jesus wants us to know that God loves us with divine love that is beyond our human imagining. Today's Gospel challenges us to live in such a way that one would not be caught unawares. Christ the King stresses his solidarity with all but this exhortation by Matthew is addressed to Christians and how we should conduct ourselves in our present lives. We are being taught how we should prepare for the 'coming' of the Lord, prepare for our meeting with him.
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Saint of the Week
All Saints Day
November 1The Feast of All Saints is a holy day of the Church honouring all saints, known and unknown. All Saints' Day (also called All Hallows or Hallowmas), often shortened to All Saints, is a feast celebrated on November 1 in Western Christianity, and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in Eastern Christianity in honour of all the saints, known and unknown. The feast commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in heaven, while the next day, All Souls' Day, commemorates the departed faithful who have not yet been purified and reached heaven.
A commemoration of "All Martyrs" began to be celebrated as early as the year 270. This developed in a commemoration of all saints. The Church honours those early witnesses to the Christian faith who have died in the Lord. (The Greek word for "witness" is martyr.) During the first three hundred years Christians were serverly persecuted, often suffering torture and bloody death because they were faithful . They refused to deny Christ, even when this denial might have saved their own lives.The early history of the Church is filled with stories of the heroic faith of these witnesses to Christ's truth. The stories of these saints have provided models for Christians throughout history.
In Portugal, Spain and Mexico, ofrendas (offerings) are made on this day. In Spain, the play Don Juan Tenorio is traditionally performed. In Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Portu-gal and Spain people bring flowers to the graves of dead relatives.
In Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Croatia, Austria, Romania, Hungary and catholic parts of Germany, the tradition is to light candles and visit the graves of deceased relatives.
In the Philippines, this day, called "Undas", "Todos los Santos" (lit., "All Saints"), and sometimes "Araw ng mga Namayapa" (approx.- "Day of the deceased") is observed as All Souls' Day. This day and the one before and one after it is spent visit-ing the graves of deceased relatives, where prayers and flowers are offered, candles are lit and the graves themselves are cleaned, repaired and repainted.
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COMMUNION AND WITNESS
POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION for the MIDDLE EAST (2)PART ONE(1)
“We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers” (1 Th 1:2)
7. With these words of thanksgiving from Saint Paul, I greet the Christians living in the Middle East and assure them of my fervent and continued prayers. The Catholic Church, and with her the entire Christian community, keeps them in mind and acknowledges with gratitude their noble and ancient contribution to the building up of the Body of Christ. She thanks them for their fidelity and assures them of her affection.
The context
8. It is moving for me to recall my journeys to the Middle East. As a land especially chosen by God, it was the home of Patriarchs and Prophets. It was the glorious setting for the Incarnation of the Messiah; it saw the raising of the Saviour’s cross and witnessed the resurrection of the Redeemer and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Traversed by the Apostles, saints and a number of the Fathers of the Church, it was the crucible of the earliest dogmatic formulations. Yet this blessed land and its peoples have tragically experienced human upheavals. How many deaths have there been, how many lives ravaged by human blindness, how many occasions of fear and humiliation! It would seem that there is no end to the crime of Cain (cf. Gen 4:6-10 and 1 Jn 3:8-15) among the sons of Adam and Eve created in God’s image (cf. Gen 1:27). Adam’s transgression, reinforced by the sin of Cain, continues to produce thorns and thistles (cf. Gen 3:18) even today. How sad it is to see this blessed land suffer in its children who relentlessly tear one another to pieces and die! Christians know that only Jesus, who passed through sufferings and death in order to rise again, is capable of bringing salvation and peace to all who dwell in your part of the world (cf. Acts 2:23-24, 32-33). Him alone, Christ, the Son of God, do we proclaim! Let us repent, then, and be converted, “that sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19-20a).9. For the sacred Scriptures, peace is not simply a pact or a treaty which ensures a tranquil life, nor can its definition be reduced to the mere absence of war. According to its Hebrew etymology, peace means being complete and intact, restored to wholeness. It is the state of those who live in harmony with God and with themselves, with others and with nature. Before appearing outwardly, peace is interior. It is blessing. It is the yearning for a reality. Peace is something so desirable that it has become a greeting in the Middle East (cf. Jn 20:19; 1 Pet 5:14). Peace is justice (cf. Is 32:17); Saint James in his Letter adds that “the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” (3:18). The struggle of the Prophets and the reflections of the Wisdom authors were inspired by the hope of eschatological peace. It is towards this authentic peace in God that Christ leads us. He alone is its gate (Jn 10:9). This is the sole gate that Christians wish to enter.
10. Only by beginning with conversion to God, and by showing forgiveness to those close at hand and in the wider community, will the just respond to Christ’s invitation to become “children of God” (cf. Mt 5:9). Only the meek will delight in boundless peace (cf. Ps 37:11). In offering us a life of communion with God, Jesus creates true fraternity, not the fraternity marred by sin.*4+ “For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility”
(Eph 2:14). Christians know that the earthly politics of peace will only be effective if justice in God and justice among men and women are its authentic basis, and if this same justice battles against the sin which is at the origin of division. For this reason, the Church wishes to overcome every difference of race, sex and social condition (cf. Gal 3:28 and Col 3:11) in the knowledge that all are one in Christ, who is all in all. This too is why the Church supports and encourages every peace initiative throughout the world and particularly in the Middle East. She works unstintingly and in a variety of ways to help people to live in peace, while also supporting the international juridical framework which consolidates peace.
The Holy See’s positions on the different conflicts which tragically afflict the region and on the status of Jerusalem and the holy places are well known.[5] Yet the Church does not lose sight of the fact that, before all else, peace remains a fruit of the Spirit (cf. Gal 5:22), one which must constantly be implored from God (cf. Mt 7:7-8).
Next Sunday: Part one (2): The Christian and ecumenical life
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