Lk 15,3-7 the Sacred Heart of Jesus

1. The most significant source for the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the form which is widely known today was from Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690), who claimed to have received visions of Jesus Christ. She devoted herself to Jesus’ Sacred Heart especially, and was enthusiastically supported by the Blessed Claude de la Colombiere, sj. The Feast of the Sacred Heart began as a feast in the Church in 1765, and is celebrated 19 days after Pentecost.

2. Jesus’ Heart of love and compassion is most clearly revealed in the way he sought out sinners and outcasts of society. We can see this way in the parable of the Gospel today. The Shepherd, on looking over his little flock of one hundred, can only count 99. This one idea possesses him that “one sheep is lost!” Immediately, he goes to look for it. He cannot eat, he cannot return home, he cannot rest until he finds the lost sheep. 1 and 99. According to our logic, we might choose the majority, thinking it would be impossible and unjust because of a sinful, weak one to leave 99 others sinless, healthy. A sheep is of all creatures the most senseless and the most shiftless. But, what is it that agitates Jesus when he realizes one is lost? I think he has a heart full of love and compassion. The sheep are his, because he chose them. “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” In his great prayer in John 17: “While I was with them whom you gave me, I protected them and kept them safe. None has been lost.” In fact, he is ready to lay down his life for the sheep. Such is the love and tenderness of his heart that he cannot bear that one of his own should be in jeopardy.

3. Jesus finds the lost, lays it on his shoulders, and brings it back home. The hard labor in restless search does not make him angry. Instead, he feels happy and takes the lost sheep home with joy. Last Sunday, we celebrated the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. We experienced Jesus’ generous love. Well, in this Mass, we are about to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ. This is the food which nourishes us on our journey home. Moreover, on the cross, Jesus let his heart be pierced in order that all of the blood and water in his heart could be poured out to save us. Therefore, the Sacred Heart is not beautiful but ugly, I think, because of our sins, our betrayal and our selfish.

4. In summary, when I contemplate the Sacred Heart, I realize that I have wandered in sins so many times. Sometimes I lost happiness and holiness. I was lost. Then I was sought and found by Jesus. Now, maybe we are on his shoulders. With deep gratitude, what should we do in order to keep his heart from suffering more and make the burden on his shoulders less heavy? Looking up to the Sacred Heart, we pray that our heart may be reformed and become more and more be similar to Jesus’ Heart.

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Sharing in the Mass - Lc 12, 54-59

When I read this Gospel, I recall my father. He is a farmer and a fisherman. He can recognize the signs of heaven. Truly, this is the most important experience for his work with the power of nature. I remember that sometimes he went to the sea in the early morning, sometimes in the evening, sometimes at noon, sometimes at midnight. Do you know why? Because the direction of the wind changes on various days, and the tides which are up and down vary from day to day.

In fact, we can read the signs of heaven, the signs of the times as well, and somehow comprehend their meaning. But do we realize their profound significance which God wants us to understand? Can we interpret it? Jesus’ words rebuking the Pharisees continue to echo in us. Jesus was surprised that his contemporaries did not realize the presence of the living God among them. They did not feel happy when the Word of God visited and live with them. In our time, we can’t see Jesus as they saw him like a man. Bur there are certainly many signs in society, in the world, which express His presence. How can we meet him through these signs?

In recent years, disasters and casualties occur in various places around the world. Moreover, there are many different signs which are more subtle and deep in human hearts. The older we are, the more experiences we have. The more experiences we have, the more easily it is to see the close but delicate signs of the times. Saint Ignatius told us that we have to be spiritually sensitive enough to know God’s presence. We need to have the eyes of God to see today’s signs, signs of joy and signs of suffering.

However, it is Jesus who is the sign beyond all other signs. Yes, in our spiritual life, we have looked for Jesus, not for signs. Through Jesus and in Jesus, we meet the one God of love and mercy. Therefore, we do not look at appearances only, but also contemplate interiorly where God is present and is talking with us. That is the meaning of the sentence: “why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?” which I could understand.

In Ignatian spirituality, we learn to discern spirits in order to find God in everything. I believe that there is one God, one Spirit who is guiding me and you. My days of retreat in Hiroshima reminded me that to find God, I must have hope. Hope will not disappoint me, because God has poured out his love into my heart by the Holy Spirit. To have this hope, I need patience and perseverance. (See Rom 5:3-5)

Let us pray to judge for ourselves what is right and appropriate to God’s will. We also pray for patience, perseverance and hope in order that we can meet God through the signs of God’s Kingdom, and through the biggest sign, namely Jesus.

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Sharing: Vietnamese Martyrs (Nov.24.2009) (in Japan)

Through His words Jesus foretold that His disciples would be persecuted and told them how to face persecution: “Whenever they hand you over for trial, do not worry about how to speak or what to say, for what you should say will be given to you at that time” (Mt 10, 19). Persecution is the inevitable fate of the Lord’s disciples, because their lifestyle and message expose them to the viciousness of the world.

Fr. Rector asked me to share with you some things about the Vietnamese Martyrs commemorated today.

The Gospel came to Vietnam in the sixteenth century. But it was in 1615 that a new period opened in the history of the mission in Vietnam with the organization of the first parish and the presence of the Jesuit fathers : Francesco Buzomi, Diego Carvallos and others. Specifically, in 1625, from Macao, Fr. Alexandre de Rhodes, four other Jesuit priests and a Japanese Christian arrived in Hoi An, Da Nang, in central Vietnam. From here, due to their rapid integration into the culture of Vietnam, the Good News spread extremely fast. In 1650, there were about 300,000 Christians and the annual increase was about 15,000 new believers every year.

However, besides the expansion of God’s Kingdom, persecution also started. The reasons for persecution by the authorities (in that time, our country was divided into 2 parts but with 3 kings) were prejudice and superstition, then, fear of invasion from the West, since more and more people followed the western religion. Christians were caught by thousands of tricks, and were tortured dreadfully. Their life and death were separated only by a fragile border. The king banned all foreign missionaries and tried to make all Vietnamese apostatize by trampling on a crucifix. By stepping on the Cross they could live, and avoid tortures. Many heroes faithful to Christ died in witness to the Gospel of life. Nonetheless, many people, including the martyr saints, stepped on the Cross for fear of suffering or for their family... But after that they repented and returned to the way of Jesus. From the beginning of the seventeenth century to the end of the nineteenth century, about 130 thousand Catholics were killed or subjected to great hardship. Among these were bishops, priests, teachers, seminarians, nuns of the Love of Cross and numerous lay people.

On June 19, 1988, Pope John Paul II canonized 117 Vietnamese Martyrs. Then, on March 5, 2000, the very first martyr in Vietnam (from the year 1625 or 1626) was beatified. That was Andrew Phu Yen. He was martyred at a very young age,18.

In the Gospel today, Jesus says "Do not be afraid" 3 times. The martyrs did so.

1. “Do not be afraid of them, for nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing is secret that will not be made known” (Mt 10, 26), because the truth is always the truth. Fidelity to the truth sometimes requires us to pay a very expensive price, may be even our life.

2. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Mt 10, 28). The profound reasons for Gospel courage that Jesus taught his disciples are the true conception of man, including both body and soul. The physical body may be disadvantaged but the soul, the spirit will not be bent if one firmly believes in God.

3. Do not be afraid because of the Providence of God (Mt 10, 31). By being aware of God's loving care, the disciples will give bold witness to God.

The lessons we can learn from the death of the martyr saints are lessons of life. Death itself has no value; it is life that does marvelous things. Life is love of the people around us, love of noble and true things. That love is intensely kindled in the mystery of self-sacrifice and devotion.

Disciples are assimilated to Jesus and share His condition. But the disciples feel weak, not strong enough to face persecution. The weakness of the disciples is the power of God. Knowing how easily we can fall, we trust in God and are united with Him. Our Society also experienced persecution; and prays to be persecuted for greater glory of God.

In 1878, King Canh Thinh ordered a massacre of Christians. They, on escaping, embraced their children and hid in the forest La Vang; and here, according to tradition, the Blessed Mother appeared to console and protect them. Then, with the slogan "dislodge the Western, destroy false religion”, thousands of soldiers besieged the village of Tra Kieu, La Vang. Tra Kieu was like an island located deep in a valley, and was a victim of attack for 21 days, from September 1 to September 21, 1885. But there appeared “a woman wearing white clothes” from the temple tower embracing her child, who provided ammunition for the Catholics inside. Now, this place becomes famous in Vietnam. In the August of every year, many people pilgrimage to Lavang to attend mass, to visit the holy land and to pray with Mary.

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Sharing in the Mass: Jn 6, 52-59 (english)

The crucial experience of Christians is the experience of the Risen Lord who is in the living presence in our life personally as well as communally. In the beginning of our Church, the Apostles proclaimed again and again only one thing that Jesus died and rose again. The Risen Lord transformed the Apostles from men, sorrow, coward and even persecuting Lord’s Church to men, joyful, courageous and zealously expanding God’s Kingdom. Experience of the presence of the Risen still lasts through generations in the Church until today.

What keeps us in the faith of the Risen? That is Misa (the Mass) everyday. Misa brings us into living mystery of Jesus’ life, His Death and Resurrection. Society of Jesus, especially through general congregations, taught us that Misa must be the center of consecrated and apostolic life of every Jesuit. During Misa, we touch God’s Word, participate into feast of Eucharist. Jesus gives His own Blood and Flesh in order to nourish us, to support us on the way back to the Father’s House as well.

In community life, I sometimes can not avoid times of isolation in the manner of thinking and living, or feelings offended. Studying also makes me stress and boring. At recent time, I’m sorrowfully heard that many international media criticize the Pope heavily and attack strongly priests about their holiness and chastity.

As we are at the same table of Eucharist, we do not feel lonely. Because there are around us, brothers with the same faith, the same motivation, and mostly the presence of the Risen, our Lord, during the Mass. Coming to the Eucharist, we am strengthened more faith and hope to firmly stand before every hostile. Difficulties that we face are offered to God and we are reformed. “Whoever eats my Body and drinks my Blood to have eternal life.” “The one who believes in me will raise him up at the last day.”

The Gospel reading today as well as recent days strikes me and helps me to be more conscious of value of Misa with the living presence of the Risen in the Eucharist. I recollect words of my Novices Master that: be union with our Lord everyday, mostly through the Mass, since the Mass is center of our consecrated and apostolic life.

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Sharing in the Mass - Lk 8, 1-3

Luke 8, 1-3:
8:1Some time afterward he went on through towns and villages, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, 8:2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and disabilities: Mary (called Magdalene), from whom seven demons had gone out, 8:3 Susanna, and many others who provided for them and Joanna the wife of Cuza (Herod’s household manager), out of their own resources.

During His three years of public ministry, Jesus travelled through towns and villages to preach and to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Jesus always called and invited the co-operation of many people, like a boy who had 5 barley loaves and 2 fish, or rustic, uneducated fishermen, or in today’s Gospel, a band of women.

These women accompanied Jesus and the twelve apostles. “This was a diverse group of women; some came from rich and prominent families; some had been prostitutes, and others had been afflicted with mental and physical infirmities. For example, Mary Magdalene had lived a very troubled life before Jesus freed her from seven demons. She was privileged to be the first to see Jesus as the risen Lord.” What brought them together and united them in a bond of friendship, service, and loyalty to Jesus? They courageously accompanied Jesus until his moment on the cross and even afterwards – afterwards. Certainly Jesus and his message of the kingdom of God had transformed them. (Unlike the apostles, who took great pride in being the chosen twelve, these women did not seek any position or demand any special privileges.) Jesus had touched them so deeply that they were grateful to do anything for him, even menial services. They brought their gifts and resources to Jesus (to use as he saw fit).

We see how these women greatly cooperated in Jesus’ work of salvation. Nowadays, there are many sisters who cooperate with the Church in various fields to serve the Lord and his Spouse. Not only sisters but lay people and non-catholics also collaborate with us. And our recent congregations recommended us to engage in such collaboration. In VN, I can say about 50% of the candidates were led to enter the Society of Jesus by sisters (-religious women). On occasions of great feasts in the VN province, the ordination or the day of Saint Ignatius, for instance, many sisters come to help Jesuits prepare for these activities.

Turning back to the Gospel, I think that today Jesus is travelling through cities, towns and villages to proclaim the Good News as well. He invites us to join Him and to collaborate together to carry out His mission. Images of women in this Gospel are still active and helpful. No one is unimportant or unnecessary in God’s plan. For our three brothers who will be ordained next week, it is significant to meditate on these women’s way of serving the Lord, in humility, selfless love, generosity, joy and loyalty. Our community prays for the three of you specially. I think that to live in the priesthood as God’s will is not easy at all. To conclude my sharing, I will repeat the last sentence in today’s Gospel: they provided for Jesus and his disciples out of their own resources.

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Mt 9, 9-13 The healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do

The Gospel today (Mt 9, 9-13) contains many meanings. We can meditate on and contemplate the loving behavior of God. I would like to share with you 2 points.

1. “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are
sick do.” (Mt 9, 12)

This saying of Jesus is an obvious truth, very normal in daily life. It is not new. But what is the aim which Jesus wants to imply? He often associates with the sick, sinners and the marginalized. He visits their homes, eats at the same table with them, touches them, and so on. These are actions which the righteous Pharisees avoided and stayed away from. Hence, the Pharisees hated Jesus and sought a way to lower His reputation. Once when Jesus was having a meal at Matthew’s house, the Pharisees didn’t ask Jesus directly why he ate and drank with sinners but they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? They wanted to confuse the disciples and pull them away from their Master. We also see and hear similar questions when we work with others in various missions. Here, we see that the disciples didn’t answer but Jesus did. He had an insight into his disciples’ difficulties. He replied to the Pharisees: “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.” He implied that he is a physician, a Good Physician. He came to the world to seek and heal sick and sinful souls. The Pharisees were self-righteous and judged others. Jesus warned why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own? … First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Mt 7, 3.5). Therefore, in order to experience and taste the love of God, we need to recognize that we are sinners. In fact, we are sinners and are called to follow the Lord… as precepts of our Society. Saint Paul also said: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rm 3, 23). But we cannot get free of this condition by ourselves. So we need a physician, a Savior.

2. We observe Matthew’s attitude of response to Jesus’ call.

Jesus saw Matthew sitting at the customs house. He called him: Follow me. The call was very simple and short. But it had a divine power to convert Matthew from tax collector to apostle. Why? Why did Matthew leave his business behind in order to arise and follow Jesus immediately when He called him? Surely, Matthew had heard many things about Jesus before. Jesus was a good master, a good physician. In his heart, there was a little bit of admiration for Jesus. Matthew's heart must have yearned for God. As we see, Jesus didn’t call Matthew at the same time as Peter, Andrew, John… Notice that Matthew was in the same town with them (Capernaum). Jesus waited for Matthew’s heart to be moved by his deeds. This indicated that Jesus knew Matthew’s condition of soul clearly. John Chrysostom, the great 5th century church father, describes Matthew's calling as following: He came at a different time to call Matthew when he was assured that Matthew would surrender to his call. Hence, when Jesus called Matthew, Matthew realized Jesus’ respect for him and His blessings while other teachers, such as Pharisees, looked down on him and avoided him.

Today, we are constantly called and chosen by Jesus. I wonder whether I am following Jesus, following his way or following my own way? Yes, we are sinners. And, Jesus calls us to repentance. So, to conclude my sharing I borrow the words of Saint Augustine and pray: "Lord Jesus, our Savior, let us now come to you: Our hearts are cold; Lord, warm them with your selfless love. Our hearts are sinful; cleanse them with your precious blood. Our hearts are weak; strengthen them with your joyous Spirit. Our hearts are empty; fill them with your divine presence. Lord Jesus, our hearts are yours; possess them always and only for yourself.” (Prayer of Augustine, 354-430)

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Apocalypse 10, 8 -11 The Book from the Angel of God

We know now that the weather is changing. The leaves of the trees are turning yellow and red to form a beautiful scene. We also begin to feel a little bit cold. Some of us are preparing for the coming winter. Br. Michel took the photograph of our community to make a Christmas card. I suddenly realized that the Christmas season is coming again. Some days ago, I read the first chapter of the Gospel according to John. I am thinking about ‘the Word of God becoming flesh’.

Dear fathers and brothers,

Today’s first reading reminds us of our responsibility to assimilate the Word of God and make it a part of the inner man. John received the book from the angel of God and swallowed it. What were the contents and purpose of this book? This passage doesn’t tell us about that. We only see that John had to receive it into his inner being. When the book was in his mouth, it tasted sweet. And then, it felt bitter when it was swallowed totally. About this detail, some biblical commentators say that God doesn’t change the effects the Word will have in our lives: there will be both sorrow and joy, bitterness and sweetness. God’s Word contains sweet promises and assurances but it also contains bitter warnings and prophecies of judgment. The Christian bears witness to both life and death. He can not dilute the message of God simply to please his listeners.

Jesus testified to that in today’s Gospel. He knew that if he went up Jerusalem at that time, He would suffer and be crucified. But He readily accepted and obeyed the Word of God within his flesh. On the contrary, the Jews also received the messages of God but they didn’t witness to their neighbors, the pagans, and didn’t tell them about the one true and living God. Instead of being devoted to evangelizing the temple area was used as a “religious marketplace”. This made Jesus angry and he cleansed the temple, the house of prayer.

Getting back to the point: the Word of God becomes flesh; God’s Word is compared to food. The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel experienced eating the Word before they could share it with others. The Word must always become flesh before it can be given to those who need it.

We see nature changing, the weather, the trees and so on. How about our inner self? I mean how does our heart assimilate the Word of God? How can we accept the changes in life with both sweetness and bitterness when the Word of God becomes our flesh? Lord! Help me to draw near to you with gratitude and joy for mercifully giving me your Word. Give me good medicine to assimilate your Word so that your Word will become my flesh, and I can share your Word with others. Amen.

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