Saint Robert Bellarmine, Bishop, Doctor
September 17th, 2010
Luke 7 : 31 – 35
The key word in today’s reading is wisdom, and what can we learn from it?
Wisdom could be described as knowledge rightly applied. The wise set out each day to praise and love God. John the Baptist’s radical call to repentance is rejected because his followers think he is possessed by the devil. Jesus’s radical call to new life is also rejected because they think he is a glutton. Jesus does not defend John or himself ; he simply invites his critics to judge the fruit of his life. He pointed to the witness of wisdom.
Today is the feast of Saint Robert Bellarmine, one of the Church’s great apologists. Born in Tuscany, Italy, in 1542, he entered the Jesuits in 1560 and was renowned for his preaching even before he was ordained in 1570. Appointed Archbishop of Capua in 1602, he was greatly loved as a pastor. He was canonized in 1930 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1931. He is the patron of Catechists and Catechumens.
Prayer
Prayer : Lord Jesus, we seek your wisdom, the wisdom of the ages, but we look at the world with the eyes of faith, as children of God. Amen.
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Just a Thought
How the Holy Family prayer: A Reflection by Pope Benedict XVI
“I would like to invite you to reflect on the place of prayer in the life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The home of Nazareth, in fact, is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to ponder and to penetrate the profound meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
Pope Paul VI during his visit to Nazareth said “we come to understand the need for a spiritual discipline, if we wish to follow the teaching of the Gospel and become disciples of Christ.” And he added: “First, it teaches us silence. Oh! That there would be reborn in us the esteem for silence, that wonderful and indispensable atmosphere of the spirit: while we are deafened by so many noises, sounds and clamorous voices in the frantic and tumultuous times of modern life. Oh! Silence of Nazareth, teach us to be resolute in good thoughts, intent upon the interior life, ready to listen well to the secret inspirations of God and the exhortations of the true masters.”
We can glean several insights on the Holy Family’s prayer and relationship with God from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ childhood. We may begin with the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. St. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph, “when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”(2:22). Like every observant Jewish family, Jesus’ parents go up to the temple to consecrate the firstborn son to God and to offer sacrifice. Moved by fidelity to the law’s prescriptions, they set off from Bethlehem and go up to Jerusalem with Jesus, who is now forty days old. Instead of a one-year-old lamb, they present the offering of simple families; that is two young pigeons. The Holy Family’s pilgrimage is one of faith, of the offering of gifts, a symbol of prayer, and of encounter with the Lord, whom Mary and Joseph already see in the son Jesus.”
