11th JULY. SATURDAY. SAINT BENEDICT, PATRONE OF EUROPE

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Benedict (480-543) from Nursia in Umbria ( Italy) spent years as a hermint in a mountain cave at subiaco ( 64km east of Rome) before being inspired to gather companions to live a monastic life in community. Later he moved to Monte Cassino near Naples. The “Rule of Saint Benedict” is admired for its balance and moderation and became most influential monastic rule in Western Christendom. Into the Middle Ages it was mainly the monasteries that provided education and preserved the culture of Greece and Rome in the west. For this reason, Benedict is honoured by the Catholic Church as the Patron of Europe.

1.Gn 49:29-32;50:15-26a

Mt10:24-33

REFLECTIONS AND MEDITATIONS

From the gospel reading we hear Jesus saying “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.”(Mt 10:24). That is to say we must expect the same treatment as Jesus himself was treated. Because of his mission, the opponents of Jesus nicknamed him. They called him Beelzebub, the prince of devils (Mt 12:24, Lk11:15). It is under this background that the family of Jesus will be treated in the same manner. Our call is to be like that of Jesus. Nobody will claim to follow Jesus if he/she does the contrary.

In today’s gospel Jesus is giving a word of consolation to his disciples when he says “so have no fear of them; and what you hear whispered, proclaim upon the housetops.” This in fact is the general direction Jesus is giving to all the persecuted in his name. Under this situation Jesus is promising an ample support. Moreover, Christ here exhorts his disciples to a free profession and open publication of the doctrine of the gospel, from this consideration, that whatever they say or do shall be brought to light, proclaimed and published to the world.  I will make the Excellency of your doctrine and the innocence of your lives shine as the light; your integrity in dispensing of it, and patience in suffering for it, shall redound to God's glory and your commendation, at the revelation of your Lord from heaven.  As wicked men have cause to fear because their evil deeds shall be made evident, so good men have cause to rejoice because their goodness and good deeds shall be made manifest.  Let it be our care to do good, and it shall be Christ's care to discover the goodness which we do, to vindicate it from misconstruction, and set it in its clearest light.

“Fear not him that can kill the body.” (Mt 10:28), the reading here invites us to meditate that the soul does not perish with the body; none are able to kill the soul, but it continues after death in a state of sensibility; it is granted that men can kill the body, but it is denied that they can kill the soul: it is spoken of temporal death; consequently then the soul doth not perish with the body, nor is the soul reduced into an insensible state by the death of the Cody; nor can the soul be supposed to sleep as the body doth till the resurrection; for an intelligible, thinking, and perceiving being, as the soul is, cannot be deprived of sensation, thought, and perception, any more than it can lose its being: the soul, after the death of the body, being capable of bliss or misery, must continue in a state of sensation.  

“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” (Mt 10:30), in this verse Jesus meant that nothing is more astonishing than the care and concern of God for his followers.  The least circumstances of their life are regulated, not merely by that general providence which extends to all things, but by a particular providence, which fits and directs all things to the design of their salvation, causing them all to co-operate for their present and eternal good. God our caring father knows our every day needs. Let us keep our eyes on God, expecting that He is the one who provides our daily material and spiritual needs.