Treasures of Our Faith with Deacon Richard Vehige

Today, September 20, as our Church celebrates the Memorial of the Saints Andrew Kim Tae-gon and Paul Chong Ha-sang and companions, we are invited to reflect on a passage of Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans (8: 18-39), entitled “Nothing is able to separate us from the love of God which comes to us through Jesus Christ”. Our treasure, which follows, is from the letter by Saint Cyprian, bishop and martyr.

The evangelization of Korea began during the 17th century through a group of lay persons. A strong vital Christian community flourished there under lay leadership until missionaries arrived from the Paris Foreign Mission Society. During the terrible persecutions that occurred in the 19th century (in 1839, 1866, and 1867), one hundred and three members of the Christian community gave their lives as martyrs. Outstanding among these witnesses to the faith were the first Korean priest and pastor, Andrew Kim Taegon, and the lay apostle, Paul Chong Hasang. Among the other martyrs were a few bishops and priests, but for the most part lay people, men and women, married and unmarried, children, young people, and the elderly. All suffered greatly for the Faith and consecrated the rich beginnings of the Church of Korea with their blood as martyrs.

Of all the letters of Paul, that to the Christians at Rome has long held pride of place. It is the longest and most systematic unfolding of the apostle’s thought, expounding the gospel of God’s righteousness that saves all who believe; it reflects a universal outlook, with special implications for Israel’s relation to the church. Yet, like all Paul’s letters, Romans too arose out of a specific situation, when the apostle wrote from Greece, likely Corinth, between A.D. 56 and 58.

Paul at that time was about to leave for Jerusalem with a collection of funds for the impoverished Jewish Christian believers there, taken up from his predominantly Gentile congregations. He planned then to travel on to Rome and to enlist support there for a mission to Spain. Such a journey had long been on his mind. Now, with much missionary preaching successfully accomplished in the East, he sought new opportunities in the West, in order to complete the divine plan of evangelization in the Roman world. Yet he recognized that the visit to Jerusalem would be hazardous, and we know from Acts that Paul was arrested there and came to Rome only in chains, as a prisoner.

On Wednesday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time our Church invites us to  reflect on a passage from the beginning of book of the prophet Ezekiel (10: 18-22; 14-25) entitled  “God’s presence is withdrawn from the condemned city”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a sermon On Pastors by Saint Augustine, bishop.

Saint Augustine was born at Tagaste in Africa in 354. He was unsettled and restlessly searched for the truth until he was converted to the faith at Milan and baptized by Ambrose. Returning to his homeland, he embraced an ascetic life and subsequently was elected bishop of Hippo. For thirty-four years he guided his flock, instructing it with sermons and many writings. He fought bravely against the errors of his time and explained the Faith carefully and cogently through his writings. He died in 430.

He is also a preeminent Catholic Doctor of the Church. His writings influenced the development of western philosophy and western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period.

Augustine of Hippo’s sermon “On Pastors” deals with the duty of shepherds & clergy to help the sick and weak through opening up the hidden meaning of Scripture through preaching and teaching.

In response to the rebellion of Jehoiakim of Judah in 601 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian ruler, besieged Jerusalem. When Jehoiakim’s successor, Jehoiachin, surrendered in 597, Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah king and deported to Babylon Jehoiachin and the royal family, along with members of the upper class, including Ezekiel the priest. Five years later, as Zedekiah planned his own revolt against Babylon, Ezekiel became the first prophet to be commissioned outside Judah or Israel. Before Jerusalem is destroyed in 587 B.C., Ezekiel is concerned to convince his audience that they are responsible for the punishment of exile and to justify the Lord’s decision to destroy their city and Temple. Later, Ezekiel argues that the Judahites who embrace his preaching are the people whom the Lord has chosen as a new Israel, enlivened by a new heart, imbued with new breath, and restored to a re-created land, Temple, and covenant relationship. Ezekiel is clear on one point: the Lord punishes and restores for one reason—for the sake of his name, in order to demonstrate once and for all that he is Lord.

On Tuesday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time our Church invites us to  reflect on a passage from the beginning of book of the prophet Ezekiel (2: 8---3: 11, 17-32) entitled  “The call of Ezekiel”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a sermon On Pastors by Saint Augustine, bishop.

Saint Augustine was born at Tagaste in Africa in 354. He was unsettled and restlessly searched for the truth until he was converted to the faith at Milan and baptized by Ambrose. Returning to his homeland, he embraced an ascetic life and subsequently was elected bishop of Hippo. For thirty-four years he guided his flock, instructing it with sermons and many writings. He fought bravely against the errors of his time and explained the Faith carefully and cogently through his writings. He died in 430.

He is also a preeminent Catholic Doctor of the Church. His writings influenced the development of western philosophy and western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period.

Augustine of Hippo’s sermon “On Pastors” deals with the duty of shepherds & clergy to help the sick and weak through opening up the hidden meaning of Scripture through preaching and teaching.

In response to the rebellion of Jehoiakim of Judah in 601 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian ruler, besieged Jerusalem. When Jehoiakim’s successor, Jehoiachin, surrendered in 597, Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah king and deported to Babylon Jehoiachin and the royal family, along with members of the upper class, including Ezekiel the priest. Five years later, as Zedekiah planned his own revolt against Babylon, Ezekiel became the first prophet to be commissioned outside Judah or Israel. Before Jerusalem is destroyed in 587 B.C., Ezekiel is concerned to convince his audience that they are responsible for the punishment of exile and to justify the Lord’s decision to destroy their city and Temple. Later, Ezekiel argues that the Judahites who embrace his preaching are the people whom the Lord has chosen as a new Israel, enlivened by a new heart, imbued with new breath, and restored to a re-created land, Temple, and covenant relationship. Ezekiel is clear on one point: the Lord punishes and restores for one reason—for the sake of his name, in order to demonstrate once and for all that he is Lord.

On Saturday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time our Church invites us to  reflect on a passage from the book of the prophet Jerimiah (31: 15-22, 27-34) entitled  “A foretelling of salvation and the new covenant”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a sermon on the beatitudes by Saint Leo the Great, pope.

Saint Leo became pope in the year 440. Saint Leo was a Roman aristocrat, and was the first pope to have been called “the Great”. Saint Leo is known as one of the best administrative popes of the ancient Church .His work branched into many areas of the church, indicative of his notion of the pope’s total responsibility for the flock of Christ. In the 96 sermons which have come down to us, we find Leo stressing the virtues of almsgiving, fasting, and prayer, and also expounding Catholic doctrine with clarity and conciseness, in particular, the dogma of the Incarnation. Leo is perhaps best known for having met Attila the Hun in 452 and having persuaded him to turn back from his invasion of Italy.

Saint Leo’s Sermon on the Beatitudes When our Lord Jesus, beloved, was preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, and was healing various sicknesses through the whole of Galilee, the fame of His mighty works had spread into all Syria: large crowds too from all parts of Judea were flocking to the heavenly Physician. Matthew 4:23-24 “For as human ignorance is slow in believing what it does not see, and in hoping for what it does not know, those who were to be instructed in the divine lore , needed to be aroused by bodily benefits and visible miracles: so that they might have no doubt as to the wholesomeness of His teaching when they actually experienced His benignant power. And therefore that the Lord might use outward healings as an introduction to inward remedies, and after healing bodies might work cures in the soul, He separated Himself from the surrounding crowd, ascended into the retirement of a neighboring mountain, and called His apostles to Him there, that from the height of that mystic seat He might instruct them in the loftier doctrines, signifying from the very nature of the place and act that He it was who had once honored Moses by speaking to him: then indeed with a more terrifying justice, but now with a holier mercifulness, that what had been promised might be fulfilled when the Prophet Jeremiah says: behold the days come when I will complete a new covenant for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah. After those days, says the Lord, I will put My laws in their minds , and in their heart will I write them”.  He therefore who had spoken to Moses, spoke also to the apostles, and the swift hand of the Word wrote and deposited the secrets of the new covenant in the disciples’ hearts: there were no thick clouds surrounding Him as of old, nor were the people frightened off from approaching the mountain by frightful sounds and lightning , but quietly and freely His discourse reached the ears of those who stood by: that the harshness of the law might give way before the gentleness of grace, and the spirit of adoption might dispel the terrors of bondage.

The Book of Jeremiah combines history, biography, and prophecy. It portrays a nation in crisis and introduces the reader to an extraordinary person whom the Lord called to prophesy under the trying circumstances of the final days of the kingdom of Judah. Jeremiah was born, perhaps about 650 B.C., of a priestly family from the village of Anathoth, two and a half miles northeast of Jerusalem. He was called to his task in the thirteenth year of King Josiah. Josiah’s reform, begun with enthusiasm and hope, ended with his death on the battlefield of Megiddo (609 B.C.) as he attempted to stop the northward march of the Egyptian Pharaoh Neco, who was going to provide assistance to the Assyrians who were in retreat before the Babylonians. Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, fell in 612 B.C., preparing the way for the new colossus, Babylon, which was soon to put an end to the independence of Judah.

On Friday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time our Church invites us to  reflect on a passage from the book of the prophet Jerimiah (4: 5-8, 13-28) entitled  “The destroying enemy from the North”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a commentary on Joel by Saint Jerome, priest.

Saint Jerome was born at Stridon in Dalmatia around the year 340. He studied the classical authors at Rome, and was baptized there. He embraced a life of a statism, and went to the East where he was ordained a priest. Returning to Rome, he became a secretary to Pope Damascus. At Rome, he began to translate the holy scriptures into Latin and to promote the monastic life. Eventually he settled in Bethlehem where he served the needs of the Church. He wrote many works, especially commentaries on holy Scripture. He died at Bethlehem in 420.

Jerome’s commentary on Joel teaches about the power of combined prayers and fasting of God’s people during a time of great difficulty in Israel’s history. Joel assured the people that through repentance they would again receive the blessings of God.

The Book of Jeremiah combines history, biography, and prophecy. It portrays a nation in crisis and introduces the reader to an extraordinary person whom the Lord called to prophesy under the trying circumstances of the final days of the kingdom of Judah. Jeremiah was born, perhaps about 650 B.C., of a priestly family from the village of Anathoth, two and a half miles northeast of Jerusalem. He was called to his task in the thirteenth year of King Josiah. Josiah’s reform, begun with enthusiasm and hope, ended with his death on the battlefield of Megiddo (609 B.C.) as he attempted to stop the northward march of the Egyptian Pharaoh Neco, who was going to provide assistance to the Assyrians who were in retreat before the Babylonians. Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, fell in 612 B.C., preparing the way for the new colossus, Babylon, which was soon to put an end to the independence of Judah.

On Monday of  the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time our Church invites us to  reflect on a passage from the book of the prophet Zephaniah (3: 8-20) entitled  “Redemption is promised to Israel’s poor”. Our treasure, which follows, is from an exposition on John by Saint Thomas Aquinas, priest.

Saint Thomas Aquinas was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, an influential philosopher and theologian, and a jurist in the tradition of scholasticism from the county of Aquino in the Kingdom of Sicily. Thomas was a proponent of natural theology and the father of a school of thought known as Thomism.

His extensive writings explored the relationship between mind of man and the mind of God and his synthesis of knowledge relating to this joining of intellect and religious belief entitled The Summa Theologica (1267-1273), earned him a lasting reputation among scholars and religious alike. He possessed excellent knowledge of the commentaries of Origen, John Chrysostom, and Augustine. On the basis of this foundation, he produced his own commentary on the Gospel of John (exposition on John) as part of his task as a Master of the Sacred Page. Considered a landmark theological introduction to the Fourth Gospel, these lectures were delivered to Dominican friars when Aquinas was at the height of his theological powers, when he was also composing the Summa theologiae. For numerous reasons, the Summa has received far more attention over the centuries than has his Commentary on the Gospel of John. However, scholars today recognize Aquinas's biblical commentaries as central sources for understanding his theological vision and for appreciating the scope of his Summa theologiae.

 The Book of Zephaniah is the ninth of the Twelve Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. The central theme of the book of Zephaniah is “the Day of the Lord”. Zephaniah elucidates two major aspects of this central theme, judgment and restoration, and in both of these aspects Zephaniah evinces many parallels to the books of the eighth-century prophets. In the “Day of the Lord” a remnant will be saved (the “humble and lowly”) through purification by judgment..

On Friday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time our Church invites us to  reflect on a passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah (30:1-18) entitled  “The futility of entering into pacts with foreign peoples”. Our treasure, which follows, is from the Explanations of the Psalms by Saint Ambrose, bishop.

Saint Ambrose was a fourth century, theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan, Italy. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, firstly promoting Roman Christianity against Arianism and paganism. Saint Ambrose is a Doctor of the Church. He is celebrated for his scholarship, service to the unfortunate, oratory skills, leadership of the people, and defense of the Church.

 The Psalms are a collection of 150 ancient Hebrew poems, songs, and prayers that make up the third and final section of the biblical canon, known as the Writings. They were written by many different authors over time, including King David, Solomon, Moses, and other worship leaders. The psalms are often set to music, but not always, and express the emotions of the individual poet to or about God. 

Throughout its many pages, Psalms encourages its readers to praise God for who He is and what He has done. The Psalms illuminate the greatness of our God, affirm His faithfulness to us in times of trouble, and remind us of the absolute centrality of His Word.

 For Ambrose a psalm is 'a blessing for the people... our universal tongue; the voice of the Church, a sweet outpouring of faith; a devotion divinely ordained; the cry of heart's delight; a leaping and jumping for joy...it soothes the angry spirit, banishes care, lessens sorrow. It guards us by night, guides us by day.

 The book of Isaiah is filled with sobering accounts of Israel's sin and rebellion and warnings of their coming judgement. But along with warnings, Isaiah also offers a message of hope—a suffering servant, a coming Messiah, who would come to establish God's Kingdom on Earth and create a new Jerusalem.

Today, August 22, as our Church celebrates the Memorial of the Queenship of Mary we are invited to reflect on a passage from the letter of the apostle Paul to the Galatians (3:22 – – 4:7), entitled “Through faith we are the sons and heirs of God”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a homily by Saint Amadeus of Lausanne, Bishop.

Pope Pius XII established this feast in 1954. Having declared the dogma of the Assumption, that “the Immaculate Mother of God . . . was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory,” he then established the feast of her Queenship. Eventually, the date for this feast was set for the octave (8th day) after the Solemnity of the Assumption, that is, August 22nd each year. Though this dogma of the Church was established relatively recently, Mary’s Queenship has its roots in sacred Scripture. At the Annunciation, in the very moment Mary became a mother as she was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, she also became a queen. The Archangel Gabriel tells Mary that her Son will sit on “the throne of his ancestor David” and that “He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Lk 1:32-33). Since Jesus is a king, and since He is conceived in the womb of Mary, and since in Israel the mother of a king was always a queen, Mary truly became a queen at the first joyful mystery of the rosary, the Annunciation.

Bishop and prominent official in the court of Savoy and Burgundy. Amadeus was a member of the royal family of Franconia, the son of Blessed Amadeus of Clermont, born in the castle of Chatte, Dauphine, France. He was educated at Bonnevaux and then at Cluny, where his father had become a monk. While serving in the household of King Henry V, Amadeus entered Clairvaux in 1124, becoming a Cistercian. He became abbot of Ilautecombe Savoy in 1139, and the bishop of Lausanne in 1144. He is best remembered for his Eight Homilies in the Praise of Mary.

The Galatians to whom the letter is addressed were Paul’s converts, most likely among the descendants of Celts who had invaded western and central Asia Minor in the third century B.C. and had settled in the territory around Ancyra (modern Ankara, Turkey). Paul had passed through this area on his second missionary journey and again on his third.

On Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time our Church invites us to  reflect on a passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah (9:7---10:4) entitled  “God’s wrath against Israel”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop.

Saint Augustine was a late fourth century, theologian and philosopher, and Bishop of Hippo, Roman North Africa. He is also a preeminent Catholic Doctor of the Church. His writings influenced the development of western philosophy and western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period.

The book of Isaiah is filled with sobering accounts of Israel's sin and rebellion and warnings of their coming judgement. But along with warnings, Isaiah also offers a message of hope—a suffering servant, a coming Messiah, who would come to establish God's Kingdom on Earth and create a new Jerusalem.

On the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time our church invites us to  reflect on a passage from the book of the prophet Isiah (6: 1-13) entitled  “The call of the prophet Isiah”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a homily on Matthew by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop.

The book of Isaiah is filled with sobering accounts of Israel's sin and rebellion and warnings of their coming judgement. But along with warnings, Isaiah also offers a message of hope—a suffering servant, a coming Messiah, who would come to establish God's Kingdom on Earth and create a new Jerusalem.

The position of the Gospel according to Matthew as the first of the four gospels in the New Testament reflects both the view that it was the first to be written, a view that goes back to the late second century A.D., and the esteem in which it was held by the church; no other was so frequently quoted in the noncanonical literature of earliest Christianity. Although the majority of scholars now reject the opinion about the time of its composition, the high estimation of this work remains. The reason for that becomes clear upon study of the way in which Matthew presents his story of Jesus, the demands of Christian discipleship, and the breaking-in of the new and final age through the ministry but particularly through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Saint John Chrysostom was an important, fourth century, Early Church Father who served as Archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, and for his denunciation of abuse of authority of both ecclesiastical and political leaders. He was among the most prolific authors in the early Christian church. The word ’Chrysostom’ means ‘golden-mounted’. This name was given to him after he died because all his sermons were eloquent and lovely to hear.