Reflection for SATURDAY, 18th Week, Ordinary Time.

By

Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Assistant Parish Priest, Manjeshwar, Kasargod

Gospel Passage for today 

Matthew 17:14-20    

A man came up to Jesus and went down on his knees before him. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘take pity on my son: he is a lunatic and in a wretched state; he is always falling into the fire or into the water. I took him to your disciples and they were unable to cure him.’ ‘Faithless and perverse generation!’ Jesus said in reply ‘How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.’ And when Jesus rebuked it the devil came out of the boy who was cured from that moment.

 Then the disciples came privately to Jesus. ‘Why were we unable to cast it out?’ they asked. He answered, ‘Because you have little faith. I tell you solemnly, if your faith were the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it would move; nothing would be impossible for you.’

Reflection on the Readings 

Some people would say that love is a feeling, others would say it is an action, yet others would say that love is a decision.

But love is a combination of feelings, actions and decisions.

In the 1st reading, Moses told the people: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart (feeling), with all your soul (action) and with all your strength (decision).

It is a love in totality. It encompasses feelings that must be expressed in action, and reinforced continuously with decisions.

Yet, like the mustard seed that Jesus used as an imagery in today's Gospel, love is also a growth.

How we understand love in our younger days, we understand love now in much deeper ways.

To say that we love God might be quite easy, as in our love for God is merely confined to feelings.

Now we know that our love for God must be experienced in love for others, and that can be difficult.

There are mountains of resentment, bitterness, anger, disappointment etc to move.

But as long as we love God, these mountains can be moved.

Then we will understand that love is a feeling, an action as well as a decision.


August 12 | St. Jane Frances de Chantal 


Jane Frances was wife, mother, nun, and founder of a religious community. Her mother died when she was 18 months old, and her father, head of parliament at Dijon, France, became the main influence on her education. Jane developed into a woman of beauty and refinement, lively and cheerful in temperament. At 21, she married Baron de Chantal, by whom she had six children, three of whom died in infancy. At her castle, she restored the custom of daily Mass, and was seriously engaged in various charitable works.

Jane’s husband was killed after seven years of marriage, and she sank into deep dejection for four months at her family home. Her father-in-law threatened to disinherit her children if she did not return to his home. He was then 75, vain, fierce, and extravagant. Jane Frances managed to remain cheerful in spite of him and his insolent housekeeper.

When she was 32, Jane met Saint Francis de Sales who became her spiritual director, softening some of the severities imposed by her former director. She wanted to become a nun but he persuaded her to defer this decision. She took a vow to remain unmarried and to obey her director.

After three years, Francis told Jane of his plan to found an institute of women that would be a haven for those whose health, age, or other considerations barred them from entering the already established communities. There would be no cloister, and they would be free to undertake spiritual and corporal works of mercy. They were primarily intended to exemplify the virtues of Mary at the Visitation—hence their name the Visitation nuns—humility and meekness.

The usual opposition to women in active ministry arose and Francis de Sales was obliged to make it a cloistered community following the Rule of Saint Augustine. Francis wrote his famous Treatise on the Love of God for them. The congregation consisting of three women began when Jane Frances was 45. She underwent great sufferings: Francis de Sales died; her son was killed; a plague ravaged France; her daughter-in-law and son-in-law died. She encouraged the local authorities to make great efforts for the victims of the plague, and she put all her convent’s resources at the disposal of the sick.

During a part of her religious life, Jane Frances had to undergo great trials of the spirit—interior anguish, darkness, and spiritual dryness. She died while on a visitation of convents of the community.


St. Jane Frances de Chantal, pray for us.

GOD BLESS YOU

Good morning. Have a nice day.