昔日文章

Personal Details  • Feast Day : 21 January Virgin-martyr  Patron Saint of the Children of Mary  • Born : About A.D. 291  • Died : A.D. 304  The name of St. Agnes is familiar to us. This is a popular name because many girls choose Agnes as Christian names during baptism.  Agnes was born in about 291 A.D. Her father was a Roman noble. As Agnes was very clever and beautiful, she had many rich men chasing after her. Nevertheless, young Agnes made a promise to God that she would devote her life to serving Him and decided not to get married.  One day, the Governor’s son asked her to marry him. She told him, “Jesus Christ is my only spouse.” The Governor was very angry and arrested her. The judge asked her to change her mind so that she would not have to suffer. Nevertheless, little Agnes was not afraid of any suffering. She did not give in even when faced with very cruel punishment. In the end, the Governor gave the order to behead her. However, St. Agnes was happy to die for God. Even the by-standers sadly cried to see such a young and beautiful girl going to death. Agnes died a martyr death at the age of 13 in A.D. 304, witnessed by many people at that time. Later, a big cathedral was built over her graveyard in memory of her. Today, St. Agnes is often shown as a young girl holding a lamb with a palm branch in her arms. The lamb is the symbol of her virgin innocence and the palm branch standing for her courage to die for God.  Little Quiz  • What is the reason for St. Agnes deciding not to get married?  • What do you think about the act of St. Agnes rather die than to give in for the sake of God? Is her act meaningful and why? 

Personal Details  • Feast Day : 29 June Called the “Apostle of the Gentiles”  • Born : During the time of Jesus  • Died : A.D. 67 St. Paul was born in the time of Jesus. He was growing up at the time when the Church was being persecuted after the death of Jesus. The parents of Paul were Judaists. As a Judaist, he was circumcised eight days after birth. When Paul was 15, his parents sent him to Jerusalem to study the Bible under the greatest teacher. His knowledge about the Bible increased quickly.  Paul was a Judaist and a Pharisee. After finishing his studies, he started joining the activities to persecute the Church. One day, he received the order to hunt down Christians in Damascus. On the road, Jesus appeared to him in a powerful vision. Paul was not only immediately converted to Christianity, but also became a capable missionary for Jesus.  After conversion, Paul joined the Apostles and went out preaching the Gospel. Paul was oppressed by the Jews many a time. He had been beaten up and put into prison. Every time, God helped him to come through. Paul bravely continued to spread the Gospel despite repeated oppression.  Paul travelled round Asia Minor, spreading the Gospel to unbelievers. He set up churches at various places. When Paul reached Jerusalem, the Jews stirred up the crowd to put him to death. He was put into prison for two years. Paul wrote many letters to the faithful while in prison. These letters were included in the New Testament.  Paul was martyred in Rome in A.D.67. Every year, the church honored on 25 January for the Conversion of St. Paul. Little Quiz  • Try to account for the conversion of St. Paul from the Acts of the Apostles 9: 1-21.  • Why Paul was called “Apostle of the Gentiles”? 

   What day of the week is Sabbath?  The original Sabbath refers to the seventh day rest of Gen. 2:2 because God saw everything was good. Because of this religious notion of taking time to enjoy what is good, Western cultures have the practice of taking a day off from work to enjoy what the work brings. The word “sabbatical” comes from this notion of taking a break in order to be refreshed.  There are two things we need to keep in mind. First, the Jewish people consider a day, again from Gen. 1, to begin with sundown and ends at sundown the next day. Second, our Sunday is their first day of the week. Thus, in John 20:1, “On the first day of the week.....”, every first day is Easter, Sunday. So, for us, Sunday is the real first day of the week even though we feel that Monday as the first day.  On the Sabbath, the Jewish people begin their observation at home. Their Friday evening meal takes on a prayerful nature. Parents would often say a prayer of blessing over their children. The Jewish people would then go to the synagogue, their word for church, to celebrate the gift of community. This may take place Friday evening or Saturday morning. Nevertheless, the community is the extension of the family.  There are a number of references in the Acts of the Apostles mentioning that the early Church continued to observe Sabbath at the synagogue and then gotten together to celebrate the Breaking of the Bread on the first day of the week. Historically they did this until after 70 A.D. when Jewish Christians were no longer allowed to go to the synagogues. They then combined the two parts: the reading of scripture and praying of the psalms with the Breaking of the Bread, now called the Eucharist. They then naturally incorporated the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles in what we now call the Liturgy of the Word. St. Justin the Martyr described this in a writing dating to 155 A.D. (CCC 1345)  From then on, Christians no longer observe the Sabbath but the Lord’s Day. And so do we.  Another noteworthy citation is from the Gospel. Lk. 4:16 “He came to Nazareth, where He had grown up, and went according to His custom into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.” When people tells me that they do not go to church on Sundays because they don’t get anything out of it, I tell them that Jesus probably didn’t get much out of it either. I am certain that He would rather take time with the Father on His own, which He did often. Yet He went on the Sabbath not for Himself but for the community. So, we do the same and pray on our own at other times.  One thing that has always bothered me about being Chinese is that we work so hard. Most Chinese businesses will open on Sundays, at least part of the day. When I was growing up, my dad had to work every other Sunday. He did make it a point that when he was off everybody had to be there to spend the day with him. Now, when we look back, we treasure those memories: things we did, places we went. I still have the pictures when we used to go to the Peak and spend half the day there.    If our family is God’s first gift to us, we have to spend them to appreciate them. So is our parish family. 

One of the most unique qualities of the Catholic Church, differing from other Christian denominations, is this “Authority of the Church” , to teach as Jesus taught. It comes primarily from Mt. 28: 28-20, Mt. 16:18-19 and Lk. 22:31-32.  In this article I would like to look at it from a different angle: in relationship to Romans 10:9, 14- 17. In October I reflected on this passage within the topic of faith. In this article I will focus on vs 14-15 in terms of the Church’s responsibility to teach.  Rom. 10:14-15 “But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent?”  For us Catholics, this is important because we do not take the position that we can come to know God’s will by reading the Bible ALONE nor do we think that we can interpret the meaning of the words by ourselves. The fact is that we can’t even read the Bible if someone has not translated it for us from the original Greek.  At the beginning of the Church “many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us” (Lk. 1:1), there were many versions of what we now call the Gospels. They were simply testimonies of the life and teachings of Jesus shared by believers. Often the stories were exaggerated, embellished or details mistaken that needed verification or correction. That was very normal. We do that all the time in our retelling of events in our own life. Just like our own stories, they were not written down immediately nor recorded by a video camera in our cell phones. But as the apostles and eyewitnesses began to die, naturally or by martyrdom, they had the need to write them down to make sure that what is passed on is true and accurate. Some of the versions of the Gospels were deemed unacceptable, as in the case of the Gospels of Peter, Mary Magdalene or Philip (used by the book The Da Vinci Code). By the 4th century acceptable narratives and writings of the apostles were officially formed into what we now call the Bible, all 73 books. (This will be changed by Martin Luther to 66 books in the 16th century.)  The Church has recognized that she has both the responsibility to safeguard the authenticity of the “Truth” passed on and the integrity of those who exercise the responsibility. The parish priests, as pastors of souls, are “sent” by the bishops. This safeguarding and sending is essentially what the Church calls “magisterium”, the “teaching authority of the Church.” No one has a self-proclaimed authority without the Church’s public declaration. This is usually done by the fact that a priest is ordained by a bishop. Subsequently, he is assigned to a parish by a bishop.  If a priest teaches something contrary to the truth, the bishop can forbid him to teach publicly. If a priest lives a life immorally, which destroys his credibility to speak truthfully, the bishop could even forbid him to exercise his priesthood publicly.  In some of these cases, some people may think that a bishop acts dictatorially, particularly when a priest says things they like to hear or he speaks so beautifully. It is even more controversial when the priest may be right and the bishop wrong. That is why it is very important that all Catholics should know what the Church officially teaches, regardless of who is doing the talking. But in our day and age of popularity trumping authenticity, this gets very muddy.    I will conclude this reflection next week, focusing on vs 17.