Twenty
Third Sunday af.
Pentecost (30th S Ord Time)
FEAST
OF ST. SIMON AND JUDE
John, Chapter 14,
Verse 1
“Do not let your
hearts be troubled. You have faith in
God; have faith also in me.
Christ is the way, the truth and the life: to follow
Him and to strive to be Saints of God is our faith.
The
focus of this Sunday is a reminder of the Book of Life and the resurrection of
the body.
GOSPEL. Matt, ix.
18-26[2]
At that time, as Jesus was speaking
to the multitudes, behold a certain ruler came up, and adored Him, saying:
Lord, my daughter is even now dead; but come, lay Thy hand upon her, and she
shall live. And Jesus rising up, followed him with His disciples. And behold a
woman who was troubled with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind Him,
and touched the hem of His garment. For she said within herself: If I shall
touch only His garment I shall be healed. But Jesus turning and seeing her,
said: Be of good heart, daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman
was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus was come into the house of the
ruler, and saw the minstrels and the multitude making a rout, he said: Give
place, for the girl is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed Him to scorn.
And when the multitude was put forth, He went in, and took her by the hand. And
the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that country.
Explanation
The ruler and the woman here
mentioned teach us that in diseases of body or of mind we should have recourse
to Jesus with faith and confidence; and even when the malady continues, and
seems to be incurable, we should not suffer our courage to sink.
ON
MOCKERY AND RIDICULE
When Jesus entered the house of
Jairus, and said, the girl is not dead, but sleepeth, the multitude laughed Him
to scorn, because they understood neither the meaning of His words nor what He
was about to do. Similar treatment sensual-minded men of the world often give
to those servants of God who, by word and example, preach the contempt of honors,
riches, pleasures, and the love of poverty, humility, and mortification. Permit
not yourself to be led astray by those who ridicule your zeal for virtue; pay
no heed to them, according to the example of Jesus, and trust in Him Who was
Himself derided for your sake. Say to yourself: I know, O dearest Jesus, that
the servant is not greater than his master. When Thou wast so often mocked, why
should it appear strange to me to be jeered at and called senseless for
endeavoring to practice devotion and virtue? I would not fare differently from
Thee, my Lord and my God.
St. Simon is represented in art with a saw, the instrument of his martyrdom. St. Jude's square points him out as an architect of the house of God. St. Paul called himself by this name; and St. Jude, by his Catholic Epistle, has also a special right to be reckoned among our Lord's principal workmen. But our apostle had another nobility, far surpassing all earthly titles: being nephew, by his father Cleophas or Alpheus, to St. Joseph, and legal cousin to the Man-God, Jude was one of those called by their compatriots the brethren of the carpenter's Son. We may gather from St. John's Gospel another precious detail concerning him. In the admirable discourse at the close of the last Supper, our Lord said: "He that loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father: and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him." Then Jude asked Him: "Lord, how is it, that Thou wilt manifest Thyself to us, and not to the world?" And he received from Jesus this reply: "If any one love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him. He that loveth Me not keepeth not My word. And the word which you have heard is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me."
St. Jude
Patron: Desperate
situations; forgotten causes; hospital workers; hospitals; impossible causes;
lost causes; diocese of Saint Petersburg, Florida.
St. Simon
Patron: Curriers; sawmen; sawyers;
tanners.
·
Traditional
Jewish homes commonly have a pushke, a box for collecting coins for the poor,
and coins are routinely placed in the box. Jewish youths are continually going
from door to door collecting for various worthy causes.
·
A
standard mourner's prayer includes a statement that the mourner will make a
donation to charity in memory of the deceased.
·
In
many ways, charitable donation has taken the place of animal sacrifice in
Jewish life: giving to charity is an almost instinctive Jewish response to
express thanks to G-d, to ask forgiveness from G-d, or to request a favor from
G-d.
·
According
to Jewish tradition, the spiritual benefit of giving to the poor is so great
that a beggar actually does the giver a favor by giving a person the
opportunity to perform tzedakah.
The Meaning of the Word
"Tzedakah"
"Tzedakah" is
the Hebrew word for the acts that we call "charity" in English:
giving aid, assistance and money to the poor and needy or to other worthy
causes.
·
The
nature of tzedakah is very different from the idea of charity. The word
"charity" suggests benevolence and generosity, a magnanimous act by
the wealthy and powerful for the benefit of the poor and needy.
·
The
word "tzedakah" is derived from the Hebrew root Tzadei-Dalet-Qof,
meaning righteousness, justice or fairness.
·
In
Judaism, giving to the poor is not viewed as a generous, magnanimous act; it is
simply an act of justice and righteousness, the performance of a duty, giving
the poor their due.
The Obligation of Tzedakah
Giving to the poor is an
obligation in Judaism, a duty that cannot be forsaken even by those who are
themselves in need.
·
Tzedakah
is the highest of all commandments, equal to all of them combined, and that a
person who does not perform tzedakah is equivalent to an idol worshipper.
·
This
is probably hyperbole, but it illustrates the importance of tzedakah in Jewish
thought.
·
Tzedakah
is one of the three acts that gain us forgiveness from our sins.
·
The
High Holiday liturgy repeatedly states that G-d has inscribed a judgment
against all who have sinned, but teshuvah (repentance), tefilah (prayer) and
tzedakah can alleviate the decree. See Days of Awe.
·
According
to Jewish law, we are required to give one-tenth of our income to the poor.
·
This
is generally interpreted as one-tenth of our net income after payment of taxes.
·
Taxes
themselves do not fulfill our obligation to give tzedakah, even though a
significant portion of tax revenues in America and many other countries are
used to provide for the poor and needy.
·
Those
who are dependent on public assistance or living on the edge of subsistence may
give less, but must still give to the
extent they are able; however, no person should give so much that he would
become a public burden.
·
The
obligation to perform tzedakah can be fulfilled by giving money to the poor, to
health care institutions, to synagogues or to educational institutions.
·
It
can also be fulfilled by supporting your children beyond the age when you are
legally required to, or supporting your parents in their old age.
·
The
obligation includes giving to both Jews and gentiles; contrary to popular
belief, Jews do not just "take care of our own." Quite the contrary,
a study reported in the Jewish Journal
indicated that Jewish "mega-donors" (who give more than $10 million a
year to charity) found that only 6% of their mega-dollars went to specifically
Jewish causes.
·
Judaism
acknowledges that many people who ask for charity have no genuine need. In
fact, the Talmud suggests that this is a good thing: if all people who asked
for charity were in genuine need, we would be subject to punishment (from G-d)
for refusing anyone who asked.
·
The
existence of frauds diminishes our liability for failing to give to all who
ask, because we have some legitimate basis for doubting the beggar's sincerity.
·
It
is permissible to investigate the legitimacy of a charity before donating to
it.
·
We
have an obligation to avoid becoming in need of tzedakah.
·
A
person should take any work that is
available, even if he thinks it is beneath his dignity, to avoid becoming a
public charge.
·
However,
if a person is truly in need and has no way to obtain money on his own he
should not feel embarrassed to accept tzedakah.
·
No
person should feel too proud to take money from others.
·
It
is considered a transgression to refuse tzedakah. One source says that to make
yourself suffer by refusing to accept tzedakah is equivalent to shedding your
own blood.
Levels of Tzedakah
Certain kinds of tzedakah
are considered more meritorious than others. The Talmud describes these
different levels of tzedakah, and Rambam organized them
into a list. The levels of charity, from the least meritorious to the most
meritorious, are: - Giving
begrudgingly
- Giving less
that you should but giving it cheerfully.
- Giving after
being asked
- Giving before
being asked
- Giving when
you do not know the recipient's identity, but the recipient knows your
identity
- Giving when
you know the recipient's identity, but the recipient doesn't know your
identity
- Giving when
neither party knows the other's identity
- Enabling the
recipient to become self-reliant
In a
letter addressed to all members of Congress, Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice,
Florida, chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human
Development, called for legislators to consider bedrock moral principles as
they approach tax reform. "The U.S. bishops have long emphasized that
'[t]he tax system should be continually evaluated in terms of its impact on the
poor,'" Bishop Dewane wrote. Quoting Pope Francis concerning the family,
Bishop Dewane stressed that "[t]hose services which society offers its
citizens are not a type of alms, but rather a genuine 'social debt' with
respect to the institution of the family, which is foundational, and which contributes
to the common good." Bishop Dewane's letter articulated six moral
principles that should guide lawmakers' decisions:
- Care for the
poor;
- Strengthening
families;
- Maintaining
progressivity of the tax code;
- Raising
adequate revenue for the common good;
- Avoiding cuts
to poverty programs to finance tax reform; and
- Incentivizing
charitable giving and development.
Bishop
Dewane called on legislators to remember the poor and the common good when
considering taxes, writing that "you are urged to recognize the critical
obligation of creating a just framework aimed at the economic security of all
people, especially the least of these."
World
Hepatitis Day seeks to raise awareness for the spectrum of Hepatitis diseases.
Hepatitis diseases cause inflammation of the liver cells. There are five main
types of hepatitis, A, B, C, D and E. It is estimated that around 250 million
people worldwide are infected with Hepatitis C and 300 million people are
Hepatitis B carriers.
World Hepatitis Day was proclaimed by the World Health Organization. It is celebrated annually on July 28th.
World Hepatitis Day was proclaimed by the World Health Organization. It is celebrated annually on July 28th.
World Hepatitis Day Facts
- Hepatitis A is usually transmitted by consuming contaminated food or water or coming into contact with an infected person's feces.
- Hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted disease. It is transmitted through exposure to infected blood or body fluids.
- Hepatitis B is spread via blood of an infected person.
- Hepatitis can also be caused by alcohol and other toxins and infections.
The Nuremberg Code
(1947) was prompted by the horrific and often deadly experimentation on human
beings in Nazi concentration camps that came to light during the “Doctors’
Trials” before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals. The main principles of the
Nuremberg Code require that experiments involving human subjects cause no
unnecessary risk, be undertaken with the full and informed consent of the
subjects and must never knowingly cause serious injury or death. Nazi doctors
were not the first, nor the last, to perform inhumane and sometimes disabling
research on unsuspecting human subjects living in poverty, in prisons, mental
health institutions, and orphanages. The Tuskegee syphilis experiments, the
Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study, and the Willowbrook (Long Island) State
School experiments—in which children with mental disabilities were
intentionally infected with viral hepatitis—are just a few
examples of cases in which doctors put the pursuit of knowledge and “cures”
ahead of the lives and well-being of individual human beings. The Nuremberg
Code inspired other declarations of medical and research ethics. In 1948, the
World Medical Association approved a statement addressing the ethics of
physicians, the Declaration of Geneva. As originally adopted, it read in part:
“I will maintain the utmost respect for human life, from the time of
conception; even under threat, I will not use my medical knowledge contrary to
the laws of humanity.”
"Read
these counsels slowly. Pause to meditate on these thoughts. They are things
that I whisper in your ear-confiding them-as a friend, as a brother, as a
father. And they are being heard by God. I won't tell you anything new. I will
only stir your memory, so that some thought will arise and strike you; and so
you will better your life and set out along ways of prayer and of Love. And in
the end you will be a more worthy soul."
111. Many live like angels in the midst of the world. Why not you...?
'Daily Devotions
·
Day EIGHT
spiritual warfare
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