Saturday, June 15, 2019

ELDER ABUSE DAY

Matthew, Chapter 6, Verse 30

If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith*?

Jesus's preaching this chapter warns about almsgivings, prayer, and fasting for show. Jesus says, when giving alms, "do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing" (6:3). That means being super discreet so no one can tell what you're doing. About prayer, he says a similar thing. Jesus preaches against making a show of prayer for everyone to see and then teaches the s The Lord's Prayer (You know the one: "Our Father…"). Things are no different for fasting. Basically, Jesus is not a fan of making a big spectacle about religious practice. He goes on to speak against hoarding and says that the only treasures worth storing are the ones in heaven. Then Jesus starts talking about eyes and lamps and light and darkness. Basically, he's telling people to stay surrounded by good stuff because it'll influence you. But watch out, because bad stuff will do the same. Just in the wrong direction. Jesus also teaches that a man cannot serve two masters. So, make your choice: God or wealth? Finally, Jesus teaches his followers to not worry about the trivial things of life. And the chapter concludes with one of the soundest pieces of advice: "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today" (6:34).[1]

Saturday after Pentecost-Ember Day[2]

EPISTLE, Romans v. 1-5.

BRETHREN: Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom also we have access through faith into this grace, wherein we stand, and glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of God. And not only so; but we glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience trial; and trial hope, and hope confoundeth not: because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost Who is given to us.

GOSPEL. Luke iv. 38-44.

At that time: Jesus rising up out of the synagogue, went into Simon’s house. And Simon s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever, and they besought Him for her. And standing over her, He commanded the fever, and it left her. And immediately rising, she ministered to them. And when the sun was down, all they that had any sick with divers’ diseases, brought them to Him. But He laying His hands on every one of them, healed them. And devils went out from many, crying out and saying: Thou art the Son of God. And rebuking them, He suffered them not to speak, for they knew that He was Christ. And when it was day, going out He went into a desert place, and the multitudes sought Him, and came unto Him: and they detained Him that He should not depart from them. To whom He said: To other cities also I must preach the kingdom of God: for therefor am I sent. And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.

Today is the end of Paschaltide (after the office of None).

Ember Saturday Meditation on the Entombment[3]

And when evening was now come (because it was the Parasceve, that is, the day before the Sabbath), Joseph of Arimathea, a noble counsellor, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, came and went in boldly to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. But Pilate wondered that He should be already dead. And sending for the centurion, he asked him if He were already dead. And when he had understood it by the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And Joseph buying fine linen and taking Him down, wrapped Him up in the fine linen, and laid Him in a sepulchre which was hewed out of a rock. And he rolled a stone to the door of the sepulchre.

Liturgy of the Cloth: How the Early Church Incorporated the Shroud and Sudarium in the Mass[4]

New research suggests that the burial cloths of Jesus have been central to the Roman liturgy for more than a millennium, and possibly from the earliest days of the Church.

A German theologian and friend of Benedict XVI, drawing on the writings of a ninth-century bishop, appears to have made a historic and fascinating discovery, revealing how the Shroud of Turin and the sudarium (the Veil of Veronica) were central to the Roman liturgy from as far back as the Carolingian times, most probably before. The two relics and their inclusion in those early liturgies also point to the Real Presence. The discovery has only now come to light, after debate over the burial cloths has intensified over the past 10 years and interest has developed regarding their authenticity. The Register spoke recently with German journalist Paul Badde, who has been following the discovery closely and is an authority on the Holy Face of Manoppello, which many believe to be the true sudarium.

The discovery was made by Klaus Berger of Heidelberg, a German theologian, an old friend of Joseph Ratzinger and New Testament scholar, who is carrying out detailed research on the Apocalypse of St. John. During his studies, he came across one of the great commentators on the Apocalypse, Amalarius (775-850), a liturgical expert from the Carolingian times. Amalarius, who used to be bishop of Metz in France and archbishop of Trier in Germany, was a great liturgist of the Carolingian age, whom Pope Sergius II made a cardinal. Even in those times, he said the cloth of the altar resembled the shroud and the sudarium, found and discovered first by the apostles Peter and John in the empty holy sepulcher the first Easter morning. But we have an enormous gap in documented records from the first Easter morning in Jerusalem and the moment when they first appeared in public. We know that the sudarium appeared in 1208 in Rome in public, when Pope Innocent III put it on public view, and the shroud appeared in 1355 for the first time in the West in Lirey in the Champagne area of France. But we can be sure that the two cloths have always been part of the “memory of the liturgy,” even though their presence arrived later. Amalarius may have witnessed seeing them there [in Constantinople], and it’s important to note that their presence in the liturgy didn’t begin in Carolingian times, but [they] were probably used from the very beginning. …

Where were the cloths kept before that time?

They were stored for many years in the East, but they were always hidden. Showing them to the public wasn’t a big deal in the Orthodox world. In the West, we make historical records, but in the East, they don’t have it that [record keeping as] much. But even in the Dark Ages, in the first millennium, there used to be a tradition in the Roman liturgy that the cloth on the altar had to be linen, and the altar had to be rock to be understood as a sepulcher.

What is the significance of altar linen — does it date back to these two priceless relics?

Yes, from this we can understand why the altar linen, analogous to the shroud, until 1969, had to be “pure linen” and why the so-called corporal must always be folded in a particular way by way of analogy with the sudarium. John says that, after Christ’s resurrection, it was found by Peter and John in the empty tomb: “not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up or folded (enteeligmenon in Greek) in a separate place.” That corporal is the starched cloth, which, in the old rite, after the priest had come at the altar in contact with the bread and wine, could only be touched by him reverently with his thumb and forefinger.

How is the altar significant in this?

Since the altar linens of the liturgy are called sindon and sudarium and theologically are in connection with the Real Presence of Jesus in his body and blood, Berger contends that their purpose is to point to the mystery of the Eucharist on the altar stone. There, the inanimate matter of the bread and wine — as the tomb of Christ in the rock in Jerusalem, which had never been used — is always transformed into the “Bread of Life” and living blood of Christ. After the [Second Vatican] Council, we had the discussion: Is the altar about Communion? Is it a table? Or is it a sacrifice? Until that time, it was clearly a sacrifice. The altar was understood as a sepulcher, where lifeless elements were turned into something living — flesh and blood. That was also the tradition in the eighth century. But whether the actual relics were seen at the altar or not, the shroud and the sudarium have been mentioned by St. John and the liturgical tradition, not only in public, but also been remembered as far back as the eighth and ninth centuries as something very special, very important in the story of the Resurrection. And this we have also to keep in mind. Very much can be said about the liturgy, and one thing is for sure: The liturgy can also be understood as the “inner hard drive” of the sacred memory of the Church. So, it’s quite clear that everything Amalarius reports about it in his time has not and cannot be invented and introduced in the liturgy in the Carolingian age. It must be much older and points right back to the beginning of the Church, just like the holy Eucharist itself.

Could you explain more about how this points to the Real Presence?

The depiction of the face of Jesus on these cloths could be understood similarly to the so-called Mass of Pope Gregory (540-604). Gregory, I saw, appearing to him, a bloodied Lord, directly in connection with the transformation of the Eucharistic species. The shroud and the sudarium of Jesus would, therefore, be understood as the direct expression and the personified Real Presence of Jesus on the altar and would be directly related to the Eucharist as the center of the holy Mass. In this way, they agree as biblically confirmed evidence of the resurrection of Christ with the mystery of the Eucharistic transformation (transubstantiation). You could, therefore, say: Instead of the vision of Gregory, in Amalarius, there is the real, symbolic content of the altar cloths. In both cases, it is an expression of the Real Presence of Christ. What is true for Pope Gregory is the content of the vision, namely, the real, bodily presence of Christ (particularly of the suffering Christ). According to Amalarius, it would be expressed sensibly (sinnenfällig) in the liturgical altar linens. On the burial cloths, showing the stigmata on the shroud and on the sudarium the face of Jesus, there appeared a lasting imprint of what happened for an instant in Gregory’s vision.

What does this mean for Holy Face of Manoppello?

To me and to many, there’s no doubt that Manoppello is the historic sudarium, also called the Veil of Veronica. It was kept in Rome and often venerated until 1527. It is, in fact, the very veil that had been laid on the face of the dead Lord when he was laid to rest in the sepulcher. So, it contains the first breath of the resurrected Christ. No wonder that nobody can explain how the image — without any colors! — got into the sacred veil. Now, the Easterly sudarium of Christ is coming back into history, at the beginning of an enormous “iconic turn” caused by the digital revolution — not to the eyes of a chosen few anymore, but to the eyes of all men. And it doesn’t come back to tell the Gospel anew with more words, but to reveal the Resurrection of the Lord from the dead with one true and unique image.

Elder Abuse Awareness Day[5]

The abuse of the elderly is a serious issue and something that this day aims to raise much-needed awareness of. The elderly should be given support and protection all year round, and today ensures their plight is not ignored. Financial, emotional, or physical abuse and neglect can be a real everyday issue for some elders in the world – in fact, it is estimated that around 500,000 elders in the UK alone are being subjected to abuse today. World Elder Abuse Awareness Day encourages us to make steps towards a world where elder abuse is no longer an issue, by raising awareness and providing resources and information to help the battle against it.

The History of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

The United Nations General Assembly designated June 15th as World Elder Abuse Awareness day in its 66/127 resolution. It is meant to be a day in which the entire world voices its opposition to any form of abuse of the older generation. The amount of older people in the world is growing, and will continue to do so – in fact, pretty much all countries in the world are expecting considerable growth in the number of elderly residents between 2015 and 2030. Despite it being an accepted issue across the world and the subject of much opposition, elder abuse is one of the least investigated types of violence and it does not get addressed in national action plans as frequently as many other key social issues. Those of advanced age have a full right to being treated with dignity and respect, and to live a life free of any abuse, exploitation or neglect. Today seeks to ensure that as few elderly people as possible are subjected to homelessness, bad health, hunger, and poverty.

How to Observe World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

There are a number of ways you can help fundraise for the cause of this day if you so wish. You can also donate to charities which support the elderly and their well-being. Perhaps today you could play your part by volunteering somewhere which ensures the happiness of the elderly, such as in a retirement home. You could also visit an elderly relative and spend some time chatting or having a cup of tea. Be sure to spread the word by posting about the day on your social media accounts.

Daily Devotions

·         Drops of Christ’s Blood

·         Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus

·         90 Days for our Nation, 54-day rosary-Day 34

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* A person with fear of the Lord is filled with peace, faith, hope and love.

[1] https://www.shmoop.com/matthew-gospel/chapter-6-summary.html

[2] Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896

[3] Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896

[4]http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/liturgy-of-the-cloth-how-the-early-church-incorporated-the-shroud-and-sudar

[5]https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/world-elder-abuse-awareness-day/