Tenth Sunday after
Pentecost (20th S. Ord. Time) WOODSTOCK 1969
Judith,
Chapter 16, Verse 15-16
15For the mountains to their bases
are tossed with the waters; the rocks, like wax, melt before your glance. “But
to those who fear you, you will show
mercy. 16 Though the sweet fragrance of every
sacrifice is a trifle, and the fat of all burnt offerings but little in your
sight, one who fears the Lord is
forever great.
With victory come the spoils of war and Judith as
Heroin of the people get the spoils from Holofernes tent. She is rich indeed
but because she is truly a servant of God; all of the booty she receives she
keeps none sending it all to the temple in Jerusalem.
“Only those that see the invisible can do the
impossible.” Tyrese
·Material
gains from victory are turned back to God.
·People’s
joy and exultation are also returned to God in celebration.
·The
Lord is God; he crushes warfare.
·The
Lord shatters the enemy by a women’s hand.
·Yahweh
sends heroes to deliver the people when they cry out for help. The victory of
Judith confirms that premise.
·Judith’s
victory is symbolic of God’s victory over evil, preservation of the sanctuary,
and the deliverance of the people.
·The
beheading of Holofernes is the symbolic defeat of the devil. Judith is a precursor of Mary the Lord’s
mother who will defeat the devil as he defeated Eve our first mother.
·God’s
message in Judith is when you face evil beyond your strength; persevere in
hope.
Judith gave all her wealth to the temple of Jerusalem;
Mary, Queen of heaven gave us her Son to complete the work of God making our
bodies and soul the true temple of the Lord.
Tenth
Sunday after Pentecost[2]Humility and
its source in knowing that all goodness comes from the Spirit.
AT the Introit of the Mass, join with
the Church in extolling the help of God, whereby we are defended against our
enemies. “When I cried to the Lord, He heard my voice from them that draw near
against me, and He humbled them, Who is before all ages, and remains forever.
Cast thy care upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. Hear, O God, my prayer,
and despise not my supplication; be attentive to me, and hear me.”
Prayer. O God, Who dost particularly manifest Thy omnipotence by sparing and
showing mercy, multiply Thy mercy towards us, that running to the possession of
what Thou hast promised, Thou mayest make us partakers of heavenly goods.
EPISTLE, i. Cor. xii.
2-11.
Brethren: You know that when you were
heathens, you went to dumb idols, according as you were led. Wherefore I give
you to understand, that no man, speaking by the Spirit of God, saith Anathema
to Jesus. And no man can say, the Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there
are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit: and there are diversities of
ministries, but the same Lord: and there are diversities of operations, but the
same God, Who worketh all in all. And the manifestation of the Spirit is given
to every man unto profit. To one, indeed, by the Spirit, is given the word of
wisdom: and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit: to
another faith in the same Spirit: to an other the grace of healing, in one
Spirit: to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the
discerning of spirits, to another divers kinds of tongues, to another interpretation
of speeches. But all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to everyone
according as He will.
Explanation. As the Holy Ghost gave on Pentecost the gift of tongues, so also, He
imparted to the faithful many other gifts. This Holy Spirit works in different
ways. He confers not only ordinary but extraordinary graces on whom He will,
and how He will, as He finds it for the edification of the body of Christ, and
whatever gift anyone receives he must use for the glory of God and the
salvation of souls, without being elated by it, since he has received it only
as a pure grace.
GOSPEL.
Luke xviii. 9-14
At that time, to some who
trusted in themselves as just, and despised others, Jesus spoke this parable:
Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a
publican. The Pharisee, standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give Thee
thanks that I am not as the rest of men: extortioners, unjust, adulterers: as
also is this publican; I fast twice in a week; I give tithes of all that I
possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his
eyes towards heaven: but struck his breast, saying: O God, be merciful to me a
sinner! I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather than
the other, because everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted. Why
did Jesus recite the parable of the Pharisee and the publican? To warn us against pride, ambition,
and vanity in our good works, which thereby lose all their merits; to teach us
not to despise or judge any man, although he should appear most impious;
finally, to show us that if we would be heard in our prayers, we must appear
before God with an humble and penitent heart. Why
was not the Pharisee’s prayer acceptable to God? Because it was not a prayer, but rather
a boast; for he praised himself, attributing his good works to himself, instead
of giving God glory for them. Thus, despising and presumptuously judging
others, he sinned the more against God, instead of making himself worthy of his
praise. Why
was the prayer of the publican acceptable to God? Because, though short, it was most
humble and penitent. He did not, like the Pharisee, advance into the temple,
but remained afar off, as though unworthy the presence of God and the
fellowship of men. There he stood, with eyes cast down, in token that, for his
sins, he was not worthy to look up to heaven; nay, he openly confessed himself
a sinner, and in sorrow smote his breast, thereby punishing, as it were, says
St. Augustine, the sins which had come from his heart. Let us, then, be afraid
of vainglory, like St. Ignatius, who said, “They who praise me scourge me” and
St. Hilary, who wept when he saw himself honored, because he was afraid of
receiving his reward on earth. Learn to despise vainglory and think of what St.
Augustine says: God is most high; exalt yourself, and He withdraws from you;
humble yourself, and He comes down to you.” Seek in all things not your own but
God’s glory; accustom yourself before every undertaking to raise your heart to
God by making a good intention, and you will, like the publican, find grace
before God.
On August 15–17, 1969, the Woodstock Music and
Art Fair was held on a 600-acre dairy farm near Bethel, New York. Today marks
the fiftieth anniversary of this monumental cultural event that marked an
epoch. Woodstock changed America. It helped usher in a period of moral
devastation. The event enshrined free love as acceptable in the national
psyche. It created the idea that life should be dominated by the maxim, “if it feels good, do it.” However, the worst part of
Woodstock was its role in creating the spiritual desolation of imagining a
utopian society without religion or the Catholic Faith. Woodstock presented
itself as a mystical experience with its own dark spiritual message. It was
almost a liturgical act of an anti-religion of the unbridled passions that
denied a moral law.
Reflection About Another Field
Reflecting upon Woodstock,
it is hard not to recall another event held on a large field that gathered
together a huge crowd. This gathering also changed history. The two events
could not be more contrary to each other, and yet the parallels and contrasts
are striking. They both happened amid a terrible crisis inside society.
However, each proposed a radically different solution. The second event took
place in a tiny village in the backwater of Portugal called Fatima. The date
was October 13, 1917. What attracted people there was no less than the Queen of
Heaven. Our Lady had appeared to three young shepherd children and promised to
perform a great miracle so that people might have faith and change their lives.
Contrast on the Two Fields
At both events, everything
that could have gone wrong did go wrong. At Woodstock, nearly 400,000 people
appeared at the farm where they crashed the gates and entered the field. The
organizers were overwhelmed by the crowds. The highways were clogged with cars
trying to get to the event. At Fatima, some 80,000 faithful came from all over
Portugal. They had heard about the apparitions by word of mouth. There were no
organizers since it was a spontaneous movement of grace that called people to
the site. Nevertheless, they clogged the highways and byways of the small
nation to get to the event. Both events prompted government action. When order
broke down in Woodstock, the government stepped in by sending nearby Air Force
personnel to the concert to prevent chaos and fly in stranded performers. At
Fatima, the secular anti-Catholic government played an opposite role. It sent
soldiers with fixed bayonets to prevent pilgrims from entering the huge field.
When the masses of pilgrims overwhelmed the small number of soldiers, people
then managed to join the orderly crowd that patiently waited with great
expectation, prayer and faith. Heavy rains came down in torrents at both events
creating seas of mud. At Woodstock, the mud mixed with the nudity, promiscuity
and drugs to the point that the crowd became one with the quagmire of
immorality and muck. Singer John Fogerty described an early morning scene as “sort of like a painting of a Dante
scene, just bodies from hell, all intertwined and asleep, covered with mud.”
At Fatima, the rains
also lashed out against the crowds and turned the field into a great muddy
mess. However, the crowds accepted the rain and mire as part of the suffering
and penance that would mark the Fatima Message. Many knelt in the mud in
prayer.
Historical Contexts
While the circumstances of
the open fields at Fatima and Woodstock are important, the context of these
gathering must also be considered. The historical context of Fatima was a world
in the process of abandoning the Church and Christian civilization. Europe was
engaged in the bloody World War I, which would soon end. The people still had
faith but were in danger of losing it. Our Lady came to deliver a message of
tragedy and hope, inviting humanity to conversion and amendment of life. Woodstock
took place 52 years later in the context of a Sexual Revolution that would
devastate what remained of Christian morals in society. America was divided,
engaged in a brutal war against communism in Vietnam. The Church was also in a
state of turmoil. Woodstock was an event that would celebrate a world without
restraint that would soon become mainstream.
What Happened in Fatima
The events that took place
in these two fields are what made them so important. At Fatima, the crowd
gathered in an ordered fashion as they awaited the appearance of the Mother of
God. They were to behold a marvelous yet terrifying scene, which was the most
witnessed miracle in modern history. Some 80,000 pilgrims of every age,
educational level and social class were there. Believers and non-believers vied
for places to see the promised miracle. Our Lady provided it. The clouds opened
up and the sun appeared as an immense silver disk. It shone with great
intensity yet was not blinding. The enormous ball then started to “dance” across the sky, spinning rapidly
scattering red flames. The bright light reflected on the ground, trees, bushes,
clothing and faces. After going three times across sky, the globe of fire then
appeared to tremble, shake and plunge toward the terrified crowd who thought
the world was coming to an end. However, the sun soon zigzagged back to its
place and shone benevolently upon the crowd. Many converted and believed. The
people noticed that their sodden clothes were both dry and clean.
What Happened at Woodstock
The events at Woodstock
stand in stark contraposition. There were no miracles there, but there was an
aura that produced an eerie feeling around the event. The bad weather, food
shortages and poor sanitation created a climate of generalized chaos. Witnesses
reported an atmosphere of free love and nudity that shocked many unaccustomed
to seeing such things in public. Drug use was also rampant, especially the use
of marijuana and LSD. Thus, many were out of their minds as the music blared
from the stage throughout the night. Carlos
Santana later recalled how he hallucinated throughout his performance
because he was high on the mescaline he obtained from Jerry Garcia. Meanwhile,
backstage, The Who singer Roger
Daltrey reported that “Woodstock
wasn’t peace
and love. There was an awful lot of shouting and screaming going on. By the time
it all ended, the worst sides of our nature had come out.”
The scenes of
partying, chaos and sin created a surreal and bizarre spectacle. It was a
whimsical space without rules or law where you could “do your own thing” without consequence or risk. Some
thought a new age was dawning, both inebriating and terrifying, where the
unbridled passions driven by psychedelic drugs would liberate everyone from the
staid constraints of the establishment. On the trash-littered fields of
Woodstock, a self-centered generation embraced an anything-goes culture of sex,
drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. America would leave the
Woodstock mud fest with sullied innocence.
Two Messages in Conflict
Both fields also produced
messages that are still in conflict today. The Fatima message was very clear
and precise. Our Lady said: “Let
them offend Our Lord no more, for He is already much offended.” Thus, Fatima called upon the world
to repent by having recourse to prayer, sacrifice and amendment of life. If
humanity did not repent, Our Lady spoke of a great chastisement, symbolized by
the Miracle of the Sun. The Fatima message denounced the decadence of the
modern world, the sins of the flesh and the abandonment of God and the Church. Woodstock
proclaimed an anti-Fatima message. It was an invitation to sin, indulge and
offend God. In the name of peace and love, it called upon youth to “imagine” a perfect world where they might
live together in harmony without property, Christian morals or God. Woodstock
projected an empty world without meaning and purpose that seeks only extreme
gratification and pleasures. The clash between Fatima and Woodstock continues.
Many Catholics have remained faithful to the Fatima message despite the great
pressure to conform to the culture. Others have been mugged by the terrible
reality that the Woodstock dream of sexual freedom was an appalling nightmare
that left behind a trail of dead, unborn babies, broken relationships and
shattered communities. It is therefore not fitting to celebrate the concert’s fiftieth anniversary but rather
to reject all that it symbolizes and represents. Instead, let us embrace Fatima’s saving message of prayer,
repentance and amendment of life as the essential solution to a world gone
awry.
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