Monday of the Twenty-seventh week in Ordinary Time

Book of Jonah

This is the word of the LORD that came to Jonah, son of Amittai:
"Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and preach against it; their wickedness has come up before me."
But Jonah made ready to flee to Tarshish away from the LORD. He went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went aboard to journey with them to Tarshish, away from the LORD.
The LORD, however, hurled a violent wind upon the sea, and in the furious tempest that arose the ship was on the point of breaking up.
Then the mariners became frightened and each one cried to his god. To lighten the ship for themselves, they threw its cargo into the sea. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship, and lay there fast asleep.
The captain came to him and said, "What are you doing asleep? Rise up, call upon your God! Perhaps God will be mindful of us so that we may not perish."
Then they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots to find out on whose account we have met with this misfortune." So they cast lots, and thus singled out Jonah.
"Tell us," they said, "what is your business? Where do you come from? What is your country, and to what people do you belong?"
"I am a Hebrew," Jonah answered them; "I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."
Now the men were seized with great fear and said to him, "How could you do such a thing!"--They knew that he was fleeing from the LORD, because he had told them.--
"What shall we do with you," they asked, "that the sea may quiet down for us?" For the sea was growing more and more turbulent.
Jonah said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea, that it may quiet down for you; since I know it is because of me that this violent storm has come upon you."
Still the men rowed hard to regain the land, but they could not, for the sea grew ever more turbulent.
Then they cried to the LORD: "We beseech you, O LORD, let us not perish for taking this man's life; do not charge us with shedding innocent blood, for you, LORD, have done as you saw fit."
Then they took Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea's raging abated.
Struck with great fear of the LORD, the men offered sacrifice and made vows to him.
But the LORD sent a large fish, that swallowed Jonah; and he remained in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Then the LORD commanded the fish to spew Jonah upon the shore.

Book of Jonah

Out of my distress I called to the LORD,
and he answered me;
From the midst of the nether world I cried for help,
and you heard my voice.
For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the sea,
and the flood enveloped me;
All your breakers and your billows
passed over me.
Then I said, “I am banished from your sight!
yet would I again look upon your holy temple.”
When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the LORD;
My prayer reached you
in your holy temple.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"
He said in reply, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."
He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live."
But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
Jesus replied, "A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, 'Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.'
Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?"
He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

St. Louis Bertrand(Dominican (1526-1581))

SAINT LOUIS BERTRAND(Dominican) (1526-1581) St. Louis Bertrand was born in 1526 to a family from Valencia, Spain. He was from the same family as St. Vincent Ferrer. In 1545, after several trials, he was ordained a Dominican priest. At 25, he was appointed master of novices and trained many outstanding disciples. When a plague broke out at Valencia, St. Louis devoted himself to caring for the sick and dying. He also helped bury the dead. In 1562, he obtained leave to embark for the American mission; and there converted multitudes. He was favored with the gift of miracles and was understood in various languages while preaching in his native Spanish. After seven years, he returned to Spain, advocating and pressuring for the dignity and rights of Natives. Through his influence, the native populations were spared further decimation and hardship, resulting in changes to Spanish policies and sparing lands as far away as the Philippines. Against his wishes, St. Louis was never permitted to return and work among the Natives. He spent the remainder of his days in Spain. He passed away on October 9, 1581, the day he foretold.

St. John Leonardi(Priest (c. 1541-1609))

SAINT JOHN LEONARDI Priest (c.1541-1609) St. John Leonardi was born at Tuscany circa 1541. A man ahead of his time, he opened opportunities for secular and lay persons to participate in works of mercy. St. John overcame opposition and succeeded in founding communities and institutions that express caritas and transmit the Deposit of Faith. After his ordination, St. John propagated devotion to the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary. He also gathered laypersons to serve those in hospitals and prisons. At the time, his approach was daring and original. St. John also founded the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God. Although he experienced setbacks from pessimistic and hesitant ecclesial authorities, St. John overcame these difficulties. The Congregation trained secular priests to restore church discipline and bring God's presence to those on the fringes of the Church. The Congregation trains teachers and priests to this day. St. John passed away after contracting the flu during a plague outbreak at Rome. He was administering to patients and risking his life to help them when he contracted the illness. He was canonized in 1938. His relics are enshrined in the Santa Maria Church at Portico, Rome.

Bl. John Henry Newman((† 1890))

Blessed John Henry Newman Priest, founder of a religious community, theologian (1801-1890) This day that has brought us together here in Birmingham is a most auspicious one. In the first place, it is the Lord's Day, Sunday, the day when our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead and changed the course of human history for ever, offering new life and hope to all who live in darkness and in the shadow of death. (...) Yet there is another, more joyful reason why this is an auspicious day for Great Britain, for the Midlands, for Birmingham. It is the day that sees Cardinal John Henry Newman formally raised to the altars and declared Blessed. (...) England has a long tradition of martyr saints, whose courageous witness has sustained and inspired the Catholic community here for centuries. Yet it is right and fitting that we should recognize today the holiness of a confessor, a son of this nation who, while not called to shed his blood for the Lord, nevertheless bore eloquent witness to him in the course of a long life devoted to the priestly ministry, and especially to preaching, teaching, and writing. He is worthy to take his place in a long line of saints and scholars from these islands, Saint Bede, Saint Hilda, Saint Aelred, Blessed Duns Scotus, to name but a few. In Blessed John Henry, that tradition of gentle scholarship, deep human wisdom and profound love for the Lord has borne rich fruit, as a sign of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit deep within the heart of God's people, bringing forth abundant gifts of holiness. Cardinal Newman's motto, Cor ad cor loquitur, or "Heart speaks unto heart", gives us an insight into his understanding of the Christian life as a call to holiness, experienced as the profound desire of the human heart to enter into intimate communion with the Heart of God. He reminds us that faithfulness to prayer gradually transforms us into the divine likeness. As he wrote in one of his many fine sermons, "a habit of prayer, the practice of turning to God and the unseen world in every season, in every place, in every emergency - prayer, I say, has what may be called a natural effect in spiritualizing and elevating the soul. A man is no longer what he was before; gradually ... he has imbibed a new set of ideas, and become imbued with fresh principles" (Parochial and Plain Sermons, iv, 230-231). Today's Gospel tells us that no one can be the servant of two masters (cf. Lk 16:13), and Blessed John Henry's teaching on prayer explains how the faithful Christian is definitively taken into the service of the one true Master, who alone has a claim to our unconditional devotion (cf. Mt 23:10). Newman helps us to understand what this means for our daily lives: he tells us that our divine Master has assigned a specific task to each one of us, a "definite service", committed uniquely to every single person: "I have my mission", he wrote, "I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do his work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place ... if I do but keep his commandments and serve him in my calling" (Meditations and Devotions, 301-2). The definite service to which Blessed John Henry was called involved applying his keen intellect and his prolific pen to many of the most pressing "subjects of the day". His insights into the relationship between faith and reason, into the vital place of revealed religion in civilized society, and into the need for a broadly-based and wide-ranging approach to education were not only of profound importance for Victorian England, but continue today to inspire and enlighten many all over the world. I would like to pay particular tribute to his vision for education, which has done so much to shape the ethos that is the driving force behind Catholic schools and colleges today. Firmly opposed to any reductive or utilitarian approach, he sought to achieve an educational environment in which intellectual training, moral discipline and religious commitment would come together. The project to found a Catholic University in Ireland provided him with an opportunity to develop his ideas on the subject, and the collection of discourses that he published as The Idea of a University holds up an ideal from which all those engaged in academic formation can continue to learn. And indeed, what better goal could teachers of religion set themselves than Blessed John Henry's famous appeal for an intelligent, well-instructed laity: "I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it" (The Present Position of Catholics in England, ix, 390). On this day when the author of those words is raised to the altars, I pray that, through his intercession and example, all who are engaged in the task of teaching and catechesis will be inspired to greater effort by the vision he so clearly sets before us. While it is John Henry Newman's intellectual legacy that has understandably received most attention in the vast literature devoted to his life and work, I prefer on this occasion to conclude with a brief reflection on his life as a priest, a pastor of souls. The warmth and humanity underlying his appreciation of the pastoral ministry is beautifully expressed in another of his famous sermons: "Had Angels been your priests, my brethren, they could not have condoled with you, sympathized with you, have had compassion on you, felt tenderly for you, and made allowances for you, as we can; they could not have been your patterns and guides, and have led you on from your old selves into a new life, as they can who come from the midst of you" ("Men, not Angels: the Priests of the Gospel", Discourses to Mixed Congregations, 3). He lived out that profoundly human vision of priestly ministry in his devoted care for the people of Birmingham during the years that he spent at the Oratory he founded, visiting the sick and the poor, comforting the bereaved, caring for those in prison. No wonder that on his death so many thousands of people lined the local streets as his body was taken to its place of burial not half a mile from here. One hundred and twenty years later, great crowds have assembled once again to rejoice in the Church's solemn recognition of the outstanding holiness of this much-loved father of souls. What better way to express the joy of this moment than by turning to our heavenly Father in heartfelt thanksgiving, praying in the words that Blessed John Henry Newman placed on the lips of the choirs of angels in heaven:Praise to the Holiest in the height And in the depth be praise; In all his words most wonderful, Most sure in all his ways! (The Dream of Gerontius).(Homily of his holiness Benedict XVI - Mass with the beatification of venerable cardinal John Henry Newman - Birmingham - Sunday, 19 September 2010)

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