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Commentary on Acts 1:12-14 Psalm 44; Matthew 1:18-23 or John 2:1-11

There are multiple choices of readings for today’s feast and two of the Gospel choices are commented on here. The first is from Matthew and speaks of the birth of Jesus. The text consists mainly of the words of the angel to Joseph, who was disturbed to find Mary already with child, even though they had not begun to live together as husband and wife. The angel now reassures him that the child has been conceived by the power of the Spirit of God, and that God is the Father of this child and Mary will be his mother. Joseph is then told to name the child Jesus, because he will save his people from their sin. The word ‘Jesus’ (also spelled Joshua in the Old Testament) means ‘Yahweh saves’. All this, Joseph is told, is to fulfil what was foretold by the prophet Isaiah:

Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel [meaning ‘God is with us’].

The next two verses (not included in today’s passage) tell us that:

When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife but had no marital relations with her until she had given birth to a son, and he named him Jesus.

The relevance of these passages for today’s feast day is that St Ignatius was convinced his new community should be called the ‘Company (Societas) of Jesus’ in spite of some objections by some church leaders. This conviction was partly due to a spiritual promise he received on his way to Rome to get approval for his community, namely that Jesus would be with him.

Another Gospel reading for today’s feast is from John, telling the story of the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee. We remember that Jesus and his disciples were at the wedding, as also was the mother of Jesus.

In what must have been a very embarrassing moment for the hosts, they ran out of wine. Mary passed this message on to Jesus, who seemed reluctant to do anything about it.

Woman, what concern is that to me and to you? My hour has not yet come.

Jesus does not work wonders just for people’s convenience, even his family or friends. All his miracles or ‘signs’ (as John calls them) are an integral part of his message and mission. Nevertheless, Mary tells the servants,

Do whatever he tells you.

Then through the word of Jesus, water in six water jars is changed into wine. However, it is much more than a miracle to help out an embarrassed couple. There is a deep symbolism pointing to Jesus, the new wine, replacing the water in the ritual jars representing the Old Testament.

For the Society of Jesus, too, Mary has always played a significant role in the critical moments of its founding and development. And her words to the servants were words which Ignatius and his followers always want to take to heart – always doing what God wants, all their actions directed to the greater glory of God.

Of the First Reading choices for today, a passage from the Acts the Apostles speaks of the special role of Mary throughout the life of Jesus. Not only did she become the mother of the Son, bringing him into the world to save us, she was his first and most fervent disciple. She was with him always – from his birth, at his death and after his resurrection. We are told that after Jesus was taken up into heaven, the apostles:

…were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus…

In the same familial way that Mary is the Mother of Jesus, members of the Society of Jesus are truly brothers of Jesus, and as such, call upon Mary in a special way as the Mother of their Society.

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St Ignatius’s heritage sparked his devotion to Our Lady, which intensified during his period of convalescence following the injury he received during the battle at Pamplona. Major events in his life occurred on feasts or at sites honouring the Virgin: his vigil before the Black Madonna of Montserrat on the eve of the Annunciation in 1522; his first vows at Montmartre, Paris, on the feast of the Assumption in 1534; his first Mass in St Mary Major in Rome on Christmas in 1538.

On Friday of Easter week, April 22, 1541, seven months after papal approval of the Society of Jesus and two weeks after Ignatius was elected its first general, he celebrated Mass with the first companions at Our Lady’s altar in the basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls in Rome, during which all pronounced their vows. This feast thus commemorates the birth of the vowed Society and its dedication to Mary as its Mother.

The first church that the Jesuits acquired was a small chapel named after a painting inside: Our Lady of the Way (Santa Maria della Strada). The painting would come to express the essence of Jesuit spirituality. The image, painted by an unknown Roman artist around the year 1500, probably decorated the church wall that faced Via Capitolina, part of the route of papal processions between the Basilica of St John Lateran and the Vatican.

The chapel dated back at least to the 11th century and for a while it served as a funeral chapel for the Astalli family who owned properties in the neighbourhood. In November 1540, Codacio, the first Italian Jesuit, was able to use his influence in the papal court to obtain what Ignatius really wanted: the title to the tiny Church of St Maria della Strada. Early in 1541, the Roman Jesuits moved into rooms rented from the Astalli family right next to the chapel.

When Ignatius died in 1556, the new church was still on the drawing board. Through the influence of Francis Borgia, the third Superior General and the patronage of the rich Farnese family, the church was almost completed in time for the Holy Year of 1575. During the construction, the image of Santa Maria della Strada was kept in the neighbouring church of San Marco. Later, it was installed in a place of honour in the Gesù, where it can be seen today.

For the Jesuits, an Order dedicated to bringing the Gospel to every corner of the world, Our Lady of the Way was a highly appropriate Patron.

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Stanisław Szczepanowski or Stanislaus of Szczepanów was a Bishop of Kraków known chiefly for having been martyred by Polish King Boleslaw II the Bold. He is also the patron saint of Poland. There are few details known about his life.

According to tradition, he was born on 26 July, 1030, at Szczepanów, a village near the town of Bochnia in southern Poland, the only son of the nobly-born and pious Wielisław and Bogna. He received his education at a cathedral school in Gniezno (at that time the capital of Poland). Later, it is said he also studied in France, at Paris or Liège.

On his return to Poland, he was ordained priest by Bishop Lambert Suła of Kraków. On the bishop’s death in 1072, Stanislaus was chosen as his successor, but would only accept the post on the explicit command of Pope Alexander II. He was one of the very first native-born Polish bishops. Among his achievements was bringing a papal representative to Poland and the re-establishment of Gniezno as a metropolitan see, led by an archbishop. The latter was apparently a precondition for Duke Boleslaw’s coronation as king in 1076. Stanislaus encouraged the new King to establish Benedictine monasteries to promote the Christianisation of Poland.

Relations with the king, however, deteriorated over a land dispute, which was the origin of a strange story. The bishop had purchased for the diocese a piece of land from a certain Piotr (Peter). However, after Piotr’s death, the family denied the sale and claimed back the land. They were supported in this by the king. Stanislaus then asked the king for three days in order to produce the dead Piotr to testify that he had indeed sold the land to the bishop. The king and court were said to have laughed at the absurd request but the king granted the bishop three days. Stanislaus spent the period in ceaseless prayer.

On the third day, dressed in full bishop’s regalia, he went to the cemetery where Piotr had been buried three years previously. Piotr’s remains were discovered and then, in sight of a crowd of witnesses, Stanislaus told Piotr to rise. And he did so. He was brought before the king to verify the bishop’s claim. Piotr then denounced his three sons and said that Stanislaus had indeed paid for the land. The king had no choice but to dismiss the case. When asked would he like to remain alive, Piotr declined, returned to his grave and was reburied.

Later, a more serious dispute arose between the bishop and the king and, in response, Stanislaus excommunicated Boleslaw. Stanislaus was then accused of treason and the king ordered the bishop to be killed. King Boleslaw sent his men to execute Stanislaus without trial but when they dared not touch the bishop, the king decided to kill the traitor himself. He is said to have killed Stanislaus while he was celebrating Mass outside the walls of Kraków. The bishop’s body was then hacked to pieces and thrown into a pool outside the church. According to legend, his members miraculously reintegrated while the pool was guarded by four eagles. The exact date of Stanislaus’s death is uncertain. According to different sources, it was either April 11 or May 8, 1079.

The murder stirred outrage throughout Poland and led to the dethronement of King Boleslaw II the Bold, who had to seek refuge in Hungary and was succeeded by his brother, Władysław I Herman. The cult of Saint Stanislaus the martyr began immediately upon his death. In 1088, his relics were transferred to Kraków’s Wawel Cathedral. In the early 13th century, Bishop Iwo Odrowąż initiated preparations for Stanislaus’s canonization.

On September 17, 1253, at Assisi in Italy, Stanislaus was canonized by Pope Innocent IV. Pope Pius V did not include the Saint’s feast day in the Tridentine Calendar as a feast for the whole Church. Subsequently Pope Clement VIII included it, setting it for 7 May, but Kraków has observed it on 8 May, since 1254, the supposed date of the Saint’s death. In 1969, the Roman Catholic Church moved the feast to 11 April, also considered to be the date of his death in 1079.

As the first native Polish saint, Stanislaus is the patron of Poland and Kraków, and of some Polish dioceses. He shares the patronage of Poland with Saint Adalbert of Prague, Florian, and Our Lady the Queen of Poland. Wawel Cathedral, which holds the Saint’s relics, became a principal national shrine. Almost all the Polish kings beginning with Władysław I the Elbow-high were crowned while kneeling before Stanislaus’s sarcophagus, which stands in the middle of the cathedral. Each year on May 8, a procession, led by the Bishop of Kraków, goes out from Wawel to the Church on the Rock. The procession, once a local event, was popularized in the 20th century by Polish Primate Stefan Wyszyńsk and Archbishop of Kraków, Karol Wojtyła. The latter, as Pope John Paul II, called Saint Stanislaus the patron saint of moral order.

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Saint John Baptist de la Salle – Commentary on 2 Timothy 1:13-14, 2:1-3; Ps 1; Matt 18:1-5 Read Saint John Baptist de la Salle – Readings »

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John Baptist de la Salle was born in Rheims, France, on 30 April, 1651, the eldest son of Louis de la Salle and Nicolle de Moet de Brouillet. Inheriting the rank and fortune of his parents, he was seemingly destined to be set apart from the poverty-stricken masses. At the age of 16, still a young student, he succeeded an uncle as a canon of the cathedral in Rheims. This looked like the first step in a successful church career. He then studied at Saint Sulpice and the Sorbonne in Paris for the priesthood, and was ordained at the age of twenty-seven. Up to this point there was no indication as to what his future career would be, nor did he seem to have any idea himself. It was just then he was asked to cooperate in setting up some charitable schools in the city. This led to him being responsible for the teachers and even taking them into his own home to train them.  As he gradually became more involved in this work, he began to realize that God wanted him to set up a proper system for the education of the poor.

In a century which was in many respects so outstanding, there was the great scandal of widespread poverty, ignorance and moral depravity. As he had by now made the will of God the guiding principle of his life, he decided to devote himself entirely to this challenge. He resigned his canonry and gave away his inherited wealth in order to be on the same level as the teachers with whom he lived. This did not at all please his relatives nor his peers among the moneyed classes, but he had made up his mind. In 1684, he transformed his group of school teachers into a religious community under the name of Brothers of the Christian Schools, a religious institute which continues today under the same name and is spread all over the world. In order that the members should only devote themselves to teaching, he laid down that no brother could become a priest nor that any priest could join the congregation, a rule which is still observed.

The early years were marked by poverty and hardship, but these were cheerfully endured, thanks especially to the example of self-denial and extraordinary power of leadership shown by de la Salle himself. He had vowed that he would live on bread alone, if necessary, rather than abandon the work he had begun. While the training of his brothers was his first priority, in order to answer the demand for more trained teachers, he set up a teacher training college in Rheims in 1687, the first example of such an institution. In 1683, he moved to Paris and took over a school in St Sulpice and also made his headquarters there. It was not long before the brothers were teaching more than 1,000 students. He set up another training college with a charity school attached, and set up a ‘continuation’ school for young men already working. When the exiled English king, James II, entrusted 50 Irish boys to his care, he arranged for special courses to suit their needs. The success of his free schools, however, roused the hostility of some fee-paying schools which were losing students. Lawsuits were brought against de la Salle, and his schools were even attacked. He was condemned and not allowed to open further training colleges or free schools anywhere in Paris. Though excluded from the capital, the Brothers were now established in other centres such as Rouen, Avignon and Chartres, so the work continued. In fact, his teaching communities were now spreading all over France from as far north as Calais to Marseilles in the south.

In Rouen, he also set up two contrasting institutions. One was a fee-paying boarding school for the sons of the more prosperous, who wanted a better and more practical education, and the other was a reform school for boys in trouble with the law. Both proved very successful, and were forerunners of modern institutions of a similar kind.

De la Salle spent the last years of his life in Rouen, completing the organization of his institute, writing the Rule of the Brothers in its definitive form, and composing Meditations and a Method of Mental Prayer. He died on Good Friday, April 9th, 1718 in Saint-Yon, Rouen, at the age of 67. 

De la Salle’s pedagogical method is outlined in The Conduct of Schools, which he composed in 1695, and which is now considered an educational classic. He also wrote several school manuals, notably The Rules of Good Behaviour and The Duties of a Christian, which proved very popular and went through over a hundred editions.

John Baptist de la Salle is the patron of teachers. His great achievement was to have provided a system of education when the poor were grossly neglected. He did this not by setting up charity schools which had so often failed, but by creating an organised body of trained teachers. 

Currently, about 6,000 Brothers and 75,000 lay and religious colleagues worldwide serve as teachers, counsellors and guides to 900,000 students in over 1,000 educational institutions in 84 countries, carrying out the work of the founder into the 21st century.

He was canonised by Pope Leo XIII on May 24, 1900. His feast is celebrated in the Catholic Church on April 7, and at La Sallian institutions on May 15. He was proclaimed Patron Saint of Teachers in 1950 by Pope Pius XII.

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Saint Dominic Savio – Commentary on Isaiah 50:5-9; 2 Corinthians 1:3-7; John 12:24-26 Read Saint John Ogilvie – Readings »

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 St John Ogilvie SJ, Priest and Martyr (Optional memorial; Scotland: Feast) Read Saint John Ogilvie »

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Commentary on Romans 8:31-39; Psalm 123; Matthew 10:34-39

Division is the painful subject spoken of in the Gospel reading. Somewhat alarmingly, Jesus tells his disciples not to think that he has come to bring peace:

I have not come to bring peace but a sword.

And this division is not just between different groups of people; it will even happen within families:

For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law…

These seem strange words from the one we call the ‘Prince of Peace’, from the one who told his disciples at the Last Supper:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. (John 14:27)

Jesus’ words must be properly understood. He is the bringer of deep peace into our lives, but as he so often mentions and as so often happens, his most beautiful words and actions generate intense hatred and hostility in those who do not want to hear them. And the basis for division among families is made clear in what follows in the reading:

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Life is a matter of choices. We can either go the Way of Jesus, the way of truth and life and love or we can go the way of self-seeking, putting ourselves at the centre at the expense of those around us. For the person committed to the Way of Jesus, there is really no choice.

Perpetua made that clear. Her father tried hard to make her compromise so that she could preserve her life, but as she told him:

I am a follower of Christ and nothing else.

She could not compromise even to please her father. The long line of martyrs in the Church have lived out this teaching again and again.

The words of Paul in the First Reading from the Letter to the Romans would also have resonated with Perpetua and Felicitas:

If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else?

That was the basis for the courage of the martyrs, their inner strength, even their joy at facing their fate. As Paul continues in his letter:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.

This was what helped the martyrs face with such boldness the wild animals thrown against them and the final stroke of execution. People who came to be ‘entertained’ were shaken to the core and made to wonder what could drive people to face such terrible deaths with such courage, not to say, joy?

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Perpetua and Felicitas (or Felicity) were two 3rd century Christian martyrs. Perpetua was a 22-year old mother with a son a few months old. Felicitas, her slave, was pregnant with child. They were from Carthage, a Roman Province in North Africa. It was originally a Phoenician city and the famous Hannibal, who brought elephants across the Alps to attack Rome, came from there. Few saints were more greatly honoured in the early Church. Their story is told in The Passion of St Perpetua, St Felicitas, and their Companions, regarded as one of the great treasures of martyr literature, a document which is said to preserve the actual words of the martyrs and their friends.

Saint Perpetua’s account is apparently historical, and is the earliest surviving text written by a Christian woman. With the lives of so many early martyrs shrouded in legend, it is fortuitous to have the record from the hand of Perpetua herself, her teacher Saturus, and others who knew them. Read in North African churches for the next several centuries, it was treated as almost equivalent to Scripture and was read during liturgies.

Perpetua and Felicitas were arrested and imprisoned, along with three other Christians in 203 AD. Their crime was defying the Emperor Septimus Severus (193-211), himself of Phoenician origin. He had been a Roman general whose bold military exploits led him to be proclaimed emperor by the army after the death of the immoral Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius. By Severus’ decree, all imperial subjects were forbidden under severe penalties to become Christians or Jews, although only recent converts were affected.

While the five (along with their instructor in faith) were being held awaiting execution, Perpetua’s father urged his favourite child to save her life and the life of her baby by renouncing her faith. She answered:

Father, do you see this vessel—waterpot or whatever it may be?…Can it be called by any other name than what it is?

He replied, “No”, and she said:

So also I cannot call myself by any other name than what I am—a Christian.

At a trial shortly afterwards, Perpetua refused to offer a sacrifice for the prosperity of the emperors. When the court asked “Are you a Christian?” she answered, “Yes, I am,” thereby condemning herself to death.

Felicitas, meanwhile, had been afraid she would not suffer with the rest, because Roman law forbade the execution of pregnant women (on the basis that the unborn child was innocent of any crime). However, in answer to her prayers, her child was born while she was in prison and promptly adopted by a Christian couple. Perpetua had managed to convert their jailer to Christianity, and so the captives were treated well in their final days.

The prisoners turned their last meal into an agape-love meal and spoke of the joy of their own sufferings thus astonishing most witnesses, and even converting some of them. When the day of the games arrived, Perpetua and Felicitas went to the amphitheatre “joyfully as though they were on their way to heaven”, as Perpetua sang a psalm of triumph. The guards attempted to force the captives to wear robes consecrated to Roman gods, but Perpetua resisted so fiercely that they were allowed to wear their own clothes.

A wild heifer was sent against the women. The heifer tossed Perpetua, who got up, straightened her hair, and helped Felicitas regain her feet. Absorbed in ecstasy, Perpetua was unaware that she had been thrown, and did not believe it until Felicitas showed her the marks on her body. Having survived the animals, the women were to be executed. They exchanged a final kiss of peace. A nervous gladiator tried to kill Perpetua, but failed to finish the job until she guided the knife to her throat. About this, the story of their martyrdom comments:

Perhaps so great a woman…could not else have been slain except she willed it.

Although the execution in the Coliseum was intended as entertainment, and enjoyed as such by most of the jeering crowd, some of the spectators, inspired by the martyrs’ fearlessness, became converts. And these spectators were not the last who would be encouraged by Perpetua and Felicitas, who, even at the cost of their lives, worshipped God and not the state.

The date of their martyrdom is traditionally given as 6 March, 203. The association of the martyrdom with a birthday festival of the Emperor Geta, however, would seem to place it after 209, when Geta was made emperor, but before 211, when he was assassinated. The bodies of the martyrs were interred at Carthage.

Felicitas and Perpetua (mentioned in that order) are two of seven women saints commemorated by name in the second part of the First Eucharistic Prayer. When St Thomas Aquinas was inserted into the Roman calendar, for celebration on the same day, the memorial for the two African saints was downgraded to a commemoration. This was the situation in the Tridentine Calendar established by Pope Pius V and remained so until 1908, when Pope Pius X brought the date for celebrating them forward to 6 March. In 1969, Pope Paul VI restored the date of their celebration to 7 March (while St Thomas Aquinas was moved to 28 January).

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Polycarp (born around 69 AD) was a second century bishop of Smyrna. Smyrna was a town on what is now the west coast of Turkey, and lay north of the important city of Ephesus. Not much seems to be known of his origins. His main claim to fame is that he lived just after the time of the Apostles and that he had been a disciple of John. This John may be identified with John the Apostle, John the Presbyter, or John the Evangelist. Together with Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp is one of three chief Apostolic Fathers.

He was also a companion of Papias, who is also supposed to have had direct contact with John the Apostle, and was a correspondent of Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius addressed a letter to him, and mentions him in his letters to the Ephesians and to the Magnesians.

The most famous of Polycarp’s students was Irenaeus, for whom Polycarp was a direct link with the apostles. Irenaeus tells how he heard the account of Polycarp’s discussion with John the Evangelist and with others who had personally seen Jesus. Irenaeus also reports that Polycarp was converted to Christianity by apostles, was consecrated a bishop and communicated with many who had seen Jesus. He repeatedly emphasizes the very great age of Polycarp. In The Martyrdom of Polycarp, Polycarp is quoted speaking about his age on the day of his death: “Eighty and six years I have served him.” If this is understood to mean that he was 86 years old, it would indicate his family had accepted Christianity while he was an infant.

Polycarp visited Rome during the time his fellow Syrian, Anicetus, was Bishop of Rome, sometime between 150 AD and his death.  His sole surviving work is his Letter to the Philippians, a collection of references to the Greek Scriptures. It, and an account of The Martyrdom of Polycarp that takes the form of a circular letter from the church of Smyrna to the churches of Pontus, form part of the collection of writings Catholics term The Apostolic Fathers in order to emphasize their particular closeness to the apostles in Church traditions. The Martyrdom is considered one of the earliest genuine accounts of a Christian martyrdom, and one of the very few genuine accounts from the actual age of the persecutions.

The date of Polycarp’s death is in dispute. Estimates vary from about 156 to 167 AD, depending on the source. Surviving accounts of the bravery of this very old man in the face of death by burning at the stake added credence to his words. He died when he was stabbed after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed.

Polycarp occupies an important place in the history of the Christian Church because he is among the earliest Christians whose writings survive, and because of his close contacts with Jesus’ disciples. He was also an elder of an important congregation in an area where the apostles had worked.

He appears, from surviving accounts, to have been a practical leader and gifted teacher rather than a scholar. He lived in an age soon after the deaths of the apostles when a variety of interpretations of the sayings of Jesus were being preached. His role was to authenticate orthodox teachings through his reputed connection with John the Apostle.

The chief sources of information concerning Polycarp are four: the authentic letters of Irenaeus, which include one to Polycarp; Polycarp’s Epistle to the Philippians; passages in Irenaeus’ Adversus Haeresis; and the letter of the Smyrnaeans recounting the martyrdom of Polycarp.