Marian Solidarity

One of her daughters, Pinky, would say that faith was Cory Aquino’s greatest strength; it was what was deepest in her. Her faith was her bedrock, and it was, bedrock. Frederick Buechner the ordained minister and novelist likes to say that through his lifetime, he’s had many doubts, even deep doubt, daily doubts. “But I have never really looked down into the deep abyss and seen only nothing. Somehow I have known, that underneath all the shadows and the darkness, there are the everlasting arms.” I think Cory’s faith was like that, not in the multiplicity of doubts (even if, in a life so filled with trial, there surely were doubts too), but in the certainty of the everlasting arms. More than once she told me, “Every time life painted me into a corner, with seemingly no escape, I always turned to Him in trust. I knew He would never abandon us if we trusted in Him. And you know, somehow, He found a way out for us.” And so Pinky says, “Mom was always calm even in the most trying times. She trusted God would always be there for us, She was our source of strength. She made this world seem so much safer and less cruel for us. And now that our source of strength is gone, we have to make our faith something more like hers. But we know in our hearts that in every storm she will watch over us from heaven.”

Within this faith was her devotion to Mary, the place Our Lady of Fatima and the rosary held in her life. All we can say on this is that Our Lady truly had a special, living presence in her life: Mary was, for Cory, true mother and incomparable friend; as we say in the hymn-vita, dulcedo et spes: life, sweetness and hope. No, Mary was not the center of her faith, but its air, its atmosphere; and the rosary, her lifeline through every trial and crisis. In the long harsh months of her illness, Sister Lucia’s beads almost never left her hands. She was holding them, as last Saturday was dawning and her years of exile were at last done, when we know her Lady “showed unto her, the blessed fruit of her womb.”

from the Homily of Fr. Catalino Arevalo, SJ, at the Funeral Mass for President Corazon Aquino

MARK 6:17-29

Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.

John had said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.

Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him.

She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee.

Herodias’ own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests.

The king said to the girl, “Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.”
He even swore many things to her, “I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom.”

She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”

She replied, “The head of John the Baptist.”

The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request, “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”

The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her. So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in the prison.

He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl in turn gave it to her mother.

When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

As a witness to integrity and the honest truth, John the Baptist lost his life to cunning and violence. But he had to speak, whatever the consequences. God’s word cannot be muzzled. Does the Church – do we – have this courage today?

John 1:45-51
Here is a true child of Israel.
There is no duplicity in him.

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”

But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true child of Israel.
There is no duplicity in him.”

Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”

Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.”

And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

No other Apostles by far expressed greater belief in Jesus upon their first encounter as Nathanael. Jesus stated it exactly right. This apostle was devout, holy and a true Israelite. Imagine calling someone a king and never having seen him before! How could anyone call Jesus the Son of God unless his mind and heart was completely enraptured by the love of God.

Jesus swept Nathanael completely off his feet by revealing to him some personal information that for him was truly amazing.

During this brief meeting with Nathanael, Jesus told him that he would experience greater things than with this first meeting.

Nathanael did see greater things. He was one of those to whom Jesus appeared on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias after his resurrection.

Ripples of sunshine surround the name and figure of the apostle Bartholomew, whose full name was Nathanael Bartholomew. Every crown has at least one happy-go-lucky character, and among the Twelve this was Bartholomew. The Lord Himself rejoiced to see this young man without guile enter His circle. Even today the name “Nathanael” suggests to us an agreeable and inoffensive person. Bartholomew lived on the brighter side of life, unruffled, serene, cheerful.

In the four lists of the Twelve in Holy Scripture this apostle was always called Bartholomew. In the Gospels his name was mentioned in the sixth place, immediately after his friend, Philip. In St. Luke’s enumeration in the Acts of the Apostles, Our Lord assigned Bartholomew and Thomas to the same group. Wisely did Divine Providence place these two individuals side by side, the optimist and the pessimist, the apostle of sunshine and spring with the apostle of doubt and cloud. Each in his own different way profited by this partnership. Thomas unburdened himself through Bartholomew, and it was to Bartholomew’s benefit that he was encumbered with Thomas, for through the doubter he was protected from the danger of becoming too free and lax.

It is very striking that the evangelist John never once mentioned an apostle by the name of Bartholomew in his entire Gospel. On the contrary he had much to say about a Nathanael, whom the three older evangelists, in turn, seemingly did know. John wrote about this Nathanael in the first and last chapter of his Gospel. Therefore Nathanael was with the other apostles for a long time, a proviso that Peter stipulated before choosing another apostle to replace Judas:

“Therefore, of these men who have been in our company all the time that the Lord Jesus moved among us, from John’s baptism until the day that he was taken up from us, of these one must become a witness with us of his resurrection”

From the two passages in John there is no doubt that Nathanael had heard the apostles; in the first chapter and in the last, this apostle was counted with the known and recognized apostles. Also, his calling was clearly and fully explained. There is no reason to doubt that Nathanael was an apostle, or that Nathanael and Bartholomew are two names for one and the same apostle. For if the Nathanael mentioned by the evangelist John was one of the Twelve, then he could have been no other than the one called Bartholomew by the other evangelists. All the other apostles in the four scriptural list were given by one name. Since Bartholomew was named in the lists by his father’s name, Bar-Tholmai, son of Tholmai, he alone is the only apostle who could have had the personal name of Nathanael.

One cannot go wrong if he keeps that happy meeting between Jesus and Nathanael before his eyes. Thoroughly honest, happy, cheerful, and inspired, he has been an inspiration to men of all ages. He was popular and much liked by the other apostles; his colleagues eagerly sought his friendship. Clear, truthful, and frank in everything, he was so simple that anyone could see through him. He was really the apostle without guile or deceit.

At the Last Supper revealed, “‘One of you will betray me.’” No one thought of Bartholomew. Not even a slight suspicion was raised against him. Only sunshine and spring surrounded this apostle. When the disciples walked along the long, hot roads, with the Lord, tired and stickly with dust, and when the pressing of a crowd was so taxing that they could not find time even to eat, when they, along with the Lord, had no place to lay their head at night, there was Bartholomew, cheerful, tireless, and happy as ever. He alone of the followers of Christ could lift up their sinking spirits. Then the eyes of the Lord would benevolently fall upon this disciples as they had in the hour of their first meeting. Nathanael Bartholomew was called because of his natural ability to reflect the goodness, kindness, mercy, and love of the Savior.

For the melancholy Thomas, for the sober Philip, for the objective Matthew, it was a real blessing that Bartholomew occasionally led this second group of apostles to look at the brighter side of life. He put some cheer and life into this melancholy, sober and objective group. He brought the fragrance of spring and a bit of poetry into this somewhat too cool, somewhat too dry, somewhat too gloomy atmosphere. With his keen natural perceptiveness, he could brighten and enliven Thomas, tease and animate Philip, transfigure and perfect-Matthew. He could rub against all three of their natures and get away with it three times as often as any other apostle. It is good to stand to the sunshine, but it is better to be the sunshine for others. In doing all this, Nathanael did not overstep the fine border of tact. It is very striking how old legends again and again allude to this apostle’s distinguished origin and refined speech. The silence of the Gospels also gives an indication of his quiet reserve. He could hold back his happiness lest he becomes too frolicsome, or even loud and boisterous.

more on St. Bartholomew

“When she became Mother of the Creator, she truly became Queen of every creature.”
- St. John Damascene

But the Blessed Virgin Mary should be called Queen, not only because of her Divine Motherhood, but also because God has willed her to have an exceptional role in the work of our eternal salvation. “What more joyful, what sweeter thought can we have” – as Our Predecessor of happy memory, Pius XI wrote – “than that Christ is our King not only by natural right, but also by an acquired right: that which He won by the redemption? Would that all men, now forgetful of how much we cost Our Savior, might recall to mind the words, ‘You were redeemed, not with gold or silver which perishes, . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb spotless and undefiled. We belong not to ourselves now, since Christ has bought us ‘at a great price’.”

Let all try to approach with greater trust the throne of grace and mercy of our Queen and Mother, and beg for strength in adversity, light in darkness, consolation in sorrow; above all let them strive to free themselves from the slavery of sin and offer an unceasing homage, filled with filial loyalty, to their Queenly Mother. Let her churches be thronged by the faithful, her feast-days honored; may the beads of the Rosary be in the hands of all; may Christians gather, in small numbers and large, to sing her praises in churches, in homes, in hospitals, in prisons. May Mary’s name be held in highest reverence, a name sweeter than honey and more precious than jewels; may none utter blasphemous words, the sign of a defiled soul, against that name graced with such dignity and revered for its motherly goodness; let no one be so bold as to speak a syllable which lacks the respect due to her name.

All, according to their state, should strive to bring alive the wondrous virtues of our heavenly Queen and most loving Mother through constant effort of mind and manner. Thus will it come about that all Christians, in honoring and imitating their sublime Queen and Mother, will realize they are truly brothers, and with all envy and avarice thrust aside, will promote love among classes, respect the rights of the weak, cherish peace. No one should think himself a son of Mary, worthy of being received under her powerful protection, unless, like her, he is just, gentle and pure, and shows a sincere desire for true brotherhood, not harming or injuring but rather helping and comforting others.

an excerpt from AD CAELI REGINAM by Pope Pius XII

What is the meaning of life? And what, in consequence, is the meaning of human history?

It is certainly the most dramatic of questions -and the noblest too- revealing human beings in their true nature, as persons endowed with intelligence and will. For we cannot shut ourselves within the confines of time, within the circle of matter, within the node of an immanent and self-sufficient existence. We may try to do so; we may even affirm by word and deed that our homeland is only time and our dwelling-place only the body. But in fact the supreme question keeps worrying us, stinging and tormenting us. It is a question that will not go away.

We are aware that, unfortunately, much of modern, atheistic, agnostic, secularized thought persistently states and teaches that the supreme question is in fact a human malady, a psychological and emotional exaggeration, from which we need to be cured by bravely facing up to the absurd, to death, to nothingness.

It is a subtly dangerous philosophy, above all because young people -still unsure in their convictions, shaken by the unhappy events of past and present history, by instability and uncertainty about the future, at times betrayed in their deepest affections, marginalized, misunderstood, unemployed – may feel driven by it to seek a way out through drugs and violence, or to give up hope.

Jesus Christ alone is the adequate and final answer to the supreme question about the meaning of life and history.

It is important to explain that the history of the human race, marked as it is by grace and sin, greatness and misery, is taken up by God in his son Jesus Christ, ‘foreshadowing in some way the age that is to come’.

Finally it is important frankly to reveal the demands – demands that involve self-denial but also joy -made by what the Apostle Paul liked to call ‘newness of life’, ‘a new creation’, ‘being in Christ’, and ‘eternal life in Christ Jesus’, which is the same thing as life in the world, but lived in accordance with the Beatitudes and with a calling to an extension and transfiguration hereafter.

Hence the importance in catechesis of personal, moral commitments in keeping with the Gospel, of Christian attitudes to the world, be they heroic or very simple; we call them the Christian or evangelical virtues. Hence too, in its efforts to instill the Faith, catechesis will not omit but rather highlight such realities as man’s activity for his integral liberation, the search for a society with greater solidarity and fraternity, the fight for justice and the building of peace.

Our first concept of woman is as mother – it is she we reached out too when we first leave her womb, it is she who nurses us, takes care of us. As we begin to grow she is always there, scurrying in the background. Always ready to help, to console, to defend.

There comes a time though, when we leave her roost. Our concept now changes from woman as mother to woman as myth/mystery. Usually for men, this time is the beginning of the romantic urges. Woman becomes the stuff of poetry; the muse, the eternal feminine. For woman themselves, they experience this mystery and mythology in their very bodies, becoming aware that they themselves are temples of life, living allegories of beauty and love.

Next comes the concept of woman as partner; different than motherhood, but no less important. She is always there diligently doing her part, as only she can do. She solves a situation in a way a man would never dream of, comes up with solutions, that a man could never think of, solving the problems of life in her own special way. Oh, we men may be vexed at her seemingly emotional and illogical approach to the matter at hand, but we have to admit, (usually in private!) that she always seems to be right. Finally, there is woman as guide; as seer – a temple of wisdom, an oracle of divine intelligence.

How often have our most complex problems been answered by the few simple words from a woman like this? How often have the most learned theologians been awed by the piety and raw faith of those older woman who, despite a lifetime of struggle and disappointment, never seem to give up. How often is it that these women seem to have a direct line of communication with God.
This mythos that is woman holds for Mary as well – in her earthly life as woman, in all of her theological titles and events, and now in her glorified state of heavily queen and intercessor fo all of humanity. She is mother and always will be mother – of the Church, of even God himself. She is mythos and mystery – the unsolved riddle of the icon, the personification of beauty, purity, holiness. She is helpmate, to both God and man by her constant intercession and noble and unique role in salvation.

She is guide and seer the treasure house of wisdom, the muse if your will of divine science, of theologians, seminarians, monks. Her assumption affirms humanity’s hope for the promises of the resurrection. Her numerous privileges confirm that the humble and lowly will be exalted. No surprise then, that she holds the order of Cistercians under her mantle. What could be more monastic? What could be more human? Indeed, what better proof of divine favor?

Hope, for a world without hope; Cause of our Joy for a world that has forgotten the meaning of the word -this is Mary – woman, mother, intercessor, mystery, seer. She is a far cry from what so many millenienist doomsdayers would have us believe. She is hope for a new world, yes a world that is flirting with disaster, but a world that can still, if it wants herald in the kingdom of God. With Mary as our patron, – of the Cistercian order, of the Church, of the entire human race – what have we to fear, what have we to doubt? This is the meaning of her assumption – hope that springs eternal, joy flowing from its source -the mother of God, the patroness of us all.

Fr. Rober Keffer, O.Cist.