Posts Tagged ‘Sacrifice’
The Blood of a Blessed Martyr – Br. Lucas Hall
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Br. Lucas Hall
Feast of St. Alban
Today we mark the feast of St. Alban, the first martyr of Britain. In the third century, Christians were subject to various persecutions in the Roman Empire, and the story goes that the then-pagan Alban, living in Roman Britain, hosted a Christian priest in his home who was fleeing persecution. Impressed by the priest’s devotion to prayer, Alban joined him, and converted. When it came to light he was hiding the fugitive priest, Alban donned the priest’s robes and went to death for him. He refused to partake in a pagan votive offering, saying, “I worship and adore the true and living God, who created all things.” For this, he was beheaded on a hilltop at the town that now bears his name.
I must admit, I cannot speak solely of Alban today. Partially, it’s because this early Church martyr calls to mind the Church’s general age of martyrdom, when the experience of persecution necessitated developing a theological understanding of the concept. But it’s more personal than that. You may know that we brothers take initial vows for a few years before taking life vows. Today is the anniversary of my initial vows. And earlier this week, the anniversary of my life vows, was the feast of Bernard Mizeki, another martyr. By happenstance, or something more, I cannot encounter these martyrs without thinking more broadly of their witness to the vocation of the Church, my own included. Read More
Cling to Jesus – Br. James Koester
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Br. James Koester,
Superior
Ordination to the Priesthood of Brother Keith Nelson SSJE
I don’t know much about sheep, but I do know a thing or two about geese. Some of you will remember that for several years we had a small flock of geese at Emery House. I was the one behind that particular acquisition, and while they gave me enormous amounts of joy, not all the Brothers were equally enraptured with them. More than one guest needed to be rescued from their cars, when the geese, thinking these strangers were interlopers, hissed every time they tried to get out. A few Brothers reported they had literally been goosed when they got too close to them.
But their behaviour was completely different around me. Hatched in Oklahoma, they were immediately boxed up and shipped to West Newbury the same day. Forty-eight hours later a call from the West Newbury post office came announcing their arrival. Within half an hour of the call, I had them in the back of the car. We chatted, or at least I did, on the drive home. Every time I went up to the coop, I talked to them, until the day came when they were large enough to be let out to free range. That’s when the fun really began. It didn’t matter where I was, or what I was doing, if they heard my voice, or if I called to them from another part of the property, they raced to greet me, with great flapping of wings and loud honks. They’d even wander down to the house looking for me, and one day interrupted the Eucharist with their honking, when they recognized my voice through the open window. If I was working in the garden, I’d have to put them in the coop, because they would snuggle up to me, preventing me from doing whatever I was doing. Read More
The Emergence of Courage – Br. Curtis Almquist
Br. Curtis Almquist
Saints Agnes and Cecilia of Rome, Martyrs
In the calendar of the church we remember today two early Christian martyrs: Saint Cecilia and Saint Agnes. Saint Cecilia, as a young woman, was married. She converted to Christianity members of her own household; however in the face of the demand from the Roman government to offer sacrifice to pagan idols, a demand she refused, Cecilia was martyred year 280. Saint Agnes, a 12-year old child, was brought to a civil magistrate, before whom she refused to renounce her Christian faith, and she, too, was martyred, this in year 304. Saint Ambrose of Milan wrote about Agnes that “all were astounded that she should come forward as a witness to God when she was still too young to be her own mistress.” The various accounts of Cecilia and Agnes’ martyrdom are appalling, which show something of the impact of the life and death these two young women made upon their contemporaries and succeeding generations.
The word “courage” comes to mind in remembering martyrs such as Cecilia and Agnes. Our word courage comes from the Latin word for heart, cor, then the Old French, corage. Courage emanates from the heart, the heart symbolizing the essence of a person. We hear Jesus say, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.”[i] But courage is not something to work on. Becoming courageous is not a spiritual calisthenic. Courage comes as a byproduct, a characteristic or an action which is quite invisible to the person themselves. I have never once heard someone described as having done something courageous who sees this about themselves. Courage is in the eye of the beholder, not in the awareness of the actor. Read More
Life-changing Witness: The Feast of St Alban – Br David Vryhof
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Br. David Vryhof
I John 3:13-16
Matthew 10:34-42
The story of Alban is worth recounting. Alban was a Roman soldier in the early 3rd century, stationed in Verulamium, about 20 miles north of London. Although he was a pagan, he agreed to give shelter to a priest who was fleeing persecution. Moved by observing the priest at prayer, he asked the priest questions about his faith and was converted.
The Roman authorities received a report that Alban was sheltering the priest. When soldiers were sent to Alban’s home, he greeted them at the door disguised in the cloak of the priest, and willingly gave himself up to be arrested. He was brought before the military governor, who soon discovered the ruse. The governor commanded Alban to offer sacrifices to the Roman gods, and when Alban refused, had him tortured and put to death that same day. Tradition has maintained that the year was 303 or 304, but recent scholarship has placed Alban’s martyrdom a century earlier, in the year 209, during the persecutions ordered by the Emperor Septimius Severus.
Certainly the sacrifice of Alban is worth remembering today. We recall with awe his unwavering commitment to Christ, a commitment that prompted him to give himself up to torture and death in place of a Christian priest. Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). We stand in awe of the unflinching witness of the martyrs and pray that, if that day should ever come to us, we would be equally steadfast and fearless in the profession of our faith in Jesus Christ.
But today I want to highlight as well the witness of the anonymous Christian priest. It was his quiet example and the genuineness of his prayers that inspired Alban to embrace the Christian way. Like Alban, he never abandoned his commitment to Christ, even though his life was constantly in danger.
It seems unlikely that any of us will ever be called to suffer torture and death because of our Christian faith, but it is very well possible that our quiet, steady, unwavering commitment to Jesus Christ may inspire in others a curiosity and a desire to understand and embrace this faith. It is entirely possible that the way we live, the way we speak, the way we serve, the way we love and honor one another and those whom we meet, may inspire someone we hardly know to seek God by exploring the Christian way. We should be mindful, then, day by day and hour by hour, of our unspoken witness – the way we live our lives – and its power to change and inspire those around us. May God give us grace to live as these two men lived – fearlessly, humbly, and gracefully – so that our lives, by showing forth God’s beauty and truth, may draw others to new life in Christ.
Generous Givers – Br. David Vryhof
Preaching is always an intimidating task, but seldom more than on a day like today when we hear Jesus criticizing those “who like to walk around in long robes.” For a monk, that strikes pretty close to home.
That being said, I truly believe that today’s gospel lesson is about something more substantive than the wearing of robes. But it does begin there. Jesus criticizes the ‘scribes,’ important religious leaders of his day, for “liking to walk around” in long robes, for enjoying the respect they received when greeted in the marketplaces, and for relishing the privilege of having the best seats in the synagogue and the places of honor at banquets. For them, Jesus suggests, it’s all about being seen, honored and admired by ‘ordinary folk.’ They delight in this kind of attention.
This, of course, is exactly what Jesus has already warned us about in the Sermon on the Mount. “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them;” he cautions, “for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others.” (Mt 6:1-2a) Did you catch those two important phrases: “in order to be seen by them,” and “so that they may be praised by others”? Jesus expects that we will share what we have and give generously to the work of God in the world, but he asks us to consider why and how we offer alms or do good deeds. Whenever we posture and pose in order to impress others with our holiness or our goodness or our generosity and selflessness, whenever we actively court their flattery and praise, we sacrifice the good favor of our Father in heaven for the cheap and fickle praise of human beings. Read More