Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs
The Church as Christ's Body.
Click here for today's readings on the USCCB website.
Reading: Ephesians 1:15-23
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 8:2-3AB, 4-5, 6-7
Alleluia: John 26B, 27A
Gospel: Luke 12:8-12
Today’s readings audio:
Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs
Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues were Jesuit missionaries that went to New France (now Canada) and helped convert the Huron Native Americans to Christianity. During a raid on one of the Huron villages Father Jogues was captured by the Iroquois and tortured and his hands were mutilated. Father Jogues escaped captivity through the Dutch that were there and made it back to France. Pope Urban VIII allowed him to celebrate Mass even though his hands were mutilated. Father Jogues felt called to return to the New World and tried to evangelize to the Iroquois but was captured by the Mohawks. He was tomahawked and beheaded on October 18, 1646.
Father John de Brébeuf was also a French Jesuit who came to New France and ministered there for 24 years. He also spent time with the Huron, but went back to France when the area was captured by the English and the Jesuits were expelled. He returned four years later and continued his missionary work amongst the Huron even though their medicine men blamed the Jesuits for the smallpox epidemic. He saw 7,000 Huron convert to Catholicism before he was captured in Sainte Marie. He was tortured for four hours and died from the severity.
There were six others that were martyred at various points during that time. Jean de Lalande and René Goupil who were two Jesuit oblates, Father Anthony Daniel, Gabriel Lalemant, Father Charles Garnier, and Father Noel Chabanel.
All of them were canonized on June 29, 1930, by Pope Pius XI.
These saints were shining examples of living their Catholic faith and spreading the Gospel of Jesus. Even to the point of earning a martyr’s crown. We should strive to be like these saints.
The Church as Christ’s Body. (Ephesians 1:15-23)
In today’s reading, St. Paul is explaining to the Ephesians that the Church makes up Christ’s body.
22 And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,
23 which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.Ephesians 1:22-23
So, what exactly does it mean to the be the Body of Christ and what is St. Paul talking about. Jesus is the head of the Church and is succeeded in this role on Earth by his vicar, the Pope while Jesus continues to serve this role in Heaven while seated at the right hand of the Father. His apostles and their successors, bishops, as well as the faithful make up his Church. We are the Church Militant, here on earth. We carry out Jesus’ mission by being the hands and feet. We see a parallel between Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and 1 Corinthians 12-26.
We all have different roles within the Church. The Pope as the head provides direction. The bishops as the heads of their local churches provide direction to his flock through the assistance of his pastors and deacons. The priest’s role is to administer the Sacraments of the Church, but most especially the celebration of the Mass. The deacon’s primary purpose is to represent the bishop in matters of charity and assist the priest at Mass. In matters of charity, the deacon visits the sick, those in prison, provides catechesis to the faithful, and other carries on other ministries as is needed in the parish.
The lay faithful though, have a duty in the role of Church as members of the hands and feet.
898 "By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will.... It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and maybe to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer." 431
899 The initiative of lay Christians is necessary especially when the matter involves discovering or inventing the means for permeating social, political, and economic realities with the demands of Christian doctrine and life. This initiative is a normal element of the life of the Church:
Lay believers are in the front line of Church life; for them the Church is the animating principle of human society. Therefore, they in particular ought to have an ever-clearer consciousness not only of belonging to the Church, but of being the Church, that is to say, the community of the faithful on earth under the leadership of the Pope, the common Head, and of the bishops in communion with him. They are the Church.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 898-899
The laity make up the majority of the body of the Church. With the exception of those that may live in religious orders, the laity are the ones that perform most of the Corporal works of Mercy. They operate food donation centers and soup kitchens. They help house and feed the homeless and they visit the sick in hospitals and the prisoner.
There is no part of the Body of Christ that is more important than the other. Without the clergy, there would be no sacraments and without the laity, there would be no carrying out the Church’s mission.
As you go through your day, how will you be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world today?
Courage Under Persecution and Sayings About the Holy Spirit (Luke 12:8-12)
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is encouraging the disciples and giving them a foreshadowing of what their lives will be in the future.
11 When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say.
12 For the holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.Luke 12:11
Jesus is explaining to them (but they will not understand until he was crucified and resurrected) that they should not worry about what to say when they are brought before the Jewish or Roman authorities. And is seen with Saints Peter and Paul, the Holy Spirit guided them as they were brought before the various officials, and the Holy Spirit gave them strength. An example of this is found with Peter in Acts 4:5-22, a small section shown here.
8 Then Peter, filled with the holy Spirit, answered them, “Leaders of the people and elders:
9 If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a cripple, namely, by what means he was saved,
10 then all of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed.
Acts of the Apostles 4:8-10
This is the same Peter that denied Jesus three times and the same Peter that Jesus said “Get thee behind me Satan” in Matthew 16:23. But now strengthened by the Holy Spirit, Peter is able to boldly proclaim the gospel to all of them, even the Sanhedrin.
Today, are we strengthened by the Holy Spirit? There are many attacks on our faith in the media and on social media. If you hear someone speak out against our faith as Catholics, are you willing to defend it? Do you know how to defend it? Will you deny Jesus?
Let us pray that the Holy Spirit gives us strength today and always.
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created,
and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O God, who have taught the hearts of the faithful
by the light of the Holy Spirit,
grant that in the same Spirit we may be truly wise
and ever rejoice in his consolation.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Today’s music.