Readings: Wisdom 7, 7-11; Psalm 90, Fill Us with your Love, O Lord, and We will Sing for Joy; Hebrews 4, 12-13; Mark 10, 17-30
Wisdom:
Date of Composition: 100-200 BCE, which is why it is considered significant. It provides a glimpse into the cultural & social milieu which prevailed just before & during the time of Christ..
Place of Composition: Alexandria, Egypt.
The Composer: a Jew who wrote educated Greek.
Unique Quality: Wisdom is one of a set of 12 (or 14) books written in Greek considered not part of the original 39 books of the Hebrew Bible, the O.T. This blew up around 350 CE when St. Jerome, one of the Fathers of the Early Church, i.e., a church leader who influenced a lot of church dogma, said the books were not genuine. He was opposed by St. Augustine. It was the Council of Trent (ca. 1550), that declared the 12 books okay. Another person doubting the validity of the books was Martin Luther.
You will hear these books called Apocrypha and deuterocanonical vs protocanonical (meaning declared canonical or okay after rather than before). A bit complicated.
Our Selection in Chapter 7: the book of Wisdom generally says that good guys get rewarded by God, bad guys don’t. This selection personifies the virtue of wisdom, using the feminine pronoun she, and praises her as above all other values & pleasures. I loved her even more than health or beauty, the composer declares.
Sources: The Good News Bible, Got Bible Questions on line.
To LIVE
Just about a century ago, in 1910, a little baby was born who was named Agnes. Born into a comfortable, middle class family, Agnes was the last of 5 children. They lived in what is today called Macedonia, just north of Greece, a country that used to be part of Yugoslovia.
Agnes was an ordinary little girl and at the age of 18 she decided to leave home and join the Sisters of Loretto of Dublin. She went to Dublin for her formation, had to learn to speak the English in the Irish brogue, and actually never saw her mother again. In those days it was customary that religious did not come home for visits.
After her training of about 3 years, Agnes was sent to teach at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta, India. There she taught for a good 15 or more years. She was considered a good, not exceptional teacher.
While she worked in the school with the girls, who were mostly from the upper classes, Agnes looked out her windows. There she saw another kind of child, a street child, dirty, undernourished, and neglected. You can picture her watching these kids and reflecting upon what she was doing, which was good in itself.
At the age of 38 in 1948, Agnes decided to leave the Loretto Sisters and to go out into the streets. Initially she did what she knew. She taught the kids in the open air, using the dirt as a black board. She had no funds, rented out a delapidated shack, and began to care for the sick people who were all around her. She even went to school to learn nursing.
Despite the fact that she started out with little idea of where she was going, it was like she had uncorked a cold drink or a bottle of champagne. People in Calcutta heard about her, probably at least through St. Mary's High School, and aid & help began to pour forth. People came to help her, food began to be donated.
After two years of working the streets, Agnes decided she needed to organize a community, the Sisters of Charity. The community focused on two things, personal spirituality and care for the most needy, the street people, the AIDS victims, the addicts, and the abandoned. This little community has now grown enormously and has houses in Africa, where I knew them, Asia, Latin America, and Dallas, specifically South Dallas. We used to take our food drives to them until the pastor of the parish said he did not want our food.
In 1997, after winning numerous international prizes, including, coincidentally, the Nobel Peace Prize, Mother Teresa died. In 2003 John Paul II beatified her. This means she is one step (i.e., one miracle) short of being declared a saint.
I talk about Mother Teresa because, despite some criticism she & eventually her sisters received, she tried to live what we are talking about today. In order to live, give it up and serve the disadvantaged.
Two thoughts.
1. We have here more of what Mark has offered us the past 2-3 weeks, an ideal, a challenge, an infinite demand. Check out Scott Burns' column in this morning's Dallas Morning News.
2. Remember the infinite acceptance. How can I give it up and serve the disadvantaged in my state? Parents, teachers, nurses, doctors, almost all are already engaged in helping. CCAC is our avenue to help the disadvantaged. As well as food drives, blood drives. This may only nibble away at the need, but enough nibbling can make a difference.
How are you giving it up & serving the disadvantaged–to LIVE?
Sources: on-line biographies of Mother Teresa, The Good News Bible, Got Bible Questions?
Picture 1: Mass with Sabrina, Georgie, & Richard
Picture 2: Sabrina
Picture 3: Birthdays, Angela, Georgie, Richard, Lacee & her mom, Lisa
Picture 4: Communion, Hunter & Kailee