Ss Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions | Tuesday 24 November 2020
Today is Tuesday 24 November, the feast of Ss Andrew Dung-Lac & companions, in the 34 week of Ordinary Time.
Ex Cathedra, directed by Jeffrey Skidmore, sing Dulce Jesus mio. “My sweet Jesus, look with mercy on my soul.” This is not the prayer of someone proud or haughty or self-satisfied, but of a person aware that they have weaknesses and shortcomings, aware that they cannot do without the help and the love and the mercy of God.
Apoc 14: 14-16
Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like the Son of Man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand! Another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to the one who sat on the cloud, ‘Use your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.’ So the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.
Today we remember the 117 Vietnamese martyrs who died, often barbarically, for bringing the Christian faith to Vietnam. One of the Vietnamese martyrs, Saint Paul Le-Bao Tinh, wrote from his prison cell: “in the midst of these torments, which usually terrify others, I am, by the grace of God, full of joy and gladness, because I am not alone – Christ is with me.” Do you sense the presence of Christ in your life? Are there times when God feels remote, disinterested, absent?
The Book of Revelation was written following a time of persecution of the infant Church. Still today, there are Christians, and people of other faiths, who are persecuted for their beliefs as the early Church and the Vietnamese martyrs suffered. We can recall today those martyrs in our own country whose courageous sacrifice makes our faith possible today…
As you listen to the reading again, consider the ways in which your life is fruitful.
How might God be calling you to be more fruitful and more courageous in living out the Christian faith? Does it console you to know that Christ is with you at these times? Ask God to show what you can do and to give you the strength to do it.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.