May
31
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[media
presentation below]
GospelThink
Saturday,
May 31, The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
LUKE
1:39-56
My
earthly mother's praise of God
Prayerthoughts
a.
Mary was aware of her cousin Elizabeth’s need. There are
people in my own acquaintance and in the world in which I live
who are in need. Am I doing enough to help them?
b.
Great things happen to me often, and many times I do not thank
the Lord enough for them. I should thank the Lord for the
gifts that I received just yesterday for example. (This is the
“task” of this meditation.)
c. Mary proclaimed
the greatness of God. In my words and thoughts, do I proclaim
myself in pride?
d. In my life, besides rejoicing
in God my savior, I have to deal with the world. But have I
allowed that world to dictate too much of the way I think?
e. I must accept my “lowliness” probably a
little more than I do. Do I look for praise too much from
the people around me?
f. It is clear that the Lord
has worked with mercy in my life. Do I work with mercy around
the people who are close to me?
g. The Lord has
lifted up the lowly. Do I show enough concern for those who
are down and out in the society around me?
h. My prayerthoughts…
Today,
I will carry out letter b.
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Some
Thoughts on the Liturgy
BEING
BLESSED, LOVING OTHERS
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The beautiful prayer that we have come to know as the
Magnificat is the statement by Mary that we are blessed by God
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Mary realized more than any other human being in her time just
how much God had done for her
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and because of that—what God had done for her—her outlook
on life, her attitude toward living changed
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and she became the holy person that we honor today
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the impetus that made her holy was the understanding of what
God had done for her
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From a Christian point of view, primarily what should happen
once we understand what God has done for us
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is the way we behave with others, which is the overall
conclusion of this feast—
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Mary understood what God had done for her, therefore she had
to give to others, and in particular, Elizabeth, her cousin
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This feast leads us to a very straightforward conclusion as we
view Mary’s reasoning, and Mary’s holiness
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because we have been gifted by God, we must give to others
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and the selection from the letter to the Romans does it very
well
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leading us to a personal meditation of how we behave toward
others
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in particular, it is significant that Mary’s charity is
toward a relative
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I believe that we have to be especially concerned about how we
treat relatives
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And so, studying the reading from Paul’s letter to the
Romans, we ask ourselves:
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is our love sincere?
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do we hate what is evil, that is, the things that can hurt our
spiritual lives – too much exposure to the world, to the
media, etc.
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do we truly love one another with mutual affection and
anticipate one another in showing honor
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do we grow slack in zeal and fervor for our love of God and
others around us
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are we hopeful people
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do we endure well the afflictions of human nature when we are
hurting for one reason or another
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do we persevere in prayer by continually opening our hearts to
God
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do we contribute to others by praying for them as much as we
should
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do we show the hospitality that we should toward one another
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do we pray and ask God’s blessings on those who are not in
agreement with us and who are hurting other people, creating
evil in our world
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are we solicitous with regard to the feelings of others
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do we show or think in a superior fashion at all (haughty)
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do we think in terms of pride, that is, how well we are doing
in whatever endeavor, without giving any credit to God and
what God is doing in our lives
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Mary teaches us that everyone of us has been blessed by God
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when we realize that, it will affect our lives, and change us
for the better.
Tying
Today's Liturgy with the Movie "Dark Waters"
(below)
The Grace to Do Something
Mary
was convinced that God was working in her life, and so she
did something--she visited her cousin who needed her help.
Jesus was convinced that the synagogue should be a house of
prayer, and so he did something--he drove the money people
out of it. Earl Tennant and Bob Bilott were convinced that
a chemical corporation was polluting water, and so they did
something--they took on the corporate giant and won their
case.
The world we live in needs
direction. When looked at as a place in which selfishness
is the bottom line in most encounters, the world must have
some guidance to bring a proper perspective. That guidance
must be looked for and sought after if we want to amount to
anything, if we want the human to be holy.
The
guidance for the Christian comes from God through Jesus.
Mary was able to discover it in caring for another. Jesus
found it in love of His Father. Earl and Bob found it in
carrying out the Christian call to "do something"
in the face of wrong.
We all have the
same belief as Christians. Our God has given us the
doctrine and example. It is up to each one of us to follow
it in our daily lives.
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MEDIA
PRESENTATION
Movie:
"Dark Waters" -- beginning session
THE
COURAGE TO DO SOMETHING
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JOHN
2:13-17
Since
the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He
found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the money-changers seated there. He made a whip
out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the
sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and
overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said,
“Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a
marketplace.” His disciples recalled the words of
scripture, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
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Gospelthink:
I was quite upset at the way some people were treating the
Temple. Do
I show the respect that I should show in my Church?
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The
year was 1998. Wilbur "Earl" Tennant traveled to
Cincinnati, Ohio to visit Robert Bilott, a corporate defense
attorney to complain about a problem that a local chemical
company was causing on his farm in Washington, West Virginia, a
suburb of Parkersburg, West Virginia. Robert did not want to
listen to Earl, but since he was an acquaintance of his dear
grandmother in Parkersburg, he finally listened and decided to do
something. He asked his boss whether he could take the case,
promising that it would be a small project. His boss agreed. Not
long after, Bilott legally forced the Dupont Chemical corporation
to hand over documents concerning chemicals that were dumped at
Earl's farm. Dupont complied, sending him hundreds of boxes of
documents hoping that he would never find anything. Bob was a
very deliberate man, and going through the documents one by one,
finally found reference to a chemical called PFOA or C8 that he
could not find identify.
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Jesus
was a courageous person when he walked our earth. As part of
the institution called "religion," he knew what
religion ought to be. When he sensed that the institution was not
doing it, he allowed his human zeal to envelop him, causing quite
a stir, no doubt, among the religious leaders who should have
realized what was happening. In his mind, Jesus knew that he had
to do something and he proceeded to do it.
There are
many people in our world that sense that something is wrong with
what is happening. But there are only a few of us who really
decide to do something about it. The movie "Dark Waters"
is primarily about two of those people.
The
first person who realized what was happening and who wanted to do
something was Wilbur "Earl" Tennant. To do what he
knew needed to be done, however, he needed the help of the second
person who was likewise convinced that something should be done,
Robert Bilott. But it was Earl's conviction that began the
process.
As Robert pays tribute to him in his book
"Exposure," a book about the problem, Robert says of
Earl: "Earl mattered. ...Earl was a man who belonged as much
to the land as the land belonged to him. I admired his instincts
about the natural world and his unwavering faith in those
instincts, even in the face of endless doubters."
Earl
was convinced that the chemical company Dupont was doing the
wrong thing in his land and wanted to do something about it. You
and I live in a world that can get tied up a wrong, and sometimes
we may be able to do something about it. It is our call to do it.
As Jesus. As Earl Tennant. As Bob Bilott.
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PRAYER
Good
and gracious God, Your Son was totally committed to bringing
about what was right. When I can do something about some wrong,
give me the grace I need to address the problem. Be with us, we
pray.
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GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM
PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT
Theme: When
something is not right, we have to do something.
DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS:
(session:
approximately 59 minutes)
1. What
scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why?
2.
In Jesus' time there were many
traders who took care of the animals to be sacrificed, and many
of them took their industry into the temple area. Is there any
comparison to our churches in our world? Yes or no and why?
3.
In your opinion, are there large corporations still breaking the
laws of the environment? Yes or no and why?
4. In your
opinion, do large corporations do enough for our environment? Yes
or no and why?
5. What is your definition of "courage"?
6.
The meditation accuses most people of not doing what they should
be doing. Name some areas in which we could do more than we are
right now.
7. "Earl mattered." What does it mean
to be someone who "matters" in our world?
8. In
general, are people concerned about our environment the way they
should be?
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©2007
Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr.
Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin
Province of Mid-America
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