ÿþ<HEAD> <meta name="description" content="Homilies and scholarly articles of a Byzantine Catholic Priest."> <meta name="keywords" content="Catholic, Byzantine, Orthodox, Religion, Pope, Homilies, Sermons, Bible, Orthdox, Orthodoxy, Catholicism, OTR, Radio"> <TITLE>Byzantine Catholic Priest: Homilies according to the Byzantine Calendar</TITLE> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="linkicon.ico"> <BODY BACKGROUND="back.jpg" TEXT=#000000 LINK=#7c6262 VLINK=#7c6262 alink=#7c6262> <FONT FACE="Maiandra GD"> <STYLE TYPE="text/css"> <!-- /* $WEFT -- Created by: Michael Venditti (admin@fathervenditti.com) on 7/20/2016 -- */ @font-face { font-family: Maiandra GD; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; src: url(MAIANDR2.eot); } @font-face { font-family: Maiandra GD; font-style: oblique; font-weight: normal; src: url(MAIANDR3.eot); } --> </STYLE> </HEAD> <p align=center><img src="header.jpg"> <table align=center border=0 cellpadding=10 cellspacing=0 rules=none width=95% cols=2> <tr> <td align=right valign=top width=20%><font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262 size=+1><p align=right>A Hot Coal to the Lips? Don't Try This at Home.<p align=right><small>Lessons from cycle II of the feria, according to the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite:<br><br>Isaiah 6: 1-8.<br>Psalm 93: 1-2, 5.<br>Matthew 10: 24-33.</small><p align=right>The Fourteenth Saturday of Ordinary Time.</font><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262 size=-1><p align=right>Return to <a href="index.htm">ByzantineCatholicPriest.com</a>.</font></td> <td valign=top width-80%><font face="Maiandra GD"><p align=justify>9:12 AM 7/12/2014  Several Sundays ago, on the feast of the Most Blessed Trinity, I had spoken about how angels operate whenever they function as messengers of God. In the New Testament, usually they speak with their own voices, as in the case of the Archangel Gabriel's two recorded appearances: first to Zachariah, where he actually identifies himself by name, saying,  I am Gabriel, and to the Mother of God at the Annunciation where he also speaks with his own voice. In the Old Testament, the angels would often though not always speak with God's voice, functioning almost like mobile loud speakers: they open their mouths, but it's the voice of God which comes out, as in the case of the angel sent to Elijah, and in the particular instance we were considering that day, when God sent three angels to represent all three persons in the Blessed Trinity to deliver his word to Abraham. <br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;Today, in the first lesson, we are presented with God's initial contact with the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, the Holy Prophet Isaiah; and, as you would expect, the angels sent to him speak with the voice of God. Isaiah describes the encounter in surprisingly vivid detail; he even identifies the particular choir of angels from which they come: the Seraphim. <img src="isaiah.jpg" align=right hspace=15 vspace=5>He doesn't tell us how many there are, but he does tell us that each of them has six wings: two they use to veil their faces, two to cover their feet, and two with which they fly.* When they appear, they're singing, and what they sing so struck the Fathers of the Church of the first four centuries that it became part of the liturgy of the Church:  Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts; all the earth is full of his glory (6:3); it's part of the <i>Te Deum</i> sung at Matins and, as you know, part of the Mass itself. <br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;The message they bring to the prophet is pretty much the same that we've been reading about in other circumstances all these past two weeks: God made a covenant with his people but, over the course of time, it was forgotten, so God sends someone to call his people back to the life of the Commandments. Isaiah's problem with this is that he feels he's not worthy to bear such a message being that he's just as unclean as the rest of God's people:  Woe is me, I am doomed! he says,  For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips... (6:5). Upon which follows that painful sounding episode where one of the angels brings over a hot coal with tongs so it's even too hot for the angel to handle and touches it to the prophet's lips. We cringe when we read those words; but after, the angel tells him,  Now that this has touched thy lips, thy guilt is swept away, thy sin pardoned (6:7). Just as an aside, in the Byzantine Rite, after the priest has received from the chalice, he repeats those very words. <br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;What's important here is that, after suffering this purging ritual, Isaiah now believes himself worthy to deliver God's message of repentance to the people of Israel, and it provides us with a way to contextualize our own suffering and the many crosses we bear in our daily spiritual combat. A couple of times this week I have mentioned in passing the concept of God's permissive will: that God doesn't desire us to suffer, but often allows us to suffer for a reason unknown to us; and here is revealed one of the possible reasons: God allows a cross to come our way in order to purify us in anticipation of some task we are to perform for him. And for those of us committed to the five First Saturdays and the concept of reparation, we know that we can't make reparation unless we have some cross to offer. <br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;Our Lord tells us as much. In today's Gospel lesson he reminds us that no suffering is allowed to come our way without a purpose; it's just that the purpose is not often revealed to us, which then becomes a test of faith for us. Nevertheless, we must go forth unafraid, he says, and spread the message of salvation to everyone we meet without fear. The challenge is to succeed in separating our emotions from the confidence of our faith, and push on with the task even when we don't feel the presence or protection of God: <blockquote><p align=justify>Are not sparrows sold two for a penny? And yet it is impossible for one of them to fall to the ground without your heavenly Father s will. And as for you, he takes every hair of your head into his reckoning. Do not be afraid, then; you count for more than a host of sparrows (Matt. 10:29-31).</blockquote> <p align=center><img src="signature.jpg"> <blockquote><font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262><p align=justify><small>* There is a discrepancy between the Greek text and that of the Latin Vulgate. The Greek reads: <font face="System"> º±v õÁ±Æ¹½ µ1ÃÄ®ºµ¹Ã±½ ºÍº»ó ±PÄ¿æ ¾ ÀÄ­ÁųµÂ Ä÷ ½v º±v ¾ ÀÄ­ÁųµÂ Ä÷ ½¯ º±v ıÖ ¼r½ ´ÅÃv½ º±Äµº¬»ÅÀÄ¿½ Äx ÀÁÌÃÉÀ¿½ º±v ıÖ ´ÅÃv½ º±Äµº¬»ÅÀÄ¿½ Ä¿z ÀÌ´±Â º±v ıÖ ´ÅÃv½ À­Ä±½Ä¿... </font> (6:2), which would indicate that the Seraphim covered their own faces and feet, whereas the Latin text reads: <i> Seraphim stabant super illud: sex alæ uni, et sex alæ alteri; duabus velabant faciem ejus, et duabus velabant pedes ejus, et duabus volabant, </i> which seems to indicate that the wings covered the face and feet of God, Himself. Msgr. Knox notes the discrepancy in a footnote, but retains the sense of the Latin text in his translation:  ...with two wings they veiled God s face, with two his feet, and the other two kept them poised in flight.., whereas the New American Bible used at Mass gives the sense of the Greek text:  ...with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft. </small></blockquote> </tr> </table>