By Fr. Antony Christy-
Mary is one person who seems to be very familiar to us; we always see her as a woman of faith and mother of God. But do we perceive her as a girl? By the time we meet her in the Gospels she is already chosen to be the Mother of God and that is why we hardly know her as a girl.
Inspired by some apocryphal accounts, especially that of the Gospel of St. James, we come to understand a few extraordinary characters of this girl chosen to be the Mother – that young girl is of course an icon to the young even today. Mary was a late born, only daughter of an elderly couple, Joachim and Anne. According to the vow that they had made, Mary was presented in the Temple when she was three and she grew in the very presence of the Lord until 12. When she was 12, the priests decided to handover her care to one of the devout widowers and among the list was Joseph who was miraculously identified by a dove that flew out of his staff. Though this is not the official teaching of the Church, rather we gather it from an account that has been in circulation from the second century onwards.
The point to be noted is that Mary was just 14 years and a few months when the Word of God came to her and when she became the Mother of God she should have been hardly 16. A young girl who took up the challenge, knowing the hard consequences that could follow, merely by an apparition that could be contested by anyone, endangering her name and her very life, even to the extent that Joseph himself was unable to understand… it is here she becomes a great model to the young of today, who look for happiness, pleasure, thrill and excitement as absolutes in life. Mary took the Word and the will of God to be the absolutes in her life, when she was just a young girl.
Dear young friends,
– Will you be ready to risk your life for God’s will? How do you intend to dedicate your entire being -body, soul and mind- for the greater glory of God?
YOU CAT
THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH – III. The Sacraments of Communion and Mission (Questions 260-271). Section Two of Part II is a detailed description of the Seven Sacraments of the Church, the third chapter of which deals with the two sacraments, Matrimony and Holy Orders – the Sacraments of Communion and Mission.
Having seen the part on Holy Orders, we are left with that of Matrimony. The Holy Matrimony is a sign of God’s overflowing love for humanity. It is in this love that God forms a bond between a man and a woman, a bond that binds until death. Matrimony is not a event that happens by default in everyone’s life. Not everyone marries.
Apart from those who choose not to, for the sake of the Reign of God, there are those who are impeded from getting married due to many reasons like, prior bond, lack of understanding of the sacrament and its properties, disparity of cult and so on. It is a deliberate choice made by men and women by (a.) free consent, (b.) positive disposition towards a life-long, exclusive union and (c.) openness to the gift of children. This is why anything that goes against monogamy, indissolubility of marriage or prolife, is against the Church.
This Sacrament is celebrated by the man and the woman, mutually conferring the sacrament, witnessed by an Ordained Minister of the Church, in the presence of the faith community. Sacramental Marriage is neither a contract nor a mutual arrangement but a covenant and that explains two most important traits of it: Unity and Indissolubility. The Church is very careful in preparing and promoting its members towards this sacrament because this sacrament creates family – the image of God’s love in human communion and the miniature of the Church.
– Matrimony: Do you understand the sacrality and seriousness of this sacrament? How prepared are you?
KNOW YOUR CHURCH:
Are you aware of the Four Major Papal Basilicas of the Catholic Church?
Having seen about the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in the previous issue, let us get to know ST. PETER’S BASILICA: Though this is neither the most antique of the Basilicas nor the Cathedral of the Pope, St. Peter’s Basilica at Vatican has a very special image attached to itself – as the sign of unity of the Catholic World.
There are three important elements that we can remember about this Basilica: First, the Tomb of St. Peter on which it is built. There are historical evidences in the Chronicles of Roman Empire that Constantine ordered the Basilica to be build on the site of the Tomb of St. Peter in the year 324 AD and it was consecrated in the year 329.
Second, the Basilica we see today is not the same as the one referred to above, it was built from 1505 (when Pope Julius II ordered it) to 1612 (when it was completed). But it was built on the same site where the old Basilica existed, extending the area longer and wider.
Thirdly, in 1940 an archeological excavation has provided ample proofs for the burial ground of Peter right above which stood the altar of the 4th century Basilica and exactly above which stands the present Basilica’s Papal Altar. The Grand structure which can host 20,000 people at a time, stands as a monumental link to the centuries of faith and apostolic tradition of the Catholic Church.
DO CAT
ONE WORLD – ONE HUMANITY (Questions 229-240) –This section discusses issues of the International Community, the foundational values being Solidarity and Mutual Independence. Globalisation is no more an issue to be chosen for or against, it has come to stay but it has brought with it problems like insensitive development, deprivation of fundamental human rights and hidden agendas of dependence and exploitation.
Should the Church be concerned about these socio economic issues? There is no question about it, because the Church has ‘the duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel… respond to the perennial questions …about this present life and the life to come and about the relationship of the one to the other’ (Gaudium et Spes, 4).Unity of humankind, acceptance of differences, interconnectedness of relations and dependencies are the key issues that the Church as a community of faith and hope, should promote.
Globalisation should not end up as the power in the hands of the mighty, but should ensure equal and proportionate distribution of the resources in the world. The Church, with its preferential option for the poor, should stand by them and remind every person of one’s rights and duties. Duties are of two types: negative duties refer to those which have to be avoided or prevented, for instance slavery or exploitation; positive duties refer to those which have to be done, for example reaching out to the needy, standing by the exploited and so on.
– Have you given a serious thought to the phenomenon of Globalisation around you? How sensitive are you about the weaker and marginalised sections of your society?
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.