For 26 September 2024, Memorial of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs, based on Ecclesiastes 1:2-4a, 8a, 9
(Detail from a painting by Filippo Lippi, dating to c.?1449–1459, and now housed in the National Gallery in London. Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP)
Where does your life fall on the Wearisome-to-Afflicted Spectrum? Listen to these words from the first chapter of Ecclesiastes cited in today’s first reading:
Ecclesiastes 1:2-4a, 8a, 9 NRSV
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever…. All things are wearisome; more than one can express…. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.
The reading portrays life as lackluster, tedious, boring, depressing, Sisyphean, and wearisome—altogether more than one can express. As disciples, if this is how we sometimes feel, I can only say that it’s time to shake our lethargy and wake up.
Consider, by contrast, the countless people who suffer real affliction. And consider the disciples who suffer affliction to the point of death. Consider Saints Cosmas and Damian, for example, the twin brothers whose martyrdom the Church remembers in today’s optional memorial. Third-century Christians, they practiced medicine without a fee and attracted many to the practice of the faith. They were arrested and put to death during the Diocletian persecution.
The optional first reading for their memorial comes from the third chapter of the Book of Wisdom and speaks of affliction, punishment, and utter destruction.
www.deviantart.com/theophilia
Wisdom 3:2-7 NABRE
They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead;
and their passing away was thought an affliction
and their going forth from us, utter destruction.
But they are in peace.
For if before men, indeed, they be punished,
yet is their hope full of immortality;
Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed,
because God tried them
and found them worthy of himself.
As gold in the furnace, he proved them,
and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.
In the time of their visitation they shall shine,
and shall dart about as sparks through stubble.
God invites us into the fiery furnace of discipleship, even to remain steadfast in the chastisement of affliction. God refines us as gold in the furnace, and we shall shine in the time of God’s visitation. Sent on God’s mission, we shall dart as sparks through stubble, on fire with the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, announcing the transforming promise of God’s love.
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
About Gregory Heille, O.P.
Gregory Heille, O.P., serves as Professor of Preaching and Evangelization and director of the Doctor of Ministry in Preaching at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a friar of the Province of St. Albert the Great USA and has a particular interest in racial equity education.
26 Sep 2024
The Wearisome-to-Afflicted Spectrum
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(Detail from a painting by Filippo Lippi, dating to c.?1449–1459, and now housed in the National Gallery in London. Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP)
Where does your life fall on the Wearisome-to-Afflicted Spectrum? Listen to these words from the first chapter of Ecclesiastes cited in today’s first reading:
Ecclesiastes 1:2-4a, 8a, 9 NRSV
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever…. All things are wearisome; more than one can express…. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.
The reading portrays life as lackluster, tedious, boring, depressing, Sisyphean, and wearisome—altogether more than one can express. As disciples, if this is how we sometimes feel, I can only say that it’s time to shake our lethargy and wake up.
Consider, by contrast, the countless people who suffer real affliction. And consider the disciples who suffer affliction to the point of death. Consider Saints Cosmas and Damian, for example, the twin brothers whose martyrdom the Church remembers in today’s optional memorial. Third-century Christians, they practiced medicine without a fee and attracted many to the practice of the faith. They were arrested and put to death during the Diocletian persecution.
The optional first reading for their memorial comes from the third chapter of the Book of Wisdom and speaks of affliction, punishment, and utter destruction.
www.deviantart.com/theophilia
Wisdom 3:2-7 NABRE
They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead;
and their passing away was thought an affliction
and their going forth from us, utter destruction.
But they are in peace.
For if before men, indeed, they be punished,
yet is their hope full of immortality;
Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed,
because God tried them
and found them worthy of himself.
As gold in the furnace, he proved them,
and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.
In the time of their visitation they shall shine,
and shall dart about as sparks through stubble.
God invites us into the fiery furnace of discipleship, even to remain steadfast in the chastisement of affliction. God refines us as gold in the furnace, and we shall shine in the time of God’s visitation. Sent on God’s mission, we shall dart as sparks through stubble, on fire with the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, announcing the transforming promise of God’s love.
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
About Gregory Heille, O.P.
Gregory Heille, O.P., serves as Professor of Preaching and Evangelization and director of the Doctor of Ministry in Preaching at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a friar of the Province of St. Albert the Great USA and has a particular interest in racial equity education.