Saint Leo the Great Pope and Doctor of The Church. Thursday, November 10, '16 The Major Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church - Year 'C2' We all must suffer and die! So do not …More
Saint Leo the Great Pope and Doctor of The Church.
Thursday, November 10, '16
The Major Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the
Church - Year 'C2'
We all must suffer and die! So do not we all that think we must
spiritually bone up for this?
INTRODUCTION: Pope Saint Leo the Great was born in Tuscany, Italy. He was an excellent pastor and preacher. He was made Pope in 440, and he showed himself as a true shepherd and father of all peoples. He well deserves to be called "The Great" because he defended the unity of the Church and he helped repel the barbarian invasions of Rome. He died in 461, so he had a long Papacy of 21 years!
PHILEMON verses 7 to 20! Please notice there are no chapters. So this must be a very short letter, and no doubt the shortest letter that Paul ever wrote! This letter was written when Paul was in Rome under house arrest. The Romans would never put a Roman citizen in jail, and this is why he was under "house arrest!" So Paul had to pay out of his own pocket the money to rent a place in Rome. So as a Roman he was free to go and come as he wished and to have as many visitors as he wanted. All the Roman citizens were very wealthy! Paul at this time of his life was not wealth! Paul's father had to be very wealthy for two reasons: FIRST: He bought Roman citizenship for his son; SECOND: He sent him to the very best teacher in Jerusalem to study at the feet of Gamaliel for about two or three years. So this meant his father paid for his lodging, food, tuition and spending money. And Jerusalem was about 150 miles south of Paul's home town of Troas, where his father had a beautiful home, and where Paul even invited some of his confreres for a visit. The point I am making is that Paul's father must have been very wealthy, and there is never any hint of Paul having either any brothers or sisters. During his time in Rome Paul must have known that the Jews would surely find a way with all their wealth to do him in. And they surely did. How do we know. We know because Paul was beheaded on the Via Apia which was on the outskirts of Rome. And most likely the Jews paid the two Roman soldiers a great deal of money to behead Paul, and they surely would have guaranteed the soldiers that they would make sure that no one would charge them for beheading a Roman citizen. All this is conjecture on my part, but it is logically good conjecture! Now with all this background let us get to this very short letter that Paul ever wrote. While Paul was in house arrest in Rome he befriended a man who had been a slave and had run away from his master. And this particular master happened to be a very good and wealthy man and a friend of Paul. So Paul wrote this one short letter and gave it to "Onesimus" the runaway slave, to give it to his master Philemon, whom Paul knew quite well. In this letter Paul wrote to his friend asking him to treat his slave as he always treated Paul himself. All our biblical scholars all say that Paul successfully established his purpose. So we all presume that 'Onesimus" was still a slave and servant of Philemon.
Luke 17:20-25 THE PHARISEES ASK JESUS: "When would the Kingdom of God come?"And Jesus' answer was: "The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce: 'Look, here it is' or "There it is.' For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you." THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT FOR S TO KNOW THIS TOO! But this phrase may mean either one of the two following things:
FIRST THING: It may mean, the Kingdom of Gold is within you, i. e. the Kingdom of God works in our human heart;
SECOND THING: It may mean, the Kingdom of God is among us now!
Then right after this Jesus told his Disciples: "The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it." Then a little later Jesus said: "Some will say: 'Look, there He is!' "Do not go off in pursuit. For just as lightning flashes and lights up the sky...so will the Son of Man [the Old testament phrase for the Messiah] be in His day. But first we must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation!" END OF GOSPEL!
CONCLUSION: Note well! Jesus did not say in our own words, that it is a matter of Geography , so that people could not say 'here" or "there" it is. So Jesus is saying the Kingdom of God is a spiritual and real Kingdom which is already present in the sayings and deeds of Jesus. So in fact we are told we must wait for the coming of Jesus in His own glory after we suffer and die! So we all must first suffer and die! So we all must spiritually bone up for this!
Peace,
Deacon Angelo
Thursday, November 10, '16
The Major Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the
Church - Year 'C2'
We all must suffer and die! So do not we all that think we must
spiritually bone up for this?
INTRODUCTION: Pope Saint Leo the Great was born in Tuscany, Italy. He was an excellent pastor and preacher. He was made Pope in 440, and he showed himself as a true shepherd and father of all peoples. He well deserves to be called "The Great" because he defended the unity of the Church and he helped repel the barbarian invasions of Rome. He died in 461, so he had a long Papacy of 21 years!
PHILEMON verses 7 to 20! Please notice there are no chapters. So this must be a very short letter, and no doubt the shortest letter that Paul ever wrote! This letter was written when Paul was in Rome under house arrest. The Romans would never put a Roman citizen in jail, and this is why he was under "house arrest!" So Paul had to pay out of his own pocket the money to rent a place in Rome. So as a Roman he was free to go and come as he wished and to have as many visitors as he wanted. All the Roman citizens were very wealthy! Paul at this time of his life was not wealth! Paul's father had to be very wealthy for two reasons: FIRST: He bought Roman citizenship for his son; SECOND: He sent him to the very best teacher in Jerusalem to study at the feet of Gamaliel for about two or three years. So this meant his father paid for his lodging, food, tuition and spending money. And Jerusalem was about 150 miles south of Paul's home town of Troas, where his father had a beautiful home, and where Paul even invited some of his confreres for a visit. The point I am making is that Paul's father must have been very wealthy, and there is never any hint of Paul having either any brothers or sisters. During his time in Rome Paul must have known that the Jews would surely find a way with all their wealth to do him in. And they surely did. How do we know. We know because Paul was beheaded on the Via Apia which was on the outskirts of Rome. And most likely the Jews paid the two Roman soldiers a great deal of money to behead Paul, and they surely would have guaranteed the soldiers that they would make sure that no one would charge them for beheading a Roman citizen. All this is conjecture on my part, but it is logically good conjecture! Now with all this background let us get to this very short letter that Paul ever wrote. While Paul was in house arrest in Rome he befriended a man who had been a slave and had run away from his master. And this particular master happened to be a very good and wealthy man and a friend of Paul. So Paul wrote this one short letter and gave it to "Onesimus" the runaway slave, to give it to his master Philemon, whom Paul knew quite well. In this letter Paul wrote to his friend asking him to treat his slave as he always treated Paul himself. All our biblical scholars all say that Paul successfully established his purpose. So we all presume that 'Onesimus" was still a slave and servant of Philemon.
Luke 17:20-25 THE PHARISEES ASK JESUS: "When would the Kingdom of God come?"And Jesus' answer was: "The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce: 'Look, here it is' or "There it is.' For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you." THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT FOR S TO KNOW THIS TOO! But this phrase may mean either one of the two following things:
FIRST THING: It may mean, the Kingdom of Gold is within you, i. e. the Kingdom of God works in our human heart;
SECOND THING: It may mean, the Kingdom of God is among us now!
Then right after this Jesus told his Disciples: "The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it." Then a little later Jesus said: "Some will say: 'Look, there He is!' "Do not go off in pursuit. For just as lightning flashes and lights up the sky...so will the Son of Man [the Old testament phrase for the Messiah] be in His day. But first we must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation!" END OF GOSPEL!
CONCLUSION: Note well! Jesus did not say in our own words, that it is a matter of Geography , so that people could not say 'here" or "there" it is. So Jesus is saying the Kingdom of God is a spiritual and real Kingdom which is already present in the sayings and deeds of Jesus. So in fact we are told we must wait for the coming of Jesus in His own glory after we suffer and die! So we all must first suffer and die! So we all must spiritually bone up for this!
Peace,
Deacon Angelo