Be consumed by your Zeal

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

November 22, 2019: Remembering St. Cecilia 

1 Maccabees 4: 36-37,52-59; Luke 19: 45-48

Clicked at the Shrine of St. Cecilia in Trastevere (Rome),
the principle Shrine of the Saintly martyr.

Zeal for his house will consume him - Ps 69:9 - that is what John refers to when he recounts the event that we hear in the Gospel today from Luke! Judas Mattathias in the first reading and Jesus in the Gospel are presented as burning with zeal for God, for God's house. 

When we accept God as our king (the theme of this entire week) we should be burning with zeal for God, for things that belong to God, for values that stand for God, for persons and their dignity that directly springs from God, for life and love that signify God...we should burn with zeal to preserve, promote and uphold these! 

How easily we give into the pressures of this world and the so-called 'developed' society! Does this prided 'development' in anyway promote true and lasting happiness of humanity? Does this 'developed' society in anyway assure the dignity of every person or speak up only for the moneyed and the muscled? How much of individualism and materialism it keeps perpetrating? 

The saint we celebrate today, St. Cecelia is a third century martyr, who suffered for the absolute love that she had for her king, Our Lord Jesus Christ. She was burning with zeal for the love of God and wanted to belong to Christ and Christ alone. 

If we think of our Christian life in terms of king-subject relationship, our love for Christ is our allegiance to our King... let us be filled with zeal for our king! And for that we should have truly and absolutely accepted our Lord as our King!