Slovenska župnija sv. Gregorija Velikega | St. Gregory the Great Slovenian Church 42/48 Številka - Number / Leto - Year 04. 11. 2012 31. NEDELJA MED LETOM 31st SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Fr. Drago Gačnik sdb ŽUPNIK - PASTOR Naslov - Address 125 Centennial Pkwy N Hamilton, ON L8E 1H8 Telefon - Telephone 905-561-5971 Fax 905-561-5109 E-mail gregory_sdb@cogeco.ca Web page www.carantha.net Hall rentals 905-518-6159 Naj ljubim... Da bi človek sprejel in cenil sebe, mora doživeti, da ga sprejema in ceni tudi sočlovek. Kar je očitna človeška izkušnja, še dodatno potrjuje verska izkušnja: kristjan čuti svojo sprejetost tudi od Boga. Prav to sprejetost nam želi Jezus s svojo osebo in dejanjem posredo-vati: Bog nas ljubi kot oče in kot mati. Prav to strne oznanjevalec evangelija v pismu : »Mi smo spoznali ljubezen, ki jo ima Bog do nas, in verujemo vanjo.« Tega ni mogoče od zunaj ukazati. Pač pa se velja Jezusovi »zapovedi« od znotraj odpreti. Če nas Bog ljubi, imamo razlog in utemeljitev, da tudi sebe prav spoštujemo in ljubimo; hkrati pa tudi bližnjega. Tudi takrat, ko ni lahko. To pozitivno doživetje naj bi izžarevalo moč, da sprejmemo druge kot svoje brate in sestre. Jezus nas s svojo besedo vabi k temu, da tudi mi dajemo naprej, kar smo prejeli dobrega od Boga in ljudi. Jezusova zapoved zdaleč ne pomeni »MORAŠ!«, marveč nas želi navdihniti k lepemu sožitju. »Bog je tako ljubil svet, da je dal svojega edinorojenega Sina« (Jn 3,16). Evangeljska »prva zapoved« ni bila pomembna samo za velike svetnike, o katerih slišimo pripovedovati, pač pa naj bi navdihovala tudi nas v nasi skromni vsakdanji praksi. Tako naj bi se zapoved ljubezni do bližnjega izrazila oplemeniti npr. v nepričakovanem obisku stare gospe v domu za starejše, v pomoči ponesrečenemu sosedu, dobrodelnosti... Ljubezen do bližnjega pozna mnogo obrazov: ob vseh teh obrazih pa se kažejo poteze zadovoljnega človeka, ki izžareva po Sinu podarjeno ljubezen. SPOMIN VSEH VERNIH RAJNIH Mesec november je čas, ko se še na poseben načim spominmo naših rajnih. Letos je bila v mavzoleju - Holy Sepulchre - na Burlingtonskem pokopališču sveta maša, ki jo je daroval hamiltonski škof Douglas Crosby, že v nedeljo 28. oktobra ob dveh popoldne. Zaradi precej deševnega dneva, se je poznalo, da nas je bilo veliko manj tudi pri sveti maši. Po maši smo se zbrali pri križu in molili za rajne, ki počivajo na tem pokopališču. Ob pol štirih smo imeli molitve na slovenskem delu pokopališča Gate of Heaven. Kljub hladnemu, vetrovnemu in deževnemu vremenu, se nas je zbralo kar veliko. Ob molitvi, pesmi in posludanju božje besede smo se spomnili vseh rajnih, še posebej tistih, ki so odšli od nas od prejšnjega leta. Ob petih popoldne pa smo se zbrali še na pokopališču Our Lady of the Angels, Stoney Creek. Ker je takrat že precej padalo, smo se k molitvi zbrali kar v mavzoleju. Lep pogled na križ, zbrana molitev in petje nas je tesneje povezalo z našimi rajnimi. Response: The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with j°y. First Reading Deuteronomy 6:2-6 The people of Israel are called to dedicate themselves completely to God. Second Reading Hebrews 7:23-28 Christ's power to save is utterly certain, for he remains for ever. Gospel_Mark 12:28-34 Jesus sums up his teaching with the two great commandments. "You are not far from the kingdom of God." Illustration Cookery programmes have become all the rage on television in many countries. This stands in stark contrast to the number of people who still do not have enough to eat and live on the edge of famine. What they would make of such programmes remains unknown. It is the developed world, the rich world, which has discovered this obsession with food and the variety of ways in which it can be prepared. A good side of the publicity stirred up by this enthusiasm is a further concern about the sourc-ing of the food we eat. How natural or how local is the provenance of our food? Or how adulterated is it with preservatives and added chemicals? The more we move away from growing our own food, the more complex the questions of transport, stor-332 | VESTNIK 2012 age and production become. And that is before we come to the question of what we do with it in cooking. Yet it is good to have heightened our awareness of such questions. Food in the form of bread, wine and water, everyday things, lies at the heart of our sacramental practice. As St Teresa of Avila told her sisters: "God is found among the pots and pans." If you visit her convent in Avila today, among other pious memorabilia in the little repository shop, you can buy aprons with her words embroidered on them. They are designed to remind us that it is so often among the ordinary things of the kitchen and the dinner table - the bread and wine, the water and the oil - that we encounter God. Gospel Teaching It is a delight of Jewish scholars, even today, to involve themselves in the cut and thrust of arguments about the meaning of particular texts of the Bible. Sometimes to an outsider the style of argument seems quite strange, as there is fascination with the play on the meaning of words as well as an amazing knowledge of what earlier rabbis might have said on the issues. When his listeners try to involve Jesus in such wordplay, he tends to outfox them by introducing an angle of thought that has not occurred to them. When questioned about the greatest commandment, he does not go into the evidence base for L , God , with J» ^ ^rvgth. J Uvc th* Lord y011' °our nund ^ V your to