Some questions we need to ask ourselves

My meditation and the readings for September 24, 2008
Haggai 1:1-8
Psalm 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b
Luke 9:7-9

Herod was concerned about who Jesus “really” was. He was so concerned, the gospel says, that he kept trying to see Jesus. This brings to mind a bunch of questions:

Why did Herod want to see Him? I think it may have been out of curiosity or more probably fear that it was John the Baptist, or some other prophet that had come back to life that was going to give him a hard time for his sins. More importantly, where did he look for Him?

We might also ask ourselves why we want to seek Christ. Is it for understanding, consolation, healing, love, or maybe reparation? Or are we trying to find Him simply to know where He is, so we can try to hide our sins from Him? It’s impossible, of course, but I’ll bet there are still some of His creations who believe it is possible!


And if we are looking for Christ, where do we look for Him? Do we seek Him only in a church, in the Blessed Sacrament? Or do we look for Him in others, or in ourselves? How about in scripture, or, dare I say it, in the media? (Although many today think they have “found” the “messiah” in Obama, I can assure you he isn’t!)

The way I see it, we need to remind ourselves that Jesus said whenever we do a charitable work for the "least of my brothers, you do it for Me." If we are not finding Jesus as much as we would like, maybe it is because we are looking for Him in the wrong places.
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Cool! There is more than one Saint Gerard! Although I got my middle name in honor of St. Gerard Majella in gratitude for my birth, I found out that today is the feast day of St Gerard de Sagredo. What’s even cooler is that he had a very strong tie to King St. Stephen! The way I see it, this is two more people in the Church Triumphant I can call "my own" (in addition to St. Gerard Majella and St. Stephen the Martyr) and who I can call on to join their voices with mine in petition and praise to God!

THIS St. Gerard was a Venetian, born about the beginning of the eleventh century. At an early age he consecrated himself to the service of God in the Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore at Venice, but after some time left it to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. While passing through Hungary he became known to the king, St Stephen,(another cool coincidence!) who made him tutor to his son, Blessed Emeric, and Gerard began as well to preach with success. When St Stephen established the episcopal see of Csanad he appointed Gerard to be its first bishop. The greater part of the people were heathen, and those that bore the name of Christian were ignorant, brutish and savage, but St Gerard labored among them with much fruit. He always so far as possible joined to the perfection of the episcopal state that of the contemplative life, which gave him fresh vigor in the discharge of his pastoral duties. But Gerard was also a scholar, and wrote an unfinished dissertation on the Hymn of the Three Young Men (Daniel iii), as well as other works, which are lost.

King Stephen seconded the zeal of the good bishop so long as he lived, but on his death in 1038 the realm was plunged into anarchy by competing claimants to the crown, and a revolt against Christianity began. Things went from bad to worse, and eventually, when celebrating Mass at a little place on the Danube called Giod, Gerard had a vision that he would on that day receive the crown of martyrdom. He and his companions arrived at Buda and were going to cross the river, when they were set upon by some soldiers under the command of an obstinate upholder of idolatry and enemy of the memory of King St Stephen. They attacked St Gerard with a shower of stones, overturned his carriage, and dragged him to the ground. While in their hands the saint raised himself on his knees and prayed with St Stephen (the Martyr), "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. They know not what they do." He had scarcely spoken these words when he was run through the body with a lance; the insurgents then hauled him to the edge of a cliff and dashed his body headlong into the Danube below. It was September 24, 1046.

The heroic death of St Gerard had a profound effect, he was revered as a martyr, and his relics were enshrined in 1083 at the same time as those of St Stephen and his pupil Blessed Emeric. In 1333 the republic of Venice obtained the greater part of his relics from the king of Hungary, and with great solemnity translated them to the church of our Lady of Murano, where St Gerard is venerated as the protomartyr of Venice, the place of his birth.