Wednesday 31st week in ordinary time
"Lk 14:25-33"
Now great multitudes accompanied him; and he turned and said to them, "If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple ... So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
To follow You, Lord, is demanding. You invite us to be ready to give everything, to bear the cross and to follow You, to be faithful to You come what may, through thick and thin. Those who have decided to follow You closely, my Jesus, should certainly not expect a lot of support from the world.
St Charles Borromeo was the Archbishop of Milan. He was the victim of a systematic attack from those who didn't accept the reforms of the Council of Trent. He suffered slanders, insults, threats and was even shot a couple of times. In one of the shootings, the bullet was stopped by the crucifix the bishop was wearing. But the second one was fired at the saint from a distance of four or five metres as he was kneeling at the altar of his chapel. Believing himself mortally wounded, St. Charles calmly finished his prayers and offered his life to God, thanking Him for allowing him to die for His Church. Miraculously he survived. The Lord wanted St. Charles to continue His labours on earth for 15 more years before allowing him to take his just reward in Heaven.
In 1857, archaeologists discovered a graffito in Rome from 200 AD scratched into the plaster on a wall near the Palatine Hill. It ridicules a Christian boy called Alexamenos. The blasphemous image mocks the crucifixion of Jesus, representing Him with the head of a donkey. Beneath the cross a text says, "Alexamenos worshipping his god". We don't know who this Alexamenos was, but we know that he was the object of mockery for being a Christian. And we know something else, because in the next chamber archaeologists found another inscription in a different hand reading "Alexamenos fidelis" - Latin for 'Alexamenos is faithful'.
Mary, my Mother, make me as faithful as St Charles; as Alexamenos...
