10 Feb – Memorial for St. Scholastica, virgin
St. Scholastica (480-543) was the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia. Born to Italian nobility, her mother died in childbirth. She became a nun and led a community of women at Plombariloa near Montecassino.
- Patron Saint Index
From her earliest years, she had been consecrated to God. She was accustomed to visiting her brother once a year, and he would come down to meet her at a place on the monastery property, not far outside the gate. One day, she came as usual and her saintly brother went with some of his disciples; they spent the whole day praising God and talking of sacred things.
As night fell, they had supper together. Their spiritual conversation went on and the hour grew late. The holy nun said to her brother, “Please do not leave me tonight; let us go on until morning talking about the delights of the spiritual life.” “Sister,” he replied, “what are you saying? I simply cannot stay outside my cell.”
When she heard her brother refuse her request, the holy woman joined her hands on the table, laid her head on them and began to pray. As she raised her head from the table, there were such brilliant flashes of lightning, such great peals of thunder and such a heavy downpour of rain that neither Benedict nor his brethren could stir across the threshold of the place where they had been seated.
Sadly, he began to complain, “May God forgive you, sister. What have you done?” “Well,” she answered, “I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen. So now go off, if you can, leave me and return to your monastery.” So it came about that they stayed awake the whole night, engrossed in their conversation about the spiritual life.
Three days later, Benedict was in his cell. Looking up to the sky, he saw his sister’s soul leave her body in the form of a dove, and fly up to the secret places of heaven. Rejoicing in her great glory, he thanked almighty God with hymns and words of praise. He then sent his brethren to bring her body to the monastery and lay it in the tomb he had prepared for himself.
- from Dialogues by Pope St. Gregory the Great
1 Kgs 12:26-32,13:33-34
Mk 8:1-10
“If this people continues to go up to the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem… the people’s heart will turn back again to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah…”
In the first reading, we read about how Jeroboam (the first king of northern Israel) was concerned about the growth of the Israelite nation (under King Rehoboam, of the House of David). He was worried that with the changing political tide, he would lose power and be put to death.
His approach was first to create two golden calves, offering these to the Israelites under the guise of making life easier for them so they would not need to travel the long journey to Jerusalem, conveniently substituting the two idols for the real God. This would effectively confuse the Israelites, with the intended effect of diluting faith toward the God of Judah.
Jeroboam did not stop there; he created new traditions that mimicked or approximated existing Jewish festivals and appointed “priests from ordinary families, who were not of the sons of Levi.” This was against God’s law, that only the Levites could become priests.
Jeroboam’s strategies bring to mind a couple of quotes. The first was by Charles Baudelaire: “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” The next was by Ken Ammi: “The second greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he is the good guy.”
Jeroboam clearly tried to convince the Israelites that he was the good guy.
What comes to mind is that the same strategy is being carried out even today, especially in the modern era of social media.
We read of various happenings within the Catholic Church, what is happening in the world today, and what is said and done about world events. We are constantly being exposed to different narratives, and like what Jeroboam did, there are often underlying motivations to what is being shared with the world, which are often nefarious and seldom benign. Interestingly, many such events are untrue, one example being a ten-minute ‘footage’ of tanks being destroyed in a battle; the reality is that this footage was from a computer game!
As responsible Catholic Christians, we need to stop before taking on narratives as the truth. The internet increases our exposure to ‘fake news’ and points of view designed to influence and deceive, yet the same internet gives us the same power to validate and fact-check all we see and hear.
Let us pray for wisdom and prudence to discern. Help us to be builders and sharers of truth, rather than destroyers and agents of deceit and falsehoods.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Paul Wee)
Prayer: We pray for wisdom and prudence as we navigate our complicated world. Help us to see through deceptions.
Thanksgiving: We are grateful, Father, for all You provide us. Thank You for the soft promptings of the Holy Spirit as You guide us through life.
OXYGEN 
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