24 Apr – Memorial for St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, priest & martyr
St. Fidelis Sigmaringen (1577-1622) was a lawyer and teacher of philosophy. Disgusted by the greed, corruption, and lack of interest in justice by his fellow lawyers, Mark Rey abandoned the law, became a priest and a Franciscan friar with his brother George. He changed his name to Fidelis and gave away his worldly wealth to poor people in general, and poor seminarians in particular. He served his friary as guardian and worked in epidemics, especially healing soldiers. He led a group of Capuchins to preach to Calvinists and Zwinglians in Switzerland. The success of this work, and lack of violence suffered by mission was attributed to Fidelis spending his nights in prayer. He was, however, eventually martyred for his preaching.
“Woe to me if I should prove myself but a halfhearted soldier in the service of my thorn-crowned Captain.” — St. Fidelis
Acts 9:31-42
Jn 6:60-69
“…what I have spoken does not come from myself…”
When I first started working more than 35 years ago, there were the “five Cs” that was used to describe the list of material items ‘desired’ by many, including — Cash, Credit Card, Condominium, Car and Country Club. I would like to focus on the last item – the Country Club.
The Country Club was seen as a status symbol, namely because membership is expensive and is exclusive. Being part of a club allowed one to use its facilities such as the restaurants, pools, gyms, tennis courts, etc. Members are simply entitled to use these for a club fee!
In today’s gospel, Jesus does warn us against having a ‘country-club’ mentality. One does not automatically earn the right to enter heaven just because one professed to believe in Jesus. Instead, in addition to hearing His words, one had to “keep them faithfully”. One had to live the life of a Christian and not just be heard to speak like one.
We are also reminded of the intimacy between God the Father and Jesus; that the only way to the Father was through His son Jesus. In a fallen world (through Adam), we are reminded that our relationship with the Father can be made perfect through His Son, Jesus. We gain eternal life through Jesus!
(Today’s OXYGEN by Paul Wee)
Prayer – Father God, we pray that we will remember that we should not just ‘talk the talk’, but instead to walk the talk. We pray that we will grow in intimacy with You as we walk daily towards You.
Thanksgiving – We are grateful that You have sent Your Son Jesus to bring us back to You. We thank you for loving us, despite our sinful nature. Thank you for all that You teach us through Jesus, and for showing us how to rebuild our broken relationship with You Father.
OXYGEN 
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