Nov 12 – Memorial for St. Josaphat, bishop, religious, martyr
John (1580-1623) had a father who was a municipal counsellor, and a mother who was known for her piety. He was raised in the Orthodox Ruthenian Church which, on 23 Nov 1595, in the Union of Brest, united with the Church of Rome. He was trained as a merchant’s apprentice in Vilna, and was offered partnership in the business and marriage to his partner’s daughter.
Feeling the call to religious life, he declined both and became a monk in the Ukrainian Order of St. Basil in Vilna at the age of 20 in 1604, taking the name Brother Josaphat. He was ordained a Byzantine rite priest in 1609.
His superior, Samuel, never accepted unity with Rome, and looked for a way to fight against Roman Catholicism and the Uniats, the name given to those who brought about and accepted the union of the churches. Learning of Samuel’s work and fearing the physical and spiritual damage it could cause, Josaphat brought it to the attention of his superiors. The archbishop of Kiev removed Samuel from his post, replacing him with Josaphat.
He was a famous preacher, worked to bring unity among the faithful and bring strayed Christians back to the Church. He became Bishop of Vitebsk. Most religious, fearing interference with the natively developed liturgy and customs, did not want union with Rome. Bishop Josaphat believed unity to be in the best interests of the Church and, by teaching, clerical reform, and personal example, Josaphat won the greater part of the Orthodox in Lithuania to the union. Never completely suitable to either side, Roman authorities sometimes raised objection to Josaphat’s Orthodox actions. He became Archbishop of Polotsk, Lithuania in 1617.
While Josaphat attended the Diet of Warsaw in 1620, a dissident group supported by Cossacks set up anti-Uniat bishops for each Uniat one, spread the accusation that Josaphat had ‘gone Latin’ and that his followers would be forced to do the same, and place an usurper on the archbishop’s chair. Despite warnings, Josaphat went to Vitebsk, a hotbed of trouble, to try to correct the misunderstandings and settle disturbances. The army remained loyal to the king who remained loyal to the Union, and so the army tried to protect Josaphat and his clergy.
Late in 1623, an anti-Uniat priest named Elias shouted insults at Josaphat from his own courtyard, and tried to force his way into the residence. When he was removed, a mob assembled and forced his release. Mob mentality took over, and they invaded the residence. Josaphat tried to insure the safety of his servants before fleeing himself, but did not get out in time, and was martyred by the mob. His death was a shock to both sides of the dispute, brought some sanity and a cooling off period to both sides of the conflict.
“You people of Vitebsk want to put me to death. You make ambushes for me everywhere, in the streets, on the bridges, on the highways, and in the marketplace. I am here among you as a shepherd, and you ought to know that I would be happy to give my life for you. I am ready to die for the holy union, for the supremacy of Saint Peter, and of his successor the Supreme Pontiff.” – St. Josaphat
- Patron Saint Index
Wis 6:1-11
Lk 17:11-19
And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
It is always easy to label the nine lepers in today’s Gospel passage as ‘ungrateful’ because they did not return to Jesus to thank Him, and the description is not incorrect. But when I went through the passage for today’s reflection, I realised — with guilt — that I am equally prone to such behaviour and can probably put myself in the nine lepers’ shoes.
Perhaps the lepers didn’t dare to believe that Jesus would heal them, in case they were disappointed, and hence didn’t think they had really been cleansed. Perhaps they were so narrowly focused on going to the priests to obtain healing that they didn’t even notice they had already been healed, in ways they hadn’t expected. Or perhaps they did notice that they had been cleansed, but were already too preoccupied with their next pressing problem to come back. The second and third options are particularly applicable for me whenever I feel anxious or stressed, to the point that I wonder whether God gets tired of listening to my endless fretting.
Along the same lines, I also felt rather attacked (in a good way!) by Fr Mike Schmitz’s homily on the battle of prayer (here from 7:40 onwards) where he commented that we often allocate far more time and effort to our petitions than to thanksgiving. It made me wonder why I seem to find far more ‘standard’ prayers for novenas than thanksgiving online, unless I wasn’t searching hard enough. Nonetheless, it made me acknowledge that this is yet another unhealthy mindset I lapse into more often than I would like — towards both our Lord, and those around me. Perhaps this is simply an illustration of our instinct to focus on what we do not have instead of what we do, as part of our aversion to loss. But Fr Mike’s words gained resonance when a priest asked us in a recent homily, whether we would enjoy being with a friend who spent every gathering talking about her own troubles and making requests, which is an image I ought to keep in mind when I make my next petition.
Another daily reflection I just read (here) also provided a deeper insight on the nature of our gratitude to God; how we ought to praise and thank Him for his presence and not just because of our circumstances, how we ought to spend time with Him in prayer to be with Him and get to know Him better, instead of simply concentrating on overly long wish lists. It is a challenging call for me to reflect on why exactly I pray, which I will need to rely on the Holy Spirit’s guidance and wisdom for.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Jaclyn Lam)
Prayer: Jesus, help us to appreciate how You came to have a relationship with us. Teach us how to praise and thank You because You are good, and not just because of all You have done for us.
Thanksgiving: Lord, thank you for this day, and for the grace to start anew. Forgive us for the times we have taken You and your gifts for granted and not expressed our gratitude.
OXYGEN 
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