Tony Worner, Leader of Formation for St Agnes’ Catholic Parish, reads from the Gospel of Mark (11: 27-33) in which Jesus is approached in the temple courts by the chief priests, the scribes and the elders who question his authority. Afterwards he shares a little about St Justin whose memorial we celebrated today.

Who gave you authority to do these things?

Tony says, that’s the question posed in today’s Gospel which goes to the heart of the mission of Jesus. Where does his strength and authority come from? Of course, it comes from God.

St Justin, sometimes called Justin Martyr because he was martyred in the year 160CE, was one such person that we could say received authority from God.

Justin was also known as Justin the philosopher, and was an apologist, meaning someone who defends, in writing, the Christian religion against attacks and misunderstandings of others. In the case of Justin, it was against pagans. While most of his writings have been lost, two writings that we know of were addressed to the Roman emperor and to the Senate at the time. For his staunch adherence to the Christian religion, Justin was beheaded.

An interesting note, is that in one of these writing, called the First Apology, written around 150CE we find an outline of the structure of the Eucharist as celebrated in the ‘house’ churches at that time. Remember this was the time of the Christian persecution. The structure of the Eucharist, the four parts that we celebrate today, mirror these writings.

And so, on this Memorial Day, Tony invites us to pray: ‘St Justin … pray for us!’.
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Thank you to Tony for presenting our Gospel reflections this week. Tess Koning, the principal of St Peter’s primary School will present the Gospel reflections next week while Fr Paul is on leave.