Franciscan Reflections

Lent is over ... what now?

2011-05-03T03:40:00.000-07:00

Lent is over …. what now?

Lent is over, as so are the various challenges which we may have set ourselves. For myself, whilst I did not give up chocolate or my cup of tea first thing in the morning (to which I am a slave) or anything like that. Instead, I identified a very particular area of my life which needed to be addressed and changed and, with the help of the discipline of prayer, I set about doing that. Now that Lent is over I must be honest and admit that I am feeling slightly bereft because I don't want to allow myself to slip back to where I was before: that I want to continue on this journey. Where is this journey leading? Our Lenten journey must, ultimately, be one which leads us to freedom, the sort of freedom which Jesus wants for us, the sort of freedom which can only really be acquired when we have fully accepted that the key to perfect joy and freedom lies in being able to completely forget ourselves in order to serve God and those whom God has given us to serve.

Our Christian vocation calls us to say 'no' to ourselves more often than we do - certainly beyond the bounds of Lent. Saying 'no' to ourselves is naturally hard, because it goes against our deepest instinct: our self. However, it is in saying 'no' to the selfish aspect of our self that we allow the Christ part of our self to develop within us, the part of us which seeks to serve rather than be served; to give love rather than to seek it; the part of us which is quick to forgive and which searches for ways in which to establish peace.

This is what Jesus meant when he said that: "a grain of wheat remains no more than a single grain unless it is dropped into the ground and dies. If it does die, then it produces many grains" (John 12:24).

The crop - the fruit - that Jesus wants us to produce cannot be produced until we have learned to set our selfish self aside. This part of us has got to die in order to produce the crop that Jesus is looking for. When Jesus stood on Golgotha, having been stripped of his last possession - his robe - he was naked, there was not much more to give. Then, in his crucifixion, he had given the last and only thing he was able to give to His Father: his life. There was no further way in which he was able to say 'no' to himself - he had given absolutely everything. And what astounding and overwhelming fruit that act of self-denial bore: it brought about humanity's full and everlasting release from darkness and death.

The potential in each and every one of us to bear fruit is huge, but this potential will not be realised by magic: we need to play our own part, and Jesus - throughout the gospels - gives us the perfect example of how to play that part.

Whilst we rightly rejoice and resume our joyous "Alleluia's" at Christ's resurrection, let us not forget how much we have grown and learnt not only about God but ourselves during Lent, and perhaps consider creating further 'mini-Lents' for ourselves so that that growth may continue.

The Church has always recommended that Fridays (and in some religious communities Wednesdays also) are kept as days when we deny ourselves in some way - normally by avoiding meat (though I am sure there are more interesting and challenging things to avoid). This guideline is not meant to oppress us or to make us feel browbeaten into obeying rules and regulations, but to encourage our growth towards God which is so wonderfully accelerated during Lent. To capture, regularly, the grace and joy of Lent and to call us over and over again to turn away from self and more fully towards God.

My brothers and sisters, I implore you by God's mercy to offer your very selves to him: a living sacrifice, dedicated and fit for his acceptance, the worship offered by mind and heart. Adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern of this present world, but let your minds be remade and your whole nature thus transformed. Then you will be able to discern the will of God, and to know what is good, acceptable, and perfect. (Rom 12:1-2)

How can the cross be a symbol of life?!

2011-03-29T01:11:00.000-07:00

EASTER….. we are told that this is the most important celebration of the Church’s year, but it can sometimes be hard to grasp exactly why.

I am not sure that I fully understood the impact of Jesus’ death and resurrection upon me, personally, until I had thought about the implications of humanity’s original rejection of God. From the time of man's rejection of God onwards, humanity was effectively ‘locked out’ of heaven and all those who died went to 'hell'. In the Old Testament 'hell' was a realm not of punishment but of all the deceased, and to say that “one descended into hell” meant simply that one had died. We must try and imagine what this place might have been like. It was probably a place of no hope and of darkness, a godless place from which there was no apparent escape. Just pause for a moment now and try to imagine how you might feel if you knew that you were shut out of heaven and condemned to eternal darkness. This is an horrendous thought and one which would make the prospect of our own death rather frightening. This would have been our fate had Jesus not intervened.

Why did Jesus have to die such a gruesome death?

He died the death that the ugliness and awfulness of our sin and the sin of humanity deserves! When Jesus hung in tortured agony on the cross, he was carrying the weight of your sins and mine. Weighed down as he was, what were his words? “Father, forgive them!” (Luke 23:34) ... forgive all those who have hurt me or who will ever hurt me … FORGIVE THEM! His thoughts, even then, were not for himself, but for us - you and me. He took all our sin and shame upon himself in order to take them and their power over our lives down into the depths of hell where they belong. “Father, Father ... why have you deserted me?” (Mark 15:34) he cried out as he took on our sins and therefore felt the full force, pain and anguish of separation from God, the separation that only sin can bring, and the separation which would have been ours if not for Jesus.

Where did he go after he died?

He went to hell, to the realm of the dead. I can remember as a child being really afraid of the pitch black: that awful feeling of being disorientated and desperate for even the smallest chink of light. If hell was like this then the emergence into this torturous darkness of a figure of great light, bringing news that darkness and captivity were over must have been overwhelmingly wonderful. The beautiful Christ figure of Perfect Truth, Patience, Goodness, Generosity, Kindness, Mercy, Light & Love entered into hell in order to lead those God-fearing and faithful characters out of darkness and into eternal bliss and light. Can you imagine what that must have been like?

“Christ went down into the depths of death so that the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. Henceforth the risen Christ holds the keys of Death and Hades” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 635)

Jesus’ descent into the realm of death was to achieve a number of things:

 to overcome - for all time - the division between God and man and therefore also the power of sin and death;

 to take his message of freedom and salvation to all those who had died before him and who were languishing in this place of death, waiting to be delivered;

 to convince us that he, too, was human and that he understands how hard it is to die and to suffer any form of anguish

But what about the Resurrection?

To grasp the full impact of his resurrection, it is important to try and imagine the reality of Jesus' death. Jesus, the all-powerful Son of the Creator, was dead. The brutalised and tortured body of the Son of the great “I Am” of all eternity (John 8:58) lay stone cold. How easy it must have been for his friends to think that that was that, the person they thought was all-powerful and the Son of God perhaps wasn’t really what he appeared to be. He was dead wasn’t he? He could have saved himself, but didn’t.

Despite being in the realm of no hope, of death and darkness, Jesus was brought fully back to life both in body and spirit - he was resurrected. We can have absolute faith that this happened, because his friends were united in giving witness through their Gospel accounts of their own personal encounters with the risen Jesus.

His resurrection established victory and sovereignty over the power of death forever, and Heaven was opened up for all those who were to follow him. By this victory there was unleashed a power so great and so omnipotent that there is no power on earth - and never will be - that can ever defeat it. What is this power? It is the power of LIFE, a being at one with God. It is an extraordinary fact that this power is the same power that was given to us through the Holy Spirit at our Baptism. Since our Baptism we have carried with us the flame of eternal life; the flame of God's Spirit; we have already entered into eternity through this gift. This truth of faith can do so much for us! If we really believe in the omnipotence of God in our life we should be asking ourselves a) what is there to fear, and b) how do I respond to it and cooperate with it? Through the power of the Resurrection we have the promise of an eternal life spent in his glorious presence, and we can be sure that this will become a reality for us when we have done our best for him. Jesus, Perfect Good, in rising up, has opened up the way for us to follow him. He has blazed a trail for us into eternal life. If this had not taken place, there would be no hope for us at all: death would be death, the end, eternal darkness. We would still be languishing in the darkness of sin and unforgiven sin, with no hope of anything better.

Through Jesus' death and resurrection we are truly and fully alive, the power of sin in our lives has been vanquished, we have nothing to fear and everything to hope for!

Finally, let me offer you just one last thought. There is a very important aspect of His descent into hell that tends to get overlooked. Jesus’ descent into hell reminds us that we not only meet Jesus in the good and wonderful aspects of our life but, since he has ventured into the realm of darkness, we are now also able to meet him in our sad moments. He went down into hell in order that humanity might meet him there, in the awful moments of our lives. His descent has ensured that he can relate to our every misery and that, in all our sadnesses, we might still have the opportunity to encounter him and, through that encounter, be encouraged, strengthened and healed. Jesus, and his power to overcome, is to be found everywhere, even in the darkest areas of our lives and experience.

Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began..... He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him - He who is both their God and the son of Eve.... ‘I am your God, who for your sake have become your son....I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead’. (Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday)

Arise and shine like the sun; the brightness of his presence will be with you! (Isaiah 60:1)

The Triduum ... is it for me?

2011-03-28T02:03:00.001-07:00

Holy Week starts on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter Sunday. Of all the weeks in the entire liturgical year, this is by far the most important for Christians around the world and is often referred to as the “Great Week”. We see Jesus come to the end of his public ministry and, indeed, his life. We watch him enter Jerusalem on a donkey, apparently being hailed and accepted; we watch him gather his friends together for what he knows will be his last meal and their last time together as a group of friends; we see his anguish and fear in the Garden of Gethsemane as he awaits what he knows lies in store; we see Jesus’ unnecessarily violent arrest and witness his mistreatment and torture; we see him as he receives the heavy wooden cross onto his bruised and bloodied shoulders and we follow him as he struggles up the hill to Golgotha with his cross; we hear his anguished cries and the crack of the hammer as it drives the huge nails through his hands and feet; we hear the creaking of the wood and the howl of pain as the cross is lifted up; we watch for the dreadful three hours that it takes for Jesus to bleed and suffocate to death. We wait. We hold our breath.

All these things we experience in Holy Week and, particularly, during the Easter Triduum. A ‘triduum’ is three consecutive days of public devotion, and the Easter Triduum begins with Maundy Thursday

On Maundy Thursday we revisit and re-enact the Last Supper. Jesus knows very well, as he gathers his friends together, that this will be the very last meal he will eat before he dies. His friends have no idea at all that this meal and the next 24 hours are going to change the entire course of the history of man’s relationship with God. As far as they are concerned, they have gathered for just another meal together. But, on this occasion, Jesus does some things he has never done before. First, he washes his friends’ feet, an action which caused a real stir amongst these men who were still struggling with the idea of humble service. Then, most importantly, he institutes the Eucharist. He takes some bread and wine and, having given thanks to his Father, he transforms the bread and wine into his body and blood, telling his friends that “This is my body” and “This is my blood”, and instructing them to “Do this in memory of me”. This was a truly historic moment: he was showing his friends how to carry out what has been carried out in every Mass around the world since that meal. On Maundy Thursday, then, the Church revisits this final meal in a deeply special and significant way, and we see priests across the world bringing to life the humility of God by getting down onto their knees and washing the feet of 12 of their parishioners. This is followed by the wonderful Eucharistic Prayer in which the bread and wine are turned into the Body and Blood of Jesus, so much more poignant on this day than any other.

At the end of Mass we see the tabernacle being emptied, the Holy Water being removed from stoups, the altar being stripped and all crucifixes being removed or covered in purple, and there is a real feeling of foreboding, a sense of Jesus about to be removed from us.

Maundy Thursday invites us to meditate …

 Have I understood that humble service is at the heart of Christianity?
 The first shall be last and the last first
 Jesus comes back to me, to be with me, in a deeply personal way through the Eucharist
 Do I take this sacrament for granted?
 Do I receive it carelessly?
 Do I give myself to him to the degree that he gives himself to me?

Through the events of Maundy Thursday Jesus is telling us …

 I am with you
 I come to you still to strengthen and enlighten you
 I will help you in all that you have to do
 I am sharing my divinity with you

The very next day is Good Friday, the second part of the Triduum.

On Good Friday the faithful will gather in churches all around the world at about 3pm, roughly the time which marks the start of Jesus’ passion. We hear readings from the Old Testament which foretell of a time when “a thing despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, a man to make people screen their faces; he was despised and we took no account of him. And yet ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried” (Isaiah 53:3). Then we hear, again, the account of Jesus’ torture and crucifixion. This is by far the most solemn day in the Church’s calendar, and the vestments worn by the priest will be red to bring to mind the blood which was spilt and poured out upon the earth on that day. The faithful are invited to ‘venerate the cross’, perhaps to the words of one of the most haunting and thought-provoking of songs … “My people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? What more could I have done for you? I led you from slavery to freedom, but you handed me over to your high priests … I opened the sea before you, but you opened my side with a spear … I led you on your way in a pillar of cloud, but you led me to Pilate’s court … I bore you up with manna in the desert, but you struck me down and scourged me … I gave you saving water from the rock, but you gave me gall and vinegar to drink … I gave you a royal sceptre, but you gave me a crown of thorns … I raised you to the height of majesty, but you have raised me high on a cross….. My people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me….”

The altar and sanctuary, already bare, now feel even more bereft as the tabernacle is empty and left wide open: Jesus has gone, he is no longer with us. The faithful leave the church on Good Friday with a sense of desolation and loss and, perhaps, a fresh understanding of their own contribution to the suffering and death of Jesus.

Good Friday invites us to ask …

 What part was I playing on this day?
 Was I one of the soldiers, mocking Jesus by claiming to be a Christian but not living like one?
 Was I in the jostling crowd, afraid to speak up for him?
 Do I remain silent about my faith?
 Which of my sins contributed to his suffering? My selfishness? My pride? My untruths? My anger and irritability?

What would Jesus say to me?

 I know what it is like to be afraid and to feel alone
 I know what it is like to be treated unjustly
 I want you to pick up your cross and come after me
 Be patient in your suffering for I am with you
 All will be well …

The day after Good Friday is Holy Saturday, the third part of the Triduum.

This is a day of waiting. On Holy Saturday the Church – that is you and me – waits at the Lord’s tomb, thinking about his suffering and death. Is this the end? What is going to happen next? If Jesus really had been God, why didn’t he save himself? How did it come to this? Will we ever see him again? The altar is left bare and Mass is not celebrated: it is all very quiet and still. The only service on this day is the Easter Vigil, often called the “mother of all holy vigils” and starts after sundown on the night before Easter. This service begins with a ‘Service of Light’ when all the lights in the church are put out and the faithful gather outside the church around a fire – the New Fire – holding candles. The flame from the fire – which the priest will bless – is used to light the Paschal or Easter Candle and is a symbol of Jesus, the Light of the World, risen in glory and sharing his light and glory with us.

Once the Paschal candle has been lit, the faithful move quietly back into the dark church and light their own small candles from the flame of the Paschal candle, and the church is gradually filled with light. We then embark upon the ‘Liturgy of the Word’ when we listen to several readings which move us through the Old Testament, all the time building up an awareness of the promise of the coming of a Saviour. This part culminates in what is one of the most joyous ten minutes of the year – the altar and sanctuary which have been bare for days is brought to life: the altar and sanctuary candles are lit, the altar and tabernacle are dressed and flowers fill the sanctuary for the first time since Ash Wednesday. There is a tangible sense of newness of life, a reawakening and rebirth. The bells are rung, the Gloria is sung and our hearts are filled with a real joy. We hear passages from the New Testament and, at last, an account of the risen Jesus appearing to his friends and revealing to them that death has been destroyed for ever.

This is the point when we meet and remember the risen Lord, and we can at last lift up our voices in all those glorious Alleluia’s which we have not been allowed to utter since Ash Wednesday. It is with joy and wonder that during the Vigil we revisit our Baptismal Promises, reminding ourselves of our belief in the risen Lord.

The final day is, of course, Easter Sunday and ‘this Mass is our ‘Alleluia’: our song of praise to the risen Christ who is our life and whose triumph over death we proclaim to all the world’. (Sunday Missal)

The events of Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday tell me to …

 Rejoice! … do I come across as a rejoicing person?

 Believe! … does my belief stop short of really accepting that God loves me and is taking care of me, despite all of my worries?

 Embrace! … have I properly embraced my Baptismal Promises by rejecting all that is evil and living a holy and spirit-filled life?

 Proclaim! … does my way of life proclaim that God is love?

Clearly, Holy Week, is a busy week in terms of going to church. The joy of Easter is made all the more joyous when we have entered fully into the sorrow and anguish which precedes it, so it is a good thing to try to attend all of these services if we possibly can.

Entering into the Easter Triduum is important for us on an individual level because, as Christians, our aim must be to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. To walk in his footsteps does not mean that we can pick and choose which bits of his journey appeal to us: he invites us to embrace them all. In walking with him through his suffering we soon discover that he is with us in our suffering – he can relate to everything. To greet and acclaim the risen Lord at Easter is to greet and acclaim the risen and living Lord in our day-to-day lives, and to recognise the many and varied ways in which he so devotedly walks with us.

He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly;
he never said a word.
Like a lamb about to be slaughtered,
he never said a word.
He was arrested and sentenced and led off to die,
and no-one cared about his fate.
He was put to death for the sins of our people.
He was placed in a grave with the wicked,
even though he had never committed a crime
or ever told a lie.

---o---

The LORD says,
It was my will that he should suffer;
his death was a sacrifice to bring forgiveness.
After a life of suffering, he will again have joy;
he will know that he did not suffer in vain.
My devoted servant, with whom I am pleased,
will bear the punishment of many
and for his sake I will forgive them.
Isaiah 53:10-12

What child is this?

2011-02-04T03:36:00.000-08:00

On Sunday 2nd February the Church celebrates the Presentation of Christ or Candlemass.

The time came for Joseph and Mary to perform the ceremony of purification as the Law of Moses commanded. So they took the child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord: "Every firstborn male is to be dedicated to the Lord." At that time there was a man named Simeon living in Jerusalem. He was a good, God-fearing man and was waiting for Israel to be saved. The Holy Spirit was with him and had assured him that he would not die before he had seen the promised Messiah. Prompted by the Spirit, Simeon went into the Temple. When the parents brought the child Jesus into the Temple to do for him what the Law required, Simeon took the child in his arms and gave thanks to God: "Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace. With my own eyes I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples: a light to reveal your will to the Gentiles and bring glory to your people, Israel". Mary and Joseph were amazed at the things Simeon said about him. Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, "This child is chosen by God for the destruction and the salvation of many in Israel. He is destined to be a sign that is rejected - and a sword will pierce your own soul too." (Luke 2:22-35)

On the face of it, this is a passage which is hard to relate to our own lives, and not apparently of much importance to us, individually. Indeed, only St Luke bothers to mention it in his Gospel - the other three writers do not refer to it at all.

This story is about obedience, gift, faith and reward. It is also a story about our own Baptism, but I will come to that later.

Imagine, for a moment, that you are Simeon ….. You are an old man now, and it is some years since the conviction came to you that, one day, you would see with your very own eyes, the Saviour and Messiah for whom your people had been waiting for centuries and centuries. You know, absolutely, that this will be a reality: you will not die until you have held that baby in your own arms. One day, out of the blue, you have an idea - a clear prompting by the Spirit - to go to the Temple. Now, imagine the scene: what are you wearing? It is a hot day, the streets are dusty and noisy, there is a smell of spice in the air and the Temple is reasonably busy with many comings and goings. Out of the crowd there comes a young couple - the girl can't be more than about sixteen years of age, and she is with her husband. The girl carries in her arms an infant and, all of a sudden, your heart and soul are filled with the light of conviction that this is the Child for whom you have been waiting. "My God! … the premonition is coming true. Here is God-made-man, the Creator, a small and helpless baby and I have the opportunity and honour of seeing and holding Him. My life is overwhelmingly blessed. What can I say - no words can adequately express how this moment feels. But, I have a word of warning for this beautiful young girl. How shall I break it to her that her beloved and treasured little son is going to have to suffer greatly and that this in turn will cause her to suffer far beyond what she - or any mother - should have to suffer? Perhaps if I tell her now, it will come as less of a shock…."

How does this relate to me? The key is in the words "prompted by the Spirit". Simeon was very clearly a man who allowed himself to be led by the Spirit, that very same Spirit which was given to you and to me at our Baptism. Simeon said 'Yes' to the promptings of the Spirit and was amply rewarded.

We need to ask ourselves: "Do I listen carefully enough to the Spirit within me? To the beautiful Spirit of Truth, Love, Joy, Wisdom, Patience, Goodness, Kindness, the Good and Holy Spirit who would lead me through life in order that I, too, will encounter the living God? Where and how will I encounter God?" The Spirit which led Simeon will also lead us to encounter God firstly in the depths of our hearts and instincts, and also in those around us: we meet God in our everyday life. Simeon's recognition of the presence of God in the child Jesus is a call for us to seek out and recognise His presence in those around us.

Now, let's look at this story from Mary's perspective and see what she would tell us. Mary has a tremendously strong sense of obedience: obedience to the Laws with which she has grown up, and obedience to the God who invited her to become the mother of His child. In her obedience she has already been blessed with the gift of her son, and also in her obedience she has come to the Temple today to present that son, to give him back to God. As she enters, an old man appears from the Temple, a complete stranger, who seems to recognise her and her baby. He introduces himself as Simeon and asks to hold the baby. He is a lovely and kindly old man so she doesn't hesitate. With what love this stranger holds her baby and then, how suddenly, his look of wonderment and fulfilment turns to sadness. What is he seeing? Tears come into his eyes as he tells her about her own son's future and something of her own. These words are going to be at the back of her mind always … what can they mean?

Of any child - ourselves and our own children - we may ask: "What child is this?" We can never know the mystery of another's journey and future. All we can know for certain is that we are all called by God to something. God has a plan for each of us and it is for us to co-operate to ensure that his plan unfolds in whatever way that may be.

Mary brought her child before God in order to return him to the God from whence he had come and to whom he would eventually return. This is our lot too. Our parents presented us to God at our Baptism when we were babies, and we had no say in the matter. In due course we too are destined to return to God. Imagine, for a moment, that you do have a say in your own Baptism….

v Would you want to present yourself to God?
v What are you offering to Him?
v What is He offering you?

I guess that your answer to the first question will very much hinge on how much you understand of your Baptism. Baptism was the point at which you became a true and full child of God; heir to the Kingdom of God and a promise given of an eternity spent in His presence. It is the point at which the third part of the Trinity - the Holy Spirit - was poured into your heart, never to depart. Of all the good things that your parents have done for you, their presenting you for Baptism was, by far, the most valuable and important. By regularly giving thanks for this gift you continue to 'present' yourself to God, which brings us to the next question….

What are you offering to God? If you think that the answer to this is to offer Him all your natural and innate gifts and talents, you are wrong, because these belong to Him already. They are not yours to give! The only thing that you can give to Him that is of any value at all, is yourself. I don't know about you, but when I cast a critical eye over myself, I think was a terrible, shoddy and defective gift this is: a sad and broken one and apparently of no great value. But …. it is all that I have and, thank God, it is all that God wants. The very fact that it is all that I have makes it an extremely valuable gift indeed, broken or not.

What is God offering me? I am not sure that I know where to begin in answering this. I guess that if God is Perfect Hope, Encouragement, Faith, Trust, Joy, Peace, Patience, Goodness, Kindness, Mercy, Tolerance, Protection and Love, and that He is All-powerful, All-knowing and Ever-present …. that He is offering me everything that I could ever need in every and all circumstances. Ultimately, He offers me an eternity spent in His overwhelmingly beautiful presence - what more could I possibly ask for?

We saw the light ...

2011-01-07T00:37:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of January we remember in the Feast of the Epiphany those three men who embarked upon a long journey to a completely unknown destination, driven only by the conviction that by following the new and very bright light which had appeared in the sky, they would find the promised Saviour of the Jewish people and, therefore, perhaps their own salvation.

Well before their time, however, the prophets from the Old Testament had hinted at such an event. Isaiah wrote that: ‘camels and dromedaries of Midian, everyone in Sheba will come, bringing gold and incense and singing the praise of the Lord’ (Is 60); the psalmist foresaw that ‘The kings of Sheba and Seba will offer gifts; all kings will do him homage, all nations become his servant’ (Ps 72:10-15)

These men, foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament and witnessed to by the writers of the New Testament, had an undying faith that the light they were following would lead them to God.

This event is important because it was the first clue that, ultimately, Jesus was not coming merely for the purpose of saving his own people, the Jews, but for those outside of the Jewish community also. The fact that Jesus’ appearance in the world was announced to two very clear and definite set of people, firstly Jewish shepherds and, secondly, non-Jewish noblemen from foreign lands, is a clear indication that God’s plan for salvation was to stretch beyond the Jews and to the whole of humanity. You could say that the three kings from a foreign land were paying the new baby Jesus homage on our behalf: they were the precursor of all non-Jewish followers of Christ who have paid him homage down through the ages.

The feast of the Epiphany is, firstly and most importantly, a celebration of God’s salvation being opened up to all humanity. However, it is also an event which must cause us to think very positively about two other important aspects of how we live out our lives as Christians, for it is also a story about FAITH and GUIDING LIGHTS.

At the heart of the kings’ journey was an undying faith as to where the light was leading. They confidently gave Herod (whose palace they had unfortunately stopped at en route) the reason for their journey: they were looking for the king of the Jews: “Where is the infant king of the Jews?” they asked, “We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage” (Matthew 2:1-2). God had quite simply planted in the hearts of these three men the knowledge of where this light would lead them and, with that knowledge, their faith never once faltered.

St John in his letter reminds us that to have and exercise faith is to have victory over the world: “this is the victory over the world – our faith” (John 5:4). That is an astonishing assertion: our faith will have victory over the world! Our faith will have victory over all manner of problems and challenges which we will inevitably have in our lives. The New Testament is jam-packed with incidents of people coming to Jesus with faith in his growing reputation as a healer, and finding the healing that they needed. It was with total faith that Peter stepped out of the boat and walked several paces on the water before eventually sinking when he stopped and thought for a moment about what he was doing; it was with faith that the centurion interceded for his sick servant and won his healing; it was with faith that the blind man, Bartimaeus called out to Jesus to give him sight and in so doing, won it.

All of these stories invite us to think much more deeply and carefully about the person of Jesus, about his importance in our own personal lives and to what degree we trust him. The kings had no question as to whom they would find as they followed the bright star / light, and their journey was totally guided by that light.

The modern world is filled with false lights, lights which would have us believe that money, power, possessions are the be all and end all and the way to personal happiness. None of the modern world’s lights can claim to be the guiding light which led the men to Bethlehem and which, in our day, invites us to be led to our own personal fullest potential and ultimate destiny. In the absence of the very specific bright light in the heavens to guide us as it guided the three travellers, what or who should be our guiding light?

Our guiding light must be the person of Jesus, for he says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). If Jesus is the light of the world then we should be looking for and then guided by those of his qualities which, though our baptism into his death and therefore his life, we have a full share. What are those qualities? They are:-

- forgiveness
- mercy
- patience
- kindness
- goodness
- truth
- humility
- self-control
- love
- compassion

These are the qualities by which we are to be guided so that we, too, may become more and more like the person of Jesus and take seriously our own responsibility for being a light in the world, for Jesus tells us very directly that “your light must shine in the sight of men, so that, seeing your good works, they may give the praise to your Father in heaven” (Matt 5:16). Love is catching! Kindness is catching! Goodness and truth are catching! All of these qualities are deeply attractive to humanity and it is by exercising these qualities in our own lives that people around us will feel drawn to the person who is the inspiration behind these qualities: Jesus, the only true light of the world who, alone, can lead us to the healing and salvation so urgently sought by the three men.

Wolves and Sheep ...

2010-12-01T00:28:00.000-08:00

The royal line of David is like a tree that has been cut down; but just as new branches sprout from a stump, so a new king will arise from among David’s descendants.

The Spirit of the Lord will give him wisdom,
and the knowledge and skill to rule his people.
He will know the Lord’s will and honour him,
and find pleasure in obeying him.
He will not judge by appearance or hearsay;
he will judge the poor fairly
and defend the rights of the helpless.
At his command the people will be punished,
and evil persons will die.
He will rule his people with justice and integrity.

Wolves and sheep will live together in peace,
and leopards will lie down with young goats.
Calves and lion cubs will feed together,
and little children will take care of them.
Cows and bears will eat together,
and their calves and cubs will lie down in peace.
Even a baby will not be harmed if it plays
near a poisonous snake.
The land will be as full
of the knowledge of the Lord
as the seas are full of water.
Isaiah 11:1-9

It gave me a jolt today to realise that I had not yet given any thought at all to my December reflection leaflet. It had been lurking at the back of my mind, but I had not even got around to thinking of a theme. I therefore turned to the Bible and abandoned myself to Fate by opening it completely at random. Fate chose the book of the prophet Isaiah and my eyes fell upon the words “Wolves and sheep will live together in peace”.

As soon as these words caught my eye, it seemed to me that they are at the very heart of the message of Advent and the coming of Christ: the herald of a new era, an era of peace and reconciliation or, at least, the possibility of peace and reconciliation through the Spirit of God working in our lives. They conjure up in my imagination a beautiful picture of an untamed beast of the wild lying down in complete peace and tranquillity with its normal prey, a vulnerable and helpless lamb.

This image, which is intoxicatingly attractive, is the true message of the birth of Christ: he comes to bring healing and peace, he comes to help humanity, through the gift of his Spirit, to overcome all that is sinful and shameful, he comes to lighten our load and to share our burden. He comes with so many things to give us that the list seems impossibly long, almost as impossible as the image of a wolf and a lamb lying down together. But, nothing is impossible to God, and this month he puts before us the reality of a child conceived divinely, a child who would grow up to carry out feats which seem, to those who saw them at the time and for many who read the gospels now, impossible.

This wonderful passage refers to the new King who will “arise from among David’s descendants”. This new King will be filled with wisdom and knowledge; he will rule his people with everything we wish our world leaders would rule with: honesty, justice, truth and integrity. He will not judge people by the way they look, he will not pass judgement based on hearsay, he will have a special regard for the poor and the rights of the helpless.

Do we feel our own conscience pricking us? …

 He will not judge people by the way they look …
 He will not pass judgement based on gossip and hearsay …
 He will have a special regard for the poor …
 And the rights of the helpless …

Where do we stand on these issues?

As I read this passage, I wanted to be able to curl up with the wolf and the lamb and to enjoy that sense of complete trust, lack of fear and deep, deep peace. I have to then ask myself, what is stopping me? What have I allowed to come between God and me to such a degree that I am not part of this scene? Am I guilty of some of faults which condemn me and keep me from the joy of reconciliation and peace?

That is for me to sort out – no-one else can do that for me.

As in all passages from the Bible, we are in there somehow and we need to ask ourselves:

 Do I trust the knowledge and skill of this new King to rule my life? How far, indeed, do I allow him to rule my life?

 Do I trust this Prince of Peace to help me to find a way of making peace with those around me?

 With whom do I need to make peace? Is there someone in particular with whom I really do need to make peace in order to be able to lie down with the wolf and the lamb this Christmas?

I will hear what the Lord God has to say,
a voice that speaks of peace,
peace for his people.
Mercy and faithfulness have met,
justice and peace have embraced.
Faithfulness shall spring from the earth
and justice look down from heaven.
Justice shall march before him
and peace shall follow his steps.
Ps 84:9-14

Christ, the Prince of Peace

2010-11-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

Jesus comes with many titles, such as: Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6).

On Sunday November 21st the Church will be celebrating the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Universal King. This Solemnity marks the end of the liturgical year and is the culmination of all the events of a year which begins with Advent (when we prepare for the coming of the Saviour), moves through Christmas (when we celebrate the arrival of Jesus), then into Lent (the lead up to the death of Jesus) which we remember at Easter. The rest of the year is ‘Ordinary Time’, when we have the opportunity to look at the person of Jesus outside these very specific seasons.

When a child thinks of royalty he thinks of kings, queens, princes and princesses dripping with gold, a crown on their heads, with great authority and power over their people. Royal leaders haven't always been popular, in fact, many have exacted not only awe but also fear from their people and their kingdoms have been full of strife, their people divided and at war.

Jesus' Kingship goes against everything that this world thinks of as being worthy of the term 'king'. He came unannounced except to a few poor uneducated shepherds; he was born into very meagre circumstances; he became a refugee; he grew up in anonymity; he never had any money and finally died a humiliating death on a cross, accompanied by criminals. Jesus' kingship is so radical it could be hard to see him as a king. But a King he is.

Jesus of Nazareth is a King because in his love for his people, a love transcending any love this world has ever seen or will ever see again, he gave his life for his people. Indeed, not just for his people – the Jewish community – but for the whole of humanity. His resurrection and therefore authority of Life over death is ample demonstration that there is no higher authority. Jesus' kingdom transcends race, culture, border and status. It is a kingdom united, a kingdom of selfless love. It is a kingdom of mercy, peace and reconciliation, of healing and fulfilment. It is a kingdom where all are equal and equally loved. It is a kingdom where the only currency is love. It is a kingdom where everyone will find a home that acknowledges that the little boy born to a young virgin girl in a smelly, dirty, cold stable in Bethlehem is truly the Son of God and the long awaited Saviour of the entire human race.

One could be tempted to ask: if Jesus is such a great King, why is there still so much strife, terrorism and cruelty between people in the world? Has he no control over us?

Well, who are his people? His subjects are all the baptised. But the true knights of his Kingdom are those who know him as their King and who co-operate with him. Whilst his authority has been established in heaven and the power of Life has for ever overcome the power of death, his kingdom has yet to be established here, on earth, and he is looking for us to help him to achieve this. One of his gifts to mankind was that of freedom of choice. I have the choice, today, to accept Jesus as my King and to be his true and loyal subject by treating all people as my beloved brothers and sisters and worthy of the loving kindness which Jesus demands of me. These lines from the Our Father remind us of our own role in helping Jesus to create his Kingdom here on earth:

Thy Kingdom come;
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

In other words, “May your Kingdom come to us, here on earth, soon; help me to carry out your will just as your will is carried out in heaven … then shall your kingdom be established upon our earth”.

We all know Holman Hunt’s picture of Jesus, standing and knocking at the door. This is a beautiful illustration of the nature of his kingship. He is not powering his way in and bludgeoning the inhabitants into accepting him. He is gently knocking at the door, asking permission to be given entry. His kingship therefore is as his birth: humble and gentle, and it is as he comes to us still: quietly and humbly in the form of bread and wine every time we celebrate the Eucharist. His kingship remains radical but compelling.

Whilst Jesus’ kingdom – heaven – is one of unadulterated peace and joy, earth is still a planet of unbridled division. “Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:52) is the surprising and confusing assertion given by the Prince of Peace!

It is precisely because Jesus is the ‘Prince of Peace’ that there is such division in the world, because Jesus’ way of dealing with a quarrel or squabble was to offer the other cheek and this is something which, in our flawed humanity, we find so difficult. His way of establishing and bringing about peace is not our human way. We look to settle the score, to get our pound of flesh, to be ‘quits’ with our enemy.

So, is Christ such a great king? Yes he is, because he is the King over that which has no end and which, in the end, will prevail: Truth, Justice, Peace, Love, Joy, Patience, Wisdom and Goodness. He is the One to whom we can turn and rely upon in our every difficulty. His strength upholds us and his wisdom guides us. Despite being great and high above all things, he makes himself our best and most intimate of friends. As a people, though, we are still at odds with our King’s way of doing things, especially his way of bringing peace, and until all of humanity can look to Jesus as their King and to follow his lead, we shall remain a people divided and at war.

2010-10-01T00:32:00.000-07:00

Early the next morning he went back to the Temple. All the people gathered round him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought in a woman who had been caught committing adultery, and they made her stand before them all. “Teacher” they said to Jesus, “This woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. In our Law Moses commanded that such a woman must be stoned to death. Now, what do you say?” They said this to trap Jesus so that they could accuse him. But he bent over and wrote on the ground with his finger. As they stood there asking him questions, he straightened himself up and said to them, “Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her.” Then he bent over again and wrote on the ground. When they heard this, they all left, one by one, the older ones first. Jesus was left alone, with the women still standing there. He straightened himself up and said to her, “Where are they? Is there no one left to condemn you? “No one, sir” she answered. “Well then” Jesus said, “I do not condemn you either. Go, but do not sin again”. John 8:1-11

The British press loves nothing better than to catch someone out, especially if it is a high profile politician caught in an extra-marital dalliance. It appears to delight in the public humiliation of its victim and the public responds with the usual baying for resignation, if not blood.

It is true that adultery is a very serious offence against God and against those whom adultery damages. Indeed, it was set in stone (literally!) as one of the Ten Commandments and, in terms of seriousness, is ranked only one lower than murder. In his Gospel, St Matthew refers to adultery as being worthy of eternal damnation (Matt 5:27)

This is why this passage is so important for illustrating to us the overwhelming power of God’s love and mercy. It is in this passage we learn the true meaning of “love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).

We can all relate to doing something (whatever that might be) which we know is wrong and which sits on our conscience. Unlike this poor woman it is unlikely that we will be publicly humiliated in front of a crowd and openly condemned for our personal weakness. It must have been a very frightening experience for her, as there was every danger that she was about to be stoned to death: the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were baying for her blood. There she stands, before the crowd and before Jesus, in all her shame. What does Jesus do? He bends down and writes something in the sand then, standing up, he gives permission for anyone present that is without sin to feel entirely free to throw the first stone at her. Knowing the holier-than-thou attitude of her accusers, she must have closed her eyes and held her breath, wondering from which direction she would be hit. Would it be her head … her back … her legs … her arms … which part of her would be bruised and cut first?

But, at that moment, the hearts and minds of all those gathered around are made aware of their own sin and shame and, in the presence of the One who sees into everyone’s thoughts and past, it was impossible for any one of them to throw that first stone. Each and every member of the crowd slinks away, starting with the eldest.

It is interesting that it was the eldest who left first: their years have seen an accumulation and amassing of not only regrettable thoughts, words and actions, but, hopefully, a slightly greater sensitivity and ability to acknowledge their own shame. Perhaps, for the individual members of the crowd it was a healing moment for them too – we shall never know.

As far as the woman is concerned, she knows very well that she has been doing wrong over many years. It would have been unthinkable for her not to have known the Law of Moses – she would have grown up with it. However, for whatever reason, and despite knowing that she was living very dangerously, she has found it impossible to change her behaviour.

In her encounter with Jesus she meets a man who is able to look over her life and recognise the events of her past which have made her into the person which she is now. Perhaps Jesus sees in the woman someone who has had a miserable childhood and whose search for love and affirmation has been overwhelming, causing her to fall into the arms of one unsuitable man after another. Perhaps he sees someone who has been in a deeply unhappy or even abusive marriage. The truth of her situation was as veiled from the crowd as it is from us …. but not from Jesus: he sees her loneliness, pain and brokenness and her quest for someone to love her sincerely and chastely.

Her quest for such a love ends in her encounter with Jesus. In Jesus the woman meets, probably for the first time, her perfect ‘lover’: someone who knows all about her past and background, her sadness and loneliness, her many partners and the wives and children she has hurt through her many adulterous relationships. Here is someone who accepts her and loves her for what and who she is. His love is perfect and unconditional, it is without judgement. It is not a love which is to be expressed in the physical and intimate outward expressions of love: it goes much deeper than that, and her healing is complete.

Most people came to Jesus of their own volition and found healing, but here was a woman who was forcibly brought before Jesus. I imagine that the knowledge that Jesus was in the area was probably reason enough for someone like her, doing what she was doing, to keep a low profile, and that Jesus was probably the last person she would want to meet. Perhaps this is something we can relate to at times: most of us have, on occasion, felt sufficiently ashamed or unworthy as to find it really hard to approach Jesus in prayer. In such moments I like to imagine that it is our Guardian Angels who drag us kicking and screaming back into the presence of Jesus where, of course, we find love, healing, forgiveness and peace.

So we leave the scene with Jesus having healed the woman’s past, but throwing in a final warning: “Go, but do not sin again”, a clear indication that he does not – and never will – condone her previous behaviour: the Law of Moses makes that impossible. But I am sure that this encounter with perfect love will have brought about a sufficient inner change to enable her to resist temptations in the future, and I like to think that she eventually finds herself in a permanent and loving relationship.

Some meditations:

Imagining that you are a member of the crowd …

· Do I take enough care to examine my own conscience before I start judging others?
· Do I secretly rejoice in another’s downfall, when I really should be saddened by it?
· Do I pray for someone who I know is in real moral danger?
· Can I play a greater part in the healing of someone’s past?

Imagining that you are the woman …

· What aspects of my life and behaviour stand in need of healing?
· I cannot hide my past from God – he knows everything
· I must never be too ashamed to approach Him, for he understands my faults and failures, and knows what has hurt me
· In my relationships with others, do I take care to ensure that my love is chaste and pure?
· “Neither do I condemn you” … I can trust God to be loving and merciful. But …
· Do I trust myself to “Go away and not sin again”?
· I can because I trust in the power of the Holy Spirit over my life

Why are you so frightened?

2010-09-07T01:25:00.000-07:00

Jesus got into a boat, and his disciples went with him. Suddenly a fierce storm hit the lake, and the boat was in danger of sinking. But Jesus was asleep. The disciples went to him and woke him up. “Save us, Lord!” they said. “We are about to die!” “Why are you so frightened?” Jesus answered, “How little faith you have!” Then he got up and ordered the winds and the waves to stop, and there was a great calm. Everyone was amazed. “What kind of man is this?” they said. “Even the winds and the waves obey him!” (Matt 7:23-27, Mark 4:35-41 and Luke 8:22-25)

Like all the Gospel stories, it is important to read this in two ways: firstly as a story which is literally true and, secondly, from a spiritual perspective, looking for what it is telling us about our own personal lives.

Accepting that the story is literally true, we can imagine Jesus and his disciples wading away from the hot dusty shore, through the warm still waters of the lake and clambering into the boat. Their plan had been to cross to the other side of the lake. However, their crossing soon became perilous as storm force winds grew, whipping up waves sufficient to overwhelm their small boat. We can imagine the scene of fear and helplessness. What is hard to imagine, though, is Jesus lying fast asleep with – as St Mark puts it – “his head on a pillow”. Whilst his disciples were at the end of their tether and filled with the fear of their impending drowning, Jesus was blissfully asleep, apparently completely unaware of the storm. One of his disciples wakes Jesus and berates him, “Don’t you care that we are about to drown?!” (Mark 4:38)

Jesus, of course, is not only omnipotent (all-powerful) but omniscient – he knows all things. He knows that his friends have not quite yet grasped who he is and that there is no way his Father would allow him and his friends to drown in a storm in a lake – his and their hour has not yet come.

Jesus’ response is not to leap up from his sleep and join in his friends’ wild panic. Indeed, even as the waves are crashing over the boat he is composed enough to challenge them, “Why are you so frightened?” Without waiting for their response, he stands up and, stretching his arm over the wild waves and into the ferocious winds, he commands them to “Be quiet!” …. “Be still!”

And there was great calm ....

Confirmation that the disciples have not yet understood the nature of Jesus comes when they exclaim “Who is this man …. Even the winds and waves obey him!”

Now, just close your eyes and imagine this scene for a moment: smell the damp air …. the wood of the boat … the sweat of the frightened men. Hear the straining and creaking of the stricken boat … the crashing of the waves and the scream of the wind as it rushes through the rigging … the cries and shouts of panic. Feel your wet hands clinging, white-knuckled, onto the rough rope … the wind tearing through your sodden clothes.

Now imagine the reality of the huge towering grey waves suddenly dying down, with the lake becoming flat and calm. Imagine the gale force winds reduced to a gentle whisper in a matter of seconds. Make these images real in your mind and truly wonder at the person of Jesus and what he is able to do. Above all, ask yourself what the meaning of this action is in your own personal life.

You can do this by reading this passage from a spiritual perspective, imagining that the boat is your life……

Like all working boats, your own boat – that is, your life – lives its life at the mercy of the wind and waves. Sometimes the sea is calm and the wind still, our problems feel a million miles away and all is well with us and our loved ones. However, we can all relate to the next part of the story, “Suddenly a fierce storm hit the lake, and the boat was in danger of sinking.” We are all, at times, hit by a problem or anxiety about something important in our lives, which throws our world into confusion and which threatens to overwhelm and, perhaps, even sink our boat. These times are frightening and exhausting, and we find ourselves regarding the future with a real apprehension.

We may even find ourselves, like the disciples, saying, “Doesn’t he know what is happening … doesn’t he care? … where is he when I most need him?”

The answer to the last question comes right at the start of the story, when we read that Jesus “got into the boat”. This is a reminder that Jesus entered our lives at our baptism and, just as he had no intention of abandoning his terror-struck disciples, he has no intention of abandoning us. Jesus is with us for good; he is present in every aspect of our lives, both the good and the bad.

Perhaps however, over the years, we have allowed Jesus to fall asleep in our lives. Do we lurch from one difficulty and problem to the next, trying to solve them all ourselves? Should we be asking ourselves,

- What is Jesus to me?
- Is he a real presence in my life?
- Could I learn, in times of trouble and distress, to turn to him just as the disciples did in their moment of distress and panic?
- Do I believe that Jesus really can calm the many storms in my life?

In this passage Jesus gives us an absolutely clear and unequivocal picture of what it means to turn to him in our hour of distress: he commanded the stilling of the storm and there was great calm. We would all like to live our lives in a spirit of great calm, able to deal with the many and varied things which challenge us and our sense of well-being.

However, it can be hard to let someone else take control of us and our life, especially when it is someone who remains veiled from us. But this is Jesus’ challenge to us: to allow him to calm our storms is to learn to say ‘yes’ to him. We need to learn to have faith in him as a person and in his way of doing things. “How little faith you have!” was his (rather exasperated) exclamation. The great thing about this part was that, despite their continuing lack of faith (and we can all relate to that too) he calmed the storm anyway.

Lord Jesus, I thank you for being with me and for all that is good in my life. Help me to know that you are with me in a special way when I feel threatened and overwhelmed by fear. Through the power of the Holy Spirit and in faith I will turn to you in the full knowledge that you will calm my every storm.

As for you, little child ...

2010-06-08T03:36:00.000-07:00

On 24th June the Church will be urging all its members to recall and celebrate the Birth of St John the Baptist. I guess that for many of us the birth and life of St John may seem very distant and not altogether relevant to our own lives.

So why does the Church place such emphasis on this particular birth, life and person?

John’s birth was something of a miracle: his mother Elizabeth was well past child-bearing age (probably in her 40’s which, in Biblical terms was old) and she did not expect to ever have a baby. However, John’s father Zechariah who was a very good man and scrupulous in his observance of God’s commandments, was told by the Angel Gabriel that his wife would become pregnant and that she would have a son whom they were to name “John”. The Angel told him that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit and would bring many back to God. Zechariah’s immediate reaction to this news was doubt and, as a punishment, he was struck dumb from that moment until it came to naming his child. The family assumed that the child would be named after someone in their family and were aghast that both Elizabeth and Zechariah insisted upon the name “John”, the name explicitly given to the boy by God himself. Zechariah, upon getting his speech back exclaimed: “As for you, little child, you shall be called a prophet of God the Most High, you shall go ahead of the Lord to prepare his ways before him. To make known to his people their healing, through the forgiveness of all their sins, the loving kindness of the heart of our God, who visits us like the dawn from on high. He will give light to those in darkness, those who dwell in the shadow of death, and guide us into the way of peace” Luke 1:76.

These beautiful words from a father to his new son indicate a profound and possibly new understanding of the nature of God and of the role that his own little boy would play in the understanding that the world in the future would have of God: a loving God who wishes for peace, reconciliation and healing for his people; a God who is prepared to send his only Son into the world in the full knowledge that, only through his torturous death and glorious resurrection the world may learn of his love. Indeed, when the time came for him to begin his work, John burst out upon the world - as Isaiah had foretold that he would (Is 40:3) - loudly proclaiming to all people the tender love of God and the urgent need for them to repent, to seek forgiveness and to find it in baptism.

John’s message to humanity both then and now is:

Be reconciled to God through his Son ... believe in Jesus!

The greatest longing of the human heart must be perfect peace and this can only come about once we are perfectly reconciled to God through our belief in, and imitation of, Jesus. What do we have to do to achieve this? We need to take a greater responsibility for knowing about and apologising for all those aspects of ourselves which fly in the face of the Christian ideal. People flocked to John, confessed their sins and were baptised into a new way of life: this is his call to us too: confess our sins and live a new life in the power of your baptism, a life based upon the Gospel values put so beautifully into practice by Jesus: values of love, mercy, forgiveness, faith, truth, goodness, generosity, kindness and humility.

Take responsibility yourself for making a path through the world in which you find yourself for Jesus, the One who wishes to use you to call people to himself.

We must never underestimate the value of our own role in preparing others to find and know God. If our thoughts, words and actions have their source in God and in His love, people with slowly come to associate our loving treatment of them with the love that God has for them. The value of our example, if it is a good and loving one, is priceless.

Don’t be afraid to speak out!

I am sure that most of us can relate to feeling a little embarrassed about openly talking about God and whatever faith we may have. Our faith and belief in God tend to remain private and which we prefer not to express in public. But Jesus warns us about not opening declaring for him that others may believe: “if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven” (Matt 10:32).

The Bible tells us nothing about Jesus’ relationship with John as they were boys growing up. Indeed, it seems unlikely that they had ever met (despite being cousins) prior to Jesus arriving on the banks of the River Jordon seeking baptism from John. Jesus, though, is very clear about how he felt about John: “I tell you solemnly, of all the children born to women, a greater than John has never been seen. If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen!” (Matthew 11:11, 15)

John was a messenger

We may think that we are not living in the kind of wilderness that John found himself in. True, we are not living in a Middle Eastern desert, but we ARE living in a moral desert, a wilderness which has been brought about by society’s rejection of Christian values and beliefs, a society which proclaims the deeply pagan gods of money, fame, beauty, material possessions, power, etc. John’s call is as urgent today as it was then......

... turn away from sin and shame (Matt 3:2)
... share what you have with those who have nothing (Luke 3:11)
... practice truth and honesty (3:14)
... treat others well and be content with what God has given to you (Luke 3:14)
... believe in Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the One who was and is to come (Matt 3:11, Mark 1:7, John 1:29-34)

God, have pity on me ...

2010-03-08T01:44:00.001-08:00

Jesus told this parable to people who were sure of their own goodness and despised everybody else. “Once there were two men who went up to the Temple to pray: one was a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood apart, by himself, and prayed, ‘I thank you, God, that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everybody else. I thank you that I am not like that tax collector over there. I fast two days a week, and I give you a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his face to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have pity on me, a sinner!’ “I tell you” said Jesus, “the tax collector, and not the Pharisee, was in the right with God when he went home. For all who make themselves great will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be made great” (Luke 18:9-14)

The Pharisees get a great deal of bad press throughout the New Testament. They must have wondered what had hit them when Jesus came onto the scene because, before then, they were the top dogs, the people at right with God, at the top of the spiritual tree and whose authority was not to be questioned. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells his disciples to, by all means if they wish, listen to the Pharisees but under no circumstances to emulate their behaviour. “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but will they lift a finger to move them? Not they! Everything they do is done to attract attention, like wearing broader phylacteries and longer tassels, like wanting to take the place of honour at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues, being greeting obsequiously in the market squares” (Matt 23:1-12)

Jesus, as we know, came amongst humanity to heal us and to restore us to God the Father. But there appears to be just one very particular section of society which regularly attracted his criticism and which remained stubbornly untouched by his ministry: the Pharisees. The only fault of the Pharisees was to have become blind to their faults and therefore self-satisfied. All faiths and churches need laws and leaders otherwise there is chaos. But the Pharisees had become so very sure of their worth and of their goodness, that they were completely blinded to the natural flawedness of their own humanity and to the possibility that they, too, were sinners and in need of God’s mercy. Such was their blindness that they were incapable of seeing anything but the faults in others, such as the tax collector who, for sure, would have had a reputation for dishonesty and embezzlement at a time when tax collectors were guilty of these things.

In this Gospel passage we are presented with two very distinct people: the self-satisfied Pharisee and the humble tax collector. I wouldn’t mind hazarding a guess that we can probably relate to both.

We are all vulnerable to becoming a little like the Pharisee when we lose sight of the ways in which we stand in need of God’s mercy. How easy it is to think that, because I am not a terrorist, a murderer or a thief that I am somehow more worthy of God’s kingdom than those who are so sincerely damaged as to have apparently put themselves outside of the love of God.

The Pharisee had lost his sense of reality - he could not see himself as God or others saw him. To see ourselves in the stark light of God's Truth is terribly important, for without the Truth we too are blind. We cannot learn the truth about ourselves without looking long and hard at God who is perfect beyond all our wildest imaginings. He is perfect Love. He is perfect Truth. He is perfect Kindness. He is perfect Generosity. He is perfect Compassion. Of course, when we hold ourselves up against such a person as God, we are bound to be humbled and ashamed by the truth about ourselves.

In comparing myself to God I will see the thousand ways in which, like the Pharisee, I am greedy and self-satisfied and in which I judge others; my eyes will be opened to the times without number when I have thought, said or acted in ways which were contrary to the perfect and unconditional love of God.

I am therefore a sinner – it doesn’t matter to what degree I am a sinner … the fact remains that I AM A SINNER. Indeed, if I were to imagine myself to be standing shoulder to shoulder with, say, a murderer, I cannot say that I am in any more or less need of God’s healing mercy because I am quite simply in need of his mercy. It could even be said that I am no closer to or further from God than anyone else for we are ALL close to God by dint of the fact that He is close to us.

This passage is a warning to us to make sure that we try to align ourselves more closely with the tax collector, the sinner. This is the man who should draw us into this passage, for this is the man who is inviting us to be more aware of the areas of our life which stand in need of God’s healing mercy. He tells us not only to be aware of our shortcomings but actively and sincerely sorry for them. We are to stand with him, and humbly present ourselves before God and ask for his merciful love and forgiveness and healing in our lives. What can we do except to turn to the words of the psalmist and say, from the bottom of our hearts …

Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.
In your compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.

My offences, truly, I know them;
my sin is always before me.
Against you, you alone, have I sinned;
what is evil in your sight I have done …..
(Ps 50/51)

The tax collector ‘stood at a distance’ such was his sense of personal sin and shame. Well, we may too, in our own sense of sin and shame, find ourselves standing at a distance, too ashamed to even look into our Saviour’s face, and that is no bad thing: that is an important moment for us. However, it is not perhaps as important as the moment in which we move on, called as we are to trust in the Lord’s love for us and in his desire that we should have a greater intimacy with him, and Jesus gives us the opportunity for that greater intimacy in the sacrament of the Eucharist in which he makes himself fully present to us. Jesus, our healer, our great lover; Jesus who sees right into our hearts and who knows us and understands us better than we know or understand ourselves. Jesus, who, the minute we recognise our need of him and are able to sincerely confess our guilt and our shame, will pour his grace into our hearts so that we, like the tax collector, can head for home at rights with God.

Lent ... what is the point?

2010-01-31T23:46:00.000-08:00

I'll bet that at the very mention of the word 'Lent' most of us heave an inward groan. I wouldn't mind betting also that most of us try to give something up without really understanding the reasoning or logic behind it.

It might help if we were to look at two things:

- what the actual word 'Lent' means, and
- what the Church itself has to say

‘Lent’ … what does it mean?

The word 'lent' means 'springtime'. The seasons are deeply important to our spiritual life: just as nature needs a time of death and renewal so do we. For nature, the season of winter brings about a time of retreat and 'death' in order to make way for the wonderful new life that burgeons out in springtime. In just the same way our spirit needs a time of searching, of learning to 'die' to self and of repentance in order to bring about a new life, a life more open to the boundless possibilities of a life lived through the Spirit. It is always so exciting to see the first green tips of daffodil bulbs poking through the cold February soil, and it seems almost miraculous that, tucked away, deep down, is the potential for a big and perfect yellow daffodil. We need to see our spiritual lives in the same light - our full spiritual flowering will come about only when we have been brave enough - with God's help - to learn to say 'no' to ourselves and to our, possibly, self-centred ways. And that is where the Church's guidance on Lent comes in.

What does the Church say?

During the first three centuries most Christians prepared for Easter by fasting for only two to three days. In some places this was extended to the entire week before Easter. Eventually this developed into the 40-day period that we now know as Lent. It is no coincidence that Lent lasts for 40 days: this was the amount of time that Jesus spent in the desert prior to putting into full practice what His Father had sent him into the world to do. Lent is our opportunity to join Jesus in the desert in order that we, too, might emerge from the desert, freshly invigorated and empowered to carry out his work. Jesus' time of retreat empowered him to take up his ministry, and our time of retreat will do the same for us. This period, which he spent in the desert, was crucial: the springtime which flowered from it brought about astonishing feats of healing and holiness for those around him. The time he spent in the desert brought him closer to his Father and to a greater awareness of what work he had ahead of him. We need to enter into that desert too in order for ourselves to come closer to God and to arrive at a better understanding of what he wants us to do. It makes sense to me that if we want to follow Jesus through death and into eternal life, then we must try and follow him through life - his life.

The Church therefore emphasises Lent as being primarily a time of discipline and penitence.

The point of giving things up or challenging ourselves in some other (possibly physically) way is that, if one can discipline the body, there is every chance that we can learn to discipline that which is far more important to discipline: the mind. Without discipline of mind, humanity is liable to run wild, sometimes with devastating consequences.

Just as discipline is important for our salvation, so is penitence. To be penitent is to grieve, mourn, sorrow over and regret all that we have done which has come between us and God. I have a suspicion that, just as the word 'penitence' has gone out of fashion, so has the word 'sin', and society may have lost sight of what sin is and therefore what we really should be grieving and mourning over. On a personal level we should be grieving over our untruths, the unkind thoughts we have about others, the nature of our gossip, our pride, greed, vanity, our cynicism, our idolisation of material goods, impatience and so on. On a collective level, we should be grieving over the millions of unborn babies which are killed each year, our willingness to condone sexual immorality, our part in the enslavement of underpaid third-world workers, international greed and misuse of power, our slowness to act or speak out against the extraordinary cruelty of child trafficking (often into prostitution) and so so much else. There is a veritable mountain of things to feel sorry about, and Ash Wednesday is the point at which we can try to make some sort of a start.

What is the significance of the ashes on Ash Wednesday?

Ashes have strong biblical associations with repentance. When Jonah took his warning to the dissolute people of Nineveh that unless they changed their ways and repented then God would bring destruction upon them, he found them to have a ready ear. Their much-respected leader saw the error of their ways and led them in putting on sack-cloth and ashes as a sign of repentance. It is something of a relief that we don't have to go about in sack-cloth for the duration of Lent, but as the priest puts the ashes on our foreheads he will use one of two phrases:

"Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel", indicating our need to think carefully about our lifestyle and attitude to God, OR

"Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you will return", in which we are reminded of our own mortality and the fact that we will, at some point in the future unknown to us, have to face our Maker and give an account of our lives

Lent is a great opportunity!

Lent, above all, is an opportunity to GROW. We need to GROW in our knowledge and therefore our love of God; we need to GROW in our knowledge of ourselves and - importantly - our faults. Our knowledge of God will increase if we take time to read the Gospels and if we give time over to prayer every day. Our knowledge of ourselves will increase as we grow in our knowledge of God. In order to see ourselves as God sees us, and therefore to grow in the knowledge of ourselves, there are some questions that we need to be asking ourselves …

Do I judge or criticise others?
Do I ever say anything that could damage another’s reputation?
Do I talk about others behind their back?
Am I compassionate when someone is suffering?
Am I helpful and considerate?
Do I tell untruths?
Am I ever unkind in thought, word or action?
Do I forgive those who have hurt me?
Do I idolise the famous because they are glamorous & rich?
Am I overly concerned with the way I look?
Do I make enough effort to understand the other point of view?
Am I impatient?
Do I want things to go my way all the time?
Do I condemn others who don't agree with me?
How much time do I spend thinking of myself?
Am I ungenerous with my time and possessions?
Am I ever envious of other people's things?
Do I try to trust in God, particularly in difficult circumstances?
Do I remember to give adequate thanks to God?
Do I try to keep Sunday special?

God of Wisdom be in my head and in my understanding
God who created all things be in my eyes and in my seeing
God of Truth be in my ears and in my hearing
God of Gentleness be in my mouth and in my speaking
God of Compassion and Love be in my heart and in my thinking
God of Mercy and Forgiveness be at my end and at my departing

Send forth your light

2010-01-14T03:18:00.000-08:00

One evening, as I was reading the prayers of Evening Prayer from the Divine Office, one of the prayers really leapt out at me and caught my imagination. It went, “Lord, may your cross light up the darkness of the world:- may it lead everyone to you, the way, the truth and the life.”

Outside, it was the inevitable evening gloom typical of late winter, and I was stopped in my tracks, pondering the many forms of darkness and what form of ‘darkness’, particularly, to which this prayer was referring. My mind ran to all things physically dark: the moonless night, dark caves, the great depths of the ocean, unlit rooms and so forth. It seemed to me that these types of darkness are part of the created and natural world and, as such, are expressions of God and cannot, therefore, ever be thought of as evilly dark or the sort of darkness which has to be overcome.

If natural darkness is the work of God, then it stands to reason that the only true ‘darkness’, i.e. the darkness which is evil and is to be overcome, must therefore be the darkness of sin. Given that all things sinful and evil emanate from the heart, then the darkness of the night and of every black recess which exists upon this earth and in the entire universe cannot compare – in terms of darkness – to that which we find in our hearts when we think, say or do something which runs directly against God’s law of Love. All the evil and awful things of which humanity is capable are a direct result of what is in the heart: there cannot, therefore, be anywhere quite as dark as that of a human heart intent upon evil.

Jesus tells us very clearly that, “The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and it is these that make a man unclean. For from the heart come evil intentions: murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, slander. These are the things that make a man unclean” (Matt 15:18-19)

Our inner darkness takes many shapes and forms but, at its centre, are all those qualities which are the opposite of all that God is. If God is perfect tolerance, patience, peace, joy, truth, forgiveness, gentleness, humility, trust and love, then to be living out our lives in a state of – for instance – impatience, anger, untruth, pride, inability to forgive, selfishness, fear, and so on, is to live in darkness, and it is this darkness which has to be dispelled and overcome. In other words, we are to overcome our darkness by allowing the light of all that is Good, (i.e. God) to radiate into our hearts.

Both the Old and the New Testaments are full of references to the light as being directly linked to God. The psalmist begs of God to “Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell” (Ps 43:2-4); because he knows that “Even in darkness, light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man” (Ps 112:4).

The psalmist goes on to tell us that God is the source of all light when he tells us that, “Blessed are those who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord” (Ps 89:15) and that it is in the perfect light of God, a light which searches our hearts, that we will be measured and judged in our turn, for “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence” (Ps 90:8). Later on in the Old Testament the prophet Isaiah foretells a time when “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” (Is 9:2), and that God “will turn the darkness before them into light” (Is 42:16)

The darkness referred to in the Old Testament is the darkness created by man due to his original disobedience towards God and the resulting expulsion from heaven. In the days of the Old Testament those who died went to ‘hell’, not the hell of our understanding, but a place nevertheless of darkness and marked by what must have been a dreadful absence of light and of God. Jesus’ death and resurrection was to overturn all of that: the gates to the underworld and to heaven were unlocked so that humanity could for ever avail itself of the unending mercy of God and a future spent in the light of his presence.

The darkness, therefore, of the New Testament and of our present day, is the darkness of sin from which humanity finds it so difficult to be free. Jesus tells us that, “Though the light has come into the world men have shown that they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil. And indeed, everyone who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed; but the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.” (John 3:19-21)

Therefore, if true darkness resides only in the human heart, then it is in the human heart alone that the ight of the cross must cast its radiance. Isaiah referred to Jesus himself as being the Light to light up the world. This light, through the power of the Holy Spirit, remains available to all who turn to him, and it is this light which enables us to be, in our turn, the light of Jesus in an otherwise dark world. When we turn to Jesus he pours light into our heart to enable us to play our own part in lighting up the world. We are to carry on the work of Jesus and of his original followers in carrying the torch which has been handed down, over the centuries, from one generation of believers to the next. But how am I to do this? How am I to dispel the darkness of my heart that I can be a person of light? How can the cross of Jesus, such a symbol of pain, torture and death, cast light into the darkness of my heart?

Well, as I write this now, looking forward to Lent and to Easter, we will soon be rejoicing in the fact that the cross, which will stand empty on Golgotha (it apparently having done its work in dispatching once and for all the Christ), will no longer be a symbol of death, but of Life. The cross, previously a symbol of fear, shame and death no longer has any power whatsoever over mankind: it has been made redundant for all time. We have been liberated to live in the light of the risen Jesus who calls us into his light. We can be absorbed into that light by, firstly, facing up to all that we have thought, said or done which has damaged our relationship with God and with others and by sincerely apologising. We can be further absorbed into Jesus’ light if we can, in the words of St Paul, “Fill your mind with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise.” (Phil 4:8).

Let us, therefore, open our hearts to all that is good and honest and truthful, whilst at the same time taking every possible care to reject all that is base and which runs contrary to love. Let us reject gossip, untruths, anger and impatience; let us turn away from our every ungenerous thought or reaction; let us overcome our pride by reminding ourselves how much we owe to God and that we could never fully repay him for his relentless goodness to us; let us open our hearts more fully to those around us who lack even the basic essentials for life. Let our lives, in other words, be governed by a desire for all that is Good

Peace ...

2010-01-05T02:55:00.000-08:00

Peace ….. what a lovely word that is and how appealing is the whole idea of peace: personal inner peace, peace in our families, peace in our community and, ultimately, peace across the world. The desire for and love of peace are deeply embedded into the lives of every human being, so it is extraordinary that, given this desire, humanity has been singularly poor at establishing it.

Why is there so little peace? One of the primary reasons must be because individuals are not at peace within themselves. In order to establish world peace, we need to work backwards: from the world to community, from community to family, from family to the individual.

Have you ever noticed how a peaceful person radiates peace in such a way that it is catching? It seems to me that if we want to be part of a peace-making process, we need to take responsibility for finding peace within ourselves in order to allow that peace to radiate out and affect those around us. It is like a ripple effect: a peaceful person encourages peace in another, and another and another. St Francis loved to greet people with the words "The Lord give you peace!" and he told his followers, "When you proclaim peace by your words, you must also carry an even greater peace in your hearts. Let no one be provoked to anger by you, or be scandalised, but let your gentleness encourage all men to peace, good will and mutual love".

What causes us to lack or lose peace?

There are many reasons why we lack peace. For many - in fact, for most of us - it may be a hurt we are carrying around with us, something that we are finding hard to forgive or understand. It would be true to say that I don't know anyone who has not been damaged to some degree: that is part of the human condition. It would be worth remembering that God is passionate about us in our humanity. He knows who has damaged us, how they have damaged us and, most importantly, how to heal us.

Many of us find it hard to be at peace with ourselves because we have not yet learned to love ourselves as God wishes that we would. God would want us to be happy with the way he has made us, warts and all. He would want us to be grateful to him for our very being and for the gifts that he has - and hasn't - seen fit to give us. Sadly, we live in a culture which encourages us to find fault with the way we look, with the way we do things, with the way we do our house up and so much more.

When Jesus tells Lazarus to come out from his tomb and then releases him from his death shrouds, he is also taking the opportunity of saying to us: I want you to be free, I want you to be free from all that separates you from my peace.

What is separating us from this peace that Jesus wants us to have?

- are we inclined to be quick-tempered?
- are we harsh with others in our thoughts and words?
- do we judge and criticise those around us?
- do we fear criticism of ourselves?
- are we greedy?
- are we fearful and anxious?
- are we quick to argue without taking the trouble to see the other point of view?
- are we slow to forgive?

Despite all of these things: our natural flaws and insecurities; our sadnesses and general damage, Jesus would still tell us - you can be at peace, it is what I want for you!

In the Mass, just after we have said the 'Our Father' and we have the very person of Jesus right there, with us, on the sanctuary, I am always reminded of Jesus' first appearance amongst his friends after he had died. What were his first words? They were quite simply "Peace be with you". "Peace be with you…. I leave you peace, my peace I give you". I do urge you to spend time pondering these words which were not just addressed to his friends at that time, but to you and me. “I want you to be at peace, I will give it to you, I have the means of giving it to you. Turn to me and find peace.”

Peace is within our reach.

A truly peaceful person is someone who is at peace with themselves, others and God. At the heart of that peace is forgiveness, forgiveness of ourselves (the hardest part), forgiveness of others (not easy either) and God's forgiveness of us.

As we examine ourselves we need to be as gentle with ourselves as God is with us. If we turn to him he would lead us….

- into a life of patience and gentleness
- into a way of dealing with people without judging or criticising them
- to a humility and freedom where we won't mind what people think of us or say about us
- to a gratitude for all that we have which will free us from greed
- to a loving trust of him which will put to free us from all our fears and anxieties

In a mind that is full of Love and Wisdom, there is no room for either fear or ignorance;
In a mind that is full of Patience and Humility, there is no room for either anger or annoyance;
In a mind that full of Poverty and Joy, there is no room for either avarice or cupidity;
In a mind that is full of Peace and Contemplation, there is no room for either worry or restlessness;
In a mind that is full of Mercy and Prudence, there is no room for either harshness or excess;
Where there is the fear of God to guard the dwelling, there no enemy can enter.
(Adapted from St Francis' verse of Virtue & Vice)

Seriously though ...

2009-12-01T01:11:00.000-08:00

We are about to enter into one of the most important seasons of the Church’s year. At the same time, we are very conscious of how the weeks in the run-up to and including what is essentially a Christian festival have become somewhat overwhelmed by the ethos of shopping and materialism. One could forgive a visiting alien for being completely bewildered as to what the season of Advent and Christmas is really all about.

There are two very distinct but entirely opposed faces to Christmas: on the one hand we have Father Christmas standing in the rain collecting money outside the supermarkets, next to his sleigh (on wheels, with the distinctive rumble of a diesel engine coming from underneath it); rack upon rack of Christmas cards sporting glitzy pictures of snowmen and Christmas trees; we have false snow on shop window fronts; tinsel and glitter everywhere; reindeer with big red noses; piped Christmas pop music seemingly throughout the land; drinks parties and crowds of shoppers on every High Street spending money they don’t necessarily have.

The other face of Christmas presents us with images of a very young woman – not much more than a girl - far from the comfort of home and the reassurance of her family, lying on a bed of filthy straw giving birth for the first time; we see her newborn baby with nowhere to sleep except in the animals’ food trough; we have a handful of poor shepherds on a hillside on a very cold Middle Eastern night.

Of these two faces of Christmas, it was the poverty and silence of scene in the stable which attracted the jubilation of the angels and of the whole company of heaven. For it was the child being put to bed in the animal trough of which, centuries before, the prophet Isaiah had written …

… on him the spirit of the Lord rests,
a spirit of wisdom and insight,
a spirit of counsel and power,
a spirit of knowledge.
He gives no verdict on hearsay,
but judges the wretched with integrity,
and with equity gives a verdict for the poor of the land.
His word is a rod that strikes the ruthless,
his sentences bring death to the wicked.
Integrity is the loincloth around his waist,
faithfulness the belt about his hips. (Is 11:1)

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
and the government will be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counsellor
The Mighty God;
The everlasting Father
The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 60:1-3 & 9:6

It was the baby delivered into the world in such difficult and humble circumstances of whom the psalmist wrote that his would be …

… a voice that speaks of peace,
peace for his people.
His help is near for those who fear him
and his glory will dwell in our land.
Mercy and faithfulness have met;
justice and peace have embraced.
Justice shall march before him
and peace shall follow his steps. (Ps 84:9-14)

As all the shops become increasingly decked out with decorations, and the number of illuminated snowmen and sleighs adorn the roofs of houses across the land, so the Church begins to gear itself up for a time of deep reflection and seriousness.

On the first Sunday of Advent in churches all around the world purple becomes the colour of the season: tabernacles are covered in purple veils and Christian clergymen and women will don purple stoles and chasubles. Purple is the colour of seriousness: it is the colour which calls us to penance and to a time of solemn preparation. The public perception (even amongst the Christian community) of what we are preparing for during Advent has, for a very long time, been misunderstood, for the first part of Advent (the first two weeks) is all about preparation for Christ’s second coming. It is not a time of preparation for remembering his first appearance, i.e. his birth in Bethlehem on that first Christmas morning. The Mass readings in the first couple of weeks bear out the call to prepare ourselves for the promised end of all things, when Jesus will come back to the world and there will be judgement for all of mankind. We are asked to imagine what it will be like to stand before him and called to give an account of ourselves: our thoughts, our words and our actions, particularly those which have damaged our relationships with others and, therefore, with God ….

“Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” Matthew 24:44

“His winnowing-fan is in his hand; he will clear his threshing-floor and gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out” (Matthew 3:12

“Be on your guard, stay awake, because you never know when the time will come” Mark 13:33

“The Day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then with a roar the sky will vanish, the elements will catch fire and fall apart, the earth and all that it contains will be burnt up” 2 Pet 3:10

“And then you will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man” Luke 21:27, 36

The solemnity of this time of year cannot be emphasised enough if we are to use this time of preparation well. Like Lent, it is a time when we have to really search our souls and see the ways in which we stand in need of God’s healing.

But … it isn’t all doom and gloom! The tone of Advent changes completely after the third Sunday of Advent, otherwise known as Gaudete Sunday, or joyful Sunday. At this point, and after two weeks of soul-searching, we begin to think about the fact that Jesus has already been amongst us and has shown us how it is possible to be transformed. He transformed those who came to him when he walked the earth 2,000 years ago. He makes himself available, still, for our own transformation, through his Word and through the sacraments of the Church. We can read for ourselves with what compassion and mercy he deals with those who come to him. I particularly love this passage by St Teresa of Lisieux (from her book, ‘Story of a Soul’, ISBN 0-935216-58-8) which sings of the love and mercy of Jesus and which, knowing how deeply flawed we all are, should give us great hope …

“I have only to glance at the Gospels: at once this fragrance from the life of Jesus reaches me. Even if I had all the crimes possible on my conscience, I am sure I would lose none of my confidence. Heartbroken with repentance, I would simply throw myself into my Saviour’s arms, for I know how much he loves the prodigal son. I have heard what he said to Mary Magdalene, to the woman taken in adultery, and to the Samaritan woman. No one can make me frightened any more, because I know what to believe about his mercy and love; I know that in a twinkling of an eye all those thousands of sins would be consumed as a drop of water cast into a blazing fire.”

There is no doubt that Christmas should be a time for celebration and thanksgiving, for families to get together and to rejoice. Our rejoicing, though, is made all the more profound and meaningful if we have spent Advent seriously considering who Jesus is to us as individuals and as a community, and what the outlook might have been without that first Christmas Day.

Why did you doubt?

2009-11-17T02:58:00.000-08:00

Then Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people away. After sending the people away, he went up a hill by himself to pray. When evening came, Jesus was there alone; and by this time the boat was far out in the lake, tossed about by the waves, because the wind was blowing against it. Between three and six o’clock in the morning Jesus came to the disciples, walking on the water. When they saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said, and screamed with fear. Jesus spoke to them at once. “Courage!” he said. “It is I. Don’t be afraid!” Then Peter spoke up. “Lord, if it is really you, order me to come out on the water to you.” “Come!” answered Jesus. So Peter got out of the boat and started walking on the water to Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he was afraid and started to sink down in the water. “Save me, Lord!” he cried. At once Jesus reached out and grabbed hold of him and said, “How little faith you have! Why did you doubt?” They both got into the boat and the wind died down. Matthew 14:22-32

Here we have one of those stories which we have heard so many times that we are in danger of it ceasing to have the sort of impact on us that it really should have. For this story encapsulates the sort of faith to which Jesus is calling us all the time – not just for one or two glorious moments of our lives, but all the time. It is the sort of faith which works miracles, both small and big. This story tells us everything we need to know about how Jesus works – or would like to work! – in our lives.

Let us watch this scene in our imaginations. Let us see the disciples clambering into their boat and setting off across the lake and, as it turns out, into troubled water. They have left Jesus behind and are batting against a very strong headwind. They are in absolutely no danger – the waves aren’t overwhelming – but it is extremely heavy and hard-going.

All of a sudden they are aware of the person of Jesus walking near to them on the water. To their secular and mortal minds, this is something which is impossible. To their logic, they must be looking at a ghost for there is no other reasonable explanation. In their alarm, they scream out in fear, and who can blame them for that? Jesus knows that they are frightened by what is going on and, probably feeling a little sorry for them, calls out to them that it really is him and not to be afraid.

It is Peter, so impetuous but always quick to recognise the truth when it is presented to him (wasn’t he the first to declare who Jesus really was? Matt 16:16) who challenges Jesus: if it really is you, Jesus, then tell me to come to you. Well, how could Jesus resist such a direct challenge? Come on, then, Peter, come and join me. To his eternal credit, Peter steps out of the boat.

Now let us just stop for a moment and imagine this scenario. Take yourself in your imagination to that boat. Imagine …

… the dark night
… the strong wind
… the rocking boat
… the inky black rolling waves

Would you step out into that? I doubt that many would! But here we have Peter, recognising the Lord and determined to respond to his call to ‘come’ and join him. We see him actually stepping out of the boat and setting off across the water to be with Jesus. His belief and faith in Jesus, and in divine power to overcome the apparently impossible is, at this point, total. We know that to be true for we hear that he set off, walking across the water. For a few glorious moments, he is living the divine life as Jesus is calling him to live it. The divine power of God, present in each of his followers, has overcome the physical world and the laws of physics, and Peter – a mere mortal – is walking on water.

But what happens next? Peter is suddenly reminded by the wind of his flawed humanity and of his mortality. There must have been a sudden gust of wind which caused him to lose confidence, to lose faith in Jesus and in his power to overcome, and he begins to sink into the waves. Jesus, knowing how deeply flawed his beloved friends and disciples are, reaches out and lifts him up.

This is a fantastic passage with which we have to engage more fully than as mere on-lookers. We need to try and enter into it in order to see how Jesus works for and with us every single day of our lives. Let us put ourselves into that boat …

We are sent ahead of Jesus …

Jesus sends his friends ahead of him, and this is exactly what is demanded of anyone who calls him or herself a Christian in any age: we are asked to go out into the world in which we live, work and move to proclaim the person of Jesus by the way we live. When Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, gazes at his beautiful new baby son, whom he knows has been given the task of proclaiming Jesus, he says: “As for you, little child, you shall be called a prophet of God, the Most High. You shall go ahead of the Lord to prepare his ways before him.” We are called to do no less: to bring people to the Lord by the way we live. However, we know how hard this can be on two counts. Firstly, it is hard to live permanently at one with God and his will, for we are so flawed and are always failing. Secondly, it is hard because we live in a very secular world in which the message of Jesus is not always welcomed.

Therefore, our journey is never going to be straight forward and there will be times when, like the disciples struggling in their boat against a strong headwind and rough seas, we will feel exhausted.

Where is the Lord when I need him?

In all our troubles and challenges, it is easy to feel that we are on our own, for direct experiences of the presence of Jesus can seem, in our ordinary day-to-day secular lives, to be few and far between. But this passage points us to the reality of Jesus present now. Just as he walked into the difficult situation in which his friends in the boat had found themselves, he walks quietly and calmly into our difficult moments and, quite simply, demands faith. Don’t be frightened … I am with you … come! … you can do it … have courage … have faith …

Faith! What a hard thing that is when one is sincerely frightened. In this passage we get a glimpse of what ‘faith’ means as far as Jesus is concerned. It means confidence, trust, reliance, assurance, conviction and belief. We also, thankfully, get a glimpse of what happens when humanity is able to put its trust in the Lord: a miracle of mammoth proportions.

What if I can’t quite live up to Peter’s faith?

This passage is crying out to us to at least try to live up to the sort of faith displayed by Peter. We are called out to seek Jesus at all times and to have faith in him to carry out his work on this earth through us, and sometimes that will require faith to overcome apparently impossible obstacles. We are urged to have such faith. I love to imagine the possibilities and potential of having such faith: all the things it should be possible for us to do in the name of Him who calls us.

But then, like Peter, how easily we are reminded of our flawed humanity and we are held back from our full potential. However, we should take heart, for we are reminded of Jesus’ unfailing love for flawed humanity when we hear that he reaches out in the deepest possible love and compassion to the sinking Peter and lifts him up. That act of ‘lifting up’ can take all forms in our lives – we can be lifted up in so many ways. How often we are lifted up by those moments of prayer when Jesus talks to us and encourages us in our own particular journey. How often we are lifted up by those around us who are kind to us and affirm us. We are lifted up by the wonder of creation around us – and that includes the cold wind and the rain – for we are reminded of the eternal Creator God for whom nothing is impossible and who calls us to a closer union with him in order that his glory may be made known to the world. May Peter pray for us that, like him, we can step out of our boat and find the sort of faith which will set us free.

Why go to Mass?

2009-10-20T01:14:00.000-07:00

Why, indeed, go to Mass? One of the most important and visible signs that someone is a Catholic is that they take seriously the obligation to go to Mass on a Sunday. For many years Catholics were told that if they did not go to Mass on a Sunday, this was a sin so grievous as to warrant eternal punishment. However, whilst there does remain a serious obligation to attend Sunday Mass, a great deal of Church thinking has changed since this particular dictate was prevalent amongst the faithful, and Catholics are, at last, going to Sunday Mass because they want to.

Why was it so important for the Church to ensure that people went to Mass every week, to the point where eternal punishment was threatened if they failed to attend? It was seen as crucial because, since the beginning of the early Church, the Mass was seen as the central and key part of the life of the universal Church, the re-enactment of the story of our healing and redemption; a memorial of what Jesus went through for our sake, and a crucial opportunity to keep the faithful well-versed in moral truths.

It was important because, of all the sacraments of the Church, this was the one in which the very person of Jesus Christ is made truly present. Present in such a way that we, like the many people in the bible who flocked to him and who found their healing, can come to him also.

Thankfully, as I have said above, Catholics now go to Mass because they want to. They want to because they recognise that it is in the Mass that we come together, as a loving community, to hear what God has to say to us and to receive him, personally and intimately into our lives.

The Mass always starts with the priest welcoming the faithful who have gathered together, as a community, under one roof, and inviting them to make the Sign of the Cross, a clear statement of in whose name everyone has gathered.

Given that it would be unthinkable to be preparing to come into the true presence of Jesus without first giving thought to how we may have offended him, we then enter into the Penitential Rite. In this part of the Mass we reflect upon our faults and failings, and the ways in which we may have offended God and others in our lives, expressing our regret, openly and verbally, and asking God to have mercy upon us and to heal those aspects of our past and present which stand in need of his healing hand.

In the Readings which follow, we hear from the various books of the Old Testament or from the letters written by, among others, St Paul, to the many Christian communities springing up in places such as Corinth, Ephesus and Rome. Above all, we listen to a passage from one of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John). It is an incredible thought that God, the great Creator of all that exists, the almighty ‘I Am’ of all eternity, has actually spoken to us. We can hear what he has to say to us, directly, through everything that Jesus said and did whilst he was with us on earth. Catholics therefore believe that in listening to these Gospels, we are listening to Jesus speaking to us, for it is in these Gospels that we hear about the life, work and words of Jesus. The Gospels are central, they are the hinge, in terms of learning how to put Christian life and love into practice in our everyday lives.

The readings end with an explanation, a Homily, given by the priest of what we have just heard, and then, standing, the community is joined as one in its declaration of what it believes, in the recitation of the Creed. Still standing, we turn to God with our Bidding Prayers, lifting up before him the many and varied needs of the world, our more immediate community and our own particular needs.

In the Offertory part of the Mass the faithful bring gifts of bread and wine to the altar. In this act, the whole community gives thanks, firstly, for the fact that God will shortly make himself present to us through the miracle of the Eucharist. It is also a moment in which we express our thanks for all the goodness which God pours out upon us, an expression made perfect by the personal offering of ourselves to Him.

Then, at last, we embark upon that part of the Mass which was instigated by Jesus himself at the Last Supper: the gift of himself in the form of bread and wine, the Eucharist.

What can one say about this? How is it possible to adequately put into words the enormity and beauty of such a miracle as Jesus amongst us again? How can one quantify such a love for humanity that Jesus felt unable to leave us, unable to abandon us? A love which demanded and continues to demand to be made present amongst us, thousands of times a day in churches all around the world. A love which so yearns to come to us in order that we too, like the people who flocked to him in the many stories of the New Testament, may also find healing and strength.

This is why Catholics go to Mass! We flock to Mass because we long to be with the Lord; because we know how much we need him in our lives; because we long for his love and mercy; because we long to hear him speaking to us; we long to express our sorrow about all manner of things, and we long for his healing.

It is as simple as this ….. we long to be with the Lord.

Of course, there are many Catholics who choose not to go to Mass, often for reasons such as they don’t like the music, or they don’t like the priest, or Mass is boring, or whatever. I imagine there are many Catholics who can relate to one or all of these at some time in their lives! Sadly, this is more often as a result of our failure to grasp the meaning of the power of the Mass in our lives, and is also a reflection of our failure to understand that in order to get the most out of Mass, the onus is on us to enter, fully and freely, into the miracle of the Mass, always miraculous regardless of whether we like the priest or the music or not.

The Mass is a truly ancient form of liturgy, and before I leave you I must share with you the words of St Justin, one of the early martyrs (he died about AD165) of the infant Church, in which he describes the worship of the faithful of the newly-born Church …

In that day which is called after the Sun, all who are in the towns and in the country gather together for a communal celebration, and then the memoirs of the Apostles and the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits. After the reader has finished his task, the one presiding gives an address, urgently admonishing his hearers to practise these beautiful teachings in their lives. Then all stand up together and recite prayers for ourselves, for the newly baptised, and for others all over the world. After finishing the prayers we greet each other with a kiss. Then bread and a cup of wine mixed with water are brought to the one presiding over the brethren. He takes it, gives praise and glory to the Father of all in the name of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and gives thanks (eucharistises) at length, as much as in him lies, for the gifts that we were worthy to receive from Him. When he has finished the prayers and the thanksgiving, the whole crowd standing by cries out in agreement, “Amen!” After the presiding official has said thanks, and the people have joined in, the deacons distribute as food for all present the bread and the wine-and-water-mixed, over which the thanks (eucharist) has been offered, and which they carry to those not present. No one may partake of it unless he is convinced of the truth of our teaching, and has been cleansed in the washing of baptism and is living as Christ taught us. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but as Jesus Christ our Saviour, made flesh by the Word of God, took flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is consecrated by the prayer of His words is the Flesh and Blood of that Jesus who became flesh and blood. And they who have wealth and are of good will, give what each one thinks fit, and what is collected is deposited with the one presiding, who therewith helps widows and orphans and those who through sickness or any other cause, are in want. (From the Writings of St Justin)

The man believed ...

2009-10-20T01:07:00.000-07:00

Then Jesus went back to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. A government official was there whose son was ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to go to Capernaum and heal his son, who was about to die. Jesus said to him, “None of you will ever believe unless you see miracles and wonders”. “Sir,” replied the official, “Come with me before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go, your son will live!” The man believed Jesus’ words and went. On his way home his servants met him with the news, “Your boy is going to live!” He asked them at what time it was when his son got better, and they answered, “It was one o’clock yesterday afternoon when the fever left him.” Then the father remembered it was at that very hour that Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he and all his family believed. John 4:48

A government official, anxious that Jesus should follow him straight away to Capernaum where his son lay dying, approaches Jesus knowing that Jesus alone can bring the healing that he is seeking. He wants him to come and lay his hands on his son because he knows that this is how Jesus has brought healing to others. Jesus, in what may have been a slightly exasperated tone and probably a little fed up that people refuse to believe in him unless they can see tangible proof of his miracles exclaims, not perhaps so much to the official but to the crowd, "None of you will ever believe unless you see miracles and wonders!"

Jesus then turns to the official and tells him: “Your son will live". The official can do nothing but accept these words in faith, as he is a full day's journey from home. He must have faith in a miracle unseen. It isn't until the next day, as he arrives home, that he discovers that his prayer has been answered - his servants confirm that the healing took place at the exact hour that he was having his conversation with Jesus the previous day.

I often think about his journey home … did he walk that full day’s journey firm in the belief that his son was cured? … did he secretly harbour niggling doubts that his son might still be unwell? Was he astonished by the news that his servants brought to him, or did he greet the news without a flicker of surprise? Despite the fact that I like to think that he was completely normal and therefore did have small doubts, I suspect that in reality his faith in this unseen miracle and on this occasion was rock solid. Faith in Jesus’ power over our lives and in our prayer life is so important: indeed, in so many places in the Gospels Jesus reminds us of the necessity of faith in order to bring about the miracle. In Mark’s gospel, for instance, we hear of a visit Jesus made to Nazareth – his own home town – where ‘he could work no miracle … he was amazed at their lack of faith’ (Mark 6:5). Just imagine that for a moment … such was their lack of faith that could actually work no miracle!

But, going back to the official in this passage, we are told that “The man believed Jesus’ words and went”.

One of the difficult things about faith, especially in our current world which demands answers and explanations, is that we are required to believe in things unseen. Actually, it was much the same in Jesus’ day: in Matthew 16:4 we hear that Jesus castigates the Pharisees and Sadducees who have asked for a sign, “It is an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a sign!” The official’s request for a miracle was witnessed by an entire crowd but the actual fulfilment of this miracle was hidden from them all: it was witnessed only by the servants, a whole day’s journey away.

This is therefore an account which should challenge our attitude to Jesus and his power. The whole Gospel is calling us to have faith in things unseen. We are living here and now in the 21st century and the faith that is being asked of us is no more than what was asked of the man in this story. He knew of Jesus and he met him. So far, that is no different for us, for we know of him through the Bible and we meet him in so many ways but, primarily, of course, in the Eucharist. But, do we believe? Do we have faith?

We need to ask ourselves, to what extend do I know that Jesus is powerful? To what extend do I know that Jesus can work miracles in my life? Do I approach him, as the man in this story approached him, with faith in what he can do for us?

The faith of the official is the sort of faith which is required of us if the full potential of God’s healing hand over our lives is to be completely realised. And this passage, above all, serves to remind us of the omnipotence of Jesus: His power cannot be confined in any way or by anything whatsoever. It is not confined by location or time, it transcends all and is absolute.

This should be a great encouragement for us to have faith in Jesus' power over not only our own lives but the lives of those for whom we pray. It may be that those for whom we pray are at a distance from us, either physically or spiritually.

Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him. Matt 7:7.

Angel sent by God to guide me, be my light and walk beside me.

2009-10-02T03:33:00.000-07:00

On 2nd October the Church remembers and celebrates our Guardian Angels. For many, the whole idea of angels, let alone our own personal angel, is like something out of a fairytale and not altogether believable. However, both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are positively littered with references to angels and the Church takes up and confirms what we hear about the angels, that ‘From infancy to death human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading them to life’ (CCC 336). We therefore ignore angels at our peril!

What is the purpose of angels? Angels live in the constant presence of God and are his messengers, his workforce. Throughout the Bible we hear of how they act for God in many ways, often being the direct method by which important messages are delivered to humanity. They warn and they protect and, on God’s command, have the power to act on his behalf sometimes in quite shocking ways as revealed in the Book of Revelation.

However, for the most part, angels are given to us as helpers and intercessors. The psalmist tells us that “God will put his angels in charge of you to protect you wherever you go” (Ps 91:11). Certainly, the Israelites experienced the direct help and intercession of the angels in their flight from Egypt, for we hear that God tells Moses “Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you.” (Ex 32:34). And again, we are told that an angel acted very forcefully to clear the way before them, “I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites” (Ex 33:2). The Israelites themselves said, “We cried out to the Lord, he heard our cry and sent an angel” (Num 20:16)

In the New Testament, one of the very first references to angels is when we hear that God sent Gabriel, one of his three Archangels (the others being Michael and Raphael), to deliver the message to Mary that she had been chosen to bear the Son of God into the world. We hear that Mary not only saw the angel but was engaged in a conversation with him about what was being asked of her, and that she posed questions to him to which he had to respond on God’s behalf (Luke 1:11). Very soon after that we hear that, twice, an angel visited Joseph in a dream. In the first instance it was to encourage the very discouraged and disappointed Joseph not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife (Matt 1:20) and, secondly, to warn him to flee from Bethlehem to Egypt as Mary and Jesus were in mortal danger from the threats of Herod to destroy all young baby boys in the area under a certain age: “Get up, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him” (Matt 2:13)

Later, we see the adult Jesus alone in the desert being tempted by the devil, though being assisted and strengthened by the angels (Mark 1:13). In John we hear Jesus positively affirming to Nathanial that he will one day see, with his very own eyes, angels ascending and descending, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending” (John 1:51)

In the Acts of the Apostles, written to describe the lives and work of Jesus’ followers after his death, we hear exhilarating stories of how, twice, angels led the apostles miraculously out of prison (through many locked doors) and to their freedom (Acts 5:19); we hear that Cornelius and his family are called to Christianity by the appearance of an angel who comes to them in their house (Acts 10:1); we hear of an angel confirming to Paul that, although he and his travelling companions are about to be shipwrecked, none of them will lose their lives (Acts 27:23). Indeed, it is Paul who points out in his letter to the Hebrews that “The messages given to our ancestors by the angels was shown to be true” (Heb 2:2)

Right at the end of the New Testament, when John is relating the visions he has had about the end of all things, he talks of very powerful angels who are more than just messengers, but actively empowered by God to undertake the processes of reward and destruction:

“After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or any tree” … “Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea.” (Rev 7:1-3) “All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God” (Rev 7:10). “After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendour (Rev 18:1-3). Finally, John tells us that “the angel said to me, ‘These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits and of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must take place’” (Rev 22:6)

We should be in no doubt whatsoever as to the reality of angels. Neither should we have any doubt that they act directly on God’s orders and behalf and that they do so for the benefit of humanity.

Included in these tremendous ranks of angels (and there are very specific rankings!) there are a number of references in the Bible to the fact that God has assigned a special and personal angel to protect us as we move through life: “I am sending an angel ahead of you. The angel will protect you as you travel and will bring you to the place I have made ready. My angel will always be with you.” (Exodus 23:20-23).

Bless the Lord, all you angels, mighty in strength and attentive, obedient to every command (Psalm 103:20)

God is with us

2009-09-14T03:37:00.000-07:00

If someone had told me, this time last year, that come September 2009 my mother would no longer be with us, it would have seemed completed unbelievable, quite simply not possible. The death of people close to us is something of which we are all naturally frightened. We are frightened of what the world will be like without them, we are frightened of the process of death and grief and we are frightened of how we will (or will not) cope with all of these things.

From the moment I picked up an e-mail from my mother last December announcing that she had somewhere between nine months and a year to live, whilst obviously shocked and upset, I nevertheless had an overwhelming sense that God was with us and that God’s hand was all over the situation. There was a strange sense of calm and a renewed urgency to try to rejoice in God and in his way of doing things. I urged everyone in the family to never forget to give thanks to God for all things for, convinced that by so doing, we could be sure that God would take care of everything.

However, there remained the agonising process of watching a loved one die a painful death. One could have been forgiven for asking, how could God possible have a hand in such a profoundly sad and painful situation as a death sentence? … a sentence of wall-to-wall suffering for my mother for a full nine months as it turned out? We could have been forgiven for railing at God, for demanding of him, “how could you? How could you even think of such a dreadful end for such a faithful servant of yours?” (and she had been remarkably faithful for all her life).

That would have been the obvious and very human reaction to such a catastrophic diagnosis, until mum herself reminded us of the words from Job, words with stayed with her throughout her illness: “If we accept joy from God’s hands must we not also accept suffering?” (Job 2:10)

We only have to look at the life of Jesus to know that the authentic Christian journey is likely to include suffering, for God did not spare his only Son from the horrors of the events of Good Friday. God does not shield us from suffering, but I have no doubt that, with faith, he gives us his grace in order to bear it. St Francis de Sales says:

“Do not look forward to the changes and chances of this life in fear. God, to whom you belong, will lead you safely through all things; and when you cannot stand he will bear you safely in his arms. Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow. The same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either he will shield you from suffering or he will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginings.”

At any time of our life we are asked to hand ourselves over to God, to give up our lives to him and for him and for his work. This may sometimes feel like being asked too much, like being drawn into a desert into which we would rather not go. But, it is worth remembering that it is in the desert that God works his greatest wonders, and it was in the desert of watching my mother suffer and eventually die, and in the desert of grief at her passing that we all felt the wonder of God’s comfort provided to us by the loving prayers of all those who were praying for us. Now, if the loving attentions of mere mortals are a powerful comfort and consolation, how much more so God’s? God was with us, his loving hand upon our family in a way which words could probably not describe, and it brought to mind this beautiful psalm ….

O Lord, you search me and you know me,
you know my resting and my rising,
you discern my purpose from afar.
You mark when I walk or lie down,
all my ways lie open to you.

Before ever a word is on my tongue,
you know it, O Lord, through and through.
Behind and before me you stand,
your hand ever laid upon me.

O where can I go from your spirit,
or where can I flee from your face?
If I climb the heavens, you are there,
If I lie in the grave, you are there.

If I take the wings of dawn
and dwell at the sea’s furthest end,
even there your hand would lead me,
your right hand would hold me fast.

For it was you who created my being,
knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation.

Already you knew my soul,
my body held no secret from you
when I was being fashioned in secret
and moulded in the depths of the earth.
(Psalm 138/139)

On the day she left us, and looking for comfort from God’s Word, I looked at what the Mass readings were for that day, and there, set out before me, was yet more proof that God was with us and providing us with all that we so desperately needed, for this was what he put before us on that most painful of days:

The souls of the virtuous are in the hands of God, no torment shall ever touch them. In the eyes of the unwise, they did appear to die, their going looked like a disaster, their leaving us, like annihilation; but they are at peace. God has put them to the test and proved them worthy to be with him; he has tested them like gold in a furnace, and accepted them as a holocaust. They who trust in him will understand the truth, those who are faithful will live with him in love. (Wisdom 3:1-9)

Exposition ... what is it?

2009-09-07T02:18:00.000-07:00

At the very heart of the Catholic faith is the Eucharist, otherwise known as Holy Communion or the Blessed Sacrament. We believe that when we are in the presence of the Eucharist, we are in the absolute and true presence of Jesus Christ.

The New Testament is jam packed with stories of how Jesus moved amongst the people, touching and healing them. Knowing that he was about to die, he was anxious to put in place a means by which he could continue to visit his people, to be among them, to do for humanity what he was able to do whilst he walked the earth.

On the evening before his arrest, he gathered his very close friends together around him and invited them to eat with him. They were all seated around the table when …. “he took some bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it and gave it to them. ‘Take it’ he said, ‘this is my body which will be given up for you; do this in memory of me.’ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and all drank form it and he said to them, ‘this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many’. (Matthew 26:26 / Mark 14:22 / Luke 22:19)

Catholics believe that in the Mass we are carrying out Jesus’ instruction to ‘do this in memory of me’. The bread and wine which are brought to the altar as just that - plain bread and wine - become through the miracle and holy re-enactment of the Last Supper the true Body and Blood of Jesus and therefore his very presence. Jesus did not say that the bread and wine would be a symbol or some vague representation of him: he said quite unequivocally “This IS my body.... this IS my blood”.

This was his parting gift to the world: the opportunity to meet with him over and over and over again in the Mass.

At our school Mass at the start of the school year the priest will consecrate more bread/hosts than is necessary for the immediate Mass. This is in order to enable us to keep a reserve of the consecrated hosts in our school tabernacle for two primary reasons: firstly and most importantly, to ensure the presence of Jesus in our school throughout the school year and, secondly, to enable me, the school chaplain, to lead our school Thursday liturgy for parents (Parents’ Prayers) during which parents have the opportunity to receive Holy Communion.

Added to that, we keep the Lord in our chapel tabernacle for the purpose of Exposition.

Exposition is when one of the large consecrated hosts is brought out of the tabernacle and made visible on the altar using a ‘monstrance’, from the Latin ‘monstrare’ (also the French ‘montrer’, ‘to show’).

The monstrance is put onto the altar, accompanied by a lit candle and also, ideally, incense. The candle and incense symbolise the true presence of Christ/God and remind us that when we come into the chapel during Exposition we are absolutely in the presence of the person of Jesus Christ, who comes amongst his people still.

What does one do at Exposition?

Nothing is required of whoever comes into the chapel for Exposition other than to sit in the presence of Jesus for whatever length of time they wish. There is no set liturgy and there are no words. There is nothing except you, Jesus and silence.

Exposition presents us with a wonderful opportunity to be with Jesus. If you were given the opportunity to come face to face with him who holds the world in the palm of his hand and who has supreme power over your life, what would you want to say to him? What would you want to ask of him? My imagination runs riot at the very thought: there is so much I want to say to him, so much that I want his help with, so many people I want him to come to in a special way … where shall I stop?

What would Jesus say to me? Perhaps he would say, “I love you so much that I don’t want you to go through life without me. I want to be with you in all your troubles and difficulties. There is so much I can do for you and give to you when you come to me. There is much that I can do for your loved ones when you intercede for them through this special time in my presence. I am giving myself to you so that you may be empowered to be the person I want you to be, a good and truthful person, someone of courage and faith, love and kindness, a person of humility and joy, a person who wants to become like me…."

We all know how wonderful it is to be with someone who loves us. We feel supported, protected, encouraged and affirmed. We learn to be tolerant and patient, understanding and gentle. We become grateful for our loved one and for all who love us. Of all the virtues, love is the most powerful and the most healing, and in the sacrament of Holy Communion, Jesus is giving us an expression of his love. Jesus wants us to feel this love. He wants to be with us and through that being together he wants us to be empowered to live the life he wants us to live, to become more like him and transformed by him.

When people have lived together for some time, it is interesting to see how they gradually become very similar in nature and character. They share the same likes and dislikes, the same sense of humour and ways of doing things. Our relationship with Jesus is no different: the longer we spend in his company and the more often we come to be with him, particularly in Holy Communion, the more we will become like him.

In coming into the presence of Jesus we are being empowered to grow in love, faith, trustfulness, humility, self-control, patience, goodness, joy and kindness. Perhaps God is calling you, personally, to carry out some special task which is only yours to do?

In Exposition Jesus comes to us not with a mighty trumpet blast or glorious alleluias, but as he came into the world in the first place, quietly and humbly. He comes in the form of a humble wafer of bread. His great hope is that, in return, we will bring ourselves, humbly, into his presence. Exposition is a celebration that, despite Jesus' walking this earth 2,000 years ago, despite his death and despite his leaving for heaven, He is still with us.

Follow me!

2009-09-07T02:13:00.000-07:00

On September 21st we celebrate the Feast of St Matthew, one of the original twelve apostles.

We first meet Matthew – also known as Levi – sitting at his desk in his office (Matt 9:9, Mark 2:13, Luke 5:27). He was probably totting up the figures of the tax he had collected that day, and working out how much profit he had made through the corrupt (but common) practice amongst tax collectors of taking more than was strictly due. It was this practice which made tax collectors so reviled. Jesus, we hear, walks straight up to him and says, “Follow me”. Matthew got up and followed him.

Later on that day, Matthew laid on a great meal for Jesus, and invited those who were probably the only friends Matthew had: fellow tax collectors and, as the Bible puts it, other ‘outcasts’. The Scribes and Pharisees were scandalised when they saw what was going on and asked Jesus’ friends, “Why does He eat with such people, with tax collectors and sinners?!” Jesus heard them and answered: “It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the words: what I want is mercy, not sacrifice. And indeed, I did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners”.

In order to grow in our knowledge and love of God – and others – we have to ask ourselves of any of the Gospel passages: “Where am I in this story?”

Am I Matthew? Am I able to identify with him, the less than perfect, the sinner, the one who was easy prey to temptation, the one who fell short of the Christian ideal?

Am I the Pharisee? Am I able to identify with the apparently ‘righteous’ one? Do I hold in contempt those whom I perceive to be, somehow, less good or able than I am? Am I quick to judge and condemn? Do I, like the Pharisee, care unduly about my public image in order to impress?

Jesus is not fooled by any of our outward shows of piety or outward show of anything. He knew very well that the Scribes and Pharisees – those to whom the Jewish people looked up to as leaders and role-models – were so caught up with the minutiae of the Jewish rules and regulations that they had completely lost sight of the fact that God LOVES His people, and that, at the very centre of the entirety of God’s laws is LOVE. “Go”, said Jesus, “Go and learn the meaning of the words: WHAT I WANT IS MERCY!”

This passage should be a great source of encouragement for us all: Matthew was a really very ordinary man, doing a job which had to be done, but who found it hard to stay on the straight and narrow. And yet …. and yet … Jesus made a beeline for him, actively seeking him out. Jesus looked beyond frail humanity and saw the potential for greatness. He saw Matthew’s need and met it. That day, Matthew came face to face with the perfect Truth, Justice, Mercy and Forgiveness of God, found it to be irresistible and was forever captivated by it.

We are no worse or better than Matthew: our daily lives are littered with both small and big failings: our unkind thoughts and words; our small untruths; our impatience with others; our irritability at other people’s failures or weaknesses; our lack of humility; our slowness to apologize and so on.

Jesus is hopelessly in love with humanity, warts and all. He wades into the company of sinners just as much now as He did in Matthew’s time. If Jesus were here in person today, you would find Him in the prisons talking to and befriending the inmates, and anywhere that fallen humanity in need of His help is to be found.

Jesus sought Matthew out and led him into a better life and we need to ask ourselves: “Is Jesus seeking me out?”

The easy answer to this is, “Yes … He is most certainly seeking you out.” Not a day goes by when Jesus doesn’t seek us out. Jesus follows us around all day, every day, offering us a new life lived in His footsteps. But – and it is a big ‘but’ – we have to do two positive things. We have, firstly, to be attentive to His call and, secondly, to be open to the idea of getting up and following Him.

Be attentive to His call ….

We can be attentive to His call by making a point of bringing ourselves into His presence every day. This need not, at first, be more than just being still, acknowledging God and giving thanks. This is a truly fine prayer and a good jumping off point for greater communication with God.

Get up and follow Him ….

Matthew’s complete lack of hesitation would suggest that this is not as hard as we might think. However, it is a challenge because to follow Jesus is to live a life of LOVE. That’s the bottom line: LOVE. Love at all times for all people; love not only for those who are easy to love, but love also for those we prefer to reject. To love is a great challenge, but the more we can bring ourselves into the presence of God who is Love, the more He will infect us with His love and the easier it will become. But, we have to start somewhere and, like Matthew, we can start with a simple “Yes”.

Prepare a way for me ...

2009-06-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

In June the Church urges all its members to recall and celebrate the Birth of St John the Baptist. I guess that for many the birth and life of St John may seem very distant and not altogether relevant to our own life.

So why does the Church place such emphasis on this particular birth, life and person?

John’s birth was something of a miracle: his mother Elizabeth was well past child-bearing age (probably in her 40’s which, in Biblical terms was old) and she did not expect to ever have a baby. However, John’s father Zechariah, who was a very good man and scrupulous in his observance of God’s commandments, was told by the Angel Gabriel that his wife would become pregnant and that she would have a son whom they were to name “John”. The Angel told him that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit and would bring many back to God. Zechariah’s immediate reaction to this news was doubt and, as a punishment, he was struck dumb from that moment until it came to naming his child. The relatives assumed that the child would be named after someone in their family and were aghast that both Elizabeth and Zechariah insisted upon the name “John”, the name explicitly given to the boy by God himself. Zechariah, upon getting his speech back exclaimed: “As for you, little child, you shall be called a prophet of God the Most High, you shall go ahead of the Lord to prepare his ways before him. To make known to his people their healing, through the forgiveness of all their sins, the loving kindness of the heart of our God, who visits us like the dawn from on high. He will give light to those in darkness, those who dwell in the shadow of death, and guide us into the way of peace” Luke 1:76.

These magnificently beautiful words from a father to his new baby son indicate a profound and possibly new understanding of the nature of God and of the role that his own little boy would play in the understanding that the world in the future would have of God: a loving God who wishes for peace, reconciliation and healing for his people; a God who is prepared to send his only Son into the world in the full knowledge that only through his torturous death and subsequent resurrection the world may learn of his love for mankind.

Indeed, when the time came for John to begin his work, he burst out upon the world - as Isaiah had foretold that he would (Is 40:3) - loudly proclaiming to all people the tender love of God and the urgent need for them to REPENT, to SEEK FORGIVENESS and to LIVE A NEW LIFE IN THE POWER OF BAPTISM.

John’s message to humanity both then and now is:

Be reconciled to God and believe in his Son, Jesus Chris …

The greatest longing of the human heart must be for perfect peace, and this can only come about once we are perfectly reconciled to God through our belief in, and imitation of, Jesus. What do we have to do to achieve this? We need to take a greater responsibility for knowing about and confessing before God all those aspects of ourselves which fly in the face of the Christian ideal. People flocked to John, confessed their sins and were baptized into a new way of life. This is his call to us too: confess your sins and live a new life in the power of your Baptism, a life based upon the Gospel values put so beautifully and clearly into practice by Jesus, values of love, mercy, faith, truth, goodness, generosity, kindness, humility and forgiveness.

Take responsibility YOURSELF for preparing a path for Jesus through the world in which you find yourself, for Jesus wishes to use you to call people to himself …

We could never overestimate the value of our own role in preparing others to find and know God. If our thoughts, words and actions have their source in God and in His love, then people will come to associate our loving treatment of them with the love that God has for them. The value of your example, if it is a good and loving one, is priceless.

Don’t be afraid to speak out …

I am sure that most of us can relate to feeling a little embarrassed about talking openly about God and whatever faith we may have. Our faith and belief in God tend to remain private matters which we prefer not to express in public. However, Jesus warns us about not openly declaring for him that others may believe: “If anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven” (Matt 10:32).

These are very strong words and ones which we need to heed, take to heart and respond to.

Curiously, the Bible tells us nothing about Jesus’ relationship with John as they were boys growing up. Indeed, it seems unlikely that they had ever met (despite being cousins) prior to Jesus suddenly arriving on the banks of the River Jordon seeking Baptism from John. Jesus, though was very clear about how he felt about John: “I tell you solemnly, of all the children born to women, a greater than John has never been seen. If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen!” (Matthew 11:11, 15). Up until that time, all the prophets had pointed to a time in the future when the Christ would appear. But here, in John, was the prophet who was able to actually point to the Christ, able to say, “Here he is!”

John was a messenger both then and now …

We may think that we are not living in the kind of wilderness that John found himself in and from which he preached. True, we are not living in a Middle Eastern desert, but we ARE living in a moral desert, a wilderness which has been brought about by society’s rejection of Christian values and beliefs, a society which proclaims the pagan gods of the paramount importance of ‘self’ and material possessions, wealth and power. John’s call is as urgent today as it was then.....

- Turn away from sin (Matt 3:2)

- Share what you have with those who have nothing (Luke 3:11)

- Practice truth and honesty (Luke 3:14)

- Treat others well and be content with what God has given to you (Luke 3:14)

- ABOVE ALL, believe in Jesus who was born of Mary, who died and who rose again that we might follow him through death and into life. Jesus who came before and who will come again at a time and moment we do not expect.

John the Baptist led a deeply ascetic life which is why he is the patron saint of monks. His Feast Day is June 24th.

Why did you doubt?

2009-06-03T00:41:00.000-07:00

Then Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people away. After sending the people away, he went up a hill by himself to pray. When evening came, Jesus was there alone; and by this time the boat was far out in the lake, tossed about by the waves, because the wind was blowing against it. Between three and six o’clock in the morning Jesus came to the disciples, walking on the water. When they saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said, and screamed with fear. Jesus spoke to them at once. “Courage!” he said. “It is I. Don’t be afraid!” Then Peter spoke up. “Lord, if it is really you, order me to come out on the water to you.” “Come!” answered Jesus. So Peter got out of the boat and started walking on the water to Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he was afraid and started to sink down in the water. “Save me, Lord!” he cried. At once Jesus reached out and grabbed hold of him and said, “How little faith you have! Why did you doubt?” They both got into the boat and the wind died down. Matthew 14:22-32

Here we have one of those stories which we have heard so many times that we are in danger of it ceasing to have the sort of impact on us that it really should have. For this story encapsulates the sort of faith to which Jesus is calling us all the time – not just for one or two glorious moments of our lives, but all the time. It is the sort of faith which works miracles, both small and big. This story tells us everything we need to know about how Jesus works – or would like to work! – in our lives.

So, let’s watch this scene in our imaginations. Let us see the disciples clambering into their boat and setting off across the lake and, as it turns out, into troubled water. They have left Jesus behind and are batting against a very strong headwind. They are in absolutely no danger – the waves aren’t overwhelming – but it is extremely heavy and hard-going.

All of a sudden they are aware of the person of Jesus walking near to them on the water. To their secular and mortal minds, this is something which is impossible. To their logic, they must be looking at a ghost for there is no other reasonable explanation. In their alarm, they scream out in fear, and who can blame them for that? Jesus knows that they are frightened by what is going on and, probably feeling a little sorry for them, calls out to them that it really is him and not to be afraid.

It is Peter, so impetuous but always quick to recognise the truth when it is presented to him (wasn’t he the first to declare who Jesus really was? Matt 16:16) who challenges Jesus: if it really is you, Jesus, then tell me to come to you. Well, how could Jesus resist such a direct challenge? Come on, then, Peter, come and join me. To his eternal credit, Peter steps out of the boat.

Now let us just stop for a moment and imagine this scenario. Take yourself in your imagination to that boat. Imagine …

… the dark night
… the strong wind
… the rocking boat
… the inky black rolling waves

Would you step out into that? I doubt that many would! But here we have Peter, recognising the Lord and determined to respond to his call to ‘come’ and join him. We see him actually stepping out of the boat and setting off across the water to be with Jesus. His belief and faith in Jesus, and in divine power to overcome the apparently impossible is, at this point, total. We know that to be true for we hear that he set off, walking across the water. For a few glorious moments, he is living the divine life as Jesus is calling him to live it. The divine power of God, present in each of his followers, has overcome the physical world and the laws of physics, and Peter – a mere mortal – is walking on water.

But what happens next? Peter is suddenly reminded by the wind of his flawed humanity and of his mortality. There must have been a sudden gust of wind which caused him to lose confidence, to lose faith in Jesus and in his power to overcome, and he begins to sink into the waves. Jesus, knowing how deeply flawed his beloved friends and disciples are, reaches out and lifts him up.

This is a fantastic passage with which we have to engage more fully than as mere on-lookers. We need to try and enter into it in order to see how Jesus works for and with us every single day of our lives. Let us put ourselves into that boat …

We are sent ahead of Jesus …

Jesus sends his friends ahead of him, and this is exactly what is demanded of anyone who calls him or herself a Christian in any age: we are asked to go out into the world in which we live, work and move to proclaim the person of Jesus by the way we live. When Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, gazes at his beautiful new baby son, whom he knows has been given the task of proclaiming Jesus, he says: “As for you, little child, you shall be called a prophet of God, the Most High. You shall go ahead of the Lord to prepare his ways before him.” We are called to do no less: to bring people to the Lord by the way we live. However, we know how hard this can be on two counts. Firstly, it is hard to live permanently at one with God and his will, for we are so flawed and are always failing. Secondly, it is hard because we live in a very secular world in which the message of Jesus is not always welcomed.

Therefore, our journey is never going to be straight forward and there will be times when, like the disciples struggling in their boat against a strong headwind and rough seas, we will feel exhausted.

Where is the Lord when I need him?

In all our troubles and challenges, it is easy to feel that we are on our own, for direct experiences of the presence of Jesus can seem, in our ordinary day-to-day secular lives, to be few and far between. But this passage points us to the reality of Jesus present now. Just as he walked into the difficult situation in which his friends in the boat had found themselves, he walks quietly and calmly into our difficult moments and, quite simply, demands faith. Don’t be frightened … I am with you … come! … you can do it … have courage … have faith …

Faith! What a hard thing that is when one is sincerely frightened. In this passage we get a glimpse of what ‘faith’ means as far as Jesus is concerned. It means confidence, trust, reliance, assurance, conviction and belief. We also, thankfully, get a glimpse of what happens when humanity is able to put its trust in the Lord: a miracle of mammoth proportions.

What if I can’t quite live up to Peter’s faith?

This passage is crying out to us to at least try to live up to the sort of faith displayed by Peter. We are called out to seek Jesus at all times and to have faith in him to carry out his work on this earth through us, and sometimes that will require faith to overcome apparently impossible obstacles. We are urged to have such faith. I love to imagine the possibilities and potential of having such faith: all the things it should be possible for us to do in the name of Him who calls us.

But then, like Peter, how easily we are reminded of our flawed humanity and we are held back from our full potential. However, we should take heart, for we are reminded of Jesus’ unfailing love for flawed humanity when we hear that he reaches out in the deepest possible love and compassion to the sinking Peter and lifts him up. That act of ‘lifting up’ can take all forms in our lives – we can be lifted up in so many ways. How often we are lifted up by those moments of prayer when Jesus talks to us and encourages us in our own particular journey. How often we are lifted up by those around us who are kind to us and affirm us. We are lifted up by the wonder of creation around us – and that includes the cold wind and the rain – for we are reminded of the eternal Creator God for whom nothing is impossible and who calls us to a closer union with him in order that his glory may be made known to the world. May Peter pray for us that, like him, we can step out of our boat and find the sort of faith which will set us free.

What do you want me to do for you?

2009-05-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

“As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting at the side of the road. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and to say, ‘Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me’. And many of them scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he only shouted all the louder, ‘Son of David, have pity on me’. Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him here’. So they called the blind man. ‘Courage,’ they said ‘get up; he is calling you’. So throwing off his cloak, he jumped up and went to Jesus. Then Jesus spoke, ‘what do you want me to do for you?’ ‘Rabbuni,’ the blind man said to him, ‘Master, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has saved you.’ And immediately his sight returned and he followed him along the road.” (Mark 10:46-52)

This has got to be one of the most exciting and dynamic passages I have read for ages. There is so much in it for each of us, individually, that it is hard to know where to begin. As in all passages of the Gospel, we are in there somehow, and in this passage we are both the blind beggar and members of the crowd.

An opportunity!

I wonder how long Bartimaeus had been sitting by the side of the road begging. A life-time? He must have heard something of the reputation which this man Jesus was acquiring: a man who heals the sick, raises the dead and who gives sight to the blind. He hears a large crowd approaching and must have sensed something more exciting than usual going on … can Jesus of Nazareth be amongst the crowd? When someone in the crowd says that, yes, Jesus is here, he sees it as his chance for a personal encounter with him. He just has a feeling that this man, Jesus, born in the line of David, has great powers to do great things and that this is a real opportunity for him. He leaps at this opportunity and keeps calling out in order to catch his attention.

Where am I in this scene?
· I have heard of Jesus, and I know his reputation
· What is his reputation? … is it true?
· How have I responded to his reputation; do I really believe that he can do all things for me?
· Do I leap at opportunities of encountering him?
· In what ways am I passing up or disregarding opportunities?

Have pity!

Bartimaeus first calls out to him “Son of David!” – an affirmation of the importance of his birth, but not quite the affirmation of Jesus’ authority which comes later in the passage. But, his shouting is really irritating the crowd who turn on him to scold him, telling him to keep quiet. His anxiety that he was going to be shouted down by the crowd and overlooked by Jesus must have been awful: are they going to stop me approaching Jesus? Will he hear me? This is my last chance – I may never be this close to Jesus ever again. So Bartimaeus shouts all the louder … “Son of David, have pity on me!” These words have resounded down through the centuries by so many millions: have pity on me.

· Do I stand in need of Jesus’ pity?
· I do, because I am human: I am weak and easily tempted.
· I look at my past and can see that I stand in need of forgiveness.
· O Lord, hear my voice over the din of life’s distractions and …have pity on me!

Jesus calls him

Suddenly, Jesus stops in his tracks. The crowd stops. “Call him here” Jesus says and, all of a sudden, the fawning crowd whose attitude to the beggar had been so dismissive, changes. This beggar has been a wretched nuisance for years; we have been tripping and falling over him and, truth to tell, he is a bit of a pain. However, Jesus wants to see him – he has singled him out – perhaps our attitude has been wrong. We are very impressed by this man Jesus, so we had better comply with him and help the beggar to his feet and to Jesus.

Am I Bartimaeus in this scene?
· Bartimaeus beckons and Jesus responds: do I actively beckon to Jesus?
· Do I call out to him full of faith that he will hear and respond?
· I may, at times, feel lonely, but Jesus’ friends are around me and keen to help

Or, perhaps, the crowd?
· I need to be aware of those around me who are crying out for God
· How can I help?
· By being more open and sharing my faith with them?
· By praying for them?
· Who are the people I am tripping over and finding a nuisance?
· Should I be helping them?

Unhinder yourself

The beggar gets up and throws off his cloak. This is very symbolic of throwing off his old self: getting rid of unnecessary baggage which may hinder his journey towards Jesus.

· What are the obstacles in my relationship with Jesus?
· What baggage is Jesus asking me to get rid of in my journey towards him?

What do you need?

The beggar approaches Jesus and is rewarded with this exquisitely beautiful question: “What do you want me to do for you?”.

Just imagine yourself, for a moment, into this scene and that it is you – just as you are – standing in front of Jesus – such a warm and loving person, a man of healing, truth and power, and he asks you … what do you want me to do for you? This question is a deeply moving one as we think of all the things we want Jesus to do for us. I think of the many people for whom I am praying: my family, those who are sick or anxious and so very much more. Where shall I stop? The blind man must have been struggling … what shall I ask of him? Shall I ask for a job … a home? … an easier life?

His eventual and only response is … “Rabbuni!” or “Master!”, words which affirm that Jesus really is his Master and can do all things for him. In this knowledge and having affirmed, publicly who Jesus is, he then says “Please, let me see again”.

The amazing thing about Jesus’ question is that he even asks it at all – doesn’t he know everything before it is even on our tongue? Doesn’t he know everything we need? There is a purpose to his question: he intended that it should be recorded and that all who would read the Gospels in the future should come across it and be prompted to think: “What do I want Jesus to do for me?”

The blind man’s response reflects what should be not only our own deepest personal request of the Lord but, indeed, the whole of humanity: “Master, let me see!” “Let me see the wonderful ways in which you bless me every day, let me see the suffering and pain of those in need, let me see your beauty in those I prefer to dislike, let me see your glory all around me in the beauty of creation, let me see the ways in which we can work for greater justice and peace in the world, let me see myself as you see me, let me see your will for me….”

Go, your faith has saved you

In his exclamation “Master!”, Bartimaeus is filled with the knowledge of the Truth of who Jesus is: he is the Son of God. It was not his plea of “let me see again” which brought about the restoration of his sight, but his acknowledgement of who Jesus was, an acknowledgement affirmed by Jesus, “Go, your faith has saved you”.

He followed him

Bartimaeus’ encounter with Jesus achieved two things: it deepened his faith and brought about a newness of sight, a newness of sight which led to his desire to follow Jesus. This is why we must make every effort to encounter Jesus in our own lives. We need him to deepen our own faith that we, too, might be granted newness of sight and a greater desire to be a follower of Jesus.

Jesus question “What do you want me to do for you?” is at the heart of Jesus’ relationship with us: he walks with us all day long, whispering this very question into our hearts … “what do you want me to do for you?”, an invitation to allow him into every aspect and moment of our lives.

Obliged to go to Church?!

2009-05-08T01:52:00.001-07:00

The words ‘Holyday of Obligation’ are so familiar to Catholics that they trip off the tongue without our stopping to think: why is the Church actually obliging me to go to mass? Such is the age of personal freedom and lack of personal discipline and obedience, that the very word ‘obligation’ more often than not meets with something of a flicker of rebellion.

The tradition of going to Church every Sunday is very much based on the Ten Commandments given to Moses and stresses the importance of having one day of rest, taking that day as an opportunity to focus on priority: God, family, community, praise and worship. As God gave Moses the Ten Commandments he told him that they were the blueprint for a happy and successful society: follow these rules and all will be well.

The Church has imposed rules upon its members based on the Ten Commandments. These rules and regulations are there because God is fully aware of humanity’s natural weaknesses: he knows that without rules and regulations humanity will always be in danger of running riot, morally.

All the rules and regulations given to us have been laid down in the spirit of Love, not to constrain us but to protect us, and there are some very specific days which the Church sees as particularly important in terms of keeping humanity on track, and the Church emphasises these days in God’s name. These days are the Holydays of Obligation.

In any one Liturgical year (beginning with the first Sunday in Advent and ending with the Feast of Christ the King, just before Advent) there are no less than seven Holydays of Obligation. They are: The Epiphany, The Ascension, Corpus Christi, Saints Peter and Paul, The Assumption, All Saints and Christmas Day.

Let’s take a look at each of them, asking ourselves: Why is this important? What is it asking of me and what is it offering to me?

In The Epiphany we meet the Magi, the Three Wise Men, who have been stargazers for some time and who are now joined in their conviction that this new star will lead them to a new King. They are united in their following of the Light. Why is this important to me, here and now? It is important because the significance for us is that they were not Israelites, they were not members of God’s chosen people: they were, like us, outsiders. They therefore represent all members of the rest of humanity who search for the Christ. The kings searched and they found; they knocked and the door was opened to them; they believed in their search and were rewarded. This day is therefore asking me: am I actively following the light, i.e. searching for Jesus (i.e. love, truth, honesty, integrity, goodness, etc) in my day-to-day life? How am I searching? Do I read the gospels regularly enough? Am I neglectful of my prayer life? Do I allow myself, by my actions and words, to be a means of reflecting the Light into the world around me? But what is this Holyday offering me? Hope! It is a reminder that when Jesus opened his arms on the cross, he opened his arms to the community beyond his own, Jewish, community: I am included in God’s family, as I recognise him as my Father, he recognises me as his own and beloved child.

In the Ascension we see the Lord leaving the earth for the last time, promising us that he has to return to heaven in order that the Holy Spirit can be sent into the world. This is important to us on a number of levels. On a human level it is a reminder that in life we are bound to encounter loss: we cannot hold on to those whom we love because, ultimately, they belong to God. On a spiritual level it is a reminder that the Holy Spirit – he who is so strong, so perfect, so wise, so steadfast – is promised to us. As a direct result of the Ascension, the Spirit was poured out upon the world, and continues to be poured out into the world and into hearts who invite him and are willing to receive Him. This should cause us to ask of ourselves: do I acknowledge the gift of the Spirit in my life? Do I seek Him and His guidance out? This feast offers us the opportunity to turn to the Spirit afresh, inviting him into our lives that we may become the person that God so urgently wants us to be.

In the feast of Corpus Christi we remember that, despite Jesus leaving the world 2,000 years ago, he is still with us! All those people who flocked to him whilst he was still alive came to him and found their healing. Corpus Christi reminds us that we, too, can come to him, truly and fully present as he is in the Eucharist at Mass, to search for our own healing. It obviously challenges us to think more carefully and deeply about our attitude to Mass and to the Eucharist, and encourages us to have faith in Jesus still truly present amongst us. As I walk up the aisle at Communion time, I imagine the warm Middle Eastern dust under my feet, the hot desert sun on my face, the din of the crowd and …. Jesus, the great healer, waiting for me, to meet my need and the needs of those I carry with me. Corpus Christi is a celebration of Jesus still amongst us to heal and strengthen us. I cannot think of a more powerful, loving and intimate gift to each of us than this, the personal, gentle and healing touch of the Lord in the form of bread.

In June we remember Saints Peter and Paul. This may seem a strange choice for obliging us to go to church. But if we reflect that without these two men there would be no Church, then it is not surprising that we are asked to gather together to officially recognise their work and great personal sacrifice. This Holyday asks us to question our own attitude as to how we join in the work of the original apostles in proclaiming the Gospel. For instance, I know how uncomfortable it is possible to feel in talking about faith and being open with others about our relationship with God. But, imagine what the Church would have been like if Peter and Paul had failed to be open about their faith! The faith cannot be carried on from one generation to the next without people who are open about faith. Therefore, if we call ourselves believers and followers of Christ then we, too, are on a mission. The best way we can be open about faith is in the way we live. Indeed, one of my favourite quotes from St Francis is this: “Preach the Gospel with your whole life. If necessary, use words”. One of the most important aspects of this Holyday is that it is a good reminder that God chooses weak, unlikely and surprising characters to carry out his work. This, in itself, should fill us with encouragement and hope.

In the Feast of The Assumption we celebrate the fact that Mary was taken up into Heaven both in soul and in body. She is the forerunner of all who believe and have faith: she was the first disciple and believer who welcomed Jesus into her life and whose life was transformed by her “Yes”. We are taught that at the Final Judgement our corrupt bodies will be transformed into glorious copies of Our Lord’s and that those who have been faithful in serving the Lord in their lifetime will be rewarded by the fullest possible resurrection. What does it ask of us? It asks us to consider how fully we have given our own ‘Yes’ and whether or not we have allowed that ‘yes’ to transform our lives. It asks us to question how faithful we have been. This Holyday reminds us, of course, that as baptised children of God, we have the promise of resurrection and an eternity spent in the company of the saints and angels.

Which brings us to the Feast of All Saints. Is this a feast we can relate to? Yes, absolutely! Of course, primarily, this is a day which celebrates all those who have gone before us who have gained Heaven due to the witness of their lives. BUT, this is also a day which celebrates all Christians. St Paul regularly in his letters refers to the followers of Christ as ‘saints’. It is therefore a day when we celebrate the fact that God asks all of us to strive to know, love and serve him to the best of our ability – that is what a saint is. Regardless of our background we are all called to love God and each other. If we can do that, then the feast of All Saints is for us. Well, that raises the obvious questions, and challenges us to look at just how far we are prepared to go to know, love and serve God. Do I know God? If not, why not? How do I express my love for him? How am I serving him in my day to day life?

I’ll bet you didn’t know that Christmas Day was a Holyday of Obligation. Of course, Midnight Mass has something of a reputation anyway for dragging even the most reluctant church-goer out into the cold night air, unable to resist the annual ritual of being in church on Christmas Eve. Of all the Holydays of Obligation this is the one most likely to attract churchgoers and with good reason, though we have to be careful to divorce ourselves from the commercialisation of this Feast and to go to church to sincerely celebrate the appearance upon this earth of Him who created all things. It is a miracle, probably, too deep for humanity to completely and fully comprehend, but a miracle truly deserving of obliging Christians to gather together in a spirit of worship, praise and thanksgiving.

All of these Holydays of Obligation are invitations to do that: to praise and to give thanks. If I were to list here all the things we need to praise about God and all the things we need to thank him for, there isn’t enough paper in the world to do it, neither would there be sufficient words or time. Holydays of Obligation present us with small but important opportunities to express our thanks and to ask ourselves questions about how we are doing in our own journey towards God.

I want to be with you ...

2009-05-08T01:47:00.001-07:00

In June we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi which, translated from Latin, means "Body of Christ". This is one of the few celebrations of the year which the Church has designated a Holyday of Obligation, which means that we are obliged to go to church. The fact that we are obliged to go to church indicates that the Church sees this celebration as one of the most important. Why?

It is one of the most important celebrations because it is a remembrance and affirmation of the most powerful of Jesus’ parting gifts to mankind: the gift of Himself. We are not talking about some vague notion of Jesus' being with us spiritually (which he is), but actually present with us.

After Jesus rose from the dead he spent 40 days with his friends whilst all the time knowing that after this period of time he would be leaving them for good. He wanted to go home to his Father and he was ready to leave. However, he also desired to remain with his friends in a deeply personal and intimate way and, indeed, with all who would ever follow him over the centuries to come,

He had already devised such a way and had given a hint of it when he ate his last meal with his friends before his arrest and death. During the course of the Last Supper he took some bread, blessed it and gave God thanks for it. He then shared it out amongst his friends saying, “Take it and eat it, this is my body”. Then he took the cup of wine, blessed it and gave it to his friends to share, saying, “Drink it, all of you, this is my blood” (Matt 26:26-28). He then gave them a very clear directive, "Do this in memory of me". Jesus was saying that whenever his friends re-enacted this scene in the future, he would make himself present, absolutely and truly, in the form of bread and wine: that the bread would become his Body and the wine his Blood.

Therefore, at every single Mass which has been celebrated all over the world since that time, Jesus is made present and we have the opportunity to be with him and to come into his presence again and again and again.

The Mass, therefore, presents us with a wonderful opportunity to be with Jesus. If you were given the opportunity to come face to face with him who holds the world in the palm of his hand and who has supreme power over your life, what would you want to say to him? What would you want to ask of him? My imagination runs riot at the very thought - there is so much I want to say to him, so much that I want his help with, so many people I want him to come to in a special way … where shall I stop?

What would Jesus say to me? Perhaps he would say, “I love you so much that I don’t want you to go through life without me. I want to be with you in all your troubles and difficulties. There is so much I can do for you and give to you when you come to me in Holy Communion. There is much that I can do for your loved ones when you intercede for them through this special time in my presence. I am giving myself to you so that you may be empowered to be the person I want you to be, a good and truthful person, someone of courage and faith, love and kindness, a person of humility and joy, a person who wants to become like me…."

We all know how wonderful it is to be with someone who loves us. We feel supported, protected, encouraged and affirmed. We learn to be tolerant and patient, understanding and gentle. We become grateful for our loved one and for all who love us. Of all the virtues, love is the most powerful and the most healing, and in the sacrament of Holy Communion, Jesus is giving us an expression of his love.

Jesus wants us to feel this love. He wants to be with us and through that being together he wants us to be empowered to live the life he wants us to live, to become more like him and transformed by him.

When people have lived together for some time, it is interesting to see how they gradually become very similar in nature and character. They share the same likes and dislikes, the same sense of humour and ways of doing things. Our relationship with Jesus is no different: the longer we spend in his company and the more often we come to be with him particularly in Holy Communion, the more we will become like him.

There is a lovely passage in a book by Sister Briege McKenna which illustrates beautifully the effect of coming into the presence of Jesus, particularly through this sacrament….

"I was just looking at the Blessed Sacrament and adoring Jesus and telling him I didn't have much to say except that I loved him. I felt as though the Lord said to me, "Well, don't you know that you don't have to say anything to me? Just be with me. Come into my presence. It's not what you do for me, it's what I want to do for you." Then I got an image of a person going out of his house and sitting in the sun. As he sat in the sun, he didn't do a thing, but he started to change colour. People who saw him knew he had been in the sun because his skin showed it. The man knew it too, because he felt the effects of the sun: the warmth and the light. I heard the Lord saying, "So it is when you come into my presence. You will experience the effects of your time spent with me. People will see it in your actions". From "Miracles do Happen" by Briege McKenna OSC (ISBN 0-86217-253-5)

It is important to remember that when Jesus comes to us in Holy Communion, he is not fragmenting himself into thousands of little pieces. Rather, he is absorbing us into himself. To the degree that he shared in our humanity, he shares his divinity with us. All who come to share in the Sacrament of Holy Communion are being absorbed into Jesus - we are becoming one body with him. That is an extraordinary thought and immediately begs the question "If God is absorbing us into Himself, what are we being empowered to do or become?"

We are being empowered to grow in love, faith, trustfulness, humility, self-control, patience, goodness, joy and kindness. Perhaps God is calling you, personally, to carry out some special task which is only yours to do?

In Holy Communion, or Corpus Christi, Jesus comes to us not with a mighty trumpet blast or glorious alleluias, but as he came into the world in the first place, humbly. He comes in the form of a humble wafer of bread and drop of wine. His great hope is that, in return, we will bring ourselves, humbly, into his presence.

Above all, Corpus Christi is a celebration that, despite Jesus' walking this earth 2,000 years ago, despite his death and despite his leaving for heaven, He is still with us. This truth is, indeed, worthy of many 'alleluias'.

The Ascension ... where am I in this story?

2009-05-08T01:38:00.000-07:00

The amazing thing about the Gospels - and the myriad of stories contained within them - is that there is not a story or passage in which we are not included somehow: we are there, in them all, somewhere and somehow!

We learn to live the Gospel life - the life that Jesus wants us to live - by allowing ourselves to enter into the Gospel, and we can begin to do this by asking ourselves of any particular scene or story:

- Where am I in this scene?
- What aspects of it can I relate to?
- Is there any part of it that relates to my own life and experience?
- What is Jesus trying to tell me?
- What are the other people in this scene trying to tell me?

We will very soon be celebrating the first important event after Easter and which has a direct message for us: the Feast of the Ascension. The occasions of both the Ascension and Pentecost are inextricably linked not only to each other, but also to us, individually and personally. There are two aspects of the Ascension which have something to say to us and to which we can all relate:

- the sadness and inevitability of losing someone we love, and
- the inevitability of our own passage from this life into the next

If we have lost someone we love, we can relate to the disciples' complete despair at losing Jesus not just once, but twice. Their first experience of grief, when Jesus was killed and left in a tomb, was soon to turn to unadulterated joy and celebration by his appearing among them again, in the flesh, just days after his death. Just pause for a moment and try to imagine what this must have felt like: imagine if one of your loved ones came back from the dead - your heart would be filled to bursting with joy and you would never wish to go through the pain of losing them again.

The time between Christ's resurrection and ascension must therefore have been a deeply precious time for them all: were they able to say to Jesus all the things they wished they had said before he was crucified? Were they more open with Jesus about their love, affection and gratitude for him? Did Peter rejoice to have the opportunity to apologise, personally, to him for having denied him three times? What questions should this raise for us?

- Do my family and friends know that I love them?
- Am I truly grateful for the gift of companionship?
- Do I work hard enough to heal divisions caused by disagreement?
- Do I treasure my own friendship with Jesus?
- What is my friendship with Jesus like?
- Am I careful not to make it all take and no give?

This was a precious time for the disciples: they must have had a renewed sense of gratitude for him and for the gift of his friendship and we can only guess at what profound sadness they were filled with at the prospect of losing Jesus for a second time.

Jesus, though, made it very clear that his going had a real purpose and that not only they, but generations to come - you and me - would benefit by his going to the Father. What was this purpose?

Firstly, and apart from anything else, it was time for Jesus to go home to his beloved Father: "If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father - the world must know that I love the Father" (John 14:28). He quite simply wanted to go home.

How hard it is to let someone we love go, but this is what Jesus is telling us in this scene: he knows the anguish that separation through death brings, but he wants us to be reassured that our departure from this world - and the departure of our loved ones - is nothing other than going home. His friends were quick to understand what he was saying and were clearly comforted by this, for they "went back to Jerusalem, filled with great joy" (Luke24:52).

Secondly, he knew that unless he went home to his Father in heaven he would not be able to bring about the promised baptism with the Holy Spirit: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift I told you about, the gift my Father promised…… in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:4-5). This must have been a source of excitement, encouragement and comfort for his friends, though they could not possibly have guessed what this baptism with the Holy Spirit was going to do for and with them.

Lastly, he was going ahead of us to prepare a place in heaven for each of us: "I am going now to prepare a place for you…." (John 14:2). Having blazed a trail through death, he was now going ahead to make ready a place for us in heaven: what more could we possibly ask of him?

"But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me…to the ends of the earth." After saying this, he was taken up to heaven as they watched him, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
(Acts 1:8)

And so, Jesus departed and his friends waited…….

Earthenware jars ...

2009-04-15T02:48:00.000-07:00

Four years ago I was lying in bed thinking about the passing of Pope John Paul II and, like so many people around the world, reflecting on the huge impact that his personal witness has made to the world during the course of his 26-year papacy.

I tried to imagine what it might be like to be on one’s death bed, with the entire world holding its breath, waiting for one to die. What a strange and curious way to go. Whilst many may not have agreed with him, it seems to me that the world respected him as a man of tremendous warmth and compassion and a brave witness in a society whose values were constantly challenged by the truths for which he so bravely stood.

What touched me about the pope’s death is that his task and his joy in life had been to carry out the will of God and he was therefore happy to pass on. How wonderful to be able to face the prospect of meeting one’s Maker (and Judge) serenely and joyfully, confident in the knowledge that you have done what was yours to do and to the best of your ability, that you have served God in all that he has asked of you.

With this thought in mind, I couldn’t help (though we shouldn’t really) but hold myself up in comparison with him and his witness. It was a depressing comparison until I consoled myself with the knowledge that he was, of course, unique and his role in this world was unique. In making comparisons we must be very careful not to devalue our own personal journey and witness, for isn’t our own role and personal response to God unique? No-one else can tread the path that I am treading: what is mine to do is mine to do. My role may be considerably more humble and less public, but is that any reason to suppose that my own personal witness and commitment is less worthy in the sight of God?

This brought to mind a couple of lovely passages from “Story of a Soul” by St Therese of Lisieux:

“I understood how all the flowers He has created are beautiful, how the splendour of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not take away the perfume of the little violet or the wonderful simplicity of the daisy. And so it is in the world of souls. He willed to create great souls comparable to lilies and roses, but he has created smaller ones and these must be content to be daisies or violets destined to give joy to God’s glances when he looks down at his feet”.

And in another passage, St Therese questions why God appears to give glory in unequal measures …

“I was surprised that God did not give equal glory to all ….. Then Pauline told me to fetch Papa’s large tumbler and set it alongside my thimble and filled both to the brim with water. She asked me which one was fuller. I told her each was as full as the other and that it was impossible to put in more water than they could contain”

As with so many people (of all religious persuasions) at such a time, the death of the Pope caused us to question where we stand in regard to our relationship with God and also on many ethical and religious issues. I have a real sense that, just as the tsunami in 2005 gave the world an opportunity to unite, the passing of the Pope offered us a further opportunity to unite as one against the sleaze, the corruption, greed and transitory nature of current popular culture and to embrace the aspirations for a world built upon integrity, honesty, truth, purity of heart, mind and intention, peace and justice, fraternal love and respect: all these things which Pope John Paul II so valiantly championed and for which he is now, rightly, being proclaimed ‘Great’.

How are we to unite? Firstly, we need to make our own personal decisions about our own way of life. We need to look to our own consciences about how we are not co-operating with God in the way he is asking us to. Could I carry out that which is mine to carry out with a greater spirit of love and service to others? Could I be a more faithful and loving wife and mother, or husband and father? Could I give greater thanks to God for all that he gives to me every day? Could I be doing better in bringing my children up in the faith? Could I be doing more to protect the rights of those who are vulnerable and on the edge of society? Could I be far more generous with my money? And so much else.

Secondly, we have to unite with all people of goodwill against the pernicious forces which threaten the moral stability of this world. We need to stand up and be counted in the fight against all forms of human degradation, and this includes the – apparently – innocuous pornography and violence on our screens right through to freeing the world of all forms of slavery, especially the evil of child sex slavery.

Seeing the dead body of the Pope in the newspapers and TV at the time forcibly reminded me of St Paul's words (2 Cor 4:7) that the body really is just a worthless earthenware jar. Looking at his grey and completely lifeless face we could see for ourselves, quite clearly, that his soul had flown, leaving what can only be described as a greying and decaying shell. It is a powerful reminder and vivid example of the place that Spirit has – or should have – in our lives. True life is Spirit and we are brought to life by the Holy Spirit engaging with our soul - a process begun at Baptism - and enlivened throughout our lives by the sacraments. When the soul is separated from the body, we can see the grim result: stiff, cold death. Therefore, this logically says to me that our modern obsession with our physical bodies (so dangerous, anyway, for young impressionable minds) is as far removed from what true Life is all about. Our lives, if they are to be in any way meaningful, must be centred on the Spirit: only that can be true Life.

Was Judas Iscariot really that bad?

2009-04-13T07:13:00.000-07:00

As we emerge from Holy Week when we listened twice to the passion of Jesus (on Palm Sunday and then again on Good Friday) there are some characters – other than Jesus himself – which leap out at me in the accounts of Jesus’ last 24 hours. There are two who really stand out: Peter and Judas Iscariot.

I’ll bet at the very mention of the names ‘Peter’ and ‘Judas’ most people immediately think of Peter the saint and Judas the sinner. In reality, I don’t believe that either was as good or as bad as the other, and that we can, in our own lives, probably relate to both. But, as far as history is concerned, there would seem to be a vast gap between these two men.

It was whilst Jesus was eating his final meal with his friends that Judas – one of those friends – slipped away from the gathering and out into the night in order to fulfil a promise he had made earlier to the Romans to lead them to Jesus. Later that night, whilst Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, the soldiers, led by Judas, came and arrested Jesus who was then taken away for questioning. Meanwhile, all Jesus’ friends had scattered and were no-where to be seen except for Peter, who was loitering around, warming himself by a fire. As Jesus had predicted, Peter denied not just once, but three times that he was a friend of Jesus or that he even knew him.

Jesus’ anguish at the prospect of the next 24 hours was compounded by the fact that two of his previously faithful friends had completely betrayed him. These two terrible betrayals lay as much guilt on Peter as on Judas: they are guilty to the same degree. Despite this, history has made a saint of Peter whilst pouring condemnation on Judas.

At this point in the story what, exactly, are they guilty of?

Whilst both are guilty of betrayal, Judas is guilty of greed and Peter of fear. There is not one of us who is not guilty of these things. We are guilty of greed by having or wanting more than we actually need; we are guilty of fear when we do not believe that God is looking after us; we are guilty of betrayal when we claim to be a Christian but fail to live like one. So far then, we too are on a level footing with both Judas and Peter.

Even after their betrayals, Judas and Peter remain on a level footing in that they are both overwhelmed by shame and guilt at the consequences of their actions. Peter weeps, openly, with remorse. I have no doubt that Judas also weeps. Therefore, what is it that makes the crucial difference between Peter and Judas, because so far they are entirely equal?

Judas, as we know, went off in his shame and hung himself. Peter, on the other hand, had a faith that somehow his guilt and shame could be healed. At that point, though, he can have had no real grasp of even the idea of Jesus coming back from the dead: he must have been staring into a huge abyss of uncertainty made worse by his remorse.

Some days later, the risen Jesus appears to Peter and asks him, “Do you love me?” and Peter says, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you”. Jesus doesn’t stop there, for he asks him twice more, “Do you love me?” and twice more Peter replies, “Yes, you know that I love you” (John 21:15-17). It seems to me that in this third declaration of his love for Jesus, all the hurt and damage which his three earlier denials had caused both to himself and Jesus, were healed over: all was put right.

As in any of the Gospel stories, we are in there somehow and all the people in the stories have something to tell us. What are these two characters saying to us about the way we live and our own journey towards a closer union with God?

We can relate to both Peter and Judas as people who were weak in their own particular way. Peter was a hot-tempered, impetuous and, as it turned out, at times cowardly man. But, it was on this very flawed person that Jesus chose to build his Church, “Peter, you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my Church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven; what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven” (Matt 16:16). These are astounding words from the Creator of the universe to someone as flawed as Peter and what it should say to us is this: God chooses unexpected people, even very weak and flawed people, to carry out his work. All we have to do is to recognise Jesus for who he is, come to him bringing all our faults and weaknesses and co-operate with him.

Judas was as flawed, in his way, as Peter was in his. One of the roles Judas had amongst the disciples was keeper of the communal purse. Everyone knew that he occasionally betrayed their trust by helping himself to the cash. However, it was not his weakness for money or his betrayal of Jesus which led to his ultimate downfall. It was his lack of hope, his lack of belief that he would find forgiveness. He felt that the better option was to hang himself rather than to apologise and seek forgiveness.

One of the wonderful messages of Easter is forgiveness. If Eastertide tells us anything at all about God it is of his overwhelming love for us all, no matter who we are or what we have done. God loves us all so much that he had his only Son nailed to a cross, where he left him for three hours to die in agony. Is it likely that he would give us this overwhelming witness of his love for us and then hold our sins and failings against us, particularly if we have come to him in sorrow and remorse? The goodness of God knows no bounds….if only Judas had understood and believed that.

Lord, we pray for all people who are burdened by sorrow or regret, that this Easter season will reveal to them just how much you love them and desire to heal them. Help us to sincerely believe in your forgiving love for us and heal us of all that has damaged our relationship with you so that like Peter, we can, in your name, work the wonders you have created us to work.

How can the crucifix be a symbol of life?!

2009-04-07T23:41:00.000-07:00

Easter ... we are told that this is the most important celebration of the Church’s year, but it can sometimes be hard to grasp exactly why.

I am not sure that I fully understood the impact of Jesus’ death and resurrection upon me, personally, until I had thought about the implications of humanity’s original rejection of God. From the time of man's rejection of God onwards, humanity was effectively ‘locked out’ of heaven and all those who died went to 'hell'. In the Old Testament 'hell' was a realm not of punishment but of all the deceased, and to say that “one descended into hell” meant simply that one had died. We must try and imagine what this place might have been like. It was probably a place of no hope and of darkness, a godless place from which there was no apparent escape. Just pause for a moment and try to imagine how you might feel if you knew that you were shut out of heaven and condemned to eternal darkness. This is an horrendous thought and one which would make the prospect of our own death rather frightening. This would have been our fate had Jesus not intervened.

Why did Jesus have to die such a gruesome death?

He died the death that the ugliness and awfulness of our sin and the sin of humanity deserves. When Jesus hung in tortured agony on the cross, he was carrying the weight of your sins and mine. Weighed down as he was, what were his words? “Father, forgive them!” (Luke 23:34)....forgive all those who have hurt me or who will ever hurt me.... FORGIVE THEM! His thoughts, even then, were not for himself, but for us - you and me. He took all our sin and shame upon himself in order to take them and their power over our lives down into the depths of hell where they belong. “Father, Father... why have you deserted me?” (Mark 15:34) he cried out as he took on our sins and therefore felt the full force, pain and anguish of separation from God, the separation that only sin can bring, and the separation which would have been ours if not for Jesus.

Where did he go after he died?

He went to hell, to the realm of the dead. I can remember as a child being really afraid of the pitch black: that awful feeling of being disorientated and desperate for even the smallest chink of light. If hell was like this then the emergence into this torturous darkness of a figure of great light, bringing news that darkness and captivity were over must have been overwhelmingly wonderful. The beautiful Christ figure of Perfect Truth, Patience, Goodness, Generosity, Kindness, Mercy, Light & Love entered into hell in order to lead those God-fearing and faithful characters out of darkness and into eternal bliss and light. Can you imagine what that must have been like?

“Christ went down into the depths of death so that the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. Henceforth the risen Christ holds the keys of Death and Hades”(Catechism of the Catholic Church 635)

Jesus’ descent into the realm of death was to achieve a number of things:

to overcome - for all time - the division between God and man and therefore also the power of sin and death;
to take his message of freedom and salvation to all those who had died before him and who were languishing in this place of death, waiting to be delivered;
to convince us that he, too, was human and that he understands how hard it is to die and to suffer any form of anguish

But what about the Resurrection?

To grasp the full impact of his resurrection, it is important to try and imagine the reality of Jesus' death. Jesus, the all-powerful Son of the Creator, was dead. The brutalised and tortured body of the Son of the great “I Am” of all eternity (John 8:58) lay stone cold. How easy it must have been for his friends to think that that was that, the person they thought was all-powerful and the Son of God perhaps wasn’t really what he appeared to be. He was dead wasn’t he? He could have saved himself, but didn’t.

Despite being in the realm of no hope, of death and darkness, Jesus was brought fully back to life both in body and spirit - he was resurrected. We can have absolute faith that this happened, because his friends were united in giving witness through their Gospel accounts of their own personal encounters with the risen Jesus.

His resurrection established victory and sovereignty over the power of death forever, and Heaven was opened up for all those who were to follow him. By this victory there was unleashed a power so great and so omnipotent that there is no power on earth - and never will be - that can ever defeat it. What is this power? It is the power of LIFE, a being at one with God. It is an extraordinary fact that this power is the same power that was given to us through the Holy Spirit at our Baptism. Since our Baptism we have carried with us the flame of eternal life; the flame of God's Spirit; we have already entered into eternity through this gift. This truth of faith can do so much for us! If we really believe in the omnipotence of God in our life we should be asking ourselves a) what is there to fear, and b) how do I respond to it and cooperate with it? Through the power of the Resurrection we have the promise of an eternal life spent in his glorious presence, and we can be sure that this will become a reality for us when we have done our best for him. Jesus, Perfect Good, in rising up, has opened up the way for us to follow him. He has blazed a trail for us into eternal life. If this had not taken place, there would be no hope for us at all: death would be death, the end, eternal darkness. We would still be languishing in the darkness of sin and unforgiven sin, with no hope of anything better.

Through Jesus' death and resurrection we are truly and fully alive, the power of sin in our lives has been vanquished, we have nothing to fear and everything to hope for!

Finally, let me offer you just one last thought. There is a very important aspect of His descent into hell that tends to get overlooked. Jesus’ descent into hell reminds us that we not only meet Jesus in the good and wonderful aspects of our life but, since he has ventured into the realm of darkness, we are now also able to meet him in our sad moments. He went down into hell in order that humanity might meet him there, in the awful moments of our lives. His descent has ensured that he can relate to our every misery and that, in all our sadnesses, we might still have the opportunity to encounter him and, through that encounter, be encouraged, strengthened and healed. Jesus, and his power to overcome, is to be found everywhere, even in the darkest areas of our lives and experience.

Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began..... He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him - He who is both their God and the son of Eve.... ‘I am your God, who for your sake have become your son....I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead’. (Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday)

Arise and shine like the sun; the brightness of his presence will be with you! (Isaiah 60:1)

Fasting, repentance and almsgiving ... must I?

2009-03-29T07:02:00.000-07:00

We are in the thick of Lent and hopefully looking hard at the three things which the Church asks of us at this time of the liturgical year: fasting, repentance and almsgiving.

Fasting & sacrifice

Fasting and sacrifice has, for centuries, been used by the faithful as a tool for penance. Lent, being a time of increased acts of penance therefore places stress on the place that fasting should have in our lives. Of course, the obvious form of fasting is from food and, specifically, meat, particularly on Fridays. Fasting, though, is about much more than cutting down on food as a method of showing or doing penance. Fasting is about gaining control over one’s body in order to gain a greater control over one’s thoughts and mind. We all know how it is possible for our mind, imagination and appetite (for all sorts of things, not necessarily food) to run out of control, sometimes with serious consequences. Christianity places great emphasis on gaining a greater control over every aspect of ourselves: our thoughts, our words and our deeds.

The concept of fasting is, therefore, to encourage us to take a greater control of over ourselves: we fast from food in order to get a greater control over our appetite and therefore our bodies. However, unless fasting is linked to a very positive determination to become more centred on Christ, then it may be a waste of time, for the psalmist says, “For in sacrifice you take no delight, burnt offering from me you would refuse, my sacrifice a contrite spirit, a humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.” (Psalm 50/51)

We therefore need to look at other aspects of fasting and sacrifice which will help us to gain that ‘contrite and humbled spirit’ to which the psalmist refers and which will help us to gain a greater control over our inner lives.

Repentance

I know that the very word ‘repentance’ immediately puts us in mind of zealots calling us to ‘Repent! Repent! For the end of the world is nigh!’ Well, we can have no idea about the end of world except to know that it will come and that there will be final judgement. In the book written by the prophet Jeremiah, we are told that “I, the Lord, search the heart, I probe the loins to give each man what his conduct and actions deserve” (Jer 17:10). Whilst we can have confidence that God is a God of love and mercy, he is nevertheless also a God of justice.

Therefore, there always remains the need for us as individuals and collectively, as a society, to examine our conscience in the light of God’s Love and Truth with a view to discerning what aspects of ourselves – our thoughts, words and behaviour – stand in need of correction. Humanity is flawed – it always has been – therefore there will always be the need to repent: in other words, to convert. Don’t be fooled into thinking that conversion is always a once-in-a-lifetime and overwhelming event (though for some, such as St Paul, it was). Conversion is no more than a re-orienting of one’s whole self towards God. “In the New Testament the Greek word metanoia, often translated as conversion or repentance, means something very profound and personal: not merely a change of manners but a change of heart, a turning away from sin, a return to the Father’s love” (from ‘The Essential Catholic Handbook’).

The prophet is told by God that, “I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart. I will put my spirit in you and I will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you. You will be my people, and I will be your God”. Ezekiel 36:26

Ongoing conversion, that is, waking up every day and reminding oneself of the need to put God first in all things, is a constant, daily requirement if we are never to lose sight of our ultimate goal.

Almsgiving

In Luke’s gospel (Chapter 16, verses 19-31 … do read it!) we hear of the rich man who ‘used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day’ but who failed to see the beggar Lazarus lying at his gate yearning and hungering for the food scraps, and whose wounds were licked by passing dogs. They both died, Lazarus going straight to heaven and the rich man to a very hot place. The rich man’s sin (and therefore the cause of his eternal punishment) was not that he was wealthy, dressed well and ate even better, but that he had ignored the needs of those less fortunate than himself.

The prophet Isaiah says, “Fasting like yours today will never make your voice heard on high. Is that the sort of fast that pleases me, a truly penitential day for men? Hanging your head like a reed, lying down on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call fasting, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the sort of fast which pleases me – it is the Lord who speaks – to share your bread with the hungry and shelter the homeless poor, to clothe the man you see to be naked” (Is 58:5-7).

The Church therefore urges us to use Lent as a time of an increased giving and sharing of our wealth. Of Faith, Hope and Charity, we are told that greatest of these is Charity. To give alms is to enter in a mysterious way into the suffering of those who need our help. St James tell us, “Suppose there are brothers or sisters who need clothes and don’t have enough to eat. What good is there in your saying to them, “God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!” if you don’t give them the necessities of life?” (James 2:15) We are told that, shortly after the ascension of Jesus, his disciples “shared their belongings with one another. They would sell their property and possessions, and distribute the money among all, according to what each one needed”. (Acts 2:44)

Fasting … repentance … almsgiving … all words which ring of the Old Testament but which remain alive and kicking in this, the 21st century, and still so important for our personal growth towards a greater Christocentricity during this Lenten season.

Is the Easter Triduum for me?

2009-03-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

At the end of Mass we see the tabernacle being emptied, the Holy Water being removed from stoups, the altar being stripped and all crucifixes being removed or covered in purple, and there is a real feeling of foreboding, a sense of Jesus about to be removed from us.

Maundy Thursday invites us to meditate …

Have I understood that at the heart of Christianity is humble service?
The first shall be last and the last first
Jesus comes back to me, to be with me, in a deeply personal way through the Eucharist
Do I take this sacrament for granted?
Do I receive it carelessly?
Do I give myself to him to the degree that he gives himself to me?

Through the events of Maundy Thursday Jesus is telling us…

I am with you
I come to you still to strengthen and enlighten you
I will help you in all that you have to do
I am sharing my divinity with you

The very next day is Good Friday, the second part of the Triduum.

On Good Friday the faithful will gather in churches all around the world at about 3pm, roughly the time which marks the start of Jesus’ passion. We hear readings from the Old Testament which foretell of a time when “a thing despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, a man to make people screen their faces; he was despised and we took no account of him. And yet ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried” (Isaiah 53:3). Then we hear, again, the account of Jesus’ torture and crucifixion. This is by far the most solemn day in the Church’s calendar, and the vestments worn by the priest will be red to bring to mind the blood which was spilt and poured out upon the earth on that day. The faithful are invited to ‘venerate the cross’, perhaps to the words of one of the most haunting and thought-provoking of songs … “My people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? What more could I have done for you? I led you from slavery to freedom, but you handed me over to your high priests … I opened the sea before you, but you opened my side with a spear … I led you on your way in a pillar of cloud, but you led me to Pilate’s court … I bore you up with manna in the desert, but you struck me down and scourged me … I gave you saving water from the rock, but you gave me gall and vinegar to drink … I gave you a royal sceptre, but you gave me a crown of thorns … I raised you to the height of majesty, but you have raised me high on a cross….. My people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me….” The altar and sanctuary, already bare, now feel even more bereft as the tabernacle is empty and left wide open: Jesus has gone, he is no longer with us. The faithful leave the church on Good Friday with a sense of desolation and loss and, perhaps, a fresh understanding of their own contribution to the suffering and death of Jesus.

Good Friday invites us to ask …

What part was I playing on this day?
Was I one of the soldiers? Mocking Jesus by claiming to be a Christian but not living like one?
Was I in the jostling crowd, afraid to speak up for him?
Do I remain silent about my faith?
Which of my sins contributed to his suffering? My selfishness? My pride? My untruths? My anger and irritability?

What would Jesus say to me?

I know what it is like to be afraid and to feel alone
I know what it is like to be treated unjustly
I want you to pick up your cross and come after me
Be patient in your suffering for I am with you
All will be well

The day after Good Friday is Holy Saturday, the third part of the Triduum.

This is a day of waiting. On Holy Saturday the Church – that is you and me – waits at the Lord’s tomb, thinking about his suffering and death. Is this the end? What is going to happen next? If Jesus really had been God, why didn’t he save himself? How did it come to this? Will we ever see him again? The altar is left bare and Mass is not celebrated: it is all very quiet and still. The only service on this day is the Easter Vigil, often called the “mother of all holy vigils” and starts after sundown on the night before Easter. This service begins with a ‘Service of Light’ when all the lights in the church are put out and the faithful gather outside the church around a fire – the New Fire – holding candles. The flame from the fire – which the priest will bless – is used to light the Paschal or Easter Candle and is a symbol of Jesus, the Light of the World, risen in glory and sharing his light and glory with us.

Once the Paschal candle has been lit, the faithful move quietly back into the dark church and light their own small candles from the flame of the Paschal candle, and the church is gradually filled with light. We then embark upon the ‘Liturgy of the Word’ when we listen to several readings which move us through the Old Testament, all the time building up an awareness of the promise of the coming of a Saviour. This part culminates in what is one of the most joyous ten minutes of the year – the altar and sanctuary which have been bare for days are brought to life: the altar and sanctuary candles are lit, the altar and tabernacle are dressed and flowers fill the sanctuary for the first time since Ash Wednesday. There is a tangible sense of newness of life, a reawakening and rebirth. The bells are rung, the Gloria is sung and our hearts are filled with a real joy. We hear passages from the New Testament and, at last, an account of the risen Jesus appearing to his friends and revealing to them that death has been destroyed forever.
This is the point when we meet and remember the risen Lord, and we can at last lift up our voices in all those glorious Alleluia’s which we have not been allowed to utter since Ash Wednesday. It is with joy and wonder that during the Vigil we revisit our Baptismal Promises, reminding ourselves of our belief in the risen Lord.

The final day is, of course, Easter Sunday and ‘this Mass is our ‘Alleluia’: our song of praise to the risen Christ who is our life and whose triumph over death we proclaim to all the world’. (Sunday Missal)

The events of Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday tell me to …

Rejoice! … do I come across as a rejoicing person?
Believe! … does my belief stop short of really accepting that God loves me and is taking care of me, despite all of my worries?
Embrace! … have I properly embraced my Baptismal Promises by rejecting all that is evil and by living a holy and Spirit-filled life?
Proclaim! … does my way of life proclaim that God is love?

Clearly, Holy Week, is a busy week in terms of going to church. The joy of Easter is made all the more joyous when we have entered fully into the sorrow and anguish which precede it, so it is a good thing to try to attend all of these services if we possibly can.

Entering into the Easter Triduum is important for us on an individual level because, as Christians, our aim must be to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. To walk in his footsteps does not mean that we can pick and choose which bits of his journey appeal to us: he invites us to embrace them all. In walking with him through his suffering we soon discover that he is with us in our suffering – he can relate to everything. To greet and acclaim the risen Lord at Easter is to greet and acclaim the risen and living Lord in our own day-to-day lives, and to recognise the many and varied ways in which he so devotedly walks with us.

He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly;
he never said a word.
Like a lamb about to be slaughtered,
he never said a word.
He was arrested and sentenced and led off to die,
and no-one cared about his fate.
He was put to death for the sins of our people.
He was placed in a grave with the wicked,
even though he had never committed a crime
or ever told a lie.

The LORD says,
It was my will that he should suffer;
his death was a sacrifice to bring forgiveness.
After a life of suffering, he will again have joy;
he will know that he did not suffer in vain.
My devoted servant, with whom I am pleased,
will bear the punishment of many
and for his sake I will forgive them.
Isaiah 53:10-12