April 2004
Palm Sunday C to the Third
Sunday of Eastertide
Palm Sunday C
Scripture today:
Isaiah
50:4-7; Psalm 21; Philippians
2:6-11; Luke 22:14-23:56
"As he was approaching the downward
slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole group of disciples joyfully
began to praise God at the top of their voices for all the miracles
they had seen".
(Lule 19:28-40)
I remember watching a television interview with a prominent Australian
philosopher who was asked if he believed in God. He said he did not
because of all the evil and suffering there is in the world. If there
were a God, he said, he would have arranged things differently. Well,
the good news is that God sent his Son to deal with evil and suffering,
and by uniting ourselves with Jesus, we deal with it in God’s way in
our own lives.
Today we celebrate our Lord entering Jerusalem for the holiest
week of his life, the week during which he would deal definitively with
suffering and sin. He dealt with sin by accepting - indeed embracing -
and then bearing to the end the suffering which came to him as a result
of his witnessing to the truth. Our Lord dreaded his hour of suffering,
and he sweated blood at the prospect. But at the same time he looked to
it with longing, setting his face towards it like flint, and advanced
to it with firm decision because he knew its real meaning, that by
means of it he would take away the sin of the world. In the first
reading we read of the suffering Servant of Yahweh. He is the harbinger
of Christ in meekly submitting to the violence inflicted him. St
Paul writes that God made the sinless Christ to be sin, as it were, in
order to take away our sins. Christ humbled himself to share our nature
even to death, and because of his obedience God raised him on high.
If we unite our sufferings with those of Christ in a spirit of
obedience, those sufferings will lead us to glory. They will sanctify
us. This is the grace to seek this week and today, uniting ourselves in
spirit with Jesus as he enters Jerusalem to suffer for us.
There is a further aspect of the mystery of Christ. Our Lord
entered Jerusalem to bear witness to the truth about his own person
before the leaders of the Jews and before Pilate. Before the chief
priests he testified that he was the Son of the Most High, that he
would be seated at his right hand, and therefore that he was equal to
God. Before Pilate he said that he was born to bear witness to the
truth. In his passion he bore witness to this truth. We are called to
share in his work of bearing witness to the truth about Jesus. The word
martyr means witness, and martyrs are referred to as receiving the palm
of martyrdom. On Palm Sunday we all receive palms above all to bear
witness to our faith in Jesus our king. Let us resolve to bear witness
to Jesus every day in every aspect of our lives, in all our thoughts,
words, joys and sufferings. For if we are not ashamed of bearing
witness to Jesus here on earth he will bear witness to us before our
Father in heaven. Christ has shown that the suffering in the world is
now the path to glory. Let us take that path.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection on Palm Sunday
Scripture
today:
Isaiah
50:4-7; Psalm 21; Philippians
2:6-11; Luke 22:14-23:56
"As he was approaching the downward
slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole group of disciples joyfully
began to praise God at the top of their voices for all the miracles
they had seen".
(Lule 19:28-40)
Today we think of our Lord entering Jerusalem to undergo
unimaginable sufferings for the salvation of the world. Due to our
Lord’s sufferings, human suffering has a purpose, and the sense of that
purpose we have to recover. Suffering takes many forms. It can take the
form of failure. If one were to ask, from a worldly point of view,
whether Christ at the time of his death was a success or a failure,
what would some have said? Well, a failure. The people did not believe
in him, and in fact the leaders killed him. His own closest associates
ran away. In fact, if there is one person in history who presents the
problem of evil and suffering, it is our Lord. But in the light of
faith we see that he came to grips with suffering and came out the
victor and in the process gives a purpose to suffering.
The ancient Greeks were defeated by evil. Even their gods
were depicted as being in the hands of fate. The Greeks were fatalists.
In our day what is the reaction to suffering? It is to do anything,
anything, even the grossest evil, to avoid it. We even kill to avoid
suffering. Let us take the case of abortion. I suppose there are two
main reasons why a woman might choose to have an abortion. One might be
the difficulty and great inconvenience, the suffering we might say,
entailed in the pregnancy and upbringing of the child. She just does
not want to go through all that is involved in bearing and raising a
child. A second reason might be that due to scientific techniques it is
discovered that the child will have serious disabilities. So it is felt
that it is not worth it. The child, it is said, would have no quality
of life and the quality of life for the mother will be seriously
impaired. There will be too much suffering and inconvenience, so what’s
the point? It has no purpose. So what is the response to this prospect
of suffering? It is to do anything to avoid it, even to put an end to
the life so as to avoid the suffering.
Once on the ABC TV evening 7.30 Report Kerry O’Brien
interviewed the scientist who many years ago discovered DNA. DNA is the
genetic material that determines the character traits and constitution
of the unborn child. It is because of these discoveries that all sorts
of genetic information is now available, enabling the parents to know
what will be the physical health and constitution of the child. With
this knowledge many are deciding to abort children with very serious
disabilities. Well, the scientist who discovered DNA was interviewed,
and he unambiguously stated that the unborn child has no rights as
such, and that if it is discovered that the child will have serious
disabilities, it is up to the parent to decide whether the child should
live or not. That was his response to suffering, and it is the response
of so many in our day. Suffering has no purpose. It is to be avoided.
Immediately after that segment, Kerry O’Brien introduced another
segment which showed a seriously disabled woman in her wheelchair. She
was shown deriving great joy from her painting. Then it explained that
her disease progressively makes her a complete prisoner in her own
body, and will probably eventually kill her. But she radiated happiness
and joy. Moreover, she had formed a group of young women friends who
had established a foundation to raise funds for research into the
disease she was suffering from. They had already raised $200,000 for
this purpose, and had brought out a scientist to Australia to begin the
research. One of the group explained that even if this woman dies from
the disease without the cure, the research will go on. But most
impressive of all was the happiness, the vitality and the joy of this
disabled woman. You know what she said? She said that she was convinced
that her disability was given to her for a reason. Her suffering had
and would have a purpose.
The purpose was evident in what she was doing. First of all, she was
living proof from her joyful attitude that life was indeed worth living
despite her deadly disability. Secondly, she was establishing a
foundation to find a cure for the disability from which she herself was
suffering. She was a living rebuttal of all that the scientist had been
saying in the previous segment. The point is that suffering does have a
purpose. But our conviction of this comes above all from the example
and teaching of our Lord, and what his own Passion and Death led to. It
led to the Resurrection. The Cross is the source of immense blessings.
When the cross comes, we must make an effort to believe that all is in
the hands of God and that he is allowing this, or even sending it, as a
sign of his love. We must try to thank him for the good things as well
as the bad, knowing that he gives and he takes away for our best
interests. We must trust him, and unite ourselves to the Cross of
Christ, asking Jesus to use our sufferings just as the Father used his
to redeem the world.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Easter Vigil C
The Gospel
reading: Luke 24:1-12
"Why look among the dead for someone
who is alive? He is not here; he has risen." Lk 24:1-12
A famous psychiatrist once made a study of those who suffered in
horrible conditions during the war. He asked, How can a person emerge
from great suffering not the worse for it, but indeed, the better for
it? He wrote that the secret is to have a sense of the meaning of
things, a sense of the reason and point of life, and to hold on to
that. Now it is this sense of meaning which our world has largely lost.
But the more important question is, what is the true meaning of things?
In age after age, in culture after culture, man has searched for the
answer, and his answers are embodied in the religions and philosophies
of man.
But we, we Christians, know that God has revealed the answer.
There is a divine meaning to things, a meaning or reason which shapes
the whole of God’s creation, and all human existence. This divine
meaning on which everything hangs and which gives sense to everything
that happens, is the Word of God who, St John tells us, was with God in
the beginning, and who is God. For all things were made through him.
All is held in being through him. And who is he, the Word who is God?
He is Jesus. All things were made by God through Jesus and with Jesus
in mind. For He is the firstborn of all creation. And it is He, Jesus,
who is the key, who has revealed this.
How extraordinary a thing is is that this Jesus suffered and
died! For as a result of the death of Jesus, the meaning of our
personal existence and of the world’s existence were taken to the grave
with him. This is extraordinary, and it shows the omnipotence of
God. He became one of us in order to die for us.
That the man Jesus, fully God, is the meaning of everything,
was sensed by those who knew him best, his disciples. He was
everything for them. Yes, in Jesus God gave us the meaning of man, and
of everything. And not only was he the symbol of every man showing
forth the meaning of man, but He united himself to every man. When
Pontius Pilate said “Behold the man”, there, we can say, stood man, man
who in all his being is destined for death. How futile it may seem, and
how futile it all seemed, to those who knew him. What meaning can there
be in the greatest hope and achievement if it is destined for death?
Behold the man, Pilate said. Behold life destined for death. To that
end did his destiny draw him, to what seemed to be oblivion. And as we
heard in the Gospel, his disciples did think it was the very end. He,
the sinless one, was made sin for us, and the most horrible and
excruciating of deaths was the result. For the wages of sin are death.
We can sympathise with those writers who have said that there is no
meaning in things.
But from this oblivion Jesus rose, new, transformed, glorified.
And now as the man who is united to every man, he transforms for all
the meaninglessness of everything destined for oblivion, be it in
suffering, sickness, pain and in the final futility of death. All of
this apparent futility can now be accepted, and even embraced, for
everything now has a new meaning. But there is one proviso. We must be
united to Jesus, the true man, firstborn of all creation. He is the man
for everyone, the one who gives sense to everything. To live a truly
human life we must look to him, we must love him, we must, in the words
of St Paul, be in him. We must live in Jesus, just as he lives in the
Father. For God has done something wonderful. By our baptism God has
established each of us in Christ. The secret to life, its meaning, is,
as St Paul says, Christ in you, your hope of glory. By our baptism we
are in Christ and he is in us. And it is our baptism which we shall now
be renewing.
With Paul, we say on the night of the Easter Vigil, I count
everything as complete loss for the sake of what is so much more
valuable, the knowledge of Christ. Christ in you, your hope of glory.
Let us renew our baptismal promises, making them the renewal of
our commitment to Jesus who is the light, the reason, the point and the
meaning of everything. With him let us pass through all that is
otherwise bad and futile, together with the many good things that come
to us and the achievements our efforts bring, preparing for that
final gate of death, but all done with him. Thus finally in him all
will be transformed into glory. Let us renew our baptismal
promises rejecting sin and satan, resolving to live and witness to
Jesus, Jesus who is the power of God and the meaning, the reason, the
sense, and the point of everything.
(E.J.Tyler)
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2nd Sunday
Easter: The Divine Mercy.
Scripture readings:
Acts
5:12-16; Psalm 117; Apocalypse
1:9-13.17-19; John 20:19-31
"Receive the Holy Spirit. For those
whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven" (John 20:19-31)
A person remarked to me recently how common it is for people to
depressed. Many suffer anxiety, many experience an emptiness in their
lives. We can easily imagine the state of mind of the disciples before
they met the risen Christ, prior to his appearance to them.
The thought of anxiety introduces another consideration: our
whole idea of what God is like, our image of the divine. During the
course of history, of religions and of peoples, there have been all
kinds of notions of God. Some have thought of God as a distant being
who plays little part in our lives. I am sure that very many think this
now, without realising it. Others think of God as fearsome, as if they
were in the presence of a being who is dangerous and hostile. They
interpret life or at least many things in life as due to God being like
that. Due to their notions of God some people dread him, some dislike
him, some are indifferent to him.
When we think of God we think of a powerful, invisible being.
When man looks at the universe and considers the vastness of life and
the world, he gains a dim idea of the immensity of God and of his great
power. But he cannot know God well from this consideration alone. God
is so unlike anything in our experience. If we draw on our
experience alone we can easily go very wrong in our notion of what God
is like.
The Church’s announcement to mankind is that this great being,
the great and infinite God, has actually revealed himself to us by
sending his own Son to be one of us, a man like us while remaining God.
He came to reveal the Father, for he is the image of the unseen God,
and is himself God. What he revealed was that the all-perfect creator
of heaven and earth is love. God is love, all-holy love. He is our
all-holy Father. His great power, his infinite might, so evident in his
creation, so vast as it is, is a manifestation of power, yes, but above
all it is a manifestation of his love. More still, it is a love that is
merciful. That is to say, we can describe the distinctive character of
the love that God shows himself to be: it is a merciful love. God’s
love is a love that delights in giving good things to those who have
need of them, to those in misery. His love is the kind that assists the
needy. God is a God rich in mercy. This is the great teaching of
Scripture and all of Revelation. Our God is a merciful God to whom we
can turn for all our most desperate needs.
All through history man has been calling on God, or the
gods as they may have conceived them, to answer their needs. But what
is our greatest need? Our greatest is to be liberated from sin and to
be sanctified. And only he can do this. This is the need which God in
his goodness and mercy has met in our regard. He sent his Son to take
away our sins and to sanctify us by giving us the gift of the Holy
Spirit. This is the will of God, St Paul said, your sanctification. And
so as we read in the Gospel of today, our Lord on the evening of the
very day he rose from the dead gave the gift of the Holy Spirit, and
gave them the power to forgive sins. Receive the Holy Spirit, he said
to them. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven. For those
whose sins you retain, they are retained. (John 20:19-31)
We should see this as a manifestation of God’s mercy. It is
nothing special for a religion to teach that God is powerful. What is
distinctive about the religion and the revelation of Christ is the
teaching that God shows his power especially in his mercy. The all
powerful God is our Father, a loving Father who assists those in need
and who call upon him. And the greatest sign of his mercy is in the
forgiveness of our sins. The publican beat his breast and said, O God
be merciful to me, a sinner. Let us today, Divine Mercy Sunday,
think of Jesus, the heart of Jesus, as the revelation of the Divine
mercy and all that this mercy brings to us.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection on the Gospel of the Second Sunday of Easter
Scripture
readings:
Acts
5:12-16; Psalm 117; Apocalypse
1:9-13.17-19; John 20:19-31
"Receive the Holy Spirit. For those
whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven" (John 20:19-31)
We have just heard the account of our Lord’s appearance to
the group of his disciples in the evening of Easter Sunday. The first
thing he said to them was, “Peace be with you”. Then he told them that
just as the Father sent him, so now he was sending them. But then
notice what he did. He breathed on them, this action symbolizing the
gift of the Holy Spirit whom he was conferring on them. Then he
immediately says, as if to indicate a major reason for his giving them
the Holy Spirit, “For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven,
for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.” Undoubtedly our
Lord said more to them on that evening, but those are the words St John
mentions as if to stress the importance our Lord himself gave to them.
So if we are to enter into the spirit of Eastertide, then we must think
carefully of this power our Lord gave to the Church’s priests to
forgive sins. The sacrament of penance, or Confession, was one of the
first gifts our Lord gave on rising from the dead. Let us review the
Church's teaching on the Sacrament of Penance, instituted by our Lord
so soon after rising from the dead.
Our Lord established the sacrament of Penance for the benefit of
all members of his Church: the only exception being his own mother who
never committed the slightest sin because of extraordinary graces given
to her due to the merits of her Son. So let us try to understand the
sacrament of Penance. Our Lord meant it for us all.
The sacrament of Penance comprises two equally essential
elements. On the one hand there is the action of the one going to
Confession. On the other there is the action of God through the priest
who is administering the Sacrament. What must the penitent do is
dispose himself to obtain pardon in the sacrament of Penance. The
penitent must be sorry, must confess his sins, and must do penance. The
most important duty of the penitent is to be sorry for sin. This
involves sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed,
together with the resolution not to sin again. When this sorrow for sin
arises from a love by which God is loved above all else, contrition is
called perfect contrition. It is a wonderful gift of grace, and we
ought pray for it. Contrition like this takes away venial sins and
obtains forgiveness of mortal sin if it includes the firm resolution to
have recourse to the sacrament of penance as soon as possible. And we
ought aim to have, if possible, this perfect contrition every time we
go to Confession.
Sorrow for sin, or contrition, can be imperfect but is also a
gift of grace. This imperfect contrition arises from the thought of the
ugliness of sin or the fear of hell and other penalties which threaten
the sinner. This form of contrition should lead a person to Confession.
By itself alone, however, imperfect contrition cannot obtain the
forgiveness of mortal sin, but it disposes a person to seek this
forgiveness in the sacrament of Penance. Many people will be led to go
to Confession due to this imperfect sorrow for sin, but all should aim
at perfect contrition, which is to say sorrow for sin because it
offends God.
In preparing for Confession we ought examine carefully our
consciences. The Ten Commandments, the precepts of the Church and the
reading of Scripture can help us examine our consciences so as to make
a good confession of our sins during the Sacrament of Penance. In the
plan of Christ, Confession to a priest is an essential part of the
Sacrament of Penance. All mortal sins of which the penitent after a
diligent self-examination is conscious must be recounted in Confession,
even if they are most secret. Sometimes the most secret sins of all,
known to no one else, are the most serious and dangerous. They can
wound the soul more grievously than those which are committed openly.
So one should aim to confess all the sins one can remember, so as to
obtain God’s pardon and healing grace for them all. If a person refuses
to confess particular sins, it is like a person who is too ashamed to
show his wound to the doctor. The medicine the doctor gives cannot heal
what it is not applied to.
Each of the faithful is bound by an obligation faithfully to
receive Holy Communion at least once a year during the Easter season,
which means that if a person is in the state of mortal sin that person
must confess such sins at least during this period. Anyone who is aware
of having committed a mortal sin must not receive Holy Communion even
if he experiences deep contrition, without first going to Confession.
Of course, without it being strictly necessary, confession of everyday
faults and venial sins is strongly recommended by the Church. Indeed,
regular confession of our venial sins helps us form our conscience,
fight against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and
progress in the spiritual life.
So to receive pardon from God in Confession, one must be sorry,
and one must confess the sins for which one is sorry. The final thing
is that one must make up for the offence to God that has been done and
repair the damage wrought by sin. The satisfaction is also called the
Penance. We must be very careful about the penance we are given to do
by the priest. But it is good to try to do more than that to repair the
harm of our sins, and to make satisfaction for them. Penance and
reparation ought be a profound part of the life of every member of
Christ’s faithful.
The big danger of our day is to think that sin does not matter
very much, or that we aren’t sinners anyway. Being children of our age
we too can lose a proper sense of sin. We are unlikely to slip into
this trap if we are going to Confession regularly and devoutly. As we
think of our Lord’s words in today’s gospel let us resolve to make
regular Confession part and parcel of our Christian life.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Third Sunday of Eastertide C
Scripture today:
Acts
5:27-32.40-41; Psalm 29; Apocalypse
5:11-14; John 21:1-19
"The disciple Jesus loved said to
Peter, 'It is the Lord.'" (John 21:1-19)
I remember one person saying, in respect to our vocation to love
and follow Jesus, that she needed to love and follow someone she could
actually see. She could not see Jesus, so she found it difficult
responding to her Christian vocation. I invite you to consider the
experience of the disciples in seeing the risen Jesus.
In today’s gospel, Simon Peter and six other disciples went
fishing. At dawn there stood Jesus on the shore, though they did not
realise it
was Jesus. Then after he directed them to the catch of fish they went
to the shore. Jesus invited them to come and have breakfast which he
had
been preparing for them. And we read that “None of the disciples was
bold enough to ask, who are you. They knew it was the Lord. So they
knew it was the Lord, but there was something very different about him
that made them hesitate in some sense. Why was there that difference?
It was due to the fact that he was risen, and was now living a
glorified life. Perhaps he was also preparing them for the time when he
would not be seen.
On the day he rose two of the disciples were walking
on the road to Emmaus and Jesus came along and joined him. But during
the whole conversation they did not, could not, recognise him. It was
only at Emmaus during the supper that they recognised him. There was,
then, something very different about him after he had risen, as there
is still. It was due to his glorified condition. They needed a lot more
than ordinary vision to recognise him. They needed the help of grace,
and the readiness to respond to this help. On their part they needed to
be wanting to meet and see him, wanting to know and be with him. With
this disposition and then also the aid of grace, they recognised the
risen Jesus even though he was living now a glorified life, while in
the flesh still.
We think of Mary Magdalene at the tomb weeping. She spoke to
Jesus but thought he was the gardener. Then when he said “Mary”, she
recognised him. Jesus was in their midst just as really as before, but
now he was preparing them for when he was gone from their sight. Though
gone from sight, he would be with them just as much as before. This
needed faith. In fact, the very difficulty of recognising the risen
Jesus is a witness to his resurrection. He has his five wounds. He ate
something before their eyes. They felt, touched, heard and saw him. It
is his body they see, but it has undergone a mysterious change.
The time would come when he would pass from their sight. There is no
mention in the Acts or records that he appeared to them again after the
ascension, except for St Paul. But he was working with them and will be
with the church and us till he comes again. And what did he say to
Thomas? He said, “You believe because you see me. Blessed are those who
have not seen and yet believe.”
So as we think of our Lord appearing to the disciples on
the shore of the lake, let us realise that he is with us just as really
as if we had been there and seen him in his risen body.
Our task is to be vividly alive to the very reality of
Jesus as a real person. He is our God and brother, our redeemer. He
lives and is near. He is the great reality we celebrate and communicate
with and think of in the whole life of the Church. It is he who acts
and whom we encounter in the Sacraments. He gives us a share his risen
life. This requires that we live in union with this same Jesus
who is our life, living according to the pattern set by him, and
bearing witness to his risen reality by our lives and our words
to others. In this way we witness to him, our hope of glory.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection on the Gospel of the third Sunday of Eastertide C
Scripture
today:
Acts
5:27-32.40-41; Psalm 29; Apocalypse
5:11-14; John 21:1-19
"It was light by now and there stood
Jesus on the shore, thought the disciples did not realize that it was
Jesus....... The disciple Jesus loved said to
Peter, 'It is the Lord'." (John 21:1-19)
In the gospel of today (John 21:1-19) St
John tells us that the disciples spent the night in the boat fishing
but caught nothing. At dawn there stood the risen Jesus on the shore
though they did not realize it was Jesus. He was there, about to direct
them to a big catch but they lacked the realization that it was He who
was there. This is the Easter period when we think of the fact
that Jesus is among us alive, risen from the dead, the same risen Jesus
who appeared to his disciples in this event of today’s Gospel. He is
with us just as He was with them but the danger is that we too will
fail to realize that Jesus is present.
There are numerous ways in which Jesus is present among us, and
we should be constantly striving to realize his presence. By the very
fact of our membership in the Catholic Church which he founded we have
a privileged access to His presence for the Church is his body. He is
the head and we are the members. He is the vine, we are the branches.
Precisely as members of his body the Church we have access to the
Sacraments, especially the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the Sacrament
of Penance. I especially invite you to think of our Lord’s real
presence in the Eucharist, a presence we can easily fail to realize.
Consider how the same Jesus who appeared to his disciples on the shore
of the sea of Tiberius is with us constantly in the Tabernacle. He is
just the same Jesus, body and soul, human and divine. What should be
our attitude to this great fact? Firstly we should advert to the fact
of his presence, keep it constantly in mind whenever we approach the
church and enter it, and then whenever we are actually inside the
church.
The danger is that we shall not make that effort. It is very
easy to take one another for granted and fail to show normal respect
and courtesy. So too in our relationship with our Lord, only then it is
much more serious because we are then failing to show respect to our
God and our Redeemer. We slip into simply forgetting that he is there
in our midst. This is the danger: that we constantly forget that Jesus
himself is in our midst. If we often forget this, then our faith in his
uniquely real and special presence in the Eucharist will gradually
diminish. The graces that he wishes to offer us will go unaccepted and
unappreciated. A lively faith in the real presence of Jesus ought
distinguish a Catholic.
What are some of the things we can do to enliven our faith in
his real presence in the Eucharist? Firstly, I would recommend that
when getting ready to come to Mass or to pay a visit to our Lord
present in the Tabernacle, by policy we make the effort to think of the
fact that He is here. We are coming to be with him. Then when we enter
the church we should be thinking of that, looking at the Tabernacle
with that in mind, genuflecting before the Tabernacle with that in
mind, kneeling down in our place with the utmost reverence, and then
being sure to pray. The Church is the house of God and so is a House of
prayer in Jesus and with Jesus. Every Catholic should be noted by
his reverence and prayerfulness in the Church, because every Catholic
ought realize that Jesus in his entire reality is truly present. I
wonder if a non-Catholic were to visit the Church during Mass, or just
before or just after Mass, or at some other time during the day,
whether he would get the clear impression that the Catholics truly
believe that Jesus is present? Or would he fail to get this impression?
We ought be very, very reverent. We ought, for instance, avoid all
unnecessary talk and conversation. Is it not at all uncommon to find
ourselves chatting away in the church about matters that could be
discussed outside? Is it not uncommon to find ourselves talking away,
even just within a few feet of the door of the church, when it would be
just as easy to be talking outside? Do we not, indeed, normally forget
the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist?
A prayerful, reverent manner not only helps
ourselves to be alive to the presence of Jesus in the Tabernacle, but
that good example helps others to be alive to it as well. When we see
someone praying and avoiding all unnecessary talk in the Church we
ourselves are reminded to pray and be reverent too.
In the Gospel our Lord was present on the shore yet the
disciples failed to realize that it was Jesus. This same Jesus is
constantly present with us in the Tabernacle. Let us make a constant
spiritual effort to show our Lord that we both realize and appreciate
his presence among us.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Wednesday
of the third week of Eastertide
Acts 8:
1-8; Psalm 65; John 6: 35-40
Trust in God at all times.
Our Lord once declared that it is the Father's will that he
(Christ) should lose nothing of what he (the Father) had
given to him (John 6: 39, as below). This should be the source of a
great sense of security: no circumstances need destroy or weaken that
all-important relationship which we have been given with Christ.
We see an instance of this played out in the Acts of the
Apostles 8: 1-8. With Stephen stoned to death, Saul began a
furious persecution of the infant Church, scattering the Christians
from Jerusalem. But what was the upshot of this? The fleeing disciples
went from place to place preaching the Good News. The persecution was
the direct cause of more and more coming to know the Lord. Perhaps the
greatest sequel of all was the conversion of Saul himself.
As Paul would write in one of his Letters, nothing can come
between us and the love of God in Christ. So we should face adversity
with trust in the power of God, determined to use the adversity to
further the plan of God in our regard. As the Holy Father has
repeatedly said: Be not afraid!
(E.J.Tyler)
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Thursday
of the Third Week of Eastertide
The Holy Spirit
draws us to Jesus and to the Father (Acts 8:26-40; Psalm
65; John 6:44-51)
Our Lord said at the Last Supper that eternal life is this, to
know you Father, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. On another
occasion (John 6: 44) our Lord said that no one comes to him unless he
is drawn by the Father. Now, how does the Father draw us to the Son? It
is by the action of the Holy Spirit.
We see a striking instance of this in the work of the deacon
Philip as narrated in Acts 8: 26-40:
The Spirit said to Philip, 'Go up and meet that chariot.' He did so,
and began instructing the Ethiopian on the meaning of the Scriptures
and how they spoke of Jesus. His words led to the Ethiopian coming to
know and believe in Jesus, and seeking baptism. With this, 'Philip was
taken away by the Spirit of the Lord.'
The Holy Spirit is the great divine Agent by means of whom we come
to know the Lord Jesus, and through Jesus the Father, for
'to see me is to see the Father'. Let us pray constantly then to be led
by the Holy Spirit to come to know Jesus, and in our everyday life to
lead others to know him.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Friday
of the third week of Eastertide
Our precious vocation. (Acts 9: 1-20)
Chesterton was a famous English lay convert of the early decades
of the 20th century who became a great apologist for Catholicism. One
of his written sayings was "How odd of God to choose the Jews." Apart
from pointing to the special election by God of the Jews as his chosen
people with a world mission, Chesterton's remark also highlights the
uniqueness of every vocation, as well as its mysteriousness. Why me,
and not others? Each of us is chosen by God for reasons we do not know.
Our vocation is precious.
Consider the mysteriousness and the uniqueness of St Paul's
vocation, as narrated in Acts 9: 1-20. The Lord Jesus told Ananias that
'this man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before pagans and
pagan kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how
much he himself must suffer for my name.' What sort of background did
Paul have for this extraordinary calling? A seemingly poor one indeed,
and scarcely to be compared with that of the Twelve. Yet he was
Christ's chosen instrument. Why him? There is a great mystery here
manifesting the inscrutable mercy of God and his loving power.
Each of us has a vocation, a calling that has its origins in
eternity, before the world began. Each of us is the object of God's
inscrutable mercy, his loving choice. Our vocation, whatever it be, is
precious. Let us not squander it. Live it to the full, daily. Let us
meditate at length on the calling of St Paul
(E.J.Tyler)
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Saturday
of the third week of Easter
May 1: St Joseph the
Worker (Genesis
1:26-2:3; Psalm 89; Matthew
13:54-58)
Today (the feast of St Joseph the Worker) we think of a humble
worker who were it not for the fact that he was the husband of Mary and
the foster father of Jesus would have been utterly unknown, a nobody.
His life was filled with ordinary work that like so many millions
of other workers in human history made no special splash. It was a
quiet diligent service of neighbour and family in and through ordinary
everyday duties for the years of his obscure life. Mary his wife led a
similar existence in terms of housework and homemaking, and our Lord
too during all those hidden years in Nazareth.
Yet how holy Joseph was! How holy Mary! We can scarcely speak of
the holiness of Jesus. Their days were filled with this ordinary work.
It was their work in life. It tells us how important our daily work is
in the plan of God, no matter how ordinary and humble it may seem. By
our work we are sanctified, we contribute to the sanctification of
others, and we contribute to the holiness of the world that we build up
by our work.
St Joseph the worker teaches us that our daily work is our path to
sanctity and so to heaven.
(E.J.Tyler)
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