June 2004
(Eleventh Sunday C to the feast of
the
Holy
Eucharist)
Eleventh
Sunday of Ordinary Time C
Scripture
today: 2 Samuel 12:
7-10.13; Psalm 31; Galatians 2: 16.19-21; Luke
7:36-8:3
We can live for God and totally so.
In today’s second reading St Paul tells
us that “through the Law I am dead to the Law so that now I can live
for God.” (Gal
2:19-21). We can live for God, which means that we can live a
life reconciled to God. In a famous passage from the second letter of
St Paul to the Corinthians, St Paul makes a direct appeal: "the appeal
that we make in Christ's name is: be reconciled to God." We hear and
read this, and we can be tempted to think a little complacently: Well,
I am reconciled to God!
But to what extent is this so in my life?
Is there not still a great deal in my life that is not yet reconciled
to him, that is resistant to his wishes? I must ask the Holy Spirit ti
enlighten me so that I can see what still needs to be reconciled to
him, and to inspire and empower me to work daily at my sanctification.
As St Paul says, "For anyone who is in
Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the
new one is here. It is all God's work." With the power of God's grace,
I can be fully reconciled to God and live for him. It is God's work.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Seek God in the depths of your pure,
clean heart; in the depths of your soul when you are faithful to him.
And never lose that intimacy. And if you ever do not know how to speak
to him or what to say, or you do not dare to look for Jesus inside
yourself, turn to Mary, all pure and wonderful, and tell her: Our Lady
and Mother, the Lord wanted you yourself to look after God and tend him
with your own hands. Teach me, teach us all, how to treat your Son.
(The Forge,
no.84)
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Tuesday
of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time
Prayer
of petition - petition for pardon 1 Kings 21: 17-29
We often hear of the power of prayer.
Scripture clearly teaches that prayer, true and authentic prayer,
truly is powerful. With good reason we
usually think of the prayer of petition - asking God for what we or
others need. Now, there is one kind of prayer of petition that is also
very important and powerful, and that is the petition for pardon for
our sins, for forgiveness, including prayer that God will avert the
punishment our sins deserve. This kind of prayer is also very pleasing
to God, and powerful.
Consider the prayer of King Ahab (1 Kings
21:17-29). Ahab was a great sinner, but due to Elijah's threats of
punishment from God, Ahab repented - "he tore his garments and put
sackcloth next his skin and fasted; he slept in the sackcloth; he
walked with slow steps." This humbling of himself was pleasing to God
and averted the punishment on his person that had been threatened. The
point to notice in this context is that contrite prayer for pardon and
forgiveness is powerful.
What a pity Ahab's contrition was
inspired with much self interest. His concern was for himself and not
his son. His repentance was superficial, but real as far as it went. To
that extent it was pleasing to God. Let us ask God repeatedly for his
forgiveness of our sins, especially in the sacrament of Penance.
(E.J.Tyler)
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With your life of piety you will learn
how to practise the virtues befitting your condition as a son of God,
as a Christian. And together with those virtues you will acquire a
whole rqange of spiritual values which seem small but are really very
great. They are like shining precious stones, and we must gather them
along the way and then take them up to the foot of God's Throne in the
service of our fellow men: simplicity, cheerfulness, loyalty, peace,
small renunciations, little services which pass unnoticed, the faithful
fulfilment of duty, kindness.
(The Forge,
no.86)
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Wednesday
of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time
The Gift
of Christ's Spirit (2 Kings 21:
1.6-14)
There are many things in life we
naturally aspire to and hope to gain. What we hope to gain will depend
on the kind of person we are: our treasure will depend on where our
heart lies.
Consider the final request of Elijah's
disciple and successor (Elisha). He wanted a double share of Elijah's
spirit. Now we are Christ's disciples, and as those who love Christ,
our greatest gift coming from him would surely be a share in his
Spirit. As with Elijah and his disciple, so with Christ and his
disciples. He has granted us a share in his Spirit, the Spirit of
Christ. The Holy Spirit comes to us in the ministry of the Church and
in the sacraments.
Let us treasure this Gift and learn to
live by Him. The Holy Spirit will transform us into the image of
Christ, who is the image of the Father.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Don't create more obligations for
yourself than God's glory, his Love, his Apostolate.
(The Forge,
no.87)
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Thursday
of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time
The gift
of the Holy Spirit (Ecclesiasticus
48:1-15)
There is a passage in the book of
Ecclesiasticus (48:1-15) which is a eulogy on the prophet Eliah, on his
fortitude and achievements on God's behalf. This was hundreds of years
before the coming of Christ. What was the secret, the key to his holy
and powerful life? It was the gift of the Holy Spirit that he, Elijah,
had received and his readiness no matter what the cost to be guided by
the Holy Spirit.
Now Christ came not simply to give the
Holy Spirit to this or that chosen person. He came to give the Holy
Spirit to mankind, to anyone who chose to believe in him. So we could
take Elisha's relationship to Elijah as a type of the relationship that
any human being could have with Christ, the giver of the Spirit. The
benefit coming from that relationship is typified in the benefit that
came to Elisha from his relationship to Elijah. The benefit is the Gift
of the Holy Spirit: "Elijah was shrouded in the whirlwind, and Elisha
was filled with his spirit."
Let us strive to appreciate this Gift,
and in faith to become aware of it. It is also a powerful reason to be
apostolic - so that as many people as possible will possess this Gift.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Our Lord has made you see your way
clearly as a Christian in the middle of the world. Nevertheless, you
tell me that you have often thought, enviously (though in the end you
admitted it would be taking the easy way out) of the happiness of being
a nobody, of working away, totally obscure, in the remotest corner -
just God and you!
Now, apart from the idea of missionary work in Japan, the
thought of just such a hidden and sacrificed life has come to your
mind. But if, free from the other holy natural obligations, you were to
try to "hide away" in a religious institution, assuming that was not
your vocation, you would not be happy. You would lack peace; because
you would have done your own will, not God's.Your "vocation", that
case, would deserve another name: it would be a defection. It would not
be the result of a divine inspiration, but of sheer human reluctance to
face the coming struggle. And that would
never do!
(The Forge,
no.88)
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Saturday
of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time C
Living
in the presence of God (2
Chronicles 24:17-25)
In the second book of Chronicles
(24:17-25) we have the description of the death of the prophet Zechariah,
murdered in the court of the Temple. As he died the prophet cried out,
"The Lord sees and he will avenge!" The murderers of the prophet
ignored and forgot the presence of the all-holy God.
If we wish to avoid sin, if we wish to be
good, if we wish to grow in holiness, we must learn to live in the
awareness of the presence of God. We are constantly in God's presence,
as is every one of God's creatures, because they exist only because he
constantly wills it so. But because we do not see God, we tend to
forget him. So we tend not to advert to the constant presence of the
all-holy God.
We must therefore train ourselves to
raise our mind and heart to God in brief prayer. We must also
train ourselves to be more and more faithful to the slightest
promptings of our consciences, because our conscience is the echo of
God's voice, and the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit.
As the prophet cried out, "The Lord sees
and he will avenge!" Let us strive to avoid all deliberate sin.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------
In living holy purity and a clean life,
there is a great difficulty to which we are all exposed. The danger is
one of becoming bourgeois, either in our spiritual life or in our
professional life; the danger - also a real one for those called by God
to marriage - of becoming dry old bachelors, selfish; people who do not
love. Fight that danger tooth and nail, without making concessions of
any kind.
(The Forge, no.89)
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Twelfth Sunday Ordinary C
Scripture
today: Zechariah
12:10-11; Psalm 62;
Galatians 3:26-29; Luke 9:18-24
“The Son of Man is destined to suffer
grievously”. (Luke 9:18-24)
Our Lord’s path was the path of
suffering. God has revealed many things about suffering. He wants us to
work to overcome it, praying and working for the alleviation of hunger
and the various forms of sickness and deprivation. If we do not do
this, as we read in the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, we are not
pleasing to God and we will be judged accordingly. But of course,
experience shows that suffering cannot be avoided entirely. So what
should be our attitude to suffering? Even in nature there are hints
that suffering can become the path not simply to death but to
blessings. A person has a toothache, goes to the dentist, undergoes
what might be painful surgery, but then emerges with a new lease of
life. So too with many operations. The pain is followed by a better
life: this is surely a hint and a metaphor tending to confirm what we
know God has revealed about suffering in the life of Christ.
So then, what has God
revealed about our sufferings beyond the obvious point that we should
try to alleviate them? He has revealed that suffering and death was not
intended by God when creating man, but that it entered the world
through sin and the disobeying of his holy will. Indeed, we could
consider this ultimate cause of evil and suffering in the world at
length. But there is something deeper still, something even more
surprising that God has revealed. It is that God has transformed the
path of necessary suffering from being the path to death and oblivion
to being the great path to life and glory, if this path is traversed in
the spirit of obedience to his will and in union with Christ. How do we
know this? We know it from the example and path of Christ. In the
providence and plan of God his heavenly Father, he the Son of Man, had
to suffer so as to enter into his glory.Our Lord makes this very clear
in today’s Gospel: “The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to
be rejected and put to death, and then to be raised up.” His destined
and necessary path to life was through grievous suffering and death.
Why was this necessary? We are not told - we are simply told that it
was the divine means for his glory and for our salvation.
Moreover, we who know that
being a disciple of Christ is the path to our own glory, also have been
told by the Master that the path he followed must be ours. “To all he
said, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce
himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.’..” (Luke 9:18-24) When
God permits that we suffer, that suffering can be the means of a
marvellous fruitfulness and good, provided we suffer in a manner
obedient to God in union with Christ. Therefore we must learn to follow
in our Lord’s footsteps in the fundamental matter of human suffering.
We must put on the mind of Christ in our sufferings and deprivations,
renouncing ourselves and taking up the cross that comes our way in the
daily fulfilment of God’s will for us. It could be the cross associated
with our daily work responsibilities, or our health, our family life,
our daily apostolate, or just not ever receiving the attention and
recognition that we see others receiving. If every day we strive to do
God’s will with the mind of Christ our Master, carrying the crosses
associated with that, then our obedient and Christlike suffering will
be the path to life and glory for ourselves and for many others, just
as it was for Christ.
It is a turning point in the
Christian life of a person when he at last learns to appreciate this
difficult and central point of accepting suffering obediently in union
with Christ, when that suffering is clearly necessary. It is a further
step again in our spiritual life to embrace some sufferings and
mortifications that are not strictly necessary, in order to be more
closely united to the crucified Christ. The Church helps us to do this
in various ways. Let us ask our Lord for the grace to be truly his
disciples, following him in suffering. It is the mark of true
progress in holiness when we carry our cross in union with Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection on the Gospel of the twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time C
Scripture
today: Zechariah
12:10-11; Psalm 62;
Galatians 3:26-29; Luke 9:18-24
My dear friends, if one thing is clear from the Gospel that we have
just heard (Luke
9:18-24), it is that Christ our Lord wants us to be his genuine
disciples, disciples from the heart. If any one wishes to be my
disciple, he begins. And just before he ascended into heaven he
commanded his apostles to go and make disciples of all the nations.
What we are, as his disciples, matters more to God than anything else.
It is the one thing necessary and it requires all our attention. How
then do we work at being true disciples of Jesus, his true disciples in
everything?
Well, there are at least three things. To begin with, we must
understand that we are sinners and that Christ is our only Saviour. And
then we must understand that Christ loves me. Thirdly, we must know
what discipleship involves.
Many people do not feel any need to be saved from
sin. “Why do I need a Saviour?”, they implicitly wonder in their
hearts. This is one of the most striking characteristics of our times:
the absence of the sense of sin. And because we are children of our
times, we ought assume that we ourselves are affected by this lack of
the sense of sin, of its reality and dreadful nature, and of the fact
that we are sinners. For in the sight of God who loves the world so
much, the striking thing about the world is that it is full of sin, and
the striking thing about each of us whom He loves so much is that we
are sinners. It is for this reason that we need a Saviour. And it is
because of the sin of the world that God sent his Son. If we do not
have much sense of sin, then we will not have an appreciation of
Jesus as our saviour. We will not turn to him to be cleansed of our
sins and for the grace to combat sin resolutely and to overcome it. We
will tend to think that sin is not very important, and if we look to
Jesus for our needs, we will look to him for what in his sight are
minor matters. We think of the crowds who pursued our Lord because he
fed the thousands with bread or because of his healings. They wanted to
make him king, but our Lord fled from them. We too shall find ourselves
looking to Christ for purposes that are not those of God. Whereas in
fact Christ came precisely to take away the sins of the world. What was
God’s purpose in sending Christ, and in creating each of us? St Paul
tells us: before the world began he chose us to be holy in his sight
and full of love. What ruins this plan of God’s is sin. And so we shall
pass through life unprepared for the judgment which will be passed on
our souls. So then, we must awake to our sinful condition, and
understand that Christ is our only Saviour.
Now how do we gain this sense that we are sinners and that we
need Christ our Saviour? By striving to keep close to Christ and by
listening to the teaching of the Church, the Church which speaks in
Christ’s name. If you doubt that you are much of a sinner, begin
asking yourself about your thoughts, words and deeds with this question
in mind: “Would Christ think or say or do what I am thinking or saying
or doing?
But then too, to be his disciple we must understand the personal
love of Jesus for us. Consider all that Jesus suffered for me so as to
save me from my sins. St Paul wrote, Christ loved me and gave himself
up for me. He did not just die for the crowd, he died for me
personally, sinner as I am. Until you have a sense of that, you don’t
know his love for you. That is to say, sinner though I am, Jesus loves
me as if I were the only person in the world. Jesus loves me, he really
loves me, Jesus who is my Saviour. We must give time over to thinking
about that in the presence of Jesus himself. That is why I would
recommend that you consider making a commitment to give real time to
prayer, best of all in the presence of the Tabernacle. When you do,
think of the fact that Jesus loves you, sinner as you are, and that he
loves you as if you are the only person in the world. As you think of
this, keep in your mind the thought of Christ on the Cross. If you put
time into prayer like this you will be laying the foundations for a
life as his disciple. We must say with St Paul, Christ loved me and
gave himself up for me. My saviour loves me, me.
Then finally, we must learn what is involved in being his
disciple. He tells us in the gospel: “Whoever wishes to be my disciple
must deny himself, take up his cross every day, and follow in my
steps.” This means trying to be a really good person at the level of
the heart, out of love for Jesus. Jesus is to be our constant model in
what we think, what we say, and what we do. It means resolving daily to
avoid deliberate sin, whether mortal or venial. It means regular
Confession so as to be cleansed of sin and strengthened in one’s daily
combat against it. It means having the constant readiness to do God’s
will, which is expressed in the responsibilities of our state of life.
I especially urge you to strive to be Christ’s disciple in how
you think. By that I refer to what you allow to go on in your minds and
hearts, which is to say all that no one else can ever see or suspect
except God who sees all. The teaching of our Lord is very clear: “What
comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and it is this which
defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, and murder,
adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what
defile a person.” That is what our Lord says. We may not commit some of
these terrible external sins, but God sees what goes on daily in our
hearts. It is above all in our minds and hearts that we will love and
serve Jesus, or fail to do so. It is above all in our hearts that sin
lodges. It is above all in our minds and hearts that we must strive to
detect the sin that is certainly there. The conquest that we must aim
for is the conquest of our minds and hearts, remembering what St Paul
says, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Ours is the
daily quest for sanctity of the mind and heart.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Monday
of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time II
Scripture today: 2 Kings 17:
5-8.13-15.18; Ps 59; Matthew 7:1-5
Punishment for sin
One of the greatest of man's problems is the problem of the evil and
suffering that he so often experiences. The problem is, why does he
have to experience it if there is a good God? Now, there is no easy
answer to this, nor is there any complete answer outside the answer
provided by Christ, involving faith. What we do know is that there is a
good God, and that nevertheless there is suffering.
One part of the answer is that God, being good, is not only benevolent
(as we could put it), but holy and just and cannot tolerate sin in the
final analysis. Scripture teaches - and the first reading today from
the second book of Kings (17: 5-18)
gives an instance - that this feature of God's nature (his holiness and
justice in respect to sin) is manifest often in the course of the
world's events. "They (Israel) would not listen, they were more
stubborn than their ancestors had been who had no faith in the Lord
their God.. For this, the Lord was enraged with Israel and thrust them
away from him. there was none left but the tribe of Judah only."
That is to say that sin is often punished here in this lifetime as well
as in the next. The punishment for sin manifests God's holiness and
detestation for sin. Other parts of Scripture also show that suffering
is, apart from a punishment, also a merciful warning of what is to come
unless there is repentance. So then, an awareness of personal
sinfulness ought throw light on the presence of suffering in life.
Suffering can be accepted humbly as being well deserved and as a means
of expiating for our sins.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Your chastity cannot be confined to avoiding falls or occasions. In no
way can it be a cold and
mathematical negative. Haven't you realised that chastity is a virtue
and that as such it should grow and become more perfect? It is not
enough then to be continent according to your state. You have to be
chaste, with a heroic virtue.
(The Forge,
no.91)
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Tuesday
of the Twelfth Week II
2
Kings 19: 9-11.14-21.31-35.36; Ps 47; Matthew
7: 6.12-14 Faith in God whatever be the odds
At various times in life and in various ways we can find ourselves
confronted with what seem to be
overwhelming odds. It could be a terrible sickness, or serious
reversals in one's work, or very great
temptations to sin.
Whatever be the situation we face, be it big or small, we must remember
that nothing is too big (or small) for God. That is to say, our faith
in God's power and love must not be allowed to fail, no matter what God
might choose to allow or do. The temptation will be to fail in faith
when things are too big for us, because we forget that God is God, and
not just one of us.
King Hezechiah (2 Kings 19: 9-36)
was faced with overwhelming odds. The Assyrians faced the city of
Jerusalem, urging Hezechiah not to be so foolish as to trust in his
God. Humanly nothing could save the city. But Hezechiah placed the
impossible predicament before God and put his faith in Him. God saved
the city. We must put our faith in God, while doing all we can to
fulfil his will. We then trust in whatever God chooses to do.
(E.J.Tyler)
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The good fragrance of Christ is also that of our clean life, of our
chastity - the chastity of each one in his own state, I repeat - of our
holy purity, which is a joyful affirmation. It is something solid and
at the same time gentle; it is refined, avoiding even the use of
unfitting words, since they cannot be pleasing to God.
(The Forge,
no.92)
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Friday
of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time II
2
Kings 25:1-12; Psalm 136;
Matthew 8:1-4 On Suffering
Consider the simple Gospel scene of our Lord curing the leper (Matthew 8: 1-4).
The leper said, 'If you want to you can cure me.' Our Lord replied, 'Of
course I want to. Be cured.'. There are may mysteries about the problem
of evil, but one question that might occur to us is, why did our Lord
not cure this leper (and all other lepers) without being asked? We do
not know. But his response ('Of course I want to!') shows that he wants
to cure the world of suffering, but many things, it seems, lead him not
to. And at least in this case, prayer for healing was in some sense
necessary.
So whatever about the things we do not understand or that God has not
revealed, it is clear that the
healing power of God in respect to suffering is especially available if
we ask for it. If we don't, it may not come our way.
But there is a further point. Our Lord did not want this healing
broadcast ('Mind you do not tell anyone'). It is clear from the Gospels
that there were many other things that he did want broadcast: such as
that God's Kingdom was near at hand, and, after the resurrection, that
the forgiveness of sins and the Gift of the Spirit was available, and
so on. This tells us what God regards as really important, far more
important than healings, though healings also have their importance in
God's sight.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Get used to thanking the Guardian Angels in advance, thus putting them
under an obligation.
(The Forge,
no.93)
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Saturday
of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time II
Lamentations
2:2.10-14.18-19; Psalm 73; Matthew
8:5-17 The wages of sin are death
St Paul writes in the Letter to the Romans that the wages of sin are
death. That is a general statement, and being general is abstract: it
appeals to the intellect, to the reason rather than to the imagination.
Now, for this teaching to have religious impact, it generally needs to
strike at the imagination too. We need an image of the havoc and death
wrought by offending God.
We have this image in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (Lamentations
2:2.10-14.18-19). It is repeatedly taught in the inspired pages
(and in this first reading) that it was the sin of God's chosen people
that brought about this destruction of the city of Jerusalem. This
destruction, with its death and havoc, is vividly described. It can be
taken as a distant echo of hell.
But in the same passage there is hope: the inhabitants of Jerusalem can
still appeal to the Lord, and they are encouraged to do so: "Stretch
out your hands to him for the lives of your children who faint with
hunger at the entrance to every street." So let us ask for the grace of
a horror and detestation of sin, and a vivid appreciation of the fact
that the wages of sin are death.
(E.J.Tyler)
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One ought to be able to apply to every Christian the name that was used
in the early ages: Bearer of God. Your actions should be such that you
really deserve to be called by that wonderful name.
(The Forge,
no.94)
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Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time C
Scripture today:
1 Kings
19:16.19-21; Psalm
15; Galatians
5:1.13-18; Luke 9:51-62
Each year in our country the Church chooses a Sunday as National
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday. On such a day we are
invited to deepen within ourselves a Christian attitude to our own
indigenous people, remembering how St Paul writes in one of his
letters, “Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
Pope John Paul II gave a constant example of what it means
to have a Christ-like mind towards any indigenous people, including our
own. Wherever he went in his apostolic travels, he made a point of
meeting indigenous peoples, those peoples who have lived long in
possession of the land before the invasion of Europeans. The Pope met
native Eskimos, native American Indians, and our own Aboriginal
peoples. He always expressed the most profound respect for their
cultures, for they represent thousands of years of human thought and
life. As he often put it, they express their people’s soul. Those
native cultures are usually profoundly religious, in the sense that
religion permeates most aspects of their culture and way of life. And
so, they bear witness to the fact that man is naturally religious, and
that man naturally turns to the supernatural for help and for
salvation. What a lesson this should be for us and our modern western
culture, which is so secular, especially here in Australia. Whatever
might be the limited and mistaken conception that traditional
Aboriginal culture and society had of the nature of the supernatural,
they clearly understood that all of life depended on the supernatural.
And this conviction permeated Aboriginal societies for thousands of
years. It also permeated indigenous cultures generally across the
world. This is a kind of judgment on our own culture, for we tend to
think that being godless and agnostic is normal. But in terms of human
history and the voice of mankind it is an aberration.
When we consider how Aboriginal religion understood the
supernatural realm, we are also reminded of how man needs the
revelation that God has given of himself and his nature. As the second
Vatican Council says, it is Christ who reveals to man his true nature,
and what God is really like, and what God’s plan is for man. As we
think of the strivings of man and his cultures, whether indigenous or
advanced, to understand his world and the supernatural, we realise that
we need the light coming from God, his revelation, and this revelation
comes in Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life, even though
there are indeed seeds of his revelation scattered throughout human and
indigenous cultures. All mankind is called to be in Christ.
Christ became man at a particular time in history and within a
particular culture. In becoming flesh He became Jewish. But as the
risen head of the Church he unites himself now with the Church’s
members all over the world, in all their varying cultures. The Second
Vatican Council says that by his incarnation in a certain sense Christ
unites himself with every man. Every man is his brother. And so, as
Pope John Paul II often said, Christ is now Indian, Eskimo, and
Aboriginal. And whatever we do to the least we do to Christ because of
Christ’s union with all.
For all these reasons and for many more, we ought have a
profound respect for the least person, for the least cultural or ethnic
group, and in a special way we ought love with the love and the mind of
Christ those who come from a stock which has inhabited our land for
tens of thousands of years. The Pope once said in a now famous speech
to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, “you are like a
tree standing in the middle of a bush-fire sweeping through the timber.
The leaves are scorched and the tough bark is scarred and burned, but
inside the sap is flowing, and under the ground the roots are still
strong. Like that tree you have endured the flames, and you still have
the power to be reborn.” We should all respect, encourage and assist in
that rebirth. But there is more. The Pope also said, speaking to the
same indigenous people on the same occasion, “You are part of Australia
and Australia is part of you. And the Church herself in Australia will
not be fully the Church Jesus wants her to be until you have made your
contribution to her life and until that contribution has been joyfully
received by others.”
In this, as in everything, let us bring to bear the mind and
heart of Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection on the Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time C
Scripture today:
1 Kings
19:16.19-21; Psalm
15; Galatians
5:1.13-18; Luke 9:51-62
Anyone familiar with the Christian religion knows that its most
fundamental feature is an ardent devotion to the person of its founder,
Jesus our Lord. Christ required of his disciples that they follow him
no matter what the cost, and that he be the great love of their life.
In today’s Gospel (Luke 9:51-62) our Lord makes it very clear to three
distinct people that their following of him was to be unconditional,
whatever be the cost. The danger is that while our hearts can
warm to this great ideal, it can easily remain a pipe dream, never
lived out in the concrete. That is to say, our dreams of loving Christ
with great dedication can coexist with a mediocre Christian life and a
daily settling for half measures.
How then do we become truly dedicated to Christ? The first thing
to remember is that our lives for the most part are made up of little
things, that is to say, little duties. Not many of us are in situations
that command the attention or admiration of a lot of people. Most of us
are in a position similar to that of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and
Joseph for those thirty years or so at Nazareth. Our lives are usually
ordinary lives, lives filled with what most would call an ordinary
round of duties. But by the way we live our ordinary lives, we can
achieve grandeur. The secret to the ordinary life lies in remembering
that being dedicated to our Lord means doing well what he wants us to
do, and doing it well for the right motive, namely out of love of him.
The Church teaches that the perfection of the Christian life, which is
to say Christian holiness, consists in doing as perfectly as possible
the duties of one’s state in life. By and large, this means one’s work
in life, provided it is understood that the term ‘work’ is a broad term
meaning one’s God-given responsibilities, embracing responsibilities to
oneself, one’s family, one’s work. God’s plan is that we do well each
day’s duties in all their detail, and do it for love of Jesus.
For the lack of this key, very many people never gain a sense of
the grandeur of their lives. Being governed by appearances, they think
that their daily round consists of nothing but boredom, difficulty, and
insignificance. But this is not the case, and never should anyone
interpret their lives in this fatalistic way. No matter what our
situation might be, in the providence of God, there is both possibility
and purpose in it. There have been many lay Christians, many priests
and bishops who have spent years in solitary imprisonment because of
their Catholic Faith. One would have thought that such a life was a
waste and a tragedy. But on the contrary, their lives have been most
fruitful, and why? Because they have made the very best use of every
day they spent in prison, and the duties arising from their enforced
situation. So too with us, we must make the very best use of every day
of our lives, no matter what the situation.
We could be suffering from various sicknesses and difficulties
of health. Our family situation could be very disrupted and full of
difficulties. Our work could be very boring, humanly speaking, or could
contain failures, and bring very little recognition from others.
Perhaps it is work that many look down on, and certainly take no notice
of, by comparison with the work that others do and achieve. Yet God has
permitted us to be in that situation, with the duties that every day
arise from that situation. The key to discipleship is being focussed on
one’s daily duties, doing them well, and doing them for love of God..
Take even the case of a person with a terrible drink problem. He
commits a crime and finds himself in prison. How is he to be dedicated
to Christ? He must there and then begin again, saying to himself, “Now
I begin!”. He is to begin again by repenting his past failure of duty,
and then dedicating himself to fulfilling the duties of the here and
now, and for love of Christ. There is no one who cannot respond
to the call of Christ to be his disciple, his dedicated and ardent
disciple. Everyone, even the one on his sick bed, or the one
approaching death through some terminal sickness, or the person with a
very ordinary or unpleasant job, or the person experiencing the typical
difficulties associated with family life, all can say, “Now I begin!”,
beginning there and then to be a true disciple of Christ, by the
fulfilment of daily duties.
The secret lies in a loving attention to detail, the detail
involved in fulfilling our responsibilities really well, with a true
perfection, and fulfilling them out of love for Jesus. It is thus that
we sanctify our God-given work in life, and by means of our work,
ourselves and others as well. It is thus that we shall learn to follow
Jesus closely - which he was asking for in our Gospel today.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Birth of John the Baptist C
(June 24) Scripture
today:
Isaiah
49:1-6; Psalm
138; Acts
13:22-26; Luke 1:57-66.80
Today we think of the birth of John the Baptist, one whom our Lord
praised as having no equal among the sons of men. We think of what the
archangel Gabriel said of him, that he would be great in the sight of
the Lord. Even from his mother’s womb he would be filled with the Holy
Spirit. He would bring back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord ,
and that he would prepare for the Lord a people fit for him. We
remember the course of his life, how he leapt in the womb at the
approach of Mary and the unborn Jesus. How he grew to be a great
prophet, the greatest of them all, announcing and pointing out Jesus as
the Messiah, as the one who would take away the sins of the world, and
then at the end dying a martyr’s death.
Today we think of his birthday and so we surely are
led to think of his vocation in life. He was endowed with a great
vocation, and he lived up to it by being faithful to the promptings and
the graces of the Holy Spirit. The very thought of a vocation relates
to us all, and in that respect the birthday of John the Baptist has for
us all important lessons.
St Paul says that before the world began God chose each one of
us, chose each one of us in Christ, to be holy and full of love in his
sight. So we each of us received our vocation from before the world
began. We all have a calling from God. From all eternity each of us,
including John the Baptist, was in the loving mind of God. The
providence of God, guiding the history and course of the world and of
the universe, was preparing for the coming of each of us, each with his
own vocation. John the Baptist had a unique vocation, but each of us
too has our own calling from God, a calling originating in eternity.
We ought value highly the special love and choice that God has
made of us. Thinking of John the Baptist’s vocation in life, let us
remember that God loves me and has chosen me. And what has he chosen me
for? He has chosen me in the first place for himself. We each of us
belong to the Father because we each of us have been chosen in Christ.
Just as Christ belongs to the Father because he is his only begotten
Son, so we, who are in Christ by the choice of the Father, also belong
to the Father. And our Lord said that the Father has given each of us
to him. So just as we belong to the Father ever since the beginning, we
also by the gift of the Father belong to Christ. And both the Father
and the Son have entrusted us to the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and
make us holy. And this too was the design of God from the beginning
because St Paul says that since the beginning God chose us in Christ to
be holy and full of love in his sight. He meant us to be holy, and this
holiness, we know, comes from and is the work of the Holy Spirit. He is
the Sanctifier who is entrusted with the work of our sanctification. St
John the Baptist was entrusted to the Holy Spirit too, from his
mother’s womb. He was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s
womb. We receive the Holy Spirit at our baptism.
On this feast of the birth of John the Baptist, we ought pray
for a renewed appreciation of God’s plan for each of us, a renewed
appreciation of our vocation to be holy and full of love in the
sight of God our heavenly Father. We are meant by God to be saints,
whoever we are, be we a cook, a housewife, mother, student, whatever
might be the circumstances in which God places us or permits us to be,
our vocation is the great constant, and that vocation is to be more and
more like Christ in mind and heart. Let this mind be in you, St Paul
writes, that was in Christ Jesus. And let us remember that it was Mary
who brought Jesus, still unborn, to St John the Baptist. When Mary
approached, the gift of the Holy Spirit was granted and John the
Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb. Mary is our mother and our model in
the great project of our life which is to pursue holiness. And let us
remember that integral to this is the work of introducing others to
Christ. The genuine Catholic is always apostolic, like St John the
Baptist himself. On this feast of the birth of John the Baptist, let us
entrust ourselves to God the Father, Son and Spirit, resolving to live
our Christian vocation truly generously.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Think what would happen if we Christians chose not to behave as such
..... and then rectify your conduct.
(The Forge,
no.95)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 29: St Peter and St Paul.
Acts 12:1-11; Psalm 33; 2 Timothy 4:6-8.17-18;
Matt 16:13-19
The Church and the Keys (Matthew 16:
13-19)
It is often said that a slogan of many modern Christians is, Christ I
accept but the Church I reject: Christ yes, the Church no! It is could
be looked on as a fall-out from the classic Protestant position. Now of
course Christ is indeed the great love of the Christian and of the
Church. The Church cannot take the place of Christ. But it is very
clear from Scripture that Christ entrusted the Church, and in
particular the Church's pastors - and particularly the chief and
universal pastor - with the “keys” to the blessings of the Kingdom of
Heaven.
Christ gave to Peter the Keys of the Kingdom: "I will give you the keys
of the Kingdom of Heaven." That is to say, people would gain access to
him and to his Kingdom through the Church which is authorised to unlock
the doors to him and therefore to every heavenly blessing.
So let us love the Church and make it our business to represent the
Church well before others, drawing them to the Church so that they can
gain access to the Redeemer and all he offers mankind.
(E.J.Tyler)
---------------------------------------------------------
Discover our Lord behind each event and in every circumstance, and
then, from everything that happens, you will be able to draw more love
for God and a greater desire to respond to him. He is always waiting
for us, offering us the possibility to fulfil at all times that
resolution we made: I will serve you.
(The Forge,
no.96)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday
of the thirteenth week of Ordinary Time II Amos 5:14-15,
21-24; Ps 49; Mat 8:28-34
Our God is a God of justice
(Amos
5:14-15, 21-24)
One of the distinguishing features of the God of the Israelites, when
compared with the gods of the other ancient peoples, was that He
required the utmost justice towards others, especially the poor and the
needy (Amos 5:14-15, 21-24). The other gods required almost exclusive
concern for their own divine rights, such as in ritual, whereas in the
prophet Amos, an exclusive concern for ritual and a neglect for
goodness, justice and compassion is condemned.
In the prophet Amos (8:4-6.9-12) the severest sanctions are threatened
against those "who trample on the needy, and try to suppress the poor
of the country." These words of God uttered by the mouth of the prophet
remind us immediately of our Lord's description of the Last Judgment
in Matthew 25. Christ the Judge will reward and punish according
to our treatment of the least. He will say that whatever is done to
them is done to Him.
This is the kind of God we are called to love, serve, and imitate. Let
us apply this to our everyday life and to all our dealings with others.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Renew each day the effective desire to annihilate yourself, to deny
yourself, to forget yourself, to walk with a new life, exchanging this
misery of ours for all the hidden and eternal grandeur of God.
(The Forge,
no.97)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday
of the Thirteenth Week II Amos
7:10-17; Psalm 18;
Matthew 9:1-8
On Sin (Amos
7: 10-17)
Many decades ago Pope Pius XII wrote that the sin of the century is the
loss of the sense of sin. One of the features of the loss of the sense
of sin is thinking that sin does not matter much, and that it is of
little ultimate consequence. Now one of the things that can help us to
acquire a sense of sin is to reflect on what Scripture describes as the
consequences of sin - that is to say the punishments for sin - both in
this life and in the next.
The prophet Amos describes (in ch.7: 10-17) the terrible consequences
in their own very time of his people failing to heed God's warnings,
warnings uttered by himself. It would mean terrible death and
destruction. We know that this is also an image of the ultimate and
eternal punishment of hell.
Let us pray for a vivid sense of sin, its horror, and the awfulness of
its punishment. Let us pray for the grace to be determined never to
commit a deliberate sin, and if we do, to repent.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------
Lord, make me so much yours that not even the holiest affections may
enter my heart except through
your wounded Heart.
(The Forge,
no.98)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Friday
of the Thirteenth Week II Amos 8:4-6.9-12; Psalm
118; Matthew 9:9-13
The Jews who challenged our Lord's disciples with the fact that our
Lord dined with publicans and sinners obviously had a certain notion of
God, a notion that had its element of truth. Their notion was of an
all-holy God who because of his holiness rejected sinners. Now of
course ultimately the holiness of God is incompatible with sin,
confirmed sin. The confirmed sinner cannot remain in his presence,
hence there is hell. God's holiness requires that sin be renounced and
indeed expiated.
But God's holiness is a holy love. It is a love that is holy, and a
holiness that is loving. So he seeks out the sinner and by his power
strives to reclaim the sinner from his sin. So it is that our Lord said
that he came to call sinners, and he, the all-holy God even dined with
them. The sinners our Lord associated with knew they were sinners and
yet sought his company because of his love and their desire (however
obscure) to change. They were sick, and they sought health from the
divine doctor.
We should strive to be like those who sought the company of Christ. We
ought put ourselves in their
company. At the same time, in respect to those who are straying far
from God, we should strive to have the mind of Christ, showing forth to
them the holy love of God. In this way we make present to them the
divine doctor healing the sick.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------
Try to be considerate, well-mannered. Don't be boorish! Try to be
polite always, which doesn't mean
affected.
(The Forge,
no.99)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Solemnity
of the most holy Trinity C
Scripture today: Proverbs
8:22-31; Psalm 8;
Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15
This is the Sunday of the year when we honour the most profound and
most central mystery of our Catholic Faith, the Blessed Trinity.
In very many non-Christian cultures and societies, many gods
were worshipped. But God has revealed that he is only one. There is
only one God, and this one God is the one we worship. Moreover, he is
one in a way we are not. For we and every other thing we know are made
up of parts. We have a mind, a will, a body, and various other
qualities which make up our one person. We could lose many of these
components. But God simply is, and everything that God is, his love,
his power, his goodness, his knowledge, is simply God. And so there is
nothing about God he could cease to possess. This utter simplicity of
God and lack of components makes him unimaginably one in his nature.
God simply exists without anything in him which would limit the extent
and richness of his being. He is the only God, and is utterly one.
In all of this we are referring to the being of God. But God has
revealed that while in being he is simply one, he is not one as a
person. God is three persons while being simply one in his being. For
it has been revealed that Jesus Christ is God’s only Son, our Lord.
Jesus is God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God. In all
this there are not two Gods, or two divine beings, but only one God,
only one divine being. The Son is not the same person as the Father,
rather he is the only-begotten Son of the Father. But he is the one
same God. The Father is this one same God too. The Father did not
become man and die on the Cross for us. Rather, the Father sent the Son
to do this for us.
And while we believe in the Father and the Son, we also believe
in the Holy Spirit who is the Lord and Giver of life and who proceeds
from the Father and the Son, being himself the love which unites them
both. He is the love of God. With the Father and the Son he is
worshipped and glorified. That is, just as the Father is the one God,
and just as the Son is the same one God, so the Holy Spirit, a third
and distinct person, is the one God too. There is only one God and he
is utterly one in his being. Yet there are three distinct persons, each
of whom is the same one God. Jesus taught us to address our Father in
heaven. When we speak to God our Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, we speak as brothers and sisters of Jesus our Redeemer and God,
living by the love of the Holy Spirit who has been given us by the
Father and the Son. And so in the prayer of today’s Mass we say,
“Father, you sent your Word to bring us truth and your Spirit to make
us holy.” God is one, yet three.
The Son and the Holy Spirit have missions to us. That is,
they have been sent on a mission to do things for us
characteristic of who they are. The Son is sent by the Father. The
Spirit is sent to us by both the Father and the Son. The Father,
though, is never sent. The Father is not sent to us on a mission by any
divine person because he is the divine origin of the other two divine
persons. All three are equally God, but it is the Father who is the
origin of the other two, not the origin in time, for all are equally
eternal, but they do come forth eternally from him. In this sense, and
in this sense alone, are we to understand Christ’s words, “The Father
is greater than I.” For our Lord says in another place, “The Father and
I are one”, and again he says, “He who sees me sees the Father.” All
three persons are one in power, divinity, knowledge, eternity and
being. God is simply one in his being, utterly one, and each of the
three distinct divine persons is this one God. The Son is eternally
begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the
Father and the Son as their love.
We each of us, because of our baptism, share in the life of this
same one and triune God. There is a principle of life within us which
is beyond the natural human life into which we were born. This divine
life in which we share, the life of God the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, is the source of that holiness to which we are called. It is
the power of God enabling us to be sanctified. This is the will of God,
St Paul writes, your sanctification. Our sanctification is possible
because we share in the life of the Blessed Trinity. So let us today
thank God for revealing himself to us and calling us to an eternity
with him.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection on the readings of Trinity Sunday year C
Scripture today: Proverbs
8:22-31; Psalm 8;
Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15
Every one of us is born into a family, and our family
life, such as it is, has a profound effect on us. As we all know, a
very good key to the understanding of any person is to know and
understand that person’s family. But the human family ultimately takes
its origin from another family, the divine family, which is God
himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: three distinct persons, each of
whom is the one divine being. They are united in a bond of love we
cannot imagine. On this feast of the Holy Trinity, let us think of the
three divine persons.
Those blessed with God’s revelation in the Old Testament
had the slightest inkling that the one only God who had revealed
himself had a Son who was also God. By hindsight the Christian can see
that the Holy Spirit had given a hint of it in the account of the
creation in the book of Genesis. God said, “Let us make man in our
image and likeness.” God the creator speaks of “us” making man in “our”
likeness. And in the first reading of today (Proverbs
8:22-31) we heard the account of God’s Wisdom. But no one
suspected that God’s Wisdom and his Word was a second divine Person. At
the beginning of the fourth Gospel, St John says that “In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Before
Christ came no one knew that God’s Word was his only Son.
Our Lady was the first believer of the New Testament to
experience the one God in three Persons. The first time that the Son of
God became known was when God the Father sent the angel to say to our
Lady: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most
High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called
Holy, the Son of God.” The Child to be born was God’ Son. During all
those years when our Lord was growing up, our Lady would have pondered
on those words of the angel about her son, the Son of God. He was her
son, and the Son of the Father almighty. He was man, and God. He was
human and divine, an eternal divine person who had taken on a human
nature. When she and St Joseph found him in the temple, he said to her,
“did you not realize that I was about my Father’s business?” From his
earliest years he had a vivid awareness that he was the only Son
of God.
Then at the beginning of his public ministry, when our Lord was
baptised by John in the river Jordan, God the Father spoke from heaven.
He said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Later
in his public ministry, not long before his Passion, our Lord went up
the mountain with Peter, James and John who would be the pillars of the
early Church. There on the mount the Father said, “This is my beloved
Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” God has a Son whom He
sent to us to save us from our sins, and when he sent him to us he
announced that he was indeed his Son.
But there is also a third divine person, the Holy Spirit. We
remember what the angel said to Mary at the Annunciation: “The Holy
Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most High will
overshadow you.” We also remember what happened at our Lord’s
baptism in the river Jordan. The Holy Spirit descended on him in the
form of a dove, and with the Holy Spirit upon him, it was then that the
Father spoke pointing out that Jesus was his beloved Son. At the last
Supper our Lord spoke at length of the Holy Spirit, and we heard in the
Gospel today one passage about the Holy Spirit (John 16:12-15).
He is the Spirit of truth who would lead the Church to the full truth.
He would glorify Christ, and instruct the Church and the Church’s
members on all that Jesus has said. On Pentecost Sunday, the Father and
the Son together sent the Holy Spirit on the infant Church to launch it
on its mission, with Christ invisibly at its head, working through its
members.
Not only must we believe that the one only God is three divine
persons, each of which is this one only God. We must take advantage of
it. That is to say, this stupendous mystery was revealed to us because
God wanted to tell us of his plan for us. We must co-operate with His
plan. His plan is to make us part of his own family life for ever, to
draw us into the life of the Blessed Trinity for all eternity. This he
did and began at our baptism and confirmation. We are adopted children
of God, we share his divine life, and if we are in the state of grace,
the Holy Trinity dwells within us. The wonderful thing is that
God plans that for ever in heaven we shall be with him, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. That wonderful future starts now. But we must live in the
state of grace and grow in it. We must make the decision to love God
with all our heart and live out that love by obeying his will each day.
If ever we fail, we must repent, and start again. We must grow in grace
by means of prayer and the frequent reception of the Sacraments,
especially of the Eucharist and Penance.
Today, the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, let us
renew our faith in the Blessed Trinity. Let us live out our belief by a
fervent Catholic life, a life renouncing sin, a life of prayer and the
Sacraments, and so living as to merit heaven.
(E.J.Tyler)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Body and Blood of Christ C
Scripture today:
Genesis
14:18-20; Psalm 109; 1
Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 9:11-17
Christ loves us so much that when it was time for him to return
to the Father, he wanted to remain with each of us. So he gave us
himself present in the Eucharist. It is God’s greatest gift, for as St
Paul says, in Christ we receive every heavenly blessing, and in the
Eucharist we receive Christ. Therefore the Eucharist is the summit and
the source of the entire Christian life.
Every year we celebrate the feast of the body and blood of
Christ, Corpus Christi. The Blessed Sacrament has been the inspiration
of the saints since the beginning. St Elizabeth Seton, an American
convert of the nineteenth century, said that there were two things that
brought her into the Catholic Church, the Blessed Sacrament and the
Blessed Mother. St Thomas Aquinas said that he learned more in five
minutes on his knees in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament than from
all the great books he had ever read. St Vincent de Paul used to open
his mail - with all the problems of people that these letters brought
him - in the chapel before the Blessed Sacrament, and in reading the
letters he would pray over them, begging the Eucharistic Jesus for the
right answers. St Thomas More made it a point to go to Mass every
morning to be with Christ; once when he was in the palace chapel an
excited messenger came and said the King wants to see you at once. But
Thomas kept on praying. He said to the messenger, ‘Tell the king I am
serving a greater king than he.’ Blessed Teresa of Calcutta used to
address many audiences. On one such occasion she said that she and her
Sisters found their greatest strength in the Holy Eucharist. She said
they meditate and attend Mass early every morning and Christ gives them
the courage to go out and work with the poorest of the poor. Then, she
added, the greatest gift they had received was the permission and
privilege to have a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on
the altar when they come home each evening. After a hard day working
with the dying, the lepers, the orphans, it was like a breath of fresh
spring air to be with Jesus, the living true Jesus, our redeemer, our
brother and our God, in this special way. She said this gave them added
strength and inspiration.
Do we appreciate the Eucharist? Do we realize that the
Blessed Sacrament, that Holy Mass, involves the presence and the action
of the real Jesus, living and risen? The Eucharist is the treasure of
the Church, it is the treasure of any parish, it is the principal
reason for being a Catholic, it is the principal thing we as members of
the Church have to offer anyone and all. And we have the Eucharist, the
Eucharistic Jesus constantly present in our tabernacle awaiting our
visits and our prayers before him. Many make a holy hour every week - a
wonderful practice to be recommended to all. Each parish has daily Mass
usually together with other Eucharistic devotions. So there are
abundant opportunities in any parish to be with the Eucharist Jesus,
and to draw from him the graces and spiritual riches he wishes to give
to each of us. But do we really appreciate this great treasure of our
faith, the very presence of the Eucharistic Jesus with us constantly in
each Catholic church?
It is so easy to look on the Eucharist as just one thing among
many that make up our Catholic Faith. In fact, we should be prepared to
die for our belief in the Eucharist, and we certainly should live on
the basis of this belief - simply because the Eucharist is the full
living person of Jesus. But if we are to do this, we must exercise our
belief by a fervent Eucharistic devotion. In particular we ought
cultivate the utmost reverence before the Blessed Sacrament and when at
Mass. I refer to reverence in the way we enter the Church, reverence in
the way we make the sign of the Cross, in the way we genuflect,
reverence by our silence and refraining from trivial conversation,
reverence in the way we pray during Mass itself and whenever we visit
the Church. And if we love the Eucharistic Jesus, we will be praying
that God will bless the parish in which we dwell with vocations to the
priesthood. In this way will the Eucharistic Jesus be the summit and
the source of our whole Christian life.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection on the feast of the Body and Blood of Christi C
Scripture
today:
Genesis
14:18-20; Psalm 109; 1
Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 9:11-17
The central reality of the life of any Catholic and of the life
of the Catholic Church is the Body and Blood of our Lord, under the
appearances of bread and wine. The danger always is that when we think
of the most holy Eucharist we shall go no further than the appearances
before us, rather than keeping before us in a spirit of faith its true
reality. That is to say, we are in constant danger of treating the
Eucharist in much the same way as we would treat bread and wine, rather
than for what it is, the Body and Blood of our Lord. Why? Because that
is what we see, and we tend to go simply on appearances. Therefore we
must make the constant effort to approach the Eucharist with a lively
faith.
If you want to get a better idea of the value and importance of
the Eucharist, then contemplate the value and importance of Jesus
Christ himself, for the Eucharist is not bread and wine, but Jesus
Christ, who chooses to give himself to us looking like bread and wine.
So let us consider for a moment the person of Jesus Christ, so as to
appreciate more the holy Eucharist.
St John at the beginning of his Gospel tells us that in him all
things came into being. Nothing came into being except through him. Let
us consider then the universe. The distances involved and the forces at
work are unimaginable. It has been said that there are probably as many
stars as all the grains of sand on all the world’s beaches and deserts
combined, and multiplied many times. We are very little indeed,
we and the home we live in, which is our planet earth. And yet despite
our littleness we were created for greatness. As the first pages of
Holy Scripture teach us, we were made in the image and likeness of God,
and placed in this beautiful planet, which just could be totally unique
in the entire universe. All this was made through Christ, who is God.
So then, whenever we gaze on the Eucharist, let us always
remember that we are gazing on Jesus our creator.
Man came from the hand of God as his creature, but he disobeyed
God. He sinned, and so fell. Because man sinned, the Word of God our
creator became flesh. He stood among us as one of us, eating and
drinking, and living and dying so as to gain for us the prize of
heaven. Due to him, man can now share in the divine nature with a share
in the Spirit of God. We are now God’s children. The mind-numbing
universe exists through Jesus Christ and for Jesus Christ, and we who
are his brothers and sisters are called through our Baptism to share in
his glory. This glory is gradually acquired through daily fidelity to a
life of union with Jesus. And this union with Jesus has its high point,
its summit, as well as its source, in the most holy Eucharist. The
Eucharist is the moment of union with Jesus par excellence, when he
gives himself to us to be our spiritual food.
Now, how can we possibly take all this for granted! Jesus is our
creator and our redeemer, our true life day by day. He is the way, the
truth and the life, and this is what the Eucharist is. When we think of
the Eucharist, we must immediately think of Jesus. When we think of
Jesus our creator and redeemer constantly in our midst with us, we must
immediately think of the Eucharist. We must find a way to grow in a
profound reverence for the Eucharist, for Mass and Holy Communion, and
for the real and abiding presence of Jesus in the tabernacle awaiting
our visits and our prayer.
We must recognise that we will tend to ignore the Eucharistic
Jesus, because we tend to go only by appearances. We don’t see Jesus in
the flesh, so we tend to ignore him even in the church. We will tend to
treat the Eucharist, and to act in the presence of the Eucharist, as we
would before bread and wine, rather than as we would before the living
Jesus. And so we tend in the very presence of the Eucharistic Jesus to
talk to others, and to be generally distracted. Let’s resolve to
exercise our faith in the Eucharist by seeking ways to visit Jesus
during the week, by going to Mass very frequently, by genuflecting
reverently before the tabernacle, by refraining from conversation in
the Church, by praying with true attention and recollection and by
encouraging others to do the same. That is to say, let us energetically
build up our faith in the Eucharist and act in a way consistent with
that faith. Let us build up in ourselves, our families and our parish a
lively faith, recognising that the Eucharist is Jesus, and Jesus
is the Eucharist, the summit and source of the Christian life.
(E.J.Tyler)
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