March 2004
Ash Wednesday C to the
Fifth Sunday of
Lent C
Ash Wednesday C
Scripture readings for
today: Joel 2:
12-18
Psalm 50
Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
2
Corinthians 5:20 - 6:2
Matthew 6:
1-6. 16-18
Taking action during
Lent Matthew 6: 1-6.
16-18
Were you to ask any child if he wants to be good, the answer would
be
yes. Normally this would be the response of any person. The human being
has an instinctive desire for moral goodness.
Well, as the reading from 2 Corinthians 5:20 - 6:2 tells us, God
burdened Jesus with our sins so that we might become good with a share
in his goodness: "For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so
that in him we might become the goodness of God." The Church,
making
use of St Paul's text at the start of Lent, tells us that now is the
opportunity for this advance in moral goodness: "now is the favourable
time; this is the day of salvation." Do you want to be holy? Make
a
start now, with Lent for it is the opportune time.
But we must be disposed and ready to co-operate with God's action.
Lent
is a time of special grace and opportunity, but we must seize the
chance. God will be active in our lives leading us to sanctity, but we
must do our part to clear the way for him and co-operate. The Church
identifies three areas of effort on our part that are necessary:
prayer, penance, and practical charity, and our Lord comments on each
in the Gospel passage from Matthew. He asks that we be sincere, doing
it for God alone and not to win the praise of others, nor to win our
own praise.
The danger is that we will think about all this, but, as St James
says
in his Letter, we will then fail or
forget to do anything concrete about it. Spiritual success (which
means
co-operating with God's action)
will hinge on what, concretely, we do about all this. In
particular it
will depend on what we remember to do about it day by day, because it
is quite possible to go through Lent largely forgetting to do anything
specific about prayer, penance, and practical charity.
So let's plan, and remember to examine ourselves daily as to the
spiritual effort we are putting in.
(E.J.Tyler)
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"I would like you to behave as Peter and John did - speaking to
Jesus
about the needs of your friends and colleagues as you pray. And then
with your example you will be able to say to them: look at me!"
(The Forge,
no.36)
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Thursday
after Ash Wednesday (II)
Scripture readings for
today: Deuteronomy
30: 15-20
Psalm 1
Happy are they who hope in the Lord
Luke 9: 22-25
Life's stark choice: life
or death
(Deuteronomy 30: 15-20)
"Here, then, I have today set before you life and prosperity, death and
doom."
A common expression is "the bottom line." One 'bottom line' in
human
life is our free will, which is at work in our free decisions. It is
possible for a person to be carried along in life by the stream of
circumstances, opportunities and disappointments, and not to exercise
our free will in very significant ways. But our life will have true
significance and value only when we
decide, whatever be our circumstances, what kind of person we shall be
and what path we choose for ourselves. We must size up the fundamental
issues, and make basic choices.
The reading from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy places
before
the fundamental issues and the basic choices we just have to make if
our life is to have lasting value. "See, today I set before you life
and prosperity, death and disaster. If you obey the commandments of the
Lord your God that I enjoin on you today, if you love the Lord your God
and follow his ways, if you keep his commandments, his laws, his
customs, you will live and increase... But if your heart strays, if you
refuse to listen, .... I tell you today, you will most certainly
perish".
So we must choose between life or death, lovingly obeying God or
refusing to do so. The bedrock issue, the bottom line, is the choice we
make in respect to this ultimate issue as set forth in these inspired
words of Deuteronomy. Our choice will have far reaching consequences
for this life, and eternal consequences for the next. Our ultimate
future depends not on circumstances, but on our own choosing.
During Lent, as from today, let us endeavour to see the
fundamental
issues in their stark reality. We have a clear-cut choice: to set out
to love God by obeying him, or we can refuse to do so. Lent is the
favourable time of God's grace to make the right choice and to live it
out with our whole heart.
(E.J.Tyler)
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"When you love somebody very much, you want to know everything
about
him. Meditate on this: Do you feel a hunger to know Christ? Because
that is the measure of your
love for him."
(The Forge,
no.37)
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Friday
after Ash Wednesday II
Scripture readings for
today: Isaiah 58:
1-9
Psalm 50
A broken, humbled heart, O God, you will not
scorn
Matthew 9:
14-15
The self
denial of the Christian "Then they will fast" (Matt 9: 14-15)
Our Lord's words in the Gospel passage above (Matt 9: 14-15)
make it
clear that while he was not requiring of his disciples that they lead
lives of self denial at that
point, the time was coming when he would. That time would be when he
was gone from them visibly - "when
the bridegroom is taken away from them. and then they will fast." He
would then be with them in the power of the Holy Spirit. Then they
would have the God-given grace and capacity to follow him generously.
"Then they will fast."
For this reason he taught his disciples repeatedly that to be his
disciple in truth entails taking up one's cross daily, denying oneself,
and following in his footsteps. By our
baptism and confirmation and we have been given the Holy Spirit to
enable us to follow our Lord generously. Our Lord has made it clear
that this means taking up our cross - which is a share in his cross -
daily.
Do I recognise in myself a constant unwillingness to embark on any
form
of self-denial ('fasting' in a general sense)? Well, start in little
ways. Start by bearing patiently
the difficulties inherent in my daily work or the circumstances
inherent in my calling in life, and offer
them up with Jesus. Start with a determined effort to do something
about the fault I notice is
particularly persistent in my life. Start too
with a few voluntary mortifications, such as doing without some
luxury.
The virtue of self denial will then grow and Lent will be a time of
grace.
"The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and
then they will fast." Pray for the grace to live out this "fast" with
love. It will bring fruitfulness to your spiritual efforts and daily
apostolate.
(E.J.Tyler)
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"People who say that we priests are lonely are either lying or
have got
it all wrong. We are far less lonely than anyone else, for we can count
on the constant company of the Lord, with whom we should be conversing
without interruption. We are in love with Love, with the Author of
Love!"
(The Forge, no.38)
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Saturday
after Ash Wednesday II
Scripture readings for
today: Isaiah 58:
9-14
Psalm
85 Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may be faithful
in your sight
Luke
5: 27-32
As Levi responded to
Jesus immediately, so too can
I.
The response to our Lord's invitation on the part of some can be
surprisingly generous. We get the impression from the Gospels that at
least some of our Lord's first
disciples were very generous with God and very observant of their
Jewish faith prior to their meeting with Jesus. For instance, John and
Andrew were disciples of John the Baptist (John 1: 35); when during his
vision of the animals Peter was ordered by God to eat, said (Acts 10:
14) that he had never eaten unclean food before; and Nathanael was
described by our Lord as without guile (John 1: 47). Many were very
good soil indeed.
But what of Levi, in our passage above? He was a tax collector,
and we
remember how John the Baptist told the tax collectors that they were
not to collect more than was legal (Luke 3: 13), as if that was their
well-known tendency. Possibly Levi was very honest in his profession
but possibly he was not, and in any case his occupation would seem to
have offered at least many occasions of sin. But whatever about that,
his response to our Lord's invitation was immediate. He left all and
followed our Lord.
Moreover, Levi's tax collector friends flocked to be part of the
banquet Levi put on for our Lord. He and they loved our Lord. His was
not the only case. We remember how a chief tax collector, Zacchaeus,
responded to our Lord's friendship. Our Lord invited himself to
Zacchaeus' house for dinner, and Zacchaeus responded magnificently,
welcoming our Lord warmly, giving half his goods to the poor, and
repaying fourfold those he had unjustly cheated (Luke 19: 8). It would
appear that Luke in compiling his Gospel was interested in the response
of the tax collectors, well known sinners. All this goes to show that
no one is excluded from friendship with our Lord.
Is there a key to understanding the immediacy of the response of
the
tax collectors? Our Lord told a parable in which a tax collector is the
hero. The tax collector in the
parable stood back out of sight beating his breast and repeating, be
merciful to me O Lord, for I am a sinner. Perhaps then the key to the
generous and unexpected response of the tax collectors of the Gospel
was their consciousness of sin and their desire for pardon. Christ was
the answer to their need. They knew they had a tremendous need for
redemption, for holiness, and therefore for Jesus. Their response was
immediate when the invitation came.
Let's learn from Levi. Lent is the time for acknowledging sin and
for
becoming Christ's ardent friend.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection for Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Leaving all (Luke 5:27-32)
The great and ever pressing issue of each day is the call of God
to
each of us that we be saints, hidden, known as such only to God, but
saints nevertheless. It means loving God with all our heart, expressing
this love in the generous fulfilment of our daily duties, and being
prepared to struggle to bring this about - with the grace of God.
Now why is it that all too often we make so little progress? All
too
often it is because the pattern of our life does not reflect what St
Matthew did when our Lord said to him, “Follow me.” Matthew left
everything and got up and followed him. That disposition to leave all
was what our Lord wanted. With that readiness to respond to his call
immediately our Lord could lead Matthew on to sanctity and to a total
following in his footsteps. But by contrast consider the rich young
man. He came to our Lord and asked what he had to do to gain eternal
life. Our Lord invited him to leave all and to follow him. But he went
away sad.
Let us this Lent leave behind what is preventing us from a total
following of the Master each day. In this lies the grandeur or ordinary
life. Let what we see in Matthew’s response to our Lord’s call be the
pattern of our lives.
(E.J.Tyler)
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"I see myself like a poor little bird, accustomed only to making
short
flights from tree to tree, or, at most, up to a third floor balcony.
One day in its life it succeeded in reaching the roof of a modest
building that you could hardly call a sky-scraper. Suddenly our little
bird is snatched up by an eagle, who mistakes the bird for one of its
own brood. In its powerful talons the bird is borne higher and higher,
above the mountains of the earth and the snow-capped peaks, above the
white, blue and rose-pink clouds, and higher and higher until it can
look right into the sun. And then the eagle lets go of the little bird
and says: Off you go. Fly! Lord, may I never flutter again close
to the ground. May I always
be enlightened by the rays of the divine sun - Christ - in the
Eucharist. May my flight never be
interrupted until I find repose in your Heart."
(The Forge,
no.39)
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First
Sunday Lent c
Scripture today:
Deuteronomy
26:4-10; Psalm 90; Romans
10:8-13; Luke 4:1-13
"Filled with the Holy Spirit,
Jesus
left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit through the wilderness, being
tempted by the devil for forty days." (Luke 4:1-13)
Today the Church places before us the Gospel scene of
Christ being tempted by Satan. I once read of a girl of six who saw her
family fall apart. After the divorce her father was gone. She lived
with her mother in a poor flat where she could hear the rats eating
their way in through the floorboards. In school she worked hard and did
poorly. Because her parents were divorced, she felt like an outcast.
‘If there is a God,’ she said, ‘then why am I so different, why don’t I
have a family?’ She was tempted against faith. On top of this, she
developed a serious stomach illness, and had no money for doctors.
Then, without any conscious faith, she got a prayer card and started a
novena to St Therese of the Child Jesus. On the ninth day she was
cured, and then she knew from personal experience that there was a God
who cared. She grew up and now she is known to millions of viewers as
Mother Angelica who founded a TV network to teach others about the God
who loves and cares for us. The programmes of her network are watched
all over the world, including here in Australia if you get the
connections. She shared in the common lot of mankind of being tempted.
She was tempted not to believe in God.
Our Lord allowed himself to be tempted, as we read in the Gospel (Luke 4:1-13).
We
tend to think of our Lord as being like us in all things except in
being tempted. No. Our Lord was like to us in all things except sin. He
never sinned, but it is clear from the Gospels, that Satan tempted him
to sin. In fact, it is not impossible that Satan brought his biggest
guns to bear against Jesus, his most subtle temptations, aiming perhaps
at our Lord’s very love for us. Perhaps Satan suggested to our Lord
that he be more effective in his salvific work, using these words:
‘Make it easy for them, all those people you are trying to save. If you
don’t, they won’t follow you and be saved. Give everyone food by
miracles, work miracles they can’t disbelieve, and be so magnificent
that they will follow you in hordes.’ What Satan was really doing was
to invite Jesus to follow a path which was not that of the Father’s.
And we remember how when Peter tried to persuade our Lord to avoid the
cross and death, our Lord called him Satan.
Our Lord resisted absolutely the temptation to take an easy
way,
and the temptation to give us the easy way. Precisely because he was
tempted, perhaps mightily in view of the mighty sufferings ahead of
him, he shows us the way. St Augustine writes that if he had not been
tempted, he could not have taught us how to triumph over temptation.
Lent is the holy season when we go, as it were, into the desert
with Jesus, praying, doing penance and uncovering the deceits into
which we have fallen. And temptations are deceits: by giving in to the
temptation we convince ourselves that what we want is not really wrong.
That is the very thing Satan tried to lead Jesus to.
On this first Sunday of Lent, the example of Jesus provides
us
with our agenda for Lent. We must unmask temptations, be alert to
them, resist them, and avoid them. They can lead to sin. Knowing Jesus
helps us to recognise our temptations, and love for him helps us resist
them. St Jerome said that ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of
Christ. So Lent is the time also to pray more and ponder over the
person of Jesus in Scripture. Let’s make much of the Sacrament of
Reconciliation during Lent. Perhaps we could spend an hour of prayer
once a week before the tabernacle, or participate in weekday Mass if we
do not already. Prayer, penance and works of mercy, these are the
paths to renewal during Lent, and that renewal will launch us once
again towards God.
(E.J.Tyler)
A
second
reflection on the first Sunday of Lent C
"Filled with the Holy
Spirit, Jesus
left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit through the wilderness, being
tempted by the devil for forty days." (Luke 4:1-13)
In the inspired memory of the Old Testament, the
liberation of God’s people from their slavery in Egypt was the
mightiest of God’s works. As the first reading puts it, “The Lord heard
our voice and saw our misery, our toil and oppression; and the Lord
brought us out of Egypt with mighty hand and outstretched arm.” (Deuteronomy
26:4-10)
This was a type of what was to come on a far grander scale.
It
would be in the order of salvation again, but of far greater
significance for sinful man. The liberation would be from the slavery
to sin. Both were mighty works, but the later work, the work of Christ,
would have one special characteristic. When we read the Old Testament
accounts of God liberating his enslaved people we do not get the
impression that it cost God greatly. Our impression rather is of God’s
great compassion and overwhelming power. He was the greatest of
saviours. His power showed itself in his mercy. But now with Christ
God’s power shows itself not only in mercy, but in an astounding
readiness to suffer, to suffer beyond description and to atone
for the sins of man. God’s mighty power was manifest in the extent of
the sacrifice he made and what it cost him. In the Old Testament God’s
mighty work was liberating his people. In the New God’s mighty work was
to suffer and to atone for sin. His was the greatest work ever done in
history.
But there is another aspect of this work which cost God so
much.
It was his contest with Satan, which makes its first appearance right
at the start of our Lord’s public ministry, as reported in the Gospel
of today. In the liberation from slavery, Egypt was the oppressor and
opponent of God. In the redemptive work of Christ Satan was the
oppressor and the opponent, as Egypt was in the prior liberation from
slavery. The Gospel of today places before us the two antagonists.
Satan tempted Christ repeatedly to swerve from the will of the
Father, and each time he was repelled (Luke 4:1-13).
Christ would be obedient unto death. Just as Pharoah loaded the
children of Israel with burdens and indignities, so Satan poured
burdens and indignities on Christ. And Christ accepted the burden for
it was the burden of the sin of the world.
The opening prayer of today’s Mass is, Father, through our
observance of Lent, help us to understand the meaning of your Son’s
death and resurrection and teach us to reflect it in our lives. Let us
show in our lives the readiness to suffer for our own sins and the sins
of others. Let us manifest in our lives a vigorous fight against sin
and Satan, overcoming him by our daily obedience to God.
(E.J.Tyler)
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That friend of ours would finish his prayer in this way: "I love the
Will of my God and that is why, abandoning myself completely into
his hands, I pray that he may lead me however and wherever he likes."
(The Forge,
no.40)
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Monday
of the First Week of Lent
Scripture readings for today:
Leviticus
19: 1-2. 11-18.
Psalm 18
Your words, Lord, are spirit and life
Matthew
25: 31-46 (The last and general Judgment)
The true
notion of holiness: a holiness of love (Leviticus 19:
1-2.11-18 Matthew 25: 31-46)
One of the most significant issues in human history has been the
variety of notions of what it is to be good, and in the case of man's
religions, what it means to be holy. These notions have shaped
societies and civilizations. A great religious leader arises, be he a
Buddha, a Zoroaster, a Confucious, a Mahomet, and he has and develops
his notion of holiness and goodness of life, and how to attain it. It
could be through the attainment of enlightenment and the absence of
desire. It could be to acknowledge no god but God. A civilization's
character will be shaped according to the fundamental notion of
holiness. So we have it in great sections of the world.
Now, the holiness that has been revealed by God has a distinctive
character stemming of course from the character of God, who is Love.
"The Lord spoke to Moses; he said: 'Speak to the whole community of the
sons of Israel and say to them: "Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am
holy." (Leviticus 19: 1-2)
What then does it mean to be holy, as God reveals it to be? It does not
mean ignoring the world and
endeavouring to escape from it for Him. It means engaging with the
world by love and service. And so we read in Leviticus that "You must
not steal nor deal deceitfully or fraudulently with your neighbour",
and in a host of other ways we must love our neighbour as ourselves
(Leviticus 19: 11-18). That is what God himself is like,
and he requires the same of us.
Christ fulfilled all of this, becoming one of us and dying for us on
the Cross in order to save the world. He requires that we love others
as he loves us. He identifies with the least: "For I was hungry and you
gave me food... Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you..? .. I
tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to the least of these
brothers of mine, you did it to me."
That is the holiness of God, and it is the holiness he asks of us. It
should shape our whole lives and our civilization. We are called to
build a civilization of love.
(E.J.Tyler)
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"Ask the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and your Mother, to make
you know yourself and weep for all those foul things t hat have passed
through you, and which, alas, have left such dregs behind... And at the
same time, without wishing to stop considering all that, say to him:
Jesus, give me a Love that will act like a purifying fire in which my
miserable flesh, my miserable heart, my miserable soul, my miserable
body may be consumed and cleansed of all earthly wretchedness. And when
I have been emptied of myself, fill me with yourself. May I never
become attached to anything here below. May Love always sustain me."
(The Forge,
no.41)
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Tuesday
of the First Week of Lent
Scripture readings for today:
Isaiah
55: 10-11
Psalm 33
From all their afflictions God will deliver the just
Matthew 6:
7-15
True
success (Isaiah 55: 10-11)
Success: it is the ideal of modern man. We all hope for "success" -
that our lives will be successful. In some cultures, failure is
traditionally almost unbearable. Now, notions vary as to what success
consists of. A man may "succeed" in his career, but in the process
"fail" in some other way such as in family life. So what is success and
what is the way to it?
Hundreds of years before the coming of our Lord, through the prophet
Isaiah God spoke of the success of his word: "As the rain and the snow
come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the
earth, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower
and bread for the eating, so the word that goes from my mouth does not
return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what
it was sent to do" (Isaiah 55: 10-11).
So whatever may be the apparent success of some things in human life
and the failure of others, God has told us that his word is successful.
True success occurs when God's word is fulfilled, when it achieves what
it was sent to do.
This same Word of God came among us in person, and succeeded in what he
was sent to do. He was
sent to save the world, and he did so by his obedience unto death,
which involved apparent "failure". What then will success in life
consist of? It will surely consist in uniting ourselves with the Person
who is God's Word, Jesus, who succeeded in what he was sent to do. Our
success in life will come from following in his footsteps, in hearing
the word of God and putting it into practice no matter what the cost.
So let us indeed aim at success, but let us have a clear and correct
idea of what God our Father has revealed to be true success and the way
to it.
(E.J.Tyler)
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"Desire nothing for yourself, either good or bad. For yourself, want
only what God wants. Whatever it may be, if it comes from his hand,
from God, however bad it may appear in the eyes of men, with God's help
it will appear good, yes very good, to you. And with an ever-increasing
conviction you will say - I have rejoiced in tribulation.. how
marvelous is our chalice. It inebriates my whole being."
(The
Forge no.42)
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Second
Sunday of Lent C
(Abridgment of Pope John Paul's message
for Lent)
Scripture today:
Genesis
15:5-12.17-18; Psalm 26;
Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 9:28-36
By way of a reflection for this day, I offer an abridgment of one of
Pope John Paul II’s messages for Lent. His message is a
reflection on
the words of St Paul, “Love is not resentful.” This is what he says:
'As his passion approached, our Lord said to his disciples,
“we are going up to Jerusalem,” thus inviting them to journey with him
to where he will complete his redemptive mission. This journey towards
Jerusalem is the model for the Christian in his following of the Master
on the way of the Cross. In the contemporary world there are many who
offer resistance and rebellion to our Lord’s appeal to accompany him on
his journey to Jerusalem. So they neglect prayer, Confession, and
Sunday Mass. The period of Lent offers a precious opportunity to draw
closer to Jesus and to listen to the voice of God within us.
'Some Christians do not take seriously the urgent and noble
demands of the Gospel, such as the requirement to love our enemies and
to do good to those who hate us. Words such as these demand of us a
radical conversion. When one is offended, one is tempted to give in to
self-pity or hurt, and our Lord’s words are ignored. But forgiveness
and reconciliation with others are essential for the renewal of
persons, society, and nations. The only way to peace is through
forgiveness. To accept and give forgiveness makes possible a new
harmony among men, stopping the spiral of hatred and revenge. To love
the one who offends you disarms the adversary and is able to transform
a battlefield into a place of co-operation.
'It is not easy to convert to forgiveness and
reconciliation. To
take this path it is necessary to experience interior conversion,
involving a readiness to be obedient to the word of Jesus. Our Lord
makes it clear that both the one who causes the offence and also the
one who is offended must both seek and find reconciliation. The Lord
himself acted in this way and He asks his disciples to follow him. In
our times forgiveness is clearly more and more necessary for a true
renewal of society and for the strengthening of peace in the world. The
Church announces to the world the message of Jesus that we are to
forgive and to love our enemies, and wishes to inspire all men with
this new way of relating to each other. It is a very difficult way but
rich in hope. The Church relies in this on the help of the Lord who
never abandons those who turn to him for his help.
'St Paul says in the first letter to the Corinthians
that
“love is not resentful.” Forgiveness is one of the highest forms of
practising charity. Lent offers us an ideal time to deepen in ourselves
this virtue. Through the sacrament of Penance we receive the grace to
live a life of love for our enemy. This is the time to live this
attitude. A heart reconciled with God and with neighbour is a generous
heart. To look at the suffering face of others invites us to share part
of our goods with those in difficulty. Let us make this offering with a
heart freed from resentment and indifference towards others. It is this
resentment and indifference which keeps us far from communion with God
and others. The world expects from us a consistent witness of communion
and solidarity with others. As St John says in his letter, “if anyone
has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his
heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?’
'We can count on the grace of God to enable us to renounce
ourselves in
readiness to forgive others and to help them when they are in need. Let
us pray to God asking his mercy, that he will give us this grace during
Lent, and that we in our turn will be merciful to others, forgiving
them from the heart and sharing from our abundance. Let us make that
our intention during this holy season of Lent.
(Pope John Paul II)
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Tuesday
of the Second Week of Lent
(March 9) St
Frances of Rome. Born in Rome in the year 1384. She
was
married when very young and gave birth to three children. She lived in
troubled times and gave her goods to the poor and tended the sick. She
was outstanding in virtue especially in humility, patience and devotion
to the needy. In the year 1425 she founded a Congregation of Oblates
following the rule of Saint Benedict, and died in 1440.
Scripture today:
Isaiah 1: 10.16-20
Psalm 49
To the upright I will show the saving power of God
Matthew 23:
1-12
Seeking to be humble is to seek to be
like God (Matthew 23:
1-12)
In his book A
Grammar of Assent Cardinal Newman refers to the awareness
possessed by animals and remarks that it is a great mystery. Certainly
one cannot help thinking how like humans many animals are.
For instance, a common expression is 'the top dog'. We often see a dog
wanting to be 'the top dog.' I remember seeing one dog who for a brief
time had to live with a visiting dog. Just to prove he was the 'top
dog' he dug up all the bones he had over a period of time hidden and
displayed them before the other dog, keeping guard over them. The other
dog barked at him from a distance in frustration. The dog with the
bones was secure in his being 'the top dog.' I remember another dog who
could not bear to see his companion dog being petted and given
attention by the masters of the house. He grew savage every time he saw
it. He wanted to be 'the top dog'. How like humans animals are.
The example just given should show that it is not distinctively
human at all to desire status and the esteem of others, to be exalted
in their sight. Humans do this, but so do animals in their fashion.
Many human beings spend most of their lives trying to be 'the top dog.'
To
achieve this status clearly does not in itself give greatness to a
human being. Indeed, to be seeking status and exaltation in the eyes of
men is very unlike God, because Christ humbled himself and became as
men are, and lowlier still (St Paul), and he who sees Christ sees the
Father. So the Father is most humble. Our Lord asked that we learn from
him who is meek and humble of heart. Today's Gospel is very relevant to
this point. "The greatest among you must be your servant. Anyone who
exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be
exalted." (Matthew
23: 1-12)
Let us strive to be like God our Father who is meek,
compassionate
and humble. He humbled himself in his Son our Lord. If we wish to be
exalted, the path is through humbling ourselves.
(E.J.Tyler)
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It would be good if it could be said of you that the distinguishing
feature of your life was "loving God's Will."
(The Forge no.46)
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Thursday
of the Second Week of Lent
Scripture readings for today:
Jeremiah
17: 5-10 (Trust in the Lord, with the Lord for one's hope)
Psalm 1
Happy are they who hope in the Lord.
Luke 16:
19-31
Trust in the Lord (Jeremiah 17: 5-10)
Blessed is the man who trusts in the
LORD, whose hope is the LORD.
It is a very sad thing to come across a person who has lost hope, a
person who hopes in nothing or no one. It is the most natural and
normal thing to have hope. We thrive when we are full of hope.
But the further question is, in what do we place our hope? It may be
that, without realizing it too clearly, we have been placing our
hope
in things that in the final analysis can let us down because because of
their inherently contingent nature. They are "things of flesh". In what
are we placing our trust in life - financial success, physical health,
plenty of friends? If these fail us, where then will our life and
happiness find its support?
The prophet Jeremiah tells us that "Blessed is the man who trusts in
the LORD, whose hope is the LORD". His life will never cease to bear
fruit - the fruit that God
wants. So we must select and choose what we shall trust in - and let it
be the Lord.
If however, perhaps largely unknown to ourselves, we have come to trust
in things that we then discover fail us (such as business success,
health, friends, or whatever), let that be the occasion for detaching
ourselves from that object of trust, and trusting more deeply in the
Lord. When sickness and even death approaches, or anything else that
deprives us of what we hold dear, let that occasion become a great
opportunity, a moment of grace when we abandon ourselves more
completely to the Lord.
Trust in the Lord by deliberate choice. And when what is dear fails us,
let us trust in the Lord the more.
(E.J.Tyler)
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"Any job, no matter how hidden, no matter how insignificant, when
offered to the Lord, is charged with the strength of God's life!"
(The Forge, no.49)
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Friday
of the Second Week of Lent
Scripture today:
Genesis 37: 3-4.
12-13. 17-28.
Psalm 104
Remember the marvels the Lord has done
Matthew 21:
33-43. 45-46
Trust in
God (Genesis 37:
3-28)
When bad things come our way, whether it be loss of possessions,
failure in work, bad health and serious sickness, the approach of
death, or whatever, we can be tempted to a profound panic, or
rebellion, or to give up. We can fail in hope and trust because we
think there is no one who is looking after us.
Consider Joseph in the reading from Genesis, Joseph the beloved son of
Jacob. He was hated by most of his brothers because they were envious
of the special love their father Jacob had for him. So they
violently sold him into slavery, and off he was led into the oblivion
of Egypt. Joseph may have thought there was no hope humanly speaking.
But the integrity he displayed in Egypt (as recounted in Genesis) shows
that he still trusted in God.
In fact, God used his enslavement for far reaching purposes. He
exalted Joseph in Egypt and as a result of this he was the instrument
whereby God preserved Jacob and his family from devastating famine.
From Jacob and his family would come the Messiah. Among many things the
story of Joseph powerfully reminds us that God is our Father and our
constant Provider, no matter what happens to us. Joseph was a type of
Christ in many respects. Throughout his Passion Christ abandoned
himself to the care of his Father.
Let us resolve to abandon ourselves into the Father's care, no matter
what might happen to us.
(E.J.Tyler)
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"Feel the responsibility of your mission: the whole of Heaven is
looking down on you."
(The Forge, no.50)
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Third
Sunday Lent C
Scripture readings:
Exodus
3:1-8.13-15; Psalm 102; 1 Corinthians
10:1-6.10-12; Luke 13:1-9
"Do you suppose these Galileans
who
suffered like that were greater sinners than any other Galileans? They
were not, I tell you. No, but unless you repent you will all perish as
they did."
(Luke 13:1-9)
God
is the Lord of history, the history of the
world and of each
individual life. Some doubt this - they doubt God’s power and nearness
to us. And in the history of religions it is not at all uncommon for
people to think that God is distant, rather than near, and that much of
the world’s course continues without him. This attitude can lead us to
think it is futile to pray for what we need. And when we think of the
evils that afflict both us and other people, we may think we have
further reason to doubt that God is master of the world. Then our faith
in the very existence, the very reality of God, can diminish. I
remember watching a professor of philosophy in an Australian university
being asked if he believed in God. He answered that he did not, because
of all the evil he saw in the world. I read of one man who was asked
why he had lost his faith. He said he had been a soldier and had seen
some of his friends slain along with their much loved chaplain.
But the one whose faith is steeped in Scripture and in the
history of God’s saving work as portrayed in Sacred Scripture is not
likely to be easily shaken in his faith. Today’s readings for the
third Sunday of Lent remind us that our history and our lives are in
the care of God, while allowing as well for human freedom and the
suffering that flows from sin in its various forms. In the first
reading from the book of Genesis the Church presents to us the
wonderful meeting between God and Moses in which God says that he is
fully aware of the sufferings of his people. He would deliver them out
of their unbearable situation. The scene reminds us that we are in
God’s hands, including when misfortunes come. Through Moses God freed
his chosen people from slavery; then through the prophets he guided
them repeatedly according to his will. Then he sent his Son to free all
who accept him in faith and obedience from sin and eternal death. God
was and is involved in the course of our life’s affairs. He is ever
near, all loving and powerful.
But despite this continual care by God, sin and suffering
continue, and many fall away from God because of the evils they
experience. Indeed, we have a passage of the Gospel before us this
morning in which our Lord refers to the suffering and tragedies which
can so easily occur. Eighteen people were killed by a falling tower.
God did not prevent that from happening. Some may think that the one
suffering must have been a greater sinner than others. No. Our Lord
says that those who died as a result of the falling tower were not
greater sinners than the others. He did not say that their sins had
nothing to do with their mishap - he does not comment on that. And he
goes on to teach that they, his listeners, would perish also if they
did not repent (Luke 13:1-9).
So, as St Paul says, the wages of sin are death, and
the mishaps we see give us warning of God’s judgment on our sins.
As we view the sufferings and mishaps and trials of life
and of
history, we must realise that God is indeed in control. Why he allows
certain things to happen, we do not fully understand. But one reason,
at least one among what are surely many, is that God is giving us a due
warning in the sufferings we see: they are calls to repent and to turn
back to God and his will. And instead of asking why God allows
suffering, we should ask, “Do I allow suffering and do nothing about
it? Do I bring it on by my sins? And is not the suffering I see a
warning to me that, unless I repent, I shall be punished if not here,
then hereafter? During Lent, let us turn to God as master of our lives
and resolve to repent of our sins.
(E.J.Tyler)
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God awaits you. So, wherever you are, you must commit yourself to
imitating him and uniting yourself to him, cheerfully, lovingly,
keenly, though circumstances might require you - even permanently - to
go against the grain. God awaits you - and needs you to be faithful.
(The Forge,
no.51)
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A
second
reflection on the third Sunday of Lent C
"Take off your shoes, for the
place on
which you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your father, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." (Exodus
3:1-8.13-15)
It is not very difficult to discover some of the
assumptions and
beliefs of the culture in which we live. The various forms of public
discourse, the public discussion of matters that appear in the press,
the comments made by political leaders and other people of prominence,
all reveal what our society implicitly accepts, values and rejects.
For instance, when it comes to wrongdoing, do we ever hear
any
public reference to it being sinful? Or that it is an offence against
God? In public reference to certain crimes such as violence, theft and
embezzlement, or sexual immorality, they are never referred to as being
sins, and as being sinful, rather they are spoken of as being crimes,
as breaking the law, as the case may be? Such things are known and
accepted as being wrong; as violating the dictates of conscience and as
breaking the laws of society; and as being worthy of some sort of
punishment and as calling for remorse and regret. But it is not
publicly recognised that they are sins. There is no reference to
offending an all-holy God.
All this shows that it is widely assumed in our society and
in
the notions that underpin our culture that sin is not an objective
fact. Rather, the question of sin is taken to be a purely personal
opinion that in terms of public and general acceptance cannot be
regarded as objective. It is a private matter, a subjective judgment
springing from one’s personal assumptions. In any public or objective
consideration of morality, it has to be set aside and left out of
consideration. This ignoring of sin and the belief that it has no
objective reality is a feature of our culture. We do not speak of sin
publicly. Fundamentally, this is because our culture does not regard
the being of a holy God as an objective fact to be taken into account
in public life.
But of course this goes completely counter to the insistent
testimony of the conscience of anyone who has enjoyed a normal moral
and religious development. Such a person experiences the condemnation
of his conscience when he does wrong. With this condemnation there is
the sense of having violated not just a moral norm, not just his own
moral dignity, nor simply the rights of another, but he senses that he
has offended by his disobedience a holy God who somehow is present in
the dictates and intimations of his conscience. The properly developed
conscience is normally religious. In this sense the conscience is
transcendent. And so it convicts a person not only of a crime or a
moral misdemeanour, but of sin. It convinces a person of the objective
reality of his sins, and that God has been offended by
them.
But as mentioned above, the sense of this has been largely lost in
society because, as I mentioned above, the objective fact of a holy and
moral God has been relegated to the status of a purely subjective,
personal, and arguable opinion with no more objective validity than its
opposite opinion, namely that God does not exist anyway.
This has been the situation for a long time. I remember
when I
was a child, I had a great liking for three popular characters in
comics and movies, Tarzan, Superman, and the Phantom. Now each of these
were very moral and good, fighting evil and crime. But there was never
any recognition in them of the reality of God nor of sin. In their
stories, being good had no objective connection with God, and evil had
none with sin. Those characters were reflections of the assumptions of
our secular and agnostic culture.
And so it is that the Church for the whole of our living
memory,
for many decades has been saying that the greatest sin of the modern
era is the loss of the sense of sin. Some time back the Catholic
Bishops of the Philippines stated that the loss of the sense of sin is
now common in the Philippines. It is common here too, and we Catholics,
if we are not on guard, can be easily influenced by this and lose the
sense of sin ourselves. We can easily come to think that we have no
sin, or very little sin in our lives because we are not prompted to be
conscious of it. So we make few acts of contrition, and we do not go to
Confession much, or if we go, we make little attempt to examine our
consciences and confess our sins carefully. Whereas we ought be very
conscious of sin if we aspire to be living authentically in the
presence of God who is all-holy. If we are not conscious of our
sinfulness and of the fact that we sin, we are blind. And many are
blind in this way, including people approaching death and the judgment
of God.
If one has little or no sense of sin, it is like a person
who
imagines that all is well in his health, who is not conscious of any
problems, and yet who unbeknown to him, has cancer, perhaps terminal
cancer. If only he knew! If he had known, he would have been willing
and able to do something about the cancer. So too with sin, which is a
far worse form of cancer. The doctor is Jesus our Lord.
This is why today’s readings from Holy Scripture are so
relevant
to modern man. Consider the wonderful scene in the first reading when
God appears to Moses in the form of the burning bush. What does he say
to Moses after calling him? “Come no nearer” he said. “Take off your
shoes, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.” (Exodus
3:1-8.13-15) Moses was in the presence of the
all-holy God, and he was a sinner. So he could come no nearer, and he
was to humble himself by taking off his shoes. At this Moses covered
his face, afraid to look at God. Do we have anything like this
awareness of God’s holiness and our own sinfulness when we approach God
in our personal prayer, or when we approach him in the Church, or at
Mass, or most of all in Holy Communion? We should be profoundly aware
of God’s holiness and our sinfulness, while being aware too of God’s
infinite love for he is our Father. But he is a Father of infinite
holiness.
This is why too our Lord insisted on sin and on its
seriousness.
He began his public ministry by preaching, “Repent, for the Kingdom of
God is near.” People had to repent of their sins. And in today’s Gospel
he says when speaking of the Galileans who were killed by Pilate, that
“unless you repent you will all perish as they did.”
Let us be on guard against the influence of our culture
which
ignores the reality of sin. We must face every day the hard fact of
personal sin in our lives, and repenting of it, seek God’s pardon for
it constantly in prayer and in the Sacrament of Penance, and then fight
it daily. God sent his son to take away the sin of the world. If we do
not recognise sin in our lives, we will not recognise our need for
Jesus. We will possibly die in our sins if we do not repent.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You wrote: "My King, I hear you proclaiming in a loud voice that still
resounds: I have come to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were
already kindled! Then you added: "Lord, I answer, with all my heart,
with all my senses and faculties: here I am because you have called
me." My this answer of yours be a daily reality.
(The Forge,
no.52)
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Monday
of the Third Week of Lent
Scripture readings for today:
2 Kings 5:
1-15 (Elisha cures Naaman)
Psalms 41; 42.
My soul is thirsting for the living God:
when shall I see him face to face?
Luke 4: 24-30
The grandeur of ordinary life (2 Kings
5: 1-15)
One of the features of modern life is boredom: people say they are
bored. They also experience a sense of meaninglessness. Ordinary life
with its ups and downs, its hopes and disappointments seemingly has
little purpose, value or meaning for very many people. There does not
seem to be much value or richness in ordinary life. Yet we all aspire
to grandeur. If only there were some grandeur in ordinary life!
In today's first reading (2 Kings 5: 1-15)
Naaman the commander to the king of Aram was a leper. He comes to the
prophet Elisha with hopes for contact with the God of Elisha who, he
hopes, will cure him. He expected that if Elisha's God were to enter
his life and hear his prayer, it would involve events well out of the
ordinary. However, the prophet Elisha gave Naaman very ordinary things
to do, assuring him that God would act in those ordinary things, and
heal him. All he was to do was to bathe seven times in the Jordan. But
"Naaman was indignant and went off, saying, 'Here was I thinking he
would be sure to come out to me, and stand there, and call on the name
of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the spot and cure the
leprous part.'" The implication is that Naaman thought that ordinary
life was well separated from God's action. The sequel is described in
the passage below.
The point we ought take is that God is present and working in our
ordinary life and in the ordinary setting of daily work and
responsibilities. It is God who is helping us when others help us, just
as it is God who is helping others when we help them. Let us then
always be alive in faith to God's presence in our ordinary everyday
life, and make our work, our ordinary unnoticed work, a sharing in the
work of God. We ought also recognize the presence of God in the service
rendered by others to us. God is present in the ordinary.
Let us ask Jesus our Lord, our Lady his mother and our mother, and St
Joseph the worker, for a deep
sense of the grandeur of ordinary life. It is grand because God is
present there.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You should show the moderation, fortitude and sense of responsibility
that many people acquire after many long years, in their old age. You
will achieve this, while you are still young, if you do not lose the
supernatural outlook of a son of God. For he will give you, more than
to the old, those qualities you need for your apostle's work.
(The Forge, no.53)
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Tuesday
of the Third Week of Lent:
Scripture readings for today:
Daniel
3: 25. 34-43
Psalm
24 Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Matthew 18:
21-35
Forgiving
from the heart (Matthew 18:
21-35)
It is not difficult to coast through life without ever really
confronting the difficult spiritual requirements of following our Lord.
We can go along day by day with a certain level of generosity in
fulfilling our duties before God, while making no great advance. Why?
One reason could be that we quietly choose to ignore the difficult
demands, failing to present them sincerely to our consciences. Lent
should be the time to come to terms with this tendency.
Consider the parable our Lord tells in the Gospel passage (Matthew 18:
21-35). It is about the servant who refused to forgive his
fellow servant who was indebted to him, after having asked for and
received a spectacular forgiveness from his own master for his far
greater debts. The wicked servant in our Lord's story simply forgot how
much his own master had forgiven him. Perhaps he forgot because he was
wicked. But the point is that he was punished severely, terribly, for
not being forgiving.
One reason why we may not be forgiving from the heart is that we do not
feel very indebted to God after all. Perhaps we have very little sense
of our own sinfulness and indebtedness. In fact we are profoundly
indebted to God for his goodness despite our sinful return to him. If
we worked harder on the gratitude we should feel for his goodness to us
sinners, we would realise much more vividly how slight by comparison is
the indebtedness of others towards us.
But this requires spiritual effort and generosity. We must bring
ourselves to forgive, and usually we do not want to do this. And so we
continue in our hearts to refuse to forgive. Thus it is that our
spiritual advance is halted, and the divine warning of the parable
stands: "And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless
you each forgive your brother from your heart."
(E.J.Tyler)
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You enjoy an interior happiness and peace that you would not exchange
for anything in the world. There is no better way than telling him our
woes for them to cease being such.
(The Forge,
no.54)
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Wednesday
of the Third Week of Lent
(March 17)
Saint Patrick, bishop
Born in Great Britain about the year
385. As a youth he was taken captive to Ireland as a slave and worked
as a herdsman. After making his escape he wished to become a priest and
after being made Bishop for Ireland he was untiring in preaching the
Gospel and he converted many to the faith. In addition he organized the
Church throughout Ireland. It is believed that he died in 461, and was
buried at Downpatrick. If these dates are correct, he was a
contemporary of St Leo the Great.
Scripture readings for today:
Deuteronomy
4: 1. 5-9
Psalm 147
Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
Matthew 5:
17-19
Love for Holy
Scripture
(Matthew 5: 17-19)
Consider the profound reverence for Holy Scripture - the Old Testament
- that our Lord displays here. He upholds the Law and the Prophets and
warns those who violate them. "Do not imagine I have come to abolish
the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete
them." And a little later, "Therefore, the man who infringes even one
of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be
considered the least in the kingdom of heaven." If we aspire to be
followers of Jesus, our veneration for the whole of Sacred Scripture
should be profound.
Our Lord was, humanly speaking, raised on the Law and the Prophets and
he imbued this from the Virgin Mary and his foster father Joseph. As we
think of Jesus, and some of those who touched his life as he grew (Mary
and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah, Simeon and Anna, John the Baptist)
we think of very holy people who heard the word of God from the Old
Testament and put it into practice. We should take our cue from this.
But "its purpose is achieved." Its purpose was to prepare for Christ
and to point to him, and him we now have. We are thus blessed to be
able to see its purpose. Christ is the fullness of all that God has
said and prepared for, and we possess him. He has been given to us, our
hope of glory. Christ is the key to the Old Testament, and the New
Testament is the summit of Scripture, shedding light on the rest.
Let us be like Christ, like Mary, like Joseph - and be imbued with a
love for Scripture, the written word of God.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Is it possible, you asked me, that Christ should have spent so many
years - twenty centuries - acting on earth, and the world should be now
what it is? Is it possible, you went on, that there should still be
people who do not know Our Lord? And I answered you with conviction: it
is our fault. For we have been called to be co-redeemers, and at times,
perhaps often, we do not follow the Will of God.
(The Forge, no.55)
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Thursday
of the Third Week of Lent
(March 18) St Cyril of
Jerusalem, bishop and doctor of the Church.
Born of
Christian parents in the year 315. He succeeded Maximus as bishop of
Jerusalem in 348. He was involved in the Arian controversy and more
than once was sentenced to exile. His Catecheses in which he explained
the true doctrine of the faith and Sacred Scripture as well as the
tradition of the Church for the sake of the people show his pastoral
zeal. He died in the year 386.
Scripture readings for today:
Jeremiah
7: 23-28
Psalm 94 If today you hear his voice, harden
not your hearts.
Luke
11: 14-23
The Two Standards:
Christ and Satan (Luke
11: 14-23)
"Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin, and a
household divided against itself collapses. So too with Satan.." Our
Lord in this passage presents us with two kingdoms which he tells us
certainly exist are at war. The conflict between the two kingdoms
constitutes the ultimate issue of the universe. There is the kingdom of
God which our Lord tells his critics has come upon them, and for whose
coming we pray daily in the Lord's Prayer. There is also, our Lord
informs us, the kingdom of Satan, his household. The two are at war.
St Ignatius Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises
presents the Christian with a choice between the Two Standards, that of
Christ and that of Satan. At our baptism we made our choice for Christ
involving promises, and this choice is reiterated at the renewal of the
baptismal promises during the Easter Vigil each year. It should be
renewed and lived out each day.
Our Lord also gives us a key to success in this conflict. "Every
kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin." The key then is
unity, unity with Christ and with those in Christ. While our Lord's
words suggest that Satan knows that he cannot afford to be divided if
his kingdom is to remain intact, the fact that he will inevitably fall
implies that he is already divided in some sense. He is divided surely
because it is hate that reigns in him, and in his kingdom and
household. There is no love in Satan, nor in his minions. Therefore he
is heading for ruin. His house will collapse, and he knows it.
Our Lord in this passage speaks of his ultimate triumph. He, Christ, is
the stronger one: "when someone stronger than he is attacks and defeats
him, the stronger man takes away all the weapons he relied on and
shares out his spoil." We are called to take our part with Christ and
in his victory by "gathering" with him. "He who is not with me is
against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters."
Let us all be united in Christ, for the victory that is coming depends
on our being one in him.
(E.J.Tyler)
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How humble Jesus is. What a shame, in contrast, that I who am nothing
but dust from a dung-heap should so often have disguised my pride under
the cloak of dignity, or justice. And as a result, how many
opportunities to follow the Master have I missed or wasted, by failing
to supernaturalize them.
(The Forge, no.56)
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Friday
of the Third Week of Lent
Scripture today:
Hosea 14:
2-10; Psalm 80; Mark 12: 28-30
One of the very famous speeches of the 20th century was that given by
Martin Luther King in the late 1960s. Its title was, "I have a dream." God has a dream,
we could say, a great hope for each of us. It is that we will reach the
perfection of love in and my means of our obedience to him. The model
and leader is Jesus who loved him to the fullest in perfect obedience.
We have been given a share in his Spirit to empower us to do this. God
has given us his commandments to enlighten us on this path of love.
Thus love is the first of the commandments of God.
But he means us to have the same dream, that in our obedience we will
be seeking to love god to perfection, in and by our obedience to his
commandments. Love is the first of the commandments.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Saint
Joseph the husband of Mary
(March 19) St Joseph is
considered the second greatest saint, next to the
Blessed Virgin Mary, because of his humility and closeness to Jesus as
the foster father of our Lord. Scripture tells us that Joseph was just,
pure, gentle, prudent, and unfailingly obedient to the divine will. He
died in the presence of Jesus and Mary. We wish to imitate him by
renewing our desire to be faithful. We know that the only meaning of
our life is to be faithful to the Lord till the last day as Joseph was.
Blessed Pius IX named him Patron of the Universal Church and Blessed
John XXIII included his name in the Roman Canon.
Scripture today:
Samuel 7:
4-16; Psalm 88; Romans 4:
13.16-18.22; Matthew 1: 16.18-21.24 or Luke
2:41-51
Prayer for today:
Father, you entrusted our Saviour to the care of St Joseph.
By the help of his prayers
may your Church continue to serve its Lord, Jesus Christ.
We ask this through Christ in the Holy Spirit.
St Joseph:
grandeur in ordinary life
There is something truly wondrous about the life and person of Joseph
the husband of Mary. He was, it could easily be said, a nobody. He
spent his life as a humble unobtrusive carpenter, profoundly devout, an
inhabitant of an out-of-the-way village, of which Nathanael asked: Can
anything good come out of Nazareth? No words of his are recorded in the
Gospels. Except for some moments of drama recorded in the Gospels, his
life followed the common round characteristic of the millions of
artisans like him. What did he achieve? He did God’s will, what God
asked of him.
But there was something very distinctive about his hidden and very
ordinary life. It was his continual intimacy with Jesus and Mary. He
lived continually in their presence, serving and guiding them. It is a
breathtaking thought that Joseph lived day after day, year after year,
with the Son of God and with his all-holy Mother. He was the husband of
the Mother of God, with all the loving intimacy that this entailed.
Imagine being the father, that is the foster-father, of God the Son
made man and coming to know and love and serve him so continually! With
the exception of the privilege granted to his Wife, there has been
nothing to equal it on the face of the earth. How could any saint come
to the relationship with Jesus that Joseph had, with the exception of
Mary, Jesus’ mother!
How grand was the ordinary life of Joseph. If we want to gain a sense
of the grandeur of ordinary life, go to Joseph and ask him to make our
life like his, a life fulfilling God’s will (whatever it be and however
humble) in the intimate presence of Jesus and Mary.
Go to Joseph, as St Teresa of Avila said. He has to be a most powerful
intercessor before God.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Sweet Mother, lead us to that madness that will make others fall madly
in love with our Christ. Sweet Lady Mary, may Love not be in us a flash
in the pan, or a will-o’-the-wisp, such as decomposing corpses
sometimes produce. May it be a true devouring fire, which sets alight
and burns everything it touches.
(The Forge, no.57)
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Saturday
of the Third Week of Lent:
Bless the Lord, my soul, and remember all his kindnesses, for he
pardons all my faults. (Psalm 102: 2-3)
Prayer for today:
Lord, may this lenten observance of the suffering, death and
resurrection of Christ
bring us to the full joy of Easter.
We ask this through Christ our Lord in the Holy Spirit.
Today's readings from
Scripture: Hosea 6: 1-6
What I want is love, not sacrifice.
Psalm 50
It is steadfast love, not sacrifice, that God desires.
Luke 18: 9-14
What I
want is love, not sacrifice (Hosea 6: 1-6)
I have a book in my library about very influential Protestants in the
Calvinist tradition. Its title is "God's Giants". The implication
throughout the book is that greatness in the sight of God comes from
doing great and notable deeds for him - out of love for him and for his
glory, of course. But this can be very misleading. What God wants "is
love, not sacrifice, knowledge of God, not holocausts."
The ordinary humble duties of life, unnoticed and seemingly of moderate
impact, are meant in the plan of God to be the theatre of a growing and
truly great love of God in the heart of the most humble and unknown of
people. All are called to sanctity. God does not want us to be ever
aspiring to remarkable courses of action in the hope that that will
bring value to life. He does want us to break out of mediocrity. He
wants greatness in our hidden, humble love for him - to do the little
things with great love.
Consider Jesus, Mary and Joseph all those years in Nazareth. They would
have been regarded as nobodies by the great and mighty. How would
Alexander, or Julius Caesar have regarded them, if they had heard of
them? As nobodies. But they were great beyond compare because of the
love that filled their hearts and lives.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Being chosen by God means, and demands, personal
holiness.
(The Forge, no.58)
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Fourth
Sunday Lent C
Scripture today:
Joshua
5:9.10-12; Psalm 33; 2 Corinthians
5:17-21; Luke 15:1-3.11-32
"The Pharisees and the scribes
complained. 'This man' they said 'welcomes sinners and eats with them.'
So he spoke this parable to them." (Luke
15:1-3.11-32)
Today’s Gospel passage is famous in world literature. In it our
Lord
tells the
story of the prodigal son, a sinner who admits what he has done:
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.’ But let us
remember why our Lord told the parable: it was to explain himself. We
read that the tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the
company of Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the pharisees and the
scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats
with them.’ So as a response to that our Lord told the parable (Luke
15:1-3.11-32). What he
was doing was explaining why he, sinless as he was, welcomed sinners
and ate with them. At the last Supper he said to his apostles, ‘he who
sees me sees the Father.’ So when he welcomed sinners and ate with
them, it was God the Father doing this too.
The loving and forgiving father in the parable is an image of God.
The
prodigal son welcomed by the father is the tax collectors and the
sinners, and the older brother in the parable is the scribes and
pharisees. But more than anything, the father in the parable is God,
describing what God is like to us if we come to him acknowledging that
we are sinners. Like the father in the parable He will welcome us and
help us to change. Just like the father of the prodigal son, God our
Father is extravagantly forgiving, provided we return to him and say
sorry. A principal purpose of Lent is to realise this very deeply, and
to act on it by turning back to God seeking his forgiveness, especially
in the sacrament of penance. In the second reading St Paul says, in
Christ’s name we appeal to you, be reconciled to God. For God is
all-forgiving. So during Lent let us aspire to be like the prodigal
son, appreciating deeply what God is really like.
The moment we fall into sin through weakness - and here I
am referring especially to venial sin - we should make an act of
contrition, of sorrow for sin, and ask God’s forgiveness. One of the
biggest mistakes now made is to think that little sins, as they are
called, don’t matter much. Deliberate venial sin should always be
avoided precisely because it is a sin. If we take venial sin lightly we
shall not only never reach holiness, but we shall be on the way to
mortal sin. If a venial sin is committed, we should immediately seek
the pardon of God, resolving to avoid that sin again. If the sin is
mortal, whether it be a sin of thought or word or deed, we must
endeavour to make an act of perfect contrition, that is to say, an act
of sorrow inspired primarily by the thought that I have seriously
offended the good God.
But the most concentrated and effective way of receiving
God’s
pardon, whether it be for mortal or venial sin, is through the
sacrament of penance. The Church recommends regular and frequent
confession of venial sins. When it comes to any mortal sin, we are
absolutely bound to seek God’s forgiveness for that sin in the
Sacrament of Penance, and we should do so as quickly as possible. We
certainly must do so before receiving Holy Communion. A great benefit
of being a Catholic is that by means of Confession we can always regain
the state of grace through this sacrament, and grow in it. We are bound
by Church law to confess any grave sins, at least once a year. Our Lord
gave us the sacrament of penance after his resurrection, when he said
to his apostles, “Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive they
are forgiven them.’ St John Chrysostom reminds us that this authority
to forgive is not even given to archangels, nor is it given to our Lady
herself. Yet it is given to every priest, and this is done for our
benefit, to keep us in the state of grace. So let’s use it.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second
reflection on the Gospel of the fourth Sunday Lent C
Scripture today:
Joshua
5:9.10-12; Psalm 33; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21;
Luke 15:1-3.11-32
The tax collectors and the
sinners
were all seeking the company of
Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees complained. ‘This
man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ (Luke 5:1-3)
A constant problem for human thought has always been the
widespread fact of moral and physical evil. Many profoundly religious
people have been dismayed at it, and many others have claimed to have
been led into atheism by the fact of so much evil in the world. There
is indeed a much evil in the world, and why an infinitely good God
permits it is a mystery. Of course, if the world is to contain free
beings at all, the possibility of evil has to be allowed. But the
problem is that this potential for moral evil has come about on an
enormous scale.
On the other hand there is a wonderful spark of the divine
in
everyone. That spark is the instinctive desire to be good, and the
constant awareness that one is obliged to be good. Young children and
adults instinctively would like to be good, and they know they should
do the right and moral thing. In this the human being has a resemblance
to God. There is in him a spark of the divine, and if a person loses
this spark and comes abidingly to want what is evil, he has become
somewhat demonic.
The tragedy is that despite the fact that we instinctively
desire to be good, and know we are obliged to avoid evil, of ourselves
we are unable to so this to the extent we know we should. Anyone who
genuinely desires goodness and holiness of life, which is the noblest
and most authentic of ambitions, soon discovers that he is under the
power of another desire that goes clean contrary to it. It is a fact
accessible to normal reflection. We know we that of ourselves we are
under the power of sin. This tendency to sin, and so to become morally
bad, we are of ourselves unable to defeat. The wages of sin are
death, and of ourselves we are doomed. All too often man gives up
on holiness and settles for moral mediocrity, avoiding obvious sins
that carry obvious sanctions, but remaining ensnared in his sins for
the whole of life. We instinctively want to be good, but all too often
we remain sinners by choice.
In the face of this unfortunate state of things, what does
God
reveal his attitude to be? He reveals himself to be all-holy and hating
sin, but welcoming sinners and lovingly associating with them. That is
what Christ did, and it shocked the Pharisees and the scribes who were
themselves secret sinners, but who spurned those regarded as sinners.
Our Lord welcomed sinners because he loved them with a holy love that
was intent on enabling them to “become the goodness of God”, as St Paul
says in the second reading. To answer the Pharisees’ objection that he
welcomed sinners and fraternise with them - implying that it is not
what the all-holy God would do - our Lord told what is often called the
parable of the prodigal son. But it really is the parable about the
Father of the prodigal son. It is about what the Father is like. It is
about how liberal he is with his gifts, about his readiness to pardon
and to restore the repentant sinner to friendship with him.
It is clear from the parable that there is no end to God’s mercy
towards the sinner who humbly returns to him repentant. Our Lord is the
image of the invisible God, writes St Paul. Our Lord showed that there
is no limit to the length to which he would go to draw us back into his
friendship, even at unimaginable cost to himself. Of course, his
friendship is a holy friendship that does not allow sin. God requires
that we turn away from sin and be reconciled to him. In this lies our
path to goodness and holiness. As St Paul writes in the second reading:
“So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as thought God were appealing
through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s name is: be
reconciled to God. For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so
that in him we might become the goodness of God.”
Man is faced with the sad fact that he is an inveterate
sinner.
But the good news is that God has come to welcome him, and this he does
constantly throughout the sinner’s life in and through the ministry of
the Church. He welcomes us and associates with us, inviting us
constantly to return to him repenting from our sins so that he can
enable us by his grace to become good and holy after the likeness of
Christ. Let us ask our Lady to help us to hear the call and give
ourselves to Jesus. Let us ask for a great desire for this, knowing
that because of what God is like and because of what he has done, all
this is possible for us. We can now become holy. In fact, it is a most
serious obligation.
(E.J.Tyler)
A third
reflection on the Gospel of the fourth Sunday of Lent C
Scripture today:
Joshua
5:9.10-12; Psalm 33; 2
Corinthians 5:17-21; Luke 15:1-3.11-32
The tax collectors and the
sinners
were all seeking the company of
Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees complained. ‘This
man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ (Luke 5:1-3)
With this fourth Sunday we are well and truly into
Lent,
the great time of repentance from sin. We are invited by Christ and the
Church to be conscious of sin and to turn from it back to our loving
Father. We have just head the parable of the Prodigal Son who came to
realise that he was a sinner. “I have sinned,” he said to his loving
father, “against God and against you.” He offers no excuses. He could
see very clearly that he had sinned. He saw what it led him to. He
confessed his sin and he was received back into his father’s
friendship.
It is important to understand the purpose of this story. Right at
the
beginning of the chapter, before our Lord begins his parable, St Luke
tells us this. “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing
near to hear Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying,
“This man receives sinners and eats with them.” In response to their
criticism of himself our Lord told his parable (Luke
15:1-3.11-32). So because the Pharisees were objecting to the
way he was receiving sinners and eating with them, our Lord told his
hearers the parable The parable was given to us to explain our Lord’s
attitude to sinners and why he dealt so familiarly with them.
The parable then is above all about God our Father, and about
Jesus who
is the image of the Father. He who sees me sees the Father, he said at
the Last Supper. The Pharisees had the attitude of avoiding sinners and
of inculcating that into others. But Jesus sought them out and showed
them love and gave them his company. So sinners sought him out. The
parable is about God awaiting the return of the sinner whom he greatly
loves, and whom he is always ready to forgive if the sinner is willing
to renounce his sins and return to him. So as we read the parable we
ought think first of God our loving Father, and of Jesus who reveals
him. He loves sinners.
Having said that, let us notice how all through the parable
the
Father is portrayed as lovingly indulgent. The younger of the two sons
said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of property that
falls to me”. Did the father object? No, the story says simply that the
father divided his living between them. If anything the father was
excessively indulgent. God will be our Judge, but that does not take
away from the fact that he is very indulgent with us especially while
we have the chance in this life of repenting. So off went the younger
son and squandered his property in loose living. Then at the depths of
distress and depression the younger son returns home seeking work in
his father’s house. He would have realised that his father loved him,
and so he would have felt confident to return to ask for employment.
But what happened? The story tells us that ‘while he was yet at a
distance, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and embraced
him and kissed him.’ That was an image of our Lord’s dealings with
sinners. And what a welcome the prodigal son received from his
indulgent father! The father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the
best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand and shoes on
his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and
make merry; for this son of mine was dead, and is alive again; he was
lost and is found.’ And so they began to celebrate.
That is the image we should have of God receiving any soul
who
turns away from sin and comes back to friendship with him. Just before
our Lord tells this particular parable, he says that there will be more
joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety nine righteous
persons who do not need to repent. St John in one of his letters tells
us that God is love. One of the things we ought be working on during
Lent is a correct image of God, and the picture of the indulgent father
in today’s parable can help us.
But of course we must also understand that God, while
loving us
with a boundless love, hates sin. Sin is not only a profound offence
against him and his most holy nature, it is also the great destroyer of
creation and of man. For this reason he sent his son, to take away the
sin of the world. So while we think of God’s love for us, we should
also think of what sin does to us and of how hateful sin is to God.
Again, the parable we have been listening to can help us appreciate sin
and how much of a destroyer it is. The younger son squandered all his
property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great
famine arose in that country and he began to be in want. So he ended up
feeding swine, and the swine were better off than he in terms of food.
No one gave him anything to eat. That is what he had come to. And that
is an image of the destructive character of sin. I invite you to think
of sin with the help of our Lord’s parable and to endeavour to recover
a sense of sin, and of how it is the greatest evil in the world. God
hates it. He hates sin and wants to see it overcome precisely because
he loves us. Even more, if you want to get a good idea of the
hatefulness of sin, look on our Lord hanging on the cross. It was sin,
our sins, the sins of each person, that put him there and that did that
to him.
It is imperative that we recognise the presence and nature
of
sin in our lives. God hates and loathes sin. It is a grave affront to
him. But he loves us who commit the sin that he hates. It is imperative
that we turn away from it and return to our loving Father. Every time
we commit a sin, even a venial sin but most of all if it is a mortal
sin, we must make a sincere act of contrition, one that is as perfect
an expression of love for God as we can. We should go to Confession
regularly and frequently, and each time we go we should make it as good
a Confession as possible. We should examine our consciences daily.
Every time we go to Mass right at the beginning of Mass we confess our
sinfulness, thinking of the times we have sinned. Let’s be sure to make
a very, very good Confession during Lent.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Fifth
Sunday of Lent C
Scripture readings:
Isaiah
43:16-21; Psalm 125; Philippians
3:8-14; Luke 8:1-11.
"He looked up and said, 'Woman,
where
are they? Has no one condemned you?' 'No one, sir' she replied.
'Neither do I condemn you,' said Jesus 'go away and don't sin any
more.'" (Lk 8:11)
In the Gospel scene today the Church presents us with
the
scene of the sinful woman and her accusers standing before our
Lord. Then she is left before him, her accusers gone, herself a sinner
nevertheless. And what does our Lord say to her? I extend my mercy and
pardon to you. Go and do not sin any more. I invite you to regard this
as a symbol of what should be going on during Lent in our own hearts.
Cardinal Newman once wrote that the foundation of
authentic religion is the sense of sin. With this lively sense we will
turn to Christ asking for his forgiveness. Let us imagine our sins
being like those scribes and pharisees, accusing us before our divine
Lord, and demanding that he punish us. In fact that is just what the
devil does. He tempts us to sin, gains the victory, and then becomes
our accuser, our adversary before God. For that reason our Lord
described the Holy Spirit as our advocate, pleading our cause from
within the very heart of God. He is the love of God himself consoling
us sinners. And so we ought stand before Jesus during Lent with our
sins. Our sins will accuse us, if we have a lively conscience. But if
we come before Jesus admitting our sins and asking his pardon, and not
simply remain with our conscience alone, we shall hear those consoling
words of Jesus, neither do I condemn you. All of this we are able to do
and experience in every genuine act of contrition and whenever we go to
Confession.
We shall also hear him say, go and sin no more. This too
should
distinguish the weeks of Lent: namely, a new impulse in our quest for
holiness of life. The years will pass quickly for each of us, and the
question will be, how well have I used my life for the purpose for
which it was given to me? And its purpose is to reach the fullest
degree of love and service of God possible for me. I invite you to
reflect this week on the second reading. St Paul says that the supreme
value in his life was to know and possess the person of Christ and to
be truly in him. By comparison with this all else was rubbish, he said.
He sought perfection in this. There are many things we try to excel in
during life: perhaps in our possessions, in our professional standing,
our job, or whatever. But the one thing necessary is, St Paul says, to
know Christ and the power of his risen life in our lives, which is to
say the power of grace.
Saint Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises
presents the
retreatant with his greatest colloquy, in which God’s love and grace
are
prayed for. The one thing we should be praying for day by day which is
absolutely and in every sense necessary, is the love and the grace of
Christ. Neither life nor death, great possessions or few, health or
sickness, important though these things may be in certain real
respects, compare with knowing Christ as his genuine and intimate and
faithful friends, and following him in his sufferings so as to
share in his resurrection. St Paul says, ‘Not that I have become
perfect yet: I have not yet won, but I am still running, trying to
capture the prize for which Christ Jesus captured me. I am racing for
the finish, for the prize to which God calls us upwards to receive in
Christ Jesus.’
Let us resolve during Lent to confess our sins, obtain Christ’s
pardon,
and to set out anew in a vigorous way towards holiness, which is
nothing other than the love and the obedient service of Jesus in our
everyday life. A great psychiatrist, Victor Frankl, once said that
human happiness depends on a person’s having a sense of the meaning of
life and living in view of it. The true meaning of life, the one
revealed to us by God, is to know, love and serve Jesus as perfectly as
possible. Let this Lent involve a profound renewal of our sense of the
true meaning of life, which is to belong totally to Jesus.
(E.J.Tyler)
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