September 2004
Twenty Second Sunday C
Scripture today: Ecclesiasticus 3:
19-21.30-31; Psalm 67; Hebrews 12: 18-19.22-24; Luke 14:1.7-14
(Love for the poor)
If we are earnest about following our Lord closely,
there
will be some things we are instinctively drawn to work on in our life.
It could be extra time in prayer, which is wonderful. It could be extra
time given to the apostolate, which is wonderful. It could be extra
efforts in the religious and spiritual education of our children, which
is wonderful. But there will be many things that we will tend to
neglect. Time will be needed for us to see what these things are. We
must be open to that development in ourselves and committed to the full
will of God, if we want truly to advance to a close union with and
likeness to Christ. We shall have to take the means to become more
aware of what needs to be done in our life, and hence there will have
to be regular spiritual reading, listening carefully to the homilies at
Mass, taking regular spiritual direction, and so forth.
Now one thing we must do is to develop a Christ-like
love
for the poor. God loves the poor, the suffering, the outcast, the one
who is deprived in some way, and he is rich in mercy. If we aspire to
be his children, we must learn to love the poor too, and to be merciful
to those in need. God will show his mercy to the poor precisely through
us. Our Lord in the Gospel today (Luke 14:1.7-14) says
to the Pharisee who had invited him to
the meal, “When you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the
lame, the blind; that they cannot pay you back means that you are
fortunate, because repayment will be made to you when the virtuous rise
again.” Our Lord was making a general point. We must learn to love the
poor, the needy, the helpless, and do what we can to help them. Indeed,
in our Lord’s description of the General Judgment, which we find
in chapter 25 of St Matthew, he says that we will be judged on how we
have helped those in need, because what we do to the least, he will
regard as having been done to him. We will be rewarded or punished
accordingly. We ought ask ourselves today, do I have much love for the
poor as yet? Have I begun to grow in this aspect of the imitation of
Christ? If we in our hearts have to admit that we do not love the poor
very much nor help them much, then admit to that in the presence of
God, and ask for the grace to start working on it by taking some
attainable and concrete steps in that direction.
This year today is Propagation of the Faith Sunday,
and it
is also Refugee and Migrant Sunday. There we immediately have a whole
vast area of human need placed before us, people who are spiritually
poor and who need the Catholic Faith brought to them by the Propagation
of the Faith, and refugee and migrant peoples who are materially poor.
Do we love the poor and do we show to them the mercy of God our Father?
Let us during Mass pray for the grace to make a real beginning in
putting on the mind of Christ our Lord in this aspect of our Christian
life. The saints loved the poor. So must we, if we wish to be like
Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further Reading:
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 2443-2449
A second
reflection on the Gospel of the twenty second Sunday of Ordinary Time C
Scripture today: Ecclesiasticus
3:19-21.30-31; Hebrews 12:
18-19.22-24; Psalm 67; Luke
14:1.7-14
(Following Christ in his humility)
In today’s Gospel our Lord gives a lesson of
fundamental importance. The lesson is that we must be striving to
be humble, with Christ as our model. “For,” our Lord tells us,
“everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the man who humbles
himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:1.7-14)
To understand humility, as with every Christian virtue, we
ought
read the Gospels in order to know the heart of Jesus. Our Lord said,
“Come to me, all you that labour and are overburdened, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and
humble of heart.” Our Lord is meek and humble of heart. And he said at
the last supper that he who sees me sees the Father. So the Father also
is meek and humble. Everything we see the Son doing in the Gospels
which manifests the humility of his heart reveals also the humility of
the Father. So then, humility reigns in the highest heavens, in the
very heart of God. It is a wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit. If we
think of this, we shall esteem Christ-like humility, and strive to grow
in this all-important virtue. We grow in it by humbling ourselves,
rather than by exalting ourselves.
By contrast, pride reigns in hell. The first sin that was
ever
committed was committed in heaven, by one of the highest of the angels.
His name has been given as Lucifer, which means the bearer of light.
And yet he became the prince of darkness, and the father of lies. How
did this happen? He refused to acknowledge his complete dependence on
God his Creator and rebelled against God’s will. He exalted himself
before God and thus virtually chose to be his own god. Many
angels followed the example of Lucifer. In effect they wanted to cut
God himself down so as to appear greater themselves. They dared to
exalt themselves before God himself, and so were humbled.
And this is what we happened at the dawn of human history.
The
book of Genesis tells us that once God created our first parents he
placed them in the Garden of Eden and then left them to enjoy its
fruits. But then we read that another personality suddenly entered the
scene. He was Satan, who had long before been banished from God’s
favour and was now at war with God on whom he nevertheless constantly
depended. We can imagine the envy and hatred with which Satan viewed
the creation of other persons in the material world which God had long
before brought into being. So he intervened with his terrible and
insinuating temptations. He tempted Eve to be like God. “No,” he said,
“if you eat this forbidden fruit, you will be like God.” So he deceived
Eve into also aspiring to be great in her own right, independently of
God. She liked the thought of it, took the evil plunge, and went and
enticed Adam to do the same. So Lucifer, full of pride himself, enticed
our first parents to follow his path by exalting themselves before God.
Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, our Lord tells us in
the
Gospel. Before the world began pride took root among the highest angels
in heaven and wrought havoc. They were cast out into hell. At the dawn
of human history, pride took root in our first parents and wrought
havoc among them and among all of mankind. A Redeemer from heaven,
God’s own Son, would have to come in order to restore the situation. We
ought look on pride, or the effort to exalt ourselves before others, as
ridiculous and ruinous.
I remember when I was growing up we had a dog, and every
bone we
gave the dog, the dog would bury. And he knew exactly where all his
bones were. Well, one day a sister of mine brought another dog into our
home for a while, and what did our dog do? Just to assert its
superiority, it went and dug up all his bones, put them together in a
big heap in one corner of the back yard and stood over them watching
the new dog that had just arrived. The new dog was very frustrated, and
could only bark back at our dog. Our dog just watched, very satisfied
at being superior to the other dog. He was the top dog because he had
all those bones and the other dog knew it, because he had no bones of
his own to show off. Our dog had exalted himself before the other dog.
He was the top dog. It was funny and ridiculous to watch, but how like
human beings our dog was! How often we want to be, and try to be, and
succeed in being, the top dog before others! That is what the devil and
his angels tried to be in heaven. That is what our first parents tried
to be. That is the temptation for each one of us in life in our
attitude to our fellow man, and in our attitude to God. It is debasing,
whereas humility is godlike and ennobling.
As St Paul says, let this mind be in you that was in
Christ Jesus. Though he was God himself, St Paul continues, Christ did
not look on equality with God as something to be hung on to or grasped
at, but rather he humbled himself and took the form of a slave, and
even humbler than that even to death on a cross. And so God raised him
up on high and placed him at his own right hand. Our Lord himself is
the great example of what he means when he says that the one who
humbles himself will be exalted. So let us study the example of our
Lord. Each day let us spend a few minutes with a Gospel passage,
putting ourselves in the scene and observing our Lord prayerfully. Let
us learn from him, especially from his humility, his shunning of all
self-exaltation. And I mention one form of self-exaltation, of pride,
which is especially dangerous. That is the proud tendency to resist the
Church’s teaching in faith or morals, the tendency to say, no, I choose
to think differently and to follow my own private judgment rather than
the teaching of Christ’s Catholic Church. This is a secret form of
self-exaltation seen only by God, but when expressed in dissent from
Church teaching brings harm not only to oneself but to others.
“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the man who humbles
himself will be exalted.”
(E.J.Tyler)
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Habitual and customary mortifications are a good thing, but don’t
become one-track minded about them. They need not necessarily be the
same ones all the time. What should be constant, habitual and customary
- without your getting accustomed to it - is a spirit of mortification.
(The Forge,
no.154)
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Monday of
the Twenty Second Week
God loves the poor in spirit
(Luke 4:
16-30)
Let us notice a detail in the prophecy of Isaiah that our Lord
explicitly refers to in telling his ow townsmen of his mission (Luke 4:
16-30). The prophet Isaiah, in speaking of the coming Messiah, says of
him that he is sent "to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim
liberty to captives, and to the blind new sight." So God looks with
special compassion on the unfortunate, and his blessings (especially
the blessing of the Messiah himself) are especially intended for them,
the poor.
Of course, we are all poor, needy, captive and blind. But for a variety
of reasons (such as the feeling that we do not need it) we can reject
what God offers. We see this in evidence in this very passage from
Luke. Our Lord's townspeople rejected him, and after our Lord refgerred
to examples in the Scriptures where the poor and the needy were not
judged to be worthy.
Let us ask God for the grace to be like him in his love for the poor,
while being poor in spirit ourselves. Let us humbly recognise our
profound need for all he offers.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You want to follow in Christ's footsteps, to wear his livery, to
identify yourself with Jesus. Well then, make your faith a living
faith, full of sacrifice and deeds of service, and get rid of
everything that stands in the way.
(The Forge,
no.155)
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Wednesday
of the Twenty Second Week
The work of God in our life
(1 Cor. 3:
1-9)
In St Paul's words to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 3: 1-9) he reminds us of
a great work that is going on in our souls as a result of the ministry
of the Church. We are "God's farm, God's building" (vs.9), and God
"makes things grow". The growth is directed towards transforming each
of us into another Christ, living his life. This is an astounding
adventure, the one thing necessary to be achieved in the brief span of
life we have been given.
Conversely, we are also God's servants and fellow workers who are
called to labour in this farm, this building God is constructing. Our
privilege is to play a part in their growth in the likeness of Christ.
God will be making things grow through our efforts. In this way the
results of our labours will endure for eternity.
So let us use our time to labour, to labour in union with the Lord,
knowing that "each will be paid according to his share in the work. We
are fellow workers with God; you are God's farm, God's building."
(E.J.Tyler)
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Sanctity has the flexibility of supple muscles. Whoever wishes to be a
saint should know how to behave so that while he does something that
involves a mortification for him, he omits doing something else - as
long as this does not offend God - which he would also find difficult,
and thanks the Lord for this comfort. If we Christians were to act
otherwise we would run the risk of becoming stiff and lifeless, like a
rag doll. Sanctity is not rigid like cardboard; it knows how to smile,
to give way to others and to hope. It is life - supernatural life.
(The Forge,
no.156)
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Thursday
of the Twenty Second Week
The wisdom of God (1 Cor. 3: 18-23)
One of the things which the deeply convinced Christian who studies the
history of philosophy and human thought notices is, how wide of the
mark from Revelation are the ideas of so many great minds. Such a study
illustrates what St Paul says in today's first reading (1 Corinthians
3: 18-23), that the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.
However, if we live in Christ and allow our thinking to be imbued with
the revealed wisdom of God, then a great deal in human thought and life
can be recognised as exceedingly worthwhile and appropriated by the
human mind. On that basis we can think very positively of the efforts
of the wise of this world. The study of human culture, human thought,
and the religions of man can enhance the life of the Christian if he
approaches it with the mind of Christ.
Let us grow in the mind of Christ, and introduce others to the spirit
and mind of Christ so that human culture can be evangelised from within.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Mother, do not leave me! Let me seek your Son, let me find your Son,
let me love your Son - with my whole being. Remember me, my Lady,
remember me.
(The Forge,
no.157)
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Friday
of the Twenty Second Week (September 3)
St Gregory the
Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church. Born at Rome
about the year 540. He entered the public service and was appointed a
Prefect of the City. then he entered a monastery, was ordained deacon
and performed the office of a papal legate to the Emperor at
Constantinople. On 3 September 590 he became pope and showed himself a
true pastor in his administration, his care of the poor, and in
spreading and consolidating the faith. In addition he wrote many works
on faith and morals. He died on 12 March 604.
Then they will fast (Luke 5: 33-39)
Our Lord tells his critics that once he, the Bridegroom, is taken away
from his disciples, then they certainly will fast (Luke 5: 33-35). Let
us consider for a moment the implications of that statement, for it
refers to our situation now in which Jesus is no longer visibly among
us.
He is no longer visibly among us, but he is very much with us
nevertheless. Our Lord said that anyone who loves him will keep his
word, and that then he and his Father will love him and come to him and
make their abode with him. So he is in us, and by grace we are in him.
The essential purpose of this indwelling is that by the action and
power of the Holy Spirit we will be transformed into the likeness of
Christ our bridegroom.
This transformation means, as St Paul often insisted, being crucified
with Christ so as to experience the power of his resurrection - his
risen life. Being one with the crucified Jesus - especially at Mass -
means following in his footsteps by carrying our cross daily. Thus we
must, to use our Lord's word in the Gospel passage, "fast". We must
expiate with Jesus for our sins and those of others by daily
renunciation.
"But the time will come, the time for the bridegroom to be taken away
from them; that will be the time when they will fast."
(E.J.Tyler)
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When our vision is clouded, when our eyes have lost their clarity, we
need to go to the light. And Jesus Christ has told us that he is the
Light of the world and that he has come to heal the sick. That is why
your weaknesses and your falls - when God allows them - should not
separate you from Christ, but rather draw you closer to him.
(The Forge,
no.158)
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Saturday
of the Twenty Second Week (September 4)
Spiritual fatherhood
(1
Corinthians 4: 6-13)
It goes without saying that being a parent is a beautiful vocation. The
parent generates new life and in so doing cooperates with God in
bringing into being an immortal person with marvellous possibilities.
But when we think of it, merely being a parent, merely bringing a new
life into the world is not very grand if it is not accompanied by an
earnest effort to bring the life of God to the child. It is this second
calling which is obviously the greater.
St Paul tells the Corinthians (1 Cor. 4: 13) that he is their sole
spiritual father, having endowed them with life in Christ. By engaging
in the mission of the Church in our everyday life we all share in that
spiritual parenthood that brings Christ to others. The Church is the
spouse of Christ and our spiritual mother. As members of the Church we
are all called to a new kind of parentage, help to generate in others
the new life in Christ which God intends for them, and then to come to
full maturity in Christ.
How wonderful it will be to meet in heaven those whom we have helped to
beget in God.
(E.J.Tyler)
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In my wretchedness I complained to a friend of mine, saying that it
seemed as if Jesus were passing me by, and leaving me on my own. But
immediately I thought better of it and was sorry. Full of confidence, I
said: It is not true, my Love. Quite clearly it is I who have gone away
from you. Never again!
(The Forge,
no.159)
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Twenty Third Sunday C
Scripture today:
Wisdom
9:13-19; Psalm 89; Philemon
9-10.12-17; Luke 14: 25-33
A well known Australian politician gained notoriety many
years
ago when he said
that life was not meant to be easy. A lot of people ridiculed that
statement and criticised him for it. Years later he stood by his
statement, while saying it had been misunderstood. Whatever about that,
anyone with any experience of life would agree that in various respects
life is indeed not easy, and for very many people it is in fact quite
hard. But on the other hand, God has made it clear that he means life
to be happy, even if it is not easy. The question is, in what does true
happiness consist, and how is true happiness to be achieved, both here
on earth and hereafter.
Inasmuch as God has implanted in our hearts a deep desire
for
happiness, we can assume that he means us to attain happiness, quite
apart from the fact that he has actually revealed this to be his plan.
Now, it is obviously possible to go through life never being happy, and
then, after all that, losing out on happiness in the next life because
of the way we have lived here. On the other hand, we can achieve
happiness in this life, and happiness in the next as well. It depends
on the way we choose to live. Our Lord said that if we live in the way
he directs, we shall have a hundredfold in this life and eternal glory
in the next. How do we gain happiness, then?
Many people start out on life with certain assumptions
about
happiness. Some assume that the pursuit of wealth will bring happiness.
So their lives are spent in acquiring possessions of various kinds. The
pinnacle of their lives is reached when they have a beautiful home and
an impressive car, together with a comfortable income. Others assume
that becoming very well known and admired in some way will bring
happiness. For others it is gaining power and influence. It is very
important that we stop to consider just what is driving our lives,
because we may not know ourselves. We may have made some very wrong
assumptions.
What is it to be truly happy? God has told us that we will
be
happy if we live according to his plan. What is God’s plan? It is that
we know, love and serve him here on earth and as a result to see and
enjoy him for ever in heaven. This, if put into effect, will bring us
happiness. And who is God? God is Jesus Christ. So, if we know our
Lord, love and serve him here on earth, we will be happy, and our
happiness will last forever. We ought keep this general yet fundamental
point in mind. The next thing we must know is what it means to love and
serve Jesus here on earth in everyday life.
This is what our Lord meant when he told the parable we
heard in
the Gospel (Luke 14: 25-33).
A person needs to sit down and count the cost, calculating
what was required to build the tower, or to meet the advancing enemy
successfully. Our Lord gives the lesson at the end. He says the cost is
to take up one’s cross and following our Lord daily. It means being
prepared to give up anything for him, not allowing anything to come
between ourselves and his holy will. It means putting the person of our
Lord at the centre of all our daily duties and working for him with
dedication, accompanying our work with a life of prayer and
self-denial. Union with Jesus in prayer, union with him in expiating
for sin, and union with him in doing our work in life, all this will
bring the happiness God intends for us in this life. And it will lead
to happiness forever.
Whereas if we are assuming day by day that spending our
lives
working for more wealth, status, influence or whatever, living a life
putting what is not God at centre stage, we will never have the
happiness God intended for us. Union with Jesus day by day, with the
crosses this involves, is the secret to happiness.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading:
Catechism
of the Catholic Church, no.1718-1724)
A second
reflection on the Gospel of the twenty third Sunday of Ordinary Time C
Scripture
today: Wisdom
9:13-19; Psalm 89;
Philemon 9-10.12-17; Luke 14:25-33
Our Gospel today begins by telling us that great
crowds
accompanied Jesus on his way. Many of those in the crowds may have
regarded themselves as disciples of Jesus, and may have referred to
themselves as such while travelling along in his company. But the
question that immediately occurs to us is, what sort of disciples were
they, those in these great crowds? They were accompanying Jesus, but
would they continue to accompany him when they heard all of his
teaching, and when they experienced the difficulties involved in
following him? We only have to remember what happened when our Lord, in
the sixth chapter of St John, said that they must eat his flesh and
drink his blood. Having heard this, they left him in droves.
That is to say, it was one thing to go along as part
of
the crowd perhaps hoping to benefit from his miracles. It was
interesting, even exciting, and while it lasted they probably felt that
any inconvenience that was involved was paying off. But that was not
being a disciple because being a real disciple involves a cost. Were
they prepared to pay the cost of being Christ’s disciples? And this is
what we ought ask ourselves as we ponder on this text. Am I just one of
the crowd accompanying Jesus along his way because it is convenient and
keeps life interesting and bearable, or am I prepared to be a true
disciple and pay the price? Am I prepared to go the whole way with
Jesus?
Let us consider what our Lord says about the cost. There
were
the crowds following him. They would have been there for a whole
variety of reasons, and would have had a variety of attitudes towards
him, and Jesus knew it. He knew that really they had not yet got off
from first base in being true disciples of his. So what did he do? He
turned to the crowds and spoke to them, and he put it very bluntly. He
said: ‘If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife,
children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my
disciple. Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot
be my disciple.” (Luke 14:25-33) Our
Lord wanted to hit the crowds with a stark choice. They had to choose
him decisively, and be prepared to go with him no matter what it
required. So he used a vivid figure of speech to insist that the kind
of disciple he was looking for is one who puts him, Jesus, before
anything else. Nothing and no one is to be allowed to sway a disciple
from following the will of the Master. That’s the cost.
And this is just the danger: we can be influenced
away
from our Lord by those persons or things we love or like. Think of the
case of Macbeth, Shakespeare’s character in the play. Macbeth wanted to
be king. But his conscience warned and threatened him. It was his wife,
Lady Macbeth, who prodded him on to commit the murder. At one point he
recoiled from the thought of going ahead with it. It was she who
browbeat him on to proceed. It would have taken great fidelity to
his conscience to resist the pressure coming from his own evil ambition
and especially that of his wife. For Macbeth to have resisted it might
have seemed that he was “hating”, as it were, his wife, and
“hating” his own best interests.
We normally accede to the wishes of those we love, and
usually
the sign that we do not love something or someone is that we disregard
that person’s requests. It can look as though we are almost “hating”
that person, so great is the upset we cause him or her by our course of
action. Our Lord is telling us that love for him is to be the
deepest love of our life, the love that comes first. God cannot occupy
second place. Once our Lord was asked, which is the first commandment
of the Law? He answered: “This is the first, you shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul
and with all your strength.” Our Lord is not telling us that we are not
to love our family and our loved ones. After all, the fourth
commandment says to honour one’s father and one’s mother. And after all
again, our Lord said, “love one another as I have loved you”. He also
said that this would be the sign by which all men would know that we
are his disciples, that we love one another. We cannot love God without
loving one another deeply.
Our Lord is asking of us the highest loyalty for
himself,
knowing that that is also in the best interests of everyone. We are to
love him more than anything or anyone else. Living this out might on
occasion give the mistaken impression to someone close to us that we
are ruthlessly disregarding his or her wishes and feelings. If God
makes certain demands and our spouse or family makes contrary demands
we have to say Yes to God and No to spouse and family. An example might
be if a spouse is pressuring one to commit sin, such as the sin of
contraception or even abortion. It has to be Yes to God’s law and no to
anything or anyone wanting anything else. Another instance might be,
being absolutely faithful to one’s spouse even if one is separated from
one’s spouse. And it means being faithful to that separated spouse,
even if that separated spouse goes on to be unfaithful in further ways.
It might mean being absolutely faithful to one’s spouse from whom one
is civilly divorced, but from whom one does not have a church annulment
- even though that spouse has proceeded with a further marriage.
So let us think about how to put Jesus first. We shall put
Jesus
first if we love him above all else, even above our own lives. “And his
own life too”, our Lord added. And we shall grow in this love for Jesus
if we think long and often on his love for us. St Paul said, “Christ
loved me and delivered himself up for me.” I invite you to think of
those words, making them your own, saying them over and over. Jesus
carried his cross for me, so I am called to carry my own cross after
him. “Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be
my disciple.” Let us make the decision to put Jesus above all else,
even above our own life, no matter what the cost.
(E.J.Tyler)
A third
reflection on the Gospel of the twenty third Sunday of Ordinary Time C
Scripture
today: Wisdom
9:13-19; Psalm 89;
Philemon 9-10.12-17; Luke 14:25-33
Some years back (in 2001) there was a lengthy feature
article in
the Sunday
Telegraph on fathers of families who were spending more time
with their children. They were men of various situations and
professions, but they had this in common that they had come to realise
that family life and love and their relationships with wife and
children were not to be taken for granted, but were to be worked at.
And so they found time to be with them, time to participate in what
they were doing. They loved their wife and children, they thought about
it, calculated, and decided to find time for what they knew to be
important. If a person goes through life seeking to gain some things,
such as success in career, and neglects other very important things, he
has failed to think and act prudently. And he will pay for it because
our actions have consequences. There was once a television documentary
on the life of the great Hollywood actor of the 1930s to the 1950s,
Errol Flynn. In the documentary the ageing actress Olivia de Haviland
made the remark about him that he failed to appreciate that actions
have consequences.
In our Gospel today our Lord’s parable speaks of the one who sits
down
to calculate what he must do to build the tower. Our Lord’s parable is
about sitting down to calculate what must be done to be truly his
disciple. Being his disciple entails placing him above all else in
life. Jesus is not to be simply one among many things we include. He is
the centrepiece, the one we seek in everything. All else must give the
central place to him. Now our Gospel today (Luke 14:25-33) reminds
us that we must think about this, and calculate accordingly. All else
will find its due place once Jesus is the centre of our lives and of
our aspirations. He is our Way, our Truth, and our Life. If God makes
certain demands and our family, or our work prospects, or our
convenience, dictate other things, they must give way to God and his
demands. That is not lack of love, it is loving the right things in the
right way and in their right place. We must put God before family,
work, nation, convenience, everything. The martyrs did this. We must do
it, even if sometimes it means a living martyrdom. When Jesus promised
the Eucharist, the giving of his body and blood for food, it sounded
like madness to many and they left our Lord in droves. Jesus turned to
his disciples and asked, “Do you also want to leave?” Peter answered,
“Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” If
we have faith in our Lord, our answer will constantly be the same. We
accept his word no matter what the cost, but only if he has first place
in our hearts. We must to develop a great love for Jesus that will put
him always first in our everyday life.
This is the meaning of our Lord’s teaching today that no
one can
be his disciple unless he gives up all his possessions. All that we
have must give place to Jesus. He must be Lord, the Lord of lords. Our
life and possessions must serve him. This will only be possible
if we say, not that I have to do this, but that I want to do for love
of him. If we love other things just as much as Jesus, or even more
than Jesus, Jesus will be pushed to the side by our attachment to those
things. Those things will be first, he second or even last. The basis
for loving Jesus greatly will be laid if we strive to have a deep
appreciation of Jesus’ love for us. St Paul wrote, Christ loved me and
gave himself up for me. We ought make those words our own.
When St Thomas More was awaiting execution for refusing to
accept the King of England as head of the Church instead of the Pope,
his wife and family were profoundly distressed with him, and could not
see why he did not give in to the King. After all, they said, it was
just a matter of a few words. They may have felt that he was not
considering them, that he did not love them enough. Our Lord says in
the Gospel that if someone does not come to him without hating parents,
family and his own life he cannot be his disciple. Our Lord means that
one must love him to the extent even on the rare occasion of seeming to
disregard those closest to one, or of seeming to disregard possessions,
or career prospects, or doing things that might seem to show a lack of
love for others. St Thomas More may have even seemed cruel to his
family in his steadfast following of what he knew to be right. This was
putting Jesus first.
Let us reflect on the kind of tower we should be
building
in life, the tower of personal sanctity. Let us count the cost: it is a
matter of putting Jesus first, and loving him with our whole heart, and
living this out in the everyday and hidden duties of life. All things
will then find their true meaning in him.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Beg the Lord for his grace so that you may be purified by his Love -
and by constant penance.
(The Forge,
no.160)
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Monday
of the twenty third week of ordinary time C
The fight against sin (1 Corinthians 5:
1-8)
In 1Corinthians 5: 1-8 St Paul condemns a great sin which one of the
Corinthians is guilty of, and for which he excommunicates him. He then
uses an image to show how the Christian can be overcome by sin. He says
that "even a small amount of yeast is enough to leaven all the dough".
So, he says, "get rid of all the old yeast". The old yeast is sin, the
sin into which and with which we were born into this world. Like yeast,
it can affect everything in us, leading us into great sin, and as he
says in his letter to the Romans, the wages of sin are death.
St Paul says that we are to get rid of all this old yeast, all of it.
This means combatting and overcoming all deliberate sin, and making of
ourselves "a completely new batch of bread, unleavened as you are meant
to be." The "new batch of bread" is not a new and different
nature but "the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth", our own
nature purified of sin and divinised by grace. That is to say, we are
to strive to become immersed in Christ.
The power to do this comes from Christ who is present and active in the
Sacraments. We must constantly recognise him in them with a lively
faith, a faith nourished by prayer and attentiveness to his word.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Turn to Our Lady and ask her - as a token of her love for you - for the
gift of contrition. Ask that you may be sorry, with the sorrow of Love,
for all your sins and for the sins of all men and women throughout the
ages. And with that same disposition, be bold enough to add: "Mother,
my life, my hope, lead me by the hand. And if there is anything in me
which is displeasing to my Father God grant that I may see it, so that,
between the two of us, we may uproot it." Do not be afraid to
continue, saying to her: "O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary,
pray for me, that by fulfilling the most lovable Will of your Son, I
may be worthy to obtain and enjoy what Our Lord Jesus has promised."
(The Forge,
no.161)
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Tuesday
of the Twenty third Week C
Christ's choice (Luke 6: 12-19)
In this very special passage (Luke 6: 12-19)
St Luke tells us of our Lord at prayer all night long to his heavenly
Father. He was preparing to establish his Church with the choice of the
foundations - his Apostles. We can only imagine the care and love he
put into that choice, reflecting as it did the choice of the Father.
There could be no mistake about it. The next day he called each of them.
As we think of that choice, we ought think of the choice he has made of
each of us. St Paul tells us that before the world began God chose us,
chose us in Christ to be holy and full of love in his sight. We are
called each of us by name. We can imagine our Lord calling each of the
Twelve, including Judas, calling each of them by name. From all
eternity they too had been chosen, as have we. We must be generous in
living up to that choice, remembering how badly Judas turned out.
Christ gave the Apostles a work to do. They were to be his ambassadors,
his "apostles". They were to be sent out by him to represent him and to
do his work. Each of us in our own way and according to our vocation is
called to be an ambassador for Christ, indeed to be other Christs by
the transforming power of his grace, doing his work in and through our
work. Let us sanctify our work, thus sanctifying ourselves and others
in the process, and being apostles in fact.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Heavenly Mother, let me regain once more fervour, dedication,
self-denial - in one word, Love.
(The Forge,
no.162)
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The
Birthday of Our Lady (Sept. 8)
Scripture today:
Micah
5:1-4 or
Romans 8:28-30; Psalm 12;
Matthew 1:1-16.18-23
I invite you to let your minds drift back to the beginning,
when
God created the heavens and the earth. The Book of Genesis tells us
that darkness hung over the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered, ready
for God to give the word. Then God spoke, making the heavens, the
earth, the sun and the stars, the waters, the animals, the fish, the
birds, and the vegetation. And, Genesis tells us, God saw that it was
good. All this was preparing for his supreme work, man. And so God
said, let us make man in our own image and likeness. Man will be master
of all this world and I shall entrust it all to him. The account in
Genesis presents the creation of our first parents as something
wonderful, the climax of God’s work, and as a new beginning in its own
right. God created them in his own likeness. They were filled with
gifts of nature and of grace. They were the glory of the material
universe, and God’s plan was that this universe was to be theirs, their
wonderful home. And looking on them, Genesis tells us, God saw that
they were not just good but very good.
I invite you to think of the wonderful beginning this was.
Think
of the prospects ahead, with countless descendants to come. We can
imagine the joy in the heart of God at the thought of all this now
beginning. Man and woman had arrived and had been placed in their home.
A wonderful work had been done, with a wonderful prospect ahead. But
despite God’s plan and despite what he had made and had arranged, how
disappointing and how badly it suddenly turned out. Prompted by Satan,
our first parents wished to be independent of God. They contravened
God’s command, thinking that by so doing they would be like gods. That
was the temptation put to Eve, and she liked it. She entertained the
temptation and she went for it. She sinned and so all was spoilt, so
very badly. A great wound, a mortal wound, was struck deep in human
nature. Sin entered the human race and with sin death, and so death
with all its implications spread everywhere.
What a disappointing and tragic beginning. Despite this, the
Church Fathers and the tradition of the Church has it that our first
parents were saved, and are now in heaven. It was a bad beginning
and an immense disappointment. But God promised a new beginning to come
in the fulness of time. The centuries passed, and God prepared a
special people for the coming of a Redeemer, a new Adam, whose arrival
would bring untold blessings to all. So great was this Redeemer that
God prepared a new Eve, one who would be the mother of the New Adam.
Though unnoticed by others, in God’s sight she, the new Eve, was
utterly resplendent in holiness. This new Eve was to be the mother of
the Redeemer, and through Him the new mother of all mankind. And this
what we celebrate today, the feast of the birth of Mary the mother of
the Redeemer, the mother of God, and our mother. She is a daughter of
Eve, but is the new Eve, far more glorious than the first precisely
because she heard the word of God and fulfilled it. Blessed are those
who hear the word of God and keep it, our Lord said, when a woman from
the crowd raised her voice in praise of the mother of so great a son.
Let us think of the creation of Eve, our first parent who
unfortunately sinned and then tempted her husband Adam to sin. Think of
the creation of the second Eve, the new Eve, the mother of the new
Adam, our Redeemer who would come to undo the work of sin. Mary the new
Eve, and Christ the new Adam. The Easter Vigil Exultet sings, O happy
fault, which won for us so great a Redeemer. O happy fault, too, to win
for us so great a mother who would lead us to her Son. Let us think of
the angel Gabriel standing before her, addressing her with the most
profound respect and love as one who was full of grace and favour with
God. He had a message for her from God that she be the mother of the
Messiah, God’s own Son. Her consent was awaited. Behold the handmaid of
the Lord, she said in response, be it done unto me according to your
word. At that point she became the mother of God. Let us imagine at the
beginning God entrusting Adam to Eve’s keeping, Eve whom He had formed
from Adam’s side. Now God entrusts his own Son, the new Adam, to her
keeping, to her who was the new Eve.
We have a wonderful mother. If at the Annunciation the
Father
entrusted his Son to Mary’s keeping, let us then entrust ourselves to
her keeping. Years later she would stand before the Cross of her Son,
watching what sin was doing to Him, and in intimate union with him in
the work of our redemption. And from the Cross she would hear His words
as he said to His beloved disciple, “There is your Mother.” The Church
has always understood those words as applying to each of us. The new
Eve, Mary the mother of the Redeemer, is our mother, and Christ has
entrusted each of us to her, and wants each of us to entrust ourselves
to her. That is what consecration to Mary means, it means a complete
entrusting of ourselves to her care and guidance. So let us do that as
we think of the birthday of our mother, the new Eve. She is our mother
and our model. She is the mother and model of the whole Church. God has
given to the world a wonderful mother, the mother of all mankind. Let
us entrust ourselves to her completely, every day remembering what she
said at the wedding feast of Cana: “Do whatever He tells you.” If we
let her, every day she will help us do that. Let us love her,
pray to her, be guided by her.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second (brief) reflection
on the feast of the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Birthday
of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church, in keeping a solemn
feast for the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrates the
dawning of the Redemption over the world when, after a long period of
waiting, she who was to be the Mother of our Saviour was born. The
Blessed Virgin Mary occupies a unique place in the history of
salvation. Heaven rejoices at her birth. The Lord reserves to her the
highest mission ever commended to any creature. We rejoice in the
certainty tha the Mother of God is our mother too.
Mary our mother and model for life
One of the most powerful philosophical minds of the twentieth
century was Martin Heidegger (though his life was not very admirable in
some other respects). His master work was Being and Time (Sein und Zeit),
perhaps the most celebrated philosophical work produced in Germany in
the twentieth century.
The very title of his book reminds us that our being is inescapably
temporal. We are inexorably caught up in passing time. Our lives pass
rapidly, and so we constantly change for better or for worse -
depending ultimately on our choices. As St Paul says (1 Cor. 7: 25-31)
"our time is growing short." We should live in the world, then, fully
aware that "the world as we know it is passing away."
Cardinal Gabriel Garrone wrote in his This We Believe
(1969) (Que
faut-il croire? 1967) of the "vast worth of every minute of our
earthly life used with complete dedication, and the dignity of our
human condition that makes us truly arbiters of our eternal destiny"
(p.122). That is to say, we have limited time on our hands, with much
to do for God. Let us not waste our time, for it is the precious means
of showing to him our love, and of building a true and lasting treasure
in heaven.
Time is short, eternity is long, as Cardinal Newman wrote in one of his
most famous works. Let us use to the full each day granted us as if it
were our only and our last. Let our constant inspiration be the Blessed
Virgin Mary, whose birthday we celebrate today (September 8). She is
the morally perfect human person, born free of original sin, and free
of the slightest trace of sin all her days. Her days were ordinary and
somewhat hidden, but lived with extraordinary holiness. She is our
mother and our model.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You shouldn't be so easy on yourself. Don't wait until the New Year to
make your resolutions. Every day is a good day to make good decisions.
Today, now! It tends to be the poor defeatist types who leave it until
the New Year before beginning afresh. And even then, they never really
begin.
(The Forge,
no.163)
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Thursday
of the twenty third week of ordinary time C
The Christian Conscience
(I Cor. 1:
1-7.11-13)
In his first letter to the Corinthians (ch.1: 1-7.11-13)
St Paul offers some directions on something that is often appealed to:
the authority of one's conscience.
In effect St Paul says that the "enlightened" person's conscience can
be very unenlightened. In the instance of this that he refers to here,
it is of a person who has a correct understanding of what is
objectively permitted (in this case, the eating of food that has been
sacrificed to idols). But he takes no regard of the good of another who
lacks this understanding and who observes his action.
To take no regard of the good of the other means that one's conscience
is unenlightened. Acting
accordingly will result in injury to that other person's "weak
conscience", and it will be "Christ against whom you sinned." The
weaker person's conscience is unenlightened too, but St Paul is not
considering him in this passage.
This is yet another example of how, during the whole of our life, even
the use we make of what we know must be imbued with the mind and
charity of Christ. We must be ever concerned with the sanctification
and salvation of our brothers, even if it means curtailing our liberty
to do what our conscience tells is perfectly permissible. Let us work
daily to grow in the love and mind of Christ in everything.
(E.J.Tyler)
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I agree. You acted badly, out of weakness. But what I fail to
understand is how, with a clear conscience, you have not repented. You
cannot do something wrong and then say, or think, that it is something
holy, or that it is of no importance.
(The Forge,
no.164)
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Friday
of the twenty third week of ordinary time C
Our spiritual responsibilities (1 Cor. 9:
16-19.22-27)
I remember watching an interview of the great actor, Charlton Heston.
He said that one of the biggest problems now is that people do not take
responsibility for their actions. That is to say, people now need a
greater sense of responsibility.
What was it that drove St Paul to such lengths in his missionary life
and work? By his own account (1 Cor. 9: 16-19.22-27) it was his sense
of responsibility. It was not something he had chosen to do. Rather it
was "a responsibility that has been placed in my hands". His reward was
to have fulfilled that responsibility by bringing the Gospel to others
free of charge.
Each one of us has a share in this same responsibility to bring the
Gospel to others wherever we are, be it in family, work, parish, or
wherever. If we fail to fulfill this responsibility no one will be
there in our place to do it. There will remain a lack at that point,
and that lack will reverberate elsewhere and beyond.
Let us be alive to our spiritual responsibilities to ourselves, to our
own sanctification, and to the
sanctification of others. We take others with us towards heaven or
towards hell. What happens to them is to some extent our
responsibility, just as what happens to us is our responsibility.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You must always remember that the spiritual faculties are fed by what
they receive from the senses. Guard them well!
(The Forge,
no.165)
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Saturday
of the twenty third week of ordinary time C
(September 11)
The first of the ten commandments (1 Cor. 10:14)
St Paul tells us we "must keep clear of idolatry" (1 Cor. 10:14). This
may seem obvious to us in our educated and civilized age. It refers to
the very first of the ten commandments, on which all the others depend:
I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods besides me. The
point of St Paul's directive comes during the sentences that follow.
Those he has in mind who are sacrificing to idols "sacrifice to demons
who are not gods. I have no desire to see you in communion with demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons." That is to
say, they are subjecting themselves to the influence of the devil and
acknowledging other things in place of the one God.
In our day and age it may be difficult to imagine educated people
worshipping idols. But it is not
impossible at all to "worship" (let us say) sources of higher influence
beyond and other than the one God the Church proclaims has revealed
himself. One thinks of various forms of fortune telling, astrology,
lucky charms, new age techniques, and even openly professed paganism
such as the worship of earth goddesses. All of this, St Paul reminds
us, opens us to the influence of Satan, and involves a substitution of
something in the place of God. It is a serious sin, and it is going on
in the modern world.
Let us devote ourselves to God alone, determining to make the sole
object of our life to know, love and serve Christ his Son, and to
renounce sin and anything that substitutes for God or that entices us
away from Him.
(E.J.Tyler)
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As you very well know, you lose your peace when you consent in matters
which entail unfaithfulness to your way. Make up your mind to be
consistent and responsible in your behaviour.
(The Forge,
no.166)
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Twenty fourth Sunday C
Scripture today:
Exodus 32:
7-11.13-14; Psalm 50; 1 Timothy 1:
12-17; Luke 15-32
In our Gospel today we read the beautiful story
our Lord told of the prodigal son, the son who was wasteful of all that
his father had given him (Luke 15-32).
But let us remember that Our Lord told the
parable to his critics the scribes and Pharisees in order to explain
his own behaviour. They had criticized him for welcoming sinners and
eating with them. They implied that the all-holy God would not do that.
Our Lord’s parable, then, is primarily an image of God, painted by
Jesus his Son. Jesus our Lord is teaching us that God is a loving
and amazingly forgiving father, in whose presence we can constantly
live, and on whom we can constantly depend, provided we come to him
humble and repentant, acknowledging his goodness and our sinful
condition.
But our Lord’s teaching on what God is really like ought be
put
in a still wider context. In the first reading from the Old Testament
book of Exodus the all-holy God shows himself to Moses as angry at the
sin of his people abandoning him for an idol they had made. God was the
all-holy one, his chosen people profoundly and incorrigibly sinful.
Long before that, from the burning bush Moses had heard a voice saying
to him, “Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the
place on which you are standing is holy ground.” (Ex.3:5). Moses was a
sinner too, and so could not come near the all-holy God. Throughout the
Old Testament there is a progressive revelation of what the all-holy
God is like. His love becomes progressively manifest, even to Moses
himself. He is a father and a husband to his wayward people.
The Scriptures reveal what God is like and what we
are
like. They tell of the constant and profound sinfulness of God’s
people, making a confident and childlike approach to God virtually
impossible. God promised to change that by pouring out his holy Spirit
to change the hearts of his children and unite them with himself. This
was the promise, and it was fulfilled by our Lord. God has given us his
Spirit and his grace enabling us to repent, to begin again and again
living the new life of grace, and to approach and live in the presence
of God as our loving and merciful father. We can return like the
prodigal son because God is like the father of the prodigal son. We can
be like the sinners and the publicans whom our Lord welcomed and with
whom he dined. But remember, we will always hear our Lord say to us, go
now, and do not sin again.
That is to say, our Lord reveals God to be a wonderful
father. A
Father? Yes, but we ought not draw our impression of what this means
primarily from earthly fathers, although if one has a good earthly
father that can help. Rather, we learn it from Jesus. We must enter
into union with our Lord, and by his grace and teaching learn from him
what God our Father is like. “No one can come to the Father except
through me”, our Lord said. “No one knows the Father except the Son and
those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.” So it is Jesus who can
and will give us a personal knowledge of the Father, because God is his
Father. Jesus called himself our brother. “Go and tell the brothers,”
he said to Mary Magdalen when he rose from the dead, “that I am
ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Our
whole life should be lived on the basis of a constant awareness of what
Jesus our brother has revealed, that the great and infinite God is our
Father, and that we are his beloved children. I am God’s child. This
means that I can approach God with childlike confidence, and live
constantly in his presence, yet I must be humble, contrite, and
reverent, like the child who knows he is profoundly loved yet who knows
also that he so often offends his great, revered, loving and
all-perfect Father.
Let us make constant use of the Lord’s Prayer in our daily
life,
but not just routinely. It ought be the principal prayer of our daily
life, the prayer that teaches us to call God our Father, and to
recognise that we are his children. It is the prayer that will help us
to become the children he wants us to be, holy, humble, repentant,
determined to be like our loving Father in all things.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further
reading:
The Catechism of
the Catholic Church, no.2777-2785
A second
reflection on the Gospel of the twenty fourth Sunday Year C
Scripture
today: Exodus
32:7-11.13-14; Psalm
50; 1 Timothy 1:12-17;
Luke 15:1-32
Our Gospel today presents us with the parable of the
prodigal son. I invite you to notice that our Lord’s story is not just
about the son, but also and especially about his merciful father. Let
us notice what led our Lord to tell the parable. The Gospel says 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.” And who were they complaining about? They were complaining
about Jesus. “This man” they said “welcomes sinners and eats with
them.” (Luke 15:1-32) So
Jesus told the parable to show the scribes and Pharisees that what he
was continually doing is what God does. They had a wrong idea about God
and their expectations of him were profoundly wrong. As our Lord said
at the Last Supper, “He who sees me sees the Father.”
So the parable of the prodigal son in the first place
tells us what God is like. Well, what is He like? He hates sin, but He
is rich in mercy. God is like the father in the parable. Notice how
indulgent the father is towards his son. “A man had two sons. The
younger said to the father, “Father, let me have the share of the
estate that would come to me.” And what did the Father do? “The father
divided the property between them.” I invite you to think often of what
God has done for you. He has given us life, family, and so many
opportunities and so many new starts. Above all he has given us His own
Son, and with His Son the chance of eternity with Him for ever. When
the prodigal son at last came home, his father saw him a long way off
and ran to embrace him. Then when his son said, “Father, I have sinned
against God and against you,” the celebrations began. The father was
always ready to forgive, but of course his son came home to seek
forgiveness.
So it is with our heavenly Father. All through the
Scriptures it comes through loud and clear that God is rich in mercy.
That is the first point to be taken to heart from today’s Gospel.
The second point is that God is immensely concerned
about
sin. In God’s sight sin is the greatest of tragedies. It was the sin of
our first parents which spoilt God’s creative work, and it was the sin
of mankind which led God to send his Son which was the result of God’s
love. God so loved the world, St John tells us, that he sent his Son.
God loves the sinner and hates his sin, and so He seeks us out
unremittingly. And our Lord tells us that there will be more rejoicing
in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine virtuous men
who have no need of repentance. So too in the parable. When the son
returned, the celebrations began. So too in heaven.
And this tells us how important it is that we all of us be
working on turning away from our sins, whatever they might be. The tax
collectors and sinners were seeking the company of sinners in order to
hear what he had to say. And what did our Lord have to say? He came to
tell them that God loves them and wants them to turn away from their
sins and live for God. That turning away from sin is what we must do.
The big danger is that we settle down each day into a comfortable
acceptance of our sins, especially our venial sins. The danger is that
we keep on committing our venial sins, rarely confessing them, rarely
being sorry for them, rarely trying to root them out of our lives. The
danger is that we become complacent about venial sin. I am not
referring here to the far worse evil, mortal sin. Of course, it is a
terrible thing to be living in mortal sin. If a person commits a mortal
sin whether of thought, word or deed, it is imperative that that person
be like the prodigal son, and confess the sin and seek forgiveness,
above all in Confession. But I think the danger is that we will take a
casual attitude towards venial sin, whether of thought or word or deed.
And so we willingly, even happily, remain in our sins, thinking that
they don’t matter, and gradually coming to think that we are not really
sinners anyway. And so we don’t see our own need of the Sacrament of
Penance. The Pharisees did not think of themselves as sinners.
Now God hates any sin, yet loves the sinner. So let us
strive to
please God by doing all we can to avoid all sin, turning away from
venial sin daily. We should be making regular and frequent use of the
Sacrament of Penance to be reconciled to God after the manner of the
prodigal son, and to have our venial sins cleansed from our hearts.
Every time we turn away from any sin, including venial sin, we cause
joy in heaven. “I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one
repentant sinner than over ninety nine virtuous men who have no need of
repentance.” The danger is that we can gradually count ourselves among
the ninety nine virtuous men who have no need of repentance. We all
have need of repentance, at least because of the numerous venial sins
we commit. But so often we don’t think they are important, and as a
result we become scarcely conscious of their existence in our lives.
No. We must be working continually on a spirit of repentance, and
praying for this as a gift of the Holy Spirit. We must be more and more
sorry for our sins, and striving through acts of contrition and regular
confession to recognise them, to renounce them, and with God’s grace
aiming to live a holy life as Christ’s friend.
(E.J.Tyler)
A third
reflection on the Gospel of the twenty fourth Sunday Year C
Scripture
today: Exodus
32:7-11.13-14; Psalm
50; 1 Timothy 1:12-17;
Luke 15:1-32
In our Gospel today our Lord tells his story of the prodigal son,
the younger son who returned to his father to seek forgiveness. His
indulgent father unhesitatingly restored him to his former position in
his family and in his father’s love. The parable is primarily a story
describing the abundant love of God and his tremendous mercy for those
who seek it with sorrow for sin. (Luke 15:1-32)
During the year 2001 there was a wonderful movie on SBS
television, called “With fire and sword”, set in Poland in the mid
seventeenth century. Among many unforgetable scenes was one of a
valiant soldier dying from being shot by arrows while saying the
prayer, “Lord have mercy.” He remembered instinctively to ask God for
pardon at the moment of death. He did what the prodigal son did, and
did so at the most important moment of life, the moment of death. Every
day we should pray the Hail Mary. In it we ask our Lady to pray for us
now and at the hour of our death. One great grace we ought ask our Lady
to pray on our behalf for is that we will turn to God our Father for
pardon and mercy now, and at the hour of our death. In Shakespeare’s
play Hamlet,
the ghost of Hamlet senior bemoans before his son how he was murdered
without the chance to obtain pardon for his sins. Shakespeare has him
say, “I was cut off in the blossoms of my sin, no reckoning made, but
sent to my account with all my imperfections on my head.” His life
suddenly ended with his sins unreconciled, no chance to do what the
prodigal son returned to his father to do, to ask pardon.
In one of Cardinal Newman’s greatest books (The Development of
Christian Doctrine) finished just before he became a Catholic in
1845, he wrote the words: “time is short and eternity long.” In the now
famous 9/11 terrorist tragedy thousands of people in the United States
were depriving of their lives without warning, affecting the families
of countless others all over the world including some in Australia.
Life is precarious, and none of us ought take for granted the time we
have been given. We ought continually turn to God, rich in mercy and
ask his pardon, and resolve to live in a way pleasing to him. A priest
I was recently speaking to told me that a few years back he was close
to death with the sickness he had. He recovered, but the experience was
very wholesome, for it gave him a renewed awareness of how precious and
precarious life is, and how we should use assiduously the time we have
for God’s glory and interests.
When we think of the precariousness of human life, of how
our
possessions, our career, our hopes, our loved ones, our very life, can
suddenly collapse and be no more, we are led to think of what is
permanent and indeed eternal. St Paul reminds us in one of his letters
to set our hearts on the things of heaven rather than simply on the
things of earth. And so we are reminded of repentance, change, of
turning to God and living for him and for his will. This repentance
ought be going on all our lives, every day. Every day we ought be
repenting, expressing our sorrow to God for not having desired and
fulfilled his will, and instead seeking after the things that are of
this world and that are utterly passing.
The great tragedies of life, whether they
affect an
individual or the whole world remind us of the example of the prodigal
son who experienced tragedy and then sought forgiveness. But our Lord’s
parable is really about the loving father who was so prodigal in his
attitude to his wayward and irresponsible son. The parable of today’s
gospel is about God who is rich in mercy. It is this which should
inspire our everyday life. It is this which the Church preaches and
brings to everyone by her teaching and her sacraments. And it is this
which each of us should daily avail ourselves of by turning to God
constantly in a spirit of repentance, and approaching him frequently
and sincerely in the sacrament of confession. And then we ought bear
witness to God’s mercy by being merciful and forgiving ourselves, for
as we measure out to others so it will be measured out to us.
(E.J.Tyler)
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The indelible memory of the favours you have received from God should
always be a compelling force within you; especially so in times of
tribulation.
(The Forge,
no.167)
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Monday
of the Twenty Fourth Week
September 13: St
John Chrysostom (349-407). Born in Antioch. He was a great
genius, whose powerful eloquence earned him the name "Chrysostom", the
golden-mouthed. He entered monastic life and then became a priest. As
Archbishop of Constantinople, he distinguished himself for his
preaching and his abundant writings about Catholic doctrine and
Christian life. He died in exile.
The Holy Eucharist
(1 Cor. 11:
17-26.33)
Saint Paul explicitly tells us that the risen Jesus told him about the
institution of the Eucharist himself. "For this is what I received from
the Lord, and in turn passed on to you: that on the night that he was
betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread..." (1 Cor. 11: 17-26). St
Paul was a contemporary of our Lord, and quite possibly he had heard of
him while during his public ministry and at the time too of his passion
and death. But it was only the heavenly, risen Jesus who had spoken to
him, and he spoke to him at length. One of the many things he told St
Paul was about the Eucharist, its institution and its meaning.
At the end of the passage referred to above, St Paul gives the meaning
of the Eucharist. He says that "Until the Lord comes, therefore, every
time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming his
death." Every time the Eucharist is celebrated, our Lord's death is
made present, and proclaimed sacramentally. Being made present, we are
present sacramentally at Calvary, and, united with Christ at Calvary,
we become equipped in our turn to proclaim his death in our everyday
life.
Let us put the Eucharist at the centre of our lives, and thus allow the
death of Jesus to be proclaimed, and with that, the power of his
resurrection in a life of holiness.
(E.J.Tyler)
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There is but one fatal illness, one deadly mistake you can make: to
settle for defeat, not to know how to fight with the spirit of a child
of God. If this personal effort is lacking, the soul becomes paralysed
and languishes alone, and is incapable of bearing fruit. Such cowardice
on man's part puts pressure on Our Lord to utter those words addressed
to him by the paralytic at the pool of Bethsaida, I have no man to help
me. What a pity if Jesus does not find in you the man or the woman he
expects.
(The Forge,
no.168)
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Tuesday
of the Twenty Fourth Week
September 14:
The Triumph of
the Cross. The public veneration of the Holy Cross dates from
the fourth century. today the Church commemorates the rescue of the
true Cross of Christ by Emperor Heraclius in a victory over the
Persians. Our Mother the Church sings of the triumph of the Holy Cross,
the instrument of our salvation. In order to follow Christ, the
Christian must take up his cross and become obedient with Christ, who
was obedient until death, even death on the Cross. We are identified
with Christ on the Cross. We become co-redeemers, sharing in Christ's
Cross.
The triumph of Christ's
Cross (Philippians 2:
6-11)
There is an expression we often hear: "the top dog". Many try to be the
top dog. I remember one family had a dog that had been the family dog
for some time. Then another dog was brought into the family, a large
pup, and soon after its arrival the family dog dug up all its largest
bones and put them together. Then it stood over them, while the other
dog watched, all agitated, barking from a distance. The family dog was
showing by the display of all the large bones in its possession that it
was the top dog, and the other dog could see it and felt it. In this
particular respect, how like dogs many people are!
But what do we see God do, the one infinite God no creature can
remotely compare with in glory? God chose to be lowly and humble. St
Paul says that the Son of God did not cling on to his divine
"condition" but assumed the "condition of a slave, and became as men
are: and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting
death, death on a cross." (Phil. 2: 6-11). This then was his glory, his
lifting up, the manifestation of his divine character, to lower himself
in his love for us. It was a triumph of pure and humble love, the
clearest revelation of God's true glory. The glory of the Lord was
revealed on the Cross.
Let us pray for the grace to be like God in humbling ourselves, to
accept and choose as did the Son of God the lowest place, leaving it to
him to raise us up in glory.
(E.J.Tyler)
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The ascetical struggle is not something negative and therefore hateful,
but rather a joyful affirmation. It is a sport. A good sportsman
doesn't fight to gain just one victory, and that at the first attempt.
He has to build himself up for it, training over a long period of time,
calmly and confidently. He keeps trying again and again, and if he
doesn’t succeed at the first attempt, he keeps on trying with
determination until the obstacle is overcome.
(The Forge,
no.169)
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Wednesday
of the Twenty Fourth Week
September
15: Our
Lady of Sorrows. This feast has its origin in that Christian
devotion which associates her with the Passion of her Son. Pope Pius
VII extended this devotion to the whole Church and, in 1912, St Pius X
fixed the feast on this day, within the octave of the Nativity of our
Mother the Virgin. Our Mother the Virgin Mary teaches us to live,
together with her, beside the Cross of her Son. In her suffering as
co-redeemer, she reminds us of the tremendous malice of sin and shows
us the way of true repentance.
Our Lady of Sorrows
(Luke 2:
33-35; John 19: 25-27)
Perhaps the most fundamental issue in a serious following of our Lord
is the attitude we choose to take to the suffering that is a necessary
component of the following of him. In some sense this obedience in
suffering is the high point of the Christian life and the moment of its
greatest fruitfulness. This is clear from the fact that it was this in
the life of our Lord himself - the Cross was the summit his life and
the source of our redemption.
This is a difficult thing to embrace, and it is a gift of grace to be
able to do so, requiring as well a repeated effort on our part. But we
have a mother to help us on our way to it, she who was the first and
foremost Christian, the first to carry the Cross of Christ after him,
the one who in Christ bore the greatest sorrows. She, the mother of
sorrows, can teach us how to do it, how to take up our cross each day
and follow in the footsteps of the crucified Master.
Let us pray to Our Lady of Sorrows, taking her as our mother and model
into our home as did John after Calvary, the home of our souls where
dwells the Blessed Trinity if we are in the state of grace. Let us ask
her to gain for us the grace to live accepting with love the Cross of
Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You are my hope in all things, dear Jesus. Convert me!
(The Forge,
no.170)
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Thursday
of the Twenty Fourth Week
September 16: Saints Cornelius,
pope, and Cyprian, bishop, both martyrs (3rd Century). Pope
Cornelius defended the
faith against the Novatian heretics and, helped by St Cyprian,
confirmed his authority. He died in exile. Cyprian was born in Carthage
and became its bishop. He was a staunch defender of the faith and of
church discipline. He suffered martyrdom during the persecution of
Valerian. Their names are included in the Roman Canon (the first
Eucharistic Prayer).
Our need for a sense of sin (Luke 7: 36-50)
Consider the immense sensitivity of our Lord, accepting serenely the
manifestation of love and sorrow for sin of the woman with a bad
reputation. (Luke 7: 36-50). He showed great love for any repentant
sinner, and held up the repentant sinner as an example to those who
prided themselves on being virtuous.
It has been pointed out by various popes that a distinguishing feature
of the modern age - indeed,
according to Pope Pius XII, the sin of the modern age - is the lack of
a sense of sin. This lack is not pleasing to our Lord. God would want
us (us especially) to take especial note of each example in Scripture
of the repentant sinner as having a special relevance to us.
So what must we do? We should ask God for a sense of our sinfulness, a
knowledge of our sins, and a deep faith in his love for the repentant
sinner. This is the grace we ought pray for, and then bring to others.
Then we must try to grow in this virtue by the repeated practice of it:
the daily examination of conscience and contrition for sin, and
frequent Confession, approached with a lively faith.
(E.J.Tyler)
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When that priest, our good friend, used to sign himself "the sinner",
he did so convinced that what he wrote was true. My God, purify me too!
(The
Forge, no.171)
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Friday
of the Twenty Fourth Week
September 17: Saint
Robert Bellarmine. (1542-1621) Born in Italy, he was a bishop
and a cardinal. A professor of theology in Louvain and Rome, Robert
Bellarmine was one of the ablest and most effective theologians of the
Church's controversy with Protestantism. His theological influence
persistence continued long after his death.
Accompanying the Master
(Luke 8: 1-3)
St Luke in a few sentences (ch.8: 1-3) captures a scene of our Lord on
mission making his way through towns and villages preaching the Kingdom
of God. But consider the mention Luke makes of those with him and the
Twelve: "certain women, who had been cured of evil spirits and
ailments... and several others who provided for them out of their own
resources." They all had a place in the great work of loving, following
and serving the Master.
This reminds us that we all have a place in assisting the Master who
continues in the Church and at her head to make his way everywhere
proclaiming the Gospel. Every member, whatever be his or her
background, whatever be his or her history of gifts from the Lord, has
the honour and the privilege of playing a daily part in the great work,
the work of the Master.
But to enter into this we have to be living a life of faith, for the
simple reason that our Lord is no longer visible among us. We also have
to be generous, being prepared to go beyond and well beyond what many
would regard as our ordinary duties. St Luke said the women assisted
and provided for them out of their own resources - that was beyond
their ordinary duty, but they did so gladly because they loved the
Master. So too with each of us.
(E.J.Tyler)
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If you have done something wrong, be it big or small, go running back
to God. Savour those words of the psalm, "A humble and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise". The Lord will never despise or ignore a
contrite and humbled heart.
(The Forge,
no.172)
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You see yourself as a poor man whose master has stripped him
of
his livery. You are only a sinner! And you understand the nakedness
felt by our first parents. You should be weeping all the time. And you
have wept. You have suffered a great deal. And yet you are happy. You
wouldn’t change places with anyone. For many years now you have not
lost your peaceful joy. You thank God for this and would like to let
everyone into the secret of your happiness. Yes, I can see why people
have often said of you - though you couldn’t care less about “what
people say” - that you are a man of peace.
(The Forge,
no.174)
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Twenty Fifth Sunday C
Scripture today:
Amos 8:
4-7; Psalm 112; 1 Timothy 2:
1-8; Luke 16: 1-13
Serving God in social and
economic life
We read in today's Gospel how our Lord tell us: You cannot
be the slave both of God and of money. Much of economic and social life
is driven by being a slave of money. The prophet Amos in the first
reading warns those who trample on the needy that the Lord is saying to
them, “Never will I forget a single thing you have done.” (Amos 8: 4-7)
Certainly society at large assumes that the world of
work,
economics, and social living cannot be based on the ideal of serving
God , as you could theoretically expect it for the life of a private
individual. But on the contrary, the Church teaches that it is the
vocation of the lay Catholic Christian to bring God and what He has
revealed directly to bear on society and on the world of work and
economic activity. In all these social spheres we are to be a slave of
God, and not of money. It is this which will bring happiness and true
success to man in these spheres of his life. Indeed, as the Pope
recently said to a group of bankers, Christian morality as Christ
revealed it is the most powerful key to economic energy and economic
functioning in the life of peoples.
This is why it is important to be aware of the Church’s
social
teaching. One of the biggest needs of the modern day is that each
Catholic take up the work of trying to know what the Church teaches.
This applies generally, but today in view of our Lord’s words and of
the words of the prophet Amos, I am thinking of the Church’s social
teaching. Too few Catholics know it and too few are therefore able to
apply it to their daily lives at work and in society. Too few are able
to apply it to political and economic discussion, and too few are able
to assess what is happening in society in the light of it. I invite
you, why not purchase and read carefully the teachings of the present
pope on these matters, such as, for instance, his encyclical on work.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth century a great
revolution
occurred in European and British industry. The means of economic
production were developed in sensational ways and new notions of
society and of the state, of ownership and of labour, notions that
forgot the true interests of the individual, quickly dominated the
attitudes of those who controlled the means of production. They were
not inspired by what God has revealed about the nature of the human
being and how his true vocation in this world and in the next is to be
respected. These notions gained ground and many of them still hold
sway. One such group of
notions assumed that social and economic life ought allow for a
completely free rein to the quest
for economic profits, whatever be the suffering it may cause
individuals. By contrast and in reaction to this, another assumed that
the basic rights of individuals and groups should be subordinated
completely to a collective (rather than individual) organisation of
production. Again, the temporal and spiritual rights and the true
vocation of the human person were lost sight of.
How a truly human vision of society and economic life
is
to be maintained in the modern world, with the vocation of the human
person being kept constantly in view, is spelt out in the Church’s
social teaching. This teaching applies what our Lord has revealed to
the complexities of modern life in its social and economic dimensions.
At the heart of it is an understanding of and respect for the human
person as God has revealed him to be. He is not just a means of
production and profit, nor is he just a unit supporting the economic
and political power of certain others. He has a vocation from God for
both this world and the next. As our Lord tells us, you cannot serve
God and be serving - serving, I say - money. This idea has to gain
ground.
Let us resolve to put on the mind of Christ in respect
to all aspects of human life including social and economic life. This
will be done by growing in the knowledge of what the Church our Mother
teaches, including what she teaches about the economic and social life
of the world in general. Make it your business to get hold of it and
study it. Man’s true vocation is to be placed at the centre of all
human activity. Then bring that precious teaching to bear on society in
your everyday life, in your words and in your work.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading:
The Catechism of the
Catholic Church, no.2407-2436
A second
reflection on the readings for the 25th Sunday C
Scripture today:
Amos 8:
4-7; Psalm 112; 1 Timothy 2:
1-8; Luke 16: 1-13
In our first reading from the letter to Timothy today, St
Paul urges that we pray for all, but the reason he gives for this
is the point to notice here. For, St Paul says, God desires all men to
be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. That is a great
reason to pray for all. God wishes all human beings to be saved. He
loves all, whatever be their religion or none. He has made the first
move, and he is waiting for all to come to him. He created us to be
happy, and has told us where we are to find the happiness he has
planned for us. It is to be found in friendship with him, and he has
come among us in the person of his Son Jesus to make this friendship so
much more possible. And even when we frustrate his plan for us by
sinning, he still offers salvation through Jesus, provided we come to
him for pardon.
So God is every man’s happiness. Therefore it is most important
that
all come to know God, the one true God who has revealed himself to us.
And let us notice something further that God wants for all men. God
wants all to be saved, he says, and to reach full knowledge of the
truth. There are two points here and they seem to be connected. He
continues, ‘For there is only one God, and there is only one mediator
between God and mankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus’ (1 Timothy 2:
1-8). We ought keep this quite uncompromising dogma
of our faith clearly in mind in this day and age when we are
fortunately blessed with a greater appreciation of the elements of
truth and goodness in other religions. They exemplify man’s striving
after God and contain very many elements of truth (including, of
course, many elements of error). But it is only Christ who truly takes
us unfailingly to God, because he is himself God, and our redeemer as
well. He is the unfailing way to God, provided we take it. His life is
the most perfect expression of God’s plan for us. He himself is the
perfect expression of God himself, the image of the unseen God. He who
sees me sees the Father, our Lord told his disciples.
Many do not know Christ. Many try to approach God
through
other means, and other names. Just the other day I attended a talk by a
professor of religious studies, and that professor is a member of the
Zoroastrian faith, founded in the middle east centuries before Christ
by Zarathustra. It was clear that the professor did not believe that
any one religion has the full truth, rather that all had bits of it.
That is not the Christian attitude and belief. St Paul says that in
Christ we receive every heavenly blessing. The problem is that so often
we do not take full advantage of possessing Christ by virtue of our
baptism. Christian teaching is clear: Jesus is the fullness of God’s
gift of himself to humanity. There are millions who have not known him
and do not know him. But whether they know it or not, whatever truth or
grace is conveyed by the mediation of any man, however great a teacher
he may be, ultimately it will serve for salvation only if it comes from
Christ. He is the only way to the Father. He is the way, the truth and
the life. Any saving truth comes from Jesus, however hidden this fact
may be.
We know this but we have to act on it and use wisely the
time
and all the resources we have been given by God. And this is the point
made in today’s Gospel (Luke 16: 1-13).
The unjust steward was not praised for being dishonest with his
master’s money. He was praised for being smart as evidenced in the way
he used the means at hand for the aims he had set himself. Our aim is
to know, love and serve Jesus and so be with him forever in heaven.
Jesus is the way, and he is the full truth about it. Union with him
brings life, life here and hereafter. So let us be smart in the use we
make of all that God has given us, whether it be our talents, our time,
our possessions, our money. Let us use all our resources to attain
union with Jesus, to bring others into union with him, and to serve the
church, the world, and society in such a way that God will be truly
honoured and glorified.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Some people do only what lies within the capacity of poor human
creatures to accomplish, and
consequently waste their time. What Peter experienced is repeated once
more, word for word: Master, we have toiled all night long and caught
nothing. If they work on their own, without being united with the
Church, not reckoning with the Church, what possible effectiveness
could their apostolate have? None at all! They need to be convinced
that on their own they can achieve nothing. You should help them to go
on listening to the rest of that Gospel story - at your word I will let
down the net. It is then that the catch will be plentiful and
effective. How beautiful it is to mend our ways when we find that we
have done, for whatever reason, "our" apostolate not his.
(The Forge,
no.175)
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Saturday
of the Twenty Fifth Week of Ordinary Time
(September 25)
The meaning of Christ's sufferings
(Luke 9:
43-45)
One leading British anthropologist of primal religions (Pritchard) once
wrote that one way of considering and understanding primal religions is
to ask how they dealt with the problem of suffering and evil. That is a
useful key to the understanding of the world's religions. Whatever
about that, at least this observation shows that the problem of the
meaning of evil and suffering is a perennial one that has
profoundly
affected man and his culture down the ages.
Our Lord repeatedly referred to his own sufferings in his conversations
with his disciples. One such instance is given us in Luke 9: 43-45. He
said that as the promised Son of Man, the Messiah, he was "going to be
handed over into the power of men." But they could not understand the
meaning of it. Moreover they were too afraid to ask him about what he
had just said.
It is a most important grace to ask for, an understanding of the
meaning of the suffering and death of Christ, and an appreciation of
how we are called to follow in his footsteps along the path of the
Cross. If we aspire to be his true disciples, we ought ask God to show
us his will in this regard, and to show us how to unite ourselves with
the crucified and risen Jesus, with the ardent will to do so.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Twenty
Sixth Sunday C
Scripture today:
Amos 6:
1.4-7; Psalm 145; 1 Timothy 6:
11-16; Luke 16: 19-31
Today's Gospel presents us with our Lord's famous
parable
of how ”There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen
and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there lay a poor man
called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with the
scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.” (Luke 16: 19-31) The
message is clear:
God’s judgment hangs over the one who refuses to give to the poor. In
his torment in Hades the rich man looked up and saw Abraham a long way
off with Lazarus in his bosom. We are reminded of our Lord’s
description of the Last Judgment in the 25th Chapter of St Matthew, in
which our Lord as Judge condemns to hell those who refused during life
to help those in need. I was hungry and you never gave me to eat. We
are challenged by the word of God in the parable to ask ourselves, what
is my attitude to the poor person? What is my behaviour towards one who
is needy? My salvation and the sanctification to which I am called
depends on it.
However, our Lord’s story has implications far beyond the
relationships that should exist between an individual person who is
poor and the one who is rich. It also concerns the relationship of
justice and solidarity that should exist between nations. We can regard
the rich man of the story not only as representing the rich individual,
but also representing rich nations and groups of nations. Just as there
was a real gap between the rich man in the story and the poor man
Lazarus, so there is a real gap between rich and poor nations, due to
unequal economic resources and capacity. The teaching of the parable
applies to the world at large, and offers the key to international
justice and solidarity, and thereby the key to peace in the world.
Just as the rich man of the parable failed to live in true
solidarity with the poor man Lazarus and utterly disregarded and
neglected him, so too whole nations can fail to live in solidarity with
needy nations. We are all members of God’s family. We are all God’s
children, and nations must keep this in mind just as individuals must.
Furthermore, when it comes to whole nations, it is not simply a matter
of giving food or aid. It is also a matter of liberating poorer nations
from burdensome structures and institutions that impede their
development. To give but one example, a poor African nation burdened
with a huge debt that brings a crippling interest rate has no chance to
develop. Because of that structure of debt and interest, the country
continues year after year to be like the poor man Lazarus of the
Gospel, while the rich nations that do nothing about that debt continue
like the rich man who was condemned. And there are various other
institutions that constitute a great burden on poor countries.
The Church teaches that rich nations have a grave moral
responsibility towards the poor of the world who are unable to develop.
This is a complex duty, and while bishops and priests can offer a view
on how to go about it, it is especially a task for the laity, for it
involves animating temporal realities of the world with Christian
commitment. It is especially the role of the laity to make our world
more human, more just, more filled with solidarity, more filled with
the spirit of Christ. The field of work of the laity is the world. Now,
the question we could ask ourselves today is, do I care very much about
these matters? What, concretely speaking, am I doing to promote justice
and solidarity between the rich and poor nations of the world? Am I
taking an interest in such matters? Or am I content to consider the
question only inasmuch as it affects my personal life?
Let us resolve to see the world at large as being just as
much
subject to the teaching of today’s Gospel parable as are private
individuals. And let us resolve to consider what we can do about it.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further
reading:
The Catechism of
the Catholic Church, no.2437-2442
A second
reflection on the Twenty Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time C
Scripture today:
Amos 6:
1.4-7; Psalm 145; 1 Timothy 6:
11-16; Luke 16: 19-31
The parable our Lord told in today’s gospel is a famous
one: the rich man and the poor man Lazarus. It is a principal resource
for one of Pope John Paul II’s encyclicals. The rich man provided for
his life here on earth, but not for the eternal hereafter, and so he
lost everything in hell. Our parable today could be seen as telling us
how to provide for a true life insurance that will last for an
eternity, for at the end of life there comes death and our judgment.
Our Lord’s parable calls us to charity, but it also
teaches us that thoughts of death and judgment will help us to be
charitable. I read once of a research project which concluded that
confronting people with the fact that they will die can make them cling
to their deepest moral values. That is exactly what the Old Testament
book of Sirach advises: “In all you do remember the end of your life
and you will never sin.” A great number of people simply forget all too
often that we shall have to render an account of absolutely everything
we have done. How important it is, then, to obtain God’s forgiveness
for everything in the Sacrament of Penance while we still have life.
The Father willed Jesus to live in poverty and
humiliation. But let us stretch our imagination to the very opposite
and ask what if God had willed Jesus to live in some wealth, just to
show the wealthy how to use their wealth? Imagine Jesus living in a
palace, and Lazarus appealing for help at his door. What would Jesus do
for Lazarus? We all know, he would help him abundantly. But Jesus chose
to embrace poverty and despite this we tend neither to want to embrace
poverty ourselves, nor to help the poor very greatly ourselves. Let us
imagine a different but not at all unlikely scenario. What happened
whenever the poor or the sick knocked at the door of the Holy Family in
Nazareth? We are not told, but surely we scarcely need to be told.
Sadly, few take to heart the Lord’s words, “It is
easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who
is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Greed is the mark of the rich man
in the parable. He had plenty, but he was still greedy. In the case of
our Lord, he was infinitely rich from all eternity but chose to become
poor for our sakes in order that we who are poor might become immensely
rich. Our Lord himself is the exemplar of the beatitude that he
preached, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
God.” St Francis of Assisi was poor in spirit, wanting nothing, giving
up everything, and loving everything and everyone as a result. He loved
God, he loved Christ, he loved humanity, he loved nature, and he loved
poverty. Unlike the rich man of the parable, he clung to nothing. He
was like Christ who did not cling to his glory as God but gave it all
up.
In his parable, Jesus teaches us how to use the wealth we
have. In the book of Genesis, Cain asks, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Our Lord answers in our parable, Yes. Our eternal destiny hinges on the
way we love, and indeed the way we use our money. If we love money, it
will become our master, and we its slave. It is a possession to be used
to serve ourselves and others in a way that will honour God. The rich
man in our Lord’s parable was condemned not for what he did with his
money but for what he failed to do with it. He persistently failed to
help the poor man.
We will find Lazarus at our doors every time we watch
the television, especially now with the movement of millions of
refugees. We are all called to build a civilization of love, and
not a civilization of greed and reluctance to give and share. All
recognise that an enormous percentage of the world’s resources are
enjoyed by a minority of the world’s population. The call to humanity
is that this be shared with those who are in need. Our conscience, and
both God and his church, will give us no rest until we take these
things to heart and live them. Are we a little like the rich man in the
parable? Perhaps we are very much like him. Let us examine our
consciences, and ask for the grace to change and to desire to live in
the spirit of poverty, like our Lord - not necessarily in poverty
itself, but with our spirit detached from this world’s goods and not
governed by a love for money and material possessions, a love that
leads us to neglect the many poor at our doorstep. The knocking of the
poor at our door occurs every time we watch the news on television.
Let us take our daily cue from God our heavenly Father who
unhesitatingly shared with us his own beloved Son. Let us take our cue
from the Son of God himself who did not cling to his riches but became
poor for our sake. In receiving him we received every heavenly
blessing. In him we are made rich with the true riches. Let us pray for
the grace today to seek the wealth that God wants to give us. It comes
from being in him and from being like him in our attitude to those in
need.
(E.J.Tyler)
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It was you who wrote what I am now copying out: “Lord, you
know
that I love you! How very often, Jesus, I repeat again and again those
words your dear Cephas uttered, as a bitter-sweet litany. For I know
that I love you, and yet I am so very unsure of myself that I cannot
bring myself to say it to you clearly. There are so many denials in my
wicked life. You know that I love you. May my actions, Jesus, never go
against these yearnings of my heart.”
Keep up this prayer of yours and he will certainly hear you.
(The Forge, no.176)
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Monday
of the Twenty Sixth Week of Ordinary Time C
(September 27) St Vincent de Paul
(1581-1660). Born in France, Vincent became a priest who
dedicated himself to the evangelization of the poor, the unfortunate,
the suffering. Together with Louise de Marillac, he founded the
Congregation of the Daughters of Charity. He also founded the
Congregation of Priests of the Mission (C.M.), also known as the
Vincentians. His life remained deeply rooted in humility in spite of
his worldwide fame.
Sufferings that are permitted by
God (Job 1: 6-22)
Consider the dialogue between God and Satan in the first chapter of the
book of Job (1: 6-22). The inspired text shows God to be delighting in
Job and in praising him. This is what characterizes the God of love.
Satan is presented as being hostile to Job and critical of him - and
that is how he is towards us.
The book of Job goes on to describe the tremendous afflictions that
fell upon Job, a just man who deserved nothing of it. The words
of God himself assure us of his virtue: he tells Satan with pride that
"there is no one like him on the earth: a sound and honest man who
fears God and shuns evil." So how is it that he has such awesome
afflictions? Where do they come from? They come, according to our
passage, from Satan. Satan is intent on taking Job away from the
God-fearing path that has marked his life, and he intends to do it by
means of sufferings. God permits Satan to do this, but always within
certain limits: "Very well," the Lord said to Satan, "all he has is in
your power. But keep your hands off his person."
And why does God permit Satan to bring down upon the head of Job these
afflictions? It is to prove and show forth his virtue, and in the
process glorify God and become even more pleasing to him. It is a
loving test permitted by God. God is confident that Job will prove
himself.
Let us remember this in our sufferings. It is an opportunity to give
glory to God and be even more pleasing to him. If God permits it, let
us look on it as an opportunity, remembering Job, a type of Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Repeat this with confidence: Lord, if only my tears had been contrite!
Ask him humbly to grant you the sorrow you desire.
(The Forge,
no.177)
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Tuesday
of the Twenty Sixth Week of Ordinary Time C
(September 28) St
Wenceslaus, martyr. (907-930). Duke of Bohemia. After many
trials in governing and evangelising his people, he suffered martyrdom
at the hands of his brother.
Resolute in our God-given work (Luke 9: 51-56)
"As the time drew near for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus
resolutely took the road for Jerusalem.." (Luke 9: 51). Jerusalem was
the place of his coming Passion and Death. All our life the day is
drawing ever nearer when we will, as we devoutly hope, be taken up to
heaven. Life for the Christian is this advance to that day, and the
meaning of death is our meeting with Christ in heaven. Our Lord was
always aware that the time for him to be taken up to heaven was drawing
near. So also we in union with Christ ought be aware of this too.
Having this in mind we should, like our Lord, be resolute as he was
resolute. We should be resolute in following the path that God has laid
out for us leading to our meeting with Christ in heaven. That path is
the energetic and loving fulfilment of our daily duties and
responsibilities, in a word, of our work in the broadest sense of the
word. Our work could be a particular train of sufferings such as
illness or some great misfortune. Whatever our work is, we must use our
time profitably in union with our Lord who resolutely too his path to
the end, and thus saved the world.
(E.J.Tyler)
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How villainous has been my behaviour and how unfaithful I have been to
God's grace. My Mother, Refuge of sinners, pray for me. May I never
again hinder God's work in my soul.
(The Forge,
no.178)
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Wednesday
of the Twenty Sixth Week of Ordinary Time C
(September 29) Sts
Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels.
Michael
("Who is like God") was the archangel who fought against Satan
and all his evil angels, defending the friends of God. He is the
protector of all humanity and reminds us of the real existence of the
devil and of diabolical activity. To protect us from the snares of the
devil, it is good to have recourse too St Michael.
Gabriel
("Strength of God") announced to Zachariah the coming birth of John the
Baptist, and to Mary the birth of Jesus. His greeting to the Virgin,
"Hail, full of grace" is one of the most familiar and frequent prayers
of the Christian people, contained in the "Hail Mary".
Raphael
("Medicine of God") is the archangel who took care of Tobias on his
journey. Every person on his pilgrimage through this life also has a
guardian angel with a mission similar to that of Raphael.
The Archangels
The Archangels are man's helpers and protectors, especially in the one
thing necessary.
Consider, by way of introduction to this thought, the passage from Luke 9: 57-62.
St Luke presents us with an encounter between our Lord and three
different people. With each of them, the great issue is their following
of him. Two of them volunteered to follow our Lord, and the third was
asked by our Lord to follow him. With each of them, there was a problem
that posed some obstacle.
Now, in fact it is the will of God that a meeting with Christ is meant
to result in the following of him. Moreover, our Lord wants our
following of him to be total, whatever be the walk of life in
which we are called to pass our days. In the case of the three our Lord
meets in the passage cited above, there appears to have been some
limitation preventing their total following of him.
Let us call upon the Angels to help us to follow our Lord totally. They
are our companions in the one thing necessary, our helpers and our
guides. Let us develop a real devotion to the Angels of God.
(E.J.Tyler)
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So close to Christ for so many years - and such a sinner! Doesn't that
intimate love of Jesus for you move you to tears?
(The Forge,
no.179)
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Thursday
of the Twenty Sixth Week C
(September 30) St
Jerome, priest and doctor of the Church (340-420). Born in
Dalmatia (present Yugoslavia). He studied in Rome where he was
baptized. He chose monastic life, went to Syria and was ordained
priest. He went back to Rome as secretary of Pope Damasus, w ho
commissioned him to revise the Latin text of the Bible. He went to
Bethlehem on this project. His work is now known as the Vulgate which
the Church adopted as the official version (till replaced in recent
times with the New Vulgate). He also wrote many other works, mostly
commentaries on the books of the Bible.
Jesus sending out his disciples
(Luke 10:
1-12)
Very many people lead a fairly aimless life, which is to say a life
with little sense of purpose. They kill time. Others have aims, but
they are of little value. There are others who are burdened with
worries that are of little consequence (though others still have
tremendous worries of real consequence). Whatever about all that, our
Lord has given each and every one of his disciples a great aim that
ought fill their lives: to be his disciples from the heart and totally,
and to apostolic about it as well.
Consider Luke 10: 1-12. "The Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent
them out ahead of him in pairs to all the towns and places he himself
was to visit." What value our lives will have if we have prepared the
way for people to accept our Lord, be they members of our family, our
workplace, our parish, wherever.
But there are so many things which preoccupy us and distract us from
this great work - especially, may I suggest, trivial worries. Let us
resolve to work on being detached from whatever can hinder us from
collaborating with Jesus in his work, and let us accept from God, no
matter how painful it is, his work of purifying us from all such
attachments. Let us live for the work Jesus has given us to do for him.
(E.J.Tyler)
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It is not that I lack true joy; on the contrary. And yet, painfully
aware of my unworthiness, it is only natural that I should cry out with
Saint Paul, "wretched man that I am!" It is at such a time that you
should increase your desire to tear down once and for all the barriers
you yourself have set up.
(The Forge,
no.180)
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Friday
of the Twenty Sixth Week of Ordinary Time C
(October 1) St Therese of the
child Jesus, Carmelite nun (1873-1897). Born in France. While
very young, she entered the monastery of the Carmelites of Lisieux. She
was outstanding for her humility, simplicity, and confidence in God.
She offered her life for the salvation of souls and for the Church. Her
autobiography "The Story of a Soul" has had great impact on modern
spirituality. She is a doctor of the Church.
The sufferings of Job, and God's answer
(Job 38)
I read recently an article which said that one of the great steps
forward in human history was science. Science has been one of the
principal factors in the making of modern times - and the new knowledge
that science has brought. There is news that has recently come through
that we are about to see a breakthrough in our knowledge of the atom.
Unexpected information is on the horizon.
All this goes to show that there is so little that we know of what God
has created for our benefit. God's knowledge is unimaginably vast. But
what we see around us and the little of it that we understand ought
give us an inkling of the paucity of our understanding and the
boundlessness of God's knowledge.
This consideration ought help us in dealing with a problem that has
perennially afflicted man, a problem that is very close to him: the
problem of evil, especially the evil and suffering that appears to be
undeserved. Job could not understand how it was that he suffered so
much when he knew that he did not deserve it. God's answer comes in
Chapter 38. There is so much in the world that he (Job) does not
understand. But God does - so there is a reason for what God permits.
So too with the suffering of the just man.
With the coming of Christ, suffering would be transformed, and given a
purpose beyond imagining.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Do not become alarmed or discouraged to discover that you have failings
- and such failings! Struggle to uproot them. And as you do so, be
convinced that it is even a good thing to be aware of all those
weaknesses, for otherwise you would be proud. And pride separates us
from God.
(The Forge,
no.181)
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Saturday
of the Twenty Sixth Week of Ordinary Time C
(October 2) The
Guardian Angels. This memorial day was placed in the Roman
calender in 1615. Scripture is full of stories of angels coming to help
the patriarchs. Each person has his own Guardian Angel. Angels are
God's messengers whose mission is to take care of us, to protect our
way on earth, and to share with Christians the apostolic zeal to get
souls closer to god. St Peter was liberated from jail by an angel. Our
Lord spoke of angels of children who constantly behold his Heavenly
Father's face. Our Guardian Angels are our friends for whom we ought
have a growing devotion.
Praying to our Guardian Angels
St Alphonsus Ligouri has written somewhere that the reason why we do
not receive from god much more than we do is that we fail to ask for
it, or fail to ask in the right way. Our Lord repeatedly tells us in
the Gospel that if we ask we shall receive, and there are many cases in
the gospels of people who received favours precisely because they asked
for them. Had they not asked, they may not have received.
If this is so in our relations with God, presumably it is so also in
our relations with our Guardian Angels. Today we think of them. We each
of us is entrusted to an angel to guard and guide us through life, and
as a holy and intelligent person the angel will fulfill his role. But
how much more will we benefit if we have repeated recourse to him. If
we actively acknowledge his presence, repeatedly asking him to carry
our constant petitions to God, that angel will surely aid us even more,
just as God himself will aid us the more we ask him and openly depend
on him.
Let us cultivate an explicit devotion to our guardian angel, and have
recourse also to the angel of whatever person we are trying to help by
our contact or our daily work.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Be filled with wonder at God's goodness, for Christ wants to live in
you. Be filled with wonder too when you are aware of all the weight of
your poor flesh, of your wretched flesh, and all the vileness of the
poor clay you are made of. Yes, but then remember too that call from
God: Jesus Christ, who is God and Man, understands me and looks after
me, for he is my Brother and my Friend.
(The Forge, no.
182)
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