The living water within (John 4:5-42)
“Anyone who drinks the water I shall give will never be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life.” With these words in the Gospel of today our Lord speaks of what he would give to all who wished to receive from him the Gift he came to offer. It is a heavenly water within that satisfies our deepest thirst and that gives eternal life to the one who has faith.
We each of us have been given this heavenly water which is now a spring inside of us, a spring within our own souls. The water is the Holy Spirit, poured into our hearts at our baptism, given to us in a new and fuller way at our confirmation, and nourished regularly in the other sacraments which we receive, especially the sacrament of the Eucharist. This water is a spring inside of us, a source of life and spiritual well being which we ought be very much aware of and which ought fill us with hope for our spiritual future. This water gives us life now and forever.
The most obvious result of our having received this heavenly gift which our Lord likens to life-giving water within us, is that we have the gift of faith. We believe, and we have believed without too much difficulty for years, as long as we remember. This is not something natural to us, it is a gift, a capacity we have that comes from God the Holy Spirit who is within us. It is by means of this gift of faith that we believe in God and in all he has said and revealed to us, and all that the Church proposes for our belief - because we know that God is truth, and that the Church speaks in his name. By this gift of faith we are enabled to commit ourselves entirely to God, manifesting the gift of our self by the full and obedient acceptance of all he has revealed. The Scriptures tell us that the righteous person will live by faith and by a life in accordance with Christ’s teaching, which comes to us in the teaching of the Church, speaking in Christ’s name.
This gift of faith that we have received, and which abides within our souls, will remain there provided we do not sin against it. We must, then, avoid the occasions of sins against faith. Such an occasion would be to read out of mere curiosity novels and other literature that call into question sacred dogmas of our faith - I refer, as but one example, the novel The Da Vinci Code. To read a book like that out of mere curiosity could suggest thoughts that undermine one’s faith. It is a book that ought not be read. If we secretly give in to the temptation to doubt dogmas of our faith, and to doubt the teachings of the Church, then we are sinning against our faith and we could lose it. It is faith that will get us to heaven and take us to holiness - if we guard it.
But not only must we not sin against the gift of faith by deliberately doubting it or calling it into question, we must also put it to work. Faith apart from works, works inspired and required by faith, is dead. It is no use thinking we believe in what our Lord revealed and in what the Church teaches, and then doing nothing about it. That kind of faith is dead, or very weak. And there is no living faith in a person who continues deliberately to sin seriously without repentance. If faith is to be shown in the good works that must fill up our life, then it must be accompanied by hope and love. Faith is the foundation, but hope and love are absolutely necessary if faith is to result in sanctity, and all three are given to us by the Holy Spirit at our baptism. They make up the components of the living water within, the living spring leading to holiness and eternal life.
This gift of faith, enabling the believer to accept the full revelation that has come from God also prompts us to bear witness to it. It is for this reason that the Gift of the Holy Spirit was given to us again at our Confirmation. The Holy Spirit comes at Confirmation to enable us to exercise a responsibility for the proclamation of the faith that we have received. This bearing witness to Christ that expresses our faith includes the readiness to follow the Lord along the way of the Cross amidst the hurts and persecutions which the Church and her members never lack. So service of God and witnessing to the faith are necessary to salvation. As our Lord said, “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.”
The living water our Lord referred to has
been
poured into our hearts. Let us live by that living water. We do so by
living
our faith daily, and bearing witness to it before others.
(E.J.Tyler)
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.1814-1816; 1262-1274 - Faith and the effects of Baptism)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Lord Jesus has a Heart more tender than the
hearts
of all good men put together. If a good man (of average goodness) knew
that a certain person loved him, without seeking personal satisfaction
or reward of any kind (he loves for love’s sake); and if he also knew
that
all this person wanted from him was that he should not object to being
loved, even from afar .. then it would not be long before he responded
to such a disinterested love. If the Loved One is so powerful that he
can
do all things, I am sure that, as well as surrendering in the end to
the
faithful love of a created being (in spite of the wretchedness of that
poor soul) he will give this lover the supernatural beauty, knowledge
and
power he needs so that the eyes of Jesus are not sullied when he gazes
upon the poor heart that is adoring him. Love, my child; love and await.
(The Forge, no.298)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday of the Third Week of Lent
Taking the Faith for granted (Luke 4:24-30)
Let us consider the event involving our Lord’s own townspeople. They had lived with him all those years as he had been growing up, together with Joseph and Mary his mother. At the very least they were quite familiar with how excellent a person he was. But this of itself required no leap of faith - they were simply going on what they could see. Their familiarity with him meant they were living simply on what they could see and hear, and on their long-standing notions.
There is a danger in our life of faith that to a
large
extent we could go simply on what we see and on what we are used
to thinking, being content with that. Our mind can proceed day by day
along
certain familiar lines, without our faith being exercised on the many
other
and probably much greater realities of our Catholic Faith. There is an
old saying that familiarity can breed contempt. We may not really be
exercising
much faith in, for instance, the Eucharist whenever we enter the
church,
nor, perhaps, in the divinity of the Sacraments such as the Sacrament
of
Penance. We may be making no real effort to recognise in faith what
they
are, or rather, who they are. We may be living according to notions we
are familiar with, and not much by faith.
What we ought do is actively exercise our faith on
the
full range of the creed and what God has revealed, reading and
meditating
on this teaching, allowing it to form our inner being, and making acts
of faith accordingly. So let us open our hearts and minds to much more
of Christ’s teaching as it comes to us in the voice of the Church,
which
is the oracle of God for our day. Hearing it, let us actively accept it
as the revelation of God sent to guide us to holiness and to heaven.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there is sacrifice when you sow love, you will
also reap Love. (The Forge,
no.299)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
Forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-35)
One of the very toughest requirements of the Christian life is that of forgiveness. The disciple of Christ must be prepared to forgive without limit. The question is, how can this be done?
Firstly, it can be done out of love for Christ, and because he wants it of us. That he wants it is plainly obvious across the pages of the Gospel, and is the point of our passage today, the parable of the unforgiving servant. It is specifically mentioned in the prayer our Lord taught us. So our desire to please our Lord and do what he commands will lead us to perseveringly forgive injuries.
Secondly, we can be helped to forgive if we maintain a lively sense of the scale of offense against God that our own sins represent. And this is where modern man fails - he lacks a sense of sin. Our Lord shows the importance of this in his parable we are considering here (Matthew 18:21-35) in which the servant who owed ten thousand talents to his forgiving master refused to forgive the fellow servant who owed one hundred denarii. Our debt to God because of our sins is unimaginably enormous, yet he readily forgives. We have no sense of the enormity of our deliberate sins? Perhaps it is because we have little sense of the goodness and holiness of God. We should forgive, then, those who trespass against us.
What a wonderful thing to go God at the end of life
having
forgiven everyone their offenses against us. We will succeed in doing
this
if we aim to do just this every single day - and the end of every day
to
forgive everyone.
(E.J.Tyler)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My child, are you not aflame with the desire to
bring
all men to love Him?
(The Forge, no.300)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
Christ the perfect Man (Matthew 5:17-19)
Our Lord tells us that he has not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them. That is to say, he is the fulfilment of all that God has revealed of man. He is the perfect Man, the one in whom there is nothing lacking in respect to whatever God may want of us.
The good news is t hat not only do we have this astounding model before us as a concrete historical figure, but he has given us the wherewithal to become like him at the level of our innermost being. Christ lives now, and we can be truly like him. Life has been given us as the opportunity to be thus transformed. It is through the power of Christ’s grace that we become like Christ - because by our baptism we have been made (seminally) other Christs. The transformation began then, but much work lay ahead.
Let us take up the work of seeking perfection,
seeking
to be like the perfect Man. Now I begin!
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesus as a child and as an adolescent. I love to
picture
you like this, Lord, because I somehow pluck up more courage. I love to
see you as a tiny, almost helpless babe. It makes me feel you need me.
(The Forge, no.301)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday of the Third Week of Lent
The mystery of evil (Luke 11:14-23)
Here in our Gospel text (Luke 11:14-23, below) we have a scene in which the all-holy Christ, having cast out a demon, was accused of doing this through being in league with the prince of demons. This was said of the sinless One, whose spirit was the Holy Spirit, and whose goodness was manifest to all. “Can any of you convict me of sin?”, he once challenged his enemies.
Here we have an instance of the mystery of evil and of its utter grossness. How can a created person coming from the hand of the all-good, all-holy, all-beautiful God choose to hate his Lord? And Jesus is this God. Let us then be warned as we consider this evil reaction to Jesus by some in the crowd. Our hearts can be profoundly perverted and infested by sin. In one of her visions St Teresa of Avila was shown her place in hell - where it was not at all impossible that she could finally be.
Let us then take up the work of unmasking, fighting,
and
overcoming the sin and the evil that lies deep within our own fallen
heart.
We must renounce this sin and Satan with it, fight against any
attachments
to sin, and gather with Jesus. If we do not, we shall be scattered.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whenever I go into the oratory, having become a
little
child once more, I say to our Lord that I love him more than anyone.
(The Forge, no.302)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday of the Third Week of Lent
What we have to live for (Mark 12:28-34)
Occasionally we hear of people who have very little to live for, or so they believe. Perhaps it is because the great things they had possessed and been living for - their family, their work, their business, or whatever - had been taken away from them. Or perhaps they had never discovered anything they could live for.
But God has revealed that no matter what our circumstances there is something absolutely fundamental that every single person is to live for - the love of God. We have a great object in life, and it is to work at the total love of God, and in God the love for others. We are to work at the perfection of love. Every occasion, every circumstance, is to be turned to account, turned into an occasion when we love God with all our heart, and others in Him.
This perfection of love is a very great work that
requires
the application of all our powers. It is the work of a lifetime. It is
God’s command to us, it is our happiness, and it is our calling.
(E.J.Tyler)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How wonderfully effective the Holy Eucharist is in
the
actions, and even before that in the souls, of those who receive it
frequently
and piously.
(The Forge, no.303)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
The God of the Old Testament, a God of love (Hosea 6:1-6)
At times it has been said that God as portrayed in the Old Testament is a God of judgment and punishment, whereas by contrast God as portrayed in the New Testament is a God of love and mercy. It is true that the love and mercy of God is given its full revelation in the New Testament (as is the judgment and punishment of God), but it is not true that God does not reveal his love and mercy in the Old. There is a gradual revelation of the nature of God in the Old and the New.
Among the clearest Old Testament revelations of God’s love and mercy (together with his judgments) is in the prophetical tradition, and in particular in the book of the prophet Hosea. In our passage here (Hosea 6:1-6) God appeals to his people for their love, while reminding them of his judgments. God wants the heart of his people, not just their animal sacrifices. God can be depended on for his mercy, even though he has punished his people for their sins. The pattern of God’s punishment and mercy is described - “He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us; he has struck us down, but he will bandage our wounds; after a day or two he will bring us back to life, on the third day he will raise us and we shall live in his presence.” Two days of punishment and then a third when the people will be raised to life. This would be exemplified in the Messiah.
Jesus would be struck down under the weight of the
people’s
sins, and after two days he would be raised by the God of love and
mercy.
Our Lord’s passion, death and resurrection would reveal the Father’s
love.
(E.J.Tyler)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If all those people became so enthusiastic and were
ready
to acclaim you over a piece of bread, even granting that the
multiplication
of loaves was a very great miracle, shouldn’t we be doing much more for
all the many gifts you have granted us, and especially for giving us
your
very self unreservedly in the Eucharist?
(The Forge, no.304)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fourth Sunday of Lent A
Christ our light (John 9:1-41)
Years ago I remember how when I was doing missionary work in Peru I was coming home on horseback from one of the villages I had been visiting. It fell dark and I had to make the rest of my way back in pitch black, on foot, pulling my horse behind me. The ground was rocky and full of bushes impeding my way. There was no moon, no lights anywhere. Finally in the distance I saw the light of a farm. It was a tremendous blessing to see that light, so small, so far, but something to head for, because I simply could not see my way. I had no light in the darkness.
As fallen human beings generally we do not know that of ourselves we are spiritually in the dark. By that I mean that in the fundamental matters, matters that affect our eternal welfare, we do not realize that of ourselves we are to a large extent blind. It is an extraordinary situation we are in, because it is so unlike our physical sight. We see things with our eyes, and know when we are in the dark and are unable to see at all. But in the important matters of eternal life and death, we can very easily be in the dark while thinking we are in the light - which is to say, we can very easily be in total error or ignorance, while thinking we are completely right and in the know.
Our Lord in today’s Gospel passage (John 9:1-41) tells us quite plainly that there is only one light for the whole world, one light in those things that concern the way to reach God and attain heaven. Without that light the whole world would be in utter darkness. He and only he is that light. “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Probably most of us here do not quite realize this. But just think of the numerous religions of man and of how far distant from what Christ has revealed are their teachings. What truth is in them that might relate to our eternal destiny, comes from the Spirit of Christ graciously assisting them. Those elements of truth, if they are there, are mere seeds of the word of God scattered there by Christ in his mercy. Only seeds by comparison with the full and lush forest of divine truth present in what Christ has entrusted to the Church.
We here, of course, have been profoundly blessed with this light of Christ. Due to his goodness we have been baptised into his family the Church and have received the gift of the Holy Spirit and the light of his grace and his teaching. If we have been faithful, Christ has been present in our lives since our baptism. Sin has been present in our lives to a greater or lesser extent since that great moment of our baptism, nevertheless mostly we have lived in him who is the only light of the world. Now, it is very easy for us to take this for granted. We ought not take it for granted. Rather, we ought try to appreciate the immense treasure that we have, this light that is able to flood our minds, our hearts and our souls, the light of Christ. Let us but think of the great numbers who have not this light. Thinking of them, we ought thank God for the gift of our faith putting us in union with Christ the light of the world. But we must resolve to make this light shine and at work within us.
The great task ahead of each of us is to take concrete steps to allow the light of Christ’s revelation to fill our minds and hearts, and to make the decision to be faithful to it. For this we have the wonderful help of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Blessed Trinity who has been given to us to guide us, to enlighten us with Christ’s teaching, and to inspire us to follow it with all the generosity we can summon. As we look back on our life, we have to recognise that we have allowed ourselves to live too much in the dark. So now we must begin again. We have a wonderful, divine Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, and if we are in the state of grace, he dwells within us as in a temple. We must learn to listen to his guidance. He enlightens our intellect and our conscience as to the meaning and the bearing of Christ’s teaching, and he wishes to inspire us to follow it generously. We must learn to be taught and led by the Holy Spirit, the gift of Christ. Our life must be one that is led by the Spirit of Christ.
The Holy Spirit is your divine friend and he
dwells
within you as within his home. He abides there in order to make a saint
of you, if you will but be guided by him. He makes you holy by means of
the word of God and the sacraments. So you must hear the word of Christ
as proclaimed in the Scriptures and in the Church’s preaching and
teaching,
and devoutly receive the sacraments, especially the sacraments of
Penance
and the Eucharist. Resolve to be faithful. Be ready to be led. The Holy
Spirit is the living spring within us, and within the Church.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good child: see how lovers on earth kiss the
flowers,
the letters, the mementos of those they love .. Then you, how could you
ever forget that you have him always at your side - yes, Him? How could
you forget ... that you can eat him?
(The Forge, no.304)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Faith in Jesus (John 4:43-54)
It is clear from our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel (John 4:43-54) that everything depends on faith in him: “So you will not believe unless you see signs and wonders”, he said to the synagogue official. Our Lord worked numerous and striking miracles in order to elicit faith, but it is clear that he did not want faith in him to depend on miracles. So what is it to depend on?
Of course, faith in Jesus and in who he is is a gift from God. We see this in our Lord’s declaration to Peter after Simon had said that he, Jesus, was the Messiah the Son of God. Flesh and blood had not revealed it to Peter, but the Father in heaven. So faith is a gift from God. But also it depends on our getting to know Jesus personally. For example, we remember how the two disciples of John the Baptist followed Jesus and stayed with him for the rest of that day. The next day one of them, Andrew by name, went to find his brother Simon and told him that they had found the Messiah. They had come to know and accept this - they had arrived at faith - by being with Jesus and coming to know him.
So then, we must spend time with Jesus if we hope to
arrive
at a deep faith in him. We must spend time with him in prayer, getting
to know him personally, and exercising our faith in that context.
Blessed
are they, the risen Jesus told Thomas, who have not seen and yet
believe.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Put your head frequently round the oratory door to
say
to Jesus: I abandon myself into your arms. Leave everything you have -
your wretchedness - at his feet. In this way, in spite of the welter of
things you carry along behind you, you will never lose your peace.
(The Forge, no.306)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
No one has ever spoken as has Christ (John 7:40-53)
St Paul in one of his Letters says that in Christ we have received every heavenly blessing. He is our greatest possession, God’s greatest gift. St Paul writes elsewhere that God’s plan for us is “Christ in you, your hope of glory.” In him lies all our hope.
Now, a startling feature of this whole wondrous fact of Christ - when we think of it - is that Christ was not accepted by all, indeed many did not accept him. There have been plenty of figures in history who were widely accepted for their claims, but not Christ. Some accepted him as a prophet - though of course he was far more than a mere prophet - and others did not.”So the people could not agree about him” (John 7:40-53). It certainly appears that the majority of the Pharisees did not accept him. And thus it has been down through the ages since then. The person of Christ was, has been, and remains controverted.
Whatever of this, the words uttered by the police
sent
to arrest him were full of meaning for all history. They could not but
be profoundly moved by the words of our Lord: “There has never been
anyone
who has spoken like him.” How truly they spoke. Neither Aristotle,
Plato,
Buddha, Mahomet, no one in history has spoken like Jesus. He speaks now
in and through the voice of the Church to each one of us. We remember
the
words of the Father speaking from the bright cloud which covered the
three
apostles who would be the “pillars” of the infant Church: “Listen to
him.”
“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Let us listen to him
constantly,
and obey.
(E.J.Tyler)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The majority of people who have personal problems
"have
them" because they selfishly think about themselves.
(The Forge, no.310)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fifth Sunday of Lent A
The raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-45)
St John in his Gospel refers to our Lord’s miracles as signs. In the first of our Lord’s miracles that he tells us about was the changing of water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana, St John says that this was the first of his signs by which his disciples saw his glory. Other signs followed. Apart from his wonderful teaching that was so new and full of authority, our Lord cured the lepers, the lame, the blind. He expelled demons from the oppressed, he fed huge crowds with practically nothing. They were signs of his power and his mercy that he had come to bring to bear on sin, the most terrible affliction of man. He came to take away the sin of the world, and to endow man with a share in his own divine life. The event that we have just heard narrated in the Gospel, the raising of our Lord’s friend Lazarus from the dead, was yet another of our Lord’s signs showing what he could do for us in respect to our great enemy, which is personal sin. He would raise us up from our sins and give us a new and eternal life.
What then does the raising of Lazarus from the dead act as a sign of? What does it reveal and manifest about our Lord in particular, and about his plan? First of all, of course, it shows forth his unlimited power. Pick any great figure in history, any figure of great influence, and ask, did that person ever raise anyone from the dead? Take any great military figure, Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar - they killed, massacred and destroyed great numbers of people and extended their own power - but whoever would imagine that they could ever raise anyone from the dead? Take any great religious figure of history, Buddha or Mahomet or Confucius. As if anyone could maintain that they could raise anyone from the dead! Take any great intellectual figure, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, or any other such figure of human history - as if anyone could think that they possessed the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the raising of Lazarus was not the first occasion that our Lord had raised someone from the dead. We remember how our Lord with his disciples was approaching the town of Nain and out of the town came a funeral procession. A young man was being taken for burial, the only son of his widowed mother. Full of compassion for the mother, our Lord stopped the procession and at a word, a simple word, raised the young man to life. He sat up there and then and our Lord gave him to his mother. The Gospels tell us that on another occasion our Lord raised to life a little girl and gave her back to her parents.
Yes, the raising of Lazarus from the dead shows the glory of our Lord in the sense that it displays his almighty power. It is a mighty manifestation of the all-powerful mercy and compassion of God, directed at those who turn to him in their need. But it also points to the greatest manifestation of the power and glory of Jesus, his own resurrection from the dead. He said, I freely lay down my life and I freely take it up again. He submitted to death himself for our sins, but death had no power over him - he had full power over death. He was completely victorious over death. This victory over death shown in his own rising from the dead manifested in turn his victory over sin, not his own sin of course, but the condition of man brought about by sin.
But the raising of Lazarus was a sign of something further. The coming forth of Lazarus from the tomb at the word of Jesus shows the raising from spiritual death that occurs with each of us at our baptism. At our baptism we die with Christ as it were - which is to say, the unbreakable power of sin which leaves us spiritually dead and maintains us in this spiritual death is itself put to death. Sin in the sense of that sin which we cannot overcome of ourselves, is put to death with the death of Christ, and that dying is applied to each of us at our baptism. Just as Lazarus came forth from the tomb at the action and word of Christ, so too we come forth from the spiritual tomb of original sin to live with a share in the risen life of Christ who rose to give us this. The raising of Lazarus is a pointer to Christ’s resurrection, which is the great pointer and cause of our own spiritual resurrection to a new life, the life of God and of holiness. It is this life we are called to live day by day, growing in it daily and thus advancing on our way to spiritual perfection, which is full union of friendship with Jesus.
Let us entrust ourselves to Jesus, asking him
to
help us live daily the new life of holiness.
(E.J.Tyler)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everything seems so peaceful. God’s enemy, however,
is
not asleep .... The Heart of Jesus is also awake and watching!
Herein
lies my hope.
(The Forge, no.311)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
The sense of sin leads to mercy (John 8:1-11)
There are some very important lessons for us springing from the way our Lord reacts to the accusations of the scribes and Pharisees. They brought before him a sinner they said Moses would have stoned. Our Lord’s response was to remind them of their own sins, and quietly, one by one, they left the scene.
The most obvious implication of this is that if we do not have a lively sense of our own sinfulness we will probably be somewhat like the scribes and Pharisees in this Gospel scene, and in other such scenes, who so readily condemned others. They wished to see the sinner punished. Our Lord, the sinless one, was merciful, while telling the sinner to sin no more. He was not saying that sin did not deserve punishment, nor that unrepented and unforgiven sin would not finally be punished, but he was being merciful nevertheless.
Now, if our Lord the sinless one is merciful, we who
are
sinners ought be merciful, and not like the scribes and Pharisees in
this
scene. Let us then take to heart the words of our Lord and go our way,
striving to sin no more. Let us avoid the merciless spirit of the
Pharisees
with regard to others, and in its place put on the mind of Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sanctity consists in struggling, in knowing that we
have
defects and in heroically trying to overcome them. Sanctity, I insist,
consists in overcoming those defects - although we will still have
defects
when we die; for if not, as I have told you, we would become proud.
(The Forge, no.312)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Belief in Jesus (John 8:21-30)
Our Lord makes a very stark statement: “I have told
you
already; you will die I n your sins. Yes, if you do not believe that I
am He, you will die in your sins.” (John 8:21-30). It could well be
that
there are hidden and unsuspected ways allowed by God whereby a person
who
tries too please God without knowing our Lord and so having faith in
him
is in effect believing in him.
Nevertheless, our Lord’s words are stark and very precise. They show how fundamental to our eternal welfare is faith in Christ. The fact is, though, that there are great numbers who neglect their faith in Jesus. They do not care for it, and there are others who reject it. I am thinking not only of some non-Christians and many non-Catholics, but many Catholics as well. The majority of Catholics do not practise their faith, not to speak of the even greater majority of non-Catholic Christians who do not practise their faith in Christ. It is possible for anyone to die in his sins. In one of her visions, St Teresa of Avila was shown her place in hell, were she to fail to live the Christian life. Now, what are we to say - in view of our Lord’s words - of those who knowingly withhold faith in him?
Let us be alive to the possibility of dying in our
sins,
and place all our faith firmly in Jesus, resolving to live in
accordance
with it.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you, Lord, because - as well as allowing us to
be
tempted - you also give us the strength and beauty of your grace so
that
we can win through. Thank you, Lord, for the temptations you allow us
to
have so that we may be humble.
(The Forge, no.313)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
True freedom (John 8:31-42)
There is much talk in the world of freedom. The war in Iraq is explained as a war to stop despotism and to spread freedom. It is said that if freedom is spread among the peoples, we shall have gone a long way towards defeating terrorism. Freedom is understood in this context as simply freedom of choice.
But of course freedom of choice need not make a person free because a person could freely choose what is harmful. A person who freely chooses to take dangerous drugs or to engage in immoral behaviour will not end up being free as a result of this. That person will become the slave of drugs or of their decadent impulses. This slavery will often end in a painful death. This all of us know simply by looking around us. Freedom will only come if we freely choose what is right, true, good and best.
Our Lord, the redeemer of man, has made the matter
even
more explicit.”If you make my word your home you will indeed be my
disciples,
you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free.” (John
8:31-32).
The truth comes from Jesus our Lord, in his word as it comes to us in
the
voice of the Church. We must make this word of truth our home and thus
become his disciples. This word will make us free. Let us bring this
kind
of freedom, not simply freedom of choice, to the world. The greatest
kind
of freedom comes from freely choosing to make Christ’s word our home -
being his disciples.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do not abandon me, Lord. Don’t you see the
bottomless
pit this poor son of yours would end up in? My Mother: I am your son
too.
(The Forge, no.314)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent
March 17: St Patrick, bishop
(385-361)
Born in Britain or Scotland, it is thought that Pope Celestine sent him
to preach the Faith in Ireland. In thirty three years, he succeeding in
converting the country after heartbreaking difficulties.
The surprises of God (Genesis 17:3-9; John 8:51-59)
The Church places before us in the Old Testament reading of today a fundamental text of the Old Testament, in which God establishes his Covenant with Abraham. He promises to give to him and to his descendants the promised land of Canaan, and also his own presence among them as God. In the event God’s people was unfaithful, and a new covenant was promised, one far more wonderful than this one, the first.
In our Lord’s words in John 8:51, we have the elements of this new convenant which far surpasses the promises of the old. “Whoever keeps my word,” our Lord promises, “will never see death.” And he was speaking as Yahweh - “before Abraham ever was, I am.” God surprises mankind with the generosity of his plans.
Little did Abraham know of these wonderful plans of
God
- he knew something and he placed his faith in God. All this surely
teaches
us that whatever we might imagine of the joys god has in mind for us if
we are faithful to him, what in fact will be granted to us will
immeasurably
surpass those imaginings. So let us give all we have to gain the prize.
(E.J.Tyler)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Without God’s help it is impossible to live a clean
life.
God wants us to be humble, and to ask him for his help through our
Mother
who is his Mother. You should say to Our Lady, right now, speaking
without
the sound of words, from the accompanied solitude of your heart: “O, my
Mother, sometimes this poor heart of mine rebels; but if your help
me...”
She will indeed help you to keep it clean and to follow the way God has
called you to pursue. The Virgin Mary will always make it easier for
you
to fulfil the Will of God.
(The Forge, no.315)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
The Son and the Father (John 10:31-42)
One of the characteristics of St John’s Gospel is that we are given many of our Lord’s statements describing his unique relationship with his heavenly Father. One on occasion when our Lord was being attacked for not observing the normal prohibitions laid down for the Sabbath, our Lord said that inasmuch as his Father was working, so he worked too. He was implying that he has as much right as God to do what he was doing because he was God. The Gospel says that they understood our Lord to be claiming to be God’s equal, and wanted to stone him.
Here in our passage today, our Lord in very simple terms describes his closeness to his Father. He said that he is in the Father and the Father is in him. Two human lovers can get very close in friendship to one another, but our Lord says he is in the Father, in the Father, and that the Father is in him - not close to him, but in him. But there is more elsewhere in the letters of St Paul. St Paul says that the mystery of God’s plan now revealed is Christ in you, your hope of glory. Christ in you. If the Father is in Christ, and Christ is in us, we have much to hope for.
Let us live day by day with a prayerful awareness of
Christ
in the Father, and Christ in us. Our Lord said elsewhere that if we
keep
his word, the Father will love us and they, the Father and the Son,
will
come and make their home with us - and they do this by the power of the
Holy Spirit. Thus does the Holy Trinity dwell within the one in the
state
of grace.
(E.J.Tyler)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To preserve holy purity and live a clean life you
have
to love and practise daily mortification.
(The Forge, no.316)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 19 Feast of St Joseph the Husband of MaryToday we think of a beautiful saint, Joseph the foster-father of our Lord, Joseph the husband of Mary the mother of Jesus and our mother. Some saints and other holy persons have left many volumes of writings and letters which tell us about their activities and their inner life. Cardinal Newman, one of the greatest writers of English prose, and probably the greatest religious mind in the history of England, left over forty volumes of his written books and over thirty volumes of his correspondence, with more volumes coming. A great deal, then, is known about him.
St Joseph left us nothing in writing of course, and we are told very little about him in the Gospels. What we do know from the Gospels relates to our Lord’s infancy and boyhood. The implication of this is that St Joseph led what could be called a very ordinary life, one which in its range of activities was like that lived by countless others in every age. He did not stand out in any unusual way. He was not a synagogue president. There is no mention of him being a town or village leader. He did no notable things that brought him to the attention of the wider country. When our Lord began his public ministry his fame spread far and wide in Galilee and in Judea. Not so with St Joseph. He was a humble carpenter, the head of a small family involving the care of a wife and child. Inasmuch as there is mention in the gospels of the brethren (or relatives) of our Lord, Joseph may have been part of a wider family circle of brothers and sisters, our Lord’s uncles and aunts and their children our Lord’s cousins. Whatever of that, it is plain from the Gospels that in terms of his activities Joseph lived an ordinary life very like that of the rest of his townsmen and of countless others in every time and place.
But in the sight of God that ordinary life was full of grandeur. We know this from traces given to us in the Gospels, and especially from the mind of the Church which develops in understanding from age to age under the impulse of the Holy Spirit. The Church’s insight into what is revealed is not restricted to the barest statement of a few Scripture texts. Under the guiding impulse of the Spirit of God, the Church progressively sees more and more of what has to have been the case, granted what God has revealed. Her mind on the person of St Joseph is manifest in her liturgy, in the writings of the saints and theologians especially (but not only) of the last thousand years, and notably in papal teaching of the past two centuries. Her mind is that Joseph the foster father of our Lord was a person of immense holiness, and a most worthy husband of his all-holy wife. Neither Mary nor Joseph, of course, compared in holiness with Mary’s divine Son. But Joseph was a saint of the highest order, and the modern popes have taught that after Mary his wife he is the very greatest of saints.
Many theological reasons can be offered to explain this conviction of the Church. God confers grace proportioned to the office for which that person is selected - as was the case with our Lady herself. To the degree that something approaches its source, so it participates in the effect of that source. Now, with the exception of our Lady, no one approached Christ the source of grace more closely than did St Joseph. Joseph’s intimacy with Jesus, apart from our Lady’s intimacy with him, was never equalled, and never will be. Can we possibly imagine the intimacy between Jesus and Joseph! So too no one has had the intimacy with our Lady - apart from our Lord himself - that Joseph had. Can we possibly imagine it! For all these reasons the firm mind of the Church is that the holiness of Joseph is second to none after Mary herself.
These are the bald facts. But what are we to make of them? Is there any key to understanding Joseph’s sanctity and how he reached it? After all, there was nothing very unusual about his life. But then, of course, there was nothing very unusual about the life of Mary either. During all those years in Nazareth, there is no record in the Gospels of the people there having any inkling that the three holiest people of all time, holier than the angels and saints, dwelt humbly and quietly among them. They certainly did not realize that Jesus was God himself.
What must have distinguished Joseph was not, as I have already said, notable and exceptional deeds done for God. There are many saints who have done extraordinary things for God. Consider the work of Thomas Aquinas, brilliant, extensive, altogether ground-breaking in both philosophy and theology. I mentioned Cardinal Newman earlier - the same thing could be said of him. They stood out for not only their holiness but the extraordinary achievements of their life. We can mention extraordinary missionaries, extraordinary mystics and agents of change. There were founders of great institutes and movements for holiness and apostolate. Their achievements were out of the ordinary. But St Joseph’s life was not like that. His deeds did not stand out beyond the ordinary. His life was made up of ordinary activities, as was the life of Mary his wife, the mother of Jesus. Yet after Mary, he was and is holier than the other saints.
So what was the secret of St Joseph’s holiness? Of course, he was called to and given a unique gift of intimacy with the Son of God, his foster-child. No other union with Jesus (apart from that of Mary his wife) could ever have been like it.
But apart from that gift given to him, what was it that he did for his part to be faithful to the gift and to grow in the holiness that consists in love for Jesus? It must have been the degree of love with which he did the ordinary things that filled up his life. His love for Jesus and Mary was utterly pure in its character, purely directed to God and his glory. He did his ordinary duties with an extraordinary degree of love for God our Father, for Jesus and for Mary. Inasmuch as he was preparing and protecting our Lord for the mission of saving mankind from sin (for the angel had told him that Jesus would save his people from their sins) he fulfilled his duties out of a great love for mankind too. Mary our mother was conceived free of original sin and not the slightest trace of sin touched her soul. St Joseph did not have the privilege of being conceived immaculate, but he was clearly led by the Holy Spirit in a wonderful way, but hidden within the round of his ordinary and unspectacular duties. That must have been the secret. He fulfilled all his ordinary responsibilities towards Jesus and Mary with an extraordinary love and devotion. One can only imagine the loving care with which he fulfilled them, the loving care that informed every detail of his duty. This is a powerful lesson for all other disciples and lovers of Jesus who are called to live very ordinary lives. It means that every life can be a life full of hidden and humble grandeur. No matter what be our calling, we can aspire to be very pleasing to God.
Joseph is then our model in the ways to attain sanctity. He made of his ordinary life something hidden but very great before God by cooperating with the gifts of grace he had been given in view of his vocation. If we cooperate with the gifts of grace we have been given in view of our vocation, we too will be led to holiness. This holiness will come above all from fulfilling our our duties in thought, word and deed to God, to others and to ourselves, with the purest love we can manage. It will come if we offer up the countless difficulties of every day as a gift of love to God. Thus we sanctify the day, thus we sanctify our work, ourselves, and we sanctify others.
Moreover, just as St Joseph was the guardian and protector of Jesus and Mary, the Church has declared St Joseph to be the guardian and protector of the Church and of all the Church’s members. St Teresa of Avila called him her father and lord, and St Josemaria Escriva in like manner called him this too. He is our protector above all by his prayers. St Joseph, pray for us. Blessed Mary MacKillop used to say, Go to Joseph. He intercedes for us as our heavenly father, as Mary is our heavenly mother. While we are Mary’s children, he is her husband. How our Lord must look up to Joseph still, as he must to Mary his mother as well, for he surely continues to be the model son he was. As Mary’s prayers to her Son on our behalf are irresistible, so would be the prayers of Joseph. He, then, is our intercessor and heavenly protector. Let us go to Joseph.
Today, following in the spirit of
St
Josemaria Escriva, let us look on Joseph as our father and model, just
as we look on Mary as our Mother and model. They were the first
Christians,
and they are the greatest Christians. Let us strive to be like them.
(E.J.Tyler)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whenever you feel the stirrings of your poor flesh,
which
sometimes attacks with violent assaults, kiss your crucifix, kiss it
many
times with firm resolve, even if it seems you are doing so without love.
(The Forge, no.317)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Palm SundayLet us resolve to be with Jesus as he enters the final and greatest week of his life, the week he was born for, the week during which he would fulfil his mission to save the world. He entered the Holy City as the Messiah and King, acclaimed as such by his disciples and many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Yet within a few days he would be publicly rejected and put to death. It shows the fickle nature of discipleship in the lives of so many.
What is the critical issue? It all hinges on whether we are ready to follow our Lord in his embrace and acceptance of the cross. Among his disciples there were two groups who followed him to Calvary. The first consisted of Mary and a few women and John, the small group who were at the foot of his cross as he died. The rest were not there. They had fled or followed from afar. This can be taken as a picture of the constant situation. There are always two groups of his followers, those who accept the cross and follow Jesus closely, and those who do not and who rather follow him from afar. The choice for Jesus hinges around the cross. If we were to be asked, hands up those who want to be our Lord’s close friend, I am sure all here present would raise their hands. If we were to be asked, hands up those who want to follow our Lord closely, I am sure all here present would raise their hands, or at least would like to be able to raise their hands. And this is good. It is certainly a good start. If we were not to want to do this, it would not be a good sign. But what we have to do is ask, what does it involve being our Lord’s close friend, and following him closely? It means accompanying him along the road to Calvary, and with Mary, sharing her sentiments.
We must steep ourselves in the Passion of our Lord and learn to know our Lord and his teaching from that perspective. We must fall in love with our Lord along that route. We must put time into meditating on our Lord on the Cross, in union with Mary. Do we ever do this? Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday, offers us the chance to begin to do it. I invite you to resolve to enter into our Lord’s Passion this week and try to know our Lord more intimately, and to learn from him what it means to follow him closely. It means accepting and embracing the cross for love of Jesus. It means accepting suffering that comes our way in the course of the life that God has marked out for us in his providence. It means accepting the suffering that comes our way in the course of doing God’s holy will as it manifests itself to us in our daily duties, in the way we ought think and speak, in the fulfilment of our responsibilities and our work in life. It means being very ready to choose small mortifications, especially those which the Church asks that we perform, such as the making of every Friday a day of penance.
The world regards suffering as to be avoided at all costs, but our Lord has transformed suffering, provided it is endured for love of God and in fulfilment of his will, from being the great negative of life to being the greatest source of spiritual fruitfulness. This is precisely what the Passion and Death of our Lord teaches us. But we must be prepared to learn from it, and to become a disciple of Jesus Crucified. And inasmuch as the Mass makes Calvary present it is precisely by participating in and receiving the Eucharist that we gain the graces to follow our Lord closely in his Passion and Death.
This week let us resolve to enter into the
Passion
of our Lord, and to continue that during our life. If we do continue
learning
from the Passion, this week will have been a week of great grace for us.
(E.J.Tyler)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Place yourself before the Lord each day and tell him
slowly
and in all earnestness, like the man in the Gospel who was in such
great
need, Lord that I may see; that I may see what you expect from me, and
struggle to be faithful to you.
(The Forge, no.318)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday of Holy Week A
Our life a gift to Jesus (John 12:1-11)
Consider the scene St John places before us of Jesus in the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary. John tells us elsewhere that they were close friends of Jesus - and this itself is revealing. None of these three were called to the ordained ministry as were the Twelve, who were to be his companions and to share in his ministry. Nevertheless they were Jesus’ close friends. This surely reminds us that all members of the Church, all of Christ’s faithful, are called to that holiness that consists in friendship with th Lord.
And here in our scene we have a beautiful expression of this friendship and veneration for Jesus. Not only do they entertain Jesus with the dinner, Lazarus being at table with Jesus, Martha serving, but Mary brings in a pound of very costly ointment, pure nard, and anoints the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair. It is a pure expression of their friendship and profound feeling for Jesus. In this ointment, they were pouring out their hearts and their lives.
Let us make our lives like that nard, an offering
poured
out as a gift for Jesus, a scent that will be pleasing to God. Let us
make
all our prayers, the prayer that ought pervade our lives, together with
our work and service of God and neighbour, like that costly ointment: a
gift to Jesus.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My God, how easy it is to persevere when we know
that
You are the Good Shepherd, and that we - you and I - are sheep
belonging
to your flock! For we know full well that the Good Shepherd gives his
whole
life for each one of his sheep.
(The Forge, no.319)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday of Holy Week A
Betrayal of Jesus (John 13:21-38)
It is a great mystery, a profound tragedy, the story of Judas. He was especially chosen by our Lord to be one of the Twelve, to be one of his special companions and to share in his personal salvific mission. Before selecting the Twelve our Lord spent the whole night in prayer to God, and then he made his selection. He must have loved Judas, and Judas must have showed much promise. Our Lord made no mistake, but Judas betrayed him, preferring other things to our Lord’s friendship. What sadness must have come over our Lord as he saw how badly Judas was turning out.
Our Lord has chosen each one of us to be his close friend, and to share in his mission in a particular way consonant with the vocation he has given us. We were chosen for this, St Paul tells us, before the foundation of the world. But it is possible for each of us to turn out badly. St Teresa of Avila was shown her place in hell if she was unfaithful. What sadness we will cause our Lord and the Holy Spirit if we make little effort to grow in an ardent friendship with our Lord.
So let us make a firm choice for Jesus and for his
path
- which will mean the cross. Let us renew that choice daily. Now I
begin!
(E.J.Tyler)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today in your prayer you confirmed your resolution
to
be a saint. I understand you when you make this more specific by
adding,
“I know I shall succeed, not because I am sure of myself, Jesus, but
because
I am sure of you.”
(The Forge, no.320)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday of Holy Week A
Sin is a personal offence (Matthew 26:14-25)
“They paid him thirty silver pieces and from that moment he looked for an opportunity to betray him.” So Judas deliberately looked out for the chance to betray Jesus. We have to regard this, then, as a deliberate, premeditated mortal sin. To commit a mortal sin, there has to be full awareness and full consent in respect to the commission of an objectively most serious sin. Our Lord said during the Last Supper that the Scriptures have to be fulfilled, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better had that man not been born.
Let us ask for the grace of a horror for all deliberate sin. And in respect to mortal sin, of course, we ought be prepared to die rather than be responsible for a mortal sin. In respect to any deliberate sin, for that matter, we must try absolutely to avoid it. More profoundly, we must learn to look on all sin as a personal offence against a living person, the person of Jesus who is God. Sin is a betrayal of friendship. Mortal sin is a serious betrayal of Jesus that likens a person’s action to that of Judas. It saddens the heart of Jesus, and saddens the Holy Spirit. It calls for a profound repentance.
Thinking of the sin of Judas let us renounce sin and
resolve
to be faithful to Jesus in everything.
(E.J.Tyler)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By yourself, if you don’t count on grace, you can do
nothing
worthwhile, for you would be cutting the link which connects you with
God.
With grace, on the other hand, you can do all things.
(The Forge, no.321)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Holy Thursday
The institution of the ordained Priesthood
We have arrived at a special moment in the Church’s year. As St John tells us in tonight’s Gospel, ‘It was before the festival of the Passover, and Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to pass from this world to the Father.’ The next day he would freely through the power of the Holy Spirit offer up his life to achieve its purpose.
That purpose St John the Baptist had referred to when he said at the very beginning of his public ministry, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’ The sin of the world was about to be taken away by means of his sacrifice of himself on the cross on behalf of all mankind. By means of this sacrifice, expressing as it did Christ’s perfect obedience, the Father would be honoured and glorified perfectly. The offence to God arising from the world’s disobedience would be made up for by Christ’s perfect obedience. All that would then remain would be to make this sacrifice and its abundant fruits present in the life of every individual down through the ages. Thus would the world be cleansed of its sin, and holiness fill up where sin prevailed.
Tonight we celebrate the means our Lord provided whereby this redemption from sin and sanctification would be brought to each person. The means was the Christian priesthood. At the Last Supper He instituted the ordained priesthood. By means of ordained priests, especially in their offering of the holy Eucharist which with the priesthood our Lord instituted this night, Christ and his redeeming sacrifice would be brought to each individual.
St John tells us that Jesus ‘got up from table, removed his outer garment and, taking a towel, wrapped it round his waist; he then poured water into a basin and began washing the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he was wearing.’ This beautiful and impressive action symbolized many things. True, it was a symbol of the humble service he expects of all his disciples. But it is also a symbol of what Jesus had come to do for the world. He had come to cleanse the world of its sin. He had come to wash the feet of every man and woman, and make mankind clean all over. Only he could cleanse mankind of its sins and make fallen man holy. In washing his disciples’ feet our Lord shows what he would be doing from then on for all his disciples in the life of the church till the end of the world. This he does especially in the ministry of his priests, in their preaching of his Word, in their celebration of the Mass, and in their ministry of the sacraments. Our Lord washes the feet of the apostles, and then tells them that they must do likewise. “If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should was each other’s feet.” Christ continues to wash the feet of the church’s members through the ministry of priests. Christ washes our feet every time we go to a priest for Confession, every time we participate in Mass and receive Holy Communion, every time a seriously ill person receives the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.
During the Mass of the Lord’s Supper,
traditionally
the priest washes the feet of twelve members of the faithful. This rite
is a symbol of the spiritual washing which Christ effects through the
ministry
of the priest. By the power of Christ who works in him the priest
cleanses
the souls of the faithful and provides the means of sanctification. And
this cleansing is essential for salvation. As our Lord tells St Peter,
“If I do not wash you, you can have nothing in common with me.” We must
be cleansed of sin and sanctified.
The priesthood and its spiritual powers is one of the
distinctive features of the Catholic Church. A Catholic who loves his
Faith
reveres and loves the priesthood.
By and large the ordained priesthood was rejected by the new Churches of the Reformation nearly five hundred years ago. The greatest loss undergone by the Protestant churches was the loss of the priesthood. Those protestant churches maintained that the share in the priesthood of Christ possessed by the ordained priest is not essentially different from that possessed by the rest of the faithful. And so they repudiated it. This protestant teaching was explicitly condemned by the Council of Trent, which taught that the ministerial priesthood, that is, the priesthood of the Catholic priest, is an essentially different kind of share in Christ’s priesthood than that possessed by the faithful, because through his ministry the person of Christ and his sanctifying grace is offered to God’s people. The priest by the power of Christ makes the sacrifice of Calvary present at Mass and cleanses sinners of their sins in the sacrament of penance, and in general through his preaching and the sacraments he makes Christ the Head and High Priest of mankind present in the life of the church. By his ordination the priest is made a mediator between God and man because he is made another Christ. He is empowered to assist all the faithful to become in their measure, but of course in an essentially different way, other Christs too. For this reason every properly formed Catholic reveres the priesthood and knows that through the priest the faithful gain access to God and his life.
Tonight is the night of the liturgical
year
when we think of Christ’s institution of the priesthood and of its
essential
role in the life and holiness of the Church. Let us ask God to give us
a deep love of the priesthood, and that he will grant to each priest
the
grace to serve the faithful faithfully and fruitfully. Let us all
resolve
to make abundant use of the ministry of priests and to instil into our
children a sense of the unique importance of the priesthood, so that
they
too will all their lives avail themselves of the ministry of priests.
More
still, let us pray that many young people will
aspire to become priests themselves.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So you want to learn from Christ and follow the
example
of his life? Open the Holy Gospels and listen to God in dialogue with
men
- with you.
(The Forge, no.322)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good Friday
Abandoning ourselves to God in suffering
I was once told of a person who had lived a fairly successful life, but with very little dedication to God in it. Suddenly he went down with a stroke, and for the last few weeks of his life he was perpetually struggling in a physical agony, in tremendous anguish at not being able to do anything about his condition. All his peace of mind had gone, for he could not understand why all this had engulfed him. His final days were for him an abyss of meaningless suffering. His death had all the appearances of being a tragic end to his life.
Many years ago there lived a famous psychiatrist, by the name of Victor Frankl. He was intrigued at how some people retain peace of mind and heart in their suffering, while others are virtually destroyed by it. He asked what did the one have that the other did not. He finally discovered the answer. It was that the one had a sense of the meaning of things. They sensed the point of it that gave purpose. They were not simply in a painful darkness as a result of their suffering, but were in the light - at least sufficiently so. It is obvious from literature and philosophy that one of the biggest problem for man is that he suffers, and that he at times suffers indescribably. From a natural point of view, suffering would appear to be the one thing to avoid, the one thing that constitutes a great blot over the whole of life and of creation. It seems to have no use, making life pointless.
Now of course, suffering and evil are indeed a great blot on everything. God did not mean it to be like this at the beginning. This we know from revelation: he has told us so. He has also told us that the biggest hand in this matter, the main cause for the terrible ongoing mess we are in, and the evil and the suffering that is so prevalent, was and is man. Man caused it, and how? By sinning, by disobeying God. The result is that we all of us now have to suffer, that there is evil, and as we look at human history we realise that so much of the life of man, so much of human history, is taken up with the work of avoiding suffering and evil. Usually though, he does not recognise its cause, which is sin.
But there is now a new revelation. This further revelation, like the rest of what God has revealed, comes in the example and the teaching and the person of Christ. Christ actually chose to suffer in the doing of his Father’s will. He chose to suffer with sufferings the like of which no human being could possibly imagine adequately. He suffered for all the sins of the whole world, all mankind. It is commonly recognised by religious people that sufferings are often punishment for sins. Well, Christ suffered in our stead. Christ loved me, St Paul said, and gave himself up for me. In no sense could his sufferings have been a punishment for his sins, for he was sinless. He was afflicted with suffering for our sake. And so it is that we see in the account of his passion and his sufferings that he was not engulfed by them as someone lost in a great sea. He suffered indescribably, but he was ever the victor, turning his sufferings into the greatest means of all for the achievement of his work. And this they can be for the Christian, the one who follows Jesus. Indeed, our Lord said that the mark of his disciple is to accept sufferings after the manner of the Master. “If anyone wishes to be a disciple of mine, he must take up his cross every day and follow me.”
So obedient suffering now becomes the greatest means of following Jesus. Just as it was the great means whereby Jesus our Lord conquered the power of sin and brought sanctity to the world, so to suffer in union with Christ will be for the Christian the greatest means of overcoming the power of sin and of growing in sanctity. It will, moreover, be the source of fruit in respect to others. We win blessings for others by suffering in union with Jesus. To suffer with Christ and in Christ is the path to goodness.
Let us learn from the Passion and the
death
of Jesus how to live and how to die, but also how to suffer, and how to
make our sufferings the means of our sanctification. We do it by
abandoning
ourselves in suffering to God’s will and offering up to him all the
sufferings
he allows for us.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesus knows very well what is best - and I love his
Will
and will do so always. He it is who controls “the puppets” and so he
will
always give whatever I ask of him, provided it is a means to achieving
our end - even if there are godless men who are determined to put
obstacles
in the way.
(The Forge, no.323)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Easter Vigil
The last things
During this holiest week of the year, we have been celebrating the passion, the death, and now tonight the resurrection of our Saviour. The death of the Lord was the greatest moment, the greatest step of his life. He came into the world to take the step of submitting to death, knowing that all mankind would benefit from it. As a result of his death the gates of heaven are open to us, provided we live and die with him. For if we die with him we shall rise with him. That is the message of tonight. It is clear from the Gospels that our Lord constantly carried in his heart the thought of his death. It was his great hour, his hour that was always coming. His work on earth would be accomplished especially then, at the hour of his death. Then at the moment of his death he cried out, “It is accomplished.” Because of his death, we can reach heaven.
Just as our Lord knew that his great hour was always ahead of him, so too we know that our great hour is ahead of each of us. That last hour on our calender, God our Father has drawn a circle around, just as he drew a circle around our Lord’s hour. Each of us can say that, just as the heart of Jesus beat its last beat, so the hour is coming when my heart will beat its last, and then beat no more.
When that hour comes, there is only one thing that will matter to me, and that one thing is this: will those gates that I will see ahead of me, be the gates of heaven, or will they be the gates of hell? Did I make it or did I miss out? No other thing is going to matter one bit, only this: did I make it? And, that that moment will come, is more certain than that the sun will come up tomorrow morning. Just as Jesus’ hour came to him, so it will come to me. That will be my greatest hour, my most important hour.
What I must do then is make sure that when that hour comes, I am with Jesus. If I go through that hour with Jesus, all will be well. As he rose, so will I. My resurrection will follow. If not, I shall be lost, and lost forever.
Since this is the case, if I have any common sense at all, I will begin, not tomorrow, but right now, to make sure that when that great hour comes, it will be the gates of heaven in front of me and not the gates of hell. This means that I shall begin now to be with Jesus, and keep with him every day and moment till that hour comes.
Now, in this job of getting to heaven, I have everything going for me. There is no reason whatsoever why I should not make it, provided I truly want it. This is so because, firstly, God for his part wants me in heaven. That is the only reason why he made me and why he keeps me in existence. That is why he sent his Son to die for me. He loves me and wants to share his home with me for all eternity. He wants me in heaven even more than I want to be there. That’s God’s will for me. That’s his plan. He has it all set up. That’s looking at it simply from God’s side. He wants me there. But then there is this. I may not realize it, but I for my part want to be in heaven. I want to be there with every fibre of my being. My whole being is hungering and thirsting for heaven, even though I may not realize this. St Augustine said this that, “You have made us for Yourself, O God, and we will be ever restless till we rest in You.” And so it is that I will be always restless till I am resting in God. I shall never be perfectly happy until I am resting with God in heaven. Heaven is what I long for.
And if, alas, I do not get there, well, it would have been better if I had never been born. Our Lord said of the one who betrayed him that it would have been better for that man if he had not been born. If I don’t get there, it will be the greatest possible calamity, the greatest disaster, the greatest catastrophe imaginable. Yes, if I don’t get there, I will never enjoy the face to face vision of Him who is unimaginably good and loving. I will never be with the angels, the saints, my family and friends, I will never be where God intended me to be. Our Lord at the Last Supper said, I go to prepare a place for you so that where I am you may be too. If I do not get there, I shall miss out forever on the place God has prepared for me. “What does it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?” I shall be lost forever.
But if I make it my business, and use the means, I can truly hope to make it to heaven, because God gave me the perfect blueprint for getting there. He gave me the exact directions, and every help I may need.
The means to get there is this: I must keep my face, day by day, and every part of each day, turned towards God. I must never turn my face away from God. That is to say, I must never turn around to go in the opposite direction. There is a word this: it is deadly or mortal sin. To commit a mortal sin is the most stupid thing I can do. There is nothing more disastrous. It is so bad that it would be better to cease to be than to commit a mortal sin. We should be prepared to die rather than commit a mortal sin. This means that when Satan tempts me to commit a mortal sin, I must, I will, always, with God’s grace, set myself against this temptation with all my strength. I should also set myself against the temptation to commit any sin, any deliberate venial sin.
So tonight I must take my stand with Jesus, and renounce sin and Satan’s temptations. I will say with all my might, “Me commit sin? Never, never! Me remain faithful to Jesus? Yes, and always.” And if I always maintain this determination to stand with Jesus and renounce sin and Satan, I can hope for heaven. My resolution must be to refuse to commit any deliberate sin, whether of thought, word or deed. If I fail, I will turn again to God in repentance, and with his grace, start resolutely again. I can hope to obtain life everlasting. If I do my part, God will do his part. If I make this my daily policy, I shall go to heaven. Moreover, there is this bonus. I shall then not fear death, because to die will be a gain. And when my death comes, I resolve to die with Jesus, and then rise with him.
The renewal of our baptismal promises is a very important part of the Easter Vigil. Let us renew our promise to love Jesus, to renounce sin, and to live by the grace of Christ available through prayer and the sacraments. Let us resolve to be with Jesus now, and every day, and at the hour of our death, and then forever in heaven. I must, then, make this decision, every day to keep my face turned towards God by resisting the temptation to commit a sin, whether mortal sin, or deliberate venial sin. Deliberate venial sin is not mortal sin, but it offends God and leads to mortal sin.
So tonight when we renew our baptism
let
us renew our Catholic faith and renounce sin with all our heart. Let us
resolve to pray daily, and I invite you to cultivate a profound
devotion
to our Lord where he most truly is, in the Blessed Sacrament. This will
be a source of blessings to you. Let us receive the sacraments of
Penance
and the Eucharist regularly and with profound piety. Let us strive to
be
good fulfilling our daily duties and vocation in a way that will please
God. Let us listen to the Church our mother and to follow her teachings
to the letter, knowing that the Church’s teachings are the teachings of
Jesus. Renew your baptismal promise to live with Jesus, for if we live
with him, we can hope to die with him, and if we die with him we shall
rise with him. We shall reign with him.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
True faith shows itself in humility. That poor woman
said
to herself: if I can but touch the hem of his garment, I shall be
healed.
What humility she showed. It was both a result and a sign of her faith.
(The Forge, no.324)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Easter Sunday
The risen Christ, the power of God
One attribute we immediately think of when thinking of God, is his power. Man has prayed to God, and reverences him because of his power. We believe in God the almighty one. Having heard the word of God speaking to us of Christ’s resurrection, I suggest to you that we think of the resurrection as displaying God’s power, a power now at work in our lives, at work enabling us to seek holiness. His power gives us our hope.
For the past two days the Church has been reliving the passion and death of our Lord. St John says something significant when telling how Judas left our Lord during the Last Supper. When Judas went out, he says, it was night. It was as if the Prince of Darkness was arriving, and had been given sway. And when our Lord on the cross was approaching his death, St John says that darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. In all of history there was no one with the holiness, the greatness and the moral strength and spiritual beauty of Christ. In him dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And there he was dead on the cross, brought to that state by the powers of darkness. And so gazing on the crucified Christ, dead and buried, we are shown the power of sin and its hostility to holiness. Scripture is full of teaching on the power of sin, but its greatest illustration is the spectacle of the all-holy Christ, dead on the cross.
Now this same powerful and evil force is at work in our lives, for we are born in sin, and of ourselves we are in its power. On the one hand, we are born with the God-given desire to be good, really good. It is like a law our nature lays down, that we be good and strive to be good. And yet there is another law within, a law fighting against our impulses for goodness, a law which we could never overcome of ourselves. It is the law directing us to sin. And we see the power of this law of sin manifested in what it did to Christ, Christ who is holiness personified.
We want to be good and holy. But we also want to sin, and we tend to want to sin far more. How can we be saved from this condition, which takes us down the path to death?
We can be saved, and we will be saved if we so choose, by cooperating with the power of God, that power at work in Christ offering himself up as a victim in the midst of his sufferings, and then rising from the dead. Indeed, far greater than the power of darkness is the power of God. Our Lord referred to himself as the far stronger man who despoils a strong man who is guarding his house. Even in the midst of his overwhelming sufferings, the power of Christ was at work, at work in accepting and offering up his agony in obedience to the will of his Father. It was by the power of the Holy Spirit that he offered himself up as a victim for the sins of the world. His passion and death were a triumph of obedience, reversing the disobedience of Satan and our first parents. So while the cross of Christ shows the power of sin, it manifests more still the holiness of Christ, which is the power of God.
But the greatest manifestation of the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit who ever guided him and impelled him was his resurrection from the dead. The darkness of death, manifesting the prince of darkness, was overcome by the great Light of the world rising triumphantly in a new life. In Christ was life, and that life was the light of men. Christ’s resurrection, which we celebrate today, was the power of God breaking the power of sin death, and showing its superior power.
Let us appreciate more and more the power of
God,
enabling us to seek and obtain personal holiness. Let us seek to be
thoroughly
good in mind, heart, word and deed, good with the goodness of the
all-holy
Jesus. It is the one ambition God asks all of us to have, to seek to be
holy. And holiness consists in union with Jesus. How can we do it,
considering
the obstacles presented by our sinful nature? By means of the power of
God at work in Jesus offering himself up on the cross and then rising
from
the dead. We call this power his grace, available to us in the life of
the Church, in her sacraments, and in our personal prayer. Let us
resolve
this Easter to love Jesus, to live for him, and to die for him in the
generous
daily practice of our faith.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If it is God who lays the burden upon you, God will
also
give you the strength to bear it.
(The Forge, no.325)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday of the Octave of Easter
Realizing the resurrection of Christ (Matthew 28: 8-15)
There is an old saying, that familiarity breeds contempt. If we are very familiar with someone, there is the danger that we will take that person for granted and fail to have and show due respect for that person. Our Lord alluded to this when he said that a prophet is honoured except among his own. A danger to our spiritual life is that we will take our Lord and the Faith - what he has revealed - for granted, including the fact that he rose from the dead.
Our Gospel passage today says that “filled with awe and great joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell the disciples” (Matt 28:8). We too ought be filled with awe and great joy, but this will not be the case if we do not truly realize the reality of Jesus and his resurrection. All too often Jesus and his resurrection is just a thought. If we wish to realize his risen reality we must put all our powers of mind, heart, imagination and prayer into appropriating the fact of his resurrection. We must make genuine meditation on the resurrection a feature of the entire Easter season. In fact, meditation on the great realities of our faith must be an essential part of our daily Christian life, otherwise we shall simply take things for granted, and fail to realize them.
If this realization fills our hearts and minds, we
too
will “run” to tell others about it. That is to say, we shall be true
apostles
of the risen Jesus.