Palm
Sunday of the Lord’s Passion C
(April 1) Today let us think of St. Hugh
(Saints)
Scripture readings:
(Entrance: Luke 19:28-40)
Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22:8-9, 17-20,
23-24;
Philippians
2:6-11; Luke 22:14—23:56
Jesus
proceeded on
his journey up to Jerusalem. As he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany
at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples.
He said, “Go into the village opposite you, and as you enter it you
will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and
bring it here. And if anyone should ask you, ‘Why are you untying it?’
you will answer, ‘The Master has need of it.’” So those who had been
sent went off and found everything just as he had told them. And as
they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you
untying this colt?” They answered, “The Master has need of it.” So they
brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks over the colt, and helped Jesus
to mount. As he rode along, the people were spreading their cloaks on
the road; and now as he was approaching the slope of the Mount of
Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to praise God aloud
with joy for all the mighty deeds they had seen. They proclaimed:
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest.” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to
him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He said in reply, “I tell you,
if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!” (Luke 19:28-40)
Holy
Week
begins today, Palm Sunday, and it offers a wonderful opportunity to
draw near to Jesus as we remember the greatest week in both his own
life, and indeed in the history of the world. We ought be with Jesus in
a special way during this week, contemplating him and coming to know
him more deeply. If we know him more deeply with a knowledge especially
of the heart, we shall love him more 
tenderly. We ought aim
to grow in a compassion for our Lord during his passion, a compassion
which will inspire us to want to be with him and to follow him
precisely in his sufferings. We shall only gain this compassion for
Christ suffering and crucified if we make the effort to be with him in
our mind, heart, imagination and soul, using the Scripture texts of
each day and especially the Gospel texts. So then, our Lord enters
Jerusalem for the final week of his life and he enters with a vivid
sense of Scripture being finally fulfilled and God’s eternal plan
coming to fruition. He approaches the city amid the acclaim of his
disciples and the crowds. He enters the holy city humbly, mounted on a
colt but as the promised King nevertheless. He is the Messiah-King
entering to take possession of his kingdom. Little did the excited
people know how this would be done. In a worldly sense success often
depends on winning the allegiance of those who matter so that they in
turn will bring the people with them. But Christ did not carry the
leaders of the nation with him - in fact they rejected him, hated him,
campaigned against him, and finally put him to death. But this,
paradoxically, was the path to ultimate success in his mission which
was to redeem the world. It would be done through rejection and
the utmost suffering and apparent failure.
Our
Lord
knew all this. He knew that God’s way was not the way of man. He was
fully aware of the path that would lead to the redemption of the world,
which was the path of suffering and death. He was fully aware, too, of
the grandeur of his very own person. We have a glimpse of this
awareness in his response to the Pharisees in the crowd who protested
at the acclaim he was receiving. The crowds proclaimed “Blessed is the
king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in
the highest.” At this the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher,
rebuke your disciples.” During this moment of solemn drama at the
beginning of the greatest and holiest of all weeks not only in his own
life but in the history of mankind, our Lord bore in his mind and heart
who he was and what he was doing. And so he said in reply, “I tell you,
if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!” (Luke
19:28-40).
There was no person in the world to compare with him because he was a
divine person with a human nature, and by means of his human nature
this divine person, the Son of God made man, would suffer to a degree
no other man had suffered and would ever suffer. He did this for each
of us. Christ loved me, St Paul writes, and gave himself up for me. We
who know this are able in memory and in spirit to accompany our Lord
during his approach and entry into Jerusalem, but with a much greater
insight and appreciation than that possessed by his disciples and the
crowd at the time. In our prayer we can relive the scene, joyfully
acclaiming Christ as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the one
who has established the kingdom of God here on earth. In his goodness
God has placed us with Christ in this kingdom. In our hearts let us
take our stand with him now, acknowledging with joy that Jesus is our
King, and indeed the true King of the world.
While this
is the week par excellence when we place ourselves at the side of
Jesus, and accompany him fully aware of who he is and of what he is
doing, and while one of the fruits of this week ought be an increase of
compassion for Jesus who suffered so much for each one of us, it must
not end there. As a result of this week we ought to have gained the
grace to live all this out in our everyday life. Every day must
be lived in the company of Jesus. We ought view every day as he viewed
each day. Every day must be looked on as the opportunity to contribute
towards the advance of God’s kingdom which Jesus our Lord established
by his death and resurrection. Every day must be viewed as the chance
to choose what Jesus chose, which is obedience to the Father while
carrying the Cross and while on the Cross. This is the key to untold
good. It is one of the most distinctive things which our Lord by his
life and death revealed to mankind. The true path to victory, the true
path to happiness and life in abundance lies in the acceptance and
choice of the Cross. If there is one grace we ought pray for during
Holy Week it is the grace to see the blessings of Christ’s Cross, and
to pray, as did the saints, for the wisdom to accept and indeed welcome
the Cross with Christ when it comes. It comes to unite us to Christ and
to sanctify us and the world. The Cross of Christ is our path to glory
with him.
(E.J.Tyler)
If you wish
to
view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here
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“Blessed be the King who comes in
the name of the Lord” (Luke 19,38)
St Romanos The Melodist
(?-around 560), hymn writer (Hymn 32)
Seated on your throne in heaven and
on a
colt on earth, O Christ, you who are God, you welcomed the praise of
the angels and the anthem of the children who called out to you :
"Blessed are you, the one who comes to recall Adam”...
The King comes to us, humble,
sitting on the foal of a donkey ; he comes with haste to suffer his
Passion and to take sins away. Seated on a dumb animal, the Word, the
Wisdom of God, wants to save all beings endowed with reason. And
mankind can contemplate, mounted on a colt, the one who rides on the
cherubim (Ps 17:10) and who once bore up Elijah on a chariot of fire.
“Though he was rich,” of his own will, “he became poor” (2Co 8:9) ; in
choosing weakness he gives strength to all who cry to him :” Blessed
are you, the one who comes to call Adam”…
You demonstrate your strength by
choosing poverty... The clothes of the disciples were a sign of this
poverty, but your power was measured by the anthem of the children and
the great crowd which cried : “Hosanna—which means : Save—hosanna to
you who are in the highest. O Almighty, save those who are humbled.
Have mercy on us, in consideration of our palms ; may the palms we wave
move your heart, you who come to call
Adam”…
“You who are the work of my hands,
answered the Creator..., I came to you myself. It was not the Law that
should save you, since it had not created you, neither the prophets,
whom like you I created. I alone can free you from your debt. I am sold
for you, and free you ; I am crucified for you, and you are rescued
from death. I die, and teach you to cry : " Blessed are you, the one
who comes to call Adam".
Did I love the angels as much? No,
it is
you, the poor, whom I have cherished. I have hidden my glory and freely
made my richness poor, out of my great love for you. For you I suffered
hunger, thirst, fatigue. I roamed the mountains, ravines and valleys
looking for you, my lost sheep. I took the name of Lamb to bring you
back, calling you by my shepherd’s voice. And I want to give my life
for you, to tear you away from claws of the wolf. I bear everything so
that you can cry : “Blessed are you, the one who comes to call Adam”.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Let those
very obstacles give you strength.
God's grace will not fail you: 'Inter medium montium pertransibunt
aquae! You shall pass through the mountains!'
Does it matter that you have to curtail your activity for the
moment if
afterwards, like a spring which has been compressed, you will reach
incomparably farther than you ever dreamed?
(The Way,
no.12)
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When is an act morally good?
An act is
morally good when it assumes simultaneously the goodness of the object,
of the end, and of the circumstances. A chosen object can by itself
vitiate an act in its entirety, even if the intention is good. It is
not licit to do evil so that good may result from it. An evil end
corrupts the action, even if the object is good in itself. On the other
hand, a good end does not make an act good if the object of that act is
evil, since the end does not justify the means. Circumstances can
increase or diminish the responsibility of the one who is acting but
they cannot change the moral quality of the acts themselves. They never
make good an act which is in itself evil. (CCC 1755-1756, 1759-1760)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.368)
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Monday
of Holy Week II
(April 2) St. Francis of
Paola, hermit (1416-1507). Born at Paola in Calabria (Italy), he
aspired to be more united with the crucified Christ and became a hermit
in a cave by the sea near his birthplace. He lived a life of prayer and
mortification, and founded a congregation of hermits which was later
changed to the Order of Mimims (the least brethren) which
received the approval of the Holy See in 1506. He died at Tours in
France. (Saints)
Scripture today: Isaiah
42:1-7; Psalm 27:1, 2, 3,
13-14; John 12:1-11
Six days before
Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had
raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha
served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.
Mary took a litre of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic
nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the
house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Then Judas the
Iscariot, one of his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said,
“Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages and given to
the poor?” He said this not because he cared about the poor but because
he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the
contributions. So Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Let her keep this for
the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not
always have me.” The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was
there and came, not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom
he had raised from the dead. And the chief priests plotted to kill
Lazarus too, because many of the Jews were turning away and believing
in Jesus because of him. (John 12:1-11)
There are many who
have a lot of admiration for Christianity because of its outstanding
contribution to the welfare of man. In certain Asian, African and
Middle Eastern countries the presence of Christianity in education,
health care and various other areas of human development is
well out of proportion to the numbers of Christians who live there.
Indeed, there is news that communist Vietnam is keen to have operating
within its borders some religious of Mother Teresa’s Order for the
welfare they will bring. All this stands to reason because the service
of man in need is a distinguishing feature of the religion of Jesus
Christ. Our Lord told his disciples that it was by this that all men
would know that they were his disciples that they loved one another as
he loved them. In describing the Last Judgment our Lord said that he as
Judge would say to all that whatever they did to the least he would
count as having been done to him. In stating this our Lord was bringing
to fulfilment a central feature of divine revelation from the
beginning. The prophets of the Old Testament constantly inveighed
against a religion that stressed sacrifices of bulls and goats to the
neglect of the poor and oppressed. St James in his Letter in the New
Testament states that religion pure and simple involves coming to the
aid of widows and keeping oneself undefiled from the world. So being
the Good Samaritan is part of the essence of living as a Christian. The
danger, however, is that Christianity can be reduced to this with love
for
God himself being marginalized to the background. And so we often hear
reference to the “Christian spirit”, and the context shows that the
term signifies little more than philanthropy. In this way of viewing
the matter, a person is a
“Christian” if he is good to others.
But of course, a
Christian is one who loves and follows the person of Christ. Christ is
foremost. Our Gospel passage today has much to teach us as to this
priority in the Christian faith. We read that “they gave a dinner for
him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining
at table with him. Mary took a litre of costly perfumed oil made from
genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them
with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.”
This oil was a very valuable substance - the equivalent of far the
greater part of a
year’s wages. In other words it was worth many thousands of dollars in
today’s value, and Mary poured it out over the feet of Jesus as a sign
of love and veneration for his person. It was an act of pure worship
and love for him, having no ulterior purpose. Judas showed his true
colours on this occasion not long before he would betray Jesus for the
thirty pieces of silver. He said, “Why was this oil not sold for three
hundred days’ wages and given to the poor?” St John comments that “He
said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a
thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions.” (John
12:1-11).
Our Lord corrected him - probably in quick defence of Mary who
performed the
action - saying that it was a perfectly appropriate manifestation of
love for him, for the poor would always be around, but not he. That is
to say,
being a disciple of Christ cannot be reduced to doing good things for
those in need. Being Christ’s disciple means loving Christ and
venerating him as the Master and Lord. It is because of this that one
loves and serves others.
Perhaps the “litre
of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard” belonged to
Mary herself, and not just to the family of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
Perhaps it was her own free initiative to pour it all out in an act of
love and veneration for Jesus. Who knows! Or it may have been valuable
nard bought with the intention of anointing and embalming their brother
Lazarus after he died, and before our Lord raised him from the dead.
Who knows! Whatever of this, the Church holds Mary's action and example
up before
us today to remind us of the centrality of the person of Christ in our
Christian life. Let us give our hearts entirely to him together with
the sacrifices this will entail.
(E.J.Tyler)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here
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Anointing
the feet of Christ with perfumed oil of compassion
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
(1091-1153), Cistercian monk and doctor of the Church
(Homilies on the
Song of Songs, n̊ 12)
I have already discussed two ointments
with you: one of contrition that takes account of numerous sins -- it
is symbolized by the perfumed oil with which the sinful woman anointed
the feet of Lord: "the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil";
the other of devotion that embodies numerous blessings… But there is
another ointment, far excelling these two, to which I give the name
loving-kindness, because the elements that go into its making are the
needs of the poor, the anxieties of the oppressed, the worries of those
who are sad, the sins of wrong-doers, and finally, the manifold
misfortunes of all people who endure affliction, even if they are our
enemies. These elements may seem rather depressing, but the ointment
made from them is more fragrant than all other spices. It bears the
power to heal, for "Blessed are the merciful, they will be shown mercy"
(Mt 5:7)
A collection therefore of many miseries,
on which the eye rests with loving-kindness, represents the ingredients
from which the best ointments are made… Happy the soul that has been
wise enough to enrich itself with an assortment of spices such as
these, pouring upon them the oil of mercy and warming them with the
fire of charity! Who, in your opinion, is "the good man who takes pity
and lends" (Ps 112:5), who is compassionate, quick to render
assistance, who believes that there is "more happiness in giving than
in receiving" (Ac 20:35), who forgives easily but is not easily
angered, who never seeks to be avenged, and in all things takes thought
for his neighbor's needs as if they were his own? Whoever you may be,
if your soul is thus disposed, if you are saturated with the dew of
mercy, overflowing with affectionate kindness, making yourself "all
things to all people" (1 Co 9:22) yet considering your deeds like a
discarded flask in order to be always ready to supply to others what
they need, in a word, so dead to yourself that you live only for others
-- if this be you, then you possess the third and best of all
ointments. Your hands have dripped with liquid myrrh that is utterly
enchanting (cf Sg 5:5). It will not run dry in times of stress nor
evaporate in the heat of persecution; but God will perpetually
"remember all your oblations and find your holocaust acceptable." (Ps
20:4)
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Get rid of those useless
thoughts which, at best, are but a waste of time.
(The
Way, no.13)
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Are there acts which are always
illicit?
There are some acts which, in and of themselves, are always illicit by
reason of their object (for example, blasphemy, homicide, adultery).
Choosing such acts entails a disorder of the will, that is, a moral
evil which can never be justified by appealing to the good effects
which could possibly result from them. (CCC 1756, 1761)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.369)
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Tuesday
of Holy Week II
(April 3) Today let us think of St. Richard (Saints)
Scripture today: Isaiah
49:1-6; Psalm 71:1--4a, 5ab-6ab, 15 and
17; John 13:21-33, 36-38
Reclining at table
with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified, “Amen,
amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” The disciples looked at
one another, at a loss as to whom he meant. One of his disciples, the
one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus’ side. So Simon Peter
nodded to him to find out whom he meant. He leaned back against Jesus’
chest and said to him, “Master, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is the
one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.” So he dipped the
morsel and took it and handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot.
After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him. So Jesus said to him,
“What you are going to do, do quickly.” Now none of those reclining at
table realized why he said this to him. Some thought that since Judas
kept the money bag, Jesus had told him, “Buy what we need for the
feast,” or to give something to the poor. So Judas took the morsel and
left at once. And it was night. When he had left, Jesus said, “Now is
the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is
glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will
glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little
while longer. You will look for me, and as I told the Jews, ‘Where I go
you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you.” Simon Peter said to him,
“Master, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going,
you cannot follow me now, though you will follow later.” Peter said to
him, “Master, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for
you.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Amen, amen,
I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three times.” (John 13:21-33,
36-38)
One of the notable
things about many (though not all) of the religions of man is
the image they have of God as being one who is distant. As far as I am
aware most of
the indigenous religions have something of a high god, but he is very
far
away, and once his creative work is over, he tends to withdraw and
leave the involvement with man and creation to lesser spirits. And so
rituals are largely addressed to these more minor deities and the myths are very largely
about them. Islam counts itself as a revealed religion (though
Christianity and Judaism would not accept this) and its image of Allah
is of one who is utterly transcendent. I tend to think that this
transcendence of Allah is a matter of great distance from man. The
great and good Allah does not seem to be very close or immanent. He
seems to be a master rather than a father. This
distance of God from man that is found in several religions has a
certain parallel in various philosophies, such as deism. The deistic
conception has God beginning creation and then leaving it to its own
energies (or let us say, devices). Perhaps all this is a reflection of
the feeling that man has of God being somewhere far away from him
because,
after all, he is not to be physically seen. Whatever about that
speculation, the sense of God being absent is a very common feeling.
For this reason the great spiritual writers have urged the cultivation
of the sense of the presence of God. If we hope to live a vital
religion, we must constantly advert to the fact that God is very near,
and he observes all. But there is much more to revealed religion, and
especially the religion revealed by Jesus Christ, than this. God is not
only present to us and observing us, but he loves us. There is even
more to be said than this, and it is that the love of God for us is not
only purely altruistic (or agape) but it is desirous of our love in
return (eros). God yearns for our love. In some sense he suffers if we
do not love him.
This can be said
because Christ is the image of the unseen God, as St Paul writes. Our
Lord said at the Last Supper that he who sees me sees the Father. Now,
our Lord suffered because his love was not returned. He was very, very
human, and had a heart that gave the purest love while at the same time
desiring our love in return. In the highest and purest sense his love
was both agape and eros, as Pope Benedict has repeatedly pointed out.
What we are talking about is the sacred heart of Jesus. Our
Gospel text today (John 13:21-33,
36-38) brings out vividly how
he suffered at the betrayal of Judas whom he had personally chosen to
be one of his Twelve to be with him and to be sent out as his envoy.
Let us imagine the emotion involved in our Gospel scene of today:
“Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and
testified, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.’ The
disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant. One of
his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus’ side.
So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant. He leaned back
against Jesus’ chest and said to him, ‘Master, who is it?’ Jesus
answered, ‘It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped
it.’ So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas, son of
Simon the Iscariot. After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him.”
Our Lord tells Simon Peter that he too will deny him. Indeed, we could
say that very much part of the indescribable agony of our Lord’s
passion and death would have been his full awareness of the
indifference to his sacrifice of so many persons in the ages to come.
Jesus is God, and he suffered from our lack of love. He is consoled by
our love and by our efforts to make up for the lack of love in others.
Let our image of
God be guided entirely by what he has revealed of himself, especially
in his Son Jesus Christ. God is not distant. He is not afar. He is
close and he loves us ardently with a love that longs for our love in
return. The Christian life is a life of love in response to the love
with which God has loved us first. Let us abide in this love and every
time we fail in it, let us begin again. So then, now I begin!
(E.J.Tyler)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here
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“Amen,
amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three
times” (John 13:36-38)
Saint Ambrose (about
340-397), bishop of Milan and doctor of the Church
(Treatise on Saint
Luke 10,49-52, 87-89)
Brothers, let us repent: let us watch out that we may not have
arguments of precedence amongst us for our ruin. The fact that the
apostles (Lk 22,24) had an argument among them is not a good excuse for
us to do the same. It is an invitation to watch out. Peter repented, of
course, the day he answered the first call of the Master, but can we
say that his conversion happened all at once?...
The Lord gives us the example. We were
in need for everything; he instead, did not need the help of anybody,
nevertheless he reveals himself as the master of humility by serving
his disciples... As for Peter, surely ready in his spirit but still
weak in the flesh (Mt 26,41), he is warned that he will deny the Lord.
The Lord's Passion can find imitators, but has no equals. Therefore I
do not blame Peter for having denied the Christ; I congratulate him for
having cried. One thing is relevant to our common condition, the other
is a sign of virtue, of inner strength...But if we excused him, he did
not excuse himself. He preferred accusing himself his own sin and
justifying himself by confessing his sin, rather than worsening his
case by denying it. And he wept...
He cried, he did not apologize, he just
cried. The one who cannot defend himself may though wash himself; it is
up to the tears to wash the defaults that we are ashamed to confess in
person. Tears say the sin without trembling. Tears do not ask for
forgiveness but they obtain it...Good tears, that wash sin away! These
weep as long as Jesus looks at them. Peter denied him a first time and
did not cry because the Lord had not looked at him. He denied him a
second time and he did not cry because again the Lord had not looked at
him. He denied him a third time; Jesus looked at him and he wept
bitterly. Look at us, Lord Jesus, so that we may cry our sin.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Don't waste your time and your
energy — which belong to God — throwing stones at the dogs that bark at
you on your way. Ignore them.
(The Way,
no.14)
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What are the passions?
The passions are the feelings, the emotions or the movements of the
sensible appetite - natural components of human psychology - which
incline a person to act or not to act in view of what is perceived as
good or evil. The principal passions are love and hatred, desire and
fear, joy, sadness, and anger. The chief passion is love which is drawn
by the attraction of the good. One can only love what is good, real or
apparent. (CCC 1762-1766, 1771-1772)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.370)
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Wednesday
of Holy Week II
(April 4) St
Isidore, bishop and doctor of the Church (560-636). He was born
in Seville, Spain. He was Archbishop of Seville for thirty-five years
and was well-known in the fourth Council of Toledo (633) for his
leadership. He strengthened Catholicism in Spain; he was admired for
his preaching, his writings, and his miracles. His most extensive work
(Etymologies) was an encyclopaedia which continued to be used
throughout the Middle Ages. (Saints)
Scripture today: Isaiah
50:4-9a; Psalm 69:8-10, 21-22, 31 and 33-34;
Matthew 26:14-25
One of the Twelve,
who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said,
“What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” They paid
him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an
opportunity to hand him over. On the first day of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said, “Where do
you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into
the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The teacher says, “My
appointed time draws near; in your house I shall celebrate the Passover
with my disciples.” The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered, and
prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he reclined at table with
the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Amen, I say to you,
one of you will betray me.” Deeply distressed at this, they began to
say to him one after another, “Surely it is not I, Lord?” He said in
reply, “He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who
will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be
better for that man if he had never been born.” Then Judas, his
betrayer, said in reply, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” He answered, “You
have said so.” (Matthew 26:14-25)
I have always felt
that Shakespeare’s greatest plays are his tragedies. Consider Macbeth,
or King Lear or Hamlet. The protagonists are caught up in the whirlpool
of a profound flaw which the Christian would call sin, and a
disintegration follows. Consider too the Greek tragedies, and indeed
the tragic element in all human history. Now, until the end of the
world
the figure of Judas will surely be a most powerful reminder of the
tragedy of sin, and Judas is no figure of mere literature. He was a
historical personage and we have the story of him solemnly presented in
the pages of the Gospels. He is the one who turned traitor to Christ.
How is it that one who was called to be a personal companion of God the
Son made man, one who was invited to an intimate association with him
in the most important undertaking in the history of man, one whom our
Lord called to be his personal friend - and whom our Lord addressed as
“friend” at the moment of betrayal - could turn against him? Judas
actually lived with our Lord. He heard words from his lips every day.
He had the gift of Christ’s personal friendship for him, and watched
his smile. Yet Judas lost the faith. It was a tragedy beyond compare, a
tragedy for Judas himself, Judas who by divine calling was called to
the greatness of an Apostle. He was called to be a great saint, for the
feast day of each of the Apostles except for him is celebrated in the
Church’s Liturgical Year. Yet the sense of things that we gain from the
Gospel accounts is that Judas lost his soul.
We read in our
Gospel passage today that “One of the Twelve, who was called Judas
Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to
give me if I hand him over to you?” (Matthew
26:14-25) They paid him thirty
pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to
hand him over.” Judas threw Christ away for thirty pieces of silver! We
have in him encapsulated the drama and the tragedy of the human heart.
It can throw away everything for nothing. I once knew a very good
priest who died in Spain, and I heard it said that before he died he
said that he was very grateful to have had the gift of life. Life is a
very great gift offering so much possibility because with it comes
human freedom. But it is a gift that carries consequences and the story
of Judas is a solemn reminder of the consequence that will flow from a
sinful use of freedom. Ultimately, life is about the acceptance or
rejection of Christ whether he is known explicitly or not. Cardinal
Newman wrote towards the end of his life that Conscience is the
“aboriginal vicar of Christ” (Letter to the Duke of
Norfolk) and by this he meant
that Christ is present and represented in the authentic voice of
Conscience. Our eternity will depend on our acceptance or rejection of
Christ whether we know him explicitly or in his implicit
representatives. Let us be fully alive to the consequences of our
choices in thought, word or deed. Every day is our opportunity sent by
God to make of our life a precious jewel, or a sad tragedy. The life of
Judas, so full of promise, was this sad tragedy, a tragedy never to be
undone or reclaimed, even though God in his powerful providence drew
infinite fruit for mankind from the sin he perpetrated.
Two banners are
flying in the universe. One is that of good, the other that of evil.
The one is the banner of Christ, the other is that of Satan and all who
are led by him. Let us take our stand by the banner of Christ and fight
with his great weapon which is that of obedient suffering. It is the
Cross of Christ that takes us to victory, and the ones who prefer the
thirty pieces fall to a tragic abyss.
(E.J.Tyler)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here
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“My
appointed time draws near. I am to celebrate the Passover in your house”
(Matthew
26:14-25)
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
(313-350), bishop of Jerusalem, doctor of the Church
(Catechetical
Lectures to the Newly Baptized 13, §6)
And wouldest thou be persuaded that He
came to His passion willingly? The others, who foreknow it not, die
unwillingly; but He spoke before of His passion: “Behold, the Son of
man is betrayed to be crucified” (Mt 26,2). But knowest thou wherefore
this Friend of man shunned not death? It was lest the whole world
should perish in its sins. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son
of man shall be betrayed, and shall be crucified (Mt 20,13); and again,
He steadfastly set His face to Jerusalem (Lk 9,51).
And wouldest thou know certainly, that
the Cross is a glory to Jesus? Hear His own words, not mine. Judas had
become ungrateful to the Master of the house, and was about to betray
Him. Having but just now gone forth from the table, and drunk His cup
of blessing, in return for that drought of salvation he sought to shed
righteous blood. He who did eat of His bread, was lifting up his heel
against Him...Then said Jesus, “The hour is come, that the Son of man
should be glorified” (Jn 12,23). Seest thou how He knew the Cross to be
His proper glory?...Not that He was without glory before: for He was
glorified with the glory which was before the foundation of the world
(Jn 17,5). He was ever glorified as God; but now He was to be glorified
in wearing the Crown of His patience.
He did not give up His life by
compulsion, nor was He put to death by murderous violence, but of His
own accord. Hear what He says: “I have power to lay down My life, and I
have power to take it again” (Jn 10,18); I yield it of My own choice to
My enemies; for unless I chose, this could not be. He came therefore of
His own set purpose to His passion, rejoicing in His noble deed,
smiling at the crown, cheered by the salvation of mankind; not ashamed
of the Cross, for it was to save the world.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Don't put off your work until
tomorrow. (The Way, no.15)
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Are the passions morally good or bad?
The passions insofar as they are movements of the sensible appetite are
neither good nor bad in themselves. They are good when they contribute
to a good action and they are evil in the opposite case. They can be
taken up into the virtues or perverted by the vices.
(CCC
1767-1770, 1773-1775)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.371)
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Holy
Thursday II
(April 5) St
Vincent Ferrer, priest (1350-1419). He was born in Valencia,
Spain. He joined the Dominican Order and was renowned as a preacher, a
missionary, and a teacher of theology. He converted thousands of
sinners, Jews and Moors by his preaching. He died at Vannes in
France. (Saints)
Scripture today:
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; Psalm
116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18;
1 Corinthians 11:23-26;
John 13:1-15
Before the feast of
Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to
the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand
him over. So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put
everything into his power and that he had come from God and was
returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into
a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the
towel around his waist. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
“Master, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to
him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will
understand later.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance
with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but
my hands and head as well.” Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed has
no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so
you are clean, but not all.” For he knew who would betray him; for this
reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.” So when he had washed
their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he
said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me
‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I,
therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to
wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as
I have done for you, you should also do.” (John 13:1-15)
There are a few
great questions that have risen from the heart of man and have remained
like a great summer’s cloud from generation to generation. One of those
great and abiding questions is, what is God like? A fascinating and
sombre fact of human history is the plethora of different and opposing
answers to this question. The religions of man give answers beyond
number to this, as do the numerous philosophical systems.
Had God not revealed himself and shown to us what he is like, how could
we have possibly gained any certain knowledge of the matter? We would
have had the native capacity to do so to some extent, but the
experience of human thought shows that our knowledge of what God is
like would be paltry. For instance, vast numbers of societies have
thought that there are numerous gods. St Augustine prior to his
conversion had immense difficulty shaking off his notion that God was a
great material substance. Many great minds have considered the deity to
be a principle rather than a person. Others have thought of God as just
the soul of the universe. Now, into this darkness came a great light,
and that light was Christ. He is the light of the world, and without
him man walks in darkness. He is the one who reveals the great God
because he is the great God. He is the Son of the Father, Light from
Light, true God from true God. In this man Jesus is the fulness of the
godhead bodily. What he did, God was doing. What he was saying, God was
saying. What he was thinking, God was thinking. When he smiled, God was
smiling. When he was speaking to someone, God was speaking to that
person. Christ is the image and the revelation of the Father. St John
tells us that at the Last Supper he said to his disciples that he who
sees him, sees the Father.
So then, what does
our Lord reveal God to be like, for this is one of the great questions
of mankind? Yes, our Lord by his actions showed that God was powerful.
Man can appeal to him from the midst of his need. Our Lord raised the
dead, healed the sick, fed the hungry, calmed the storms, drove out
devils. There was nothing he could not do. He showed that God is
almighty. But the great surprise was that he showed in his own person
that God is utter love. God loves and he loves humbly. What is God
like? He is humble and he is loving. And so we read in today’s Gospel,
the Gospel for Holy Thursday, that “during supper, fully aware that the
Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God
and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer
garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured
water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them
with the towel around his waist.” (John
13:1-15).
Inasmuch as in seeing Jesus we see the Father, it was the Father too
who in union with his Son made Man went from disciple to disciple
washing the feet of each, and the Holy Spirit was the divine impulse of
the action. The great God was stooping down before his creatures and
washing their feet as if he were their servant. He was doing this
because he loved them, and his love was distinguished by its humility.
God loves and he loves humbly. Our Lord said to his disciples that the
Son of Man had come not to be served but to serve. He told them that he
is meek and humble of heart. This is what God is like. That is his
character. That is his inner life. If we wish to gain a glimpse of the
inner life of the Trinity and the relations between each of the three
divine persons, then we ought look at what happened in our Gospel scene
today. The Father is humble and loving, as is the Son, and this humble
love is the Spirit of God himself. Each divine person is humble and
loving towards the other, and to an infinite degree. This is how God
deals with us. He acts towards us in character, and this is the meaning
of today's Gospel scene.
Not only did God
the Son made man wash the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper. He
also gave himself to them as their spiritual food, and promised to
abide with them as their heavenly nourishment till the end of time. At
the Last Supper our Lord instituted the Eucharist, making present in
their midst the gift of himself at Calvary the next day. He then told
them to do the same again and again in his memory. By this means our
Lord himself and his great sacrifice for us at Calvary abide in our
midst till he comes again. But consider the form of this gift, the
style of the love that is entailed. The Eucharist is the greatest
manifestation of humble love. That is what God is like. There has been
no drama like that of Calvary. It was a cosmic drama in which the
future of the universe hung in the balance. The power of sin was about
to be broken and all things in principle set free. It was the greatest
of all turning points and with Christ’s resurrection a new life burst
forth and through the Church was made available to mankind. This
marvellous life is present and available in the living Jesus, and the
living Jesus is the Eucharist. For this reason the Eucharist is the
heart of the Church, its summit and source. The Eucharist is the gift
of love to mankind, and it was given to us at the Last Supper. But look
at how humbly our Lord offers himself to us in this gift. The great
sacrifice of Calvary is re-presented at Mass time after time in the
most ordinary of appearances, those of mere bread and wine. Jesus
present in our Tabernacles is hidden, unnoticed, so very accessible,
constantly being ignored and slighted, ever there with his heart
throbbing so powerfully in love. He is there as his gift to us, given
lovingly and so humbly. God loves humbly. If man wishes to what God is
like, let him think of our Lord washing the feet of his disciples, and
let him think of him on the altar at Mass and present in our
tabernacle. God is love, with a humble love.
Let us resolve to
follow in the footsteps of Christ, loving as he has loved us. It is the
path that leads to the Cross, but it is also the path that leads to
glory.
(E.J.Tyler)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here
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“This
is my body that is for you” (1Corinthians 11,24)
St Therese of Lisieux
(1873-1897), Carmelite nun, doctor of the Church (Prayer to obtain
humility)
O Jesus, when you were a traveler in
this world you said: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves” (Mt 11,29). O Almighty King of
Heavens, yes, my soul finds rest when it sees you “taking the form of a
slave” (Phil 2,7), humbling yourself to the point of washing the feet
of your apostles. Then I remember the words you pronounced to teach me
to practice humility: “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I
have done for you, you should also do...No slave is greater than his
Master...If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it” (Jn
13,15-17). I understand, o Lord, these words coming out from your meek
and humble heart; I want to put them into practice with the help of
your grace...
Nobody, o my Beloved, had rights over
you, nevertheless you obeyed not only to the Virgin Mary and to Saint
Joseph, but also to your hangmen. Now it is in the host that I see your
annihilation reach its peak. What humility, o King of Glory, to submit
yourself, without distinction, to all priests, to those who love you
and to those who instead unfortunately are lukewarm or cold in their
service of you. In answer to their call you come down from heaven...O
my Beloved, under the veil of the white host you appear to me so meek
and humble of heart! To teach me humility you couldn't humble yourself
more...
But, o Lord, you know my weakness; every
morning I make a resolution to practice humility and in the evening I
recognize that I still committed many sins of pride. And I am tempted
to become discouraged, but I know that discouragement too is a form of
pride. Therefore, I want to put my hopes in you alone, my God; since
you are the Almighty, allow this virtue to grow in my soul. To obtain
this grace of your endless mercy, I often repeat this prayer to you: “O
Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart similar to yours!”.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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You a drifter? You... one of
the crowd? You, who were born to be a leader!
There is no room among us for the lukewarm. Humble yourself and Christ
will set you aflame again with the fire of Love.
(The Way,
no.16)
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What is the moral conscience?
Moral conscience, present in the heart of the person, is a judgment of
reason which at the appropriate moment enjoins him to do good and to
avoid evil. Thanks to moral conscience, the human person perceives the
moral quality of an act to be done or which has already been done,
permitting him to assume responsibility for the act. When attentive to
moral conscience, the prudent person can hear the voice of God who
speaks to him or her. (CCC 1776-1780, 1795-1797)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.372)
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Good
Friday of the Lord’s Passion
(April 6) Today let us think of St. Marcellinus (Saints)
Scripture today:
Isaiah
52:13—53:12; Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16,
17, 25;
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1—19:42
Jesus went out with
his disciples across the Kidron valley to where there was a garden,
into which he and his disciples entered. Judas his betrayer also knew
the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So
Judas got a band of soldiers and guards from the chief priests and the
Pharisees and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus,
knowing everything that was going to happen to him, went out and said
to them, “Whom are you looking for?” They answered him, “Jesus the
Nazorean.” He said to them, “I AM.” Judas his betrayer was also with
them. When he said to them, “I AM, “ they turned away and fell to the
ground. So he again asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” They said,
“Jesus the Nazorean.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I AM. So if you
are looking for me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill what he had
said, “I have not lost any of those you gave me.” Then Simon Peter, who
had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his
right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, “Put your
sword into its scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave
me?” So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized
Jesus, bound him, and brought him to Annas first. He was the
father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. It was
Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews that it was better that one man
should die rather than the people. Simon Peter and another disciple
followed Jesus. Now the other disciple was known to the high priest,
and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus. But Peter
stood at the gate outside. So the other disciple, the acquaintance of
the high priest, went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter
in. Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter, “You are not
one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the
slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire that they
had made, because it was cold, and were warming themselves. Peter was
also standing there keeping warm. The high priest questioned Jesus
about his disciples and about his doctrine. Jesus answered him, “I have
spoken publicly to the world. I have always taught in a synagogue or in
the temple area where all the Jews gather, and in secret I have said
nothing. Why ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. They
know what I said.” When he had said this, one of the temple guards
standing there struck Jesus and said, “Is this the way you answer the
high priest?” Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to
the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” Then
Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. Now Simon Peter was
standing there keeping warm. And they said to him, “You are not one of
his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the
slaves of the high priest, a relative of the one whose ear Peter had
cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?” Again Peter
denied it. And immediately the cock crowed. Then they brought Jesus
from Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was morning. And they themselves
did not enter the praetorium, in order not to be defiled so that they
could eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and said, “What
charge do you bring against this man?” They answered and said to him,
“If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.”
At this, Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves, and judge him
according to your law.” The Jews answered him, “We do not have the
right to execute anyone, “ in order that the word of Jesus might be
fulfilled that he said indicating the kind of death he would die. So
Pilate went back into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to
him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this
on your own or have others told you about me?” Pilate answered, “I am
not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over
to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong
to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants
would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as
it is, my kingdom is not here.” So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a
king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and
for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who
belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is
truth?” When he had said this, he again went out to the Jews and said
to them, “I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I release
one prisoner to you at Passover. Do you want me to release to you the
King of the Jews?” They cried out again, “Not this one but Barabbas!”
Now Barabbas was a revolutionary. Then Pilate took Jesus and had him
scourged. And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on
his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak, and they came to him and
said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck him repeatedly. Once
more Pilate went out and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to
you, so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” So Jesus came
out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak. And he said to
them, “Behold, the man!” When the chief priests and the guards saw him
they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take
him yourselves and crucify him. I find no guilt in him.” The Jews
answered, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die,
because he made himself the Son of God.” Now when Pilate heard this
statement, he became even more afraid, and went back into the
praetorium and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” Jesus did not
answer him. So Pilate said to him, “Do you not speak to me? Do you not
know that I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?”
Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me if it had not been
given to you from above. For this reason the one who handed me over to
you has the greater sin.” Consequently, Pilate tried to release him;
but the Jews cried out, “If you release him, you are not a Friend of
Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” When Pilate
heard these words he brought Jesus out and seated him on the judge’s
bench in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha. It was
preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon. And he said to the
Jews, “Behold, your king!” They cried out, “Take him away, take him
away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your king?”
The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” Then he
handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and,
carrying the cross himself, he went out to what is called the Place of
the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him
two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate also
had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus the
Nazorean, the King of the Jews.” Now many of the Jews read this
inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the
city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. So the chief
priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the
Jews,’ but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’.” Pilate answered,
“What I have written, I have written.” When the soldiers had crucified
Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share
for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless,
woven in one piece from the top down. So they said to one another,
“Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be, “ in
order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that says: They
divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots. This
is what the soldiers did. Standing by the cross of Jesus were his
mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of
Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved
he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the
disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took
her into his home. After this, aware that everything was now finished,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.”
There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked
in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had
taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he
handed over the spirit. Now since it was preparation day, in order that
the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the
sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that
their legs be broken and that they be taken down. So the soldiers came
and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was
crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was
already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his
lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out. An
eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he
is speaking the truth, so that you also may come to believe. For this
happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled: Not a bone
of it will be broken. And again another passage says: They will look
upon him whom they have pierced. After this, Joseph of Arimathea,
secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he
could remove the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it. So he came and
took his body Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at
night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about
one hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and bound it with
burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial
custom. Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a
garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been
buried. So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day;
for the tomb was close by. (John 18:1—19:42)
I once attended a
public forum involving a coming together of Catholics and Muslims, to
share what Christ and Mahomet each stood for in respect to faithfulness
and compassion. The forum mainly consisted of a presentation from a
Catholic representative and a Muslim representative, and the one spoke
of Jesus, the other of Mahomet. I was most disappointed in the
presentation by the Catholic representative. There
was no mention by him of Christ’s faithfulness to his mission of
bearing witness to the truth of his own person, which was that he was
divine, the Son of God made man. It would have been a hard saying for
the many Muslims there, but as an opportunity to speak of Christ it was
a chance sadly missed. Jesus claimed to be divine and was understood by
his friends and his enemies as claiming this, and his faithfulness was
demonstrated by his acceptance and embrace of death in witness to this
truth. Christ’s compassion was above all at work in his bearing the
sins of the entire world and expiating for them, again by his death.
Every man and woman in history can say with St Paul, Christ loved me
and gave himself for me. His compassion led him to die for the
redemption of mankind. At that forum this point too was missed by the
Catholic representative, and I wondered whether he failed to mention
these critical points about Christ for fear of arousing hidden
hostility in the minds of the Muslims. Perhaps not. Perhaps he felt it
was not appropriate to bring forward Christian dogma about Christ and
the Atonement so explicitly. The effect of his presentation, though,
was that Christ came through in his presentation as a good and holy
preacher who went to his death bearing witness to the “kingdom of God”,
but that was the long and the short of it. I had the feeling that for
the Muslims Christ may have appeared as simply a good but failed
preacher with a great message who lost his life in the process. Of
course many Muslims maintain that Jesus did not die on the cross at
all, and that he did not rise. In any case I suspect that many Muslims
would have felt that Christ could not be compared with the obvious
success of Mahomet.
Christ’s success
was intimately bound up with his acceptance and carrying of the Cross.
Humanly speaking all went wrong, and the means he chose to “succeed”
were diametrically opposed to the means of the world, including the
means chosen by Mahomet. Christ redeemed the world from sin not by
winning the allegiance of Jerusalem the capital, or the majority of the
people - which is what Mahomet could claim in respect to his setting -
but precisely by bearing witness to the truth of his person and
mission, and then accepting obediently his passion and death which was
the consequence of this witness. Obedience to the Father in the midst
of suffering and death was the way the Son of God made man achieved
perfect success. For this reason he was able to cry out at the point of
death, “It is accomplished!” Christ died for our sins and by dying he
destroyed our death. By his death he and he alone opened the gates of
heaven to mankind. This is what the Christian world celebrates in
commemorating the passion and death of Jesus Christ. For this reason
Christ cannot be compared with nor put on the level of any other
founder of a religion. His mission was unique and unheard-of. His
person too was and is unique. Above all, the climax of his life and its
crowning moment is beyond compare. This moment was his death on the
Cross. Its effect pervades the whole of mankind and the entire universe
because it attacked and broke the power of sin, which is nothing other
than disobedience to God. Christ’s obedience on our behalf snapped the
deadly grip of our disobedience. If we but unite ourselves to him, his
obedience will save us from our own disobedience. A fundamental dogma
of the Christian faith is that of the Atonement, Christ atoning by his
death for the sins of the world - and that is above all what we
commemorate and celebrate on Good Friday.
The Christian is
called to believe this with all his heart, to bear witness to the truth
of it by his words and his life. He bears witness to it by his life by
accepting with the mind of Christ the sufferings that come his way and
which God permits. Let us gain the strength to do this by a fervent
life of prayer and participating in the Sacraments, especially the
Sacrament of Penance and the Eucharist.
(E.J.Tyler)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here
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“When
you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM” (John 8:28)
John Tauler (about
1300-1361), Dominican (Meditation on the
Passion)
Come, all of you who love God; come see
what our Lord has done for us. Come, all of you who have been redeemed
by the very pure blood of the innocent Lamb; look and understand what
he has suffered for our sin. Today the Book of Life is opened for us;
the seven seals are broken open (Rev. 6). Truth shines, in it all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge are revealed (Rom 11,33); a spring
containing the mysteries of God is opened for us.
Today the veil of the sanctuary is torn
in two (Mt 27,51); all images give way to reality. The Holy of Holies
opens wide open, thanks to Jesus, the chief priest. The sacrifice that
he offers is nothing else than his own blood. Today in Jesus Christ all
symbols find their meaning, all mysteries are revealed. Today the
Father's great treasure is disclosed and all the poor, the weak, the
oppressed will pick from it, hands full. Everybody can draw from the
open wounds of the Lord the grace he needs...
Today the admirable mystery, that is
above all the other mysteries, is revealed: the king of men made
himself the scum of humanity. The Highest made himself the last of all;
the Only Son of God offers himself freely on the cross for the poor
sinners that we are. He wants to nail our sin to the cross, kill death
and through his precious blood obliterate the bound against us (Col
2,14)...
Didn't he say: “When I am lifted up from
the earth, I will draw everyone to myself” (Jn 12,32)? Everyone,
meaning all men, on whom every one looks alike. Many men encounter the
cross; through many trials God leads them to this cross, to draw them
to him. Then they will bring their cross willingly and in this way
become his true friends.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Don't
succumb to that disease of character whose symptoms are inconstancy in
everything, thoughtlessness in action and speech scatter-brained ideas:
superficiality, in short.
Mark this well: unless you react in time — not tomorrow: now! — that
superficiality which each day leads you to form those empty plans
(plans 'so full of emptiness') will make of your life a dead and
useless puppet.
(The Way,
no.17)
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What does the dignity of the human person
imply for the moral conscience?
The dignity of a human person requires the uprightness of a moral
conscience (which is to say that it be in accord with what is just and
good according to reason and the law of God). Because of this personal
dignity, no one may be forced to act contrary to conscience; nor,
within the limits of the common good, be prevented from acting
according to it, especially in religious matters. (CCC 1780-1782, 1798)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.373)
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Holy
Saturday C (April 7) (Saints)
Scripture
today: There is no Mass in the
morning, so two suggested passages for meditation may be:
Luke 23: 46-56 (suggested)
Jesus cried out in a
loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit"; and when he
had said this he breathed his last. The centurion who witnessed what
had happened glorified God and said, "This man was innocent beyond
doubt." When all the people who had gathered for this spectacle saw
what had happened, they returned home beating their breasts; but all
his acquaintances stood at a distance, including the women who had
followed him from Galilee and saw these events. Now there was a
virtuous and righteous man named Joseph who, though he was a member of
the council, had not consented to their plan of action. He came from
the Jewish town of Arimathea and was awaiting the kingdom of God. He
went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. After he had taken the
body down, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid him in a rock-hewn
tomb in which no one had yet been buried. It was the day of
preparation, and the sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come
from Galilee with him followed behind, and when they had seen the tomb
and the way in which his body was laid in it, they returned and
prepared spices and perfumed oils. Then they rested on the sabbath
according to the commandment. (Luke 23: 46-56)
John 19: 38-42 (suggested)
After this, Joseph
of Arimathea, secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked
Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it.
So he came and took his body. Nicodemus, the one who had first come to
him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing
about one hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and bound it with
burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial
custom. Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a
garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been
buried. So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day;
for the tomb was close by. (John 19: 38-42)
On Good Friday
Christ’s faithful celebrate his death on the Cross at Calvary, and
today on Holy Saturday the Church waits at the Lord’s tomb, meditating
on his descent to the dead. The altar in the church is left bare, and
the sacrifice of the Mass is not celebrated. Only with the solemn vigil during
the evening of Holy Saturday, held in celebration of the resurrection,
does the Easter celebration begin. So today we allow the thought of
Christ having died for our sins to fill our hearts. He suffered, died
and was buried, and he descended to the dead. The Son of God made man,
the Lord of all life, the Light of the world, descended to the darkness
of death as we all do, while experiencing none of its corruption. These
are firm historical facts, part of the rock foundation of Christian
belief. There are some who maintain that Christ did not die on the
Cross (and so did not rise), but that at most someone else did - this
is wrong and entirely gratuitous. Christ
traversed the path into death that we must follow, and showed us how we
are to pass
through this great and imposing door. Out path is to suffer and to die
as he did, but with this pivotal difference, that we do it in him and
with him. If we live in him and with him, if we suffer in him and with
him, if we die in him and with him, then we shall share in his
resurrection. We too will suffer (in our measure), die and be buried,
as he. But the divine life he has shared with us at our baptism, the
life that
came to us then and which was nourished by the Sacraments and by our
life of
prayer and Christian living, will be utterly indestructible. Our death
will be a mere sleep, as our Lord often expressed it, and then we shall
live with him and reign with him. Let us today keep watch in our hearts
at the tomb of Christ where his body lies inside, and as we watch, let
us ponder on what death now is in the light of the death of Christ.
Because Christ our redeemer has been there, death has been transformed.
(E.J.Tyler)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here
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The Catholic Church's
teaching on Christ in death
(Catechism
of the Catholic Church, Part I, Section 2, article 4, paragraph
3, and article 5,
paragraph 1)
Part I, Section 2
Article
4, paragraph 3, Jesus
Christ was buried
624 "By the grace of God" Jesus tasted death "for every one". In his
plan of salvation, God ordained that his Son should not only "die for
our sins" but should also "taste death", experience the condition of
death, the separation of his soul from his body, between the time he
expired on the cross and the time he was raised from the dead. The
state of the dead Christ is the mystery of the tomb and the descent
into hell. It is the mystery of Holy Saturday, when Christ, lying in
the tomb, reveals God's great sabbath rest after the fulfillment of
man's salvation, which brings peace to the whole universe.
Christ in the tomb in his body
625 Christ's stay in the tomb constitutes the real link between his
passible state before Easter and his glorious and risen state today.
The same person of the "Living One" can say, "I died, and behold I am
alive for evermore":
God [the Son] did not impede death from separating
his soul from his body according to the necessary order of nature, but
has reunited them to one another in the Resurrection, so that he
himself might be, in his person, the meeting point for death and life,
by arresting in himself the decomposition of nature produced by death
and so becoming the source of reunion for the separated parts.
626 Since the "Author of life" who was killed is the same "living one
[who has] risen", the divine person of the Son of God necessarily
continued to possess his human soul and body, separated from each other
by death:
By the fact that at Christ's death his soul was
separated from his flesh, his one person is not itself divided into two
persons; for the human body and soul of Christ have existed in the same
way from the beginning of his earthly existence, in the divine person
of the Word; and in death, although separated from each other, both
remained with one and the same person of the Word.
"You will not let your Holy One
see corruption"
627 Christ's death was a real death in that it put an end to his
earthly human existence. But because of the union which the person of
the Son retained with his body, his was not a mortal corpse like
others, for "it was not possible for death to hold him"and therefore
"divine power preserved Christ's body from corruption." Both of these
statements can be said of Christ: "He was cut off out of the land of
the living", and "My flesh will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon
my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption." Jesus'
Resurrection "on the third day" was the sign of this, also because
bodily decay was held to begin on the fourth day after death.
"Buried with Christ. . ."
628 Baptism, the original and full sign of which is immersion,
efficaciously signifies the descent into the tomb by the Christian who
dies to sin with Christ in order to live a new life. "We were buried
therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness
of life."
631 Jesus "descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who
descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens." The
Apostles' Creed confesses in the same article Christ's descent into
hell and his Resurrection from the dead on the third day, because in
his Passover it was precisely out of the depths of death that he made
life spring forth:
Christ, that Morning Star,
who came back from the dead, and shed his peaceful light on all
mankind, your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
Part I, Section 2
Article
5, Paragraph 1. Christ
Descended into Hell
632 The frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was "raised from
the dead" presuppose that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of
the dead prior to his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in
the apostolic preaching to Christ's descent into hell: that Jesus, like
all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the
realm of the dead. But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the
Good News to the spirits imprisoned there.
633 Scripture calls the abode
of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, "hell" - Sheol in
Hebrew or Hades in Greek - because those who are there are deprived of
the vision of God. Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or
righteous, while they await the Redeemer: which does not mean that
their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor
man Lazarus who was received into "Abraham's bosom": "It is precisely
these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham's bosom, whom
Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell." Jesus did not
descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of
damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.
634 "The gospel was preached
even to the dead." The descent into hell brings the Gospel message of
salvation to complete fulfilment. This is the last phase of Jesus'
messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time but vast in its
real significance: the spread of Christ's redemptive work to all men of
all times and all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers
in the redemption.
635 Christ went down into the depths of death so that "the dead will
hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." Jesus,
"the Author of life", by dying destroyed "him who has the power of
death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear
of death were subject to lifelong bondage." Henceforth the risen Christ
holds "the keys of Death and Hades", so that "at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth."
Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great
silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is
asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep
in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the
world began. . . He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as
for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness
and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his
bonds and Eve, captive with him - He who is both their God and the son
of Eve. . . "I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. . .
I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner
in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead."
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The Church’s summary of the
above is in the Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church (no 125-125):
124. In
what condition was the body of Christ while it lay in the tomb?
Christ underwent a real death and a true burial. However, the power of
God preserved his body from corruption. (CCC 624-630)
“Jesus Christ descended into hell;
on the third day He rose again from the dead.”
125. What is the “hell” into which
Jesus descended?
This “hell” was different from the hell of the damned. It was the state
of all those, righteous and evil, who died before Christ. With his soul
united to his divine Person Jesus went down to the just in hell who
were awaiting their Redeemer so they could enter at last into the
vision of God. When he had conquered by his death both death and the
devil “who has the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14), he freed the just
who looked forward to the Redeemer and opened for them the gates of
heaven. (CCC 632-637)
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You persist in being worldly,
superficial, scatter-brained, because you are a coward. What is it but
cowardice not to want to face yourself?
(The Way,
no.18)
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Easter
Sunday C
(April 8) Today let us think of Blessed Herman Joseph,
St. John Baptist de la Salle
(Saints)
Scripture readings for the Easter
Vigil in the Holy Night of Easter
Genesis 1:1—2:2
or 1:1, 26-31a; Psalm 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12, 13-14, 24, 35
Genesis 22:1-18
or 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18; Psalm 16:5, 8, 9-10, 11
Exodus
14:15—15:1; Exodus 15:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 17-18
Isaiah
54:5-14; Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12,
13
Isaiah
55:1-11; Isaiah 12:2-3, 4, 5-6
Baruch 3:9-15,
32; Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11
Ezechiel
36:16-17a, 18-28; When baptism is
celebrated. Psalm 42:3, 5; 43:3,
4
When baptism is not celebrated. Isaiah 12:2-3,
4bcd, 5-6
When baptism is not celebrated Psalm 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19
Epistle Romans 6:3-11;
Psalm
118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Gospel Luke 24:1-12
At daybreak on the
first day of the week the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus
took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the
stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not
find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this,
behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They were
terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, “Why
do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has
been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in
Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be
crucified, and rise on the third day.” And they remembered his words.
Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the
eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna,
and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told
this to the apostles, but their story seemed like nonsense and they did
not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, bent down, and
saw the burial cloths alone; then he went home amazed at what had
happened. (Luke 24:1-12)
If you wish to view
a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
The saddest and
most awful thing about life is death. Attend any funeral - say, the
funeral of a parent who has lived a long life in the midst of his or
her beloved children. Consider their emotions as the coffin is being
lowered into the grave. It is one of the saddest of all
experiences. All there is, is loss. It may be a beloved spouse,
or one’s child. Or again, a person contracts cancer and its progress
cannot be stopped. Slowly it
conquers and finally lays the sufferer low in death. Or again, a tidal
wave sweeps all before it over several island communities and families
are devastated, many of them being wiped out. Wars break out between
communities within a nation, and between nations. The result is death
to so many. Death, and all that does or could lead to death, is the
worst thing about life, and it cannot be avoided. At most it can be
delayed or its circumstances mitigated. It is the enemy of life and
inasmuch as it puts an end to every life in that respect it is always
the victor. Why is this the case? Why should there be death at all,
when there is life in the first place? Various persons and religious
systems in history have divined an answer to this question by way of a
guess, but really we would never have known for certain why there is
death had it not been revealed to us by the Creator and giver of life,
God himself. God has revealed that sin entered the world through one
man and with sin, death spread to the whole human race. Death, our
great and all-conquering enemy, was the upshot of man’s original sin.
That original sin was man’s first great action, and in it our first
parents asserted themselves before God and refused to accept being less
than God. The result was catastrophic. The wages of sin are
death, and when we see death everywhere in the scene of life, it ought
be a reminder of the all-pervading presence of sin in the world and of
how sad and awful are its consequences. If we are to really live, and
live forever, then clearly sin has to be taken away.
But how could sin
ever be taken way from the world? No mere man could do it. No
civilization however advanced could grapple with sin and eliminate it
because it is present at the very roots of the soul of man. So near to
us, so powerful and so ubiquitous, its removal is utterly beyond man’s
capacity. Indeed, so profoundly rooted is it in the soul of man, that
of himself he cannot even renounce it, let alone take it away. The
question that floats over the millennia of human history
is precisely this, how is sin to be taken away from the world? Great
numbers of persons have never recognized the question because they have
not recognized the reality and the evil of sin. But that is the
question of mankind, because that is man’s fundamental problem. Answer
that problem and the key to life and happiness in the universe has been
provided. Until the problem of the presence of sin has been solved
death and all that is associated in any way with death will remain the
victor. Now, into this dark plight of man has come the redeemer, Christ
the Lord, and he arrived with the answer. He is one of us, a man in
every way except that no sin could ever possibly touch him. A man like
us, he is a divine person who with his human nature was able to grapple
with our old enemy and defeat it. He grappled with the sin of the world
by embracing in a spirit of obedience its result which was death. By
dying in obedience he destroyed our death and won for us the grace to
combat and overcome its cause, which is sin. Just as the presence of
sin and death in every man and woman a mystery, so is its remedy. The
remedy is Christ’s obedient death on our behalf. He suffered and died
for us, and by this means paid the price for our redemption. Our Lord
repeatedly told his disciples that he, the Messiah, had to suffer and
to die, and then to rise again. He told them that the Scriptures
foretold this, and it is not hard finding this teaching in the
Scriptures in one form or another. The Liturgy of the Word of the
Easter Vigil Mass (Luke 24:1-12) gives us portions of
it.
Imagine going
through the sadness and loss of a most loved one dying, and then having
that same loved one return from the grave never to die again, but to be
in one’s company unceasingly from then on! That was the experience of
our Lord’s disciples, but there was this difference. By their union
with the risen Jesus in faith and love they were granted the gift of
his Holy Spirit, the third divine person. It was by the power of this
Holy Spirit that Christ had offered himself up as a victim for our
deliverance, and it was by the power of this same Spirit that he rose
from death in his humanity to an unending life. This same Holy Spirit
is his gift to us on rising from the dead and returning to his Father.
All who receive this gift receive the gift of holiness and of life. By
receiving the Holy Spirit at our baptism we receive the means of
overcoming sin and of living a new life which will never come to an
end, because it is a share in Christ’s risen life. Christ is the lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world, and he did so by dying on
the Cross and rising from the dead. Today we celebrate his rising from
the dead, showing his victory over sin and over the result of sin which
is death. If we unite ourselves to him in faith and love, embracing
baptism and membership in the Church his body, and living accordingly,
then in him we too will be victorious over sin and death. That is the
answer to the problem of mankind. Christ is the answer to man’s
fundamental need. If we live with him and die with him then we shall
rise and reign with him. So let us resolve to renounce sin and to know
Christ and love him with all our heart, for Christ is really all we
need. If we have him, and if in everything that we do we have him and
live in him, then we have all. If we do not have him, and if in
everything that we do we lack him, then we remain in our sins and our
fundamental plight remains. On this night and on this day when we
relive our Lord’s rising from the dead, let us renew our conviction
that Jesus Christ is Lord, and as Lord he is the answer and the hope of
every man and of the entire world.
Let us resolve to
take our stand with Christ and to accept his offer of friendship with
him. He calls us not his servants, but his friends and disciples, and
he wants to share with each of us life in abundance, his own divine
life. Let us then renew our baptismal promises to renounce sin and
Satan utterly, and let us profess and resolve to live our Catholic
faith fully. It will mean the Cross, but it is this which will take us
to glory with Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“Darkness
is not dark for you, and night shines as the day” (Psalm 138,12)
St Augustine (354-430),
bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and doctor of the Church (2nd Homily for the Holy
Night)
We, who are mortal, need to sleep to
restore our strength and therefore interrupt our life with this image
of death that leaves us at least some scraps of life. In the same way
all those who live in chastity, innocence and fervor prepare for
themselves the life of angels; in exchange for this burden of death,
they will receive grace in the eternal life...Now, my brothers, listen
to these few words I want to tell you about this coming night we are
going to live...
Our Lord Jesus Christ has been raised
from the dead on the third day: no Christian doubts about this. The
Holy Gospels testify that this event occurred during this night...It is
not from light to darkness but from darkness to light that we struggle
to come out. The apostle Paul warns us: “the night is advanced, the day
is at hand. Let us throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor
of light” (Rom 13,12)...This is why we will stay up this night when the
Lord was raised and when he started in his flesh the life of which I
talked to you before, the life that has no death nor sleep. And the
flesh that he raised from the tomb will not die anymore, and will not
fall under the laws of death anymore.
The women that loved him came at dawn to
visit his tomb; instead of finding his body, they heard the voice of
angels announcing his resurrection. No doubt then that he was raised
the night before this dawn. In this way, the one of whom we celebrate
the resurrection in our long vigils will make us reign with him in an
everlasting life. And even if, at the time we were on watch, his body
were in the tomb and would not have been raised yet, our watch would
still have all its meaning, because he slept so that we may be
awakened, he died so that we may live.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Will-power.
A very important quality. Don't despise little things, for by the
continual practice of denying yourself again and again in such things —
which are never futile or trivial — with God's grace you will add
strength and resilience to your character. In that way you will first
become master of yourself, and then a guide, a chief, a leader: to
compel and to urge and to inspire others, with your word, with your
example, with your knowledge and with your power.
(The Way,
no.19)
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How is a moral conscience formed to be
upright and truthful?
An upright and true moral conscience is formed by education and by
assimilating the Word of God and the teaching of the Church. It is
supported by the gifts of the Holy Spirit and helped by the advice of
wise people. Prayer and an examination of conscience can also greatly
assist one’s moral formation. (CCC 1783-1788, 1799-1800)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.374)
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Monday
in the Octave of Easter II
(April 9) Today let us think of St Waldeatrudis
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Acts 2:14,
22-33; Psalm 16:1-2a and 5,
7-11; Matthew 28:8-15
Mary Magdalene and
the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed,
and ran to announce the news to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met
them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet,
and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell
my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” While they
were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief
priests all that had happened. The chief priests assembled with the
elders and took counsel; then they gave a large sum of money to the
soldiers, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night
and stole him while we were asleep.’ And if this gets to the ears of
the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” The
soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story
has circulated among the Jews to the present day. (Matthew 28:8-15)
If you would like
to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's
Gospel, click here
Years ago one very
prominent Australian politician was asked if he regarded himself as a
Christian, and he replied that he looked on himself rather as a
fellow-traveler of Christianity. He explained that inasmuch as
acceptance of the resurrection of Christ was the pivotal issue he did
not regard himself as a Christian because he did not accept that Christ
rose from the dead. It is a pity the politician did not go on to explain why he did
not accept the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection. He was a very
intelligent man and he certainly understood the basic issue in the
Christian faith. Acceptance of the resurrection of Christ from the dead
is the critical point of belief and if one does not accept this then
one is certainly not a Christian. Islam does not accept that Christ
rose from the dead - and indeed, many Muslims do not accept that he
died on the Cross, presumably because it would imply that he rose from
the dead if he had so died. Within certain Christian theological
circles there have been various attempts to make the doctrine of the
Resurrection more accommodating and understandable to ordinary reason
and human experience. The result has often been a loss of the full
truth of Christ having risen in all his human and bodily reality from
the dead. The Gospel accounts make it very clear that Christ’s
disciples knew they were not just imagining that he was back with them.
He was not just present in his spirit in, say, the way Samuel was
called up from the dead to speak with Saul. In our Gospel passage today
Jesus met two of the women: “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went
away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce
the news to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and
greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.
Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go
to Galilee, and there they will see me.” (Matthew
28:8-15)
Of course, our Lord
did not rise from the dead in exactly the same sense that some of those
in the Gospels rose from the dead after having been raised to life by
Christ himself. The little girl who was raised to life by our Lord went
on to live her life, and perhaps she lived on to an advanced age. We
know nothing about her, not even her name. The young man who was the
son of the widow of Nain went on to live out his life after having been
raised by Christ from the dead. Our Lord raised his friend Lazarus from
the dead after his having been in the grave for four days. He would
have lived many years after that. But then they all died because they
had been brought back to nothing other than the life they had been
living before death. The remainder of their lives, thus restored to
them, would have had its same challenges and difficulties. Above all
the task of growing in holiness of life remained before them, and they
still could have either saved or lost their souls. But the life
Christ rose to in his full human, bodily and personal reality was
a glorified life, never to end. It was the life of heaven. It is this
glorified Jesus, the same Jesus in all his prior identity with body,
soul, humanity and divinity, whom his disciples so joyfully met, felt,
heard and conversed with. It brought them unending joy and certainty in
all the trials that would befall them. It is this same risen life which
Christ gives to his disciples through baptism. It is this certain
conviction of the resurrection of Christ, of Christ as alive in his
total reality, which with the help of the Holy Spirit the mature
Christian has attained. By contrast there are those who have never
considered the resurrection, and those who have rejected it. We can
never judge the motives for this rejection, but one set of motives is
decidedly unworthy and self-condemnatory - those we see portrayed in
the chief priests of our Gospel passage today.
We who are
disciples of Christ are called to bear witness to the resurrection, and
to the fact that Jesus the Lord is alive. He lives, he is the Lord, and
he offers a share in his risen life to the world. Let us work at so
growing in our faith as to be worthy witness of this in our everyday
life.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“Jesus
met them on their way and greeted them” (Matthew 28:8-15)
Saint John Chrysostom
(about 345-407), bishop and doctor of the Church (Homily on the Great
Saturday, 10-12)
“Come and see the place where he lay”
(Mt 28,6)...Come and see the place where the act that guarantees your
resurrection was composed. Come and see the place where death was
buried. Come and see the place where a body, a seed not sowed by man,
produced a multitude of spikes for eternal life...”Go tell my brothers
to go to Galilee, and they will see me. Tell my disciples the mysteries
you have seen.”
This is what the Lord told the women.
And now once again, he stands at the edge of the baptismal pool,
invisible, near the faithful, he hugs the newly baptized as his friends
and brothers...He fills their hearts and their souls with jubilation
and joy. He washes their sins in the fountains of his grace. He anoints
with the perfume of the Spirit those who have been regenerated. The
Lord becomes the one who feeds them and he becomes their food. He
provides for his servants their part of spiritual nourishment. He tells
all the faithful: “Take and eat the bread from heaven, receive the
source that comes out from my side, the one from which one can always
draw without it ever drying up. You who hunger, satisfy your hunger;
you who thirst, get drunk with a sober and healthy wine”.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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It is
inevitable that you should feel the rub of other people's characters
against your own. After all, you are not a gold coin that everyone
likes.
Besides, without that friction produced by contact with others, how
would you ever lose those corners, those edges and projections — the
imperfections and defects — of your character, and acquire the smooth
and regular finish, the firm flexibility of charity, of perfection?
If your character and the characters of those who live with you were
soft and sweet like sponge-cake you would never become a saint.
(The Way,
no.20)
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What norms must conscience always
follow?
There are three general norms: 1) one may never do evil so that good
may result from it; 2) the so-called Golden Rule, “Whatever you wish
that men would do to you, do so to them” (Matthew 7:12); 3) charity
always proceeds by way of respect for one’s neighbor and his
conscience, even though this does not mean accepting as good something
that is objectively evil. (CCC 1789)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.375)
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Tuesday
in the Octave of Easter II
(April 10) Today let us think of St. Fulbert
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Acts
2:36-41; Psalm 33:4-5, 18-19, 20
and
22; John
20:11-18
Mary Magdalene
stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she
bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one
at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And
they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They
have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had
said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it
was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you
looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if
you carried him away,tell me where you laid
him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her,
“Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means
Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet
ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am
going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary went
and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then
reported what he had told her. (John 20:11-18)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
Religion has taken
numerous forms in the history of mankind with its
rituals and myths and stories. Our Gospel text for today is surely one
of the very beautiful scenes of the Gospel, and it carries us into the
heart of Christianity, reminding us of its essence. It places us before
the tomb of Jesus, on the morning of the third day following his death.
His disciples are absolutely devastated. They loved him and all their
religious hopes were
centered on him. He was the Messiah, and a Messiah
far beyond their expectations. Yet in their eyes all had suddenly come
to nothing, for he, the one they so loved and utterly admired, now lay
dead in the tomb. He had gone, and this sense of total loss is
encapsulated in the weeping figure of Mary Magdalene who with some
other women had lovingly accompanied him and the Twelve on mission
ministering to them in the various ways she could. She was one of the
women who, together with his mother, and his
mother’s sister Mary the wife of
Clopas, had followed him as he carried his cross
to Calvary. She must have been very close to Mary the mother of the
Lord.
But look at what happens now! The angels at the tomb speak to Mary, and
she “turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking
for?’ She thought it was the gardener and said to him, ‘Sir, if you
carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.’
Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew,
‘Rabbouni,’ which means Teacher” (John 20:11-18). I like to think that a wonderful
smile was on the face of Jesus as he pronounced Mary’s name to her,
allowing her to recognize him as the same, but now risen, Jesus. The
joy that flooded into her soul was immense, a joy which Christ himself
experienced at being once again with his friends and disciples.
A favourite cry of
Islam is that there is no god but God. Jesus Christ
is the one and only God, but to be distinguished from two other divine
persons who are also the same one and only God, namely the Father and
the
Holy Spirit. On this occasion of our Gospel text today, our Lord refers
to the Father when he tells Mary Magdalene to go to his “brothers” and
tell them the good news that he has risen. “Jesus said to her, ‘Stop
holding on to me,
for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and
tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your
God.’ Mary went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord,
and then reported what he had told her” (John 20:11-18).
Christianity
is a religion of mutual love between Christ who is our God, and his
disciples. This holy love that unites Christ and each of his disciples
is of the essence of the Christian religion, and in loving Christ we
are immediately taken to the Father in the Holy Spirit. However, while
the Christian religion is a matter between Christ and me, it is not
just a matter between Christ and me. Also included are his “brothers”.
We, his “brothers”, are all together in this faith and love for Jesus,
and just as Mary was sent to tell his “brothers” of the news that the
Lord had risen, so his “brothers” will be sent to the world to make
disciples of all the nations. That is to say, the Christian religion
involves the Church which is Christ’s body. We are all in Christ as a
body, we live in him together. We come to Christ in and through his
“brothers”, who are his body the Church. Our life is a life of love for
Jesus who has loved us and died for us, and this life is lived out in
union with his “brothers”, who make up his Church. We are called to be
loving disciples of Christ immersed in the Church he founded. Just as
we love Christ, we ought love his holy Catholic Church, as he did.
Let us linger in
our Gospel scene today thinking of the joyful love
which our Lord showed towards one of his most ardent disciples. That
same smile which we may imagine on the face of Christ as he showed
himself to Mary Magdalene he shows to each of us and to all his
“brothers”. He sends us all on mission in our everyday life to bring
the news of his risen person to the world around us.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“Have you seen him whom my
heart loves?” (Song of Songs
3,3)
St Ambrose (about 340-397), bishop of Milan and doctor of the Church
(Treatise on
Virginity 17-21)
“Why are you weeping?” You are the
cause of your tears, you are the one who makes yourself cry...You cry
because you do not believe in Christ: believe and you will see him.
Christ is there; he never misses out those who look for him. “Why are
you weeping?” Tears don't serve you any good; you need to have faith, a
live faith, and worthy of God. Do not think about mortal things and you
will stop crying...Why shall you be crying for what rejoices others?
“Whom are you looking for?” Can't you
see that Christ is the strength of God, that Christ is the wisdom of
God, that Christ is holiness, that Christ is chastity, that Christ is
purity, that Christ was born of a Virgin, that Christ comes from the
Father and is with the Father and is always in the Father; born and
therefore not created, not rejected but always loved, true God from
true God? “They have taken my Lord and I don't know where they laid
him” You are mistaken, woman; you think that Christ has been taken away
from the tomb by others and you do not believe that he has risen by his
own power. But nobody can take away the power of God, nobody takes away
the wisdom of God, nobody can take away his venerable chastity. Christ
is not taken away from the tomb of the just man nor from the intimacy
of the virgin and from the secrecy of his faithful soul; and even if
there were someone who wanted to take him away, they could not take him
away.
So the Lord tells her: “Mary, look at
me”. As long as she does not believe, she is called “a woman”; when she
begins to turn towards him she is called “Mary”. She receives the same
name of the one who gave birth to Christ; for it is the soul that
spiritually gives birth to Christ. “Look at me”, he says. Who looks at
Christ, corrects himself; we lose our way when we do not look at
Christ. Therefore, as she turns around, she sees him and says:
“Rabbouni, which means Teacher”. The one who looks, turns around; the
one who turns around, is able to seize better; the one who sees,
progresses. This is why she calls “Teacher” the one she thought was
dead; she found the one she thought was lost.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Excuses.
You will always find plenty if you want to avoid your
obligations. What a profusion of well-thought-out nonsense!
Don't stop to consider it. Dismiss it and do your duty.
(The Way,
no.21)
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Can a moral conscience make erroneous judgments?
A person must always obey the certain judgment of his own conscience
but he could make erroneous judgments for reasons that may not always
exempt him from personal guilt. However, an evil act committed through
involuntary ignorance is not imputable to the person, even though the
act remains objectively evil. One must therefore work to correct the
errors of moral conscience. (CCC 1790-1794, 1801-1802)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.376)
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Wednesday
in the Octave of Easter II
(April 11) St
Stanislaus, bishop and martyr (1030-1097). Born in Poland about
the year 1030, he studied at Paris, became a priest and in 1071
succeeded Lambert as the Bishop of Cracow, Poland. A champion of the
liberty of the Church and of the dignity of man, he defended the lonely
and the poor. When he reproached King Boleslaw II for his immoral life,
the king himself killed him during Mass. He is the patron saint of
Poland.
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Acts
3:1-10; Psalm 105:1-2, 3-4, 6-7,
8-9; Luke 24:13-35
That very day, the
first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village
seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing
about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they
were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with
them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked
them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped,
looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things
that have taken place there in these days?” And he replied to them,
“What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to
Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before
God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed
him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping
that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is
now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group,
however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his Body; they came back and reported that they
had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as
the women had described, but him they did not see.” And he said to
them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer
these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and
all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all
the Scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were
going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they
urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is
almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that,
while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and
they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said
to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to
us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once
and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the Eleven
and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised
and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place
on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the
bread.
(Luke 24:13-35)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on the Gospel for
today, click here
Clearly, one of the
ways of arriving at certain knowledge is by faith. Another is by
“reason”, if by reason we mean the various forms of demonstration such
as by deduction or induction. By “faith” we generally mean that we
place our trust in the word of another, and if the faith is well placed
it is because the authority of that person is trustworthy. We are
continually doing this in life, and society could not possibly function
were it not for the legitimacy of faith as a source of certain
knowledge. For instance, countless people are continually relying on the diagnosis
of qualified medical professionals, and submitting to the surgical
intervention of specialists in order to deal with life-threatening
conditions. They have placed their trust in the word of those they know
have the authority to pronounce. The certain knowledge they have as a
result would be utterly beyond them were they to rely solely on their
own power to demonstrate the matter by induction or deduction. Faith
has led them to knowledge and health and even life. If faith is
necessary for ordinary living, how much more is it necessary for
religion and for the knowledge of things divine! How could the average
person ever hope to gain a knowledge of things divine just by a process
of personal reasoning without any reliance on authority? Furthermore,
inasmuch as great minds profoundly differ on matters religious, this
difference alone shows how erroneous the greatest of minds can be if
all they do is engage in personal demonstration to attain truth, and
exclude faith. The point here is that faith is absolutely necessary if
we are to get on in life, and most of all if we are to get on in a
religious life. A reluctance to believe will lead to nowhere. Of
course, one’s belief must be well placed, and those who have religious
belief must strive to ensure that their religious belief is actually
taking them to the truth. It could be landing them in abiding and
profound error. It all hinges on whether the authority on which we rely
is utterly trustworthy.
In our Gospel today
two of our Lord’s disciples are with heavy hearts making their way
together to the village of Emmaus, on the third day after his
crucifixion. They were joined by the risen Jesus, but for whatever
reason they were unable to recognize him. Our Lord drew them out and
they told him how they “were hoping that he would be the one to redeem
Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took
place.” Their faith in him as the promised Messiah had been shattered
because of “how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a
sentence of death and crucified him.“ Jesus had been rejected and put
to death - which is to say, nothing had come of their hopes at all.
Now, what did our Lord reprove them for? He reproved them for their
lack of faith: “And he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are! How slow
of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary
that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them
what referred to him in all the Scriptures.” (Luke
24:13-35).
They had been “foolish” and “slow of heart to believe”, and this was
blameworthy because it was unjustified and had led to their present
plight. Everything pivoted around a readiness to believe, because there
was every reason to believe. That there had indeed been every reason to
believe our Lord made clear by “beginning with Moses and all the
prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the
Scriptures.” Our Lord did not accuse them of bad will - they were
foolish and slow. Above all they had known him and this, together with
the teaching of the Scriptures, ought to have been entirely sufficient.
Our Lord’s authority was entirely trustworthy, and soon he would send
the Spirit to confirm it all again.
Let us recognize
how fundamental is the act of faith. We believe in one God the Father
almighty, and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord who was born of the
virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, died, was buried, and rose
triumphant from the grave. We place our faith in the person of Jesus
and in his word, and his person and his word is brought to us by the
Church his body and his oracle. For this reason we believe too the
testimony of the Church as being entirely trustworthy. Let us guard and
live by our faith, and bring this same faith to others.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“He
took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With
that their eyes were opened”
(Luke 24:13-35) John
Paul II (Apostolic Letter “Mane Nobiscum Domine”
for the Year of the Eucharist, §2,11-12)
The image of the disciples on the way to
Emmaus can serve as a fitting guide for a Year when the Church will be
particularly engaged in living out the mystery of the Holy Eucharist.
Amid our questions and difficulties, and even our bitter
disappointments, the divine Wayfarer continues to walk at our side,
opening to us the Scriptures and leading us to a deeper understanding
of the mysteries of God. When we meet him fully, we will pass from the
light of the Word to the light streaming from the “Bread of life”, the
supreme fulfilment of his promise to “be with us always, to the end of
the age” (cf. Mt 28:20)...
The account of the Risen Jesus appearing
to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus helps us to focus on a
primary aspect of the Eucharistic mystery, one which should always be
present in the devotion of the People of God: The Eucharist is a
mystery of light! ...Jesus described himself as the “light of the
world” (Jn 8:12), and this quality clearly appears at those moments in
his life, like the Transfiguration and the Resurrection, in which his
divine glory shines forth brightly. Yet in the Eucharist the glory of
Christ remains veiled. The Eucharist is pre-eminently a mysterium
fidei. Through the mystery of his complete hiddenness, Christ becomes a
mystery of light, thanks to which believers are led into the depths of
the divine life...
The Eucharist is light above all
because at every Mass the liturgy of the Word of God precedes the
liturgy of the Eucharist in the unity of the two “tables”, the table of
the Word and the table of the Bread...In the account of the disciples
on the road to Emmaus, Christ himself intervenes to show, “beginning
with Moses and all the prophets”, how “all the Scriptures” point to the
mystery of his person (cf. Lk 24:27). His words make the hearts of the
disciples “burn” within them, drawing them out of the darkness of
sorrow and despair, and awakening in them a desire to remain with him:
“Stay with us, Lord” (cf. v. 29).
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Be firm. Be virile. Be a man.
And then... be a saint.
(The Way,
no.22)
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What is a virtue?
A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. “The goal
of a virtuous life is to become like God” (Saint Gregory of Nyssa).
There are human virtues and theological virtues. (CCC 1803, 1833)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.377)
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Thursday
in the Octave of Easter II
(April 12) Today let us think of St Julius I
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Acts
3:11-26; Psalm 8:2ab and 5, 6-7,
8-9; Luke 24:35-48
The disciples of
Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way, and how they had
come to recognize him in the breaking of bread. While they were still
speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace
be with you.” But they were startled and terrified and thought that
they were seeing a ghost. Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my
feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not
have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” And as he said this, he
showed them his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous
for joy and were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to
eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in
front of them. He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you
while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he
opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them,
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead
on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from
Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:35-48)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
One of the
characteristics of some of the more influential currents of modern
philosophy is their insistence that any assertion be empirically
verifiable. If it cannot be proved or disproved empirically - which is
to say by tests that directly satisfy the senses - then it is not
admissible in serious and enlightened discourse. Of course, the obvious
retort to this dogma is that it itself requires justification, and that it flies in the face of the
religious voice of mankind. Be that as it may, the distinguishing
feature of the Christian religion is that God has chosen to subject
important elements of the religion he has revealed to this very test.
The core doctrine of Christianity is that Christ rose from the dead in
all his human reality, but glorified. What happened then? He subjected
his risen reality to empirical tests to be administered by those who
were not expecting what they were suddenly confronted with. Our Gospel
report of today is a case in point. The risen Jesus stood in the midst
of his startled and terrified disciples and proceeded to prove that he
was there before them in all his physical reality. They actually saw
him before them. They heard his voice. They actually touched and felt
him in such a way that there was no mistake. He showed them his wounds.
He sat down and started eating. (Luke 24:35-48) They were not observing
a phantom, nor some startling product of their imagination. He had real
flesh and real bones. There was a solid reality before them which was
just as resistant, accessible, and tangible as anything else of their
constant experience. If his risen reality was to be doubted then
everything else about their material surroundings was to be doubted and
this experience of him was not just of one or even two of them but of
all of them. Their encounter with the risen Jesus had been entirely
verified empirically.
The difference, of
course, is that while the risen Jesus is truly bodily and tangible,
being now glorified he is not bound to the limitations of his previous
- and our present - bodily condition. His physical condition is
entirely subject to his spirit. So as we see in the Gospels as risen he
can appear and disappear at will, and in any case he dwells now both at
the right hand of the Father and in the life of the Church,
particularly in the Eucharist. But it is the same Jesus who rose from
the dead and who showed himself to his disciples repeatedly prior to
his ascension to his heavenly Father. If the person who refuses belief
in Christianity demands that he himself be granted the privilege of
seeing, touching and hearing Jesus before he deigns to allow the
Christian claim that Christ rose, then this is manifestly unreasonable.
It would preclude the acceptance of all other things in experience the
news of which comes from the testimony of others. In any case, we
remember that this was the exact position of Thomas, one of the Twelve.
He was not with the others when Jesus appeared to them, and he refused
to believe. He required a personal viewing before he would entertain
any possibility of accepting their testimony. Christ obliged and
provided him with all the empirical tests he required. Thomas saw,
heard, touched and felt the risen Jesus, and immediately proceeded to
acknowledge Jesus not only as risen from the dead, but as being God
himself. “My Lord and my God”, Thomas could only say. This we read in
another Gospel from that of today. So then, when we pray to Jesus, let
us constantly remember that he is real, solid, tangible, though not
seen. When we gaze upon the Tabernacle remembering the Real Presence
within the Tabernacle, and when we receive the Eucharistic Jesus in
Holy Communion at Mass, let us remember that the one before us is the
risen Jesus, there before us in all his human, divine and risen
reality.
Christ Jesus is
risen from the dead. He is Lord. All authority has been given to him.
He asks of his disciples in every generation that they embark on each
day’s work with the ambition of serving him and of bearing witness to
the resurrection before the world around them. It is by their bearing
this daily witness that the world will come to know Christ and the
power of his resurrection.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“Look
at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me” (Luke 24:35-48)
St Cyril of Alexandria
(380-444), bishop, doctor of the Church (Commentary on John,
12)
Saint Matthew, in his Gospel, writes
that Christ took Peter, James and John, led them up a high mountain and
was transfigured before them: his face shone like the sun and his
clothes became white as light. But, since they were not able to bear
such a vision, they fell prostrate (Mt 17,1s). This is why, in order to
conform himself in everything to the Father's plan, at the Cenacle our
Lord Jesus appeared still under the appearance he had before, and not
according to the glory owed to him and that suits the Temple of his
transfigured body. He did not want that faith in resurrection be based
on other aspects or on a different body than the one he had received
from the Virgin Mary and with which he had died on a cross, according
to the Scriptures. In fact, death had no power over him, except on his
body, from which death was to be chased away. For, if his dead body had
not been raised, where would this death that has been defeated be?
...He couldn't have been nor just a soul, nor an angel, not even only
the Word of God...
Moreover, the fact that the Lord came,
although the doors were locked, anybody who is sensible will count this
too as a proof of his resurrection. He greets his disciples with these
words: “Peace be with you”, revealing in this way that he himself is
peace. For those to whom he appears, receive from him a perfectly
soothed and peaceful spirit. This is certainly what Paul wished to his
faithful when he said: “May the peace of God that surpasses all
understanding guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ” (Phil 4,7).
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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You say that you can't do more?
Could it not be that... you can't do less?
(The Way,
no.23)
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What are the human
virtues?
The human virtues are habitual and stable perfections of the intellect
and will that govern our actions, order our passions and guide our
conduct according to reason and faith. They are acquired and
strengthened by the repetition of morally good acts and they are
purified and elevated by divine grace. (CCC 1804, 1810-1811, 1834, 1839)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.378)
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Friday
in the Octave of Easter II
(April 13) Saint
Martin, Pope and Martyr. Born at Todi in Umbria, he joined the
diocese of Rome and in the year 649 was elected Pope. That same year he
presided over the Council that condemned the heresy of the
Monothelites. In 653 he was seized by the Emperor Constans and taken to
Constantinople where he was treated harshly; he then was moved to
Kherson in the Crimea where he died in 656.
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Acts
4:1-12; Psalm 118:1-2 and 4, 22-24,
25-27a; John 21:1-14
Jesus revealed
himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed
himself in this way. Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus,
Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his
disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to
him, “We also will come with you.” So they went out and got into the
boat, but that night they caught nothing. When it was already dawn,
Jesus was standing on the shore; but the disciples did not realize that
it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything
to eat?” They answered him, “No.” So he said to them, “Cast the net
over the right side of the boat and you will find something.” So they
cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish.
So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” When
Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tucked in his garment, for
he was lightly clad, and jumped into the sea. The other disciples came
in the boat, for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred
yards, dragging the net with the fish. When they climbed out on shore,
they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread. Jesus said to them,
“Bring some of the fish you just caught.” So Simon Peter went over and
dragged the net ashore full of one hundred fifty-three large fish. Even
though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them,
“Come, have breakfast.” And none of the disciples dared to ask him,
“Who are you?” because they realized it was the Lord. Jesus came over
and took the bread and gave it to them, and in like manner the fish.
This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples after
being raised from the dead. (John 21:1-14)
If you wish
to view
a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click
here
Once again, on this
day within the octave of the Resurrection, the Church places before our
prayerful consideration a scene from the Gospels in which the risen
Jesus appears before his disciples. When we compare these scenes with,
say, any scene of the Old Testament, is there anything like it? Try to think
of any vision of someone from the dead in the Old Testament and ask
yourself if there is any comparison? We might
think of Saul approaching the fortune teller before his last battle,
and asking that she conjure Samuel up from the dead, and then speaking
to Samuel who rises from Hades to speak to him briefly. There is no
comparison between that and our Gospel scene today. Try to think of any
scene in world literature or historical writing which purports to
describe encounters with those who have died. There is no comparison
between them and our scene today. There is the risen Christ on the
shore at dawn watching the disciples in the boat. Then he calls out to
them, directing them to a huge catch. There is not the slightest doubt
in the minds of the disciples (after John recognized the Lord) that it
was he who was there, alive and real. It was no ghost, no spirit from
the dead, no mere image. But while the disciples knew it was he, there
was a mysterious difference - and it was a considerable one - in him.
He was glorified and transformed, and yet “none of the disciples dared
to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ because they realized it was the Lord.” Our
Lord was living a new life, one that transcended the limitations of his
human life prior to his passion and death, and this new life added an
elevated difference to his aspect because of the indescribable
transformation of his resurrection.
Our Lord comes
across in our scene as so very human, so very much part of our ordinary
life still. He prepares and offers them breakfast just as he
might have during his public ministry. “When they climbed out on shore,
they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread. Jesus said to them,
‘Bring some of the fish you just caught.’ So Simon Peter went over and
dragged the net ashore full of one hundred fifty-three large fish. Even
though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them,
‘Come, have breakfast’.”
(John 21:1-14) He is present in their
ordinary activities, close to them in their needs. He assists them,
showing them consideration in little ways. He is not gone from them as
are the dead, no. He has re-entered their lives and he now means to
stay with them forever, though he will not normally be seen. What is
Jesus now like? Our Gospel scene today narrating Christ standing on the
shore, calling to his disciples, helping them succeed in their fishing,
preparing breakfast for them when they disembark and being their
friend, drawing them into his ongoing mission, all of this describes
what Jesus is now like. This is what the resurrection means - it means
that Jesus our friend and master, our brother, our redeemer and our
God, is with us still. He did not die and just go to heaven in his
spirit like any one of many great saints. No, he rose physically from
the dead and is constantly with us sharing with us his own risen life
through the Sacraments, through the ministry of the Church and through
our own lives of prayer and religious living. This immortal life which
he is manifestly living in the Gospel scene of today we now share in as
a result of our baptism. We know this life of his will grow within our
hearts if we live the life of grace. He is our risen Lord, our joy for
all ages.
What joy could
compare with that which the disciples experienced while on the shore
with Jesus serving them breakfast? Let us pray for the grace to be
utterly convinced of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that he is
living and real, that he is present in our everyday lives just as he
was in the lives of each of the disciples of our Gospel scene
today. To use the words of Cardinal Newman during the nineteenth
century, the doctrine of the resurrection must be for us not just a
notion but a realization. We must apprehend it not just as an idea but
as a reality.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“When
it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore” (John 21:1-14)
Hymn for the Evening Prayer of the Octave of Easter (Ad coenam agni providi)
(Latin Liturgy)
Called
to the wedding feast of the Lamb (Rev 19,9)
And clothed with a gown of
light,
We have just crossed the water
of the Red Sea (Ex 14)
Let us sing to Christ, who
opens the way for us.
He, whose body is covered with
glory,
He sacrificed himself on the
altar of the cross
He shed his blood for the life
of the world
By drinking it, we live in his
love.
The night of the Passover,
protected
From the striking of the
exterminating angel (Ex 12,13)
He rescued all of us from
servitude,
The water was then divided
under our feet.
Today, our Passover is Christ
himself (1 Cor 5,7)
He is the paschal lamb
sacrificed for our sins
He gave us his flesh to eat,
The very pure bread, the
genuine unleavened bread.
He is the only true worthy
victim
By whom Hell has been destroyed
He frees the whole earth kept
prisoner
He gives it back the goods of
life.
Jesus Christ rises from the tomb
He returns winner over Hell
He puts in chains the tyrants
and chases away darkness
And opens for us the doors of
heaven.
Glory to you, o Christ our
Savior,
For today you triumph over the
dead.
Glory to the Father and to the
Holy Spirit that enlightens us.
You who reign forever and ever.
Amen. Alleluia!
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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You are ambitious: for
knowledge, for leadership, for great ventures.
Good. Very good. But let it be for Christ, for Love.
(The Way,
no.24)
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What are the principal human virtues?
The principal human virtues are called the cardinal virtues, under
which all the other virtues are grouped and which are the hinges of a
virtuous life. The cardinal virtues are: prudence, justice, fortitude,
and temperance. (CCC 1805, 1834)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.379)
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Saturday
in the Octave of Easter II
(April 14) Today let us think of Saints Tiburtius, Valerian &
Maximus
(Saints)
Scripture today: Acts
4:13-21; Psalm 118:1 and 14-15ab,
16-18, 19-21; Mark 16:9-15
When Jesus had
risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary
Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told
his companions who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that he
was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After this he
appeared in another form to two of them walking along on their way to
the country. They returned and told the others; but they did not
believe them either. But later, as the Eleven were at table, he
appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of
heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been
raised. He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the
Gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:9-15)
If
you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on
today's Gospel, click here
(If
you wish to watch this on YouTube, click here)
It would be an
interesting exercise to investigate whether at the origins of any
particular religion - I repeat, at its very origins - there was a
stipulation to bring the religion to every single person in the world.
I am not aware that, for instance, Zoroaster, nor Buddha, nor Mahomet,
nor Confucius embarked on such a mission at the very beginning. My
impression is that in those cases where a universalist impulse occurred
it was gradual
development. Whether that is correct or not, the case is certainly
different with revealed religion. Abraham was told by God that through
him all the tribes of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12), and the
fulfilment of this is seen in the risen Jesus. The Gospels indicate
that as soon as Christ had risen from the dead he entrusted a universal
mission to his disciples. It was an essential part of the package right
from the beginning. He did not simply rise from the dead and rejoice at
his reunion with his disciples, exhorting them to be faithful to all he
had taught them. No, he immediately gave them what was humanly an
impossible task, that of bringing his person and his teaching to every
person in the world. As we read in today’s Gospel, he said to them, “Go
into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:9-15)
They were to make disciples of all the nations. The whole world was to
be brought to acknowledge the risen Jesus as Lord, and to live
accordingly. Very clearly, this apostolic spirit was an essential
element in being a disciple of the risen Jesus. Every one who comes to
belief in Jesus receives his command to bring the news of him as having
risen from the dead, with all that this implies, to others.
But from the
beginning too there was the issue of unbelief. Our Lord’s very
disciples did not believe the testimony of those who had seen and
spoken with him. Our Gospel of today refers to his appearing to Mary
Magdalene (described more fully in, say, St John’s Gospel), and how she
went to the others to tell them that he was alive and that she had seen
him. But, we read, “when they heard that he was alive and had been seen
by her, they did not believe.” The same thing occurred again, for our
text tells us that “after this he appeared in another form to two of
them walking along on their way to the country. They returned and told
the others; but they did not believe them either.” Now, when we read
this we may be inclined to think that all this skepticism was natural
and even healthy, and that the modern reluctance to believe the Gospel
accounts is to be expected of any careful thinker. But what was our
Lord’s reaction to their refusal to believe the testimony of those who
had seen him? Did he think it was a natural and even commendable
caution at hearing possibly excited and unbalanced imaginings? What
does our text tell us? “But later, as the Eleven were at table, he
appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of
heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been
raised” (Mark 16:9-15). Behind the unbelief of the disciples of our
Lord himself was a hardness of heart - our Lord does not say bad will -
that was blameworthy. Our Lord was not pleased by their refusal to
believe those who had seen him and who had brought to them news of it.
Let us recognize
within ourselves a hardness of heart that can impede a full life of
faith, which is the foundation of the Christian life. Let us be very
aware of the world’s propensity to refuse belief in the testimony of
the Church, and let us bear witness nevertheless to the risen Jesus in
our daily lives. It is an essential part of the mission and the life of
being a member of the Church and Christ’s disciple.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“Proclaim
the gospel to every creature” (Mark
16:9-15)
Silvan (1866-1938),
orthodox monk (Writings)
Today a hermit, Father T., came to visit
me. Since I knew this man was an ascetic, I thought he liked to talk
about God. I had a long conversation with him and at the end I asked
him to tell me a word so that I could correct my mistakes. He
kept quiet for a moment and then told me: “I perceive some pride in
you. Why do you talk so much about God? The Saints would hide their
love for God in their souls, but they loved to talk about tears.”
Father T...., my soul loves the Lord,
how could I disguise this fire that burns inside of it? How could I
deny the generous gifts of the Lord that have delighted my soul? How
could I forget the blessings of the Lord by which my soul has
discovered God? How could I not speak about God, now that my soul in
his hands? How could I keep quiet about God when day and night my
spirit burns of love for him? Would I therefore be an enemy of tears?
For what reason, Father, do you tell my
soul: “Why do you speak so much about God”? It is because my soul loves
him, and how could I hide the love the Lord has for me? Sure, I am
worthy of the eternal torments, but he has forgiven me and he gave me
his grace that cannot be kept hidden in the soul...Should I tell my
soul: “Keep the words of the Lord to yourself”? But all heavens know
what the Lord has done for me in his mercy; and they will ask me why I
disguised his generous gifts and why I did not talk about them to
others so that all men may love God and find peace in him.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Don't argue. Arguing seldom
brings light, for the light is quenched by passion.
(The Way, no.25)
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What is prudence?
Prudence disposes reason to discern in every circumstance our true good
and to choose the right means for achieving it. Prudence guides the
other virtues by pointing out their rule and measure. (CCC 1806, 1835)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.380)
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Second
Sunday of Easter C (Divine Mercy Sunday)
(April 15) Today let us think of St Anastasia (Saints)
Scripture: Acts
5:12-16; Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24; Revelation 1:9-13,
17-19; John 20:19-31
On the evening of
that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the
disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their
midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he
showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they
saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the
Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he
breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins
you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus
came. So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But
he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I
will not believe.” Now a week later his disciples were again inside and
Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and
stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to
Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and
put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas
answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him,
“Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those
who have not seen and have believed.” Now Jesus did many other signs in
the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But
these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life
in his name. (John 20:19-31)
If you wish to view
a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click
here
I remember years
back watching a television interview with the prominent Australian
philosopher, Peter Singer. As is well known he is a leading exponent of
utilitarianism. He stated that he did not believe that there is a God
because if there were a God he would have done a better job of things.
He was referring to the presence and scale of evil in the world. I
presume Singer had in mind the evils of disease, hunger, natural disasters, wars,
sicknesses of various sorts both physical and mental, and so forth.
These are indeed great evils and it is certainly a great problem for
the reason trying to reconcile the notion of a good God with the
presence of such suffering and evil in our life. I shall not here
comment on the light that revelation has thrown on this problem,
especially that light that comes in the death and resurrection of
Christ. I do say this, though, that when Singer referred to the evils
of the world he would not have had the evil of sin as such in mind, sin
understood as an offense against God. I mention Singer only to advert
to the tendency of the modern mind in relation to sin. I suspect that
when most of us think of the evils of life, few of us would think in
the first instance of the evil of offending God. If you compare say,
the evil of being accidentally killed with the evil of deliberately
offending God in a small or a grave matter, which would you
instinctively think is the greater evil? The greater evil by far is
that of deliberately offending God. Now, what proportion of people
would have the conviction that the worst evil that can be present in
life, the evil above all others which man needs to avoid and be
liberated from, is that of deliberately offending God and of being so
constantly disposed to offend him. Very importantly, God has
revealed that the evil of man sinning is the principal source of all
other evils in our world.
Unless sin is dealt
with no progress is made in being truly free of evil. Now, this is the
evil above all which our Lord came to liberate us from. He is the Lamb
of God who took away the unyielding dominion and absolute necessity of
sin in our life. That is to say, if we approach him in faith for the
gifts which he gained for us by his life and death and resurrection,
the first and greatest gift we receive is the remission of sins and the
power to combat and overcome sin. Sin is the greatest and the root evil
which man and the world suffer from, and that is what God in his mercy
has freed us from. God in his mercy became man in order to suffer and
to die for each of us so as to save us from sin and ultimate death. It
was his greatest act of power and it is this which more than anything
shows that he is almighty. Furthermore, it was this more than anything
else which God did in becoming man that manifested his mercy. It is
because of the mercy of God that we have been granted the Holy Spirit
as his great gift, and because of this gift we can have our sins taken
away and are able to attain holiness of life. We are now not lost in
our sins, but rather can become new and holy, living the life of God
amid the various other evils of the world while transforming them into
stepping stones of holiness. In our Gospel today, on the evening of the
day our Lord rose from the dead our Lord appeared to his apostles and
gave them his great gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit which we in our
turn receive at our baptism and our confirmation. Then, having given
them this divine gift, he immediately gave them the power to take away
sin
(John 20:19-31). The remission of our
sins is the first great manifestation of the mercy of God in the life
of man. Our problem, though, is that we tend not to think of sin as
much of an evil anyway, nor of ourselves as being sinners in need of
the mercy of God.
The difficulty of
modern man is that while he has a lively awareness of the evils in the
world, he tends not to regard sin as such as being one of them. In
effect, he tends not to think of himself as being in much need of being
saved from sin. So in his blindness he feels little genuine need for
Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. Today is Divine Mercy Sunday
when we especially think of the mercy of God as shown in his delivering
us from sin. Let us pray for the grace of a true sense of sin and a
realization of the mercy of God. This mercy is especially active and
available to us in the Sacrament of Penance. Let us approach this great
Sacrament faithfully and regularly, and with great devotion. It is a
great channel of grace and mercy, and it should have a prominent place
in our spiritual life. If it has this, it will a principal means of
attaining holiness.
(E.J.Tyler)
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The weakness of Thomas's faith is a
source of blessing for the Church
John Henry Cardinal
Newman (1801-1890), (PPS II, Sermon 2. "Faith without
Sight")
We must not suppose that St. Thomas
differed greatly from the other apostles. They all, more or less,
mistrusted Christ's promises when they saw him led away to be
crucified. When he was buried, their hopes were buried with him; and
when the news was brought them, that he was risen again, they all
disbelieved it. On his appearing to them, he "upbraided them with their
unbelief and hardness of heart." (Mark 16:14)… Thomas was convinced
latest, because he saw Christ latest. On the other hand, it is certain
that, though he disbelieved the good news of Christ's resurrection at
first, he was no cold-hearted follower of his Lord, as appears from his
conduct on a previous occasion, when he expressed a desire to share
danger, and to suffer with him…: "Let us also go, that we may die with
him." (Jn 11:16)… It was at the instance of Thomas that they hazarded
their lives with their Lord.
St. Thomas then loved his Master, as
became an apostle, and was devoted to his service; but when he saw him
crucified, his faith failed for a season with that of the rest… and
more than the rest. His standing out alone, not against one witness
only, but against his ten fellow disciples, besides Mary Magdalene and
the other women is evidence of this… He seems to have required some
sensible insight into the unseen state, some infallible sign from
heaven, a ladder of angels like Jacob's (Gn 28:12), which would remove
anxiety by showing him the end of the journey at the time he set out.
Some such secret craving after certainty beset him. And a like desire
arose within him on the news of Christ's resurrection.
While our Saviour allowed Thomas his
wish, and satisfied his senses that he was really alive, he accompanied
the permission with a rebuke: "because thou hast seen me, thou hast
believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."…
All his disciples minister to him even in their weaknesses, that so he
may convert them into instruction and comfort for his Church.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Matrimony is a holy sacrament.
When the time comes for you to receive it, ask your spiritual adviser
or your confessor to suggest a suitable book. And you will be better
prepared to bear worthily the burdens of the home.
(The Way,
no.26)
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What is justice?
Justice consists in the firm and constant will to give to others their
due. Justice toward God is called “the virtue of religion.” (CCC 1807,
1836)
(Compendium
of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.381)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Second
Sunday of Easter: Divine Mercy Sunday
Homily of His Holiness
John Paul II (Sunday, 30 April 2000)
Mass in St Peter's Square for the canonization of Sr Mary Faustina
Kowalska
1. "Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia
eius"; "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love
endures for ever" (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the Octave of
Easter, as if receiving from Christ's lips these words of the Psalm;
from the lips of the risen Christ, who bears the great message of
divine mercy and entrusts its ministry to the Apostles in the Upper
Room: "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send
you.... Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they
are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (Jn 20:
21-23).
Before speaking these words, Jesus shows his hands and his side. He
points, that is, to the wounds of the Passion, especially the wound in
his heart, the source from which flows the great wave of mercy poured
out on humanity. From that heart Sr Faustina Kowalska, the blessed whom
from now on we will call a saint, will see two rays of light shining
from that heart and illuminating the world: "The two rays", Jesus
himself explained to her one day, "represent blood and water" (Diary,
Libreria Editrice Vaticana, p. 132).
2. Blood and water! We immediately think of the testimony given by the
Evangelist John, who, when a solider on Calvary pierced Christ's side
with his spear, sees blood and water flowing from it (cf. Jn 19: 34).
Moreover, if the blood recalls the sacrifice of the Cross and the gift
of the Eucharist, the water, in Johannine symbolism, represents not
only Baptism but also the gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 3: 5; 4: 14;
7: 37-39).
Divine Mercy reaches human beings through the heart of Christ
crucified: "My daughter, say that I am love and mercy personified",
Jesus will ask Sr Faustina (Diary, p. 374). Christ pours out this mercy
on humanity though the sending of the Spirit who, in the Trinity, is
the Person-Love. And is not mercy love's "second name" (cf. Dives in
misericordia, n. 7), understood in its deepest and most tender aspect,
in its ability to take upon itself the burden of any need and,
especially, in its immense capacity for forgiveness?
Today my joy is truly great in presenting the life and witness of Sr
Faustina Kowalska to the whole Church as a gift of God for our time. By
divine Providence, the life of this humble daughter of Poland was
completely linked with the history of the 20th century, the century we
have just left behind. In fact, it was between the First and Second
World Wars that Christ entrusted his message of mercy to her. Those who
remember, who were witnesses and participants in the events of those
years and the horrible sufferings they caused for millions of people,
know well how necessary was the message of mercy.
Jesus told Sr Faustina: "Humanity will not find peace until it turns
trustfully to divine mercy" (Diary, p. 132). Through the work of the
Polish religious, this message has become linked for ever to the 20th
century, the last of the second millennium and the bridge to the third.
It is not a new message but can be considered a gift of special
enlightenment that helps us to relive the Gospel of Easter more
intensely, to offer it as a ray of light to the men and women of our
time.
3. What will the years ahead bring us? What will man's future on earth
be like? We are not given to know. However, it is certain that in
addition to new progress there will unfortunately be no lack of painful
experiences. But the light of divine mercy, which the Lord in a way
wished to return to the world through Sr Faustina's charism, will
illumine the way for the men and women of the third millennium.
However, as the Apostles once did, today too humanity must welcome into
the upper room of history the risen Christ, who shows the wounds of his
Crucifixion and repeats: Peace be with you! Humanity must let itself be
touched and pervaded by the Spirit given to it by the risen Christ. It
is the Spirit who heals the wounds of the heart, pulls down the
barriers that separate us from God and divide us from one another, and
at the same time, restores the joy of the Father's love and of
fraternal unity.
4. It is important then that we accept the whole message that comes to
us from the word of God on this Second Sunday of Easter, which from now
on throughout the Church will be called "Divine Mercy Sunday". In the
various readings, the liturgy seems to indicate the path of mercy
which, while re-establishing the relationship of each person with God,
also creates new relations of fraternal solidarity among human beings.
Christ has taught us that "man not only receives and experiences the
mercy of God, but is also called "to practise mercy' towards others:
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy' (Mt 5: 7)"
(Dives et misericordia, n. 14). He also showed us the many paths of
mercy, which not only forgives sins but reaches out to all human needs.
Jesus bent over every kind of human poverty, material and spiritual.
His message of mercy continues to reach us through his hands held out
to suffering man. This is how Sr Faustina saw him and proclaimed him to
people on all the continents when, hidden in her convent at
£agiewniki in Kraków, she made her life a hymn to mercy:
Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
5. Sr Faustina's canonization has a particular eloquence: by this act I
intend today to pass this message on to the new millennium. I pass it
on to all people, so that they will learn to know ever better the true
face of God and the true face of their brethren.
In fact, love of God and love of one's brothers and sisters are
inseparable, as the First Letter of John has reminded us: "By this we
know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his
commandments" (5: 2). Here the Apostle reminds us of the truth of love,
showing us its measure and criterion in the observance of the
commandments.
It is not easy to love with a deep love, which lies in the authentic
gift of self. This love can only be learned by penetrating the mystery
of God's love. Looking at him, being one with his fatherly heart, we
are able to look with new eyes at our brothers and sisters, with an
attitude of unselfishness and solidarity, of generosity and
forgiveness. All this is mercy!
To the extent that humanity penetrates the mystery of this merciful
gaze, it will seem possible to fulfil the ideal we heard in today's
first reading: "The community of believers were of one heart and one
mind. None of them ever claimed anything as his own; rather everything
was held in common" (Acts 4: 32). Here mercy gave form to human
relations and community life; it constituted the basis for the sharing
of goods. This led to the spiritual and corporal "works of mercy". Here
mercy became a concrete way of being "neighbour" to one's neediest
brothers and sisters.
6. Sr Faustina Kowalska wrote in her Diary: "I feel tremendous pain
when I see the sufferings of my neighbours. All my neighbours'
sufferings reverberate in my own heart; I carry their anguish in my
heart in such a way that it even physically destroys me. I would like
all their sorrows to fall upon me, in order to relieve my neighbour"
(Diary, p. 365). This is the degree of compassion to which love leads,
when it takes the love of God as its measure!
It is this love which must inspire humanity today, if it is to face the
crisis of the meaning of life, the challenges of the most diverse needs
and, especially, the duty to defend the dignity of every human person.
Thus the message of divine mercy is also implicitly a message about the
value of every human being. Each person is precious in God's eyes;
Christ gave his life for each one; to everyone the Father gives his
Spirit and offers intimacy.
7. This consoling message is addressed above all to those who,
afflicted by a particularly harsh trial or crushed by the weight of the
sins they committed, have lost all confidence in life and are tempted
to give in to despair. To them the gentle face of Christ is offered;
those rays from his heart touch them and shine upon them, warm them,
show them the way and fill them with hope. How many souls have been
consoled by the prayer "Jesus, I trust in you", which Providence
intimated through Sr Faustina! This simple act of abandonment to Jesus
dispels the thickest clouds and lets a ray of light penetrate every
life. Jezu, ufam tobie.
8. Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo (Ps 88 [89]: 2). Let us
too, the pilgrim Church, join our voice to the voice of Mary most holy,
"Mother of Mercy", to the voice of this new saint who sings of mercy
with all God's friends in the heavenly Jerusalem.
And you, Faustina, a gift of God to our time, a gift from the land of
Poland to the whole Church, obtain for us an awareness of the depth of
divine mercy; help us to have a living experience of it and to bear
witness to it among our brothers and sisters. May your message of light
and hope spread throughout the world, spurring sinners to conversion,
calming rivalries and hatred and opening individuals and nations to the
practice of brotherhood. Today, fixing our gaze with you on the face of
the risen Christ, let us make our own your prayer of trusting
abandonment and say with firm hope:
Christ Jesus, I trust in you! Jezu, ufam tobie!
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Monday
of the Second Week of Easter II
(April 16) Today let us think of St Bernadette Soubirous (of
Lourdes) (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts
4:23-31; Psalm 2:1-3, 4-7a,
7b-9; John 3:1-8
There was a
Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He came to Jesus at
night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has
come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless
God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to
you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man once grown old be born again?
Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?”
Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water
and Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of flesh is
flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I
told you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it wills,
and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes
from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the
Spirit.” (John
3:1-8)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
There are many
things which great teachers have brought to their followers and
disciples, and in the case of some of them, to large portions of
mankind. A great positive that was possibly brought by the teaching of
Zoroaster would
seem to have been a form of monotheism, although, of
course, he lived long after Abraham. What can be said of Jesus Christ?
Yes, his doctrine of the Trinity - of there being three persons in the one only
God - was absolutely unique and still rejected by Islam which mistakes
it for being a denial of monotheism. But
consider his teaching in our Gospel today, his teaching about the new
birth which, he says, is necessary in order to enter the Kingdom of
God. Christ came announcing a new birth. By hindsight we can say that
the prophets had hinted at a new birth - when, for instance, Jeremiah
spoke of God planting in his people a new heart, a heart of flesh - but
Christ spelled it out in all clarity. The long promised Kingdom of God
would be open only to those, he tells Nicodemus in today’s Gospel, who
are born from above (John 3:1-8). We must undergo a
heavenly rebirth. That our Lord
meant this literally is clear from the question that Nicodemus
immediately asks: “How can a man once grown old be born again? Surely
he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?” Our
Lord in reply does not retract what he says, he simply makes clear the
kind of birth it is. Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless
one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit.”
Christ came to bring about a profound and radical change in the being
of man, a change which, St Paul writes, involves becoming a “new
creature.”
This radical change
involving the implanting in man by God of a new life is brought about
by being “born of water and the Spirit.” Our Lord is referring to the
baptism he would institute which would take away sins and confer the
Spirit of God on the believer. Just before he ascended into heaven he
charged his disciples to go to the whole world and make disciples of
all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit. Baptism by water was essential in his plan.
It was to his Church that he entrusted this great Sacrament, together
with the other Sacraments he instituted. Each man or woman who came to
him would receive through this Sacrament the gift of being reborn,
regenerated, and from that rebirth would come the justification and
holiness which was the object of God’s plan for man. Let us then
preserve in our hearts a profound gratitude for our baptism, and a
lively sense of its fundamental importance. The ceremony of baptism is
so common in virtually every town and city that we can easily slip into
thinking of it as a mere ceremony, or even as a largely social
occasion. But at every baptism there is a most significant intervention
by God the most holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit is conferred and a new
heavenly birth occurs in the soul of the one being baptized, bringing
immense possibilities to a person for growth in holiness and a likeness
to Christ in the depths of one’s being. Sadly, in all too many cases,
the baptism of a child is promptly forgotten and its implications
rarely adverted to by the family, let alone the child. The enormous
possibilities come to nothing.
Let us think of
Christ laying down the fundamental importance of our baptism. Let us
pray for a deeper appreciation of what came to us at our baptism and of
its implications for everyday life. Our baptism incorporated us into
Christ and into the Church which he founded and sustains. It is the
beginning
and foundation of divine life within us.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You laugh because I tell you
that you have a 'vocation for marriage'? Well, you have just that: a
vocation.
Commend yourself to the Archangel Raphael that he may keep you pure, as
he did Tobias, until the end of the way.
(The Way,
no.27)
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What is fortitude?
Fortitude assures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit
of the good. It reaches even to the ability of possibly sacrificing
one’s own life for a just cause. (CCC 1808, 1837)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.382)
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Tuesday
of the Second Week of Easter II
(April 17) Today let us think of St. Stephen Harding, St Robert (Saints)
Scripture today:
Acts
4:32-37; Psalm 93:1ab, 1cd-2,
5; John 3:7b-15
Jesus said to
Nicodemus: “‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it
wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where
it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of
the Spirit.” Nicodemus answered and said to him, ‘How can this happen?”Jesus answered and said
to him, “You are a teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?
Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify to
what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. If I
tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you
believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has gone up to
heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son
of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have
eternal life.” (John 3:7b-15)
If you wish to view
a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click
here
In our Gospel scene
today we are placed in the room where Jesus and Nicodemus are
conversing. Nicodemus visited Jesus by night, and let us always
remember who it was whom Nicodemus was visiting. Firstly, despite his
humble and unnoticed background, Jesus was quickly emerging as an
outstanding prophet and teacher in Israel. Were we to search for
something of a parallel in our own day, imagine a man in his early
thirties without masters or doctorate degrees in Religion suddenly
appearing in public and completely dominating by his personal authority
and obvious experience and knowledge all the acknowledged masters of
the field. Continuing with our imagined case, think of most of
those recognized authorities regarding him as an impertinent upstart
because he was not among their number and did not have their
“qualifications”. But then imagine the few better ones among them
accepting his towering spiritual figure and approaching him for light.
Such was Nicodemus. He came to Jesus by night in order to converse with
him about his doctrine. Imagine the two talking say, by candlelight!
With whom was Nicodemus speaking, and to whom was he listening? It was
with no ordinary “Rabbi” - which Nicodemus had addressed him as
- nor simply with a “teacher who comes from God.” No. Just think!
Jesus was God himself, though Nicodemus did not then know it. This is
the One whom Nicodemus was watching, listening to, and asking questions
of. Nicodemus had before him the Son of God made man, the promised
Messiah, the Redeemer of the world. In that ordinary and simple
setting, there sat (or stood) the Man of the universe and of the ages,
to whom all mankind is called to look and listen. So, just as Nicodemus
looked and listened, so let each of us do the same, remembering who
Jesus of Nazareth really is.
In his words to
Nicodemus Jesus speaks of a few absolutely central things. Inasmuch as
it is John who is reporting the conversation, we may presume that John
was present at the conversation, and perhaps at least a few others of
our Lord’s disciples too. After all, our Lord does speak to Nicodemus
in the plural as if he is referring not only to himself but his
companions in mission too: “Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what
we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not
accept our testimony. If I tell you about earthly things and you do not
believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” We
may imagine our Lord addressing Nicodemus with some of his disciples
gathered around as well, and our Lord speaking not as if alone but as
part of the chosen group. His words remind us of his presence as head
of the body of his disciples, which is the Church. He abides in the
Church and works in and through the Church and her ministry and
teaching. He is found together with his Church, and his teaching comes
from him indeed, but in and through and together with that of the
Church. Furthermore, this teaching is from heaven. It is a divine
revelation. “If you do not believe me when I speak to you about things
in this world, how are you going to believe me when I speak to you of
heavenly things?” And what is that teaching? It is above all that Jesus
has come down from heaven to die for us all and thus to bring eternal
life to those who believe in him: “No one has gone up to heaven except
the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John
3:7b-15).
Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, came down from heaven to give
his life for the world.
Let us listen to
Jesus with our whole heart. On the mountain during the Transfiguration
the Father announced from the cloud that Jesus is his beloved Son. All
were to listen to him. Those words resound across the centuries and are
to be brought to all men. As members of Christ’s Church we are called
to bear witness to Christ Jesus as the teacher and saviour of mankind.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Marriage
is for the soldiers and not for the General Staff of Christ's army.
For, whereas food is a necessity for each individual, procreation is a
necessity for the species only, not for the individual.
Longing for children? Children, many children, and a lasting trail of
light we shall leave behind us if we sacrifice the selfishness of the
flesh.
(The Way,
no.28)
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What is temperance?
Temperance moderates the attraction of pleasures, assures the mastery
of the will over instincts and provides balance in the use of created
goods. (Ccc 1809, 1838)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.383)
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Wednesday
of the Second Week of Easter II
(April 18) Today let us think of St Laserian (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts
5:17-26; Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7,
8-9; John 3:16-21
God so loved the
world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes
in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not
send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be
condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of
God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but
people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For
everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come
toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever
lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly
seen as done in God. (John 3:16-21)
If you wish to view
a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click
here
The greatest
practical problem facing the world and every man is death and all that
leads to death. Ultimately sickness leads to death, as can
poverty, as can unhappiness in its various forms. When I say that these
various forms of human deprivation lead to death, I mean that they
point to death, or that if they are unchecked and not dealt with
appropriately they favour those things that lead to death. Death is the great problem of
man, the world and the universe. The various discoveries of science and
medicine attempt to postpone death or lessen its impact but ultimately
they cannot overcome it. Furthermore, from the point of view of
plain evidence, what is there to suggest that death will cease being
the victor after it has put an end to this life? The spirit of man
hopes that there will be an afterlife and strongly senses that there
is. The religions of man indicate that man has a premonition that there
is. Conscience intimates that there will be a reckoning on one’s deeds
beyond death, and fears the result of it. Man could scarcely feel
confident of his prospects in view of his proneness to sin and
wrongdoing. What is there to ensure that death in some sense will not
be the victor beyond the end of this life, even if there is some kind
of Afterlife for the soul of man - in other words that there will not
be a kind of second death? Many of the religions of man have very
shadowy
notions and imaginings about the Afterlife, and those religions that
speak of the equivalent of a heaven may - from the point of view of
real evidence - simply be indulging in pipe-dreams. Such would be our
sombre prospects, I suggest, were it not for divine revelation.
Death would always be the great black hole of the universe into which
we all disappear never to return, a black hole in which there would
never be light.
But in fact all is
now different. Death is not, and need not be, the victor. In our Gospel
passage today St John writes that “God so loved the world that he gave
his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not
perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved
through him.” (John 3:16-21) Death has come through
man’s sin, and the Creator of all has entered our scene to reverse the
situation facing all of us. At the origin of this stupendous divine
initiative is love, God’s love. He so loved the world that he sent his
Son to save the world from death and its cause, which is sin.
Christianity is not a simple religion, as Pope Paul VI once wrote, but
we can say that there is a certain simplicity about its essential act.
The essential act of the Christian is faith, faith in Jesus Christ.
Without this faith in him for who he claimed to be and for what he
claimed to have done, one cannot profess to be a Christian. This act of
faith is the foundation of the Christian life that follows. Now, St
John tells us in our passage today Christ came so that “everyone who
believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” So the
answer to death in the universe is to believe in Jesus Christ. Of
course, it is not as simple as it sounds, because this act of faith in
the person of Jesus Christ involves a full acceptance of his revelation
and a life lived according to its demands and implications.
Nevertheless, we have in this sentence the answer to the problem of man
and the universe, which is death..Christ is the answer to all man’s
needs, and our response to him is faith.
Let us rejoice in
the fact that God has sent us a redeemer, Jesus Christ the Son of God
made man. He is our life and he is the answer to the presence of death.
If we place our faith in him and in what he has revealed and live
according to this faith, we shall not perish but have eternal life. Let
us live that out in our everyday life and bring the message of it to
others.
(E.J.Tyler)
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The
limited, miserable happiness of the egoist — who withdraws into his
ivory tower, into his shell — is not difficult to attain in this world.
But the happiness of the egoist is not lasting.
For this false semblance of heaven, are you going to forsake the
happiness which will have no end?
(The Way,
no.29)
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What are the theological
virtues?
The theological virtues have God himself as their origin, motive and
direct object. Infused with sanctifying grace, they bestow on one the
capacity to live in a relationship with the Trinity. They are the
foundation and the energizing force of the Christian’s moral activity
and they give life to the human virtues. They are the pledge of the
presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human
being. (CCC 1812-1813, 1840-1841)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.384)
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Thursday
of the Second Week of Easter II
(April 19) Today let us think of St Alphage (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts
5:27-33; Psalm 34:2 and 9, 17-18,
19-20; John 3:31-36
The one who comes from
above is above all. The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks
of earthly things. But the one who comes from heaven is above all. He
testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his
testimony. Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that
God is
trustworthy. For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does
not ration his gift of the Spirit. The Father loves the Son and has
given everything over to him. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal
life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life,
but the wrath of
God remains upon him. (John 3:31-36)
If you wish to view
a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click
here
One of the notable
features of modern Western education both at school and at university
is the study of the religions of the world. The world religions of
Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam are studied, and other religions of lesser
extent such as Zoroastrianism as well. Indigenous religions of various
parts of the world such as Africa, Asia, the Americas, Melanesia and
Australia are considered and researched. The great founders of the
religions such as Mahomet and Buddha are given the respect that is
their due. All of this offers great potential for the coming together
of societies and cultures and peoples under the common fatherhood of
God. A greater mutual understanding is put within reach together with
the possibility of men working together to overcome the sufferings of
the world. Of course, this will only happen if mutual respect prevails,
a respect that gives true space for the dignity of each man and woman.
However, the greater proximity of various religions does bring some
hazards. One is that of conflict between people if the adherents of
those faiths do not bring with them a true respect for the rights of
others. This we are seeing all too often in our day. Another danger is
the encouragement of relativism in respect to objective truth. That is
to say, that in allowing liberally and generously each person to
practise the religion of his conscience provided it respects the rights
of others, we may slip into thinking that there is no objectively true
religion. What is objectively true is nothing other than that which
seems to be true to you, as you see it. Truth is thus deemed to
be a purely subjective perception. This assumption implies that there
is no objective truth and that an assertion about the objective
supremacy of Christ is impossible. Indeed, so widespread is this that
Pope Benedict has spoken of the contemporary dictatorship of
relativism.
Our Gospel passage
of today states very clearly that “the one who comes from above is
above all. The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly
things. But the one who comes from heaven is above all.” (John
3:31-36) The
proclamation of Christianity is that Jesus Christ is above all and that
he possesses a universal lordship. He is the Lord of all lords, the
King of all kings, and to him has all authority in heaven and on earth
been given. The first reading of today’s liturgy is taken from the Acts
of the Apostles
(Acts 5:27-33)
and it gives Peter’s testimony about Christ before the Sanhedrin. He
testifies of Jesus that “God exalted him at his right hand as leader
and saviour to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.” Jesus
is at the right hand of the Father, and is the Saviour, the only
Saviour, of the world. This was an audacious claim and must always seem
to be so, for it does not allow for any other voice to be Christ’s
equal. It was this that brought on the Christian people the wrath of
the Roman empire for three centuries of regular persecutions. It was
not because they were religious, nor because they proselytized, but
because they claimed that Christ was God and the only way to the
Father. It implied that, while to a greater or lesser extent there
might be various elements of truth in the religions of the world, the
fulness and source of truth lies only in the person of Jesus Christ. It
brought suffering and death down on those making the claim, but truth
required that witness. Our Lord himself stated before Pilate that it
was for this that he had come into the world, to bear witness to the
truth. Every Christian is called to do likewise, but with the utmost
respect for others. We must learn to bear clear witness to the truth
while manifesting a thorough Christlike tolerance and respect.
Let us renew in our
hearts the realization of the fact that Christ who comes from above is
above all. He is above all. He sits at the right hand of the Father. He
is the one and only Saviour of the world. It is a very hard saying for
a religion such as that of Islam, but for love of the world it must be
said. The salvation of mankind depends on Christians giving testimony
to this objective truth.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You are too calculating. Don't
tell me you are young. Youth gives all it can: it gives itself without
reserve.
(The Way,
no.30)
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What are the theological virtues?
The theological virtues are faith, hope, and charity. (CCC 1813)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.385)
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Friday
of the Second Week of Easter II
(April 20) Today let us think of St Beuno (Saints)
Scripture today:
Acts
5:34-42; Psalm 27:1, 4,
13-14; John 6:1-15
Jesus went across
the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the
signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and
there he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was
near. When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming
to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to
eat?” He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was
going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of
food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.” One of his
disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, “There is a
boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are
these for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people recline.” Now there
was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about
five thousand in number. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and
distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the
fish as they wanted. When they had had their fill, he said to his
disciples, “Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be
wasted.” So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with
fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they
could eat. When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This
is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” Since
Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him
king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone. (John 6:1-15)
If you would like
to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's
Gospel, click here
In his Gospel, St
John almost invariably refers to our Lord’s miracles as “signs”. They
are signs that reveal something far greater than themselves, and so by
the very use of this term St John is inviting the reader of his Gospel
to probe what the sign he is recounting reveals. In the case of the
great miracle of our passage today, it points to something great that
happened in the past, and by hindsight we can see that it pointed to something far greater
still that lay ahead in the future. In our scene today there were
thousands who had been following our Lord “because of the signs he was
performing on the sick”, and a little later we learn that the men alone
numbered five thousand (John 6:1-15). If women and some
children followed too, it just may have been a few thousand more. Out
of virtually nothing our Lord fed all these people, taking a handful or
two of food and praying over it and ordering that this pittance be
distributed to the vast throng. It was a spectacular “sign”, surely
reminding the people of how at the prayer of Moses God fed the children
of Israel in the wilderness with manna. That is to say, they had before
them another Moses, or more correctly the great Prophet Moses foretold
would come, and one who could lead them as their king. Christ was
indeed a king and an invincible one at that, but of course as he stated
to Pilate his kingdom was not of this world. His reign will never end,
and the feeding of the thousands in the desert surely reminds each of
us his disciples that he will sustain all those who choose to follow
him
in the journey of life. They will never be truly hungry nor will they
thirst for they will have the bread of life which he, the new Moses,
will give them.
It is that bread of
life coming from heaven which our miracle of today is also a “sign” of.
Christ would continue to feed the multitudes and would do so till the
end of the world. It was not just a one-off occasion that alluded
to the feeding of the people of God with manna in the desert. It
pointed to what would happen in the future. The very next day in
Capernaum, according to St John’s account in this same chapter, our
Lord spoke of the bread from heaven that he, the Son of Man, would give
them. Stunningly, he told them that his own flesh and blood would be
this food. One of the amazing things about this is the directness
with which our Lord taught this doctrine. He did not even tell them
that those who ate his flesh and drank his blood would do so not
physically but sacramentally. That would be made clear at the Last
Supper to his apostles
and later to his disciples and the infant Church. Our Lord proclaimed
the doctrine
publicly - in the synagogue at Capernaum - and his hearers were asked
to accept it as it stood. There were no qualifications given to his
proclamation that his flesh would be real food and his blood real
drink, and that unless his flesh were eaten and his blood were drunk,
they would have no life in them. Perhaps our Lord did not explain
(publicly) that this would be a sacrament because if he had done this
people could have interpreted our Lord as meaning that the eating and
drinking of the sacrament
of his body and blood would have a merely symbolic meaning. It would be
only a sign, a metaphor. That is speculation, but what is clear is that
the feeding
of the thousands in our Gospel text today is a “sign” of God’s plan to
feed mankind with the true bread from heaven which is the body and
blood of the risen Christ his Son.
Our miracle today
reminds us that Jesus is the new Moses who leads and nourishes us with
food from heaven on our journey to the Promised Land of heaven. That
nourishment which he constantly gives us from above is nothing other
than his own flesh and blood - not in some metaphorical sense, but
truly and literally. The flesh and blood of the risen Jesus is real
food and real drink given to us sacramentally, given in the sacrament
of the Eucharist. By means of it we live in him and he in us.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Selfish.
Always looking after yourself You seem incapable of feeling the
fraternity of Christ. In those around you, you do not see brothers: you
see stepping stones.
I can foresee your complete failure. And when you have fallen, you will
want others to treat you with the charity you are not willing to show
towards them.
(The Way,
no.31)
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What is the virtue of faith?
Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and all that
he has revealed to us and that the Church proposes for our belief
because God is Truth itself. By faith the human person freely commits
himself to God. Therefore, the believer seeks to know and do the will
of God because “faith works through charity” (Galatians 5:6).
(CCC 1814-1816, 1842)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.386)
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Saturday
of the Second Week of Easter II
(April 21) St
Anselm, bishop and doctor of the Church (1033-1109). He
was born in Aosta (Italy) and died in England. He was in the
Benedictine monastery of Le Bec in Normandy for about thirty years. In
1093 he became the Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of England. He
is called the Father of Scholastic Theology. In his defence of the
Church, he suffered much, including exile. His doctrinal works are
among the most noteworthy examples of theology and medieval
mysticism. (Saints)
Scripture
today: Acts
6:1-7;
Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19; John 6:16-21
When it was
evening, the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea,
embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum. It had
already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea was
stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about
three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near
the boat, and they began to be afraid. But he said to them, “It is I.
Do not be afraid.” They wanted to take
him into the boat, but the boat immediately arrived at the shore to
which they were heading. (John 6:16-21)
If you would like
to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
Let us remember
that in his Gospel St John frequently uses the term
“sign” to designate a miracle of our Lord, and even though he does not
do so in our passage for today, nevertheless we are surely entitled to
look on the event described as having much wider implications. Now, if
there is one thing which the experience of man shows, it is that he
lives in a vulnerable world and that he himself is on a knife-edge.
There is much talk of a
world-wide climate change and how this earth
which is man’s home is on the verge of a menacing future. Terrorism is
rampant and in some parts of the world ubiquitous. If we narrow our
sights to the individual, how can anyone assert that he is truly
secure? We immediately think of our Lord’s parable in another part of
the Gospel in which the rich farmer is able to stock great quantities
of grain and builds barns for them, thinking that he is secure for the
morrow. But God says to him, “You fool! This very night the demand will
be made for your soul, and what good will all this be to you then?”
Normally speaking, we do not think of our constant vulnerability.
Rather, if we are in good health and in a good material position we
tend
to assume that we are safe from harm. But of course any of us
could die at any instant for any number of reasons, and in any case the
particular material resources which give us our unspoken confidence in
life could also fail at any point. Were that to happen, darkness would
descend and with it fear and distress. So much is this our human
situation that there have been philosophies - such as that of Satre -
in which anxiety is central.
In our Gospel today
we are told that “the disciples of Jesus went down
to the sea, embarked in a boat, and went across to Capernaum. It had
already grown dark..” Could not this be taken as something of a
picture of life? The disciples are making their way to their
destination across the water, and it is dark. Jesus is not physically
present - he “had not yet come to them.” Then there occurs something
which they did not foresee but which they know from their experience of
life could happen at any moment: “the sea was stirred up because a
strong wind was blowing.” They were rowing in this difficult situation
for some time and there on the sea they saw Jesus coming to the boat
and saying to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” Christ came to them in
their difficult situation, a situation which seemed to them to make his
presence impossible. His arrival had a decisive impact on
their prospects. “They wanted to take him into the boat, but the boat
immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading”
(John
6:16-21).
All this is surely a sign to the disciple of Christ that,
whatever about the vulnerability of life and the world, the Master is
totally dependable. We can depend on the risen Jesus who is always
near. As St Paul writes, nothing can come between us and the love of
God which is present in Christ Jesus our Lord. The challenge will be to
believe this because our problem is that we cannot actually see the
risen Jesus. He cannot
be seen, but he is real, he lives, and he is our divine Friend who will
never fail us.
What Christ said to
his disciples as he approached them on the sea
ought resound in our hearts all our lives. Let us allow our spiritual
lives to be shaped by those reassuring words, “It is I. Do not be
afraid.” Time and again Christ instructed his disciples not to be
afraid, not to worry, not to fear. Clearly it is the desire of God that
we act on this. The source of our peace and freedom from fear is the
constant presence of Christ in any situation we might be in. Let us
then never be afraid, for whatever be our situation Jesus our living
Lord is ever so near.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You will
never be a leader if you see others only as stepping-stones to
get ahead. You will be a leader if you are ambitious for the salvation
of all mankind.
You can't turn your back on your fellow-men: you have to be anxious to
make them happy.
(The Way,
no.32)
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What is hope?
Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire and await from God
eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises
and relying on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit to merit it and
to persevere to the end of our earthly life. (1817-1821, 1843)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.387)
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Third
Sunday of Easter C
(April 22) Today let us think of St Teodore of Sykeon,
St Leonida (Saints)
Scripture
today: Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41; Psalm 30:2,
4-6, 11-13; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19
At that time, Jesus
revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. He
revealed himself in this way. Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called
Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others
of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They
said to him, “We also will come with you.” So they went out and got
into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. When it was already
dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore; but the disciples did not
realize that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, have you
caught anything to eat?” They answered him, “No.” So he said to them,
“Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find
something.” So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of
the number of fish. So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It
is the Lord.” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tucked in
his garment, for he was lightly clad, and jumped into the sea. The
other disciples came in the boat, for they were not far from shore,
only about a hundred yards, dragging the net with the fish. When they
climbed out on shore, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and
bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.” So
Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of one hundred
fifty-three large fish. Even though there were so many, the net was not
torn. Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.” And none of the
disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they realized it was
the Lord. Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them, and
in like manner the fish. This was now the third time Jesus was revealed
to his disciples after being raised from the dead. When they had
finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do
you love me more than these?” Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you
know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He then said
to Simon Peter a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus
said to him, “Tend my sheep.” Jesus said to him the third time, “Simon,
son of John, do you love me?” Peter was distressed that Jesus had said
to him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you
know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my
sheep. Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to
dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will
stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you
where you do not want to go.” He said this signifying by what kind of
death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him,
“Follow me.” (John 21:1-19)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
Our Gospel scene is
one of great simplicity and beauty, and one that has so much to convey
to us. During his life our Lord had shown to his disciples that
he was the promised Messiah. He had been rejected by the leaders and
put to death. The shock of all this to his disciples was almost
incalculable, as was the extraordinary event of his rising from the
dead. Risen, he had appeared to them and they had seen, heard and felt
him. They had watched him eat before their eyes. In our Gospel scene
today all this in its own way happens again and in a fashion that is perhaps even
more powerful for its simplicity and realism. The disciples, with Simon
Peter at their head, have spent the whole night working at their
livelihood which was to fish, and had caught nothing. It was dawn and
they noticed someone on the beach. All was quiet with just the slight
sound of the tide, and sound easily carried. The one on the beach
called out asking if they had caught anything. The voice was clear and
very real. We know what happened, how at the stranger’s direction they
suddenly had a huge catch, how Simon jumped into the shallow
water and made his way ahead of the boat to Jesus, and how he and they
met our Lord on the shore. Breakfast was awaiting them, a charcoal
fire, with bread and fish being prepared for them (John 21:1-19). Our Lord proceeded to
serve them breakfast, and may well have breakfasted with them himself.
Our Lord’s presence was all very physical and immersed in the
ordinary routine of breakfast on the shore at the end of a night’s
work. What they were experiencing was not some transport to a higher
mystical vision or state beyond what they would normally be doing. It
was a very low-key and ordinary situation, the only extraordinary
element being the tangible presence of Jesus with them there,
after having died a terrible death. It was an ordinary breakfast with
the risen Jesus in an atmosphere of wondrous simplicity.
That
is to say, this very same Jesus who had most certainly died and been
buried, was alive and well before their eyes. Of course, to say that he
was alive and well before them is not to mean that Jesus was back from
the dead before them with the same life he had before. It was indeed
the same Jesus in all his physical reality, but he was now different
and the difference was felt and noticed by all who conversed with him
over that breakfast. To begin with, he simply came and then went. He
now abode in a realm above and apart from them, while being close to
them nevertheless and on various occasions, such as this one, making
his presence visible to them. But there was also something very
different about his appearance, even about his very features. He was
not just like, say, Lazarus had been when our Lord called him back to
life from the grave, or the young man of the village of Nain whom our
Lord had raised before his widowed mother’s eyes to give him back to
her. Nor was he like the little girl he had raised from the dead. They
all returned to exactly the same life they had been living and looked
no different for it except refreshed, and they would go on in due
course to die a second
time. No, he was obviously different from what he had been before. We
remember how three of his apostles who witnessed his Transfiguration on
the mountain saw that the aspect of his face was changed. He was
shown in glory. That was then, during the Transfiguration, before his
passion. He was now risen from the dead, and the resurrection had
transformed and glorified him and this now showed even in his physical
appearance. There was something new, altogether renewed, somewhat
of heaven, showing that in his body he had risen from the dead to a
glorious life. He was now beyond the limitations of this life and was
the victor over death and all that could lead to it. Yet, despite
this it was obvious to them that it was Jesus. As our Gospel text tells
us, “none of the disciples dared to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ because
they realized it was the Lord.”
This same, very
real and very physical Jesus, this Jesus now risen from the dead and
enjoying a glorious life proper to his risen condition, this
wonderful friend and master is here in our Gospel scene serving
breakfast to
his disciples on the shore at the end of their night’s work. He
converses with them and in particular speaks with Simon Peter their
appointed head. He asks Simon repeatedly if he loves him, and receiving
his earnest assurance, gives to Simon, the first Pope, the task of
nourishing his Church. That same question the risen Jesus asks each of
us, do you love me? Let us place ourselves in the
presence of the risen Jesus who abides constantly in our midst
especially in the Holy Eucharist, and promise to give him our love and
our constant service in his mission.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: Catechism of the
Catholic Church, no.641-644
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You never
want to get to the heart of the matter. Sometimes, through politeness.
Other times, most times, through fear of hurting yourself Sometimes
again, through fear of hurting others. And, always, through fear!
As long as you are so afraid of the truth you will never be a man of
sound judgment, a man of worth.
(The Way,
no.33)
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What is charity?
Charity is the theological virtue by
which we love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for
the love of God. Jesus makes charity the new commandment, the fullness
of the law. “It is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:14) and the
foundation of the other virtues to which it gives life, inspiration,
and order. Without charity “I am nothing” and “I gain nothing” (1
Corinthians 13:1-3). (CCC 1822-1829, 1844)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.388)
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Monday
of the Third Week of Easter II
(April 23) (April 23) St George, martyr
(died about 303). Popular tradition presents St George as the
knight who killed the dragon, making him a symbol of a triumph of faith
against the forces of evil. He was the son of an illustrious family of
Cappadocia and at a young age was rased to the ministry during the
reign of the Emperor Diocletian. When the emperor promulgated an edict
against the Christians, George professed his faith publicly, for which
he was martyred. He is the patron saint of England. His tomb is in Lod,
near Tel Aviv in Israel. (Saints)
Today let us also think of St
Adalbert (Saints)
Scripture
today: Acts
6:8-15; Psalm 119:23-24, 26-27,
29-30; John 6:22-29
[After Jesus had
fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.]
The next day, the
crowd that remained across the sea saw that there had been only one
boat there, and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the
boat, but only his disciples had left. Other boats came from Tiberias
near the place where they had eaten the bread when the Lord gave
thanks. When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were
there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for
Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi,
when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I
say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but
because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that
perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son
of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” So
they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you
believe in the one he sent.” (John 6:22-29)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
I remember
listening to a talk-back radio session some years back and the host was
a well known compere. In the session he was caught up in an argument
with a caller, and this radio compere’s position was that we are on
this earth above all to work. Our work is at the forefront of our
purpose in life. The caller seemed to be asserting that our work is
just an incidental thing, being more or less a necessity in order to do other
things. Now, whatever about the validity of certain aspects of what the
caller was saying, there is no doubt that our work should be regarded
as at the forefront of our life’s concerns. In a certain sense we live
for our work in life, be that work the welfare of our family, or the
service of others in our profession, or whatever. The further
question - a most vital one - is: what should be our work in
life? While animals are engaged in certain lines of activity over which
they have no choice, we are endowed with free choice.
The animal is ruled by its instinct. The bee is constantly active with
the
production of offspring and honey, but it has no choice about it.
Its instinct drives it. The bee cannot weigh up options and freely
select from a choice of
goals in its brief life. But we can. We can view a range of possible
works in life. A person can get married or not, he or she can choose to
raise a large family or a small one, and choose this or that
profession. A person can choose (or not) to make good work of an
illness, or to strive for excellence in a certain sport. The
further question with respect to our work is, if we accept that the
gift of life with its chance to work comes from God, then what does the
Author of life want man to working at in life? Is there a work which
God is asking me to do or, putting it differently, is there something
God wants me to be working at in all the work I choose to
do?
In our Gospel
passage today our Lord speaks of what ought be our work in life. The
crowds sought him after having seen him feed them with just a few
loaves and fish. They found him in Capernaum and he said that all they
were thinking of was food, the food they had received from him and the
further material things they might obtain from him. All they were
working for was for “food that perishes.” Our Lord was inviting them to
work for that which will last and not perish. So many of our efforts in
life result in little that lasts. A farmer works for the best part of
his life to build up his farm and it perhaps sadly comes to nothing. Is
there something we ought be working at which will enable us to attain
that which “endures for eternal life”? Our Lord says that there is, and
that work is to “believe in the one he has sent” (John
6:29). That
is to say, at the heart of all our efforts and work in life is the work
of believing in Jesus
Christ. We have to work at it every day and make the growth of faith in
the person of Jesus the great work of life. We read of converts to the
Catholic faith who have spent years of earnest quest passing from this
faith to that and never attaining religious certainty till they arrive
at Catholicism. Their work in life has been to believe in the one whom
God has sent. For those who were born into a family that possessed the
true faith, their task will be to work at the development of the faith
in their own life and ensure that it issues in unclouded certainty, in
consistency in living their faith, and in genuine sanctity. The work
that God wants us to accomplish in life is to believe in the person of
Jesus and to shape our entire life in accordance with that belief. No
part of our life ought be lived in conflict with the requirements of
Christian belief, and if necessary we ought be prepared even to give up
our lives for our belief in the One God has sent.
Christ has given us
the key to a life well spent, to a life of good work whatever be our
particular profession, our circumstances, and the particular course of
events that have marked our life. The key is to be constantly working
at attaining faith in Jesus, in nourishing its development, and in
living every day and doing our work in a way that is utterly consistent
with it. This is the “work of God” to which our Lord refers in today’s
Gospel. It is a work that leads to life eternal.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“Rabbi, when did you get here?…- This
is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent” (John 6:22-29)
John Henry Newman
(1801-1890), priest, founder of a religious community, theologian
(PPS IV, 17
“Christ Manifested in Remembrance”)
Christ refused to bear witness to
Himself, or say what He was, or whence he came. Thus He was among them
"as he that serveth." (Lk 22,27). Apparently, it was not till
after His resurrection, and especially after His ascension, when the
Holy Ghost descended, that the Apostles understood who had been with
them. When all was over they knew it, not at the time. Now here we see,
I think, the trace of a general principle, which comes before us again
and again both in Scripture and in the world, that God's Presence is
not discerned at the time when it is upon us, but afterwards, when we
look back upon what is gone and over...
Events happen to us pleasant or painful;
we do not know at the time the meaning of them, we do not see God's
hand in them. If indeed we have faith, we confess what we do not see,
and take all that happens as His; but whether we will accept it in
faith or not, certainly there is no other way of accepting it. We see
nothing. We see not why things come, or whither they tend. Jacob cried
out on one occasion, "All these things are against me;" (Gen. 42,36)
certainly so they seemed to be...Yet all these things were working for
good. Or pursue the fortunes of the favourite and holy youth who was
the first taken from him; sold by his brethren to strangers, carried
into Egypt, tempted by a very perilous temptation, overcoming it but
not rewarded, thrown into prison, the iron entering into his soul,
waiting there till the Lord should be gracious, and "look down from
heaven;" but waiting—why? and how long? It is said again and again in
the sacred narrative, "The Lord was with Joseph;"...Thus though the
Lord was with him, apparently all things were against him. Yet
afterwards he saw, what was so mysterious at the time;—"God did send me
before you," he said to his brethren, "to preserve life ... It was not
you that sent me hither, but God” (Gn 45,7).
Wonderful providence indeed which is so
silent, yet so efficacious, so constant, so unerring! This is what
baffles the power of Satan. He cannot discern the Hand of God in what
goes on.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Don't be afraid of the truth,
even though the truth may mean your death.
(The Way, no.34)
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What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit?
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are permanent dispositions which make us
docile in following divine inspirations. They are seven: wisdom,
understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the
Lord. (CCC 1830-1831, 1845)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no.389)
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Tuesday
of the Third Week of Easter II
(April 24) St Fidelis of
Sigmaringen, priest and martyr (1578-1622). Born in the town of
Sigmaringen, Germany, he entered the Capucin Order. He led a life of
deep contemplation and hard penance. As an evangelist and catechist, he
was known as an advocate of the poor. He was ordered by the
Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith to preach in the canton
of the Grisons in Switzerland, and there he was pursued by the heretics
and suffered martyrdom in 1622 at Seewis. He is considered the apostle
of Switzerland. (Saints)
Scripture: Acts
7:51—8:1a; Psalm 31:3cd-4, 6 and 7b and 8a, 17 and 21ab;
John 6:30-35
The crowd said to
Jesus: “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What
can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He
gave them bread from heaven to eat.” So Jesus said to them, “Amen,
amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my
Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is
that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” So they
said to Jesus, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I
am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and
whoever believes in me will never thirst.” (John 6:30-35)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of this reflection on today's Gospel, click here
I have read that
the perennial Jewish objection to the claim that Jesus is the Messiah
is that his coming did not bring to the world the promised peace and
general human welbeing. I am not certain whether I am correct, but my
understanding is that the Jewish interpretation of the Old Testament
Messianic prophecies has been that the world will be transformed in a
very material sense by the coming of the Messiah. Jesus, they assert, did not
fulfil that promise at all. Even if I have understood the Jewish
viewpoint correctly, this is not the place to respond to it. Nor have
I delved sufficiently into the response of Islam to the claim
that Christ is both the Messiah and the Son of God. But I suspect that
at least part of the Islamic objection would be that Jesus of Nazareth,
though a holy prophet, did not achieve as much as say, Mahomet. What,
they would think, has Jesus to show for himself? I mention this in
passing to point out that in our Gospel passage today the crowd asked
our Lord to do a work they could actually see, a sign, in order to
believe in him. “The crowd said to Jesus: ‘What sign can you do, that
we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna
in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to
eat’.” Look at what Moses did! What can you do? They were looking for
signs and wonders and while our Lord did indeed provide many signs and
wonders he did not consider that they alone would bring a lasting
conviction to the hearts of people. The world would not be markedly
different because of Jesus. The land of Israel would not be liberated
from the Romans by Christ’s activity. People would still have to live
their lives amid difficulties.
What is our Lord’s
response to this challenge demanding a sign from heaven? He did not say
he would not give one, and even on their own terms our Lord performed
many and spectacular miracles. But the greatest sign of all is his own
very person. “Jesus said to them, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not
Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true
bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from
heaven and gives life to the world.’ So they said to Jesus, ‘Sir, give
us this bread always.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will
never thirst’
(John 6:30-35).
His very person is the greatest possible gift of God, and he is food
and drink that will forever satisfy hunger and thirst. This means that
just as any material sign that Christ might have given and did indeed
give would require observation and reflection, so too he himself
requires contemplation and reflection. That is to say, we must
contemplate the person of Jesus with an open and submissive heart,
constantly drawing near to him to get to know him. Our Lord said at the
Last Supper that eternal life is this, to know the Father and his Son
Jesus Christ. So we must strive to know Jesus. The most convincing
proof of the claims of Christ will come from knowing him, and knowing
him especially in his greatest of all acts, his death on the cross.
This is the greatest of all signs, greater than his miracles, for it is
the supreme manifestation of his infinite love, revealing the love of
the Father.
St Paul could boast
of knowledge and wisdom, but the only boast he made was of knowing
Christ Jesus and him as crucified. Our deepest convictions about the
person of Jesus and the validity of his claims to be the Messiah and
the Son of God will come from daily and prayerful contemplation of his
person as revealed especially in the Gospels, and then from living a
life that is worthy of his disciple.
(E.J.Tyler)
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I don't
like your euphemistic habit of calling cowardice prudence.
For, as a result, God's enemies, with minds empty of ideas, will take
advantage of your 'prudence' to acquire the name of learning and so
reach positions that they never should attain.
(The Way,
no.35)
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What are the fruits of the Holy Spirit?
The fruits of the Holy Spirit are perfections formed in us as the first
fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of
them: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity,
gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity
(Galatians 5:22-23, Vulgate). (CCC 1832)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.390)
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April 25: Anzac Day,
Australia
Wednesday of
the third week of Eastertide
Today let us think of St
Marcellinus (Saints)
(The feast of St Mark has been
transferred to tomorrow because of Anzac Day)
Scripture today: Many
suggested readings. The Gospel may be John 12: 23-28
or John
14:23-29
Jesus answered
them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen,
amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and
dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces
much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates
his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever
serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant
be. The Father will honour whoever serves me. "I am troubled now.
Yet what should I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But it was for
this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then
a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it and will glorify it
again."
(John 12: 23-28)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
In our Gospel
passage today our Lord refers to a pattern throughout nature that sheds
light on the direction man must take in living his life. “Amen, amen, I
say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it
remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much
fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his
life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” (John 12: 23-28) In order to appreciate our Lord's point
about human life, let us consider his observation about nature's
patterns. The wheat falls to the
ground and “dies” and then produces
much fruit. Observe a similar pattern in nature more generally. Plants
grow to be consumed and
destroyed by other living things for their own sustenance. They “die”
in order to bear the fruit of life in those things that consume them.
Some plants are not consumed, but the purpose of their existence seems
to be to produce a fruit that is consumed by other beings, and by
consuming it those beings live. That is to say, the non-sentient living
world seems vaguely to reflect and point to a pattern beyond itself of
what we might call love.
Or again, take the animal kingdom. Everywhere one animal preys on
another and other animals prey on it. We could look on this as a
rampant cruelty in the animal kingdom driven by instinct.
Alternatively, we could look on this all-pervasive pattern of one
animal being given up for the sake of another as a dim reflection of a
higher law of self-sacrificing love coming from and reflecting the
Author of all. At least we have to say this, that it is precisely
because of this loss of life for the sake of other life that the
universe functions and thrives. The universe seems to be based on a
vague pattern of being sacrificed. One thing dies or ends in order that
another thing may flourish.
Christ is the light
of the world, and the pattern of his life illumines the life of every
man and indeed of the entire universe. Our Lord was born into this
world in order to give his life for mankind and for each of us. He died
that we might live forever. He freely and obediently embraced his life
being maliciously taken from him. Though he was in the “form of God”,
St Paul tells us, he did not hesitate to set that aside and become as
we are, and humbler still, even to dying on a cross. He who was rich
became poor that we might be rich. In this, Christ revealed that God is
love, a love that is self-sacrificing. This then is the key to the
universe because the God who was revealed in his Son Jesus Christ is
the Author of the universe. The universe was made to reflect in various
ways the self-sacrificing love of God, and where there is the opposite
of it in sin, there we have not the hand of God but the hand of fallen
man. Christ our Lord teaches us by his words and example that
the way to life is through the sacrificing of one’s own life. In the
light of Christ we can see that in various ways the very universe
reflects this truth. “Whoever loves his life loses it” our Lord tells
us, “and whoever hates his life (that is, for the sake of others) in
this
world will preserve it for eternal life.” (John 12: 23-28) In the first instance
this teaching invites us to unite ourselves day by day with the person
of Christ and to live out in union with him his pattern of
self-sacrificing love, knowing it will bring us eternal life and life
to the world. It also gives meaning to the countless persons who have
given their greatest possession which is their own life for the sake of
others. They have died in order that others may prosper. Christ teaches
us that such a sacrifice will bear much fruit.
Today in Australia
we celebrate Anzac Day. Let us entrust to the mercy of God the souls of
all those who have died in battle defending our country. They died for
our sake. While the Christian prays for all those who have died, we can
feel confident in the mercy of God and trust that their sacrifice not
only bore fruit here for future generations, but bore fruit also in
eternal
life for themselves. Considering what it means to be self-sacrificing,
let us especially resolve to look to Christ as our light, as the light
of the world, and as the source of all true life both here and
hereafter. Let us resolve to live united to him and inspired by his
example of
self-sacrificing love. By this means God
will be glorified, and by it we shall gain eternal life.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, that
abuse can be eradicated. It shows lack of character to let it continue
as something hopeless, with no possible remedy.
Don't shirk your duty. Carry it out conscientiously, even though others
neglect theirs.
(The Way,
no.36)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What does the acceptance of God’s mercy
require from us?
It requires that we admit our faults and repent of our sins. God
himself by his Word and his Spirit lays bare our sins and gives us the
truth of conscience and the hope of forgiveness. (CCC 1846-1848, 1870)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.391)
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The Anzacs 'known unto God': Leo Corrigan's
story (picture to the
right: Leo Corrigan as a child)
by Patrick
Carlyon 
April 21, 2007
HE WENT over the top, or hopped the bags, as the soldiers called it
back then, at dawn on September 20, 1917, the day the Passchendaele
battles began for the Australians. He was young, just 22, and he was
old because he had been around death since the Gallipoli campaign two
years earlier, and too much death dims the light in young men's eyes.
His boots were weighed down with globs of mud and felt like logs.
Somewhere up ahead the Germans waited in pillboxes and machine-gun
nests — the ground here was too soggy for trenches — but he couldn't
see them. They were somewhere behind the Allied smoke barrage. Like
many Anzacs that Belgian morning, Lieutenant Leo Corrigan, of Waverley,
NSW, was almost certainly soaked from the waist down before he set off.
Corrigan bumbled into the bog, his rosary beads nestled in a tunic
pocket. We don't know how far he had plodded when a shell hit him.
There wasn't a mark on him, said those who carried him from the front.
He had been killed instantly. He was wrapped in makeshift shrouds and
placed with others in a temporary grave. A rough cross was planted and
his name scratched on it in indelible pencil.
After the war, clearance parties exhumed all the Anzacs they could find
to lay them to rest in one of the cemeteries that now dot the gentle
rises above Ypres in Belgium. Corrigan was overlooked, perhaps because
a road had been laid over his grave.
Ninety years on, through the use of DNA matching technology, he may be
found again, alongside two Victorians.
Private Thomas Gibbens was a Footscray plumber, who enlisted in 1916.
He died in the Battle
of Polygon Wood a
week after Corrigan's death. He was hastily buried at Westhoek Ridge —
and forgotten.
Days after Gibbens' death, Sergeant George Calder, a miner in Western
Australia who grew up in Goldsborough, in northern Victoria, was also
killed.
Their remains may be among six Anzac bodies discovered by gasworkers
laying a pipe in Westhoek, a few kilometres east of Ypres, last August.
The bodies, remarkably preserved in the clay, were wrapped in blankets
and tied with signal wire, their hands clasped as though in prayer, at
what was a casualty station behind the front. Dirt-smudged rising sun
badges clung to the uniforms.
Lack of personal effects, such as identification discs, papers or
diaries, has hampered the identification process, although authorities
believe one or more of the soldiers came from the 4th Division
(Calder's), from either the 12th or 13th brigades.
It was hoped a faded circular
patch on the arm of one of the men's tunics might identify his
battalion. But the vegetable dye was too faded to be identified.
Australian authorities are awaiting Belgian War Graves Service
pathology reports, which may offer clues to the height of the deceased,
dental records and the type of fatal injuries suffered. These could be
compared with service records. But it appears that only DNA technology
may identify some of the remains.
Belgian scientists say DNA should be extractable from the femur of five
of the six sets of remains, prompting a rush to find living relatives
for DNA matching before the planned re-interment of the soldiers on the
90th anniversary of the Passchendaele battles in early October.
Belgium's National Institute for Criminalistics and Criminology is
expected to have DNA results in the next few weeks.
The Australian Army history unit has cross-referenced the names of
seven Anzacs, including Corrigan, Gibbens and Calder, who were
temporarily buried in the area the bodies were found, but not
re-interred for formal burial.
A circumstantial case suggests that one or more of the names may match
the uncovered remains. A witness account from Albert Carter, of the
55th Battalion, appears to support the case of Corrigan. "I helped to
bury him on September 21 at where our advanced dressing station was
when we went over on the 20th September," he wrote a few months later.
"There were several other graves there."
Yet the head of the Australian
Army history unit, Roger Lee, emphasises that no matches might be
found. He is wary of raising false hopes. Colleague Richard Pelvin
says: "I don't want people to get excited. This area was a large
graveyard and the burial registers are not complete."
The unit's obvious difficulty has been locating living descendants of
the soldiers. Because mitochondrial DNA carries through the female line
only, matching descendants are likely to have a different surname to
their forebears, probably several times removed. The hunt has begun for
matching family of Gibbens and Calder.
Corrigan's family has come forward. Last week, after tracking a
scribbled 1967 request from Leo Corrigan's sister, Doris Melrose, for
his "Gallipoli Medallion", The Age spoke to Deidre Shannon, of
Jindabyne. She is Corrigan's niece.
She is willing to provide a cheek swab DNA sample and the wider family
is abuzz with hope that their ancestor may, finally, have a recognised
grave. Corrigan's great niece, Mary Davidson, says: "My first reaction
was 'wow', I hardly even knew that Nan had a brother Leo."
Almost four generations later, Anzac remains still turn up on what was
the Western Front. French and Belgian authorities take extreme care
with the finds and explore every avenue to help identify remains, but
frequently the remains are buried as soldiers "Known Unto God".
Army records can only hint at the anguish at home caused by these
soldiers' deaths and the absence of their having recognised graves.
Corrigan was wounded at Gallipoli when his 18th Battalion was thrown,
untested, into a hell known as Hill 60. Pneumonia later hospitalised
him for months. Afterwards, Corrigan was promoted to lieutenant (he had
enlisted as a private on the outbreak of war in August 1914) and he
commanded up to 60 men when he died in the Battle of Menin Road.
Corrigan had a singing voice
honed over many musical nights at his mother's boarding house. Home was
a merry place — three of his sisters later married lodgers and Corrigan
missed his mother, Sarah, keenly. He was short and clean shaven: a
photo hints of gentle eyes and a solemn air. Sarah hoped he would
become a priest after the war.
An official reply to a letter from a Miss Deakin says there was "no
doubt" about the identity of Corrigan's body. His father received his
war medals. His mother received her son's prayer book and religious
trinkets in his will, as well as his book of proverbs. She also had a
letter to clutch. Her son wrote it before heading to Gallipoli in 1915.
He recalled being a "babe in her arms" and saying his prayers as a boy
at her knee.
"Should anything happen,
Mummie, don't grieve for me because it is His will and That is always
best. To the best of my knowledge I am pretty well prepared to go and
face my God but of course I have no particular wish to go yet. Somehow
or other I feel firmly convinced I will survive and so I do not worry
at all.
"Should this be my last letter, dearest, remember I will always be
waiting and watching for you and praying also, darling Mother, for your
spiritual welfare … Oh, Mum! How I wish I could have one farewell kiss
before going into battle."
Deidre Shannon believes her uncle was a kindly soul and that his mother
never recovered from his loss. "My grandmother never ever mentioned
him," she says. "There was this terrific connection between her and
him. I feel having lost him, so tragically, so young, with her hope
that he would be a priest, his loss would have been a great thing to
her."
Sarah Corrigan's vain request for a photo of her son's grave was a
heartache shared by many.
Corrigan was among 5000 Australian casualties at Menin Road, the first
of a series of Passchendaele battles that appear to be growing in the
Australian consciousness.
Corrigan, like Gibbens and Calder, had squelched through ooze that
swallowed up men too exhausted to go on. Often, by the time a soldier
was reported "missing", his remains had been lost to the battlefield.
This battle, as with the subsequent Polygon Wood campaign, would be
heralded as a triumph in a war of attrition. Such things are relative.
There were almost 1000 Australian casualties for every square mile of
ground gained at Menin Road. The casualties for Polygon Wood were
double. Too many more "triumphs" like that and there would be no more
Australian army.
In 1998, a farmer hit something hard while ploughing his Pozieres field
above the Somme River in France. It was the remains of Private Russell
Bosisto, a South Australian baker whose dark hair, it's said, turned
white within weeks of arriving in France. Several modern-day 27th
Battalion members attended his burial later that year.
Corrigan, Gibbens and Calder, too, may now be offered what few fallen
Anzacs received. They may be buried by families who mourn men they
never met. At the least, they may be remembered. "I feel he was a very
gentle boy," Deidre Shannon says of her uncle. "War must have been
horrific for him."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feast
of Saint Mark, evangelist (Thursday of the
third week of Eastertide)
(April 26 Australia) St Mark, evangelist.
He was the son of Mary in
whose house Peter sought refuge after being freed from gaol. He aided
St Paul and St Barnabas in the evangelisation of Cyprus. Later, Mark
became the companion and secretary of St Peter in Rome. He wrote the
second Gospel which presumably had St Peter for its principal source,
and probably reflects Peter’s preaching. (Saints)
Scripture today: 1 Peter
5:5b-14; Psalm 89:2-3, 6-7,
16-17; Mark 16:15-20
Jesus appeared to
the Eleven and said to them: “Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is
baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will
drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up
serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will
not harm them. They will
lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Then the Lord Jesus,
after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at
the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through
accompanying signs. (Mark 16:15-20)
If you wish to
view
a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click
here
It would be
interesting making a careful study of the image
that most Christians, and in particular most Catholics instinctively
form of the
Christian life. What immediately comes to mind, what occupies the
imagination, when the Christian thinks of living as a Christian? Does
he think of keeping the commandments? Does he think of being at prayer?
Does he think of the person of Jesus and being in the company of Jesus?
All these images are legitimate images of aspects of the Christian life
and are certainly part of living as a Christian. But let us consider
our Gospel scene today in which our Lord appears to the Eleven, his
principal disciples and those on whom he depends most for the future.
What does he say to them? We read that Jesus appeared to the
Eleven
and said to them: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to
every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever
does not believe will be condemned.” And their response? “Then the Lord
Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his
seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached
everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word
through accompanying signs” (Mark 16:15-20).
In giving this mission to
the Eleven Christ was giving it to the Church also, and to all the
Church’s members. That is to say, an essential component of being a
disciple of Christ and of living as Christ would wish is to be on
mission. The great pope Pius XII wrote that an essential component of
the Christian life is engagement in the apostolate of bringing the
knowledge and love of Christ to the world, and at the very least to
one’s own world of daily life and work.
Today is the feast
of St Mark the author of the second Gospel. He has
been traditionally called Mark the Evangelist because of his authorship
of the Gospel, which in view of his ongoing association with Simon
Peter has often been regarded as the Gospel of St Peter. Mark gave his
life to Christ, to being his disciple and to bringing the knowledge and
love of him to the world of his time. He, together with the Apostles
and the early Church, “went forth and preached everywhere, while the
Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through the accompanying
signs” (Mark
16: 19-20). It is historically clear that the eventual
triumph of the Christian faith over the Roman empire, a triumph that in
no way was connected with the use of arms and force of any kind, had
largely for its cause the simple and courageous witness of ordinary lay
Christians in their everyday life. It was a hidden witness of
innumerable “little people” gradually leavening and spreading silently
through society amid recurrent violent persecutions directed at them.
Christians present everywhere “on the ground” in society bore witness
to there being only one God who was a Trinity of persons, the second
person of whom became man to redeem mankind by his death and
resurrection. This was the only Reality, and all other gods were
phantoms and images with no reality except perhaps that of being
demons. For
the Roman Empire it was a fearsome doctrine because it allowed for no
other gods and it was growing. It could not be conquered, and the key
to its victory lay not in arms, not in force, not in any kind of
imposition, not in anything other than bearing daily and humble witness
to its truth amid the cross and suffering. All of this we think of as
we think of St Mark the Evangelist.
Our world needs the
person of Christ. Every member of Christ’s Church
must hear our Lord’s command as addressed to him personally: “Go into
the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” The key to
the world hearing this proclamation lies in the lay Christian who,
supported by his pastors in sound guidance in doctrine, spiritual life
and other resources of Christ’s grace, bears witness to Jesus in the
world in which God has placed him. That is his vocation and the world
depends on it.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You have a persuasive tongue.
But in spite of all your talk, you cannot
justify — by saying it was 'providential' — what has no justification.
(The Way,
no.37)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is sin?
Sin is “a word, an act, or a desire contrary to the eternal Law” (Saint
Augustine). It is an offense against God in disobedience to his love.
It wounds human nature and injures human solidarity. Christ in his
passion fully revealed the seriousness of sin and overcame it with his
mercy. (CCC 1849-1851, 1871-1872)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.392)
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Friday
of the third week of Eastertide
(April 27) Today let us think of St. Zita of Lucca, St Liberale (Saints)
Scripture today:
Acts
9:1-20; Psalm 117:1bc,
2; John 6:52-59
The Jews quarrelled
among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh
of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will
raise him on the last day. For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is
true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and
I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of
the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of
me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors
who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
(John
6:52-59)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
We are now in the
third week of Eastertide, and it is a time when we deepen our
appreciation of Christ precisely as risen from the dead. He is the same
Jesus in all his human, physical and divine reality as he was prior to
his passion and death, but now glorious. He has come back from the dead
to be with us forever as one who has completely conquered death. The
question is, where is he? We cannot see him in his physical form. Is he near to us in an
invisible way as might a ghost or some spirit? There are various ways
in which the risen Jesus now abides within his body the Church, but his
most intense, most real and fullest presence is in the Eucharist. That
is to say, when we think of the living Jesus with us as “Emmanuel”, or
God made man-with-us, we should in the first instance think of the
Eucharistic Jesus. Jesus has come back from the dead to abide with us
his Church most especially in the Eucharist. Consider the starkness of
our Lord’s teaching in today’s Gospel (John 6:52-59). St John tells us that
in the synagogue at Capernaum our Lord taught very publicly the
doctrine that his flesh would be offered to them as real food and his
blood as real drink. He did not try to make the doctrine more
“acceptable”, nor did he - if we go on St John’s account - try to give
reasons proving to them it was possible. He simply stated it clearly,
forcefully and without any ambiguity. He said to the general public
gathered in the synagogue that it was a matter of life and death for
them that they eat his flesh and drink his blood. His flesh would
be real food for them and his blood real drink. His teaching was a
shock to them, and the basis of their acceptance of it would have to be
their faith in him as utterly trustworthy.
I suppose we could
say that in general there are two practical responses to this teaching.
The one is outright rejection and that was the response of the majority
of his hearers at the time. St John tells us that very many disciples
who heard him say this refused to follow him any more. It was too much.
Our Lord did not retract what he had said, but simply turned to the
Twelve and asked if they were going to leave too. Down through
the centuries, especially during the last millennium, there have been
many who have rejected the doctrine of the Eucharist, choosing instead
to give it a metaphorical or purely symbolic meaning. The result is
that many Christians raised in those traditions have lost the gift of
the Eucharist and have been left with a eucharist that is just a
symbolic memorial. The other practical response is, while accepting the
doctrine as proclaimed and taught by the Church, to fail to take it
seriously. In this case, Christ is acknowledged as abiding in all his
risen human and divine reality in the Eucharist. It is accepted that at
Mass the living Jesus in his humanity and divinity is there
re-presenting his one sacrifice of Calvary, and then continually
present in the Tabernacle. These crucial realities are accepted but
accepted somewhat notionally and without a profound realization. Where
this is the case there is little reverence, little true prayer, little
spiritual focus on what is a truly tremendous reality, the reality of
the risen Jesus present in the Eucharist. The risen Jesus is the
Eucharist and the Eucharist is the risen Jesus. For this reason the
Eucharist is taught by the Church to be the summit and the source of
the Christian life of the individual and of the entire
Church.
During these weeks
of Eastertide let us renew our appreciation of the words of Christ in
the Gospel of today stating in unambiguous language that he would give
himself to be our food. He was referring to the gift of himself in the
Eucharist. The resurrection takes us to the Eucharist. The Church is
thus able to identify exactly where the risen Jesus is and how he can
be approached. He is above all in the Eucharist, and can be approached
above all in the Eucharist. Let us resolve to make the Eucharistic
Jesus the heart and soul of our Christian life.
(E.J.Tyler)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Could it be true — no, no, I
can't believe it — that in the world there are not men but bellies?
(The Way,
no.38
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is there a variety of sins?
There are a great many kinds of sins. They can be distinguished
according to their object or according to the virtues or commandments
which they violate. They can directly concern God, neighbour, or
ourselves. They can also be divided into sins of thought, of word, of
deed, or of omission. (CCC 1852-1853, 1873)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.393)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday
of the Third Week of Easter II
(April 28) St
Peter Chanel, priest and martyr (1803-1841). He was born in the
town of Cuet in France, he entered the ranks of the clergy and for a
few years did pastoral work. Then he entered the Society of Mary and
went to Oceania to preach the Gospel. Despite many difficulties he did
manage to convert a number to the Faith. In hatred of the Faith he was
clubbed to death, thus dying as a martyr in the island of Futuna,
Melanesia. He is called the apostle of Oceania where he spread the
Gospel. He was a religious of the Society of Mary (Marist Fathers). (Saints)
Today let us also think of St.
Louis Mary Grignion de Montfort (Saints)
Scripture today:
Acts
9:31-42; Psalm 116:12-13, 14-15,
16-17; John 6:60-69
Many of the
disciples of Jesus who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who
can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring
about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to
see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit
that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have
spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not
believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe
and the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have
told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my
Father.” As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their
former way of life and no longer walked with him. Jesus then said to
the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him,
“Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We
have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of
God.”
(John 6:60-69)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
The Gospels
speak of great crowds following our Lord on various occasions. At one
point our Lord sent out seventy two of his disciples to go ahead of him
in pairs and prepare by their preaching for his coming. From his many
disciples our Lord had chosen the Twelve. The issue was, as he revealed
himself and his true mission to them how many of those following him
would persevere in their discipleship? In our Gospel scene today (John 6:60-69) St John narrates a crisis
moment within the body of our Lord’s disciples, and it was brought on
by his revealing to them the doctrine of the Eucharist. He announced
that he would offer his flesh for them to eat and his blood for them to
drink, telling them that this would be absolutely necessary otherwise
they would have no life in them. He did not explain that this would be
done in all truth but sacramentally - he preserved this revelation to a
later stage. He simply told them the bare reality and asked them to
trust in him and in his word. In the event many of them did not trust
in him and in his word. They heard him out, and it was manifestly clear
what he was meaning to say, and he insisted on it. There was no
mistake. To be his disciples they would have to eat his flesh and drink
his blood and in this way they would abide in him and he in them. It
was an astounding announcement and its acceptance brought on the issue
of his total trustworthiness. Was he the Envoy of God or not? Was he
God’s unique Holy One? Did he utter God’s word in everything, even in a
teaching which seemed beyond all reasonableness? The upshot was that
many of the disciples of Jesus who were listening said, ‘This teaching
is too much; who could possibly accept it?’ So they returned to their
homes and had no more to do with Jesus. Due to the Eucharist our Lord
suffered a very serious depletion of disciples.
The event as
reported by John not only brings to the forefront the central place of
the Eucharist in our life with Christ, but it also shows the
fundamental importance of faith. The use of our personal and private
judgment (enlightened and guided by the grace of the Holy Spirit) is a
necessary instrument in leading us to the person of Christ and in
helping us to know what he said. By the use of their intellects our
Lord’s disciples were able to understand the meaning of his words.
Their reason told them clearly that he was not speaking just
metaphorically. The sad mistake of many of them was to choose to depend
on their own intellects rather than on the word of Jesus to determine
whether it was acceptable and possible. Because of the content of his
teaching they refused to believe in him. They rejected him as did
various others
precisely because of his teaching. We are told in the same Gospel of St
John that
the pharisees and leaders of the Jews persecuted Jesus because he
called God his own father, thus making himself equal to God. They too
rejected him because of what he taught. Being a true disciple of Jesus,
a disciple who loves him and is prepared to follow along in his
footsteps carrying the cross as he carries it, involves faith in his
word and teaching. This faith in his teaching entails accepting the
whole of his teaching whatever it may be, including teaching that seems
to defy one’s own personal judgment as to what is possible. The
disciple of Christ gives to Christ the faith he gives to God. Anything
whatever that Christ teaches his disciple accepts wholeheartedly. Then
from generation to generation till he comes again, the further
fundamental question is, how is the disciple of Christ to determine
what Christ has taught? Christ’s teaching is known by listening to his
Church, founded on the Twelve.
Faith is the
foundation of the Christian life. It is a gift, for as our Lord
said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted him by my Father.” (John 6:60-69) Yet to believe is so
moral a matter that there are lasting implications. Before ascending to
heaven our Lord charged his Apostles to proclaim the Good News
everywhere, adding that the one who believes will be saved, while the
one who refuses to believe will be condemned. Let us treasure our faith
in Jesus, and let us resolve to accept wholeheartedly the full
revelation given us by Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)
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'Pray that I may never be
satisfied with what is easy.' I have prayed. Now it is up to you to
carry out that fine resolution.
(The Way,
no.39)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How are sins
distinguished according to their gravity?
A distinction is made between mortal and venial sin.(CCC 1854)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.394)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fourth Sunday of Easter C
(April 29) St
Catherine of Sienna, virgin and doctor of the Church (1347-1380).
St Catherine was a responsible instrument for the return of Pope
Gregory XI from Avignon to Rome. In deed and in truth she showed her
love for God’s Church and the Roman Pontiff. With her short life she
gave us a lesson in courage: the courage of telling the truth for love
of the Church and of souls. Imprinted with the sacred stigmata, she
died in Rome at thirty-three years of age. She was proclaimed patroness
of Italy on 18 June 1939. In 1970 Pope Paul VI proclaimed her Doctor of
the Church. (Saints)
Scripture: Acts 13:14,
43-52; Psalm 100:1-2, 3, 5;
Revelation 7:9, 14b-17; John 10:27-30
Jesus said: “My
sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them
eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of
my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and
no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are
one.” (John
10:27-30)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
Everywhere in
society there is advertising. Cars, clothes, food, university courses,
and many other benefits and opportunities are on offer, and together
with what is on offer there is the attempt to convince the viewer that
he or she has need of these things. Of course, a person may think he
has no need of something which in fact he might greatly need. For
instance, an advertisement presents the opportunity of free testing for
hidden forms of cancer, and the viewer thinks he has no need whatever
of that testing. The result of what might be his
blindness and consequent lack of interest is that one year later he
falls victim to that very cancer and dies. If only he had understood
his need! There is another form of blindness that is the most
fundamental of all, and that is blindness to our need of God. Most
serious it is when this is a deliberate blindness, a choice to ignore
and
disregard God and to prefer oneself instead. It is this which
happened in heaven long before man, when certain angels rebelled
against God and were cast out of Paradise. Their chosen blindness took
them to an eternal and living death. The first human couple, our first
parents also chose not to allow that they had any need for God. When
tempted by Satan they deliberately chose to reject God as being God,
and preferred instead to attempt to set themselves in God’s place. The
consequence of this was the dominion of sin over them and over their
own very nature, and with it the dominion of death. They turned God out
of their life and opened the floodgates to darkness and sin. Thus sin
inundated mankind, and with sin death inundated the world. But man’s
constant problem is that he feels little sense of his condition and of
his need.
God knew man’s true
condition and his consequent need. Because of his great love for the
world God refused to let sin remain in the world continuing on in its
all-conquering course. Sin left and leaves man helpless. Only God could
and can deal with it and this he did. The result was that we have with
us a stupendous and perfect redeemer, Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the
perfect jewel of our race, the priceless possession of man and the
universe. He is God-with-us, Emmanuel. Why on earth did God allow sin
to enter the world? The same question is asked of so many other
evils and sources of suffering. We do not know fully why God allowed
sin to enter the world. Of course if he were to create free beings at
all, then sin becomes an immediate possibility.
But beyond this obvious consideration, what we do know is that we now
have Jesus Christ our Lord as our redeemer and we have him because man
sinned. Because man sinned God sent his own beloved Son to do away with
sin and in his Son to give us himself. And so in the Exultet sung
during the Easter Vigil, we hear the words, “Father, to ransom a slave
you gave away your Son. O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam which
gained for us so great a Redeemer.” St Thomas Aquinas tells us that
“God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good. Thus St
Paul writes, ‘Where sin increased, grace abounded even more’.” (STh
III,1,3,ad 3). That is to say, we now have Jesus! As St Paul puts it,
in Christ we have been given every heavenly blessing. He is the pearl
of great price, and this pearl is the possession of anyone who comes to
Jesus to learn from him and to belong to him. Christ is our possession
and we are his possession. Let us resolve to belong to him entirely.
Christ
the Son of God is our Friend, our Redeemer and our God. That was the
Father’s answer to the proud and sinful rebellion of man. He gave us
the gift of his Son. Christ our Lord has brought us not only the
possibility of victory over sin if only we live in him with
consistency, but also a life of intimate friendship with him. He
calls us to be his friends. A marvellous union with God is now open to
us. Our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel speak of his love and that of
the Father for each of us. They speak of our salvation from sin and
death, and of our life in union with him and with the Father. “My sheep
hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one
can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” (John
10:27-30).
Consider the love for us that permeates these words. Let us contemplate
the person of Jesus every day of our life, immersing ourselves in the
love he has for us and in his intent to save and sanctify us. Let us
resolve to abide in that love and make the person of Jesus our life and
our eternal possession.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: Catechism of the
Catholic Church, no.410-412
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Faith, cheerfulness, optimism.
But not the idiocy of closing one's eyes to reality.
(The Way,
no.40)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When does one commit a mortal sin?
One commits a mortal sin when there are simultaneously present: grave
matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent. This sin destroys
charity in us, deprives us of sanctifying grace, and, if unrepented,
leads us to the eternal death of hell. It can be forgiven in the
ordinary way by means of the sacraments of Baptism and of Penance or
Reconciliation. (CCC 1855-1861, 1874)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.395)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday
of the Fourth Week of Easter II
(April 30) St Pius V, pope
(1504-1572). Michael Ghislieri, a
Dominican, became Pope Pius V. His pontificate is one of the best in
the 16th century, enforcing the decrees of the Council of Trent,
publishing the Roman Catechism, and revising the Missal and Breviary.
He set an outstanding example to the entire Church of holiness of
life. (Saints)
Scripture
today: Acts
11:1-18; Psalm 42:2-3; 43:3,
4; John 10:1-10
Jesus said: “Amen,
amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a
sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a
robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the
sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,
as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has
driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow
him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a
stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize
the voice of strangers.” Although Jesus used this figure of speech,
they did not realize what he was trying to tell them. So Jesus said
again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who
came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to
them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will
come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and
slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it
more abundantly.” (John 10:1-10)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
Whatever be the
intellectual and cultural climate of a society, there
will be dangers attendant on that climate. Freedom is a right and a
great good, but it too has its dangers. Taking the opposite situation,
where there is no real freedom of religion - such as in certain Islamic
societies - there will be plenty to support the conviction that the
religion of that society is the objective truth. Where there is plenty
of freedom of religion and of conscience, the mere presence of diverse
and opposite convictions as to what is the truth will support
a
tendency to assume that either objective truth is unattainable, or that
there is no such thing as an objective truth. Characteristically, in
the West there is full freedom of religion. So the danger in modern
Western culture is that of relativism, which is to say of assuming that
objective truth is a figment of the imagination or mind. This applies
especially to matters of religious faith and to whatever cannot be
tested empirically. Truth in such matters is often vaguely assumed to
be unattainable, or non-existent. This means that in the face of
contradiction and opposite religious views, the man or woman of modern
Western civilization tends to assume that one cannot make absolute
claims as to religious truth. Religious certainty is deemed impossible.
Moreover, this assumption when it takes hold of the media can be very
powerful and even intolerant in the sense that claims of possessing
religious truth can be subtly hounded and ridiculed. All of this adds
to what we might call - and what Pope Benedict has called - the
dictatorship of relativism. The point here for the Christian is that he
must be on guard against the fear of being what many might call
dogmatic. The religion of the Christian is a dogmatic one. It involves
a philosophy of the attainability of objective and absolute truth in
non-empirical and religious matters, and rejects many philosophical
assumptions as being incompatible with belief in Christ.
In our Gospel today
our Lord makes absolute claims. In effect he is
saying that he is the Saviour of the world and that there is no Saviour
other than he. Typically, he uses an analogy, a parallel drawn from
everyday life. Just as there is one shepherd and one fold, with the
shepherd being the only one who opens and closes the gate to the fold,
so he is the one shepherd, the one gatekeeper, and the one and only
gate to the one and only fold. St John tells us that his disciples did
not grasp the point, so our Lord spelt it out: “Amen, amen, I say to
you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves
and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out
and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and
destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more
abundantly.” (John
10:1-10).
Jesus Christ claims to be the only gate to
the abundant life intended by God for man. We must be on guard against
the tendency to think that it is outrageous and impossible to make
absolute and exclusive claims as to the truth. For that is exactly what
our Lord did and it is exactly what the one who believes in him does.
Christ claimed to be the only Saviour or the world, and that no one
could come to the Father except through him. St Peter when hauled
before the Sanhedrin during the days after Pentecost stated
unambiguously that Jesus Christ is the only one by whom men could be
saved. Just how God saves those who do not enter the fold of Christ
(that is, the Church he founded) might or might not be difficult for us
to say, but all those who are in fact saved are saved through Christ
alone. That is to say, if Buddha was saved as we can assume he was, if
Mahomet was saved as we can assume he was, if anyone in the world is
saved, ultimately it is only through the work and the person of Christ
who is at the right hand of the Father in heaven and who bides in his
body the Church here on earth.
Let us draw near to
the person of Christ and contemplate him as
presented to us in the Gospels. Let us observe his person and come to
know him. Knowing him, let us learn to believe in him for he is the
Saviour. He is the gate and the one who enters through him will be
saved, and will find pasture. Through him comes grace and truth. He is
the Lord of lords, the King of kings.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What a 'profound' way of living
a life of empty follies, of getting
somewhere in the world: rising, always rising, simply by 'weighing
little', having nothing inside, either in your head or in your heart.
(The Way,
no.41)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When
does one commit a venial sin?
One commits a venial sin, which is essentially different from a mortal
sin, when the matter involved is less serious or, even if it is grave,
when full knowledge or complete consent are absent. Venial sin does not
break the covenant with God but it weakens charity and manifests a
disordered affection for created goods. It impedes the progress of a
soul in the exercise of the virtues and in the practice of moral good.
It merits temporal punishment which purifies. (CCC 1862-1864, 1875)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of
the Catholic Church, no.396)
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priestly and religious
vocations may grow in North America and the countries of the Pacific
Ocean, in order to give an adequate answer to the pastoral and
missionary needs of those populations."