Pope Benedict
XVI's Pope Benedict
XVI's
general prayer intention
for the month of June
2007: "That the
Lord may protect sailors and all those involved in maritime activities."
click on arrow for video
Scripture readings: Proverbs
8:22-31; Psalm 8:4-9; Romans
5:1-5; John 16:12-15 (Texts
below)
Jesus said to his
disciples: "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.
He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will
declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because
he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that
the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take
from what is mine and declare it to you." (John 16:12-15)
If
you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on
today's Gospel, click here
In
world literature there have been many autobiographies written, and many
in English literature. One of the most famous was that written in 1864
by John Henry Newman, entitled Apologia pro Vita Sua,
in which he defends himself against the charge of duplicity. For those
interested in the great figure of 
Newman, one of the very
significant pages in his autobiography is that which refers to his
adolescent conversion. At the age of fifteen he underwent a life-long
change to a religion founded on total assent to Christian dogma. He
looks back on that event and pinpoints for us the central doctrine
which he embraced at this conversion and which he calls “the
fundamental truth of religion.” It was the doctrine of the Holy
Trinity, that there is one God in three divine Persons. On this basis
Newman gradually went on to embrace finally the fulness of Christian
doctrine, namely that which is taught by and found in the Catholic
Church. The point, though, which I wish to highlight is this milestone
in Newman's early life and which was a great grace from God. His
spiritual life became
grounded in an assent to and a realization of the central fact that has
been revealed, that there is one God in three divine Persons, each of
whom is that same one God. All too often in the lives of Christians
this doctrine is simply taken for granted in much the way a person may
take for granted the home in which he has been raised or the furniture
his family has constantly used. The very reality of one infinite and
all-powerful God is often yet to be appreciated, and the reality of the
Father, the reality of his divine Son, and the reality of the Holy
Spirit, each of whom is distinct as a divine person, but each of whom
is the same one God, is also yet to be appreciated. St Ignatius Loyola
in his famous Spiritual
Exercises encourages the retreatant to cultivate a profound
devotion to each of the three divine Persons. Every Catholic
family ought have this revealed fact as the soul of its life, and every
parent ought have the holy ambition to help his or her children to
discover in faith the reality of the one God in three Persons. Today is
the chance to realize this.
Every
Sunday after hearing the word of God proclaimed in the Scriptures and
in the homily we profess in the Nicene Creed our faith in the revealed
truth of one only God in whom there are three divine Persons. Each of
these persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit possesses the fullness
of the one divine nature. Each is utterly and really distinct from the
other as a person. There have been those who have wrongly thought of
the three divine persons as simply three different appearances of the
one God or merely different modes in which the one God has involved
himself with us. No,
the three divine persons are objectively separate from one another
as persons because of the distinct and objective relationships they
have with each
other. The Father is the eternal God and the origin of all and for that
reason he is called by Christ the Father. He generates the Son from all
eternity and the Son is generated by him, and in being thus generated
the Son, while being a distinct person, is nevertheless the full being
of the Father. Just as the Father is the one
God, so is the Son the same one God. The two are in an eternal
embrace of boundless love which proceeds and rises from them together.
That divine love between the Father and the Son is the third divine
person whom Christ called the Holy Spirit, or, in today’s Gospel, the
Spirit of truth (John 16:12-15). He, the Holy Spirit,
while being a distinct third person is the same one God as is the
Father and as is the Son. He is the Lord
and Giver of Life, eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has
spoken through the Scriptures which he inspired and he guides the
Church towards a full understanding of revealed truth. The Father so
loved the world and each of us that he sent his only begotten Son to
save the world by his ministry and above all by his death and
resurrection and ascension into heaven. From there the Father and the
Son sent the Holy Spirit upon the Church to bring the life of the most
holy Trinity to mankind through and in the ministry and sacraments of
the Church.
I
mentioned that all too often we lack a realization of the Holy Trinity,
of one God in three divine persons. But too often we also fail to
realize that God has immersed us in his own divine and triune life. At
our baptism and in each of the Sacraments this life of the Holy Trinity
passes into the heart and soul of each of us, which is to say that the
Holy Trinity comes to dwell within us. With this divine indwelling we
are enabled to become
more and more like God in holiness. This is the wonder of membership in
the Church. Today on this feast of the holy Trinity let us ask for the
grace to appreciate the great gift of God and to work daily for the
fulfilment of our high vocation.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: Catechism of the
Catholic Church, nos. 1077-1109, 109-119, 249-260
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Like the good sons of Noah,
throw the mantle of charity over the defects you see in your father,
the Priest.
(The Way,
no.75)
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How does
the Church nourish the moral life of a Christian?
The Church is the community in
which the Christian receives the Word of
God, the teachings of the “Law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2), and the
grace of the sacraments. Christians are united to the Eucharistic
sacrifice of Christ in such a way that their moral life is an act of
spiritual worship; and they learn the example of holiness from the
Virgin Mary and the lives of the Saints. (CCC 2030-2031, 2047)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.429)
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Monday of the ninth week of
Ordinary Time I
Prayers
this week: O look at me Lord and be
meriful, for I am wretched and alone.
See my hardship and my poverty, and pardon all my sins. (Psalm 24: 16.18)
Father, your love never fails. Hear our call. Keep us from
danger and provide for all our needs.
We ask this
through
our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one
God.
(June 4) Today let us think of St. Francis Caracciolo and St Kevin (Saints)
Let us also think
of Saint Petroc, Abbot.
Cornwall's most famous saint and early hunt saboteur. Petroc is said to
have been the son of a Welsh chieftain. He studied in Ireland before
settling in Cornwall in the 4th century. Petroc founded a monastery at
what is now called Padstow (Petroc's Stow). About 30 years later he
established another monastery at Little Petherick, where he built a
mill and a chapel. In his last years, Petroc lived as a hermit on
Bodmin Moor. He built a cell there for himself by the river and a
monastery for twelve monks who followed him. St Petroc died at Treravel
while on a journey visiting his other monasteries. He was buried at
Padstow which became the centre of his cult. His relics were later
moved to Bodmin. In 1177 a disgruntled canon took them off to the abbey
of St Mewan in Brittany. Thanks to the intervention of King Henry II
they were returned to Bodmin amidst great celebrations. This event has
been revived as part of the Bodmin Riding and Heritage Festival. The
actual reliquary survived the Reformation and the destruction of the
shrine. Petroc was greatly revered for centuries throughout Cornwall
and Brittany, (where he is known as St Perreux). The saint had a
special affinity with wild animals. One of his emblems is a stag - in
memory of one he rescued from hunters. According to legend he also once
tamed a dragon.
Scripture today:
Tobit 1:3;
2:1a-8; Psalm 112:1b-2, 3b-4,
5-6; Mark 12:1-12 (Texts below)
Jesus began to
speak to the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders in parables. “A
man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and
built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a
journey. At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain
from them some of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him,
beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another
servant. And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully.
He sent yet another whom they killed. So, too, many others; some they
beat, others they killed. He had one other to send, a beloved son. He
sent him to them last of all, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But
those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill
him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him and killed
him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the
vineyard do? He will come, put the tenants to death, and give the
vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture passage: The
stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the
Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?” They were
seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, for they realized
that he had addressed the parable to them. So they left him and went
away. (Mark
12:1-12)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of today's Gospel passage, click here
One of the most
obvious features of all human life is the fact of work. Every man
across the face of the earth is called to work, if only because his
failure to work will result in his deprivation. He has to work to
survive - but of course work has a much wider and deeper meaning than
this. Indeed, man’s call and need to work is
reflected throughout the visible creation. The animal and insect
kingdom is ever active in its effort to survive and flourish, and this
in turn is reflected in the domain of non-sentient living things that
also struggle and act in order to survive. The tree in the valley
reaches up and up in order to gain access to the sun and the elements.
All of this is a powerful reflection of what man, who is at the apex of
visible creation and who may be described as its lord, is engaged in.
Man works, and the rest of visible creation reflects this and in its
own instinctive and unchosen measure shares in it. How one would define
human work as such is a further matter that could be the subject of
endless discussion. But I suppose it could be roughly described as the
application of one’s energies to the fulfilment of a responsibility
that is chosen or imposed. Whatever about all this, the obvious law of
life and creation binding us to work in order at least to survive
clearly manifests the will of the Creator. It is an all-pervasive
pointer to the plan of God for mankind. God means us to work and we
know this because he has made it necessary for life itself - and this
is clear to all of whatever religion or none. Well now, that God has
given us work to do is abundantly obvious also from the Gospels. Among
other things, God is shown as an employer who has entrusted us with
important jobs and he will expect from us due results. At various
points Christ speaks of the work we have been given to do.
This great point is
clear in today’s Gospel in which our Lord speaks of the owner of the
vineyard entrusting it to tenants to obtain from it its produce. Of
course, the immediate context was our Lord’s conflict with the
religious leaders of the people and their persevering hostility against
him. They were like tenants who were resenting and injuring the
servants sent by the owner to collect the produce. Not only did our
Lord have them in mind, but also their predecessors in the history of
God’s people. His servants the prophets were sent and time and again
they were repulsed and even put to death. And now God had sent his son,
and what would the tenants do? “He had one other to send, a beloved
son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, ‘They will respect my
son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come,
let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him
and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard”
(Mark 12:1-12).
The point here, though, is that each of us must take to heart the
warning our Lord directs against those who do not fulfil their
appointed charge given to them by God. All this means that at the very
centre of our religious and Christian life is our commitment to our
work. Work is not just a law of life and of success in society. That we
work well is a divine law, a requirement if we are to be pleasing to
God. It is essential for growth in Christian sanctity and for
transformation into the likeness of Christ. Consider any of the saints
and notice how industrious they were in their work in life. They saw
their work as coming to them from God, as a sacred trust. They were
like the tenants of our Gospel passage today who were entrusted with
the vineyard. They knew they had to care for the vineyard out of love
for the Master, and care for it well such that the produce would come.
Every Christian has
a work to do in life. There is no day of his life when he does not have
his work for God to do. St Bernadette Soubiroux lived a short life, and
as she entered what would be her last illness, she said of it that it
was her last “job” she had to do. She sanctified her illness and made
of it a great work for God. Every day we ought rise with the intention
of serving God as perfectly as we can in the work which he has given us
to do by vocation or providence, in all its detail. By sanctifying our
work we sanctify ourselves, we sanctify others and we contribute to the
sanctification of the world.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“Go out and work in the vineyard today”
(Mt
21:28)
Saint [Padre] Pio of
Pietrelcina (1887-1968), Capuchin (Ep. 3; 586, 588, 62)
With all my heart I bless God for having
let me know really good souls. I could announce to them that they are
also the Lord’s vineyard: their faith is the cistern; their hope is the
tower; their love is the press; the law of God is the hedge which
separates them from the children of darkness.
I’ll stop there because the bell is
calling me; I am going to the Church’s press, to the altar. That is
where the sacred wine of this delicious and unique grape’s blood flows
constantly and from which very few have the good fortune to be able to
become intoxicated. There, you know – because I cannot do otherwise – I
will present you to the Father of Heaven united with his Son; it is in
him and with him that I am entirely yours in the Lord.
Lord Jesus, save them all. I offer
myself as a victim for all of them. Make me stronger; take my heart,
fill it with your love, and then ask of me whatever you want.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Without a plan of life you will
never have order.
(The Way, no.76)
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Why does the Magisterium of the Church act
in the field of morality?
It is the duty of the Magisterium of the Church to preach the faith
that is to be believed and put into practice in life. This duty extends
even to the specific precepts of the natural law because their
observance is necessary for salvation. (CCC 2032-2040, 2049-2051)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.430)
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Tuesday of the ninth week of
Ordinary Time I (Saint
Boniface, bishop and martyr)
(June 5) Saint Boniface,
monk, bishop and martyr. St Boniface was born between 673 and
680AD to a Saxon farming family near Crediton in Devon, England. He was
baptised as Wynfrith. Educated in monastery schools in the West
Country, he became a monk, first at Exeter, then at Nursling, near
Southampton. During this time he compiled the first Latin grammar
written in English. In about 718, he left his homeland, never to
return, to take the Gospel to the pagan tribes in Germany. The results
of his mission were long-lasting. His mission extended over Hesse,
Bavaria, Westphalia, the Thuringenland, and Wurtenburg. To help in his
work he enlisted many men and women from Wessex. The text of many of
letters written by St Boniface and others from the time still exist and
depict a great and lovable man. He journeyed to Rome three times to
report to the Pope. On his second visit he was made bishop (of Mainz)
and by around 732 he was archbishop. When he was over 70 he set out on
a mission to Holland. There his life ended in martyrdom in the year
754. At a place called Dokkum he was set upon by a group of
Frieslanders armed with swords as he sat reading in his tent.
Archbishop Cuthbert of Canterbury wrote at the time: "we in England
lovingly reckon Boniface to be among the best and greatest teachers of
the faith." St Boniface is especially honoured in Germany. His tomb at
Fulda, where he established a monastery is revered as a sacred place. (Saints)
Sripture today:
Tobit
2:9-14; Psalm 112:1-2, 7-8,
9; Mark 12:13-17 (Texts below)
Some Pharisees and
Herodians were sent to Jesus to ensnare him in his speech. They came
and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that
you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion. You do not regard a
person’s status but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or
should we not pay?” Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them, “Why are
you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at.” They brought one to
him and he said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They
replied to him, “Caesar’s.” So Jesus said to them, “Repay to Caesar
what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” They were
utterly amazed at him. (Mark 12:13-17)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
Christ is and was
the master teacher in all that pertains to God and to our service of
him. He was never caught out despite the constant attempts of his
enemies to ensnare him. Today’s Gospel scene is a case in point. Some
Herodians and Pharisees - the two distinct parties see him as their
joint enemy - 
“were
sent” to ensnare Jesus. Their intervention was part of a plan involving
many others, and this time their question had political implications
which would enable them to place Christ in the hands of Roman law. They
begin by flattering Jesus as one concerned only for the truth as he
knows it to be and as one who never curried favour. This approach, they
hope, will encourage him to disregard Roman civil authority and by his
teaching to prompt citizens to defy it. Christ, whom St John tells us
in his Gospel could easily read the hearts of men, knew their
hypocrisy, and effortlessly answered them with a teaching which not
only amazed them but provides us with important light on the living of
the Christian life in the midst of the world. We are to “render to
Caesar what belongs to Caesar,” and at the same time we are to “render
to God what belongs to God.” (Mark 12:13-17) We
are to live in God and in Christ, but at the same time we do this in
the world, and if this is to happen the world’s authorities must be
respected. As we survey in our minds the flow of human history we can
easily see how the tension between the things pertaining to God and
those pertaining to Caesar have time and again been in tension and
confused. Nevertheless, it is clear from Christ’s teaching that a
properly understood observance of God’s commands will involve also a
striving for good citizenship. The Christian does not disregard society
and civil authority but serves God by building it up. We are called to
be good citizens.
Christ paid his
taxes. We read in the Gospels that Simon Peter was once asked by an
official if Jesus paid the temple tax, and Simon said he did indeed.
There is no record of Jesus being anything but respectful to due civil
authority. He spoke respectfully - but without the slightest fawning -
to Pontius Pilate during his Passion. He would have nothing to do with
anything revolutionary and fled from the clamour to make him king. That
is not to say that he would not condemn immorality and injustice
perpetrated by civil authorities for they too were under the dominion
of God and would be judged. He would have fully supported John the
Baptist’s condemnation of King Herod’s marital situation, and he
himself called Herod a fox when told that Herod was after him. He would
not speak to him when he was sent to him by Pilate. The point to be
taken, though, from our Gospel text today is that Christ teaches us to
be good citizens, and provided the laws of the land do not contravene
God’s law, to obey them. We can take the point further and say that
Christ wishes his disciples to do all they can to ensure that Caesar
himself renders to God the things that are God’s, and to remember
constantly that he, Caesar, is not God. That is to say, we are called
to involve ourselves in civil society and conduct our involvement
according to the light and teaching of Christ. For this reason the
Church has a large body of modern social teaching stemming mainly from
the great social encyclical Rerum Novarum of Pope Leo XII over one
hundred years ago. But all too often this body of social doctrine
applying the teaching of Christ to the earthly city is ignored by those
who occupy the place of Caesar and who formulate the laws of the
earthly city. I refer to those Catholics and Christians who are in
political life and who make their decisions without reference to
Christ.
Let us take to
heart the fundamental principle offered to us by the Lord in our text
today. We belong to Christ and as persons who are in him we live our
lives as members of society and the world. We have a responsibility to
the world and this responsibility is to be lived out according due
respect for its laws and institutions. We must render to Caesar what
belongs to Caesar, while at the same time reminding Caesar that he is
not God - which he is very prone to think.
(E.J.Tyler)
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This tying of one's life to a
plan, to a timetable, you tell me, is so monotonous! And I answer:
there is monotony because there is little Love.
(The Way,
no.77)
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What purpose do the precepts of the
Church have?
The five precepts of the Church
are meant to guarantee for the faithful
the indispensable minimum in the spirit of prayer, the sacramental
life, moral commitment and growth in love of God and neighbour. (CCC
2041, 2048)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.431)
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Wednesday
of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time I
(June 6) Saint Norbert
Bishop and founder. Born into an aristocratic family near Cleves
in the Rhineland, Germany, in around 1080. Norbert embarked on a
comfortable career holding several posts at the wealthy courts of
Archbishop Frederick I and Emperor Henry V. When he was about 35, he
had a riding accident, narrowly escaping death, and underwent a sudden
conversion which made him give up his life at court to become a priest.
He became a canon of the cathedral of Xanten, and soon tried to reform
the canons of Xanten, asking them to give up their luxurious lifestyle
and devote more time to prayer and pastoral duties. His appeal was
treated with contempt, so he left the court to become an itinerant
preacher going throughout France and Germany and other places preaching
the word of God. With the help of companions who joined him he founded
a community of reformed canons under the rule of St Augustine at
Premontre. This was the first house of the Premonstratensians (now
normally called the Norbertines). The new order was very popular in
Western Europe because it combined the priesthood with an austere daily
life. In 1126 he was chosen as archbishop of Magdeburg and introduced
many reforms into his diocese, fighting corrupt practices among the
clergy and laity. In 1130 he put all his influence behind Pope Innocent
t II in his struggle with the antipope Pierleone. Norbert was appointed
Chancellor for Italy by Emperor Lothair II. There was more than one
attempt on his life. In the 20 years that he lived after his conversion
he made a great mark on his era. Norbert died in Magdeburg in 1134 and
was canonised in 1582. His relics were moved to the abbey church of his
order at Strahove near Prague. His emblem is a monstrance. (Saints)
Scripture today: Tobit 3:1-11a,
16-17a; Psalm 25:2-3, 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9; Mark 12:18-27
Some Sadducees, who
say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and put this question to
him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies,
leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise
up descendants for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers. The
first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants. So the second
brother married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third
likewise. And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also
died. At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be? For
all seven had been married to her.” Jesus said to them, “Are you not
misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When
they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage,
but they are like the angels in heaven. As for the dead being raised,
have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush,
how God told him, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are
greatly misled.” (Mark 12:18-27)
If you wish to view
a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click
here
One could surely
say that the most sorrowful spectacle everywhere and in all ages is the
universal fact of death. All things that live love to live, and yet
this love of life is doomed to frustration because all living things
will die. The beautiful flower triumphs in its blossoming, and soon
fades into death. The grand and strong tree which rises and expands to
a great height and strength, and which lives on for some hundreds of years exhaling into the air what other
creatures need and giving of its substance to conserve other things eventually dies. The animal and insect
kingdoms abound with an astonishingly variant life, and all of it dies
while being replaced by its next generation which dies too. Finally,
man who is the lord and steward of our beautiful world is born, lives
his life, and then like all other living things also must die. What a
sad end to something - I refer to life - which offers so much promise!
Death has exercised the mind of man from age to age and in religion
after religion and it has clearly been one of the defining issues of
one system of thought after another. Ultimately, though, the practical
issue is, will death be the end, or in some way yet another beginning?
Man began at his birth. Will he continue on in some sense after his
death? Various religions have taught that man begins again and again
reincarnating in this life, while there are other religions which while
profoundly affected by the doom of death do not point to much by way of
a future life. Well then, in our Gospel today (Mark 12:18-27) our Lord is approached
by representatives of a tradition in Judaism, the Sadducees, which did
not allow for a future resurrection. Their very existence as a school
of opinion in Judaism shows the less than resoundingly clear message
about the Afterlife provided by the Scriptures to that point.
Our Lord’s reply to
them provides one of his many references to what will happen to us
after our death. Of all the ancient figures and teachers, of all the
founders of religions and masters of human thought, no one has spoken
with such power and clarity about what happens to man after he dies. In
a sense God the Son became man because man dies. He came to deal with
death because the danger facing man was a death far more terrible than
he realized. While man knows he dies, he did not know how utter can be
his death if sin is allowed its reign. The danger hanging over every
man is that of dying forever - not passing into a total oblivion but of
perishing forever in an active sense. I am referring to the fires of
hell. I have known people getting on in life who have thought that
there is no Afterlife but that at the end of one’s life one simply
ceases to exist in a personal sense much like any dog or cat. This is a
cop-out and is a belief - one without evidence - that can take away
one’s sense of moral responsibility. If there is no Afterlife there is
of course no judgment and so no consequences for ones misdeeds. It will
be a case of eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. Christ has
revealed that following our death there is a personal judgment, and the
soul to be judged lives on forever with the results of that judgment.
His teaching also gives a divine interpretation of the meaning of the
Old Testament on this matter. The Sadducees, our Lord tells them, did
not know the Scriptures nor the power of God. God is the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and inasmuch as God is not God of the dead
but of the living then Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were alive. The
Sadducees were very much mistaken as are all who think there is no a
resurrection from the dead. Life is short, eternity is very long.
Any sensible person
looks ahead, learning from the past to make provision for the future.
The past is dominated by the figure and the teaching of Jesus Christ,
as is the present and the future. We must look ahead in the light of
his revelation. All of us will live on forever. The question is, how
are we going to ensure that the life we shall live is life in abundance
and not a living death. Following death there is our judgment, and
following that, there is either heaven or hell and each lasts forever.
The way to life lies in Christ. The way to death lies in refusing him.
(E.J.Tyler)
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If you don't get up at a fixed
time you will never carry out your plan of life.
(The Way,
no.78)
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What are the precepts of the Church?
They are: 1) to attend Mass on Sundays
and other holy days of obligation and to refrain from work and
activities which could impede the sanctification of those days; 2) to
confess one's sins, receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation at least
once each year; 3) to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least
during the Easter season; 4) to abstain from eating meat and to observe
the days of fasting established by the Church; and 5) to help to
provide for the material needs of the Church, each according to his own
ability. (CCC 2042-2043)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.432)
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Thursday
of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time I
(June 7) Today let us think of Blessed Emmanuel Ruiz and his
Companions (Saints)
Saint
Meriadoc Bishop,
patron of Cambourne in Cornwall. St Meriadoc (also known as Meriasek)
was probably a Welshman who founded at least one church in Cornwall and
several churches and monasteries in Brittany. He eventually became a
bishop there and his feast is celebrated in several Breton dioceses to
this day. The rare Cornish miracle play: Beunans Meriasek, tells his
life story. St Meriadoc was once very rich but he gave away all his
possessions - much to the consternation of his relatives - and devoted
his life to prayer and caring for the sick and needy. 'Poverty is a
remover of cares and the mother of holiness,' he said. His bell is
still in the church at Stival. Placed on the heads of migraine
sufferers or the deaf, it is said to heal them.
At Cordova in the Vandalicia region of Spain, of the sainted matyrs Peter, priest, Wallabonsus,
deacon, Sabinian, Wistremundus, Habentius, and Jeremiah, monks,
who had their throats slit for the sake of Christ in the persecution of
the Moors.
Scripture today:
Tobit
6:10-11; 7:1bcde, 9-17; 8:4-9a; Psalm
128:1-5; Mark 12:28-34
One of the scribes
came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the
commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The
Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your
strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbour as
yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” The scribe
said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One
and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your
neighbour as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and
sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he
said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And no one
dared to ask him any more questions. (Mark 12:28-34)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
If we allow our
minds to roam and survey the scene of world literature, and to think of
its poems, its drama, its stories and its novels, one great theme
stands out before us. It is human love. Popular songs exult in love.
Popular novels in one form or another recount the story of human love.
Now, this is natural because man is
made for love and he is called to have it fill his life. It is manifest
that the key to happiness is love, and this is even reflected in an
unreasoning way in the animal world in which animals accompany one
another, act as companions, and so forth. The question is, what kind of
love will brings true human happiness because a further theme in the
history and literature of mankind is the tragedy and travesty of much
of human love. In popular romance, be it in television and movies, the
love that is often depicted is scarcely love at all but mere passing
lust. The question that arises is, therefore, what guidance does
the good God give us about the instinctive desire he has implanted in
our nature to find love and to give it? Well, our Lord is explicit on
the point and he places love at the very heart of all God’s
commandments to man. In this sense our Gospel passage today is a
fundamental text of the New Testament for it reveals the plan of God
for man and gives the key to the understanding of the Scriptures. One
of the scribes, a person who studied assiduously the Old Testament with
all its commandments and laws, “came to Jesus and asked him ‘Which is
the first of all the commandments?’”. Without any hesitation our Lord
gave the answer: “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God
is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The
second is this: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no
other commandment greater than these.” (Mark
12:28-34)
So every human
being is called by God to love with all his heart - but the object of
this love must in the first place be God himself. This is what is
generally forgotten by mankind. It is to be noted that the scribe who
showed appreciation and understanding of what our Lord had said was
told by our Lord that he was “not far from the kingdom of God.” He had
the perception to see the truth of what our Lord had just taught, and
this very understanding put him on the way to the kingdom of God. There
are so many who do not even see the truth of revelation nor, therefore,
do they accept it. The first thing we mus do if we are to order our
lives aright is to accept wholeheartedly the truth of our Lord’s
teaching - precisely because it is the teaching of the Son of God made
man. Being his teaching, it is therefore most true. Then, having
accepted it with a full religious assent, we must make it our life’s
work to put it into practice. I make a passing observation here. I
suspect that one of the distinctive features of the revealed religion
of Judaism and Christianity is that God is to be the object not just of
our awe, reverence and service but of our love. I do not think this is
readily found outside revealed religion - except in the case of those
religions influenced by Revelation. We should have reverence and awe
before him because he is our infinite God, but at the same time this
infinite God invites us actually to come close to him and to love him.
It is to be a loving reverence as towards a most revered and loving
Father. The one almighty God called his chosen people into a friendship
with him, into an intimacy of reverent and obedient love. Moses was his
friend. His people were described by certain prophets as his spouse,
and God as their husband. Christ is the full development of this. As St
Paul writes, in him is the fullness of the Godhead bodily and we are
called to be his chosen and intimate friends.
Every day let us
set out to fulfill our vocation and to love the good God as fully as we
can that day. As our Lord said, if you love me you will keep my
commandments. Our love is manifested in the recognition of God’s
supreme authority over our lives and our obedience to his will. It is
shown in our total assent to the truth he has revealed, and in our
daily fulfilment of the duties he gives us in our vocation or in the
circumstances of his providence. Let us therefore resolve to love him
with all our heart, and, in obedience to him, our neighbour as ourself.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Virtue without order? Strange
virtue!
(The Way,
no.79)
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Why is the Christian moral life
indispensable for the proclamation of the Gospel?
Because their lives are conformed to the Lord Jesus, Christians draw
others to faith in the true God, build up the Church, inform the world
with the spirit of the Gospel, and hasten the coming of the Kingdom of
God. (CCC 2044-2046)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.433)
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Friday
of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time I
(June 8) Today let us
think of St. Medard
and St. Gildard
(Saints)
Saint William of York, Archbishop.
A patron saint of victims of injustice. St William of York's early
career in the church was very successful. As a young man in 1130, he
was appointed treasurer of York and chaplain to King Steven. He was
known as a kind and good-natured person. When the archbishop of York
died, the authorities chose William as his successor. But from that
time on things went badly wrong, as he became the innocent victim of
malicious gossip. Bernard and the Yorkshire Cistercians accused him of
a number of wicked deeds shortly before he was to be installed as
Archbishop of York. This set off a wrangle that was to last for years.
William retired to Winchester and lived devoutly as a monk until 1153,
when his name was cleared. Enormous crowds greeted him when he returned
to York. But he died suddenly, possibly of poisoning, just a month
later. He was buried in his cathedral and many miracles began to be
reported at his tomb. Pope Honorius II appointed the monks of Fountains
and Rievaulx to investigate his life and miracles. He was canonised in
1227. In 1421 the famous St William window was made, depicting his
life, death, translation and miracles in 62 scenes. St William's shrine
flourished for centuries. A few modern churches are named after
him.
Scripture today:
Tobit
11:5-17; Psalm 146:1b-2, 6c-7, 8-9a,
9bc-10; Mark 12:35-37
As Jesus was
teaching in the temple area he said, “How do the scribes claim that the
Christ is the son of David? David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit,
said: The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I place
your enemies under your feet.’ David himself calls him ‘lord’; so how
is he his son?” The great crowd heard this with delight. (Mark 12:35-37)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
At various points
in the Gospels we see how great was Christ’s veneration for the
Scriptures - meaning here the Old Testament. As a child of twelve he
was found by his anxious parents sitting in the Temple in the midst of
the doctors of the Law asking questions and profoundly impressing them
with his intelligence and replies. Undoubtedly the
object of their interchange was the meaning of the inspired Scriptures.
He often indicated to his disciples how he, the Son of Man, fulfilled
the Scriptures. He showed his disciples before and after his death that
the Scriptures taught that the Messiah would have to suffer in order to
enter his glory. In his conflicts with the religious leaders of the
people he often refuted them by his serene mastery of the Scriptures.
The Sadducees came to him with an argument from the Scriptures against
the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead. He refuted them by his
effortless reference to an unsuspected text of the Scriptures. Jesus
was the incomparable teacher of the true meaning of the Scriptures. In
our Gospel today our Lord again dazzled his audience with his reference
to an unnoticed Scriptural reference to the lordship of the Messiah.
All knew that the Messiah was to be the son of David. We remember how
when Herod consulted the religious authorities as to where the Messiah
was to be born, they answered that he was to be born at Bethlehem the
town of his ancestor David. In our passage today (Mark 12:35-37) our Lord, quoting the
psalm, points out that the Holy Spirit (through the mouth of “David
himself”) refers to the Messiah primarily as David’s “lord” whom God
sets at his right hand until he places his enemies under his feet. So
the Christ is lord of David, in some sense he is on a par with God
himself, and by
the power of God his enemies will be subjected to him - and all of this
while being son of David.
The great point of
our Lord’s passing use of the psalm is to bring out the supreme
grandeur of the person of the Messiah. Scripture has unsuspected depths
of meaning and richness and this is the case most especially in all
that relates to the Messiah who is to come. In fact, as the Church has
often taught, the entire Old Testament should be read in the light of
the Messiah who has in fact come in the person of Jesus. He it is who
beams a great light on the Scriptures and gives to it its unity and
true meaning. If we approach not only the New Testament in this way but
also the Old, then the various and seemingly disconnected elements
become a powerful witness to the one thing necessary: the salvation
that has come from God in the person of the Messiah. That Messiah has
come, and as it turns out he is far greater than a reading of the
Scriptures would have led one to expect. He is the King of kings and
the Lord of lords - and is David his father’s Lord as well. There is no
king nor any lord who is not subject to him. As he said after having
risen from the dead, all authority in heaven and on earth had been
given to him, and he sits now at the right hand of the Father working
as head of his Church to bring all the nations into his kingdom. Of his
kingdom there will be no end and finally all will be brought “under his
feet.” This Jesus who in our Gospel scene today was “teaching in the
temple” is the Master of mankind. Jesus Christ is Lord and he sits at
the right hand of the Father, indeed he is in fact God. The great work
of life is to recognize
this and to bring the whole of one’s life into accord with it, and to
contribute towards its recognition by all mankind. Let us read the
Scriptures with Jesus as our teacher, and with his Holy Spirit to guide
us to the discovery of him in them.
Place yourself,
dear friend, in the company of Jesus. He lives now and is very near to
you. He is your Lord and he is the Lord of all things, seen and unseen.
He is the one and only divine Saviour of mankind. The one thing
necessary is
to become his disciple, his servant and his friend in a genuine and
true way. He is found in his body the Church, of which he is the
abiding head. Let us then resolve to belong to him and to live in him
every day of our lives.
(E.J.Tyler)
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His name is “King of kings and Lord of
lords." (Revelation 19:16)
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
(313-350), Bishop of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church
(Baptismal
Catechesis 10, 2-5; PG 33, 662f)
If any one wishes to show piety towards
God, let him worship the Son; otherwise the Father does not accept his
homage. The Father spoke with a loud voice from heaven, saying, “This
is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). The Father
was well pleased with the Son... who is called “Lord” (Lk 2:11), not
improperly as those who are so called among men, but as having a
natural and eternal lordship...
While remaining who he is and truly
holding unchanged the dignity of his Sonship, he adapts himself to our
infirmities, like an excellent physician or a compassionate teacher. He
is truly Lord; he did not receive this title by some sort of
advancement. The dignity of lordship is his by nature. He was not given
the title”lord” as we are, but he is so in truth, since by the Father's
bidding he is Lord over his own works. Human lordship is exercised over
people of dignity and weakness equal to our own, even over our elders;
often a young master rules over aged servants. But in the case of our
Lord Jesus Christ, lordship is not of this nature: he is first Maker,
then Lord. First he made all things by the Father's will, then, he is
Lord of the things which were made by him.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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When you bring order into your
life your time will multiply, and then you will be able to give God
more glory, by working more in his service.
(The Way,
no.80)
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“Teacher, what good must I do
to have eternal life?” (Matthew 19:16)
To the young man who asked this question, Jesus answered, “If you would
enter into life, keep the commandments”, and then he added, “Come,
follow Me” (Matthew 19:16-21). To follow Jesus involves keeping the
commandments. The law has not been abolished but man is invited to
rediscover it in the Person of the divine Master who realized it
perfectly in himself, revealed its full meaning and attested to its
permanent validity. (CCC 2052-2054, 2075-2076)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.434)
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Saturday
of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time I
(June 9) St Ephraem of Syria,
Deacon and Doctor of the Church. Born of a Christian family in
Nisibis, Mesopotamia in about the year 306, he was ordained a deacon
and worked both in his own country and at Edessa where he laid the
foundations of the School of Theology. He lived a life of asceticism
though at the same time he did not neglect the ministry of preaching;
and he wrote a number of works to refute the errors in doctrine current
at the time. He wrote poems and hymns about the mysteries of Christ and
the Virgin Mary. He was a poet, orator, holy monk, and had a great
devotion to the Mother of God. He died in the year 373. (Saints)
Let us also think of Saint
Columba (not the
later St Columban who went to France, and whose day is November
23) Born at Gartan in Co Donegal, in 521, St Columba was
trained as a monk first by Finian of Moville and then by Finian of
Clonard. He spent 15 years in Ireland preaching and founding
monasteries - the greatest of these being Kells, Durrow and Derry. Then
in 565 he left with twelve companions for the Scottish island of Iona.
There he founded the community that was to become the heart of Celtic
Christianity. From Iona, Columba and his monks made extensive journeys
- evangelising the north of England and establishing religious
communities. One story has it that the king of the Picts, Brude, and
many of his people, were
converted after watching Columba drive away a sea monster. According to
his biographer Adomnan, writing a century later, Columba was a
charismatic figure, who combined the skills of scholar, scribe, poet
and ruler with a fearless commitment to God's cause. On this day in
587, St Columba was copying the psalm: 'They that love the Lord shall
lack no good thing' - when he had to stop as he was too weak to
continue. He died shortly afterwards. Adoman writes that he was: "
loving to everyone, happy-faced, rejoicing in his inmost heart with the
joy of the Holy Spirit."
Scripture today:
Tobit 12:1,
5-15, 20; Tobit 13:2, 6efgh, 7, 8;
Mark 12:38-44
In the course of
his teaching Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go around
in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honour
in synagogues, and places of honour at banquets. They devour the houses
of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers. They will receive
a very severe condemnation.” He sat down opposite the treasury and
observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people
put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins
worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them,
“Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other
contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their
surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had,
her whole livelihood.” (Mark 12:38-44)
If you wish to
view a video recording of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
As a generalization
that allows for exceptions we could say that every man (meaning, of
course, every man and woman) wants to achieve. We can constantly
improve in our own persons and in our activity and work, and one of the
distinguishing features of man as against the animal is that man has a
desire for and a gift for perfection. The animal is set in his
instincts and operates to satisfy them. While man has limits to his capacities,
nevertheless he desires to develop, to improve, and gradually to attain
the best he is capable of. He uses his mind and his freedom to attain
the heights. This desire of his nature for the perfection of himself
and his work is the basis in nature for his efforts to attain by the
power of grace that perfection of love for God to which he is called.
Good work is the means of doing this. The point, though, of this
general observation is that it is the most natural thing in the world
to want to do our best and to give our all. We want to achieve, and we
feel a commendable sense of fulfilment in doing good work. If we do not
work, or if we do not work well, or if our work seems to be fruitless,
then we lack a sense of fulfilment. If life passes and we have not
worked then we have been reprehensible. But now, what is to be said of
the very common phenomenon of people seeing little for all their
efforts especially when compared with the results of the efforts of
others? The overwhelming majority of persons are what we could call the
little people. We look at our limited means, our very unimpressive
round of daily activity and work, our seemingly insignificant daily
attainments, and ask ourselves, what have I to show for all my work?
How am I ever to do the good or produce the fruit that will give to my
life great value? What we are looking at here is the problem of the
life of the very ordinary person living a life made up of very small
duties, and having no notable impact and very little recognition from
others. How is the ordinary person to attain grandeur?
Ah! The little
person can indeed attain great grandeur, but by and large it is
grandeur in the sight of God. To a fair extent the value of the small
can be seen by any clear thinking person. The great
philosopher-economist, E. F. Schumaker, came out with his famous book
some decades ago, Small
is Beautiful.
Man, he said, is small and therefore small is beautiful. In our Gospel
today our Lord makes a point which ought be providing us with
consolation and inspiration all our lives. He was sitting in sight of
the treasury in the Temple, and was watching “how the crowd put money
into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow
also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his
disciples to himself, he said to them, ‘Amen, I say to you, this poor
widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For
they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her
poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood’.” (Mark
12:38-44).
That poor widow gave her all. She had practically nothing. She was
unnoticed. She might have been regarded as possibly useless, and she
might have regarded herself as such. Perhaps she had no one else left
in her life, but only God. She gave him her all, small as it was - and
in her case Small was very beautiful. Our Lord held her up for the
example of is disciples, and through them she is an example for all
mankind. Every single person ought place himself in the company of our
Lord as he points towards the small widow giving to God everything she
had, her whole livelihood. A little earlier in this very chapter of St
Mark’s Gospel our Lord lays it down that the first and greatest
commandment is that we love God with all our heart, all our soul, our
mind and our strength. This is what the poor widow was doing in giving
to God her mite. It is what every person is called to do and can do.
We may not have
many talents, indeed we may have only one. But that talent we must put
to assiduous work so that the Lord and Master may be served and
glorified. All this is to say that the heights of perfection both of
nature and grace can be attained by the loving fulfilment of our
ordinary duties of state no matter how seemingly insignificant those
duties may be. Small is indeed beautiful provided the small is made
holy in the way the widow made her mite holy.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Action is worth nothing without
prayer: prayer grows in value with sacrifice.
(The Way,
no.81)
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How did Jesus interpret the Law?
Jesus interpreted the Law in the light of
the twofold yet single commandment of love, the fullness of the Law:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first
commandment. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as
yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the
Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). (CCC 2055)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.435)
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The
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ C
Prayer for today:
Lord
Jesus Christ, you gave us the eucharist as the memorial of your
suffering and death.
May our worship of this sacrament of your
body and blood help us to experience the salvation you won for us
and the peace of the kingdom where
you live with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
(June 10) Today let us think of St. Getulius and Companions,
as well as St Ithamar
(Saints)
Saint Landry of Paris
Saint Landry (or Landeric) is known mainly for his work with the sick.
From the time he was consecrated Bishop of Paris in 650, he devoted
himself to their care - founding the city's first hospital, dedicated
to St Christopher, next to Notre Dame Cathedral. His generosity was so
great that in times of famine, Landry sold or pawned the sacred vessels
and his own furniture in order to relieve the suffering of the poor.
Together with 23 other bishops he subscribed to the charter Clovis II
gave to Saint-Denis Abbey in 653. St Landry died in 661. The hospital
changed its name to the Hotel Dieu, and exists to this day. He was
buried in the church of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, then called St
Vincent's, where his relics, except two bones given to the parish of
Saint-Landry in 1408, are kept in a silver shrine. He is honoured with
an office in the new Paris Breviary.
Scripture: Genesis
14:18-20; Psalm 110:1, 2, 3, 4; 1 Corinthians
11:23-26; Luke 9:11b-17
Jesus spoke to the
crowds about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be
cured. As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and
said, "Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding
villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a
deserted place here." He said to them, "Give them some food
yourselves." They replied, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have,
unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people." Now the men
there numbered about five thousand. Then he said to his disciples,
"Have them sit down in groups of about fifty." They did so and made
them all sit down. Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and
looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and
gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and
were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they
filled twelve wicker baskets. (Luke 9:11b-17)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
Whenever we read the
Holy Scriptures we must bear in mind that they are the fruit of the
action of a single divine author, the Holy Spirit. If you read several
works of a particular author you will see similarities in those
different works. One result of this consideration is that what we read
in one part of the Scriptures reminds us of
similarities that we notice in another part, simply because all parts
of the Scriptures and therefore all similarities have the same divine
author. Those similarities across the Scriptures throw light especially
on the person and teaching of our Lord because he is the great
centrepiece of the entire Scriptures. Our Gospel today (Luke 9:11b-17) provides us with a case
in point. Our Lord by the power of his simple word fed five thousand
men with a mere five loaves and two fish. There is at least one other
instance in the Gospels of this kind of miracle when he fed a crowd of
four thousand - and in one of his conversations with his disciples he
refers to both events. It was obvious that if he chose to he could
effortlessly feed all of God’s people. Such is the power of his divine
word. Undoubtedly many of those who witnessed this were reminded of God
feeding his people in the wilderness on their way to the promised land.
God fed them from heaven then with manna in the desert, just as he did
through the word of Christ in our Gospel event today. St John tells us
in his Gospel that the next day our Lord told the people that in fact
he himself is the bread come down from heaven, the true bread that
gives life to the world. That is to say, Christ chose to describe
himself in terms of the bread with which he himself had fed the crowds
and in terms of the manna with which God had nourished his people in
the wilderness. God could and would provide for all his chosen people
on their journey to heaven, and this he does in the person of Christ.
Now, can we pinpoint Christ feeding the people of God everywhere and
through all the ages with the bread of heaven which is himself? We can,
and it is the holy Eucharist in which is contained every heavenly
blessing.
The account of the
manna coming from God in the desert is contained in the book of Exodus.
Also in the book of Exodus is the account of the appearance of God to
Moses on Mount Sinai and the witnessing by the people of the awesome
phenomena associated with that presence of God. There was thunder and
lightning and a shuddering spectacle. No faith was required to be
convinced that it was indeed the living God who was present on the
Mountain meeting with Moses and giving to him the Ten Commandments.
When Christ the Son of God came, he bore with him none of the spectacle
of that past occasion. St Paul tells us that though he was in the form
of God he put that aside and became as men are, and humbler still. But
there was a further surprise to come and it was that the Word made
flesh would be our constant food for all the generations to come. He
himself would be our manna from heaven. He himself would be the loaves
distributed to all his spiritually hungry people. He would have himself
even look like mere bread. The difference is that this bread is not
mere bread as was the manna and as were the loaves of today’s Gospel.
This bread, by the word of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, has
been changed into the body and blood, the soul and the divinity of the
risen Jesus. Jesus, whole and entire in all his human and divine
reality, is given to us in the holy Eucharist, and it is this same
Jesus under the appearances of bread who remains with us in our
tabernacles day and night in our parish churches. The living Object and
divine Source of the Church and of all creation is contained in the
tiny host. Indeed, the living God made man is not just in that tiny
host, he is that tiny and humble host. Bread is there no longer, but
only Jesus. That vulnerable host is the Object of the Church’s constant
adoration, and should be unceasingly recognized by each of us as the
summit and the source of our whole Christian life. Let us remember this
constantly.
Because this requires
faith in the word of Christ, so often we ignore his real presence. We
cannot see Christ’s physical person but only the appearance of bread
and so all too often we act as if we are in the presence of mere bread.
We forget what has happened as a result of Christ’s word and the power
of the Holy Spirit. It has often been claimed that the reverence
displayed by the average Muslim in his mosque is greater than the
reverence shown by the average Catholic in his church, even though in
his church there is present the Lord of lords and the King of kings.
Let us resolve to distinguish ourselves constantly by our lively faith
in the real presence of Christ in the holy Eucharist and by our
constant reverence for his divine person there.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: Catechism of the
Catholic Church, no.1373-1381
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First, prayer; then, atonement;
in the third place, very much 'in the third place', action.
(The Way, no.82)
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What does “Decalogue” mean?
Decalogue means “ten words” (Exodus 34:28). These words sum up the Law
given by God to the people of Israel in the context of the Covenant
mediated by Moses. This Decalogue, in presenting the commandments of
the love of God (the first three) and of one's neighbor (the other
seven), traces for the chosen people and for every person in particular
the path to a life freed from the slavery of sin. (CCC 2056-2057)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.436)
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Memorial of Saint
Barnabas Apostle (Monday
of the tenth week of Ordinary Time I)
(June 11) Saint
Barnabas, apostle. Born in the island of Cyprus, A
Jewish Cypriot and Levite, he was
one of the first converts in Jerusalem and preached at Antioch. He
was originally called Joseph, but when he sold all his
possessions and gave the money to the apostles, his parents gave him
his new name, meaning 'son of consolation'. It was
Barnabas who introduced St Paul to the other apostles, paving the way
for the broad apostolate which required the approval of the pillars of
the Church. With John Mark and Paul he sailed on the
first missionary
expedition to Cyprus and is honoured as a founder of the Church there.
At
the Council of Jerusalem, Barnabas supported the Gentile Christians.
Paul's references to him in Galatians may indicate that he evangelised
beyond Cyprus. He
returned to his native land to preach the Gospel and died a martyr to
the faith during Nero’s reign. Legends claim he was
martyred at Salamis in the year 61. His name is included in the Roman Canon.
In England there are 13 ancient churches dedicated to
him and several modern ones. (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 11:21b-26;
13:1-3; Psalm 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4,
5-6; Matthew 5:1-12
When Jesus saw the
crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his
disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they
who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
will inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they
will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called
children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of
righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you
when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil
against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward
will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were
before you.” (Matthew 5:1-12)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
It is a common
position among atheists that religion is one of the sources of evil in
the world. Religion for them does not bring blessings and true
happiness. Karl Marx would have it that religion is an opiate of the
masses - it drugs them into stoically putting up with injustices and an
impossibly futile life with the thought of a pie in the
sky. Richard Dawkins of Oxford has considered religion to be a massive
delusion which also perpetrates crime. It is the God delusion. Behind
all these starkly contrasting positions is the cry of man for happiness
and his puzzlement as to how it is to be found. There never has been a
consensus except that the voice of mankind has without question pointed
to the Beyond as holding the key to human joy. Whatever be the view of
this or that scientist or philosopher, the great stream of mankind has
been convinced that somehow happiness is connected with the powers
above. Man’s understanding of the connection is clouded and his beliefs
as to how happiness comes in and through religion has more than often
been hopelessly flawed, but in the main - except for the anomaly of
modern secularism - there never has been a doubt that happiness cannot
be separated from religion. Man knows in his heart that the man of
religion is blessed and that happiness will be his. But the question
is, what religion is it that will bring this blessedness, for clearly
so many do not? We need a Master and a Guide, a Teacher of religion who
will bring the happiness to which man aspires and is clearly called.
That Master and Guide, that teacher of the things of God, that bearer
of happiness is Jesus Christ. In him resides every heavenly blessing,
and so we look to him to know how man will be blessed. In our Gospel
today we are offered our Lord’s charter for happiness. It is very
different from the charter of the world.
In
our passage today - the famous one known commonly as the Beatitudes,
from the Latin for blessedness or happiness - our Lord chooses to speak
of the religion he reveals in terms of the joy and happiness it will
bring to man. Of course we do not commit ourselves to God and his
service in order simply to be happy because that would be a form of
self-worship. But worshipping, loving and serving God will bring us
happiness in the process, and it is Christ who shows us which religion
will do this. It is the religion of the Beatitudes. Now, where are we
to start in our understanding and interpretation of Christ’s
Beatitudes? Our Lord tells us that the poor in spirit, the meek, those
who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the clean of
heart, and those who are persecuted for righteousness and for the sake
of him, will be the truly happy and blessed (Matthew
5:1-12).
What is to be our perspective on this, what unifying light shines on
this teaching giving to it its meaning? St Paul writes in one of his
letters that we are to put on the mind of Christ. Let this mind be in
you that was in Christ Jesus, he tells us. The Beatitudes unfold before
us the mind of Christ. Christ in promising us happiness if we follow
his way as outlined here is promising us a share in his own happiness.
By being his disciples in truth we shall share in his joy both here and
hereafter. Therefore, we should understand every one of the beatitudes
as a revelation of the mind and heart of Christ. To consider and
understand properly the poor in spirit, we look to Christ. In
contemplating the meek, or the one who hungers and thirsts for
righteousness, or the merciful, or the clean of heart or the one
persecuted for righteousness and the gospel, and indeed all of these
together, we look to the person of Christ. He is the embodiment of each
of the beatitudes, and in committing ourselves to live them we are in
effect committing ourselves to the imitation of Christ.
When the
Christian embraces the beatitudes he is deciding to come to Christ and
learn from him, for he is meek and humble of heart, knowing that
therein we shall find rest for our souls. His yoke is easy and his
burden light. Let us be assured that if we take Christ for our Teacher
and make the religion he revealed and established in the Church his
body, then happiness will be ours. As he said, it will be a hundredfold
in this life - not without persecutions - and eternal life in the next.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Prayer is the foundation of the
spiritual edifice. Prayer is all-powerful.
(The Way,
no.83)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is the bond between the Decalogue
and the Covenant?
The Decalogue must be understood in the light of the Covenant in which
God revealed himself and made known his will. In observing the
commandments, the people manifested their belonging to God and they
answered his initiative of love with thanksgiving. (CCC 2058-2063, 2077)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.437)
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Tuesday
of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time I
(June 12) Today let us think of Saint John Sahagun
(Saints)
Saint Peter of Mount
Athos, Monk and hermit.
According to legend, he was originally a soldier who was captured and
imprisoned by the Muslims. St Simeon is said to have negotiated his
release. After this he went to Rome where he was granted the monastic
habit by the Pope. He then experienced a vision of Our Lady, and
journeyed to Mount Athos where he lived the life of a hermit for the
next 50 years. St Peter of Mount Athos reputedly overcame many severe
trials and temptations, during his life, including assaults by the
devil. He is believed to be the first hermit to live on Mount Athos,
sparking the tradition which lead to the foundation of the great
monasteries upon the Holy Mountain.
Scripture today: 2 Corinthians
1:18-22; Psalm 119:129-133, 135; Matthew
5:13-16
Jesus said to his
disciples: “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste,
with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to
be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A
city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and
then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it
gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before
others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly
Father.” (Matthew 5:13-16)
If you wish to view
a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click
here
Let us notice a
detail
about this well known passage from the Sermon on the Mount, as reported
in St Matthew’s Gospel. Our Lord tells his disciples that they are salt
and light. Salt in the ancient world preserved food - especially meat -
from corruption and of course it seasoned the food to add to its taste.
Light, on which so much depended, had to be sought without any of the
modern provision of electricity and other forms of energy. Christ’s
disciples are that salt and that light (Matthew 5:13-16). But observe that the
salt of the disciples is salt of “the earth”, and the light of the
disciples is the light of “the world”. That is to say, Christ is not
just speaking of their mission to others of the household of the
Church. He is also speaking of their mission to the world, for they are
the salt of “the earth”, and the light of “the world”. All of
Christ’s faithful have a mission to the world, to the world of their
everyday life, to the world in which they find themselves by vocation
or divine providence, to the world of their family and work and society
at large. They exercise this mission to the world by letting their
light shine before others and in that way glorifying their Father in
heaven. That “light” is the light of Christ’s gospel as explained by
the Church which speaks in his name. Our Lord points out that if his
disciples do not do this then they are useless as salt and will be
thrown out. It is, then, an immensely serious responsibility to
endeavour every day to exercise an effective influence on Christ’s
behalf in one’s secular environment. Indeed, the Church in her teaching
points out that this is the characteristic vocation of the lay
faithful. They are to bring Christ and his teaching to the world and
thus make disciples of all the nations. If they simply conform to the
world rather than influencing it, Christ says they will be “thrown out.”
There are
two obvious dangers for Christ’s faithful. The first is, obviously,
that of failing to believe with genuine conviction all that Christ has
taught as it is enunciated by the Church. Many count themselves as
members of the Catholic Church while picking and choosing among its
teachings. They accept one and not the other. They fail to give Christ
their total assent to his word as the Church proclaims it, and where
this is the case, through their own fault they simply lack the light
that is available to them as members of Christ's Church. The upshot of
this
is that, culpably, they are unable to be the salt of the earth and
light of the world which Christ commands his disciples to be. They are
unable to let their light shine before men and give glory to their
Father in heaven because they do not have the light. The second danger
is that, while possessing the light and knowing what is the will of God
for man, they conform to the world in terms of what they stand for in
society. A common subterfuge in this respect is that which is employed
in the abortion debate: I personally believe that abortion is wrong,
but I will respect the right of others to make their own choice - and
in the meantime countless numbers of the unborn are put to death. The
same sort of thing is present in the debate over embryonic stem cells,
human cloning and other attacks on the sanctity of life. The Catholic
in society and in politics is called by God to bear unflinching witness
to the truth as it is revealed by Christ and set forth by the Church
which speaks in his name. This bearing witness to the light of Christ
is the greatest possible service to the world. It gives to the world
its “salt” preserving it from corruption and making it pleasing in the
sight of God. It gives to the world that light without which the world
would be in the darkness of unknowing death.
For the
ordinary member of Christ’s faithful whose sphere of life and influence
is limited, the issues are the same. He is called to bear witness to
Christ’s light and teaching where his vocation and the providence of
God places him in the world. He is the presence of Christ and the
Church in the world. Through him Christ is there, as is his body the
Church. For the sake of the world, let every lay Christian in the world
bear this unflinching witness to Christ’s teaching.
(E.J.Tyler)
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'Lord,
teach us to pray!' — And our Lord replied: 'When you pray, say: Pater
noster, qui es in coelis... Our Father who art in heaven...'
What importance we must attach to vocal prayer!
(The Way,
no.84)
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What importance does the Church give
to the Decalogue?
The Church, in fidelity to Scripture and to the example of Christ,
acknowledges the primordial importance and significance of the
Decalogue. Christians are obliged to keep it.(CCC 2064-2068)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.438)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saint
Anthony of Padua, priest and doctor of the Church
(Wednesday of
the tenth week of Ordinary Time I)
(June 13) St
Anthony of Padua, priest
and doctor of the Church (1195-1231).
Franciscan friar.
St Antony was born in Lisbon in 1193. He came from a noble family. At
around the age of 16 he joined the Austin Canons and studied at
Coimbra. About 1220 he met some Franciscans on their way to Morocco.
The group were martyred. St Antony was so impressed with them he became
a Franciscan himself and travelled to Ceuta in the hope of continuing
their mission. Instead he became ill and was forced to return home. In
1221 he took part in the General Chapter of Assisi. He was sent to the
small hermitage of St Paulo near Forli. One day he was asked to preach
at an ordination and on this day his remarkable gift for preaching was
discovered. He had a tremendous knowledge of the Bible but was able to
preach in a way that captivated people whether they were learned or
simple. After hearing him, St Francis asked him to teach theology at
Padua and Bologna. Later he also preached and taught in France. In 1227
he was elected provincial of Northern Italy and spent much of his time
visiting the friaries under his care. During these three years he wrote
the Sermons for
Sundays and became a member of a commission sent to Rome to
discuss the Franciscan Rule and Testament of St Francis. In Rome his
preaching was called 'a jewel case of the Bible'. St Antony returned to
Padua for the last months of his life, which were devoted to hearing
confessions, preaching and helping people in debt. He died at Arcela in
1231, but was buried at the church of Our Lady in Padua. He was
canonised just a year after his death. In 1946 he was made a Doctor of
the Church. Many miracles were attributed to his intercession and he is
often invoked as the finder of lost articles. St Antony was a
charismatic preacher and his cult has always been immensely popular.
Artists often depict him with animals, preaching to fish, or with a
lily carrying the child Jesus seated on a book. He is a patron saint of
Brazil.
(Saints)
Scripture today:
2
Corinthians 3:4-11; Psalm 99:5, 6, 7, 8, 9;
Matthew 5:17-19
Jesus said to his
disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the
prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to
you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the
smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have
taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these
commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the
Kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-19)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
In the first
sentence of today’s Gospel passage our Lord tells his disciples not to
think that he has come to abolish the law or the prophets. Presumably
he told them this because many of them were beginning to think that he
had come to do this - perhaps they thought this because of accusations
of the religious
leaders of the people. Christ’s doctrine appeared to be very new, and
was very different from what the scribes, the pharisees and other religious leaders
were teaching. Moreover, our Lord unhesitatingly asserted his authority
to teach in his own right because he was sent by the Father. But our
Lord makes it clear here that his newness consisted not in abolishing
but in the radical and total fulfilment of the law and the prophets
which he was inaugurating. In him the Kingdom of God had come and with
that Kingdom would come the fulfilment of all that the Scriptures asked
and called for from man. But let us notice in our Lord’s
words his emphasis on the fulfilment of the detail of the commandments
of God. “Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the
smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the
law, until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and
teaches others
to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven” (Matthew
5:17-19).
One of the greatest sets of spiritual writing in English is that
contained in the Plain
and Parochial Sermons of John Henry Newman,
written in the second quarter of the nineteenth century while he was
still an Anglican clergyman. His principal preoccupation is Christian
holiness, and he makes it clear that in his view an essential
note of Christian holiness is consistency. The Christian is called to
be consistently obedient to the least aspect of the will of God in the
ordinary duties of life.
It is the most
natural thing in the world to yearn to do something notable in life.
That is a good ambition if by notable is meant significant, but it
needs to be thought through carefully. The fact is that the vast
majority of people do not have the gifts nor are they circumstanced in
a way that allows them to do things that will command wide attention
and have a manifestly great effect on the course of events. In this
sense most of us are ordinary people living out ordinary lives.
Significance and value in our life and in our work is best sought for
not
in notability but in a different direction. Our Lord’s words
today in which he tells us who will be counted as being great in the
Kingdom of heaven point out this way. It consists in endeavouring
to do well and with consistency the smallest duties which God has given
us - the least of his commandments. From age to age true heroism and
greatness will lie in that direction for the great majority of people,
and the great example for all of us is the holy family of Nazareth. For
those few who attain positions of eminence and notoriety, true
greatness will also consist in fulfilling the commandments of God with
consistency and not just on notable occasions. In fact, if there is not
consistency in observing the commandments of God in little things, when
notable occasions arrive in all probability the commandments of God
inherent in those special occasions will go unfulfilled. An obvious
instance occurs when a Christian or Catholic politician is faced with
legislation that violates the commands of God as enunciated in the
Church’s teaching. If he is not faithful and obedient to God in little
duties, he will not be faithful and obedient in the great. A very
current problem is that of Catholic and Christian politicians who vote
for legislation that is not consistent with their Christian and
Catholic faith.
One of the greatest
of Christian politicians, Sir Thomas More the Chancellor of England to
King Henry VIII, was faithful to God’s commands in the big things -
King Henry’s “great matter” - because he was faithful in the little
duties of his everyday life. Life is short and eternity long. Let us
not be always pining after the greener pastures, but rather let us make
the very most of where we are. Let us make of our ordinary little
duties the seedbed of true grandeur in the sight of God. The secret
will be to fulfill the least of God’s commandments and by our example
and witness to teach others to do the same.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Slowly.
Consider what you are saying, to whom it is being said and by whom. For
that hurried talk, without time for reflection, is just empty noise.
And with Saint Teresa, I will tell you that, however much you work your
lips, I do not call it prayer.
(The Way,
no.85)
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Why does the Decalogue constitute an
organic unity?
The Ten Commandments form an organic and indivisible whole because each
commandment refers to the other commandments and to the entire
Decalogue. To break one commandment, therefore, is to violate the
entire law. (CCC 2069, 2079)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.439)
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Thursday
of the Tenth Week in
Ordinary Time I
(June 14) Today let us think of Saint Vitus
(Saints)
Saint Dogmael A
6th century Welsh monk, St Dogmael is thought to have lived in
Pembrokeshire and Anglesey as many places there are dedicated to him
including, St Dogmael, across the river from Cardigan. A parish in
Anglesey also bears his name. At some time in his life he moved to
Brittany, where a St Dogmeel, or St Toel still has a cult. He is said
to have founded monasteries on both sides of the Channel. St Dogmael is
invoked to help children learn to walk.
Scripture today: 2 Cor 3:15—4:1,
3-6; Psalm 85:9ab and 10,
11-12, 13-14; Matt 5:20-26
Jesus said to his
disciples: “I tell you, unless your
righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not
enter into the Kingdom of heaven. “You have heard that it was said to
your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to
judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be
liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable
to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You
fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your
gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything
against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be
reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle
with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge
will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison.
Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the
last penny.” (Matthew 5:20-26)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
Undoubtedly the
people looked to the scribes and the Pharisees as
more or less being the models of religious living in the life of the
nation, and it is clear that our Lord aroused their enmity because it
was obvious that he did not think they were. The point of our Lord’s
reference to them in our passage today was to emphasize that what he
expected of those aspiring to enter the Kingdom of heaven was far
greater than what they saw in
their religious leaders. Not only is our
Lord here referring to the degree of holiness all are called to - that
it was to be greater than that which they saw in those who purported to
teach them - but also to the kind of holiness. He is referring above
all to a holiness of the heart. The commandment of God given to their
ancestors, our Lord tells them, was that they were not to kill and
whoever did kill would suffer judgment. But, our Lord tells them, God
will look severely on one whose heart is filled with anger against his
brother, even if he does not openly injure him. God observes all, even
the secret thoughts of our hearts, and the battle for holiness is to be
waged on a terrain largely out of the sight of others. We may not be
physically injuring them, but our heart may be filled with dislike and
even hatred of them. Therefore, “whoever is angry with his
brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother,
Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You
fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna” (Matthew
5:20-26).
The true
disciple of Christ must therefore be continually guarding the thoughts
of his heart. As St Paul tells us in one of his Letters, let this mind
be in you that was in Christ Jesus. We are to put on the mind of Christ
by the power of his grace and our own constant interior efforts. The
Christian life is above all an interior life.
When we speak of an
“interior life” in the Christian sense we are
speaking of a life immersed in the person of Christ. At the same time,
it is to be noticed how much our Lord stresses that it concerns others.
This life immersed in Christ is a life for our brother just as his life
was for us. In the instances of “righteousness” which our Lord gives
and which he says must surpass that of the scribes and pharisees, our
Lord speaks of our attitudes to and dealings with our fellow man. We
are to think kindly of others, we are to speak kindly to others, and we
are to deal kindly with others. We are not to allow grudges and
complaints to persist and to grow. Rather we are to “be reconciled”
with our brother before we come before God in worship. How little do we
observe these demanding injunctions! How rapidly would a person advance
in Christian holiness were he to act on these words of Christ! Let us
take the plunge and seek the holiness Christ offers us and requires of
us. Very importantly, let us bear in mind who it is that is speaking to
us in this way. In our Gospel passage today our Lord draws attention to
the authority he himself has in setting forth the requirements of entry
into the Kingdom of heaven. “You have heard that it was said to your
ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to
judgment.” However, he continues, “I say to you, whoever is angry with
his brother will be liable to judgment”. While that was said to them, I
say this to you. He stresses that his word supercedes what has been
said before. It is the Son of God himself who speaks to us of what God
is asking. Let us then place ourselves in the presence of Jesus
thinking of who it is who teaches us. Let us hear his word with
profound religious submission. He calls us to a holiness of the heart,
a holiness flowing from the heart to our words and actions and to every
aspect of our daily life.
The great legacy of
the Second Vatican Council and of the
magisterium of Pope Paul VI was the call to evangelize anew the world
of our day. We must start with ourselves, and we start with what goes
on in our hearts. We must fight to ensure that God is king of our own
hearts and of everything that happens within. We must put on the mind
of Christ and in this way shall we be equipped to invite others to
enter the Kingdom which is a kingdom above all of the heart.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your prayer should be liturgical. How I would
like to see you
using the psalms and prayers from the missal, rather than private
prayers of your own choice.
(The Way,
no.86)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why does the Decalogue enjoin
serious obligations?
It does so because the Decalogue expresses the fundamental duties
of man towards God and towards his neighbour. (CCC 2072-2073, 2081)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.440)
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Solemnity
of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus C
(June 15) Today let us think of St Aurelian (Saints)
Saint Vitus, Modestus
and Crescentia, Martyrs. The cult of these fourth century saints
is very ancient, but few facts are known about their lives. Historians
think it is probable that Modesta and Crescentia lived in Sicily, while
St Vitus came from Lucania. According to tradition, St Vitus became
Christian as a child, during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian.
Modesta and Crescentia were his tutor and nurse. He soon gained a
reputation for holiness and the power to work miracles. The Roman
authorities tried to convert him back to paganism, but he refused to
give up his faith. On one occasion when he was thrown to a hungry lion,
he stroked the animal and it licked him affectionately. St Vitus is a
patron of epileptics and those suffering from other seizures such as
Sydenham's Chorea (St Vitus' Dance). He also protects against poisoning
by dog or snake bite and is a patron of dancers and actors. Most
mediaeval abbeys in England celebrated St Vitus without Crescentia. An
ancient church in Rome on the Esquilline is dedicated to him. His
relics were claimed by Saint-Denis in Paris and Corvey in Saxony.
Scripture:
Ezechiel
34:11-16; Psalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6;
Romans
5:5b-11; Lk 15:3-7
Jesus addressed
this parable to the Pharisees and scribes: "What man among you having a
hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in
the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he
does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his
arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbours and says to
them, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you,
in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner
who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of
repentance." (Luke 15:3-7)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
It has often been
pointed out that devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus encapsulates in
an
image the essence of the Christian religion. That image is the heart of
Christ on fire with love for sinners. On various occasions Our Lord
referred to his heart: “Come to me” he said, “... and learn from me for
I am meek and humble of heart.” In
these words Christ invites us to contemplate his sacred heart. It is
the heart of God, God made man. Ever since God became man, our path to
God is through the man Jesus. No one comes to the Father, our Lord told
his disciples, except through me. That is to say, our path to the heart
of God lies through the heart of Christ, and by being one with the
heart of Christ we are one with the heart of God. The most complete
revelation of the heart of Christ and therefore of God is surely the
pierced heart of Christ on the cross. There on the cross Christ was
pierced with the lance, and from his heart flowed blood and water
symbolizing the Church and her life. God is love, as St John tells us
in his Letter and as Pope Benedict XVI stresses in his first
Encyclical. This love of God made present and revealed in the person of
Christ is symbolized in the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which we
celebrate today. The particular form of this devotion that became
so widespread among the Catholic faithful in modern times arose and
spread as a counter to the forbidding and distant image of Christ and
God characteristic of Jansenism. The fact is that Scripture bears
constant and eloquent testimony to the familiarity, the love and the
total accessibility of Christ, the revelation of the Father. Christ
came to love and to be loved, and in this he was revealing the desire
and the plan of the great and infinite God. God wants to be our
intimate friend. As Christ puts it, I have not called you servants, but
friends. This is what God is like, and this is what we celebrate in the
Sacred Heart of Jesus.
But there is a
corollary to this which is of maximum importance. When Scripture and
the Church’s Tradition stress that the great and triune God is a God of
love whose heart yearns for our friendship, what is especially being
stressed is that this love of God is a love for sinners. God loves
those who offend him by their sin, and he is prepared to go to any
length to reclaim us from our sins so as to unite us to himself in
friendship. For all the love which God has for us, the one thing that
alienates us from him is our deliberate sin. But we must pray for the
grace to remember that however much we sin, God loves sinners.
Therefore the sinner can turn to him in repentance and ask for
forgiveness. Great as was the sin of Judas, the more terrible thing
which he did was that he did not come back to Christ (as did Simon
Peter after having denied him) in repentance, seeking his love and
forgiveness. The love of God is an infinitely merciful love. It shows
itself in mercy. This is why our Gospel passage today (Luke 15:3-7) is so important for each
of us. Christ describes himself as the man who leaves the ninety-nine
sheep in the wilderness and goes after the stray. That stray sheep is
each of us, to a greater or lesser extent. To one degree or another we
have strayed from God and God has come after us. He continues seeking
us out in every nook and cranny where our sins, whether they be serious
or venial, lead us. The one thing that takes us from God is sin, and
when sin takes us from God, God comes looking for us. But we must be
prepared to be taken up by him, placed on his shoulders, and brought
back to life in him through repentance. We must be prepared to accept
the summons of our conscience to repent and to return with genuine
resolve to his love. That must be going on continually in our life,
daily. Consider what our Lord says about the repentance of the sinner!
It causes more joy in heaven than does the fidelity of the rest.
Let us then guard
in our hearts a true image of the eternal and triune God. Christ is the
image of the unseen God, and he has revealed to us his sacred and
adorable heart. It is a heart filled with love and compassion for
sinful man. Let us recognize ourselves as counted among sinful men, and
accept from Christ his merciful love. Knowing that we are loved by
Christ let us then enter into his mission of saving souls from sin by
bringing them also to the heart of Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Letter of his Holiness Benedict XVI
On occasion of the 50th
anniversary of the encyclical "Haurietis
Aquas" (May 15, 2006)
Today, 50 years later, the Prophet Isaiah's words, which Pius XII
placed at the beginning of the Encyclical with which he commemorated
the first centenary of the extension of the Feast of the Most Sacred
Heart of Jesus to the entire Church, have lost none of their meaning:
"With joy you will draw 
water from the
wells of salvation" (Is 12: 3).
By encouraging devotion to the Heart of Jesus, the Encyclical Haurietis
Aquas exhorted believers to open themselves to the mystery of God and
of his love and to allow themselves to be transformed by it. After 50
years, it is still a fitting task for Christians to continue to deepen
their relationship with the Heart of Jesus, in such a way as to revive
their faith in the saving love of God and to welcome him ever better
into their lives.
The Redeemer's pierced side is the source to which the Encyclical
Haurietis Aquas refers us: we must draw from this source to attain true
knowledge of Jesus Christ and a deeper experience of his love.
Thus, we will be able to understand better what it means to know God's
love in Jesus Christ, to experience him, keeping our gaze fixed on him
to the point that we live entirely on the experience of his love, so
that we can subsequently witness to it to others.
Indeed, to take up a saying of my venerable Predecessor John Paul II,
"In the Heart of Christ, man's heart learns to know the genuine and
unique meaning of his life and of his destiny, to understand the value
of an authentically Christian life, to keep himself from certain
perversions of the human heart, and to unite the filial love for God
and the love of neighbour".
Thus: "The true reparation asked by the Heart of the Saviour will come
when the civilization of the Heart of Christ can be built upon the
ruins heaped up by hatred and violence" (Letter to Fr Peter-Hans
Kolvenbach, Superior General of the Society of Jesus for the
Beatification of Bl. Claude de la Colombière, 5 October 1986;
L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 27 October 1986, p. 7).
In the Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, I cited the affirmation in the
First Letter of St John: "We have come to know and to believe in the
love God has for us", in order to emphasize that being Christian begins
with the encounter with a Person (cf. n. 1).
Since God revealed himself most profoundly in the Incarnation of his
Son in whom he made himself "visible", it is in our relationship with
Christ that we can recognize who God really is (cf. Haurietis Aquas,
nn. 29-41; Deus Caritas Est, nn. 12-15).
And again: since the deepest expression of God's love is found in the
gift Christ made of his life for us on the Cross, the deepest
expression of God's love, it is above all by looking at his suffering
and his death that we can see God's infinite love for us more and more
clearly: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3:
16).
Moreover, not only does this mystery of God's love for us constitute
the content of the worship of and devotion to the Heart of Jesus, but
in the same way it is likewise the content of all true spirituality and
Christian devotion. It is consequently important to stress that the
basis of the devotion is as old as Christianity itself.
Indeed, it is only possible to be Christian by fixing our gaze on the
Cross of our Redeemer, "on him whom they have pierced" (Jn 19: 37; cf.
Zc 12: 10).
The Encyclical Haurietis Aquas rightly recalls that for countless souls
the wound in Christ's side and the marks left by the nails have been
"the chief sign and symbol of that love" that ever more incisively
shaped their life from within (cf. n. 52).
Recognizing God's love in the Crucified One became an inner experience
that prompted them to confess, together with Thomas: "My Lord and my
God!" (Jn 20: 28), and enabled them to acquire a deeper faith by
welcoming God's love unreservedly (cf. Haurietis Aquas, n. 49).
The deepest meaning of this devotion to God's love is revealed solely
through a more attentive consideration of its contribution not only to
the knowledge, but also and especially to the personal experience of
this love in trusting dedication to its service (cf. ibid., n. 62).
It is obvious that experience and knowledge cannot be separated: the
one refers to the other. Moreover, it is essential to emphasize that
true knowledge of God's love is only possible in the context of an
attitude of humble prayer and generous availability.
Starting with this interior attitude, one sees that the gaze fixed upon
his side, pierced by the spear, is transformed into silent adoration.
Gazing at the Lord's pierced side, from which "blood and water" flowed
(cf. Jn 19: 34), helps us to recognize the manifold gifts of grace that
derive from it (cf. Haurietis Aquas, nn. 34-41) and opens us to all
other forms of Christian worship embraced by the devotion to the Heart
of Jesus.
Faith, understood as a fruit of the experience of God's love, is a
grace, a gift of God. Yet human beings will only be able to experience
faith as a grace to the extent that they accept it within themselves as
a gift on which they seek to live. Devotion to the love of God, to
which the Encyclical Haurietis Aquas invited the faithful (cf. n. 72),
must help us never to forget that he willingly took this suffering upon
himself "for us", "for me".
When we practise this devotion, not only do we recognize God's love
with gratitude but we continue to open ourselves to this love so that
our lives are ever more closely patterned upon it. God, who poured out
his love "into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to
us" (cf. Rom 5: 5), invites us tirelessly to accept his love. The main
aim of the invitation to give ourselves entirely to the saving love of
Christ and to consecrate ourselves to it (cf. Haurietis Aquas, n. 4)
is, consequently, to bring about our relationship with God.
This explains why the devotion, which is totally oriented to the love
of God who sacrificed himself for us, has an irreplaceable importance
for our faith and for our life in love.
Whoever inwardly accepts God is moulded by him. The experience of God's
love should be lived by men and women as a "calling" to which they must
respond. Fixing our gaze on the Lord, who "took our infirmities and
bore our diseases" (Mt 8: 17), helps us to become more attentive to the
suffering and need of others.
Adoring contemplation of the side pierced by the spear makes us
sensitive to God's salvific will. It enables us to entrust ourselves to
his saving and merciful love, and at the same time strengthens us in
the desire to take part in his work of salvation, becoming his
instruments.
The gifts received from the open side, from which "blood and water"
flowed (cf. Jn 19: 34), ensure that our lives will also become for
others a source from which "rivers of living water" flow (Jn 7: 38; cf.
Deus Caritas Est, n. 7).
The experience of love, brought by the devotion to the pierced side of
the Redeemer, protects us from the risk of withdrawing into ourselves
and makes us readier to live for others. "By this we know love, that he
laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren" (I Jn 3: 16; cf. Haurietis Aquas, n. 38).
It was only the experience that God first gave us his love that has
enabled us to respond to his commandment of love (cf. Deus Caritas Est,
n. 17).
So it is that the cult of love, which becomes visible in the mystery of
the Cross presented anew in every celebration of the Eucharist, lays
the foundations of our capacity to love and to make a gift of ourselves
(cf. Haurietis Aquas, n. 69), becoming instruments in Christ's hands:
only in this way can we be credible proclaimers of his love.
However, this opening of ourselves to God's will must be renewed in
every moment: "Love is never "finished' and complete" (cf. Deus Caritas
Est, n. 17).
Thus, looking at the "side pierced by the spear" from which shines
forth God's boundless desire for our salvation cannot be considered a
transitory form of worship or devotion: the adoration of God's love,
whose historical and devotional expression is found in the symbol of
the "pierced heart", remains indispensable for a living relationship
with God (cf. Haurietis Aquas, n. 62).
From the Vatican, 15 May 2006
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
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'Not by bread alone does man live, but by
every word that proceeds from the mouth of God', said our Lord. Bread
and word! Host and prayer.
Otherwise, you will not live a supernatural life.
(The
Way, no.87)
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Is it possible to keep the Decalogue?
Yes, because Christ without whom we can do nothing enables us to keep
it with the gift of his Spirit and his grace. (CCC 2074, 2082)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.441)
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Memorial
of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary (Saturday tenth
week Ordinary Time I)
(June
16) Today let us think of St. John Francis Regis
Jesuit priest. Born near Narbonne in 1597, John Francis Regis was the
son of a well-to-do merchant. He joined the Jesuits at 18 and was
ordained in 1631. From that time he began running missions in the very
poor rural areas of the Auvergne and Languedoc. A tireless preacher,
many people were converted by him. He made great efforts to help
prisoners and prostitutes - with little support from his superiors. He
also set up many Confraternities of the Blessed Sacrament. St John
Regis died 1640, while preaching a mission at La Louvesc in Dauphine.
He was canonised in 1737. His shrine there is still visited by many
thousands each year.
(Saints)
Scripture today: 2 Corinthians
5:14-21; Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12; Luke
2:41-51
Each year
Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he
was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After
they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus
remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking
that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him
among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they
returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him
in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them
and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his
understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were
astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to
us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know
that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what
he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was
obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
(Luke
2:41-51)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
There are many
tragedies in human life, but perhaps the saddest of all is when as a
result of such tragedies a person turns his back on God and either
refuses to believe that he exists, or refuses to believe that he is
good and trustworthy. Some dear member of his family suffers and dies -
say, a child - and the loss is absolutely devastating. How could, or
rather why did, God allow this? People are killed, lives are
accidentally lost, one’s savings are culpably squandered by others,
whatever it be, there will be the temptation to think that
there is no God or that God is bad. Behind this is the refusal or
inability to accept that the God of all things is far larger than the
capacity of our own minds to encompass. Why do things turn out the way
they do? The believer and especially the Christian has learnt to
believe that a good God holds all in his hands, and so he trusts in
faith and discerns amid the darkness the signs of the divine presence.
God’s is a kind and caring presence amid the mysteries. The heart of a
Christian is a heart that trusts God and his revelation of himself,
despite the appearances. Of himself he does not know why there is such
a discordance between this revelation and what he sees in the world. In
this he trusts. He trusts in the revelation that has come from God. He
trusts, whatever be the darkness. Well now, today we think of the
utterly sinless heart of Mary the mother of the Son of God made man.
There have been two persons in human history who have been utterly good
without any trace of evil in their hearts: Jesus Christ - and through
the grace and merits of Jesus Christ, Mary his mother. Their hearts
were immaculate in holiness, Mary’s being a limpid reflection of that
of her Son’s. Today we think of the immaculate heart of Mary. Yet
despite her incomparable goodness from a purely human perspective many
things went badly for her, the
crowning instance of this being the awesome and indescribable
sufferings and death of her son.
Our Gospel
scene today is a case in point, and we meditate on it when we pray the
fifth Joyful mystery of the Rosary. It is a joyful mystery because the
three days of anxiety ended in joy, just as the passion and death of
Jesus her son ended in the joy of the resurrection and ascension.
Coming back from the feast Jesus and his parents were separated and it
was only after a day’s journey they discovered he was missing. Imagine
the anxiety that filled the holy hearts of Mary and Joseph, the
darkness and the perplexity (Luke
2:41-51).
They had before them the responsibility they had been given from on
high of caring for and raising the Messiah, the hope of the world. He
was the love of their life, and they knew the divine richness of his
Person - but he was gone! The three days of search were three days of
indescribable darkness and in this not uncommon human event is surely
symbolized the darkness and mystery enveloping much of the great stream
of ordinary human life. The ordinary Everyman suffers disappointment,
perplexity and frustration very often. In Mary the sinless one, the
Everyman has a
model and mother. In her he has a mother who suffered the same
uncertainties and anxieties, the same things that seemed to turn out
badly. Yet she trusted. She believed in the good God and her faith
never wavered though it did not understand. In celebrating the
immaculate heart of Mary we remember that however badly things went
from a human point of view, she never turned from God in the least
sense. Darkness led to a great and more heroic trust. Moreover, in
thinking of her immaculate heart, we think of the importance of the
will. Though in very many things she did not understand yet in her will
she remained trusting and faithful. We are reminded that the
disposition of the heart and will is of greater importance than the
understanding possessed by the mind.
Let us glory
in the gift Christ has made to us of his own mother. On the cross he
saw before him his mother, immaculate in her sinlessness and ever
trusting in the darkness. Her heart trusted in God and never failed
him. She was mankind’s woman of faith without compare. In her we have
our model of what it means to live in a world so often groaning amid
darkness, a world whose true light is the person of Christ and his
ineffable revelation.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You seek the company of friends who, with
their conversation and affection, with their friendship, make the exile
of this world more bearable for you. There is nothing wrong with that,
although friends sometimes let you down.
But how is it you don't frequent daily with greater intensity the
company, the conversation, of the great Friend, who never lets you down?
(The Way,
no.88)
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What is implied in the affirmation of God:
“I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:2)?
This
means that the faithful must guard and activate the three theological
virtues and must avoid sins which are opposed to them. Faith believes
in God and rejects everything that is opposed to it, such as,
deliberate doubt, unbelief, heresy, apostasy, and schism. Hope
trustingly awaits the blessed vision of God and his help, while
avoiding despair and presumption. Charity loves God above all things
and therefore repudiates indifference, ingratitude, lukewarmness, sloth
or spiritual indolence, and that hatred of God which is born of pride.
(CCC 2083-2094, 2133-2134)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.442)
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Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Prayers this week:
Lord, hear my voice
when I call to you. You are my help;
do not cast me off, do
not desert me, my Saviour God. (Ps 26: 7.9)
Akmighty
God, our hope and our strength, without you we falter.
Help
us to follow Christ and to live according to your will.
We ask this through our
Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God.
(June
17) Today let us think of Saints Teresa and Sancia of
Portugal (Saints)
Saint Ranier of Pisa
Born in 1117, the son of prosperous merchants, St Rainier enjoyed a
wild youth. But when he was about 23 his aunt introduced him to a monk
who persuaded him there was more to life than dissipation and
self-indulgence. St Ranier's change of heart was so dramatic, his
parents feared for his sanity. He walked barefoot, ate only on Sundays
and Thursdays and drank only water. However after a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land, he returned in a calmer state and spent the rest of his life
living quietly in monasteries and occasionally preaching. Many healings
and conversions are attributed to him. He is the patron saint of Pisa.
Scripture: 2 Samuel 12:7-10,
13; Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 7, 11; Galatians 2:16, 19-21; Luke
7:36—8:3
A Pharisee invited
Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and
reclined at table. Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned
that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an
alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping
and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with
her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. When the
Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, “If this man
were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is
touching him, that she is a sinner.” Jesus said to him in reply,
“Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Tell me, teacher, ” he said.
“Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred
days’ wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay
the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?”
Simon said in reply, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was
forgiven.” He said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then he turned to
the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered
your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed
them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a
kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered.
You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with
ointment. So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven because she
has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves
little.” He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The others at table
said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” But he said
to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Afterward he
journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and
proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Accompanying him were
the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and
infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone
out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many
others who provided for them out of their resources. (Luke 7:36—8:3)
If you wish to view
a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click
here
The Christian is so
familiar with the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins coming from the
person of Christ that there is a very real danger of failing to
appreciate the wonder of it. The Catholic knows that in the plan of God
the ordinary way in which Christ forgives our sins regularly is in the
Sacrament of Penance, accompanied, of
course, by our own genuine sorrow for sin. If, as we should, we
approach this Sacrament very regularly the danger may lie in the grace
of the forgiveness of sins being taken for granted and so ignored. For
this reason our Gospel scene today is very important. Christ forgives
the sins of the “sinful woman” to her great consolation and to the
astonishment of the others at table with him. They said to themselves,
“Who is this who even forgives sins?”
(Luke 7:36—8:3) For those who witnessed
our Lord doing this, it was a spectacle of great wonder. There had been
nothing like it in all Israel’s history. No figure in their past took
on himself so effortlessly the authority to forgive sins. Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob had not presumed to do this, nor had Moses and the
prophets, nor had John the Baptist who had instituted a baptism for the
forgiveness of sins. Our Lord said to the Pharisees that the woman had
been guilty of many sins and they knew this. Her life was profoundly
burdened with her many sins and her sorrow at the feet of Jesus bore
testimony to that burden, just as it also bore testimony to the love
she felt for Jesus who was such a manifest presence of God. At a word
he cleansed her of her sins. The grace of reconciliation with God
flooded her soul, whereas the Pharisees who were so critical of her and
indeed of our Lord himself remained in their sins. Her loving
repentance opened her up to the grace of God. She became part of the
kingdom of God’s grace which our Lord went from one town and
village to another to preach.
Pope
John Paul II once
said that the Catholic religion is a religion of God’s grace. It is
based on the grace of God and it continually offers the grace of God.
It is this grace which was received by the sinful woman at a word from
Christ, and it is the offer of this grace which our Lord was
proclaiming in preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God. In him
the Kingdom of God had come, and the benefit to man of this is the free
gift of God’s grace which makes him right before God. It justifies him.
We are reminded of this in today’s Gospel. God has done wonderful
things for us and continues to do them for us. He sustains our world
and gives to us the numerous blessings we enjoy. It all comes from him.
But the most wonderful work of his love is the gift of his grace in
justifying us and making us right with him. We are born into the world
unreconciled with him due to the effects of the sin of our first
parents, and burdened with tendencies that take us to sin and to death.
Because of the death and resurrection of Christ the justifying
grace of God is immediately and constantly available to us. In the
first instance it comes to us in the gift of the Holy Spirit at our
baptism and then during life it is renewed and strengthened in the
other sacraments, especially in the Sacraments of the Eucharist and
Penance. This grace of God is the merciful and freely given act of God
which takes away our sins and makes us just and holy in our whole
being. It is a new birth which at baptism transforms us into the image
of Christ and gives us the gifts to become more and more transformed
into his likeness. While our baptism does not take away the tendency to
sin, it does give us the supernatural gifts to resist this tendency and
gradually to put on the mind of Christ and so replace sin with
holiness. It implants in our souls a share in the divine life of God
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, making us holy and like God. Grace
comes from God, it is his gift, and it remains habitually with us
unless we renounce it by serious sin. It is the beginning and the basis
of further specific graces enabling our free cooperation with God in
living for him and in doing his work here on earth.
forged by force and
mutual fear, accompanied by efforts to build a climate of trust and
mutual esteem. I remember seeing two large dogs facing one another at
very close quarters. The bigger dog hesitated because he sensed that
the other dog was smaller, but still powerful. The smaller dog knew
that the other was larger, and so he too hesitated. Neither made the
first move because of fear and the perceived possession of force in the
other. A balance of powers kept the two dogs back from aggression
because of a fear of the consequences. Not long back an Australian was
falsely accused of murder in an African country, and had he been
convicted he would have suffered the same fate as the supposed victim -
in this case it would have been hanging because the one who died (as it
turned out, by suicide) was found hanging. The judicial system of the
country threatened lawbreakers with an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth. There is no doubt that in a fallen world there is a certain
strategic wisdom in this. After all, even the doctrine of eternal
punishment has the effect of holding very many people back from secret
or open wrongdoing. Fear of a great and hostile force bringing
retribution after death keeps many persons in check. All this helps us
to understand the Old Testament injunction which our Lord quotes in our
Gospel today, that there is to be an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth. Punishment was proportionate to the crime, and the thought of
this judgment and punishment was deemed to keep crime in check - and it
probably did.resistance to those who
oppress and seek to harm you, then “hate” the one who is doing that to
you for of course you must defend your rights. He and he alone is your
“enemy”. Now, even this directive of limited grandeur is scarcely
observed in so much of human society. Even one’s “neighbour” is hated
in so many cases. So often brothers and sisters do not talk to one
another, and spouses break up in anger and life-long resentment. Whole
communities in the Middle East and in other parts of the world are at
this point rent with warring divisions. Brother is hating brother, and
neighbour his neighbour. So the Old Testament directive that one must
love one’s neighbour, and hate only one’s enemy was of manifest good
sense and not to be taken for granted. But now, Christ sets forth his
stunning teaching which is the test of true discipleship. He says that
we are to love not only our brothers but even our enemies. In respect
to those who persecute us, we are not to “hate” them but even to pray
for them. (Matthew 5:43-48) Let us remember that
our Lord is here speaking of a religion of the heart, and his command
reaches to the heart. It will not be enough to treat our enemy civilly.
No, we must love and pray for him, and God who sees all will see what
is going on in our hearts. I wonder how many bear grudges all their
lives, grudges that begin in their youth and are never ever given up.
They accompany the person through life and go with them into death and
beyond. I wonder how many persons never forgive and never learn to love
those who have harmed them. preeminence over the
societies of the world? Of course, much of this has to do with the
galloping attainments of Western science and technology - but this
observation just pushes the question back further to the reason for the
Western mastery of science and technology. This is an intricate issue,
but surely one reason is that Western culture has over a long period of
time learnt - perhaps due somewhat to the Christian religion - to take
the world very seriously. The world is not just the plaything of unseen
higher powers but has been given its own very solid laws which are to
be discovered and stewarded. But now, one corollary of all this - and
this is my point - is that the West tends to live only in this very
solid observable world and to forget the unseen Reality on which it
depends. From out of the attainments of the West has come the
temptation to secularism and atheism. The supernatural tends to be
ignored and then denied. We live in view of this world only and in view
simply of those around us. This, of course is man’s temptation from age
to age, but it has over the last millennium become a special temptation
for the Western civilization and because of the spread of Western
culture it has become the temptation of the modern world. So it is that
our Lord’s injunction to us in today’s Gospel that we must live out our
religious life before the gaze not of men but of our heavenly Father is
extremely apposite to modern man. instances of this. But
now, in our thought for today let us notice our Lord’s introductory
comment on the prayer he teaches his disciples. It surely provides the
initial emphasis he wishes to give. Our Lord tells his disciples that
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be
heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father
knows what you need before you ask him.” Our Lord describes the long
prayers of many of the pagans as “babble”. We might perhaps think of
that famous scene in the Old Testament when the prophet Elijah
confronts the four hundred prophets of Baal and invites them to prepare
their sacrifice in the presence of the people. Then they were to call
on their god to consume the sacrifice. So they prayed and prayed and
struck themselves calling on their god to do something, but nothing
happened. Elijah taunted them saying that their god was asleep or had
gone away. Elijah then in a few words called on Yahweh to accept his
sacrifice and thus to vindicate his name. At this, the fire of Yahweh
fell and consumed the sacrifice. Elijah’s prayer was spectacularly
simple and full of overflowing faith. He knew that God was aware of
what he wanted, and he knew that God would answer the prayer. Our Lord
teaches us that our prayer to God our heavenly Father is to be full of
simple faith in his power and love, knowing that he is fully aware of
all that we need.sensed that their lives
were being filled up seeking what was of little value. Be that as it
may - and of course I was in no position to judge about that particular
couple - our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel speak especially to our
secular culture of this day. Our temptation is to seek the things of
this world and to have little thought for the next. What do I mean by
“the next”? I do not mean that we ought be putting little time into our
duties and interests in this life. I mean that we ought be doing all
that we are required to do but with the aim of pleasing our Father in
heaven. “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in
and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor
decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure
is, there also will your heart be’.”
(Matthew 6:19-23) As our Lord points out
so concretely, if all we are seeking in this life are the things of
this life, then what we gain can so easily be destroyed, as it were, by
moth and decay, or taken and destroyed by thieves. The wonderful gift
of time will have been spent on things which will not last. The couple
I mentioned spent a lot of time on things which did not even last in
this life - let alone lasting into the next.
Methinks it had
been rather our parts to stick together in repressing these violent and
unlawful intrusions and injuries dayly offered to our common mother,
the holy Church of Christ, than by any manner of persuasions to help or
set forward the same. And we ought rather to seek by all means the
temporal destruction of the so ravenous wolves, that daily go about
worrying and devouring everlastingly, the flock that Christ committed
to our charge, and the flock that Himself died for, than to suffer them
thus to range abroad. But (alas) seeing we do it not, you see in what
peril the Christian state now standeth: We are besieged on all sides,
and can hardly escape the danger of our enemy. And seeing that judgment
is begone at the house of God, what hope is there left (if we fall)
that the rest shall stand! The fort is betrayed even of them that
should have defended it. And therefore seeing the matter is thus begun,
and so faintly resisted on our parts, I fear that we be not the men
that shall see the end of the misery. Wherefore, seeing I am an old man
and look not long to live, I mind not by the help of God to trouble my
conscience in pleasing the king this way whatsoever become of me, but
rather here to spend out the remnant of my old days in praying to God
for him.can know from whence he
comes and to where he is going. He can know his Creator and he has
received a great revelation from him telling him of the divine plan. In
our Gospel today (Matthew 6:24-34) our Lord makes two
observations about man which highlight these distinctive features about
him. Firstly, man can “worry.” Animals do not plan for the future nor
do they “worry” about it. They do not have the mind to do this for they
operate from instinct alone. As our Lord says, “Look at the birds in
the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet
your heavenly Father feeds them.” The animal instinctively takes what
comes and lives on that, whereas man plans for his future and sets his
goals, and “worries” if these goals are threatened. Now, of
course he must have his goals and is called to build up his future. In
the very first pages of the Bible we read of God giving to man whom he
has created the task of filling the earth and mastering it. This
requires planning and the setting of goals and with that planning and
those goals comes his “worry” about them. But what does our Lord say
about this? He tells us that we are to observe the birds in the sky and
the wild flowers growing in the fields. They are looked after by the
Lord and Creator of all. They do not “worry”, and, he says
significantly, nor should we. We are looked after by our heavenly
Father just as much as they are.of John the Baptist in
the unfolding of God’s salvific plan. In searching for the facts of his
Gospel history Luke narrated significant details that associated John
with our Lord not only in the inauguration of our Lord’s public
ministry, but in the inauguration of our Lord’s very life too. John was
a great prophet whose birth was predicted by the angel of God only a
little before the annunciation of the birth of Jesus. Through his
mother Elizabeth John was a relative of the Virgin Mary, and therefore
a relative of Jesus Christ himself. In his mother’s womb he was made
holy at the coming of Mary who bore in her womb the unborn Redeemer. At
her arrival bearing the Christ-child, the Holy Spirit filled the soul
of the unborn John, and inspired his mother Elizabeth to utter her
words of praise of the Virgin Mary her young kinswoman. St Luke tells
us that the hand of the Lord was with him as he grew up, and in some
way he lived for God in the wilderness preparing for his mission which
in due course was revealed to him (Luke 1:57-66, 80). We read of other
prophets in the Old Testament who were called to their work at a
certain point in their lives, but John was chosen and sanctified from
before his very birth. He must have attained a very high holiness and
he had great impact on the vast numbers who came to him. We read in the
Acts of the Apostles how on his missionary journeys Paul encountered
disciples of John the Baptist who were unaware of his witness to
Jesus. The point here is that today we celebrate a great saint, a great
prophet who in his own person and work gave to the Old Testament its
climax in witnessing to the promised Messiah. He was the last, the
greatest and the holiest of the prophets, and in him the holiness of
the Old Testament reached its crescendo. His very precise
identification of the person of Jesus as the promised one gave to the
long revelation that preceded him its specific meaning. abundant imagery. When
it came to religion the Greeks too were a people of the imagination, as
were the Romans. Our Lord was a master of the use of the imagination in
the communication of divine revelation. Another feature of our Lord’s
teaching to the crowds, I suspect, was his humour. Consider our
well-known passage of today (Matthew 7:1-5) in which he tells his
disciples that they are not to judge - and by “judge” he means
“condemn”. We are not to condemn. He tells his disciples that they
“notice the splinter” in their brother’s eye, but fail to notice the
beam of wood in their own! Imagine a log of wood in one’s eye and not
noticing that it is there, all the while complaining of the splinter in
the eye of the other! The image would have evoked peals of laughter in
our Lord’s audience and he would probably have laughed with them as
well. It may have struck them as so amusing that it could have been
remembered long afterwards and repeated to others with laughter as well
- all the while carrying with it its crucially important message. I
wonder if there were many such instances of humour in our Lord’s
conversation and discourse. I certainly think that his presence among
his disciples and his constant company with his apostles and closest
associates would have been a happy presence. One gets the impression of
great familiarity between our Lord and those who followed him closely,
a familiarity that would have carried with it plenty of light humour.
How like so many of the greatest saints! 
after business
reverses, taught him the meaning of suffering and brought maturity to
his outgoing and cheerful temperament. In 1915, the family moved to
Logrono, where his father had found new employment. Beginning in 1918,
Josemaria sensed that God was asking something of him, although he
didn't know exactly what it was. He decided to become a priest, in
order to be available for whatever God wanted of him. He began studying
for the priesthood, first in Logrono and later in Saragossa. At his
father's suggestion and with the permission of his superiors at the
seminary he also began to study civil law. He was ordained a priest and
began his pastoral ministry in 1925. In 1927, Fr. Josemaria moved to
Madrid to study for a graduate degree in law. He was accompanied by his
mother, sister, and brother, as his father had died in 1924 and he was
now head of the family. They were not well-off, and he had to tutor law
students to support them. At the same time he carried out a demanding
pastoral work, especially among the poor and sick in Madrid, and with
young children. He also undertook an apostolate with manual workers,
professional people and university students who, by coming into contact
with the poor and sick to whom Fr. Josemaria was ministering, learned
the practical meaning of charity and their Christian responsibility to
help out in the betterment of society. On October 2, 1928, while making
a retreat in Madrid, God showed him his specific mission: he was to
found Opus Dei, an institution within the Catholic Church dedicated to
helping people in all walks of life to follow Christ, to seek holiness
in their daily life and grow in love for God and their fellow men and
women. From that moment on, he dedicated all his strength to fulfilling
this mission, certain that God had raised up Opus Dei to serve the
Church. In 1930, responding to a new illumination from God, he started
Opus Dei's apostolic work with women, making clear that they had the
same responsibility as men to serve society and the Church. The first
edition of The Way, his most widely read work, was published in 1934
under the title Spiritual Considerations. His other spiritual writings
include Holy Rosary; The Way of the Cross; two collections of homilies,
Christ Is Passing By and Friends of God; and Furrow and The Forge,
which like The Way are made up of short points for prayer and
reflection. The development of Opus Dei began among the young people
with whom Fr. Josemaria had already been in contact before 1928. Its
growth, however, was seriously impeded by the religious persecution
inflicted on the Catholic Church during the Spanish Civil War
(1936-1939). The founder himself suffered severe hardships under this
persecution but, unlike many other priests, he came out of the war
alive. After the war, he travelled throughout the country giving
retreats to hundreds of priests at the request of their bishops.
Meanwhile Opus Dei spread from Madrid to several other Spanish cities,
and as soon as World War II ended in 1945, began starting in other
countries. This growth was not without pain; though the Work always had
the approval of the local bishops, its then-unfamiliar message of
sanctity in the world met with some misunderstandings and
suspicions-which the founder bore with great patience and charity.
While celebrating Mass in 1943, Fr. Josemaria received a new
foundational grace to establish the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross,
which made it possible for some of Opus Dei's lay faithful to be
ordained as priests. Aware that God meant Opus Dei to be part of the
mission of the universal Church, the founder moved to Rome in 1946 so
as to be close to the Holy See. By 1950 the Work had received
pontifical approvals. Beginning in 1948, full membership in Opus Dei
was open to married people. In 1950 the Holy See approved the idea of
accepting non-Catholics and even non-Christians as cooperators-persons
who assist Opus Dei in its projects and programs without being members.
The next decade saw the launching of a wide range of undertakings.
During Vatican Council II (1962-1965), Monsignor Escriva worked closely
with many of the council fathers. Deeply grateful for the Council's
teachings, he did everything possible to implement them in the
formative activities offered by Opus Dei throughout the world. Between
1970 and 1975 the founder undertook catechetical trips throughout
Europe and Latin America, speaking with many people, at times in large
gatherings, about love of God, the sacraments, Christian dedication,
and the need to sanctify work and family life. By the time of the
founder's death, Opus Dei had spread to thirty nations on six
continents. By 2002 it had more than 84,000 members in sixty countries.
Monsignor Escriva's death in Rome came suddenly on June 26, 1975, when
he was 73. Large numbers of bishops and ordinary faithful petitioned
the Vatican to begin the process for his beatification and
canonization. On May 17, 1992, Pope John Paul II declared him Blessed
before a huge crowd in St. Peter's Square. He was canonized on October
6, 2002.
sin. In fact there are
many who fall away from the practice of the Faith and quietly give it
up altogether. God and Christ cease to be important to them and even
into old age with death on the horizon they remain in their complete
indifference. That having been granted, I think the greater danger and
the more common failure is that of long-standing mediocrity. I refer to
the danger of giving up a generous struggle. They do not abandon the
Christian fath but they settle for a certain level of discipleship and,
without admitting it to themselves, they quietly refuse to go beyond
it. There is nothing in their lives that could be said to correspond to
our Lord’s call to leave all and to follow him. They follow him, but
from afar - within earshot, but barely. They come to Mass on Sunday -
finding excuses not to do so at times - and fulfil other basic
requirements, but they do not move beyond what we might call their
comfort zone. They do not face up to those areas in their lives in
which they are resisting the call of grace. They rarely give to the
poor. They do not respond to calls to engage in the apostolate in any
identifiable sense. They do not go much beyond the minimum duties the
Church lays out for all of Christ’s faithful. Their prayer life is
fairly desultory. We might say that they keep on the right side of the
Divine Law, but do not work at their relationship with God. They are
not ambitious for Christ’s love. click centre arrow for video
Scripture today:
Genesis
15:1-12, 17-18; Psalm 105:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9;
Matthew 7:15-20
Jesus said to his
disciples: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s
clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will
know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from
thistles? Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree
bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten
tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be
cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know
them.”
(Matthew 7:15-20)
If
you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on
today's Gospel, click here
One of the notable
and perennial characteristics of human society is its propensity for
dissensions and consequent divisions. Whatever is the prevailing regime
in a society, many will be found in it who dissent from what is done or
allowed by those who rule. Some dissent with such sincerity and purpose
that they are prepared to overthrow the ruler or else launch a
breakaway society. The motives for such actions can be objectively
blameworthy or laudable. Julius Caesar culminated his string of
victories in Gaul with his move against the
Republic. Presumably he sincerely believed that this was the best thing
to do - which is to say that he probably did what he thought was right,
however mixed his motives were. If this can be said of Caesar it can be
said with just as much validity about the plotters who finally
assassinated him and those who waged the wars that followed. And so the
story of human history goes on. There is dissent and division in
societies and to a
greater or lesser extent those involved sincerely believe themselves to
be in the right. Let us put it in contemporary terms. According to
their lights they are (to a degree) “following their conscience”. Now
then, when our Lord founded his Church to bring to mankind his living
person, his teaching and his redemption, he predicted that the Church
would face trouble. He said to Simon Peter on one occasion that “the
gates of hell will not prevail against it.” So trouble would come from
hell itself. As we read in today’s Gospel, another source of trouble
would be “false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but
underneath are ravenous wolves.” They are rotten trees bearing “bad
fruit.” The false prophets will come at times from outside Christ’s
Church, at times from within it. We read in the Acts of the Apostles
and in the New Testament Letters warnings and many instances of “false
prophets” who rend the life and structure of the Church. What, then,
can be said about the “false prophets” Christ warns his disciples
against?
Throughout the
centuries there has been plenty of dissent within the Church. Just as
it is a recurring cycle in civil societies, so is it a recurring cycle
in the life of the Church. It has often led to profound divisions and
rampant heresies, resulting in the rise of new churches and ecclesial
communions. The early Church was marked by numerous instances of this,
and every epoch has had its examples. Now, one of the interesting
things about this is that usually the leaders who rise up in dissent
and take with them many away from the life of the Church have been
“sincere”. They have been “following their conscience.” But what does
our Lord say in today’s Gospel? He warns against “false prophets”
without mentioning the matter of their presumed sincerity (Matthew 7:15-20). Presumably the
“prophet” who is “false” is often or even generally sincere. He
considers himself as following his conscience and because he appears to
be doing this he gains credibility as a “prophet” and feels authorised
to accept such a status. But this does not make of him a true
“prophet”. His falsity as a prophet derives from his false teaching
which leads others away from Christ’s Church. He may be conscientious,
he may be sincere, he may be “following his conscience” - or he may
fail to be any of these things - but that is not the point. The point
is that he is a “false” prophet in that his very teaching shows that he
is not from God. By his “fruit” he is to be known. His teaching does
not square with what God has revealed and entrusted to his authorized
representatives - which in Christ’s case is the Twelve and those in
apostolic succession to them. That is to say, that a person is
following his conscience is not the primary indicator that his teaching
is to be recognized as of God. What places him in the class of
“prophet” is not that he follows his conscience, but that his
conscience has led him to accept and to do what is objectively right
and not to what is objectively wrong.
At the end of his
famous Letter
to the Duke of Norfolk Cardinal Newman
rhetorically raised his glass to conscience first and then to the Pope.
By this he meant that all must place the doing of one’s duty at the
forefront of life. His whole life was a testimony to the duty to assent
to revealed truth as found in the Catholic Church which Christ founded.
One’s duty is to know the objective and revealed truth, to identify
where it is found, to assent to it, and to bear witness to it before
others.
(E.J.Tyler)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you go to pray, let this be a firm resolution: Don't prolong
your prayer because you find consolation in it or shorten it because
you find it dry.
(The Way,
no.99)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How does one keep Sunday holy?
Christians keep Sunday and other days of obligation holy by
participating in the Eucharist of the Lord and by refraining from those
activities which impede the worship of God and disturb the joy proper
to the day of the Lord or the necessary relaxation of mind and body.
Activities are allowed on the Sabbath which are bound up with family
needs or with important social service, provided that they do not lead
to habits prejudicial to the holiness of Sunday, to family life and to
health. (CCC 2177-2185, 2192-2193)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.453)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday
of the twelfth week of Ordinary Time I
June 28 June
28 St
Irenaeus, bishop
and martyr (130-202).
He was a disciple of St Polycarp of
Smyrna. Bishop. Born in Smyrna around 140, as a boy he was a friend of
St Polycarp who had heard St John the Evangelist preach. "The things we
learn in childhood are part of our soul," he wrote. St Irenaeus
cherished Polycarp's teachings, saying they were written "not on paper
but in my heart." St Irenaeus was an important theologian. The Church
is fortunate that Irenaeus was involved in many of its controversies in
the second century. He was a student, well trained, no doubt, with
great patience in investigating, tremendously protective of apostolic
teaching, but prompted more by a desire to win over his opponents than
to prove them in error. He
succeeded the martyred St Pothimus in the See of Lyons. As
bishop of Lyons he was especially concerned with the Gnostics, who took
their name from the Greek word for “knowledge.” Claiming access to
secret knowledge imparted by Jesus to only a few disciples, their
teaching was attracting and confusing many Christians. After thoroughly
investigating the various Gnostic sects and their “secret,” Irenaeus
showed to what logical conclusions their tenets led. These he
contrasted with the teaching of the apostles and the text of Holy
Scripture, giving us, in five books, a system of theology of great
importance to subsequent times. Moreover, his work, widely used and
translated into Latin and Armenian, gradually ended the influence of
the Gnostics. The circumstances and details about his death, like those
of his birth and early life in Asia Minor, are not at all clear. He
died at Lyon in 200 and was buried in the crypt of the church of St
John. In 1562 his shrine was destroyed by Calvinists.
(Saints)
Scripture: Genesis 16:1-12,
15-16 or 16:6b-12, 15-16; Psalm 106:1b-5; Matthew 7:21-29
Jesus said to his
disciples: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the
Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in
heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not
prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we
not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them
solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’ “Everyone
who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise
man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and
the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had
been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of
mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house
on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and
buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.” When
Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. (Matthew 7:21-29)
If you wish to
view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
One of the enduring
characteristics of the human being is his lively hope. He hopes in
things to come. On the one hand, consider the person who has little
hope or perhaps none. What kind of a life will he be leading? His life
will have been drained of virtually all its vitality. On the other
hand, consider the person who is full of hope. Normally he will be
constantly working, he will be cheerful, and his life will be marked by
meaning. Hope is central to a human life, but the next question is, in
what are people hoping? Here we see an unending array of
differences among men and societies, and their hopes all too often are
what spark conflagrations and wars. Consider the publication in London
(1848) of Das
Kapital, the
foundational book by Karl Marx for the philosophy of Communism. It set
forth a utopia, a future kingdom we might say, in which contentment
would reign. Class differences would be eliminated, there would be a
level playing field permanently in place for all, and the delusory pie
on the sky - which is religion - would disappear. We know the
catastrophic suffering which this hope led to. We could think of other
great hopes that have captured the imagination of individuals, groups
and whole peoples during the course of human history, hopes that
pointed to a golden future. Well now, God has revealed that he has
indeed a golden future in store for us and he has sent the Holy Spirit
to sustain amid any adversity our hope in what he has promised. I refer
to God’s Kingdom which our Lord announced, taught, established, which
he rules and which he invites all mankind to enter. The Church which he
founded is the seed and proclaimer of this Kingdom, and those who wish
to enter the Kingdom of God which has Christ for its King are called to
enter and serve mankind in this Church which is his body. God has
revealed that it is in this Kingdom that mankind’s true hopes lie. God
made us to hope for this.
It is one thing to
think of man who hopes, and to think then of the Kingdom which has been
revealed by God as being the true object of his hope, but the practical
issue is how to enter this Kingdom. Our Lord tells us that it is not
just a matter of turning our minds to God and calling on him, even
though this is the very thing that modern secular man
characteristically fails to do. It is not just a matter of doing this.
The crunch-point consists in listening to the word of Christ and
putting it into practice. We must strive above all to do God’s
will. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the
Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in
heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not
prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we
not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them
solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’ “Everyone
who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise
man who built his house on rock.” (Matthew
7:21-29).
Striving to enter the Kingdom of God involves striving to know what God
wills in life, and striving then to put his will into practice. How
little this is done! Let us take a current issue all over the world,
the legalization of embryonic stem cell research. Despite what it must
do to the unborn human being at the very start of his precarious and
vulnerable existence, because this research and experimentation might
possibly be useful for the health of others, it is being legalized. Who
among those pressing for the legalization of this is asking, what does
God want in this matter? Does God want vulnerable human beings to be
attacked and used for spare parts for the sake of others? As our Lord
said in response to the Sadducees who raised a different matter, God is
the God of the living and not of the dead.
Man is made to
hope, and it is hope that will give to his life its meaning and
vitality. He is called by God to place his hopes in that Kingdom which
Christ makes available to us in the Church which he founded and which
he sustains. We shall enter his Kingdom if we do his will. Therefore
all our life we ought be hoping and working to do his will. Our best
hopes lie in striving to know and to do the will of God and in
influencing others to do his will also. Let us make the knowing and the
doing of the will of God the heart and soul of our everyday life.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Don't tell Jesus that you want consolation in prayer. If he gives
it to you, thank him. Tell him always that you want perseverance.
(The Way,
no.100)
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Why is the civil recognition of Sunday as a feast day important?
It is important so that all might be given the real possibility of
enjoying sufficient rest and leisure to take care of their religious,
familial, cultural and social lives. It is important also to have an
opportune time for meditation, for reflection, for silence, for study,
and a time to dedicate to good works, particularly for the sick and for
the elderly. (CCC 2186-2188, 2194-2195)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.454)
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Solemnity
of Saints
Peter and Paul, Apostles (Friday of the
twelfth
week Ordinary Time)
(June
29) The Church founded by Christ and in particular the
Church of Rome has St Peter and St Paul
as its principal pillars.
Peter
was chosen by Christ to be his first Vicar on earth, endowed with
powers of the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt 16:13-19), and
charged with the role of Shepherd of Christ’s flock (John 21:15-17). In
Peter and his successors, the visible sign of unity and communion in
faith and charity has been given. Divine grace led Peter to profess
Christ’s divinity. St Peter suffered martyrdom under Nero in AD 66 or
67. He was buried at the hill of the Vatican, where excavations have
revealed his tomb on the very site of the Basilica of St Peter.
(Saints)
Paul was
chosen to form part of the apostolic college by the risen
Christ himself on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-16). An instrument
selected to bring Christ’s name to the gentiles, he is one of the
greatest of missionaries, the advocate of the pagans. He was beheaded
in the Tre Fontane along the Via Ostiense and buried nearby, where the
basilica bearing his name now is.
(Saints)
Scripture:
Acts
12:1-11; Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7,
8-9; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18; Mat 16:13-19
When Jesus went
into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his
disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied,
“Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one
of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly
Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will
build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail
against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever
you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew
16:13-19)
If
you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on
today's Gospel, click here
It has been justly
observed - and as an objection by certain
non-Christians - that while the prophets in their preaching constantly
pointed to God and away from themselves, the case seems to be different
with Jesus of Nazareth. He himself appears to be central to his own
preaching. Yes, he constantly speaks of the great One he calls his own
Father and yet a very great deal of his teaching as reported in the
Gospels involves a presentation of himself. He is shown asking people
to be his disciples and to follow him with an insistence no other
prophet before him manifests. More than this, he asks that people love
him and be his ardent friends. He expects total dedication to his own
person, making it clear that salvation is at stake in this dedication
to him. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Now, if this is an
objection the Christian accepts it and states candidly that the special
distinction of the Christian religion is the
unavoidable centrality of
the person of Jesus. The Muslim will claim that Mahomet is the Prophet
but of course that he points away from himself to God alone. Buddha
points to Enlightenment and to Nirvana, and so it goes on. But Christ
points to himself and in pointing to himself he points to the Father,
for, he teaches, he who sees me sees the Father. Furthermore, no one
can say Jesus is Lord except by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit.
In Jesus, as St Paul puts it very plainly, is the very fulness of the
godhead bodily. So then, in our Gospel today our Lord “asks his
disciples ‘who do people say that the Son of Man is?’” This question is
a centrepiece of St Matthew’s Gospel. What prophet in the Old Testament
regarded the knowledge of his own person as so important in the
fulfilment of his mission? Christ makes it clear that sooner or later
the one aspiring to entry into the Kingdom of God would have to be his
disciple, and this involved an acceptance of his person as being “the
Christ, the Son of the living God.”
So then, the
Christian religion proclaims that in the person of Jesus
is found all heavenly blessings. But there is a further step
which Christ requires, and which is also unexpected. In insisting on
his own person as indispensable for salvation, he insists also on his
Church. He does not come alone but comes to each generation in his
Church. In our Gospel today, having gained the acknowledgment from his
disciples as uttered by Simon Peter that he is the Messiah and the Son
of the living God, he immediately passed on to his Church. “Jesus said
to him in reply, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and
blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I
say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will
give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven’.” (Matthew
16:13-19)
This Messiah who announces the arrival of the Kingdom of heaven and in
whom this promised Kingdom is found immediately gives to Simon the keys
to it. Observe, our Lord came to establish God’s Kingdom and the keys
to it were given to Simon. On him, on the rock that was Simon, would
Christ build his Church, his chosen people. Consider carefully and
without any blinkered view the words Christ pronounces over the person
of Simon. He is Peter the rock. On him Christ would found his Church,
and to him would the keys to the Kingdom of heaven be granted.
Hell would not be able to prevail against this Church, and whatever
Simon bound or loosed would be ratified in heaven. The Church, then, is
central in Christ’s redemptive plan and work, and Simon and his
authority is central to the Church. The Christian - the one who has
Christ as the object of his life - is inseparably bound to the Church
and to Peter because the keys are to be found there.
There is much talk
now of fundamentalism. I suppose one feature of the
fundamentalist is that he is simplistic to such an extent that the true
reality in its wholeness is missed. The person of Christ is the object
of the life and the mind and the heart of the Christian. He loves
Christ
as one loves God, and knows that God’s Kingdom is found in Jesus. But
it is not just a matter of me and Jesus, for Jesus himself has
entrusted the keys of the Kingdom to Peter and the Church which is
built on Peter. In being called to Christ, then, we are also called to
be of the Church.
(E.J.Tyler)
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(The oldest historical testimony of
the martyrdom of Peter and Paul)
St Clement of Rome,
Pope from 90 to about 200 Letter to the
Corinthians, 5-7 (Breviary)
Moving on from examples in the past, let
us come to those who entered the contest in modern times – let us take
the noble examples of our own generation. Through jealousy and envy the
greatest and most righteous pillars of the Church were attacked and
they kept up the struggle until death. Let us consider the holy
apostles: Peter, who because of unrighteous jealousy suffered not one
or two but many trials, and having thus given his testimony went to the
glorious place which was his due. Paul, who through jealousy and strife
showed the way to the prize of endurance: seven times he was in bonds,
he was exiled, he was stoned, he was a herald both in the East and in
the West, he gained the noble fame of his faith, he taught
righteousness to all the world, and when he had reached the limits of
the West he gave his testimony before the rulers, and thus passed from
the world and was taken up into the Holy Place — the greatest example
of endurance. To these men with their holy lives were added a great
multitude of the chosen, who were the victims of jealousy and offered
among us the fairest example in their endurance under many indignities
and tortures…
My beloved, we are not only writing
these things to you to teach you but also to remind ourselves, for we
are in the same arena, and the same struggle is before us. Therefore
let us put aside empty and vain cares, and let us come to the glorious
and venerable rule of our tradition, and let us see what is good and
pleasing and acceptable in the sight of our Maker. Let us fix our gaze
on the Blood of Christ, and let us know that it is precious to his
Father because it was poured out for our salvation and it brought the
grace of repentance to all the world.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Persevere in prayer. Persevere, even when your efforts seem
barren.
Prayer is always fruitful.
(The Way, no.101)
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What does the fourth commandment require?
It commands us to honor and respect our parents and those whom God, for
our good, has vested with his authority. (CCC 2196-2200, 2247-2248)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.455)
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Saturday
of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time I
(June
30) The
First Martyrs
of the Church of Rome. This
day commemorates all those who died in the persecutions of Nero at
about 64 AD, and always falls after the feast of St Peter and St Paul.
Little is known about many of these early Christians. Because of the
lack of information, after 1969 several individual names were left out
of the list of saints. Remembering them as a group in this way makes up
for those whose histories have been lost. There were Christians in Rome
within a dozen or so years after the death of Jesus. In 49-50 AD the
Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews and Jewish Christians, from Rome.
Perhaps many came back after Claudius' death because, in 54 AD, St
Paul's letter was addressed to a Church with members from Jewish and
Gentile backgrounds. In July of 64 AD, more than half of Rome was
destroyed by fire. Rumour blamed the tragedy on Nero, who wanted to
enlarge his palace. He shifted the blame by accusing the Christians. Many
Christians were killed with atrocious torments. They were people
of all professions and levels of society. This celebration reminds us
that all Christians are called to seek sanctity.
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Genesis
8:1-15; Luke 1:46-47, 48-49, 50 and 53, 54-55;
Matthew 8:5-17
When Jesus entered
Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying,
“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.” He
said to him, “I will come and cure him.” The centurion said in reply,
“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the
word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to
authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he
goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do
this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said
to those following him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I
found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the
west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in
the Kingdom of heaven, but the children of the Kingdom will be driven
out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding
of teeth.” And Jesus said to the centurion, “You may go; as you have
believed, let it be done for you.” And at that very hour his servant
was healed. Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law
lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand, the fever left her, and
she rose and waited on him. When it was evening, they brought him many
who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word
and cured all the sick, to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the
prophet: He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases. (Matthew 8:5-17)
If you wish to
view a video recording of the following reflection on today's Gospel,
click here
All through the
Gospels our Lord is asking for faith. Specifically, he is constantly
asking for faith in his own person. Let us set this phenomenon in the
context of world history and of the other great leaders and teachers of
the world. I do not think a person could be easily thought of who asked
so consistently for outright faith - backed up by miracles and other
convincing supports, of course. But so it is. Christ places faith in
him at the centre of what he asks for and expects of those who
encounter him, be they members of God’s chosen people, or persons
outside of this people. Faith is of greater import than great
intelligence, education or any other
useful circumstance. We see this same pattern at work in today’s Gospel
in which “a centurion approached him and appealed to him saying, ‘Lord
my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.’ He said
to him, ‘I will come and cure him.’ The centurion said in reply, ‘Lord,
I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and
my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority,
with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and
to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and
he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those
following him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found
such faith.” (Matthew 8:5-17) Very clearly it was the
centurion’s great faith in his person, in his love and power that
evoked Christ’s admiration and pleasure. Faith in Christ is immensely
pleasing to our heavenly Father and it unlocks the power of God and
shows it forth as his mercy. “And Jesus said to the centurion, ‘You may
go; as you have believed, let it be done for you.’ And at that very
hour his servant was healed.” The critical importance of faith applies
to all aspects of life, including the Christian life. If we wish to
benefit from the mercy of God and be sustained by his aid, we must turn
to him in faith.
The second thing we
notice in our Gospel passage today is that this all-important faith is
open to anyone. It is not the preserve of the chosen people of God. It
is a centurion who approaches Christ with such great faith that,
humanly, our Lord was simply amazed. He turned to those around him and
declared that he had not met with such faith in all Israel. Of course
our Lord was making a point here - after all, the centurion’s great
faith in our Lord could not be compared with, say, that of our Lord’s
own mother. The point is that God can grant to anyone the gift of a
true insight into the power, the love and the person of Jesus of
Nazareth. It means too that we who know Christ can confidently
introduce him to those who do not have faith in him nor much knowledge
of him. We can speak of him to others and bear witness to him in the
world - and that is what all of Christ’s disciples and especially the
lay faithful are called to do. The lay faithful whose natural ambient
is the world have by vocation the task to bear witness to Jesus by word
and work to those who do not know him. As they do this, let them think
of the centurion who had heard of Christ and who approached him in his
need. We ought encourage all to approach Christ in their need. Let us
encourage the Moslem, the Hindu, the agnostic, the atheist, to consider
Christ and to approach him when in need even if they do not have the
fulness of Christian belief. After all, the centurion hardly had the
fulness of belief in Christ that is expected of the disciple. He may
never have had this, for we are not told his name (as we are of
Simon of Cyrene, and BarTimaeus the blind beggar) and he seems to
disappear from the Gospel scene after the miracle wrought for
him. But he had heard of Christ, he approached him with faith, he
gained the answer to his request that he was seeking, and he had the
benefit of personal contact with Christ.
Let us place the
gift of faith in Christ very high in our estimation and carefully guard
and exercise it in our own life. Let us bear in mind the centurion, a
man presumably outside the chosen people of God but one who had great
faith in Christ as far as it went. He reminds us that all are called to
faith in Christ the redeemer, which in turn means that we have a
responsibility to bring Christ to all. Let us endeavour to do this in
our everyday lives.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Your mind is sluggish: you try to collect
your thoughts in God's presence, but it's useless: there's a complete
blank.
Don't try to force yourself, and don't worry. Look: such moments are
for your heart.
(The Way,
no.102)
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What is the nature of
the family in the plan of God?
A man and
a woman united in marriage form a family together with their children.
God instituted the family and endowed it with its fundamental
constitution. Marriage and the family are ordered to the good of the
spouses and to the procreation and education of children. Members of
the same family establish among themselves personal relationships and
primary responsibilities. In Christ the family becomes the domestic
church because it is a community of faith, of hope, and of charity.
(CCC 2205, 2249)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.456)
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