Pope Benedict
XVI's
general prayer intention
for the month of May
2007: "That,
following the example
of the Virgin Mary, all Christians should allow themselves to be guided
by the Word of God and always remain attentive to the signs of the Lord
in his own life."
Pope Benedict
XVI's
missionary prayer
intention for May 2007:
"That in mission territories there may be no lack of good and enlightened teachers in the major seminaries and in the institutes of consecrated life."
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Fourth Sunday of Easter C
(April 29) St Catherine of Sienna, virgin and doctor of the Church (1347-1380). St Catherine was a responsible instrument for the return of Pope Gregory XI from Avignon to Rome. In deed and in truth she showed her love for God’s Church and the Roman Pontiff. With her short life she gave us a lesson in courage: the courage of telling the truth for love of the Church and of souls. Imprinted with the sacred stigmata, she died in Rome at thirty-three years of age. She was proclaimed patroness of Italy on 18 June 1939. In 1970 Pope Paul VI proclaimed her Doctor of the Church. (Saints)
Scripture: Acts 13:14, 43-52; Psalm 100:1-2, 3, 5; Revelation 7:9, 14b-17; John 10:27-30
Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” (John 10:27-30)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
Everywhere in society there is advertising. Cars, clothes, food, university courses, and many other benefits and opportunities are on offer, and together with what is on offer there is the attempt to convince the viewer that he or she has need of these things. Of course, a person may think he has no need of something which in fact he might greatly need. For instance, an advertisement presents the opportunity of free testing for hidden forms of cancer, and the viewer thinks he has no need whatever of that testing. The result of
what might be his
blindness and consequent lack of interest is that one year later he
falls victim to that very cancer and dies. If only he had understood
his need! There is another form of blindness that is the most
fundamental of all, and that is blindness to our need of God. Most
serious it is when this is a deliberate blindness, a choice to ignore
and
disregard God and to prefer oneself instead. It is this which
happened in heaven long before man, when certain angels rebelled
against God and were cast out of Paradise. Their chosen blindness took
them to an eternal and living death. The first human couple, our first
parents also chose not to allow that they had any need for God. When
tempted by Satan they deliberately chose to reject God as being God,
and preferred instead to attempt to set themselves in God’s place. The
consequence of this was the dominion of sin over them and over their
own very nature, and with it the dominion of death. They turned God out
of their life and opened the floodgates to darkness and sin. Thus sin
inundated mankind, and with sin death inundated the world. But man’s
constant problem is that he feels little sense of his condition and of
his need.God knew man’s true condition and his consequent need. Because of his great love for the world God refused to let sin remain in the world continuing on in its all-conquering course. Sin left and leaves man helpless. Only God could and can deal with it and this he did. The result was that we have with us a stupendous and perfect redeemer, Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the perfect jewel of our race, the priceless possession of man and the universe. He is God-with-us, Emmanuel. Why on earth did God allow sin to enter the world? The same question is asked of so many other evils and sources of suffering. We do not know fully why God allowed sin to enter the world. Of course if he were to create free beings at all, then sin becomes an immediate possibility. But beyond this obvious consideration, what we do know is that we now have Jesus Christ our Lord as our redeemer and we have him because man sinned. Because man sinned God sent his own beloved Son to do away with sin and in his Son to give us himself. And so in the Exultet sung during the Easter Vigil, we hear the words, “Father, to ransom a slave you gave away your Son. O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam which gained for us so great a Redeemer.” St Thomas Aquinas tells us that “God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good. Thus St Paul writes, ‘Where sin increased, grace abounded even more’.” (STh III,1,3,ad 3). That is to say, we now have Jesus! As St Paul puts it, in Christ we have been given every heavenly blessing. He is the pearl of great price, and this pearl is the possession of anyone who comes to Jesus to learn from him and to belong to him. Christ is our possession and we are his possession. Let us resolve to belong to him entirely.
Christ the Son of God is our Friend, our Redeemer and our God. That was the Father’s answer to the proud and sinful rebellion of man. He gave us the gift of his Son. Christ our Lord has brought us not only the possibility of victory over sin if only we live in him with consistency, but also a life of intimate friendship with him. He calls us to be his friends. A marvellous union with God is now open to us. Our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel speak of his love and that of the Father for each of us. They speak of our salvation from sin and death, and of our life in union with him and with the Father. “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” (John 10:27-30). Consider the love for us that permeates these words. Let us contemplate the person of Jesus every day of our life, immersing ourselves in the love he has for us and in his intent to save and sanctify us. Let us resolve to abide in that love and make the person of Jesus our life and our eternal possession.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.410-412
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Faith, cheerfulness, optimism. But not the idiocy of closing one's eyes to reality.
(The Way, no.40)
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When does one commit a mortal sin?
One commits a mortal sin when there are simultaneously present: grave matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent. This sin destroys charity in us, deprives us of sanctifying grace, and, if unrepented, leads us to the eternal death of hell. It can be forgiven in the ordinary way by means of the sacraments of Baptism and of Penance or Reconciliation. (CCC 1855-1861, 1874)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.395)
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Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter II
(April 30) St Pius V, pope (1504-1572). Michael Ghislieri, a Dominican, became Pope Pius V. His pontificate is one of the best in the 16th century, enforcing the decrees of the Council of Trent, publishing the Roman Catechism, and revising the Missal and Breviary. He set an outstanding example to the entire Church of holiness of life. (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 42:2-3; 43:3, 4; John 10:1-10
Jesus said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them. So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:1-10)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
Whatever be the intellectual and cultural climate of a society, there will be dangers attendant on that climate. Freedom is a right and a great good, but it too has its dangers. Taking the opposite situation, where there is no real freedom of religion - such as in certain Islamic societies - there will be plenty to support the conviction that the religion of that society is the objective truth. Where there is plenty of freedom of religion and of conscience, the mere presence of diverse and opposite convictions as to what is
the truth will support
a
tendency to assume that either objective truth is unattainable, or that
there is no such thing as an objective truth. Characteristically, in
the West there is full freedom of religion. So the danger in modern
Western culture is that of relativism, which is to say of assuming that
objective truth is a figment of the imagination or mind. This applies
especially to matters of religious faith and to whatever cannot be
tested empirically. Truth in such matters is often vaguely assumed to
be unattainable, or non-existent. This means that in the face of
contradiction and opposite religious views, the man or woman of modern
Western civilization tends to assume that one cannot make absolute
claims as to religious truth. Religious certainty is deemed impossible.
Moreover, this assumption when it takes hold of the media can be very
powerful and even intolerant in the sense that claims of possessing
religious truth can be subtly hounded and ridiculed. All of this adds
to what we might call - and what Pope Benedict has called - the
dictatorship of relativism. The point here for the Christian is that he
must be on guard against the fear of being what many might call
dogmatic. The religion of the Christian is a dogmatic one. It involves
a philosophy of the attainability of objective and absolute truth in
non-empirical and religious matters, and rejects many philosophical
assumptions as being incompatible with belief in Christ.In our Gospel today our Lord makes absolute claims. In effect he is saying that he is the Saviour of the world and that there is no Saviour other than he. Typically, he uses an analogy, a parallel drawn from everyday life. Just as there is one shepherd and one fold, with the shepherd being the only one who opens and closes the gate to the fold, so he is the one shepherd, the one gatekeeper, and the one and only gate to the one and only fold. St John tells us that his disciples did not grasp the point, so our Lord spelt it out: “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:1-10). Jesus Christ claims to be the only gate to the abundant life intended by God for man. We must be on guard against the tendency to think that it is outrageous and impossible to make absolute and exclusive claims as to the truth. For that is exactly what our Lord did and it is exactly what the one who believes in him does. Christ claimed to be the only Saviour or the world, and that no one could come to the Father except through him. St Peter when hauled before the Sanhedrin during the days after Pentecost stated unambiguously that Jesus Christ is the only one by whom men could be saved. Just how God saves those who do not enter the fold of Christ (that is, the Church he founded) might or might not be difficult for us to say, but all those who are in fact saved are saved through Christ alone. That is to say, if Buddha was saved as we can assume he was, if Mahomet was saved as we can assume he was, if anyone in the world is saved, ultimately it is only through the work and the person of Christ who is at the right hand of the Father in heaven and who bides in his body the Church here on earth.
Let us draw near to the person of Christ and contemplate him as presented to us in the Gospels. Let us observe his person and come to know him. Knowing him, let us learn to believe in him for he is the Saviour. He is the gate and the one who enters through him will be saved, and will find pasture. Through him comes grace and truth. He is the Lord of lords, the King of kings.
(E.J.Tyler)
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What a 'profound' way of living a life of empty follies, of getting somewhere in the world: rising, always rising, simply by 'weighing little', having nothing inside, either in your head or in your heart.
(The Way, no.41)
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When does one commit a venial sin?
One commits a venial sin, which is essentially different from a mortal sin, when the matter involved is less serious or, even if it is grave, when full knowledge or complete consent are absent. Venial sin does not break the covenant with God but it weakens charity and manifests a disordered affection for created goods. It impedes the progress of a soul in the exercise of the virtues and in the practice of moral good. It merits temporal punishment which purifies. (CCC 1862-1864, 1875)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.396)
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Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter II
(May 1) St Joseph the Worker. This feast was instituted in 1955 by Pope Pius XII and is celebrated on May 1, which is the day when labour is honoured in many countries. In the Gospel Jesus was called “the son of the carpenter”. This feast reminds us that honest work, no matter how seemingly menial, can be sanctified. Through work, we can sanctify ourselves and others, making each of us participants in the work of redemption. (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 11:19-26; Psalm 87:1b-3, 4-5, 6-7; John 10:22-30
The feast of the Dedication was taking place in Jerusalem. It was winter. And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” (John 10:22-30)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
One of the distinctive features of the fourth Gospel is that St John, its author, gives us many passages that reveal very explicitly the heart and nature of Jesus Christ. In our passage today the Pharisees gather around Christ and demand from him a plain statement as to who he is. John the Baptist had pointed him out as being the Messiah. Many were saying that he was, and yet our Lord was circumspect about the title for many reasons. One reason was the misconception of many as to the role of the Messiah - very many expected him to be a political
and perhaps economic
liberator. For example, after he
fed the large crowds they wanted to make him king, and the next day our
Lord said to them that they were seeking him simply because of the
bread they had received from him. Another reason why our Lord spoke
with caution and prudence in respect to his Messiahship was that he
knew many would not believe him - especially the leaders. We read that
“the Jews gathered around him and said to him, 'How long are you going
to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.' Jesus
answered them, 'I told you and you do not believe'.”
(John 10:22-30).
The interesting thing about this exchange is the reason our Lord gives
as to why they did not believe. It is not that he had not given them
enough reasons or indications. As he said, “I told you and you do not
believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me.” He had
spoken with sufficient clarity, and his works testified to his mission.
The reason why they did not believe was that “you are not among my
sheep. My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me.” The
principal reason for their lack of belief, then, was their own inner
disposition. They were disposed not to believe in him. Their hearts
were set against him. These words of Christ directed at the leaders of the Jews remind us of the inestimable value of the gift of faith. The faith that leads and inclines us to Christ is a gift from God. The Father draws a person to Christ his Son by the inner workings of grace that guide and sustain a person in his discovery of the person of Jesus. Our Lord alludes to this in the passage we are considering. The Father gives to Christ his sheep. They belong to God in the first place, which is to say they have been secretly drawn to God and they have accepted this divine influence. Their heart, we might say, is or has become godly, and God in his turn draws them to his Son Jesus Christ. Their heart is properly and suitably disposed. It is good soil for the seed of the word of God. Authentic religious faith in a person is God’s work, and God in his turn entrusts the work of his hands to his Son. If anyone is aware that he has faith in Jesus, that he loves him, that he hopes in him and wants to belong to him and follow him wherever he might lead, that person should rejoice. This faith in him is a sign of God’s gentle possession of his heart, a possession that entirely respects his freedom at every point, a possession that is like the undying love of a wonderful mother or father. If we believe in Jesus, if our belief is leading us to live a life in accord with his commandments, then we should rejoice in the love that God has for us, for this love is shown in the faith in Jesus that we have. Our Lord’s words remind us of this: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” (John 10:22-30)
The Christian religion involves the discovery of the love that God has for us. It is of this love that our Lord speaks in our Gospel passage today. He speaks of the Father’s love for us and the Son’s love for us. No one can snatch us from the love of God. As St Paul put it, nothing can come between us and the love God has for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us abide in that love all our days.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“The Father and I are one” (John 10:22-30) Catechism of the Catholic Church (§ 232-234, 237)
Christians are baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 28:30). Before receiving the sacrament, they respond to a three-part question when asked to confess the Father, the Son and the Spirit: "I do." "The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity”( St. Caesarius of Arles). Christians are baptized “in the name” of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: not “in their names”, for there is only one God, the almighty Father, his only Son and the Holy Spirit: the Most Holy Trinity.
The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the hierarchy of the truths of faith. The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin...
The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God. To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel's faith before the Incarnation of God's Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Why that fitful character? When are you going to apply your will to something definite? Drop that craze for foundation-stones, and put the finishing touch to just one of your projects.
(The Way, no.42)
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How does sin proliferate?
Sin creates a proclivity to sin ; it engenders vice by repetition of the same acts. (CCC 1865, 1876)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.397)
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Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter II
(May 2) St Athanasius, bishop and doctor of the Church. Born at Alexandria in the year 295, he accompanied his bishop, Alexander, to the Council of Nicaea and later he himself succeeded as bishop. He fought ceaselessly against the Arian heresy and as a result he had to endure much tribulation and he was several times sent into exile. He wrote outstandingly to illustrate and defend the true doctrine, especially about Christ and the Trinity. He died in year 373. (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 12:24—13:5a; Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6 and 8; John 12:44-50
Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness. And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me.” (John 12:44-50)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
It is difficult to think of anyone in history who made personal claims that could be at all compared with those made by Jesus Christ. Consider Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. Consider Buddha, Confucius or Mahomet (Mahomet himself, and not just the claims about him made by his disciples and followers after him). Consider the great political or military leaders of history. Jesus of Nazareth made his claims with
utmost confidence and he
made them not only before his chosen disciples, but he made many of
them before the public and before his enemies. He made them before the
leaders of the people, and because of his claims he was sentenced to
death. Consider our passage from the Gospel of St John today. St John
informs us that “Jesus cried out” the words that follow. He said them
publicly, just as he very publicly announced the doctrine of the
Eucharist, in which he stated to those gathered in the synagogue that
his flesh would have to be eaten and his blood drunk if they were to
have life in them. In today’s passage our Lord publicly stated that
whoever believes in him believes in the Father who sent him, and most
astonishing of all, that whoever sees him sees the Father. He is
identifying his own words with those of the Father, and his own being
with that of the Father. He states that he is the light of the world,
and that the one who rejects his words will be condemned on the last
day. His teaching comes from the Father because the Father told him all
that he is saying. Jesus is claiming to be absolutely unique, unique as the light of the world, unique in that his words will be the benchmark for one’s final judgment at the end of time, and utterly unique in his relationship with the Father. Jesus! Who can best know him? The person who is best able to form an adequate impression of the person of Jesus is the disciple. Those who knew our Lord best during his life on earth, and who were most able to evaluate his claims were his truest disciples, which is to say those who lived with him in his friendship and who genuinely placed their faith in him. The same applies to us. Paradoxically, if we wish to form a true judgment about Christ, the best way is to live with him and abide in his friendship by faith. This is done by a daily life of prayerful contemplation of his person especially (though not exclusively) as it is revealed in the Gospel - such as in our Gospel passage today - all the while being guided by the Church whose head is Christ. The disciple lives in his presence, sinking into his words, prayerfully imagining him uttering them, watching him in a spirit of faith - in a word coming to know Christ Jesus. The disciple abides in that personal knowledge of him. That is the only real way to be in a position to appreciate the truth of his claims. If we remain an outsider to Christ’s friendship I do not think we shall get far with the Gospel account of Christ’s words and miracles and life and death. They can bring us to the threshold of knowledge of him but if we do not take the next step and enter our Lord’s company by faith, then the powerful claims of Christ will not be appreciated nor found convincing. They are so utterly unique. It is faith in him, the faith of a genuine disciple, that will open the door to a true knowledge of him.
Let us resolve to move beyond the threshold of faith in Jesus to real discipleship. Let us take the step of accepting his invitation to be his friends and disciples. Let us read the Gospels asking God our Father for that light that will draw us to the knowledge and love of his Son. His words bring to us eternal life, for as our Lord said at the Last Supper, eternal life is this, to know the Father and Jesus Christ his Son.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“Whoever sees me sees the one who sent me” (John 12:44-50)
(Catechism of the Catholic Church § 238, 240-242)
Many religions invoke God as "Father". The deity is often considered the "father of gods and of men". In Israel, God is called "Father" inasmuch as he is Creator of the world. Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, "his first-born son" (Ex 4:22). God is also called the Father of the king of Israel (2S 7:14). Most especially he is "the Father of the poor", of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection (Ps 68:6)...
Jesus revealed that God is “Father” in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father: "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." (Mt 11:27). For this reason the apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn 1:1); as "the image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15); as the "radiance of the glory of God and the very stamp of his nature" (Heb 1:3).
Following this apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (325) that the Son is "consubstantial" with the Father, that is, one only God with him. The second ecumenical council, held at Constantinople in 381, kept this expression in its formulation of the Nicene Creed and confessed "the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father".
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Don't be so touchy. The least thing offends you. it's necessary to weigh one's words well before speaking to you even on the most trivial matter.
Don't be annoyed if I tell you that you are... unbearable. Unless you change, you will never be of any use.
(The Way, no.43)
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What are vices?
Vices are the opposite of virtues. They are perverse habits which darken the conscience and incline one to evil. The vices can be linked to the seven, so-called, capital sins which are: pride, avarice, envy, anger, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia. (CCC 1866-1867)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.398)
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Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles (Thursday of the fourth week of Eastertide)
(May 3) Saints Philip and James, apostles. Like Peter and Andrew, Philip was from Bethsaida. He was crucified at Hierapolis in Phrygia where he had preached the Gospel. He introduced Bartholomew to Christ. Christ declared to Philip, “He who sees me sees the Father” and “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14: 8-9). St James was a cousin of our Lord. He was called James the Less, to distinguish him from the other James. As Bishop of Jerusalem, he wrote one of the epistles of the New Testament. St James was thrown down from the terrace of the Temple and then stoned to death. The names of Philip and James are mentioned in the Roman Canon. (Saints)
Scripture today: 1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Psalm 19:2-3, 4-5; John 14:6-14
Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:6-14)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
The foremost religious mind and writer of nineteenth century England was indisputably John Henry Newman who, raised in an Anglican family, fell under Evangelical influence in his mid-teens. It converted him to a convinced and committed religious faith. In the fulness of time he went on to be the famous convert to Catholicism, but the Evangelical influence brought lasting spiritual benefits to him. One was his conversion to a dogmatic religion, meaning by this in the first instance a religion of
Trinitarian dogma. On
Newman’s own account in his Apologia it was
Thomas Scott’s The
Force of Truth that implanted in him this fundamental truth of
the Christian religion. This book recounts Scott’s journey from a form
of Arianism to a full acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity. Scott
died in his parish not long after the young Newman had graduated at
Oxford, but his case reminds us of the long and ever-recurring history
of Arianism in its various forms. In England a notable form of it
during the eighteenth and especially nineteenth century was
Unitarianism. In this tradition the person of Jesus is not accepted as
being God from God, the divine Son of the divine Father, and the
teaching of the Nicene Creed in relation to Christ is rejected. It is
counted as being impossible for there to be three distinct persons in
the one God, each of whom is divine. In this particular respect it has
much in common with Islam. Now, our Gospel passage today is one of
several especially in the Gospel of St John which sets forth our Lord’s
witness to his own divine person and his utterly unique relation to his
Father. The distinguishing feature of the Christian religion is the
acceptance of Jesus the man’s claim to be divine. He is God - not God
the Father, but his only begotten Son - the same God as is the Father.In our prayerful consideration of the person of Jesus there is much help to be drawn from a passage such as ours today. Our Lord speaks of his relationship with the Father, and of how he is the only way to the Father. He is very clear on this point: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6-14) This point is especially important for the Christian to bear in mind in our times when - fortunately - we have a heightened appreciation of the various religions of the world. They have to a greater or lesser extent various elements of religious truth and they can (though the help of God) advance man’s journey towards God. But the Christian in his dialogue with those of other faiths brings his witness to the truth that the only way to actually arrive at the Father and to be truly united to him is in and through Jesus. If in fact a person who does not believe in Christ achieves a true union with God then it has been, unknown to him, through the grace and person and work of Christ. If a Christian fails to understand or accept that Jesus is the only one through whom man comes to the Father, he has not accepted Christ’s revelation about himself. Christ is the way, the truth and the life for man. This is because, as our Lord states very clearly in our passage, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Christ is not the same person as the Father, but is the same one God as is the Father and is his full revelation and image. Our Lord continues, “The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me”. The Church in her Creeds, in the teaching of her Councils, and in her constant ordinary teaching spells out the doctrine of Scripture that Jesus Christ is divine.
In our daily prayer over the Gospels and especially, if it is possible, before the Eucharistic Jesus, let us repeat over and over in our hearts before Christ the words Thomas uttered in the presence of the risen Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus Christ is the Lord of the universe, and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Saints Philip and James, apostles, foundations of the holy city (Revelation 21:19)
Saint Augustine (354-430), bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and doctor of the Church
(Discourse on the Psalms, Ps. 86)
"Her foundations are upon the holy hills; the Lord loves the gates of Zion." (Ps 86 87:1-2)... “You are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone” (Ep 2:19-20)... Christ, the cornerstone, and the apostles and mighty prophets, the hills that bear the fabric of the city, constitute a sort of living structure. This living building now makes its voice resound in your hearts. God himself, a master builder, is working in you through my tongue so that you may be built up into its structure, like so many squared stones....
Listen to the resemblance of the squared stone: Christians should have similar qualities. In all their trials they never fall: though pushed, and, as it were, turned over, they do not fall: whichever way a square stone is turned, it stands erect... Be similar to square stones, and be thus prepared for all shocks; whatever the force which may push you, it cannot make you lose balance…
You will rise to take your place in this building by a sincere Christian life, by faith, hope and love. The holy city is built of its own citizens; they are themselves the blocks that form this city, for these stones are living: "You also," says Scripture, "like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house," (1 P 2:5)... Why are the apostles and prophets the foundations? Because their authority is the support of our weakness... Through them we enter the kingdom of God: they proclaim it to us; and while we enter by their means, we enter also through Christ, who is himself the gate (Jn 10:9).
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Give the polite excuse which christian charity and social convention demand. And then... on your way again! With holy shamelessness, without stopping until you have finally scaled the heights of duty.
(The Way, no.44)
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Do we have any responsibility for sins committed by others?
We do have such a responsibility when we culpably cooperate with them. (CCC 1868)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.399)
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Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter II
(May 4) Today let us think of the Blessed Martyrs of England & Wales (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 13:26-33; Psalm 2:6-7, 8-9, 10-11ab; John 14:1-6
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:1-6)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
A very notable feature of modern Western societies is the presence in them of communities of various religions, Christian and non-Christian. There are frequent and laudable initiatives by community and religious leaders to bring such groups together in various settings for the purpose of looking at common problems, and on occasion they even pray together. Ways are at times found of addressing God in common that take account of the diverse beliefs, although in view of radical doctrinal differences this can naturally be very difficult. However, one cannot help but notice that at times in various gatherings of Christians, and
indeed quite often,
prayers are directed to God without any reference to Christ, or to God
as a Trinity of persons, or to God as the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The reasons for this can vary, but it is a serious matter if it
indicates a sliding away from a consciousness of the absolute
centrality of the doctrine of the Trinity. Because of Christ’s
revelation, the Christian knows that the one and only God of all is the
triune God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He knows that
if any one of any religion
whatsoever attains contact with the true God and a degree of union with
him, that person has in fact attained contact and union with the God
who is a trinity of persons -
without, of course, his realizing the fact of the Trinity. It is to
this which our Lord is alluding in our Gospel passage today. He tells
his disciples at the Last Supper that he is the way, the truth and the
life. That is to say, he is the way to God, the truth about God, and
the life of God. As St Paul writes, in Christ dwells the fulness of the
godhead bodily. Very significantly for the religions of the world,
Christ states that “No one comes to
the Father except through me.” (John 14:1-6)So then, God our loving Father, the Father who is indescribably near to us far more than we are to ourselves, the all-merciful Father who has made himself so utterly and immediately accessible to fallen man, is directly approached and attained through our Lord Jesus Christ. As Pope Benedict in his many writings has been fond of putting it, Jesus is the face of the Father. Were we to look on the Father we would see the likeness of the Son because the Son is the perfect image of the Father and the revelation of his glory. We see reflections of this ultimate fact in creation. Offspring look like their parents whether it be in the sentient or non-sentient world, and human generation shows this striking pattern. At times the child has a remarkable likeness to his or her parent. Jesus is the face of the Father, and we approach the Father through and in Jesus. Jesus loved the Father with an indescribable love, and it was to render him honour and glory that he took on himself the sins of the world. By entering into a profound and faithful friendship with Jesus we enter also into his relationship with the Father. Jesus is not just a way to the Father, nor is he simply the best and most sure way to the Father. He tells us that is the only way to the Father. I remember years back watching a television interview and in it two people were being questioned, one a Catholic and the other a Jew. The Jewish scholar understandably attacked the doctrine that Christ is the only way to arrive at God, and unfortunately the Catholic scholar stepped back from defending and bearing witness to that doctrine. She, a Catholic Scripture scholar, failed to defend the revelation made by Christ about himself. It is precisely what the Jewish scholar was attacking that Christ revealed and insisted on. No one can come to the Father except through me, Jesus said. St Teresa of Avila, the great Spanish doctor of the Church, repeatedly insists in her writings that the way to God is through the humanity of Jesus.
One upshot of a serene and profound appreciation of the centrality of the person of Jesus Christ in our entire relationship with God is peace of heart. All is in Jesus’ hands, and in him we can trust. “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be’.” (John 14:1-6) Let us place our entire lives in the keeping of Jesus, knowing that in being in him we have come to the Lord God himself.
(E.J.Tyler)
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"No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6)
(Catechism of the Catholic Church § 257-258, 260)
"O blessed light, O Trinity and first Unity!" God is eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is the "plan of his loving kindness" (Ep 1:9), conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: "He destined us in love to be his sons" (Ep 1:4-5) and "to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rm 8:29), through "the spirit of sonship" (Rm 8:15). This plan is a "grace [which] was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began" (2 Tm 1:9-10), stemming immediately from Trinitarian love. It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church.
The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same natures so too does it have only one and the same operation... Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, "one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are". It is above all the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of the divine persons...
The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity (Jn 17:21-23). But even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: "If a man loves me", says the Lord, "he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him" (Jn 14:23): “O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.” (Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity)
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Why are you hurt by what people say about you? How much worse you would be if God were to leave you. Persevere in doing good, and shrug your shoulders.
(The Way, no.45)
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What are structures of sin?
Structures of sin are social situations or institutions that are contrary to the divine law. They are the expression and effect of personal sins. (CCC 1869)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.400)
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Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter II
(May 5) Today let us think of St. Jutta (Judith) (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 13:44-52; Psalm 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4; John 14:7-14.
Jesus said to his disciples: “If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to Jesus, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:7-14)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on the Gospel of today, click here
It is generally recognized that one who is going to his death and who is religious will hardly choose to depart from this life immersed in lies and deceits. His parting testimony is not likely to be a deliberate and grave falsehood, if only because he knows that a divine judgment awaits him. In the case of a great and good man his final conversations with others and especially with his friends are likely to be precious moments of truth when he shares with them what is most real in his life, and what he knows to be most true. At
various points in his
public ministry, as we read in other parts of St John’s Gospel, our
Lord had revealed to his disciples, and to the wider public including
to his enemies, something of his unique relationship with God the
Father of all. God is his Father but in a different sense from that in
which he is the Father of all. Christ spoke of God as his own Father in
a sense which made himself equal to God. The leaders of the Jews could
see he was claiming this, and we are told they moved to stone him for
it. Our Gospel today is drawn from St John’s account of the Last
Supper. At the Last Supper our Lord is facing the most awful stage of
his life when he will be plunged in unheard of suffering leading to a
terrible death. By means of it his saving mission will be accomplished.
He is about to return to his Father from whom he had come, and in these
final moments with his closest disciples, he speaks to them of what is
most true about himself. It is in the context of the Last Supper that
St John reports our Lord’s greatest revelation of the mystery of his
own person. He tells them who he is and his
relationship with the Father to whom he has referred so often in the
past. What he says constitutes the most wondrous revelation of the
mystery of the godhead in the history of mankind, and his words were
unforgettable for the young John who was there.Here in the intimacy of his Last Supper with his disciples before entering his Passion, our Lord tells his disciples that the one who sees him sees the Father. He is not the same person as the Father, rather the Father is in him and he is in the Father and in fact he is about to go to the Father. While he is not the same person as the Father, he is the same being as the Father. He is the same one only God as is the Father. The one God is a Person, but not just one Person. The one God who revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the one only God who spoke to Moses and to the Prophets, the one only God of the Covenant and of Israel his chosen people, the one God of Jesus Christ is the Father and he is the Son too, Jesus Christ our Lord. In that sense the one who sees him sees the Father. The one only God is also, as our Lord would reveal, the Holy Spirit a distinct and third divine Person, and our Lord spoke at length of the Holy Spirit during the Last Supper, as we read in St John’s account. Here in our passage today our Lord speaks of his relationship with the Father. He who sees him sees the Father, and there is an inexpressible union and intimacy between the Father and the Son, which, however, our Lord expresses with marvellous simplicity. The Father is in him and he is in the Father. It is clear from St John’s account that this was a high point in our Lord’s revelation of himself to his apostles. “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.” (John 14:7-14). The one divine Person is “in” the other, just as the disciple who keeps the word of Christ will live in him, and both the Father and the Son will love him and will come and abide in him.
During his public ministry many of Christ’s disciples walked away from Jesus precisely because of his teaching about himself. His enemies persecuted him precisely because of his teaching about himself. Even one of the Twelve left him to betray him. During the Last Supper our Lord shared with his apostles, with those who would be the foundation stones of his Church with Peter at their head, his revelation of the mystery of his own Person. As we read and hear Christ’s revelation of the mystery of the Trinity, let us make our choice for him. He, the only Son of the Father, is our Saviour, our Lord and our God.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“Since you know me, you will also know my Father.” (John 14:7-14)
Saint Bernard (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and Doctor of the Church
(Homily on the Aqueduct, 10-11)
The one who said: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me,” also said: “I came from God and now I am here.” (Jn 8:42)… The Word became flesh and henceforth dwells among us (Jn 1:14). He definitely dwells in our hearts through faith, he dwells in our memory, he dwells in our thoughts, and he goes all the way down even into our imagination. For what idea could the human person have of God before, except maybe that of an idol, which his own heart had made? That is because God was incomprehensible and inaccessible, invisible and perfectly elusive to all thought. But now God wanted us to be able to understand him, he wanted us to be able to see him, he wanted us to be able to grasp him in thought.
You ask how? Without doubt by lying in a manger, by resting on the Virgin’s bosom, by preaching on the mountain, by spending the night in prayer; no less by being nailed to the cross, by becoming pallid in death, free among the dead and ruling over hell; finally by rising on the third day, by showing the apostles the marks of the nails, the signs of his triumph, and to finish, by returning before their eyes to the secrets of heaven.
Among all those events, is there even one which would not give rise in us to a true, fervent, holy thought? Whichever one I think of from among them, I think of God, and in all of that, he is my God. To meditate on these events is wisdom itself… In the heights, Mary drew in abundance from this same sweetness in order to pour it out again on us.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Don't you think that equality, as some people understand it, is synonymous with injustice?
(The Way, no.46)
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In what does the social dimension of man consist?
Together with the personal call to beatitude, the human person has a communal dimension as an essential component of his nature and vocation. Indeed, all are called to the same end, God himself. There is a certain resemblance between the communion of the divine Persons and the fraternity that people are to establish among themselves in truth and love. Love of neighbour is inseparable from love for God. (CCC 1877-1880, 1890-1891)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.401)
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Fifth Sunday of Easter C
(May 6) Today let us think of St Petronax, St Dominic Savio (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 14:21-27; Psalm 145:8-13; Revelation 21:1-5a; John 13:31-33a, 34-35
When Judas had left them, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and God will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:31-33a, 34-35)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
One of the most perennial questions that relate to man is the question of happiness. What is it that will bring happiness and fulfilment in life? There have been a plethora of answers to this, together with the answers to the question of what leads to the opposite, namely unhappiness. One common answer is that the key to happiness and unhappiness is self-esteem. This is not the place to discuss such matters, but one great modern psychiatrist was Dr Victor Frankl. He himself had been in a concentration camp during World War II and he saw before him so many who were unhappy, and others who despite their
conditions, retained joy
and happiness. He asked, what was the key to the happiness of those who
had it? The answer, which he expressed in various published works over
the years of his professional career, was the possession of a sense of
meaning. That, of course, makes sense and it is a far more satisfactory
answer than many others (such as the possession of a lot of
self-esteem). However, it leaves unanswered the question of what
is the true meaning of things. A person may have a sense of meaning and
it may indeed give him a sense of happiness and fulfilment in life
despite adverse conditions he may be going through, but if the meaning
he sees in things is false then that is a pity and even a tragedy. The
important thing is that one’s life be based on truth and not just that
one be happy. One ought seek the meaning of things not simply to be
happy but to possess and live in light of the truth. The question,
then, is what is the true meaning of life, of the universe and of all
things? What a vast question! Consider the unimaginable extent of the
physical universe. Consider the unimaginable number of human beings
that will have existed over the course of all human history. Consider
the turbulence of human life and all things seen and unseen. What a
question it is to pose, the question of the meaning of life and all
things! This question, of course, takes us far beyond the competence of any psychiatrist, and perhaps of any philosopher. Victor Fankl did not presume to answer the question of the true meaning of things. Indeed, it is hard to see how such an answer could be attained by the light of human reason alone. It would seem to need a revelation from God, for it is so vast and deep a question. But in fact, God has given us the answer to this question. The meaning and purpose of all things is the glory of God, and man attains his true meaning and happiness by seeking to render glory to God in the way he lives his life. That will give his life great meaning, and the meaning it gives is the true one. In our Gospel today our Lord speaks of God being glorified, and of God being glorified in the Son. “Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and God will glorify him at once’.” (John 13:31-33a) These words indicate that for our Lord the all-important thing was that his heavenly Father be glorified, and that his Father’s glory is manifested in the glory of his Son who is the image and revelation of the Father. Our Lord took on the sins of mankind and expiated for them by his obedience unto death in order to make up for the offence to his heavenly Father which they constituted. His obedience rendered glory to the Father, and so the crucified Christ, dead on the cross because of his obedience, is the greatest manifestation of the glory of God. It is also the greatest manifestation of the evil of sin, because while it was his obedience that led Christ there, it was our sins that drove in the nails. The love and passion of his life was that God his Father be glorified. Christ shows, then, the true meaning and purpose of all things, and it is in and through him that we are able to know and dedicate our lives to the true meaning and purpose of all things. No matter how modest our attainments and abilities may be, each of us is able to live for the glory and honour of God our Father. This we can and are called to do by living in union with Christ. In him the mystery of the meaning of life is made clear and achieved.
In our Gospel passage today our Lord not only shows that the end of all things is the glory of God, but he explains even more precisely how it is that God is to be glorified by our lives. It is by living a life of love in imitation of Christ. “My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13: 34-35). God is love, and Christ by his life has revealed this. He wants us to follow in his footsteps by living a life of love. This is done by a loving and careful fulfilment of the responsibilities and duties of our everyday life, in imitation, I would suggest, of Mary and Joseph, our Lord’s two greatest and most intimate disciples. In this way will God be honoured and glorified, and our lives attain their true meaning. Let us, then, so live that God will be glorified and honoured.
(E.J.Tyler)
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That pose and that self-satisfied manner don't suit you at all: they are easily seen to be affected. Try, at least, to use them neither with God, nor with your Director, nor with your brothers: and between them and you there will be one barrier less.
(The Way, no.47)
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What is the relationship between the person and society?
The human person is and ought to be the principle, the subject and the end of all social institutions. Certain societies, such as the family and the civic community, are necessary for the human person. Also helpful are other associations on the national and international levels with due respect for the principle of subsidiarity. (CCC 1881-1882, 1892-1893)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.402)
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“As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (John 13: 34-35)
St Augustine (354-430), bishop and doctor of the Church (Tractate 65 on the Gospel of John)
“I give you a new commandment: love one another”... It is true that love renews those who listen to it (or rather, those who act in obedience to it) but it is that particular love which the Lord distinguished from all natural affection by adding love one another as I have loved you... “All the parts of the body have the same concern for one another; and if one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.” (1 Co 12:25-26) For they hear observe this new law: “I give you a new commandment: love one another”: not in the way that the dissolute love one another, nor as people love one another in a purely human way; but they love one another as those who are “gods” (Jn 10:35). All of them are “children of the Most High” (Lk 6:35) and consequently brethren of his only Son. They share with each other the love with which he leads them to the end that will bring them fulfilment and the true satisfaction of their real desires. For when God is all in all, there is no desire that is unfulfilled.
The one who loves his neighbor in a holy and spiritual way, what does he love in him but God? That is the love, distinguished from all mundane love, which the Lord specially characterized, when he added “as I love you”. For what was it that he loved in us but God? Not because we possessed God already, but in order that we might possess him, and that he may lead us onto that place where “God is all in all”. It is in this way that a physician is properly said to love the sick; what is it he loves in them but their health, which he desires to give them? He does not love their sickness, which he comes to remove. ... "As I have loved you, so you also should love one another." This is the reason he loved us: so that we also could love one another.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter II
(May 7) Today let us think of St. John of Beverley (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 14:5-18; Psalm 115:1-4, 15-16; John 14:21-26
Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, “Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. “I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” (John 14:21-26)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
Prior to his election to the chair of Saint Peter, Pope John Paul II was not only a bishop and cardinal, but virtually a professional philosopher with creative writings in philosophy (and in other fields) to his credit. Probably his best known philosophical work was The Acting Person, and one of the central points developed there is the centrality of free action in the understanding of the human person. The human person expresses and develops his nature most distinctively in his deliberate act, especially as in community. Ever since
Descartes,
whose philosophy
starts with the lone individual conscious of his own thought, what has
been seen as most decisive for man is cognition. Man is the one who
thinks and who reasons. Karol Wojtyla starts, rather, with man as the
person in community and in action. What is decisive for man is his
action. Now, consider the emphasis that our Lord gives to discipleship
in our Gospel passage today. He emphasises action. It is not just
a matter of being in our Lord’s company, nor is it simply a matter of
receiving his teaching and his commandments. One must actively observe
them. This is the test of true love for the master. There is a work to
be done, an action to be performed, and that action is the observance
of Christ’s commandments. Christ’s disciple is characteristically an
acting person, not just a thinking one. He does not just believe and
dwell in Christ’s company. He is indeed in the company of Christ and
his disciples but then characteristically he acts. He puts into
action what the Master expects of him. He does not just say
“Lord, Lord!”, but actually does the will of the Father. His works, the
fruit of love, are central to his life as a true disciple of Christ.
Obedient action is at the heart of the Christian religion. It is the test of our love. In the Letter to the Hebrews we read that on entering the world the Son of God said, “Here I am, O God, I come to do your will.” During his agony in the Garden our Lord asked his Father that the cup be taken away from him, but added “not as I, but as you will.” It is in this sense that John Henry Newman wrote that authority and obedience are of the essence of true religion, which is to say the recognition of the authority of God and our constant readiness to obey him in our action. The one who loves will show his love by his obedient action. This will be real love and it will be rewarded by God. Consider what our Lord tells us in today’s Gospel of what God will do if we observe his commandments. “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.” (John 14:21-26) God the Father and God the Son will come and make their home with the one who keeps Christ’s word, and this of course will happen by the power of the Holy Spirit who is specifically mentioned in our reading today. The Holy Spirit will teach us Christ’s word and remind us of all he told us. The implication of all this is that whatever be the degree of our faith and what we might consider to be our love for Christ and God, the critical thing will be what we actually do about it. It is our obedience to the will of Christ that will be decisive in our relationship with God, and it is this which will be rewarded by God with a growing intimacy with him.
In our Christian life let us resolve to act. This includes actively seeking to know the word of Christ and its true meaning as it comes to us in the Scriptures and the Church’s teaching, and then acting on it. We must observe the word we receive. The Christian is distinguished by two things, firstly faith in Christ and his word, and then obedience in putting it into practice. We must have his commandments in our hearts, and then faithfully observe them in our lives.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You lack strength of character: what insistence on having a hand in everything! You are bent on being the salt of every dish. And — you won't be annoyed if I speak clearly — you have little aptitude for being salt: in particular, you lack its capacity to dissolve and pass unnoticed.
You have too little spirit of sacrifice and too great a spirit of curiosity and ostentation.
(The Way, no.48)
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What is the principle of subsidiarity?
The principle of subsidiarity states that a community of a higher order should not assume the task belonging to a community of a lower order and deprive it of its authority. It should rather support it in case of need. (CCC 1883-1885, 1894)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.403)
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Tuesday of Fifth Week of Easter II
(May 8) Today let us think of St Victor (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 14:19-28; Psalm 145:10-11, 12-13ab, 21; John 14:27-31a
Jesus said to his disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.” (John 14:27-31a)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
From era to era and from generation to generation in the unfolding history of man, there appears to be so much to fear. The forces of nature seem constantly to be rising up against man to threaten him in fire, earthquakes, storms, plagues and in the failure of his crops. Man attacks his fellow man in wars, slaughter and in acts of terror. Whatever it be, there is much in man’s environment that is hostile to him. There is
also
so much within his very self drawing him to self-harm and death. As
well as this, there seems good reason to think that there is something
demonic invisibly at work in the world, a world that is otherwise such
a gift to man and that shows forth so much beauty and fruitfulness and
order. And so while he regards this world as his cherished home,
nevertheless his heart is troubled and afraid. But what does Christ
say? In our Gospel today (John 14:27-31a), drawn as it is from St
John’s account of our
Lord’s final words to his disciples before entering into his Passion,
our Lord tells his disciples that he is giving them a gift: a share in
his peace, and so they were not to be troubled nor afraid. “Peace
I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I
give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” So then,
the will of Christ the Master is that his disciples are to preserve
peace in their hearts and resist fear. What is to be the basis of this,
making it possible? The basis of this is the constant presence of
Christ in one's life. Somehow all will be well because he is near. In
our passage today, immediately after telling his disciples that they
are not to allow their hearts to be troubled, he tells them that “I am
going away and I will come back to you.” He was going to his death and
then to the Father, but he would be back with them in the power of the
Spirit, never to leave them. We remember the occasion in our Lord’s public ministry when the disciples were out in the great lake in the midst of a violent storm. There and then in the midst of their fear they saw Jesus coming towards them on the water. They cried out in terror, thinking it might be some hostile preternatural spirit coming at them out of the darkness. Instead, they heard our Lord say to them, “Do not be afraid. It is I.” He was present so they had no need to be troubled or afraid. On another occasion in the midst of a storm our Lord was asleep in the boat. In terror they awoke him asking why he did not care about what was happening. He stood up and at a word quelled the storm and all was calm, and turned to them asking why they did not have faith. The implication was that they should not have been troubled nor afraid because he was present. People suffering from all kinds of afflictions flocked to him because they could see that he was the answer to their plight. Our Lord did not come to take away all the evils of the world - even though ultimately as God he had the power to do this. He came to overcome their deepest cause which is sin and to do this in and through his humanity. But he insistently taught that all were to believe in him, and the great message was that the one who believes in him need not be troubled or afraid. Of course, one’s life has to be lived in a way consistent with this belief. One thinks of Saint Thomas More going to the gallows because of his Catholic faith and saying, “though I lose my head I’ll come to no harm.” In our Gospel passage today our Lord sets the example, for the basis of his peace is his love for the Father and his constant obedience to the Father’s will: “I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.” (John 14:27-31a)
Let us resolve to place our entire faith in the person of Christ, and as a sign of this faith not to let our hearts be troubled or afraid. It is evident from the Gospel and our Lord’s teaching that it is not pleasing to him nor therefore to the Father if we allow fear to engulf us, as if he did not count. In the face of all that threatens us within and without, the only one that counts is Christ. Nothing has power over him. He can be depended on, whatever he chooses to allow to happen in our life. As St Paul puts it in one of his Letters, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Hold your tongue! Don't be childish, the caricature of a child: telltale, mischief-maker, little sneak! With your stories and tales you have chilled the glow of charity: you couldn't have done more harm, and if by any chance that wagging tongue of yours has shaken the walls of other people's perseverance, your own perseverance ceases to be a grace from God, for it has become a treacherous instrument of the enemy.
(The Way, no.49)
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What else is required for an authentic human society?
Authentic human society requires respect for justice, a just hierarchy of values, and the subordination of material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones. In particular, where sin has perverted the social climate, it is necessary to call for the conversion of hearts and for the grace of God to obtain social changes that may really serve each person and the whole person. Charity, which requires and makes possible the practice of justice, is the greatest social commandment. (CCC 1886-1889, 1895-1896)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.404)
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Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter II
(May 9) Today let us think of St. Pachomius, Ven. Thomas Pickering, Lay brother and martyr (+ 1665)
(Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 15:1-6; Psalm 122:1-5; John 15:1-8
Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” (John 15:1-8)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
It scarcely needs saying that a man’s work is critically important to his happiness and welfare. One only has to think of the effect on the average person of losing his job for this to be appreciated. Nor is a person’s work simply a means of earning a livelihood. Even if a person has more than enough wealth for his needs, he will still need to work in order to be happy. He needs to contribute to the development of others and of society and of the world. Man, in a sense, is born to work and is meant to finds fulfilment in
his work. All mankind is
engaged in work for the development of creation and human life, and if
man understands that creation has in fact come from the hand of God,
then it is not hard for him to divine that his work in life is a
collaboration with the Creator in developing the universe. By
reflecting on his experience and by taking to heart the teaching of
Revelation, man can see that God’s plan is that by his work he has the
dignity of being a partner with the Creator. He comes from the hand of
God in order to work with him, and this is a large part of what it
means to have been made in the image and likeness of God. As our Lord
once said to those who were criticising him, my Father works, and
therefore so do I. Now, what does our Lord have to say about our work?
Speaking to his disciples, he says that we are to work in him. In this
way shall we bear fruit: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever
remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you
can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out
like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a
fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain
in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this
is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my
disciples.”
(John 15:1-8)It is one thing to appreciate the dignity of man as a worker, and of the dignity of the work that he does. But it is a great thing to have been told the key to bearing much fruit through one’s work even if that fruit may not be seen. There are so many who live out their lives without seeing much fruit coming from their work. Added to this there is very often a lack of recognition by others for one’s efforts. How depressing, how disappointing, and even how crushing this can be! Well, what is the key to good work even if it is not recognised by others? Christ, the fountain of all truth, provides us with the key. It is that we remain in him in our work. We should look on him as the hidden vine, the source of the fruitfulness of our work. We are, as it were, branches of him who is the vine and if we remain in union with him then our work will bear the fruit intended by the Vinedresser - who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in whom we live by grace and faith. Moreover, not only shall we bear “much fruit:” if we do this, but we shall give glory to God. What a good thing it will be if by our lives God is honoured and glorified! Well, according to our Lord in our passage today, it is by bearing much fruit and being his disciples that our heavenly Father is glorified. “By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” So the highest manner of doing our work in life and the surest way of attaining the success in our wok which God wishes to see is by working in Christ as his disciples, just as a branch lives as part of the vine. Moreover, there is a warning. If we do not do this, if we do not remain in him, then our work is doomed in terms of fruitfulness. “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.” (John 15:1-8)
Every day let us strive to remain united with Jesus in our work, whatever that work may be. Let us think of the holy family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph at Nazareth at work day by day. Consider the intimacy and love that reigned between them while they worked. If we work in Jesus, with Mary and Joseph also invisibly by our side, we shall bear much fruit and glory will be given to God. By our life of work God will be honoured and glorified.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You are curious and inquisitive, prying and nosey. Are you not ashamed that even in your defects you are not much of a man? Be a man: and instead of poking into other people's lives seek to acquire a true knowledge of your own.
(The Way, no.50)
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What is the foundation of the authority of society?
Every human community needs a legitimate authority that preserves order and contributes to the realization of the common good. The foundation of such authority lies in human nature because it corresponds to the order established by God. (CCC 1897-1902, 1918-1920)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.405)
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Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter II
(May 10) Today let us think of Saint Comgall, Blessed Damien of Molakai (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 15:7-21; Psalm 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 10; John 15:9-11
Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.” (John 15:9-11)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
Our sense of the transcendent uniqueness of Jesus Christ is helped if we consider him not only within the context of the New Testament but of the Old as well. Allow our Lord’s words of today’s Gospel to sink into your mind and heart. He loves you as the Father loves him, and he asks you to remain in his love by keeping his commandments. Now, turn to the great and holy figures of the Old Testament, be they Abraham and the patriarchs, Moses and the great prophets, right up to the threshold of the New
Testament with Simeon and Anna in the
Temple, and John the Baptist. None of them would dare to speak of
themselves in the way our Lord customarily speaks of himself. They
pointed to God as the object of our love. Our Lord unhesitatingly
points, yes of course to God his Father, but also to himself as the
object of the love of the human heart. He speaks of himself as loving
his disciples in the way God loves him, and as if he occupies the place
of
God. Just as man is to remain in the love of God, so we are to remain
in Christ’s love. “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain
in my love.” (John 15:9-11) God has given us his
commandments, and so has Christ given us his commandments - which, of
course, are the Father’s commandments. If we keep his commandments, we
shall remain in his love just as he has kept the Father’s commandments
and remain in his love. I could well imagine a person accustomed to
reading the prophets and holy persons of the Old Testament rather
struck by how Jesus of Nazareth points constantly to himself rather
than simply and only, as do the great heroes of the Old Testament, to
the God and Father of the chosen people. It is as if he regards himself
as the full truth and the life of all who long for the divine. And so
he does. He is the Way, and he is the Truth and the Life.Nor of course did the great figures outside of Christianity speak about themselves in the way Christ did. They did not make such exalted claims even though one or other among them may have regarded himself as sent from Above, and even as being the greatest of those who have been sent. But as far as I am aware, none of them presumed to claim to have the divine status and saving mission which Jesus of Nazareth claimed. Our Lord said that he and the Father are one, that the one who sees him sees the Father, and that no one could come to the Father but through him. In our Gospel passage today our Lord tells his disciples they are to remain in his love, and they are to do this by keeping his commandments. Is not this what God would say in speaking of himself and in setting forth what he requires of us? All this is to say that while throughout the Gospels our Lord manifests profound love for and submission to the Father, at the same time in other ways he puts himself on exactly the same level as the Father. And he was perceived by his enemies as doing exactly this. He asks us to give to him the love that we would give to God, and to live accordingly - which means keeping his commandments. If we do this we shall share in his joy and our joy will be complete. Jesus Christ was a man, but no mere man, no mere prophet. Nothing and no one can rank with him in creation and in human history. He is at the level of God and he sits at the right hand of the Father. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. This was his testimony about himself and it is the undying testimony of the Church about him both now and to the end when he comes. If we want to be convinced about Christ, the surest way to perceive the truth about him is to become his friend and disciple, to live with him day by day, to listen in faith to his word as it is presented to us by the Church his body, and to keep his commandments.
Let us in the presence of our heavenly Father never cease to marvel at the gift of Jesus Christ to the world. He is the honour of our race, and as St Paul states in him we receive every heavenly blessing. On the mountain, the Father’s voice was heard: “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” We who are his disciples have a great mission in life, and it is to abide in the love of Christ and to bring others into his love.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Your manly character — simple and straightforward — is oppressed when you find yourself entangled in gossip and mischievous talk, which you cannot understand and in which you never wished to be involved. Undergo the humiliation that such talk causes you and let the experience teach you greater discretion.
(The Way, no.51)
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When is authority exercised in a legitimate way?
Authority is exercised legitimately when it acts for the common good and employs morally licit means to attain it. Therefore, political regimes must be determined by the free decision of their citizens. They should respect the principle of the “rule of law” in which the law, and not the arbitrary will of some, is sovereign. Unjust laws and measures contrary to the moral order are not binding in conscience. (1901-1904, 1921-1922)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.406)
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Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter II
(May 11) Today let us think of St Francis di Girolamo (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 15:22-31; Psalm 57:8-9, 10 and 12; John 15:12-17
Jesus said to his disciples: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.” (John 15:12-17)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
Any student of the religions of man will see that there has been a vast plethora of types of religion throughout human history, as there is now. Some religions seem hardly to allow for anything transcending our world. Other religions conceive of an Absolute, but not of a personal one. Some religions are highly ethical, but agnostic in respect to the deity. Others allow for numerous deities. In the case of monotheistic
religions, the character
or images of the deity that marks them shows great variation. Now, one
pivotal point about the religions is, what is the nature of the
relationship between the adherent and the deity or Absolute he deals
with? To what extent is it ever one of friendship? However God or the
god is conceived or imagined, is he ever looked on as a personal friend
who offers himself fully in friendship, as would a wonderful friend? It
seems to me that very few religions feature a God of this kind. But
now, what is God actually like? That is to say, our question is, how
has he revealed himself to be and what is his attitude to us? The grand
Good News which for two thousand years the Church, with all her human
failings, has been bringing to the world by the grace of God is that
God is love. In the religion which God has revealed, the true God is a
God of personal friendship who wishes each of us to be his
personal friend, and we are called to this as members of his own
family. He has sent his own divine Son to dwell among us and by his
death and resurrection to make this possible for every human being.
This is the great message of our Gospel passage today in which our Lord
speaks of his being our friend.Of course, to appreciate that revealed religion is a matter of personal and close friendship with God does involve a full faith in Christ being not only man but God. He is the God we worship, and he takes us immediately to the Father who is the one God, and he does this by the grace of the Holy Spirit who is this same one God. Jesus Christ is the revelation of the true God. One would think that man’s relationship with the great God would be basically that of a slave to his absolute Master, but what does Christ say to his disciples? He says this: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.” (John 15:12-17) So then, the first thing that we start from in our entire religious life is the thought that Jesus (and therefore the Father whose image and revelation he is) looks on each of us as his friend for whom he has given his life, and to whom he has told his secrets about the Father, and whom he has chosen to go out and to bear fruit that will last. We need to ground ourselves in this thought, and abide in it. We must abide in the thought of Jesus’ personal love for us. He is our God and he is our Friend. The very distinctive thing about the revealed religion of Christianity is that it is a religion of love and friendship.
Let us make it our business each day to advance in this friendship with Christ. This is the purpose of the life of a Christian, for as St Paul writes in one of his Letters, before the world began, God chose us in Christ to be holy and full of love in his sight. We are made for love, and the foundation of that life of love is the love and friendship of God for each of us.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12-17)
Saint Clement of Rome, Pope from 90 to about 100 (First Letter to the Corinthians, 49)
May the person who has the love of Christ carry out Christ’s commandments. Who can tell of this “bond of God’s love” (Col 3:14)? Who can express its supreme beauty?
The height to which love takes us is ineffable. Love unites us with God; love “covers a multitude of sins;” (1 Pet 4:8) love endures everything, bears with everything (1 Cor 13:7). There is nothing base in love, nothing puffed up. Love does not divide, love does not push towards a rupture, love does everything in peace. Love leads all God’s chosen to perfection, and without it, nothing pleases God. Through love, the Master drew us to himself. Because of his love for us, Jesus Christ our Lord shed his blood for us, according to God’s will, offering his flesh for our flesh, his life for our lives.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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When judging other people, why do you put into your criticism the bitterness of your own failures?
(The Way, no.52)
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What is the common good?
By the common good is meant the sum total of those conditions of social life which allow people as groups and as individuals to reach their proper fulfilment. (CCC 1905-1906, 1924)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.407)
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Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter II
(May 12) Saints Nereus and Achilleus, martyrs. These martyrs were Roman soldiers who were converted to the true faith and refused to serve any longer. Because of this they were put to death, probably in the time of Diocletian. Their tomb is in the cemetry on the Via Ardeatina, where a basilica was erected in their honour. (Saints)
Also, Saint Pancras, martyr (died about 304). Hardly fourteen years old, St Pancras was martyred during the reign of Diocletian. According to tradition he preferred to die rather than renounce his faith in Christ. He was buried on the Via Aurelia, where Pope Symmachus built a basilica over his tomb. (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts
16:1-10; Psalm 100:1b-2, 3,
5; John 15:18-21Jesus said to his disciples: “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.” (John 15:18-21)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
When I was a youth and beginning the many years of my preparation for the priesthood the priest in charge of the spiritual formation of my class group often warned us against “human respect”, as he called it. It was obvious to us that he considered this to be a common temptation leading to worldliness and the abandonment of a generous living of the Christian life. By “human respect” he meant an overriding regard for what others - “the world” - thought and accepted. The term referred to the tendency to crave the
acceptance of others
whatever be their values. We see this everywhere in society and among
all ages. It is, of course, particularly powerful among the young for
whom the judgment and attitude of their peers and friends is immensely
important. But it is influential among all ages of adults too. This can
be good if those among whom we associate and consider important have
good human and religious values, and it is obviously at work in a
wholesome way in fervent religious communities. Membership in a very
good religious association or parish brings with it the support (and
healthy sanctions) of religious people. But it can be a tragic factor
when a person with a genuine religious sense gradually discards his
values because of the fear of what those around him will think and do
if he lives according to them. A whole culture can be changed gradually
for the worse, and that culture can become a powerful disincentive to
the practice of religion. “Human respect”, or concern for what others
think, can lead to the tragic loss of religion in a person’s life and
it can lead to the abandonment of faith in Christ. Consider what
happened to Peter at the beginning of Christ’s passion. He denied
Christ three times because of his fear of what people would think and
do. Peter repented of his fall went on to live and die bearing witness
to Christ.Christ speaks directly of this to his disciples at the Last Supper. He warns them that the world will “hate” them if they are truly his disciples. But they are to remember that it hated him first. “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.” (John 15:18-21). Many things marked the ministry of Jesus with all the authority he displayed in word and work, and one of them was opposition, rejection and hatred on the part of those who “mattered”. St John tells us in his Gospel that people feared the leaders of the Jews, and this affected their attitude and behaviour to Jesus. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night “for fear of the Jews.” There were those who hated Jesus, and eventually they found a way to put him to death. They constituted “the world” and “the world” had its “prince” as our Lord stated during the Last Supper. On that occasion our Lord said that “the prince of this world was coming”. That is to say, the prince of this world uses “the world” - those standards and values of people that are contrary to those of Christ and God - to draw people away from God into sin. Christ chooses the Christian soul out of the world to be his own and to abide in his friendship by keeping his commandments. That will immediately place the Christian in conflict with “the world” and its standards. Consider the attitude of religiously liberal citizens towards those who defend the sanctity of the life of the unborn and of the helpless elderly, never allowing that life be taken for any so-called more worthy purpose.
The person who takes his stand for Christ and is consistent with it will suffer in a measure the rejection that Christ experienced. Let us place ourselves in the presence of the two great Standards. The first is that of Christ, and the second is that of the world and its prince. Let us choose for Christ and live it out with constancy and consistency in our everyday lives.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first” (John 15:18-21)
John Paul II (Homily
for the ecumenical commemoration of the witnesses to the faith in the
twentieth century on May 7, 2000)“Whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn 12:25)... They contain a truth which today’s world often scorns and rejects, making love of self the supreme criterion of life. But the witnesses to the faith, who also this evening speak to us by their example, did not consider their own advantage, their own well-being, their own survival as greater values than fidelity to the Gospel. Despite all their weakness, they vigorously resisted evil. In their fragility there shone forth the power of faith and of the Lord’s grace.
The precious heritage which these courageous witnesses have passed down to us is a patrimony shared by all the Churches and Ecclesial Communities... The ecumenism of the martyrs and the witnesses to the faith is the most convincing of all; to the Christians of the twenty-first century it shows the path to unity. It is the heritage of the Cross lived in the light of Easter: a heritage which enriches and sustains Christians as they go forward into the new millennium...
In the century and the millennium just begun may the memory of these brothers and sisters of ours remain always vivid. Indeed, may it grow still stronger! Let it be passed on from generation to generation, so that from it there may blossom a profound Christian renewal! Let it be guarded as a treasure of consummate value for the Christians of the new millennium, and let it become the leaven for bringing all Christ’s disciples into full communion! ... I pray to the Lord that the cloud of witnesses which surrounds us (He 12:1) will help all of us who believe to express with no less courage our own love for Christ, for him who is ever alive in his Church: as he was yesterday, and is today, and will be tomorrow and for ever!
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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That critical spirit — I admit that there are no unworthy motives behind it — should not be exercised upon your apostolate, nor upon your brothers. I will speak plainly: that critical spirit is a great hindrance to the supernatural undertaking in which you are all engaged, for while you examine the work of the others — with the highest possible motives, I admit — without there being any reason why you should do so, you are not doing anything constructive, and furthermore by being negative you are holding up the progress of all.
'Then', you ask uneasily, 'that critical spirit which is the keynote my character...?'
Listen, I'll set your mind at ease. Take a pen and a sheet of paper. Write down simply and frankly — ah! and briefly — what is worrying you, hand the note to the person in charge, and think no more about it. He has the grace of state. He will file the note or he will throw it into the waste-paper basket. And, since the motives behind your criticism are not unworthy, since they are of the highest, it is all the same to you.
(The Way, no.53)
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What is involved in the common good?
The common good involves: respect for and promotion of the fundamental rights of the person, the development of the spiritual and temporal goods of persons and society, and the peace and security of all. (1907-1909, 1925)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.408)
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Sixth Sunday of Easter c
(May 13) Today let us think of Our Lady of Fatima (Saints)
Scripture: Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23; John 14:23-29
Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. “I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.” (John 14:23-29)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
There have been philosophies which regard God as very distant from man. I could mention deism, and even Marxism. For Karl Marx God is not only a figment of the imagination, but to be looking to him just distracts us from our work in the world. Marx maintained that faith in God is just an opiate of the people, a pie in the sky, a distant mirage. If we turn to the religions of man, one of the things that
distinguishes them one
from another is their notion of God’s distance from man. It is often
said that Islam has an image of God that is strongly marked by
transcendence. Islam insists that the one God is beyond all and above
everything. Now he is indeed, but this can be stressed in ways that
distort it. The pope once made the remark that the Islamic account of
God’s transcendence can seem to have God so transcending even
rationality as to disregard and contradict it in practice. Calvinism
stresses the sovereignty of God, which is an aspect of his
transcendence, in certain ways which the Catholic Church does not
allow. Whatever about these different accounts, there is no doubt that
for very many people God is beyond and distant from their life. God
seems a long way away. Now of course, the fact is that God is indeed a
long way off in that he utterly transcends the world in the nature of
his being and in the mystery of his plan. But this must be balanced by
other aspects of the divine nature. Because he is the creator he does
indeed transcend all, but at the same time precisely because he is the
creator he is imminent to all, sustaining the slightest particle of
reality by the touch, as it were, of his hand.But what God has actually revealed to us in Christ about his closeness to us is so breathtaking that we can fail to realize it. This lack of realization could be said to be the most serious and common failure of our everyday faith. We shall only realize it if we think about it persistently, advert to it often, and pray for the faith to accept what Christ has said about it. God is not only intimately near to us in virtue of his constant gift to us of our being, but he abides within us in his full triune reality if we are in his grace and friendship. What does our Lord say about this? “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” (John 14:23-29) The three divine persons will dwell within us. If for love of Jesus we accept the truth of his word and keep it in our everyday life, observing his commandments for love of him, then both he and the Father will come to us and make their home within us. This they will do by the power of the Holy Spirit who comes to us at our baptism. Our heart will be like the heavens above in that it will be the abode of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. For what is heaven if not where God dwells in all his glory, together with the angels and saints adoring and thanking him? It is where God is. Our Lord assures us that he and the Father and the Holy Spirit will abide within the one who keeps his word. It will all depend on our being in the state of grace, which is to say in the friendship of Christ due to the grace of the Holy Spirit. In effect this means that the home which is our heart and soul is embraced by God the most holy Trinity himself and transformed into his own royal mansion. At our baptism he comes to abide. We can choose to reject his presence by deliberate mortal sin, or make it difficult by unrepented venial sins. The great good news is that by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord we have the privilege of the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity in our hearts and souls. God is indescribably near to the Christian soul not just by reason of his constant creative activity, but as his living guest.
All this is made possible by the power and action of the Holy Spirit. The Father and the Son sent him at Pentecost to bring the Church to birth and to sustain the Church in her mission to the world. It was the Holy Spirit, coming to the infant Church, who transformed the body of Christ’s disciples into a great temple of God the holy Trinity. At our baptism each of us becomes members of this Church and dwelling places of the holy Trinity. He it is who in and through the Church his creation brings the Blessed Trinity to mankind and to each of us who are disciples of Christ and members of his Church. He brings the Church to the four corners of the earth precisely in order to bring God the most holy Trinity to abide in the hearts of all men. Let us resolve to enliven our faith in this stunning mystery, which is that if we live according to Christ’s word, he and the Father and the Holy Spirit will constantly dwell within us to sanctify us. Let us not take this for granted, nor with a shrug of the shoulders live our lives as if it were not a reality. Our temptation will be precisely to do this.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.731-732
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'One must compromise' I Compromise is a word found only in the vocabulary of those who have no will to fight — the lazy, the cunning, the cowardly — for they consider themselves defeated before they start.
(The Way, no.54
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Where can one find the most complete realization of the common good?
The most complete realization of the common good is found in those political communities which defend and promote the good of their citizens and of intermediate groups without forgetting the universal good of the entire human family. (CCC 1910-1912, 1927)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.409)
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Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle (Monday of the sixth week of Eastertide II)
(May 14) St Matthias, apostle (died perhaps about 64 AD). After the ascension of our Lord, St Peter proposed that the disciples elect an apostle in place of Judas Iscariot. The choice was Matthias, who joined the other Eleven. He had been with them, we are told in the Acts, from the beginning of the public ministry. It seems that he worked for the Faith in Palestine, and later was stoned to death. Today we are reminded that our Christian faith is a gratuitous gift of God to which we should respond with fidelity and gratitude. (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 1:15-17, 20-26; Psalm 113:1-8; John 15:9-17
Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.” (John 15:9-17)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
It is a great advance in education at both secondary and tertiary levels that there is so much study of the religions of mankind. There is plenty of opportunity to study Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and other religions including those of the various indigenous peoples of the world such as in Africa, Melanesia, Australia, and the Americas. This study assists in the understanding of man, his culture and society, and it promotes respect for the conscience of others. It also helps to appreciate the voice of mankind that there is
an Absolute giving a
high meaning to life and calling to worship. Because of the range of
conflicting positions among religions there is a danger too that needs
to be recognized by both the student and the educator. It is that of
gradually and silently assuming that in religion there is no absolutely
objective truth nor is there objective error. Religious truth is
simply, one can come to assume, whatever each person happens to be
convinced of, and so one religion is as good as another in terms of its
truth and saving effectiveness. The philosophical unsoundness of this
ought be clear but we are speaking here of assumptions, and assumptions
can be hidden from view. On the other hand for the Christian a
knowledge of other religions can help to throw into strong relief the
distinctive character of Christ, his teaching and the divine religion
he revealed. Well now, I invite you to notice what I think is a
very distinctive feature of Christianity evident in our Gospel passage
today. While Buddha, Mahomet, Zoroaster and other great founders
continue to have their many disciples down through the centuries, as
far as I am aware their adherents do not regard themselves as having
been personally chosen by the unseen founder himself to follow him and
to be personally loved by him day by day in an intimate friendship.
But that is exactly what happens in the Christian religion. What Christ says to his disciples in our Gospel text today the Church has always understood to apply to each of Christ’s faithful from age to age everywhere. Let us listen to Christ’s words, knowing that they are directed to each of us who are his disciples and members of the Church which he founded on the Apostles. “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” The Christian is not just an adherent to the doctrine and the commandments of Christ, even though this is essential if he is to be Christ’s disciple and friend. No, the Christian is one who abides in the loving friendship of Christ. Christ is his living friend. The Christian is not just one who submits to the doctrine of Christ as might a totally loyal servant or even slave. He has been chosen by Christ to be his friend who shares his life. “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain” (John 15:9-17). Though the Christian lives some two thousand years after the life and death and resurrection of the Master, he knows that the Master lives in all his human and divine reality. This living Jesus has chosen and invited him to be his friend and to share with him the work of saving not only himself but the world. Just as the disciples to whom our Lord spoke the words of our Gospel today were chosen by him to be his friends and to enter with him into the work he had been given to do, so the Christian now and in every age knows that the living Jesus has likewise chosen him and continues to choose him.
The Christian religion is above all a personal friendship with One who is living and ever so near, though unseen. The founder and sustainer of the Christian religion is himself the object of that religion. He does not just point to God as did Zoroaster, Mahomet, Buddha (however they conceived and imagined him). No, he himself is God. He is the Way to the Father, the Truth about God and the Life of God. He has chosen us at our baptism to be his personal friend. Let us live out our lives in a way worthy of and consistent with this marvellous friendship.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Saint Matthias, apostle, one of the twelve foundation stones of the Church (Rev 21:14)
Tertullian (155- 220), theologian (On the Prescription of Heretics, 20-22; CCL I, 201f)
Our Lord Jesus Christ himself declared what he was, what he had been, how he was carrying out his Father’s will, what obligations he demanded of men. This he did during his earthly life, either publicly to the crowds or privately to his disciples. Twelve of these he picked out to be his special companions, appointed to teach the nations. One of them fell from his place. The remaining eleven were commanded by Christ, as he was leaving the earth to return to the Father after his resurrection, to go and teach the nations and to baptise them into the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19).
The apostles cast lots and added Matthias to their number, in place of Judas, as the twelfth apostle. The authority for this action is to be found in a prophetic psalm of David. After receiving the power of the Holy Spirit which had been promised to them, so that they could work miracles and proclaim the truth, they first bore witness to their faith in Jesus Christ and established churches throughout Judea. They then went out into the whole world and proclaimed to the nations the same doctrinal faith.
They set up churches in every city. Other churches received from them a living transplant of faith and the seed of doctrine... They bear witness to their unity by the peace in which they all live, the brotherhood which is their name, the fellowship to which they are pledged. The principle on which these associations are based is common tradition by which they share the same sacramental bond. The only way in which we can prove what the apostles taught – that is to say, what Christ revealed to them – is through those same churches. They were founded by the apostles themselves, who first preached to them by what is called the living voice and later by means of letters.
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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My dear man: though you feel very much a child, and though you are one before God, don't be so simple as to put your brother 'on the spot' before strangers.
(The Way, no.55)
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How does one participate in bringing about the common good?
All men and women according to the place and role that they occupy participate in promoting the common good by respecting just laws and taking charge of the areas for which they have personal responsibility such as the care of their own family and the commitment to their own work. Citizens also should take an active part in public life as far as possible. (CCC 1913-1917, 1926)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.410)
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Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter II
(May 15) Today let us think of St Isidore the Farmer (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 16:22-34; Psalm 138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 7c-8; John 16:5-11
Jesus said to his disciples: “Now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts. But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.” (John 16:5-11)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
The one who is fascinated with Christ and who loves him longs to be with him. St Paul tells us in one of his Letters that he was torn between the desire to stay in this life to do more work for Christ and his desire to be gone in order to be with Christ. Why is it that Christ had to go? His own disciples were immensely downcast at the prospect, and we too who count ourselves as his disciples might wish that he were still with us in all his visible and physical reality. After all, he is the life of the Christian, and indeed the life of
the world. How good it
would be for us, we might think, were Jesus still with us in his
visible reality! Would not people flock to him! Now of course, inasmuch
as he truly became man his very Incarnation would seem to require his
departure from this life at least in the sense of his undergoing death.
But in our Gospel passage today our Lord tells us a further reason for
his leaving us, and perhaps it is the most important reason. He tells
us that he had to go back to the Father in order that the Holy Spirit
might come to us. Why was this so? Why was this departure of Christ
necessary for the Holy Spirit to come? We are not explicitly told - it
was part of the plan of God. For that matter, why was it “necessary”
for our Lord to suffer in order to enter his glory? We are not
explicitly told - it was part of the plan of God. So too with the
coming of the Spirit, the Advocate, to the Church. Our Lord said that
if, if, he goes, he would send the Advocate to us. “I tell you the
truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate
will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” Our Lord
speaks as if it is better that he not be with us visibly, because with
him having gone the Holy Spirit would be active among us in all his
effectiveness. Of course, Christ is very much with us but not in his visible physical form. He is present as head of the Church he founded and sustains, and present in multiple way especially in the Sacraments and in the proclamation of the word in and by the Church. But now, having gone to the Father with his redemptive work complete, he is able together with the Father to send the Holy Spirit, our Defender. The divine Spirit is the divine and personal Power giving to Christ and his Church its extension and effectiveness. He is the finger of God by whom devils are cast out, the Sanctifier and Evangelizer by means of whom Christ and his body the Church prosecute the grand mission. It seems that, with Christ having died and risen from the dead, things would have been at something of a standstill till the Advocate had been sent. This sending could only occur when Christ returned to the Father. This is how it had to be - why we are not told. It was the saving plan of God, and the nations would not hear the Good News preached till the Advocate had come. Our Lord outlines some aspects of the Spirit’s mission: “And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.” (John 16:5-11). It is a cryptic description, and perhaps our Lord spoke more on the matter at the Last Supper than is contained in the few precious phrases reported for us by John. But what is abundantly clear is the pivotal and all-important role of the Holy Spirit now that the Lord Jesus is no longer before us in his visible form.
Let us pray for a deep appreciation of the importance of God the Holy Spirit. He is the Lord and Giver of Life, equally to be adored and glorified as is the Father and the Son. Christ depends on him, and so do we. Let us resolve to become devoted to the Holy Spirit our divine Friend and Defender. Let us ask him to sanctify us and make us fit daily instruments of Jesus the Son.
(E.J.Tyler)
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'They have the stuff of saints in them.' At times you hear this said of some people. Apart from the fact that the saints were not made of 'stuff, to have stuff is not sufficient.
A great spirit of obedience to your Director and great readiness to respond to grace are essential. For, if you don't allow God's grace and your Director to do their work, there will never appear the finished sculpture, Christ's image, into which the saintly man is fashioned.
And the 'stuff' of which we were speaking will be no more than a heap of shapeless matter, fit only for the fire..., for a good fire if it was good stuff!
(The Way, no.56)
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How does society ensure social justice?
Society ensures social justice when it respects the dignity and the rights of the person as the proper end of society itself. Furthermore, society pursues social justice, which is linked to the common good and to the exercise of authority, when it provides the conditions that allow associations and individuals to obtain what is their due. (CCC 1928-1933, 1943-1944)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.411)
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Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter II
(May 16) Today let us think of Saint Brendan and Saint Gemma Galgani (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 17:15, 22—18:1; Psalm 148:1-2, 11-14; John 16:12-15
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
There has been a great flowering of attention to the doctrine and fact of the Holy Spirit in recent years. I remember when I was a youth a seminary teacher of Sacred Scripture mentioned the relative lack of interest in the person of the Holy Spirit at that time. He said it was understandable because the Holy Spirit is somewhat hidden in the plan of God, and his Person is not readily seen as the object of our devotion.
While there is a certain
truth in this let us think of the love and expectation with which our
Lord speaks of the Holy Spirit. Here in our Gospel scene today, drawn
from the Last Supper, our Lord looks with great expectation towards the
coming of the Spirit of truth. It is as if our Lord feels somewhat
helpless or at least constrained in the full prosecution of his work
unless and until he arrives. He tells his disciples that while he has
much more to tell them, they are incapable at that point of receiving
it. The work of guiding them to the fulness of the truth will be
achieved by the Spirit of truth. The Spirit, then, will be Christ’s
great Partner when he is gone. When we recollect that after the coming
of the Spirit the revelation of Christ and the sense of its meaning
resided most especially in the minds and hearts of the Twelve to whom
our Lord was now speaking, we can marvel at the speed and power of the
Holy Spirit’s work. He powerfully enlightened the Apostles as to what
the Lord had told them, and he continued to do so. He aided the entire
Church to understand, recall and accept the teaching of Christ as it
came to them from the lips of the Apostles. He is the Spirit of truth,
the truth that is in Jesus, and if the Christian wishes to know the
truth that Jesus has revealed he has a divine guide. It is the Holy
Spirit who takes what belongs to Jesus and declares it to us. All this is to say that the Person of the Holy Spirit is absolutely and utterly essential for the saving work of Jesus to attain its goal in our lives. But let us notice a feature of the Spirit’s work and Person. In a sense everything now depends on him, but he, God as he is, and Lord and Giver of Life, keeps right out of the limelight. The Spirit of truth is all-powerful and effective in his work and is intensely engaged in his divine and saving activity, but he does not show his face. He is so, so, very humble. Christ our Lord spoke of himself as meek and humble of heart, and invited us to come to learn from him. But what was this meekness and humility of Christ but the work and manifestation of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the life and spirit of Christ, and all that we see of his character is the fruit of the Spirit. St Paul exhorts us to put on the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is the work of the Spirit, and the spirit of poverty and humility that distinguished the person of Jesus is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in him. What does our Lord say of the Holy Spirit in our brief passage today? “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” (John 16:12-15). Our Lord seems to be speaking of the Holy Spirit as one would of a faithful and enterprising messenger, a kind of servant, one who simply hears and declares to others what he hears from the Master. The servant glorifies the Master and is his mouthpiece and messenger, all the while acting in this capacity with great energy and enterprise. It suggests a divine Person especially distinguished by humility and self-effacement.
Let us learn to love the Holy Spirit our guide and teacher. If Christ is meek and humble of heart while being God, so is the Holy Spirit. He looks to Christ and to the Father and receives from them what he declares to us. He it is who will guide us to the full truth, and in teaching and guiding us he will glorify the Son. Let us pray every day to the Holy Spirit that he will come and shape us according to the mind of Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Get to know the holy Spirit, the great Stranger, on whom depends your sanctification.
Don't forget that you are God's temple. The Advocate is in the centre of your soul: listen to him and be docile to his inspirations.
(The Way, no.57)
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On what is human equality based?
All persons enjoy equal dignity and fundamental rights insofar as they are created in the image of the one God, are endowed with the same rational soul, have the same nature and origin, and are called in Christ, the one and only Saviour, to the same divine beatitude. (CCC 1934-1935, 1945)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.412)
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Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter II
(May 17) Today let us think of Saint Paschal Baylon (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 18:1-8; Psalm 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4; John 16:16-20
Jesus said to his disciples: “A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.” So some of his disciples said to one another, “What does this mean that he is saying to us, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” So they said, “What is this ‘little while’ of which he speaks? We do not know what he means.” Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing with one another what I said, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.” (John 16:16-20)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
From a very limited point of view we could say that the purpose of life is to attain happiness and joy. If we see a person of manifest joy then we admire such a person and wonder what is his secret. We want to possess a similar joy. Of course, this statement can be misunderstood to mean that happiness without qualification constitutes the goal of life, and so anything we do which brings some form of happiness is thereby justified - simply because it makes us or others happy. Such an assumption as to the purpose of
life spawns rampant
relativism
and utilitarianism. On the other hand, though, it is clear from
Revelation that God wants us to preserve peace and joy in our hearts.
He wants us to be very happy, and in this sense it is the goal of life.
Having said that, the immediate point to be determined and kept in mind
is, what is it that brings the joy and happiness we are made for and
which God wishes us to have. At the Last Supper our Lord told his
disciples that he was bequeathing peace to them. But he immediately
added that it was not the peace the world gives, but his own peace. The
peace the world gives springs from a variety of sources such as
material security, social standing, power and influence over others,
the lack of a sense of sin, and so forth. The peace and joy of the
genuine disciple of Christ is not of this kind for it is preserved and
attained in the midst of the Cross. In our Gospel passage today we read
that Jesus said to his disciples, “Are you discussing with one another
what I said, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a
little while and you will see me’? Amen, amen, I say to you, you will
weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your
grief will become joy.”
(John 16:16-20) Our Lord here speaks of
joy.What then is the source of the joy of the Christian, and the kind of joy which God wishes for man? Let us begin by asking this question. What is the source of the joy of the Father and of the Son? The source of the Father’s joy is his possession of the Son, and the source of the Son’s joy is his possession of the Father. The Father’s joy is without limit, and this is because from all eternity he possesses in his bosom the Person of his only-begotten Son. So too the Son. The union between the two bringing them such joy is itself personal, a Person, the Person of the Holy Spirit, and so the Holy Spirit is the source of joy in the Godhead. Our Lord promised to give us a share in his own joy and this share came to us with the coming of the Holy Spirit - at Pentecost and then to each of us in our baptism and confirmation. With the Holy Spirit we have the means of attaining joy and retaining peace and joy throughout life amid all its vicissitudes. We see in the Church’s martyrs striking evidence of the joy of Christ in the midst of their sufferings and in the face of death itself. Their joy comes from the presence and possession of the person of Christ. Christ is the source of our joy and the more profoundly united with him we are the more profound will be our joy in life. Consider the Church’s saints, most especially Mary the mother of Christ, and how their lives were characterised with joy though constantly in the midst of the cross. We refer to Mary as the Mother of Sorrows, yet she was so full of joy. This mirrored and shared in the joy of Christ, which is to say Christ crucified. For this reason our Lord tells his disciples that while he is away from them they will mourn, but a little while later they will see him again and that grief will turn to joy.
Our Lord made it clear that being his disciple involves living a life of joy. He commands his disciples not to let their hearts be troubled or afraid, and on repeated occasions he tells them not to fear. This we can do because we have the secret to it. The secret lies in remaining close to Christ, remaining in his friendship, remaining in him with him in us, and never allowing anything to separate us from him. The only thing that can do this is deliberate sin.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Don't hinder the work of the Paraclete: seek union with Christ so as to be purified, and feel with him the insults, the spits, and the blows, and the thorns, and the weight of the Cross..., and the nails tearing through your flesh, and the agony of a forsaken death.
And enter through our Lord's open side until you find sure refuge there in his wounded Heart.
(The Way, no.58)
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How are we to view social inequalities?
There are sinful social and economic inequalities which affect millions of human beings. These inequalities are in open contradiction to the Gospel and are contrary to justice, to the dignity of persons, and to peace. There are , however, differences among people caused by various factors which enter into the plan of God. Indeed, God wills that each might receive what he or she needs from others and that those endowed with particular talents should share them with others. Such differences encourage and often oblige people to the practice of generosity, kindness and the sharing of goods. They also foster the mutual enrichment of cultures. (CCC 1936-1938, 1946-1947)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.413)
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Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter II
(May 18) Saint John I, pope and martyr. Born in Tuscany. In the year 523 he was elected pope. He was sent by the Arian king Theodoric to the Emperor Justin at Constantinople, but on his return the king, angry at the outcome of the mission, had him imprisoned at Ravenna where he died in 526.
(Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 18:9-18; Psalm 47:2-7; John 16:20-23
Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a woman is in labour, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.” (John 16:20-23)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
In any human life there are joys and sorrows, achievements and disappointments, happiness and heartbreak. For the disciple of Christ it is the same, with this decisive difference that the central element in whatever happens is the presence of the person of Christ. Whatever happens, Christ is there. Our Lord in our Gospel reading today speaks to his disciples about their weeping and mourning “while the world rejoices”. They will grieve. But he promises that their “grief will become joy.” Our Lord is telling us that this is the pattern of God’s providence. He brings joy to those who grieve. This statement
provides us with a key
to what the disciple of Christ can expect of the pattern at work in
life if he truly places his faith in the person of Jesus. All sorts of
things can happen that bring us grief and difficulty, things that at
times are far beyond the control of any one person. We cannot avoid the
problem of evil and suffering, so much of which seems unfair and
meaningless. It won’t go away, it comes without just cause, and it
seems often to serve no purpose. A fatal disease strikes the mother of
several children. A father of a large family unfairly loses his job. A
tidal wave sweeps away numerous people. A terrorist attack kills
numbers of innocent civilians. There has been and is an incalculable
degree of grief in the world. Is there any ultimate basis for optimism
in such a vulnerable and flawed world as ours? There is, and it finds
its source in the fact and the presence of Christ to whom has been
given all authority in heaven and on earth. He promises, mysteriously,
that our grief will become joy. But we must trust him and follow him
withersoever he leads. Ultimately, of course, the joy Christ promises
will be attained in heaven but this pattern of joy following grief is
characteristic God’s work and so we shall find many marks of this in
the course of our life this side of the grave. St Paul tells us that
all things come together for the good of those who love God.Ultimately our joy will find its crowning fulfilment and permanent basis in being with Christ forever, face to face. Our Lord tells his disciples that “when a woman is in labour, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.” (John 16:20-23). Our Lord is referring in the first instance to his resurrection when he will return from the dead, his disciples will see him, and they will know that he will be with them forever, and because of this their joy would be permanent and unshakeable whatever would come. They would live and die for Christ, knowing that he was with them now and forever. So too with every generation of Christians. We do not “see” Christ but we know that he is with us forever even here on earth. No sorrow can separate us from him. Thomas, refusing to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead, demanded to see and touch the wounds of Christ. A week later Christ appeared and showed him his wounds, and said to Thomas, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not see and yet believe.” The Christian has not seen and yet he believes. This is the source of his joy in life, and he knows that when he sees Christ face to face in heaven his joy will be utterly perfect and nothing will be able to take away that joy. This very expectation, this optimistic view of his ultimate future will itself bring joy to his life. The dark fear of suffering and especially death has gone for the Christian because he knows that his grief will turn to joy. Joy is the ultimate end of life and existence. The world can look forward to joy because the world is in the hands of Christ and Christ is the image and revelation of the Father. God is Love, and Love brings joy.
Let us live life with a basic confidence, a confidence not based primarily on our own capacities or in a certain view of the world, but on the person of Jesus and his Lordship of life and the world. He promises that our grief will turn to joy. So in this life and in the next joy is our characteristic state. We have been made for joy, and because of Christ we can be confident that it will be ours.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Here is a safe doctrine that I want you to know: one's own mind is a bad adviser, a poor pilot to steer the soul through the storms and tempests and among the reefs of the interior life.
That is why it is the will of God that the command of the ship be entrusted to a Master who, with his light and his knowledge, can guide us to a safe harbour.
(The Way, no.59)
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How is human solidarity manifested?
Solidarity, which springs from human and Christian brotherhood, is manifested in the first place by the just distribution of goods, by a fair remuneration for work and by zeal for a more just social order. The virtue of solidarity also practices the sharing of the spiritual goods of faith which is even more important than sharing material goods. (CCC 1939-1942, 1948)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.414)
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Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter II
(May 19) Today let us think of Saint Yves and Saint Celestine V (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 18:23-28; Psalm 47:2-3, 8-9, 10; John 16:23b-28
Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete. “I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father. On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me. (John 16:23b-28)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
One of the gravest issues in religion is the effectiveness of prayer. Across the ages and cultures of human history man has prayed. His religions are the manifestations of his propensity to pray and his habit of prayer. The question is, what is the use of it? I remember years ago when I was serving as a priest in South America I visited a parish in Ecuador and I met there a deacon who, it was said to me, was one of the leading poets of the country. He showed me a small book of his poetry and it was entitled “The Silence of God.” The theme running through the poems of that volume was the silence of God in the face
of our prayer. Whatever
about that, the testimony of human history is that it is the most
natural thing in the world to pray, and in particular to ask God (or
the gods) for favours that are beyond our reach. It has often been said
that rather than defining man as a rational animal, when we look at
human history we could define him - or at least describe him - as a
religious animal. Let us put it a different way by saying he is a
praying animal. Of course this is not the general picture in our modern
western secular cultures which have spread to so many parts of the
world. So many people at this point of time are instinctively sceptical
about prayer because they are instinctively sceptical about God and the
supernatural. It is only what one can see, feel, touch, hear and
taste that is deemed to be sure and real. But what is Christ’s teaching
about prayer? He tells us we should be full of confidence about the
efficacy of praying to God our Father for what we need. He adds a
further point that will give to the prayer of the Christian a special
power, that we pray to the Father in his name. “Amen, amen, I say to
you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now
you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so
that your joy may be complete.” (John 16:23b-28)This point, that we pray to our heavenly Father in the name of Jesus, is yet another very distinctive feature of the person of Jesus Christ. Consider the sweep of the Scriptures both Old and New Testaments, and ask if there is anyone else who is presented as being one in whose name we ought pray to the Lord and Father of heaven and earth. Is the reader of Holy Scripture asked to pray to the Father in the name of Abraham, of Moses or of any of the prophets? Are we asked to pray in the name of any of the Apostles? No, not specifically. But we are all asked by Jesus to pray to our heavenly Father in his name. He tells us that if we do this we shall receive and our joy will be complete. Of course this promise must be placed in the context of the rest of our Lord’s teaching about prayer, such as submission to the will of our Father, but the point I make here is that by praying in Christ’s name and in him our prayer achieves in the sight of God a very great effectiveness. What is the use of prayer? In this circumstance - the circumstance of praying in the name of Jesus and in union with him - the value of prayer is immensely great. Moreover, let us remember that all the angels and saints, and most of all Mary the Mother of God and our Mother in Christ, are in Jesus and pray in his name. If we appeal to her and their intercession as well, their praying to the Father in the name of Jesus will add even more to the effectiveness of our prayer. Jesus is our divine Intercessor. He is seated at the right hand of the Father continually interceding on our behalf as our High Priest. He makes himself present in this capacity at the Eucharistic Sacrifice, and it is especially in this Eucharistic act that we are able to unite ourselves to him and pray to the Father in his name. The Christian then, the one who is in Christ, is empowered to pray for himself and others with great effectiveness.
Saint Alphonsus Ligouri writes in one of his many books that the most important prayer is the prayer of petition, and that God wants to give us very many gifts but that for many of them he awaits our asking. We don’t ask because we do not have much faith, and so we do not receive nearly as much as we could. Let us then fill up our lives with a constant stream of petitions to God our Father, offered to him in the name of Jesus our High Priest. In this way we can serve man and the world.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Without an architect you wouldn’t build a good house for your life on earth. How then, without a Director, can you hope to build the palace of your sanctification for your eternity in heaven?
(The Way, no.60)
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What is the moral law?
The moral law is a work of divine Wisdom. It prescribes the ways and the rules of conduct that lead to the promised beatitude and it forbids the ways that turn away from God. (CCC 1950-1953, 1975-1978)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.415)
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The Ascension of the Lord C
(May 17) Today let us think of Saint Paschal Baylon (Saints)
Scripture
today:
Acts
1:1-11;
Psalm 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9; Ephesians 1:17-23 or Hebrews 9:24-28; 10:19-23; Luke 24:46-53
Jesus said to his disciples: “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God. (Luke 24:46-53)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
As man looks out on the world he sees many nations, many cultures, many religions, many sources of authority of all kinds. Nations, classes of people, and elements in nature compete and clash. It is not surprising that outside Revealed Religion, and those religions (such as Islam) that have been influenced by Revelation, belief in and worship of many gods has been the norm. Polytheism reflects the fundamental pluralism of elements, forces and influences in the visible universe. The facts of human experience and the evident nature of the world do not allow of what we might call a monism in
philosophy. Visible
reality cannot be reduced to a unity, to one, to a single active
principle - which has been the tendency of various currents of
philosophy in the past. I remember reading of a famous debate at the
University of Sydney between Father Paddy Ryan and Professor Anderson
(of Sydney University) that occurred over seventy years ago (in 1936).
In that debate Father Ryan declared that the tendency of modern
philosophy of that time was monist, which was the tendency to reduce
everything to one element or principle. Some seventy or more years
earlier in England Newman was writing in his Philosophical Notebook
his criticism of German philosophy that it tended to reduce everything
in the world to one principle. He would have nothing of it - basically
he was saying that it was an unreal simplification. Yes, indeed. The
world is a vast array of variation and number. Indeed,
so much is this so that it prompts another danger. The danger is that
one can slip into the opposite extreme of thinking that there is no
real meaning in things. And so there have been philosophies that lay it
down that all is a constant flux, that life is
basically a jumble, that there is no objective sense in things, that
there is no key to life. In these systems the opposite mistake is made
of
thinking that fundamentally there is no objective meaning to life and
the world. But now, there is. Life and the world can all be related to its single source which transcends it and yet which is unimaginably imminent to it. I refer to the almighty and infinite Creator God. There is one God who is the creator, the Father and the ruler of all things both visible and invisible. But there is more. There is one man who was and is part of our world and who is the one king and lord of the universe. He, Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God, risen from the dead, holds in his hand all authority in heaven and on earth. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords and he will come to judge the living and the dead. This one person we can and must constantly look to and while the world cannot be reduced to him, all things are to be viewed in relation to him and are responsible to him. Today we celebrate the feast of the Ascension into heaven of our Lord Jesus Christ. We think of him having completed his work on earth, of having expiated for the sin of man, of having rendered perfect obedience to God his Father on behalf of us, of having established and launched God’s Kingdom present in his Church, and of now returning to his Father by whom he had been sent. He, our brother and our redeemer, returns to the glory that was his before the world began. He takes his seat at the right hand of the Father. That is to say, he ascends to occupy the highest place of all, next to his heavenly Father, at a level equal to his. It is like the newly crowned king who ascends the steps before all who are present, reaches the top and takes his seat on the throne. From that position he is seen to be King and Lord. That is what was happening when our Lord ascended into heaven as described in our Gospel account today: “Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God” (Luke 24:46-53). They did him homage, and were continually praising God.
So today we think of Christ as universal King and Lord. We must get into the way of looking on Jesus Christ as the unifying element in everything in the sense that all that exists finds its meaning in him. He is the life and the light of the world. All are called to be loving and faithful subjects of him in his kingdom. This is done in and through the Church he founded and of which he is the head and bridegroom. Jesus Christ is Lord, and he who by his Ascension now transcends and is above all, is through his Church utterly close to all and will be with us to the end. Then of his kingdom there will be no end. So today let us repeat constantly, Jesus Christ is Lord.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 668-679
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When a layman sets himself up as an expert on morals he often goes astray: laymen can only be disciples.
(The Way, no.61)
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In what does the natural moral law consist?
The natural law which is inscribed by the Creator on the heart of every person consists in a participation in the wisdom and the goodness of God. It expresses that original moral sense which enables one to discern by reason the good and the bad. It is universal and immutable and determines the basis of the duties and fundamental rights of the person as well as those of the human community and civil law. (CCC 1954-1960, 1978-1979)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.416)
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Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter II
(May 21) Today let us think of St Adrew Bobola (Saints)
Also Christopher Magallanes, priest, and his companions, martyrs (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 19:1-8; Psalm 68:2-3ab, 4-5acd, 6-7ab; John 16:29-33
The disciples said to Jesus, “Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech. Now we realize that you know everything and that you do not need to have anyone question you. Because of this we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you believe now? Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” (John 16:29-33)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
It has often been said by theist philosophers that the simplest and most effective argument for the existence of God is the argument from “design”. This argument can be understood as an argument from either the order that is manifest in the world or from the purpose that appears to be at work everywhere. There is an order in things - from the level of the atom to that of galaxies. Things are not at root a chaotic jumble. Alternatively, purpose is the issue in the argument - things seem to have an inherent end or goal in their structure and activity. Whatever about the form of this demonstration, many have disputed its
cogency. Cardinal Newman
maintained that for it to have force, there is required a prior sense
of God and a disposition to notice his hand in the “design” of
creation. I tend to think that Newman is correct because there is
plenty of disorder and trouble in the world to enable the one who is
predisposed not to believe in God to find justification in the harsh
facts of visible creation. Where is the order and purpose in the
massive earthquake, or the terrible tsunami, or the ravages of an AIDS
epidemic? Mind you, I do not agree that this invalidates the argument
from “design” - meaning especially “order” (the Fifth Way of
Aquinas). What I am really doing in
mentioning this discussion is pointing to the trouble, the suffering,
the evil, the disharmony that is virulently at work in our world, this
world that is our much-loved and precious home. We love our world, but
it requires great and constant taming. It is a place of trouble, and
the book of Job in the Old Testament gives plenty of presentation of
this fact. The world in which we find ourselves sweeps so many off its
scene, and for those not thus swept away, it often menaces with teeth
drawn. It can provoke man to fear, and requires that he take courage.
Well, what should be the basis of our courage in the face of life in
our welcoming if difficult and by no means perfectly ordered world?
The basis of courage in the face of life and what it brings is the person of Christ. Our Lord guaranteed to his disciples that they would have trouble in the world. Of course, our Lord was in the first instance talking of “the world” as that vast element in life that opposes the Kingdom of God and Christ. The “world” in this sense has its prince, and this prince has his kingdom and household. He is the master of “the world” in this sense. This “world” of all that opposes Christ will give plenty of trouble to the genuine disciple of Christ, and our Lord says “behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world” (John 16:29-33). The Christian is to take courage in the face of any difficulty arising because of his adherence to Jesus, for Jesus has overcome the world. He has done this by his death, resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father, and by his sending of the Holy Spirit to the Church. Christ is the victor and has gained the victory over all, such that he is now the Lord of lords and the King of kings, holding in his hand all authority in heaven and on earth. We do not see him, but he is seated on the throne. There is a mighty and supreme King and he is on our side. He has won the victory, and for this reason St John says in his Letter that this is the victory over the world, our faith in Jesus. Our undying trust in him will give us the victory for he has gained the victory. In the face of any trouble arising from the world, trouble coming either from our adherence to Jesus as his disciples or trouble coming from the fallen and hostile character of the world which is our home, we must trust in Jesus. He is our rock and our deliverer.
Every newborn babe will have trouble in the world. The child’s course in life will be marked by trouble, together with many joys. What is the source of our courage in the face of the world? It is Jesus, who is God-with-us, Emmanuel. He has overcome the world and he means to give us a share in his victory. This will come through persevering, prudent and consistent faith in him. On this basis we have every reason to have courage.
(E.J.Tyler)
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A Director. You need one. So that you can give yourself to God, and give yourself fully..., by obedience. A Director who understands your apostolate, who knows what God wants, who can effectively second the work of the holy Spirit in your soul, without taking you from your place, filling you with peace, and teaching you how to make your work fruitful.
(The Way, no.62)
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Is such a law perceived by everyone?
Because of sin the natural law is not always perceived nor is it recognized by everyone with equal clarity and immediacy. (CCC 1960)
For this reason God “wrote on the tables of the Law what men did not read in their hearts.”
(St Augustine)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.417)
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Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter II
(May 22) Today let us think of St. Rita of Cascia (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 20:17-27; Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21; John 17:1-11a
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began. I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.” (John 17:1-11a)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
As man looks out on the heavens knowing that the universe is unimaginably vast, that there are stars and galaxies far beyond his sight, what question rises in his mind? For secular man, the man of modern Western culture and those cultures influenced by it, the beauty and immensity of the universe takes his breath away and draws him to a scientific plumbing of its secrets. The man of religious instinct and conviction also turns his mind to the meaning of it all. He knows that there is a God and the mind-boggling size and
richness of the universe
directs his gaze to the great Creator of everythingl. There is a
meaning and
purpose in creation and in life, but what is it? We see a hammer, and
we know its meaning and purpose. We see a car, and we know its purpose.
We see a home and we know its purpose. We see a ship and we know its
purpose. We see a telephone and we know its purpose. What of the world
and the entire universe? What is the purpose of all things, seen and
unseen? Let us broaden the question to include mankind and the
redemption of mankind. Is there an ultimate purpose in all that God has
done and which we can discover and then serve? There is, and it is the
glory of God. In our Gospel passage today our Lord refers to the giving
of glory - giving glory to his Father, and the giving of glory to
himself.
“Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you
gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal
life to all you gave him’.” Then, a little further on Christ prays, “I
glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to
do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with
you before the world began.”
(John 17:1-11a)The struggle going on in the heart of man is whether to give glory to God or to give glory to that which is not God. In a sense this is the meaning of human history. When we consider the rise and fall of empires, the conflicts between man and man, the struggle between good and evil in its various forms, ultimately the issue is whether God is to receive the glory or not. We give glory to God by doing his will and accomplishing the work he gives us to do, and our glory consists in and flows from precisely this. It is the glory of man that he freely choose to do the will of God and accomplish his work, and it is this which will be his glory forever in heaven. The angels and the saints in heaven are in glory, and their glory has come from doing the will of God. In this we have Christ as our supreme exemplar, and in our Gospel passage he says, “I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began. I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word” (John 17:1-11a). The saint is the person who devotes his whole being to the glory of God, and he does so by loving God with all his heart and doing his will. Our Lord said on one occasion that it is not those who say to me, Lord! Lord! who will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven. If in this way we fill up our lives by giving glory to God not only shall we be following in the footsteps of Jesus the Master, but we shall be contributing to the fulfilment of the purpose of mankind and the entire creation. Our life will have been spent in service of the highest possible purpose, however hidden and unnoticed we and our course may have been in the sight of men.
Saint Ignatius Loyola coined a famous phrase that we would do well to make our own: Ad maioram Dei gloriam! For the greater glory of God! Everything we choose to do, he urged, ought be done for the greater glory of God. Let us often pray the prayer which we say at the end of every decade of the Rosary: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit! As it was in the beginning, is now, and every shall be, world without end.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You think you are quite important: your studies, your research work, your publications, your social standing, your name, your political activities, the positions you hold, your wealth... your age: you're no longer a child!...
Just because of all that, you, more than others, need a Director for your soul.
(The Way, no.63)
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What is the relationship between the natural law and the Old Law?
The Old Law is the first stage of revealed Law. It expresses many truths naturally accessible to reason and which are thus affirmed and authenticated in the covenant of salvation. Its moral prescriptions, which are summed up in the Ten Commandments of the Decalogue, lay the foundations of the human vocation, prohibit what is contrary to the love of God and neighbor, and prescribe what is essential to it. (CCC 1961-1962, 1980)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.418)
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Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter II
(May 23) Today let us think of William of Rochester: This 12th century saint was a Scottish fisherman from Perth. As a young man he experienced a conversion and devoted himself to caring for orphans and the poor. One child in his care had been abandoned as a baby on a church doorstep. In 1201 he set off on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but only reached Rochester in Kent, when he was set upon by thieves and murdered. His body was found by a madwoman. She covered him in honeysuckle and was apparently cured. William was buried in Rochester cathedral where many other miracles soon began to occur. In 1256 bishop Laurence obtained permission from the Pope to set up an official shrine. Offerings there contributed to the rebuilding work of the cathedral. There were many bequests made at the shrine including gifts from King Edward I in 1300, and Queen Philippa in 1352. St William's Hospital, on the road to Maidstone, marks the place of his death. (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 20:28-38; Psalm 68:29-30, 33-35a, 35bc-36ab; John 17:11b-19
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” (John 17:11b-19)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
Generally speaking, man loves life. He loves to live, and he longs to live on forever. Moreover, generally he loves the world which is his home. Time and again we meet people who have lived a long time in the one locality, and they love the place of their roots. The world. What has God to say of the world which is his creation? Because it is his creation, God loves the world. Its being has come forth from his hand, and he has given to it its structure and form. If it has evolved from incipient beginnings to its present state, that
evolution has been his creation. It is
not hard to see why various cultures have referred to the earth and to the world as a Mother.
It sustains and nourishes its inhabitants and provides them with the
means whereby they may flourish. In the Gospel of St John we read that
God loved the world, and that he so loved the world that he sent his
only begotten Son into it. So our instinctive love for the world
which is our welcoming home mirrors in its fashion and to a degree the
love which God has for the world. But there is another side to the
world which is menacing. Not only does the world require a hard process
of mastering, but it is in so very many ways hostile and
destructive. All this is evident, and because of this the
religious man cries out for aid and protection from the Powers above.
There are so many things in the world that can sweep him away, and
these very obvious elements, be they earthquakes, fire, flood, disease,
strife between man and man, all reflect a deeper evil in the heart of
man and the universe which works against man. There is so much to be
protected from. A great deal is wrong with the world even though, with
very good reason, we love it so. In our Gospel passage today, what does our Lord say of the world? In ten lines of our passage our Lord mentions “the world” almost as many times. He has come into the world because of God’s great love for it and because of the world’s fallen condition, and here in our passage today he is praying for his disciples who are in the world. He prays that they will be kept in the name of the Father - which is to say kept in union with him. It is a prayer asking that they be guarded from all that threatens this union with the Father. The world “hated them”, but Christ has guarded and protected them. What is foremost in the mind of our Lord as he utters this prayer? He specifically states that he is not praying that his disciples be taken out of the world, and so it is not the world as such and essentially which is the great problem, but something present in it, something which has entered it, something which has taken hold of it and profoundly affected it, something which has made of “the world” a threat to man and the plan of God. It is “the Evil One”. “I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world” (John 17:11b-19). Our Lord is referring to Satan and all who are in league with him be they visible or invisible. Elsewhere in this same Gospel he speaks of Satan as the prince of this world, and that he is “coming”. He is a murderer and a liar from the beginning. He has “no power” over our Lord, and our Lord has “overcome the world.” Elsewhere in this same Gospel of St John our Lord tells certain persons that they are Satan’s offspring.
All of this means that there are two great Standards at war with one another, the Standard of Christ and the Standard of Satan. Christ is the stronger one, and he has come to guard, protect and save us from being lost. Let us take our stand with him and reject “the Evil One” who inhabits the world leading it astray with his lies. Christ has conquered the world, so let us stand with him.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Don't hide from your Director those insinuations of the enemy. Your victory, on taking him into your confidence, brings you more grace from God. And moreover you now have what will help you to keep on conquering, your spiritual father's prayers and his gift of counsel.
(The Way, no.64)
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What place does the Old Law have in the plan of salvation?
The Old Law permitted one to know many truths which are accessible to reason, showed what must or must not be done and, above all, like a wise tutor, prepared and disposed one for conversion and for the acceptance of the Gospel. However, while being holy, spiritual, and good, the Old Law was still imperfect because in itself it did not give the strength and the grace of the Spirit for its observance. (CCC 1963-1964, 1982)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.419)
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Mary Help of Christians (Thursday of the seventh week of Eastertide)
(May 24) Our Lady Help of Christians, Patroness of Australia. In 1844 at the First Provincial Synod of Sydney, Our Lady Help of Christians was chosen as the patroness of Australia. In her maternal love Mary cares for the brethren of her Son who still journey on their earthly pilgrimage towards heaven amid dangers and trials. She is their model, mother and powerful help. (Saints)
Today let us also think of St Vincent of Lerins and St Amalia (Saints)
Scripture today: Genesis 3: 1-15,20; Ephesians 3: 14-19; Luke 8:19-21
Then his mother and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd. He was told, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you." He said to them in reply, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it." (Luke 8:19-21)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
Some forms of Christianity have insisted that inasmuch as Christ is our mediator and intercessor with God our Father, no other intercessor ought be invoked. That is to say, no person in heaven other than the Saviour ought be turned to for help in our prayers to the Father. It is utterly unnecessary and not according to the saving plan of God, for no one comes to the Father but through him - so this position would have it. But in the perennial understanding of the Church this is a distortion. In the plan of God we have many helpers
aiding us by their
prayers. Consider the Old Testament figure of Tobit - to take merely
one example - and how he was helped by Raphael, “one of the seven
angels always ready to enter the presence of the glory of God.” What
did the archangel Raphael tell Tobit? “It was I who offered your
supplications before the glory of the Lord and who read them.” In the
Gospels we see friends interceding with our Lord to help others. To
take but one example, consider the wedding feast of Cana and how
powerful was our Lady’s discreet intervention in bringing before our
Lord the fact that they had run out of wine. On the cross the dying
Christ entrusted his own mother to his beloved disciple, saying to her
that there before her now was her new son. The Church has always
understood this as being Christ’s gift of his mother to his Church and
to all his disciples. She was being asked by him to help all his
brothers as their common mother. She is now our helper in heaven, the
queen mother, mother of the King of kings and Lord of lords. Consider
the love which Christ in heaven continues to have for his incomparable
mother, and how great his joy in seeing any of us his brothers turn to
her just as he so often turned to her while here on earth! She, Mary
the mother of Christ and the mother and model of the Church, is the
perpetual help of Christians.If Mary our help solved the problem of the lack of wine at the wedding feast of Cana by her petition, is there any problem she cannot help us in with her prayers? Is there any problem too trivial or too great? Just recently I watched an interview with a wife and mother who had a strong devotion to Mary, mother of perpetual help (Our Lady of Perpetual Succour). Her debilitating multiple sclerosis was suddenly and entirely healed following her prayer to Mary. Pope after pope has urged on the entire Church a filial devotion to Mary our help. Every time we say the Hail Mary, we ask holy Mary, mother of God, to pray for us now and at the hour of our death. We ask her to help us with her prayers. Christ is our Intercessor at the right hand of the Father, and he is continually helping us with his prayer especially at Mass which is his prayer here on earth par excellence. But Mary his mother prays with him, in him and in his name, and adds her powerful intercession to our own. At important times in history the Popes and the Christian people have turned to her for her aid. In the sixteenth century Islam was an immense threat to Europe, and had it conquered Europe all would have been Islamicized. In a real sense it was the Church and in particular the papacy which saved European society, religion and civilization. The Pope (St Pius V) cajoled and united some principal Christian forces and initiated a powerful stream of prayer to Mary help of Christians throughout the Catholic world. The Christian forces with its badge of Mary joined battle with the fleet of Islam at Lepanto and the result was a most signal victory for the Christians. It marked the beginning of the slow decline of military Islam. Back in Rome there was no doubt in the mind of the Pope that the victory had been the work of our Lady help of Christians.
Today in Australia we celebrate the feast of our Lady help of Christians. She the queen mother, she the mother of the Lord Jesus, she the mother of God made man, has been given to us to be our mother and our help. By our baptism we are in Christ, and being in Christ we are united to Mary who is supremely in Christ. Let us be truly devoted to her as Christ her divine son is devoted to her. Let us entrust ourselves to her help both now and at the hour of our death.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Why are you so reluctant to see yourself and to let your Director see you as you really are?
You will have won a great battle if you lose that fear of letting yourself be known.
(The Way, no.65)
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What is the New Law or the Law of the Gospel?
The New Law or the Law of the Gospel, proclaimed and fulfilled by Christ, is the fullness and completion of the divine law, natural and revealed. It is summed up in the commandment to love God and neighbour and to love one another as Christ loved us. It is also an interior reality: the grace of the Holy Spirit which makes possible such love. It is “the law of freedom” (Galatians 1:25) because it inclines us to act spontaneously by the prompting of charity. (CCC 1965-1972, 1983-1985)
“The New Law is mainly the same grace of the Holy Spirit which is given to believers in Christ.” (Saint Thomas Aquinas)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.420)
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Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter II
(May 25) St Bede the Venerable, priest and doctor of the Church. Born near the monastery of Wearmouth (England) in the year 673, he received his education from Saint Benedict Biscop. Joining the monastery he became a priest and spent his time teaching and writing. He wrote theological and historical works, especially upheld the tradition of the Fathers, and explained the Scriptures. He was called “venerable” while still alive, and was “the most observant and the happiest of all the monks”. He died at Jarrow in 735. (Saints)
St Gregory VII, pope. Hildebrand was born in Tuscany about the year 1028, and after being educated at Rome, be became a monk. He was of great assistance at the time to the popes who were working to reform the Church (especially against lay investiture), and when he himself was elected pope in 1073, taking the name of Gregory VII, he strenuously carried on this work. He was opposed especially by the emperor Henry IV, and he had to flee to Salerno where he died in the year 1085. (Saints)
St Mary Magdalene of Pazzi, virgin. Born in Florence in 1566, after a pious upbringing she entered the Carmelites where she led a hidden life of prayer and self-denial. She prayed especially for the reform of the Church. She was endowed by God with many spiritual gifts and directed her fellow sisters along the road of perfection. She died in the year 1607. (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 25:13b-21; Psalm 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20ab; John 21:15-19
After Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples and eaten breakfast with them, he said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He then said to Simon Peter a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.” (John 21:15-19)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
I suspect that one of the things a deeply convinced Jew or Moslem would be struck by in reading the Gospels is the degree to which the person of Jesus is
at
the very centre of his own preaching and message. Moses and the
prophets point to God, and Mahomet points to Allah as he believes him
to be. Yes, our Lord constantly points to the Father, but he proclaims
himself to be the Way to the Father and Truth about the Father
and the Life of the Father. He who sees me, he says, sees the Father.
Our Lord points to himself in a way no prophet or any other great
founder of a religion ever did. People must look to him, and his
disciples are charged by him to go to the whole world and make all the
nations his disciples. Indeed, his disciples are called not just to
accept his teaching and to follow it totally, but actually to love his
very person. Jesus is to be the love of every man’s heart in the way
God should be. Our Gospel passage today is a case in point. Our Lord
has risen from the dead and in our scene today he is breakfasting with
his disciples on the shore of the Lake. He turns to Simon Peter who had
denied him three times during his Passion, and insistently asks him
three times if he loved him. Our Lord was asking for and expecting that
he would be the love of Simon’s life and that, in view of the position
he had given to Simon in the life and structure of his Church, that
Simon would love him more than the others. The implication is that the
others also were to make Jesus the love of their life, but Simon more
than they. The Christian religion, then, is a life of love between the
Christian and the person of Jesus, not in isolation but in the
community of Christ’s faithful, within the life of his Church. We are
bound together within Christ’s Church by our personal love for
Jesus.So then, the life of the Christian is a life spent working at growing in the love of Jesus and at living according to his teaching as a result of that love. At the end of his dialogue with Simon our Lord tells him to follow him - not just to follow his teaching as if his teaching is somehow distinct from his person. The person of Jesus is central to his teaching and is its object, and so the living of the Christian religion means following in the footsteps of the person of Jesus. This means every day nourishing a life of prayer with the person of Jesus at its centre. In this regard, St Jerome writes that ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ. His point is that the content and if possible the very text of the Gospels ought be our companion through life. The gospels, inspired by the Holy Spirit, are the Church’s possession and gift to Christ’s faithful. The Church teaches us their meaning and comments on them unceasingly as their divinely authorised interpreter. Great prayers such as the Rosary draw the faithful to contemplate the person of Jesus in the Gospels. He is the object of the entire Scriptures and most especially of the Gospels. The person of Jesus is the head and the heart of the Church, and he teaches the faithful and indeed all of mankind through and in his body the Church. In the plan of God all mankind is called to acknowledge him as the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Wonderfully, everyone who discovers the living Jesus and is drawn to be his disciple, is invited to a personal friendship with him, though he is unseen. In this sense to live is to love Christ and our salvation is to be found in this love - provided it is a love marked by consistency. Our life must be lived in a way consistent with the demands of this love. He who loves me keeps my commands, our Lord said.
Let us ponder prayerfully on the implications of our Gospel scene today in which Christ insistently - and in a way that disconcerts Simon - asks Peter if he loves him. It is very important to Jesus that we actually love him and as a result of this love that we follow him. As St Paul writes, to live is Christ. The Church does not just bring a great teaching to the world, but rather a person together with his teaching. That person is the life and the light of the world.
(E.J.Tyler)
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A Priest — whoever he may be — is always another Christ.
(The Way, no.66)
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Where does one find the New Law?
The New Law is found in the entire life and preaching of Christ and in the moral catechesis of the apostles. The Sermon on the Mount is its principal expression. (CCC 1971-1974,1986)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.421)
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Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter II
(May 26) St Philip Neri, priest (1515-1595). Born in Florence, he came to Rome and began to devote himself to work among the young men, while at the same time he led a Christian life and formed a brotherhood to look after the sick poor. In 1552 he became a priest and formed the Oratory in which he held services consisting of spiritual readings and hymns, as well as performing charitable works. He was outstanding for love of his neighbour, an evangelical simplicity and joyfulness in the service of God. He was noted for his zeal in converting sinners through the Sacrament of Penance, and he was a catechist and spiritual guide of great talent. The Oratory is present in many countries (though not Australia), and one of its most illustrious members was Cardinal Newman who began the Oratory in England. (Saints)
Scripture today: Acts 28:16-20, 30-31; Psalm 11:4, 5 and 7; John 21:20-25
Peter turned and saw the disciple following whom Jesus loved, the one who had also reclined upon his chest during the supper and had said, “Master, who is the one who will betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus said to him, “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me.” So the word spread among the brothers that that disciple would not die. But Jesus had not told him that he would not die, just “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours?” It is this disciple who testifies to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written. (John 21:20-25)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
Have you ever watched a ‘top dog’ in real life? I remember watching a situation in which visitors brought their dog to a friend’s place, and their friend’s dog immediately began to impose itself on the visiting dog. It wanted to be the ‘top dog’. To do this it brought out all the bones it had buried and gathered
them into one heap, and
there it stood
over those bones watching the visiting dog. The visiting dog was
immensely frustrated and barked from a distance. It knew it had been
surpassed by the host dog because of the number of bones it had. At its
own level, envy was affecting the relationship between the two dogs. It
has been said at times that the world revolves around envy. This is a
gross exaggeration, but in it a point is being made. Of course we must
be alive to unjust inequalities and very many of them abound in family
life, in society, and in international relations. Nevertheless envy can
be virulently at work even when there is no question of any injustice.
One person or group compares itself with another and is filled with
envy at that person’s gifts and at the special recognition or
opportunities that have come his way. A form of hatred then develops in
the heart of the envious person. Without meaning to define envy we
could perhaps describe it as a sadness at the good fortune of another,
and a desire to see that person’s good fortune removed. If we turn our
minds to the flow of human history and especially to its various wars
and revolutions, I am convinced that envy has played a significant part
- even though we must also recognize the presence of injustices that
have fuelled that envy. Consider the French and Russian Revolutions, or
consider even the philosophy of Marxism and its hatred of class
differences. Behind the envy there is usually the desire to be the
principal one - to be, as the phrase goes, the ‘top dog’.Now, this spirit of envy can enter into the life of a Christian and affect his following of Jesus. In our Gospel today “Peter turned and saw the disciple following whom Jesus loved, the one who had also reclined upon his chest during the supper and had said, ‘Master, who is the one who will betray you?’ When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about him?’” Doubtless Peter was not asking this question out of any envy, but probably just out of curiosity. But for the purposes of this reflection his question could perhaps be taken as symbolic of and applicable to so much envy that is in the world. What about him? Why is he like what he is, with his good fortune, with his favourable circumstances, with his preferred position, while I am as I am? Why does he seem to be better off than I? Man is continually comparing himself with others, and all too often is sad and angry with what he sees. Peter’s question could be seen as expressing this ongoing and unhealthy comparison, and our Lord’s reply to Peter could be seen as the answer to this evil: “Jesus said to him, What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me’.” (John 21:20-25). What concern is it of yours? You follow me. The only thing that matters for the Christian is that he follow the Master wherever that road leads. God has his providence for each of us, and the mission in life of each person differs from the next. All is in the hand of God and he gives to each as seems best to him. If it seems best to God that he give to one man one thing and to another something different, then ultimately that is best. The one thing that is important and necessary is that we follow him, dismissing from our minds unworthy thoughts of envy with the forms and degrees of hatred it fuels. The following of the Master will especially involve following him in his humility and meekness. As St Paul writes, though he was God he set aside his glory and became as men are and humbler still even to death on a cross.
Our Lord told his disciples that they were to come to him and learn from him for he is meek and humble of heart. Let us resolve to put out of our life anything which is not in full harmony with this. We must keep our eyes on Jesus and our full effort ought be to become like him. As St Paul writes, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Though you well know it, I shall remind you again that a Priest is 'another Christ'. And that the holy Spirit has said: 'Nolite tangere Christos meos — do not touch my Christs'.
(The Way, no.67)
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What is
justification?
Justification is the most excellent work of God's love. It 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 brought about by means
of the grace of the Holy Spirit which has been merited for us by the
passion of Christ and is given to us in Baptism. Justification is the
beginning of the free response of man, that is, faith in Christ and of
cooperation with the grace of the Holy Spirit. (CCC 1987-1995,
2017-2020)
(Compendium of
the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.422)
Pentecost Sunday C
(May 27) St
Augustine of Canterbury, bishop and missionary (died about 605).
Known as the Apostle of the English, St Augustine was Prior of St
Andrew's in Rome when Pope Gregory the Great sent him with a band of 40
missionaries to evangelise England. They landed at Ebbsfleet near
Ramsgate in 597. Augustine soon converted the local King Ethelbert
whose wife Bertha, daughter of the King of Paris, was already
Christian. Rather than ban pagan customs his missionaries incorporated
some old practices into the Christian worship. Augustine erected a
monastery at Canterbury and there he established his see. He founded
two more bishoprics at London and Rochester. He died at Canterbury
around this time in 605. From the earliest times St Augustine has been
venerated as the evangeliser of the English, although his relatively
short mission was confined to a limited area. No early images of
Augustine survive, but he is depicted in 14th century stained glass at
Christ Church, Oxford, at Canterbury Cathedral (1470) and in a cycle of
miniatures in the breviary of the Duke of Bedford (1424). He is also in
15th century frescoes in the church of St Gregory in Rome.
(Saints)
Scripture today:
Acts
2:1-11; Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31,
34; John 20:19-23
On the evening of
that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the
disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their
midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he
showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they
saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the
Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he
breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins
you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
(John
20:19-23)
If
you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on
today's Gospel, click here
Mary MacKillop was
an extraordinary and great-souled Australian. One of her many notable
characteristics was her friendships with non-Catholics and
non-Christians. One non-Catholic friend whom Mary had and who helped
her considerably admired greatly her faith. This friend told her in
one letter that she could not seem to overcome her scepticism in
respect to revealed religion. She could not bring herself to believe.
What that very good non-Catholic woman was saying in her letter was
that she was helpless before her own basic dispositions. Far away in
England at the same time the great convert to the Catholic Faith, John
Henry Newman, had been repeatedly insisting in his writings on the
necessity of the right fundamental dispositions for faith. He was
saying that belief in Christ and in his revelation is not just the
result of an intellectual or scientific demonstration. A proof alone
will not overcome a basic unwillingness or incapacity to believe
because for there to be belief at all one must be duly disposed, which
is to say that one must be positively willing to believe. There has to
be a basic inclination of the will to assent to the truth of Christ and
his revelation. In his discussions of faith he stressed the paramount
importance not so much of a person’s logic and power to appreciate a
good demonstration as his basic starting points. If he is coming from
the right starting points, the right fundamental principles, the right
expectations, then the good demonstration will be of value in bringing
him to belief. There is a further problem, he explained. It is that
generally a person does not know what his own starting points are. Only
God really knows them, and so a person ought pray to God that he
implant in his heart the right dispositions and starting points for
faith.
We who believe in
Christ and in the authority of the Church to speak in his name tend to
take our faith for granted and not appreciate how precious and
indispensable this gift is. We tend to forget that it is actually a
gift that has come to us from on high. Without this gift we would not
be readily inclined to believe in our Lord and his teaching. We would
probably be inclined to be sceptical, especially inasmuch as we are
children of a culture that is sceptical about the supernatural. Because
we have been given this gift of faith at our baptism we are endowed
with a special gift that opens us to the person and goodness of our
Lord, and which helps us to appreciate his divine authority. We are
endowed at our baptism with the right dispositions that amount to an
instinctive readiness to believe in Jesus, to hope in him and to love
him, and with this to accept the nurture and help of the Church he
founded and sustains, and which in his providence he has placed us in
(CCC 1830-1831). I suppose we could liken it to the child’s instinctive
readiness to believe and love and hope in his parents. God is our
Father and Christ is our brother, and we have been born anew into his
family the Church. All this happened at our baptism, and at that
all-important event the Holy Spirit came upon us and endowed us with
the gifts of faith, hope and love that dispose us to accept and love
Christ and his revelation, together with further gifts to live our
moral life in accord with this faith in him. We can very easily take
all this for granted. If we do take it for granted, we may not act on
it very much. That is to say, we may be content to coast along at a
certain level in our life of faith happy to believe and never thinking
of abandoning our belief (because we are inclined to believe anyway),
but not really working on its growth. The great danger for the average
member of the Church is spiritual mediocrity. Faith is a great gift and
a great responsibility.
We should cultivate
great spiritual desires on the basis of the gift of our faith. We ought
cultivate a great desire to believe our Lord totally, to hope in him
utterly, and to love him with all our heart and soul. The gifts of
faith, hope and charity which we received from the Holy Spirit lay the
foundation and give us the basic disposition and inclination to set out
on this, but it requires that we work on it daily all through life. Our
companion in this is the Holy Spirit who has given us all the gifts we
need to live fully in Christ and become holy. Today is his great feast
day, Pentecost Sunday, when he came upon the infant Church to bring it
to birth and give it all the gifts it needed to succeed in its mission
of holiness and evangelization. Let us not make the Holy Spirit sad by
neglecting our high vocation.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: Catechism of the
Catholic Church, no.1830-1831
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Presbyter — Priest — means, literally, an elderly man. If old age
deserves veneration, think how much more you ought to venerate the
Priesthood.
(The Way,
no.68)
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What is justification?
Justification
is the most excellent work of God's love. It 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 brought about by means of the grace of
the Holy Spirit which has been merited for us by the passion of Christ
and is given to us in Baptism. Justification is the beginning of the
free response of man, that is, faith in Christ and of cooperation with
the grace of the Holy Spirit. (1987-1995, 2017-2020)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.422)
Monday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time I
Prayers this week: The Lord has been my strength; he has led me into freedom.
He saved me because he loves me. (Psalm 17: 19-20)
Lord, guide the course of world events and give your Church the joy and peace of serving you in freedom.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever.
(May 28) Today let us think of St. Germanus of Paris, Abbott and bishop. Many incredible healings are attributed to this early French saint. Born in 496 near Autun, he was abbot of a monastery before becoming bishop of Paris in 555. He is said to have cured King Childebert I of a serious illness, and converted him from his licentious life. Out of gratitude the King built a huge Abbey for St Germain. He moved there, but continued to live very frugally. Saint Germain was known for his generosity to all including the sick, slaves, prisoners and people of all races. He died on this day in 576. He was buried close to King Childebert in his abbey church. In 1408 a fine reliquary was built. This was later enshrined above the high altar. It was destroyed during the French Revolution. Together with St Genevieve, he is a patron of Paris. He is also known as 'father of the poor'. (Saints)
Scripture today: Sirach 17:20-24; Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7; Mark 10:17-27
As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.” He replied and said to him, “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” At that statement, his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, “Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For men it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.” (Mark 10:17-27)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
Our Gospel scene today places us in the presence of two figures, the man who had come in haste to Jesus, and Jesus himself standing before him. Let us gaze on the man who had come before the Lord. He had profound respect for Jesus, addressing him as “good teacher” which he did so sincerely because our Lord immediately responds to this form of address. His question concerned eternal life and how he
was to gain it. He knew our Lord would
have the answer and of course our Lord had come precisely that mankind
would have life and have it to the full. Moreover he must have pleased
our Lord profoundly for his very question because during his public
ministry he was faced with the great problem of being sought by many
not for what he had really come to do but simply for the miracles and
material benefits he was dispensing as signs of something higher. We
remember how our Lord (in John ch.6) told the crowds that they were
seeking him simply because of the bread he had fed them with the day
before. But here was a young man who understood that he offered eternal
life and how to gain it. Moreover, that this young man genuinely sought
eternal life was clear not only because of his very question but
because he had always observed God’s commandments. The gospels make
clear that our Lord could immediately read the hearts of men, and we
are told in this passage that when the man replied that he had observed
God’s commands from his youth, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him” (Mark 10:17-27). Christ could read his
heart, and saw the sterling quality of the man before him. We remember
how on one occasion our Lord pointed to those listening to his teaching
in front of him and said, “Anyone who does the will of my Father, that
person is my mother and sister and brother.” Our Lord loved the man in
front of him because he could see that he loved God, that he obeyed
God, and that he wanted to obtain eternal life. The man before our Lord
was a fine representative of mankind, and we could say that he was
potentially among the best.The man had come to our Lord asking what more he could do to gain heaven and God. Our Lord’s response was that he lacked one more thing. Let us look on the young man before our Lord as standing for mankind at its best. Let us imagine mankind and the whole sweep of history with its strivings and its accomplishments, with its hopes and dreams, with its aspirations for the good, the true and the beautiful, with its best moral qualities, with all that any individual person could hope to be, asking what more needed to be done to gain whatever in God’s sight is best. That young man was giving voice to the question that rises from the best that is in man and from the best that he hopes to be. That question is, what must I do, what must I be in order to gain the ultimate prize of eternal happiness and life in God forever? Let us think of all that man has done on the earth that is good and useful to his fellow man and to himself. Let us imagine man at his very best asking the question that fills his mind and heart as he yearns for the perfect: What more is lacking? What more must I do to have done the best and so be able to inherit the best? Christ gives the answer to man as he poses the question that rises to heaven. It is, come after me and make me the love of your heart. Do not allow anything to occupy the central place other than me. Come and follow me, and give place in your heart to other things only to the extent that they serve your love for me. Christ Jesus is the object of the strivings and the yearnings of the human heart. What more is lacking? What is lacking is the wholehearted following of Christ. Christ is the object and end of the heart of man. This is the revelation that has come from Christ and our passage today presents the tragedy that can fall to man. That tragedy is the refusal to accept this answer. The young man of such promise turned away from making Christ the love of his life and chose instead to give an indispensable place to his possessions.
Let us place ourselves in the company of Christ’s disciples and hear his invitation. Come, follow me! This is what your heart is made for and this is what you have been granted the gift of life for. Make me the centre of your life and in all things follow me and observe my commands. If you do this you will have eternal life, life in abundance both here and hereafter. So dear visitor, let us make this the grand project of our life, now and to the end.
(E.J.Tyler)
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It shows very little refinement — and great lack of respect — to make fun of a Priest, whoever he is, and whatever the pretext!
(The Way, no.69)
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What is the grace that justifies?
That grace is the gratuitous gift that God gives us to make us participants in his trinitarian life and able to act by his love. It is called habitual, sanctifying or deifying grace because it sanctifies and divinizes us. It is supernatural because it depends entirely on God’s gratuitous initiative and surpasses the abilities of the intellect and the powers of human beings. It therefore escapes our experience. (1996-1998, 2005, 2021)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.423)
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Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time I
(May 29) Today let us think of St Raymond and his companions (Saints)
Saint Bona of Pisa, Pilgrim.
St Bona was born in Pisa in 1156. From an early age she experienced
visions, particularly of St James. By the age of ten she had decided to
dedicate herself to the Augustinian rule and by 14 had set off on her
first journey to see her father, who was fighting in the Crusades near
Jerusalem. On her way home she was captured by Muslim pirates in the
Mediterranean, wounded and imprisoned. Some fellow Pisans rescued her
and brought her home.Scripture today: Sirach 35:1-12; Psalm 50:5-6, 7-8, 14 and 23; Mark 10:28-31
Peter began to say to Jesus, ‘We have given up everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come. But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.” (Mark 10:28-31)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
One of the notable things about Catholicism is its celebration of sanctity. Throughout its long two-thousand year history, “the saints” have been honoured. Whoever it is, if a person is holy be he living or dead, that person is venerated by Christ’s faithful. In the first millennium the process by which a deceased
person’s holiness was
gradually recognized varied, but
if the official Church formally recognized it and proposed the person
as an example to the faithful, there was no doubt as to the high
standing that person attained. His sanctity was what
counted. In our day the number of canonized saints has leapt beyond
precedent, showing that holiness can be found in any walk of life and
in any time or circumstance. It does not come naturally or
automatically. It is the fruit of a life-time struggle that all are
called to make, but the message of the Church is that it is the one
thing necessary. Catholicism celebrates the acquisition of personal
sanctity. It is not something simply imputed to the person who believes
in Christ. No, it is a quality of great personal goodness that is
gradually acquired due to the power of grace and one’s own continuing
effort to live in Christ. A Christian who is holy is one who is
marvellously like unto Christ. But now, consider any of the saints and
ask, was that person happy? Was there great joy in that person’s life?
If we take other examples of eminence in human history - say, great and
successful military commanders, or great artists, or great novelists,
or great political leaders, and ask if their lives were lives of joy,
we could not possibly give a generally affirmative answer. We could not
say that because they were great in their gift and in their work they
found joy. In some cases their personal lives were a ruin. Not so the
saint, for every saint found joy in life despite suffering.In today’s Gospel our Lord responds to the statement of Peter that “We have given up everything and followed you.” He replies that “I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come. But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.” (Mark 10:28-31). Christ promises profound fulfilment and joy for the one who follows him totally. The embodiments of this teaching are the saints and it is a great encouragement for the ordinary disciple to contemplate the life of the saint. The parish priest of Ars, St John Vianney, was always reading the lives of the saints and deriving great encouragement from them. They showed to him and to everyone who aspires to sanctity that in the midst of the sufferings along the road to sanctity there is an abiding joy. Their sufferings and their joy are a share in the sufferings and the joy of Christ. The source of Christ’s joy was his being in the Father and in never being separated from him. Our joy will come from being in Christ and in never being separated from him. The world will offer the happiness of material possessions, of family and of our achievements in life. Christ offers the far greater happiness of being in him who is the fulness of the godhead. We live in him through prayer, the Sacraments, and through doing God’s holy will in all the things that come our way in life due to the providence of God. It is in our family, in our married life and in the work we are called to do in life that we do God’s will and follow Christ wholeheartedly, and the joy of the Christian will be found not in those things alone but in seeking him in all of these things.
Let the Christian be confident that if only he gives to Christ his whole heart and life he will be happy beyond his expectations. If a person is profoundly happy, what more could he ask for? The question is, where is such happiness to be found? Christ is the one who gives the answer. His answer is that happiness and joy will be yours if you follow him with all your heart and soul.
(E.J.Tyler)
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I repeat: to make fun of a Priest — no matter what the circumstances — is always, at best, a sign of coarseness and poor taste.
(The Way, no.70)
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What other kinds of grace are there?
Besides habitual grace, there are actual graces (gifts for specific circumstances), sacramental graces (gifts proper to each sacrament), special graces or charisms (gifts that are intended for the common good of the Church) among which are the graces of state that accompany the exercise of ecclesial ministries and the responsibilities of life. (CCC 1999-2000, 2003-2004, 2023-2024)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.424)
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Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time I
(May 30) Today let us think of St. Joan of Arc The Maid of Orleans was the daughter of a peasant, born in Domremy in Lorraine, in 1412. From the age of 13 she began hearing heavenly voices telling her to take up arms and lead the French army against the English who had invaded the country. She obtained an audience with the the Dauphin, Charles, and after a searching interview, he entrusted her with a staff of attendants and a suit of armour. They joined the army at Blois and ten days later routed the English who had been besieging Orleans. Further victories followed and Charles was crowned King at Rouen. However, Joan was captured by the Burgundians and handed over to the English. She was tried by a church court, presided over by the Bishop of Beauvais, on charges of witchcraft and heresy. During 15 sessions, St Joan defended herself and her 'heavenly voices'. She was condemned a a heretic and burnt at the stake in 1431. The case was tried again in 1456 and she was found innocent. After centuries of popular veneration she was canonised in 1920. St Joan was declared Patron of France in 1922. (Saints)
Scripture today: Sirach 36:1, 4-5a, 10-17; Psalm 79:8, 9, 11 and 13; Mark 10:32-45
The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him. “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise.” Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” He replied, ‘What do you wish me to do for you?” They answered him, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” They said to him, ‘We can.” Jesus said to them, “The chalice that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared.” When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John. Jesus summoned them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:32-45)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
During the last century and a half an enormous amount of field research and study has been done on the indigenous religions of the world, be they in Africa, Melanesia, Asia, North and South America, the Arctic, Australia, or wherever. I recall reading one anthropologist (Evans-Pritchard) asserting that a defining element in a primal religion is the way it deals with suffering and evil. That was an interesting insight and there is no doubt that it is a useful yardstick in the study of the religions of primal societies. It also brings
into relief the
perennial problem of suffering, a problem that has exercised the minds
of the founders of religions (notably Buddha) and even indigenous
peoples. On the face of it suffering bears with it little meaning. It
is just there and it is an enormous burden. Why is it there in human
life and, we might add, even in non-human life? I can think of one
great presenter of nature films who professed to have difficulty in
there being a God because of the cruelty and suffering he saw
everywhere in the animal kingdom. Suffering and pain is just there and
ultimately it seems to be unnecessary and meaningless. The final form
of suffering is that which is involved in death, and where does death
with its suffering lead to? Nothing much, might be the answer. It is
just like the black holes in the universe, it is a darkness. It is not
hard to understand why, in the absence of a foundation of acceptance of
religion, there have been philosophies in the modern era that speak of
ultimate absurdity. We aspire for happiness and glory, and yet what we
get is a lot of suffering and finally death. The Oxford evolutionary
biologist Richard Dawkins in his two part television series (Root of all Evil?),
in
putting his strident case for positive atheism (reflecting his book The
God Delusion),
stated that without
religion life becomes positively beautiful and challenging
precisely because this world is all we have. But in his series he
did not deal with the massive problem of evil and suffering. Let us turn to the words of the Teacher of mankind, Jesus Christ the Son of God made man. In our Gospel text today we read that “James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ He replied, ‘What do you wish me to do for you?’ They answered him, ‘Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left’.” Let us take their request as representing the aspirations of mankind for happiness and complete fulfilment - in a word, for glory. These hopes are implanted in the human heart, and such is how we are made. Our Lord’s two disciples had firmly grasped that ultimate happiness lay in being with Jesus in his happiness and glory. We are called to happiness and our happiness will be found with and in him. Their request represents a great insight into the human quest for happiness. It lies ultimately in being with Christ and in him. Our Lord’s reply to their question is mysterious, and yet so important if we are to follow the sure and true path to happiness and glory. He told his two ardent companions and disciples that they did not know what their request necessarily involved. They had no idea that it had to involve suffering. “Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?’” His “cup” would involve rejection, suffering and death. (Mark 10:32-45) This was his necessary “baptism”, but then there would be the glory. For his disciples to share in his glory they would have to drink his cup, the cup of his suffering. The bright note of this exchange in relation to the two disciples is our Lord’s confirmation to them that they would indeed drink his cup, and so share in his glory.
Our Lord does not explain why suffering with him is necessary for glory with him, but we have the great gain of knowing that it is necessary. It is not pointless, it is not meaningless, it is not just a useless burden. It will count enormously in the long run. If we put on the mind of Christ and suffer with him then we shall reign with him. The enormous and perennial problem of suffering in the world has been given a spectacular meaning. It contributes to the redemption and the glory of mankind. So then, whenever suffering comes our way, let us make use of it in Christ as something precious in God’s sight.
(E.J.Tyler)
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How we should admire sacerdotal purity! It is their treasure. No tyrant can ever wrest this crown from the Church.
(The Way, no.71)
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What is the relationship between grace and human freedom?
Grace precedes, prepares and elicits our free response. It responds to the deep yearnings of human freedom, calls for its cooperation and leads freedom toward its perfection. (CCC 2001-2002)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.425)
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Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary II
(Thursday of the eighth week of Ordinary Time)
(May 31) The visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This feast is celebrated between the solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord and the birth of John the Baptist, in conformity with the Gospel accounts. The visitation is the encounter between Mary and her kinswoman Elizabeth, the mother of St John the Baptist. Mary’s “Magnificat” is another testimony of her humility and greatness before God. Her readiness to serve Elizabeth is a good lesson on fraternal charity. (Saints)
Saint Petronilla Little is known about this early Roman martyr, except that she refused to marry a nobleman named Flaccus in the first century. He threatened to kill her but she died naturally after three days fasting. She was a member of the Domitilla family and was buried in their catacomb. During the eighth century her sarcophagus was moved to St Peter's. Her chapel there was later used by the kings of France and by the Popes who employed Michelangelo. Her image is often depicted in English mediaeval stained glass windows and screens. Her usual emblem is a set of keys. presumably borrowed from St Peter's. On this day, Mass is offered in the chapel for France and is attended by French residents in Rome. (Saints)
Scripture: Zephaniah 3:14-18a or Romans 12:9-16; Isaiah 12:2-3, 4bcd, 5-6; Luke 1:39-56
Mary set out and travelled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked with favour on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.” Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home. (Luke 1:39-56)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
Various prayers are given in the Holy Scriptures. There is the book of the Psalms, there are the prayers of various prophets and holy personages in the Old Testament, and there are various prayers given to us in the New Testament. Pride of place is occupied by the Prayer of the Lord Jesus which he gave to the disciples when they asked him to teach them to pray. Now, after the prayers of the Lord himself - prayers he himself prayed, and prayer that he taught to his disciples - we ought surely rank very highly indeed the
prayer of the mother of
the Lord. We have her prayer given to us by Luke in the gospel passage
of today in which he describes her visit to her kinswoman Elizabeth. Of
course, he must have received it from the Virgin Mary herself. I have
my own personal theory which of course is pure speculation. I suspect
that this prayer of Mary, which we traditionally call the Magnificat
(from the first word of the prayer in the Latin), was one of her
life-long prayers. Perhaps Mary gradually formed elements of it during
her childhood and youth as a result of her reading of the Scriptures.
It may have been a prayer of her inspired devising and which powerfully
came to its completion on the occasion of her Visitation. Perhaps it
left an indelible imprint on her memory and she was led to make it a
life-long prayer and which she gave to Luke when she told him of her
visit to Elizabeth. Whatever of that surmise, it is a very special
passage in
the New Testament. It gives us the prayer of Mary the Mother of God
following soon upon the Incarnation. It summarizes in broad strokes the
saving action of God in the Scriptures to that point and praises him
for what he has done and for what he is like. It tells us how this
uniquely privileged soul looked on the God of revelation. Many of the
psalms are prayers of praise. This has to be regarded as the greatest
of them if only in view of its author. Let us then consider Mary’s description of what the Lord God is like. God is the Lord. That is to say, he is the Lord God of Israel and she proclaims that he is great. Long before Islam, Mary and the prophets who preceded her proclaimed that God is great. God is great! This great God is her Saviour, and he has looked upon her who is his lowly handmaid. She describes herself as the lowly servant of the Lord God of Israel. He is the powerful one and does great things. There is nothing that he cannot do, and the great things he does he does for the lowly, having done great things for her. He is holy, and all through the Scriptures the Lord God is described as the Holy One who asks of his people that they be holy. He expects goodness of those who belong to him, for he is good. Our Lord would say to one questioner that no one is good but God alone. Mary looks upon God as the one who is holy and good. His greatness, his power and his goodness are manifested in his mercy for those who fear him: “He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.” While he is merciful to those who fear and acknowledge him, he resists and indeed overthrows the proud of heart. So he is a God who saves and a God who judges. He is strong for the humble and strong against the proud. Thrones cannot resist him, and the lowly find in him their salvation. “He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever” (Luke 1:39-56). Mary loves and venerates the Lord God of Israel and in very simple terms she praises and thanks him for all he has done for her and for her people. Its simplicity points towards the simplicity of the Lord’s prayer, and in a sense (so much like the psalms) it encapsulates the sweep of Revelation. God is a God rich in mercy and by his almighty power he saves.
As Mary prophesied in her prayer of today, all generations have called her blessed and will continue to do so. She is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of God made man. She is our mother in Christ and our unfailing help. Let us pray to her that she help us with her prayers now and at the hour of our death. Let us entrust ourselves to her entirely, asking that by her motherly prayer and constant example she form us into the likeness of her Son who is our saviour and hers.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Don't place a Priest in peril of losing his dignity. It is a virtue which, without being pompous, he simply must have.
How that young cleric — a friend of ours — prayed for it: 'Lord, grant me... eighty years of dignity!'
Pray for it for the whole Priesthood, and you will have done a good thing.
(The Way, no.72)
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What is merit?
In general merit refers to the right to recompense for a good deed. With regard to God, we of ourselves are not able to merit anything, having received everything freely from him. However, God gives us the possibility of acquiring merit through union with the love of Christ, who is the source of our merits before God. The merits for good works, therefore must be attributed in the first place to the grace of God and then to the free will of man. (CCC 2006-2010, 2025-2026)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.426)
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Friday of the eighth week Ordinary Time I
(June 1) Saint Justin, martyr. Born of a pagan family in Nablus in Samaria at the beginning of the second century. He was a philosopher and was a passionate searcher for the truth, which he found in Christ. On his conversion to the faith he wrote in defence of the Christian Faith, though the only works now extant are his two Apologies and his Dialogue addressed to Trypho. He opened a school in Rome and he took part in public disputations. He suffered a martyr’s death with his companions during the time of Marcus Aurelius, about the year 165. (Saints)
Let us also think of Saint Whyte This early British saint gave her name to, and is buried at Whitechurch Canonicorum, in Dorset (England). Her modest shrine, together with that of Edward the Confessor, are the only two to survive intact in England to this day. Very little is known about her. Some historians think she was a West Saxon, others say she may have been the Welsh saint Gwen, whose relics were given by St Athelstan to this church. William Worcestre and John Gerard both mention her relics. St Thomas More referred to the custom of offering cakes or cheese on her feast day. In 1990 her leaden coffin was opened. It was inscribed: Hic requiescunt reliquie Sancte Wite, and contained the bones of a small woman about 40 years old.
Scripture today: Sirach 44:1, 9-13; Psalm 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b; Mark 11:11-26
Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple area. He looked around at everything and, since it was already late, went out to Bethany with the Twelve. The next day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry. Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached it he found nothing but leaves; it was not the time for figs. And he said to it in reply, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!” And his disciples heard it. They came to Jerusalem, and on entering the temple area he began to drive out those selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area. Then he taught them saying, “Is it not written: My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples? But you have made it a den of thieves.” The chief priests and the scribes came to hear of it and were seeking a way to put him to death, yet they feared him because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching. When evening came, they went out of the city. Early in the morning, as they were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered to its roots. Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God. Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours. When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions.” (Mark 11:11-26)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
There is, of course, nothing more fundamental in religion than prayer. We could put it more plainly by saying that there is nothing more fundamental in life than prayer. Man is a rational animal, yes, but in our current intellectual climate a definition such as this can favour a
view of life that leaves
out God. Any militant atheist (such as the
contemporary Oxford campaigner for atheism, Richard Dawkins) would
happily accept that definition of man because usually the modern
atheist flaunts what he regards as his scientific rationality. But
prayer and religion? He would have none of it and would regard prayer
as an indulgence that diminishes a man’s rationality and so also his
humanity. Prayer is a crutch, a prop, a flight from a hands-on
involvement with life and the world. Such is the contemporary blindness
of many, and it is sadly fuelled by the irrationality of many forms of
religion. I would favour a definition of man which while placing at the
centre his rationality also includes his capacity for religion and,
more precisely, for prayer. Just as no mere animal reasons properly so
called, so too no mere animal prays. If for good philosophical reasons
we are to place man in the category of animal, then let us include
among his distinguishing characteristics not only his capacity to
reason but also his capacity to pray. Observe the discussions among
anthropologists and historians of culture. The religions of the
societies they investigate are at the centre of their deliberations.
Rituals, myths and temples are the stuff of their publications and
congresses. Where man has been, there religion has showed its lively
face. The voice of mankind would seem to suggest that if the life of
the reason is central to our humanity, so too is the life of prayer and
religion. Well then, what does Christ the redeemer of man say to us about prayer? We cannot take a single reference from the Gospels and consider it as providing a complete account of the teaching of revelation on prayer. But every reference is precious and, in fact, often surprising. Consider our Gospel passage for today (Mark 11:11-26). Our Lord enters Jerusalem and goes into the Temple area - and is obviously far from pleased. He leaves and returns the next day after having left a potent sign in his curse of the fig tree. He returns to cleanse the Temple forcibly of all that is not prayer and reverence for God. Christ is insisting with vigour and unyielding insistence on the profound reverence which man ought manifest publicly to God his Father. God our Father is a public fact and temples and churches attest to it. But all too often the reverence due to him in and out of our churches is lamentably lacking. We talk, we look around, we do many things on entering and passing our time there that are tantamount to irreverence and neglect of the Divine Presence therein. In every Catholic church where there is the Tabernacle, the great God abides. There God the Son made man and risen from the dead dwells, and where he is present the Father and the Holy Spirit abide also. How great ought be our reverence and how often ought we advert in a form of spiritual communion to the real presence of God there! But there is this too: not only is Christ ever present in the Blessed Sacrament, but he and the Father and the Holy Spirit dwell within the soul of the baptized person in the state of grace. If we are in the friendship of God by grace, the Holy Trinity dwells within. How great ought be our reverence and how genuine our life of prayer! As we think of Christ cleansing the Temple, let us resolve to stamp our life with prayer, and to make it prayer with genuine reverence filled with the thought of God.
Let us resolve to cultivate a life of genuine, reverent and loving prayer to God. God dwells within the baptized soul in the state of grace, and he abides within the Tabernacle where the Holy Eucharist is placed. Let our prayer of reverence be trusting and confident, and let us bring to God our Father all our needs, knowing that - as our Lord plainly teaches in our text today - that he will hear our prayers. He is our Father, we are his children.
(E.J.Tyler)
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It cut you to the heart to hear people say that you had spoken badly of those Priests. And I am glad that it hurt: for now I am sure you have the right spirit!
(The Way, no.73)
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What are the goods that we can merit?
Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods, suitable for us, can be merited in accordance with the plan of God. No one, however, can merit the initial grace which is at the origin of conversion and justification. (CCC 2010-2011, 2027)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.427)
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Saturday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time I
(June 2) Saints Marcellinus and Peter, martyrs. The account of the death of these two martyrs, who died in the persecution of Diocletian, comes from Pope Damasus who in turn obtained it from the executioner. They were beheaded in a wood and then buried in the cemetery called The Two Laurels on the Via Labicana. When peace came to the Church a basilica was erected over their tomb. Their names are included in the Roman Canon (First Eucharistic Prayer). (Saints)
Saint Erasmus, popularly known as St Elmo, this early saint was Bishop of Formiae in Italy. When the Christians were being persecuted under Emperor Diocletian according to legend, he took refuge on Mt Lebanon, living on food brought to him by birds. He was captured and suffered horrendous tortures before he managed to escape and began boldly preaching again. He was recaptured in Illyricum, tortured again, and finally killed in 303. His symbol is a windlass used to lift a ship's anchor. St Elmo is the patron saint of sailors. St Elmo's Fire - a electrical phenomenon that sometimes appears on ship's mastheads after a storm, is named after him. For centuries the parish church of Faversham in Kent had an altar dedicated to St Erasmus with lights provided by legacies. Several alabastar carvings, and paintings of him by Grunwald, Cranach and Dirk Bouts survive to this day, as does a sculpture of the saint in the chapel of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey. (Saints)
Scripture today: Sirach 51:12 cd-20; Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11; Mark 11:27-33
Jesus and his disciples returned once more to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple area, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders approached him and said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them?” Jesus said to them, “I shall ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin? Answer me.” They discussed this among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘Of human origin’?”– they feared the crowd, for they all thought John really was a prophet. So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.” Then Jesus said to them, “Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.” (Mark 11:27-33)
If you wish to view a video broadcast of the following reflection on today's Gospel, click here
It is very clear from the Gospels that a striking feature of our Lord’s person and public ministry was the very authority he displayed and exercised. We could say that during the brief span of his ministry there was a time when no one in the nation commanded the spiritual authority he did. At his first appearance on the scene in a public sense, the prophet John pointed to him as the one who was to come - and that was
before he began to show
his qualities and prowess. The people marvelled at the authority
he displayed over the demons who seemed to be in abundance at the time
of Christ (and what book of the bible outside the Gospels shows them to
be so active?). His disciples wondered at who this man could be who
commanded the wind and the sea and it obeyed him. He cured the sick, he
raised the dead, he pronounced unhesitatingly on the important things
of the Law and on the meaning of the Scriptures. He set himself above
Moses and the prophets (“there is a greater than
Solomon...(and) Jonah
here!”). He taught new
doctrine (“but I say to you...”). Without
official authorisation he cleansed the Temple. He claimed an authority
no one
else had claimed, and he acted on it by backing it up with incomparable
miracles. He calmly and unhesitatingly forgave sins and immediately
backed up his authority to do this by working an astounding miracle in
the sight of all. There was also the authority of his very holiness and
he claimed to be holy: “Can any of you convict me of sin?”, and “I
always do what pleases him (i.e., the Father)”. Most significantly he
made claims about himself that had no precedent in the experience of
the religious authorities and mysteriously put himself on a par with
God his Father. But in due course our Lord was rejected by many. One of his own chosen apostles, selected deliberately out of the body of his disciples to be one of the Twelve, spectacularly left and betrayed him and then came to a bad and tragic end. When our Lord preached his doctrine of the Eucharist, we are told by John (ch.6) that many of his disciples left him - it was too much for them, they said. In fact our Lord’s authority was not accepted by the body of the nation’s religious leaders. In our Gospel today (Mark 11:27-33) they come to him and demand to know the basis of his authority to say and do what he was doing. He could see it was useless to explain this to them for they would not believe: he pointed to the testimony of John asking them about his authority. But they evaded his question. Now, what does this refusal on their part to accept the authority and revelation of Christ remind us of? It reminds us that no matter what steps God takes to provide signs of his action and revelation, we must be disposed and ready to receive them. We must be disposed to seek conscientiously to know the truth that has been revealed from on high, and to assent to it generously. At root the problem for man is the disposition of his will, the direction of his fundamental free choice and preference. He is responsible for the goodness of his choices and the most serious of his choices is what he takes to be the truth. That is not to say that at any one point we are responsible for not having attained the full truth that has been revealed by God. But we are responsible for our desire to know it and our readiness to accept it as it comes to us in the Scriptures and in the teaching of the Church he founded and of which he is the living head.
The scribes and elders of our passage today showed they did not desire to know the truth and were not ready to accept it. In our own way we can be like them and if we are then the response of Christ will be similar to his response to them. He will not favour us with more of his light and his grace. As he said to them at their negative reply to him, “Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.” (Mark 11:27-33) Let us pray for the gift of a very great faith in Jesus and a constant readiness to accept and assent to his word.
(E.J.Tyler)
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“On what authority are you doing these things?” (Mark 11:27-33)
Saint Hilary (315-367), Bishop of Poitiers, Doctor of the Church (De Trinitate,VII, 26-27)
He really does belong to the Father, this Son who is like him. He comes from him, this Son who can be compared to him, for he is like him. He is his equal, this Son who accomplishes the same works as he (Jn 5:36)… Yes, the Son accomplishes the Fathers’ works; and he asks us to believe that he is the Son of God. In so doing, he is not assuming a title to which he has no right; he is not basing his claim on his own works. No! He bears witness to the fact that these are not his own works, but those of his Father. And he thus testifies that the brilliance of his actions comes to him from his divine birth. But how could men have been able to recognize in him the Son of God, in the mystery of this body, which had taken on, in this man born of Mary? The Lord accomplished all those works so that faith in him could penetrate their hearts. “If I perform the works of my Father, even though you put no faith in me, put faith in these works.” (Jn 10:38)
If the humble condition of his body seems to be an obstacle to believing in his word, he asks us to believe at least in his works. For why should the mystery of his human birth prevent us from perceiving his divine birth? … “If you do not want to believe in me, believe in my works so as to know and to acknowledge that the Father is in me and I in the Father.”…
Such is the nature which he has by birth; such is the mystery of a faith which will ensure salvation for us: not to divide those who are one, not to deprive the Son of his nature, and to proclaim the truth of the Living God born of the Living God… “Just as the Father who has life sent me, so I have life because of the Father.” (Jn 6:57) “Just as the Father possesses life in himself, so has he granted it to the Son to have life in himself.” (Jn 5:26)
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)
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To love God and not venerate his Priests... is not possible.
(The Way, no.74)
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Are all called to Christian holiness?
All the faithful are called to Christian holiness. This is the fullness of Christian life and the perfection of charity and it is brought about by intimate union with Christ and, in him, with the most Holy Trinity. The path to holiness for a Christian goes by way of the cross and will come to its fulfilment in the final resurrection of the just, in which God will be all in all. (CCC 2012-2016, 2028-2029)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.428)
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