At the start of the new year the Church immediately
presents
us with a human being who has what could only be considered as
unimaginable
dignity. Who would have thought it possible that one of us could be the
Mother of the great God, while of course being his creature? Yet so it
is. Yet Mary not only has this dignity, but she unique gifts of
holiness
which make her a truly worthy Mother of God - and a wonderful mother of
us. God is all-holy, and so is his Mother - he without limit, she
within
limits as is necessary for a creature.
Now, is there any key we can take up at the
beginning
of the year to help us understand how Mary lived out this all-holy
motherhood
that was hers. This is important for we are her children, and we are
called
to imitate her. St Luke gives us that key in today's Gospel passage
(Luke
2: 16-21). "As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered
them
in her heart." All that God had said and done was received into
the
mind and heart of Mary as the one immense treasure she lived for. All
else
derived its place and importance from what God said, did, and wanted.
She
heart the word of God, received it as the greatest of treasures, the
one
true pearl of great price, and put it into practice perfectly in her
seemingly
ordinary life. She is our mother of the ordinary life.
Let us have as our aim this year to imitate Mary,
the
perfect disciple of her divine Son.
(E.J.Tyler)
Are you not moved to hear some affectionate word
addressed
to your mother? The same thing happens to Our Lord. We cannot separate
Jesus from his Mother.
(The Forge,
no.243)
The word Epiphany means manifestation. It refers to
Christ
being manifested to the world, as symbolised in the wise men from the
East.
It is part fulfilment of what the prophet Isaiah speaks of in the first
reading, that “though night still covers the earth and darkness the
peoples,
... the nations come to your light and kings to your dawning
brightness.”
Today we think of how Christ is God’s gift to man and his answer to
man’s
most profound problems. Let me mention but one.
The past week has been filled with the
immense
tragedy of the earthquake under the sea that caused such a vast loss of
life in Asia. Among other things it provoked a debate in the papers -
for
instance, in the Sydney Morning Herald - as to the very existence of
God.
If there is a God, he must be almighty and all-loving. But if God
allows
such a thing, how could he be loving? Or, if he cannot stop it, how can
he be all-powerful? Now of course, we cannot understand why God allowed
such a thing to happen, but let us remember that there are great and
hidden
evils going on all the time. While over 100,000 will have died from the
recent tsunami, let us remember that there are about 100,000 abortions
every year in Australia alone, not considering the abortions of
numerous
other countries of the world. Why does God allow so many people to
perform
these abortions? Why does God allow so many other forms of suffering
and
evil? We cannot possibly know, because of the limitations of our minds.
God’s reasons are far beyond our capacity.
And let us remember why evil entered
the
world. It did not come from God. St Paul says that sin entered the
world
through one man and with sin death, and death has spread to the whole
human
race. So everything that has any connection with death ultimately,
mysteriously,
somehow, springs from man’s sin. Somehow the immense and perennial
disharmony
between man and his world resulting in the world mistreating man, and
man
mistreating the world, derives from sin, man’s original sin. How this
is
so, is not revealed to us, but at least it does show how serious
deliberate
sin is, if sin could have had this effect. So we should strive to have
nothing to do with sin. Moreover, the recent vast earthquake ought also
remind us of the moral earthquake, the moral disharmony, within man
himself.
It too is due to man’s sin. Man’s urges, desires and drives, his anger,
his lust, his sloth, his pride, continually rise up in rebellion
against
what he knows to be right. Repeatedly those sinful decisions overthrow
and destroy him.
But let us turn to Christ, and let us invite
the
world look at him, taking our cue from the wise men from the East who
came
to reverence Him. If we want light on the mysteries of life, look at
him
and ask for his light. Why did Christ himself have to suffer?
Repeatedly
our Lord said to his disciples that he had to suffer if he was to
fulfil
his mission and enter into his glory. No one’s suffering was equal to
his
because he was atoning for the sins of the whole world. Why did the
Father
allow this to happen, that his own Son, equal to himself in glory and
divinity,
should be made to suffer as he did? We are not told. It is a mystery.
But
what we are told is that out of that suffering came the redemption of
the
human race. So God brings unimagined good out of terrible evil -
provided
we take our cue from Christ and strive to do God’s will no matter what
it might cost. Otherwise evil will lead to more evil. In the midst of
evil
we must be Christ-like.
Why did God even allow the world to continue,
so
profoundly affected as it was by man’s sin, and alienated its all-good
Creator? Why did God not just start again? We do not know - presumably
it was due to God’s undying respect for man’s free decisions, with all
their consequences. But what we do know is that God is continually
working
to bring immense good out of the evil that ultimately comes from man.
Gazing
on the life and figure of Christ can help us appreciate this. When,
therefore,
we experience evils in our lives, and when vast sections of mankind
experience
evil, we can be sure that God is working to bring good out of that
evil.
But the one condition for this to happen is that, when evil comes our
way,
we try to do God’s will. Let us make Christ the source of our light
and
life, and offer him to the world as the light of every man. Let us by
our
daily lives offer him to others as did Mary and Joseph to the Magi.
(E.J.Tyler)
When you find yourself worn out or fed up, go and
confide
in Our Lord, as that good friend of ours did, and say: “Jesus, see what
you can do about it. Even before I begin to struggle, I am already
tired.”
He will give you his strength.
(The Forge, no.244)
Immediately following on the manifestation of the
infant
Messiah to the wise men of the East, the Church takes us to the
manifestation
of the Messiah at the beginning of his public ministry in Galilee. It
is
part fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah predicting that the Galilee
of
the nations, the Galilee that is made up of various nations, would see
a great light. This in its turn presages the light of Christ being
brought
to all the nations.
So we are reminded today that Christ is the light of
the
world - not just of Catholics, not just of Christians, but of every
human
being. This is perhaps particularly difficult for our age to see,
conscious
as we are of various cultures, various religions, and various great
religious
leaders in history. We claim that Christ is the one light that takes us
to the Father. He who sees me, sees the Father, he said. He claimed to
be the light of the world, and that anyone who did not follow him
walked
in the dark.
But there is more. Christ is not just a great figure
of
the past, whose past teaching is the light of every man in the way that
the teaching of Socrates or Plato may be claimed to be. No, Christ is a
living person who can be located, approached, and entered into
communion
with. His voice and ongoing teaching as applied to the issues of each
generation
can be identified. There is a living oracle, uttering his teaching.
Where
is it? It is in the Catholic Church, of which he is the Founder and
living
Head. We are his members, and the pope is his visible vicar.
Let us live by the living light that is Christ, and
bring
it to others.
(E.J.Tyler)
A task which presents no difficulties lacks human
appeal
- and supernatural appeal too. If you find no resistance when hammering
a nail into a wall, what can you expect to hang on to it?
(The Forge, no.245)
St Mark tells us that when Our Lord saw the large
crowd,
he took pity of them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Let
us consider that divine view on man - the crowd before him representing
mankind. Mankind is like sheep without a shepherd.
As we think of the various systems of human thought
and
the history of man’s religions, it is obvious - when set against what
God
has actually revealed - how far from the truth mankind tends to go, and
has actually gone. There is of course much that is true in what man has
attained in his intellectual search, his culture and his religions. But
there is great and important error too. It is a lesson to us on the
depth
of our need for God the Good Shepherd, revealed as such in Christ.
Now, Christ is the answer to this need of mankind.
He
is the Shepherd, and he looks with compassion on our need. He will feed
us with what we need if we turn to him and do his will. God wants us
this
year to make Christ the Shepherd whom we consistently follow, and whom
we lead others to follow.
Let there be nothing and no one who takes this place
from
Christ in our life.
(E.J.Tyler)
It seems incredible that a man like you - who say
you
know you’re nothing - should dare to place obstacles in the way of
doing
God’s grace. Yet this is what you’re doing with your false humility,
your
“objectivity”, your pessimism.
(The Forge, no.246)
There are various ambitions that can take hold of
us,
consciously or not. We can be possessed by the hope of having revenge
for
some past wrong. Our ambition could be material security, success in
career,
or whatever. In his first Letter, St John tells us (ch.4: 11-18) that
since
God has loved us so much, we too should love one another. So our
ambition
in life should be to be filled with the thought of God’s love for us,
and
in view of that to love one another. If we do this God will be living
in
us, and we in him. Our idea of human perfection ought be the perfection
of God’s love in us, leading us to strive to love others to perfection.
This is to be lived out in the commonplace details
of
daily life that we see described in today’s Gospel passage (Mark 6:
45-52)
- the crowds eating, the disciples going into their boats to row across
to the other side. There will be difficulties and storms, but Christ
will
always be near, coming towards us, saying to us, “Courage, it is I. Do
not be afraid.”
Let us set out on the daily path of love,
determining
to live it to perfection.
(E.J.Tyler)
Lord, grant me the grace to give up everything that
has
to do with myself. I should have no other concern than your Glory - in
other words your Love. Everything for Love!
(The Forge, no.247)
Many people believe in God, and believe in him with
passion.
Many do not believe in h im, and perhaps a much greater number are
indifferent.
But I think we can say that almost all believe in true selfless love -
its goodness and reality, when seen, is almost self evident. This is
so,
especially when it is a question of love for those in need. Consider
the
example of Mother Teresa, recognised universally as one who dedicated
her
life to the love of t hose in need. She showed true love for one’s
brother
- what St John is referring to in his first Letter.
There are various ways this love for one’s brother
can
be lived out - in direct service of hte poor, or bringing the light of
Christ and Christian teaching to others, including the young. But
whatever
is the field, it is this love which when present manifests and proves
the
presence of the love of God. God’s existence becomes more manifest
through
the selfless love of the one who believes in him. If during our life we
are endeavouring to grow in our love for God by fidelity to various
practices
of piety - essential as they certainly are - and show little love for
others,
then St John tells us that our love for God is very poor indeed. Our
Lord
in his description of the Last Judgment (Matthew 25) makes this
abundantly
clear.
This is why our daily work has an essential place in
our
Christian life. It is by means of our work that we serve others in
justice
and charity. Our work is a most important means of personal
sanctification
- as it is a most important means whereby we contribute to the
sanctification
of others. Let us so work that we sanctify the work itself, and
ourselves
in the process, and also the ones for whom we do our work. The key to
the
doing of this is to do it with real love.
(E.J.Tyler)
“When Herod heard this,” (that the King had come to
this
earth), “he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” This is an
everyday
occurrence. We see the same thing happening now. In the face of God’s
greatness,
which shows itself in a thousand ways, there are always some people -
sometimes
even in positions of authority - who are troubled. It’s because they do
not love God; because they have no real wish to meet him; because they
don’t want to follow his inspirations, and so they become obstacles in
God’s path. Be forewarned; carry on working and don’t worry. Seek the
Lord
and pray - he will triumph.
(The Forge, no.248)
Christ’s love and power to remove the root
of
evil
(Luke
5: 12-16)
In our simple Gospel event today (Luke 5: 12-16),
given
to us during the octave of the Epiphany,
something very special is manifested about our Lord.
The leper presented himself to our Lord and said, “Sir, if you want to
you can cure me.” Our Lord said, “Of course I want to, be cured!” So
our
Lord’s desire to cure him, to bring him life in abundance, was
manifested.
Our Lord showed forth both his love and his power.
The Gospels are written to reveal the mind and heart
of
Christ and to show that he is the Son of God and Saviour of the world.
He took away some of the evils afflicting some people - those who asked
him with faith, and some others besides. But they were signs of who he
was, signs of his true work, signs of the truth of his claims about his
person and his mission. They were not his full and distinct mission -
but
means of inviting us to absolute faith in him. The overwhelming number
of evils in the world at the time our Lord lived remained untouched by
our Lord - the sicknesses, the deaths, wars, tyranny, and so forth.
Rather,
he attacked and broke the power of the root of the world’s evils - sin.
This is what he came to take away.
When we experience evils of one kind or another we
ought,
yes, go to our Lord and ask him persistently and with faith that he
take
away that evil. But for his own infinitely wise reasons he just may not
- even though he certainly wants us to go to him with our burden.
Christ’s
concern is above all with the root of evil, sin in our life and in the
lives of all others. It is this evil which we must with his help uproot
and replace with life, life in abundance, the life of Christ himself.
(E.J.Tyler)
You are not alone. Neither you nor I can ever
find
ourselves alone. And even less if we go to Jesus through Mary, for she
is a Mother who will never abandon us.
(The Forge, no.249)
John the Evangelist had been a disciple of John the
Baptist,
and he tells us in this Gospel passage (John 3: 22-30) how significant
his spiritual master at the time regarded the arrival on the scene of
Jesus.
Jesus was the bridegroom: “The bride is only for the bridegroom; and
yet
the bridegroom’s friend who stands there and listens is glad when he
hears
the bridegroom’s voice. This same joy I feel, and now it is complete.
He
must grow greater, I must grow smaller.” Jesus was the bridegroom, the
people of Israel the bride. He was only the friend of the bridegroom.
John’s
words bespeak the greatness of Jesus and the humility of John.
The Old Testament prophets spoke of God being the
bridegroom
of the people, the people’s husband. Our Lord would refer to himself as
the bridegroom and his disciples as the bridegroom’s attendants. St
Paul
would refer to Christ as the bridegroom of the Church.
So, Christ is the Bridegroom - our all, the object
of
our love and our life, both individually and as the Church. Let us give
ourselves and our all to him unreservedly. Our heart ought belong to
him
in everything we do - as to God for his is God. Let us live our this
fidelity
in the little ordinary duties of everyday life, thus making of our
ordinary
lives something truly grand.
(E.J.Tyler)
Don’t give way to sadness when it feels as if the
Lord
has given up on you. Seek him with greater determination. He who is
Love
does not leave you on your own. Be convinced that “he has left you on
your
own” out of Love, so that you may see clearly in your life what is his
and what is yours.
(The Forge, no.250)
Today we think of our Lord’s baptism in the
Jordan,
and the public revelation of the Blessed Trinity. The Son is baptised
by
John and thus unites himself in a public way with sinful humanity. The
Holy Spirit descends on him to empower his humanity for his mission to
redeem sinful mankind. The Father declares from heaven that Jesus is
his
beloved Son in whom he is well pleased. Many things are brought home to
us by contemplating this event, but I invite you to consider in a
special
way the words uttered by the Father. This is my beloved Son. The
Father’s
words not only revealed who Jesus was. They also told us who the Father
is - namely that he is precisely the Father. We ought remember this in
the midst of everything in life.
Our Lord’s baptism was a forerunner of our
own
baptism when the Holy Spirit comes upon us and we are granted a share
in
our Lord’s sonship. We become adopted sons of God, and at the moment of
our baptism the Father says of us, this is my adopted son in whom I am
well pleased. All our sins, original and personal, are taken away and
we
are left filled with the holiness given to us by the gift of the Holy
Spirit.
Sadly, subsequent to our baptism we fall into sin, but we have the
Sacrament
of Penance to enable us to regain and to grow in the grace of
holiness
given to us at our baptism. Our vocation from the moment of our baptism
is a calling to personal holiness. If we fail to take up that call, our
life is a failure and a tragedy.
Holiness consists in living consistently and
with
generosity one’s life as a child of God. Because of our baptism we are
called to live for God as our Father, and we ought be filled with the
conviction
that God is our Father, our Father who loves us more than we can
possibly
imagine. He is the Father of all mankind, a loving Father, the Father
of
our Lord Jesus Christ who said, he who sees me sees the Father. If you
want to know what God is like, our Lord says, look at me and think of
what
I am like, meek and humble of heart, and full of compassion.
This must be our attitude to God all through
life,
in good times and bad, times of blessing and times of tragedy. For the
past two weeks the news has been full of the effects of the tremendous
earthquake under the sea in Asia. The present figure of deceased seems
to be about 160,000. In the newspapers have appeared articles wondering
about the very existence of God - how could God have permitted this
evil
to happen. We cannot know why he permitted it to happen, but St Paul
tells
us in his letter to the Romans that through man, one man, sin entered
the
world and with sin came death, and death has spread through the whole
human
race. So death comes ultimately from the sin of man, man’s original sin
compounded by the unimaginable number of personal sins. Evil comes from
sin, somehow. God respects the freedom he gave to man, but he is
our
Father, and is constantly working to draw tremendous good out of evil.
While we consider the tsunami and its
terrible
effects, we cannot but notice what is happening in its aftermath. There
has been a vast outpouring of funds and charity to help the peoples of
Asia. The world is coming together in a way not often seen. Australia
has
offered one billion dollars, and is on the verge of a wonderful
collaboration
with Indonesia. Perhaps, only perhaps, we see God drawing great good
out
of the evil that came, an evil that God did not want, but which he
allowed
for it is a world dislocated profoundly by the sin of man. God is
mankind’s
Father. And when we think of all those who lost their lives, perhaps
one
might presume that before the terrible waves came, God was caring
mightily
with his grace for those who were soon to lose their lives. Perhaps too
their lost lives, preceding a great good that God would draw from the
tragedy,
derived value in God’s sight from that future good. God may have
mercifully
rewarded many of them accordingly. In any case we ought remember
constantly
that God is our Father, while we pray for the immortal souls of the
deceased,
and help those who survived.
Let us all our lives regard God, the Lord of
heaven
and of earth, as our Father who looks with love on us his little ones
no
matter what may happen to us. Let us day by day trust him, endeavouring
to serve him humbly and obediently as his children, seeking true
holiness.
(E.J.Tyler)
You said to me: “I seem not only unable to go ahead
along
my way, but also unable to be saved without a miracle of grace. Oh, my
poor soul! I remain cold and, what is worse, almost indifferent. It’s
as
if I were an outsider looking at ‘a case’ (mine) which had nothing to
do
with him. Will these days turn out to be completely futile? And
nevertheless,
my Mother is my Mother and Jesus is - dare I say it? - my Jesus. And
there
are good and saintly souls, at this very moment, praying for me.”
Go on walking hand in hand
with
your Mother. I replied, and “dare” to say to Jesus that he is yours. In
his goodness he will bring clear light to your soul.
(The Forge, no.251)
Our Lord began his public ministry by calling on all
his
hearers to repent, for the Kingdom of God was near at hand. It is not
at
all difficult to fail to see how important these words are not only in
order to receive Christ for the first time - and the Kingdom of God is
present in Christ - but how important they are in order to grow in the
life of Christ. As St Josemaria Escriva once said, it is not hard to
begin
- it is easy. The important thing is to continue with consistency.
To grow in the life of Christ we must grow in the
spirit
of repentance. This means learning to repent every day, to recognise
our
sins of each day and of the past, and truly to repent of them. It means
growing in the capacity to repent very sincerely every time we go to
Confession
- every Confession ought involve a conversion, and it should be
frequent
and regular.
In particular it means recognising the deliberate
venial
sins of our life, and genuinely repenting of them. We ought confess
them
with the awareness that being deliberate they offend God. If we are to
grow in holiness, we must firmly resolve to avoid deliberate venial
sin.
For this kind of spirit of repentance, we need the grace of God. So we
ought pray to the Holy Spirit for this grace to attain a sensitive
conscience,
for the grace to make a careful and heartfelt examination of conscience
repeatedly and regularly, and then for the grace to turn away from
deliberate
venial sin. Repentance must be a life-long feature of ordinary life.
(E.J.Tyler)
Grant me, Jesus, the Cross with no Simon of Cyrene
to
help me. No, that’s not right; I need your grace, I need your help here
as in everything. You must be my Simon of Cyrene. With you, my God, no
trial can daunt me. But what if my Cross should consist in boredom or
sadness?
In that case I say to you, Lord, with You I would gladly be sad.
(The Forge, no.252)
Christ strong and suffering
(Mark 1:21-28; Hebrews 2:5-12)
What is the impression of our Lord conveyed in
today’s
Gospel passage (Mark 1:21-28)? It is surely one of great and holy
strength.
Our Lord is one with effortless authority and power, power directed
against
the sources of evil and error. He made a deep impression because
“unlike
the scribes, he taught them with authority”, and “he gives orders even
to unclean spirits and they obey him.”
But let us bear in mind what the passage from
the
Letter to the Hebrews (2:5-12) emphasises: “it was appropriate that
God,
for whom everything exists and through whom everything exists, should
make
perfect, through suffering, the leader who would take them to their
salvation.”
Our Lord, humanly speaking, was brought to his peak, brought to
perfection,
through suffering. This is how his power would be used. Powerful though
he was, he passed through the way of suffering.
So then, mysteriously for all of us, whether we are
great
or small, strong or weak, whatever be our talents or situation,
suffering
is the path to perfection and salvation - for Christ is our “leader”.
When
suffering and difficulty comes our way, suffering that offers no
alternative,
we must believe its capacity for fruitfulness. There is in it, because
of Christ our “leader”, that which will redound to our own good and
through
us to others. This it will be if we go through it with Christ.
Let us learn from the all-powerful Jesus the
fruitfulness
of the Cross. It can sanctify us.
(E.J.Tyler)
Christ now the Lord of Death
(Mark 1:29-39; Hebrews 2:14-18)
St Paul says in his letter to the Romans that sin
entered
the world through one man and with sin death. In our passage from the
Letter
to the Hebrews today (Hebrews 2:14-18) the inspired author says that
the
devil had, prior to Christ, “power over death”. Presumably this means
that
the death which entered the world as a result of sin was rendered the
domain
of Satan. As such it characteristically kept men from God both in the
experience
of it and in its upshot. By sin, Satan gained the lordship over death.
Death offered little hope and was naturally to be feared.
But Christ by his own death took away this
domain
from the devil. He took away all the devil’s power and set free all
those
who had been held in slavery by the fear of death - especially by the
fear
of what death contained. Death and what leads to it now is laden with
grace
and the presence of God, so that men need have no fear of it (provided
they receive into their hearts the Good News). It is now, thanks to
Christ,
a path to very great union with God and abundant life, both in the
experience
of it and in its upshot. It is not something to be feared, rather it
offers
a great good if passed through in union with Christ. Christ is now the
lord of life and of death.
All this is suggested in Christ’s constant
healings
and exorcisms, as we read in today’s Gospel: “He went to her, took her
by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to
wait on them. That evening after sunset they brought to him all who
were
sick and those who were possessed by devils (Mark 1:29-39).” This
ministry
was as sign pointing to Christ’s victory over death and Satan in his
own
passing through the gates of death to glory.
Let us choose to follow Christ in dying to
self
daily, and resolving to die with him at our death.
(E.J.Tyler)
Jesus will refuse a word to no one, and his words
bring
healing, they console, they bring light. This is what you and I have to
remember at all times, especially when we find ourselves tired and
weighed
down by work or opposition.
(The Forge, no.254)
The inspired author of Hebrews (3:7-14) reminds h is
reader
of what the Holy Spirit says: “If only you would listen to him today;
do
not harden your hearts, as happened in the Rebellion, on the Day of
Temptation
in the wilderness”. This “today” is every day of our lives - our whole
life - but consider how especially it means today, this very day - the
present that is actually with us. Our Lord once said, do not worry
about
tomorrow, today has enough to consider and to deal with. Seek first the
Kingdom of God and all these other things will be given to you.
So the great challenge is to make the very best of
today,
of the present, while learning of course from the past and planning
properly
for the future. All that we can concretely deal with is the actual
present,
the today that God has graciously granted us. The one thing that is in
our hands is the day we are actually living.
This means giving entirely to God our whole being
this
day, our prayers, thoughts, works, joys and sufferings. Our Morning
Offering
is very, very important. It means resisting the hardening of our hearts
by the lure of sin - today, as the inspired passage from Hebrews warns
us. Every day we must fight sin, deliberate venial sins of thought,
word
and deed, for it is only by renouncing sin that we can remain united to
Christ. But it is today that we must do this. We profit from the past
by
living fully in union with Christ - today, by fulfilling as well as
possible
the duties of today. We prepare for the future, especially for the
great
future hour of our death, by living in union with Christ now, today.
Our treasure and our gift is the present, today. Let
us
live it as if it is all we have.
(E.J.Tyler)
Don’t expect people’s applause for your work. What
is
more, sometimes you mustn’t even expect other people and institutions,
who like you are working for Christ, to understand you. Seek only the
glory
of God and, while loving everyone, don’t worry if there are some who
don’t
understand you.
(The Forge, no.255)
Our passage from Hebrews begins with a sharp
directive:
“Be careful.” We are promised a place of rest with God in heaven. So,
the
Letter tells us, “none of you must think that he has come too late for
it.” This is a very consoling thought in more ways than one, whatever
be
our age in life. Virtually all our lives we may have wanted to serve
God
and have been trying to do this in our own way. But looking back one
may
have to recognise that one has been guilty of many imprudences and
infidelities.
However, whatever about the past, we are now in the present and the
past
is behind. The Letter tells us that we have not come too late for what
God wants for us. So then, let us begin again, hoping and trusting in
God.
Now I begin!
But while we are granted the opportunity and grace
of
a new start in the present, the precious present, let us take note of
the
sombre warning of the Letter. We must now “do everything we can
to
reach this place of rest, or some of you might copy this example of
disobedience
and be lost.” Let us then do our best, doing everything we can each day
to reach our heavenly homeland.
Now I begin! I will do my very best, whatever be my
past.
(E.J.Tyler)
If there are mountains in the way, obstacles,
misunderstandings,
backbiting, which Satan seeks and God allows, you must have faith,
faith
with deeds, faith with sacrifice, faith with humility.
(The Forge, no.256)
Our passage today from the Letter to the Hebrews
tells
us that “Since in Jesus, the son of God, we have the supreme high
priest
who has gone through to the highest heaven, we must never let go of the
faith that we have professed”. Now there are many ways we can let go of
our Faith. For instance, we can simply fail to nourish it by not
keeping
to a proper plan of life of prayer, spiritual reading, sacraments, and
so forth. But I would especially mention the danger to one’s faith in
allowing
occasions of sin, in particular temptations against belief in Faith’s
dogmas.
Temptations of this kind are especially prevalent
today
when liberalism in religion is assumed to be an intellectual virtue.
They
can come in the media, in books, conversations, or whatever. For
instance,
there have been many recent Compass programmes on TV suggesting extreme
interpretations of the Scriptures (the role of Mary Magdalene, and
other
issues). To look at such programmes without a serious purpose and an
attitude
of vigilance lays one’s imagination open to corrupting influences.
Every
aspect of our being, especially our imagination, ought be fortified in
the direction of a strong Catholic belief that will support the call to
holiness. There are many books and novels (eg., the Da Vinci Code) that
insinuate doubts about the faith in gripping ways.
All these are occasions of sin of the most serious
sort
because they can lead to secret scepticism and unbelief. We must do all
we can never to “let go of the faith we have professed”, rather believe
with all our heart in the Christ proclaimed constantly by the Church.
(E.J.Tyler)
Faced by apparent sterility in your apostolate you
begin
to detect the first waves of discouragement, which your faith rejects
quite
firmly. But you realise that you need a more humble, lively and
operative
faith. As someone who longs to bring health to your souls, you should
cry
out like the father of that sick boy possessed by the devil: Lord, help
my unbelief! Have no doubt: the miracle will be performed again.
(The Forge, no.257)
Sin and Sanctity (1
Corinthians
1:1-3) (John 1:29-34)
My dear friends, there have been many utopian
dreams
of improving the world and ridding it of its evils. There is the dream
of ridding the world of poverty. There is the dream of ridding the
world
of ignorance and of illiteracy. There is the dream of ridding the world
of tyranny and political oppression. There is the dream of ridding the
world of wars, of ethnic strife and bloodshed, and of establishing
peace
on earth.
There is the dream of ridding the world of disease
and
ill health. There are so many things we would love to see the world rid
of. But there is one great evil that we never seem to see discussed in
the public domain. Nor is it publicly recognised as a great objective
evil.
Large numbers would regard its existence as a purely subjective
opinion.
Yet it is at the root of almost every other evil from which man suffers
either directly or indirectly. I am referring to the evil of sin, the
sin
of the world. How different things would be were there no sin. Yet our
culture and much of mankind does not even recognise the reality of sin,
nor its evil. One of the things we must try to regain is a proper sense
of sin.
Sin is the rebellion of man against his
Maker,
a disobedience that is secret, private, and yet often very public.
There
is nothing more catastrophic than to rebel against God deliberately, no
matter how minor the deliberate disobedience may be whether it be of
thought,
word or deed. The other evils I have already mentioned do not compare
with
the evil of sin, the evil of rebellion and defiance against the one on
whom we constantly depend for our entire ongoing existence. Over the
course
of human history various kinds of evil have afflicted different people
- some have endured poverty, others ignorance, others oppression,
others
not. But the entire human race has been afflicted by sin. It is handed
on to all. We are all born into it. The first human pair rebelled
against
God and the result was horrendous and reaches every descendant of Adam.
The human condition became one of separation from God and of moral
dislocation.
It is this broken and wounded condition, the result of the original sin
of our first parents, that is handed on to all of us. We are all born
under
the power of sin and with a constant proneness to personal sin. It just
has to be overcome. And as St Paul writes, with sin death entered the
world
and death has spread to the whole human race. Let us ask God to make us
aware of the reality of sin and of how imperative it is to renounce and
overcome it. If anything has to be taken away, it is sin. The
question
is, how can this be done? We need a great deliverer.
Our Gospel today tells us in the
words
of St John the Baptist: Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world. God the Son became man to take away the sin of the world.
Only he could do this - is it remotely conceivable that any mere human
being could do it? What could a mere man, some great religious leader,
do to take away the world’s sin, its rebellion against God? How would
he
do it? The very thought is impossible. The Son of God alone could do
it,
and it was God’s plan that he do it by his Passion, his Death and his
Resurrection.
It was in this way that he atoned for the world’s sins and won for us
the
gift of the Holy Spirit.
But there is more. Where sin abounded,
grace
abounds even more. That is to say, Christ by his redemptive work has
won
for us the grace to be saints, to be holy with the holiness of God. St
Paul in the second reading greets the holy people who are called to
take
their place among all the saints. So if we set our minds to it day by
day
and take the means that the Church provides for us from what Christ
entrusted
to her, we can attain holiness at the very core of our being and be
transformed
into the likeness of Christ. Where sin abounded, grace now abounds more.
Let us then look on Christ the Lamb of God
and
our Redeemer, resolving to follow wherever he goes. In our daily life
nothing
is so important as renouncing sin day by day and doing lovingly the
will
of God in imitation of and in union with Christ, into whose image the
Holy
Spirit is moulding us. Let us make that our life’s ambition, the
ambition
of each day.
(E.J.Tyler)
What a beautiful prayer for you to say frequently,
that
one of our good friend praying for a priest whom hatred for religion
imprisoned:
“My God, comfort him, since it is for you he suffers persecution. How
many
there are who suffer because they serve you!” What a source of joy the
Communion of Saints is.
(The Forge, no.258)
The Letter to the Hebrews, and this passage of today
in
particular, speaks of Christ’s priesthood. Now let us notice how the
Letter
points out that while the priest in the line of Aaron offered up
sacrifices
for sin, Christ as High Priest offered up his very self for sin. He
himself
was not only the priest but the victim he offered for sin - offered not
for his own sin as the traditional priest had to, but for the sins of
mankind.
As the traditional victim was slaughtered as a sacrifice, so too Christ
underwent suffering and death as the sacrifice. This was the character
of the priesthood of Christ, that both priest and victim were identical.
Now every baptised member of Christ’s faithful has
been
given a share in the priesthood of Christ, the particular kind of share
varying according to his or her vocation. But all are called to unite
with
Christ as priest-offerer, offering Christ himself to the Father for the
sins and needs of mankind. Moreover, all are called not only to unite
with
Christ as offerer, but all are called to unite with Christ precisely as
victim. That is to say our whole being and life is to be an offering,
our
sufferings and our work, all that we are called to do by way of duty,
all
this is intended by the Father to be caught up in union with the
offering
that Christ made of himself as victim. Thus is our life meant to be a
sacrifice
of tremendous value because united with the sacrifice of Christ the
victim.
We are called to be priests with Christ the offerer,
and
victims with Christ the victim-sacrifice. This will give our
ordinary
lives an extraordinary value and meaning, with all its little ordinary
duties.
(E.J.Tyler)
The measures taken by some governments to ensure
that
the faith in their countries dies out reminds me of the seals set upon
the tomb of Jesus by the Sanhedrin. He was not subject to anybody or
anything,
and despite those seals he rose again.
(The Forge, no.259)
St Josemaria Escriva writes in The Forge that when
it
comes to seeking sanctity, it is easy to begin. The difficult and
essential
thing is to persevere, and to persevere to the end. Our passage from
the
Letter to the Hebrews today makes this very point: “Our one desire is
that
every one of you should go on showing the same earnestness to the end,
to the perfect fulfilment of our hopes, never growing careless”.
When we think of perseverence to the end, we mean it
to
involve real effort and work. It is possible to keep at life’s goals
but
without much effort. The Letter to the Hebrews asks for earnestness,
earnestness
to the end - in other words real effort to the last. Our Lord says in
the
Gospel that we are to love God with our whole mind, heart and strength.
This means earnestness. It means too as our passage states,
“never
growing careless”, but trying to fulfil our smallest duties really
well,
as well as possible so as to make them a worthy offering to God.
Let us take each day at a time as it comes,
beginning
again each day. Now I begin! It means constantly repenting, turning
away
in genuine fashion from deliberate venial sin and fighting venial sin
daily.
Every day we are to persevere with earnestness to the end - to the end
of that day, that is - trying to do as well as possible whatever work
the
will of God asks of us no matter how small.
(E.J.Tyler)
The solution is to love. St John the Apostle wrote
some
words which really move me. I like to translate them as follows, almost
word for word - the fearful man doesn’t know how to love. You,
therefore,
who do love and know how to show it, you mustn’t be afraid of anything.
So, on you go!
(The Forge, no.260)
Our Lord is grieved to find his critics so obstinate
in
their opposition to him. “Then, grieved to find them so obstinate, he
looked
angrily round at them, and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He
stretched it out and his hand was better.”
In various parts of the Old Testament there
are
vivid descriptions of the anger and the wrath of God. In his anger God
rained down fire and brimstone on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The
prophets spoke of the anger of God and the punishment he would
bring
on his people for their infidelity. Indeed, the Old Testament is
commonly
referred to as the book describing the anger of God, while the New
Testament
is said to reveal his love. This is a hopeless simplification of
course,
but at least it recognised the reality of the anger of God. Our passage
today in Mark speaks of Christ’s anger at ain - and our Lord said, he
who
sees me sees the Father.
Let us then avoid the anger of God by growing in a
spirit
of repentance every day. We must be prepared to recognise our sins and
to repent of them. Time and again this repentant attitude is shown as
bringing
down the mercy and compassion of God. But repeated stubbornness and
knowing
continuance in sin brings down, sooner or later, the judgment of God.
(E.J.Tyler)
God is with you. The Blessed Trinity dwells in your
soul
in grace. That is why, in spite of your wretchedness, you can and
should
keep up a continuous conversation with the Lord.
(The Forge, no.261)
The inspired author of Hebrews (7:25) tells us very
clearly
something that is full of hope: “The power of Jesus to save is utterly
certain, since he is living for ever to intercede for all who come to
God
through him.” Whatever be our sins and whatever be the faults that hold
us back from full union with God, Jesus can save us from all that. This
is utterly certain. This is the will of God, St Paul tells us
elsewhere,
your sanctification. The power of Jesus to bring us to sanctity us is
utterly
certain.
It is said that the sister of St Thomas
Aquinas
once asked her illustrious brother what one needs to do to become a
saint.
He said: “Want it!” That is to say, we must have a great and
persevering
desire for sanctity, a desire that includes taking the means required.
Jesus can bring us to this by his gift of the Holy Spirit and the grace
that accompanies this Gift. However, he treats us for what we are,
human
beings with personal freedom, and not robots. While our sanctification
is the work of God and his grace, nevertheless we must cooperate freely
and perseveringly, and in this way merit the reward of union with God.
Perhaps the key to this persevering
cooperation
with the work of Christ in our life is always to be beginning again:
Now
I begin! Let us take each day at a time, every starting afresh with
repentance
and reliance on the power of Christ. The power of Jesus to save is
utterly
certain. This fact must be our constant hope, and it must be the
message
of hope we bring to others.
(E.J.Tyler)
You should pray at all times - always. You should
feel
the need to go to God after every success and after every failure in
your
interior life.
(The Forge, no.262)
(January 21) St Agnes, virgin and martyr
(died
304).
St Agnes came from a noble Roman family. She was about thirteen years
old
when she suffered martyrdom. She was tortured and beheaded. Her name is
included in the Roman Canon. Pope Damasus wrote a celebrated epitaph
about
her.
Christ the mediator of the new covenant
(Heb
8:6-13; Mark 3:13-19)
The passage from the Letter to the Hebrews today
(Heb
8:6-13) reminds us of the grandeur of the relationship that God has now
established between himself and us - the new covenant. It is a covenant
of a far higher order than its predecessor, and Jesus our Lord is the
mediator
of it, just as Moses was the mediator of the previous one.
The Old Covenant simply did not work. The people
abandoned
it time and again. So God resolved - had indeed planned from all
eternity
- to transform his people from within so that his law and the desire to
keep it would be implanted in their hearts. God promised to sanctify
his
people from within their very being - and Jesus is the mediator of this
sanctifying action.
Now this work of our Lord continues on in history in
and
through his Church which he established on the foundation of his
Apostles.
He appointed Twelve to be his companions and to share in his work of
sanctification,
of establishing the Kingdom of God within the hearts of men (Mark
3:13-19).
It is this work that we must lay ourselves open to each day, and each
day
with apostolic zeal, and as part of the Apostolic Church, bring to
others.
(E.J.Tyler)
Our brief Gospel passage for today (Mark 3:20-21)
gives
us a picture of our Lord at work. Our Lord and his disciples were at
such
a pitch that they could not even have a meal. So consumed was he with
his
mission that his relatives were convinced that he was out of his mind.
Every minute of our Lord’s life was given over to the doing of his
Father’s
will.
One of the most crucial things in any person’s life
is
the attitude he has to his work. So many people regard their work as a
necessary evil that they have to do and get through, but it is hardly a
positive thing for them. But in fact, each of us is called to work with
love at what we have been given to do each day - it is a calling -
whatever
it might be. As Cardinal Newman wrote at the end of one of his books,
life
is short, eternity long. We must fill up our life with good works,
working
in loving Christlike service of others in union with God. Whatever be
our
circumstances and our calling, all of us can do that. St Bernadette
Soubiroux
at the beginning of her last illness said, this is my last job. She was
implying that she intended to make a good job of it, a good and
beautiful
work of her suffering.
Let us sanctify our work, sanctifying ourselves and
others
by means of it. Let us fill up our lives with good work done in union
with
Christ. Let’s make the work of each day a good and beautiful thing in
the
sight of God who has given it to us to do.
(E.J.Tyler)
When the Lord brought you into the Church he put an
indelible
mark upon your soul through Baptism: you are a son of God. Don’t forget
it.
(The Forge, no.264)
Belief in the one only God and its
implications
(Matthew 4:12-23)
My dear friends, each Sunday we recite the
Creed
immediately after hearing the word of God in the homily. We begin the
Nicene
Creed by saying together, “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.” And at the
beginning of the Rosary, we recite the Apostles Creed by saying “I
believe
in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” So we believe
that everything that positively exists, (as opposed to evil which is
the
lack of what should be there) comes from God alone. It means that there
is one great Source on whom everything depends, everything, down to the
smallest existing element in life and in the world. It means that
everything
should lead to the one only God.
We ought often think of the implications of
their
being one only God. All the other realities in the Creed, our Lord
Jesus
Christ and what he did for us, the person and divinity of the Holy
Spirit,
the one holy Catholic Apostolic Church, all of these great realities we
believe because he, the one only God, has revealed them. In believing
him,
we should believe them because they all flow from the first revealed
truth
that there is one only God. So too with the ten commandments. The
first is that we are to acknowledge and recognise one only God, and not
have other gods in his place. The other nine commandments are the way
he
has revealed he wants us to live: not taking his name in vain, keeping
holy the Sabbath day, and observing the remaining commandments that
govern
our relationships with others. The entire Creed and all the
commandments
are linked with the great revealed truth that there is only one God,
not
any one God, but the God who revealed himself to us fully and finally
in
our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is to say, everything, all our
beliefs
and our entire conduct, everything we see in us and around us that has
any positive being, all has as its source and centre the one God and
Father
of all. He is the God who revealed himself in both the Old Testament
and
especially and finally in the New with the coming and the work of Jesus
Christ. Christ revealed himself to be this one God, but he also
revealed
that this one God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He
told
us of God’s plan to establish his Kingdom, the Kingdom of God in the
hearts
of all. This he does in the person of his Son, such that whenever any
one
is united to his Son, the Kingdom of God is established within him. Our
Lord said the Kingdom of God is within you - this occurs when a person
is united with Jesus. In the Gospel we heard how our Lord began his
preaching
with the message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.”
In knowing and loving Jesus, we know and love the one only God. Jesus
is
the way, the only way to the Father.
But there is more. We come to know the
revelation
and teaching of Jesus his Son through the ministry of the Church, the
Catholic
Church which he founded, and of which he is the living and constant
head.
The Church is his body. So if we wish to know, love and serve God as we
are called to do, loving God with our whole mind, heart and strength,
loving
him in everything because everything depends simply on him, then all
this
is done through union with Christ, and union with Christ is made
possible
through the life and ministry of the Church. And in all this, my life
is
ultimately a matter of God and my soul. In everything I am able to find
God the Lord and Master of heaven and of earth, the Father who revealed
himself as my saviour.
Let us repeat constantly through life, I
believe
in the one God, Father of heaven and earth. During Mass let us ask God
to establish his kingdom in our hearts through his Son and the ministry
of his Church, the Catholic Church, of which we are grateful and
fortunate
members. Let us never allow the slightest doubt about all that he has
revealed
to take root in our hearts. Let us live out that Revelation, knowing it
will bring us to heaven to be with the one God forever.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further Reading: The Catechism of the
Catholic
Church
no.200-227.
The worst and most intractable problem of life and
in
the universe generally is the presence of sin. Sin is what strikes at
the
root of our being because we are called to union with god at t he
deepest
level of our being. This is our calling as human beings and our
happiness,
and yet all men are under the power of an opposite tendency that is
handed
on unfailingly to all. It is the tendency to disobey and reject God.
How
could sin be ever taken away if this is the state of affairs? How could
man every be freed from its powerful grip?
This is why Christ made his appearance among us - as
our
passage today from Hebrews says - “to do away with sin by sacrificing
himself”.
He offered himself in death, and the purpose of it was “to cancel the
sins”,
to take away the sin of the world. Between that sacrifice he made then
and when he comes again his work of dealing with sin is applied to each
person who comes to him and unites himself in faith to him, accepting
his
dispensation.
Now, the great danger in this respect is that we
will
have little sense of the reality and importance of sin. If this is the
case - and it is characteristic of modern western man - then Christ and
his work will appear superfluous. It is only if one genuinely desires
redemption
from sin and sanctification that Christ’s blessings will be embraced in
faith. A sense of sin is at the heart of the Christian life. It is a
basic.
Let us pray for this sense of sin in ourselves and
in
others.
(E.J.Tyler)
The conversion of St Paul was one of the very great
events
of history. It was a turnabout in the mind and heart of a person that
had
enormous results on the life of that person and on the lives of
others.
But what was its cause? Overwhelmingly, the cause of it was the power
and
the action of God. God brought it about by his grace, aided by Paul’s
characteristic
prior sincerity.
Now this has a lesson for us. To begin with, it
shows
us that it is of immense importance that we convert. Conversion must be
part of our life, and our conversion has to be sincere. If it is to be
productive of true fruit, it has to be the work of grace. So we ought
pray
for that grace, the grace of a change of heart. But the very rarity of
the scale of St Paul’s conversion shows that the conversion of the life
of the ordinary person is typically hidden, and indeed frequent, even
daily.
It is this daily conversion which we ought aspire to as a tremendous
grace
productive of marvellous fruit.
Let us begin again, ever beginning again. Let us aim
every
day to recognise our sins and repent of them, starting again and again
to do the will of God in the ordinary duties of each day.
(E.J.Tyler)
Saints
Timothy and Titus, bishops. St
Timothy
was the son of a pagan father and a Hebrew-Christian mother, Eunice. He
was a disciple of St Paul, and accompanied him in the evangelization of
many cities. St Paul ordained him Bishop of Ephesus. According to a
fourth
century story, he was beaten to death by a mob when he opposed the
observance
of a pagan festival. St Titus was also a friend and disciple of St Paul
who ordained him Bishop of Crete. St Paul wrote to these two disciples
three pastoral letters, which give glimpses of the developing structure
of the Church.
The Religion revealed by Christ
(Hebrews
10:11-18)
One of the most fascinating features of human
history
is the history of man’s religions. With the exception of modern western
culture and the cultures it has influenced, the most prevalent feature
of history is religious history. Man is properly defined as a rational
animal, but in view of his history we could perhaps define him as a
religious
animal. Among the vast family of animals, it man who is the religious
animal.
In his religion man strives to attain involvement with the unseen
world,
to gain acceptance by it, and to be saved from evil by it.
The Letter to the Hebrews has a very striking
statement
about the effectiveness of man’s religions - at least by implication.
It
speaks of the effectiveness of the religion of the Old Testament which
inasmuch as it came from God was certainly superior to all the
religions
that have arisen from man’s own quest. Yet the Letter tells us that
“All
the priests stand at their duties every day, offering over and over
again
the same sacrifices that are quite incapable of taking sins away”
(Hebrews
10:11). If this is the case for the Hebrew religion, how much more is
it
so for the rest of the religions of man, worthy as they may be. But the
case is utterly different for the religion of Jesus Christ. For “Jesus,
on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then
taken his place for ever, at the right hand of God, where he is now
waiting
until his enemies are made into a footstool for him.” Why is this?
Because
“By virtue of that one single offering he has achieved the eternal
perfection
of all whom he is sanctifying.” (Heb:10:13)
The great British anthropologist, Evans-Pritchard,
once
wrote that a religion can be understood and assessed from the
perspective
of its way of dealing with evil. The greatest evil for man is sin. The
answer that has come from Heaven is Christ, and the religion that
Christ
revealed.
(E.J.Tyler)
Build up a gigantic faith in the Holy Eucharist. Be
filled
with wonder before this ineffable reality. We have God with us; we can
receive him every day and, if we want to , we can speak intimately with
him, just as we talk with a friend, as we talk with a brother, as we
talk
with a father, as we talk with Love itself.
(The Forge, no.268)
(January 27) St Angela Merici, virgin
(1470-1540).
St Angela was born in northern Italy. In 1516 she founded the Order of
Ursulines, the first teaching order for women approved by the Church.
Italy
then was rife with violence and open immorality. St Angela believed
that
the formation of Christian women is society’s greatest need.
The Lamp on the lampstand (Mark
4:21-25)
Everyone accepts that man has duties and
responsibilities.
He is morally obliged in various ways. Now for the Christian there is
one
moral obligation of the first order that he is especially prone to
forget.
It is the obligation to bear witness to Christ before others in his
everyday
life. He can - and I am, of course speaking of the Catholic Christian,
for Christianity subsists in the Catholic Church - he can fulfil his
obligations
to maintain a life of personal piety while quite easily forgetting his
obligation to bring the person and teaching of Christ to the world
around
him.
Our Lord in our Gospel passage (Mark 4:21-25) today
says
that the lamp of which we are in possession must be put on the
lampstand.
The Lamp, of course, is Christ. He described himself as the light of
the
world such that if anyone does not live by his light he is walking in
the
darkness. Furthermore, there is a warning. Our Lord says that the
amount
we measure out is the amount we will be given. If then we make no
effort
to let the light of Christ that is within us shine out for the benefit
of others, bringing glory to God and to Christ, then our own spiritual
life will be diminished accordingly.
That is to say, a fundamental means of growing in
the
life of Christ is to be apostolic. Let us then ask our Lord to give us
a profound desire to live in such a way that he will be honoured and
glorified.
(E.J.Tyler)
At the start of the new year the Church immediately presents
us with a human being who has what could only be considered as unimaginable
dignity. Who would have thought it possible that one of us could be the Mother
of the great God, while of course being his creature? Yet so it is. Yet Mary not
only has this dignity, but she unique gifts of holiness which make her a truly
worthy Mother of God - and a wonderful mother of us. God is all-holy, and so is
his Mother - he without limit, she within limits as is necessary for a creature.
Now, is there any key we can take up at the beginning of the
year to help us understand how Mary lived out this all-holy motherhood that was
hers. This is important for we are her children, and we are called to imitate
her. St Luke gives us that key in today's Gospel passage (Luke 2: 16-21). "As
for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart." All
that God had said and done was received into the mind and heart of Mary as the
one immense treasure she lived for. All else derived its place and importance
from what God said, did, and wanted. She heart the word of God, received it as
the greatest of treasures, the one true pearl of great price, and put it into
practice perfectly in her seemingly ordinary life. She is our mother of the
ordinary life.
Let us have as our aim this year to imitate Mary, the perfect
disciple of her divine Son.
(E.J.Tyler)
Are you not moved to hear some affectionate word addressed to
your mother? The same thing happens to Our Lord. We cannot separate Jesus from
his Mother.
(The Forge, no.243)
The word Epiphany means manifestation. It refers to Christ
being manifested to the world, as symbolised in the wise men from the East. It
is part fulfilment of what the prophet Isaiah speaks of in the first reading,
that “though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples, ... the
nations come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness.” Today we think
of how Christ is God’s gift to man and his answer to man’s most profound
problems. Let me mention but one.
The past week has been filled with the immense tragedy
of the earthquake under the sea that caused such a vast loss of life in Asia.
Among other things it provoked a debate in the papers - for instance, in the
Sydney Morning Herald - as to the very existence of God. If there is a God, he
must be almighty and all-loving. But if God allows such a thing, how could he be
loving? Or, if he cannot stop it, how can he be all-powerful? Now of course, we
cannot understand why God allowed such a thing to happen, but let us remember
that there are great and hidden evils going on all the time. While over 100,000
will have died from the recent tsunami, let us remember that there are about
100,000 abortions every year in Australia alone, not considering the abortions
of numerous other countries of the world. Why does God allow so many people to
perform these abortions? Why does God allow so many other forms of suffering and
evil? We cannot possibly know, because of the limitations of our minds. God’s
reasons are far beyond our capacity.
And let us remember why evil entered the world.
It did not come from God. St Paul says that sin entered the world through one
man and with sin death, and death has spread to the whole human race. So
everything that has any connection with death ultimately, mysteriously, somehow,
springs from man’s sin. Somehow the immense and perennial disharmony between man
and his world resulting in the world mistreating man, and man mistreating the
world, derives from sin, man’s original sin. How this is so, is not revealed to
us, but at least it does show how serious deliberate sin is, if sin could have
had this effect. So we should strive to have nothing to do with sin. Moreover,
the recent vast earthquake ought also remind us of the moral earthquake, the
moral disharmony, within man himself. It too is due to man’s sin. Man’s urges,
desires and drives, his anger, his lust, his sloth, his pride, continually rise
up in rebellion against what he knows to be right. Repeatedly those sinful
decisions overthrow and destroy him.
But let us turn to Christ, and let us invite the world
look at him, taking our cue from the wise men from the East who came to
reverence Him. If we want light on the mysteries of life, look at him and ask
for his light. Why did Christ himself have to suffer? Repeatedly our Lord said
to his disciples that he had to suffer if he was to fulfil his mission and enter
into his glory. No one’s suffering was equal to his because he was atoning for
the sins of the whole world. Why did the Father allow this to happen, that his
own Son, equal to himself in glory and divinity, should be made to suffer as he
did? We are not told. It is a mystery. But what we are told is that out of that
suffering came the redemption of the human race. So God brings unimagined good
out of terrible evil - provided we take our cue from Christ and strive to do
God’s will no matter what it might cost. Otherwise evil will lead to more evil.
In the midst of evil we must be Christ-like.
Why did God even allow the world to continue, so
profoundly affected as it was by man’s sin, and alienated its all-good Creator?
Why did God not just start again? We do not know - presumably it was due to
God’s undying respect for man’s free decisions, with all their consequences. But
what we do know is that God is continually working to bring immense good out of
the evil that ultimately comes from man. Gazing on the life and figure of Christ
can help us appreciate this. When, therefore, we experience evils in our lives,
and when vast sections of mankind experience evil, we can be sure that God is
working to bring good out of that evil. But the one condition for this to happen
is that, when evil comes our way, we try to do God’s will. Let us make Christ
the source of our light and life, and offer him to the world as the light of
every man. Let us by our daily lives offer him to others as did Mary and Joseph
to the Magi.
(E.J.Tyler)
When you find yourself worn out or fed up, go and confide in
Our Lord, as that good friend of ours did, and say: “Jesus, see what you can do
about it. Even before I begin to struggle, I am already tired.” He will give you
his strength.
(The Forge, no.244)
Immediately following on the manifestation of the infant
Messiah to the wise men of the East, the Church takes us to the manifestation of
the Messiah at the beginning of his public ministry in Galilee. It is part
fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah predicting that the Galilee of the nations,
the Galilee that is made up of various nations, would see a great light. This in
its turn presages the light of Christ being brought to all the nations.
So we are reminded today that Christ is the light of the
world - not just of Catholics, not just of Christians, but of every human being.
This is perhaps particularly difficult for our age to see, conscious as we are
of various cultures, various religions, and various great religious leaders in
history. We claim that Christ is the one light that takes us to the Father. He
who sees me, sees the Father, he said. He claimed to be the light of the world,
and that anyone who did not follow him walked in the dark.
But there is more. Christ is not just a great figure of the
past, whose past teaching is the light of every man in the way that the teaching
of Socrates or Plato may be claimed to be. No, Christ is a living person who can
be located, approached, and entered into communion with. His voice and ongoing
teaching as applied to the issues of each generation can be identified. There is
a living oracle, uttering his teaching. Where is it? It is in the Catholic
Church, of which he is the Founder and living Head. We are his members, and the
pope is his visible vicar.
Let us live by the living light that is Christ, and bring it
to others.
(E.J.Tyler)
A task which presents no difficulties lacks human appeal -
and supernatural appeal too. If you find no resistance when hammering a nail
into a wall, what can you expect to hang on to it?
(The Forge, no.245)
St Mark tells us that when Our Lord saw the large crowd, he
took pity of them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Let us
consider that divine view on man - the crowd before him representing mankind.
Mankind is like sheep without a shepherd.
As we think of the various systems of human thought and the
history of man’s religions, it is obvious - when set against what God has
actually revealed - how far from the truth mankind tends to go, and has actually
gone. There is of course much that is true in what man has attained in his
intellectual search, his culture and his religions. But there is great and
important error too. It is a lesson to us on the depth of our need for God the
Good Shepherd, revealed as such in Christ.
Now, Christ is the answer to this need of mankind. He is the
Shepherd, and he looks with compassion on our need. He will feed us with what we
need if we turn to him and do his will. God wants us this year to make Christ
the Shepherd whom we consistently follow, and whom we lead others to follow.
Let there be nothing and no one who takes this place from
Christ in our life.
(E.J.Tyler)
It seems incredible that a man like you - who say you know
you’re nothing - should dare to place obstacles in the way of doing God’s grace.
Yet this is what you’re doing with your false humility, your “objectivity”, your
pessimism.
(The Forge, no.246)
There are various ambitions that can take hold of us,
consciously or not. We can be possessed by the hope of having revenge for some
past wrong. Our ambition could be material security, success in career, or
whatever. In his first Letter, St John tells us (ch.4: 11-18) that since God has
loved us so much, we too should love one another. So our ambition in life should
be to be filled with the thought of God’s love for us, and in view of that to
love one another. If we do this God will be living in us, and we in him. Our
idea of human perfection ought be the perfection of God’s love in us, leading us
to strive to love others to perfection.
This is to be lived out in the commonplace details of daily
life that we see described in today’s Gospel passage (Mark 6: 45-52) - the
crowds eating, the disciples going into their boats to row across to the other
side. There will be difficulties and storms, but Christ will always be near,
coming towards us, saying to us, “Courage, it is I. Do not be afraid.”
Let us set out on the daily path of love, determining to live
it to perfection.
(E.J.Tyler)
Lord, grant me the grace to give up everything that has to do
with myself. I should have no other concern than your Glory - in other words
your Love. Everything for Love!
(The Forge, no.247)
Many people believe in God, and believe in him with passion.
Many do not believe in h im, and perhaps a much greater number are indifferent.
But I think we can say that almost all believe in true selfless love - its
goodness and reality, when seen, is almost self evident. This is so, especially
when it is a question of love for those in need. Consider the example of Mother
Teresa, recognised universally as one who dedicated her life to the love of t
hose in need. She showed true love for one’s brother - what St John is referring
to in his first Letter.
There are various ways this love for one’s brother can be
lived out - in direct service of hte poor, or bringing the light of Christ and
Christian teaching to others, including the young. But whatever is the field, it
is this love which when present manifests and proves the presence of the love of
God. God’s existence becomes more manifest through the selfless love of the one
who believes in him. If during our life we are endeavouring to grow in our love
for God by fidelity to various practices of piety - essential as they certainly
are - and show little love for others, then St John tells us that our love for
God is very poor indeed. Our Lord in his description of the Last Judgment
(Matthew 25) makes this abundantly clear.
This is why our daily work has an essential place in our
Christian life. It is by means of our work that we serve others in justice and
charity. Our work is a most important means of personal sanctification - as it
is a most important means whereby we contribute to the sanctification of others.
Let us so work that we sanctify the work itself, and ourselves in the process,
and also the ones for whom we do our work. The key to the doing of this is to do
it with real love.
(E.J.Tyler)
“When Herod heard this,” (that the King had come to this
earth), “he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” This is an everyday
occurrence. We see the same thing happening now. In the face of God’s greatness,
which shows itself in a thousand ways, there are always some people - sometimes
even in positions of authority - who are troubled. It’s because they do not love
God; because they have no real wish to meet him; because they don’t want to
follow his inspirations, and so they become obstacles in God’s path. Be
forewarned; carry on working and don’t worry. Seek the Lord and pray - he will
triumph.
(The Forge, no.248)
Christ’s love and power to remove the root of evil
(Luke 5: 12-16)
In our simple Gospel event today (Luke 5: 12-16), given to us
during the octave of the Epiphany, something very special
is manifested about our Lord. The leper presented himself to our Lord and said,
“Sir, if you want to you can cure me.” Our Lord said, “Of course I want to, be
cured!” So our Lord’s desire to cure him, to bring him life in abundance, was
manifested. Our Lord showed forth both his love and his power.
The Gospels are written to reveal the mind and heart of
Christ and to show that he is the Son of God and Saviour of the world. He took
away some of the evils afflicting some people - those who asked him with faith,
and some others besides. But they were signs of who he was, signs of his true
work, signs of the truth of his claims about his person and his mission. They
were not his full and distinct mission - but means of inviting us to absolute
faith in him. The overwhelming number of evils in the world at the time our Lord
lived remained untouched by our Lord - the sicknesses, the deaths, wars,
tyranny, and so forth. Rather, he attacked and broke the power of the root of
the world’s evils - sin. This is what he came to take away.
When we experience evils of one kind or another we ought,
yes, go to our Lord and ask him persistently and with faith that he take away
that evil. But for his own infinitely wise reasons he just may not - even though
he certainly wants us to go to him with our burden. Christ’s concern is above
all with the root of evil, sin in our life and in the lives of all others. It is
this evil which we must with his help uproot and replace with life, life in
abundance, the life of Christ himself.
(E.J.Tyler)
You are not alone. Neither you nor I can ever find
ourselves alone. And even less if we go to Jesus through Mary, for she is a
Mother who will never abandon us.
(The Forge, no.249)
John the Evangelist had been a disciple of John the Baptist,
and he tells us in this Gospel passage (John 3: 22-30) how significant his
spiritual master at the time regarded the arrival on the scene of Jesus. Jesus
was the bridegroom: “The bride is only for the bridegroom; and yet the
bridegroom’s friend who stands there and listens is glad when he hears the
bridegroom’s voice. This same joy I feel, and now it is complete. He must grow
greater, I must grow smaller.” Jesus was the bridegroom, the people of Israel
the bride. He was only the friend of the bridegroom. John’s words bespeak the
greatness of Jesus and the humility of John.
The Old Testament prophets spoke of God being the bridegroom
of the people, the people’s husband. Our Lord would refer to himself as the
bridegroom and his disciples as the bridegroom’s attendants. St Paul would refer
to Christ as the bridegroom of the Church.
So, Christ is the Bridegroom - our all, the object of our
love and our life, both individually and as the Church. Let us give ourselves
and our all to him unreservedly. Our heart ought belong to him in everything we
do - as to God for his is God. Let us live our this fidelity in the little
ordinary duties of everyday life, thus making of our ordinary lives something
truly grand.
(E.J.Tyler)
Don’t give way to sadness when it feels as if the Lord has
given up on you. Seek him with greater determination. He who is Love does not
leave you on your own. Be convinced that “he has left you on your own” out of
Love, so that you may see clearly in your life what is his and what is yours.
(The Forge, no.250)
Today we think of our Lord’s baptism in the Jordan,
and the public revelation of the Blessed Trinity. The Son is baptised by John
and thus unites himself in a public way with sinful humanity. The Holy Spirit
descends on him to empower his humanity for his mission to redeem sinful
mankind. The Father declares from heaven that Jesus is his beloved Son in whom
he is well pleased. Many things are brought home to us by contemplating this
event, but I invite you to consider in a special way the words uttered by the
Father. This is my beloved Son. The Father’s words not only revealed who Jesus
was. They also told us who the Father is - namely that he is precisely the
Father. We ought remember this in the midst of everything in life.
Our Lord’s baptism was a forerunner of our own baptism
when the Holy Spirit comes upon us and we are granted a share in our Lord’s
sonship. We become adopted sons of God, and at the moment of our baptism the
Father says of us, this is my adopted son in whom I am well pleased. All our
sins, original and personal, are taken away and we are left filled with the
holiness given to us by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Sadly, subsequent to our
baptism we fall into sin, but we have the Sacrament of Penance to enable us to
regain and to grow in the grace of holiness given to us at our baptism.
Our vocation from the moment of our baptism is a calling to personal holiness.
If we fail to take up that call, our life is a failure and a tragedy.
Holiness consists in living consistently and with
generosity one’s life as a child of God. Because of our baptism we are called to
live for God as our Father, and we ought be filled with the conviction that God
is our Father, our Father who loves us more than we can possibly imagine. He is
the Father of all mankind, a loving Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
who said, he who sees me sees the Father. If you want to know what God is like,
our Lord says, look at me and think of what I am like, meek and humble of heart,
and full of compassion.
This must be our attitude to God all through life, in
good times and bad, times of blessing and times of tragedy. For the past two
weeks the news has been full of the effects of the tremendous earthquake under
the sea in Asia. The present figure of deceased seems to be about 160,000. In
the newspapers have appeared articles wondering about the very existence of God
- how could God have permitted this evil to happen. We cannot know why he
permitted it to happen, but St Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that
through man, one man, sin entered the world and with sin came death, and death
has spread through the whole human race. So death comes ultimately from the sin
of man, man’s original sin compounded by the unimaginable number of personal
sins. Evil comes from sin, somehow. God respects the freedom he gave to man, but
he is our Father, and is constantly working to draw tremendous good out of
evil.
While we consider the tsunami and its terrible
effects, we cannot but notice what is happening in its aftermath. There has been
a vast outpouring of funds and charity to help the peoples of Asia. The world is
coming together in a way not often seen. Australia has offered one billion
dollars, and is on the verge of a wonderful collaboration with Indonesia.
Perhaps, only perhaps, we see God drawing great good out of the evil that came,
an evil that God did not want, but which he allowed for it is a world dislocated
profoundly by the sin of man. God is mankind’s Father. And when we think of all
those who lost their lives, perhaps one might presume that before the terrible
waves came, God was caring mightily with his grace for those who were soon to
lose their lives. Perhaps too their lost lives, preceding a great good that God
would draw from the tragedy, derived value in God’s sight from that future good.
God may have mercifully rewarded many of them accordingly. In any case we ought
remember constantly that God is our Father, while we pray for the immortal souls
of the deceased, and help those who survived.
Let us all our lives regard God, the Lord of heaven
and of earth, as our Father who looks with love on us his little ones no matter
what may happen to us. Let us day by day trust him, endeavouring to serve him
humbly and obediently as his children, seeking true holiness.
(E.J.Tyler)
You said to me: “I seem not only unable to go ahead along my
way, but also unable to be saved without a miracle of grace. Oh, my poor soul! I
remain cold and, what is worse, almost indifferent. It’s as if I were an
outsider looking at ‘a case’ (mine) which had nothing to do with him. Will these
days turn out to be completely futile? And nevertheless, my Mother is my Mother
and Jesus is - dare I say it? - my Jesus. And there are good and saintly souls,
at this very moment, praying for me.”
Go on walking hand in hand with your
Mother. I replied, and “dare” to say to Jesus that he is yours. In his goodness
he will bring clear light to your soul.
(The Forge, no.251)
Our Lord began his public ministry by calling on all his
hearers to repent, for the Kingdom of God was near at hand. It is not at all
difficult to fail to see how important these words are not only in order to
receive Christ for the first time - and the Kingdom of God is present in Christ
- but how important they are in order to grow in the life of Christ. As St
Josemaria Escriva once said, it is not hard to begin - it is easy. The important
thing is to continue with consistency.
To grow in the life of Christ we must grow in the spirit of
repentance. This means learning to repent every day, to recognise our sins of
each day and of the past, and truly to repent of them. It means growing in the
capacity to repent very sincerely every time we go to Confession - every
Confession ought involve a conversion, and it should be frequent and regular.
In particular it means recognising the deliberate venial sins
of our life, and genuinely repenting of them. We ought confess them with the
awareness that being deliberate they offend God. If we are to grow in holiness,
we must firmly resolve to avoid deliberate venial sin. For this kind of spirit
of repentance, we need the grace of God. So we ought pray to the Holy Spirit for
this grace to attain a sensitive conscience, for the grace to make a careful and
heartfelt examination of conscience repeatedly and regularly, and then for the
grace to turn away from deliberate venial sin. Repentance must be a life-long
feature of ordinary life.
(E.J.Tyler)
Grant me, Jesus, the Cross with no Simon of Cyrene to help
me. No, that’s not right; I need your grace, I need your help here as in
everything. You must be my Simon of Cyrene. With you, my God, no trial can daunt
me. But what if my Cross should consist in boredom or sadness? In that case I
say to you, Lord, with You I would gladly be sad.
(The Forge, no.252)
Christ strong and suffering
(Mark 1:21-28; Hebrews 2:5-12)
What is the impression of our Lord conveyed in today’s Gospel
passage (Mark 1:21-28)? It is surely one of great and holy strength. Our Lord is
one with effortless authority and power, power directed against the sources of
evil and error. He made a deep impression because “unlike the scribes, he taught
them with authority”, and “he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey
him.”
But let us bear in mind what the passage from the Letter to
the Hebrews (2:5-12) emphasises: “it was appropriate that God, for whom
everything exists and through whom everything exists, should make perfect,
through suffering, the leader who would take them to their salvation.” Our Lord,
humanly speaking, was brought to his peak, brought to perfection, through
suffering. This is how his power would be used. Powerful though he was, he
passed through the way of suffering.
So then, mysteriously for all of us, whether we are great or
small, strong or weak, whatever be our talents or situation, suffering is the
path to perfection and salvation - for Christ is our “leader”. When suffering
and difficulty comes our way, suffering that offers no alternative, we must
believe its capacity for fruitfulness. There is in it, because of Christ our
“leader”, that which will redound to our own good and through us to others. This
it will be if we go through it with Christ.
Let us learn from the all-powerful Jesus the
fruitfulness of the Cross. It can sanctify us.
(E.J.Tyler)
Christ now the Lord of Death
(Mark 1:29-39; Hebrews 2:14-18)
St Paul says in his letter to the Romans that sin entered the
world through one man and with sin death. In our passage from the Letter to the
Hebrews today (Hebrews 2:14-18) the inspired author says that the devil had,
prior to Christ, “power over death”. Presumably this means that the death which
entered the world as a result of sin was rendered the domain of Satan. As such
it characteristically kept men from God both in the experience of it and in its
upshot. By sin, Satan gained the lordship over death. Death offered little hope
and was naturally to be feared.
But Christ by his own death took away this domain from
the devil. He took away all the devil’s power and set free all those who had
been held in slavery by the fear of death - especially by the fear of what death
contained. Death and what leads to it now is laden with grace and the presence
of God, so that men need have no fear of it (provided they receive into their
hearts the Good News). It is now, thanks to Christ, a path to very great union
with God and abundant life, both in the experience of it and in its upshot. It
is not something to be feared, rather it offers a great good if passed through
in union with Christ. Christ is now the lord of life and of death.
All this is suggested in Christ’s constant healings and
exorcisms, as we read in today’s Gospel: “He went to her, took her by the hand
and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to wait on them. That
evening after sunset they brought to him all who were sick and those who were
possessed by devils (Mark 1:29-39).” This ministry was as sign pointing to
Christ’s victory over death and Satan in his own passing through the gates of
death to glory.
Let us choose to follow Christ in dying to self daily,
and resolving to die with him at our death.
(E.J.Tyler)
Jesus will refuse a word to no one, and his words bring
healing, they console, they bring light. This is what you and I have to remember
at all times, especially when we find ourselves tired and weighed down by work
or opposition.
(The Forge, no.254)
The inspired author of Hebrews (3:7-14) reminds h is reader
of what the Holy Spirit says: “If only you would listen to him today; do not
harden your hearts, as happened in the Rebellion, on the Day of Temptation in
the wilderness”. This “today” is every day of our lives - our whole life - but
consider how especially it means today, this very day - the present that is
actually with us. Our Lord once said, do not worry about tomorrow, today has
enough to consider and to deal with. Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these
other things will be given to you.
So the great challenge is to make the very best of today, of
the present, while learning of course from the past and planning properly for
the future. All that we can concretely deal with is the actual present, the
today that God has graciously granted us. The one thing that is in our hands is
the day we are actually living.
This means giving entirely to God our whole being this day,
our prayers, thoughts, works, joys and sufferings. Our Morning Offering is very,
very important. It means resisting the hardening of our hearts by the lure of
sin - today, as the inspired passage from Hebrews warns us. Every day we must
fight sin, deliberate venial sins of thought, word and deed, for it is only by
renouncing sin that we can remain united to Christ. But it is today that we must
do this. We profit from the past by living fully in union with Christ - today,
by fulfilling as well as possible the duties of today. We prepare for the
future, especially for the great future hour of our death, by living in union
with Christ now, today.
Our treasure and our gift is the present, today. Let us live
it as if it is all we have.
(E.J.Tyler)
Don’t expect people’s applause for your work. What is more,
sometimes you mustn’t even expect other people and institutions, who like you
are working for Christ, to understand you. Seek only the glory of God and, while
loving everyone, don’t worry if there are some who don’t understand you.
(The Forge, no.255)
Our passage from Hebrews begins with a sharp directive: “Be
careful.” We are promised a place of rest with God in heaven. So, the Letter
tells us, “none of you must think that he has come too late for it.” This is a
very consoling thought in more ways than one, whatever be our age in life.
Virtually all our lives we may have wanted to serve God and have been trying to
do this in our own way. But looking back one may have to recognise that one has
been guilty of many imprudences and infidelities. However, whatever about the
past, we are now in the present and the past is behind. The Letter tells us that
we have not come too late for what God wants for us. So then, let us begin
again, hoping and trusting in God. Now I begin!
But while we are granted the opportunity and grace of a new
start in the present, the precious present, let us take note of the sombre
warning of the Letter. We must now “do everything we can to reach this
place of rest, or some of you might copy this example of disobedience and be
lost.” Let us then do our best, doing everything we can each day to reach our
heavenly homeland.
Now I begin! I will do my very best, whatever be my past.
(E.J.Tyler)
If there are mountains in the way, obstacles,
misunderstandings, backbiting, which Satan seeks and God allows, you must have
faith, faith with deeds, faith with sacrifice, faith with humility.
(The Forge, no.256)
Our passage today from the Letter to the Hebrews tells us
that “Since in Jesus, the son of God, we have the supreme high priest who has
gone through to the highest heaven, we must never let go of the faith that we
have professed”. Now there are many ways we can let go of our Faith. For
instance, we can simply fail to nourish it by not keeping to a proper plan of
life of prayer, spiritual reading, sacraments, and so forth. But I would
especially mention the danger to one’s faith in allowing occasions of sin, in
particular temptations against belief in Faith’s dogmas.
Temptations of this kind are especially prevalent today when
liberalism in religion is assumed to be an intellectual virtue. They can come in
the media, in books, conversations, or whatever. For instance, there have been
many recent Compass programmes on TV suggesting extreme interpretations of the
Scriptures (the role of Mary Magdalene, and other issues). To look at such
programmes without a serious purpose and an attitude of vigilance lays one’s
imagination open to corrupting influences. Every aspect of our being, especially
our imagination, ought be fortified in the direction of a strong Catholic belief
that will support the call to holiness. There are many books and novels (eg.,
the Da Vinci Code) that insinuate doubts about the faith in gripping ways.
All these are occasions of sin of the most serious sort
because they can lead to secret scepticism and unbelief. We must do all we can
never to “let go of the faith we have professed”, rather believe with all our
heart in the Christ proclaimed constantly by the Church.
(E.J.Tyler)
Faced by apparent sterility in your apostolate you begin to
detect the first waves of discouragement, which your faith rejects quite firmly.
But you realise that you need a more humble, lively and operative faith. As
someone who longs to bring health to your souls, you should cry out like the
father of that sick boy possessed by the devil: Lord, help my unbelief! Have no
doubt: the miracle will be performed again.
(The Forge, no.257)
Sin and Sanctity
(1 Corinthians 1:1-3) (John 1:29-34)
My dear friends, there have been many utopian dreams
of improving the world and ridding it of its evils. There is the dream of
ridding the world of poverty. There is the dream of ridding the world of
ignorance and of illiteracy. There is the dream of ridding the world of tyranny
and political oppression. There is the dream of ridding the world of wars, of
ethnic strife and bloodshed, and of establishing peace on earth.
There is the dream of ridding the world of disease and ill
health. There are so many things we would love to see the world rid of. But
there is one great evil that we never seem to see discussed in the public
domain. Nor is it publicly recognised as a great objective evil. Large numbers
would regard its existence as a purely subjective opinion. Yet it is at the root
of almost every other evil from which man suffers either directly or indirectly.
I am referring to the evil of sin, the sin of the world. How different things
would be were there no sin. Yet our culture and much of mankind does not even
recognise the reality of sin, nor its evil. One of the things we must try to
regain is a proper sense of sin.
Sin is the rebellion of man against his Maker, a
disobedience that is secret, private, and yet often very public. There is
nothing more catastrophic than to rebel against God deliberately, no matter how
minor the deliberate disobedience may be whether it be of thought, word or deed.
The other evils I have already mentioned do not compare with the evil of sin,
the evil of rebellion and defiance against the one on whom we constantly depend
for our entire ongoing existence. Over the course of human history various kinds
of evil have afflicted different people - some have endured poverty, others
ignorance, others oppression, others not. But the entire human race has been
afflicted by sin. It is handed on to all. We are all born into it. The first
human pair rebelled against God and the result was horrendous and reaches every
descendant of Adam. The human condition became one of separation from God and of
moral dislocation. It is this broken and wounded condition, the result of the
original sin of our first parents, that is handed on to all of us. We are all
born under the power of sin and with a constant proneness to personal sin. It
just has to be overcome. And as St Paul writes, with sin death entered the world
and death has spread to the whole human race. Let us ask God to make us aware of
the reality of sin and of how imperative it is to renounce and overcome it.
If anything has to be taken away, it is sin. The question is, how can this be
done? We need a great deliverer.
Our Gospel today tells us in the words of
St John the Baptist: Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world. God the Son became man to take away the sin of the world. Only he could
do this - is it remotely conceivable that any mere human being could do it? What
could a mere man, some great religious leader, do to take away the world’s sin,
its rebellion against God? How would he do it? The very thought is impossible.
The Son of God alone could do it, and it was God’s plan that he do it by his
Passion, his Death and his Resurrection. It was in this way that he atoned for
the world’s sins and won for us the gift of the Holy Spirit.
But there is more. Where sin abounded, grace
abounds even more. That is to say, Christ by his redemptive work has won for us
the grace to be saints, to be holy with the holiness of God. St Paul in the
second reading greets the holy people who are called to take their place among
all the saints. So if we set our minds to it day by day and take the means that
the Church provides for us from what Christ entrusted to her, we can attain
holiness at the very core of our being and be transformed into the likeness of
Christ. Where sin abounded, grace now abounds more.
Let us then look on Christ the Lamb of God and our
Redeemer, resolving to follow wherever he goes. In our daily life nothing is so
important as renouncing sin day by day and doing lovingly the will of God in
imitation of and in union with Christ, into whose image the Holy Spirit is
moulding us. Let us make that our life’s ambition, the ambition of each day.
(E.J.Tyler)
What a beautiful prayer for you to say frequently, that one
of our good friend praying for a priest whom hatred for religion imprisoned: “My
God, comfort him, since it is for you he suffers persecution. How many there are
who suffer because they serve you!” What a source of joy the Communion of Saints
is.
(The Forge, no.258)
The Letter to the Hebrews, and this passage of today in
particular, speaks of Christ’s priesthood. Now let us notice how the Letter
points out that while the priest in the line of Aaron offered up sacrifices for
sin, Christ as High Priest offered up his very self for sin. He himself was not
only the priest but the victim he offered for sin - offered not for his own sin
as the traditional priest had to, but for the sins of mankind. As the
traditional victim was slaughtered as a sacrifice, so too Christ underwent
suffering and death as the sacrifice. This was the character of the priesthood
of Christ, that both priest and victim were identical.
Now every baptised member of Christ’s faithful has been given
a share in the priesthood of Christ, the particular kind of share varying
according to his or her vocation. But all are called to unite with Christ as
priest-offerer, offering Christ himself to the Father for the sins and needs of
mankind. Moreover, all are called not only to unite with Christ as offerer, but
all are called to unite with Christ precisely as victim. That is to say our
whole being and life is to be an offering, our sufferings and our work, all that
we are called to do by way of duty, all this is intended by the Father to be
caught up in union with the offering that Christ made of himself as victim. Thus
is our life meant to be a sacrifice of tremendous value because united with the
sacrifice of Christ the victim.
We are called to be priests with Christ the offerer, and
victims with Christ the victim-sacrifice. This will give our ordinary
lives an extraordinary value and meaning, with all its little ordinary duties.
(E.J.Tyler)
The measures taken by some governments to ensure that the
faith in their countries dies out reminds me of the seals set upon the tomb of
Jesus by the Sanhedrin. He was not subject to anybody or anything, and despite
those seals he rose again.
(The Forge, no.259)
St Josemaria Escriva writes in The Forge that when it comes
to seeking sanctity, it is easy to begin. The difficult and essential thing is
to persevere, and to persevere to the end. Our passage from the Letter to the
Hebrews today makes this very point: “Our one desire is that every one of you
should go on showing the same earnestness to the end, to the perfect fulfilment
of our hopes, never growing careless”.
When we think of perseverence to the end, we mean it to
involve real effort and work. It is possible to keep at life’s goals but without
much effort. The Letter to the Hebrews asks for earnestness, earnestness to the
end - in other words real effort to the last. Our Lord says in the Gospel that
we are to love God with our whole mind, heart and strength. This means
earnestness. It means too as our passage states, “never growing careless”,
but trying to fulfil our smallest duties really well, as well as possible so as
to make them a worthy offering to God.
Let us take each day at a time as it comes, beginning
again each day. Now I begin! It means constantly repenting, turning away in
genuine fashion from deliberate venial sin and fighting venial sin daily. Every
day we are to persevere with earnestness to the end - to the end of that day,
that is - trying to do as well as possible whatever work the will of God asks of
us no matter how small.
(E.J.Tyler)
The solution is to love. St John the Apostle wrote some words
which really move me. I like to translate them as follows, almost word for word
- the fearful man doesn’t know how to love. You, therefore, who do love and know
how to show it, you mustn’t be afraid of anything. So, on you go!
(The Forge, no.260)
Our Lord is grieved to find his critics so obstinate in their
opposition to him. “Then, grieved to find them so obstinate, he looked angrily
round at them, and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out
and his hand was better.”
In various parts of the Old Testament there are vivid
descriptions of the anger and the wrath of God. In his anger God rained down
fire and brimstone on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The prophets spoke of
the anger of God and the punishment he would bring on his people for their
infidelity. Indeed, the Old Testament is commonly referred to as the book
describing the anger of God, while the New Testament is said to reveal his love.
This is a hopeless simplification of course, but at least it recognised the
reality of the anger of God. Our passage today in Mark speaks of Christ’s anger
at ain - and our Lord said, he who sees me sees the Father.
Let us then avoid the anger of God by growing in a spirit of
repentance every day. We must be prepared to recognise our sins and to repent of
them. Time and again this repentant attitude is shown as bringing down the mercy
and compassion of God. But repeated stubbornness and knowing continuance in sin
brings down, sooner or later, the judgment of God.
(E.J.Tyler)
God is with you. The Blessed Trinity dwells in your soul in
grace. That is why, in spite of your wretchedness, you can and should keep up a
continuous conversation with the Lord.
(The Forge, no.261)
The inspired author of Hebrews (7:25) tells us very clearly
something that is full of hope: “The power of Jesus to save is utterly certain,
since he is living for ever to intercede for all who come to God through him.”
Whatever be our sins and whatever be the faults that hold us back from full
union with God, Jesus can save us from all that. This is utterly certain. This
is the will of God, St Paul tells us elsewhere, your sanctification. The power
of Jesus to bring us to sanctity us is utterly certain.
It is said that the sister of St Thomas Aquinas once
asked her illustrious brother what one needs to do to become a saint. He said:
“Want it!” That is to say, we must have a great and persevering desire for
sanctity, a desire that includes taking the means required. Jesus can bring us
to this by his gift of the Holy Spirit and the grace that accompanies this Gift.
However, he treats us for what we are, human beings with personal freedom, and
not robots. While our sanctification is the work of God and his grace,
nevertheless we must cooperate freely and perseveringly, and in this way merit
the reward of union with God.
Perhaps the key to this persevering cooperation with
the work of Christ in our life is always to be beginning again: Now I begin! Let
us take each day at a time, every starting afresh with repentance and reliance
on the power of Christ. The power of Jesus to save is utterly certain. This fact
must be our constant hope, and it must be the message of hope we bring to
others.
(E.J.Tyler)
You should pray at all times - always. You should feel the
need to go to God after every success and after every failure in your interior
life.
(The Forge, no.262)
(January 21)
St Agnes, virgin and martyr (died 304). St Agnes came from a noble
Roman family. She was about thirteen years old when she suffered martyrdom. She
was tortured and beheaded. Her name is included in the Roman Canon. Pope Damasus
wrote a celebrated epitaph about her.
Christ the mediator of the new covenant
(Heb 8:6-13; Mark 3:13-19)
The passage from the Letter to the Hebrews today (Heb 8:6-13)
reminds us of the grandeur of the relationship that God has now established
between himself and us - the new covenant. It is a covenant of a far higher
order than its predecessor, and Jesus our Lord is the mediator of it, just as
Moses was the mediator of the previous one.
The Old Covenant simply did not work. The people abandoned it
time and again. So God resolved - had indeed planned from all eternity - to
transform his people from within so that his law and the desire to keep it would
be implanted in their hearts. God promised to sanctify his people from within
their very being - and Jesus is the mediator of this sanctifying action.
Now this work of our Lord continues on in history in and
through his Church which he established on the foundation of his Apostles. He
appointed Twelve to be his companions and to share in his work of
sanctification, of establishing the Kingdom of God within the hearts of men
(Mark 3:13-19). It is this work that we must lay ourselves open to each day, and
each day with apostolic zeal, and as part of the Apostolic Church, bring to
others.
(E.J.Tyler)
Our brief Gospel passage for today (Mark 3:20-21) gives us a
picture of our Lord at work. Our Lord and his disciples were at such a pitch
that they could not even have a meal. So consumed was he with his mission that
his relatives were convinced that he was out of his mind. Every minute of our
Lord’s life was given over to the doing of his Father’s will.
One of the most crucial things in any person’s life is the
attitude he has to his work. So many people regard their work as a necessary
evil that they have to do and get through, but it is hardly a positive thing for
them. But in fact, each of us is called to work with love at what we have been
given to do each day - it is a calling - whatever it might be. As Cardinal
Newman wrote at the end of one of his books, life is short, eternity long. We
must fill up our life with good works, working in loving Christlike service of
others in union with God. Whatever be our circumstances and our calling, all of
us can do that. St Bernadette Soubiroux at the beginning of her last illness
said, this is my last job. She was implying that she intended to make a good job
of it, a good and beautiful work of her suffering.
Let us sanctify our work, sanctifying ourselves and others by
means of it. Let us fill up our lives with good work done in union with Christ.
Let’s make the work of each day a good and beautiful thing in the sight of God
who has given it to us to do.
(E.J.Tyler)
When the Lord brought you into the Church he put an indelible
mark upon your soul through Baptism: you are a son of God. Don’t forget it.
(The Forge, no.264)
Belief in the one only God and its
implications (Matthew
4:12-23)
My dear friends, each Sunday we recite the Creed
immediately after hearing the word of God in the homily. We begin the Nicene
Creed by saying together, “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of
heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.” And at the beginning of the
Rosary, we recite the Apostles Creed by saying “I believe in God the Father
almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” So we believe that everything that
positively exists, (as opposed to evil which is the lack of what should be
there) comes from God alone. It means that there is one great Source on whom
everything depends, everything, down to the smallest existing element in life
and in the world. It means that everything should lead to the one only God.
We ought often think of the implications of their
being one only God. All the other realities in the Creed, our Lord Jesus Christ
and what he did for us, the person and divinity of the Holy Spirit, the one holy
Catholic Apostolic Church, all of these great realities we believe because he,
the one only God, has revealed them. In believing him, we should believe them
because they all flow from the first revealed truth that there is one only
God. So too with the ten commandments. The first is that we are to acknowledge
and recognise one only God, and not have other gods in his place. The other nine
commandments are the way he has revealed he wants us to live: not taking his
name in vain, keeping holy the Sabbath day, and observing the remaining
commandments that govern our relationships with others. The entire Creed and all
the commandments are linked with the great revealed truth that there is only one
God, not any one God, but the God who revealed himself to us fully and finally
in our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is to say, everything, all our beliefs and
our entire conduct, everything we see in us and around us that has any positive
being, all has as its source and centre the one God and Father of all. He is the
God who revealed himself in both the Old Testament and especially and finally in
the New with the coming and the work of Jesus Christ. Christ revealed himself to
be this one God, but he also revealed that this one God is three persons,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He told us of God’s plan to establish his Kingdom,
the Kingdom of God in the hearts of all. This he does in the person of his Son,
such that whenever any one is united to his Son, the Kingdom of God is
established within him. Our Lord said the Kingdom of God is within you - this
occurs when a person is united with Jesus. In the Gospel we heard how our Lord
began his preaching with the message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
close at hand.” In knowing and loving Jesus, we know and love the one only God.
Jesus is the way, the only way to the Father.
But there is more. We come to know the revelation and
teaching of Jesus his Son through the ministry of the Church, the Catholic
Church which he founded, and of which he is the living and constant head. The
Church is his body. So if we wish to know, love and serve God as we are called
to do, loving God with our whole mind, heart and strength, loving him in
everything because everything depends simply on him, then all this is done
through union with Christ, and union with Christ is made possible through the
life and ministry of the Church. And in all this, my life is ultimately a matter
of God and my soul. In everything I am able to find God the Lord and Master of
heaven and of earth, the Father who revealed himself as my saviour.
Let us repeat constantly through life, I believe in
the one God, Father of heaven and earth. During Mass let us ask God to establish
his kingdom in our hearts through his Son and the ministry of his Church, the
Catholic Church, of which we are grateful and fortunate members. Let us never
allow the slightest doubt about all that he has revealed to take root in our
hearts. Let us live out that Revelation, knowing it will bring us to heaven to
be with the one God forever.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further Reading:
The Catechism of the
Catholic Church no.200-227.
The worst and most intractable problem of life and in the
universe generally is the presence of sin. Sin is what strikes at the root of
our being because we are called to union with god at t he deepest level of our
being. This is our calling as human beings and our happiness, and yet all men
are under the power of an opposite tendency that is handed on unfailingly to
all. It is the tendency to disobey and reject God. How could sin be ever taken
away if this is the state of affairs? How could man every be freed from its
powerful grip?
This is why Christ made his appearance among us - as our
passage today from Hebrews says - “to do away with sin by sacrificing himself”.
He offered himself in death, and the purpose of it was “to cancel the sins”, to
take away the sin of the world. Between that sacrifice he made then and when he
comes again his work of dealing with sin is applied to each person who comes to
him and unites himself in faith to him, accepting his dispensation.
Now, the great danger in this respect is that we will have
little sense of the reality and importance of sin. If this is the case - and it
is characteristic of modern western man - then Christ and his work will appear
superfluous. It is only if one genuinely desires redemption from sin and
sanctification that Christ’s blessings will be embraced in faith. A sense of sin
is at the heart of the Christian life. It is a basic.
Let us pray for this sense of sin in ourselves and in others.
(E.J.Tyler)
The conversion of St Paul was one of the very great events of
history. It was a turnabout in the mind and heart of a person that had enormous
results on the life of that person and on the lives of others. But what
was its cause? Overwhelmingly, the cause of it was the power and the action of
God. God brought it about by his grace, aided by Paul’s characteristic prior
sincerity.
Now this has a lesson for us. To begin with, it shows us that
it is of immense importance that we convert. Conversion must be part of our
life, and our conversion has to be sincere. If it is to be productive of true
fruit, it has to be the work of grace. So we ought pray for that grace, the
grace of a change of heart. But the very rarity of the scale of St Paul’s
conversion shows that the conversion of the life of the ordinary person is
typically hidden, and indeed frequent, even daily. It is this daily conversion
which we ought aspire to as a tremendous grace productive of marvellous fruit.
Let us begin again, ever beginning again. Let us aim every
day to recognise our sins and repent of them, starting again and again to do the
will of God in the ordinary duties of each day.
(E.J.Tyler)
Saints Timothy and
Titus, bishops. St Timothy was the son of a pagan father and
a Hebrew-Christian mother, Eunice. He was a disciple of St Paul, and accompanied
him in the evangelization of many cities. St Paul ordained him Bishop of
Ephesus. According to a fourth century story, he was beaten to death by a mob
when he opposed the observance of a pagan festival. St Titus was also a friend
and disciple of St Paul who ordained him Bishop of Crete. St Paul wrote to these
two disciples three pastoral letters, which give glimpses of the developing
structure of the Church.
The Religion revealed by Christ
(Hebrews 10:11-18)
One of the most fascinating features of human history is the
history of man’s religions. With the exception of modern western culture and the
cultures it has influenced, the most prevalent feature of history is religious
history. Man is properly defined as a rational animal, but in view of his
history we could perhaps define him as a religious animal. Among the vast family
of animals, it man who is the religious animal. In his religion man strives to
attain involvement with the unseen world, to gain acceptance by it, and to be
saved from evil by it.
The Letter to the Hebrews has a very striking statement about
the effectiveness of man’s religions - at least by implication. It speaks of the
effectiveness of the religion of the Old Testament which inasmuch as it came
from God was certainly superior to all the religions that have arisen from man’s
own quest. Yet the Letter tells us that “All the priests stand at their duties
every day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices that are quite
incapable of taking sins away” (Hebrews 10:11). If this is the case for the
Hebrew religion, how much more is it so for the rest of the religions of man,
worthy as they may be. But the case is utterly different for the religion of
Jesus Christ. For “Jesus, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice
for sins, and then taken his place for ever, at the right hand of God, where he
is now waiting until his enemies are made into a footstool for him.” Why is
this? Because “By virtue of that one single offering he has achieved the eternal
perfection of all whom he is sanctifying.” (Heb:10:13)
The great British anthropologist, Evans-Pritchard, once wrote
that a religion can be understood and assessed from the perspective of its way
of dealing with evil. The greatest evil for man is sin. The answer that has come
from Heaven is Christ, and the religion that Christ revealed.
(E.J.Tyler)
Build up a gigantic faith in the Holy Eucharist. Be filled
with wonder before this ineffable reality. We have God with us; we can receive
him every day and, if we want to , we can speak intimately with him, just as we
talk with a friend, as we talk with a brother, as we talk with a father, as we
talk with Love itself.
(The Forge, no.268)
(January 27) St
Angela Merici, virgin (1470-1540). St Angela was born in northern
Italy. In 1516 she founded the Order of Ursulines, the first teaching order for
women approved by the Church. Italy then was rife with violence and open
immorality. St Angela believed that the formation of Christian women is
society’s greatest need.
The Lamp on the lampstand
(Mark 4:21-25)
Everyone accepts that man has duties and responsibilities. He
is morally obliged in various ways. Now for the Christian there is one moral
obligation of the first order that he is especially prone to forget. It is the
obligation to bear witness to Christ before others in his everyday life. He can
- and I am, of course speaking of the Catholic Christian, for Christianity
subsists in the Catholic Church - he can fulfil his obligations to maintain a
life of personal piety while quite easily forgetting his obligation to bring the
person and teaching of Christ to the world around him.
Our Lord in our Gospel passage (Mark 4:21-25) today says that
the lamp of which we are in possession must be put on the lampstand. The Lamp,
of course, is Christ. He described himself as the light of the world such that
if anyone does not live by his light he is walking in the darkness. Furthermore,
there is a warning. Our Lord says that the amount we measure out is the amount
we will be given. If then we make no effort to let the light of Christ that is
within us shine out for the benefit of others, bringing glory to God and to
Christ, then our own spiritual life will be diminished accordingly.
That is to say, a fundamental means of growing in the life of
Christ is to be apostolic. Let us then ask our Lord to give us a profound desire
to live in such a way that he will be honoured and glorified.
(E.J.Tyler)
Scripture today: 2
Samuel 1:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17; Psalm 51:3-7, 10-11; Mark 4:26-34
Jesus said: “The
Kingdom of God is like a man who cast seed on the ground. Night and day
as he sleeps and rises the seed begins to grow, how he does not know.
Of itself the earth brings forth its crop, first the blade, then the ear,
afterwards the full corn in the ear. When the produce is ready he
immediately applies the sickle because the harvest has arrived.” He
said: “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or to what parable
shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed which when it
is sown in the earth is smaller than all the seeds in the ground. When
it is sown, it grows and becomes greater than all other shrubs and puts
out great branches, such that the birds of the are able to dwell in its
shadow.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them according as
they were able to hear. He only spoke in parables to them, but
privately to his disciples he explained everything.(Mark 4:26-34)
When the Hebrew
thought of kingdoms, his heart dwelt lovingly and longingly on the
kingdom of his forefather David. Though not Judaism’s first king, David
established the kingdom and of all the kings of the chosen people he
was the greatest. He had received the prophecy that was thenceforth
handed on, that his throne would in
some sense be eternal. The prophecy developed as the generations passed
and it became clear that a great Messiah was to come who would
establish God’s Kingdom and be its King. He would be the fulfilment of
the prophecies. In Jesus of Nazareth this King had now come, and our
Lord in his preaching and teaching repeatedly explained and described
this Kingdom. We have a portion of his teaching on the Kingdom in our
Gospel passage today. Firstly, the Kingdom would grow and grow of its
own power. “The Kingdom of God is like a man who cast seed on the
ground. Night and day as he sleeps and rises the seed begins to grow,
how he does not know. Of itself the earth brings forth its crop, first
the blade, then the ear, afterwards the full corn in the ear. When the
produce is ready he immediately applies the sickle because the harvest
has arrived.” The source of this growth that our Lord is describing
here is grace, given to the Church through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The Church is the bearer and the great beneficiary of grace which is
the life and friendship of God. This grace surges through the Church’s
veins, is active in her preaching and teaching, is conveyed in her
Sacraments, and is bestowed on her children enabling them to live in
the friendship of God. It is the hidden power of God at work in the
life of the Church accounting for her growth throughout history amid
the waves of difficulty and persecution that afflict her. Cardinal
Newman considered the first three centuries of the Church’s history and
her triumph over the Roman Empire to be the paradigm of this growth.
The life and power of God are shown in her silent but sure development.
So while other
kingdoms rise and fall, this divine kingdom on earth will not. The
kingdom and civilization of Egypt grew and lasted for very many
centuries, and more spectacularly still so did that of Rome. But they
fell. Such has been the pattern of the kingdoms of this world all
along. But our Lord assures us that God’s kingdom which he, Jesus,
established and of which he is the King will not be like that. It will
inexorably grow and will embrace the peoples. It will far outclass all
other kingdoms. “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or to what
parable shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed which
when it is sown in the earth is smaller than all the seeds in the
ground. When it is sown, it grows and becomes greater than all other
shrubs and puts out great branches, such that the birds of the are able
to dwell in its shadow.” (Mark 4:26-34). As he stood before
Pontius Pilate on trial for presuming to be a king, he told Pilate that
he was a King, yes, but that his Kingdom was not of this world. It was
in the world, but not of it. Were it of this world he, its King, would
be using the weapons of the world and with those weapons his forces
would be liberating him from captivity. But no. His kingdom was of a
different order. It was the Kingdom of truth, for he had been born into
this world to bear witness to the truth, and those who were of the
truth listen to his voice. So at its heart our Gospel passage today is
speaking of our Lord himself as the King, and those who gather with and
in him are members of his Kingdom. He himself is the great treasure of
God’s Kingdom, and it is in him that God’s Kingdom is found and
accessed. St Paul writes in one of his Letters that this is the mystery
now revealed - or, we could say, the Kingdom now revealed - Christ in
you, your hope of glory. Christ’s reign will grow and grow and it will
be eternal. The birds of the air will find their shelter in him. By our
baptism and membership in the Church we live in him and thus does the
Kingdom of God grow.
The Kingdom of God
is to be found in the Church Christ founded because Christ is to be
found in his body the Church. Christ is the treasure and fullness of
God’s Kingdom and that treasure is to be found in his Church. Let us
take our stand with Jesus, knowing that in him, as St Paul writes, is
to be found the fullness of the godhead bodily. In him there is every
heavenly blessing. He is our living Lord, joy for all ages.
(E.J.Tyler)
A second Reflection for Friday of the
Third Week of Ordinary Time
The value of Suffering
(Hebrews 10:32-39)
Our passage today from the Letter to the Hebrews reminds the
Christian that sufferings will come to the one who has received and embraced the
light of Christ. But it is one thing to suffer. It is a further thing to have
the endurance that is necessary to do God’s will in the midst of that suffering
and thus to gain what he has promised. “You will need endurance to do God’s will
and gain what he has promised.” (Hebrews 10:32-39).
So how can we gain this endurance. One very important way is
to look at sufferings, especially the sufferings that spring from believing in
Christ and doing God’s will, with the eyes of faith. The same passage says that
“the righteous man will live by faith.” This means viewing the sufferings that
arise from doing God’s will as full of divine blessings. We need merely think of
Christ and how the greatest blessings of his life flowed to us from his passion
and death. Suffering, especially the suffering of the one who lives in Christ,
is now laden with fruitfulness. If we are to endure in doing God’s will, we must
learn to look on everything, including suffering, with the eyes of faith -
seeing it as Christ saw it and taught it.
If we live by faith in this way, God’s presence and Kingdom,
his Kingdom that is within us, will grow like the seed that “is sprouting and
growing, how he does not know” (Mark 4:26-28). Our sanctification and
transformation in Christ will be going on. Let us then resolve in union with
Christ to accept and even embrace (as he did) the suffering that is involved in
doing God’s will.
(E.J.Tyler)
Today’s passage from Hebrews (11:1-2.8-19) tells us that it
is b y means of faith that we become convinced “of the existence of the
realities that at present remain unseen.” Our Lord risen from the dead said to
Thomas: “You believe because you have seen. Blessed are those who have not seen
and yet believe.” I know a leading Australian philosopher who has written that
philosophical reasoning alone will not bring certainty about God and the things
of God that are unseen. Our passage from Hebrews tells us that faith will bring
this certainty.
This is of vital importance all through life, but especially
at the moment of death. The whole of life is building up for the moment of
death. We must live well in order to die well, and a good and holy death will be
life’s greatest achievement. Now what a difference there is between the man who
has no faith in what God has revealed of the unseen, or who has lost the faith
he once had, and the man who approaches the great moment of death full of faith.
There is a certainty, a joy, a confidence in him, a trust in God’s mercy that
the other needs but utterly lacks. It is then that it becomes obvious that man
was made to believe. He was created to have faith.
Let us resolve to hold fast to our faith - to believe in what
God has revealed - daily. We must never allow the slightest doubt to take root
in our hearts. Our faith takes us to heaven.
(E.J.Tyler)
To remove the dark shadow of pessimism which hung over you
that morning, you again appealed to your Angel as you do every day - but this
time you were more thorough. You said a few nice words to him and you asked him
to teach you to love Jesus at least, at least as much as he loves Him. And with
that your recovered your calm.
(The Forge, no.271)
(January 28) St Thomas Aquinas, priest and
doctor of
the
Church (1224-1274). He was educated at the Abbey of Monte
Cassino
and at the University of Naples. In about 1244 he joined the Dominican
Order. Considered one of the greatest philosophers and theologians of
all
times, St Thomas gained the title of “Angelic Doctor”. He had an
undisputed
mastery of scholastic theology and a profound holiness of life. Pope
Leo
XIII declared him the Patron of Catholic Schools. His monumental work,
the Summa Theologiae, was still unfinished when he died.
The value of Suffering
(Hebrews 10:32-39)
Our passage today from the Letter to the Hebrews
reminds
the Christian that sufferings will come to the one who has received and
embraced the light of Christ. But it is one thing to suffer. It is a
further
thing to have the endurance that is necessary to do God’s will in the
midst
of that suffering and thus to gain what he has promised. “You will need
endurance to do God’s will and gain what he has promised.” (Hebrews
10:32-39).
So how can we gain this endurance. One very
important
way is to look at sufferings, especially the sufferings that spring
from
believing in Christ and doing God’s will, with the eyes of faith. The
same
passage says that “the righteous man will live by faith.” This means
viewing
the sufferings that arise from doing God’s will as full of divine
blessings.
We need merely think of Christ and how the greatest blessings of his
life
flowed to us from his passion and death. Suffering, especially the
suffering
of the one who lives in Christ, is now laden with fruitfulness. If we
are
to endure in doing God’s will, we must learn to look on everything,
including
suffering, with the eyes of faith - seeing it as Christ saw it and
taught
it.
If we live by faith in this way, God’s presence and
Kingdom,
his Kingdom that is within us, will grow like the seed that “is
sprouting
and growing, how he does not know” (Mark 4:26-28). Our
sanctification
and transformation in Christ will be going on. Let us then resolve in
union
with Christ to accept and even embrace (as he did) the suffering that
is
involved in doing God’s will.
(E.J.Tyler)
Today’s passage from Hebrews (11:1-2.8-19) tells us
that
it is b y means of faith that we become convinced “of the existence of
the realities that at present remain unseen.” Our Lord risen from the
dead
said to Thomas: “You believe because you have seen. Blessed are those
who
have not seen and yet believe.” I know a leading Australian philosopher
who has written that philosophical reasoning alone will not bring
certainty
about God and the things of God that are unseen. Our passage from
Hebrews
tells us that faith will bring this certainty.
This is of vital importance all through life, but
especially
at the moment of death. The whole of life is building up for the moment
of death. We must live well in order to die well, and a good and holy
death
will be life’s greatest achievement. Now what a difference there is
between
the man who has no faith in what God has revealed of the unseen, or who
has lost the faith he once had, and the man who approaches the great
moment
of death full of faith. There is a certainty, a joy, a confidence in
him,
a trust in God’s mercy that the other needs but utterly lacks. It is
then
that it becomes obvious that man was made to believe. He was created to
have faith.
Let us resolve to hold fast to our faith - to
believe
in what God has revealed - daily. We must never allow the slightest
doubt
to take root in our hearts. Our faith takes us to heaven.
(E.J.Tyler)
To remove the dark shadow of pessimism which hung
over
you that morning, you again appealed to your Angel as you do every day
- but this time you were more thorough. You said a few nice words to
him
and you asked him to teach you to love Jesus at least, at least as much
as he loves Him. And with that your recovered your calm.
(The Forge, no.271)
blade, then the ear,
afterwards the full corn in the ear. When the produce is ready he
immediately applies the sickle because the harvest has arrived.” He
said: “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or to what parable
shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed which when it
is sown in the earth is smaller than all the seeds in the ground. When
it is sown, it grows and becomes greater than all other shrubs and puts
out great branches, such that the birds of the are able to dwell in its
shadow.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them according as
they were able to hear. He only spoke in parables to them, but
privately to his disciples he explained everything. (Mark 4:26-34)