February 2007

  Pope Benedict XVI's general prayer intention for the month of February 2007: "that the goods of the earth, given by God for all men, may be used wisely and according to criteria of justice and solidarity."

  Pope Benedict XVI's missionary prayer intention for February 2007:  "That the fight against diseases and great epidemics in the Third World may find, in the spirit of solidarity, ever more generous collaboration on the part of the governments of all nations."
                        
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Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time II

(February 1) Today let us think of St. Bridgid of Ireland  (Saints)  See also this Website's Details of Saints for Any Particular Day

Scripture today:   Hebrews 12:18-19, 21-24;   Psalm 48:2-3ab, 3cd-4, 9, 10-11;    Mark 6:7-13

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick --no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.” So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. (Mark 6:7-13)

It is traditionally thought that the Gospel of St Mark is based on — and perhaps is a reproduction of — the preaching, teaching and reminiscences of St Pater. Let us assume that this is so, and imagine Simon Peter thinking back to that precious and fond time with the Lord during his public ministry. Our Gospel passage today tells us of how our Lord “began” to send them out on his behalf. He “summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.” (Mark 6:7-13) They were to go out with what was necessary and nothing more, depending simply on Jesus and his word and direction. They were to be detached from personal considerations and to take what might come. The mission was all that mattered, and they were to conduct their mission together with Jesus in spirit, and in his spirit. So they went off, and what did they preach? They preached repentance. We remember that John the Baptist preached repentance, and had a baptism symbolizing repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Not long after our Lord was baptized, he began his public ministry by preaching repentance, for the kingdom of God was at hand. The Twelve had the same message to announce. People were to be exhorted to turn away from sin, to be alive to the reality and evil of sin, and to prepare for its remission by God. God’s rule was coming, a rule that would involve holiness of life in union with him. How it would come and what precisely this would involve, was not yet revealed. The one thing which would prevent the blessings of God being poured out on mankind and each person was sin. If sin were to be clung to, the Messiah’s work would not attain its goal. All must repent. It is a message our Gospel today directs towards each of us.

But now, there was one among the Twelve whose path was a tremendous disappointment to Christ. I refer to Judas Iscariot who is always mentioned in the Gospel at the end of the list of the Twelve, and is described as the betrayer. Jesus chose him to be one of the Twelve to be with him and to be sent out to preach. He was one of those to whom our Lord gave the name of Apostle, or his Envoy, his Ambassador. He was not just a disciple who followed and learnt, but an official Envoy. He represented the Messiah and in the future he would have been one of the great foundation stones of the Church, called to be a saint of God. He must have been a person of real promise for Christ made no mistakes in the matter of redemption of the world. In our passage today he was one of those whom our Lord sent out in training and to prepare for his coming ahead of him. He was instructed in the message to be delivered. With the others he drove out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. Very significantly, he “went off and peached repentance.” But he himself failed to repent. Little by little he allowed his sins to remain and indeed to grow. He stole from the common purse. He gradually refused faith in Jesus. At the synagogue of Capernaum Christ announced his doctrine of the Eucharist and as a result he lost many of his disciples. On that occasion our Lord said to the Twelve that one of them was a devil. Judas was refusing faith. His heart was turning away from love of Jesus and acceptance of his teaching. If only he had repented! If only he had recognized his sins and turned to the Master he was accompanying and sought his help in overcoming them. Christ could have made a saint of him.

Judas preached repentance, but it was his lack of repentance that ruined him and opened him up to Satan. St John tells us that at the Last Supper Satan entered him and he went out into the night. He never came back into the light. Let us learn from his horrifying case that though we have been called to the constant company of Jesus we must be vigilant against sin. We must recognize it and repent constantly of it. :Let us pray to the Holy Spirit for the precious grace of true and constant repentance.
                                                                                                                 (E.J.Tyler)

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«Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two» (Mark 6:7-13)
      Thomas of Celano (about 1190-about 1260), biographer of Saint Francis and Saint Claire
                                                                            (The First Life of Saint Francis, § 29)

At this same time also, when another good man had entered their religion, their number rose to eight. Then the blessed Francis called them all together, and telling them many things concerning the kingdom of God, the contempt of the world, the renunciation of their own will, and the subduing of their own body, he separated them into four groups of two each and said to them: “Go, my dearest brothers, two by two into the various parts of the world, announcing to men peace and repentance unto the forgiveness of sins; and be patient in tribulation, confident that the Lord will fulfill his purpose and his promise. To those who put questions to you, reply humbly; bless those who persecute you; give thanks to those who injure you and calumniate you; because for these things there is prepared for you an eternal kingdom (Mt 5,10-11).

But they, accepting the command of holy obedience with joy and great gladness, cast themselves upon the ground before St. Francis. But he embraced them and said to each one with sweetness and affection: “Cast thy thought upon the Lord, and he will nourish you”. This word he spoke whenever he transferred any brothers in obedience.
                                           (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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Whenever the worrying thought enters your head that you lack rectitude of intention — sometimes it may come like a flash of lightning, at other times like a filthy pestering fly which you brush off but which keeps coming back — always make acts of right intention straight away, and carry on working calmly for Him and with Him.

At the same time, even though you might feel you are only pronouncing the words mechanically, say slowly: Lord, I want nothing for myself. May everything be for your glory and for your Love.
                                                   (The Forge, no.1009)

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                            What are the acts of the penitent?
They are: a careful examination of conscience; contrition (or repentance), which is perfect when it is motivated by love of God and imperfect if it rests on other motives and which includes the determination not to sin again; confession, which consists in the telling of one’s sins to the priest; and satisfaction or the carrying out of certain acts of penance which the confessor imposes upon the penitent to repair the damage caused by sin. (CCC 1450-1460, 1487-1492)
                            (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.303)

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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time C

(February 4) Today let us think of St John de Britto  (Saints)

Scripture:   Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8;     Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8;     1 Corinthians 15:1-11;     Luke 5:1-11

While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signalled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:1-11)

   In a recent issue of the Sydney Morning Herald (February 1, 2007, p.9) there was a report of excavations at Stonehenge in southern England, in which dozens of ancient homes have been uncovered. The settlement has been dated at about 4600 years ago, at about the time the giant Egyptian pyramid of Giza was being built. Much of the Stonehenge appears to be of a religious character, reminding us that religious practice was almost universal in ancient and prehistoric times. All the evidence that is available suggests the same for traditional Aboriginal culture in Australia during the thousands of years of its history. Higher supernatural beings were acknowledged and ritual and myth shaped society. There is one thing, though, that seems to me to be worthy of further study in respect to the non-Christian religions of the world. It is whether the higher supernatural powers of this or that religion were understood as truly transcending the world, or whether basically they were part of it, though occupying a much higher place in it. My own reading suggests to me that the supernatural beings of, for instance, traditional Aboriginal religion did not really transcend the world, but fundamentally were part of it. Whether or not this is so, at least the question reminds us that because we come to know things in the first instance through our senses, there is the tendency to accept as real only that which is part of our world. For many years prior to his conversion St Augustine could not shake off his image of God as material. There are serious philosophies that do not allow for anything that cannot be confirmed empirically. While we reject this notion and insist on a God who transcends the world, nevertheless it could be that we barely realize the transcendence of God. That is to say, we need to work at realizing that God our Father is not on earth but in heaven.

  Our Lord time and again referred to God as his Father, whom more often than not he called his heavenly Father. I wonder if we ever give much thought to the importance of the word “heavenly” when used by our Lord of his Father. On one occasion when our Lord’s disciples saw him praying to his heavenly Father, they approached him to ask him to teach them how to pray. The prayer he taught them begins with a few very revealing words: Our Father, who art in heaven. In addressing God our Father I am sure we tend not to appreciate the significance of his being in heaven. That God is in heaven does not mean that he is far away from us in a distant place. One of the features of many indigenous religions is that the principal deity is remote and withdrawn. Ritualistic contacts are more easily made with lesser spirits who are seen as more active and accessible, and often the myths are more commonly about them. That is to say, the abode of the supreme being or what we might call heaven, is often imagined in terms of a very distant land. But the real heaven is not like this. Heaven is God and his transcendent way of being. Being in heaven means being face to face with him in an intimate and  permanent union with him. The truth that God is in heaven insists that he is in no way part of this world which we can unconsciously take him to be. He is utterly other than his creation. If it were otherwise, if he were in some sense part of the world though superior to everything else in it — as is, I think, the implicit notion in many religions — then he would not be the one only God. Yet at the same time he is intimately near for he holds in existence everything that is. His finger, as it were, touches the tiniest particle that exists and in touching it sustains its being in its allotted span.

  All of this we are reminded of in today’s Gospel (Luke 5:1-11) when Simon, having made his miraculous catch of fish at the command of our Lord, fell at the feet of Jesus and said to him, “Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.” His words bore witness to the transcendent holiness and power of Jesus. In Christ dwells the fullness of the godhead bodily. In him dwells the thrice holy God. Christ’s divine person utterly transcends the world, and in him heaven was present. Yet by becoming man he who transcends the world became part of it as well. The Christian religion worships a God who is utterly other, but who as man is God with us and one of us. As we think of Simon’s words let us pray for a profound realization of the utter transcendence of God our Father. Our Father is in heaven, a heaven that is utterly beyond and in Christ is at the same time utterly near.

                                                                                                                      (E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.2794-2796

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"Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." (Catechism of the Catholic Church § 311-312)

Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil.176 He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it: "For almighty God. . ., because he is supremely good, would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself." (Saint Augustine)

In time we can discover that God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his creatures: "It was not you", said Joseph to his brothers, "who sent me here, but God. . . You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive." (Genesis 45:8 ; 50:20)

From the greatest moral evil ever committed — the rejection and murder of God's only Son, caused by the sins of all men — God, by his grace that "abounded all the more",179 brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption. But for all that, evil never becomes a good.
                                                               (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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Get into the habit of praying to the Guardian Angel of each person you are following up. Their Angel will help them to be good and faithful and cheerful, so that when the time comes they will be able to receive the eternal embrace of Love from God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and from the Blessed Virgin.
                                                      (The Forge, no.1012)

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                 Why can venial sins also be the object of sacramental confession?
The confession of venial sins is strongly recommended by the Church, even if this is not strictly necessary, because it helps us to form a correct conscience and to fight against evil tendencies. It allows us to be healed by Christ and to progress in the life of the Spirit. (CCC 1458)
                          (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.306)

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Monday of the fifth week of Ordinary Time II

(February 5) Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr (died about 251) She was martyred in Catania (Sicily) probably during the time of Decius. Her name appears in the Roman Canon.  (Saints)

Scripture today:   Genesis 1:1-19;     Psalm 104:1-2a, 5-6, 10 and 12, 24 and 35c;      Mark 6:53-56

After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed. (Mark 6:53-56)

Our Gospel scene today places us with Jesus and his disciples landing at Gennesaret and tying up there. As they left the boat those who were near the shore immediately recognized him and word spread like wildfire. People hurried throughout the surrounding region and brought to him all the sick they could (Mark 6:53-56). This was typical of so many villages and towns he entered. St Mark writes that all they needed to do was touch him and healing would come. So many were sick and helpless, especially in the ancient world when medical science was so rudimentary, and where in any case so many were far from professional medical attention. They hungered for life and health, and lacked the light to see any true meaning in their physical plight. Christ offered them hope. His power to do good for them seemed (and was) without limit. Whatever their need, he was able to help them and if he refused (as occasionally he did) it was for a good purpose and because the request was not in accord with the will of God. Now, on the one hand this picture reminds us of the profoundly broken situation of fallen man stemming from sin. On the other, Christ gave himself to this ministry of healing but it is clear that he did so to give a sign of something much greater that he had come to bring. His miracles were a sign of the coming of God’s Kingdom which would be a Kingdom of holiness. It is this which he especially had come to offer. St John the Baptist at the beginning of his public ministry pointed him out and said of him, “There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Years before this the angel had said of him before he was born that he would save his people from their sins. It was the evil of sin which he had come to take away, and his wide ranging healings and his raising of some from the dead were meant to signal to the people the coming of God’s kingdom, its establishment in the hearts of men, and their release from the power of sin.

But the true and deeper evil of sin which Christ had come to take away, the holiness of life which would be his gift to all who come to him, was not of interest to the body of the people. Christ was sent, he told his disciples on one occasion, to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, and it was to the people of Israel that he sent his disciples during the period of his public ministry.  But the deeper message was not accepted. St John in the prologue to his Gospel writes that he came unto his own and his own did not accept him. For those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God. St John in his Gospel speaks of the miracles of Christ as being signs, signs of the much greater benefits of redemption and sanctification he offers all who come to him. But let us look on the uncomprehending crowds as a sign for us too. Let us look on the rapid spread of word about his arrival which we read of in today’s Gospel (Mark 6:53-56) as a symbolic picture or sign of the response we and all mankind are called to show to Christ and the deeper blessings of redemption he has gained for us by his death and resurrection. The crowds running everywhere spreading the word of his arrival, their bringing their sick to him, their reaching out to him for healing and solace, all these scenes can be looked upon as inspiring pointers to what we ought be doing at a deeper and more important level. We all suffer from the profoundly debilitating and lethal disease of sin. It is passed on to each of us as our inheritance, and we cooperate with it to a greater or lesser extent. It is a great serpent that has found its way into the heart and soul of each of us, and only Christ can rid us of its presence. So we should come to him as our hope. Christ invites us to come to him unhesitatingly. He has the love and the power to deal with sin and to make us holy. We ought hurry towards him bringing before him our sinful selves together with the varied effects of sin in the world. We ought be like the people who hurried everywhere passing word of his arrival and bringing to him all we can for his healing touch.

We know where Christ is to be found. He is to be found in his Church, the Church he founded and in which he constantly abides. Within the life of the his Church of which he is the head he acts in the Sacraments he instituted. Most especially he offers himself and his sanctifying action in the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance, and he teaches and preaches in the teaching and the preaching of the Church’s pastors and all who have a responsibility to hand on his word. Let us then come to him and find light and life in him.

                                                                                                     (E.J.Tyler)

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«All those who touched him were healed» (Mark 6:53-56)
            Saint Leo the Great (?-about 461), pope and doctor of the Church (Letter 28 to Flavian, 3-4)

Lowliness is assured by majesty, weakness by power, and mortality by eternity. To pay the debt of our sinful state, a nature that is incapable of suffering was joined to one that could suffer. Thus, in keeping with the healing that we needed, one and the same mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ (1Tim 2,5), was able to die in one nature, and unable to die in the other...

He was born in a new condition, for, invisible in his own nature, he became visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, he chose to come within our grasp. Existing before time began, he began to exist at a moment in time. Lord of the universe, he hid his infinite glory and took the nature of a servant (Phil 2,7). Incapable of suffering as God, he did not refuse to be a man, capable of suffering. Immortal, he chose to be subject to the laws of death. He who is true God is also true man.
                                                               (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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Like the grain of wheat, we too have to die in order to become fruitful.

You and I, with the help of God's grace, want to open up a deep furrow, to blaze a trail. That is why we have to leave behind our poor animal man and launch out into the sphere of the spirit, giving a supernatural meaning to every human undertaking and, at the same time, to all those engaged in them.
                                                (The Forge, no.1013)

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               Who is the minister of this sacrament?
Christ has entrusted the ministry of Reconciliation to his apostles, to the bishops who are their successors and to the priests who are the collaborators of the bishops, all of whom become thereby instruments of the mercy and justice of God. They exercise their power of forgiving sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (CCC 1461-1466, 1495)
                 (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.307)

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Tuesday of the fifth week of Ordinary Time II

(February 6) Saint Paul Miki and his companions, martyrs (died 1597). Paul Miki, a Japanese Jesuit, and his twenty-five companions (including Pedro Bautista of the Philippines) were martyred in Nagasaki, Japan. They were the first martyrs of East Asia to be canonized. They were killed simultaneously by being raised on crosses and then stabbed with spears. Their executioners were astounded upon seeing their joy at being associated with the Passion of Christ. Every Christian is called to bear witness, in life and in death, to the Faith.

Scripture today: Genesis 1:20-2:4a; Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Mark 7:1-13

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. (For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” He went on to say, “How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! For Moses said, Honour your father and your mother, and Whoever curses father or mother shall die. Yet you say, ‘If someone says to father or mother, ‘Any support you might have had from me is qorban’ (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother. You nullify the word of God in favour of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things.” (Mark 7:1-13)

There were many things about which the scribes and Pharisees took hostile issue with Jesus, but in general their attack on him seems to have centred around his departure from the practices of religion which they required of the people. We have an instance of this in today’s Gospel where they complained to him that his “disciples do not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands.” Obviously making a religious duty of cleanliness has a place in the practice of religion, but this “tradition of the elders” — and “many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds” — had come to be regarded as virtually divine commands. They had become a fetish and had displaced the commands of God himself. Christ disregarded them in his teaching and example. He was, in the process, dislodging the scribes and Pharisees from their position of authority in the religion of the nation. Christ insisted on the religion revealed by God and of course he was implicitly indicating that he himself is the interpreter of that religion. More than this, the full sweep of his ministry would show that he is the author of that religion and the supreme revelation of it. On another occasion he said to his enemies that “before Abraham ever was, I am”, indicating that he himself was the Yahweh who revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush. They picked up stones to stone him with, but he escaped. As we ponder our Lord’s words of reply to the Pharisees, let us resolve to embrace every day the religion revealed by God and live by it in faith. Let us not replace it with something else. It is an inestimable benefit to man that God has revealed to us a religion that will please and glorify him.

Our Gospel scene today shows us on the one hand the disciples of Jesus gathered around him and acknowledging him as their master, and on the other hand the Pharisees and some scribes placing their allegiance elsewhere. One group is for Christ, the other opposes him. Let us place ourselves in the company of the disciples in this Gospel scene and resolve to adhere to Christ as our light. It is important that every man and woman strive to know the religion revealed by God, and also to know what is not that religion despite what they may have thought to be the case. Now, one of the dangers of our day is the implicit assumption that in matters of religion no one is actually wrong. The only right position is the sincere position. If one’s stance is sincere (though it may not even be the result of a truly personal judgment) then it is objectively right for you. In matters of religion no one is wrong provided everyone is sincere. This assumption has not only struck root in the realm of religion, but holds the field in many other domains of the mind as well. It is what Pope Benedict has referred to as the dictatorship of relativism. It produces a liberal attitude towards objective religious truth, such that any sense of urgency in attaining a certain knowledge of revealed truth fades away as being unimportant or impossible. Now, when we consider the considerable number of religions in the world, and how radically different even the world religions are, it must be that a great number of persons are not in the truth despite being sincere. Contradictions cannot be, under the same respect, correct. Let us then resolve to reject that liberalism in religion that does not bother with placing a supreme priority on finding and possessing the objective truth revealed by God.

The true religion is embodied in the person of Christ. Christ abides within the Church he founded, and he ministers to man in and through the ministry and Sacraments of that Church. In our Gospel scene today Christ’s disciples were gathered around him and took their stand with him. Let us do the same. Let us gather around Christ in his Church where he abides and continues to minister to his faithful and to the world. That Church is the Church of the ages and of all places, the Catholic Church of Peter and the apostles and their successors.

                                                                                                                        (E.J.Tyler)

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«This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me» (Mark 7:1-13)
Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Carmelite nun, doctor of the Church
(Way to perfection, ch.28,9-11)

Let us imagine that inside of each one of us is a beautiful and rich palace, all made of gold and precious stones, worthy of the Master to whom it belongs. Then, my sisters, tell yourselves that the beauty of this building depends upon you too. It is true, for is there any prettier construction than a pure soul filled with virtues? The greater they are, the more their precious stones shine. Finally, think that in this palace lives the great King who accepted to become our Father; he sits on a throne of great value, the throne of your heart...

You maybe will laugh at me and say that this is quite obvious, and maybe you are right, but this was not clear to me for some time. I knew I had a soul, but the esteem that this soul deserved, the dignity of the one who lives in it, this is what I did not understand. The vanities of life were to me like a bandage on my eyes. If I had understood, as I do today, that in this small palace of my soul lived such a great King, I would not have left him alone so often; I would have come stay with him every now and then, and I would have done all I could to keep my palace clean. How wonderful it is to think that the one, whose greatness could fill thousands of worlds and more, closes himself in such a small dwelling place!
(Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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Jesus, let my distractions be the other way round. Instead of recalling the world when I am engaged in conversation with you, let me rather recall you when I am engaged in the things of this world.
                                                                                                    (The Forge, no.1014)

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To whom is the absolution of some sins reserved?

The absolution of certain particularly grave sins (like those punished by excommunication) is reserved to the Apostolic See or to the local bishop or to priests who are authorized by them. Any priest, however, can absolve a person who is in danger of death from any sin and excommunication.
(CCC 1463)
(Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.308)

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Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time II

(February 7) Today let us think of St Mel  (Saints)   See also this Website's Details of Saints for Any Particular Day

Scripture today:    Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17;      Psalm 104:1-2a, 27-28, 29bc-30;       Mark 7:14-23

Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) “But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” (Mark 7:14-23)

Recently there were reports in the news media, especially on television, of the vast numbers of Hindus in India present at the ceremonial washing in the Ganges River. It is a most important Hindu ritual which brings together immense numbers of Hindus, and it manifests strikingly man’s natural and religious sense of sin — whatever be the word for “sin” that is used. Hinduism is a great world religion and is a notable indication of man’s religious sense, and the fact that ritual purification plays such a significant part in it is itself worthy of reflection. Over the years of his literary and theological career Cardinal Newman (1801-1890) gradually worked out the elements of a philosophy of religion. His philosophy could be said to be based on the natural sense of sin which is — or normally should be — instinctive to man. He often made the point that the religion typical of philosophy and civilization is not particularly authentic because it tends to snuff out the sense of sin. Whatever of that theory and of a philosophy which starts with the instinctive sense of sin, there is surely no doubt of the importance of a sense of sin. If we are unaware that we are guilty of sin and in need of purification, if we are unaware of the capital importance of avoiding sin and being freed of it, then nature itself intimates that we shall gradually sink into one form or another of spiritual corruption. Now, beginning from the Old Testament the religion revealed by God is distinguished by concern for sin. Yahweh God is the Holy One, and he says to us, “Be holy, for I am holy”. Holiness and moral goodness is stipulated as a requirement of any relationship with God. If his people keep his commandments then he will be with them as their God. It is not enough merely to observe ritual practices (though this is very necessary) for moral action is also necessary, such as justice and mercy.

In our Gospel today our Lord points out the religious aberration which had gradually taken hold in the religion taught by many of the spiritual leaders of Israel. The great concern for religious purity before God was an authentic note of revealed religion, but many had come to understand and teach this as primarily involving external purity. The Gospel of St Mark shows that physical cleanliness in its various forms and the avoidance of things (such as certain foods) which were unclean had become very largely a substitute for the inner purity of heart which was the true end of revealed religion. It is sin which defiles, and it is at this level that purification has to be put into effect. It is sin which has to be avoided and taken away by some form of purification of the heart and soul. The religion of the Old Testament was truly revealed but it awaited fulfilment in its core concern: the redemption and cleansing from sin. This was to be the supreme work of the Messiah, to take away the sin of the world and to establish God’s Kingdom in which to him would be the glory. As John the Baptist said of Jesus, he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He has done this by his death and resurrection. In our Gospel today our Lord points out that it is “from within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” (Mark 7:14-23). So we must aim at holiness of the heart and goodness of soul. That is to say, we must have as the object of our personal religion putting on the mind of Christ. As St Paul said in one of his Letters, “Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” It is the heart of Christ which we must study and come to love. Our whole object in life must be to attain, with the power of the Holy Spirit, the likeness of Christ within, at the level of the mind and heart.

It is a common phrase to speak of the tip of the iceberg. In a sense what we say and do is just the tip of the iceberg. The bulk of the iceberg is out of sight underneath. That bulk is what is going on in our mind and heart. Our thoughts, our desires, our loves and our hates constitute the world of the heart. It is this inner man which must be made new and shaped in a radical likeness to the heart of Christ. This is the religion we must live, and it is the religion our Lord calls us to in today’s Gospel.
                                                                                                                          (E.J.Tyler)

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“A clean heart create for me, O God” (Psalm 51:12)  (Mark 7:14-23)
             Saint Isaac the Syrian (7th century), Monk at Nineveh, near Mosul in present-day Iraq
                                                                                          (Spiritual Discourses, 1st series, no. 21)

It is said that only God’s help saves. When a person knows that there is no other help, he prays a lot. And the more he prays, the more his heart becomes humble, for it is not possible to pray and to request without being humble. “A heart contrite and humble, o God, you will not spurn.” (Ps 51:19) So long as the heart has not become humble, it is impossible for it to escape being scattered; humility gathers the heart together.

When a person has become humble, compassion immediately surrounds him and his heart then feels God’s help. He discovers a strength rising up within him, the strength of trust. When a person thus feels God’s help, when he feels that God is there and that he comes to his aid, immediately his heart is filled with faith and he then understands that prayer is the refuge of help, the source of salvation, trust’s treasure, the port that has been freed of the storm, the light of those who are in darkness, the support of the weak, the shelter in times of trial, help at the height of illness, the shield that saves in combat, the arrow sent out against the enemy. In one word, a multitude of good enters into him by means of prayer. So from then on, he finds his delight in the prayer of faith. His heart is radiant with trust.
                                                                          (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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You became a bit frightened when you saw such dazzling light, so bright that you thought it would be difficult to look, or even to see.

Disregard your obvious weaknesses, and open the eyes of your soul to faith, to hope and to love. Carry on, allowing yourself to be guided by God through whoever directs your soul.
                                                              (The Forge, no.1015)

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           Is a confessor bound to secrecy?
Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due to people every confessor, without any exception and under very severe penalties, is bound to maintain “the sacramental seal” which means absolute secrecy about the sins revealed to him in confession. (CCC 1467)
                        (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.309)

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Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time II

(February 8) St. Jerome Emiliani (1486-1537). Born in Venice. Converted to Christianity after a rather dissolute youth, he dedicated himself to the service of the poor, the sick, and abandoned children. He founded a religious congregation (Somaschi) which looked after the education of children, especially orphans. He died of the plague while serving the afflicted.  (Saints)

Scripture today:    Genesis 2:18-25;     Psalm 128:1-2, 3, 4-5;     Mark 7:24-30

Jesus went to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. (Mark 7:24-30)

In our Gospel passage today our Lord goes into the district of Tyre, which was considerably pagan.  His entering a house secretly to avoid being noticed suggests that he has come to this district to get away from the crowds in Galilee and Judea and from the persecuting Jewish authorities. He wanted a respite to continue his intensive formation of his apostles for time was limited. But the house was not to be the hide-out he had hoped, for word got around and “soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was (what Mark calls)  a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.” Let us imagine the scene and contemplate the pagan woman who comes insisting that he drive the demon out of her daughter. Her love for her daughter and her helplessness before her plight drove her in her prayer. She appears out of nowhere and once the favour is obtained she disappears into nowhere. Her untold story is a picture in miniature of the broken human condition and Satan’s presence in it. She, a “Greek” as Mark calls the Gentiles, bespeaks the natural man’s crying need of a redeemer who will deliver him from the power of the underworld. In man’s history of superstitions, fortune telling, astrology, spiritism, New Age, and countless other fetishes the Syrophoenician woman is surely an example to all of who it is that  man ought to turn to for relief from the thraldom of evil. Christ was visiting her pagan land and she heard about it. She had the sense and good fortune to come to him in her desperate situation. Most importantly, she placed her faith in him, such as that faith with all its limitations was. She shows that natural man can respond to the news of Christ and rise to a certain level of faith in him.

But more revealing is the response of Christ to her words. She came to him and he rebuffed her with words that did not seem to be kind. Her request did not attain its goal immediately. Of course we are not told whether Christ said these words smilingly or somewhat severely, but our immediate impression suggests that he did not say them with a warm smile — though we know that charity and compassion filled his sacred heart. His response was a test, and this test reminds us that God can choose to test those who come to him including those who come to him for a favour without what we might call a developed faith. Christ chose to test the pagan woman with a none-too-flattering image: “He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs’.” (Mark 7:24-30) His own mission was almost exclusively to the children of Israel, especially to their lost ones. They were the children, and let us say in passing that our Lord’s words to this effect reminds us of the faithfulness of God in looking after his own. He sent his own divine Son to dwell among his chosen people. Our Lord’s words to the pagan woman remind us that those who are members of the Church he founded are the object of his special love, a love manifested in the person and abiding presence of his Son among us. His response to her assuring her with warmth that her faith had saved her daughter reminds us that all who come to Christ in faith can expect from him what is best.  Therefore, we who are disciples of Christ ought bring to all word of his person and presence, inviting them to go to him in their need. But they must go to him in faith. The challenge is then to believe enduringly, with perseverance. All too often people came to him in their need and then once the need had been met, their interest in him diminished, especially if his teaching was too hard. One presumes the Syrophenician woman had no more contact with him.

Christ abides in the Church, and our mission is to speak of him to all, and to tell them where he is to be found in his fullness. Christ was there in the region of Tyre, and in a house unbeknowns to most. But word got around. Let us do all we can to bring Christ to all, most especially to the poor and to those who are suffering any form of affliction.

                                                                                                    (E.J.Tyler)

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“The woman was a Greek”  (Mark 7:24-30)
Vatican II (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate, 1-2)

In our time, when day by day mankind is being drawn closer together and the ties between different peoples are becoming stronger, the Church examines more closely her relationship to non-Christian religions. In her task of promoting unity and love among men, indeed among nations, she considers above all in this declaration what men have in common and what draws them to fellowship.

One is the community of all peoples, one their origin, for God made the whole human race to live over the face of the earth (cf. Acts 17:26). One also is their final goal, God. His Providence, his manifestations of goodness, his saving design extend to all men (cf. Wis 8:1; Acts 14:17; Rom 2:6-7; 1 Tim 2:4), until that time when the elect will be united in the Holy City, the city ablaze with the glory of God, where the nations will walk in his light (cf. Rev 21:23ff.).

Men expect from the various religions answers to the unsolved riddles of the human condition, which today even as in former times deeply stir the hearts of men… Religions…try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing “ways,” comprising teachings, rules of life and sacred rites.

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims and ever must proclaim Christ “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to himself (cf. 2 Cor 5:18-19).
                                                          (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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Be generous. Don't ask Jesus for even one consolation!

You ask me why. And I reply, because you know very well that even though this God of ours seems to be far away, he really is seated in the very centre of your soul, imparting a divine character to your whole life.
                                     (The Forge, no.1016)

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                         What are the effects of this sacrament?
The effects of the sacrament of Penance are: reconciliation with God and therefore the forgiveness of sins; reconciliation with the Church; recovery, if it has been lost, of the state of grace; remission of the eternal punishment merited by mortal sins, and remission, at least in part, of the temporal punishment which is the consequence of sin; peace, serenity of conscience and spiritual consolation; and an increase of spiritual strength for the struggle of Christian living. (CCC 1468-1470, 1496)
                       (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.310)

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Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time II

(February 9)  Today let us think of St Teilo  (Saints)   See also this Website's Details of Saints for Any Particular Day

Scripture today:     Genesis 3:1-8;       Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7;      Mark 7:31-37

Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man's ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”) And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” (Mark 7:31-37)

In the passage immediately before this one in the Gospel of St Mark our Lord has been in the region of Tyre in retreat from the throngs of people seeking him for healing from their afflictions. The purpose of retreats such as this was above all to provide greater instructions to the Twelve for their coming mission as the foundation stones of the Church he would found. Now, in our Gospel today (Mark 7:31-37) he returns from Tyre and our scene finds him again in a Gentile district, that of the Decapolis. Once again, some people “brought him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they asked him to lay his hand on him.” Let us notice this detail that “they asked him to lay his hand on him.” Our Lord, then, had what we might call a well-known ritual of placing his hand on the one he was about to heal. Busy as he was with such requests he rarely just uttered a word of healing and sent a person off. The exceptions to this in the Gospels seem to have been for Gentiles whose evangelization had not yet begun. The Syrophoenician woman was one case — our Lord cured her daughter with a word. But otherwise the indications we have show that our Lord gave a very personal touch to his healings. In our case today there is even more of this personal touch. “He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man's ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, ‘Ephphatha!’ (that is, ‘Be opened!’).” Christ is surely showing the afflicted man that he is the object of very personal attention. He takes the trouble to show his deliberate involvement in the life of a suffering individual. Now, if we appeal to Christ, he will attend to us personally.

At various points in the Gospel we see Christ commanding the one he has healed not to spread abroad the healing he had been granted, though in this too there are exceptions. For instance, after having healed the one possessed by the devils called “Legion” on another occasion here in this Decapolis region, he told him to go and make known what God in his mercy had done for him. Nevertheless we do see that time and again Christ commanded the cured person not to tell others about it. Why was this? This healing ministry was not Christ’s principal work and he did not want it to be taken as the primary benefit he was sent by his heavenly Father to bring to man. His work was something incomparably greater and his miracles were signs that he had the power and the love to establish the Kingdom he was announcing. Jesus desired to concentrate — and he wished others to concentrate — on his principal mission which was to announce, explain and establish God’s Kingdom. That Kingdom in which God would be ruler of the hearts of men and in which he would enable them to live the life preached by Christ, would come above all through his death and resurrection. Personal holiness, the overcoming of sin, the transformation of the heart of man, all this was the mission he had come to fulfil. He had come to bring to each individual the immense heavenly blessing of God’s kingdom which would be within. The heart of man would be transformed by the power of God’s grace, and God would be all in all. As we read of Christ treating the man with the speech impediment in such a personal and individual way, and as we then read of his ordering him and his friends not to tell others about this physical healing, let us focus our lives on the true meaning of Christ’s person, teaching and ministry.

Let us pray for a knowledge of the person of Christ and for a true understanding of the plan of God for us. Let us not be sidetracked into looking on Christ in ways that miss the essential purpose of his coming. He has come above all to make saints of us, hidden saints immersed in the ordinary life and transforming that ordinary and humble life into something which before God has a true grandeur, the grandeur of life in Christ.

                                                                                                (E.J.Tyler)

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“He put his fingers into the man’s ears and… touched his tongue”  (Mark 7:31-37)
                 St Ephrem (306 – 373), Deacon and Doctor of the Church (Sermon “On our Lord”, 10-11)

Divine strength, which the human being cannot touch, came down; it covered itself with a palpable body, so that the poor might touch it, and in touching Christ’s humanity, they might perceive his divinity. Through the fingers of flesh, the deaf-mute felt that his ears and his tongue were being touched. Through the palpable fingers, he perceived the divinity that cannot be touched when his tongue’s bond was broken and when the closed doors of his ears were opened. For the body’s architect and artisan came to him, and with a gentle word, without pain, he created openings in deaf ears. Then the mouth as well, that had been closed and until then incapable of giving light to the word, put into the world praise of him who thus caused its sterility to bear fruit.

In the same way, the Lord made mud with his saliva and spread it over the eyes of the man born blind (Jn 9:6) so as to make us understand that, like the deaf-mute, he was lacking something. An inborn imperfection in our human batter was removed thanks to the leaven that comes from his perfect body… To fill in what was missing in these human bodies, he gave something of himself, just as he gives himself to be aten [in the Eucharist]. By this means he causes the faults to disappear and raises the dead, so that we might recognize that the faults of our humanity are filled, thanks to his body in which “the fullness of deity resides” (Col 2:9), and that true life is given to mortals by means of this body, in which true life resides.
                                                                         (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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I was telling you that even people who had not received baptism had been moved to say, ``I can well understand that saintly souls must be happy, for they look at events with a vision that is above the things of this world. They see things with the eyes of eternity.''

May you not lack that same vision, I added afterwards, so that you can respond to the special love with which the Blessed Trinity has treated you.
                                                   (The Forge, no.1017)

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       Can this sacrament be celebrated in some cases with a general confession and general absolution?
In cases of serious necessity (as in imminent danger of death) recourse may be had to a communal celebration of Reconciliation with general confession and general absolution, as long as the norms of the Church are observed and there is the intention of individually confessing one’s grave sins in due time. (CCC 1480-1484)
                  (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.311)

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Saturday of the fifth week of Ordinary Time II

(February 10)  Saint Scholastica, virgin (480-547). Born at Norcia in Umbria, she was the twin sister of St Benedict. She followed the rule of her brother in founding the Order of Benedictine nuns. (Saints)

Scripture today:    Genesis 3:9-24;      Psalm 90:2, 3-4abc, 5-6, 12-13;      Mark 8:1-10

In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus summoned the disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?” Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They replied, “Seven.” He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over—seven baskets. There were about four thousand people. He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha. (Mark 8:1-10)
 
When we read the Gospels we read with a view to contemplating the living person of Jesus, and in order to understand his salvific ways. St John in his Gospel narrates that our Lord in his prayer to his heavenly Father during the Last Supper said that “eternal life is this, to know you Father, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” So our purpose in reading the Gospels is to come to know Jesus in the first instance, and in him to know the Father and the Holy Spirit. Well then, let us contemplate him. There was “a great crowd without anything to eat” following him (Mark 8:1-10), and while those who made up this particular crowd would have been a mixed lot, surely they can be taken to symbolize the numbers who would come to follow him down the ages “without anything to eat”, as it were. That is to say, let us look on them as a pointer to those of Christ’s faithful who choose to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, and who trust in God’s loving providence as they find in the person of Christ their life and their light. The needs of the crowd following Christ evoke from him a great act of power and compassion. They have nothing to eat, and practically nothing is at hand to feed them. So Christ blesses his heavenly Father for the meagre particles of food before him and at a word proceeds to feed the four thousand people seated in front of him. The scene is a revelation of the immense power of Christ over all things — in this case over the limits of nature — and of the merciful character of this power. Christ shows his power in acts of love, pity and mercy. In him is revealed a God who is love. Indeed, if we are to come to know God we ought look on the face of Christ, for as Pope Benedict is fond of saying in his writings, Christ is the face of God.

Over the course of life very many things can come our way. There can be consolations, achievements, vicissitudes, and many disappointments. There can be bad health, physical operations, financial distress and reversals, anxiety stemming from various family members, joys and sorrows. But in all of this there is one thing we are called to do if life is to acquire its true meaning and if it is to be a success in the sight of God. It is that we must follow Christ wherever this might lead us and whatever might be the cost. His person and his teaching and his grace are the constant in our life.  We must exercise all the due prudence that is pleasing to God but in the last analysis the only truly prudent thing is to be ready to forego everything for the sake of Christ whom we are following. We do this knowing that he will look after us. He does not need much and our Gospel passage today shows our Lord feeding the crowds with the few loaves and the fish. There is one pattern that we may well notice when crises bringing great perplexity come. It is that if we trust in Christ and ask for help in being obedient to the will of God, we may well be surprised at the sequel as we look back on it long afterwards. The power and the compassion of God may well be evident to us. In any case we must trust and this is surely the abiding lesson from our Gospel passage today. The same Christ who is described in today’s Gospel, the same one who exercised such power and showed such pity, lives now in the life of the Church his body. He is present among us in the Church’s ministry of the word and the Sacraments. He is in our midst in this way, inviting us to make him and his teaching the object of our life whatever be the inconvenience and cost, knowing that he will look after us.

As is often narrated, St Thomas More on the way to the scaffold said, “though I lose my head I’ll come to no harm.” Christ who lives now and who is God-with-us in the Church of which he is the head asks of us that we give him our faith. He is the constant in our world of flux and uncertainty. He is the one thing that is certain, the truth that abides, the grace that will never fail. He invites each of us to come to him and learn from him, especially from his sacred heart which is revealed in our Gospel text today, just as it is in the whole sweep of the Gospels.

                                                                                                                   (E.J.Tyler) 

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Our shepherd gives himself as food  (Mark 8:1-10)
          St John Chrysostom (345 – 407), Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homilies on St. Matthew, no. 82)

“Who can tell the mighty deeds of the Lord, or proclaim all his praises?” (Ps 106:2) Which shepherd ever nourished his sheep with his own body? But what am I saying – a shepherd? Often, mothers entrust their children to a wet nurse as soon as they are born. But Jesus Christ cannot accept that for his sheep; he himself nourishes us with his own blood, and thus he causes us to become one single body with him.

My brothers, consider that Christ was born of our own human substance. But, you will say, so what? That doesn’t concern all human beings. Excuse me, my brother; it is a great advantage for all of them. If he became man, if he came to take on our nature, that concerns the salvation of all human beings. And if he came for all, he also came for each one in particular. Perhaps you will say: So why have not all accepted the fruit that they were supposed to receive through that coming? Don’t blame Jesus, who chose this means for the salvation of everyone; the fault lies with those who reject this kindness. For in the Eucharist, Jesus Christ unites himself to each of his faithful; he causes them to be reborn, he nourishes them with himself, he does not abandon them to another, and thus he convinces them once again that he really took on our flesh.
                                                                             (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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I assure you that if we want to, as children of God, we can make a powerful contribution towards lighting up the work and the lives of men with the divine and eternal splendour which it has pleased the Lord to place in our souls.

But “he who says he abides in Jesus ought to walk the same way He walked” as Saint John teaches. It is a path which always leads to glory. But it also always passes through sacrifice.
                                                                         (The Forge, no.1018)

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                  What are indulgences?
Indulgences are the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven. The faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains the indulgence under prescribed conditions for either himself or the departed. Indulgences are granted through the ministry of the Church which, as the dispenser of the grace of redemption, distributes the treasury of the merits of Christ and the Saints.  (CCC 1471-1479, 1498)
                    (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.312)

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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time C

(February 11) Our Lady of Lourdes. This day marks the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858 to fourteen-year old Marie Bernade (St Bernadette) Soubirous. There were eighteen apparitions in all, the last of which was on 16 July 1858. The message of Lourdes is a call to personal conversion, prayer and charity. (Saints)

Scripture:    Jeremiah 17:5-8;    Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6;    1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20;    Luke 6:17, 20-26

Jesus came down with the twelve and stood on a stretch of level ground with a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.” (Luke 6:17, 20-26)

 I remember years ago when I was a student I was discussing with a fellow student the essence and necessity of morality. What is it to be moral, and why should we be moral? In response to this question he said to me that, rather than this being the issue for him, basically what he wanted was to be happy. It was a very good comment because it implied that the fundamental obligation to be good needs to be connected with our basic desire for happiness. The profound link between holiness and peace ought be appreciated, and each provides a yardstick for the other. It is impossible to be happy if one is not good, and a goodness in which happiness is absent lacks authenticity. The quest for happiness is a fundamental starting point in the heart of man. It is instinctive and natural and is implanted in man by his Creator in order that he may actually find that happiness. God means us to be happy. So profound a part of human nature is this that the thought of a human being who does not want to be happy is almost unimaginable, and wherever there is such a person we know that something is wrong with him. The critical issue is, how is happiness to be understood, and what steps are to be taken to gain it? Above all, what has God revealed in answer to this? From the answers to this will flow certain choices that will set a person’s course in this life and in the next.

    Let us turn to our Gospel today (Luke 6:17, 20-26) and notice right away that our Lord in his beatitudes addresses man’s desire to be happy. In doing this our Lord is taking up a fundamental theme of the Old Testament. God had called Abraham from his native country to a new land which he would give him. He promised Abraham that through him all the nations would be blessed. He was promising happiness and blessings to the world through Abraham’s posterity. Then when Abraham’s descendants were enslaved in Egypt, God sent Moses to lead them out to the promised land. If they accepted him as their God and kept his commandments, he would be their God and he would bless them. That is to say, God held out to his chosen people the promise of happiness if they remained faithful to their covenant with him as their Lord. So happiness would flow from obeying God’s commands. Now, in the Old Testament promise of future happiness and blessings, the emphasis was given to this life. If they were faithful to God and his covenant with them, they would be blessed and happy in this life, while, of course including the next. Now, this emphasis in the Old Testament was true, and we remember how our Lord himself promised happiness in this life — but together with the Cross. But the Old Testament revelation was very incomplete and one which very many of the children of Israel misunderstood, even though there were outstanding examples of holiness in the Old Testament. That misunderstanding is one in which we can all share. Our constant tendency precisely in our religion is to look for happiness in this world and scarcely beyond it.

      In the Beatitudes according to St Luke today our Lord reveals wherein lies our true happiness, and his words complete what God had already revealed about the happiness intended for man. If all we had were the conclusions of human reason, or the revelation of the Old Testament, our knowledge of man’s happiness would be very limited. Our Lord promises a true and authentic happiness, a happiness which is a share in his own happiness and a share in the beatitude of God himself.  It is centered on his kingdom. Therein lies the happiness of man, and that kingdom is present in this life but is to be fully enjoyed in the next. It is the happiness our Lord himself enjoyed during his years on this earth and it is especially the happiness he enjoys in his glory. Happy are you who are poor: yours is the kingdom of God. The one whose treasure is not in this world but in God and his kingdom will be truly happy. The one who hungers, who is deprived of human respect and natural joys, the one who is persecuted for his belief in Christ, in a word the one who looks to Christ as his life, will enjoy the truest happiness here while bearing his daily cross, and will obtain perfect happiness hereafter.

  Let us ask ourselves what is it that we are seeking in life in order to be happy. If we are looking to God, let us ask ourselves if we are not putting our bets on other things as well. Let us look to Christ, and to all else only in Christ. For me, St Paul said, to live is Christ. Christ is our life and happiness.

                                                                                                                 (E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.1716-1724

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"And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours." 
(Luke 6:17, 20-26)          Paul VI, pope from 1963 to 1978 (Apostolic Exhortation On Christian Joy — May 9, 1975)

But it is necessary here below to understand properly the secret of the unfathomable joy which dwells in Jesus and which is special to Him... If Jesus radiates such peace, such assurance, such happiness, such availability, it is by reason of the inexpressible love by which He knows that He is loved by His Father. When He is baptized on the banks of the Jordan, this love, which is present from the first moment of His Incarnation, is manifested: "You are my Son, the Beloved; my favor rests on you."(Lk 3:22) This certitude is inseparable from the consciousness of Jesus. It is a presence which never leaves Him all alone.(Jn 16:32) It is an intimate knowledge which fills Him: "...the Father knows me and I know the Father."(Jn 10:15) It is an unceasing and total exchange: "All I have is yours and all you have is mine."(Jn 17:10) "...You loved me before the foundation of the world."(Jn 17:24) Here there is an uncommunicable relationship of love which is identified with His existence as the Son and which is the secret of the life of the Trinity: the Father is seen here as the one, who gives Himself to the Son, without reserve and without ceasing, in a burst of joyful generosity, and the Son is seen as He who gives Himself in the same way to the Father, in a burst of joyful gratitude, in the Holy Spirit.

And the disciples and all those who believe in Christ are called to share this joy. Jesus wishes them to have in themselves His joy in its fullness.(Jn 17:13) "I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them."(Jn 17:26)

This joy of living in God's love begins here below. It is the joy of the kingdom of God. But it is granted on a steep road which requires a total confidence in the Father and in the Son, and a preference given to the kingdom. The message of Jesus promises above all joy—this demanding joy; and does it not begin with the beatitudes? "How happy are you who are poor: yours is the kingdom of God. Happy you who are hungry now: you shall be satisfied. Happy you who weep now: you shall laugh."
                                                                              (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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What a disappointment awaited those who saw the light of the pseudo-apostle, and wishing to come out of their darkness, were drawn to his light. They raced to get there. They may have left shreds of their skin along the way. Some in their eagerness for that light may also have left behind some shreds of their very souls. And now, having reached the pseudo-apostle, they find cold and darkness. Cold and darkness which will eventually congeal the broken hearts of those who for a while had believed in that ideal.

t is an evil deed the pseudo-apostle has done. Those disappointed men who had been ready to give their very flesh in exchange for those glowing fires, for that gleaming ruby of charity, drop once more, instead, back to the earth from which they had come. Down they go, with a saddened heart, with a heart that is a heart no longer — just a chunk of ice shrouded in a darkness which will eventually cloud their minds.

You false paradoxical apostle, see what you have done: because Christ is on your lips but not in your deeds; because you attract with a light which you yourself lack; because there is no warmth of charity in you, and you claim to be concerned about outsiders while all the time you are neglecting your own; because you are a liar, and lying is the daughter of the devil. And so, you are working for the devil, causing bewilderment to those who follow the Master, and even though you may triumph frequently here on earth, woe to you on that day which is approaching when our friend Death will come, and you shall see the anger of the Judge whom you have never deceived. Paradoxes, no, Lord: paradoxes, never.
                                                              (The Forge, no.1019)

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                   How was sickness viewed in the Old Testament?
In the Old Testament sickness was experienced as a sign of weakness and at the same time perceived as mysteriously bound up with sin. The prophets intuited that sickness could also have a redemptive value for one’s own sins and those of others. Thus sickness was lived out in the presence of God from whom people implored healing. (CCC 1499-1502)
                       (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.313)

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Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time II

(February 12)  Today let us think of Saint Damian  (Saints)   See also this Website's Details of Saints for Any Particular Day

Scripture today:    Genesis 4:1-15, 25;     Psalm 50:1 and 8, 16bc-17, 20-21;     Mark 8:11-13

The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore. (Mark 8:11-13)

In our Gospel passage today we find ourselves in a scene which is often repeated in other parts of the Gospels. “The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him” (Mark 8:11). Here we have the noblest and most exalted person who ever walked the earth being subjected to persistent disputes and opposition. He is no ordinary human person, rather he is a divine person. This Jesus who is the subject of the Gospels is God the Son, the same God as is the Father and as is the Holy Spirit, though as a person is distinct from each of them. From all eternity his glory was that of God, a glory shared also by the Father and the Holy Spirit. Yet he did not hesitate to set aside this glory to become as we are and humbler still, even to death on the Cross. And here in our Gospel passage today we see him in his fully human condition subjected to the unreasonable humiliation of being opposed and taken to task by those whom as God he constantly holds in existence. Through him, St John tells us in his prologue, all things came to be. He came unto his own and his own did not receive him, but to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God. So as we think of Christ being affronted by the attacks and hostile questioning by the Pharisees who demanded from him a sign from heaven to test him, let us think of the extent and wonder of the Incarnation. God truly became man, and though utterly holy, utterly powerful, utterly perfect, he allowed himself to be treated as if he were an ordinary and flawed man. He became as men are and humbler still. Gazing on Christ with our mind’s eye and contemplating him in our scene, let us be filled with amazement that God has deigned to become man, a man like us in all things but sin, and in becoming man to subject himself to the indignities so often characteristic of the human condition.

As we think thus of the person of Jesus and renew in our hearts our sense of wonder at his becoming man, let us turn our gaze to the Pharisees who were arguing with him. Little did they know! When our Lord was dying on the cross he prayed to his heavenly Father to forgive those who were jeering at him and who had brought him to this pass because they did not know what they were doing. They did not know that what they were doing to Jesus they were doing to one who is a man, yes, but who in his person is God. They were blind. But the question is, why did they not recognize his goodness and authority? Their blindness was due to sin. Let us not attempt to probe the levels of responsibility for their blindness, their stubbornness and their advancing hatred for Jesus. Their blindness was due to their sinful hearts and the only answer to sin was and is the person of Jesus. He had come to take away the sin of the world, but there had to be a readiness to accept him for who he was and for his redemptive work and teaching. This readiness the Pharisees stubbornly refused to have and to show, and so Christ left them. “He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, ‘Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.’ Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore” (Mark 8:11-13). The actions of the Pharisees and the response it drew from Christ is a warning to us. We must come to Christ in all humility and appreciation, sitting at his feet as before the one who is the Master. We must not dispute with his teaching and we ought do our very best to determine where he continues to teach in our day and in every generation. He continues to teach from within the life of his body the Church, and in and  through the Church’s ministry of the word and the Sacraments. Let us renounce anything in our dispositions or response that likens us to the Pharisees, for if we do not put away all such attitudes, Christ will sigh from his heart and pass us by. If we refuse Christ, we shall be left in our sins.

Let us then place ourselves in our Gospel scene and contemplate the person of Jesus. He is the Lord  of lords and King of kings. He is the Son of the Father, and is the same divine being as the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is God and man. Let us accept him as the Master of our life, our true and constant teacher and redeemer. Let us renounce any secret attitudes in us that calls Christ’s teaching into question and which prompt our hearts to argue with the Son of God as he speaks to us in and through his body the Church. Let us throw in our lot with him and resolve to follow him wherever he might lead us.

                                                                                                                   (E.J.Tyler)

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“Why does this age seek a sign?” — Believing even in darkness (Mark 8:11-13)
                    Saint [Padre] Pio de Pietrelcina (1887-1968), Capuchin (OP; GF 174; Ep 4,418)

The Holy Spirit tells us: Don’t let your mind succumb to temptation and sorrow, for joy of the heart is life for the soul. Sorrow is no good for anything and causes our spiritual death.

It happens sometimes that the darkness of trial overwhelms your soul’s heaven; but this darkness is light! Thanks to it, you believe even in darkness; the mind feels lost, it fears no longer being able to see, no longer understanding anything. But this is the moment when the Lord speaks and makes himself present to the soul; and the soul listens, understands and loves in the fear of God. So don’t wait for Tabor to “see” God when you are already contemplating him on Sinai.

Progress in the joy of a sincere heart that is wide open. And if it is impossible for you to keep that happiness, at least don’t lose courage and keep all your trust in God.
                                                                                 (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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This is the sure way: through humiliation to the Cross; then, from the Cross, with Christ, to the immortal Glory of the Father.
                                                      (The Forge, no.1020)

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                 What is the attitude of the Church toward the sick?
Having received from the Lord the charge to heal the sick, the Church strives to carry it out by taking care of the sick and accompanying them with her prayer of intercession. Above all, the Church possesses a sacrament specifically intended for the benefit of the sick. This sacrament was instituted by Christ and is attested by Saint James: “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call in the presbyters of the Church and let them pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord” (James 5:14-15). (1506-1513, 1526-1527)
                                        (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.315)

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Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time II

(February 13) Today let us think of St. Catherine de Ricci  (Saints)  See also this Website's Details of Saints for Any Particular Day

Scripture today:    Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10;     Psalm 29:1a and 2, 3ac-4, 3b and 9c-10;       Mark 8:14-21

The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” They concluded among themselves that it was because they had no bread. When he became aware of this he said to them, “Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?” They answered him, “Twelve.” “When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?” They answered him, “Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?” (Mark 8:14-21)

Saint Jerome once wrote that ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ. Of course, he would have been referring to ignorance of the content of Scripture, rather than simply to the reading of Scripture. Even in his own day the widespread illiteracy and the very limited number of written copies of the Scriptures, would have excluded great numbers from a formal reading of the Scriptures. A considerable knowledge of the contents of the Scriptures has been handed on to the faithful over the centuries by the Church’s teaching and preaching, by the Church’s art work, her liturgy, her popular devotions and by a variety of other means available in the Church’s life and ministry. For instance, a daily praying of the rosary involves a prayerful contemplation of Christ in the Gospels scenes. But of course, the daily, prayerful and assiduous reading of the Scriptures by those able to do so holds pride of place among the ways of knowing the content of Scripture and therefore of knowing the person of Christ. In respect to the Scriptures the reading of the Gospels is especially important because the person of Christ is set forth especially in the Gospels. He is the way, the truth and the life, and eternal life is knowing, loving, serving and being faithful to him. So then, let us consider Jesus in our Gospel passage today (Mark 8:14-21). One thing we notice about him in his teaching is his frequent use of analogy and metaphor. When we think of certain great thinkers in the history of Western philosophy — such as Plato and Aristotle a few centuries before Christ — we remember how they made great use of philosophical abstraction. Our Lord, though, uses stories and analogies drawn from everyday life to make the most sublime points. He speaks concretely and pictorially and thus addresses the mind with the aid of the imagination. Newman once wrote that an essential medium of religion is the imagination.

In our passage today the disciples noticed that they had forgotten to bring bread (and the bread of that time was bread of real substance), and Christ said to them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” He was using the analogy of bread to warn against the teaching and example of the Pharisees and the Herodians, which constituted a principal obstacle to his own ministry. He was being opposed at every opportunity by them, and their growing hatred of him was implacable. It would lead to his death, which he would embrace obediently for the salvation of the world. Let us understand that in thus warning them against this our Lord warns all his disciples down through the ages against any teaching which opposes his own. Christ states plainly in the Gospels that he is the Light of the world and that anyone who does not walk by his light is walking in the darkness. Being a disciple of Christ must include a careful and persevering attempt to know his teaching and to guard against whatever is not in accord with it. This teaching comes to us through the knowledge of Scripture, but as read not just with our own private judgment alone but with the mind of the Church which produced and authenticated these sacred writings. The Gospels and the New Testament come to the faithful, as it always has, from the hand of the Church who, in certain of her inspired and earliest members, wrote them. They are the Church’s own book, and their acceptance as inspired is due to the Church’s judgment about them. They are part of the canon of Scripture because the Church has discerned this to be the case. So Scripture must be read with the mind of the Church. Revelation comes to us in two intimately connected channels, Scripture and the Church’s living Tradition. Each is understood in light of the other, and we come to know Christ by being immersed in both.

As we think of today’s Gospel scene in which our Lord warns his disciples against false teaching that is not in accord with his own, let us resolve to abide in the true doctrine of Christ so as to abide in him. The person of Christ is the object of our life, but if we are to know and love him we must know and assent to his teaching. Let us learn to recognize the true channels through which this teaching comes to us, Scripture and the Church’s living Tradition. By immersing ourselves in these two intimately connected gifts of God, we shall abide in the true and living person of Jesus.
                                                                                                                 (E.J.Tyler)

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"Do you not yet understand or comprehend?"  (Mark 8:14-21)
                                               Vincent of Lérins (d. c. 450), monk (Commonitory, 23)

But some one will say, perhaps, Shall there, then, be no progress in Christ's Church? Certainly; all possible progress. For what being is there, so envious of men, so full of hatred to God, who would seek to forbid it? Yet on condition that it be real progress, not alteration of the faith… The intelligence, then, the knowledge, the wisdom, as well of individuals as of all, as well of one man as of the whole Church, ought, in the course of ages and centuries, to increase and make much and vigorous progress; but yet only in its own kind; that is to say, in the same doctrine, in the same sense, and in the same meaning.

The growth of religion in the soul must be analogous to the growth of the body, which, though in process of years it is developed and attains its full size, yet remains still the same. There is a wide difference between the flower of youth and the maturity of age; yet they who were once young are still the same now that they have become old, insomuch that though the stature and outward form of the individual are changed, yet his nature is one and the same, his person is one and the same. An infant's limbs are small, a young man's large, yet the infant and the young man are the same…, there were already present in embryo…

In like manner, it behoves Christian doctrine to follow the same laws of progress, so as to be consolidated by years, enlarged by time, refined by age… Our forefathers in the old time sowed wheat in the Church's field. It would be most unmeet and iniquitous if we, their descendants, instead of the genuine truth of corn, should reap the counterfeit error of tares (Mt 13:24 sq). This rather should be the result,—there should be no discrepancy between the first and the last. From doctrine which was sown as wheat, we should reap, in the increase, doctrine of the same kind—wheat also; so that when in process of time any of the original seed is developed, and now flourishes under cultivation, no change may ensue in the character of the plant… Therefore,… the same ought to be cultivated and taken care of by the industry of their children, the same ought to flourish and ripen, the same ought to advance and go forward to perfection.
                                                               (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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How much I savoured the epistle of that day! The Holy Spirit through Saint Paul teaches us the secret of immortality and of Glory. All of us human beings yearn to live on.

We would wish to make those moments in our lives when we are happy last forever. We would wish the memory of our deeds to be glorified. We would like our cherished ideals to become immortal. And so it is that when we seem to be happy, when something consoles us in our distress, we all naturally say and desire that it should last forever, forever.

Oh the wisdom of the devil! How well he knew the human heart. You will be like gods, he said to our first parents. That was a cruel deception. Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians teaches us a divine secret by which to attain immortality and Glory: Jesus|... emptied himself, taking the form of a slave|... He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on the Cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him a name which is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth...
                                                               (The Forge, no.1021)

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          Who can receive the sacrament of the anointing of the sick?
Any member of the faithful can receive this sacrament as soon as he or she begins to be in danger of death because of sickness or old age. The faithful who receive this sacrament can receive it several times if their illness becomes worse or another serious sickness afflicts them. The celebration of this sacrament should, if possible, be preceded by individual confession on the part of the sick person.
(CCC 1514-1515, 1528-1529)
                    (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.316)

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Wednesday of the sixth week of Ordinary Time II

(February 14)  Saints Cyril, monk (died 869), and Methodius, bishop (died 885). These two brothers evangelized Moravia, Bohemia, and Bulgaria. Methodius was consecrated bishop by Pope Adrian II. Pope John Paul II proclaimed them patron saints of Europe, with St Benedict.  (Saints)

Scripture today:    Genesis 8: 6-13, 20-22;     Psalm 116:12-13, 14-15, 18-19;     Mark 8:22-26

When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida, people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked, “Do you see anything?” Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.” Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly. Then he sent him home and said, “Do not even go into the village.” (Mark 8:22-26)

Our Gospel scene today presents us with an unusual circumstance. The four Gospels narrate numerous healings by Christ. People are brought before him with all sorts of afflictions and he heals them at a word. People approach him to touch his clothes and they are healed. He sees the body of a young man being brought out of a village for burial accompanied by his grieving widowed mother and he steps forward and at a word raises him to life. He feeds the multitude with just a few loaves and a couple of fish. He calms storms at a word,in an instant. He walks on water to reach his disciples who were battling a heavy sea. There is no limit to his power which he effortlessly exercises at the service of his mission. What then is the meaning of his procedure in today’s scene when he heals the blind man? “He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked, ‘Do you see anything?’ Looking up the man replied, ‘I see people looking like trees and walking.’ Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly” (Mark 8:22-26). This time the man’s sight returns only gradually after two gestures on Christ’s part. Why is Christ doing things this way here? Well, let us remember that our Lord was constantly dealing with incomprehension and spiritual blindness in respect to his person and mission. In the chapter previous to the one in which our Gospel scene today is presented, our Lord complains to his own disciples about their lack of understanding. His miracles were signs of what he was sent to do and of how it would be done. Perhaps our Lord was making the point to his disciples that the light that emanated from him was coming and would come only gradually to them and to the rest of mankind. The power of sin and of fallen human nature was very great, and his victory over the world would not be sudden.

That is exactly the typical experience of Christ’s disciples and of each of us. Our knowledge of him and our appreciation of his mission grows gradually. Our conversion and growth to life in him is a gradual thing. Repentance can be and often is sudden but that same repentance must continue to grow and deepen over the course of a lifetime. Holiness is not the work of a day. We do not have holiness thrust upon us in one divine act with nothing more for God to do or for us to do. We are given the gift of holiness at our baptism, but with that the battle has only just been joined. A long and difficult struggle remains ahead in which Christ involves himself with us day by day and by the power of his grace and our cooperation he slowly transforms us into his likeness. That is to say, the gradual and seemingly laboured healing of the blind man in today’s Gospel is something of a parable of the work of Christ in the soul of each person and in the life of the Church over the course of the ages. While his numerous instantaneous healings manifest his almighty power and mercy, their instantaneous character does not manifest the usual way he works. He usually works gradually. Grace builds on nature. That is to say that in giving our lives to Christ our Master we must ourselves be patient with the sin that is within and with our own lack of understanding. We have a battle ahead, and Christ will be working with us just as, we might say, he worked with the blind man in today’s scene.  It is Christ’s power that will do it, his grace that will be our salvation, but he will work with us and respect the pace we choose to go at. Discipleship and Christian holiness involve growth, and we must be prepared to persevere patiently at the work of cooperating with the Holy Spirit who over the span of our life fashions us in the image of Jesus. We can imagine the disciples and especially the Twelve over the years remembering the gradual healing of this blind man and understanding that the gradual and at times difficult growth of the Church is all part of the providence of God.

There is an old saying that Rome was not built in a day. St Luke tells us that in his human nature the boy Jesus grew in wisdom, stature and favour before God and man. His all-holy mother pondered on things and kept them in her heart — obviously growing in spiritual understanding of the ways of God. Authentic holiness involves growth. We must be prepared to persevere, constantly beginning again. Our Gospel scene today is something of a parable of how Christ involves himself in the life of every man to bring him gradually to the term which God intends for him.

                                                                                                                     (E.J.Tyler)

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“They shall see God” (Matthew 5:8)
            Saint Gregory of Nyssa (around 335 — 395), Monk and Bishop (Homilies on the Beatitudes, 6,1)

When from the height of the Lord’s steep words I contemplate their infinite abyss as from the top of a cliff, my mind gets the same impression one gets when gazing at the immensity of the sea… My soul feels dizzy before this word of the Lord: “Blest are the pure of heart for they shall see God.” (Mt 5:8) God gives himself to the gaze of those who have a pure heart. But Saint John says that “no one has ever seen God.” (Jn 1:18) And Saint Paul confirms this idea when he speaks of him whom “no human being has ever seen or can see.” (1 Tim 6:16) God is the abrupt and highly sharpened rock, which does not give even the smallest hold to our imagination. Moses also called God the Inaccessible One… He said that “no man sees the Lord and still lives.” (Ex 33:20) But what? Eternal life is the vision of God, and these pillars of faith certify that this vision is impossible?  What an abyss! ... If God is life, the person who does not see him does not see life either…

But the Lord stimulates this hope. Did he not give Peter the proof? Under the feet of this disciple who was close to drowning, he consolidated and hardened the waves (Mt 4:30).Will the hand of the Word also stretch out over us who are submerged in this abyss, will it strengthen us? Then we shall be reassured, for we shall be firmly led by the hand of the Word.

“Blest are the pure of heart for they shall see God.” Such a promise goes beyond our greatest joys; after this happiness, what other happiness could we desire? … The person who sees God has every imaginable good through that vision: life without end, perpetual incorruptibility, inexhaustible joy, unconquerable power, eternal delights, true light, the sweet words of the spirit, incomparable glory, uninterrupted happiness, finally, every good. What great and beautiful hope this beatitude thus offers us!
                                                                                     (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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If we are to accompany Christ in his Glory, in his final triumph, we have first of all to share in his holocaust, becoming identified with him, who died on Calvary.
                                                   (The Forge, 1022)

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                   Who administers this sacrament?
This sacrament can be administered only by priests (bishops or presbyters).  (CCC 1516, 1530)
                    (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.317)

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Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time II

(February 15) Today let us think of Saint Sigfrid of Vaxjo  (Saints)  See also this Website's Details of Saints for Any Particular Day

Scripture today:   Genesis 9:1-13;     Psalm 102:16-18, 19-21, 29 and 22-23;     Mark 8:27-33

Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Christ.” Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him. He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” (Mark 8:27-33)

There is no doubt that our passage today is a pivotal one in the Gospel of St Mark. To this point in this Gospel Christ has been revealing his extraordinary power and teaching, and in the process revealing that he is the long-awaited Messiah. While he has been wary of the title because of the temporal and political assumptions which were widely held about the coming Messiah, in our passage today he asks his disciples who they think he is. Peter answers that he is indeed the Christ. No other prophetic figure in the Old Testament was thought to be the Messiah, and no other figure accepted the title. In the New Testament, John the Baptist was considered by many as a possible contender, but he disclaimed the title. He was a voice preparing the way for the Messiah, and he went on to point to Jesus as the promised One. There was no prophet who could compare with Jesus for the range, number and character of his miracles, nor could any compare with the sublimity and authority of his teaching. Of all the personalities who feature in the inspired writings if anyone were to be the Messiah, it would have to be Jesus. The question is, was he? Did he claim to be, and did people see that he was? Our passage today shows that his own disciples who lived with and accompanied him in his public ministry had no doubts that he was the Messiah. They told him this, and he himself made it clear to them that they were right, that he was indeed the Messiah. At this stage they were not to tell others of what they knew, presumably because of the notions about the Messiah which were widely held. This conversation, however, includes a new and, for the disciples, incomprehensible doctrine. The Messiah is to suffer greatly, to be rejected by the leaders of the people, and to be put to death by them. Then he would rise (Mark 8:27-33). The Messiah’s path would be one diametrically opposed to all they expected of him.  There were various hints and pointers to this in the Old Testament prophecies, but they were rarely taken up and appreciated. Though in full accord with the Scriptures, Christ’s teaching on this point was a complete surprise.

For all practical purposes, the doctrine that the Messiah is a Suffering Servant of God and one who would achieve his mission through obedient suffering unto death is the pivotal point for the Christian life.  Peter’s response to this revelation as described in our passage today is emblematic of that of so many who are won over by the attractiveness of Christ and his unique personality. Those who draw near to him with open and upright dispositions will be fascinated by his person. As the officers who were sent to arrest him said, no one has ever spoken as he speaks. The difficult point will be his doctrine of the cross. It will seem madness. Of course, an obvious difficulty in discipleship will be simply living by faith in one who cannot be physically seen. Christ has gone from our sight, and as he said to Thomas, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. But granted the necessity of faith, the next problem is that Christ is a suffering Messiah. His path is the path of suffering, and the one who wishes to follow him must follow him along the same path. Peter had faith in Jesus and professed it before Jesus when asked. But the revelation that the Messiah was to suffer and be rejected was a shock to him. He had to come to understand that this is the Christ he would follow and imitate and preach. This is the Christ who would save his people and all the peoples from their sins. Now, it is very possible for any disciple of Christ in any age or place to fail to accept the implications of this. The implication is that we must be prepared to follow the path of renunciation. St Ignatius of Loyola in his famous Spiritual Exercises sets forth a Meditation on Three Classes of Men. Each of the three “wish to save their souls and find God” by abandoning anything that will impede this. The first wants to do this but in fact never does. The second is not sincere and does not really want to abandon his attachments. The third is genuine and immediate in his self denial and following of Christ. He is the one who accepts a suffering Messiah.

Let us pray for the grace to follow Christ wholeheartedly along the path he himself chose to tread, the path he asks his disciples to take. It is the path of renunciation. It is the path that leads to the cross. It is the path of the Suffering Servant of God who by his obedient suffering redeems the world. By taking that path in company with Jesus in our everyday life, we shall be playing our part in the redemption of the world, a path that takes us to genuine sanctity in the sight of God.

                                                                                                                               (E.J.Tyler)

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“You are not judging by God’s standards”  (Mark 8:27-33)
St John of the Cross (1542-1591), Carmelite, Doctor of the Church (The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 36, 10.13)

(The) thicket of God’s wisdom and knowledge is so deep and immense that no matter how much the soul knows, she can always enter it further; it is vast and its riches incomprehensible, as St. Paul exclaims: O height of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how incomprehensible are His judgments and unsearchable His ways. (Rom 11:33)

Yet the soul wants to enter this thicket and incomprehensibility of judgments and ways because she is dying with the desire to penetrate them deeply. Knowledge of them is an inestimable delight surpassing all understanding…

Oh! If we could but now fully understand how a soul cannot reach the thicket and wisdom of the riches of God … without entering the thicket of many kinds of suffering, finding in this her delight and consolation; and how a soul with an authentic desire for divine wisdom, wants suffering first in order to enter this wisdom by the thicket of the cross!… The gate entering into these riches of His wisdom is the cross, which is narrow, and few desire to enter by it, but many desire the delights obtained from entering there.
                                                               (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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Don't let yourself be distracted, don't give free rein to your imagination. Live the life within you and you will be closer to God.
                                            (The Forge, no.1023)

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          How is this sacrament celebrated?
The celebration of this sacrament consists essentially in an anointing with oil which may be blessed by the bishop. The anointing is on the forehead and on the hands of the sick person (in the Roman rite) or also on other parts of the body (in the other rites) accompanied by the prayer of the priest who asks for the special grace of this sacrament. (CCC 1517-1519, 1531)
                        (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.318)

Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? What could one give in exchange for his life? Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” He also said to them, “Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the Kingdom of God has come in power.” (Mark 8:34--9:1)

One of the most cataclysmic periods in the history of Christianity was the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther broke from the Bishop of Rome and various other reformers followed suit, and since that time Christianity has been profoundly divided. The sixteenth century was a period of high drama as a result, and part and parcel of the drama was what has been called the Counter Reformation led by great and holy Catholics. One of the greatest was Ignatius Loyola who founded the Society of Jesus — the Jesuits. He took a long time in his preparation, and a most interesting part of his story was his gradual gathering about him of his little company during his days as a converted layman. They were the seed of his great Society. Perhaps the most famous of this tiny band was Francis Xavier, and it was Ignatius himself who converted him. Now, what was the thought that Ignatius persistently insinuated into the active and worldly mind of Francis? It was the thought of death and God’s judgment. It is said that he kept asking Francis, what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his immortal soul? I suppose one of the differences between the animal and human world is that due to his reasoning powers man is able to look well ahead into the future, set his goals in view of the future, and plan accordingly. He is able to realize that death awaits him, and that God has revealed — and this is supported by the intimations of his conscience — that a judgment follows death. So he is able to plan accordingly. The important thing is to bear in mind these last things and to take them to heart rather than to disregard them, for come upon him they will.

In our Gospel scene today Christ calls the people and his disciples to him and tells them what it means to be his follower. In the Gospel of St Mark we are told that great throngs were following our Lord. They were made up of disciples and the crowds. But were the crowds  really following our Lord from the heart? Hardly. It looks as though our Lord was desirous of bringing the matter to a head and putting it very clearly what being a follower of his entailed. It did not mean just following along to be entertained, or to be the recipient of various benefits such as healings or whatever. It meant self-renunciation and bearing the cross in imitation of Jesus. It was the Suffering Servant of Yahweh whom they were following. He had the power, he had the love, he had the holiness, and he had the moral beauty, but the medium in which all this was expressed and the framework in which his mission was completed was that of obedient suffering. Glory came through the cross. This is the lesson which Christ says every one of his disciples must learn, and what is it that will help him learn it? A great help will be the thought of death and the judgment of God, to be followed by either heaven or hell. St Ignatius of Loyola was quoting the words of Christ in today’s Gospel when he put into Francis Xavier the question that changed his life: “What gain, then, is it for a man to win the whole world and ruin his soul? And indeed, what can man offer in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:34--9:1) Let us remember that the fact of death and the divine judgment on the human race, to be followed by either salvation or damnation, was in the mind of God himself in sending his divine Son to redeem the world. So it is a fundamental thought for the life of every man.

Let us be wise and look well ahead. Let us remember that, as we hear it said to us on Ash Wednesday, we are dust and unto dust we shall return. Life is short and eternity long. Hence it avails nothing if we gain much in this life and lose eternal life. Let us then resolve to take our part with Christ in real earnest, following him along the path he chose to tread which is the path of obedient suffering. The one thing necessary is doing the will of God.

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Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(February 17) The Seven Founders of the Order of Servites. These seven were members of a Florentine confraternity and they founded the Order of Servites (Servants) of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Servites lead an austere life of prayer and mortification, meditating constantly on the Passion of our Lord and venerating the Blessed Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows. (Saints)

Scripture today:      Hebrews 11:1-7;    Psalm 145:2-3, 4-5, 10-11;     Mark 9:2-13

Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, looking around, the disciples no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them. As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant. Then they asked him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” He told them, “Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things, yet how is it written regarding the Son of Man that he must suffer greatly and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him.” (Mark 9:2-13)

In the Second Letter of Peter we read an explicit reference to today’s Gospel scene. The inspired author tells us that “when we brought to you the knowledge and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”, we did not rely on fables, but that “we had seen his majesty for ourselves.” He is referring to our scene today in which the glory and greatness of Jesus was manifested to them. If we allow our minds to pass in review across the pages of the Old Testament, there is no event like it. Moses, for instance, was not shown in glory as Jesus was on this occasion. Coming down from mount Sinai the face of Moses shone, but here Christ was “transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.” His glory was not simply a reflection of the glory of Yahweh. It was his own glory, reminding us of the dazzling whiteness of the sun. In his glory two of the greatest figures of the Old Testament appeared conversing with him. It was as if Jesus was being revealed as the pinnacle of all that had gone before and as the one who outshone the sacred past with his light. This was confirmed by the Voice from the cloud, the voice of God the Father, the sublime Glory who specified Jesus as his own Beloved Son. He is the one God says we must listen to. So then, while there are many voices in the history of the world whom we may listen to with profit; while there have been great minds and inspiring teachers of religion; while many have brought great benefit to mankind with their wisdom; while the Old Testament itself is the written expression of God’s own revelation, there is One whom God himself has pointed to as the Master Teacher. No other is his equal for his truth and his heavenly status. He is the divine Son of God the Father, the Father’s Voice on earth.
 
Let us place ourselves in this Gospel scene (Mark 9:2-13), lingering in its memory and often returning to it. The same Jesus who was shown in his glory on this mount lives with us now in the life of the Church. In the prologue of his Gospel St John writes that “we saw his glory, the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John was one of the three witnesses of Christ’s transfiguration when the Father explicitly revealed and taught who Jesus is. Every man and woman ought consider the implications of this Gospel event. If one is a non-believer, an atheist or an agnostic, the question is, could this not have happened after all? What if I am quite wrong and Jesus is as he is portrayed in the Gospels by those who knew him, lived with him, and claimed to have seen what they reported? Three of the four Gospels describe this scene of the transfiguration of Christ with the voice from heaven, and the fourth Gospel (written by a witness of the scene) does not repeat the description but speaks of having seen “his glory.” In fact the entire life of the disciple of Christ is to be a life of giving glory to him, just as the Father gave glory to him on this occasion. We give glory to him by doing as the Father commanded us — by  listening to him. If we listen to him as one who intends to put into practice what has been heard, Christ will be glorified in our obedience. The glory that was manifested in him on this occasion will be rendered to him on our part by following his teaching and adhering to his Person.

Let us in our hearts render to Christ the glory that is his by recognizing that he is the Son of God and the Teacher of mankind. Let us receive his teaching as it comes to us in the teaching and preaching of the Church, and let us shape our lives according to that teaching no matter what the cost. We follow his teaching as the expression of our adherence to him as our Saviour and our God.

                                                                                                         (E.J.Tyler)

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Contemplating and following the Transfigurated One (John Paul II, pope from 1978 to 2005)
                                                                                                            (Vita Consecrata), § 75

He continually calls new disciples to himself, both men and women, to communicate to them, by an outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Rom 5:5), the divine agape, his way of loving, and to urge them thus to serve others in the humble gift of themselves, far from all self-interest. Peter, overcome by the light of the Transfiguration, exclaims: "Lord, it is well that we are here" (Mt 17:4), but he is invited to return to the byways of the world in order to continue serving the Kingdom of God:

"Come down, Peter! You wanted to rest up on the mountain: come down. Preach the word of God, be insistent both when it is timely and when it is not; reprove, exhort, give encouragement using all your forbearance and ability to teach. Work, spend yourself, accept even sufferings and torments, in order that, through the brightness and beauty of good works, you may possess in charity what is symbolized in the Lord's white garments" (Saint Augustine, Sermon 78:6).

The fact that consecrated persons fix their gaze on the Lord's countenance does not diminish their commitment on behalf of humanity; on the contrary, it strengthens this commitment, enabling it to have an impact on history, in order to free history from all that disfigures it.
                                                  (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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You will have as much sanctity, as you have mortification done for Love.
                                                (The Forge, no.1025)

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                      What is Viaticum?
Viaticum is the Holy Eucharist received by those who are about to leave this earthly life and are preparing for the journey to eternal life. Communion in the body and blood of Christ who died and rose from the dead, received at the moment of passing from this world to the Father, is the seed of eternal life and the power of the resurrection. (CCC 1524-1525L)
                       (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.320)

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Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time C

(February 18) Today let us think of St Flavian  (Saints)   See also this Website's Details of Saints for Any Particular Day

1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23;     Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-1;      1 Corinthians 15:45-49;       Luke 6:27-38

Jesus said to his disciples: “To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” (Luke 6:27-38)

In our Gospel passage today Christ does not present us with what we might call an ideal, but with his requirements if we wish to be his disciples. He requires of us that we strive to have hearts like that of our heavenly Father. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” It is to Jesus that we must look if we are to know what our heavenly Father is like, because Christ is the image of the unseen God. “He who sees me” our Lord told his disciples at the Last Supper, “sees the Father.” “The Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” Our Lord tells us in our passage today that we are to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us, and to pray for those who mistreat us. We are not to condemn. We are to forgive. We are to give liberally. In this way we shall be children of our Father in heaven. This does not mean that we should allow evildoers to proceed in their wrongdoing, but it does mean that God wants our hearts, our thoughts, our words and our deeds to be like his own, and our Lord tells us that our Father loves the wicked. That would strike the average religious person, the person of most of the great religions of the world, at the very least as being unrealistic. But in the sight of God it is not. Christ’s command that we love those who wrong us is a new revelation, a new commandment and he pointed to himself as the model. Love one another as I have loved you, he told us, and he himself forgave and loved his enemies. That this is not just an ideal but a requirement is indicated in the fact that there are divine sanctions involved. Our Lord warns that “the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” (Luke 6:27-38)

  If we are ever to live such a life as our Lord requires, there are a two essential things we need to appreciate. Firstly, the foundation of such a life is a clear notion of the character and nature of God. As Pope Benedict reminds us in his first Encyclical, God is love. That is the teaching of today’s Gospel and of the New Testament, and in the light of the New Testament we can see it is the teaching of the Old Testament too. God has revealed himself to be a God rich in mercy and compassion. His almighty power is manifested in his mercy and love. If we are ever to appreciate this all our lives we must ponder and pray over God’s revelation of himself. Our tendency will be to attribute to God what we experience in ourselves and in others, and to project our own limitations and those of others on to him. If only we can truly discover the love that God has for us and for all men, what a difference it will make to our lives! If only we can come to appreciate the enormity of our own sins, the seriousness of our inherited fallen condition, and the scale of God’s love for us! God our Father will then be a living model for all our thoughts, all our words and actions. If then we live constantly in his loving presence knowing that he sees all that we do, say and think, he himself, our loving Father, will be our constant inspiration. We will be drawn to think as he thinks, to want what he wants, and to love as he loves. So we need to form our image and impression of God on the basis of his revelation as transmitted in the Scriptures and in the Church’s living Tradition, and that process will take time. It will involve prayer, reading and a true commitment. If we are to love as Christ commands, we must appreciate that God is love.

  Secondly we need to cultivate detachment of soul, a true poverty of spirit. We cannot hope to be able to love in a pure and disinterested way if we want various things for ourselves in the process. If our heart is attached to riches, to honours, to power and to pleasures, then whenever these are threatened or denied us to a greater or lesser extent, our reaction will be one of anger and desire for revenge. How will we be able to love our enemies and do good to them, how will we be able to bless those who curse us and pray for those who mistreat us if we are attached to the things that they are denying us? The key to loving others as Christ loves us, the key to being able to do good to those who harm us, the key to being merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful, is to grow in poverty of spirit for the love of Christ. We need to empty our hearts of all that is not God or not related to God. If our hearts are empty of every attachment except whatever is pleasing to God, we shall have it in us to love according to the mind of Christ. This is the meaning of our Lord’s teaching that blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the land. Let us resolve to love others as Christ sets forth in today’s Gospel. The key to achieving this will be appreciating from the heart that God is love and striving for a Christlike detachment from all that is not according to the mind of God.

                                                                                                                       (E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.2544-2550

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"Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44)
                     Saint Polycarp (69 – 155) Bishop and Martyr (Letter to the Philippians, 8-12)

Let us then continually persevere in our hope, and the earnest of our righteousness, which is Jesus Christ, who bore our sins in his own body on the tree, "who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth," (1P 2:22) but endured all things for us, that we might live in him. Let us then be imitators of his patience; and if we suffer for his name's sake, let us glorify him. For he has set us this example in himself, and we have believed that such is the case… Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood, and being attached to one another, joined together in the truth, exhibiting the meekness of the Lord in your intercourse with one another, and despising no one…

For I trust that you are well versed in the Sacred Scriptures, and that nothing is hid from you; but to me this privilege is not yet granted. It is declared then in these Scriptures, "Be angry, and sin not," and, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath" (Ep 4:26). Happy is he who remembers this, which I believe to be the case with you.

But may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ himself, who is the Son of God, and our everlasting High Priest, build you up in faith and truth, and in all meekness, gentleness, patience, long-suffering, forbearance, and purity; and may he bestow on you a lot and portion among his saints, and on us with you, and on all that are under heaven, who shall believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in his Father, who raised him from the dead. Pray for all the saints. Pray also for kings, and potentates, and princes, and for those that persecute and hate you, and for the enemies of the cross. May your fruit be manifest to all, and may you be perfect in him.
                                                                                            (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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Violent persecution had broken out. And that priest prayed: Jesus, may every sacrilegious fire increase in me the fire of Love and Reparation.
                                              (The Forge, no.1026)

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       What are the sacraments at the service of communion and mission?
Two sacraments, Holy Orders and Matrimony, confer a special grace for a particular mission in the Church to serve and build up the People of God. These sacraments contribute in a special way to ecclesial communion and to the salvation of others.  (CCC 1533-1535)
                   (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.321)

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Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time II

(February 19) Today let us think of St Boniface of Lausanne  (Saints)  See also this Website's Details of Saints for Any Particular Day

Scripture today:      Sirach 1:1-10;      Psalm 93:1ab, 1cd-2, 5;      Mark 9:14-29

As Jesus came down from the mountain with Peter, James, John and approached the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and scribes arguing with them. Immediately on seeing him, the whole crowd was utterly amazed. They ran up to him and greeted him. He asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” Someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I have brought to you my son possessed by a mute spirit. Wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they were unable to do so.” He said to them in reply, “O faithless generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you? Bring him to me.” They brought the boy to him. And when he saw him, the spirit immediately threw the boy into convulsions. As he fell to the ground, he began to roll around and foam at the mouth. Then he questioned his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” He replied, “Since childhood. It has often thrown him into fire and into water to kill him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus said to him, “‘If you can!’ Everything is possible to one who has faith.” Then the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” Jesus, on seeing a crowd rapidly gathering, rebuked the unclean spirit and said to it, “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you: come out of him and never enter him again!” Shouting and throwing the boy into convulsions, it came out. He became like a corpse, which caused many to say, “He is dead!” But Jesus took him by the hand, raised him, and he stood up. When he entered the house, his disciples asked him in private, “Why could we not drive the spirit out?” He said to them, “This kind can only come out through prayer.”  (Mark 9:14-29)

Let us consider this Gospel scene today in which our Lord offers such an impressive display of divine power. We have here a confrontation between Christ and a particularly tenacious demon. Our Lord has just been transfigured on the mountain and he now arrives with his three apostles at the place where his other disciples were. These disciples had been asked to cast out the demon from the boy but they were unable to. Obviously his disciples had cast out various demons in the name of Jesus and had been authorized by him to do so. But this one they were unable to drive out. Our Lord’s response to them suggests that they failed somewhat in faith, but as he explains later, that was not the whole story. The demon had afflicted the boy since his childhood and had caused immense damage to him, casting him into the fire and into the water to kill him. The father was absolutely desperate and appealed to Jesus for help. At a word Christ effortlessly expelled the demon from the boy, despite the convulsions which the demon caused in departing from him (Mark 9:14-29). What is manifest in our Gospel scene is the great power of the all-holy Christ. There is nothing he cannot do when asked, provided it is in accord with the will of his heavenly Father. The underworld is no match for him. What is also manifest is the reality and evil of the devils. They exist and they are very evil. In this case the demon had been preying on a child. Somehow he had gotten possession of the boy and he would not let go, doing harm after harm to this young life. From this case we can conclude that Satan can dominate a person without it necessarily being that person’s moral fault — because we cannot presume that this young person was morally responsible for the entry of Satan into his life. So Satan is not only evil and destructive, but is a coward, at times preying on the weak and defenceless.  

In every soul, in every heart, in every family, in every society, and across the face of the earth, two flags are flying, two banners. The one is the standard of Christ and the other is the standard of Satan.  Two armies are in battle array, Christ and his followers, and Satan with his evil spirits and their knowing or unknowing followers. There will be no quarter between the two, and the one is by far the stronger. Though Christ is the stronger by far, Satan in his delusions wishes to bring him down together with those who opt for him. The victory by Christ is a foregone conclusion, but many skirmishes will be won — we could say — by Satan. Souls will be lost unless we fight hard with Christ. The flag of Satan has to be captured and flung into oblivion. This fight goes on every day in the heart of each man and it is played out in the whole range of everyday life. The battle is joined in every parliament when legislation is prepared enabling abortion, embryonic stem cell research, same sex marriages, and the plethora of immoral abnormalities that take root in society. The Church fights Satan when every one of her members opposes moral evil in the world of everyday life. To conduct the fight, to drive out the demon, we must live by faith. St John says in one of his Letters that this is the victory over the world, our faith. In today’s Gospel our Lord expresses pained disappointment at the lack of faith in confrontations with Satan: “He said to them in reply, ‘O faithless generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you? Bring him to me’.” But even more is needed, and that is prayer. “When he entered the house, his disciples asked him in private, ‘Why could we not drive the spirit out?’ He said to them, ‘This kind can only come out through prayer’.” (Mark 9:14-29). Let every disciple of Christ, then, face the struggle of every day with faith and prayer.

Our Gospel scene today ought teach us that we have in the person of Jesus one whom we can trust altogether and always. His power is without limit, and his compassion is beyond compare. He is God and he is one of us. His kingdom will have no end, and the victory will assuredly be his. So let us gather with him and never look back.

                                                                                                               (E.J.Tyler)

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“I believe; help my unbelief!”  (Mark 9:14-29)
         Saint Isaac the Syrian (7th century), Monk in Nineveh, near Mosul in present-day Iraq)
                                                                                 (Ascetic Discourses, 1st series, 72)

Faith is the gateway to the mysteries. What the eyes of the body are for palpable things, faith is for the hidden eyes of the soul. The Fathers say that just as our body has two eyes, so our soul has two spiritual eyes, and each one has its own vision. Through one eye, we see the secrets of God’s glory hidden in the beings of God’s creation, which is to say, God’s power, his wisdom, and his eternal providence, which surrounds us and which we understand when we consider the greatness of the heights to which God leads us. With that same eye, we also contemplate the celestial orders, the angels, our companions and fellow servants (Rev 22:9).

And with the other eye we contemplate the glory of God’s holiness, when he wants to make us enter into his spiritual mysteries and when he opens up the ocean of faith to our intelligence.
                                                                                   (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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When you consider the beauty, the greatness and the effectiveness of apostolic work, you say that your head aches thinking of the amount of ground that still has to be covered —there are so many souls who are waiting! But you feel so happy offering yourself as a slave to Jesus. You have a great desire for his Cross and for suffering, for Love and for souls. Without thinking about it, in an instinctive gesture — which was one of Love — you stretched out your arms and opened the palms of your hands, ready for him to nail you to his Holy Cross. You were ready to be his slave — serviam — which is to reign.
                                                              (The Forge, no.1027)

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           What is the sacrament of Holy Orders?
It is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time. (CCC 1536)
                   (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.322)

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Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time II

(February 20) Today let us think of St Wulfric (Saints)  See also this Website's Details of Saints for Any Particular Day

Scripture today:     Sirach 2:1-11;       Psalm 37:3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40;      Mark 9:30-37

Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. He was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him. They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they remained silent. For they had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.” (Mark 9:30-37)

In our Gospel passage today our Lord is shown making his way through Galilee quietly with his disciples. He did not want anyone to know about his presence or movements. The critical thing at this point was the adequate instruction of his disciples. Our Lord’s time was running out, and he was making this clear to them. Of course, if our Lord had wanted to avoid his passion and death, there would have been no difficulty in his doing so. He had often eluded capture in the past and he could easily have used his divine power in his own defence. During his passion he said to Peter that were he to ask, his heavenly Father would send twelve legions of angels to defend him. But no. His being “handed over to men” was a fundamental part of his mission. His death and his resurrection was the key to his work on earth and he was taking time to convey this to his disciples. But among his disciples he met with incomprehension: “they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him.” (Mark 9:30-37) Their profound difficulty in grasping Christ’s teaching on this critical point reminds us that the difficulty of man in comprehending Christ’s revelation is of an order different from that entailed in grasping the teaching of other great thinkers, writers, philosophers and teachers of religion. Christ’s teaching is radically other than the teaching of the world and cannot be reduced to it. It can be and always is defended as being rational, but not as being simply rational and nothing more, for it involves a revelation from God. This applies most especially to Christ’s teaching about his own passion and death and the suffering that is an essential part of being his disciple. It can take a long time to grasp this, and it will not be grasped if we are approaching it with the mind of the world. In a word, the grace of God is needed to understand and assent to what Christ has revealed.

On the one hand, then, our Gospel scene presents Christ teaching his disciples, and on the other his disciples failing to comprehend. So we are reminded of our need for the assistance of the Holy Spirit if we are ever to gain the insight which Christ wishes us to have. On one occasion our Lord asked his disciples who the people were saying the Son of Man is. They gave him various answers, and then he asked them who they themselves said he was. Simon spoke on behalf of them, telling him that he was the Messiah the Son of God. Our Lord then told Simon that it was his heavenly Father who had revealed this to him. It is God who enlightens us as to the person and the teaching of Christ. Without the grace of God we would not comprehend. At his death and despite all his efforts to instruct them, his disciples still did not comprehend. We remember how on the day he rose from the dead our Lord met two of his disciples walking downcast on their way to the village of  Emmaus.  He pointed out to them their incomprehension and slowness to perceive. That evening he upbraided his disciples for their inability to accept it when they had heard of his resurrection. Despite their constant company with him not only before but even after his resurrection, to a large extent they failed to comprehend. The unbelief of Thomas until he actually saw was a case in point. It was only with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that all was changed. The Holy Spirit remains with the Church through the ages to guide the development of her understanding of Christ and his teaching. All this is to say that it is not enough to hear about Christ, nor is it enough to read the Scriptures and listen to the teaching and the testimony of the Church. We must ask for the grace and the help of the Holy Spirit to understand what we hear and read. The Spirit of God is absolutely critical. 

Let us place ourselves in the company of Jesus as he quietly and away from the crowds puts quality time into the instruction of his disciples. He is teaching them (and us) what it means to follow him. He wants us to understand the central place of the Cross in the life of the Christian. Let us ask the grace of the Holy Spirit to help us be true disciples of the Master, for we cannot be this if we look on him with the mind of the world.

                                                                                                                   (E.J.Tyler)

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“What were you discussing on the way?”  (Mark 9:30-37)
                              Silouane (1866-1938), Orthodox monk (Spiritual Writings)

Oh humility of Jesus Christ! You give the soul indescribable joy. I thirst for you because in you the soul forgets the earth and stretches out ever more ardently towards God. If the world understood the power of Christ’s words: “Learn gentleness and humility from me,” (cf. Mt 11:29), it would put all other knowledge aside in order to acquire that heavenly knowledge.

Human beings do not know the strength of Christ’s humility, and they desire the things of the earth. But a person cannot come to the power of these words of the Lord without the Holy Spirit. The person who has plumbed them no longer leaves them, even if all the treasures of the earth are offered to him… The person who has tasted that love of the infinitely gentle God can no longer dream of the things of the earth; he feels constantly drawn by that love.

But we lose it through our pride and our vanity, through our enmities and our judgment of our brothers; we abandon it through our greedy thoughts and our proclivity towards the earth. Then grace abandons us and the troubled, depressed soul desires God and calls him, like Adam when he was chased from Paradise. My soul yearns and I seek you with tears. See my affliction, enlighten my darkness so that my soul might have joy. Lord, give me your humility so that your love might be in me and that the fear of you might live in me.
                                                                                  (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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I was moved by the heartfelt petition that came from your lips: My God, my only desire is to be pleasing in your sight; nothing else matters to me. My Mother Immaculate, may I be motivated exclusively by Love.
                                                              (The Forge, no.1028)

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             Why is this sacrament called Holy Orders?
Orders designates an ecclesial body into which one enters by means of a special consecration (ordination). Through a special gift of the Holy Spirit, this sacrament enables the ordained to exercise a sacred power in the name and with the authority of Christ for the service of the People of God. (CCC 1537-1538)
                  (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.323)

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Ash Wednesday II

(February 21)  St. Peter Damian, bishop and doctor of the Church (1007-1072). Born at Ravenna, after completing his studies he taught for a short while but then gave it up and became a hermit at Fonte Avelllana. He was elected Benedictine Prior of the community and strenuously promoted religious observance both there and in other parts of Italy. In the difficult times in which he lived he helped the Popes by his writings and acted as papal legate to reform the Church. He was created a Cardinal and Bishop of Ostia by Stephen IX. He was the author of many important works on liturgy, theology, and morals, and supported St Gregory VII in his struggle for the rights of the Church. On his death in 1072 he was immediately venerated as a saint. (Saints)

Scripture today:    Joel 2:12-18;     Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14 and 17;      2 Corinthians 5:20—6:2;        Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Jesus said to his disciples: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18)

Ash Wednesday marks the special liturgical season of Lent, and Lent is the time for spiritual renewal when we unite ourselves with Jesus as he approaches his death and resurrection  which is celebrated at the end of Lent during Holy Week. A time of renewal involves renewing the foundations. In Christian spirituality there are three great supports to a life of union with God:  they are prayer, self-denial and works of mercy towards others. They are stressed in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, and here in our Gospel passage today (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18) our Lord comments on them. The danger in any good deed is that we can do it for the wrong reason. For instance, a father can take great care of his son not so much for his son’s benefit as for his own. The danger with religious practices too is that we can do them for the wrong reasons.  We can spend time in prayer in order to appear good and religious. We can give alms in order, at least partially, to gain the admiration of men — without being fully conscious that this is our motivation, and all admire a generous helping of the needy. Likewise we can engage in self-denial for a similarly self-serving purpose. In our Lord’s teaching about the religious life that is given in our passage here he chooses to stress that in our religious life we ought indeed do these things, but for the right reason. We ought do them, that is to say, for God. So then, if we wish to make progress in our union with God we should use the time of Lent to ask ourselves what exactly we are doing about our spiritual life, and just why we are doing it anyway?

The question of why we are doing what we do is particularly important. It is the one our Lord raises before us in his teaching today. What is motivating our life, including our religious life?  If we do not attend to this issue our inherited fallen condition will incline us to do what we do for self-serving and all too often for sinful purposes. We should strive therefore to purify our motives and do all for the love of God. On one occasion when asked, our Lord said that the first and greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength. God’s command is that we love him first and foremost in everything we do. Well, are we loving God and making him the true object of our life and of our religion in all that we do? When we think then of Lent we ought think of a time when we make an altogether special effort to see God in everything and do what he wants us to do and do it for him alone. If we emerge from Lent with a purer love of God in the midst of our ordinary life we shall have had  a very beneficial Lent indeed. And let us notice a further detail in our Lord’s words of instruction today on the practice of religion. It is that we ought do all in the presence of our Father in heaven — our Father. That is precisely what our Lord himself did, as the Son of the Father. Who did our Lord serve throughout his life? He served his heavenly Father. We are called to do the same in union with Jesus and by the grace of the Holy Spirit. So our Lord’s words exhorting us to live our spiritual life for God and not for other reasons, not for ourselves, have an emphatic Trinitarian emphasis. Lent ought be a time of special immersion in the life of the Holy Trinity and a renewed appreciation of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

So let us ponder our Lord’s words on prayer, self-denial such as fasting, and works of mercy such as almsgiving. Let us take to heart our Lord’s instruction that we do these very important things, yes, but that we do them for God and for his honour and glory and not for our own. Let us also resolve to live our human and religious life in the presence of God the Father, in union with Jesus his Son and by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Let us make the Holy Trinity the object and centre of our life.

                                                                                                                   (E.J.Tyler)

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In the secret of the heart      John Paul II, pope from 1978 to 2005 (Homily for Ash Wednesday 1983)

Lent is the time to come back to our self. It is a time of particular intimacy with God, in the secret of the heart and of the conscience. It is in this private intimacy with God that the essential work of Lent is accomplished: the work of conversion.

And in this inner secret, in this intimacy with God in the full truth of the heart and of the conscience, words like those of the psalms of today's liturgy resound as one of the most profound confessions that man has ever done to God: “Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness; in your abundant compassion blot out my offence. Wash away all my guilt; from my sin cleanse me. For I know my offence; my sin is always before me. Against you alone have I sinned; I have done such evil in your sight that you are just in your sentence, blameless when you condemn” (Ps 50,1-6).

These are words that purify, words that transform. They transform man from the inside. Let us recite them often during Lent. And above all, let us strive to renovate the spirit that leads them, the inspiration that has rightly so given these words a force of conversion. For Lent is essentially an invitation to conversion. The works of alms of which the Gospel speaks about today open the way to this conversion. Let us practice them as much as we can. But first of all, let us try to meet God interiorly in our whole life, in all it is made of, so as to reach this conversion in deepness, of which the penitential psalm of today's liturgy is filled.

With your whole heart, ask for death, and a thousand deaths, rather than offend your God.

And not because of the punishment due to sin, which we deserve so much, but because Jesus has been and is so good to you.
                                                        (The Forge, no.1029)

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                           What place does the sacrament of Holy Orders have in the divine plan of salvation?
This sacrament was prefigured in the Old Covenant in the service of the Levites, in the priesthood of Aaron, and in the institution of the seventy “Elders” (Numbers 11:25). These prefigurations find their fulfillment in Christ Jesus who by the sacrifice of the cross is the “one mediator between God and man” (1 Timothy 2:5), the “High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:10). The one priesthood of Christ is made present in the ministerial priesthood.
(CCC 1539-1546, 1590-1591) 
              “Only Christ is the true priest, the others being only his ministers.” (Saint Thomas Aquinas)
                                           (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.324)

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Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle

(Thursday after Ash Wednesday)

(February 22) This feast of the Chair of St Peter brings to mind the mission of teacher and pastor conferred by Christ on Peter, and continued in an unbroken line down to the present Pope. We celebrate the unity of the Church, founded upon the Apostle, and renew our assent to the magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, extended both to truths which are solemnly defined “ex cathedra” and to all the acts of the ordinary magisterium. (Saints)

Scripture today:   1 Peter 5:1-4;    Psalm 23:1-3a, 4, 5, 6;     Matthew 16:13-19

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:13-19)

We could say that our passage from the Gospel of St Matthew today is one of the high points of the Gospel. Our Lord asks his disciples, those who lived with him constantly, those who constantly heard from him his words and his teaching, who they consider him to be. In the person of Simon Peter they give him the right answer, that he is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This is a great achievement of faith on their part and it is a great consolation for our Lord himself in his efforts to form them. They had attained that faith which if lived consistently will save a man. Just before he ascended into heaven our Lord commanded his disciples to go to the whole world and make disciples of all the nations. Our Lord told them that he who believes and is baptized will be saved, and he who refuses belief will be condemned. They themselves had attained this faith, and now they were to spread it. So the faith which the disciples manifested and professed on this occasion was of critical importance in our Lord’s public ministry and it had far reaching implications for human history to come. It allowed our Lord to take his next step which involved a further decisive revelation. Christ had been preaching the arrival of the kingdom of God and its nature. The kingdom of his Father was the object of his preaching. Now he tells Simon that his name is now the Rock, Peter, and that he will build his Church on this Rock His explicit reference to instituting, establishing and building his Church is a new element in his teaching. It is clear that in the divine plan Christ will establish the promised kingdom of God through his Church. It is in and through the Church that the kingdom of God — embodied and active in his own person — will be present among men. His Church will be the seed and instrument of his kingdom.

Moreover this Church which is the seed and beginning of God’s saving kingdom will stand successfully against the powers of hell. The way Christ expresses it suggests that the Church will be buffeted unceasingly, but will not fail. Just as Christ was assailed continually by his enemies who did not prevail, so too will the Church be similarly assailed. Very importantly, and again as a new revelation, his Church will be built on Peter, for “on this rock I will build my Church.” It is to Peter that Christ will also give the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  Of course, in entrusting to Simon the keys that provide access to his kingdom, Christ is entrusting them to the Church, but it is Peter who holds and uses them in a special and official way. How those keys are to be used is entrusted to the discretion of Peter: “I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:13-19). He directs his words specifically to Peter, as the head of the Twelve. That this entrusting of the keys is the granting of an enormous power is indicated in the next sentence, in which Peter is empowered to bind and loose and whenever he does so his decision will be ratified in heaven. He will carry the authority of Christ. So we see in our passage today our Lord making more explicit and concrete his doctrine of the kingdom of God. Christ will establish God’s kingdom on earth through his Church which will be its seed and beginning, and it is to Peter, the rock of this Church which he will build, that Christ entrusts the keys. He is being given the authority to open and close the doors to this kingdom by his teaching and ministry, and the exercise of this authority will carry the sanctions of heaven. The general doctrine of the kingdom has become much more explicit.

Today is the feast of the Chair of St Peter. That is to say, today we think of the explicit authority granted to Peter by Christ to make accessible to all the riches of the kingdom of God. In effect this means that Peter has and will have till the end of time when Christ comes again a unique role in bringing man to the knowledge of Christ, for it is in Christ that the kingdom of God is to be found.  Peter lives in the midst of the Church in the person of his successors, and it is in them that he uses the keys Christ has entrusted to him. Let us renew our appreciation of this divinely established Chair that teaches and guides all to Christ, the fount of salvation.

                                                                                                                     (E.J.Tyler)

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"Peter will be the rocky foundation on which he will build the edifice of the Church"
                                                          Pope Benedict XVI (General audience, 7 June 2006)

"You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.... I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven". In themselves, the three metaphors that Jesus uses are crystal clear:  Peter will be the rocky foundation on which he will build the edifice of the Church; he will have the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to open or close it to people as he sees fit; lastly, he will be able to bind or to loose, in the sense of establishing or prohibiting whatever he deems necessary for the life of the Church. It is always Christ's Church…

This pre-eminent position that Jesus wanted to bestow upon Peter is also encountered after the Resurrection (Mk 16:7; Jn 20:2.4-6)…  Then, Peter was to be the first witness of an appearance of the Risen One (cf. Lk 24: 34; I Cor 15: 5). His role, decisively emphasized (cf. Jn 20: 3-10), marks the continuity between the pre-eminence he had in the group of the Apostles and the pre-eminence he would continue to have in the community born with the paschal events… Moreover, the fact that several of the key texts that refer to Peter can be traced back to the context of the Last Supper, during which Christ conferred upon Peter the ministry of strengthening his brethren (cf. Lk 22: 31ff.)…

This contextualization of the Primacy of Peter at the Last Supper, at the moment of the Institution of the Eucharist, the Lord's Pasch, also points to the ultimate meaning of this Primacy:  Peter must be the custodian of communion with Christ for all time. He must guide people to communion with Christ; he must ensure that the net does not break (Jn 21:11), and consequently that universal communion endures. Only together can we be with Christ, who is Lord of all. Thus, Peter is responsible for guaranteeing communion with Christ with the love of Christ, guiding people to fulfil this love in everyday life. Let us pray that the Primacy of Peter, entrusted to poor human beings, will always be exercised in this original sense as the Lord desired, and that its true meaning will therefore always be recognized by the brethren who are not yet in full communion with us.
                                                                                       (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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My God, when will I love you for yourself? Although when we think about it, Lord, to desire an everlasting reward is to desire you, for you give yourself as our reward.
                                                   (The Forge, no.1030)

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            What are the degrees that make up the sacrament of Holy Orders?
The sacrament of Holy Orders is composed of three degrees which are irreplaceable for the organic structure of the Church: the episcopate, the presbyterate and the diaconate. (CCC 1554, 1593)
                       (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.325)

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Friday after Ash Wednesday

(February 23) Saint Polycarp, bishop and martyr. Polycarp was a disciple of the apostles and bishop of Smyrna (Izmir, in Turkey), as well as a friend of St Ignatius of Antioch. He went to Rome to confer with Pope St Anicetus about the celebration of Easter. He suffered martyrdom about the year 155 by being burnt to death in the city stadium.  (Saints)

Scripture today:    Isaiah 58:1-9a;      Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19;      Matthew 9:14-15

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” (Matthew 9:14-15)

Our Gospel scene today shows the disciples of John the Baptist coming to our Lord with a point that perplexed them. They did not see in our Lord’s disciples certain elements of strictness of life observed by them and by the Pharisees. For instance, our Lord’s disciples did not fast. Why was that? Our Lord in response did not deny that his disciples did not make a notable point of fasting. They did not fast as much as the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees. Nor did our Lord deny that fasting was important. His reply to them was, let us take one thing at a time. The time for his disciples to fast in that fashion was not now, but the time would come when they would indeed fast and that would be when he was gone from their sight. The important thing for his disciples at this stage was his presence among them and their learning deeply from his teaching and coming to a firm faith in him. He likened the situation to the presence of the bridegroom. “Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of fasting as long as the bridegroom is still with them.” (Matthew 9:14-15) Fasting would be a distraction from “the main game” which was to be filled with the person of Jesus, to get to know who he really was, to understand his true mission in the world, and above all to attain  a profound faith in him. Our Lord’s reply reminds us that the object of the Christian life is the person of Jesus himself. All else that finds its place in our religious life must have the person of Jesus as its nerve centre, and must aid us in our relationship with him. Prayer, fasting and works of mercy must flow out from our relationship with him and sustain, strengthen and support  it.

Intimately connected with this very point is the significant word which our Lord uses to denote his very self in this passage. He is the bridegroom, and his disciples are the bridegroom’s attendants and friends. They are in his company as he arrives for the wedding. That is to say, our Lord is telling the good-willed disciples of John that in him the longed-for moment in God’s dealings with his chosen people has arrived. The time for the wedding has come and the bridegroom has arrived. In referring to himself as the bridegroom our Lord was conjuring up in the minds of his listeners the figure of the bridegroom in the prophetic literature, such as in the prophet Hosea. God is the bridegroom and Israel is his spouse. He is the husband, and his chosen people is his wife — and all too often an unfaithful wife at that. One can even see a hint of this notion in the very name of Yahweh which God revealed to Moses as his name. God is the transcendent “I am”, but as One who is always there in the midst of his people. The entire Old Testament looked forward to a time when there would be a true marriage between God and his people, a covenant of love, and when a heart of flesh would replace the heart of stone in the people. God would be Emmanuel, God-with-us. In veiled fashion our Lord is insinuating that he is the bridegroom of the Old Testament come to effect the marriage. It would be effected in his blood, in his death and resurrection. Then he would be taken away from them, and then indeed they would fast. So our Lord’s words in today’s brief passage place the person of Jesus at the centre of the life of the entire Church and of the life of every Christian.

Let us resolve to make our religion a religion of love, because God is love and he wishes there to be a relationship of love between him and us. Pope Benedict in his Lenten Message for 2007 makes the point that God’s love is both agape and eros. He loves with a love that serves us in totally disinterested fashion, and yet he is profoundly interested in gaining our love. He wants us to love him. He is the bridegroom, we the Church his bride. Let us ponder on this and live accordingly.

                                                                                                                     (E.J.Tyler)

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«Then they will fast» (Matthew 9:14-15)
      St Leo the Great (?-about 461), pope and doctor of the Church (6th Sermon for Lent, 1-2)

Always indeed, dearly beloved, “the earth is full of the Lord's kindness” (Ps 32,5)...But when he comes around to those days which more especially mark the mysteries of human Restoration and precede in close order the Paschal Feast, a still more careful preparation of devout purification is called for...This is in keeping with the Paschal Feast, that the whole Church should rejoice at the remission of the sins, which happens not in those only who are reborn in holy Baptism but also in those who have long been numbered among the adopted.

Although the washing of regeneration chiefly makes “people new” (cf. Eph 4,24 – Col 3,10) nevertheless, because there is still for all of us a daily renewal against the rust of mortality and in the path of progress there is no one who ought not always to be better, in general we still have to struggle so that in the Day of Redemption no one may be found in sins of long standing.

What therefore, dearly beloved, any Christian ought at all times to do should now be pursued more carefully and more devotedly, to fulfill the apostolic institution of forty days of fast, not only by scant food, but especially by fasting from sins...To these reasonable and holy fasts nothing is joined more carefully than the works of alms giving, which in the one name of mercy include many praiseworthy acts of devotion, so that the spirits of all the faithful can be equal, even with unequal means.
                                                              (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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Taste and see that the Lord is good, the Psalmist says.

Spiritual conquest, which is Love, has to be a desire for the Infinite, a desire for eternity — in big things and small.
                                            (The Forge, no.1031)

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                     What is the effect of episcopal ordination?
Episcopal ordination confers the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders. It makes the bishop a legitimate successor of the apostles and integrates him into the episcopal college to share with the Pope and the other bishops care for all the churches. It confers on him the offices of teaching, sanctifying, and ruling. (CCC 1557-1558)
                 (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.326)

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Saturday after Ash Wednesday II

(February 24) Today let us think of St. Ethelbert  (Saints)   See also this Website's Details of Saints for Any Particular Day

Scripture today:    Isaiah 58:9b-14;      Psalm 86:1-2, 3-4, 5-6;     Luke 5:27-32

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.” (Luke 5:27-32)

As is the case so often in the Gospels, here we have a scene of tension between Christ and the Pharisees and their scribes. Christ invited Levi the tax collector to follow him, which he did. There then followed “a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with him.” The all-holy Christ who taught the way of holiness was to be found fraternizing with numerous “tax collectors and sinners”. The religious leaders demanded an explanation for this behaviour, and our Lord in answer explained that he had come as a physician for the sick, as one who calls sinners to repentance. So this is what the God of holiness is like. In the Old Testament God says to us, “Be holy, for I am holy.” He commands us to “love the  Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength”. We are to have no other gods in our life but him. And yet, as St Paul puts it in the Letter to the Romans, all men are under the power of sin. God responds by coming to us to heal us from the sickness of sin and to call us to repentance. Let us imagine the recognition which Levi had of his own sinfulness, and his recognition as well of our Lord’s love for him. His immediate response to our Lord’s call to him to follow him shows how deeply he prized the love of our Lord. Let us imagine too the delight of the “large crowd of tax collectors and others” who “were at table with him” during the “great banquet for him in his house.” (Luke 5:27-32) It implied that they recognized the profound holiness of Jesus, his great power before God, and that he loved them. They knew that he expected them to repent.

Christ who now lives in our midst expects us to repent. He wants us to recognize, as did Levi and the “large crowd of tax collectors and others”, that we are sinners and that we are loved by God. He wants us to be like Levi who “got up and followed him.” By his grace we can leave behind the sins that cling to us on our journey through life. How can we do this? To begin with, we must understand that repentance is not just a one-off action, even though there can be unique moments of special response during life. Levi’s response in today’s Gospel was a very special moment when he left all for our Lord, but that was not the end of the matter. He had to follow through on this same pattern time and again in life when the call came to him to follow our Lord in ways he had never foreseen. His life as a disciple of Christ had only just begun, but the pattern and the need of repentance would remain. So too with us. Whenever we detect — through a constant and daily examination of our conscience — that we need to repent from some venial sin or from a sinful attachment, there and then in our hearts we ought repent of it. If we strive to live constantly in the presence of God with a lively and sensitive conscience, we shall during the course of each day be enlightened by the Holy Spirit as to the sins that are present in our hearts. Whenever we become aware of some moral fault or some sin however slight it may appear to us, we ought repent of it there and then. In large measure holiness will depend on constant repentance from venial sin. The following of Christ involves a habit of repentance which includes purpose of amendment. Let us never allow sin to remain accepted in our life. Rather, let any sin that is unmasked, however slight it may be, be renounced there and then.

The fact is that, of ourselves, all of us are under the power of sin. Christ has come for all because all are sinners. The problem is that this is not recognized. The sense of personal sin has been lost and so the appreciation of the person of Christ is very easily lost. Let us every day place ourselves among the sinners in our scene today and hear Christ’s call to us to come and follow him.

                                                                                                                                    (E.J.Tyler)

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"I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners." (Luke 5:27-32)
                                                                                           Latin Liturgy (Hymn "Audi benigne Conditor") 

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Jesus, I don't want to think of what “tomorrow” will be like, for I don't want to put limits on your generosity.
                                               (The Forge, no.1032)

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            What is the office confided to a Bishop in a particular Church?
The bishop to whom the care of a particular Church is entrusted is the visible head and foundation of unity for that Church. For the sake of that Church, as vicar of Christ, he fulfils the office of shepherd and is assisted by his own priests and deacons. (CCC 1560-1561)
                    (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.327)

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First Sunday of Lent B

(February 25) Today let us think of St Ethelbert of Kent  (Saints) See also this Website's Details of Saints for Any Particular Day

Scripture today:   Deuteronomy 26:4-10;     Psalm 91:1-2, 10-15;     Romans 10:8-13;     Luke 4:1-13

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, One does not live on bread alone.” Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.” Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and:  With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time. (Luke 4:1-13)

  Among the various disciplines of study and preparation for professional life is one that is important but which is often undervalued. I refer to what are called the humanities — such as languages, history and literature. In particular the study of literature and history are important because they involve the study of man in history with his values and works. But important as they are, each of these two fields of writing, reading and reflection on man are subject to the influence of various presuppositions. One can write or read history as a Marxist or as an Islamic scholar. That is to say, the fundamental views and values of a historian or novelist will have an enormous effect on what he writes and how he writes it. Part of the evaluation of any work of history or literature ought be the evaluation of the author’s starting points and where he is coming from. For instance, in the histories and novels and works of literature that have been written, much consideration is given to wrongdoing. But let us ask this. To what extent is this wrongdoing recognized as sin? Sin involves wrongdoing, but wrongdoing considered precisely as an offence against God. Wrongdoing features greatly in history and literature, but sin features hardly at all. That is to say, wrongdoing is presented as having little or nothing to do with God. Sin, considered as that which displeases a holy and moral God, is largely absent from the description of man and his history as it is presented by writers of history and literature. This failure in the humanities to recognize sin is a product and a partial cause of the loss of the sense of sin in our world.

   In fact, there is nothing more ominous than the presence of sin in the heart of man and the world. Yet the world and man were not created with sin as part of the scene. Sin was a visitor that arrived and stayed.  The arrival of sin was heralded by temptation. If one asks how it is that one has a visitor in the house, the answer is that the visitor came to the door and knocked. That knocking on the door heralded the arrival of the visitor. You heard the knocking, you opened the door and you invited the person in. When a person is being tempted, sin is knocking at the door. At the dawn of human history, temptation to sin knocked at the door of mankind when Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The hand that knocked was that of Satan. Our first parents opened the door and invited the visitor in, and the visitor stayed. That visitor was sin, rebellion against God. The critical moment for every man and for the whole human race throughout history is the presence of temptation. When temptation knocks at the door, sin is prowling at the entrance wanting to come in. If man gives in to temptation, sin enters and the serpent sets up its home within. All this is to say that the critical thing for each man and woman and indeed for the whole world, is to recognize temptation when it knocks at the door, to avoid and resist it, to refuse it any entry, and to be delivered from all wrongdoing and any sin. The issue facing mankind and the world is the temptation to any sin no matter how venial it be, and behind the temptation is Satan, the evil one. This is rarely recognized in the writing of history and literature.

  Jesus Christ is the shining jewel of the human race. He is the perfect model for every man and woman, and the source of all progress towards holiness. As we read in our Gospel today (Luke 4:1-13), in the plan of God he too was allowed to be tempted. His temptations did not spring from any inordinate desire within him for pleasure or power or possessions, for there was no inner disorder in him. All that could come from within him was the pure desire for holiness and the glory of his Father. Rather, temptations were directly posed to him from without by Satan and we see this happening in today’s Gospel. Christ had come to conquer the world for his Father, and Satan even put to him that he do so the quick way by worshiping him, Satan, and then receive from him the kingdoms of the world in return. The point is that Christ our model and redeemer was tempted too, and he utterly rejected all temptations. We too must resolve to reject all temptations. We must pray to our heavenly Father to keep us from temptation, to help us recognize it and resist it, and to deliver us from all moral evil and sin. Let us always contemplate Christ being tempted and rejecting all temptation, and understand that this is the issue that faces us every day. This is the issue of life. Life will be a success or a failure depending on our response to the temptation to sin. Let us pray to avoid and resist all temptation, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit to be delivered from sin and all moral evil

                                                                                                                      (E.J.Tyler)

Further Reading:   The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.2846-2854

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Strengthened by temptations  (Luke 4:1-13)
    St John Chrysostom (345 – 407), Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily 13 on Matthew, 1)

"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil."… For since with a view to our instruction Jesus both did and underwent all things; he endures also to be led up thither, and to wrestle against the devil: in order that each of those who are baptized, if after his baptism he have to endure greater temptations may not be troubled as if the result were unexpected, but may continue to endure all nobly, as though it were happening in the natural course of things. Yea, for therefore you took up arms, not to be idle, but to fight.

For this cause neither does God hinder the temptations as they come on, first to teach you that you are become much stronger; next, that you may continue modest neither be exalted even by the greatness of your gifts, the temptations having power to repress you; moreover, in order that that wicked demon, who is for a while doubtful about your desertion of him, by the touchstone of temptations may be well assured that you have utterly forsaken and fallen from him; fourthly, that you may in this way be made stronger, and better tempered than any steel; fifthly, that you may obtain a clear demonstration of the treasures entrusted to you. For the devil would not have assailed you, unless he had seen you brought to greater honor.
                                                               (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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Make those reflections of your friend your own. He wrote: “I was considering how good God was to me and, full of interior joy, I was ready to shout out loud, there in the street, for everyone to know about my filial gratitude: `Father! Father!' And though not in fact shouting out loud, I kept calling him so —`Father!' — in a low voice, many times, quite certain that it pleased him.

I seek nothing else. I only want to please him and give him Glory. Everything for him. If I desire my salvation and my sanctification it is because I know that he desires it. If in my Christian life I hunger for souls, it is because I know that he has this great hunger. I say this in all truth: I will never set my sights on the prize. I don't desire a reward: everything for Love!”
                                                               (The Forge, no.1033)

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                 What is the effect of ordination to the priesthood?
The anointing of the Spirit seals the priest with an indelible, spiritual character that configures him to Christ the priest and enables him to act in the name of Christ the Head. As a co-worker of the order of bishops he is consecrated to preach the Gospel, to celebrate divine worship, especially the Eucharist from which his ministry draws its strength, and to be a shepherd of the faithful. (CCC 1562-1567, 1595)
                      (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.328)

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Monday of the First Week of Lent II

(February 26) Today let us think of St Alexander of Alexandria  (Saints)  See also this Website's Details of Saints for Any Particular Day

Scripture today:    Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18;      Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 15;      Matthew 25:31-46

Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46)

Though it cannot be said to be the case now, the greatest centre of thought and innovation in the English speaking world during the nineteenth century was — as was to be expected — England. This included religious and philosophical thought, and the foremost religious mind of England during the nineteenth century was John Henry Newman. One of his dicta was that the first principle of religion was the thought of a judgment as contained in the feeling of conscience. He himself always claimed that his own conversion at the age of fifteen marked the beginning of his religious life in its genuine sense, and so we can presume that the thought of a future judgment played an important part in that conversion. This “future judgment” was the judgment of God as revealed by Christ, to be followed by either heaven or hell. Newman also states in his Apologia that the writer that had greatest influence on him as a youth was Thomas Scott (1747-1821). If one reads Scott’s The Force of Truth, which includes the account of his gradual acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity, one can see that for Scott it was the thought of a future judgment which aroused his conscience to bring him to the practice of serious religion. These instances of Scott and Newman remind us of the importance of Christ’s revelation that he will come again to judge the living and the dead. I suspect that in a great number of cases the thought of the transience of life, of the unavoidable fact of death and of God’s judgment to follow it, is what brings many persons to take religion seriously. I also think that, as was the case with both Scott and Newman, these considerations are accessible to youth. They are able to look ahead in view of what God has revealed will assuredly come, and choose to begin to live in light of it, knowing that God will judge on each person’s observance of his commands.

This effect of the thought of God’s judgment as present in the feelings of conscience shows the importance of our Gospel passage today (Matthew 25:31-46). In it our Lord teaches about the general judgement of all men. All will be judged on how they have lived, and the result of that judgment will be heaven or hell. The good will go to heaven  and the wicked will go to hell, and either way it will be for ever. Let us remember that just as the thought of God’s judgment on the wicked can bring a conversion to the wicked, so, we might say, the thought of the judgment of God brought about the Incarnation. God sent his Son to save the world from damnation and to offer it the gift of abundant life. In St Ignatius of Loyola’s famous Spiritual Exercises he has a well known Meditation on the Incarnation. He describes the three persons of the Blessed Trinity observing very many souls “going down to hell” and they “decree in Their eternity that the Second Person should become man to save the human race. So when the fullness of time had come, They send the Angel Gabriel to our Lady” (no.102). The divine judgment is at the forefront of the mind of God himself, and this is evident in the teaching of our Lord throughout the four Gospels. The salvation of souls was what drove our Lord and his description of the judgment in our passage today has resounded down the centuries. Christ will come as the King — the King of kings — and will be the judge of the whole world. Buddha will appear before him for judgment, as will Confucius, as will Mahomet, as will Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar and every great mind and teacher and leader, and as will each and all of us. No one will escape it.  How great a benefit to man it is that the judgment of God has been revealed! The fact of a judgment has not been a universal doctrine of the religions of man, but we who are disciples of Christ are in a position to announce it to all and sundry, for it has been revealed by God. 

Let us think long and often of the last things which we shall all have to face. Cardinal Newman wrote at the end of one of his greatest books (The Development of Christian Doctrine) that life is short and eternity long. Eternity will be spent either in heaven or in hell. Where it will be will depend on the judgment of God, and the upshot of that judgment will depend on how we live every day. Let us then take to heart the teaching of our Lord in the Gospel passage of today.

                                                                                                     (E.J.Tyler)

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“Come. You have my Father’s blessing! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you” (Matthew 25:31-46)
                                Saint Cesarius of Arles (470-543), Monk and Bishop (Sermon 26,5)

Christ, that is to say, heavenly mercy, comes to the door of your house every day, not only spiritually to the door of your soul, but also materially to the door of your house. For every time a poor person approaches your house, it is without any doubt Christ who is coming, he who said: “As often as you did it for one of these little ones, you did it for me.” So don’t harden you heart; give a little money to Christ, from whom you want to receive the Kingdom. Give a piece of bread to him, from whom you hope to receive life. Welcome him into your home, so that he might welcome you into his paradise. Give him alms, so that in return he might give you eternal life.

What audacity to want to reign in heaven with him to whom you refuse to give alms in this world! If you receive him during this earthly journey, he will welcome you into his heavenly happiness; if you despise him here in your homeland, he will turn his eyes away from you in his glory. A Psalm says: “In your city, Lord, you despise their image.” (Ps 72:20 Vulg.) If we despise those who are made in the image of God (Gen 1:26) in our city, that is to say, in this life, we must fear being rejected in his eternal city. So be merciful here below… Thanks to your generosity, you will hear that wonderful word said to you: “Come. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you”
                                                              (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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How that sick woman whom I tended spiritually loved the Will of God! She saw her many, long-lasting and painful illnesses (not a single part of her body was healthy), as a blessing from Jesus and a sign of his special love. Although in her humility she used to say that she deserved punishment, the terrible sufferings that she felt all over her were not a punishment, but a mercy.

We spoke of death. And of Heaven. And of what she was going to say to Jesus and to Our Lady. And how she would be working much more from up there than she could down here. She was ready to die whenever God wanted|... but, she exclaimed, full of joy, ``If only it could be today!'' She looked forward to death with the same joy as one who knows that when we die we go to meet our Father.
                                         (The Forge, no.1034)

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                   How does a priest carry out his proper ministry?
A priest, although ordained for a universal mission, exercises his ministry in a particular Church. This ministry is pursued in sacramental brotherhood with other priests who form the “presbyterate”. In communion with the bishop, and depending upon him, they bear responsibility for the particular Church. (CCC 1568)
                    (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.329)

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Tuesday of the First Week of Lent II

(February 27) Today let us think of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows  (Saints)  See also this Website's Details of Saints for Any Particular Day

Scripture today:   Isaiah 55:10-11;     Psalm 34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19;    Matthew 6:7-15

Jesus said to his disciples: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This is how you are to pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. “If you forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” (Matthew 6:7-15)

It scarcely needs to be said that the obvious sign of religion is prayer. If a person professes to be religious and yet rarely if ever prays or is rarely seen to be praying, the natural thing is to doubt that he is religious. If a community or a society or a culture does not pray very much one presumes that that society is not a very religious society. In fact, man does characteristically pray, and in the broad sweep of human history societies are found to be religious and to pray. Indigenous societies pray, Hindu societies pray, Islamic societies pray, as do Christian societies, although the degree to which they do can vary according to the level of penetration of currents of thought which undermine religious belief. Many societies that have been traditionally Christian have been profoundly affected by non-Christian philosophical assumptions and values, and this has greatly lessened the religious character of those societies. The same has happened in many non-Christian societies. Russia, China and various other Asian societies have been deeply influenced by atheistic currents of thought  (such as Marxism) and the result has been a spread of secularism across the world. Where this has happened religion and therefore prayer has retreated from its natural place. The point I am making, though, is that prayer is the natural sign of religion. The further question is, what is the character of prayer as it is taught by the masters of the religions of the world? I have not researched comparative studies of prayer in the various religions of mankind, but obviously the prayer of a religion will reveal the character of the religion itself and the image of God that marks it. Our Gospel passage today presents us with Christ’s teaching on how we are to pray. It reveals the character of the Christian religion as God has revealed it and the image of God which shapes it.

There are many notable things about the Lord’s Prayer in today’s Gospel (Matthew 6:7-15), and countless commentaries have been composed on it. But an immediate observation to be made is its emphatic insistence on forgiveness. Christ teaches us his prayer, and immediately afterwards provides a decisive comment on one component of that prayer, a part of it that comes towards the end. We pray to our heavenly Father that he will forgive us our sins against him, and immediately following this we promise to forgive those who have acted offensively against us. Our Lord having finished the prayer straight away returns to this petition asking forgiveness and promising to give it. His words make it clear that this promise to forgive is not just something we choose to do from the goodness of our heart. It is a condition of receiving forgiveness from God. It is an obligation he lays down. If we do not give forgiveness we shall not receive it. Now, one of the things we note in the great religious writings of Christianity and indeed in the lives of all true Christians, is the sense of personal sinfulness. In the Christian tradition, as a person gets close to God  he becomes more conscious of his sins. He understands that he is a sinner and that if he is ever to make headway in his relationship with God, God will have to forgive him his sins. The good news is that God will forgive him if he is truly sorry and intends to amend. If this had not been revealed, we could not have assumed it. But there is, we discover, this condition. He must forgive others their transgressions against him and if he refuses to do this, God will refuse him his forgiveness. Very many Christians do not live up to this requirement. Nevertheless that is the requirement and it says as much about God as about what we should do. God reveals himself in his commands. The image of God in Christianity can be compared with the image of God in other religions by comparing what God is said to command in each of them. The important thing, though, is that those who are Christ’s faithful understand clearly that a requirement of following him is that, like him, we forgive those who injure us.

Forgiveness of others is one of the crunch points of true Christianity. It is a test of the extent to which we love Christ and are truly following him. Forgiveness is something which others may see, but it is also something they may not see because it goes on in the deepest recesses of the human heart. It is out of sight of men, but not out of the sight of God. He sees all and he will see any refusal to forgive that goes on in our heart. If we forgive he will forgive us. What a wonderful thing to be able to say on our deathbed that I have forgiven from the heart everyone who has hurt me!

                                                                                                                          (E.J.Tyler)

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The prayer of the children of God
(Matthew 6:7-15)    Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), Foundress of the Missionary Sisters of Charity
                                                                     (No Greater Love)

In order for prayer to be fruitful, it must come from the heart and be able to touch God’s heart. See how Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Every time we say the “Our Father”, I believe that God looks at his hands, at the place where he has engraved us: “Upon the palms of my hands I have written your name.” (Isa 49:16) God contemplates his hands, and he sees us there, nestling in them. How marvellous is God’s tenderness!

Let us pray, let us say the “Our Father”. Let us live it and then we will be saints. Everything is there: God, myself, my neighbour. If I forgive, I can be holy, I can pray. Everything comes from a humble heart; when we have such a heart, we will know how to love God, how to love ourselves, and how to love our neighbour (Mt 22:37f.). That is nothing complicated, and yet we complicate our lives so much and make them heavy with so many extra loads. Only one thing counts: to be humble and to pray. The more you pray, the better you will pray.

A child encounters no difficulty in expressing its ingenuous understanding in simple words that say a lot. Didn’t Jesus give Nicodemus to understand that we must become like a small child (Jn 3:3)? If we pray according to the Gospel, we will allow Christ to grow in us. So pray with love, the way children do, with the ardent desire to love much and to make beloved the person who is not loved.
                                                                                    (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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Do not fear death. She is your friend!

Try to get used to the fact of death: peer into your grave often, looking at and smelling, and touching your own rotting corpse there, a week, no more, after your death. Remember this especially when you are troubled by the impulses of your flesh.
                                                                  (The Forge, no.1035)

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                What is the effect of the ordination to the diaconate?
The deacon, configured to Christ the servant of all, is ordained for service to the Church. He carries out this service under the authority of his proper bishop by the ministry of the Word, of divine worship, of pastoral care and of charity. (CCC 1569-1571, 1596)
                  (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.330)

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Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

(February 28) Today let us think of St Oswald of Worcester  (Saints)   See also this Website's Details of Saints for Any Particular Day

Scripture today:   Jonah 3:1-10;       Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19;       Luke 11:29-32  

While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.” (Luke 11:29-32)

In the Old Testament book of Jonah, the prophet Jonah is presented as (very unwillingly) going to the pagan city of Nineveh and preaching repentance. He announced that “Only forty days more and Nineveh is going to be destroyed.” The response of the population was immediate: “the people believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least.” So did the king. The text tells us that “God saw their efforts to renounce their evil behaviour. And God relented: he did not inflict on them the disaster which he has threatened” (Jonah 3). In the inspired story Jonah works no miracle to authenticate that he was speaking on God’s behalf, and yet the people of Nineveh were convinced that what he said was coming from God. They could see that he was a sign from God. The implication is that their consciences told them plainly that their lives and behaviour were evil, and the preaching of the prophet was unmasking the true situation. Despite their sins their hearts were sufficiently disposed to accept with readiness the truth when it came. In our Gospel passage today (Luke 11:29-32) our Lord berates very many for their refusal to accept him and his preaching, and in particular for refusing his call to them to repent and believe what he was saying. They did not have the readiness of the pagan Ninevites of the inspired story in the Scriptures. Nor did they have the readiness displayed by the queen of the south to come and listen to the wisdom of Solomon. Their hearts were disposed to refuse and so they demanded from him a sign despite the exalted nature of who it was who was speaking and preaching to them, and the manifest truth of what he was saying.

As we think of our Lord’s unfavourable comparison between many of his contemporaries and the dispositions of the Ninevites and the queen of the south as presented in the Old Testament, let us be reminded of the incomparable uniqueness of the person of Jesus and of the necessity of a right state of heart if we are to respond to him as we should. As our Lord said, “there is something greater than Solomon here”, and “there is something greater than Jonah here.” Indeed, there is no one in the entire Scriptures who can possibly compare with Christ. As his heavenly Father said at his Transfiguration, “This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.” Our Gospel passage today invites us to resolve to contemplate the person of Jesus in the light of the testimony of Scripture and the Church’s living tradition, and to contemplate him in this way long and persistently. We must come to a profound recognition of him such that signs and wonders will not be necessary. It will involve having the right fundamental dispositions and starting points, and for these we ought pray to God. Cardinal Newman wrote towards the end of his life that usually our starting points, our first and basic principles, our fundamental presuppositions are out of our sight. But on them everything depends. If they are wrong they will result in spiritual blindness, and if they are the right starting points they will lead to religious vision. That is to say, we shall be able to see. Newman goes on to say that we ought pray to God that he will give us the right starting points. Jesus tells us in the beatitudes that “blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” St John in the prologue of his Gospel writes that he came unto his own and his own did not receive him. They failed to see, and it was due to the state of their hearts.

Let us pray for the clarity and purity of heart that will enable us to see the truth of our Lord and his teaching, and the grace to place our faith entirely in him. Our Lord’s parable of the sower going out to sow speaks of the good soil producing a harvest. Our hearts need to be good soil, soil that will accept our Lord and his teaching. Let us pray perseveringly that God will make us so.
                                                                                                                           (E.J.Tyler)

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The Sign of Jonah (Luke 11:29-32)
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (about 130-about 208), bishop, theologian and martyr   (Against Heresies III, 20,1) 
                                                                              
Long-suffering therefore was God, when man became a defaulter, as foreseeing that victory which should be granted to him through the Word. For, when strength was made perfect in weakness (2Cor 12,9), it showed the kindness and transcendent power of God.

In fact, it was for man as it had been for Jonah. God had permitted that Jonah be swallowed by the whale, not that he should be swallowed up and perish altogether, but that, having been cast out again, he might be the more subject to God, and might glorify Him the more, He who had conferred upon him such an unhoped-for deliverance, and might bring the Ninevites to a lasting repentance, so that they should be convened to the Lord, who would deliver them from death, having been struck with awe by that portent which had been wrought in Jonah's case...In the same way God, from the beginning, permitted man to be swallowed up by the great whale, who was the author of transgression, not that he should perish altogether and disappear; but because God was already arranging and preparing the plan of salvation, which was accomplished by the Word, through the sign of Jonah. This plan of salvation had been prepared for those who held the same opinion as Jonah regarding the Lord, and who confessed, and said, "I am a servant of the Lord, and I worship the Lord, God of heaven, who hath made the sea and the dry land" (Jon 1,9).

God wanted that man, receiving an unhoped-for salvation from Him, might rise from the dead, and glorify God, and repeat that word which was uttered in prophecy by Jonah: "I cried by reason of my affliction to the Lord my God, and He heard me out of the belly of hell;" (Jon 2,2). He wanted that man always continue glorifying Him, and giving thanks without ceasing, for this salvation he received from Him.
                                                                                 (Selected by "The Daily Gospel", New Hope, KY 40052. USA.)

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When he bared his soul to me he said, "These days I have been thinking about death as a rest, in spite of my crimes. And I thought that if I was told: 'The time has come for you to die', I would gladly reply: 'The time has come for me to Live'.''
                                                 (The Forge, no.1036)

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               How is the sacrament of Holy Orders celebrated?
The sacrament of Holy Orders is conferred, in each of its three degrees, by means of the imposition of hands on the head of the ordinand by the Bishop who pronounces the solemn prayer of consecration. With this prayer he asks God on behalf of the ordinand for the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit and for the gifts of the Spirit proper to the ministry to which he is being ordained. (CCC 1572-1574, 1597)
                 (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.331)

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