Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today:
Acts 18:1-8; Psalm 98:1, 2-4; John 16:16-20
Jesus
said to his
disciples: In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a
little while you will see me. Some of his disciples said to one
another, What does he mean by saying, 'In a little while you will see
me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,' and
'Because I am going to the Father'? They kept asking, What does he mean
by 'a little while'? We don't understand what he is saying. Jesus knew
that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, Are you
asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you
will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? I
tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.
You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. (John 16:16-20)
The
Faith
It is a great help in appreciating the significance of Christ’s words to set
them against the words and teachings of other great figures in the history of
the world. In our Gospel passage today our Lord makes the simple promise to his
disciples that “in a little while you will see me no more, and then after a
little while you will see me” (John 16:16‑20).
In
the first instance it is clear that our Lord is speaking to them of his death
and resurrection. The “little while” in which they would see him again is a
mere few days. Despite our Lord’s repeated reference during his public ministry
to his passion, death and resurrection, they did not understand. “They kept
asking, What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is
saying.” Their incomprehension is a tribute to the living power of Christ’s
personality — they could not take it in that he would be gone from them. He
would be gone from them soon in death, but very soon they would see him again
and their grief would turn to joy. Now, what other great figure of world
history, what other person of true substance has spoken to his disciples like
this? Certainly not Buddha, Mahomet, Confucius, or any other ruler or great
man. They may not have denied that they would live on in their spirits, but it
would not be a return to this life, bringing by that very fact an especially
great joy to their disciples. Not only did the Apostles experience the joy of
seeing the risen Jesus, but those of Christ’s disciples who did not see him as
risen also experienced the joy of knowing him as risen. In his Letter in the
New Testament, St Peter speaks of the joy that his readers experience. They
have not seen Christ but their hearts are full of joy because of him. Joy is
one of the fundamental hallmarks of faith in Christ. Its foundation is his
resurrection. The joy of the Christian springs from the fact that the object of
their faith, hope and love is a real and living person, once dead but now
alive. It is in him that the Christian now lives.
That this is a most distinctive feature of the Christian religion is clear when
we think of other religions. Abraham, Moses and the prophets died, and their
inspired legacy lived on and shaped the living religion of the children of
Israel. That legacy was the word of God in the Scriptures (the Old Testament)
and the Tradition of the chosen people. Mahomet left the elements of his book,
the Koran, considered by his innumerable followers to be inspired, and he
left a living memory of himself, taken to be Allah’s messenger. But he too is
dead. So too are all the other great figures who have influenced thought and
religion. They live on in their spirits because the human soul cannot
decompose, but in their flesh they are dead and no one has ever claimed
otherwise. Their persons are simply gone. The joy of the Christian is that
Christ who died for them is alive and is with us still. He is not just a dead
prophet whose teaching is enshrined in a holy book providing guidance and
support for all readers from age to age. No, he is a living person who unites
to himself, to his own living person, all who turn to him in faith and embrace
the revelation he entrusted to his Church. He himself, the living Jesus, abides
in his Church and it is he who is the great Reality and Protagonist of his
Church. It is he who speaks to his faithful in the Church’s holy book, the
Bible, and he does so precisely as a living person and not just as a holy voice
from the past. It is he who encounters his faithful who approach him in the
Church’s Sacraments. It is he who guides his faithful when the Church’s pastors
speak in his name, and most especially when the Successor of Peter speaks in his
name. It is he who worships the Father at the head of his Church, especially at
Mass. It is he who makes present in the midst of the Church his one sacrifice
offered at Calvary, and this he does at Mass. He abides with us constantly,
especially in the tabernacle of every Catholic Church.
This
great Fact of the living Jesus is the greatest fact that there is. If we want
facts that matter, hard facts on which to base one’s life, facts that will give
consolation and joy, the Fact of the living and risen Jesus is that fact. There
is no other fact in any religion or system of thought that can compare with it.
Jesus is the joy of the ages and the source of joy in the midst of any grief.
Let us then place our faith and hopes in Jesus, for as he says, in him our grief
will turn to joy.
(E.J.Tyler)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You say you've failed! We never fail. You placed your
confidence wholly in God. Nor did you neglect any human means.
Convince yourself of this truth: your success — this time, in this —
was to fail. — Give thanks to our Lord... and try again!
(The Way, no.404)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today: Acts 18:9-18; Psalm 47:2-7; John 16:20-23
Jesus said to his
disciples: I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the
world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A
woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but
when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a
child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief,
but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no-one will take
away your joy. In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell
you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. (John 16:20-23)
Christ
Socialization, let us call it, pervades the universe. The vast world of
inanimate matter works one element with the other and all things hum in a great
hive of collaboration. The fact that this breaks down all too often in
catastrophes and mishaps just highlights what is happening normally. Vegetative
life works in mutual dependence and so does the insect and animal world. Wild
dogs hunt in packs as do prides of lions.
That is to say we see everywhere an impetus towards living and functioning in
concert with one’s own kind. Visible creation is “social” – its elements are
not solitary but act together with other elements. In this it reflects the
character of the Creator. The Creator is not “solitary” but “social.” He is one
in being but a Trinity of persons. Man, the child of God, is also social and he
craves to live and work with others, but his pain consists in this tendency
being all too often frustrated and unfulfilled. In our Gospel passage today
(John 16:20‑23) our Lord sets before his
disciples a stark contrast – a clash – between them and the world. “I tell you
the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.” Our Lord came
promising and establishing a Kingdom, a Kingdom that is of God and one that is
the fulfilment of the world’s deepest needs. But as St John writes in the
prologue of his Gospel, he came unto his own and his own would not receive him.
What causes the world to rejoice, caused Christ to weep. So too with Christ’s
disciples, while they weep and mourn the world will rejoice. A major research
project discovers a method of “improving” the human race and it involves a
profound tampering with the genetic constitution of the unborn human person.
The divide is unbridgeable, with Christians condemning and agitating against all
legislation that would allow this scientific procedure, while various scientists
condemn the Church for its unenlightened stand. The Christian cannot be
conformed to the world if he is to be conformed to Christ. We yearn to act in
concert with others for we are social, and yet all too often it cannot be.
Christ expects that his disciples will understand this very clearly and will
know what to expect from the world. This is especially important for the modern
lay Christian. The Church assists him by her teaching and preaching to know
what Christ has revealed and then it is up to him to bring this to the world by
his words, example and work. Of course he must strive to be effective and not
to be unnecessarily offensive. But there are fundamental values to which he
should bear witness daily in his secular environment. That environment is his
home, his recreational circle, his parish and above all his daily work. He
bears this witness especially by his example, but when the occasion offers it,
courageously by his words. Firstly, this witness is to the person of Christ.
It is also a witness to where he is now to be found — in his body the Church,
founded on Peter and the Apostles, and now guided by the successor of St Peter
and those bishops in communion with him. It is also a witness to the teaching
and revelation of Christ in its numerous facets, and that teaching comes above
all in the teaching of his Church. At times this can be a matter full of drama
and danger. Consider the Muslim who gradually becomes convinced that the true
religion revealed by God is the Christian religion and in particular that
proclaimed by and subsisting in the Catholic Church. Depending on the country
he dwells in, acting on that conviction and becoming a Christian himself by
receiving baptism could easily attract the threat of assassination. If knowing
this, he proceeds to receive baptism and takes his stand firmly by the side of
Christ and is then killed precisely for doing this, he is a true martyr. This
can happen in our day and is but one instance of the disciple of Christ being
unable to find his home in the world. The “world” does not take its stand with
Christ and so it will rejoice while the disciple of Christ weeps.
Let us keep our eyes steadfastly on the person of Christ and receive his
teaching with the obedience of faith. It will mean a wrenching from the world
in many matters as life proceeds. A choice must be made. Two standards are to
be seen flying aloft. One is the standard of Christ, the other the standard of
the world, the flesh and the devil. Let us take our stand with Christ and be
prepared to carry his standard whithersoever Christ leads. Christ is our joy,
joy for all ages.
(E.J.Tyler)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So you have failed? You — be convinced of it — cannot fail. You haven't
failed; you have gained experience. On you go!
(The Way, no.405)
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today: Acts 18:23-28; Psalm 47:2-3,
8-10; John 16:23b-28
Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you
the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you
have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy
will be complete. Though I have been speaking in parables, a time is coming when
I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my
Father. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the
Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved
me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and entered
the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.
(John 16:23b-28)
The
Father
It is almost a commonplace to observe that a distinguishing feature of Judaic
revelation, the religion of Abraham, Moses and the prophets, is the closeness of
the one God to the people of his choice. On the one hand the one God of the
Hebrews is far higher in power and holiness than any of the supposed gods of
the peoples. On the other hand this one, incomparably high God is far closer to
his people than are the other gods to their peoples.
He is the heavenly Father of his people — “When Israel was a child I loved him,
out of Egypt I called my son ... it was I who taught Ephraim to walk” (Hosea
11: 1-2). Now, even though the image of “father” is used of the deity among
many religions (such as the All-father of the South East Australian Aborigines)
the special closeness and love of Yahweh as Father is striking — a point lost to
Islam. The Hebrews felt themselves to be especially chosen by their God, and in
covenant with him. They were his people and he was their God. This closeness
is expressed in an even more extraordinary image. The prophets likened the
relationship to that between a husband and his wife. Without being in a
position to pronounce in terms of comparative religion, I suspect this mode of
expression is well-nigh unique to the religion of the Hebrews. The point here
is that a distinguishing feature of the religion of Abraham, Moses and the
prophets is the closeness of Yahweh with his people. But this closeness assumed
altogether new proportions in the teaching of Jesus Christ. Our Lord refers to
God at times as “my Father” and at other times as “the Father.” “My Father will
give you whatever you ask in my name,” he says, and “ I came from the Father and
entered the world.” He is both “the Father” and “my Father.” In his debates with
his enemies among the religious leaders there was nothing unconscionable, from
their point of view, about our Lord referring to the Lord God as “the Father.”
He was the Father of his people who saved them from slavery. But what was most
striking was his referring to the Father as “my Father.” This expression
together with the way it was uttered by him gave the impression, in fact, that
he claimed to be on a level with God, to be equal to Him.
That is to say, in Jesus Christ, the closeness of the God of Abraham and the
prophets reached an altogether special stage. No prophet before him spoke of
the Father in the way Jesus Christ did. He was “my Father.” Jesus Christ did
not speak of the Father as “our Father” in the sense of placing himself in the
same relation to the Father as all others of the chosen people. He instructed
his disciples to pray to the Father as “our Father,” but he himself, it seems,
did not use the expression when involving himself. On rising from the dead, he
instructed Mary Magdalene to go to the disciples and tell them that he was
ascending to “my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17).
The point is that in the person of Jesus Christ the Father has come far closer
to man than he did to Abraham and the prophets. There is one at hand — Jesus
Christ — who has for his very own Father, him who is “the Father.” The God of
the Hebrews is the Father of Jesus Christ, the one whom Jesus Christ addresses
as “my Father.” This has wondrous implications. It means that we who are the
friends of Jesus Christ have one who can speak to the Father on our behalf. “I
tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until
now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and
your joy will be complete.” Jesus is the one who can tell us all about the
Father, much more than can anyone else, and this helps us to pray to the Father,
in the name of Jesus his Son. “Though I have been speaking in parables, a time
is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you
plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my name.” In fact, though,
the Father loves us because we love Jesus his Son, and in Jesus we can speak to
the Father directly. “The Father himself loves you because you have loved me
and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and entered the
world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father”
(John 16:23b‑28). In Jesus Christ the
revelation of the Father reaches its definitive moment, a moment that remains.
In fact, in this same discourse of the Last Supper, our Lord has already stated
that he is the revelation of the Father. No prophet or leader of the chosen
people had ever or would ever speak in this way. He who sees me, he said, sees
the Father. I am in the Father and the Father is in me. No one can come to the
Father except through me. I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:
5-11). In Jesus, God has come ineffably close to man. The incomparably high
God has bent down to us, and placed himself on familiar terms with us his
children. In Jesus Christ we can say to him, Abba, Father!
Seventh Sunday of Eastertide A
(if the
Ascension is celebrated on Thursday of the sixth week)
Prayers today: Lord, hear my voice when I call to you. My heart has prompted me
to seek your face; I seek it, Lord; do not hide from me, alleluia.
(Psalm 26:
7-9)
Father, help us keep in mind that Christ our Saviour lives with you in glory and
promised to remain with us until the end of time. We ask this through our Lord
Jesus Christ your Son...
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today:
Acts of the Apostles 1: 12-14; Psalm 26; 1 Peter 1: 13-16; John
17: 1-11
After Jesus said this, he looked towards heaven and prayed: Father, the time has
come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him
authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have
given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by
completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your
presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. I have revealed
you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them
to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have
given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted
them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you
sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have
given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And
glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but
they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them
by the power of your name— the name you gave me— so that they may be one as we
are one. (John 17: 1-11)
Christ’s
prayer
If we consider chapter 17 of St John’s Gospel as part of the Last Supper
discourse of Jesus Christ, then that discourse is the longest of any in the
Gospels — even slightly longer than St Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. It is an
extraordinary presentation of teaching, given in the intimacy of the Last
Supper. It gives us a glimpse into the many sessions of teaching given by our
Lord to his Apostles.
It also suggests that the greatest moment of Christ’s teaching in his public
ministry was the Last Supper, something we would not have gathered from the
other Gospels. But there is this also to be said, that chapter 17 gives us the
longest prayer in the New Testament. Now, not only is it the longest prayer —
spanning 26 verses — but it is, of course, the longest prayer of Christ
himself. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) present us with some of
Christ’s prayers. There is the Lord’s Prayer, given in two forms (Matthew
6:9‑13 and Luke 11:2‑4), which we may presume reflects Christ’s own prayer.
There is his prayer of thanks to his Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, in
Matthew 11:25, 26. There is the prayer of Christ in Gethsemane (Matthew
26:36‑44; Mark 14:22‑40; Luke 22:39‑46), which is probably referred to in
Hebrews 5:7. There are Christ’s prayers on the Cross (Matthew 27:46; Mark
15:34, including his use of Psalm 22:1; and Luke 23:34 and 46). But the
greatest and longest prayer of Christ in the New Testament is that given to us
in Chapter 17 of St John, and our Gospel passage today is its beginning. Our
Lord prays from the heart to his heavenly Father, and in the hearing of his
disciples. They hear the words, and it must have sunk deeply into the memory of
John, the author of the Gospel. He was the “disciple Jesus loved.” In the eyes
of John, the soul of Christ overflowed with beauty, and his words to his
heavenly Father were unforgettable. They revealed the Father and they revealed
the Son, and they were the fruit of the Spirit, for Christ prayed in the
Spirit. If we wish to enter the heart of Christ, we could not do better than
enter into his prayer.
To begin with, the Father is immediately accessible. Jesus addresses him simply
and directly. So should we, but in company with Jesus, whose Father he is. In
this respect, it reflects the Lord’s Prayer in the Synoptic Gospels, and we
remember how our Lord instructed his disciples to pray to the Father simply, and
not as the pagans do. Now, let us ask ourselves, how often do we address the
Father? The Father! Our Father in heaven is the Origin, the Ultimate, the
Final, the Absolute. The Son — his equal in all things — comes forth from him
as generated by him. We cannot go further than the Father. In reaching him, we
reach the Beginning and the End — and he is a Father to us! We may address him,
as St Paul says, as Abba, Dear Father! Let us learn to speak simply, reverently,
gratefully, lovingly to our Father in heaven in imitation of Jesus Christ our
Teacher. Our Lord speaks of himself as the Father’s Son, and his first petition
in this great prayer is that the Father may glorify him in order that he may
glorify the Father. Christ’s principal yearning was that the Father be
glorified. This too reflects the Lord’s Prayer, in which we pray to our
heavenly Father, asking as our first petition that his name be hallowed. Our
Father in heaven, may your name be hallowed! May you be glorified! Let us pray
that our lives may be such that God will be honoured and glorified. But what
also is notable in Christ’s prayer to his Father is his intercession for his
disciples. He prays for them, and we can take it that in praying for those
immediately around him he included us. We read in the Gospel account of the
temptations of Christ at the threshold of his public ministry that Satan showed
him the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. How easy it would have been,
then, for Christ to have seen each of us! How easy to have prayed for each of
us. “They were yours, and you gave them to me.” He prays for each of us, using
these words. We belong to the Father, and we belong to Christ his Son. In
praying for his disciples, Christ prays as our High Priest, both then and now.
Let us take our stand by the side of Jesus Christ. He is now at the right hand
of his heavenly Father continuing the prayer which he prayed at the Last
Supper. He is our High Priest now, and we belong to him. He wishes to see
himself glorified in us: “All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And
glory has come to me through them.” We each of us has the grand vocation of
giving glory to the Father and to Christ by being his faithful disciples. Let
us so live that Christ will be proud of us when we appear before him — proud of
us, and not ashamed
There are two ways, then, of reading Nature—as a machine and as a work. If we
come to it with the assumption that it is a creation, we shall study it with
awe; if assuming it to be a system, with mere curiosity.
Monday of the seventh week
in Eastertide A (after the Ascension)
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today:
Acts 19:1-8; Psalm 68:2-7ab; John 16:29-33
The disciples said to
Jesus, Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now
we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to
have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from
God. You believe at last! Jesus answered.
But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to
his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my
Father is with me. I have told you these things, so that in me you may
have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have
overcome the world.(John 16:29-33)
Faith
The leaders of the Jews once said to Jesus that they had Abraham for their
father and this was their great boast. But great as Abraham was there was much
that he did not see and could not see. He was granted the promise that through
him all the nations would be blessed, but he could not see in what precise sense
this would be so. So too with Isaac, Jacob and the twelve patriarchs. So too
with Moses and the prophets. They were masters in Israel but their light was
limited. Moses pointed to the Prophet who was to come, but he did not see the
precise contours of this great prediction.
Moreover, he too failed in faith and obedience on one great occasion and for
this reason was denied entry into the Promised Land. Great as the prophets
were, none of them was Master and Teacher without qualification. By this I mean
that each of them was limited as a light to the people. All this is to say
that, as the beginning of the Letter to the Hebrews states, in previous times
God spoke to the fathers fragmentarily and in many ways through the prophets.
But now at last it was different. He has sent us his very own Son to speak for
him. We now have the one who gives us the full revelation of God, one who is
the Master and Teacher of the things of God and of his plan in an absolute
sense. That is to say that Jesus is Master and Teacher with whom no other
master and teacher can compare. He is absolutely and without any qualification
Master and Teacher. He is the Light, the Light of the world to whom there is no
equal. All this is contained in the words of the disciples in our gospel
passage today in which they say to our Lord, “Now you are speaking clearly and
without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you
do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that
you came from God.” To what other prophet or patriarch was it said that he knew
all things? This is the testimony of Christ’s disciples and it is the testimony
of the Church through the ages till the end. Jesus Christ is the Guide of man.
He knows all things.
The critical issue for every man and woman is faith. The work of life is to
believe in Jesus. That is the work God gives to man and man’s prospects depend
on his doing this work. In chapter 6 of the Gospel of St John, Jesus is asked
what the work of God is. The work of God, our Lord replies, is to believe in
the One whom he has sent. Hence the question our Lord asks in our Gospel
passage today is the question he asks of us at every point of our life: “Do you
believe at last?” (John 16:29‑33). As our
faith deepens and overcomes obstacles, the same question — or perhaps the same
commendation and encouragement — is made: “Do you believe at last!” It is faith
in Christ which opens the door to the Light of God, for that Light is the person
of Jesus Christ and his word. For the Christian, the results of the presence or
absence of the Light of God in the course of history are exemplified in the
history of thought and philosophy. Consider the brilliance of Socrates, Plato
and especially Aristotle centuries before Christ. But look at the limits of
their conceptions of God! Consider some (not all, of course) of the greatest
philosophers of the last four centuries or so who have chosen to construct their
systems ignoring the Light that is Christ, and observe the results of their
efforts. Their constructs are so often profoundly flawed, denying the divine,
denying free will, denying the foundations of morality and so many basic facts
essential to human life. A study of the history of philosophy helps us
appreciate, I believe, the grandeur of Christ the Guide of man. So does a study
of the history of religion. As the disciples say to Jesus in our Gospel passage
today, Christ knows all things, and the door to his Light is faith in him. “Do
you believe at last,” Christ responds to his disciples. He says the same to all
of his disciples, including each of us. He also asks it of the world, for the
vocation of the world is to believe in Jesus. As our Lord said to his disciples
before he ascended into heaven, Go to the whole world and make disciples of all
the nations. The one who believes will be saved. The one who wilfully refuses
will be condemned.
Jesus
Christ is the Master and Teacher of the nations. He knows all things. He is
risen from the dead and is the living Light of the world, the world’s only
absolute Light. The work of life for every man is to believe in him and every
disciple has the mission to bring this Light to others so that all may believe
and be saved. Let us then begin the work! So then, now I begin!
Sanctimony is to sanctity what 'piosity' is to piety: its caricature.
(The Way, no.408)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today:
Acts 20:17-27; Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21; John 17:1-11a
After Jesus said this,
he raised his eyes to heaven and prayed: Father, the time has come.
Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him
authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those
you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought
you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now,
Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you
before the world began. I have revealed you to those whom you gave me
out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have
obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes
from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.
They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that
you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for
those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and
all you have is mine. And I have been glorified in them. I will remain
in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am
coming to you.
(John 17:1-11a)
Jesus
Christ
I remember speaking a few decades ago to a clergyman and he said that in his
view, part of Christ’s Passion was his fear of complete extinction. Christ, he
thought, felt crushed during his Agony in the Garden in part because he feared
that death would entirely swallow him up into nothingness. He
would not survive in any sense the death that was about to envelop him. The
person I am referring to could not see how death alone could be so immense a
challenge for Christ if he knew he would rise again. Well now, to begin with,
if we understand the death of Christ as his being burdened with the sins of the
entire world, then his Passion and Death must have been like no other in the
scale of its burden. If suffering and death came upon our first parents simply
because of their sin of disobedience, what must that suffering and death be like
which expiates for the sins of the entire human race? Such suffering is
incalculable and can scarcely be imagined. So if we measure the sufferings of
Christ, not by the sufferings of any other crucified criminal (such as the two
with whom he was crucified) but by that which is due to the sins of the entire
world, it is not hard to see how immeasurably revolting must have been the
prospect of his Passion to Christ’s perfect and all‑holy human nature. It must
have appalled him to the depths. No, it is not necessary to posit the strange
hypothesis of Christ’s fearing extinction in order to understand that his
sufferings were without compare. Such an hypothesis is not merely dubious. It
is indeed utterly groundless. Christ repeatedly informs his disciples, and his
enemies too, that he will rise from the dead in his body. In our Gospel passage
today, our Lord prays to his heavenly Father in the presence of his disciples
saying, “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world,
and I am coming to you.” Jesus is facing a most terrible ordeal, but he is full
of trust, a confidence that lacks the slightest doubt as to the outcome. He is
coming to the Father, and the door he is to pass through is Calvary.
Christ’s great prayer during his Last Supper tells us more. His death for the
sins of mankind is not just his path to the Father. It is his path to glory.
“Father,” he said, “the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may
glorify you.” Time and again as his time approached he told his disciples that
he would suffer and die and as a result, enter his glory. On the day he rose
from the dead, he met the two disciples on their way to Emmaus and gently
castigated them for not understanding the message of the prophets that the
Messiah had to suffer, and in this way enter his glory. At the Transfiguration
on the Mount not long before his Passion he was shown in glory. It was a
foretaste of the glory that would he his as a result of the passing over that he
would accomplish in Jerusalem. But there is more about this glory in our Lord’s
prayer here. It is the glory he had with the Father before the world began.
“And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you
before the world began” (John 17:1‑11a). It
is clear that Jesus Christ told his disciples that before the world began he had
shared with the Father the glory of God. God’s glory from all eternity had been
his glory. St John tells us that in one way or another, our Lord claimed to be
God before his very enemies. Before Abraham ever was, he calmly told them, I
am. It is little wonder then that when our Lord appeared to the Apostles a week
after his resurrection, this time with the doubting Thomas there, Christ
elicited from him his adoring profession of faith, My Lord and my God! The Man
in front of them was the eternal God who had put aside the glory proper to him
and had, as St Paul puts it, become as men are and humbler still, even to death
on a cross. With his Ascension, his name would be above every other name, and
as Peter would state before the Sanhedrin, there is no other name by which men
can be saved. All that the Father has is his, Christ prays, just as all that he
has is the Father’s. On the night before he died, Christ reveals to his
disciples the astounding nature of his person and his glory as eternal Son of
the eternal Father.
Let
us bear in mind what our Lord says is the path to eternal life. “Now this is
eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
you have sent.” We ought never regard the person of Jesus Christ as just a
matter of opinion which we may accept or dismiss as we might any other issue.
Too much is at stake. Time and again in the Gospels, faith in Jesus and his
word is the hinge from which our eternity hangs. We are called to know him,
love him and serve him in this life so as to see and enjoy him forever in
heaven. So then, let us take up the work.
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today:
Acts 20:28-38; Psalm 68:29-30, 33-36ab; John 17:11b-19
Jesus raised his eyes to
heaven and said, Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your
name, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I
kept those you had given me true to your name. I have watched over them
and none has been lost except the one who chose to be lost and this was
so that Scripture would be fulfilled. I am coming to you now, but I say
these things while I am still in the world, to share my joy with them
to the full. I have given them your word and the world has hated them,
for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My
prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect
them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of
it. Consecrate them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me
into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I consecrate
myself, that they too may be truly consecrated in truth.(John 17:11b-19)
Tragedy
In the long history of world literature, consisting of (we might say) poetry,
the play and the novel, the human story is of unending interest. Especially
gripping is the tragedy. The central personality has before him prospects of
prosperity and flourish and also the possibility of decline and destruction.
Take
MacBeth, Hamlet or Lear. Whatever be the tale, the tragic choice and end of the
central protagonist is in one or other of its facets, a mirror for every reader
and viewer. This can happen to me, the viewer may observe, and as the saying
puts it, but for the grace of God there go I. The best tragedies set before the
reader the drama of personal freedom and of how, in the protagonist, this
freedom was abused or poorly used. In the Gospels we have various examples of
what is tragic, and perhaps the greatest example is that of Judas who had been
granted wonderful opportunities in his vocation to friendship with Christ, but
who fell away. In our Gospel passage today (John
17:11b‑19) our Lord’s Prayer to his Father during the Last Supper
continues and in it he prays for his disciples. He has watched over them and
preserved them, and yet by his own choice Judas has been lost. The tragedy of
Judas and his choice exemplifies the mystery of human freedom and it is a grand
lesson for every one of Christ’s disciples. St Teresa of Avila, doctor of the
Church and outstanding visionary, was once granted by God a vision of her place
in hell were she not faithful. All of us can choose and let none of us say that
we are incapable of a tragic end. And so our Lord prays for those who belong to
him. They have been given to him by the Father and he prays that they will be
united, that they will be one. “Holy Father, keep those you have given me true
to your name, so that they may be one as we are one.” Looking well into the
future Christ clearly sees what is ahead for his Church, the bearer of the
Kingdom. He sees across the centuries the divisions that will wrack the Church
he has founded on his Apostles. There will be so many tragedies springing from
personal choice.
Not only is there the factor of personal choice in failing to be true to God and
Christ, but there are also threats coming from without. There is the world and
there is the Evil One. “I have given them your word and the world has hated
them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.” Christ
himself encountered harsh opposition from the world — from the world considered
separately from Satan — and so too will his disciples. The world will not only
hate Christ’s disciples as it did Christ, but it will strive to entice and
deceive them. Christ prays for them as he sends them into the world to preach
the Gospel to all the nations and invite all to believe and so to be saved. He
prays also that they will be kept from the Evil One. Satan had already gained a
signal victory by gaining full mastery over one of the Twelve, and as our Lord
said, this had been by Judas’s own choice. Judas had allowed the Devil to enter
him. We read in the sixth chapter of St John’s gospel that at the end of his
discourse on the Eucharist when many of his disciples left him our Lord asked
the Twelve if they too were going to go. There was to be no turning back from
his doctrine. Simon Peter told him that they would never leave him, and our
Lord replied that he had chosen them but that one of them was a devil. In his
prayer during the Last Supper, with Judas already gone, our Lord prays that his
disciples will be kept from the Evil One. And so there we have the great
factors that can prompt a disciple of Christ to defect and fall away from him.
There is, broadly, a personal choice or preference coming from within that is
contrary to the call of Christ. There is the influence of the world. Thirdly
there is the influence of Satan the Evil One. The Church has traditionally
called these tragic factors the flesh, the world and the devil. They must be
vigilantly watched and utterly renounced. They can ensnare and lead a person
knowingly to renounce Christ. This is the ultimate tragedy and it is a
possibility for every person who fails to be vigilant.
Christ
prays that we be consecrated in the truth. Let us plant ourselves in his
company and resolve to abide in his word. His word and his grace must be our
life. At the end of his masterly Spiritual Exercises St Ignatius of
Loyola sets before us a great prayer of offering. In it we are invited to offer
Christ everything we have. We ask for two things, his love and his grace. Let
us be alive to the snares that can entangle us and lead us to fall. With Christ
all will be well, so let us never separate ourselves from him.
Prayers this week: Men of
Galilee, why do you stand looking in the sky? The Lord will
return, just as you have seen him ascend, alleluia.
(Acts 1:11) God
our Father, make us joyful in the ascension of your Son Jesus Christ.
May we follow him into the new creation, for his ascension is our glory
and our hope. We ask this through our
Lord Jesus Christ
your Son in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today:
Acts 22:30; 23:6-11; Psalm 16:1-2a and 5, 7-11; John 17:20-26
Lifting up his eyes to
heaven, Jesus prayed saying: My prayer is not for them alone. I pray
also for those who will believe in me through their word, that all of
them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May
they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as
we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete
unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even
as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with
me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because
you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though
the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have
sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you
known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I
myself may be in them.(John 17:20-26)
Unity
For the non‑Muslim it is a striking discovery to learn of the profound and
enduring divisions within Islam. In fact there are numerous divisions and many
of them have dated from the first century or two after Mohamed’s death. On the
other hand, for the non‑Christian observer I suspect that the most notable
feature of the phenomenon of Christianity is its disunity. It presents to the
world a spectacle of countless divisions. There
is the great body of the Catholic Church led by the Pope who is the most
prominent religious figure in the world. But separated from the Catholic Church
are the Orthodox churches and then the numerous communions of the Protestant
Reformation and the almost countless Christian bodies deriving from them. If,
say, Islam wishes to enter into dialogue with Christianity it would naturally
approach the Holy See, but it well understands that there are numerous other
Christian bodies that will be outside this dialogue. Islam itself labours under
this same difficulty of disunity for it too has no great figure on their side in
any way comparable to the Pope. My point here, though, is the disunity of
Christians. This has always been a major problem and we see plenty of
references to it in the inspired writings of the New Testament itself. The
inspired authors warn of divisions that are already existing, and they warn of
divisions to come. The first few centuries of the early Church give plenty of
testimony to this recurring fault line and, once the persecution of the Church
ceased in the fourth century, the divisions broke out with a vengeance. The
issue was Christian doctrine. The person of Christ himself was the issue, and
we see an example of this in the powerful Arianism that wracked and misled so
many during the fourth century and persisted outside the Church long after the
Councils of Nicea and Constantinople. Now, did Christ foresee this disunity?
Indeed he did and we see his preoccupation with the Church’s unity in his prayer
to his Father during the Last Supper.
In view of the hard facts of history and the sad fact of division among Christ’s
disciples, what was the plan of God as it is revealed in the prayer of Christ?
Christ prayed for all those who would believe in him through the word of the
Apostles, and of course their word is the word of the Church built on them. He
prayed for us, for all those who have gone before us and for all those who will
come after. He prayed that we would be one. “I pray also for those who will
believe in me through their word, that all of them may be one, Father, just as
you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may
believe that you have sent me.” It is the will of God that all of Christ’s
disciples be one in him. Christian disunity, the division of the Church that
Christ founded into numerous separate bodies, is not according to the plan of
God. The Church he founded is that of the Apostles with Peter in their midst
and at their head, and it is clear from the Gospels and from the prayer of
Christ at the Last Supper that it is his will that all Christians be united in
that Church. The Church of Christ subsists in that Church and all Christians
ought consider this fact and ask how is the unity of all who are in Christ to be
achieved. How? It will be effected by the power and the grace of God, and by
our being open to this grace. We can rely on the prayer of Christ in which he
prayed for this unity and which he continues to pray as our High Priest at the
right hand of his heavenly Father. But let us be clear about the unity planned
by God for his Church. Christ prays that “that they may be one as we are one: I
in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world
know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me”
(John 17:20‑26). Christ intends that there be
a “complete unity” among his disciples, one fold under one Shepherd truly united
in love for Christ and his word. All Christians are called to work for and
build up Christian unity. The result will be that the world will believe.
It is often stressed that the Christian is called to bear witness to Christ to
the world. But it can be forgotten that the effectiveness of this witness
depends — as Christ himself prayed — on the unity of Christ’s disciples. Christ
prayed that all would be one, and thus the world would believe. As we think of
Christ’s command to go to the whole world and make disciples of all the nations,
let us also think of his command that his disciples be united in one fold and
under one shepherd.
Many false apostles, in spite of themselves, do good to the
crowd, to the people, through the very power of the doctrine of Jesus
that they preach but do not practise.
But this good does not make up the incalculable harm that they do by
killing the souls of leaders, of apostles, who turn away in disgust
from those who don't practise what they preach.
That is why, if such men and women are not willing to live a consistent
life, they should never offer themselves as front-line leaders.
(The Way, no.411)
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today:
Acts 25:13b-21; Psalm 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20ab; John 21:15-19
After
Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples and eaten breakfast with
them, he said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you truly love me
more than these others? Yes, Lord, he said, you know that I love you.
Jesus said, Feed my lambs. Again Jesus said, Simon son of John, do you
truly love me? He answered, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus
said, Take care of my sheep. The third time he said to him, Simon son
of John, do you love me? Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the
third time, Do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things; you
know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth,
when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted;
but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else
will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Jesus said
this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.
Then he said to him, Follow me! (John
21:15-19)
Simon
Peter
Our Gospel passage today is taken from the twenty first chapter of St John’s
Gospel, and there is something special about the position of this chapter in the
structure of the Gospel. The previous chapter, chapter twenty, would appear to
have been the original conclusion to the Gospel because the final two verses of
that chapter constitute an evident conclusion, summing up the purpose of the
Gospel. But then a new chapter begins almost as an addition or afterthought and
this time it is primarily about Jesus and Simon Peter, with John the beloved
disciple getting a mention.
The chapter appears to be a flashback that is meant to throw light especially on
the subsequent role of Simon Peter in the early Church. In its way it is a
special chapter pointing beyond the resurrection to the life of the Church. So
then, what do we see of Christ and Peter in this final chapter? It contains
lessons for the whole Church, founded as it is upon the Apostles with Peter in
their midst and at their head. To begin with, we see the evident and altogether
special bond between Simon Peter and Christ. Throughout the Gospel, the author
refers to John the brother of James as the beloved disciple, the one Jesus
loved. That is to say, Christ showed special affection for John. But nowhere
does John presume to describe himself as the one who loved Jesus — as if he was
one who loved Jesus more than did the others. Rather, John was filled with the
experience of the love of Jesus for him. What our chapter today suggests is
that it was Peter who loved Jesus more than the others, and that Jesus expected
this of him because of his role in the Church. When the voice of Christ was
heard from the shore, John recognized that it was the Lord, and said so. At
this it was Simon Peter who jumped into the water and made his way ahead of the
others in order to meet the risen Jesus. It suggests that he led them in his
love for Jesus.
On the shore, it was precisely this that Christ asked to be assured of. He said
to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than do these
others? He asked the question three times, perhaps gently alluding to Simon’s
threefold denial during the Passion. Simon assured Christ, this time more
humbly, that yes, “Lord, you know that I love you” (John
21:15‑19). Simon understood that Christ was asking and expecting
from him an exceptional personal love, and that he was giving him an exceptional
mission among the Apostles and within the Church. He was to feed Christ’s
lambs, and look after his sheep. He was to be the chief shepherd of Christ’s
flock and his entire inspiration had to be a personal love for the Good Shepherd
who had laid down his life for the sheep. Three times Christ asked his
question, and three times with increasing distress Simon assured Christ that he
loved him. Peter would never have forgotten this pivotal conversation. In
another of the Gospels, Simon is appointed by Christ to be the rock of his
Church. Simon is Peter the rock and on this rock Christ would build his
Church. He would give to Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, empowering
him to bind and loose with heaven’s authority. In the Gospel of St John we are
provided with a different scene. This time the risen Jesus speaks to Simon and
asks him to feed and care for his Church, intimating to him that his life of
love for Jesus would be crowned with martyrdom. This role within the Church to
which Christ appointed Peter is handed on to Peter’s successors generation after
generation. The Pope is the visible rock of the Church, with responsibility to
feed and tend the flock of Christ. All the successors of the Apostles are to
serve Christ as Shepherds of the Church in communion with him. All are to love
Christ just as the successor of Peter is to love Christ, and Peter and his
successors are to lead the way.
Let us place ourselves on the shore of our Gospel scene and hear the words of
Christ addressed to Simon Peter. In a different sense Christ addresses those
words to every member of his Church. He says to each one of us, addressing each
of us by name, do you love me? Yes? Well, tend my sheep. He wants us to serve
our brothers and sisters with true Christian love, bringing them more than
anything the love and knowledge of Christ. Let us take up our vocation in
earnest
May
the fire of your love not be a will-o'-the-wisp: an illusion, a dying
fire, that neither sets ablaze what it touches nor gives off any heat.
(The Way, no.412)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today: Acts 28:16-20, 30-31; Psalm 11:4, 5 and 7; John 21:20-25
Peter
turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them.
(This was the one who had leaned back on Jesus’ chest at the supper and
had said, Lord, who is going to betray you?) When Peter saw him, he
asked, Lord, what about him? Jesus answered, If I want him to remain
alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. Because
of this, the rumour spread among the brothers that this disciple would
not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, If
I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? This is
the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We
know that his testimony is true. There are many other things that Jesus
did. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the
whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.(John 21:20-25)
The
beloved disciple
Our Gospel passage today is from a chapter that sets forth the relationship
between Jesus and Peter. Jesus has appointed Peter to look after his sheep. He
is to be the chief shepherd of Christ’s flock and will bear witness to Jesus
until death, a death that Jesus hints will be martyrdom. He
requires of Peter that he love him more than the others and the chapter
obliquely suggests that indeed Peter does. Our passage today
(John 21:20‑25), ending the chapter, also
refers to John the author of the Gospel, who throughout the account is described
as “the disciple Jesus loved.” It seems to have been manifest to the other
disciples that Christ showed the young John special marks of friendship and
understanding. From the fact that this is a kind of title for John in the
Gospel, one suspects that this was known also in the infant Church. After all,
at Calvary Christ entrusted his mother to John, and John to his mother and this
too would have been widely known. But we read in the Gospels that Christ
enjoyed special friendships with others too. For instance, we are told that
Jesus “loved” Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary. We also remember how the
rich young man, a man of excellent qualities, approached Jesus to ask him what
he must do to gain eternal life. We are told that Jesus looked on him and
“loved him.” How tragic it was that the young man walked away from Christ’s
invitation! The reference in our passage today to “the disciple Jesus loved”
brings us to the thought of the love of Christ. Christ loves all and he gave
his life for all. St Paul writes with passion in one of his Letters that
“Christ loved me and gave himself up for me!” The way our Lord shows his love
for us varies from person to person, but there is nothing more certain than that
he does indeed love each of us. Consider what must have been the intimacy of
friendship of Christ for Mary his holy mother and for his foster-father Joseph.
But the Gospels do not describe at length the manifestations of this
friendship. So too with us. We can be utterly assured that whatever life
brings, the love of Christ for us is certain, whatever be its particular
manifestations. Christ’s love for us is the rock of life.
The foundation of the Christian life and indeed of any life is the love of God
for us. It is the principle and the foundation. On this basis, on the basis of
God’s special choice of each of us in Christ, we build the structure of our
life’s path. Let us ask ourselves as we think of “the disciple Jesus loved”,
what is the foundation of my life? On what do I rely and on what do I build my
plans and my hopes? I am following a path or dealing with what life is
bringing. Well, what is the basis of all this? The basis ought be the love of
God for me, and that love is revealed in Christ the Son of God and my Redeemer.
A couple marry and resolve to make the basis of their lives the love they have
for one another and their promise of mutual fidelity. On that foundation they
build their lives. The ultimate foundation of the life of the Christian is the
love Christ has for him or her. The foundation of John’s life became the love
Christ had for him and it is shown in his chosen title, “the disciple Jesus
loved.” St Paul thought of his own life in the same terms. Christ loved me and
gave himself up for me, he wrote. We, each of us, can do the same. We do not
have to worry about the good or special fortune of this or that other disciple
of Christ. We do not have to concern ourselves with the fact that this or that
other disciple seems to have received more special and obvious marks of
consideration from God. God loves me! All I need do, then, is follow Christ.
We are told in our Gospel passage that, after being given his mission in life,
Peter asked our Lord, what about him — the “beloved disciple”? Our Lord told
him, in effect, to mind his own business. Leave that to me, the Lord. You, you
just follow me! That is all we need to do. So cast aside all regrets and
bitterness if there be any, put away all comparisons with others and their lot,
and be content in the love of Christ which is most surely yours, and day by day
follow him.
The only thing which ultimately we need in life is the love of Christ and his
grace to respond to it. All else we should strive to be detached from. If
other good things come our way then we ought be grateful, but if they do not and
if indeed things are taken from us, well, let God so dispose. But the one thing
we do have and which we must have is his personal love for us. It is this which
we must grow in and we will grow in it if we follow Jesus, day by day. Let us
pray for the grace to do this. Give me your love and your grace, O Lord!
The
non serviam of Satan has been too fruitful. Don't you feel the generous
urge to express your daily desire for prayer and work with a serviam —
l will serve you, I will be faithful! — which will surpass in
fruitfulness that cry of revolt?
(The Way, no.413)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Pentecost Vigil Mass
Prayers for Vigil Mass: The love
of God has been poured into our hearts by his Spirit living in us, alleluia
(Romans 5:5; 8:11)
Almighty and ever-living God, you fulfilled the Easter promise by sending us
your Holy Spirit. May that Spirit unite the races and nations on earth to
proclaim your glory. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, one God.
On the last and greatest day of the
Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, If anyone is thirsty, let him come
to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of
living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those
who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not
been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7: 37-39)
The
divine Spirit
Let us imagine the scene of our Gospel. St John takes us back to an event in
which our Lord promises the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who believe in
him. It is the Feast of Tabernacles, and Jesus has secretly come up from
Galilee to Jerusalem (John 7: 10). Then
suddenly he began teaching publicly in the Temple, and his doctrine, his mastery
of the Scriptures and mode of address amazed all (7:15). Despite the fact that
he was virtually a wanted man (7:25), he spoke with the utmost boldness in the
Temple (7:26). In the Chapter, there are two occasions when our Lord is
described as standing in the Temple and crying out (ekraxen), indicating
the power and unflinching assurance with which he announced his message. The
first is in chapter 7: 28, when he states before all that he was sent by the
Father, whom they did not know. He was speaking in the tradition of the great
prophets, with his own authority as one coming from God. While the leaders
tried to take him, they could not, and “many believed in him” (7:31). He knew
his death was looming on the horizon. Then comes the second occasion when he
stood in the Temple and cried out. It was “on the last day, the great day of
the Feast,” and “Jesus stood and cried out (ekraxen)” before the people.
It indicates the solemnity of his message and the authority he had to proclaim
it. His message is that he is the one who can slake mankind’s thirst. If a
person is thirsty, let him come to him and drink. If a person believes in
Jesus, the fountain from which he will drink will rise within him
(John 7:37-39). St John tells us that this did
not refer to what Jesus would do there and then. It referred to a future Gift,
foreshadowed by the many gifts of healing and light which Christ bestowed on
people then. The future Gift would come when he was glorified, and which would
begin to be given on the day our Lord rose from the dead. On the evening of
that day he appeared to his disciples and conferred on them the Gift of the Holy
Spirit.
Our Lord promised this Gift of living water, and did so publicly. Let us
contemplate what must have been the love and longing in our Lord’s heart in
respect to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not just some divine force or
energy, the power with which God gets things done. He is a distinct Person,
every bit a Person as is the Son or the Father. He is a divine Self who thinks
and wills and works as the God he is. Just as the Son is other than the Father
as a Person, so, as a Person, the Holy Spirit is other than both the Son and the
Father. Inasmuch as the Son is the same being as the Father, he is absolutely
equal to the Father. He is the one God, as much as the Father is the one God.
Inasmuch as he is generated eternally by the Father, as Son he looks to the
Father with love, reverence and obedience. Thus he referred to the Father as
greater than he. So too the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as he proceeds from the
Father and the Son as their divine Spirit, looks to both Father and Son with
love, reverence and a divine spirit of service. His mission is to take what is
given to him from the Father and the Son and bring it to its full flourishing.
He teaches the disciples what the Son has revealed to them, reminding them of
all he has said. He guides them to all truth. Revealingly, our Lord tells us
more of the dynamic, as we might express it, within the Holy Trinity. The Holy
Spirit will not speak of himself. Whatever he hears, that is what he shall
speak. He will glorify the Son, for he will receive from the Son and show it to
the disciples. The Son looks to the Father and reveals what he has received
from the Father, abasing himself before the Father to whom he is equal in
being. So too the Holy Spirit looks to the Father and the Son, abasing himself
before the Father and the Son to whom he is entirely equal in being. He makes
known the Son and teaches what the Father has revealed in and through the Son.
Humility characterises the life of God, and the love of each Person for the
other in the Holy Trinity is humble and serving. The love of Jesus for the Holy
Spirit, the Gift he refers to in our passage today, is ineffable and
indescribable, as is the love of the Holy Spirit for Jesus and the Father.
Let us hear in our hearts the words of Jesus Christ uttered with such power and
solemnity in the Temple on the great day of the Feast. He is referring to the
greatest Gift he will give, the gift of the Spirit whom he so loves. The holy
Spirit, so mighty and powerful, is humble and serving of the Son who gives to
him what he is to announce to the disciples. The Spirit is self-effacing before
the Father and the Son, and serves them with infinite love. He glorifies the
Son and makes possible the fruit issuing from his mission. The divine Spirit is
loveable beyond all possible description. Let us learn to love the Holy Spirit,
then, as does the Father and the Son.
Prayers
this week: The Spirit
of the Lord fills the whole world. It holds all things together and
knows every word spoken by man, alleluia.
(Wisdom 1:7)
God our Father, let the Spirit you sent on your Church to begin
the teaching of the Gospel continue to work in the world through the
hearts of all who believe. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ
your
Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
On the
evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were
together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and
stood among them and said, Peace be with you! After he said this, he
showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they
saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, Peace be with you! As the Father has
sent me, I am sending you. And with that he breathed on them and said,
Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are
forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.(John 20:19-23)
The
Spirit and the Church
I remember watching a television series on the life of Christ and it was
interspersed with commentary by various New Testament and patristic scholars. I
was struck by how many regarded Jesus as beginning a “movement.” That is how
they referred to the early Church.
It was a mere movement. I suppose those who thought of the work of Christ in
this way considered the plethora of Christian bodies that characterize
Christianity as the natural upshot of what must have been no more than an early
“movement” emanating from the work of Jesus Christ. It was a movement of faith
and ideas, and various individuals struck out in different directions from the
original impulse according as they felt called. But that is all wrong. Christ
founded his Church. It had a definite structure. It was a new beginning of the
people of God, building on the old. It had its twelve patriarchs, who were the
Twelve Apostles referred to in the Gospels as the Twelve. One among them was
appointed by Christ to be the visible rock of the entire edifice and to whom he
gave the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. He had the authority to bind and to
loose and what he determined would be ratified in heaven. That person was
Simon, whom Christ renamed Peter, the Rock. The Twelve together were the
foundation stones. Christ had said he would build his Church and the gates of
Hell would not prevail against it. Well now, when did Christ’s Church as such
come into being? When was it born? During his public ministry Christ had around
him the Twelve whom repeatedly he sent out to preach and to work miracles, and
so to prepare for his coming. He had various disciples, many of whom were also
sent out. Was the Church as such yet born? No. It was being formed but it
needed a decisive element to give it life and power, and that was the promised
Spirit. Once they had received the Spirit Christ’s disciples would be in him
and he in them. He would be their head and they would be his members sharing in
his life, and that, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Today we celebrate the feast of Pentecost. It is the day we celebrate Christ’s
gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church, bringing her to birth. St Luke in his
Acts of the Apostles, informs us that Christ directed his disciples not to leave
Jerusalem but to await the promised Spirit. With this they would receive power
and they would witness to Jesus to the ends of the earth. That is to say,
things would begin then. All this happened at Pentecost. But in his Gospel,
John tells us something that Luke had not mentioned. He tells us that on rising
from the dead, Jesus told Mary Magdalene that he was ascending to his Father:
“go and find the brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your
Father..” (John 20:17). Then as we read in our passage today, that very evening
he gave to the Apostles (the Eleven) the gift of the Holy Spirit. It seems that
in John’s account, Christ ascended to the Father on the day he rose from the
dead and on that very day he returned to give a portion of the great gift to the
Eleven who would be the foundation. The great gift of the Holy Spirit came from
the Father and the Son, and with that gift to the Apostles the Church began to
be born, starting with the Eleven. In this gift Christ endowed his Apostles
with a share in his mission and in his divine power to forgive sins
(John 20:19‑23). It was the first instalment
of the Holy Spirit to the Church, given in the first instance to the foundation
stones. Soon, which is to say after our Lord’s final ascension to the Father
after being witnessed by many more of his disciples, there would be the full
gift of the Spirit given not only to the Apostles but to the entire infant
Church as well. At that the Church began to act with power. Its birth was
complete. The Apostles and the disciples with Mary the mother of Jesus in their
midst, came alive as a body led by their unseen Head. The Church began to
witness to the truth of Jesus with power and remarkable effect. Today we think
of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gift of the Church that came into being
as a result of the action of the Spirit. The Church is Christ’s creation, his
body. By means of his Church he is brought to the world, and all of this by the
power of the Holy Spirit.
Today we ought say with special devotion that part of the Creed in which the
Christian professes to believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the
communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. All of this
we think of when we think of Pentecost. From the Church we have received the
gift of the Spirit and that Spirit grows within us through the Church’s ministry
of the Word and the Sacraments. Let us then live fully in the Church and fully
in the Spirit, for in this way we shall live fully in Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no.731-741
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How pathetic — a 'man of God' who has fallen away! But, how much more
pathetic, a 'man of God' who is lukewarm and worldly!
(The Way, no.414)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prayers this week: Lord, be my
rock of safety, the stronghold that saves me. For the honour of your name, lead
me and guide me. (Psalm 30: 3-4)
God our Father, you have promised to remain for ever with those who do what is
just and right. Help us to live in your presence. We ask this through our Lord
Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and
ever.
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Jesus said, Do not think that I have
come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to
fulfil them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the
smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from
the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of
these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the
kingdom of heaven, but whoever practises and teaches these commands will be
called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your
righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you
will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said
to the people long ago, 'Do
not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you
that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again,
anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But
anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. Therefore,
if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother
has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go
and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Settle matters
quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are
still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge
may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you
the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. You have
heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who
looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is
better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be
thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw
it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole
body to go into hell. It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give
her a certificate of divorce.' But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife,
except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and
anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery. Again, you have heard
that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the
oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by
heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by
Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head,
for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your 'Yes' be
'Yes', and your 'No', 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
(Matthew 5: 17-37)
Lust
I remember when presenting a paper to my thesis supervisor years ago in one
university, I made mention of the fact that Newman described religion as being a
matter of authority and obedience. There is no true religion without the
recognition of God’s authority to command and our obeying his commands.
The supervisor was not impressed with this description. He insisted on love
being the essence of religion. Of course, love is of the essence of religion,
but it is too vague. Love means any number of things. What it needs is a test
to determine its real nature. A person can say that he is “in love,” when all
that is meant is that he is infatuated. Once the infatuation passes he regards
himself as no longer “in love.” Our Lord gave a test when it came to being “in
love” with him, and that test is obedience to his commands. “If you love me you
will keep my commands.” In that sense the religion of Jesus Christ is a matter
of recognizing his authority and obeying his commands. In our Gospel passage
today our Lord insists on obedience to the Law of God. “Anyone who breaks one
of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be
called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practises and teaches these
commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” But then he goes on to
expound on the extent of this obedience, and it must far exceed the
“righteousness” of the “Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.” These leaders
were distinguished in the popular mind for their obedience to the rules of
religion. They claimed to obey the Law in all its letters and all its strokes.
But our Lord charged them with observing a deformation of the Law, a rule of
life that stressed externals and appearances while leaving untouched a corrupted
heart. Our Lord warned that unless our righteousness exceeds a purely external
religion we shall never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Our righteousness, our
holiness must be above all a holiness of the heart. Our Lord gives many
instances of this, but I wish here to mention one of them. It is his mention of
lustful desires and thoughts.
Our Lord tells his hearers that anyone who looks at a person lustfully has
already committed a serious sin of lust in his heart, and that all must
ruthlessly avoid being led into such sins of the heart. Speaking with
characteristic Hebraic hyperbole, our Lord insists, “If your right eye causes
you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one
part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell”
(Matthew 5: 17-37). The fact is that much of
literature and drama, and much of modern media is pervaded by enticements to
lust. The aim is to capture attention and interest, and the simple means
employed is that of referring to and portraying lustful situations and images.
The one who wishes to be truly human in its best sense, let alone a disciple of
Christ, must avoid thoughts and desires that will debase the mind and heart in
this way. Such thoughts and desires, prompted by images from various sources,
can become like a dangerous drug. Lust can quickly become an addiction, and the
source of terrible interior sins — what our Lord calls adultery of the heart and
all its accompanying vices. God our Judge sees all. Let us reflect on the
seriousness of this, precisely because our culture has become so laden with
lustful gratification. Each person must be vigilant against this enemy. The
disciple of Christ has the vocation to put on the mind of Christ, and to make
the mind of Christ the criterion of what holds sway in society and of the models
of man it promotes. Our Lord’s command to avoid interior sins of lust at all
costs is part of the ninth commandment, which forbids all desire of one’s
neighbour’s spouse. It requires that one overcome carnal concupiscence in
thought and in desire, and that one purify the heart and practise temperance at
this level. It forbids cultivating thoughts and desires connected to actions
forbidden by the sixth commandment. The battle must be sustained to achieve a
life of chastity of mind and heart, purity of vision both exterior and interior,
and a discipline of the imagination and feelings.
In a word, the Christian religion requires purity of mind, heart and life.
Purity requires a modesty that protects the intimate centre of the person and
that expresses chastity. It guides how one looks at others and behaves towards
them in conformity with the dignity of persons and their proper communion with
others. It frees one from widespread eroticism and avoids those things which
foster morbid curiosity. Purity also requires a purification of the social
climate by means of a constant struggle against moral permissiveness which is
founded on an erroneous conception of human freedom. In a word, let us strive
to put on the mind of Christ in this, as in everything.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no.2514-2527 (Purity of heart - 9th commandment)
Liberalism
then is the mistake of subjecting to human judgment those revealed doctrines
which are in their nature beyond and independent of it, and of claiming to
determine on intrinsic grounds the truth and value of propositions which rest
for their reception simply on the external authority of the Divine Word.
JHN, from the Apologia pro Vita Sua (1865 Edition)
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today:
James 1:1-11; Psalm 119:67, 68, 71, 72, 75, 76; Mark 8:11-13
The Pharisees came
and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign
from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, Why does this generation demand
a sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it. Then he left
them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side.(Mark 8:11-13)
The
Pharisees’ request
One of the most striking and consoling teachings of our Lord in the Gospels is
his teaching on prayer. He tells us that we are to approach our heavenly Father
with confidence and persistence. Ask and you will receive, he assures us. Seek
and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. Then
he tells a parable of the widow who importunately persisted with her demands of
the unjust judge and gained her requests. We too are to be persistent with our
heavenly Father. St Alphonsus Ligouri writes that the reason why we do not
receive a lot more from God our Father is that we ask so little of him, and he
goes on to say that the prayer of petition is crucial for our very salvation.
But now, there are times in the Gospels when our Lord does not grant petitions.
For instance — and this is a petition presented to him by those who loved him
dearly — he was once approached by the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her
two sons in order to ask a favour of him. What do you want me to do for you? he
asked. Grant that these two sons of mine receive first places at your side in
your kingdom. Our Lord did not grant that request, even when they assured him —
and he confirmed their assurance — that they would share in his “baptism” of
suffering. But in fact, by his assurance he was granting them that greater
favour of suffering and dying with him in the future. On a later occasion,
during his Passion, our Lord was hauled before King Herod, and Herod had a
request too. He wanted our Lord to perform a sign. He wanted to be
entertained. All he received from our Lord was a profound silence. Our Lord
refused so much as to speak to him. So, for a variety of reasons, some requests
are unavailing. In our Gospel passage today (Mark
8:11‑13) we have something similarly awry. The Pharisees, no less,
come to him with a request. Their request was that he perform a sign — not as
entertainment, but as a test. What did they receive from our Lord? All they got
was a profound sigh, in effect telling them that their case was virtually
hopeless. Their request received a stony silence and, furthermore, our Lord’s
immediate departure from them.
All through the Gospels our Lord is shown to be granting requests. People come
to him with their afflictions and he heals them. A person comes telling him of
someone they love who has actually died. Our Lord gives back that person alive
and well. The blind see, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised. Our
Lord is revealing not just the power of God but the kindness of God and his
readiness to hear our prayers. As St John expresses it, the works of Christ are
signs. But it is also very clear that in all our petitions we must address them
to God recognizing that he is God. Anything you ask the Father in my name, our
Lord assures us, he will grant. Indeed, anything you ask me, I will do. But
our prayer must be true prayer, expressed with a lively sense of who we are and
of who God is, otherwise we are addressing an idol of our own creation and not
the living God who has revealed himself in Jesus. Now, granted this and on this
basis, we ought fill up our lives with earnest petitionary prayer. Consider all
that we need to pray for! Think of the members of our own families, our parents,
our brothers and sisters, our children. Think of their material and spiritual
welfare that needs so much the care and help of God. Think of all those we have
known who have died and who await our prayers that their period of purification
will be hastened and that they will be admitted into God’s presence in heaven.
Let us pray for the dead. There is no doubt that great numbers would be in
Purgatory — that stage of purification from the effects of sin prior to entrance
into the all‑holy presence of God for eternity. They depend on our prayers for
they are unable to merit, now that life for them has ended. Think of the vast
numbers who have no one to pray for them either in this life or in the next.
Prayer is our most powerful weapon because in it we are enlisting the aid of the
great God himself, Creator and Lord of all.
Let our Lord’s response to the request of the Pharisees remind us of prayer and
of our Lord’s teaching on prayer. How abundantly he answered the prayers of
those who approached him! But we must pray properly and approach Christ with the
right dispositions. Let us ask our Lord to teach us to pray so that our prayer
may serve his interests and those for whom he died. Our true prospects depend
on our prayer, and the one who prays for others serves mankind greatly.
Pay little heed to what the world calls victories or defeats. How often
the victor comes out defeated!
(The Way, no.415)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today:
James 1:12-18; Psalm 94:12-15, 18-19; Mark 8:14-21
The
disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had
with them in the boat. Be careful, Jesus warned them. Watch out for the
yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. They discussed this with one
another and said, It is because we have no bread. Aware of their
discussion, Jesus asked them: Why are you talking about having no
bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do
you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you
remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many
basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? Twelve, they replied. And when I
broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of
pieces did you pick up? They answered, Seven. He said to them, Do you
still not understand?(Mark 8:14-21)
Understanding
I have often thought that all too often we miss the liveliness and even the
humour that is present in the Gospels and the New Testament. In the Acts of the
Apostles, for instance, there are accounts of events that are quite funny and if
there were space here I would mention them. In the Gospels our Lord says things
which I am convinced would have evoked laughter from his listeners, with
himself smiling as he said them. On
one occasion he spoke of our endeavouring to take the splinter out of our
brother’s eye while all the time having a log of wood in our own! Our passage
today is taken from St Mark, and Mark too, I think, shows a sense of humour at
times. Consider our scene today. We are told that the disciples were with our
Lord in the boat, and that they had among them only one loaf of bread. Our Lord
saw them discussing this and gave the warning to beware of the yeast of the
Pharisees and of Herod. It was the Pharisees and the Herodians, of course, who
were endeavouring to oppose and undermine him and his teaching. The disciples,
though fully aware of the determined opposition enveloping our Lord from those
hostile quarters, may have taken our Lord to mean that they were not to obtain
bread from the Pharisees and the Herodians. Their bread, their yeast, would be
suspicious or no good. Who knows, but perhaps they thought our Lord was
implying that the bread that would come from that quarter would be not only bad
to eat, but deliberately tampered with so as to do our Lord and his disciples
harm. I like to think of our Lord gently laughing at their crass interpretation
of what he said, and then saying, “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do
you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but
fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?”
(Mark 8:14‑21) That is to say, I suggest that
his exasperation was corrective but good humoured. He loved his disciples,
understood their foibles and limitations, and gave himself patiently to their
formation.
Throughout the Gospels the disciples are shown to love our Lord, to be generous,
but to be very limited indeed in their understanding of him and his teaching.
Our Gospel passage today gives us one more instance of this. God himself, in
the person of our Lord the Son of God, was working on their formation and how
slow a work it was! Yet our Lord was lovingly patient, for all would change with
the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God would remind them of all that
he had told them and would lead them to the complete truth. This promise of the
coming and the work of the Spirit is not only a promise which at the Last Supper
our Lord made to his Apostles, but it is a promise made through them to the
Church which he built on them. The Church is Christ’s faithful united with the
successors of the Apostles. With all their limitations, now they have the Holy
Spirit. The Church is the abode of the Spirit of Christ who vivifies the Church
and reminds her of all that Christ said. Not only does he remind the faithful
of what Christ said, but he guides the Church to a fuller and deeper
understanding of Christ’s doctrine. Thus does Christian doctrine develop. That
development represents the Church’s increasing understanding of the teaching of
Christ under the guidance of the Spirit of God. And so in the course of the
Church’s history, the Ecumenical Councils clarify Christ’s teaching when it
comes under challenge and when it needs to be applied to this or that epoch.
Thus, too, we have the successors of St Peter intervening at times with solemn
definitions or more commonly with Encyclicals or other documents developing the
Church’s teaching on Christ, the Trinity, the natural law, sexual morality,
social justice and other facets of Christian teaching. All these modes whereby
the Church’s doctrine develops over the years and centuries are manifestations
of the action of the Spirit of Christ. He, the divine Spirit, is present and
active in the Church, leading the Church to remember and more fully understand
what Christ has revealed to her.
As we think of the disciples in the boat showing their slowness in
understanding, let us think of the divine Resource with which Christ has now
endowed his Church. That divine Resource is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of
Christ and the Father who bears witness to Christ and his teaching, helping the
Church and her children to remember and understand the revelation of Christ.
The Holy Spirit is the Gift of God par excellence and he is the possession of
the Church, just as the Church is his possession. Through the ministry of the
Church he is the possession of her faithful. Let us treasure this Gift that is
ours from our baptism and pray to the Spirit for light to know and live the
teaching of our risen Lord.
'Sine
me nihil potestis facere! Without me you can do nothing!' New light,
new splendour for my eyes, from that Eternal Light, the holy Gospel.
Should I be surprised at all 'my'
foolishness?
I will put Jesus into everything that
is mine. And then there will be no foolishness in my conduct: and, if I
would speak correctly, I should talk no more of what is 'mine', but of
what is 'ours'.
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today: Genesis 8:
6-13.20-22; Psalm 115; Mark 8:
22-26
They came to Bethsaida, and some people
brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.
He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had
spat on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, Do you see
anything? He looked up and said, I see people; they look like trees walking
around. Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were
opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him
home, saying, Don't go into the village. (Mark 8:
22-26)
God’s ways I knew a
very good Catholic family, one of the children of which caused a lot of worry to
the parents. This worry went on for years, and the parents could not be faulted
for their efforts and their love. A friend of theirs who also had a large
family, reflecting on the sad experience of that family, observed that a lot of
luck is involved in being free of such family problems. What she meant was that
there seems to be no pattern to some of these things. Burdens of this scale can
strike the best of families, and they can be absent from the best of families.
It is an aspect of the mystery of the ways of God. A person suffering from a
serious and intractable condition prays for the intercession of a person whose
Cause for Beatification is proceeding, and a miracle of healing occurs. The
suffering person becomes wonderfully whole and the event is eventually
recognized formally as a miracle. Another person prays for the healing of an
affliction and others join in the prayer for healing. The prayers keep up and
go on for a long time. All it would take is the touch of God, yet no healing
occurs. Why is this? We do not know. It is all part of the mystery of the ways
of God. Everywhere, the fortunes of people vary enormously. One person works
hard, obtains his Ph.D. and hopes to do well in his career and chosen
speciality. But nothing comes of it. He never gets a position in which he can
shine. He is never in the right place at the right time, and in any case is not
particularly good at competing against others. So, despite his initial
qualifications his life proceeds on a level that is very ordinary and quite
below his potential. Another also obtains his Ph.D, but “as luck has it,”
whatever he touches seems to turn to gold for him. He attracts the regard of
his bosses, and is favoured with opportunities. He is able to shine in a way
that never was possible for the former. There seems to be a law of the universe
that in various respects some are favoured, and, relatively speaking, others are
not. It seems unfair. Why is this? It is part of the mystery of the ways of
God who is the Creator of all.
In our Gospel today our Lord and the Twelve arrive in Bethsaida, and we read
that “some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.” The detail
that all they asked for from Jesus is that he touch the blind man is revealing.
They had no doubt about our Lord’s power. A mere touch would bring full
restoration of sight. Elsewhere we read that people would merely touch the hem
of his garments and they would receive healing, and we are given a detailed
account of one instance of this. Unbeknown to the crowd, and in terms of his
human intellect unbeknown to Jesus himself, a woman who had a long-standing
physical affliction edged her way towards Jesus amid the pressing crowd. No one
saw her, nor did Christ himself who was making his way (with difficulty) towards
a dwelling where another was at the point of death, and very soon to die. She
grasped the edge of his garment, and was healed of her infirmity. A profound
feeling of wellbeing flooded her frame, and she knew that her affliction had
gone. Christ had not touched her, but she had touched his garment. Our Lord
thereupon stopped — for he could feel that healing power had gone forth from him
— and we know the rest of what happened. The point is that it was widely
understood that all a healing took was a touch from Christ, or a mere word from
him, or that people in their turn touch him. It was an effortless thing for
Christ to restore a person to perfect health, and indeed from death to life. He
did precisely this with the young man of Nain who was restored from death to his
widowed mother. And so it is that in our Gospel today, people come to our Lord
with their blind friend and ask him to touch him and restore his sight. But
what happened? It was not so simple. Our Lord led the blind man right out of
the village and worked on it over several steps. We read that he “spat on the
man’s eyes and put his hands on him.” Then Jesus asked, “Do you see anything? He
looked up and said, I see people; they look like trees walking around. Once
more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his
sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly”
(Mark 8: 22-26).
Why did our Lord do things this way? We do not know. It is part of the mystery
of the ways of God. There were blind people, undoubtedly, who were not healed
by Christ because they lacked the opportunity and means to come to him. We
cannot possibly understand why God seems to favour some in certain ways and
denies favouring others in those ways. But what we do know is that God is
all-powerful, all-wise and all-loving. He is our Father, so whatever be our
so-called “luck” in life, nothing in fact is mere “luck,” for all is in the care
of our heavenly Father. Let us trust him, then!
Let
us begin with faith; let us begin with Christ; let us begin with His Cross and
the humiliation to which it leads. Let us first be drawn to Him who is lifted
up, that so He may, with Himself, freely give us all things.
JHN, from the sermon ‘The Cross of Christ the Measure of the World’ (1841)
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today:
James 2:1-9; Psalm 34:2-7; Mark 8:27-33
Jesus and
his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the
way he asked them, Who do people say I am? They replied, Some say John
the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.
But what about you? he asked. Who do you say I am? Peter answered, You
are the Christ. Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. He then
began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be
rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that
he must be put to death and after three days rise again. He spoke
plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter.
Get behind me, Satan! he said. You do not have in mind the things of
God, but the things of men. (Mark
8:27-33)
What we
think
At times one hears it said that the important thing in the Christian life is not
what you think but what you do. What matters is not so much that your thoughts
be right but that your deeds be right and this means the practice of justice and
charity towards your neighbour. Now, as is so often the case, there is here a
real truth in the midst of an untruth and for this reason the statement gains in
credence. After
all, our Lord in his account of the Last Judgment (Matthew 25) places the entire
weight of God’s Judgment on us on the side of what we do for our brothers in
need. On another occasion our Lord said that it is not those who say to me,
Lord, Lord, who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but those who do the will of
my Father in heaven. But this is not to lessen the great importance of right
thinking — meaning by this a true and correct faith. All through the Gospels
our Lord is requiring and asking of people that they have faith in him. Do you
believe? he is constantly asking, and this faith necessarily involves a certain
perception, a certain “opinion”, as we might call it. Faith in Christ entails
acceptance of his revelation about himself. And so it is that in our Gospel
passage today our Lord is asking what people are saying of his identity. “Who
do people say I am?” — which is to say, what and who do people think I
am? That was the pivotal question. The scribes and the Pharisees came to our
Lord to ask him who he himself said he was. It was also controverted among the
people. It was the fundamental issue during our Lord’s Passion. The leaders
brought our Lord before Pilate with the assertion that he was claiming to be a
King, which in the event Pilate discovered was a mere ruse. The real charge was
that he claimed to be the Messiah and Son of God. So Pilate himself asked our
Lord who he was. Across the ages, the question is, who is Jesus Christ? The
answers to this from the very beginning have been manifold. Most will agree
that he was a great religious leader or a great prophet. The important thing
is, what is the answer our Lord requires, especially of his disciples? “Who do
you, you who are my disciples, say that I am?” What we think on this is
very important.
The further point to notice is that it was Peter who gave the answer: “Peter
answered, You are the Christ” (Mark 8:27‑33).
In another Gospel the answer given by Peter is more fully quoted and our Lord’s
response to Peter’s answer is also more fully quoted. He establishes Simon
Peter as the rock of his Church. In Peter’s answer we have in germ the constant
insistence by the Church down the ages that right doctrine and right thought on
the person of Jesus Christ is of maximum importance. Hence it is that in the
early centuries of the Church’s history, when there was so much contention as to
the nature and identity of Jesus Christ, the Church would not allow this to take
its own course. Great councils were convened to settle and insist on the
confession of Peter and the Apostles. Christ is none other than God — God the
Son, while at the same time being true man. He is one divine Person in two
distinct natures. Many other doctrines were insisted on as necessarily implied
in that confession. Because the man Jesus is God, Mary his mother is the mother
of God — the mother of God the Son made man, that is. Then as the centuries
unfolded, further teachings developed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
These teachings constituted an elaboration of the original testimony given, and
which Christ asked for. In every doctrinal challenge that is mounted against
the Church’s teaching about Christ and his revelation, Christ puts again to his
disciples the question, Who do you say I am? It is Peter and his successors who
give the authoritative and correct answer, and that answer is a further
implication of the fundamental doctrine that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God
and Saviour of the world. The truth of the Church’s many doctrines — be they
about the nature of the Church and her constitution, the Sacraments, the Trinity
and the body of teaching that has developed over the centuries — is founded on
this fundamental doctrine about Christ. Thus heresies are declared by the
Church to be such. Yes, in the Christian religion it is of immense importance
that our notions of Christ and his revelation be correctly founded. What we
think, especially as regards Christ, is important.
The doctrine of Christ is summed up in the Church’s Creeds. The two great
Creeds are the Apostles’ Creed and the Creed of Nicene and Constantinople. The
Apostles’ Creed was the Creed of the Church in Rome, while that of Nicea was the
Creed of the Councils of Nicea and Constantinople in the fourth century, the
century of the Arian and semi‑Arian heresies. The Church invites us to use the
Apostles’ Creed in our private prayer, and she uses the Nicene Creed in her
public liturgy. Let us shape our daily life by the doctrine of the Church,
ensuring that our mind and heart — our thinking — is filled with the true
teaching of Christ.
The secret that ennobles the humblest, even the most humiliating thing,
is Love.
(The Way, no.418)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prayers this week: Men of
Galilee, why do you stand looking in the sky? The Lord will
return, just as you have seen him ascend, alleluia.
(Acts 1:11) God
our Father, make us joyful in the ascension of your Son Jesus Christ.
May we follow him into the new creation, for his ascension is our glory
and our hope. We ask this through our
Lord Jesus Christ
your Son in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice
to return to this reflection.
Then the eleven
disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to
go. Then they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. Then
Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And
behold, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.(Matthew 28:16-20)
Jesus is Lord There is
an old saying, that familiarity breeds contempt. Of course it is a caricature,
but like many exaggerations it contains a grain of truth. The truth contained
in it is that there is a danger of failing to remember the true significance and
value of something we are constantly dealing with. A married couple once deeply
in love begin to take one another for granted and gradually forget how blessed
they are in having each other.
A person has an exceptional opportunity in the work position he has been offered
but he takes it for granted. He fails to exert himself and not only misses many
opportunities for his own advancement but even in the course of time loses the
job. Something of this kind of failure is often present in the practice of the
Christian religion. Take the celebration of the mysteries of the Faith during
the course of the Church’s liturgical year. Every Sunday is the Lord’s Day and
is a celebration of Christ’s resurrection. Very many Christians do not
celebrate the Sunday. For many it is just a day off from work and if there is
the chance to earn extra money with overtime on the Sunday, they take it. They
are familiar with the elements of their Faith but they neglect them, ultimately
to their own cost. The person who does practise his Christian faith
participates in the Church’s celebration of the mysteries of Christ throughout
the year, but the danger can be of it becoming largely a routine. On the other
hand, the performance of something over and over again offers a wonderful
opportunity to live it and relive it with a more and more profound
appreciation. We ought strive to do this constantly. Let us consider the
Church’s annual celebration of the feast of the Ascension of the Lord and
endeavour — as we should with each of the feasts of the Church’s year — to give
it real thought and appreciation. At his Ascension, the Lord Jesus takes his
place at the right hand of the Father where he now intercedes for us. It was
the crown of his mission and his final triumph.
St Paul writes that, though from all eternity the glory of God was his, the Son
of God put it all aside and became as we men are. Indeed, he became lowlier
still, even to death on a cross. The pattern of Christ’s life was one of
following the path of obedience and abasement. He chose the lowly path, the
path bereft of the glory that was due to him as God, and indeed it was a path
even lowlier than that which is typically ours. Christ suffered deprivation and
poverty, humiliation and rejection. He chose to die a death that encompassed in
itself all that was needed to make up for mankind’s sins. We can only glimpse
at the degree of suffering that this involved by taking account of the
immeasurable ocean of sin that fills the world. How could we measure even the
scale of one man’s sins, let alone the sins of the world? But this was the
mission of Christ, to take away the sin of the world by suffering and dying as
the Lamb of God. The sins of the world were the measure of his abasement.
Christ the sinless one went down to the very depths for our sake. But then,
immersed in sin at its deepest abyss and having made up for it all, he rose and
was exalted at the highest level, to the right hand of his heavenly Father.
This man whom his disciples knew so well, this man whom the crowds had followed
and whom many had deserted, this man whom the leaders had utterly rejected and
put to death, this man who had borne on his shoulders the sins of the entire
world, this same man now ascended to the highest throne and, as man, received
the glory proper to himself as God. He shares equally with his Father the glory
of God. He, our brother, now occupies his place at the right hand of the Father
almighty. He is equal to God in every way in the sense that he is God, and now,
as man, he enjoys the glory that was his as God before the world began. He has
triumphed over the sin of the world and his weapon was the path of abasement and
obedience unto death. The reward was to enter the highest glory. On the feast
of the Ascension we celebrate that triumph.
Jesus
Christ is now seated at the right hand of the Father, and as we heard in the
Gospel he is the Lord with all authority in heaven and on earth. When we think
of the Ascension of Christ into heaven we acknowledge all this. He is our Lord
and King. He is our High Priest, constantly interceding with the Father on our
behalf. That constant prayer of his on our behalf is the sacrificial prayer he
offered for us on the Cross and which is made present at Mass. Our life’s work
is to obey everything he has commanded and to invite all others to recognize him
as Lord, receiving baptism and living according to his word. Let us then
resolve to make him the Lord of our life and to draw all others into union with
him.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no.659-667 (Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's not confuse the rights of the office you hold with your rights as
a person. The former can never be waived.
(The Way, no.407)
(May 3) Saints
Philip and James, Apostles
James, Son of Alphaeus: We know nothing of this man but his name, and
of course the fact that Jesus chose him to be one of the 12 pillars of
the New Israel, his Church. He is not the James of Acts, son of Clopas,
“brother” of Jesus and later bishop of Jerusalem and the traditional
author of the Letter of James. James, son of Alphaeus, is also known as
James the Lesser to avoid confusing him with James the son of Zebedee,
also an apostle and known as James the Greater.
Philip came from the same town as Peter and Andrew, Bethsaida in
Galilee. Jesus called him directly, whereupon he sought out Nathanael
and told him of the “one about whom Moses wrote” (John 1:45). Like the
other apostles, Philip took a long time coming to realize who Jesus
was. On one occasion, when Jesus saw the great multitude following him
and wanted to give them food, he asked Philip where they should buy
bread for the people to eat. St. John comments, “[Jesus] said this to
test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do” (John 6:6).
Philip answered, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be
enough for each of them to have a little [bit]” (John 6:7). John’s
story is not a put-down of Philip. It was simply necessary for these
men who were to be the foundation stones of the Church to see the clear
distinction between humanity’s total helplessness apart from God and
the human ability to be a bearer of divine power by God’s gift. On
another occasion, we can almost hear the exasperation in Jesus’ voice.
After Thomas had complained that they did not know where Jesus was
going, Jesus said, “I am the way...If you know me, then you will also
know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (John
14:6a, 7). Then Philip said, “Master, show us the Father, and that will
be enough for us” (John 14:8). Enough! Jesus answered, “Have I been
with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9a). Possibly because
Philip bore a Greek name or because he was thought to be close to
Jesus, some Gentile proselytes came to him and asked him to introduce
them to Jesus. Philip went to Andrew, and Andrew went to Jesus. Jesus’
reply in John’s Gospel is indirect; Jesus says that now his “hour” has
come, that in a short time he will give his life for Jew and Gentile
alike.
“He sent them...so that as sharers in his power they might make all
peoples his disciples, sanctifying and governing them.... They were
fully confirmed in this mission on the day of Pentecost (cf. Acts
2:1–26) in accordance with the Lord’s promise: ‘You shall receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses for
me...even to the very ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8). By everywhere
preaching the gospel (cf. Mark 16:20), which was accepted by their
hearers under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the apostles gathered
together the universal Church, which the Lord established on the
apostles and built upon blessed Peter, their chief, Christ Jesus
himself remaining the supreme cornerstone...” (Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church, 19).
click on
centre
arrow for video
Scripture today:
1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Psalm 19:2-5; John 14:6-14
Jesus said to Thomas, I
am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father
except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as
well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said,
Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. Jesus
answered: Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you
such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can
you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the
Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not
just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his
work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is
in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. I
tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been
doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to
the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the
Father may be glorified in the Father. You may ask me for anything in
my name, and I will do it.(John 14:6-14)
Claims
of Christ
In the long history of human culture and thought there have been many and varied
claims. It is astonishing to see the following that some of them have had.
Buddha who lived many centuries before Christ began a movement of religion that
has seen millions of followers and is still strong. Hinduism has an even longer
history and its thought commands the respect of numerous scholars and
innumerable religious practitioners.
So too Mahomet and the Islam that he founded. Indigenous religions too have
endured impressively — consider, for instance, traditional African religion.
Its sense of the high god compares very well with elements of some world
religions. But now, standing beyond and above all, are the claims of Jesus
Christ. Nothing in the history of religious thought can compare with them.
Furthermore, extraordinary though his claims are, they have commanded the
allegiance for two thousand years of the cream of the human intellect, from Paul
to Augustine to Aquinas to Newman and to so many others besides. Christ’s
claims are not just utterances about God and the world and how man is to live.
They are about himself and what he will do for those who believe in him. He
presents himself as utterly unique and of fundamental importance for every man
and woman in human history. He who believes will be saved, he tells his
disciples. He who does not believe — wilfully refusing to do so — will be
condemned. That this is a message for every man and woman on the face of the
earth and for all ages till the end, is clear because Christ commands his
disciples to go to the whole world to preach it to all. So Jesus Christ
presents himself as transcending all other sources of knowledge and of life. He
must, then, be taken with the utmost seriousness because if not, the results for
the person who passes him by will be tragic. The Church stands in the midst of
the world saying, turn to Jesus and truly consider who he is and what he will do
for you.
In our Gospel passage today Jesus of Nazareth says, not that he is one way, nor
that he is one great source of truth, nor that he will add valuably to our
life. No, he claims to be the only way that takes us to our true goal. Who
else has had the audacity to claim to be this? He claims to be the truth, the
full truth about God and the world’s salvation. If we know him we know the
Father as well. He is the life, the life of God. He is the way, the truth and
the life. He is all this because he is the one God, while of course not being
the Father who is also the same one God. He is the Son and is himself the
fullness of the divinity, as is the Father and as is the Holy Spirit. He tells
his disciples that no one can reach the Father except through him. This means
that Mahomet could never reach the Father except through Jesus. Mahomet is
powerless to attain union with God except through Jesus, nor can any of his
innumerable followers. Hence if in fact Mahomet and the Muslim reach God, then
unbeknown to them it has been through the person and the grace of Christ. So
too with Hinduism and with every other religious way, including all others who
have not even heard of the person of Jesus Christ. Such claims may seem
outrageous to the sincere non‑Christian and even to some Christians deferring to
the feelings of those who do not accept the unique claim of Christ and his
Church. It was precisely this claim that led to three centuries of conflict and
persecution within the Roman Empire. Christians did not lead a military, social
or political insurrection on behalf of their religion. They did not rise up
with arms and undermine the state with forms of insurgency, let alone terror.
But the state would not allow the transcendent claims of Jesus, for these claims
brought to nought the claims of other gods. The Christian Church claimed that
there is no God but Christ the Son of God. He is the one true God, as is the
Father and as is the Holy Spirit. Christ is the way, the truth and the life,
the only way to the Father. To know him is to know the Father.
Jesus Christ is the one and only Saviour of the world. In him our future is
eternally bright. He tells us that “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so
that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my
name, and I will do it” (John 14:6‑14).
Man, the world and the entire universe has in him its pearl of great price. He
is the linchpin and cornerstone of all. He is the world’s treasure and every
man and woman is called to sell all to gain that treasure.
That was a failure, a disaster: because you lost our spirit.
— You well
know that, as long as we act from supernatural motives, the outcome
(victory? defeat? bah!) has only one name: success.
(The Way, no.406)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(May 14) Saint
Matthias, Apostle
According to Acts 1:15-26, during the days after the Ascension, Peter
stood up in the midst of the brothers (about 120 of Jesus’ followers).
Now that Judas had betrayed his ministry, it was necessary, Peter said,
to fulfil the scriptural recommendation: “May another take his office.”
“Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the
whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, beginning from the
baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become
with us a witness to his resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22). They nominated
two men: Joseph Barsabbas and Matthias. They prayed and drew lots. The
choice fell upon Matthias, who was added to the Eleven. Matthias is not
mentioned by name anywhere else in the New Testament.
What was the holiness of Matthias? Obviously he was suited for
apostleship by the experience of being with Jesus from his baptism to
his ascension. He must also have been suited personally, or he would
not have been nominated for so great a responsibility. Must we not
remind ourselves that the fundamental holiness of Matthias was his
receiving gladly the relationship with the Father offered him by Jesus
and completed by the Holy Spirit? If the apostles are the foundations
of our faith by their witness, they must also be reminders, if only
implicitly, that holiness is entirely a matter of God’s giving, and it
is offered to all, in the everyday circumstances of life. We receive,
and even for this God supplies the power of freedom.
Jesus speaks of the apostles’ function of being judges, that is,
rulers. He said, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in
the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will
yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel”
(Matthew 19:28).
(AmericanCatholic.org)
click on
centre arrow
Scripture today: Acts 1:15-17, 20-26; Psalm 113:1-8; John 15: 9-17
Jesus
said to his disciples: As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my
love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his
love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your
joy may be complete. My command is this: Love one another as I have
loved you. Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life
for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no
longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's
business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I
learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me,
but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit— fruit that will
last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This
is my command: Love one another.(John
15:9-17) (for St Matthias)
Religion
and Christ
One of the interesting things to note in the English, American or, say,
Australian novel is the notion of religion, and of Christianity in particular.
Take, for instance, the novels of James Fernimore Cooper (1789‑1851), the
American author of such adventure novels as The Last of the Mohicans,
The Pathfinder and The Deerslayer. Consider, say, The Pathfinder.
The setting is the eighteenth century American wilds, the forest and habitat of
the American Indian, and the conflict between the Indians and the American
settlers, with the French getting a look‑in.
The central characters are religious. In particular, Pathfinder himself (who in
a further novel is called the Deerslayer) is religious and in his own view of
the matter, Christian. He is an altogether admirable character in his natural
religion and virtues and in his high skill as a scout and hunter. Frequently on
his lips there are references to Providence and God and religion. It would be
unimaginable that Pathfinder would call God or religion into question in the
modern secular and sceptical sense. He refers to himself repeatedly as a
Christian (and, into the bargain, at one point he betrays his
anti‑Catholicism!). But now, we never read any reference to Pathfinder
praying. In respect to his being a Christian, we never read any word of his
about the person of Christ. There is no reference to a belief in the holy
Trinity. Pathfinder’s God appears in reality to be the God who has authored the
beautiful natural world of forests and lakes, men and societies. He is the God
of creation and of providence guiding men in their course through life. His God
does not seem to be Christ, even though he always refers to himself as a
Christian. In the later novel, The Deerslayer, there is one reference to
the work of redemption but that is as far as it goes. Pathfinder is near to the
God who holds this beautiful world in being and who provides for his children,
but he is not near to the person of the risen Jesus. In fact, the living Jesus
is entirely absent from his frequent religious allusions. It looks as if
Pathfinder is the ideal deist.
I mention this as an example of a notion of religion and of Christianity in
particular that can take root in culture. Christianity as understood by many
can be devoid of the person of Christ, understood as the Saviour and the Son of
God. It can even go so far as being devoid of God. By that I mean that it can
be understood as little more than a life of benevolence. One may hear the
statement that someone is a real Christian, meaning that he is very good to
other people. Of course, this is indeed an essential element of the Christian
life for it is the command of Christ that we love one another as he has loved
us. But if it is to be counted as Christian love, it must be based on a
personal love for Jesus. In our Gospel passage today our Lord is very clear on
this point. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my
love.” If we are to be counted as Christ’s disciples, as Christians in other
words, we must abide in the friendship of Jesus. We must be friends of the
living Jesus. The test of this will be whether or not we fulfil his commands.
“If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my
Father’s commands and remain in his love.” We must seek to know the will of
Christ and then assiduously to put it into practice. Christ founded his Church
to make this possible, and entrusted his Church with the gift of the Holy Spirit
so as to be able to speak authoritatively in his name, interpreting without
error what he has revealed. The Church in her teaching explains what in its
detail is involved in loving God and our neighbour. It is thus that, listening
to the voice of his Church, we are able to know what Christ has commanded and
then by obeying his commands thus expounded, we are able to abide in his love.
The fundamental thing is abiding in the love of Christ, growing in his
friendship, and doing so as members of his family the Church. Pathfinder is one
example of many of how the Christian religion can be whittled away to being a
shadow of its real substance. Its substance is the living risen person of
Jesus, true God and true man.
There is
a further point, one that is most important. Christ is indeed the life of the
Christian, but let us remember that it is his choice of us and his love for us
that is the basis of our life. Christ loved me, St Paul writes, and gave
himself up for me. There is nothing of this in one of the heroes of American
literature — Pathfinder or Deerslayer. I have called you friends, our Lord says
to his disciples and to each of us who are in him by baptism. He has loved and
chosen us, and on the basis of this we love and choose him. He wants us to go
out and to bear fruit. The fruit is above all to bring all others into life in
him. Let us then devote ourselves to the work!
The only real love is God's Love!
(The Way, no.417)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesus
said to his
disciples: In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a
little while you will see me. Some of his disciples said to one
another, What does he mean by saying, 'In a little while you will see
me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,' and
'Because I am going to the Father'? They kept asking, What does he mean
by 'a little while'? We don't understand what he is saying. Jesus knew
that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, Are you
asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you
will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? I
tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.
You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. (John 16:16-20)
In
the first instance it is clear that our Lord is speaking to them of his death
and resurrection. The “little while” in which they would see him again is a
mere few days. Despite our Lord’s repeated reference during his public ministry
to his passion, death and resurrection, they did not understand. “They kept
asking, What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is
saying.” Their incomprehension is a tribute to the living power of Christ’s
personality — they could not take it in that he would be gone from them. He
would be gone from them soon in death, but very soon they would see him again
and their grief would turn to joy. Now, what other great figure of world
history, what other person of true substance has spoken to his disciples like
this? Certainly not Buddha, Mahomet, Confucius, or any other ruler or great
man. They may not have denied that they would live on in their spirits, but it
would not be a return to this life, bringing by that very fact an especially
great joy to their disciples. Not only did the Apostles experience the joy of
seeing the risen Jesus, but those of Christ’s disciples who did not see him as
risen also experienced the joy of knowing him as risen. In his Letter in the
New Testament, St Peter speaks of the joy that his readers experience. They
have not seen Christ but their hearts are full of joy because of him. Joy is
one of the fundamental hallmarks of faith in Christ. Its foundation is his
resurrection. The joy of the Christian springs from the fact that the object of
their faith, hope and love is a real and living person, once dead but now
alive. It is in him that the Christian now lives.
You say you've failed! We never fail. You placed your
confidence wholly in God. Nor did you neglect any human means.
There are two ways, then, of reading Nature—as a machine and as a work. If we
come to it with the assumption that it is a creation, we shall study it with
awe; if assuming it to be a system, with mere curiosity.
Liberalism
then is the mistake of subjecting to human judgment those revealed doctrines
which are in their nature beyond and independent of it, and of claiming to
determine on intrinsic grounds the truth and value of propositions which rest
for their reception simply on the external authority of the Divine Word.