July1 in Year C 10

From Thirteenth week to Fifteenth week in Ordinary Time

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Morning Offering: O Jesus, through the most pure heart of Mary, I offer you all the prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your divine heart, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass. I offer them especially for the Holy Father's intentions:

Pope Benedict's general intention for July is: "That in every nation of the world the election of officials may be carried out with justice, transparency and honesty, respecting the free decisions of citizens."

His mission intention is: "That Christians may strive to offer everywhere, but especially in great urban centres, an effective contribution to the promotion of education, justice, solidarity and peace."

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Thursday of the thirteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(July 1) Blessed Junipero Serra (1713-1784)
In 1776, when the American Revolution was beginning in the east, another part of the future United States was being born in California. That year a grey-robed Franciscan founded Mission San Juan Capistrano, now famous for its annually returning

swallows. San Juan was the seventh of nine missions established under the direction of this indomitable Spaniard. Born in Spain’s island of Mallorca, Serra entered the Franciscan Order, taking the name of St. Francis’ childlike companion, Brother Juniper. Until he was 35, he spent most of his time in the classroom—first as a student of theology and then as a professor. He also became famous for his preaching. Suddenly he gave it all up and followed the yearning that had begun years before when he heard about the missionary work of St. Francis Solanus in South America. Junipero’s desire was to convert native peoples in the New World. Arriving by ship at Vera Cruz, Mexico, he and a companion walked the 250 miles to Mexico City. On the way Junipero’s left leg became infected by an insect bite and would remain a cross—sometimes life-threatening—for the rest of his life. For 18 years he worked in central Mexico and in the Baja Peninsula. He became president of the missions there. Enter politics: the threat of a Russian invasion

south from Alaska. Charles III of Spain ordered an expedition to beat Russia to the territory. So the last two conquistadors—one military, one spiritual—began their quest. José de Galvez persuaded Junipero to set out with him for present-day Monterey, California. The first mission founded after the 900-mile journey north was San Diego (1769). That year a shortage of food almost cancelled the expedition. Vowing to stay with the local people, Junipero and another friar began a novena in preparation for St. Joseph’s day, March 19, the scheduled day of departure. On that day, the relief ship arrived. Other missions followed: Monterey/Carmel (1770); San Antonio and San Gabriel (1771); San Luís Obispo (1772); San Francisco and San Juan Capistrano (1776); Santa Clara (1777); San Buenaventura (1782). Twelve more were founded after Serra’s death. Junipero made the long trip to Mexico City to settle great differences with the military commander. He arrived at the point of death. The outcome was substantially what Junipero sought: the famous “Regulation” protecting the Indians and the missions. It was the basis for the first significant legislation in California, a “Bill of Rights” for Native Americans. Because the Native Americans were living a nonhuman life from the Spanish point of view, the friars were made their legal guardians. The Native Americans were kept at the mission after Baptism lest they be corrupted in their former haunts—a move that has brought cries of “injustice” from some moderns. Junipero’s missionary life was a long battle with cold and hunger, with unsympathetic military commanders and even with danger of death from non-Christian native peoples. Through it all his unquenchable zeal was fed by prayer each night, often from midnight till dawn. He baptized over 6,000 people and confirmed 5,000. His travels would have circled the globe. He brought the Native Americans not only the gift of faith but also a decent standard of living. He won their love, as witnessed especially by their grief at his death. He is buried at Mission San Carlo Borromeo, Carmel, and was beatified in 1988.
During his homily at Serra’s beatification, Pope John Paul II said: “Relying on the divine power of the message he proclaimed, Father Serra led the native peoples to Christ. He was well aware of their heroic virtues—as exemplified in the life of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha [July 14]—and he sought to further their authentic human development on the basis of their new-found faith as persons created and redeemed by God. He also had to admonish the powerful, in the spirit of our second reading from James, not to abuse and exploit the poor and the weak.” (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Amos 7: 10-17; Psalm 18; Matthew 9: 1-8

Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven. At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, This fellow is blaspheming! Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . . Then he said to the paralytic, Get up, take your mat and go home. And the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men. (Matthew 9: 1-8)

Sin It is recognized that one of the ablest of Anglo-Saxon philosophers was David Hume (1711-1776). He was important in the history of Western philosophy and is usually grouped with Locke, Berkeley and several others in British empiricism. In his lifetime he was more known for his six-volume History of England, whereas his now famous philosophical works took time to make their great mark. For instance, when the young Newman wrote his defence of the miracles of Scripture in 1825-26, it was

Hume’s Essay on Miracles that he especially took account of. In his article, Newman chooses to allow Hume’s observation that — as Newman paraphrases him — “As the Deity discovers Himself to us by His works, we have no rational grounds for ascribing to Him attributes or actions dissimilar from those which his works convey” (Section II). This means that a miracle has no probability at all because it diverges so radically from our experience of the works of God in nature. Newman goes on to fault Hume for his notion of our experience of God, for we have a knowledge of God as active not only in the physical, but in the moral order. We perceive the realm of conscience, of duty, of sin, wrongdoing. There is a moral system that is just as real as the physical system, and God is the Author and Agent of both. I mention this here merely to introduce what is a natural human perception: the perception of sin. Man has, or can easily have, the natural perception that he sins. A full and properly developed moral sense includes not only the capacity to judge what is right and wrong, but the sense of sin and of having oneself sinned. This is not exactly the same as a sense of mere wrongdoing — that is, of having contravened, say, an ethical principle or a law of society. It is the sense of having failed to obey God. Granted that man is fallen in his moral life, it is to be expected that he will bear within him a sense of sin. If he has no sense of sin, he lacks a natural perception — however endowed he may be in other ways. Indeed, it could be argued that this natural sense of sin is a natural basis for belief in God, for within a sense of sin there is, in the nature of the case, a sense of God.

The thought of the natural sense of sin, which ought be present in every man and woman, brings us to our Gospel passage today. The friends of the paralytic brought the sick man to Jesus. He was helpless, lying on a mat. We are not told much, but the very first thing our Lord did was to forgive the man his sins. We could scarcely imagine our Lord imposing the forgiveness of sins on a person who was not sorry for them, or who had no sense of them. On another occasion he was dining in the house of a Pharisee and a woman who had a bad reputation in the town entered the house and stood before him. She was weeping and her tears of sorrow for her sins dropped to his feet. She proceeded to wipe his feet with her hair ((Luke 7:47). He told her that her sins were forgiven, for, he said, she had loved much. The paralytic of our Gospel passage today must be presumed to have had a consciousness of personal sin and a sorrow for them. It was on this basis that Christ, in the presence of all, told him to take heart. He then forgave him his sins. One suspects that, though the physical paralysis was a great affliction, the fundamental affliction burdening the paralytic was the thought of his sins. He may have thought — and perhaps with good reason — that it was because of his sins that he was suffering his paralysis. He may have thought that it was God’s judgment on him. We do not know, but this thought of his sinfulness and his sorrow because of it was a very good thing. It meant that he was aware of his true situation, and it led to Christ bestowing on him divine forgiveness. This in turn led, by an act of Christ, to his deliverance from his paralysis. But the foremost affliction, and, it seems, the foremost thought of the paralytic, was his own sinfulness. In this, he was in touch with his true and broken humanity. He was a greater man for his sense of sin than he would have been without it. This goes dead counter to the modern image of the Admirable Man. The Admirable Man has no sense of sin, nor, therefore, does he have a sense of subjection to God. He is independent.

When we consider the heroes of popular culture and literature — and the characters of pop culture and movies — it is clear that the sense of sin is absent from them. This reflects the secular culture of our age, and has been with us for a considerable time. Life is lived with God being considered as absent. Therefore there is no sin. Let us look on the paralytic of our Gospel today as being, in a sense, our true ideal. We are paralytics all, especially in the realm of the spirit, and the greatest sign of spiritual paralysis is the delusion of there being no sin. Let us place ourselves in the presence of Christ, for paralytics we are, and he will raise us up.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: Amos 7: 10-17

On Sin Many decades ago Pope Pius XII wrote that the sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin. One of the features of the loss of the sense of sin is thinking that sin does not matter much, and that it is of little ultimate consequence. Now, one of the things that can help us to acquire a sense of sin is to reflect on what Scripture describes as the consequences of sin — that is to say the punishments for sin — at times in this life and certainly in the next. The prophet Amos describes (in ch.7: 10-17) the terrible consequences in their own very own time of his people failing to heed God's warnings, warnings uttered by himself. It would mean terrible death and destruction. We know that this is also an image of the ultimate and eternal punishment of hell.

Let us pray for a vivid sense of sin, its horror, and the awfulness of its punishment. Let us pray for the grace to be determined never to commit a deliberate sin, and if we do, to repent.
(E.J.Tyler)

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There is but one fatal illness, one deadly mistake you can make: to settle for defeat, not to know how to fight with the spirit of a

child of God. If this personal effort is lacking, the soul becomes paralysed and languishes alone, and is incapable of bearing fruit.

—Such cowardice on man’s part puts pressure on Our Lord to utter those words addressed to him by the paralytic at the pool of Bethsaida, hominem non habeo! — I have no man to help me.

—What a pity if Jesus does not find in you the man or the woman he expects!
(The Forge, no.168)

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Depend upon it, there is quite evidence enough for a moral conviction that the Catholic or Roman Church, and none other, is the voice of God.

JHN, from Loss and Gain Part III, “Oxford to London – Conversations With a Priest”

Friday of the thirteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(July 2) St. Oliver Plunkett (1629-1681)

The name of today's saint is especially familiar to the Irish and the English—and with good reason. The English martyred Oliver Plunkett for defending the faith in his native Ireland during a period of severe persecution. Born in County Meath in 1629, he studied for the priesthood in Rome and was ordained there in 1654. After some years of teaching and service to the poor of Rome he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland. Four years later, in 1673, a new wave of anti-Catholic persecution began, forcing Archbishop Plunkett to do his pastoral work in secrecy and disguise and to live in hiding. Meanwhile, many of his priests were sent into exile; schools were closed; Church services had to be held in secret and convents and seminaries were suppressed. As archbishop, he was viewed as ultimately responsible for any rebellion or political activity among his parishioners. Archbishop Plunkett was arrested and imprisoned in Dublin Castle in 1679, but his trial was moved to London. After deliberating for 15 minutes, a jury found him guilty of fomenting revolt. He was hanged, drawn and quartered in July 1681. Pope Paul VI canonized Oliver Plunkett in 1975. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Amos 8: 4-6.9-12; Psalm 118; Matthew 9: 9-13

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. Follow me, he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'? On hearing this, Jesus said, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. (Matthew 9: 9-13)

Sin of the world Consider the range of works that man sets himself to do. Some set out to conquer. Philip of Macedonia (359-336 BC) set out to reverse the lamentable situation of his country and had extraordinary achievements to his credit by the time of his assassination. He was about to take on Persia itself — something his much more famous son would do so successfully. Many others in history have set out to conquer others: Caesar, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Bonaparte. There have been those

who give their lives to break open the key to the physical and chemical laws of the universe, and so lay the foundations for future technology. Others set out to alleviate physical distress and disease. Others set out to gain money and then to use it for good or bad purposes. There are an almost inexhaustible range of works that are open to man for his sojourn during life, and they spring from the original command to “fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth” (Genesis 1: 28). But from the beginning there was a fundamental work crying out to be done by someone, somehow. It was to heal, restore and completely fix the deep wound at the heart of visible creation, which was sin. How could it be done, and by whom? At the beginning God created the man and the woman. They were allowed to eat of any of the fruit of the garden in which he had placed them, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was in the very middle of the garden (3:3). They were forbidden to presume to “know” of themselves — i.e., independently to determine — what was good and evil, but were to subject themselves to the wisdom of God, under pain of death. If only they had obeyed God! But the woman “saw that the tree was....desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” (3:6). They refused to be subject to God, and wished to be gods in their turn, determining for themselves what was good and evil.

The result of that single yet most serious rebellion was the unending catastrophe of sin. Sin entered the world through one man, and with sin came death, and death spread to the whole human race. The sin of the world had to be taken away, and the world had to be restored to communion with God. How could it be done, and by whom? In any age, if a massive work is to be done, the best man for the job ought be sought. But who could possibly do this job? It could even be said that the majority of people never identify sin as the fundamental problem. They do not know what really needs to be done. But God did know, and he knew the remedy. He must take the matter in hand himself and send his Son to do it — which brings us to our Gospel passage today (Matthew 9: 9-13). Our Lord’s task was, not to conquer temporal kingdoms — though he could have done that. His task was not to rid the world of disease and poverty and other temporal afflictions — though he showed concretely that he could have done that. His task was the most basic one of all, to take away the sin of the world. In our Gospel today we see our Lord approaching those regarded as sinners, and making them his company. He even called one regarded by many as a sinner — Matthew — to be his companion in a special way. “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. Follow me, he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.” Our Lord was showing that his business in life was to take away the sin of the world. Matthew was called to be an Apostle, and the Apostle’s work would be to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sin to the ends of the earth. When our Lord was challenged by the religious leaders for associating with sinners, he said “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Let us understand very clearly the chief business of every day. The main thing to be done is to obey God in everything, and to overcome and avoid sin. Of ourselves we would not realize that this is indeed the main thing in life, nor would we have the wherewithal to do it. But Christ is at our side as our Strength and our Redeemer. He comes to us in the Church’s life, in her preaching, teaching and her Sacraments, and he comes to take away our sin and impart to us a share in his own holiness. This has begun in us by our Baptism. Let us carry it through, in union with Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection (Matthew 9:9-13)

Sinners The Jews who challenged our Lord's disciples with the fact that our Lord dined with publicans and sinners had a certain

notion of God, a notion that had its element of truth. Their notion was of an all-holy God who, because of his holiness, rejects sinners. Of course, ultimately the holiness of God is incompatible with sin, confirmed sin. The confirmed sinner cannot remain in his presence, hence there is Hell. God's holiness requires that sin be renounced and indeed expiated. At the same time, God's holiness is a holy love. It is a love that is holy, and a holiness that is loving. He seeks out the sinner and by his power strives to reclaim the sinner from his sin. So it is that our Lord said that he came to call sinners, and he, the all-holy God was happy even to have dined with them. The sinners our Lord associated with were sick, and they sought health from the divine doctor.

Let us place ourselves among those — sinners! — who sought the company of Christ. At the same time, thinking of those who are straying far from God, we should strive to have the mind of Christ. We ought show to them the holy love of God. In this way we make present to them the divine doctor healing the sick.
(E.J.Tyler)

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The ascetical struggle is not something negative and therefore hateful, but rather a joyful affirmation. It is a sport.

A good sportsman doesn’t fight to gain just one victory, and that at the first attempt. He has to build himself up for it, training over a long period of time, calmly and confidently. He keeps trying again and again, and if he doesn’t succeed at the first attempt, he keeps on trying with determination until the obstacle is overcome.
(The Forge, no.169)

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Though lawyers are educated for the law, and physicians for medicine, it is felt among us to be dangerous to the Constitution to have real education either in the clerical or military profession. Neither theology nor the science of war is compatible with a national regime.

JHN, from “Discussions and Arguments” (1872), “Who’s to Blame?”, Letter 8, “English Jealousy of Church and Army”)

Feast of St Thomas the Apostle (July 3)
(In 2010, on Saturday of the thirteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II)

(July 3) St. Thomas the Apostle

Poor Thomas! He made one remark and has been branded as “Doubting Thomas” ever since. But if he doubted, he also believed. He made what is certainly the most explicit statement of faith in the New Testament: “My Lord and My God!” (John 20:24-28) and, in so expressing his faith, gave Christians a prayer that will be said till the end of time. He also occasioned a compliment from Jesus to all later Christians: “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (John 20:29). Thomas should be equally well known for his courage. Perhaps what he said was impetuous—since he ran, like the rest, at the showdown—but he can scarcely have been insincere when he expressed his willingness to die with Jesus. The occasion was when Jesus proposed to go to Bethany after Lazarus had died. Since Bethany was near Jerusalem, this meant walking into the very midst of his enemies and to almost certain death. Realizing this, Thomas said to the other apostles, “Let us also go to die with him” (John 11:16b). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Ephesians 2: 19-22; Psalm 116; John 20: 24-29

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord! But he said to them, Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it. A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you! Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. Thomas said to him, My Lord and my God! Then Jesus told him, Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. (John 20: 24-29)

Likelihood In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates and Phaedrus are presented as discussing what advice should be offered to students of speechmaking. That is to say, how is the speaker to convince hearers of the truth of what he is saying? One means is the use of probabilities, of likelihoods — of eikota. Eikos is likelihood. I accept something as true because I perceive it as being entirely likely. Aristotle allows for this, although it has been said that likelihood, probability, plausibility — the way things can be normally

expected to go in familiar situations and everyday experiences — was lost sight of in logic for nearly two millennia (Walton). As against the eikos, (a likelihood, which gives plausibility to something), there is the semeion, or the direct “sign,” something which amounts to plain evidence. St John in his Gospel commonly refers to the miracles that our Lord worked as semeia. The miracle of the water turned into wine was the first of the “signs” that Jesus worked and which manifested his glory (2:11). It was not a likelihood, but a plain fact that manifested the Supernatural. So there are at least two kinds of evidence. There is the event that is an eikos, giving likelihood or probability to something, and there is the semeion, which manifests the fact. I mention this as an introduction to the problem of faith in the lives of many — including the problem of faith for Saint Thomas in the immediate aftermath of the Resurrection. For many people, the only form of proof is the strictly mathematical or scientific proof. It must be a fact open to empirical testing. They will only accept as absolutely certain whatever is verified mathematically or according to empirical tests. There must be “hard evidence.” This means, so they deem, that the Supernatural is an unproven hypothesis, and only that can be taken to be true which falls within the Natural realm. We must all be philosophical Naturalists. This is not merely a mindset of a certain class of the educated — it has become an assumption in one degree or another of many in all classes of society. In this, the Supernatural is not accepted as at all “likely.” But now, even in ordinary life, “likelihood” is plainly a common basis of conviction. I know I shall die, not because my case has already been tested, but because of its overwhelming likelihood. Everyone else has died, so it would be absurd for me to think I shall be an exception.

St Thomas was not present when Jesus appeared to the Apostles on the evening of the day he rose from the dead. The Apostles certainly had no sense of the likelihood of Christ’s rising from the dead, despite his having at various times referred to it. They refused to believe those who had seen him in the morning of that day. Of course, while they had no “theory” of the grounds of valid conviction, it is plain that they had no working use of likelihood in this particular case. A resurrection from the dead went so radically against all their experience that it was entirely unlikely, even though, as believers in Jesus Christ who had worked so many miracles before their eyes and who was so incomparably holy, they ought to have accepted his own predictions. He predicted that he would suffer, die, and rise on the third day. That ought to have made it likely for them, even if it went totally against their experience of life and the world. But no, all that was forgotten, and the weight of tangible and sense experience was decisive for them. So they refused to believe, and it was only when they actually saw our Lord, heard him, touched him and observed him eating before their eyes that they joyfully accepted the fact. To this point, they were working empiricists. Thomas was not there for this occasion, but when they all told him that they had seen the Lord, supported by others who were not among the Apostolic band, he too rejected their testimony as being entirely unlikely. In his case, unlikelihood as he considered it — improbability according to his reckoning — indicated that their claims were false. What could have set his mind and heart so much against the likelihood of Christ’s resurrection when confronted by so much testimony? For this we must turn to the Synoptic Gospel accounts of the Resurrection. St Luke, for instance, tells us that our Lord said to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus that they were “foolish and slow in heart to believe” (24:25). St Mark tells us (16:14) that our Lord upbraided them for their “unbelief and hardness of heart” in not believing.

Let us ask for the help of God to ensure that our minds and hearts are open to all that God has done, giving us the certitude that is faith. Thomas, though slow and hard of heart before the testimony of the witnesses, was wonderfully prompt in giving a magnificent profession of faith when he saw our Lord. He confessed before Jesus and before the others that he, Jesus, was his Lord and his God. Let us pray for the faith to do this, by word, deed and general example, before the world of our everyday life.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (John 20: 24-29)

Living by sight One of the distinctive features of the modern era — the West for the last few centuries — is the progressive

denial of the supernatural, of anything which cannot be verified or experienced empirically. That which is real is that which can be sensed. All else is ephemeral and unreal. Such is the modern secular tendency. Now of course, to consider that only the Natural is real is an assumption. It itself cannot be proved empirically. Further, it flies in the face of the wider voice of mankind and mankind's religions. However, the fact is that it characterises our culture and we ourselves, as children of our culture, can be progressively affected by it. Our Lord says to Thomas that the one who without seeing believes is, and will be, blessed (John 20:24-29). So if we are to receive the blessings our Lord promises we are to live by faith, and not primarily (let alone exclusively) by sight. The danger is that to a greater or lesser extent we who believe and who have the gift of faith will prefer to live by sight and treasure the blessings of this world rather than those promised by our Lord.

Let us then guard our faith and be alert to the especially modern temptation to live by sight.
(E.J.Tyler)

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You are my hope in all things, dear Jesus. Convert me!
(The Forge, no.170)

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THE Christian lives in the past and in the future, and in the unseen; in a word, he lives in no small measure in the unknown. And

it is one of his duties, and a part of his work, to make the unknown known; to create within him an image of what is absent, and to realise by faith what he does not see. For this purpose he is granted certain outlines and rudiments of the truth, and from thence he learns to draw it out into its full proportions and its substantial form,—to expand and complete it; whether it be the absolute and perfect truth, or truth under a human dress, or truth in such a shape as is most profitable for him. And the process, by which the word which has been given him, “returns not void,” but brings forth and buds and is accomplished and prospers, is Meditation.

JHN, from “Lives of English Saints” (1844), “A Legend of St. Gundleus”

Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time C

Prayers today: Within your temple, we ponder your loving kindness, O God. As your name, so also your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with justice (Psalm 47:10-11).

Father, through the obedience of Jesus, your servant and your Son, your raised a fallen world. Free us from sin and bring us the joy that lasts forever. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

(July 4) St. Elizabeth of Portugal (1271-1336)
Elizabeth is usually depicted in royal garb with a dove or an olive branch. At her birth in 1271, her father, Pedro III, future king of Aragon, was reconciled with his father, James, the reigning monarch. This proved to be a portent of things to come. Under the

healthful influences surrounding her early years, she quickly learned self-discipline and acquired a taste for spirituality. Thus fortunately prepared, she was able to meet the challenge when, at the age of 12, she was given in marriage to Denis, king of Portugal. She was able to establish for herself a pattern of life conducive to growth in God’s love, not merely through her exercises of piety, including daily Mass, but also through her exercise of charity, by which she was able to befriend and help pilgrims, strangers, the sick, the poor—in a word, all those whose need came to her notice. At the same time she remained devoted to her husband, whose infidelity to her was a scandal to the kingdom. He too was the object of many of her peace endeavours. She long sought peace for him with God, and was finally rewarded when he gave up his life of sin. She repeatedly sought and effected peace between the king and their rebellious son, Alfonso, who thought that he was passed over to favour the king’s illegitimate children. She acted as peacemaker in the struggle between Ferdinand, king of Aragon, and his cousin James, who claimed the crown. And finally from Coimbra, where she had retired as a Franciscan tertiary to the monastery of the Poor Clares after the death of her husband, she set out and was able to bring about a lasting peace between her son Alfonso, now king of Portugal, and his son-in-law, the king of Castile. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Isaiah 66: 10-14; Psalm 65; Galatians 6: 14-18; Luke 10: 1-12.17-20

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out

workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.' But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.' I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. (Luke 10: 1-12)

God’s glory Our Gospel passage today is one of many that could be cited referring to the kingdom of God. Our Lord came preaching that the kingdom of God was near. He gradually explained more and more of this kingdom, its nature, its benefits and how one was to enter it and live in it. All the promised benefits of God were contained in this kingdom, and salvation lay in entering it and living as its citizens. In our Gospel today (Luke 10: 1-12.17-20) Christ sends out his seventy-two disciples to

announce the kingdom of God. It may seem a vague concept to the modern reader, and there is this about it that it is certainly broad and embracing in respect to the blessings of God. But what precisely is this kingdom — this rule or lordship of God — to which our Lord refers? Can we pin down its meaning and gain a clear notion of it? Now that the Redeemer has come, the kingdom of God consists essentially in the person of Jesus Christ and union with him. Jesus Christ and those who are in union with him make up the kingdom of God. The lordship of God extends to the extent that Christ’s person and teaching spreads among men. Further, inasmuch as the Church is Christ’s body and his locale in this world, the Church is the presence, the beginning and the seed of the kingdom of God here on earth. But now, let us reflect on the ultimate end of the kingdom of God. Its end is the glory of God, which is the salvation and life of man. We are called to know, love and serve God here on earth, such that God will be honoured and glorified. To the extent that we give honour and glory to God by living in union with Jesus Christ, to that extent shall we be truly happy. God’s glory is the path to man’s happiness and perfection, and in that sense the glory of God is the purpose of his creation and redemption. The world and man were made to give glory to God, and this is the reason for the kingdom that our Lord announced and established by his death and resurrection. That is not to say that Christ has come in order to increase the glory of God, but to manifest it through the benefits he bestows on us. By being drawn into union with Christ and into the life of the Holy Trinity, our life becomes a praise of his glory, giving him glory.

We read in The Catechism of the Catholic Church that “the glory of God consists in the realization of this manifestation and communication of his goodness, for which the world was created” (294). The glory of God was boundless from all eternity. But it was not a solitary splendour, the glory of a lone Individual. The goodness of the Father was manifested and given in its fulness to his divine Son from all eternity, and his Son returned love and praise to his Father for his infinite goodness. This was the Son’s happiness to give praise to his Father, and this was the Father’s glory, to manifest and communicate his goodness to the Son. Reciprocally, the goodness of the Son was manifested and communicated in its fulness to his Father from all eternity. Thus was the Son glorified in his being fully manifested to the Father from all eternity. The Father gave loving praise to his Son for his goodness, and thus was the Son glorified. In the same way the Holy Spirit was glorified from all eternity in the manifestation and communication of his goodness to the Father and the Son. Equally with the Father and the Son he was and is to be glorified. The manifestation and communication of the goodness of each to the other is the glory of God from all eternity. In a word, love is the life of the Triune God. So too, the world was created for the glory of God who wished, not to increase his goodness, beauty and love, but to show it forth and to communicate it. It is in its manifestation and communication that the glory of God consists. The ultimate end of creation is that God, in Christ, might be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28) for his own glory and therefore our happiness. God created the universe freely with wisdom and love, as a manifestation and communication of his goodness. It is not the result of any necessity, nor of blind fate, nor of chance. God creates and sustains it from nothing. He gives it the capacity to act and leads it to its fulfilment through the redemptive and sanctifying work of his Son and the Holy Spirit. As St Irenaeus wrote, the glory of God is man fully alive, and man’s life is the vision of God, in this way giving glory to him. This is achieved by means of union with Christ.

The purpose of our being created and reborn in Christ — which is life in the kingdom — is to give glory to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In this lies our present and eternal happiness. This was the supreme purpose of Christ’s life, and it is the purpose of our life. We attain our purpose by life in Christ. Eternal life is this, to know you, Father, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Let us treasure and ever repeat that great prayer, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.
(E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.293-301 (for the glory of God)

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Second reflection: (Luke: 10: 1-12.17-20) "The seventy-two came back rejoicing"

Joy amid suffering There are many things in life that are obviously blessings from God and that bring joy: our health, our very work, our family life and our friends. Not only are the God-given desires of our heart fulfilled by them, but in them we can find God. By means of them God sanctifies us, provided we serve God in them, and endeavour to remain in Christ. Consider the Gospel passage of today (Luke 10:1-12.17-20). The Lord sends out seventy-two of his disciples with work to do on his behalf.

The seventy-two returned rejoicing. Their work and their achievements on behalf of our Lord brought them joy. Both the prophet (Isaiah) and the psalm (65) reinforce this emphasis on the joy God intends us to have from the good things he gives us. “Rejoice, Jerusalem”, the prophet Isaiah says in the first reading (Isaiah 66:10), and the psalm responds, “Cry out with joy to God all the earth” (Psalm 65). The one dark element in all of this is suffering, and its companion, sin. Suffering will sooner or later be found in the experience of the good things of life God has given. For instance, our health — sooner or later we will suffer from ill-health. Suffering will be found in our work, if we are working according to the mind of Christ. Suffering will be found in family life, if we are living in Christ, and even if we are not. St Paul says that sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death, and death has spread through the whole human race. Death symbolises and embodies the suffering of mankind. Suffering is indeed a dark blight for it has the capacity to transform the good things of life into things we avoid, dislike, hate, and if we allow them, into obstacles to our relationship with God. Suffering can turn us away from God who is there, God who wishes to sanctify us in them. If we consider things purely naturally, suffering can take away our joy, including our joy in God.

But consider the life and example of our Lord. We can imagine the joys of his years in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph, his public ministry with the wonderful things he did for so many and for his heavenly Father. But his greatest hour was the hour of his Passion and Death when he fulfilled the most important element in his Father’s will. Yet in it he was bereft of everything except the cross, involving unspeakable suffering. Now, inasmuch as Christ’s joy was drawn from his union with his Father, and inasmuch as the high point of his union with his Father’s will was the Passion, mysteriously Christ’s joy was at its deepest then, when all he had was his great suffering. This teaches us that suffering in the fulfilment of God’s will is in no sense an obstacle to experiencing God’s blessings, especially the supreme blessing of being in God with the joy this will bring. Christ’s example proves it. When the disciples returned to our Lord rejoicing at the work they had done with its achievements, our Lord told them not to rejoice that the spirits submitted to them. Rather they were to rejoice that their names were written in heaven. That is to say, they were to rejoice that they were in Christ, in union with Jesus and with the Father. This union and likeness with Jesus is at its highest stage when we suffer in the fulfilment of God’s will. It is then that we are most like Christ, most in Christ, and he is most in us. It is then that we attain our greatest potential and fruitfulness, and our proof of this is the life and example of our Lord himself. St Thomas Aquinas once wrote that the Passion of Christ teaches us everything. We must pray increasingly for the grace to see this and to live it out. For this reason St Paul says Galatians 6: 14, “The only thing I can boast about is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world.” The one thing St Paul was left with when he wrote those words was his sufferings. He knew that his conformity with Christ was especially real then, when he was left with Jesus and the cross.

What would happen if you were left with only Jesus and suffering? This prospect ought be considered, with the grace of God and the example of our Lord before us, as a golden high moment when our life has its greatest potential. It is a moment when we are most conformed to Christ whose greatest moment was on the Cross. Let us pray for the grace to be able to say with St Paul, the one thing I can boast about is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It will be a great grace to have realised this, and will be the start of a true Christian maturity.
(E.J.Tyler)

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When that priest, our good friend, used to sign himself “the sinner”, he did so convinced that what he wrote was true.

—My God, purify me too!
(The Forge, no.171)

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In an 1838 sermon John Henry Newman concentrates on the meaning of fasting, and approaches it from a strikingly new angle: its apparently negative effects. But as in the fasting of Christ himself, during the forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, trial is but a foretaste of glory:

“And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry.” [Matthew 4: 2 RSV]

It is commonly said, that fasting is intended to make us better Christians, to sober us, and to bring us more entirely at Christ’s feet in faith and humility. This is true, viewing matters on the whole. On the whole, and at last, this effect will be produced, but it is not at all certain that it will follow at once. On the contrary, such mortifications have at the time very various effects on different persons, and are to be observed, not from their visible benefits, but from faith in the Word of God. Some men, indeed, are subdued by fasting and brought at once nearer to God; but others find it, however slight, scarcely more than an occasion of temptation.

For instance, it is sometimes even made an objection to fasting, as if it were a reason for not practising it, that it makes a man irritable and ill-tempered. I confess it often may do this. Again, what very often follows from it is, a feebleness which deprives him of his command over his bodily acts, feelings, and expressions. Thus it makes him seem, for instance, to be out of temper when he is not; I mean, because his tongue, his lips, nay his brain, are not in his power. He does not use the words he wishes to use, nor the accent and tone. … Or again, weakness of body often hinders him from fixing his mind on his prayers, instead of making him pray more fervently; or again, weakness of body is often attended with languor and listlessness, and strongly tempts a man to sloth. [...]

It is undeniably a means of temptation, and I say so, lest persons should be surprised, and despond when they find it so. And the merciful Lord knows that so it is from experience; and that He has experienced and thus knows it, as Scripture records, is to us a thought full of comfort. I do not mean to say, God forbid, that aught of sinful infirmity sullied His immaculate soul; but it is plain from the sacred history, that in His case, as in ours, fasting opened the way to temptation. And, perhaps, this is the truest view of such exercises, that in some wonderful unknown way they open the next world for good and evil upon us, and are an introduction to somewhat of an extraordinary conflict with the powers of evil.

Stories are afloat (whether themselves true or not matters not, they show what the voice of mankind thinks likely to be true), of hermits in deserts being assaulted by Satan in strange ways, yet resisting the evil one, and chasing him away, after our Lord’s pattern, and in His strength; and, I suppose, if we knew the secret history of men’s minds in any age, we should find this (at least, I think I am not theorizing),—viz. a remarkable union in the case of those who by God’s grace have made advances in holy things … [viz.] a union on the one hand of temptations offered to the mind, and on the other, of the mind’s not being affected by them, not consenting to them, even in momentary acts of the will, but simply hating them, and receiving no harm from them. At least, I can conceive this—and so far persons are evidently brought into fellowship and conformity with Christ’s temptation, who was tempted, yet without sin.

(Reference: John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons Vol 6 (1842) Sermon no. 1, p. 6-8

Monday of the fourteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(July 5) St. Anthony Zaccaria (1502-1539)
At the same time that Martin Luther was attacking abuses in the Church, a reformation within the Church was already being

attempted. Among the early movers of the Counter-Reformation was Anthony Zaccaria. His mother became a widow at 18 and devoted herself to the spiritual education of her son. He received a medical doctorate at 22 and, while working among the poor of his native Cremona in Italy, was attracted to the religious apostolate. He renounced his rights to any future inheritance, worked as a catechist and was ordained a priest at the age of 26. Called to Milan in a few years, he laid the foundations of three religious congregations, one for men and one for women, plus an association of married couples. Their aim was the reform of the decadent society of their day, beginning with the clergy, religious and lay people. Greatly inspired by St. Paul (his congregation is named the Barnabites, after the companion of that saint), Anthony preached with great vigour in church and street, conducted popular missions and was not ashamed of doing public penance. He encouraged such innovations as the collaboration of the laity in the apostolate, frequent Communion, the Forty Hours devotion and the ringing of church bells at 3:00 p.m. on Fridays. His holiness moved many to reform their lives but, as with all saints, it also moved many to oppose him. Twice his community had to undergo official religious investigation, and twice it was exonerated. While on a mission of peace, he became seriously ill and was brought home for a visit to his mother. He died at Cremona at the age of 36. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Hosea 2: 16-18.21-22; Psalm 144; Matthew 9: 18-26

While Jesus was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand

on her, and she will live. Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples. Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed. Jesus turned and saw her. Take heart, daughter, he said, your faith has healed you. And the woman was healed from that moment. When Jesus entered the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, he said, Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep. But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region. (Matthew 9: 18-26)

Objective truth There are so many things in life that are a source of wonder, and yet we barely give them a thought. This is one of the reasons why poetry can be said to be “useful,” because it helps us to appreciate and marvel at things which we so easily take for granted. We take love for granted so very often. We take beautiful scenery for granted — and Wordsworth’s poetry extolling beautiful scenes can help us recapture our appreciation of the beauty of the world. One thing which we routinely take

for granted without much reflection is the fact that we can know things. What is it to know the truth of something? Knowledge, involving both apprehension and judgment, is difficult to define, but it is a remarkable thing. It is quite different from mere awareness which, say, an animal has — though this awareness is remarkable too, especially if we remember that there is nothing spiritual about the animal. Inasmuch as an animal is purely material, matter has the potential for awareness, but not for “knowledge of the truth” as possessed by the human being. I make these passing observations simply to introduce the phenomenon of human knowledge. How vast is the range of human knowledge! Consider the libraries of the world and the civilizations of man — they are a tribute to knowledge of the truth. Now, let us take our Gospel scene today (Matthew 9: 18-26) and consider the two persons who approached our Lord to gain his assistance. We read that “a ruler came and knelt before him and said, My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” There were two things the ruler knew. He knew that his daughter had died, and he knew that if our Lord placed his hand on her, she would live. Both were things he knew. The former he had seen, the latter he believed, but both he knew. The former he knew because of the hard evidence before him of his dead child. The latter, that Christ would raise her up at his touch, he knew because of his faith in Christ’s power.

Faith, then, is a form of certain knowledge which is different from knowledge based on direct observation of hard evidence. The ruler knew our Lord could raise up his daughter because he trusted him completely. This trust was based on very good reasons such as general testimony and even what he may himself have seen our Lord do, but in the last analysis it was a matter of trust. He was not trusting anyone in the matter of the death of his beloved daughter. He had seen that for himself. His faith in Jesus Christ, was, though, knowledge of the truth. It was not, say, just a feeling. Religious faith is not just a religious feeling. It is knowledge of the truth. Or take the second personage who features in our Gospel, the woman who had long been ill. We read that “Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed. Jesus turned and saw her.” There were two things, we might say, this woman had a certain knowledge of. She knew that she had been ill with her terrible complaint for twelve years. She knew this on the basis of her direct observation of the hard evidence. There was something else she had a certain knowledge of, and it was that if she but touched the garment of Jesus, she would be healed. This was a truth she knew for certain, and was just as certain as she was of her sickness itself. But her knowledge of Christ’s ready and complete power was based on faith. Her faith was not just a feeling she had. It was true knowledge of the active power of God present in this man Jesus. She had strong feelings about it, but in the first instance her faith involved knowledge of the truth. Because she had come to know — for good reasons — that Jesus could and would save her, she was healed. “Jesus turned and saw her. Take heart, daughter, he said, your faith has healed you. And the woman was healed.” In the house, the mourners laughed at our Lord — and were put out. The ruler believed, and was rewarded by the gift of his daughter back to life.

The gift of faith is indeed a gift from on high. There are excellent objective reasons for the faith we have in Jesus Christ, but God’s assistance is needed for us to perceive the true and full import of those good grounds that are before us. When Simon Peter professed his faith in our Lord as the Messiah and Son of the Living God, Christ told him that this had been revealed to him by the Father. Simon did not simply have a religious feeling about it. He had sure and certain knowledge of Christ, which others who did not have faith lacked. Our Christian faith gives us real knowledge of great Realities. The objective Truth constitutes religion, and that Truth is Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)

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If you have done something wrong, be it big or small, go running back to God!

—Savour those words of the psalm, cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies — the Lord will never spurn or disregard a contrite and humbled heart.
(The Forge, no.172)

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Surely in vain have we escaped from the superstitions of the middle ages, if the corruptions of a rash and self-trusting philosophy spread over our faith!

JHN, from Plain and Parochial Sermons Vol 3.

Tuesday of the fourteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(July 6) St. Maria Goretti (1890-1902)
One of the largest crowds ever assembled for a canonization—250,000—symbolized the reaction of millions touched by the

simple story of Maria Goretti. She was the daughter of a poor Italian tenant farmer, had no chance to go to school, never learned to read or write. When she made her First

Communion not long before her death at age 12, she was one of the larger and somewhat backward members of the class. On a hot afternoon in July, Maria was sitting at the top of the stairs of her house, mending a shirt. She was not quite 12 years old, but physically mature. A cart stopped outside, and a neighbour, Alessandro, 18 years old, ran up the stairs. He seized her and pulled her into a bedroom. She struggled and tried to call for help. “No, God does not wish it," she cried out. "It is a sin. You would go to hell for it.” Alessandro began striking at her blindly with a long dagger. She was taken to a hospital. Her last hours were marked by the usual simple compassion of the good—concern about where her mother would

sleep, forgiveness of her murderer (she had been in fear of him, but did not say anything lest she cause trouble to his family) and her devout welcoming of Viaticum, her last Holy Communion. She died about 24 hours after the attack. Her murderer was sentenced to 30 years in prison. For a long time he was unrepentant and surly. One night he had a dream or vision of Maria, gathering flowers and offering them to him. His life changed. When he was released after 27 years, his first act was to go to beg the forgiveness of Maria’s mother. Devotion to the young martyr grew, miracles were worked, and in less than half a century she was canonized. At her beatification in 1947, her mother (then 82), two sisters and a brother appeared with Pope Pius XII on the balcony of St. Peter’s. Three years later, at her canonization, a 66-year-old Alessandro Serenelli knelt among the quarter-million people and cried tears of joy. "Even if she had not been a martyr, she would still have been a saint, so holy was her everyday life" (Cardinal Salotti). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Hosea 8: 4-7.11-13; Psalm 113b; Matthew 9: 32-38

While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons. Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. (Matthew 9: 32-38)

No-one like him! Christ once said that a prophet is not without honour except in his own country. There is an old saying that familiarity breeds contempt — a hyperbole that illustrates that we can easily underestimate greatness when we live with it. We read in our passage today that “a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke.” St Matthew describes the event in matter-of-fact fashion, and implies that the

exorcism was an effortless procedure for our Lord. Let us notice, though, the response of the people. “The crowd was amazed and said, Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” In the history of the chosen people, there had been no equal to our Lord’s doings. Matthew, constantly intent on situating our Lord against the backdrop of the Old Testament prophecies, is taking this remark of the crowd and making it his own. One of the features of our Lord’s ministry is the scale of demon-possession that presents itself before him. There is nothing of this in any book of the Old Testament. In fact, in the whole of the Old Testament, Satan appears but rarely. There is the Serpent who tempted Eve at the beginning and who was condemned by God as a result. There is Satan who tests Job. There is no mention of a multitude of demons, nor do the Patriarchs exercise power over them, nor does Moses, nor do the prophets. In the Old Testament Satan is entirely subject to God, and any activity of his is subject to God’s permission. If there is any battle with the demons going on, it is unseen and it is a matter between God and Satan. But from when Christ begins his ministry, the demonic realm is shown to be a kingdom in competition with him. It is as if the confrontation between God and Satan, his far weaker adversary, is now manifested as being a matter between Christ and Satan. As with God, so with Christ, the demons are far the weaker. They angrily scurry before him and pathetically do his bidding. Let us not miss the great point that “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”

For the Christian, the reading of the Old Testament prepares him for the figure of Christ. It provides an emerging profile which is especially consistent with the Person who, in the fullness of time, appeared. It also shows forth his uniqueness. However exalted the teaching of Moses (as in the Book of Deuteronomy, say), that of Christ far exceeds it. As John writes, Moses gave the Law, Jesus Christ brought grace and truth. However soaring the teaching of Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezechiel, or say, Hosea, Jesus Christ surpasses them all. Nothing like him had been seen in Israel. Apart from the content and character of his teaching, he eclipses his predecessors also in the intensity of his prophetic and missionary activity. Our Lord pronounced John the Baptist to be the greatest born of woman, and so as being the greatest of the prophets. But John’s ministry cannot be compared with that of Jesus Christ — even in terms of intense activity. John remained at the river Jordan, and the people came to him. We read in our passage today that “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9: 32-38). Christ sought to reach all, and he founded and built his Church to go to the whole world and make disciples of all the nations. Being a disciple of his is the way to salvation, and the whole world is called to this discipleship. What other prophet attempted such a kingdom? He was setting out to conquer the world, and finally to hand the world over to his Father. The world, as subject to his lordship, was to be his kingdom. Nothing like this had been seen in Israel.

In fact, nothing like this has been seen in the history of the world. Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, is the Lord of lords and King of kings, and to him has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Just as he looked on the harvest ahead of him and wished to make disciples of each and all, so he wishes to make disciples of each one of us. Let us hear his call, then! Let us take our stand by his side as his disciples in real truth, and join with him in calling on all others to believe, and become his disciples in their turn. It is the way to heaven and to life hereafter.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (Matthew 9:32-38)

One's hidden starting points It is an amazing thing that God himself became man and dwelt among his own, and then so

many of his own did not accept him (John 1). In our Gospel scene of today (Matthew 9:32-38), our Lord has just displayed miraculous powers, delivering a dumb person of demon-possession and restoring his speech. The people were rightly amazed. And yet we read that the leaders of the people who were present did not accept him, choosing instead to interpret his power as coming from the prince of devils, from Satan himself. It reminds us of the fundamental importance of a right attitude to Christ and all that he revealed. It is our starting points which largely govern our attitudes and our thoughts, and to establish the right starting points involves a serious struggle. Experience of people makes it clear that a person who lives in the darkness about Christ and his revelation, and who chooses to remain so, has little freedom to change this. There is a certain slavery about it.

So much depends on our hidden assumptions, our basic starting points that can be obscure and out of sight. Let us pray to God to give us the right starting points so that we will be open to his light, and able to bring it to others.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Keep turning this over in your mind and in your soul: Lord, how many times you have lifted me up when I have fallen and once my sins have been forgiven have held me close to your Heart!

Keep returning to the thought... and never separate yourself from Him again.
(The Forge, no.173)

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I trust that all European races will ever have a place in the Church, and assuredly I think that the loss of the English, not to say the German element, in its composition has been a most serious misfortune.

JHN, from Apologia pro Vita Sua (1865), “Position of my Mind since 1845, p. 269.

Wednesday of the fourteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(July 7) Peter ToRot, Martyr (1912-1945)
Peter was born in Rakunai, New Britain, an island off the northeast coast of Papua New Guinea, in 1912. His parents were Angelo To Puia, a village chief, and Maria la Tumul, adult converts who were part of this region's first Catholics. A pious young

man, Peter had an intense prayer life and received Communion daily. At the age of 18, he became a a lay catechist and ministered to the people of his own village. He frequently quoted the Bible and carried it everywhere with him. In 1936, at the age of 24, he married Paula la Varpit, who was also Catholic. The couple had three children: Andrea, who died after the war; a little girl, Rufina La Mama, who is still alive; and the third child (name unknown), who was born soon after Peter's death in 1945 and died a short time later. In 1942, the Japanese invaded the island and arrested all the missionaries and their staff, housing them in concentration camps. Peter continued to lead the village as best as he could, caring for the sick, Baptising and teaching the faithful, helping the poor. He assisted other catechists who were confused by the changes brought about by the Japanese. When the war began to go against them, the Japanese began to repress the locals, banning all forms of worship. They had imagined that the people were praying for the defeat of the Japanese. They tried to get the people to return to their pre-Christian ways, legalizing polygamy. Any resistance to the law was a punishable offence. Peter openly opposed the regulations, and was arrested in 1945 for conducting religious gatherings. Imprisoned in a cave, he was so well known, supported and beloved by those who knew him that he was a source of strength to his people, and of annoyance to his captors. On July 7, 1945, Peter was murdered by his captors and died as a martyr for the faith. Pope John Paul ll beatified Peter in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, on January 17, 1995 declaring the heroic virtue of the devout catechist.
"I am here because of those who broke their marriage vows and because of those who do not want the growth of God's kingdom" (Bl. Peter ToRot, referring to his imprisonment).

Scripture today: Hosea 10: 1-3.7-8.12; Psalm 104; Matthew 10: 1-7

Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' (Matthew 10: 1-7)

The mission There is a fashion that I have commented on before, of referring to Jesus Christ as having begun “the Christian movement.” Some have said that the Ebionites or perhaps the Nazarenes were the true fruit of the work of Jesus. By contrast, there are scholars who regard Paul of Tarsus as being the real founder of Christianity, re-inventing the person and mission of Jesus Christ and giving to it the makings of a world religion. These distortions are the fruit of the rejection of dogma which, as Newman pointed out, is essential to Christianity. Christ began a structured institution with the power to develop in

accord with its divinely-endowed constitution. He would be with it as its living head to the end of the world. He called it his “Church,” and in the person of Simon Peter, its appointed rock and pastor, he gave to it the keys to the kingdom of God which he was establishing. Moreover, this intent became manifest from the outset. Immediately after our Lord’s baptism he recruited chosen disciples. Follow me, he said to Philip, who in turn brought to him another, one in whom there was “no guile.” Our Lord attracted great numbers, but he also sought out his disciples because he had a great mission ahead of him. We remember the rich young man whom he invited to leave all and to follow him. As we read in our Gospel today, he appointed twelve to be the foundation. Moreover, his Church had a stupendous mission with specific stages. While in our gospel today our Lord directs his Apostles to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel,” they would soon be directed to go to the whole world. John the Baptist alluded to this world-wide dimension when Jesus came for his baptism. Jesus was the one who would take away the sin of the “world.” Christ himself said that he was the “light of the world.” He said that when he was lifted up he would draw “all men” to himself. Risen from the dead, he told his disciples that they were to go to “the whole world” and make disciples of “all the nations.” Those who believed in him and his teaching as it came from the mouth of the Apostles would be saved. He was establishing not a mere movement but a very concrete, world-wide and eternal kingdom.

It is a plain understatement to observe that this was an extraordinary project. It was breathtaking. On our Lord’s ascension into heaven, the disciples, and the Twelve in particular, found themselves with a mission like no other. Alexander had led his troops to the end of what they thought to be the known world — into Afghanistan and beyond the Indus. He finally halted near the Ganges River and because of a near revolt of his troops, headed back. The following century Carthage and then Rome began their expansions, Rome even reaching Britain — but it too called its halt at the borders of the countless Germanic and Scythian tribes. Jesus Christ founded a kingdom he meant to conquer the world. His disciples were to go to the whole world, and make disciples of all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem. He, unseen, would be at the head. But now, look at his troops. They were ordinary men. Look at his supreme commander, the one with power to bind and loose, and who carried in his hands the keys to the kingdom. They were not dazzling generals, but seemingly ordinary persons. In this respect, let us notice one detail in the list of the Twelve that Matthew gives. It concerns himself — he is “Matthew the tax-collector.” Matthew is saying, yes, I was chosen to be one of the Twelve, a Patriarch of the new People, the new Kingdom. But look at me — I was a mere tax-collector, a person of poor repute. He is the only person in the list whose occupation is given. His description of himself is followed by the open mention of the greatest shame of all, that of “Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” The power behind the Institution was unseen. The One who would give the increase, the One who would bring forth the fruit, was the King of kings and Lord of lords, the one to whom had been given all authority in heaven and on earth. It is in him that the Twelve listed in our passage today would place all their trust in the prosecution of their unique and amazingly ambitious mission. Our Gospel passage today (Matthew 10: 1-7) is both soaring in its goals and consoling in its assurance.

Let us be spiritually regaled by the thought of the high mission into which, as baptized disciples of Jesus Christ, we have been drawn. I remember one newly-consecrated bishop publicly saying that his new mission was exciting. Our daily mission on behalf of Jesus Christ is exciting. At the same time it is utterly and completely beyond us — if we regard ourselves as alone. But while this is impossible to man, all things are possible to God. Jesus Christ is our head, and he leads the mission by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us fight with him then, and never lose heart!
(E.J.Tyler)

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You see yourself as a poor man whose master has stripped him of his livery. You are only a sinner! And you understand the nakedness felt by our first parents.

—You should be weeping all the time. And you have wept. You have suffered a great deal. And yet you are very happy. You wouldn’t change places with anyone. For many years now you have not lost your gaudium cum pace — your peaceful joy. You thank God for this and would like to let everyone into the secret of your happiness.

—Yes, I can see why people have often said of you — though you couldn’t care less about “what people say” — that you are “a man of peace”.
(The Forge, no.174)

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As the world around varies, so varies also, not the principles of the doctrine of Christ, but the outward shape and colour which they assume.

JHN, from “Oxford University Sermons” (1871), Sermon 14, p. 285

Thursday of the fourteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(July 7) Blessed Emmanuel Ruiz and Companions (1804-1860)
Not much is known of the early life of Emmanuel Ruiz, but details of his heroic death in defence of the faith have come down to us. Born of humble parents in Santander, Spain, he became a Franciscan priest and served as a missionary in Damascus. This was at a time when anti-Christian riots shook Syria and thousands lost their lives in just a short time. Among these were Emmanuel, superior of the Franciscan convent, seven other friars and three laymen. When a menacing crowd came looking for the men, they refused to renounce their faith and become Muslims. The men were subjected to horrible tortures before their martyrdom. Emmanuel, his brother Franciscans and the three Maronite laymen were beatified in 1926 by Pope Pius XI. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Hosea 11: 1-4.8-9; Psalm 79; Matthew 10: 7-15

Jesus said to his apostles, As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse

those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. (Matthew 10: 7-15)

No gold or silver It is said that when Joseph Stalin was told that Pope Pius XII opposed his policies and, indeed, communism itself, he contemptuously replied, “and how many divisions has the Pope?” During the Second World War, through skilful restraint Pius XII maintained the power of papal prestige and was able to assist numerous hunted individuals. Nevertheless he was at the mercy of any sudden German intervention. He had, of course, no “divisions.” Hitler was planning to arrest him and

occupy the Vatican, and he could easily have done this had he not been persuaded from doing so by advisers who were on the spot. In February 1798, French General Berthier marched into Rome and seized the Pope, who died away from Rome not long after. Pius VII excommunicated Bonaparte. He was then arrested, taken elsewhere and kept in confinement for some six years till Napoleon’s plummet and crash. All of this illustrates the directions our Lord gave to his Apostles in our Gospel passage today (Matthew 10: 7-15), as he sent them ahead to preach that the kingdom of heaven was near. “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep.” Christ was sending them out as his warriors, warriors of the kingdom. But they were being given no gold or silver or copper, no bag or extra tunic — in a word, no worldly weapons to advance the kingdom. All they had was his word and his presence with them. That was enough, and the method of victory was to be the Cross. They were to take up their cross every day and follow in the footsteps of the Master — and he had seemingly been defeated! At the end of all his efforts, Christ hung dead on the Cross outside Jerusalem. The weapon of the Master was obedience amid suffering, bearing witness to the truth amid rejection, acceptance of the Cross amid seeming abandonment by God and man. The path to victory for the King of kings is poverty of worldly means and apparent defeat by enemies. But it is precisely this that leads to glory and victory.

It is essential for the triumph of God’s kingdom that Christ’s disciples be patient in the apparent poverty of their means. On September 12, 2006, in the academic quiet of the German University of Regensburg, Pope Benedict gives a profound lecture on the importance of reason in religious faith. Faith and reason are interdependent, and in his works God is rational. The most distinguished department of rhetoric in Germany, at Turbingen, later gives to this address the award of “Address of the Year” in German. But Islam is in flames at the Pope’s passing citation of a mediaeval dialogue and the Pope is left alone amid all the thunder. He has no divisions, only the Cross of Christ. He endures it patiently, and emerges with representatives of Islam at the table seeking regular dialogue with the Church — and that is set in place as a bi-annual event. There is a pattern in the Church’s most authentic work. It is that if the word of Christ is to be obeyed and if his path is to be followed, the Cross will be the sword and shield to be used. That is the weapon the Master bore, and that is the weapon his disciples will be given. The temptation will be to let such weapons fall from the hand and to seize other weapons, the weapons of the world — praise, honour, convenience, wealth. The Christian must understand the way of Christ and be patient amid the difficulty that constitutes this way. In the famous Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius there is a Meditation entitled "The Two Standards" (De Dos Banderas). The one doing the retreat is asked to imagine a great field in the region of Jerusalem and in that field is the supreme Captain (el summo Capitan), Jesus Christ. Then the retreatant is asked to imagine a field in the region of Babylon where there is standing in his splendour the other great leader, Lucifer. Lucifer speaks to his minions, commanding that they tempt all with the prospect of riches and honours — and in a word, pride. Jesus Christ speaks, and the path of his followers is to be spiritual poverty, actual poverty and humiliations. In a word, to use Stalin’s expression, there are to be no worldly divisions. Victory will come from carrying the Cross.

The characteristic path of the Christian is that there is to be no “gold or silver or copper in your belts .... no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff.” Of course, these words of Christ applied to a very specific situation of the disciples whom he was sending out ahead of him during his public ministry. But they are symbolic of the deeper reliance on Christ and his word rather than on the means that the world regards so highly. We must use the things of the world in accord with God’s will and our particular vocation, but in and through it all, our true support is the presence, the power and the grace of Christ. Without this, all the other is nothing at all.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection (Hosea 11: 1-4.8-9)

Our loving and holy God At times it has been said that the God of the Old Testament is a God of punishment, judgment and anger at sin. Whereas, it is claimed, the God of the New Testament is a God of love, tenderness and mercy. But we have only to read some passages of the prophet Hosea (11:1-4.8-9) to see how simplistic such a statement is. In this passage God speaks of himself as a father full of love for Israel his child. He hates the thought of being angry at his child and punishing it, "for I am God, not man." He characterises his holiness as a holiness of love: "I am the Holy One in your midst and have no wish to destroy."

All this is more fully revealed in the New Testament. Let us approach God as the one who is holy and who loves us tenderly, while at the same time, in our dealings with others, bearing witness to His loving and holy mercy.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Some people do only what lies within the capacity of poor human creatures to accomplish, and consequently waste their time. What Peter experienced is repeated once more, word for word: Praeceptor, per totam noctem laborantes nihil cepimus. —

Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing.

If they work on their own, without being united with the Church, not reckoning with the Church, what possible effectiveness could their apostolate have? None at all!

—They need to be convinced that on their own they can achieve nothing. You should help them to go on listening to the rest of that Gospel story: in verbo autem tuo laxabo rete — at your word I will let down the net. It is then that the catch will be plentiful and effective.

—How beautiful it is to mend our ways when we find we have, for whatever reason, done apostolate on our own account!
(The Forge, no.175)

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Think a moment: what is it to me what people think of me a hundred miles off, compared with what they think of me at home?

It is nothing to me what the four ends of the world think of me; I care nought for the British Empire more than for the Celestial in this matter, provided I can be sure what Birmingham thinks of me. The question, I say, is, What does Birmingham think of me? and if I have a satisfactory answer to that, I can bear to be without a satisfactory answer about any other town or district in England. This is a great principle to keep in view.

JHN, from Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England Lecture 9., “Duties of Catholics Towards the Protestant View”, p. 380

Friday of the fourteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(July 8) St. Gregory Grassi and Companions (d. 1900)
Christian missionaries have often gotten caught in the crossfire of wars against their own countries. When the governments of Britain, Germany, Russia and France forced substantial territorial concessions from the Chinese in 1898, anti-foreign sentiment grew very strong among many Chinese people. Gregory Grassi was born in Italy in 1833, ordained in 1856 and sent to China five years later. Gregory was later ordained Bishop of North Shanxi. With 14 other European missionaries and 14 Chinese religious, he was martyred during the short but bloody Boxer Uprising of 1900. Twenty-six of these martyrs were arrested on the orders of Yu Hsien, the governor of Shanxi province. They were hacked to death on July 9, 1900. Five of them were Friars Minor; seven were Franciscan Missionaries of Mary — the first martyrs of their congregation. Seven were Chinese seminarians and Secular Franciscans; four martyrs were Chinese laymen and Secular Franciscans. The other three Chinese laymen killed in Shanxi simply worked for the Franciscans and were rounded up with all the others. Three Italian Franciscans were martyred that same week in the province of Hunan. All these martyrs were beatified in 1946.
Martyrdom is the occupational hazard of missionaries. Throughout China during the Boxer Uprising, five bishops, 50 priests, two brothers, 15 sisters and 40,000 Chinese Christians were killed. The 146,575 Catholics served by the Franciscans in China in 1906 had grown to 303,760 by 1924 and were served by 282 Franciscans and 174 local priests. Great sacrifices often bring great results. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Hosea 14: 2-10; Psalm 50; Matthew 10: 16-23

Jesus said to his Apostles, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as

doves. Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. (Matthew 10: 16-23)

Difficulty When a company, university, government agency or department, or a corporation in society sets out to gain a big share of the market, it seeks the right people to do it. It advertises attractive pay and conditions and hopes to entice the best applicants. It does not blazon before all viewers the downside elements of the position — the stress, the precarious nature of the position if there is not a notable performance, and so forth. In fact, the successful applicant may be disappointed in what it turns

out to be. In July 2005, after an extensive search by Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications company, Solomon Trujillo was appointed its chief executive with a salary of millions plus bonuses. There were high hopes and Sol Trujillo exuded confidence on his arrival from the United States. During the period of his tenure, Telstra's share price underperformed the market by around twenty percent, losing over $25 billion in value while customer complaints rose 300 percent. Major factors in the company's share price decline were the global financial crisis of 2008–2009 and being disqualified for submitting a non-compliant bid to the National Broadband Network tender issued by the Rudd Government. Four years into his appointment, Trujillo resigned and returned to the U.S., embittered. The point I am making is that the position involved great difficulty, and of course nothing of this was included in the job description because, probably, no-one foresaw it. Even if it had been foreseen, it would probably have been played down in order to get the best man. I have seen a similar lack of clarity as to difficulties and sacrifice in some programmes promoting vocations to the priesthood and religious life. But what does our Lord say to his Apostles about their involvement in his mission? “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles” (Matthew 10: 16-23). It will be a very difficult work.

This point should be borne in mind at the very outset of the Christian life. A non-Christian thinking of becoming a Christian ought be helped to see clearly that Christ does not call disciples to a soothing and comfortable life. There will be difficulty and trouble, and he himself is the exemplar. We read in Mark 8:34 that Jesus called the crowds to him together with his disciples — the crowds, and not just his disciples! — and told them plainly that “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Did Socrates or Aristotle say such a thing to their disciples? We do not read in the book of Isaiah of that prophet saying this to his disciples, nor do we read of John the Baptist saying this to his disciples. We do not read of Mahomet saying this to his followers, nor Buddha to his — in fact, Buddha’s way was towards freedom from suffering. Our Lord makes it plain that difficulty and suffering is at the heart of the following of him. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means carrying the cross, and all knew, and had seen what carrying the cross meant. This point would seem to be almost unique to Jesus Christ. Suffering is the terrible burden of man and it is the cause of much rebellion against God — just as rebellion against God was its primordial cause. But Jesus Christ has made suffering — that suffering that is associated with love for him and obedience to God — central to his way. There is no avoiding the issue of difficulty: “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another.” There is one glorious element in this, and it is the constant assistance of the Spirit of God. “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that it was by the power of the Spirit that Christ offered himself as a victim on the Cross. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we shall do this too.

Let us ask the Holy Spirit, who is the Lord and Giver of life, to enable us to embrace the true way of Jesus Christ. That way is the way of the Cross. Somehow we must learn this, and it requires the grace of God. It is the true Christian mind, the mind of Jesus Christ which St Paul exhorts us to make our own. Let us begin by considering it. Let us pray to be able to appreciate it. Then let us set out on the path, accepting with gratitude the crosses that come our way and asking the Holy Spirit to guide us, to speak through us, and to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: Matthew 10:16-23

Witnessing to Jesus We often hear it said — or we should often hear it said — that all of Christ's faithful are called to bear effective witness to the faith. This is a serious duty of the laity, and an essential component of being a "good Catholic". Yet so often we do not wish to do this. What is behind this reluctance? One reason is the seeming difficulty of the task in a very secular culture and society where religion is regarded as a strictly personal matter. So it is difficult. We can admit that, and our Lord often describes the difficulties that his own disciples will face in bearing witness to him, in their day and age. They were going out like sheep among wolves.

But whatever be the difficulties in giving effective witness to Jesus, there is one great help that our Lord promises. It is the active involvement of the Holy Spirit: "it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you." This active involvement of the Holy Spirit in the witnessing work of the Church's members is described in the Acts of the Apostles. This brief book describes the beginning of a 300 year process which culminated in the victory of the Faith over the Roman Empire. The Holy Spirit was the primary agent in this process. Let us, then, depend on the Holy Spirit in the daily witness to Jesus that we are all called to give.
(E.J.Tyler)

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It was you who wrote what I am now copying out: “Domine, tu scis quia amo te! — Lord, you know that I love you! How very often, Jesus, I repeat again and again those words your dear Cephas uttered, as a bitter—sweet litany. For I know that I love you, and yet I am so very unsure of myself that I cannot bring myself to say it to you clearly. There are so many denials in my wicked life. Tu scis, Domine! — You know that I love you! — May my actions, Jesus, never go against these yearnings of my heart.”

—Keep up this prayer of yours and he will certainly hear you.
(The Forge, no.176)

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True faith is not shown here below in peace, but rather in conflict; and it is no proof that a man is not in a state of grace that he continually sins, provided such sins do not remain on him as what I may call ultimate results, but are ever passing on into something beyond and unlike themselves, into truth and righteousness.

JHN, from “Plain and Parochial Sermons” vol. V, Sermon 15.

Saturday of the fourteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(July 10) St. Veronica Giuliani (1660-1727)
Veronica’s desire to be like Christ crucified was answered with the stigmata. Veronica was born in Mercatelli. It is said that when

her mother Benedetta was dying she called her five daughters to her bedside and entrusted each of them to one of the five wounds of Jesus. Veronica was entrusted to the wound below Christ’s heart. At the age of 17, Veronica joined the Poor Clares directed by the Capuchins. Her father had wanted her to marry, but she convinced him to allow her to become a nun. In her first years in the monastery, she worked in the kitchen, infirmary, sacristy and served as portress. At the age of 34, she was made novice mistress, a position she held for 22 years. When she was 37, Veronica received the stigmata. Life was not the same after that. Church authorities in Rome wanted to test Veronica’s authenticity and so conducted an investigation. She lost the office of novice mistress temporarily and was not allowed to attend Mass except on Sundays or holy days. Through all of this Veronica did not become bitter, and the investigation eventually restored her as novice mistress. Though she protested against it, at the age of 56 she was elected abbess, an office she held for 11 years until her death. Veronica was very devoted to the Eucharist and to the Sacred Heart. She offered her sufferings for the missions. Veronica was canonized in 1839. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Isaiah 6: 1-8; Psalm 92; Matthew 10: 24-33

A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household! So

do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. (Matthew 10: 24-33)

Fear In his book, Anglicanism, the Anglican bishop Stephen Neill asks “how it came about that the King (Henry VIII) met with so little resolute opposition in the carrying out of his plans.” Neill is referring to Henry’s break with Rome and his self-appointment as head of the Church in England. Sir Thomas More who, Neill writes, “was one of the greatest men and greatest Christians of his day,” was one of the few who resisted. The first reason for the lack of resistance, Neill writes, was “the plain

fact that Henry was a resolute and dangerous person” (Pelican, p.43). That is to say, it was fear of the power of the sovereign which — together with other factors — brought such a change to the religion of the nation. The king determined to break from Rome above all because of the “great matter” of his marriage, and fear of him led to acquiescence. Fear is a powerful force in the shaping of the world and rightly so, because it is an essential element in the preservation of life. Everywhere in vegetative life, part and parcel of growth is the development of mechanisms of protection. Fear is manifest in the animal world: the turtle develops its powerful shell, and at the first intimation of danger, from fear it retreats into its own shell. There it is safe against the predator. Fear of threats is everywhere among insects, animals, birds, all. It is the response that protects the animal at risk. If it had no fear, its physical life would be destroyed. Fear also protects the life of man, but in his case there are various dimensions of life. There is his physical life, his intellectual life, his moral life, his spiritual life. There is his life here on earth and there is his life in the world to come. He has the power to perceive what is of lasting and supreme importance, and to determine the threats to his eternal life and happiness. If he has sufficient perception, he will understand that a threat to his physical life is a grave thing indeed, but far graver is the threat to his eternal life. That threat comes from turning from God. Thomas More feared the threat to physical life, but he did not allow it to turn him from God.

At various times in the Gospels our Lord exhorts his disciples not to fear in the sense of allowing their fear to master them. On one occasion they were alone in the boat on the Sea of Galilee, and it was a heavy sea. He came to them across the water, and they were terrified. He said, Do not fear! It is I! The fact is that fear can prevent us from doing what is right, and can lead us into doing what is wrong, even what is gravely wrong. When Herod Antipas threw his great birthday party and invited the important people of Galilee to it, the daughter of Herodias danced in superb fashion. She caught the imagination of Herod and of his guests. Ask me whatever you wish, he bawled out. She made her horrendous request, and it was fear that led Herod to accede to it. He feared what his guests might think of him if he did not. So one of the holiest personages in the history of the chosen people was cut down and it was because of fear. Later, it was our Lord’s turn. Pilate was for setting Christ free, just as Herod was for leaving John imprisoned. But as with Herod, so with Pilate, it was because of fear that he handed Jesus over to be crucified. He feared the reports that might reach Caesar of a turbulent and disturbed province, and of allowing to go free one whom the religious leaders accused of sedition. Pilate feared, and the result of his fear was the greatest misdeed of all time. God the Son made man was executed because of lies, which Pilate himself perceived quite clearly. He could see that it was only because of jealousy that the leaders had handed him over. The night before, Simon Peter had denied knowing our Lord three times. It was because of fear. Our Lord, during his public ministry, had mounting threats all around him, but he did not accede to fear. In the Garden of Gethsemane he implored his heavenly Father to let the cup of suffering pass from him — but only his will be done. He sweated blood for fear. But he did not give in to fear. He controlled it, and surrendered himself to the Father. Christ is the exemplar for mankind of what to do about fear in the doing of what is right.

We can overcome our fear if we keep our sight on the higher reward. As I have mentioned before, as Thomas More approached the scaffold, he said, Even if I lose my head, I’ll come to no harm! He had before him the blessings to come. When the Duke of Norfolk remarked to More that the anger of the king is death (Indignatio principis mors est), More replied that “Is that all, my lord? ... Then in good faith there is no more difference between your grace and me, but that I shall die today, and you tomorrow.” Let us every day keep our sights on the Last Things: death, the divine judgment, and heaven or hell.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection (Matthew 10:24-33)

God's Judgment It is surely not difficult to realise the importance of God's judgment, if we understand that the stakes are

eternal. Life is short and eternity is long, and eternity will be spent in heaven or in hell. Even in heaven, it is a bracing thought that there are higher and lower places in heaven. It is worth gaining a higher place if we shall be there forever. God's judgment is the great event that is to come. It is unavoidable and all-important. There are many things that bear on our judgment by God, and our Lord tells us of one of them in our Gospel today (Matthew 10:24-33). It is the work of bearing witness to him in everyday life. According as we speak about our Lord before others, so will he speak about us before his heavenly Father: "If anyone declares himself before me in the presence of men, I will declare myself before him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven."

Just as the thought of a judgment can exercise the mind wonderfully, so can this stark warning about witnessing to Jesus. Leading an apostolic life in word and deed will make a difference to our eternity. We have our Lord’s word for it.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Repeat this with confidence: Lord, if only my tears had been contrite!

—Ask him humbly to grant you the sorrow you desire.
(The Forge, no.177)

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To see truly the cost and misery of sinning, we must quit the public haunts of business and pleasure, and be able, like the Angels, to see the tears shed in secret.

JHN, from Oxford University Sermons (1871), Sermon 6, p. 115

Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time C

Prayers today: In my justice I shall see your face, O Lord; when your glory appears, my joy will be full (Psalm 16: 15)

God our Father, your light of truth guides us to the way of Christ. May all who follow him reject what is contrary to the Gospel. We ask this through Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

(July 11) St. Benedict (480?-543)
It is unfortunate that no contemporary biography was written of a man who has exercised the greatest influence on monasticism in the West. Benedict is well recognized in the later Dialogues of St. Gregory, but these are sketches to illustrate

miraculous elements of his career. Benedict was born of a distinguished family in central Italy, studied at Rome and early in life was drawn to the monastic life. At first he became a hermit, leaving a depressing world—pagan armies on the march, the Church torn by schism, people suffering from war, morality at a low ebb. He soon realized that he could not live a hidden life in a small town any better than in a large city, so he withdrew to a cave high in the mountains for three years. Some monks chose him as their leader for a while, but found his strictness not to their taste. Still, the shift from hermit to community life had begun for him. He had an idea of gathering various families of monks into one “Grand Monastery” to give them the benefit of unity, fraternity, permanent worship in one house. Finally he began to build what was to become one of the most famous monasteries in the world—Monte Cassino, commanding three narrow valleys running toward the mountains north of Naples. The Rule that gradually developed prescribed a life of liturgical prayer, study, manual labour and living together in community under a common father (abbot). Benedictine asceticism is known for its moderation, and Benedictine charity has always shown concern for the people in the surrounding countryside. In the course of the Middle Ages, all monasticism in the West was gradually brought under the Rule of St. Benedict. Today the Benedictine family is represented by two branches: the Benedictine Federation and the Cistercians. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Deuteronomy 30: 10-14; Psalm 18; Colossians 1: 15-20; Luke 10: 25-37

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the Law? he replied. How do you read it? He answered: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' You have answered correctly,

Jesus replied. Do this and you will live. But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbour? In reply Jesus said: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, The one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, Go and do likewise. (Luke 10: 25-37)

Sanctity ‘Master’, the lawyer asked our Lord, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ The answer is daunting, even overwhelming. But if we remember the grace our Lord has won for us, it is a thrilling challenge for every day. ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.’ Do this, He says, and life is yours (Luke 10: 25-37). If our Lord says ‘do this,’ then the doing of it must be possible. It

can be done. Of course, we cannot possibly do this of ourselves. But the good news of the Gospel is that Christ has won the grace for us that makes this possible. Due to the merits and the work of our Saviour, the Holy Spirit has been given to us at our Baptism and our Confirmation, and by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Jesus and of the Father, we can aim to do what God has actually commanded us to do. God has commanded that we love Him with our whole being, and to show this love by doing his will and loving our neighbour for love of him. We do this by fulfilling our life’s duties as well as we can, for him. That is to say, God has made it possible for us to seek to be hidden, humble, unknown saints. This gives to the life of each an immense dignity. Whoever we might be, however humble, however unknown or seemingly insignificant, and whatever might be our failures as others might consider them, we, all of us, have been entrusted with a great work for each and every day. That work is to love God as perfectly as we can. We may not have the talents or the opportunity, or the favourable circumstances to get to the top of our profession, but all of us have this great task, which is to love God with our whole being. When we appear before the judgment seat of God, we shall all be sitting for the same test, the test of personal holiness. God is not going to ask why did you not become the general manager of your company, or why did you not reach a six figure salary. He will want to know why you did not love Him as much as He commanded you to love Him. He will want to know why you did not even try to love him with your whole being, and why you chose to love other things instead.

That is our common calling, and we should cherish this calling as we would an immense privilege. For a great many people, their profession or work in life is their pride. Our pride ought be the calling we have received to love God with our whole heart. That is our first and foremost work in life. We should love this calling we have, and cultivate our sense of it. Our common vocation is to be holy. We should desire to love God with all our hearts, and we should cultivate this desire, preserve it and protect it, and make it a truly great desire, a desire that grows greater and greater as the days of our life pass. It is said that the sister of St Thomas Aquinas asked her brother how one becomes a saint. He is said to have replied: Really want it! We ought grow in a great desire for holiness, for this is what God desires for us more than anything else. The desire should be greatest at the moment of our death when we surrender ourselves into the hands of the One we have come to love. The test will always be our readiness to do God’s will. Death itself, and the acceptance of it, will be the greatest test of our love, and it will be the manifestation of our love. For that reason our death will constitute our greatest challenge and opportunity in life. It was the supreme moment of our Lord’s life, and we ought regard it as the supreme moment of ours. St Alphonsus once wrote that “if during life we have embraced everything as coming from God’s hands, and if at death we embrace death in fulfillment of God’s holy will, we shall certainly save our souls and die the death of saints.....Let us then abandon everything to God’s good pleasure, because being infinitely wise, he knows what is best for us” (Conformity To God's Will, no.4). Amid great sufferings, we shall die in joy. What a wonderful thing it is to die in the way God wants, namely in perfect obedience to him and with perfect love for him. God wants us to love him with all our heart and all our being, and we show him this love by striving to conform to his will as perfectly as possible. This is the great work of every single day, and especially at the hour of our death. It is the work of now, today, tomorrow, right to the end. For this reason in the Hail Mary we pray to Mary, that she will pray for us now, now, and at the hour of our death.

So then, let us decide — and it must be a personal decision renewed daily in our morning offering — to make holiness the quest of our life. It is God’s command. The means to do this is obedience to his holy will. Obedience to the will of God is the test of love for Him. This is expressed in the loving fulfilment of the daily duties of one’s state in life. Let us make that our daily goal.
                                                              (E.J.Tyler)

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A second reflection   (Luke 10:25-37)

Christ the Good Samaritan      In our Gospel passage today a lawyer asks our Lord what he must do to inherit eternal life, and Christ asks in his turn, “What is written in the law?” The lawyer replies, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” “You have answered right,” says Jesus (Luke 10:25-37). That command of the Law provides us with a revelation of Jesus Christ. “I have come to fulfil the

Law and the Prophets,” our Lord says elsewhere. The command of the Mosaic Law is fulfilled in our Lord’s own person. The lawyer continues, “And who is my neighbour?” Once again, our Lord’s answer, in which he describes the Good Samaritan, gives us a revelation of himself. “A man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of brigands; they took all he had, beat him and then made off, leaving him half dead.” That man who was left half dead is a picture of every man and woman, and of the human race lured into sin by Satan. It is left half dead in sin. Adam fell from original grace and in him we all fell, being subject, as St Paul says, to the power of sin and of death. Of ourselves, we are profoundly wounded by our own sins. Nothing and no-one can help us but God, and this he did with astounding generosity. He sent his Son to be our Good Samaritan. Contemplate the Good Samaritan of the parable — his gentleness and attention to the detail of the battered person’s needs. “He went up and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He then lifted him on to his own mount, carried him to the inn and looked after him.” He helped this person at the personal cost of his time and money: The next day he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper. “Look after him,” he said “and on my way back I will make good any extra expense.” The Good Samaritan is a symbol of our Lord himself and all that he has done for us, his tenderness and attention to the detail of our needs, especially our spiritual needs.

The Good Samaritan was a foreigner to the one left half dead. He could not be expected to put himself out very greatly. But he did. Who would have expected God to put himself out at great personal cost to himself in order to rehabilitate his creatures, who through their own fault had squandered and dissipated his gifts? Inasmuch as, in the words of St Paul in the second reading from Colossians, Christ Jesus is the image of the unseen God, the Good Samaritan is not only a symbol of Christ our Redeemer, but also an image of the Father who constantly tends our wounds. In a different passage, our Lord describes the Father as the vinedresser, Christ himself as the vine, and we as the branches. The vinedresser is continually tending us who are the branches in order to make us bear good fruit, fruit that will last. Both Christ and the Father look after us constantly. Not only do our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel tell us of himself and the Father, but they throw light on our condition as sinners. They also indicate the path we are to follow. The Good Samaritan is a pre-eminent inspiration for our daily behaviour and life. Like Christ, like God our Father, we in our turn are to be a gentle and sensitive neighbour to all those whom we see to be in need. One of the most beautiful of modern papal Encyclicals was the second one that Pope John Paul II wrote some two years into his papacy. It is entitled, God Rich in Mercy. It was an exposition of the mercy of God, that mercy which the Good Samaritan portrays. In that Encyclical the pope wrote that all members of the Church are to bear witness to the mercy of God by the mercy they constantly show to those in need. The Good Samaritan is a model for each member of Christ’s faithful, and a model for the entire Church. It is also a model for all of society. Years ago I knew a member of the Social Sciences department of Sydney University who chose to do his PhD on the figure of the Good Samaritan as a model for social service institutions in society at large. Indirectly he was taking Jesus Christ as the model for social action in society.

Let us think of the needs of our fellow man: his need for friendship, his need for a holy example of Christian living, his material needs, all his needs and most especially his spiritual needs. Man needs God above all. God, the Creator of the universe, is the Good Samaritan — he is a true Gentleman. Christ is the image of the living God, the Good Samaritan of mankind. By the power of the Holy Spirit let us resolve to be Good Samaritans to those in need everywhere.
(E.J.Tyler)

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How villainous has been my behaviour and how unfaithful I have been to God’s grace!

—My Mother, Refuge of sinners, pray for me. May I never again hinder God’s work in my soul.
(The Forge, no.178)

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In 1831, John Henry Newman reflected in his sermon ‘Secrecy and Suddenness of Divine Visitations’ on what the Gospel episode, in which Christ is brought to the temple by the Blessed Virgin and St Joseph, tells us about God’s dealing with mankind:

I say, we are today reminded of the noiseless course of God’s providence,—His tranquil accomplishment, in the course of nature, of great events long designed; and again, of the suddenness and stillness of His visitations. Consider what the occurrence in question consists in. A little child is brought to the Temple, as all first-born children were brought. There is nothing here

uncommon or striking, so far. His parents are with him, poor people, bringing the offering of pigeons or doves, for the purification of the mother. They are met in the Temple by an old man, who takes the child in his arms, offers a thanksgiving to God, and blesses the parents; and next are joined by a woman of a great age, a widow of eighty-four years, who had exceeded the time of useful service, and seemed to be but a fit prey for death. She gives thanks also, and speaks concerning the child to other persons who are present. Then all retire.

Now, there is evidently nothing great or impressive in this; nothing to excite the feelings, or interest the imagination. We know what the world thinks of such a group as I have described. The weak and helpless, whether from age or infancy, it looks upon negligently and passes by. Yet all this that happened was really the solemn fulfilment of an ancient and emphatic prophecy. The infant in arms was the Saviour of the world, the rightful heir, come in disguise of a stranger to visit His own house. The Scripture had said, “The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His Temple: but who may abide the day of His coming, and who may stand when He appeareth?” [Mal. 3: 1] He had now taken possession. …

Such has ever been the manner of His visitations, in the destruction of His enemies as well as in the deliverance of His own people;—silent, sudden, unforeseen, as regards the world, though predicted in the face of all men, and in their measure comprehended and waited for by His true Church. …

And it is impossible that it should be otherwise, in spite of warnings ever so clear, considering how the world goes on in every age. Men, who are plunged in the pursuits of active life, are no judges of its course and tendency on the whole. They confuse great events with little, and measure the importance of objects, as in perspective, by the mere standard of nearness or remoteness. It is only at a distance that one can take in the outlines and features of a whole country. It is but holy Daniel, solitary among princes, or Elijah the recluse of Mount Carmel, who can withstand [the pagan god] Baal, or forecast the time of God’s providences among the nations.

(Reference: John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons Vol 2 (1835) Sermon no. 10, p. 109-112)

Monday of the fifteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(July 12) Saints John Jones (c. 1530-1598) and John Wall (1620-1679)
These two friars were martyred in England in the 16th and 17th centuries for refusing to deny their faith. John Jones was Welsh. He was ordained a diocesan priest and was twice imprisoned for administering the sacraments before leaving England in 1590. He joined the Franciscans at the age of 60 and returned to England three years later while Queen Elizabeth I was at the height of her power. John ministered to Catholics in the English countryside until his imprisonment in 1596. He was condemned to be hanged, drawn and quartered. John was executed on July 12, 1598. John Wall was born in England but was educated at the English College of Douai, Belgium. Ordained in Rome in 1648, he entered the Franciscans in Douai several years later. In 1656 he returned to work secretly in England. In 1678 Titus Oates worked many English people into a frenzy over an alleged papal plot to murder the king and restore Catholicism in that country. In that year Catholics were legally excluded from Parliament, a law which was not repealed until 1829. John Wall was arrested and imprisoned in 1678 and was executed the following year. John Jones and John Wall were canonized in 1970. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Isaiah 1: 10-17; Psalm 49; Matthew 10: 34-11:1

Jesus said, Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man's

enemies will be the members of his own household.' Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward. After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. (Matthew 10:34-11:1)

Christ above all Let us take any one of our Lord’s predecessors in the prophetic tradition of the chosen people. Let us ask if that prophet, holy man or inspired leader would expect what our Lord expects of his disciples in our Gospel passage today. Our Lord states that “anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Our

Lord plainly affirms that he is worthier far than any other person in our lives, more so than anyone we would naturally love, anyone who has the greatest natural claims on us. No-one in all the Scriptures made such claims. Consider Abraham or any of the patriarchs. The woman whom our Lord met at the Well of Sichar referred to “our father Jacob” (John 4:12) and asked if he, Jesus, were greater than he. Consider Moses, David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah and the other great prophets. They had their disciples — Isaiah directs that the record of his words of prophecy be folded and his sealed instruction be kept among his disciples (8:16). But none of them would have demanded the devotion to his person that Jesus Christ requires. Our Lord expects full acceptance of his teaching and total acceptance of his person, and this because he is worthy of it. Anyone who does not give this, is not worthy of him. He does not come simply bearing the fullest revelation of God’s plan. His divine Message is not the only blessing he brings. He brings himself, and in his very Person we are granted every heavenly blessing, as St Paul puts it. He, then, is the greatest treasure of man, and to possess him is to possess more than any other possible treasure in life, no matter how dear. It is plain that our Lord is speaking with full consciousness of being divine. “For I say to you that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things which you see, and did not see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them” (Luke 10:24).

Our Lord promises that if we “lose” our life for his sake, we shall find it. “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” The Kingdom, then, is Jesus Christ and union with him, and we must be prepared to forego all in order to possess him. Our Lord told the parable of this kingdom. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys the field. Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a merchant seeking fine pearls, who having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it" (Matthew 13:44-46). But this absolute devotion to Jesus Christ does not separate us from others, least of all those who are most dear or for whom we have serious responsibilities. Our love for Jesus Christ, in his own divine plan, is to be immediately translated into loving service of neighbour. “Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward” (Matthew 10:34-11:1). Our Lord attacked the scribes and Pharisees for rendering void the commandment of God to honour and assist one’s parents by their rule of Corban. Moses said, ‘Honour your father and your mother; and, He that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die’: but you say, ‘If a man shall say to his father or his mother, That by which I may have helped you is Corban,’ that is, Given to God; you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother; making void the word of God by your tradition, which you have delivered: and many such like things you do” (Mark 7:1-13). The final Judgment will be determined by our service of those in need — and our Lord will say that what was done to them was done to him because each of them is his brother or sister (Matthew 25).

So then, the Christian must clearly understand in what the Christian religion consists. It consists in loving Jesus Christ with all one’s mind, heart, soul and strength because he is both man and God. Secondly, it consists in loving our neighbour not only as much as we love ourselves, but as Christ has loved us. This is the magnificent and the difficult vocation of the Christian, impossible for man but not for God. That is why God sent his Son to take away the sin of the world and to endow us with a share in his divine life by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Every day is an adventure, the adventure of love. Let us strive for the perfection of love, then!
(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection (Isaiah 1:10-17)

Morality and Religion If we consider the characters in the popular fiction of the last century — for instance, some comic strip

characters such as Tarzan, Superman etc — we notice that these characters are moral but not religious. God does not feature in their lives but morality does (and I am not thinking of the very recent past, such as in the James Bond character, who in debonair fashion is not even moral!). We know from Revelation that morality without religion is not pleasing to God. The first three commandments require religion, which is to say, love and devotion to God himself. But there is an opposite error. There is the danger of being so-called “religious” but not moral. That is to say, there is the real possibility of being concerned for one’s relationship with God, with prayer and elements of worship, and being unconcerned with serious deficiencies in one’s moral life, for example in right behaviour towards others. And non-religious people point this out and dismiss religion because of it.

The prophet Isaiah condemns this (1:10-17). God is a God of justice and morality — not like the gods of the pagans that required little more than religious observances. The living of our religion involves, while being more than, a life of high and faithful morality.
(E.J.Tyler)

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So close to Christ for so many years and… such a sinner!

—Does that intimate love of Jesus for you not make you sob?
(The Forge, no.179)

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The history surely of the Church in all past times, ancient as well as medieval, is the very embodiment of that tradition of Apostolical independence and freedom of speech which in the eyes of man is her great offence now.

JHN, from Certain Difficulties felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching Vol. 2.

Tuesday of the fifteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(July 13) St. Henry (972-1024)
As German king and Holy Roman Emperor, Henry was a practical man of affairs. He was energetic in consolidating his rule. He crushed rebellions and feuds. On all sides he had to deal with drawn-out disputes so as to protect his frontiers. This involved him in a number of battles, especially in the south in Italy; he also helped Pope Benedict VIII quell disturbances in Rome. Always his ultimate purpose was to establish a stable peace in Europe. According to eleventh-century custom, Henry took advantage of his position and appointed as bishops men loyal to him. In his case, however, he avoided the pitfalls of this practice and actually fostered the reform of ecclesiastical and monastic life. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Isaiah 7: 1-9; Psalm 47; Matthew 11: 20-24

Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you. (Matthew 11:20-24)

Repentance Every discipline of study has its interest, but one of special, important and general interest is history. A person may have little understanding of physics, but if he has little knowledge of history then that is unfortunate. It is important that he start to read some history — the history of his own country and culture, of his own civilization, and then as his interest may lead him. If his bent is science, a knowledge of the history of science will be useful. It is a good thing if a person who reads history

can reflect on the more general dynamics of history — on the fundamental factors shaping the history of man and his world. There have been various proposals in respect to this. Marx proposed that the conflict between the two classes, labour and capital, is the basic dynamic, and that this is resolved according to Hegel’s law of struggle (as modified and applied by Marx). The situation in possession (thesis) is opposed by its opposite (antithesis), and the struggle resolves into a new situation (synthesis) which becomes the seed-ground of further struggle. Marx saw the ultimate resolution to lie in a classless society. That, broadly, was his philosophy of history. Apart from its enormous over-simplification, it forgets the centrality of the moral struggle within the individual person. I do not refer simply to the struggle for whatever is “ethical” — whatever, fundamentally, that may mean. The basic struggle for each person is not his struggle with his oppressive bosses, nor even his struggle against whatever is “unethical” around him, but his struggle against personal sin. Sin is the dominant oppressor, and the question is, what is the dynamic, the key, the means to win that struggle? The root problem for man is his alienation from God and disregard for his law. This is what man is by nature prone to, and it has been revealed by God that of himself he cannot prevail in the struggle to make this right. Man discovers himself to be a sinner, and sin radically affects the course of history. Any philosophy of history must negotiate the question of sin. More importantly, the question must be resolved.

In our Gospel passage today our Lord denounces whole cities for their failure to confront this fundamental problem. There are at least two things our Lord makes clear about this. Firstly, sin is a principal factor in the shaping of human history, and it brings on serious consequences. Secondly, the way to confront it is by personal repentance. “Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.” Tyre and Sidon fell because of sin, our Lord is saying. Because of their sin, they were judged and condemned by God, and this condemnation included their downfall in history. Their course would have been different had they repented. So then, Korazin and Bethsaida were on the path to woe because of their sins. Their only means of avoiding this path was repentance, and this they were refusing to do. It was the same with the town of Capernaum which boasted of being the residence of Jesus Christ himself during his public ministry. They did not believe in him, and they refused to change. They would not repent. Our Lord directs a terrible warning to them: “you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you” (Matthew 11:20-24). Repentance, then, is the decisive act for sinful man. Simon Peter denied our Lord three times despite the signal favour he had been shown. But he repented and went on to sanctity. Judas Iscariot betrayed our Lord, despite the exalted vocation that was his as one of the Twelve. If only he had repented! If he had, he too would have gone on to sanctity and probably martyrdom. He did not repent.

Man’s fulfilment of his vocation depends on repentance. He is a sinner by nature, for his nature is fallen. He is restored to grace by Baptism, but his inclination to sin remains. This is the struggle ahead, and it is the struggle for all mankind and society. Marx had no idea of this. Grace is given man to enable him to gain the victory, and it is imperative that he mount the struggle every day. Repentance is the key. He must repent every day of the smallest deliberate sin, starting ever again. It is through repentance that he will carry the day.
                                                    (E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection    (Isaiah 7:1-9)

Fear    Consider the intervention of the prophet Isaiah. A great crisis faces the city of Jerusalem. Aram and Pekah are advancing

against it. The "heart of the king and the hearts of the people shuddered as the trees of the forest shudder in front of the wind." And what happened? God sent the prophet to tell the king to "keep calm, have no fear, do not let your heart sink because of these two smouldering stumps of firebrands." They were not to fear. It is useful to read the passages throughout the Scriptures in which God tells man not to fear. Our Lord often tells his disciples not to fear. We remember his words to them during the storm on the Lake. God wants us not to be troubled.

It is different for those who are not heeding the voice and commandments of God. They have every reason to fear. As the prophet says to King Ahaz, speaking in the name of God: "But if you do not stand by me, you will not stand at all." The premonitions of conscience and the words of our Lord in various passages of the Gospel, such as in Matthew 11:20-24, make this clear. So then, let us trust in Jesus, and fear to commit sin.
(E.J.Tyler)

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It is not that I lack true joy; on the contrary… And yet, painfully aware of my unworthiness, it is only natural that I should cry out with Saint Paul, “wretched man that I am!”

—It is at such a time that you should increase your desire to tear down once and for all the barriers you yourself have set up.
(The Forge, no.180)

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Questions of fact cannot be disproved by analogies or presumptions; the inquiry must be made into the particular case in all its parts, as it comes before us.

JHN, from the Apologia pro Vita Sua

Wednesday of the fifteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(July 14) Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, virgin (1656-1680)
The blood of martyrs is the seed of saints. Nine years after the Jesuits Isaac Jogues and John de Brébeuf were tortured to death by Huron and Iroquois Indians, a baby girl was born near the place of their martyrdom, Auriesville, New York. She was to be

the first person born in North America to be beatified. Her mother was a Christian Algonquin, taken captive by the Iroquois and given as wife to the chief of the Mohawk clan, the boldest and fiercest of the Five Nations. When she was four, Kateri lost her parents and little brother in a smallpox epidemic that left her disfigured and half blind. She was adopted by an uncle, who succeeded her father as chief. He hated the coming of the Blackrobes (missionaries), but could do nothing to them because a peace treaty with the French required their presence in villages with Christian captives. She was moved by the words of three Blackrobes who lodged with her uncle, but fear of him kept her from seeking instruction. She refused to marry a Mohawk brave and at 19 finally got the courage to take the step of converting. She was baptized with the name Kateri (Catherine) on Easter Sunday. Now she would be treated as a slave. Because she would not work on Sunday, she received no food that day. Her life in grace grew rapidly. She told a missionary that she often meditated on the great dignity of being baptized. She was powerfully moved by God’s love for human beings and saw the dignity of each of her people. She was always in danger, for her conversion and holy life created great opposition. On the advice of a priest, she stole away one night and began a 200-mile walking journey to a Christian Indian village at Sault St. Louis, near Montreal. For three years she grew in holiness under the direction of a priest and an older Iroquois woman, giving herself totally to God in long hours of prayer, in charity and in strenuous penance. At 23 she took a vow of virginity, an unprecedented act for an Indian woman, whose future depended on being married. She found a place in the woods where she could pray an hour a day—and was accused of meeting a man there! Her dedication to virginity was instinctive: She did not know about religious life for women until she visited Montreal. Inspired by this, she and two friends wanted to start a community, but the local priest dissuaded her. She humbly accepted an “ordinary” life. She practiced extremely severe fasting as penance for the conversion of her nation. She died the afternoon before Holy Thursday. Witnesses said that her emaciated face changed colour and became like that of a healthy child. The lines of suffering, even the pockmarks, disappeared and the touch of a smile came upon her lips. She was beatified in 1980.
Kateri said: “I am not my own; I have given myself to Jesus. He must be my only love. The state of helpless poverty that may befall me if I do not marry does not frighten me. All I need is a little food and a few pieces of clothing. With the work of my hands I shall always earn what is necessary and what is left over I’ll give to my relatives and to the poor. If I should become sick and unable to work, then I shall be like the Lord on the cross. He will have mercy on me and help me, I am sure.” (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Isaiah 10:5-7.13-16; Psalm 93; Matthew 11:25-27

At that time Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No-one knows the Son except the Father, and no-one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (Matthew 11:25-27)

The knowledge of God John Henry Newman’s principal interest was the Christian encounter with unbelief and its claim that Christian dogma flies in the face of reason. Newman probed the true meaning of “reason” and endeavoured to show that reason under the guidance of conscience will lead to faith, while insisting that faith is a step that goes beyond mere reason. He also pointed out that a great deal depends on one’s fundamental assumptions. 120 years after the death of Newman, an important

British Philosopher died, one who was notable for his works on the philosophy of religion. Antony Flew (1923 – 2010) was of the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, and argued that one should presuppose atheism until empirical evidence of a God is produced. He also criticised the idea of life after death. So his assumption was that one should begin with atheism, and his further assumption was that empirical evidence is required for the verification of a truth. But the immediate question that occurs to the observer is, why ought this be assumed? Another example of a striking assumption was that of Rene Descartes. The first and one indisputably perceived fact, Descartes laid down, was that “I think.” Because I think, I know for certain that I exist. Now, if all I have to start with is my awareness that I think, how am I to get out of my thinking to the reality of that which I am thinking of? Descartes was religious, but his theory contained the seeds of religious agnosticism. Newman was right in speaking of the paramount importance of right starting points — and these must be our natural starting points. We naturally sense that there is an objective God, even if we find it difficult to cast this perception into a convincing syllogism. But let us continue with Flew. On the basis of his starting points, most of his working life was spent in writing on the non-existence of God. Over the years, though, the argument from the finality of things began to have sway. In January 2004 he informed his friend and philosophical opponent, Gary Habermas, that, to the disgust of other atheists, he had become a deist.

Now, Flew was a very intelligent man and lived a long life. But how far did he get? He finally got to being a deist. One cannot but be happy for his sake that he reached the point of accepting that there is a God according to the deist notion, but how is this to be compared with the ordinary Christian believer who lives her life deeply in love with the holy Trinity? A child is born to a farming family in a remote district, with little opportunities for education. She is baptized and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. From an early age she displays a notable Catholic faith. She prays and lives a good life as she is growing up. She has only a primary school education. Though Mass is celebrated only once a month in her farming district because of its remoteness from the parish centre, in her teens every Sunday she gets on her horse and rides to where Mass is celebrated. She loves God and has a knowledge of him nourished by revealed truth as presented in the Catechism, in the Gospels, and in the preaching of the Church. Her family is religious and the knowledge of God passes on to her through family prayer, family example, and above all through the action of grace in her soul. It becomes the basis of her life. She is a contemporary of Antony Flew, just a little older perhaps, and she dies within a year or two after he, full of God and her religion. All her life she has been sensible, and fulfils her vocation as wife and mother. From early years God has been the principal reality of her life, and of course, she far outstrips Flew in her knowledge of God. Flew finally reached deism, and many cheered to see it. Habermas was especially gratified. But Flew was far behind so many of the little ones, the “little children,” as our Lord refers to them in today’s Gospel passage. They are ones who are the beneficiaries of the grace of God, the ones to whom the Father reveals the Good News of Jesus Christ and his Church. “At that time Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure” (Matthew 11:25-27).

Let us, together with our Lord himself, praise and thank our Father in heaven, for what he had deigned to reveal to us his little children. This was what it pleased him to do. He has given us the grace of Baptism and membership in his Church, and with that has endowed us with the knowledge of him and his divine Son and the Holy Spirit. We are children of God, temples of the Holy Trinity, blessed with his divine Revelation, and marked out for heaven — if we are faithful to what we have been taught and know. Eternal life is this, our Lord said at the Last Supper, to know you, Father and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Let us treasure this saving knowledge of him, then, and bring it to others. It gets us to heaven.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: Matthew 11:25-27

The true possession: One of the instinctive tendencies of every man is to possess, to have, and to have as much as possible. Animals have this tendency too, in their own way. But man can aspire to possess an enormous amount. St Ignatius Loyola asked Xavier, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and to ruin his very self? Thinking of this kind of question many adherents of various non-Christian religions have divested themselves of many possessions. God means us to possess great riches: he means us to possess Christ. Our Lord says in Matthew 11:25-27 that everything had been entrusted to him by his Father. He was and is "rich", and he means us to be "rich", but in him. In possessing Christ we possess everything of value. For this reason St Paul says in one of his letters that in Christ we possess every heavenly blessing.

Let us aim to possess everything by possessing Christ, for to gain the whole world and to lose Christ is to gain nothing, and to have nothing.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Do not become alarmed or discouraged to discover that you have failings… and such failings!

—Struggle to uproot them. And as you do so, be convinced that it is even a good thing to be aware of all those weaknesses, for otherwise you would be proud. And pride separates us from God.
(The Forge, no.181)

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A nation’s laws are a nation’s property, and have their life in the nation’s life, and their interpretation in the nation’s sentiment: and where that living intelligence does not shine through them, they become worthless and are put aside, whether formally or on an understanding.

JHN, from Certain Difficulties felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching Vol. 1

Thursday of the fifteenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(July 15) St. Bonaventure (1221-1274)

Bonaventure, Franciscan, theologian, doctor of the Church, was both learned and holy. Because of the spirit that filled him and his writings, he was at first called the Devout Doctor; but in more recent centuries he has been known as the Seraphic Doctor after the “Seraphic Father” Francis because of the truly Franciscan spirit he possessed. Born in Bagnoregio, a town in central Italy, he was cured of a serious illness as a boy through the prayers of Francis of Assisi. Later, he studied the liberal arts in Paris. Inspired by Francis and the example of the friars, especially of his master in theology, Alexander of Hales, he entered the Franciscan Order, and became in turn a teacher of theology in the university. Chosen as minister general of the Order in 1257, he was God’s instrument in bringing it back to a deeper love of the way of St. Francis, both through the life of Francis which he wrote at the behest of the brothers and through other works which defended the Order or explained its ideals and way of life. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Isaiah 26:7-9.12.16-19; Psalm 101; Matthew 11: 28-30

Jesus said, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

Light and Rest I remember speaking to a well educated retired journalist who had studied at tertiary level. He was not especially religious but respected the Catholic religion. I was interested to hear his impressions of philosophy. He more or less thought that much of philosophy, when pursued by persons without revealed religion, was often bizarre. I am afraid that he was right. Major philosophers — major in their influence on thought — have held intellectual and published positions which the ordinary

person would think simply lack common sense. George Berkeley (1685 – 1753), Anglican Bishop of Cloyne, was a good man who, together with his contemporary fellow philosopher Bishop Butler, is honoured with a feast day in the liturgical Calendar of the U.S. Episcopal Church. He maintained that individuals cannot think or talk about an object's being, but rather think or talk about an object's being perceived by someone. That is, individuals cannot know any "real" object or matter "behind" the object as they perceive it, which "causes" their perceptions. He thus concluded that all that individuals know about an object is their perception of it. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer called Berkeley the father of idealism. In reference to Berkeley's philosophy, his much younger contemporary Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709 — 1784) kicked a heavy stone and exclaimed, "I refute it thus!" That is to say, we know that we can know things as they are in themselves, something Bishop Butler would never have dreamt of questioning. I mention this as an example of the bedlam of voices filling the halls of learning throughout history, all claiming to offer light to mankind. When one reads in the field of the history of philosophy it becomes abundantly clear that man needs a Light. We need a Light because there is a great deal of error, and this error cannot bring rest to weary man. It is truth that his mind yearns for, and he knows that it is the truth which will bring him the rest he desires. But, as Pilate said to Christ, what is the truth — and, we may add, where is it to be found?

Jesus Christ said that he is the Light of the world. Anyone who walks by his light will indeed be living in the light, whereas the one who does not will be in the darkness. Nearly a century after the death of Berkeley there was born in the small town of Röcken, near Leipzig, in the Prussian Province of Saxony, one who would have significant influence on the thought of the twentieth century. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844 – 1900), whose influence has been within and beyond philosophy, radically questioned the value and objectivity of truth, and one of his key ideas was the death of God. He finally went insane some eleven years before his death. Nietzsche’s thought, which has been quite influential, led himself and others into darkness, and is a prime instance of the need for the Light of Jesus Christ. Even if we turn to the best philosophers of the past, ones who left a wonderful legacy of thought, the need for a divine light is evident. With good reason Aristotle was called “The Philosopher” by St Thomas Aquinas. He became a principal resource for Aquinas in providing a philosophical perspective in approaching revealed truth. But still, Aristotle’s notion of God is a signal instance of man’s need for light from God. Further, without the light of truth, how can man find peace? This “rest” is exactly what our Lord offers as the Light of the world. “Jesus said, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Man yearns for rest, and Christ promises it. He says to weary and burdened man — such as Friedrich Nietzsche and those tempted to embrace thought such as his — that if you come to me and take on the yoke of my teaching and follow in my footsteps, you will find rest. Modern man, so burdened with the problem of evil and suffering, ought hear our Lord, come to him, consider giving him a real try, and then, asking the grace of God, take the plunge of faith.

How beautiful is the life of one who from earliest years has taken his stand with Jesus Christ, and through all the difficulties of life has followed his light. He has learned from him. His teaching is the foundation of his life and endeavours, and whatever discipline he has pursued in life has always been approached with the mind of Jesus Christ. Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, St Paul wrote. It is the key to the world’s problems, and the pathway to glory.
                                                                       (E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection:   (Matthew 11:28-30)

The yoke of Christ      Many great minds have commented on the scale of evil and human trouble there is in the world. Cardinal

Newman in his Apologia Pro Vita Sua (the history of his religious opinions, 1864) said that were it not for the testimony to God coming from his conscience and certain other sources, the fact of so much evil in the world would lead him into atheism. A statement like this coming from such a one (raised to the Church’s altars), ought lead us to sympathise with those labouring under the problem of evil. Our Lord states that the answer to the burden of life and reality is to come to Him. "Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28-30). Our Lord addresses this invitation to all who are overburdened, not just to some of his disciples. He promises to give them rest if they "shoulder my yoke and learn from me". So shouldering his yoke — taking up the burden arising from being his disciple — will lead to rest and happiness. The cross of Christ is the path to joy and glory.

This is the path for each of us to travel in an evil and suffering-laden world. The path is one of being in Christ. It is the path to announce to others, especially those who because of evil, are tempted to reject God.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Be filled with wonder at God’s goodness, because Christ wants to live in you. Be filled with wonder also when you are aware of all the weight of your poor wretchedness, of this poor flesh, of all the vileness of this poor clay.

—Yes, but then remember too that call from God: Jesus Christ, who is God and Man, understands me and looks after me, for he is my Brother and my Friend.
(The Forge, no.182)

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All I would maintain is, that our duty lies in acts,—acts of course of every kind, acts of the mind, as well as of the tongue, or of the hand; but anyhow, it lies mainly in acts; it does not directly lie in moods or feelings. He who aims at praying well, loving sincerely, disputing meekly, as the respective duties occur, is wise and religious; but he who aims vaguely and generally at being in a spiritual frame of mind, is entangled in a deceit of words, which gain a meaning only by being made mischievous.

JHN, from Plain and Parochial Sermons Vol 2, Sermon 14.

Liturgical Season	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
Thirteenth week Ordinary Time C/II					1	2	3 St Thomas
Fourteenth week Ordinary Time C/II	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Fifteenth week Ordinary Time C/II	11	12	13	14	15