June1 in Year C 10

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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 June is: "That every national and trans-national institution may strive to guarantee respect for human life from conception to natural death."

His mission intention is: "That the Churches in Asia, which constitute a 'little flock' among non-Christian populations, may know how to communicate the Gospel and give joyful witness to their adherence to Christ."

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Prayers today: O look at me and be merciful, for I am wretched and alone. See my hardship and my poverty, and pardon all my sins (Psalm 24: 16.18)

Father, you love never fails. Hear our call. Keep us from danger and provide for all our needs. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

(June 1) St. Justin (d. 165)

Justin never ended his quest for religious truth even when he converted to Christianity after years of studying various pagan philosophies. As a young man, he was principally attracted to the school of Plato. However, he found that the Christian religion answered the great questions about life and existence better than the philosophers. Upon his conversion he continued to wear the philosopher's mantle, and became the first Christian philosopher. He combined the Christian religion with the best elements in Greek philosophy. In his view, philosophy was a pedagogue of Christ, an educator that was to lead one to Christ. Justin is known as an apologist, one who defends in writing the Christian religion against the attacks and misunderstandings of the pagans. Two of his so-called apologies have come down to us; they are addressed to the Roman emperor and to the Senate. For his staunch adherence to the Christian religion, Justin was beheaded in Rome in 165.
"Philosophy is the knowledge of that which exists, and a clear understanding of the truth; and happiness is the reward of such knowledge and understanding" (Justin, Dialogue with Trypho, 3). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 2 Peter 3: 12-15.17-18; Psalm 89; Mark 12: 13-17

Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. They came to him and said, Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You are not swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay or should we not? But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. Why are you trying to trap me? he asked. Bring me a denarius and let me look at it. They brought the coin, and he asked them, Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription? Caesar's, they replied. Then Jesus said to them, Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. And they were amazed at him. (Mark 12: 13-17)

Citizenship In some Christian groupings there is found a notion of religion that ignores and somewhat despises the social, economic and political situation, with the duties and challenges it contains. In terms of religion, all that matters is each individual’s personal response to the directly saving action of Christ. Speaking broadly, it addresses the personal longing of the human heart for union with God and is content to leave out of sight the state of society and the world. By contrast, there is a view of the

Christian message that places principal emphasis on the unjust and oppressive conditions of society and its culture, and leaves the directly spiritual dimension of religion to look after itself. In this perspective, the thrust of religion is towards liberation from injustices and temporal oppression. A case could be made for saying that over the centuries the tendency of the chosen people of God — the children of Israel — was towards a religion of liberation from oppression. It had its roots in sacred history. Abraham was called from Ur of the Chaldees to a promised land. It was a very material promise. Moses was sent to lead the children of Israel out of their slavery to the promised land. Judges were raised up to lead the people in defence against attack. David established the kingdom over his enemies. A Messiah was promised, and as was clear in the time of our Lord, he was expected to be a political liberator who would inaugurate a marvellous era of plenty and freedom from external menaces. An image of religion such as this, involving the thought of divine promises, tended to alienate the adherent from any civil authority that was not his own creation. The natural desire for freedom from material burdens and civil obedience was thus perceived as having the sanction of religion. It had been religious to resist Pharaoh. So it was religious to resist the Romans and their taxes. The problem was that this resistance would bring terrible political sanctions. Was it, then, in accord with the divine plan not to co-operate with the foreign authority? Should one, say, pay taxes?

We are told in the Gospel (Mark 12: 13-17) that this question was formulated with the intent of ensnaring Jesus Christ into making a statement that would bring him into collision either with the people who hung on his lips and who looked for political liberation, or with the Roman authorities who, of course, imposed their taxes. It framed a question, though, that asked whether revealed religion embraced the world and its requirements, or was hostile to it or at best ignored it. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? God is our King and Lord and he has his laws for us. Yet here we are, collaborating with godless oppressors by paying the taxes which they impose. Our Lord could have entered into a long and subtle disquisition on civil duties and the extent to which the Roman authority had the right to regulate civil life and to tax in order to fund this. But he simply gave a general rule in response to a general question. Was it lawful to pay taxes to the Roman authority? Give to the civil authority what is theirs, and to God what is his. One’s duty to God is not in conflict with one’s duty to civil authority. One must live in the world respecting the requirements and duties of both orders. Religion is not an exclusive relation with God alone. In God, it includes one’s relationship with the world. In general terms, therefore, taxes were lawful and they ought be paid. God is not thereby dethroned, for his plan and law embraces one’s duties to the world. The man of revealed religion is, therefore, to be a good citizen. He is not often an insurrectionist, and if ever he believes he must resist civil authority, he does so with the spirit of Christian love. Of course, to say all this is not to resolve many agonizing particular questions, but Christ’s response to this antagonistic question gives us, his disciples, an orientation. We must be oriented towards being good citizens, respectful of political and civil authority, and disposed to co-operate with its legislation and requirements. One’s duty to God does not conflict with this. Rather, in general it requires it because God himself is the ultimate Cause of civil authority.

When Jesus Christ stood in front of Pontius Pilate, he was gazing at the representative of Caesar. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, he had said to those who had just handed him over. Calmly he tells Pilate that any power over him he had, had been conferred on him from above — and our Lord was not just referring to Pilate’s appointment as Procurator by Caesar. He was referring to the divine origin of civil authority. Because God creates and sustains society, he creates and sustains the civil authority which regulates it. So this authority must be respected. We must be good citizens if we wish to please God. Religion includes citizenship, and citizenship includes endeavouring to make civil authority all it should be according to God’s plan.
(E.J.Tyler)

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When contemplating the scene of the Incarnation, strengthen in your soul the resolve to be “humble in practice”. See how he lowered himself, taking on our poor nature.

—That is why every day you need to react, right away, with God’s grace, accepting — and wanting — the humiliations the Lord may offer you.
(The Forge, no.139)

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A man will tell you, as an excuse for his following the wildest and most pernicious errors, that he has consulted God, that God has answered him, and that he is obeying God. What can you say in reply? Nothing. You think, and think rightly, that the man is deceiving himself; but you cannot show to his own satisfaction, or that of others, that he has not as much right as another to believe that God has revealed to him His will.

JHN, from the sermon ‘Grounds for Steadfastness in our Religious Profession’ (1841)

Wednesday of the ninth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(June 2) Saints Marcellinus and Peter (d. 304)
Marcellinus and Peter were prominent enough in the memory of Church to be included among the saints of the Roman Canon. Mention of their names is optional in our present Eucharistic Prayer I. Marcellinus was a priest and Peter was an exorcist, that is, someone authorized by the Church to deal with cases of demonic possession. They were beheaded during the persecution of Diocletian. Pope Damasus wrote an epitaph apparently based on the report of their executioner, and Constantine erected a basilica over the crypt in which they were buried in Rome. Numerous legends sprang from an early account of their death. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 2 Timothy 1: 1-3. 6-12; Psalm 122; Mark 12: 18-27

The Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. Teacher, they said, Moses wrote for us that if a

man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her? Jesus replied, Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising— have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken! (Mark 12: 18-27)

Afterlife Anyone who has studied the religions of man across the centuries and cultures knows that it is very hard indeed to generalize about the religious beliefs of mankind. The British anthropologist of primal societies, Evans-Pritchard, once made the same point in a well-known article on primal religions. The notions of the Afterlife that have obtained, vary enormously. This is to be expected because we do not see what awaits us beyond the grave. All we see is the grave or the ashes. What has happened

to the thinking and willing Self whom we have known? Man likes to think, and is generally convinced, that one’s Self lives on, but nothing is seen. There are those who are convinced that one’s Self vanishes with the dust into which the body descends, in a fashion similar to the centre of awareness of any animal. They think this because all that can be seen is physical corruption. Accordingly, many such persons will accept the well-known dictum: “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” Curiously, there have been religions which give little thought to the Afterlife. Their appeals to the deities in myth and ritual are centred on concerns for this life and they are content to leave the Afterlife in its natural shadows. It could be argued that the conscience of man inclines him to expect a future judgment which manifestly does not occur in this life. Be all this as it may, it is obvious that what happens beyond the grave is of maximum importance for the shaping of life prior to the grave. Because we know that we shall decline in our powers and eventually die, life is organized accordingly. With similar logic, if we know something about the Afterlife, the intelligent thing to do is to organize life accordingly. There are those who know about the Afterlife, and who live regardless of it — which is not very intelligent. Such a course may be catastrophic. In fact, very important things have been revealed about it, and without doubt the greatest source of this revelation is Jesus Christ.

All of this introduces our Gospel passage today (Mark 12: 18-27). There was a party in the Jewish nation which did not accept the notion of a resurrection from the dead. This was the Sadducees who considered the writings of Moses — in other words, the Pentateuch — as the canon of the inspired Scriptures. They saw no proper foundation for a doctrine of the resurrection in these first Books — and at first sight, their position would seem to be correct. In fact, there is not a lot about the Afterlife in all of the Hebrew Scriptures — in what the Christian calls the Old Testament. But at their encounter with Christ, the distinctive position of the Sadducees was immediately shown to be, as our Lord put it, “badly mistaken.” Our Lord instantly pointed to the words of Yahweh God himself to Moses at the Burning Bush. “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” he said. Our Lord pointed out that God would not introduce himself as a God of dead bones, of persons who were long since entirely extinct. The immediate implication of God’s description of himself to Moses was that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were alive, and that Yahweh God was their God still. So the Book of Exodus — the author of which was taken by the Sadducees to be Moses — taught that there was a resurrection from the dead. I do not know whether this revealing interpretation of the revelation at the Burning Bush had ever appeared in Hebrew literature before Christ, but it is most illuminating and original, to say the least. It also answered the Sadducees on their own ground of the Pentateuch. Our Lord’s utter mastery of the Scriptures is evident. We read of our Lord often instructing his disciples in the meaning of the Scriptures. For instance, on the morning of his Resurrection he passed the entire walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus with the two disciples, taking them through the Scriptures and showing how they spoke of him, and how he had to suffer in order to enter his glory as Messiah. What a memorable lesson in the Scriptures this would have been! In our Gospel passage today, our Lord shows that the doctrine of the resurrection had been part of revelation all along. This is not to speak of Christ’s own numerous teachings about the Afterlife that feature in the Gospels.

No prophet before him spoke as much of the Afterlife and of the resurrection from the dead as did Jesus Christ. He is mankind’s great source of knowledge of what is to be expected after we die. How unintelligent it is to disregard what Christ has revealed — and how catastrophic it could be. Following death comes the Judgement. God will judge each soul at death. At the end of time he will judge all mankind. More specifically, it will be Christ who will be our divine Judge. Following the Judgment there will be either heaven or hell, with a further purification to be generally expected for those who are judged worthy of heaven. Let us organize our lives accordingly, then, for life is short and eternity very long.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Live your Christian life with naturalness! Let me stress this: make Christ known through your behaviour, just as an ordinary mirror reproduces an image without distorting it or turning it into a caricature. — If, like the mirror, you are normal, you will reflect Christ’s life, and show it to others.
(The Forge, no.140)

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When two or three are gathered together, an interior temple, a holy shrine is formed for them, which nothing without can destroy.

JHN, from the sermon ‘Peace and Joy amid Chastisement’ (1836)

Thursday in the ninth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(June 3) Charles Lwanga and Companions (d. 1886)

One of 22 Ugandan martyrs, Charles Lwanga is the patron of youth and Catholic action in most of tropical Africa. He protected his fellow pages (aged 13 to 30) from the homosexual demands of the Bagandan ruler, Mwanga, and encouraged and instructed them in the Catholic faith during their imprisonment for refusing the ruler’s demands. For his own unwillingness to submit to the immoral acts and his efforts to safeguard the faith of his friends, Charles was burned to death at Namugongo on June 3, 1886, by Mwanga’s order. Charles first learned of Christ’s teachings from two retainers in the court of Chief Mawulugungu. While a catechumen, he entered the royal household as assistant to Joseph Mukaso, head of the court pages. On the night of Mukaso’s martyrdom for encouraging the African youths to resist Mwanga, Charles requested and received Baptism. Imprisoned with his friends, Charles’s courage and belief in God inspired them to remain chaste and faithful. When Pope Paul VI canonized these 22 martyrs on October 18, 1964, he referred to the Anglican pages martyred for the same reason. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 2 Timothy 2: 8-15; Psalm 24; Mark 12: 28-34

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, Of all the commandments, which is the most important? The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these. Well said, teacher, the man replied. You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And from then on no-one dared ask him any more questions. (Mark 12: 28-34)

The divine law Man has a natural desire to get to the heart of things. It could be said that classical Greek thought especially strove to understand the nature of the world, with its emphasis on what in philosophical terms is called form. It was fascinated with the nature of the things that make up reality. It endeavoured to get to the root of what things are, what morality is, what the Cause of all is — and in general, of essence. What is the essence of things, and what is implied by their essence? Obviously, this

laid the groundwork not only of a philosophical tradition, but, eventually, of science and technology. We might say that the classical Semitic cast of mind was rather towards knowing the law of heaven. The important thing was to do what heaven commanded. In the religion of Mahomet which arose in Arabia nearly six centuries after Christ, Allah was understood as the originator of all cosmic order and the source of Islamic law. Sun and moon move their course according to his will. A Muslim has no option whether or not to pray, fast, believe and testify to Allah. He must do so. It is his holy duty. He stands under the law. He cannot run away from it. I mention Islam only to highlight one difference between the Greek mind and the Semitic, and thereby to introduce an essential feature of the Revealed Religion of Abraham and the prophets. There are, of course, many differences between the religion of Moses and that of Mahomet. A fundamental one is the idea of the covenant. God chose Israel, and dwelt with his people as his own. They are the people of his special choice — indeed, he is their Bridegroom and Husband. The Law he reveals stands on this covenant and is imbued with the thought of it, whereas there is no such covenant in Islam. Nevertheless, there is a similar emphasis on Law: the Law of God is paramount. The inspired writings of Israel were filled with directions as to what God’s people should do. For the Hebrew, the uppermost question was: what, above all, should one do to please God?

So it was that, as we read in today’s Gospel, “One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” It is a tremendous service to man, to society, and to religion, if a great teacher can get to the heart of things — in this case, to the heart of the Law of God. At the question, our Lord gave an instant reply. The principal requirement of the Law of God was that we love him. “The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12: 28-34). Our Lord immediately went to two verses tucked away in the Book of Deuteronomy and declared that they provided the key to understanding the first requirement of the divine Law — which is to love God above all else. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 reads, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." Our Lord then cites a second verse buried in the Book of Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.” This is the second requirement of the divine Law. We might even say that in these two citations, Christ gives the two headings of the Ten Commandments, the first being the heading of the first three Commandments that speak of our duties to God, the second being the heading of the next seven which speak of our duties under God to man. Both these headings speak of love. They are the headings of all the prescriptions contained in the inspired writings. It shows, incidentally, that the inspired writings required an authoritative interpretation, and that Jesus and his teachings constitute that interpretation. With this key to the Law of God, our Lord provides us with a most powerful light with which to read the inspired Scriptures.

Were it not for the clear and synthetic teaching of Jesus Christ, the true key to the Law and the Prophets may not have been grasped. The religion of Abraham and the prophets is a religion which reveals the divine Law, but that law is a law of love. Man knows that his heart is made for love. The revealed law of God commands the perfection of love. This attains its fulfilment in Jesus Christ who is the revelation of the love of God. He fulfils and reveals what it is to love God with all our hearts, and by the gift of his grace won for us at Calvary, he empowers us to follow in his path of love. He enables us to love (in our poor way) as he has loved. Let us in Christ submit ourselves to the Divine Law, and that law directs us to love.
(E.J.Tyler)

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If you are fatuous, if all you can think of is your own personal comfort, if you centre everyone else and even the world itself on yourself, then you have no right to call yourself a Christian or to consider yourself a disciple of Christ. He set the level of what can be demanded of us when he offered, for each of us: et animam suam, his own soul, his whole life.
(The Forge, no.141)

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If Christ has died and risen again, what death can come upon us, though we be made to die daily? what sorrow, pain, humiliation, trial, but must end as His has ended, in a continual resurrection into His new world, and in a nearer and nearer approach to Him?

JHN, from the sermon ‘Endurance, the Christian’s Portion’ (1839)

Friday of the ninth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(June 4) Blessed John XXIII (1881-1963)
Although few people had as great an impact on the 20th century as Pope John XXIII, he avoided the limelight as much as possible. Indeed, one writer has noted that his “ordinariness” seems one of his most remarkable qualities. The firstborn son of a farming family in Sotto il Monte, near Bergamo in northern Italy, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was always proud of his down-to-

earth roots. In Bergamo’s diocesan seminary, he joined the Secular Franciscan Order. After his ordination in 1904, Angelo returned to Rome for canon law studies. He soon worked as his bishop’s secretary, Church history teacher in the seminary and as publisher of the diocesan paper. His service as a stretcher-bearer for the Italian army during World War I gave him a firsthand knowledge of war. In 1921 he was made national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith; he found time to teach patristics at a seminary in the Eternal City. In 1925 he became a papal diplomat, serving first in Bulgaria, then in Turkey and finally in France (1944-53). During World War II, he became well acquainted with Orthodox Church leaders and with the help of Germany’s ambassador to Turkey, Archbishop Roncalli helped save an estimated 24,000 Jewish people. Named a cardinal and appointed patriarch of Venice in 1953, he was

finally a residential bishop. A month short of entering his 78th year, he was elected pope, taking the name John, his father’s name and the two patrons of Rome’s cathedral, St. John Lateran. He took his work very seriously but not himself. His wit soon became proverbial and he began meeting with political and religious leaders from around the world. In 1962 he was deeply involved in efforts to resolve the Cuban missile crisis. His most famous encyclicals were Mother and Teacher (1961) and Peace on Earth (1963). Pope John XXIII enlarged the membership in the College of Cardinals and made it more international. At his address at the opening of the Second Vatican Council, he criticized the “prophets of doom” who “in these modern times see nothing but prevarication and ruin.” Pope John XXIII set a tone for the Council when he said, “The Church has always opposed... errors. Nowadays, however, the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity.” On his deathbed he said: “It is not that the gospel has changed; it is that we have begun to understand it better. Those who have lived as long as I have…were enabled to compare different cultures and traditions, and know that the moment has come to discern the signs of the times, to seize the opportunity and to look far ahead.” He died on June 3, 1963. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 2000 together with Pius IX.
In 1903, young Angelo wrote in his spiritual journal: “From the saints I must take the substance, not the accidents of their virtues. I am not St. Aloysius, nor must I seek holiness in his particular way, but according to the requirements of my own nature, my own character and the different conditions of my life. I must not be the dry, bloodless reproduction of a model, however perfect. God desires us to follow the examples of the saints by absorbing the vital sap of their virtues and turning it into our own life-blood, adapting it to our own individual capacities and particular circumstances. If St. Aloysius had been as I am, he would have become holy in a different way” (Journal of a Soul). (AmericanCatholic.com)

Scripture today: 2 Timothy 3: 10-17; Psalm 118; Mark 12: 35-37

While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.' David himself calls him 'Lord'. How then can he be his son? The large crowd listened to him with delight. (Mark 12: 35-37)

Man’s true light One of the many features of the religious context of our Lord’s life and ministry was the variety of interpretations of Scripture. For instance, it is obvious from the Gospels that the figure of the Messiah, descendant of David, was interpreted by many as being a political and economic saviour. As Moses had liberated the children of Israel from the slavery of Egypt, so the Messiah would lead them to a definitive liberation from slavery to all such domination. Accordingly, on various

occasions Jesus Christ was in danger of being proclaimed a king by the populace. As against this, there were purer notions of the Messiah. Simeon proclaimed the infant Jesus as the light for the Gentiles, and years later John the Baptist declared him to be the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Again, it is obvious that whatever notion of the Messiah possessed the principal religious leaders, it was utterly opposed to that which our Lord himself presented in his own person. Or again, the scribes and Pharisees insisted on a certain interpretation of the cardinal commandment of the Sabbath, and imposed a system of practices to safeguard this. Our Lord refuted their interpretations by recourse to both Scripture and common sense. Yet another party, the Sadducees, had their interpretation of the very canon of the Scriptures — looking to the Pentateuch as the essential corpus of inspired writing. Accordingly, they did not allow for a resurrection. Our Lord demolished their position by appealing to the Pentateuch itself and by unmasking their meagre notion of God. One might even say that the history of the chosen people of God was the history of the interpretation of divine Revelation. The prophets, one after the other, were giving the inspired interpretation of what had been revealed, and in the process were adding to an increasing Revelation. The opposition they encountered represented opposing interpretations. Jesus Christ interprets, explains and fulfils definitively the Law and the Prophets. He is the very Revelation of God.

We see an instance of Christ as the master interpreter of the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms in today’s Gospel. It is Mark who is reporting the occasion. St Matthew also narrates the event (22: 44), with our Lord asking the Pharisees whose son is the Messiah. Luke presents it (20: 43) too, as having come after our Lord had refuted his opponents to such an extent that they dared not test him any further with their questions. Mark also narrates the occasion as following what may have been our Lord’s definitive victory over his attackers. We read that “no one had the courage to ask him any more questions” (Mark 12:34). This detail, given in Luke too, suggests that a point was reached when the scribes, the Pharisees and the leaders no longer attempted to dispute with our Lord publicly. Their opposition was implacable, but in public confrontations his victories over them were unfailing. This delighted the populace — for we read that “the majority of the crowd heard this with delight.” So then, Jesus asked the scribes, “How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David?” (Mark 12: 35-37). Presumably they were silent before this question. Then out of the obscurity of a single psalm (110) our Lord plucked a teaching full of significance. The Davidic descent of the Messiah was granted on all hands, but what of the inspired word of David himself? David said, under inspiration “by the Spirit” (en to pneumati), that the Lord God (kurios) said to my Lord (to kurio mou), sit at my right hand. So in the same verse David gives to the Messiah the name “Lord,” as he gives to God (kurios). Further, he has God placing the Messiah at his right hand, till all his enemies have been conquered. The Messiah will have all authority. For David, then, he is far more than just a son. How, our Lord asks evocatively, can the Messiah be David’s son if he is his Lord, seated at the right hand of God? Our Lord is not, of course, calling into question that the Messiah is truly David’s son. He is pointing to the teaching of Scripture that he is far, far more than just his son.

Peter uses this surprising teaching of the Psalm in his first sermon following Pentecost (Acts 2: 34-35). He drew it from Christ himself, seeing it fulfilled in his Resurrection and Ascension into glory at the right hand of the Father. The point to be appreciated here is, though, that Jesus Christ is the key to the Scriptures and is himself the fulness of all that God has revealed. If we wish to understand the entire Scriptures, both Old and New, we must look to Jesus Christ. Our Gospel today is an instance of this. He is the Light of the world, the Way, the Truth and the Life. Let us take our stand with him, then!
(E.J.Tyler)

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Try to make “intellectual humility” an axiom in your life.

Think about it carefully… Isn’t it true that it just doesn’t make sense to be “intellectually proud”? That saint and doctor of the Church put it very well when he said: “It is a detestable disorder for a man to see God become a little child, and yet still want to appear great in this world.”
(The Forge, no.142)

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Let us do our duty as it presents itself; this is the secret of true faith and peace.

JHN, from the sermon ‘Saving Knowledge’ (1835)

Saturday of the ninth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(June 5) St. Boniface (672?-754)
Boniface, known as the apostle of the Germans, was an English Benedictine monk who gave up being elected abbot to devote his life to the conversion of the Germanic tribes. Two characteristics stand out: his Christian orthodoxy and his fidelity to the

pope of Rome. How absolutely necessary this orthodoxy and fidelity were is borne out by the conditions he found on his first missionary journey in 719 at the request of Pope Gregory II. Paganism was a way of life. What Christianity he did find had either lapsed into paganism or was mixed with error. The clergy were mainly responsible for these latter conditions since they were in many instances uneducated, lax and questionably obedient to their bishops. In particular instances their very ordination was questionable. These are the conditions that Boniface was to report in 722 on his first return visit to Rome. The Holy Father instructed him to reform the German Church. The pope sent letters of recommendation to religious and civil leaders. Boniface later admitted that his work would have been unsuccessful, from a human viewpoint, without a letter of safe-conduct from Charles Martel, the powerful Frankish ruler, grandfather of Charlemagne. Boniface was finally made a regional bishop and authorized to organize the whole German Church. He was eminently successful. In the Frankish kingdom, he met great problems because of lay interference in bishops’ elections, the worldliness of the clergy and lack of papal control.
During a final mission to the Frisians, he and 53 companions were massacred while he was preparing converts for Confirmation. In order to restore the Germanic Church to its fidelity to Rome and to convert the pagans, he had been guided by two principles. The first was to restore the obedience of the clergy to their bishops in union with the pope of Rome. The second was the establishment of many houses of prayer which took the form of Benedictine monasteries. A great number of Anglo-Saxon monks and nuns followed him to the continent. He introduced Benedictine nuns to the active apostolate of education. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 2 Timothy 4: 1-8; Psalm 70; Mark 12: 38-44

As he taught, Jesus said, Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the market-places, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets. They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely. Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything— all she had to live on. (Mark 12: 38-44)

Example I remember one married couple whom I knew particularly well. The husband spoke with a very ordinary accent of his country, while the wife spoke with a very polished accent. They had their first child and I was struck with the accent of that child as he learnt to speak. He developed a polished accent, in clear imitation of his mother. This was not surprising, of course, but it did remind me of the great influence of example, especially in very early years. As that child began to have contact with

other children, his accent began to change. Then when the child went to school, after some time his accent became the ordinary accent of the society around him — very much like that of his father. The accent of the child’s speech was an indicator of the influence on him of the example of those around him. Now, the child’s mother was not especially religious. She went to church regularly but God was not a vividly appreciated Reality in her life. That child grew up without being especially religious either. In 1873 a child was born into a large family in France, a child by the name of Therese Martin. She had many sisters, and her parents were deeply religious. When she was fifteen she entered the Carmelite monastery of Lisieux, lived the next nine years of heroic fidelity to ordinary everyday duties, and died at the age of 24. Less than thirty years later she was canonized a saint by Pope Pius XI who declared her to be the star of his pontificate. In 1997 Pope John Paul II declared her to be a doctor of the Church because of the extraordinary value of her brief and simple writings. What is especially manifest in her writings is her profound veneration for the sanctity of her parents. Her parents, Louis and Zelie Martin, set her on the path of holiness. In fact, she regarded them as saints, and this has been vindicated by the Church, for they were beatified by the Church in October 2008. Imagine Therese being born into a non-Christian family, or even of atheistic parents. Her life would have been entirely different. It indicates to us the powerful effect of example, for good or for ill.

In our Gospel passage today our Lord warns his listeners against the scribes. The chapter in which this is situated contains his exposure of the religious leaders, his defeat of the representatives of the Pharisees and the Herodians, his refutation of the Sadducees, his illuminating response to a question from one of the scribes, and his teaching on the Messiah as referred to in one of the psalms. He then tells his audience to beware of the scribes and the teachers of the law. He is obviously referring especially to the example they were giving of the practice of religion. “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the market-places, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets. They devour widows' houses and for a show they make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely” (Mark 12:38-44). So they drew honour to themselves by their prominence and ostentatious observance of the practices of religion, while at the same time they secretly practised serious injustice. They “devour the homes of widows.” Perhaps what was involved here was an insidious influence they exerted on widows to bequeath to them their properties. We may imagine many widows of Jewish society living a life of piety and it being suggested to them that it would he a holy thing to leave their property to the religious leaders of the nation, such as the scribes and teachers of the law. We read elsewhere in the Gospel that when Jesus was warning against the attachment to wealth, the leaders laughed at him because they loved riches. They scoffed at his doctrine because they regarded riches as a sign of God’s favour. When Christ lay hanging on the Cross, his degradation showed them that he was not in the favour of God. They were proud, and also unjust. Our Lord warns his hearers against the example of their religion.

We ought be very canny in respect to the example of those around us. The example for the Christian is Jesus Christ. The Christian has a living exemplar, and the record of his ways is before us in the Gospel. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, he said. St Paul, in writing to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 11: 1), exhorted them to imitate him as he imitated Christ. Together with Christ, the Church proposes for us the example of those who have heroically and correctly imitated him. Those imitators of Jesus Christ are given to us especially, but not only, in the canonized saints, such as Therese of Lisieux and her holy parents. Let us then live in Jesus Christ, making him our pattern all our days.
(E.J.Tyler)

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The moment you have anyone — whoever he may be — at your side, find a way, without doing anything strange, to pass on to him the joy you experience in being a son of God and living as such.
(The Forge, no.143)

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England, surely, is the paradise of little men, and the purgatory of great ones.

JHN, from ‘Who’s to Blame?’ (1855)

Prayers today: The Lord fed his people with the finest wheat and honey; their hunger was satisfied (Psalm 80:17)

Lord Jesus Christ, you gave us the Eucharist as the memorial of your suffering and death. May our worship of this sacrament of your body and blood help us to experience the salvation you won for us and the peace of the kingdom where you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(June 6) St. Norbert (1080?-1134)
Friends sometimes jokingly mangle the name of the Premonstratensians into “Monstrous Pretensions,” just as the Franciscan O.F.M. is said to mean “Out For Money.” The name actually derives from Premontre, the region of France where Norbert

established this Order in the 12th century. Norbert’s founding of the Order was truly a monstrous task: combatting rampant heresies (particularly regarding the Blessed Sacrament), revitalizing many of the faithful who had grown indifferent and dissolute, plus effecting peace and reconciliation among enemies. Norbert entertained no pretensions about his own ability to accomplish this multiple task. Even with the aid of a goodly number of men who joined his Order, he realized that nothing could be effectively done without God’s power. Finding this help especially in devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, he and his Norbertines praised God for success in converting heretics, reconciling numerous enemies and rebuilding faith in indifferent believers. Many of them lived in central houses during the week and served in parishes on weekends. Reluctantly, Norbert became archbishop of Magdeburg in central Germany, a territory half pagan and half Christian. In this position he zealously and courageously continued his work for the Church until his death on June 6, 1134. On the occasion of his ordination to the priesthood, Norbert said, "O Priest! You are not yourself because you are God. You are not of yourself because you are the servant and minister of Christ. You are not your own because you are the spouse of the Church. You are not yourself because you are the mediator between God and man. You are not from yourself because you are nothing. What then are you? Nothing and everything. O Priest! Take care lest what was said to Christ on the cross be said to you: 'He saved others, himself he cannot save!'" (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Genesis 14: 18-20; Psalm 109; 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26; Luke 9: 11-17

Jesus welcomed the crowds and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing. Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here. He replied, You give them something to eat. They answered, We have only five loaves of bread and two fish— unless we go and buy food for all this crowd. (About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each. The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. (Luke 9: 11-17)

Eucharist We know from the Gospels that at least on two occasions our Lord fed a multitude of people with a handful of food. The food multiplied as it was being distributed and at the end of the vast repast, a lot was gathered up from the scraps. One occasion was Christ’s feeding of four thousand (as reported in Mark 8: 1-9). With seven loaves and a few small fish Christ fed them all, and seven baskets full of what was left over were gathered up. Another was Luke’s report of his feeding five thousand.

On this occasion five loaves and two fish were at hand, and twelve baskets were gathered up — one for each of the Twelve, obviously. Our Gospel passage today narrates this occasion. As it turned out, John had a lot to say about this event in his own Gospel. He situates it just before the feast of the Passover, and the day before our Lord’s long discourse in the synagogue of Capernaum, when he publicly announced the doctrine of the Eucharist. The feeding of the five thousand is a sign of the heavenly Bread that is coming, that Bread which is Christ himself, especially as given to us in the Eucharist. So our Gospel today (Luke 9: 11-17), presented to us on the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, reminds us of the mystery of our Faith, the most holy Eucharist. In the dramatic discourse at Capernaum, our Lord announces that the possession of eternal life depends on eating his flesh and drinking his blood. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will have no life in you” (John 6:53). The people had no doubt as to what he meant: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52). Our Lord could see that he was losing his audience because of his doctrine. Yet he is uncompromisingly emphatic: “My flesh is true (aleethees) food and my blood is true (aleethees) drink” (6:55). Nothing like this had ever been said before. At this, they said, “This is a hard saying, who could accept it?” (6.60). As a result, many of his disciples left him (6:66), and possibly it was this that led Judas to defect from our Lord in his heart (John 6: 70-71).

There were occasions when our Lord used metaphors and made it clear that he was using a metaphor. In Mark 8:15 our Lord warned his disciples against “the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” They thought he was referring to real bread, and our Lord immediately expostulated with them: “Why do you suppose it is (i.e., that I have said this) because you have no bread?” Our Lord was referring to the doctrine and the example of the Pharisees and the Herodians. That is to say, our Lord immediately corrected their misunderstanding of his metaphor of the “leaven.” On the occasion of the death of Lazarus, our Lord told his disciples that Lazarus had fallen “asleep,” and so he would go to awake him (John 11: 11). The disciples thought he meant that Lazarus was simply slumbering — and they could not understand why our Lord would want to go to Judaea, a place full of danger, just to awaken him from his repose. Our Lord immediately corrected their misunderstanding: “Jesus said plainly: ‘Lazarus is dead’.” (11:14). The point is that Christ corrected misunderstandings of any metaphor he used. When it came to the dramatic occasion of his announcement of the Eucharist, there was no misunderstanding. His disciples saw what he was saying, and they objected. They refused to accept his doctrine that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood. Our Lord did not — as he did on other occasions — immediately correct their understanding of the meaning of his words. When he said that he flesh was true food and his blood true drink, he was using no metaphor. Our Lord did not even explain how he was going to do this. His body would be eaten and his blood would be drunk truly, but sacramentally — under the appearances of bread and wine. This would be shown and explained to his Apostles at the Last Supper. So it is that in a validly consecrated Eucharist, Christ is present whole and entire, body and blood, soul and divinity under the appearances of bread and wine. The whole substance of the bread and wine is changed by the power of Christ into the whole substance of his body and blood, while retaining fully the appearances of the bread and wine.

By the power of Christ’s word as uttered by the validly ordained priest, Jesus Christ is present whole and entire in the Eucharist. That presence of Jesus remains as long as what the Church calls the Eucharistic species persist. Thus the worship of the Sacrament of the Eucharist whether during Mass or outside of it, is the worship given to God alone. The holy Eucharist is kept outside of Mass in the Tabernacles of our Catholic churches, where the faithful may pray in the presence of the Eucharistic Jesus. The Church encourages the faithful to become profoundly Eucharistic in their devotion, making the Eucharistic Jesus the centre of their lives. St Paul writes that in Christ we receive every heavenly blessing. Let us then love the Eucharist and maintain in our lives the utmost reverence for this ineffable treasure.
(E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1373-1381 (Christ’s real presence)

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The mission to serve which the Divine Master has entrusted to us is a great and beautiful mission. — That is why this good spirit —which entails great self—mastery! — is perfectly compatible with the love of freedom that should pervade the work of all Christians.
(The Forge, no.144)

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I know well Thou never canst forsake those who seek Thee, or canst disappoint those who trust Thee. Yet I know too, the more I pray for Thy protection, the more surely and fully I shall have it.

JHN, from Meditations and Devotions (1893)

Monday of the tenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(June 7) Servant of God Joseph Perez (1890-1928)
"The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church," said Tertullian in the third century. Joseph Perez carried on that tradition.

Joseph was born in Coroneo, Mexico, and joined the Franciscans when he was 17. Because of Mexico’s civil unrest at that time (the forces of Pancho Villa had crossed into New Mexico on a raid the previous year), he was forced to take his philosophy and theology studies in California. After ordination at Mission Santa Barbara, he returned to Mexico and served at Jerecuaro from 1922 on. The persecution under the presidency of Plutarco Calles (1924-28) forced Joseph to wear various disguises as he travelled around to visit the Catholics. In 1927 Church property was nationalized, Catholic schools were closed, and foreign priests and nuns were deported. One day Joseph and several others were captured while returning from a secretly held Mass. Father Perez was stabbed to death by soldiers a few miles from Celaya on June 2, 1928. When Joseph’s body was later brought in procession to Salvatierra, it was buried there amid cries of "Viva, Cristo Rey!" (Long live Christ the King!).
Father Joseph’s memorial card includes these words: "May almighty God grant that our prayer, which is supported by the bloody sacrifice of this martyr, may graciously appear in his sight and bring salvation to us and redemption to our country" (Marion A. Habig, O.F.M., The Franciscan Book of Saints, p. 412). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 1 Kings 17: 1-6; Psalm 120; Matthew 5: 1-12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach

them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5: 1-12)

The Beatitudes The longest summary of our Lord’s teachings in the Gospel of St Matthew is given in chapters five to seven. It is called the Sermon on the Mount because it is continuous and is situated on the Mount. There is plenty of teaching throughout the rest of this Gospel, of course, but it is disparate and borne along in the narrative of our Lord’s travels, miracles and works, and is largely expressed in the form of parables. In these three chapters our Lord’s teaching is direct and

comprehensive, with hardly any parables being used. Of course, when the Gospel was written there were no chapters. Hence this single discourse commonly called the Sermon on the Mount would have stood out in the Gospel text for its length and distinctive character. It is all given on the Mountain as one continuous utterance, reminding the reader of the Law of God given on Mount Sinai long before. This is the new Law pronounced by Christ. If the Sermon on the Mount comprehensively presents the teaching of Jesus Christ, which then unfolds in further detail with the rest of the Gospel, our Gospel passage today is its general Introduction. Just as the entire discourse is called the Sermon on the Mount, this introduction has its name drawn from the distinctive form in which it is given. It is cast in the form of eight brief descriptions of those who are blessed or fortunate, each beginning with the same word: Blessed (makarioi). Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are the meek; blessed are those who suffer because of Christ. This brief block of eight introductory maxims has acquired the title of “the Beatitudes,” from the Latin for “blessed” — beatus. Now, for the Western mind with its propensity for logical system, these beatitudes, as with the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, and as with the rest of the Gospel itself, could present a problem. What is the key to it all? How can we get a handle on it, as we might put it? Is there a perspective we can take, an angle from which we can view the whole, which might enable us to appropriate more easily the general teaching contained in these inspired utterances?

The key to understanding the “beatitudes” of our Gospel passage today (Matthew 5: 1-12) is the figure of Jesus Christ. With each “beatitude” there ought immediately come before us the figure of the one who uttered it. He is the exemplar of what each means. When we read that the poor in spirit are blessed, we ought think of Jesus Christ who, as St Paul writes, though he was rich in possessing the glory proper to God, divested himself of it all and became as men are, and even lowlier still to death on the cross. St Paul writes that he who was rich made himself poor that we might be rich. No-one was so blessed in possessing the Kingdom of heaven as Jesus Christ, and yet no one was as poor in spirit as he. In him is to be found the Kingdom. No-one mourned for the state of mankind so sunk in sin as did Jesus Christ. No-one was so meek as he in the face of hostility and insult. He did not respond with hostility and hate, but with a love that was holy and strong, and ever forgiving. No-one was so persecuted as he, suffering incalculable pain and degradation because of the sin of the world. For this reason, as St Paul writes, God raised him up to his own right hand. Those who are blessed in the sight of God are not those regarded as blessed in the sight of the world, for the exemplar of true blessedness is Jesus Christ. Moreover, this is not just an in-house thing for Christians. Christ does give his teaching to his disciples (5:2), but he does so with “the multitudes” before him (5:1), and at the end of it “the multitudes” were astonished at his doctrine (7:28). Our Lord is proclaiming a very different path to happiness and worth in human living, and he is this path. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. So the best way to understand our Lord’s teaching, and in particular his teaching as contained in our Gospel passage today — that of the “beatitudes” — is to contemplate throughout our lives the person of Jesus Christ. Day by day we ought be living in his presence, coming to know and love him. Christianity is not just a doctrine telling us the right way to live. It is union in love with a Person, and his very person is the embodiment of the doctrine.

Let us learn to love the Gospel passage of today. It is the famous summary of what it means to live a Christian life, formulated by the divine Founder himself. It has another form given by St Luke (6: 20-26) — probably a form used by our Lord on other occasions, or at least a form current within certain Christian communities. They point to a new heart forged by the grace of Jesus Christ, a heart modelled on his sacred heart. Let us seek to be like him, then, putting on his mind.
(E.J.Tyler)

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You must never treat anyone unmercifully. If you think someone is not worthy of your mercy, you should realise that neither do you deserve anything.

—You don’t deserve to have been created, or to be a Christian, or to be a son of God, or to have the family you have...
(The Forge, no.145)

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Before the mind has been roused to reflection and inquisitiveness about its own acts

and impressions, it acquiesces, if religiously trained, in that practical devotion to the Blessed Trinity, and implicit acknowledgment of the divinity of Son and Spirit, which holy Scripture at once teaches and exemplifies. This is the faith of uneducated men, which is not the less philosophically correct, nor less acceptable to God, because it does not happen to be conceived in those precise statements which presuppose the action of the mind on its own sentiments and notions.

JHN, from The Arians of the Fourth Century (1833)

Tuesday of the tenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(June 8) St. William of York (d. 1154)
A disputed election as archbishop of York and a mysterious death. Those are the headlines from the tragic life of today's saint. Born into a powerful family in 12th-

century England, William seemed destined for great things. His uncle was next in line for the English throne—though a nasty dynastic struggle complicated things. William himself faced an internal Church feud. Despite these roadblocks, he was nominated as archbishop of York in 1140. Local clergymen were less enthusiastic, however, and the archbishop of Canterbury refused to consecrate William. Three years later a neighbouring bishop performed the consecration, but it lacked the approval of Pope Innocent II, whose successors likewise withheld approval. William was deposed and a new election was ordered. It was not until 1154—14 years after he was first nominated—that William became archbishop of York. When he entered the city that spring after years of exile, he received an enthusiastic welcome. Within two months he was dead, probably from poisoning. His administrative assistant was a suspect, though no formal ruling was ever made. Despite all that happened to him, William did not show resentment toward his opponents. Following his death, many miracles were attributed to him. He was canonized 73 years later. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 1 Kings 17: 7-16; Psalm 4; Matthew 5: 13-16

Jesus said, You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5: 13-16)

Salt and light An intriguing, indeed fascinating, feature of the world of our experience is that while it is made up of countless distinct units, all units are profoundly interconnected. The world is astonishingly vast in range, and at the same time astonishingly interrelated. This is a reflection of the Creator on which it

continually depends. The one and only Creator is a trinity of divine Persons, united one to the other in an ineffable relationship of love. The imprint of this is found in the constitution of the world and in every man and woman. Each person finds himself in relationships, and his life as it unfolds is the unfolding and working out of relationships. He cannot be happy if his life develops without good and authentic relationships with others. His deepest happiness of all will come from a profound relationship with his Creator, and the Christian knows that this means a profound relationship with Jesus Christ who is God made man. But now, an important implication of this essential human characteristic — which is the place of relationships in human life — is that man is made for work, and his work consists in the service of others. We need others, and others need us, and this means that our best activity consists in the service of our neighbour. Mankind is a vast hive of work for others. Man lives by his work for others, and his happiness will in large measure depend on it. He should, of course, be remunerated accordingly, but I speak here of the sources of his happiness. Just as his happiness depends on his being in right and authentic relationships, so too, his happiness will depend on his doing good work for others. We are all called to ensure that as a result of our brief appearance on this earthly stage, the world will be a better place. This will happen through our work. Such is the calling of man. Our Lord raises this to a new level when he tells his disciples that they are to serve the world by being its salt and its light (Matthew 5: 13-16). Their vocation is to sustain, flavour and enlighten the world around them with the presence of Christ. Such is the calling of the Christian and the dignity of his work.

The problem is that so many people are frustrated in their attempts to do good work. To begin with, they are broken, faulted human beings themselves, and so they do not make the best use of their opportunities when young and as time goes on. Others around them are also wounded in their moral and general constitution, and they interfere with these opportunities. For a host of reasons, we are limited in our influence and effect, and it is possible to pass years of one’s life feeling a profound sense of futility. What is my life adding up to? What am I achieving? A big bank balance? But what is the ultimate use of this? Or again, we look at certain others who attain prominence and seeming success, and we are puzzled at their good fortune and our lack of it. Of course, there are those who do not care anyway that their lives are not filled with good work, but they will never be truly happy. Now, in a sense, it is a very good thing that a person feel a sense of futility because it indicates that he wants to do something worthwhile with his life — meaning by this, some worthwhile service for others. But his sense of futility must be overcome. He must find a way to happiness in his quest to do good — which is to say, to do work that truly benefits others and give worth to his life. Central in the answer to this common problem is the possession of good models. We need the right examples of living, the right examples of true success, the right examples of good work and of what it is to be salt for the earth and light for the world. The Christian knows that his example is Jesus Christ, together with the cloud of witnesses to Christ which the Church holds up for our imitation. Christ’s work was to bear witness to the truth of his person and his teaching in the midst of unparalleled difficulty, ending in apparent failure. Good work need not be seen by men. The world can benefit from a life that is hidden from it. The little person who is unnoticed by the world can, by his life in Christ, and by doing what Christ has commanded, be salt to the earth, and be light to the world precisely because he is in Christ.

“God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments. Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.” (Cardinal Newman)
(E.J.Tyler)

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Don’t neglect the practice of fraternal correction, which is a clear sign of the supernatural virtue of charity. It’s hard; because it’s easier to be inhibited. Easier!, but not supernatural.

—And for such omissions you will have to render an account to God.
(The Forge, no.146)

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Christianity [is] ever civilization, as far as its influence prevails; but, unhappily, in matter of fact, civilization is not necessarily Christianity.

JHN, from Lectures on the History of the Turks, in their relation to Europe (1853)

Wednesday of the tenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(June 9) St. Ephrem (306?-373)
Poet, teacher, orator and defender of the faith, Ephrem is the only Syrian recognized as a doctor of the Church. He took upon

himself the special task of opposing the many false doctrines rampant at his time, always remaining a true and forceful defender of the Catholic Church. Born in Nisibis, Mesopotamia, he was baptized as a young man and became famous as a teacher in his native city. When the Christian emperor had to cede Nisibis to the Persians, Ephrem, along with many Christians, fled as a refugee to Edessa. He is credited with attracting great glory to the biblical school there. He was ordained a deacon but declined becoming a priest (and was said to have avoided episcopal consecration by feigning madness!). He had a prolific pen and his writings best illumine his holiness. Although he was not a man of great scholarship, his works reflect deep insight and knowledge of the Scriptures. In writing about the mysteries of humanity’s redemption, Ephrem reveals a realistic and humanly sympathetic spirit and a great devotion to the humanity of Jesus. It is said that his poetic account of the Last Judgment inspired Dante. It is surprising to read that he wrote hymns against the heretics of his day. He would take the popular songs of the heretical groups and, using their melodies, compose beautiful hymns embodying orthodox doctrine. Ephrem became one of the first to introduce song into the Church’s public worship as a means of instruction for the faithful. His many hymns have earned him the title “Harp of the Holy Spirit.” He preferred a simple, austere life, living in a small cave overlooking the city of Edessa. It was here he died around 373.

Lay me not with sweet spices,
For this honour avails me not,
Nor yet use incense and perfumes,
For the honour befits me not.
Burn yet the incense in the holy place;
As for me, escort me only with your prayers,
Give ye your incense to God,
And over me send up hymns.
Instead of perfumes and spices,
Be mindful of me in your intercessions.
(From The Testament of St. Ephrem) (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 1 Kings 18: 20-39; Psalm 15; Matthew 5: 17-19

Jesus said, Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practises and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5: 17-19)

Christ our Guide The Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of St Matthew is the longest discourse by our Lord in that Gospel, and one of the longest in any of the Gospels — matched in length by the discourse at the Last Supper in the Gospel of St John. The Sermon on the Mount clearly draws together the span of our Lord’s teaching, and this passage for our Gospel today would seem to be our Lord’s response to the accusation that his teaching disregarded and even supplanted the Law and the Prophets.

He was attacked for violating the Sabbath rest and, most seriously of all, for claiming that God was his own Father — thereby making himself equal to God. It seems that the charge of those most hostile to our Lord was that in effect he was overturning the religion of Moses and the Prophets. They even accused him of deriving his supernatural powers from an association with Satan, to support his new doctrine that was so unfaithful to the old. The Gospel text clearly suggests that what was driving this was jealousy of our Lord’s supremacy over the people and his independence of them, the leaders. We have in our passage today (Matthew 5: 17-19) our Lord’s response to this radical accusation. He had come not to overturn revealed religion, but to restore it and to bring it to its perfection. It had been the constant theme of the prophets that what God had revealed to Abraham, Moses and the prophets was being deformed and neglected. Our Lord placed himself in the tradition of the Law and the Prophets, and declared himself to be its fulfilment. In this sense he was indeed a new beginning. A characteristic of revealed religion had been that it involved a developing revelation. For instance, the revelation of the Messiah to come was a developing one. The Law and the Prophets was brought to new heights in Jesus Christ as part of a definitive and magnificent revelation. Beyond him God had nothing more to say, and in him was to be found the true understanding of what God had revealed to that point.

The course of our Lord’s life, the vicissitudes that came upon him, the hostility he evoked, and, strangely, the ignorance of his opponents as to the nature of the Person with whom they were really dealing, shows how great was the need for a Guide in their understanding of Revelation. Our Lord's opponents upheld the divine law of the Sabbath but insisted with deadly seriousness that on the Sabbath the hungry may not pick ears of corn to satisfy their hunger. Nor may the sick and the impaired be restored on the Sabbath. The Islamic terrorist thinks he is upholding the Law of Allah the one and only God by attacking the infidel and destroying him. Man clearly needs a Guide not only to dispel his moral and religious ignorance in the first place, but also to understand Revelation once given. Christ was that Guide, just as he was also the divine revelation fulfilled. Now, just as the children of Israel needed the light of Jesus Christ to understand properly the revelation given to that point, so too do Christ’s faithful need an ongoing Guide to understand properly the fulness of Revelation as it is found in his person. That Guide is the divine Spirit given to the Apostles on the day our Lord rose from the dead, and to the infant Church at Pentecost. By means of the Holy Spirit, our Counsellor, Christ continues to guide us in all things pertaining to divine revelation. He continues this action in his body the Church. The Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, makes Christ the revelation of the Father present in the world generation after generation. Just as jealousy and many other sinful attitudes led very many to disregard and reject Christ as the Guide and fulfilment of revelation prior to his death and resurrection, so too the Church he founded is a sign of contradiction evoking the opposition of many. Just as Christ was disregarded and rejected, so too his Church is frequently disregarded and rejected — and in particular the one who stands at the head of the Church, the Successor of St Peter, Christ’s Vicar on earth.

John Henry Newman once wrote that religion is essentially a matter of authority and obedience. He was countering a widespread tendency to make religion a matter of personal judgment — personal interpretation. We see its presence and action in the opposition to our Lord which evoked the utterances expressed in our Gospel today. Let us resolve to submit ourselves to the authority of Christ who is the fulness of all that God has revealed, and is its true interpretation.
(E.J.Tyler)

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When you have to make a fraternal correction, do it with great kindness — great charity! — in what you say and in the way you say it, for at that moment you are God’s instrument.
(The Forge, no.147)

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It is the peculiarity of the warfare between the Church and the world, that the world seems ever gaining on the Church, yet the Church is really ever gaining on the world. Its enemies are ever triumphing over it as vanquished, and its members ever despairing; yet it abides.

JHN, from the sermon ‘Faith and Experience’ (1838)

Thursday of the tenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(June 10) Blessed Joachima (1783-1854)
Born into an aristocratic family in Barcelona, Spain, Joachima was 12 when she expressed a desire to become a Carmelite nun.

But her life took an altogether different turn at 16 with her marriage to a young lawyer, Theodore de Mas. Both deeply devout, they became secular Franciscans. During their 17 years of married life they raised eight children. The normalcy of their family life was interrupted when Napoleon invaded Spain. Joachima had to flee with the children; Theodore, remaining behind, died. Though Joachima reexperienced a desire to enter a religious community, she attended to her duties as a mother. At the same time, the young widow led a life of austerity and chose to wear the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis as her ordinary dress. She spent much time in prayer and visiting the sick. Four years later, with some of her children now married and younger ones under their care, Joachima confessed her desire to a priest to join a religious order. With his encouragement she established the Carmelite Sisters of Charity. In the midst of the fratricidal wars occurring at the time, Joachima was briefly imprisoned and, later, exiled to France for several years. Sickness ultimately compelled her to resign as superior of her order. Over the next four years she slowly succumbed to paralysis, which caused her to die by inches. At her death in 1854 at the age of 71, Joachima was known and admired for her high degree of prayer, deep trust in God and selfless charity. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 1 Kings 18: 41-46; Psalm 64; Matthew 5: 20-26

Jesus said, “I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who

murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.” (Matthew 5: 20-26)

Religion of the heart Our Lord has just declared that he has come to vindicate and fulfil the Law and the Prophets, not to do away with them. Many of the scribes and Pharisees had accused our Lord of disregarding the Law and the Prophets, but of course it was their interpretation of revealed religion which our Lord was flouting. But here our Lord goes further still. The “righteousness” which they flaunted would never gain for them entry into the kingdom of heaven. It was not just that their

religion and priorities were misguided. They were shutting themselves off from heaven. The reason for this was above all the state of their hearts. They presented a front of religious practice while within their hearts sin reigned. Of course, we must not imagine that all the scribes and Pharisees were like this. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a disciple of our Lord — though a secret one, for fear of the Jews. Joseph of Arimathea was a leader of the Jews, and a secret disciple of our Lord. Their hearts were with him and they were open to his word. They had the courage more or less to declare themselves at our Lord’s death, for they buried him. We read in the Gospel of St John that “many even of the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees did not confess to this lest they be put out of the synagogue” (John 12: 42).So within the classes from which came our Lord’s most implacable enemies, there were several who secretly adhered to him, though they were influenced by human respect (12:43). We read in the Acts of the Apostles (6: 7) that prior to the testimony and martyrdom of Stephen, “a great company of priests submitted to the faith.” Many of these may have been secret believers during our Lord’s public ministry. Nevertheless, our Lord’s condemnation indicates that characteristically, the religion in the hearts of the scribes and Pharisees was not pleasing to God. Their commonly-regarded righteousness was not to be emulated. What then does God want of us?

In our passage today, our Lord stresses the importance of what is going on in the heart of man, as against mere external practice. Of course, external practice has its due place. Our Lord’s own practice indicates this. He customarily went to the synagogue service — we read that on his return to Nazareth, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, “as he usually did.” He went up to the Temple of Jerusalem for the great feasts. He carefully observed the Pasch. He insisted that the lepers go to show themselves to the priests and to make the offering prescribed by Moses. He condemned certain practices of the Corban, for they violated the commandment to honour one’s father and mother. But our Lord insisted on a religion of the heart, with high standards. Revealed religion could not be reduced to mere practices, let alone distorted and foolish ones such as the prescription against picking ears of corn on the Sabbath to satisfy legitimate hunger, or the banning of any kind of healing on the Sabbath. Revealed religion was a religion of virtue and holiness of heart. The principal commandment was to seek genuine virtue of mind and heart. Be holy, God had said, for I am holy (Leviticus 11:44), a requirement reiterated by St Peter in his Letter (1:16). What matters to God is above all what is happening in the secret recesses of our hearts. What matters is the kind of heart we are acquiring. Accordingly, our Lord, having stressed obedience to the Law and the Prophets, presents himself as their Interpreter and definitive Successor. “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment” (Matthew 5: 20-26). They were to forgive. “First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” We are to strive to banish anger from our hearts, and to forgive from the heart. A religion of the heart is what pleases God.

There is an important philosophical theory of ethics that goes by the name of “virtue ethics.” It stresses the ethical imperative of seeking virtue, not just virtuous practices. It stresses the importance of virtue for the knowing of what is virtuous. Our ideal ought be to acquire a virtuous mind and heart. In our Gospel today our Lord stresses interior religion, the religion of the heart as being the fundamental matter. We ought obey God for reasons of true virtue, and this obedience will itself then nourish true virtue of heart. In all of this our exemplar and source of grace is Jesus Christ. Let this mind be in us, then, that was in Christ Jesus!
(E.J.Tyler)

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If you know how to love other people and you spread that affection — Christ’s kindly, gentle charity — all around you, you will be able to support one another, and if someone is about to stumble he will feel that he is being supported, and also encouraged, to be faithful to God through this fraternal strength.
(The Forge, no.148)

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While it is so forcibly laid down in the Gospels that the history of the kingdom of heaven begins in suffering and sanctity, it is as plainly said that it results in unfaithfulness and sin; that is to say, that, though there are at all times many holy, many religious men in it, and though sanctity, as at the beginning, is ever the life and the substance and the germinal seed of the Divine Kingdom, yet there will ever be many too, there will be more, who by their lives are a scandal and injury to it, not a defence.

JHN, from An Essay in aid of a Grammar of Assent (1870)

Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus C

(June 11) St. Barnabas
Barnabas, a Jew of Cyprus, comes as close as anyone outside the Twelve to being a full-fledged apostle. He was closely associated with St. Paul (he introduced Paul to Peter and the other apostles) and served as a kind of mediator between the

former persecutor and the still suspicious Jewish Christians. When a Christian community developed at Antioch, Barnabas was sent as the official representative of the Church of Jerusalem to incorporate them into the fold. He and Paul instructed in Antioch for a year, after which they took relief contributions to Jerusalem. Later, Paul and Barnabas, now clearly seen as charismatic leaders, were sent by Antioch officials to preach to the Gentiles. Enormous success crowned their efforts. After a miracle at Lystra, the people wanted to offer sacrifice to them as gods—Barnabas being Zeus, and Paul, Hermes—but the two said, “We are of the same nature as you, human beings. We proclaim to you good news that you should turn from these idols to the living God” (see Acts 14:8-18). But all was not peaceful. They were expelled from one town, they had to go to Jerusalem to clear up the ever-recurring controversy about circumcision and even the best of friends can have differences. When Paul wanted to revisit the places they had evangelized, Barnabas wanted to take along John Mark, his cousin, author of the Gospel (April 25), but Paul insisted that, since Mark had deserted them once, he was not fit to take along now. The disagreement that followed was so sharp that Barnabas and Paul separated, Barnabas taking Mark to Cyprus, Paul taking Silas to Syria. Later, they were reconciled—Paul, Barnabas and Mark. When Paul stood up to Peter for not eating with Gentiles for fear of his Jewish friends, we learn that “even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy” (see Galatians 2:1-13). Barnabas is spoken of simply as one who dedicated his life to the Lord. He was a man "filled with the Holy Spirit and faith. Thereby large numbers were added to the Lord." Even when he and Paul were expelled from Antioch in Pisidia (modern-day Turkey), they were "filled with joy and the Holy Spirit." (AmericanCatholic.org)

Then Jesus told them this parable: Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. (Luke 15: 3-7)

The heart of God One of the greatest advances in religion was the Hebrew insistence that God is but one. There are no other gods independent of the one God, and that one God is the Lord (Yahweh, Elohim). From this fundamental doctrine unfolded many others, such as God’s infinity. The prophetic tradition, ordinary reflection and the assistance of philosophy all helped to bring out the lack of any limitation in the divine Being. The limited being of our experience ultimately requires and is dependent

on Being without limit, pure Being, Being that is necessary — which we call God. Now, not only is real infinity difficult for us to envisage — it comes down to denying limits rather than asserting positive features — but it is especially difficult for us to master the notion of a Person who in every respect is infinite. At first sight, the notion of a Person seems to involve definite states, attitudes and actions. A person loves, cares, and rejects. This in turn seems to involve the passing from what was not, to what now is — and therefore there are limitations. These problems of thought can be successfully tackled, but I doubt that the religions of man would have attained in a settled way to the worship of an infinite Being, were it not for a supernatural Revelation, and the divine assistance to appreciate its implications. Polytheism has been the normal religion of man and would have held the field, had not a divine Revelation been given that gained the ascendancy. This Revelation told that God is one, that he is without limit, and that he loves — indeed, that he is love. What has helped man is the fact that God revealed himself in ways that can be received by the imagination. He spoke, and with words. Abraham in some way heard him: Leave your homeland and your father’s house and go to a land I will show you! He did things: he sent Moses, and backed him up with miracles. These things were seen and could be remembered. The great God was obviously very much a Person. Gradually, it was becoming clear that the God of Israel was a Person who loved. Analogies were used, such as that he was a husband to his chosen people.

But the Revelation reached its greatest height with the appearance among men of Jesus of Nazareth. He came with the claim — only gradually expressed — that he, man though he is, is the Father’s own divine Son. He is God with us, and the deepest and most obvious thing about Jesus Christ is that there was no limit to his love for his heavenly Father and for each of us. There was nothing he was not prepared to do for our salvation, even to death on a cross. This love is the glory of God. Love is his glory. Inasmuch as the Cross was the greatest manifestation of the divine love, the Cross was Christ’s greatest glory. He loved us to the end. In Jesus Christ, in his teaching, in his ministry, in his sufferings, his Passion and his Death, we see manifested the heart of God, and we are led to bear witness to its glory. So it is that we honour the sacred heart of Jesus Christ, and bow down in adoring wonder and affection for him who has so loved each of us. Christ loved me, St Paul writes, and gave himself up for me. Today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It follows on the celebration of the most holy Trinity, and the celebration of Corpus Christi, the most holy Eucharist. So let us think of the heart of Jesus Christ, which is the revelation of the heart of God. It is a heart filled with compassion and mercy. As we read in today’s Gospel, it is a heart that goes after the stray sheep, and brings it back on his shoulders. He rejoices at having reclaimed the sinner, and heaven rejoices with him (Luke 15: 3-7). He earnestly desires that all come to him. Jerusalem, Jerusalem! he said, gazing on the City. How I would have wished to gather you as a hen gathers her chicks. Don’t cry, he said to the widow of Nain — and thereupon raised her son from death and returned him to her. Ask, and you will receive, he tells us. Christ’s heart is a heart that is full of mercy, and his divine power shows itself precisely in mercy for those who are afflicted. God is a God rich in holy mercy, and his divine Son become man is the revelation of this mercy and compassion.

Let us cultivate a profound devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so full of love and compassion. His is a heart brimming with mercy. He says to all of us, come to me, you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Matthew 11: 29). Christ wants us to stay close to his heart, and to learn from it. He wants us to become more and more like him in heart — obedient to God and serving of our neighbour. Let us then resolve to do this, always remembering St Paul’s words, Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2: 5).
(E.J.Tyler)

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Bring out your spirit of mortification in those nice touches of charity, eager to make the way of sanctity in the middle of the world attractive for everyone. Sometimes a smile can be the best proof of a spirit of penance.
(The Forge, no.149)

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They who do not rejoice in the weeks after Easter, would not rejoice in heaven itself.

JHN, from the sermon ‘Love of Religion, a New Nature’ (1840)

Saturday of the tenth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(June 12) The Immaculate Heart of Mary (following the Sacred Heart of Jesus)

In 1942, Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. However, this is not a new devotion. In the seventeenth century, St John Eudes preached it, together with that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Church instituted this feast to encourage us to trust always in the intercession of our Blessed Mother as a source of grace and mercy. The all pure heart of Mary beckons us to be pure of heart, keeping it free from attachments so that it may respond easily to do God’s will. She teaches us to love all in the Heart of Jesus.

Scripture today: 1 Kings 19: 19-21; Psalm 15; Matthew 5: 33-37

Jesus said to his disciples: Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes', and your 'No', 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. (Matthew 5: 33-37)

Being true Our Lord’s injunction, “Do not swear at all: ... simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’, be ‘No’,” is clearly an injunction against the unnecessary recourse to oaths as a means of assuring others that what one has said is true. Our Lord is not teaching that any taking of an oath is against the divine will. At our Lord’s trial before the Sanhedrin, the high priest rose and adjured him to state whether he was the Son of the living God (Matthew 26: 63). The high priest was attempting to place Christ

on oath and force him to declare his hand. To that point, our Lord had remained silent, but at this he instantly spoke. He was, some scholars would maintain, in effect speaking on oath. He said, I am, and I shall come again seated at God’s right hand. It was this solemn statement of his divinity that immediately brought on him the death sentence, which he accepted in atonement for the sin of the world. But our Lord implies in our passage today (Matthew 5: 33-37) that our normal speech ought be such that an oath is rarely necessary. What we say ought be a constant expression of the truth. As with all that our Lord taught, he himself is our exemplar. It is unimaginable that Christ would have been less than entirely and simply truthful. On one occasion the leaders sent representatives to entrap him. They began their ruse by recourse to flattery: Master, we know that you are a person of integrity, and that you do not say things simply to curry the favour of those who are important. A man’s rank means nothing to you, for you speak the truth in simple honesty. Should we pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Our Lord saw through their strategy instantly, and asked for a coin. We know what followed and it caused wonder and admiration. The point here, though, is that their introduction indicates the reputation of our Lord: he was a person who always spoke the truth without fear or favour. Indeed, in the Gospel of St John it is striking the number of times “the truth” is mentioned. While Moses brought the Law, Jesus Christ brought grace and truth. He described himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Mary the mother of Christ is taught by the Church to be the model disciple. She is mother and model of all the faithful. Consider the “Yes” that she gave to the Angel Gabriel at the beginning. We read (Luke 1: 26-38) that the Angel presented himself before the Virgin and announced the plan of God. She was to conceive and bring forth the Messiah who would be the Son of the Most High. Of his Kingdom there would be no end. Did she accept the divine will? One does not get the impression that she was being compelled to accept this course. God had sent his messenger to ask for her consent. A parallel might be the scene in the Gospel where the rich young man had asked our Lord what more he should do to gain eternal life. Our Lord, with love, invited him to sell all he had and to follow him. It was not an order. It was a loving invitation, expressing the divine will but not extorting obedience to it. The young man refused. The Angel announced the plan of God and Mary, having learnt that this was possible despite her being a Virgin, immediately accepted. Let us contemplate her simple “Yes” to the divine request. “I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). This is not an exact instance of what our Lord is referring to in our Gospel today. Nevertheless it is an instance of absolute authenticity in what is being said. Mary said “Yes” to the Angel, and that “Yes” was filled with truth. Her whole soul was expressed in her acceptance. In this, Mary, under Christ, is our example. Everything we do — as creatures and children of God, and as disciples of Christ who share his life — ought be characterised by truth and authenticity. This applies to our simple speech, our actions, and our very thoughts. Our speech ought not deceive. Our actions ought not deceive. Our very thoughts ought not be deceptive of ourselves, for we can deceive ourselves by thoughts that cloud us in unreality. Have you noticed others “talking to themselves,” or yourself doing this? Much of this is unreal thinking acting out frustrations, and not grounded in the truth.

Let us keep our eyes on the person of Jesus Christ. His “yes” was always absolutely a “yes,” without the slightest trace of untruth. The highest form of this is a truthful witness to Jesus Christ and his teaching. If the world and our culture in effect interrogate us about our faith in Christ, our answer, be it in word or deed, ought be a simple and authentic “yes.” Our whole lives ought be a “yes” to the question, Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of man and Son of the living God? Yes! The secret thoughts of our hearts, our every word and all our deeds ought be such that this faith is their very soul. Let us in every respect be true, then, to God and to Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)

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May you know how to put yourself out cheerfully, discreetly and generously each day, serving others and making their lives more pleasant.

—To act in this way is the true charity of Jesus Christ.
(The Forge, no.150)

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Many men zealously maintain principles which they never follow out in their own minds, or after a time silently discard, except as far as words go, but which are sure to receive a full development in the history of any school or party of men which adopts them.

JHN, from the sermon ‘Self-contemplation’ (1835)

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Prayers today: Lord, hear my voice when I call to you. You are my help; do not cast me off, do not desert me, my Saviour God (Psalm 26: 7.9)

Almighty God, our hope and our strength, without you we falter. Help us to follow Christ and to live according to your will. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Spirit, one God.

(June 13) St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231)
The gospel call to leave everything and follow Christ was the rule of Anthony’s life. Over and over again God called him to something new in his plan. Every time Anthony responded with renewed zeal and self-sacrificing to serve his Lord Jesus more

completely. His journey as the servant of God began as a very young man when he decided to join the Augustinians in Lisbon, giving up a future of wealth and power to be a servant of God. Later, when the bodies of the first Franciscan martyrs went through the Portuguese city where he was stationed, he was again filled with an intense longing to be one of those closest to Jesus himself: those who die for the Good News. So Anthony entered the Franciscan Order and set out to preach to the Moors. But an illness prevented him from achieving that goal. He went to Italy and was stationed in a small hermitage where he spent most of his time praying, reading the Scriptures and doing menial tasks. The call of God came again at an ordination where no one was prepared to speak. The humble and obedient Anthony hesitantly accepted the task. The years of searching for Jesus in prayer, of reading sacred Scripture and of serving him in poverty, chastity and obedience had prepared Anthony to allow the Spirit to use his talents. Anthony’s sermon was astounding to those who expected an unprepared speech and knew not the Spirit’s power to give people words.
Recognized as a great man of prayer and a great Scripture and theology scholar, Anthony became the first friar to teach theology to the other friars. Soon he was called from that post to preach to the Albigensian in France, using his profound knowledge of Scripture and theology to convert and reassure those who had been misled. After he led the friars in northern Italy for three years, he made his headquarters in the city of Padua. He resumed his preaching and began writing sermon notes to help other preachers.
In his sermon notes, Anthony writes: "The saints are like the stars. In his providence Christ conceals them in a hidden place that they may not shine before others when they might wish to do so. Yet they are always ready to exchange the quiet of contemplation for the works of mercy as soon as they perceive in their heart the invitation of Christ." (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 2 Samuel 12: 7-10.13; Psalm 31; Galatians 2: 16.19-21; Luke 7: 36-8:3

One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, If this

man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is— that she is a sinner. Jesus answered him, Simon, I have something to tell you. Tell me, teacher, he said. Two men owed money to a certain money-lender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he cancelled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more? Simon replied, I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled. You have judged correctly, Jesus said. Then he turned towards the woman and said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven— for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little. Then Jesus said to her, Your sins are forgiven. The other guests began to say among themselves, Who is this who even forgives sins? Jesus said to the woman, Your faith has saved you; go in peace. After this, Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means. (Luke 7: 36-8:3)

Justification Elsewhere I have mentioned the occasion of a talk that was once given at the University of Sydney. The speaker was a scholar of religion, and himself a Zoroastrian — I think he originally came from India. He regarded religion as, when all is said and done, a technology. It is a means of obtaining benefits through the employment of certain techniques. Now, even though in its proper and purer form it cannot be reduced to this, in very many cases religion does seem to be a “technology”, a

technique. The gods are besought in order to obtain the material benefits that are needed. In primal religions the myth of the beginnings is re-enacted time and again in order to keep the natural fertility of the earth renewed. The ceremonies are scrupulously performed in order to keep the spirits above content. Now, what is noticeable in man’s practice of religion is the kind of benefit he characteristically seeks. He wants prosperity in this life, temporal goods, protection from natural disaster and mishap, good health and the alleviation of sickness and disease, continuance of food and shelter — in other words, a flourishing of material benefits. His religion by and large serves this end, and it is a worthy end indeed. But are these the best things he could be praying for? On his own, man does not easily know what are his truest needs and what is his ultimate prosperity. I would ask an accomplished scholar of comparative religion whether it is ever found that devotees of a religion try to learn what the gods think his true needs are. Is it ever found that in his religion the deity has great concern for him, has a plan for his good that is quite new to him, and wishes to answer needs that he himself had not thought of? I suspect this is rare. But the case is different with Revealed Religion. God encourages us to pray for all our needs, including material ones. But he has intervened with his own agenda for our good. He has declared what we truly need and in what consists our truest flourishing, and he means to provide it because it is beyond our natural powers. Our truest need is not to be liberated from hunger, sickness and material want, but from sin. Our best flourishing consists in a share in his own divine life. This is what God has revealed to be our need, and he has done all that is necessary to provide it.

That is to say, we need to be justified. We need to be made good and right in an absolute sense, in the sight of God. We need more than that God wink at our fallen and sinful condition, and from the goodness of his heart gloss over it. We need more than that God remain content in the thought of the glory rendered to him by Jesus Christ his Son, while ignoring the sinfulness of us his creatures. We need to be taken out of our very obvious sinfulness, and made whole. While man is able to sense his need for a fundamental flourishing of soul, he is very likely to ignore this need or be oblivious of it, in favour of more material necessities. But God has revealed that this is our greatest need, and this is exactly what he sent his divine Son to do. “Behold the Lamb of God,” John the Baptist said, “Behold him who takes away the sin of the world.” God sent his divine Son to justify us, to make us right in his presence. This divine goal for man is surely symbolized by the event portrayed in our Gospel today, in which because of her faith in our Lord, the sinful woman was made right. “Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace” (Luke 7:36-8:3). Justification is the most excellent work of God. It is the merciful and freely-given act of God which takes away our sins and makes us just and holy in our whole being. It is brought about by means of the grace of the Holy Spirit which has been merited for us by the passion of Christ, and is given to us in Baptism. When our Lord forgave the sins of the repentant woman in our Gospel today, she did not receive the manifold benefits of Christian Baptism. When we are baptised, a greater thing was done for us than was done for her. We received the Holy Spirit and became just and whole in our whole being. When we sin after Baptism, we may reclaim our righteousness in Christ by repentance, by the Sacrament of Penance, and by working every day at living a holy life with the aid of grace. We ought strive to understand that our greatest need is the conquest of sin and the attainment of holiness. This is God’s work in us, and we must co-operate fully with his redeeming and sanctifying action by our own generous effort.

The woman came before our Lord in humble faith and sincere repentance. That is all she could do. But with this, the grace of God came to her by the word and power of Christ. She was made right by our Lord’s forgiveness. We can surely presume that she became a fervent disciple and set out on the path of holiness. This is our true need, and all other needs fall behind in comparison. Jesus Christ has told us what we ought seek in life above all, and how he is the answer to this divinely-revealed and all-important need.
(E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.1987-1995 (Justification)

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You should make sure that wherever you are there is that good humour — that cheerfulness — which is born of an interior life.
(The Forge, no.151)

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What want we then but faith in our Church? with faith we can do every thing; without faith we can do nothing. If we have a secret misgiving about her, all is lost; we lose our nerve, our powers, our position, our hope. A cold despondency and sickness of mind, a niggardness and peevishness of spirit, a cowardice and a sluggishness, envelope us, penetrate us, stifle us. Let it not be so with us; let us be of good heart.

JHN, from the sermon ‘Elijah the Prophet of the Latter Days’ (1841)

Monday of the eleventh week in Ordinary Time C/II

(June 14) St. Albert Chmielowski (1845-1916)

Born in Igolomia near Kraków as the eldest of four children in a wealthy family, he was christened Adam. During the 1864 revolt against Czar Alexander III, Adam’s wounds forced the amputation of his left leg. His great talent for painting led to studies in Warsaw, Munich and Paris. Adam returned to Kraków and became a Secular Franciscan. In 1888 he took the name Albert when he founded the Brothers of the Third Order of Saint Francis, Servants to the Poor. They worked primarily with the homeless, depending completely on alms while serving the needy, regardless of age, religion or politics. A community of Albertine sisters was established later. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1983 and canonized him six years later.
Reflecting on his own priestly vocation, Pope John Paul II wrote in 1996 that Brother Albert had played a role in its formation "because I found in him a real spiritual support and example in leaving behind the world of art, literature and the theatre, and in making the radical choice of a vocation to the priesthood" (Gift and Mystery: On the Fiftieth Anniversary of My Priestly Ordination, p. 33). As a young priest, Karol Wojtyla repaid his debt of gratitude by writing The Brother of Our God, a play about Brother Albert’s life. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 1 Kings 21: 1-16; Psalm 5; Matthew 5: 38-42

Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5: 38-42).

Love There are those who build a lot of their Christian system on particular texts of the Scriptures. They are armed with texts and their explanations of them, and they go forth to conquer. The problem is that in respect to the most important books of the Scriptures, which are the four Gospels, texts cannot be used in a simplistic way. To give but one example, when our Lord says that if we ask we shall always receive, what are we to make of those occasions when he was asked for something by someone

and did not give it? For instance, at the Last Supper he took off his outer garment and proceeded to kneel down and wash the feet of his disciples in turn. When he came to Simon Peter, Peter expostulated. Lord, you must never wash my feet! It was a firm and insistent request made by Simon to our Lord. Do not wash my feet! Peter asked, but he did not receive. Indeed, our Lord told him that if he, Peter, persisted in his refusal to let him wash his feet, their association would be at an end. Other examples could be given of requests that were made to our Lord and which were denied. So the true meaning of our Lord’s words in any particular text must be sought, and for this a wider context is often needed — the context of the rest of the Gospel, the context of the rest of the Scriptures, and the context of the mind and tradition of the Church. The same Holy Spirit who authored a particular text, and the particular Gospel of which that text is a part, and all four Gospels and the entire Scriptures, is the same Holy Spirit who guides the Church in her understanding and statement of the doctrine of Revelation. This is the broader context in which we must situate any particular text of Scripture. That is not to say that in order to understand a particular passage the reader must necessarily and always launch into a lengthy investigation of those various contexts. It does mean, though, that one’s mind should be formed within this broader context and tradition in order to interpret well particular elements in that context and tradition. In order to understand well the teaching of Christ, one should strive to put on the mind of Christ, and that mind is the mind of the Church.

All this is not to say, though, that one should explain away or ignore the teaching of our Lord when it is especially demanding. Our Gospel today is a case in point. If one thinks of the sweep of human history, the attack of one man on another is typically met with a counter-attack, unless self-interest and prudent strategy advises otherwise. The general law is that an eye is given for an eye and a tooth is given for a tooth — and it very often goes beyond this to double or treble measure. The response to an offence is anger and this anger leads to violence. Of course, crimes in society must be punished by law, but the question here is the pattern that prevails in the human heart. There has generally been a great deal of violence among human beings. That is the pattern in human history and it means that there has always been a great deal of violence surging in the human heart. There is anger and resentment in families, among clans and tribes, within and among societies, and across the face of the world. The instinctive conviction among so many would be that to expect a peaceful response to an offence is unreasonable. An offence cannot be suffered to go unanswered and unrequited. But now, Jesus Christ has come and has declared a new law. There is to be a new pattern and it is based on his practice. “You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well” (Matthew 5: 38-42). Our Lord is employing characteristic Semitic hyperbole — the evil person, ordinary reason would indicate, must be resisted. One cannot encourage the evil person in his evil deeds, which is to say, by inviting him to continue in his evil path. In fact, our Lord elsewhere in the Gospel stresses that the evildoer must be corrected and, if necessary, cast out of the Church’s communion. But what is manifestly clear is that Christ is commanding that evil must be met by love. Love is the answer to hate, offence and evil. The Christian overcomes evil by the highest standards of good.

What can we take from our Gospel passage today? We must put on the mind of Christ, and make his heart the model of what ought be going on in our own heart. The true battleground of the world is the heart of man. We think of the trouble spots of the world, the terrorism, the clash of forces, the threats to world peace. Rather, there is a world war going on in the hearts of men. Anger, resentment, sin, surge along day by day in the human heart — and this has to be replaced by the spirit of Christ. We must learn to love from the heart, in imitation of the Master, and this is possible by the power of grace. Come, Holy Spirit! Fill the hearts of your faithful! Enkindle in them the fire of your love! Yes, let the fire of love grow, and let the fires of hate be quenched.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Make sure you practise this very interesting mortification: that of not making your conversation revolve around yourself.
(The Forge, no.152)

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We sometimes fall in with persons who have seen much of the world, and of the men who, in their day, have played a

conspicuous part in it, but who generalize nothing, and have no observation, in the true sense of the word. They abound in information in detail, curious and entertaining, about men and things; and, having lived under the influence of no very clear or settled principles, religious or political, they speak of every one and every thing, only as so many phenomena, which are complete in themselves, and lead to nothing, not discussing them, or teaching any truth, or instructing the hearer, but simply talking. No one would say that these persons, well informed as they are, had attained to any great culture of intellect or to philosophy.

JHN, from The Idea of a University Part I (1852)

Tuesday of the eleventh week in Ordinary Time C/II

(June 15) Servant of God Orlando Catanii
An unexpected encounter with St. Francis of Assisi in 1213 was to forever change—and enrich—the life of Count Orlando of Chiusi. On the day a festival was being organized for a huge throng, St. Francis, already well known for his sanctity, delivered a dramatic address on the dangers of worldly pleasures. One of the guests, Orlando (also known as Roland) was so taken by Francis' words that he sought out the saint for advice on how best to lead a life pleasing to God. A short time later, Francis visited Count Orlando in his own palace, located at the foot of Mount La Verna. Francis spoke again of the dangers of a life of wealth and comfort. The words prompted Orlando to rearrange his life entirely according to the principles outlined by Francis. Furthermore, he resolved to share his wealth by placing at Francis' disposal all of Mount La Verna, which belonged to Orlando. Francis, who found the mountain's wooded recesses and many caves and ravines especially suitable for quiet prayer, gratefully accepted the offer. Orlando immediately had a convent as well as a church built there; later, many chapels were added. In 1224, two years before the death of Francis, Mount La Verna was the location where Francis received the holy wounds of Christ. In return for his generous gift, Orlando desired only to be received into the Third Order and to have St. Francis as his spiritual director. Under Francis' guidance, Orlando completely detached himself from worldly goods. He zealously performed acts of charity as a Christian nobleman. After his happy death Orlando was laid to rest in the convent church on Mount La Verna. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 1 Kings 21: 17-29; Psalm 50; Matthew 5: 43-48

Jesus said, You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5: 43-48)

The Romance There are many things that distinguish the human being. He is distinguished by his rationality and his power of choice. That is to say, he is not necessarily driven by instincts — although some human beings degenerate to the point where they are. He is called to be good, and this call he senses in his

conscience. Another thing that distinguishes the human being, I suggest, is that he is a being of romance. By “romance” I do not simply mean the love affairs portrayed in so many cheap novels, movies and media generally, although I do mean love in a very broad sense. Man can see the grandeur in certain things, the beauty of something or someone, the greatness of a particular call, the ideal of an all-consuming project for society, and can give himself over to the romance of that grand and beautiful prospect. In this sense, his life can become a romance. There is a book published on the life of Chesterton, and its title refers to the romance of orthodoxy. By this it means that Chesterton discovered the grandeur of Revealed Religion and the beauty of adhering to it in orthodox fashion. His life was a great romance in its gallant struggle to vindicate the truth of the Catholic Faith, as understood in its orthodox sense. Now, thinking in ultimate terms, what is there to be romantic about if the world as we see it is all there is? If there is just the fact of the world with its tangle, its evil and suffering, its good times and its bad, its hopes and its disappointments, why, as I think the Book of Ecclesiastes would ask, get excited? If a person is not a theist, I can understand a liking in him for the philosophy of, say, Frederick Nietzsche, or Sartre, or, for that matter, any theory of the meaninglessness of things. Without meaning to be disrespectful, philosophical postmodernism makes sense if there is no God. But ah! The case is very different once divine revelation is admitted. At the heart of the stupendous and vast reality around us is a mighty furnace of love. Beyond the veil of all that is material is an unending sea of love. Romance is at the heart of things, and the proper response to it is romance.

Yes, indeed, the romance of revealed religion! Mankind has every reason to be excited, every reason to be living a life of romance — a romance with that which is the Source of all reality, namely the God of love and mercy. There is a mighty Lover at work, and he is determined to bring each of us home to him. Terrible things have been done to the work of his hands, but he is at our side as our Hero, and he is filled with divine romance, the romance of love for us. The Creator of all things, visible and invisible, is a Being of romance. His romance led him to send his Son among us so that we might see him in the flesh, as Romance Incarnate. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his glory, the glory of the only-begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. Thus it is that the romance of love is at the heart not only of the world but of every human life. There is much to live for, and because of what has been revealed to us, it is a beautiful world despite all we might see and suffer. So we, each of us, are called to live the life of romance that marks the life of God made visible among us, Jesus Christ our Lord. We are to love as he has loved us. This is the romance of returning love for hate, good things for bad, and overcoming evil by doing good even to death in imitation of the Master. It is the romance of following in his footsteps and carrying his cross with him. So it is that our Lord says, “You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?” The love of the Creator surges up from the depths and rains down from above. It is intent on overcoming — and will assuredly overcome — the evil that so often appears to prevail. Let us in all things join with Christ and make his love the law of our life and our response to all things.

The romance of God! The romance of God become man! The greatest romance in human history was played out at Calvary. The romance of revealed religion! The romance of Christian love! The greatest romantic is the Christian saint. Let us set our sights high when we think of daily life, and whenever we begin a new day. What lies ahead is a stark alternative. Is it to be love, or is it to be its drab absence? Let us make of life a true and lasting romance, with our Lord’s command ever before us: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5: 43-48).
(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (1 Kings 21: 17-29)

Prayer for pardon We often hear of the power of prayer. Scripture clearly teaches that true and authentic prayer is powerful.

With good reason, when we think of prayer we usually think of the prayer of petition — asking God for what we or others need. Now, there is one kind of prayer of petition that is particularly important and powerful. It is the petition for pardon of our sins, including prayer that God will avert the punishment our sins deserve. This kind of prayer is also very pleasing to God. Consider the prayer of King Ahab in today’s first reading (1 Kings 21:17-29). Ahab was a great sinner, but because of Elijah's threats of punishment from God, Ahab repented — "he tore his garments and put sackcloth next his skin and fasted; he slept in the sackcloth; he walked with slow steps." This humbling of himself was pleasing to God and averted the punishment on his person that had been threatened. The point here is that contrite prayer for pardon and forgiveness is powerful.

It is a pity that Ahab's sorrow for sin was inspired with much self interest. His concern was for himself and not his son. His repentance was superficial, but real as far as it went. To that extent it was pleasing to God. Let us ask God repeatedly for his forgiveness of our sins and the grace to be sorry for them for the best of reasons, especially in the sacrament of Penance.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Here is a good way of doing an examination of conscience:

—Have I accepted in a spirit of expiation the difficulties which have come to me this day from the hand of God? Or those which came from the behaviour of my colleagues? Or from my own wretchedness?

—Have I managed to offer Our Lord, in expiation, the very sorrow I feel for having offended him so many times? Have I offered him the shame of all my inner embarrassment and humiliation at seeing how little progress I make along the path of virtue?
(The Forge, no.153)

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[Christ] gave Himself to suffering; He did not come to suffer as little as He could; He did not turn away His face from the suffering; He confronted it.

JHN, from the sermon ‘Mental Sufferings of Our Lord in His Passion’ (1849)

Liturgical Season	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
Ninth week Ordinary Time C/II			1	2	3	4	5
Tenth week Ordinary Time C/II	6 Corpus Christi	7	8	9	10	11 Sacred Heart	12 Immaculate Heart of Mary
Eleventh week Ordinary Time C/II	13	14	15