October2 in Year C 10

From Twenty-eighth week to Thirty-first week in Ordinary Time

Click on any date to go to the Thought for that Day

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 October is: "That Catholic Universities may more and more be places where, in the light of the Gospel, it is possible to experience the harmonious unity existing between faith and reason."

His mission intention is: "That the World Mission Day may afford an occasion for understanding that the task of proclaiming Christ is an absolutely necessary service to which the Church is called for the benefit of humanity."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday of the twenty-eighth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(October 16) St. Marguerite d’Youville (1701-1771)

We learn compassion from allowing our lives to be influenced by compassionate people, by seeing life from their perspective and reconsidering our own values. Born in Varennes, Canada, Marie Marguerite Dufrost de Lajemmerais had to interrupt her schooling at the age of 12 to help her widowed mother. Eight years later she married Francois d'Youville; they had six children, four of whom died young. Despite the fact that her husband gambled, sold liquor illegally to Native Americans and treated her indifferently, she cared for him compassionately before his death in 1730. Even though she was caring for two small children and running a store to help pay off her husband's debts, Marguerite still helped the poor. Once her children were grown, she and several companions rescued a Quebec hospital that was in danger of failing. She called her community the Institute of the Sisters of Charity of Montreal; the people called them the "Grey Nuns" because of the colour of their habit. In time, a proverb arose among the poor people of Montreal, "Go to the Grey Nuns; they never refuse to serve." In time, five other religious communities traced their roots to the Grey Nuns. The General Hospital in Montreal became known as the Hotel Dieu (House of God) and set a standard for medical care and Christian compassion. When the hospital was destroyed by fire in 1766, she knelt in the ashes, led the Te Deum (a hymn to God's providence in all circumstances) and began the rebuilding process. She fought the attempts of government officials to restrain her charity and established the first foundling home in North America.
Pope John XXIII, who beatified her in 1959, called her the "Mother of Universal Charity." She was canonized in 1990. "More than once the work which Marguerite undertook was hindered by nature or people. In order to work to bring that new world of justice and love closer, she had to fight some hard and difficult battles" (John Paul II, at canonization). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Ephesians 1: 15-23; Psalm 8; Luke 12:8-12

Jesus said, I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say. (Luke 12: 8-12)

Bearing witness In our reading of the Scriptures, including our Lord’s words in the Gospels, we must beware of pinning our whole interpretation of the Gospel message on one or other passage. Luther chose to fasten on certain statements of St Paul in respect to salvation through faith, but neglected other statements of his about works, and

certainly neglected St James’s teaching on the importance of works for salvation. The whole of Christ’s teaching must be considered when reading a particular passage from Scripture. In the twenty-fifth chapter of St Matthew’s Gospel, our Lord paints a striking picture of the General Judgment. In that presentation he drives home the eternal consequences of neglecting to help our neighbour in need. Whatever you did to the least of these brothers of mine, you did to me. Now, many reading this go on to assert that all that matters in the Christian and human life is how we treat our brother in need. As long as one is truly benevolent, nothing else is of final consequence. But our Lord does not say in that account of the Last Judgment that our treatment of our brother in need is all that will be considered by our Judge. Rather, this is the point to which our Lord chooses to give exclusive emphasis in that particular teaching. In that passage we are reminded that neglect and injury of our brother will be regarded most seriously at our judgment. Christ-like concern for neighbour is at the heart of the Christian religion. But our Lord makes it clear in other contexts that God’s Judgment on us will consider other critically important matters. Indeed, immediately prior to the passage describing the General Judgment (Matthew 25: 31-46), the judgment of God is described in a different way. In fact, this prior description is given just as much space (Matthew 25: 14-30). The unprofitable servant who is cast out into the darkness where there shall be weeping and grinding of teeth is condemned because of his failure to put his talents to work for his Master’s benefit. It was because he did nothing for his Master with the talent he had been given that he was condemned. So here are two adjoining descriptions of the Judgment that stress different aspects.

Our Gospel passage today (Luke 12: 8-12) is a further case in point, this time from the Gospel of St Luke. In Matthew’s account of the General Judgment, Christ judges all the nations in the presence of the angels — “when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, .... and there will be assembled before him all the nations” (Matthew 25:31-32). It is to be conducted in the presence of all the angels. In our passage today from Luke, again, the angels will witness the judgment. Our Lord seems here to be speaking of the judgment on each individual rather than the General Judgment at the end. But the angels witness to it, both to those who pass the terrible test, and to those who fail it. But this time, what is the pivotal thing in the judgment of God? It is whether or not we have borne witness to Jesus Christ, with blasphemy against the Holy Spirit included as a uniquely serious issue. “Jesus said, I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” Let us think of the martyrs. St John Fisher and St Thomas More went to their deaths refusing to allow Henry VIII the right to disown his rightful spouse, nor the right to rule Christ’s Church as its visible head. They acknowledged Jesus Christ and his Church before men. The point I am making here, though, is that Christ’s teaching on the Judgment of God is many-faceted, and ultimately stands on how we respond to him. Even the Judgment as presented in Matthew 25: 31-46 involves our attitude to Jesus Christ, for as our Judge he will say that “whatever you did to the least of these brothers of mine, you did to me.” In our Gospel today, our Lord stresses the critical importance of bearing witness to him by word. “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”

Life is short, and eternity is long. Let us make the most of every day, serving Jesus Christ in our brothers, making the very best of our talents to advance the interests of Jesus Christ our Master, and bearing witness to him as Lord before others, prudently and yet with courage, whatever be the cost. We cannot avoid our Judgment. So, relying on the grace and the overflowing mercy of God, let us each day make Jesus Christ our life and our goal, endeavouring to see him reign as Lord.

(E.J.Tyler)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The gift of light from God (Ephesians 1: 15-23)

Our need for light If there is one thing we all need, it is light. Imagine walking along in the dark, when there is no light of any kind! One is helpless. One can live out one's daily life according to one's lights, but those lights can be all darkness. We have only to think of how so many human beliefs and convictions are absolutely contrary to what God has revealed, to appreciate this. So we need light, most especially light from God. This is exactly what St Paul prays for in Ephesians 1:15-23. He prays that God will give his readers "a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you."

Let us pray constantly for that light and for fervour so that we can attain our vocation which is holiness in Christ. Let us humbly open ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit, asking Mary to be our teacher, with our guardian angel our friend and guide.

(E.J.Tyler)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our Lord is on the Cross saying, I am suffering so that men, who are my brothers, may be happy, not only in Heaven, but also — as far as possible — on earth, if they really embrace the most Holy Will of my heavenly Father.
(The Forge, no.275)

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Prayers this week: I call upon you, God, for you will answer me; bend your ear and hear my prayer. Guard me as the pupil of your eye; hide me in the shade of your wings. (Psalm 16: 6.8)

Almighty and ever-living God, our source of power and inspiration, give us strength and joy in serving your as followers of Christ. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

(October 17) Saint Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr (d. 107?)
Born in Syria, Ignatius converted to Christianity and eventually became bishop of Antioch. In the year 107, Emperor Trajan

visited Antioch and forced the Christians there to choose between death and apostasy. Ignatius would not deny Christ and thus was condemned to be put to death in Rome. Ignatius is well known for the seven letters he wrote on the long journey from Antioch to Rome. Five of these letters are to Churches in Asia Minor; they urge the Christians there to remain faithful to God and to obey their superiors. He warns them against heretical doctrines, providing them with the solid truths of the Christian faith. The sixth letter was to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who was later martyred for the faith. The final letter begs the Christians in Rome not to try to stop his martyrdom. "The only thing I ask of you is to allow me to offer the libation of my blood to God. I am the wheat of the Lord; may I be ground by the teeth of the beasts to become the immaculate bread of Christ." Ignatius bravely met the lions in the Circus Maximus. "I greet you from Smyrna together with the Churches of God present here with me. They comfort me in every way, both in body and in soul. My chains, which I carry about on me for Jesus Christ, begging that I may happily make my way to God, exhort you: persevere in your concord and in your community prayers" (Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Church at Tralles). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Exodus 17:8-13; Psalm 121:1-8; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2; Luke 18:1-8

Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, "There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, 'Render a just decision for me against my adversary.' For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, 'While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.'" The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:1-8)

Prayer of petition As we think of the history of mankind and of the religions of man, we quickly realise how normal it is for man to pray. As anthropologists and archaeologists agree, typically, cultures have been religious. Cultures have manifested their character in ritual, religious myth and prayer.

Our Lord’s dictum that we are to pray always, never losing heart, is in profound harmony with the nature of man, for man is normally found to tend to pray. We ought live on prayer. As St John Chrysostom, Father and Doctor of the early Church, says, “It is possible to offer fervent prayer even while walking in public or strolling around, or seated in your shop, or while buying or selling, or even while cooking.” Even though in our modern secular world many do not pray, a glance at human history and culture suggests that it is normal, natural and easy to grow in the habit of prayer. In our Gospel today (Luke 18: 1-8), our Lord speaks of the prayer of petition. The widow kept coming to the unjust judge with her petition: “I want justice done from you against my enemy!” For a long time he refused, but at last he said to himself, “Maybe I have neither fear of God nor respect for man, but since she keeps pestering me I must give this widow her just rights, or she will persist in coming and worry me to death.” And our Lord said, how much more will God answer the prayers of those who cry to him night and day, even if there is some apparent delay! When we ask God for what we truly need, we are expressing to him our awareness of our dependence on him. We are his creatures and are not the masters of our destiny. Our petition is a real turning to God. This pleases God, and he helps us to pray. St Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that the Holy Spirit “helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” God himself comes to our aid in helping us to pray for what we need.

The obvious question immediately arises: What do I really need? It is this that I ought pray for. Our Lord’s whole ministry was concerned with the proclamation of God’s kingdom and its establishment here on earth. God’s kingdom comes to us when Christ comes into our heart and makes his home there, governing every aspect of our lives. We enter the Kingdom of God when we enter into union with Jesus Christ its King. So this is our greatest need, and is therefore what we should especially be praying for. We pray for whatever is necessary to welcome Christ into our lives, and to cooperate with his coming. Father, hallowed be your name! Your Kingdom come! We ought pray for the grace to be dedicated to extending this kingdom to the hearts of others, by bringing them to the knowledge and love of Jesus. To know the love of God! We ought pray that we come to know God’s great love for us, and that we be granted forgiveness for our failure to live according to this love. We ought be like the Publican all our lives humbly saying to God, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Our Lord compared that prayer of the Publican with the prayer of the Pharisee in the temple, and it was the prayer of the Publican that pleased God and made him right before him. We are sinners in his sight, sinners who have neglected and spurned his love. We ought, like the Publican, pray frequently for forgiveness for all our sins — and how numerous must they be! It is a prayer, this prayer for forgiveness, that should be inspired and dominated by the thought of how much God loves us, how merciful he is, and therefore how offensive our sins are. Let us, in the presence of our heavenly Father, pray this frequent petition: Lord, forgive us our trespasses! This will surely please God. But of course we have so many other needs, as do all our brothers and sisters under God. Let us pray for the needs of all others, including those who have died. Let us pray for them to our Lady and to our guardian angel, and to the guardian angels of the ones for whom we are praying. The world depends on our prayers, the world of the living, and the world of those now being purified for their sins in Purgatory.

As we think of our Gospel today, let us resolve to use as much of the time God has given us in life to pray for what we need. We moderns tend not to pray, but we must pray for all we need. We need to know the love of God for us. We need God’s forgiveness. We need the coming and establishment of his kingdom in our hearts, in the person of Jesus his Son. We need so many things. Let us pray often also for others and their needs. Let us, then, ask God for the grace to pray constantly, never losing heart.

(E.J.Tyler)

Further Reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 2629-2636 (Prayer of petition and intercession), 2742-2745 (Christian Prayer: Persevering in Love)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is true that your contribution is nil and that it is God who does everything in your soul.

—However, let not this be the case as far as your correspondence to his grace is concerned.
(The Forge, no.276)

Feast of St Luke the Evangelist (October 18)
(Monday of the twenty-ninth week in Ordinary Time C/II 2010)

St. Luke the Evangelist Luke wrote one of the major portions of the New Testament, a two-volume work comprising the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. In the two books he shows the parallel between the life of Christ and that of the Church. He is the only Gentile

Christian among the Gospel writers. Tradition holds him to be a native of Antioch, and Paul calls him "our beloved physician" (Colossians 4:14). Luke appears in Acts during Paul’s second journey, remains at Philippi for several years until Paul returns from his third journey, accompanies Paul to Jerusalem and remains near him when he is imprisoned in Caesarea. During these two years, Luke had time to seek information and interview persons who had known Jesus. He accompanied Paul on the dangerous journey to Rome where he was a faithful companion. "Only Luke is with me," Paul writes (2 Timothy 4:11).
Luke wrote as a Gentile for Gentile Christians. This Gospel reveals Luke's expertise in classic Greek style as well as his knowledge of Jewish sources. The character of Luke may best be seen by the emphases of his Gospel, which has been given a number of subtitles: (1) The Gospel of Mercy: Luke emphasizes Jesus' compassion and patience with the sinners and the suffering. He has a broadminded openness to all, showing concern for Samaritans, lepers, publicans, soldiers, public sinners, unlettered shepherds, the poor. Luke alone records the stories of the sinful woman, the lost sheep and coin, the prodigal son, the good thief. (2) The Gospel of Universal Salvation: Jesus died for all. He is the son of Adam, not just of David, and Gentiles are his friends too. (3) The Gospel of the Poor: "Little people" are prominent — Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, shepherds, Simeon and the elderly widow, Anna. He is also concerned with what we now call "evangelical poverty." (4) The Gospel of Absolute Renunciation: He stresses the need for total dedication to Christ. (5) The Gospel of Prayer and the Holy Spirit: He shows Jesus at prayer before every important step of his ministry. The Spirit is bringing the Church to its final perfection. (6) The Gospel of Joy: Luke succeeds in portraying the joy of salvation that permeated the primitive Church. (Luke 24:50-53). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 2 Timothy 4:10-17b; Psalm 145; Luke 10:1-9

The Lord Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the labourers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out labourers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the labourer deserves payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.’” (Luke 10:1-9)

Faithful Luke Luke was not, of course, one of the Twelve. Nor, as far as I am aware, has he ever been given the title of Apostle — as was St Paul, who, though an Apostle was not one of the Twelve either. It is clear that though Christ gave to the Twelve the title of ‘Apostolos’

(envoy or ambassador), he did not mean the word to be restricted to the Twelve. St Paul, for instance, gives the term a wider application. Further, though Paul possessed the fulness of the Christian priesthood (that is, he was what we now call a ‘bishop’), and founded local churches with the authority to ordain presbyters and bishops, I am not aware of any evidence that Luke was a presbyter, let alone a bishop. St Paul’s words in Colossians 4:11 would imply that he was a Gentile by birth, and in 4:14 that he was a physician. Eusebius has him being born in Antioch, Syria. He was, then, a fervent and totally committed lay convert to Jesus Christ — the Church celebrates him as a Saint — though we do not know the story of his conversion. He was the companion of St Paul on at least part of his second and third missionary journeys, and attended to Paul during his Caesarean and Roman captivities. Beyond this we know little, except what may be deduced of his Christian mind from the very content of his inspired writing. As a valued friend and companion of St Paul, one on whom Paul doubtlessly depended for practical assistance at least as physician if not more, he had the benefit of daily association with one of the greatest masters of the Gospel message. As a lay convert, Luke’s understanding of the Gospel, then, would have been great. We cannot be sure of when and where Luke put his gospel account together. It is often stated that his Gospel was written between A.D. 70 and 85, but in Acts 1:1 Luke refers to his former book, indicating that his Gospel was generally completed before the Acts. Then, inasmuch as the Acts does not include Paul’s martyrdom (28: 30), one suspects that the two works were completed during Paul’s lifetime. But Paul makes no mention of so signal a production by his valued companion, so we cannot be sure. If Luke’s two books were in formation during his travels with Paul, Paul himself would surely have benefited from Luke’s careful investigation of the history, even of the very childhood, of Jesus Christ.

The few references to Luke in the Letters of St Paul do not include directly evangelical activity on his part. Doubtlessly he assisted Paul not only as physician but in his proclamation of the Gospel in places he visited, but this is not the primary feature of Luke’s contribution to the work of evangelization. Yet he is known in the tradition and life of the Church as Luke the Evangelist, and this is because of his great work of writing the Gospel and the Acts. He professes to be writing history, and like all good history it is not a mere annals of events, but enshrines various perspectives on the facts. As a historian, I believe he is comparable with the great Greek and Latin writers, but in his case he is not a mere historian. He is the instrument of the Holy Spirit, who inspired and guided his writing for both his immediate audience and for the ages to come. Now, Luke’s two works constitute nearly a quarter of the entire New Testament, and in size are close behind the corpus of the Letters of St Paul (for the Letter to the Hebrews is not now regarded as having been written by Paul himself, though it is Pauline). This is the work of a Christian lay convert, a man with a profound understanding of the meaning of the Christian Gospel and the work of Jesus Christ and his Church (for he had the best of teachers), and one with a scarcely parallelled command of the facts of the case (due to his own careful investigation of them). All of this he expressed in two timeless documents of limpid beauty and clarity. Could we not regard Luke as a most notable instance of the great contribution to the life of the Church which not only the convert to the Church can make, but which the lay faithful also can make? Each member of Christ’s faithful brings his or her own gifts to the mission of Christ and the Church. That mission is to know and love Jesus Christ, and to bring the knowledge and love of man’s Redeemer to the world. St Luke the Evangelist has much to teach us of the universal call to holiness and mission.

Let us contemplate the winning figure of the modest Luke, quiet, self-effacing, dedicated, most industrious, accomplished. How greatly he loved Christ and his Church! How much careful industry must have gone into the production of his Gospel and of the Acts of the Apostles! His care with detail, his love in bringing it all to fruition, and the unending fruits of holiness which his work has produced and will ever produce to the end of the world, beggar calculation. We know nothing of Luke’s childhood and early adulthood, but God was preparing a signal instrument for his purposes. Let us learn from the life and work of Saint Luke, and place ourselves entirely at the disposal of the Holy Spirit. He will give to our lives their intended value.

                                                                                            (E.J.Tyler)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second reflection: (2 Timothy 4: 10-17;   Luke 10: 1-19)

Christian loyalty

In the brief passage from his second letter to Timothy (4: 10-17), St Paul refers to various people, including St Luke. Some of these deserted him (Demas), others were dependable and useful (Mark), others did him harm (Alexander). He mentions in passing that "only Luke is with me." As we read of these individuals, we cannot but be reminded that a central issue in the life and apostolate of the Christian is loyalty — loyalty to Christ and loyalty to those who are in Christ. St Paul writes that Luke was loyal. Our Lord asked for loyalty in his disciples, loyalty to the mission entrusted to them — and we think of this as we read that the "Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him, in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself was to visit" (Luke 10:1). They had to be loyal to their vocation and mission.

Let us think of Christ's loyalty to his immense mission given to him by his Father. Let us think of the loyalty of St Paul to Christ and to the Church. Let us think of Luke's loyalty to the person of our Lord, inspiring him to write his Gospel. Let us think too of Luke’s loyalty to Paul who was deserted in times of tribulation. Thinking of these examples of loyalty, let us resolve to be loyal to God and his holy will every day until death, no matter what the cost.
(E.J.Tyler)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Practise the virtue of hope and, with God as your motive, even when you find it hard, persevere at your work and try to finish it well, convinced that those efforts of yours are not useless in the Lord’s sight.
(The Forge, no.277)

Tuesday of the twenty-ninth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(October 19) Saint John de Brébeuf and Saint Isaac Jogues, priests and martyrs, and their companions, martyrs
Isaac Jogues (1607-1646): Isaac Jogues and his companions were the first martyrs of the North American continent officially recognized by the Church. As a young Jesuit, Isaac Jogues, a man of learning and culture, taught literature in France. He gave up that career to work among the Huron Indians in the New World, and in 1636 he and his companions, under the

leadership of John de Brébeuf, arrived in Quebec. The Hurons were constantly warred upon by the Iroquois, and in a few years Father Jogues was captured by the Iroquois and imprisoned for 13 months. His letters and journals tell how he and his companions were led from village to village, how they were beaten, tortured and forced to watch as their Huron converts were mangled and killed. An unexpected chance for escape came to Isaac Jogues through the Dutch, and he returned to France, bearing the marks of his sufferings. Several fingers had been cut, chewed or burnt off. Pope Urban VIII gave him permission to offer Mass with his mutilated hands: "It would be shameful that a martyr of Christ be not allowed to drink the Blood of Christ." Welcomed home as a hero, Father Jogues might have sat back, thanked God for his safe return and died peacefully in his homeland. But his zeal led him back once more to the fulfilment of his dreams. In a few months he sailed for his missions among the Hurons. In 1646 he and Jean de Lalande, who had offered his services to the missioners, set out for Iroquois country in the belief that a recently signed peace treaty would be observed. They were captured by a Mohawk war party, and on October 18 Father Jogues was tomahawked and beheaded. Jean de Lalande was killed the next day at Ossernenon, a village near Albany, New York.

The first of the Jesuit missionaries to be martyred was René Goupil who, with Lalande, had offered his services as an oblate. He was tortured along with Isaac Jogues in 1642, and was tomahawked for having made the Sign of the Cross on the brow of some children. Jean de Brébeuf (1593-1649): Jean de Brébeuf was a French Jesuit who came to Canada at the age of 32 and laboured there for 24 years. He went back to France when the English captured Quebec (1629) and expelled the Jesuits, but returned to his missions four years later. Although medicine men blamed the Jesuits for a smallpox epidemic among the Hurons, Jean remained with them. He composed catechisms and a dictionary in Huron, and saw 7,000 converted before his death. He was captured by the Iroquois and died after four hours of extreme torture at Sainte Marie, near Georgian Bay, Canada. Father Anthony Daniel, working among Hurons who were gradually becoming Christian, was killed by Iroquois on July 4, 1648. His body was thrown into his chapel, which was set on fire. Gabriel Lalemant had taken a fourth vow—to sacrifice his life to the Indians. He was horribly tortured to death along with Father Brébeuf. Father Charles Garnier was shot to death as he baptized children and catechumens during an Iroquois attack. Father Noel Chabanel was killed before he could answer his recall to France. He had found it exceedingly hard to adapt to mission life. He could not learn the language, the food and life of the Indians revolted him, plus he suffered spiritual dryness during his whole stay in Canada. Yet he made a vow to remain until death in his mission. These eight Jesuit martyrs of North America were canonized in 1930.
"My confidence is placed in God who does not need our help for accomplishing his designs. Our single endeavour should be to give ourselves to the work and to be faithful to him, and not to spoil his work by our shortcomings" (from a letter of Isaac Jogues to a Jesuit friend in France, September 12, 1646, a month before he died). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Ephesians 2: 12-22; Psalm 84; Luke 12:35-38

Jesus said, Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. (Luke 12: 35-38)

Stand ready! Our Lord repeatedly exhorts his disciples to persevere steadfastly to the end. Final perseverance is the ultimate victory. It is the final blessing, for what use is it to have made a good start and when difficulty comes to fall away and be lost? But is there a key to this perseverance?

Our Lord time and again gives us an answer to this. We must be ever watchful, ever ready for the coming of the Master. We must stand alert, being ready now for his coming and ensuring that were he to come at this instant he would find us at our employment. In the fourth century AD, the fortunes of the Church changed, for Constantine declared Christianity to be the religion of the Empire. But there were terrible problems ahead in the century unfolding, for the Arian heresy was about to erupt. A most impressive figure of the time was Bishop Ossius of Cordoba. He had instructed Constantine in the Christian faith, and in the thirteen years that followed, guided Constantine in matters relating to Christianity and the Church. He had suffered in the persecution under Maximinian, and had taken part in the Council of Elvira (306). In the early stages of the Arian controversy (324) he was sent to Alexandria to investigate, and it was largely as a result of his report that the Council of Nicea was summoned by the Emperor. Ossius presided, and he probably (together with two Roman priests) represented the Pope. It was probably he who introduced the critical expression of orthodoxy (homoousios — one in being, consubstantial), and he guided the proceedings to the proclamation of the orthodox faith. His whole life involved a struggle for orthodoxy. He went on after Nicea to preside at the anti-Arian council of Sardica in 343, and was banished for his support of St Athanasius in 355. But then in 356, when he was in his hundredth year, Ossius was imprisoned by the reigning Emperor and sent to present-day Belgrade. There he was put under the whip, and he, the famed Bishop Ossius so highly regarded by St Athanasius, broke. At the end of a long life of orthodoxy, he signed an Arian statement (the Second Formulary of Sirmium) — though he subsequently repudiated it. He failed at the end.

This may be taken as one instance of many, showing how the Christian must stand ever ready for service. He must not imagine that his loyalty to Christ is assured. He must be ever vigilant and reliant on the help of God, right to the very end. We may think of the Last Supper when Christ warned his disciples that he, the Shepherd, was about to be struck, and the sheep would be scattered. Simon immediately assured Christ repeatedly that he would be loyal. No, the Lord replied, for before the cock crows you will have denied me three times. Simon should have taken note and stood on strict guard, guard against fear for personal safety. He should have prayed lest he be led into temptation. Every day there are countless unnoticed comings of Christ into our life in the form of duty. John Henry Newman famously (in the Letter to the Duke of Norfolk) described the conscience of man as the “aboriginal vicar of Christ.” He meant that its voice has a divine authority. As the Church teaches (The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.1777), when he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking. Every day is filled with scarcely noticed duties, all of which are manifestations of the voice and will of God. Christ comes to us with his call and his grace in the duties of every day, duties in our family, in our work, in our neighbourhood, in our parish, everywhere we live and move. We must be ready for his coming. If we are faithful in these little things, we are disposing ourselves to be faithful in the great. History is replete with instances of Christian fidelity to the end, despite terrible sufferings at the end. What is the key to this fidelity? The key is to be faithful and watching here and now, alert and ready for the coming of Christ here and now in the ordinary day. “Jesus said, Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes” (Luke 12: 35-38).

How do we prepare for the future? We prepare for the future by living well now. Let us be dressed ready for service now, keeping our lamps burning now, awaiting the slightest indication of the will of God now, detached from all that may prevent us from doing the divine will now. The critical thing is that we persevere at the end, and the way to prepare for this is to persevere now. Let us pray often for final perseverance, and for the grace to be faithful to Jesus Christ today.
(E.J.Tyler)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second reflection: (Luke 12: 35-38)

Stand ever ready There are so many who spend their lives working for and

thinking about only those things that will inevitably pass away. The fact is that at any moment life itself could suddenly pass away. Created reality hangs on a thread, held by God. However, the profound transience of life is not as gloomy a prospect as this because there is a far more wonderful Reality behind the one we see and of which we are a part. That wonderful Reality is Christ who is coming to meet us. What the transience and mortality of this world really means is that at a moment's notice Jesus our master could suddenly return from where he has gone. Indeed, all through our lives he is coming to us time and again in his grace — every grace is a coming of Jesus with his Holy Spirit. We ought be constantly ready to welcome his coming. His most momentous coming will be at our death.

"See that you are dressed for action and have your lamps lit. Be like men waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks." (Luke 12: 35-36). If we are found ready and welcoming the Master, he will welcome us into the tents of eternity.

(E.J.Tyler)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When in your daily struggle, normally made up of many little things, there is the desire and the reality of pleasing God continually, I assure you: nothing is ever lost!
(The Forge, no.278)

Wednesday of the twenty-ninth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(October 20) St. Maria Bertilla Boscardin (1888-1922)

If anyone knew rejection, ridicule and disappointment, it was today’s saint. But such trials only brought Maria Bertilla Boscardin closer to God and more determined to serve him. Born in Italy in 1888, the young girl lived in fear of her father, a violent man prone to jealousy and drunkenness. Her schooling was limited so that she could spend more time helping at home and working in the fields. She showed few talents and was often the butt of jokes. In 1904 she joined the Sisters of St. Dorothy and was assigned to work in the kitchen, bakery and laundry. After some time Maria received nurses’ training and began working in a hospital with children suffering from diphtheria. There the young nun seemed to find her true vocation: nursing very ill and disturbed children. Later, when the hospital was taken over by the military in World War I, Sister Maria Bertilla fearlessly cared for patients amidst the threat of constant air raids and bombings. She died in 1922 after suffering for many years from a painful tumour. Some of the patients she had nursed many years before were present at her canonization in 1961. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Ephesians 3: 2-12; Psalm: Isaiah 12; Luke 12:39-48

Jesus said, Understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. Peter asked, Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone? The Lord answered, Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose the servant says to himself, 'My master is taking a long time in coming,' and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12: 39-48)

Responsibility I remember years ago a person saying that he wished that he hadn’t been born into a Catholic family, because non-Catholics had it easier. They did not have the obligations that Catholics have. The person who said this did not appreciate that the Faith is a gift, and that a great gift necessarily endows responsibilities.

However, his slightly ludicrous wish reminds us of a fundamental fact of life. It is that we are all inescapably and radically endowed with gifts that bring with them responsibilities. We did not choose to enter the world — for only one Person did this, and he was divine. We find ourselves in existence, as living, breathing human beings with the power and the requirement to choose our course. We cannot renounce this gift as if it were simply chosen by us, and if we were forcibly to extricate ourselves from life and its responsibility (by, say, putting an end to our life), all would be tragic for us. We cannot avoid the possibilities, and more fundamentally, the responsibilities flowing from our given situation. Martin Heidegger made the expression Dasein famous — we are being in time. We exist in time, and this inevitably involves the responsibility for what we make of our own being. Years back I knew a priest who, before he died in Spain, said that he was grateful to God for the gift of life. He had used his life well and fully, and it had been the source of blessings for very many others. As each person finds himself with his gifts of life, circumstances and vocation, he must take responsibility for the use he makes of these gifts. If he does not, his life will be a tragedy, as it will if he positively chooses the path of evil. He must take cognizance of the life and gifts with which he has been endowed, and resolve to pursue the path of good. He is placed in the stream of time, and when that time is cut short, the quality of his being will be his own unavoidable responsibility, the fruit of his own choices. In time, and due to his choices — for he cannot but choose — he will be either good or bad. So he must take himself in hand and use his freedom to become all that he should be. It is imperative that he become and do good. Let us remember the words uttered by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, that it would have been better had his betrayer never been born (Mark 14: 21).

In our Gospel today, our Lord refers to the seriousness of our responsibilities. He begins by giving a brief illustration: the householder cares for his house, and if he knows the hour the burglar will come, he will prevent the break-in. So too we must constantly stand ready at our responsibilities, for we do not know the hour of the Son of Man’s arrival. Now, this illustration came at the end of a long passage of teaching (Luke 12: 22-40) that was directed to his disciples (12:22). He had earlier been speaking to a person in the crowd (Luke 12:13-21) warning against greed. He then turned to his disciples to speak of dependence on God, and constant readiness for the arrival of the Master. At this, Luke reports, Simon Peter interrupted. Is this point meant “for us or for all?” That is to say, was it meant for all his disciples, or even for all the world, or was it meant for his closest companions, the Apostles who would be masters of the household that just featured in the parable? At this, our Lord speaks directly of the “faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household.” So it would seem that our Lord here is speaking directly to the Apostles, to those who would have a special responsibility for the “menservants and the maids.” Our Lord says that their privilege is an awesome responsibility for which they will be held to account. This responsibility is unavoidable. They especially, more than the rest, must watch and act in such a way as to be ready for the master when he returns. If they are faithful, they will be placed in charge of all the master’s possessions. But if they are not, they will be cut off and sent to the place of the unbelievers. There are different levels of awareness and responsibility, but all the master’s servants will be held to account. “That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12: 39-48).

There is no avoiding the Judgment of God. We must strive for holiness of life. Ultimately, and in the final analysis, we shall be either good or bad, and we each of us will be responsible for our end. Further, that end will be eternal. We shall be eternally good, or eternally bad. We shall be eternally happy beyond description, or eternally miserable beyond description. It will all depend on how I use my freedom and gifts now, this very day, tomorrow and the next day. I am a being in time, and my time could suddenly be cut short. Then, as a human being, how shall I stand? Ah Lord! Now I begin!
(E.J.Tyler)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second reflection: (Luke 12: 39-48)

The last things Consider our Lord's parables in Luke 12: 39-48. It is clear from their whole drift that life must be regarded as a stewardship: "What sort of steward, then, is faithful and wise

enough for the master to place him over his household to give them their allowance of food at the proper time?" Each of us has been given certain responsibilities in the household of God and at the end of the day we shall be judged on our stewardship. For all of us a judgment is looming on how well we have done the work assigned to us. Cardinal Newman once wrote that the first principle of religion is the thought of a judgment. Life is a test, a trial, and there is no avoiding the final hour of reckoning. It ought be the backdrop of all we do, with the realization that this hour of reckoning can come at any moment, for the simple reason that all created visible reality is profoundly transient. It hangs on a thread, the thread of God's creative action.

Therefore, "You too must stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." A great deal has been given us on trust, so "a great deal will be demanded". Let us then always remember the last things: death and judgment, and then it will be either heaven or hell, and forever.

(E.J.Tyler)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You would be right in thinking: how good the Lord is, who has sought me and has made known to me this holy path where I can be effective and where I can love all men, bringing them peace and happiness.

—This thought has then to be turned into resolutions.
(The Forge, no.279)

Thursday of the twenty-ninth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(October 21) St. Hilarion (c. 291-371)
Despite his best efforts to live in prayer and solitude, today’s saint found it difficult to achieve his deepest desire. People were naturally drawn to Hilarion as a source of spiritual wisdom and peace. He had reached such fame by the time of his death that his body had to be secretly removed so that a shrine would not be built in his honour. Instead, he was buried in his home village. St. Hilarion the Great, as he is sometimes called, was born in Palestine. After his conversion to Christianity he spent some time with St. Anthony of Egypt, another holy man drawn to solitude. Hilarion lived a life of hardship and simplicity in the desert, where he also experienced spiritual dryness that included temptations to despair. At the same time, miracles were attributed to him. As his fame grew, a small group of disciples wanted to follow Hilarion. He began a series of journeys to find a place where he could live away from the world. He finally settled on Cyprus, where he died in 371 at about age 80. Hilarion is celebrated as the founder of monasticism in Palestine. Much of his fame flows from the biography of him written by St. Jerome. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Ephesians 3: 14-21; Psalm 32; Luke 12:49-53

Jesus said, I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. (Luke 12: 49-53)

Christ and contestation One distinctive feature of the Gospel of St Luke is his narrative of the infancy of Jesus Christ. The account of Christ’s infancy by Matthew occupies some 48 verses (chapters 1 and 2). That provided by St Luke is not far short of three times this length.

The infancy is obviously of great importance for St Luke, and provides a notable introduction to Christ’s person and mission. There is the grand announcement by the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary revealing who her Child will be. Interestingly, while the Angel speaks to her of the Child’s unique prerogatives, there is little on how he will prosecute his mission as Messiah. Again, when the Child is born an Angel appears to the shepherds and announces that a Saviour has come — he is the Messiah, the Lord. Little is given on how he will save his people. The question, then, stood — how was the Messiah to save his people? We read that “Mary retained all these things, pondering on them in her heart” (2:19). An important revelation on this was granted in the annunciation by the holy Simeon, led as he was by the Spirit of God. This Saviour who would be a light for the Gentiles and the glory of his people will be a sign that is spoken against (seemeion antilegomenon). Many will rise and many will fall because of him (2:34-35). His person and his word would, then, be the centre of storms of controversy, of agreement and opposition. He will occasion profound division and will suffer rejection, and his Mother, the first and greatest believer in him, will be thrust through by a sword in her very spirit. That is to say, he will save his people through and in suffering and rejection. This is the solemn note on which the story of Jesus Christ began, and in our Gospel today, likewise from the pen of Luke, our Lord confirms it. His mission, he says, is to bring fire to the earth — John the Baptist had stated that the One coming would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3: 16). But for this to happen, our Lord has a baptism to undergo, and how he yearns for its completion! But it will not be a peaceful path, for it will involve contradiction, strife and division. The proclamation of the Truth will not be accepted.

Christ went freely to his death bearing witness to the truth of his person and mission. He told Pontius Pilate that it was for this that he was born, to bear witness to the truth — and in this he was the archetypal sign of contradiction. Many rose and many fell in response to his word, and his person and his word brought division. Risen from the dead, and about to ascend to his heavenly Father, he commanded his disciples to go to the whole world and make disciples of all the nations. Immediately, his Church became a sign of contradiction both in Jerusalem and beyond. Within several decades, the Empire began to notice the followers of Jesus Christ, and it became concerned. The Christians stood for one objective Truth about God, and this, it was sensed, opposed the foundations of the Empire. All were to become disciples of Jesus Christ the Lord. It was a message that could not be tolerated, and so the Empire came down on the fledgling, determined Church, just as Jerusalem and official Judaism had. It was Christ’s prediction on a much broader scale. “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Luke 12: 49-53). So it has been ever since — a stand for the truth of Jesus Christ and his Church evokes opposition and even hatred. The Church insists that in her proclamation of the message of Jesus Christ the method be one of respectful dialogue. We must bear witness to revealed truth respectfully and with a spirit of listening to the other, learning from any truth which the other possesses. But division and contestation is unavoidable, and we have this on the word of Jesus Christ. Bearing witness to Jesus Christ will not be easy. The Christian must gird himself for barbs and thrusts.

The principal source of opposition and, indeed, hatred of the Christian message now is, I believe, secularism — that secularism which denies to God authority and position in everyday life and society. But the Christian must be confident in the power of Jesus Christ who is the “stronger man” who comes and overcomes the one guarding his palace (Luke 11: 21-22). I like to see this exemplified in the arrival of Pope Benedict in the United Kingdom in September 2010. His coming had been preceded by months of vituperation and opposition to him in England. His arrival silenced the cackle, and the grace of Christ accompanying his Vicar won over the realm.

(E.J.Tyler)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second reflection: (Ephesians 3: 14-21)

St Paul's prayer for the Ephesians There are numerous prayers to God in Holy Scripture, inspired prayers. The greatest of them is the Lord's Prayer, the prayer our

Lord taught us to pray. There also are the Psalms and many other wonderful prayers that embody God's plan for us. Yet another wonderful prayer is that penned by Saint Paul in his letter to the Ephesians in 3: 14-21. It is a beautiful prayer that describes the fulfilment of God's plan in each one of us. Let us meditate on that prayer and make it our own, praying for ourselves and for others. Addressing his readers, St Paul prays that "Out of his infinite glory may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith". St Paul says elsewhere that this is the mystery, the mystery of God's plan hidden till now, namely, Christ in us, our hope of glory. He prays that we will be "planted in love and built on love", "until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God."

Let us pray persistently for this grace, this divine power St Paul refers to, and for the wisdom and the will to cooperate with it in the great work of our sanctification — being filled with the fullness of God.

(E.J.Tyler)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You know that you will never lack God’s grace, because he has chosen you from all eternity. And if this is what he has done for you, he will grant you all the help you need to be faithful to him as his son.

—Go forward, then, with assurance and try to respond at every moment.
(The Forge, no.280)

Friday of the twenty-ninth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(October 22) St. Peter of Alcantara (1499-1562)
Peter was a contemporary of well-known 16th-century Spanish saints, including Ignatius of Loyola and John of the Cross. He served as confessor to St. Teresa of Avila. Church reform was a major issue in Peter’s day, and he directed most of his energies toward that end. His death came one year before the Council of Trent ended. Born into a noble family (his father was the

governor of Alcantara in Spain), Peter studied law at Salamanca University and, at 16, joined the so-called Observant Franciscans (also known as the discalced, or barefoot, friars). While he practised many penances, he also demonstrated abilities which were soon recognized. He was named the superior of a new house even before his ordination as a priest; at the age of 39, he was elected provincial; he was a very successful preacher. Still, he was not above washing dishes and cutting wood for the friars. He did not seek attention; indeed, he preferred solitude. Peter’s penitential side was evident when it came to food and clothing. It is said that he slept only 90 minutes each night. While others talked about Church reform, Peter’s reform began with himself. His patience was so great that a proverb arose: "To bear such an insult one must have the patience of Peter of Alcantara." In 1554, Peter, having received permission, formed a group of Franciscans who followed the Rule of St. Francis with even greater rigor. These friars were known as Alcantarines. Some of the Spanish friars who came to North and South America in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries were members of this group. At the end of the 19th century, the Alcantarines were joined with other Observant friars to form the Order of Friars Minor. As spiritual director to St. Teresa, Peter encouraged her in promoting the Carmelite reform. His preaching brought many people to religious life, especially to the Secular Franciscan Order, the friars and the Poor Clares. He was canonized in 1669.
“I do not praise poverty for poverty's sake; I praise only that poverty which we patiently endure for the love of our crucified Redeemer and I consider this far more desirable than the poverty we undertake for the sake of poverty itself; for if I thought or believed otherwise, I would not seem to be firmly grounded in faith" (Letter of Peter to Teresa of Avila). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Ephesians 4: 1-6; Psalm 23; Luke 12:54-59

Jesus said to the crowd: When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, 'It's going to rain,' and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, 'It's going to be hot,' and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time? Why don't you judge for yourselves what is right? As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. (Luke 12:54-59)

Wisdom I remember attending a conference of philosophers, and a leading philosopher of Australia — an atheist — was in debate with a leading philosopher from Scotland, a practising Catholic. The Scottish philosopher proposed that philosophy ought above all involve the search for and love of wisdom.

The Australian philosopher disputed this. He said that his own wife was a very wise person indeed, but hardly a professional philosopher. But of course the Scottish philosopher was not saying that all wise persons are professional philosophers. He would probably have also said that in any case philosophy ought not be equated with the academic discipline of philosophy. A person can philosophize informally, but he may quite dislike the professional discipline of philosophy and even despise its preoccupations and much of its method. Rather, the Scottish philosopher was saying that philosophers ought seek to be profoundly wise, and that their discipline ought serve this all important goal of wisdom. A person who is truly wise sees through to the heart of things, and also has the wisdom to order his life accordingly. An intelligent and highly educated person may not be very wise, whereas a person of but moderate intelligence and education may attain to wisdom. Let us imagine a lad finishing his schooling with very good grades. He knows what he wants in life — for his ambition has been imparted to him by his parents. He wants to be successful in his chosen career. He wants to make good money, marry well, make his way in life and in general be counted as successful. Because of his talents and his energy — already apparent in his schooldays — he attains his goal. He enters the leading university of his home city, takes economics, law and philosophy. Quickly he discovers in himself a liking for the discipline of philosophy — and he goes on to major in it, do his Honours year in the discipline, and then on to his Ph.D, specializing in the atheistic philosopher Nietzsche. He does well in life, but despite his education and talents, he never attains to the true heart of things: Christ and holiness of life. He never attains true wisdom, a wisdom which will carry him to success in the Afterlife.

In our Gospel today our Lord begins by observing that his audience are successful in reading the signs of weather changes. “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, 'It's going to rain,' and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, 'It's going to be hot,' and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky.” This may be taken as symbolic of so many of “the children of this world” who are successful in life. Our Lord’s audience can successfully read the weather, but why is it that they “do not know how to interpret this present time?” That is to say, they cannot seem to understand the urgency and the nature of our Lord’s preaching and teaching. He is proclaiming the presence of the Kingdom, which calls for repentance. They do not see that they must repent. They must change their course and turn to God for the immense blessings he is offering them — in his Son, Jesus Christ. It is similar to the urgent appeal of St Paul: This is the day! This is the hour! Be reconciled to God! But the call is left unheard and unheeded. So it was in our Lord’s time, and so it is from generation to generation in all too many cases. Our Lord provides another simile to illustrate the urgency of turning away from what is not to the point, and being reconciled to God. “Why don't you judge for yourselves what is right? As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny” (Luke 12: 54-59). The “adversary” in the brief parable is perhaps God himself who is calling the person to account, and will do so at the judgment which is nigh. Be reconciled with your adversary, our Lord says. If you do not, at the judgment you will be thrown into prison. There will be no avoiding the full account there. Let us pray for and treasure the wisdom that comes with faith in Jesus Christ, and guide our whole lives according to that wisdom. Let us not be merely successful, while lacking true wisdom.

It is notable how often the allusion to God’s judgment recurs in the parables and teaching of Jesus Christ in the Gospels. The thought of a judgment can exercise the mind wonderfully, and bring wisdom. It is a simple thought, but it can occasion a tremendous turning point, and a real start to religious living. Time and again in various religions this thought has brought with it conversion of life. Great saints kept its thought before them always. It is a thought that will surely bring wisdom to our course.
(E.J.Tyler)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second reflection: (Ephesians 4: 1-6)

Christian consistency Several years ago there was an article in The

Catholic Weekly (Sydney) containing an interview with John Phillips who has just received a papal knighthood — that of the Order of St Gregory the Great. In the interview he made the point that there ought be no difference between personal ethics and ethics in business and the workplace. The Church has insisted repeatedly that the Christian ought live his faith consistently everywhere, including in politics and the workplace. That is to say, what the Faith states to be right and wrong ought be brought into the secular sphere. Blessed John Henry Newman in one of his Plain and Parochial Sermons states that consistency is the true hallmark of holiness. St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians appeals to his readers that they "lead a life worthy of your vocation" (Ephesians 4: 1).

All members of the Church, all of Christ's faithful, have a true vocation. The whole of their lives should be a worthy living out of that vocation. This applies in the home. It applies in the workplace. It applies to one's participation in the life of the Church. Let us pray for consistency in the living out of our calling.

(E.J.Tyler)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

I ask the Mother of God to smile upon us if she wishes, if she can... She will indeed do so.

Moreover, she will reward our generosity a thousandfold here on earth. A thousandfold, that’s what I am asking her for!
(The Forge, no.281)

Saturday of the twenty-ninth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(October 23) St. John of Capistrano (1386-1456)
It has been said the Christian saints are the world’s greatest optimists. Not blind to the existence and consequences of evil, they base their confidence on the power of Christ’s redemption. The power of conversion through Christ extends not only to sinful

people but also to calamitous events. Imagine being born in the fourteenth century. One-third of the population and nearly 40 percent of the clergy were wiped out by the bubonic plague. The Western Schism split the Church with two or three claimants to the Holy See at one time. England and France were at war. The city-states of Italy were constantly in conflict. No wonder that gloom dominated the spirit of the culture and the times. John Capistrano was born in 1386. His education was thorough. His talents and success were great. When he was 26 he was made governor of Perugia. Imprisoned after a battle against the Malatestas, he resolved to change his way of life completely. At the age of 30 he entered the Franciscan novitiate and was ordained a priest four years later. His preaching attracted great throngs at a time of religious apathy and confusion. He and 12 Franciscan brethren were received in the countries of central Europe as angels of God. They were instrumental in reviving a dying faith and devotion. The Franciscan Order itself was in turmoil over the interpretation and observance of the Rule of St. Francis. Through John’s tireless efforts and his expertise in law, the heretical Fraticelli were suppressed and the "Spirituals" were freed from interference in their stricter observance. He helped bring about a reunion with the Greek and Armenian Churches, unfortunately only a brief arrangement. When the Turks captured Constantinople in 1453, he was commissioned to preach a crusade for the defense of Europe. Gaining little response in Bavaria and Austria, he decided to concentrate his efforts in Hungary. He led the army to Belgrade. Under the great General John Junyadi, they gained an overwhelming victory, and the siege of Belgrade was lifted. Worn out by his superhuman efforts, Capistrano was an easy prey to the infection bred by the refuse of battle. He died October 23, 1456. On the saint's tomb in the Austrian town of Villach, the governor had this message inscribed: "This tomb holds John, by birth of Capistrano, a man worthy of all praise, defender and promoter of the faith, guardian of the Church, zealous protector of his Order, an ornament to all the world, lover of truth and religious justice, mirror of life, surest guide in doctrine; praised by countless tongues, he reigns blessed in heaven." That is a fitting epitaph for a real and successful optimist. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Ephesians 4: 7-16; Psalm 121; Luke 13:1-9

Now there were some present on that very occasion who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them— do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Then he told this parable: A man had a fig-tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig-tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig round it and fertilise it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' (Luke 13: 1-9)

Repentance The modern division of the Gospel into chapters can be misleading, in the sense that it can lead the reader to think that a new point or stage is being introduced with each new chapter. Our Gospel today consists of the first nine verses of chapter 13 in St Luke,

but the context is that narrated in the several verses immediately preceding them in the prior chapter. Beginning at least in verse 22 of chapter 12, Christ is speaking to his disciples. In his words to them — including to the Apostles (verses 41-48) — he stresses the seriousness of God’s judgment. Chapter 12 ends with verses that appeal for repentance: discern the drift of these times (vs. 56)! Be reconciled with your “adversary” on the way to the judgment (vs. 59)! This is the context of today’s Gospel from chapter 13. It opens (13:1) by stating that “on this same occasion” (en autoo too kairoo) — meaning (presumably) when our Lord was speaking to them of judgment and repentance — some told him of the latest tragedy, Pilate’s massacre of innocent worshippers in the Temple. It was news of a terrible nature, but what do we see our Lord doing? He carries on with his point, making the sad news just communicated a reason for reinforcing his point about judgment and repentance. “Now there were some present on that very occasion who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no!” Perhaps our Lord could see that those who mentioned the news, and several of his disciples present, immediately assumed that this great tragedy hit the worshippers because of their serious sins. But no, our Lord insists, that is wrong. But — and this is his special point which carries on from what he had been saying in chapter 12 — “unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Our Lord himself mentions another tragic event: “Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them— do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

As already said, Christ’s words in almost all of chapter 12 seem to be addressed to his “disciples” (12:1, and 12:22), with a possible exception — one of the “crowd” (tis ek tou ochlou) who features in verses 13 — 21. As already stated, this context of Christ teaching his disciples appears to carry on to our Gospel passage today in chapter 13, after which the scene changes to Christ teaching in one of the synagogues. My point in mentioning this is that it is his own disciples that our Lord is here exhorting to repent, and to bear the judgment of God in mind. Our Lord would not appear to be speaking here to grave and hostile sinners, as were some of the leaders of the Jews, his implacable opponents. It is to his own disciples that he is insisting, “unless you repent, you too will all perish.” At the very least, he is including them in his solemn injunction. It reminds us that repentance is a radical requirement of the following of Jesus Christ. Moreover, Christ obviously means this call to repentance to be a standing call, always to be heeded, always applicable. There is never a time when in some sense we do not need to repent of sin which, of itself and if unchecked, will lead us to “perish.” Any deliberate sin in our life is a serious matter, and not merely that sin which the Church calls “mortal” — the sin which deals immediate death to the soul. The disciple of Christ must beware constantly of sin, regarding it as the worst of tragedies. Our Lord was told of the tragedy of the loss of life in the Temple, perpetrated by cruel people. Many other tragedies could be mentioned, and our Lord himself went on to mention yet another. But, our Lord directly implies, there is a far worse tragedy, and that is the tragedy of deliberate sin. We must repent of our sins and change our course, for the wages of sin (as St Paul would write) are death. If you do not repent, you too will perish, our Lord teaches. Perhaps the heart of Christ was also deeply troubled by what he could see was happening in the life of one of his most privileged disciples, the Apostle Judas. He was not repenting of his secret sins. The upshot in his case would be calamitous, and Judas would be the perennial example of the unrepentant disciple.

Whoever we are, no matter how long we may be in the service of Jesus Christ, we must recognise the sin in our life and repent of it. Indeed, the spirit of repentance is the key to holiness, especially repentance from venial or light sin. If we want to make true progress in the love of God, we must learn to repent of light sin, sin that is not mortal, but deliberate nevertheless. If we do not repent sincerely, daily and progressively, of our venial sins, we shall never attain true and advanced holiness of life. Let us ask for the grace of ongoing repentance, and make the practice of repentance central to our efforts to know and love Jesus Christ.

(E.J.Tyler)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second reflection: (Ephesians 4: 7-16)

Each of us has our share of grace Very many people think that they have little to offer in life, that their lives are not adding up to much, and so there is in them bitterness and disappointment.

But notice what St Paul says in Ephesians 4:7. "Each of us has been given his own share of grace, given as Christ allotted it." Each of us is the object of Christ's choice and of his gifts. Each of us then has a real role to play in the lives of others and of the Church, for each of us has a grace. We all have something very real to offer. This should give us a sense of worth and of mission. We may have only the one talent, but whatever we have we ought put it to use in our life of love and of work. Furthermore, apart from this consideration, affecting our attitude to ourselves, we must never forget that each and every other person also has been given his own share of grace. Each person we meet or are involved with has a role to play in the journey of others through life, something special to offer the life of the Church and God's family. We ought help all to recognise and use for God's purposes the grace they have been given.

Wherever God has placed us in the course of his providence, whether it appears full of promise or bleak to all appearances, God has equipped us with a share of his grace to play our part in building up the body of Christ and the future of the world.
(E.J.Tyler)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Practise a cheerful charity which is at once kindly and firm; human and supernatural. An affectionate charity, knowing how to welcome everyone with a sincere and habitual smile, and how to understand the ideas and the feelings of others.

—In this way, gently and vigorously, and without concessions in matters of personal morals or in doctrine, the charity of Christ — when it is being well lived — will give you a spirit of conquest. Each day you will be more eager to work for souls.
(The Forge, no.282)

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Prayers this week: Let hearts rejoice who search for the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek always the face of the Lord. (Psalm 104: 3-4)

Almighty and ever-living God, strengthen our faith, hope, and love. May we do with loving hearts what you ask of us and come to share the life you promise. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

(October 24) St. Anthony Claret (1807-1870)
The "spiritual father of Cuba" was a missionary, religious founder, social reformer, queen’s chaplain, writer and publisher, archbishop and refugee. He was a Spaniard whose work took him to the Canary Islands, Cuba, Madrid, Paris and to the First

Vatican Council. In his spare time as weaver and designer in the textile mills of Barcelona, he learned Latin and printing: the future priest and publisher was preparing. Ordained at 28, he was prevented by ill health from entering religious life as a Carthusian or as a Jesuit, but went on to become one of Spain’s most popular preachers. He spent 10 years giving popular missions and retreats, always placing great emphasis on the Eucharist and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Her rosary, it was said, was never out of his hand. At 42, beginning with five young priests, he founded a religious institute of missionaries, known today as the Claretians. He was appointed to head the much-neglected archdiocese of Santiago in Cuba. He began its reform by almost ceaseless preaching and hearing of confessions, and suffered bitter opposition mainly for stamping out concubinage and giving instruction to black slaves. A hired assassin (whose release from prison Anthony had obtained) slashed open his face and wrist. Anthony succeeded in getting the would-be assassin’s death sentence commuted to a prison term. His solution for the misery of Cubans was family-owned farms producing a variety of foods for the family’s own needs and for the market. This invited the enmity of the vested interests who wanted everyone to work on a single cash crop—sugar. Besides all his religious writings are two books he wrote in Cuba: Reflections on Agriculture and Country Delights. He was recalled to Spain for a job he did not relish—being chaplain for the queen. He went on three conditions: He would reside away from the palace, he would come only to hear the queen’s confession and instruct the children and he would be exempt from court functions. In the revolution of 1868, he fled with the queen’s party to Paris, where he preached to the Spanish colony. All his life Anthony was interested in the Catholic press. He founded the Religious Publishing House, a major Catholic publishing venture in Spain, and wrote or published 200 books and pamphlets. At Vatican I, where he was a staunch defender of the doctrine of infallibility, he won the admiration of his fellow bishops. Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore remarked of him, "There goes a true saint." At the age of 63, he died in exile near the border of Spain.
Queen Isabella II once said to Anthony, "No one tells me things as clearly and frankly as you do." Later she told her chaplain, "Everybody is always asking me for favours, but you never do. Isn't there something you would like for yourself?" He replied, "Yes, that you let me resign." The queen made no more offers. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18; Psalm 34:2-3, 17-19, 23; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14

Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. "Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity – greedy, dishonest, adulterous – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.' I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:9-14)

Lord have mercy! In the course of the history of religions, generally the main attribute of God which man thinks of is his power. It is to that divine power that he appeals in his religious life. He needs the aid of heavenly power, and he knows he must not alienate the powers above. Now,

God has revealed that his power is manifested in mercy. His almighty power has a certain kind of character, a face, as it were. Its face is not menacing, hostile, irritable, or indifferent — which is what one might think were one to go on the menacing course of much of nature, or on the myths and rituals of man’s religions as they have appeared in history. Rather, God has revealed that his power is merciful. He is rich in mercy. But at the same time, God is a God of truth and holiness. He cannot accept one who presents himself before him as unrepentant of his sins, or as if he is without sin and therefore as having no need of His mercy. One of the great religious thinkers of the modern age was Cardinal Newman. He wrote that for man as he is, the sense of sin is the starting-point of authentic religion. Without that sense of one’s sinfulness one’s religion is hollow. The popes have taught over the last century that one of the distinguishing features of the modern age, indeed one of the greatest of modern sins, is the culpable loss of the sense of sin. We tend to think that we are not sinners at all. We tend even to have difficulty thinking what our sins are. We tend to think that we do not need pardon. This is because for modern man God tends not to be a reality. The Catholic who is infected with this way of thinking does not make many acts of contrition. He does not approach the Sacrament of Penance very much. He has difficulty even thinking of his sins. And of course, we all tend secretly to compare ourselves very favourably with others. We are, in fact, a little like the Pharisee of today’s Gospel. We tend to be unlike the Publican in our prayer, in the sense that it is not often that our prayer is like his.

In today’s Gospel, our Lord tells his disciples the story of a despised tax collector praying in the Temple (Luke 18:9-14). He prays some distance behind the Pharisee, and he prays genuinely, acknowledging his true condition before God and asking God for mercy. The reality was that both he and the Pharisee were sinners, but the Pharisee was blind to his own sins. In his view of himself, the Pharisee was virtuous. He was not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, so he “prayed to himself” (Greek: pros eauton proseucheto; Vulgate Latin: apud se orabat). Other men were sinful, unlike himself. In particular, he thought he was much more virtuous than the Publican he saw some distance behind him in the Temple, and indeed the implication in our Lord’s story is that the Publican had not been living a virtuous life. But the Pharisee considered himself good because all he thought of were the good things, as he saw them, that he did. He forgot the bad things he did, especially his bad attitudes of pride and vanity that informed the good things. Moreover, there was no acknowledgment of his dependence on God for whatever good things he may have done. The result was that he virtually forgot God. All he thought of was himself in his favourable comparison of himself with others. By contrast, the Publican looked to God, and looked to him for mercy. God was for him a God rich in mercy, which is the very teaching of Scripture and revelation. God loves all, but especially the one who recognises the truth of his own condition, which is one of sinfulness and complete dependence on Him for his mercy. It was the Publican who went home right with God, because of his prayer. Of course, he did not go home right with God because of his past good deeds. Rather, he went home right with God because he had obtained God’s pardon for his sins. He had acknowledged his sins before God, before whom he had bowed down in all humility and reverence, asking him for his mercy and his pardon. The Pharisee had failed to do that, and his prayer left him alienated from God.

Our Lord implies that the publican’s prayer for pardon lies at the heart of true religion, and is essential to get to heaven. Well, let us make that prayer our own, all through life to our dying moments. I remember seeing a wonderful movie in which one of the notable characters was shot to death by arrows. At his last moment he fell to the ground repeating the prayer from the start of Mass: Kyrie Eeleison! (Lord have mercy!). That prayer revealed his authentic religion at the last. Every time we pray this prayer at the beginning of Mass, let us ask our Lord to give us a true sense of our sinfulness, and a firm belief in his infinite mercy.

                                                                             (E.J.Tyler)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A second reflection on the Gospel of the thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time C

Ecclesiasticus 35:15-17.20-22;     Psalm 33;     2 Timothy 4:6-8.16-18;      Luke 18:9-14

Prayer and Mission   A very active parish in which there is not much prayer going on would be a very poor parish indeed, despite all the activity. As our Lord said, we ought aim to be praying always and never losing heart. This means each of us individually, and us as a parish.

This means having certain times each day for real prayer, and then during the rest of the day when we work and engage in other activities, remaining in God’s presence doing for him whatever we are doing. Today’s Gospel tells us one fundamental thing we ought both individually and as a parish be praying for. It is the grace of forgiveness for our sins. In his story, Our Lord tells us of two contrasting types. There is the Pharisee who prays to God, thinking of all the good things he has done. Then there is the Publican who thinks of his sins against his good God. Yet he trusts in God’s mercy, and humbly asks for that pardon and mercy repeatedly: "O God, be merciful to me a sinner." We must learn to be sorry for our sins, for a lot of people have little sorrow for sin. People who are away from the practice of the Faith for years often have great difficulty thinking of anything wrong they have done. They have lost the sense of sin. All they can think of are the good things they have done in life — and in that respect, despite their lack of religious practice, they are somewhat like the Pharisee in our Lord’s story.

A second purpose of the parish is to help all to share in Christ’s mission. When we think of the contrition of the Publican, and his appeal to God for pardon, one of the things we ought be contrite about is our failure to engage in the mission of Jesus Christ and his Church. In today’s second reading (2 Timothy 4:6-8.16-18), St Paul writes that "the Lord stood by me and gave me power so that through me the whole message might be proclaimed for all the pagans to hear." We are all called to be apostolic, missionary in our immediate environment at home, work, and in our parish. By our Baptism and our Confirmation we share in Christ’s life and in his mission. So every day we ought ask ourselves, what have I done for Christ, what am I doing for him, and what will I do for him? This is a real reason for sorrow for past failures, lack of generosity, and for past sin. At our judgment Christ will say, I was hungry and you never fed me — with the spiritual food of his person, his teaching and his grace. When did we see you hungry in this spiritual sense? we shall ask. Our Lord will reply, whenever you saw the least of these brothers of mine lacking the knowledge and love of me who is their life, you failed to assist me! Apart from our own immediate sphere of influence, let us think of the work of the Church in the foreign missions. Have we prayed for the work of the missions? What contribution have I made for Christ in the work of the Church in the missions?

Above all, let us resolve to live a life of prayer, and to take to heart the example our Lord gives us of the publican who in his prayer humbly stood right out of the limelight, offering repeatedly to God his sorrow for sin. O God be merciful to me a sinner. Let us resolve to examine our consciences every night, making a sincere act of contrition. Let us go to Confession regularly. Let all parents help their children to be aware of their sins and sorry for them, seeking God’s pardon in acts of contrition and in frequent confession, as should the parents themselves.

(E.J.Tyler)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

My son, I said with assurance, in spreading our “madness” to other apostles I am not unaware of the “obstacles” we will find. Some of them may appear insurmountable... But inter medium montium pertransibunt aquae — the waters will pass through the midst of the mountains. Our supernatural spirit and the drive of our zeal will cut through the mountains and we shall overcome those obstacles.
(The Forge, no.283)

World Mission Sunday
(30th Sunday of Ordinary Time C, 2010)
(Mass for the spread of the Gospel, Roman Missal 14A)

Gospel of the Mass for the spread of the Gospel (Mark 16: 15-20)

He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well. After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it. (Mark 16: 15-20)

Christ’s mission Our Lord tells us that we are to pray continually and never lose heart (Luke 18:1-8). In view of what we have just heard in the Gospel passage, let us consider what ought be the first object of continual prayer as it is set forth in the first petition of the Lord’s prayer.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come! The first thing our Lord teaches us to pray for is that God’s reign will be established in the hearts of men, and first of all in our own hearts. But if we are to pray such a prayer, we need to have a genuine desire for the universal reign of God. That is to day, we need to be genuinely committed to the mission of Christ and his Church. The mission Christ has entrusted to his Church is to make disciples of all the nations. As he says to his disciples in today’s Gospel, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” This means, in the first instance, us. We ourselves must become ardent disciples of the Master. But then Jesus our Master wants us to bring him to all others. We are called to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ wherever we are, at home, at work, in our neighbourhood, in our parish, wherever. In the first few centuries, in the midst of many severe persecutions, the ordinary Catholic acted on his immediate social environment and influenced others to draw near to Jesus, and thus did the Church triumph. A few years back a great survey was taken of churchgoers, and one interesting detail emerged. While Catholics constituted the largest churchgoing group, some Protestant groups (some, not all) had a much higher proportion of their faithful sharing their faith with others. Of course, there are many Catholics who are doing constant apostolic work, but many are scarcely engaged in the Church’s apostolic mission at all. Our Lord called the Twelve “apostles,” a word which means an ambassador, an envoy. They were to be with him as his companions, and were to share in his work. As our Gospel today makes clear, we all called to share in that vocation, in the sense that we are all called to be apostolic, representing Jesus and drawing others to him.

One may wonder, to whom ought I be apostolic? In what sphere of life can I be missionary, associating myself with our Lord in his active mission of drawing others into saving contact with him? I do it firstly and especially within my family, in my wider family circle, among my friends, in my work environment, and wherever I go or with whomsoever I normally mix. I do it wherever in his Providence God has placed me. But of course we must have a mind for all those we would not normally have any contact with, and those who themselves do not have any contact with apostolically minded Christians. There are many such persons living within the neighbourhood in which I live. They include non-practising Catholics, non-Catholics, very many non-Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, agnostics, and many practical atheists. We ought ask ourselves if there is anything we can do systematically to reach out to them in the name of Christ. Thinking of our Gospel today, we ought ask how, especially by our friendship, can we draw them into contact with Christ who is the divine treasure of the Church. There may well be organisations and individuals in our parish who are trying to do just this, and by joining them I would be able more easily to enter into that apostolic outreach. There are apostolic movements in the Church which enable their members to do this regularly and effectively. Our Lord says elsewhere in the Gospel that “if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven.” Just think of the reward coming to us if often, week after week, we directly or indirectly declare ourselves for Jesus before others. The Holy Spirit is guaranteed to help in this ongoing mission, for our Lord said, do not worry about what to say in this work of witnessing to me, because when the time comes, the Holy Spirit will teach you what you must say. But then, there also is the work of bringing Jesus Christ to the world far beyond my own sphere of influence. He said to his disciples, go to the whole world and bring the Good News to all creation. I can contribute financially to the work of the Church in the foreign missions, and in that way I shall share in the merits of those who bring such souls to the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ.

Today on World Mission Sunday let us ask ourselves, what have I done for Christ, what am I doing for him now, and more than anything, what am I going to do for him in the future? Our Lord asks us to be persistent in our prayers, and apostolic in our actions. Let us ask God persistently for the grace of a profoundly apostolic spirit, a spirit of mission to be exercised in our everyday life, leading us to bring other souls to Christ our Lord and Redeemer.
(E.J.Tyler)

Monday of the thirtieth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(October 25) St. Antônio de Sant’Anna Galvão (1739-1822)
God’s plan in a person’s life often takes unexpected turns which become life-giving through cooperation with God’s grace. Born

in Guarantingueta near São Paulo (Brazil), Antônio attended the Jesuit seminary in Belem but later decided to become a Franciscan friar. Invested in 1760, he made final profession the following year and was ordained in 1762. In São Paulo, he served as preacher, confessor and porter. Within a few years he was appointed confessor to the Recollects of St. Teresa, a group of nuns in that city. He and Sister Helena Maria of the Holy Spirit founded a new community of sisters under the patronage of Our Lady of the Conception of Divine Providence. Sister Helena Maria’s premature death the next year left Father Antônio responsible for the new congregation, especially for building a convent and church adequate for their growing numbers. He served as novice master for the friars in Macacu and as guardian of St. Francis Friary in São Paulo. He founded St. Clare Friary in Sorocaba. With the permission of his provincial and the bishop, he spent his last days at the "Recolhimento de Nossa Senhora da Luz," the convent of the sisters’ congregation he had helped establish. He was beatified in Rome on October 25, 1998, and canonized in 2007.
During the beatification homily, Pope John Paul II quoted from the Second Letter to Timothy (4:17), "The Lord stood by me and gave me strength to proclaim the word fully," and then said that Antônio "fulfilled his religious consecration by dedicating himself with love and devotion to the afflicted, the suffering and the slaves of his era in Brazil." The pope continued, "His authentically Franciscan faith, evangelically lived and apostolically spent in serving his neighbour, will be an encouragement to imitate this ‘man of peace and charity.’" (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Ephesians 4: 32-5:8; Psalm 1; Luke 13:10-17

On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, Woman, you are set free from your infirmity. Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath. The Lord answered him, You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her? When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. (Luke 13: 10-17)

God of loving initiative There is a famous incident in the Scriptures when the prophet Elijah arranged a showdown on Mount Carmel with the religion and the prophets of Baal (2 Kings 18). The four hundred prophets of Baal gathered in the presence of Elijah and prepared their sacrifice. It was to be a competition.

They were to call on their gods, and Elijah would call on the Lord. The god that consumed the sacrifice prepared for him would be counted as the God of the people. The devotees of Baal called and called. It reached noon, and still nothing had happened to their sacrifice. Midday passed and the result was the same. Finally it was the turn of Elijah. He uttered his calm and confident prayer, and the fire of the Lord descended and consumed his sacrifice. I like to think of the appeals of the prophets of Baal as indicative of the notion of the divine that — outside the context of Revelation — has usually been prevalent. The divine has seemed distant to man, distant and withdrawn. The divine has to be roused, besieged with prayers, lengthy and wordy declamations, and much noise. The divine seems to be content in its own realm once it has initiated the course of the world, and it leaves the world to lesser beings. In very many primal religions the high god departs from the scene once the world is launched. What I am saying is that in general, while often the divine is regarded as and called a “Father” (such as the All-father of the south-east Australian aborigines) he is not viewed as taking initiatives of love. He is not expected to be actively and concretely concerned for man’s plight and welfare. He must be awakened, or else left in his remote abode, while lesser gods are supplicated. This religious assumption may be the effect of the very course of the world on man’s religious imagination. The world seems to many to be unfriendly and menacing. In the modern age of the secular mind, there seems to be little reason to set aside the assumption that a real and friendly god is a figment of the imagination. At bottom, Reality seems to be at best indifferent to man. Love is ultimately a luxury, an accident.

In our Gospel today, our Lord acts in a way that is fundamentally counter to this assumption. Unasked, he takes the initiative in answering the pain and plight of man. We read that on one Sabbath when our Lord was teaching in a Synagogue, “a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.” Let us imagine that woman as a sad symbol of the world, the work of God’s hands. How deformed it had become since he had made it, when he gazed upon it and saw that it was good. There she stands, a daughter of Eve, bent and crippled “by a spirit” for many years. The world is sad and suffering, and is infested by many enemies. The garden has been attacked and despoiled, and man suffers from generation to generation, with sin at the root of his troubles. What is to be expected of the Maker? As Pope Benedict XVI often said, the Maker of the world has a human face, and that face is Jesus Christ. He is the Revelation of the Father, the Image of the invisible God. As we see him think, speak and act, so we are granted a true knowledge of the unseen God. What does our Lord do? He sees the unfortunate woman and he acts. His initiative is one of love, power showing itself in mercy. “When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, Woman, you are set free from your infirmity. Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God” (Luke 13: 10-17). This particular action is not the only way Jesus Christ acted in the face of evil and suffering, but it is, I suggest, symbolic of the character of his actions. His entire life is one of active and concerned love, a love that takes the initiative in the face of evil. The true God is not withdrawn from the world and unconcerned for man’s plight. In fact, he has revealed that man’s deepest and worst plight is his sinful state, and it is this which takes him to his final destruction. But God has taken the initiative, and in his Son Jesus Christ has taken upon himself the sickness and deformation that grips the world. He has expiated for man’s sin at incalculable cost to himself, and has blown it out of the way.

The God of Elijah is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is his very own Son, united to him in the Holy Spirit. The triune God is a God of love, of loving and merciful initiative, of love that can be counted on for mercy and aid. We can depend on him for his care, most especially in our greatest challenge, which is our combat with the sin into which we have been all born. We must win this combat and emerge the victor. This we can do by relying on the love of our divine and ever-faithful Champion. Let us never fail in confidence in him!

(E.J.Tyler)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second reflection: (Ephesians 4:32-5:8)

Christian purity It scarcely needs mentioning that for very many years now it has been observed how sexually permissive our western culture is. Most people would have at least some sense of the evil and sinfulness of sexual promiscuity, but I am also sure that the consciences of many would be seriously dulled in this matter.

Consider St Paul's harsh strictures in his letter to the Ephesians in chapter 4: 32-5: 8. "For you can be quite certain that nobody who actually indulges in fornication or impurity or promiscuity — which is worshipping a false god — can inherit anything of the kingdom of God. Do not let anyone deceive you with empty arguments: it is for this loose living that God's anger comes down on those who rebel against him." St Paul in these words makes it clear that we are speaking of mortal sin that will exclude the unrepentant person from Heaven. He also says that "Among you there must be not even a mention of fornication or impurity in any of its forms, or promiscuity: this would hardly become the saints!" And he goes on to tell us what he means: "There must be no coarseness, or salacious talk and jokes — all this is wrong for you: raise your voices in thanksgiving instead." Obviously St Paul is speaking of such talk conducted in a way as to be occasions of sin, being clearly contrary to the Christ-like life the Christian is called to live. "You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; be like children of the light."

Let every Catholic Christian be a shining beacon of Christian purity in the modern world.

(E.J.Tyler)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“My God, my God! All of them were equally loved, through you, in you and with you, and now they are all scattered.” Thus you complained when you saw yourself once again all alone and lacking in human resources.

—But Our Lord immediately made you feel sure in your soul that He would sort it out. And you said to him: “You will fix everything.”

—And so he did. God solved everything sooner, more fully and better than you expected.
(The Forge, no.284)

Tuesday of the thirtieth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(October 26) Blessed Contardo Ferrini (1859-1902)

Contardo Ferrini was the son of a teacher who went on to become a learned man himself, one acquainted with some dozen languages. Today he is known as the patron of universities. Born in Milan, he received a doctorate in law in Italy and then earned a scholarship that enabled him to study Roman-Byzantine law in Berlin. As a renowned legal expert, he taught in various schools of higher education until he joined the faculty of the University of Pavia, where he was considered an outstanding authority on Roman law. Contardo was learned about the faith he lived and loved. "Our life," he said, "must reach out toward the Infinite, and from that source we must draw whatever we can expect of merit and dignity." As a scholar he studied the ancient biblical languages and read the Scriptures in them. His speeches and papers show his understanding of the relationship of faith and science. He attended daily Mass and became a lay Franciscan, faithfully observing the Third Order rule of life. He also served through membership in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. His death in 1902 at the age of 43 occasioned letters from his fellow professors that praised him as a saint; the people of Suna where he lived insisted that he be declared a saint. Pope Pius XII beatified Contardo in 1947. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Ephesians 5: 21-33; Psalm 127; Luke 13:18-21

Jesus asked, What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches. Again he asked, What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough. (Luke 13: 18-21)

To be a saint! I have heard it said on various occasions that non-Catholics acknowledge that Catholics know how to celebrate. This has been especially said of canonizations — the proclamation and celebration of sanctity. Every saint is a marvel of goodness. It is the goodness possessed by Jesus Christ, imitated and gained by the saint due to the power of grace with which he or she cooperated.

This is the “kingdom of God” which our Lord so often proclaimed. It is “within you,” as he said on one occasion. It consists in genuine union with Jesus Christ and the grace that forges and develops this union. It is the most difficult project in the world (because of the power of sin), but it has going for it the involvement of God himself. But it is a marvel, and it is the one thing necessary for all of us. Alfred Bessette was born in Mont-Saint-Grégoire, Quebec, (then Canada East), in 1845 — the year of John Henry Newman’s conversion in England. While Newman was famous at the time of his conversion, and went on his course of a holy life culminating in his beatification in 2010, Bessette was born and grew in obscurity. He was born into a working class family, one of ten children (two of whom died in infancy). His father died tragically when he was nine, and his mother three years later. The boy began a thirteen-year journey of wandering from job to job with few belongings and little education. He was barely able to write his name or to read his prayer book. At various times he worked as a tinsmith, blacksmith, baker, shoemaker and wagon driver. What could be more ordinary than this? But therein lay a story of sanctity. From his earliest years, Alfred showed a deep spiritual life. He would often spend his scant free time praying before a crucifix or evangelizing his friends, and was already imposing on himself penances. In due course, his parish priest decided to present him to the religious Order known as the Congregation of the Holy Cross in Montreal, stating that he was sending to them a saint — such was the spiritual depth already attained by the young man.

It seems that Brother Andre (as he was known in religious life) was scarcely literate. In a teaching Order, his job was doorkeeper at Notre Dame College in Quebec. There he stayed at that job for the next forty years while doing numerous odd jobs for the community. He made his final profession at 28 years of age (so he was a late vocation) in 1874. He was a slightly younger contemporary of Mary MacKillop in Australia, who, though, was the saintly leader and co-founder of a teaching congregation. Their paths were utterly different, though canonized together in Rome in 2010. Brother Andre had a remarkable influence over countless people as a mere doorkeeper, and numerous healings were reported as due to him during his lifetime. The essential thing about him was that he was a very holy man, gentle and winning. His confidence in the intercession of St Joseph was unfailing. He was three years younger than the Australian Mary MacKillop, and died at 91 years of age, some 28 years after Mary MacKillop had died in Sydney. It was calculated that one million people filed past his coffin — this was a man who could scarcely read, and yet whose influence had far exceeded that of the most educated in his religious Order. What was all this about? His life was an instance of the power of grace, of the growth of the Kingdom of God in the heart of a generous man. God ruled in his soul, and through him God touched and led into his Kingdom numerous others. It began at his baptism, and the growth became a mighty tree. As our Lord expresses it, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.” The birds of the air perched in the branches of Brother Andre’s humble ministry as doorkeeper and odd-jobs man. Our Lord uses another simile to illustrate the transformation grace brings to a human life: “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough” (Luke 13: 18-21).

The greatest and most beautiful thing we can do in life is work for and attain goodness, that goodness which shares in the goodness of Jesus Christ. This the Christian calls holiness. The celebration of the canonization of St Mary MacKillop, Australian, and that of Brother Andre Bessette, Canadian, ought be a great reminder of this. The danger in a secular age, little disposed to acknowledge God, Christ and his Church, is that such great people will be interpreted in secular terms — such as heroes of courage, concern, or whatever. In the first instance, they are heroes of the quest for sanctity through the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ. Christ was their life from start to finish, and this is the true challenge for every human being. To it, then!

(E.J.Tyler)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second reflection: (Luke 13: 18-21)

What the Kingdom of God is like Our Lord described his mission in terms of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God, he preached, was near.

In the prayer he taught (the Lord's Prayer) we are instructed to pray that the Father's Kingdom will come. This Kingdom is God's rule in and through the person of Christ his Son. It is established through union with Christ. In our Gospel passage today (Luke 13: 18-21), our Lord describes what God's Kingdom is like in terms of two parables, two similes. It is like a mustard seed that grows to a tree sheltering the birds in its branches. It is also like the yeast that leavens the flour all through. So we are instructed to think of the marvellous growth of God's rule, the growth of union with God so that God fills the soul and the whole of a person's life, and through that person the rest of society. This growth is primarily due to the action of God himself through his grace, but it is also dependent on our vigorous and constant effort.

The one thing we must dedicate ourselves to unceasingly during life is to the coming of God in our hearts as king. Let us ask our Lady for a deep appreciation of this and the wisdom and dedication to bring it to fruition.

(E.J.Tyler)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is indeed just that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit should crown the Blessed Virgin as Queen and Lady of all created things.

—You have to make use of her power! With the daring of a child join in this celebration in Heaven. — For myself, I crown the Mother of God and my Mother with my purified failings, since I have no precious stones or virtues.

—Take courage!
(The Forge, no.285)

Wednesday of the thirtieth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(October 27) Blessed Bartholomew of Vicenza (c. 1200-1271)
Dominicans honour one of their own today, Blessed Bartholomew of Vicenza. This was a man who used his skills as a preacher to challenge the heresies of his day. Bartholomew was born in Vicenza around 1200. At 20 he entered the Dominicans. Following his ordination he served in various leadership positions. As a young priest he founded a military order whose purpose was to keep civil peace in towns throughout Italy. In 1248, Bartholomew was appointed a bishop. For most men, such an appointment is an honour and a tribute to their holiness and their demonstrated leadership skills. But for Bartholomew, it was a form of exile that had been urged by an antipapal group that was only too happy to see him leave for Cyprus. Not many years later, however, Bartholomew was transferred back to Vicenza. Despite the antipapal feelings that were still evident, he worked diligently—especially through his preaching—to rebuild his diocese and strengthen the people’s loyalty to Rome. During his years as bishop in Cyprus, Bartholomew befriended King Louis the Ninth of France, who is said to have given the holy bishop a relic of Christ’s Crown of Thorns. Bartholomew died in 1271. He was beatified in 1793. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Ephesians 6: 1-9; Psalm 144; Luke 13: 22-30

Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' "But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.' "Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.' "But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!' "There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last." (Luke 13: 22-30)

The narrow door John Henry Newman, writing during the 1830s, stated that religion was criticized for being presented as gloomy and severe. He was saying that there was a common aversion to references to the judgment of God. God, people thought, ought be portrayed as benevolent and unthreatening.

Now, of course it is an essential teaching of Scripture that God is rich in merciful love, that he is kind and compassionate, forgiving of those who repent. But consider the writings of the prophets. There is the marvellous teaching on God as Husband of his people, ever ready to receive back his erring spouse. However, there is running through them all the dominant theme of a divine judgment, usually a judgment worked out and manifested in temporal events. If the people do not repent of their present infidelity, the harvests will fail, the enemy will invade, the city will fall, the people will be taken in chains to another country. Christ is in the tradition of the prophets, revealing far more fully what they had borne witness to seminally. The love of God as revealed by Christ is far more compelling than the prophets had shown. So too was the judgment of God. Christ spoke just as much of the judgment of God as did the prophets, and perhaps much more so. In his teaching though, the judgment of God was not primarily manifested in temporal events (though it certainly would thus show itself, as in the future destruction of Jerusalem), but in eternity. The final judgment of God, though not an absolutely exclusive teaching of Jesus Christ, was very distinctive of his teaching. Our Gospel today is an instance of this, oft repeated. To the question, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" our Lord gives this warning. "There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last" (Luke 13: 22-30).

The practical import of the Judgment is expressed by our Lord in a variety of ways. For instance, he repeatedly tells his audience to watch, ever to be ready. In our Gospel today, he warns them not to take the merely easy route, the path of ease and of least difficulty. The image he uses is that of the narrow door. Perhaps the picture here is of a large and spacious house, a palace of an important notable. There is a broad and public gateway into the precincts, and a smaller door more easily controlled and operated, through which special guests come for certain functions. Cities had their large gates through which concourses of people of all kinds with all their baggage could pass. There were also the much smaller gates that more carefully discriminated entries. Whatever of that, our Lord’s point is clear. The “narrow door” is the door of greater difficulty, the door through which not all will easily pass. Entry involves a struggle, a striving. The verb used for “strive” is that from which has come the English “agony” (agoonizesthe). The allied noun (agoonia) is the word Luke uses of Christ’s state in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ was (“striving”) in “agony,” and the door through which he was to pass was the narrow door of his Passion and Death. It was the path of the will of God, leaving him bereft of all but his obedience to the Father. That narrow door through which he passed involved leaving all behind. On one occasion a rich young man came in haste and enthusiasm to our Lord and asked what he must do to gain eternal life. He had kept God’s commandments from his earliest years. Jesus looked on him with love and extended to him a priceless invitation. Go, he said, sell all you own and give to the poor — and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. It was a much narrower door than that he was used to. But he was not prepared to strive to enter. So he went away sad. Every day, the duties of our state in life and vocation will constitute difficult choices by us for God. We must be prepared to accept them.

Let us conjure up an imagine symbolizing the life of man. There is before him the broad entrance that allows for all types, all attitudes, all luggage. There is the narrow gate that admits only of certain persons, certain citizens, certain invitees. This is the gate, the doorway, of obedience to God’s will and detachment from the luggage of life that distracts our heart from the one thing necessary. Let us then strive to enter by that gate, the gate of union with Jesus Christ who passed through the gate of obedience to the will of his Father, inviting all those who love him to follow in his footsteps.
(E.J.Tyler)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second reflection: (Luke 13: 22-30)

Entering by the narrow door "Through towns and villages Jesus went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem. Someone said to him, 'Sir, will there be only a few saved?' He said to them, 'Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.'..." (Luke 13: 22-23).

The question put to our Lord about the salvation of only a few was not answered by our Lord directly. But it reminds us of the overwhelming importance of salvation. The question I must ask myself is, what am I doing to be saved? Closely related to this is, what am I doing for the salvation of others, such as the members of my family, my friends, my colleagues? Ignatius of Loyola used to say to Francis Xavier: what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Nothing is more important than our eternal salvation. Whatever be the cost, we must take the necessary means, and our Lord's answer to the above question is, put a lot of effort into this. "Try your best to enter by the narrow door." Do all that it takes to follow God's will not matter what it takes, even at the cost of your very life. Do not presume on your salvation "because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed."

Let us endeavour to maintain a high standard of daily spiritual effort, the effort required to please God in everything, in all that we do — and by that witness draw others to enter by the narrow door too.

(E.J.Tyler)

-----------------------------------------------------------

I want to warn you against a difficulty that may arise: it is the temptation of weariness and discouragement.

—Isn’t it still fresh in your memory what life — your old life — used to be like, with no aim to it, no purpose, no sparkle, and then, with God’s light and your own dedication, a new direction was given to it and you were filled with joy?

—Don’t be so silly as to exchange your new life for that other one.
(The Forge, no.286)

Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles (October 28)
(Thursday of the thirtieth week in Ordinary Time C/II)

Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles
Jude is so named by Luke and Acts. Matthew and Mark call him Thaddeus. He is not mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels,

except, of course, where all the apostles are mentioned. Some scholars hold that he is not the author of the Letter of Jude. Actually, Jude had the same name as Judas Iscariot. Probably because of the disgrace of that name, it was shortened to "Jude" in English translation. Simon is mentioned on all four lists of the apostles. On two of them (e.g., Luke's) he is called "the Zealot." The Zealots were a Jewish sect that represented an extreme of Jewish nationalism. For them, the messianic promise of the Old Testament meant that the Jews were to be a free and independent nation. God alone was their king, and any payment of taxes to the Romans—the very domination of the Romans—was a blasphemy against God. No doubt some of the Zealots were the spiritual heirs of the Maccabees, carrying on their ideals of religion and independence. But some were a little similar to modern terrorists. They raided and killed, attacking both foreigners and "collaborating" Jews. They were chiefly responsible for the rebellion against Rome which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Our Simon the Apostle became an ardent lover and Apostle of Jesus Christ, a great saint, as did Jude his companion.
"Just as Christ was sent by the Father, so also he sent the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit. This he did so that, by preaching the gospel to every creature (cf. Mark 16:15), they might proclaim that the Son of God, by his death and resurrection, had freed us from the power of Satan (cf. Acts 26:18) and from death, and brought us into the kingdom of his Father" (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy). (AmericanCatholic)

Scripture today: Ephesians 2:19-22; Psalm 19:2-5; Luke 6:12-16

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountain to pray, and spent the whole night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. (Luke 6: 12-16)

Vocation It is interesting to notice the appearance of the disciples of Christ in Luke’s Gospel. The first of the “disciples” to be mentioned, without the word being used, is Simon. Perhaps this itself indicates the importance Luke gives to Simon Peter in the story of the Church —

and this is shown even more in the early chapters of his second work, the Acts of the Apostles. In chapter 4 of his Gospel, the chapter in which Christ’s public ministry begins, Simon is suddenly mentioned as the one into whose house our Lord enters after teaching in the synagogue, and whose mother-in-law he cures (4:38). The beginnings of his contact with our Lord are not narrated — he is simply shown as being associated with him. Simon has attached himself to Jesus and is somehow close to him, perhaps more than any others because it is to his house that Christ goes. In the following chapter (5:2-11), Christ steps into Simon’s fishing boat and addresses the people on the shore from there. Then, in the line of the prophets, Christ gives a prophetic sign of things to come. He directs Simon to cast out his net to the deep for a catch. Simon addresses him as “Master” — and, despite adverse experience and appearances, replies that “at your word, I will let down the net.” He is an excellent disciple, acting on the word of Jesus Christ. The draft of fish was immense, requiring immediate assistance from his partners. Simon prostrated himself as if he were in the presence of the divine, proclaiming his sinful distance from the holy person before him. He must have been in a state of fear, because our Lord told him not to fear — from now on he would catch men. It is a prediction, an implicit announcement of his coming vocation. James and John, Simon’s partners, shared in his experience and in the prediction of Christ. At this, all three, whom Paul (Luke’s master in the apostolate) would call the “pillars,” left all and followed Jesus. There follow further references to others of our Lord’s “disciples:” the Pharisees criticize them for eating and drinking with publicans and sinners (5:30), for not fasting themselves (5:33) and for violating the Sabbath rest (6:2). This is the context of our Lord’s action in today’s Gospel.

In our Gospel today (Luke 6: 12-16), our Lord spends the whole night praying to God, and when morning comes he calls his “disciples” to him and from them he selects the Twelve, whom he calls “apostoloi,” which is to say his envoys, his ambassadors. While the others are his “disciples,” learners being led and taught by their Master, the Twelve are also his “representatives,” acting to a point in his name. It is the beginning of the launching of the Church, its structure, and its share in his mission. We are not told, of course, what our Lord prayed about “the whole night” prior to this action, but I do not think it was over who should constitute the Twelve. The special mention Luke has already given to Simon, James and John would suggest that the vocation of the Twelve was clear. St Paul writes in one of his Letters that from before the foundation of the world, we were chosen in Christ to be full of love in his sight. The call of God has its origins in eternity, and each of the Twelve — unbeknown to them — had received their vocation as God’s gift. Jesus knew exactly who he intended to call. But he prayed for them and for the Church he was in the process of founding. Let us imagine our Lord that night in prayer, bearing in his heart each of the disciples he would choose — and indeed all of his disciples who would gather before him on the morrow, and all of his disciples to come generation after generation. One of the disciples he did not choose to be one of the Twelve then, would indeed become one of the Twelve after his Ascension: Matthias. Luke would note and describe the fact (Acts 1: 21-26). Let us imagine the prayer of Christ for his chosen ones. All had their faults, all could sin. How heartily our Lord would have prayed for each, for Simon who would deny him, for almost all of them who would abandon him, for Judas who would betray him. The Treasure of the world, Jesus Christ — Son of God made man and Redeemer of the world — was to be entrusted to them. They would have a cup to drink, and almost all would drink it in the event. They would come through, receive the Spirit, give their lives for him, hand on the Church to the generations, and receive the crown.

We each of us are part of this. We each of us have received the call to be personal friends of Jesus Christ — not as lone friends of his, but as members of his mighty Church, the Catholic Church of the ages, the Church that bears within itself the Kingdom which it unlocks for all who hear the word of Christ and respond. Let us each day seize the chance which this call offers us. It is the pearl of great price, the treasure in our field. The pearl is Christ. He is our life!
                                                                 (E.J.Tyler)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second reflection: (Ephesians 2: 19-22; Luke 6: 12-19)

The faith of the Apostles      Today we think of two of the Twelve, Simon and Jude. We know hardly a thing about them. As they are Apostles, we celebrate their day as a Feast Day in the Church's year because they were two of the foundation stones of the Church, Christ being the cornerstone. Whenever we think of our share in the life of Christ as it has come to us in the Sacraments and in the preaching and teaching of the word, we think of the unbroken apostolic succession back to the Apostles themselves. Christ is in us, and this is due to the ministry of the Church. The Church derives its spiritual power and authority from Christ, and for this we are indebted to the Apostles. All they passed on to us they drew from the revelation of Christ.

This ought excite in us constant gratitude to God and a profound sense of responsibility for the apostolic faith we are privileged to live by. We must pass on this divine life to others faithfully, such that what others receive through our testimony will be what the Apostles themselves passed on from Christ.

                                                                          (E.J.Tyler)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

If you feel for whatever reason that you cannot manage, abandon yourself in God, telling him: Lord, I trust in you, I abandon myself in you, but do help me in my weakness!

And filled with confidence, repeat: See Jesus what a filthy rag I am. My life seems to me so miserable. I am not worthy to be a son of yours. Tell him all this — and tell him so over and over again.

—It will not be long before you hear him say, Ne timeas! — do not be afraid; and also: Surge et ambula! — rise up and walk!
(The Forge, no.287)

Friday of the thirtieth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(October 29) St. Narcissus of Jerusalem (d. 215)
Life in second- and third-century Jerusalem couldn’t have been easy, but St. Narcissus managed to live well beyond 100. Some even speculate he lived to 160. Details of his life are sketchy, but there are many reports of his miracles. The miracle for which he is most remembered was turning water into oil for use in the church lamps on Holy Saturday when the deacons had forgotten to provide any. We do know that Narcissus became bishop of Jerusalem in the late second century. He was known for his holiness, but there are hints that many people found him harsh and rigid in his efforts to impose church discipline. One of his many detractors accused Narcissus of a serious crime at one point. Though the charges against him did not hold up, he used the occasion to retire from his role as bishop and live in solitude. His disappearance was so sudden and convincing that many people assumed he had actually died. Several successors were appointed during his years in isolation. Finally, Narcissus reappeared in Jerusalem and was persuaded to resume his duties. By then, he had reached an advanced age, so a younger bishop was brought in to assist him until his death. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Philippians 1: 1-11; Psalm 110; Luke 14:1-6

One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? But they remained silent. So he took the man, healed him and sent him away. Then he asked them, If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out? To this they could find no answer. (Luke 14: 1-6)

Faith and Reason There is an implication in our Lord’s words to the Pharisees and experts in the Law which can easily escape us. The issue here on which Christ and his opponents locked was the observance of the Sabbath. Now, let us remember that the observance of the Sabbath was a point of divine revelation.

It was the third of the Ten Commandments, the third of the three that governed the people’s direct dealings with God. The Day of Rest was to be kept holy. It was to be observed as the Lord’s Day. This meant Synagogue attendance and rest from the workaday week — and it was a defining feature of the life of the Jewish nation, as scholars of ancient mid-Eastern societies readily affirm. They all had their feasts and observances, but Israel had, in addition to its many feasts, the weekly Sabbath. Further, we must acknowledge the beneficial influence of the Pharisaic class in reinforcing the Sabbath in the life of the nation. Their traditional activity included the interpretation of unclear statements in the Biblical scrolls, and the enactment of prescriptions that carried authority. They formulated specific laws that they deemed necessary for the needs of the time — such as the practical details of the Sabbath rest. Now, much of their legal system was built up on what “the sages” determined through reasoning and established practice, and there was a biblical foundation for their authority to innovate. In chapter 17 of the book of Deuteronomy, the inspired text (vs.9) directs that if there is a case too complicated to resolve, the people were to go to the Levitical priests or to the judge in office who will study the case and give his decision. According “to this decision that they give you ... you shall act, being careful to do exactly as they direct.” Indeed, elsewhere our Lord affirmed their authority (Matthew 23:3). The point I am making here, though, is that their prescriptions involved not only Revealed Law, but a human application of it to perplexing cases. It involved the right or wrong use of reason.

Now, let us notice what our Lord says to them in today’s exchange. Our Lord is in the house of a leading Pharisee — his being invited shows that our Lord himself was not perceived by them as hostile to their class or members as such. The leading Pharisee and his class were watching him narrowly, to see if he obeyed the law of the Sabbath. This, of course, meant to them the Pharisaic regulations and traditions on the Sabbath. Those regulations were built up by reason and custom, and it is to reason and common sense that our Lord immediately appeals. Is it against the Law to cure on the Sabbath? our Lord asks. Our Lord places his simple question before a “leading Pharisee” and others of his group, and there they stood, with mutual support, and with their tradition behind them. But they remained silent — presumably because they, including the leading Pharisee, would not dare to enter into religious debate against Jesus of Nazareth. Christ dominated the scene of ideas and teaching. He repeatedly silenced his opponents, finally reducing them to implacable and secret scheming against his person. Here, now, he appeals to ordinary reason: “So he took the man, healed him and sent him away. Then he asked them, If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out? To this they could find no answer” (Luke 14: 1-6). With good reason you extricate your son or your ox from his situation of difficulty on a Sabbath — then surely you ought do the same with one enchained in illness. Such is only reasonable. It is but good sense, is it not? Among many things this reminds us of the importance of the right use of human reason in living a life based on what God has revealed. What God has revealed has to be applied in everyday life. Christ himself applied it concretely to life, but of course left many details of life untouched. He entrusted his authority to teach to the Twelve, and in particular to Simon Peter. The Church applies the teaching of Christ to the extent it deems necessary, but we too must do this in our everyday life. Faith and right reason work in tandem in a properly religious and Christian life.

The Catholic Church has an extensive teaching on the relationship between two great gifts of God, faith and reason. Each needs the other for each to function properly in the knowledge and fulfilment in life of the will of God. One of the elements in the tragedy of many Pharisees and experts in the Law was their profoundly deficient use of reason, which itself was rooted in their sinful heart. Let us then preserve in our lives a properly Catholic esteem for the moral reason and its place in a life based on divine Revelation.

(E.J.Tyler)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second reflection (Philippians 1: 1-11)

The lay apostolic spirit Notice what St

Paul says about the Philippians in Ch.1:1-11, and what gives him joy in his prayer. It is the remembrance of how the Philippians helped to spread the Gospel: "every time I pray for all of you, I pray with joy, remembering how you have helped to spread the Good News from the day you first heard it right up to the present." St Paul is not writing to a body of clergy in this passage, but especially to the body of the lay faithful. The laity had helped spread the Gospel. Moreover, they had done this "from the day you first heard it right up to the present." So it was an essential part of the living of their Catholic faith that they spread it. They had shared in St Paul's "chains" and in his "work defending and establishing the Gospel." We ought ask ourselves if Paul would say the same thing were he writing to us.

The Church teaches what St Paul was commending in the Philippians, that the apostolic spirit is an essential element in the spirit of Catholicism. St Paul prays that the Philippians will increase in mutual charity and in spiritual understanding and perception. Let us pray for that grace too that we may see what we are to aim at if we are to reach spiritual maturity in Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

You were still rather hesitant when you were telling me: “I am deeply aware of the occasions when the Lord is asking more of me.”

—All I could think of was to remind you how you used to assure me that the only thing you wanted was to identify yourself with him. What’s keeping you back?
(The Forge, no.288)

Saturday of the thirtieth week in Ordinary Time C/II

(October 30) St. Alphonsus Rodriguez (c. 1533-1617)
Tragedy and challenge beset today’s saint early in life, but Alphonsus Rodriguez found happiness and contentment through simple service and prayer. Born in Spain in 1533, Alphonsus inherited the family textile business at 23. Within the space of three years, his wife, daughter and mother died; meanwhile, business was poor. Alphonsus stepped back and reassessed his life. He sold the business and, with his young son, moved into his sisters’ home. There he learned the discipline of prayer and meditation. Years later, at the death of his son, Alphonsus, almost 40 by then, sought to join the Jesuits. He was not helped by his poor education. He applied twice before being admitted. For 45 years he served as doorkeeper at the Jesuits’ college in Majorca. When not at his post, he was almost always at prayer, though he often encountered difficulties and temptations. His holiness and prayerfulness attracted many to him, including St. Peter Claver, then a Jesuit seminarian. Alphonsus’s life as doorkeeper may have been humdrum, but he caught the attention of poet and fellow-Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins, who made him the subject of one of his poems. Alphonsus died in 1617. He is the patron saint of Majorca. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Philippians 1: 18-26; Psalm 41; Luke 14:1, 7-11

One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honour at the table, he told them this parable: When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honour, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honoured in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 14: 1, 7-11)

Sin One thing which ought strike any student of religion is how any person, however familiar with the things of God he may be, is vulnerable to the inroads of serious sin. Perhaps the primordial example is Satan and his minions. If man wishes to think of sin and a sinful state, Satan exemplifies that state.

He is the arch-sinner, the one who exudes sin and who is implacably opposed to God. But now, where did all this begin in him? It began in heaven, after he had come from the creative hand of God, endowed with abundant blessings of nature and grace, a high spirit favoured with the presence of his Creator. Endowed with untrammelled freedom he made his choice — and the horror of it was that he freely rejected his Creator. He wished to be — as he would later tempt our first parents — in God’s place. It was an attempt at usurpation, an absurd and shocking rebellion with other spirits following suit and in train, in which he crossed the Rubicon with his troops, against the Lord God. How could he have done this? It is the mystery of sin, but the point being drawn here is that he was in heaven, which is to say in the abode of God. He was indeed very familiar with the things of his adorable, infinitely loving and holy Maker. With that, the terrible divine sentence followed. He and his were forever cast out, only to continue in undying hostility. The entire Fact scarcely bears contemplating. But then, our first parents were endowed with high gifts of nature and grace, and were familiar with God and his plan. Beauty surrounded them, and love was their prospect, but they too cast their die, and they chose to be gods in their own right, like God and independent of him and his will. Instantly they lost their life with God and were doomed to death, bereft of their gifts of grace and with nature impaired. Now, all this happened in the Garden of Eden, an idyllic state of familiarity with the things of God. It parallelled the state and moment in which Satan and the demons had rebelled.

Let us take another case, likewise of high mystery. The grandest and holiest of men was our divine Brother and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. What an incalculable privilege to be his personal friend and companion, to live with him day by day and to share in his interests and his work! Such was the calling of the Twelve, selected out of the concourse of his disciples who themselves had the privilege of being disciples of so unique a Master. The Twelve were his Companions, and they knew the privilege of it. They had left all to follow him. Simon Peter once asked our Lord, what will be coming to us, for we have left all to follow you — notice that he did not say, I have left all to follow you. He said, “we” have left all. He was speaking for the Twelve, implying that they all had left everything to follow him, and our Lord acknowledges it for he goes on to tell them what will be their recompense for doing this. Now, Judas was in their company when this was said — we may presume that Judas too had started well. He was received into the special friendship of Jesus Christ and lived and worked as his Companion. He was an Apostle, one of the Twelve. In its own way, it parallelled the Garden of Eden in which our first parents were placed. It was the Garden of friendship with Jesus Christ, and St Paul writes that in Christ we receive every heavenly blessing. But look what happened! Judas turned away from God made man, from the pearl of greatest price, from the treasure in the field. He sinned gravely, enormously, and tragically failed to repent but went the road of despair. Now, I give these sad examples as an introduction to our Lord’s words to the Pharisees in our Gospel passage today (Luke 14: 1, 7-11). They were men of religion, professionals — professing to know and to live according to God’s Law — who were very familiar with the things of God. They had before them the Incarnate God and heard him speak and instruct. Despite this, they were sunk in sin, and as our Lord’s words today show, pride gripped many of them by the jugular. Characteristically, they “picked the places of honour.”

Let us live in the friendship of Jesus Christ, and while assiduously doing so let us understand well that we are vulnerable to temptation and sin. The one favoured by Christ with his friendship can still be unfaithful and in numerous minor ways (at the very least) is indeed unfaithful. He must work at casting off the sin that clings so tenaciously. He must aim at self-purification, detachment, self-denial. The struggle must be maintained to the very end, otherwise he will be caught napping and dragged away by the sin that lurks at the door. So then, now I begin!

(E.J.Tyler)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second reflection: (Philippians 1:18-26; Luke 14:1.7-11)

All for the glory of God At times we come across people who seem to think they have nothing to live for, nothing that is worthwhile in their lives, nothing to look forward to.

Others are living for things that are not worthwhile and that cannot last. They are utterly ephemeral. Let us notice, by contrast, what St Paul is living for: "Life for me, of course, is Christ" (Philippians 1: 18-26). His one hope and trust was that he would never be defeated in living for Christ, and that "whether by my life or by my death, Christ would be glorified in my body." This is what we should be living for, that whether by our life or by our death, Christ will be glorified and honoured. Every time we pray the Lord's Prayer, we ask that "hallowed be your name." It means that we set ourselves the aim of so living and working, of so praying and even thinking, that Jesus will be everywhere known and loved. Even when we are incapable of living and working, if sickness and death are before us, that this too will result in God's glory.

Let us pray for the kind of humility that puts God first in everything. Our Lord in Luke 14:11 tells us that "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the man who humbles himself will be exalted." Let us learn to prefer the lower place especially before God, so that God and his Son Jesus will be exalted. In this way and in God's good time, we too will be exalted in him.
(E.J.Tyler)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

If only you could manage to fulfil that resolution you made: “to die a little to myself each day.”
(The Forge, no.289)

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Prayers today: Do not abandon me, Lord. My God, do not go away from me! Hurry to help me, Lord, my Saviour.

God of power and mercy, only with your help can we offer you fitting service and praise. May we live the faith we profess and trust your promise of eternal life. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

(October 31) St. Wolfgang of Regensburg (c. 924-994)
Wolfgang was born in Swabia, Germany, and was educated at a school located at the abbey of Reichenau. There he encountered Henry, a young noble who went on to become Archbishop of Trier. Meanwhile, Wolfgang remained in close contact with the archbishop, teaching in his cathedral school and supporting his efforts to reform the clergy. At the death of the archbishop, Wolfgang chose to become a Benedictine monk and moved to an abbey in Einsiedeln, now part of Switzerland. Ordained a priest, he was appointed director of the monastery school there. Later he was sent to Hungary as a missionary, though his zeal and good will yielded limited results. Emperor Otto II appointed him Bishop of Regensburg (near Munich). He immediately initiated reform of the clergy and of religious life, preaching with vigour and effectiveness and always demonstrating special concern for the poor. He wore the habit of a monk and lived an austere life. The draw to monastic life never left him, including the desire for a life of solitude. At one point he left his diocese so that he could devote himself to prayer, but his responsibilities as bishop called him back. In 994 he became ill while on a journey; he died in Puppingen near Linz, Austria. His feast day is celebrated widely in much of central Europe. He was canonized in 1052. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Wisdom 11:22-12:2; Psalm 144: 2; Thessalonians 1:11-2:2; Luke 19:1-10

At that time, Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house." And he came down quickly and received him with joy. When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner." But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost." (Luke 19:1-10)

The forgiveness of sins In the first two chapters of the Bible we are presented with inspired images of man and his world coming from the creative hand of God. In the third chapter there is narrated the story of the appearance of a tremendous setback — sin.

Man is created, and placed in the Garden but then rebels against his divine Benefactor. The inspired text shows us that sin, suffering and evil in the world did not come from the hand of the Creator — it came from man himself. It came from man’s own choice and decision to accede to the temptation of Satan. All went instantly awry, and the result is that man, the world’s master, has the fundamental and mortal problem of sin. Sin, the root cause of all man’s problems, if unchecked will lead to eternal damnation. Now, the modern situation is that people tend not to recognise sin. It is the great modern blindness. They see sin in others perhaps, though they call it by some other name such as wrongdoing or crime. But personal sin as such, which is to say, an offence against God — this they tend not to recognise. If they do recognise that God is offended by things that we continually do, they tend to think that this does not matter much anyway. This is because God does not matter much. Therefore we are not really sinners, and if we are — well, so what? Sin is not important — there are other things that matter far more. What matters more than God is this world, and it is this world which must not be upset. And so modern man tends not to believe or at least not take at all seriously what Christ has told us, and what the Church passes on to us, the immensely important doctrine of the forgiveness of sins. In St Luke's Gospel scene of the conversion of Zacchaeus the senior tax collector (Luke 19: 1-10), Zacchaeus was very conscious that he was a sinner: he had a sense of sin. In this he was not a modern man, but in this he is a teacher of modern man. He responded to our Lord’s offer of friendship by repenting. He knew he was a sinner, and because of his contact with Jesus Christ he came to believe in the forgiveness of sins. I suspect that Zacchaeus was a well-known member of the infant Church.

Luke points to Zacchaeus and says, here is a convert from sin who became a true lover of Jesus Christ. He learnt the fact and the doctrine of the forgiveness of sin. Every time we profess our Catholic Faith in the Creed, which we do after the homily at Sunday Mass, we proclaim our belief in the forgiveness of sins. But before we profess this faith in God’s forgiveness of sin, we state that we believe in Jesus Christ and his salvation, in the Holy Spirit, and in the Holy Catholic Church. These doctrines are the foundation of our belief in the forgiveness of sins. Belief in the forgiveness of our sins is intimately connected with our belief in the action of the Holy Spirit, who forgives our sins in the ministry and life of the Church. On the very evening of the day he rose from the dead, Our Lord grants to his apostles the gift of the Holy Spirit: especially to forgive sins. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” our Lord said, “whose sins you forgive they are forgiven, whose sins you retain they are retained” (John 20: 22-23). It was the first ministry the risen Jesus gave to his Apostles when they received the Holy Spirit from him. If we believe in Christ, if we believe in the Holy Spirit, if we believe in the Holy Catholic Church, we should believe in the forgiveness of sins — and with real conviction. At our Baptism, we receive this gift of the Holy Spirit and with this gift comes the first and full forgiveness of our sins in a manner so complete that there remains in us nothing left to efface, neither original sin nor offences committed by our own will. Yet the grace of Baptism delivers no-one from the weakness of nature and the proneness to sin that is the effect of Adam’s sin. Thus it is that sin makes its re-entry into the soul of the baptized person, because in his weakness he goes on to choose to sin, either venially or mortally. Because of this, God bestowed a further mercy. Our Lord gave to the Apostles the power to forgive sins committed after Baptism. This power given to the Apostles to forgive post-baptismal sin is handed on to bishops and priests and administered in the Sacrament of Penance.

Let us ask our Lord to help us gain a new starting point in our spiritual lives, which is a real conviction that we are sinners and need the forgiveness of God. Let us ask our Lord to help us to be as conscious of our sins and as ready to repent as was Zaccaeus when our Lord greeted him. Let us resolve to practise a daily examination of conscience, daily acts of sorrow for sin, frequent and regular confession, and to practise an apostolate of bringing to others the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins. That is to say, let us make this doctrine a living conviction in our lives.

(E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 976-983 (I believe in the forgiveness of sins)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

A second reflection on the Gospel of the thirty first Sunday of Ordinary Time C

Sin and love It has often been said that love is not a mere feeling: it is above all a decision. It is a matter of clear-headed choice. God loves us and reveals his love to us, commanding us to love him in return. With the thought of his undying love and the divine command accompanying it,

we choose to love him in return — showing this love by our obedience. The question is, what are the foundations of this choice, and how can it be helped to flourish? To answer this question, I suggest that we consider today’s Gospel, and in particular the figure of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). It is clear that Zacchaeus felt a real need for Jesus, for he ran ahead and climbed the tree to see him. Further, he was aware that he was a sinner. He climbed down from the tree and told Jesus that he would give his ill-gotten gains to the poor, and return what he had gained unjustly. He had listened to his conscience, and had accepted its reproofs for his sins. This sense of personal sin was very much at the source of his desire for Jesus Christ. He knew he was spiritually sick, and that he needed salvation. On another occasion our Lord was criticised by the Pharisees for welcoming the sinners and eating with them. He said that it was not the healthy who needed the doctor but the sick, and that he had come to call sinners to repentance, that is, those who recognised they were sinners. Those who did not recognize they were sinners (such as many of the scribes and Pharisees) were unlikely to be deeply interested in our Lord. We remember our Lord’s parable of the Pharisee and the Publican praying in the temple. The Pharisee did not think he was a sinner, but the Publican did — and it was the Publican who went home reconciled with God. So did Zacchaeus in today’s Gospel reading. He was a sinner, and he knew it. Sinner that he was, he recognised in our Lord his great holiness, a holiness that showed itself in mercy. His conscience, intimating his own sinfulness, intimated also the saving love of Jesus. So he looked to our Lord for something radically important that he did not have.

But then, apart from the action of his conscience enabling him to recognise his sinfulness and the holiness of Jesus, Zacchaeus met Jesus personally, and this meeting was due to the loving initiative of Jesus himself. So it was that Zacchaeus discovered not only that he was a sinner and that he yearned for something better, but that Jesus loved him personally. That meeting with Jesus brought about the decisive change, the wondrous conversion which gave our Lord such joy. Zacchaeus had known he was a sinner and yearned for something nobler, but that alone did not bring about the great change — though it did dispose him for it. It was when he met Jesus and saw that Jesus loved him and wanted to dine with him, that he completely changed. As our Lord said, this day salvation has come to Zacchaeus. And what changed Zacchaeus? What gave him joy in his religion? What made him dedicated? What turned him honest, and led him to give to the poor? It was to have discovered the love that Jesus had for him in particular, for him, sinner though he was. Jesus stopped, looked up at Zacchaeus, called him by name, asked him to come down and speak to him, and then told him that he would be coming to his house to dine. It is a most beautiful scene. Imagine were that event to have happened to any one of us! Zacchaeus felt loved by the best, the grandest and the holiest person of all. He became a true believer in all God had revealed and was revealing in Jesus. The fact that he is mentioned by his name would suggest that he was subsequently known in the Christian community, just as Simon of Cyrene would have been. Let us follow in the footsteps of Zacchaeus, humbly aware of our sins, desirous of something much higher and better, and in prayer discover the love that Jesus has for us, discover it and believe in it. We must discover it precisely as sinners. Our faith is above all faith in the love of God for us sinners. When we discover this, our faith is living and real, and not just an abstract notion. Let us every day strive to place ourselves, as the sinners we are, in the presence of Jesus who loves us.

St Paul wrote, Christ loved me and delivered himself for me. If we appreciate this, and make it the basis of all we do, it will change us, just as it changed Zacchaeus. Let us then put time into prayer, resting in the presence of our Lord at the start of the day, often raising the mind and heart to him during the day, and living in the company of the one who loves us more, far more, than we do ourselves. The thought of God’s love will change us.

(E.J.Tyler)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joy, and supernatural and human optimism, can go hand in hand with physical tiredness, with sorrow, with tears (because we have a heart), and with difficulties in our interior life or our apostolic work.

He who is perfectus Deus, perfectus Homo — perfect God and perfect Man — and who enjoyed every happiness in Heaven, chose to experience fatigue and tiredness, tears and suffering... so that we might understand that if we are to be supernatural we must also be very human.
(The Forge, no.290)

Liturgical Season	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
28th week Ordinary Time C/II							16
29th week Ordinary Time C/II	17	18 Feast of St Luke	19	20	21	22	23
30th week Ordinary Time C/II	24 also World Mission Sunday	25	26	27	28 St. Simon & St, Jude	29	30
31st week Ordinary Time C/II	31