January1 in Year A 11

From Christmastide to Saturday, 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 January is: "That the riches of creation be preserved, valued and made available to all, as a precious gifts from God to mankind. "

His mission intention is: "That Christians may achieve full unity, bearing witness of the universal fatherhood of God to the entire human race. "

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Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God (January 1)

Prayers for today: Hail, Holy Mother! The child to whom you gave birth is the King of heaven and earth for ever.
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A light will shine on us this day, the Lord is born for us: he shall be called Wonderful, God, Prince of peace, Father of the world to come; and his kingship will never end.

God our Father, may we always profit by the prayers of the Virgin Mother Mary, for you bring us life and salvation through Jesus Christ her Son who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
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Father, source of light in every age, the virgin conceived and bore your Son who is called Wonderful God, Prince of Peace. May her prayer, the gift of a mother’s love, be your people’s joy through all ages. May her response, born of a humble heart, draw your Spirit to rest on your people. Grant this through Christ our Lord.

(January 1) Mary, The Mother of God

Mary’s divine motherhood broadens the Christmas spotlight. Mary has an important role to play in the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. She consents to God’s invitation conveyed by the angel (Luke 1:26-38). Elizabeth proclaims: “Most blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:42-43, emphasis added). Mary’s role as mother of God places her in a unique position in God’s redemptive plan. Without naming Mary, Paul asserts that “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). Paul’s further statement that “God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out ‘Abba, Father!’“ helps us realize that Mary is mother to all the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Some theologians also insist that Mary’s motherhood of Jesus is an important element in God’s creative plan. God’s “first” thought in creating was Jesus. Jesus, the incarnate Word, is the one who could give God perfect love and worship on behalf of all creation. As Jesus was “first” in God’s mind, Mary was “second” insofar as she was chosen from all eternity to be his mother. The precise title “Mother of God” goes back at least to the third or fourth century. In the Greek form Theotokos (God-bearer), it became the touchstone of the Church’s teaching about the Incarnation. The Council of Ephesus in 431 insisted that the holy Fathers were right in calling the holy virgin Theotokos. At the end of this particular session, crowds of people marched through the street shouting: “Praised be the Theotokos!” The tradition reaches to our own day. In its chapter on Mary’s role in the Church, Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church calls Mary “Mother of God” 12 times. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Numbers 6: 22-27; Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Galatians 4: 4-7; Luke 2:16-21

So the shepherds hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived. (Luke 2: 16-21)

Mother of God I have been to what are regarded as the ruins of the Church of Mary (Meryem Kilisesi) in Ephesus, Turkey. It is also known as the Double Church, because it is thought that one aisle was dedicated to the Virgin and the other to St.

John. It is known, too, as the Council Church because the Council of Ephesus is believed to have been held there. The First Council of Ephesus was the third ecumenical council of the early Church, held in 431 at that Church of Mary in Ephesus. The Council was called amid a dispute over the teachings of Nestorius, the Patriarch of the imperial city of Constantinople. Nestorius taught that Mary, the mother of Jesus gave birth to what we might call the human Christ, but not to the divine Logos (Word) who existed before Mary and indeed before time itself. The Logos, present in Jesus, replaced and dispensed with a human soul in him. Consequently, Mary should be called Christotokos, the “Christ-bearer,” and not Theotokos, Greek for the “God bearer.” The question immediately arose, then, if Jesus had no human soul, how could he possibly be man? Cyril of Alexandria insisted that Nestorianism denied that Jesus was both human and divine. Under Cyril’s presidency, the Council of Ephesus denounced Nestorius' teaching as erroneous and decreed that Jesus was one person and not two: he was complete God and complete man, with a rational soul and body. Therefore the Virgin Mary was to be called Theotokos — the bearer of God, as she had been commonly referred to. Of course, the Council meant by this that Mary is the Mother of the Son of God become man. The Second divine Person took to himself a fully human nature (including a human soul) while retaining his own divine nature. This was essentially the authoritative resolution of a controversy over the Person of Jesus Christ, with immediate implications (of course) for the Church’s doctrine on Christ’s most holy mother. In our own day I have seen on the Internet certain Protestant teachers giving talks on Christian doctrine who deny that Mary is the Mother of God. These appear to accept that Jesus Christ is God, but they have a poor understanding of the details and implications of this doctrine.

I have also read accounts that consider Mary to have been nothing more than a kind of physical receptacle of the embryo of the incarnate God, placed in her by the Holy Spirit. She, in this account, is not truly the “mother” of God become man, but only the bearer of him. She was basically his carriage taking him from conception to birth. The divinely-created seed did not unite with the motherly element to bring about the Incarnation in the womb. Rather, the womb of Mary simply received the formed embryo by an act of heaven. In effect, she did not truly conceive her divine Son. But no. All this is wrong, for the doctrine of Scripture and the Church is that Mary truly conceived in her womb. However, she conceived not by an act of man but by the power of the Holy Spirit. The role of any mother in giving life to her child was exercised by Mary, but in her case there was no intervention of man. As the Angel said, “You shall conceive and bear a son, and give him the name Jesus.” At her inquiry as to how this was to happen, for she had no relations with man, the Angel explained: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; hence, the holy offspring to be born will be called Son of God” (Luke 1: 30-35). At her consent, her Child — truly her Child — was conceived as One profoundly shaped by what she, as mother, instantly transmitted to him. Her DNA, and other elements any child would draw from his mother, were drawn from her by this Child in her womb. We may also add that inasmuch as there was no human father involved, the level of gift by her as mother must have been so much greater. How appropriate, then, was it that she was full of grace, and sinless from her own conception! How similar to his mother must Jesus have been in so many respects! Divine Person as he was, he had her, his creature, for his human parent. Her life and constitution nourished him, but of course in her own blood there flowed the generations of the past back to David, back to Abraham, and back to Adam and Eve. Jesus Christ was Son of God, and Son of Mary — and being Son of Mary he was a true descendant of Adam, and our brother.

Generally speaking, the first thing that man thinks of when he thinks of God — or his gods — is great power. God has revealed that he is almighty in power. His power is boundless. The greatest act of God’s power is the Incarnation. How could pure and simple Being, lacking all potential because of its lack of all limit, become a finite man who could suffer and die? However we tentatively explain the fact, fact it was and is. God the Son became man. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. His glory was seen, the glory of the Only-begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. Mary is truly his mother. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death!
                                                                              (E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (Luke 2: 16-21)

The secret of Mary           At the start of the new year the Church immediately presents us with a human being who has what could only be considered as unimaginable dignity. Who would have thought it possible that one of us could be the Mother of the great God, while of course being his creature? Yet so it is. However, Mary not only has this dignity, she possesses unique gifts of holiness which make her a truly worthy Mother of God — and a wonderful mother of us. God is all-holy, and so is his Mother — he without limit, she within limits as is necessary for a creature. Now, is there any key we can take up at the beginning of the year to help us understand how Mary lived out this all-holy motherhood that was hers? This is important for we are her children, and we are called to imitate her.

St Luke gives us that key in today's Gospel passage (Luke 2: 16-21). "As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart." All that God had said and done was received into the mind and heart of Mary as the one immense treasure she lived with and for. All else derived its place and importance from what God said, did, and wanted. She heard the word of God, received it as the greatest of treasures, the one true pearl of great price, and put it into practice perfectly in her seemingly ordinary life. She is our mother in the ordinary life. Let us have as our aim this year to imitate Mary, the perfect disciple of her divine Son.

                                                                  (E.J.Tyler)

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I shouldn’t ask Jesus for anything. I will concentrate on pleasing him in everything and telling him things as though he didn’t know them already, just as a little child does with his father.
(The Forge, no.351)

Epiphany of the Lord A

Prayers today: The Lord and ruler is coming; kingship is his, and government and power. (Malachi 3: 1; 1 Chron 19: 12)

Father, you revealed your Son to the nations by the guidance of a star. Lead us to your glory in heaven by the light of faith. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,...
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Father of light, unchanging God, today you reveal to men of faith the resplendent fact of the Word made flesh. Your light is strong, your love is near; draw us beyond the limits which this world imposes, to the life where your Spirit makes all life complete. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

(January 2) Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory of Nazianzen
St. Basil the Great (329-379) Basil was on his way to becoming a famous teacher when he decided to begin a religious life of gospel poverty. After studying various

modes of religious life, he founded what was probably the first monastery in Asia Minor. He is to monks of the East what St. Benedict is to the West, and his principles influence Eastern monasticism today. He was ordained a priest, assisted the archbishop of Caesarea (now south-eastern Turkey), and ultimately became archbishop himself, in spite of opposition from some of his suffragan bishops, probably because they foresaw coming reforms. One of the most damaging heresies in the history of the Church, Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ, was at its height. Emperor Valens persecuted orthodox believers, and put great pressure on Basil to remain silent and admit the heretics to communion. Basil remained firm, and Valens backed down. But trouble remained. When the great St. Athanasius died, the mantle of defender of the faith against Arianism fell upon Basil. He strove mightily to unite and rally his fellow Catholics who were crushed by tyranny and torn by internal dissension. He was misunderstood, misrepresented, accused of heresy and ambition. Even appeals to the pope brought no response. “For my sins I seem to be unsuccessful in everything.” He was tireless in pastoral care. He preached twice a day to huge crowds, built a hospital that was called a wonder of the world (as a youth he had organized famine relief and worked in a soup kitchen himself) and fought the prostitution business. Basil was best known as an orator. His writings, though not recognized greatly in his lifetime, rightly place him among the great teachers of the Church. Seventy-two years after his death, the Council of Chalcedon described him as “the great Basil, minister of grace who has expounded the truth to the whole earth.”
St. Basil said: “The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.” (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8. 10-11, 12-13; Ephesians 3:2-3.5-6; Matthew 2:1-12

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him. After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. (Matthew 2: 1-12)

Christ and evil On December 26, 2004, there occurred the great earthquake below the Indian Ocean with its epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. It put into common language the term “tsunami.” It triggered a series of devastating tsunamis along the coasts of most landmasses

bordering the Indian Ocean, killing over 230,000 people in fourteen countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 meters high. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Indonesia was the hardest hit, followed by Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. It was the third largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. Among other things it provoked a debate in the newspapers — as, for instance, in the Sydney Morning Herald — about the very existence of God. The usual questions were raised. If there is a God, he must be almighty and all-loving. But if God allows such a thing, how could he be loving? Or, if he had to allow it, how can he be all-powerful? There is no final and clinching answer to these perennial questions, but of course if we grant the existence of a God who is infinite, then in the nature of the case there would have to be a great deal we could not understand about him. There are great and hidden evils going on all the time. There are vast numbers of abortions every year in Australia, and far more in the United States, not considering those of numerous other countries of the world. That is a human tsunami of immense proportions, and it is man-made. Why does God not prevent so many from performing and undergoing this snuffing out of so much innocent human life? For that matter, why does God not prevent so many other forms of suffering and evil? Why does he sustain a world in which there is any suffering at all? We do not know, but let us remember what ought be obvious a priori, that if there is to be a God at all, we must not expect to fully understand his ways. We would have to expect mysteries in the governance of one who is infinite. As a matter of fact, he has revealed some things to us — such as the reason for the appearance of evil in the world. Evil did not come from God. St Paul says that sin entered the world through one man and with sin death, and death has spread to the whole human race.

Sin and death spring ultimately, mysteriously, and somehow, from man. The undying disharmony between man and his world resulting in the world mistreating man, and man mistreating the world, derives from man and his sin. How this is so, is not revealed to us, but if we accept this revelation, it certainly shows how serious sin is, for sin has had this catastrophic effect. It has also been revealed that God has not willed what man did. Let that vast tsunami of several years ago remind us of the moral earthquake, the moral disharmony, that the sin within man causes. Man’s sinful desires, his anger, his lust, his sloth, his pride, continually cause tsunamis in the heart of man, destroying a life lived according to what is right. Now, God has revealed not only the source of the disorder in man and his world, but also the means of a wondrous restoration. He has given the Answer: This is my beloved Son, he said. Listen to him! Let us take our cue from the Wise Men from the East who came to reverence Him. Let us see in them a symbol of the nations finding in Jesus Christ the answer to the world’s plight. If we want light on the mysteries of life, let all men contemplate Jesus Christ, seeking in him the light of life. If suffering bewilders us, well then, why did Christ himself have to suffer? Repeatedly our Lord said to his disciples that he had to suffer if he was to fulfil his mission and enter into his glory. No one’s suffering was equal to his because he was atoning for the sins of the whole world. Why did the Father allow this to happen, that his own Son, equal to himself in glory and divinity, should be made to suffer as he did? We are not told. It is a mystery. But what we are told is that out of that suffering came the redemption and sanctification of the human race, provided man accepts the offer of the Gift. Man may ruin by his sin the work of God’s hands, but God can bring unimagined good out of this terrible evil. Nothing is impossible for God. Like the Wise Men, let the peoples contemplate the Redeemer. Let us all follow him, whatever be the cost.

The Wise Men from the East came to Christ, gazed on him, and rendered him their homage. Let us constantly gaze on the life and figure of Jesus Christ. When we see or experience evils in our lives, and when vast sections of mankind experience evil, we can be sure that God is working to bring good out of that evil. But the one condition for this to happen is that, when evil comes our way, we hold on to Christ and endeavour to do God’s will. Let us make Christ the source of our light and life, and do our best to manifest him to the world as the light of every man. Let us by our daily lives present him to others as Mary and Joseph presented him to the Magi.

(E.J.Tyler)

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When you find yourself worn out or fed up, go and confide in Our Lord, as that good friend of ours did, and say: “Jesus, see what you can do about it. Even before I begin to struggle, I am already tired.” He will give you his strength.
(The Forge, no.244)

Monday after the Epiphany A-1

Prayers for today: A holy day has dawned upon us. Come, you nations, and adore the Lord. Today a great light has come upon the earth.

Lord, let the light of your glory shine within us, and lead us through the darkness of this world to the radiant joy of our eternal home. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, .

(January 3) St. Genevieve (422-512)
St. Genevieve was born about the year 422, at Nanterre near Paris. She was seven years old when St. Germain of Auxerre came to her native village on his way to great Britain to combat the heresy of Pelagius. The child stood in the midst of a crowd gathered around the man of God, who singled her out and foretold her future sanctity. At her desire the holy Bishop led her to a church, accompanied by all the faithful, and consecrated her to God as a virgin. When Attila was reported to be marching on Paris, the inhabitants of the city prepared to evacuate, but St. Genevieve persuaded them to avert the scourge by fasting and prayer, assuring them of the protection of Heaven. The event verified the prediction, for the barbarian suddenly changed the course of his march.
The life of St. Genevieve was one of great austerity, constant prayer, and works of charity. She died in the year 512. She dressed in a long flowing gown with a mantle covering her shoulders, similar to the type of garments the Blessed Mother wore. One of the symbols of this saint is a loaf of bread because she was so generous to those in need. (www.catholic.org)

Scripture today: 1 John 3:22-4:6; Psalm 2:7bc-8, 10-12a; Matthew 4:12-17.23-25

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, Jesus went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali — to fulfil what was said through the prophet Isaiah: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. From that time on Jesus began to preach, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralysed, and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. (Matthew 4:12-17.23-25)

Redeemer of all In the year 2008 a painting of Mary holding the child Jesus was commissioned in Australia (Note: “Our Lady of the Southern Cross” by Paul Newton – Commissioned by Cardinal George Pell for World Youth Day Sydney 2008), and when it was finished and released, it was certainly a good painting.

But I did not like it because the figure of Mary the mother of Jesus appeared too Australian. For me, she looked too much like a young Australian woman one might see anywhere in Sydney, and I myself found it hard to connect her features with the person of Mary the mother of Jesus Christ. In fact, I learnt later that the artist had taken for his model a young Sydney woman, whose father, indeed, was known to me. Then I heard that the artist himself had said that he could see in his painting something of his wife — and he meant that as adding to the value of his painting because of the love he put into his work. But for myself, all this did not help my liking for the painting, even though it was plainly a good artistic production. Now, while I myself did not like the too-Australian look of the figure in the painting, there is quite another side to the question. It is that Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, and even more so her divine Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, identify with all humanity. In the case of Mary, from the Cross Jesus Christ gave her, his holy mother, to John, the beloved disciple. The Church has always seen this as Christ’s gift of his mother to the Church and to every member of the Church. Thus in Christ, Mary is spiritual mother of all believers, and indeed is spiritual mother of all humanity. Chinese may call on her as mother, as may the African, the European, the Asian and the Australian. In Christ, she, in a sense, becomes Asian, Australian, all — and this is reflected in paintings of a Chinese Madonna, an Australian Madonna, all. But setting aside the mother of Jesus Christ, this point is especially so with the Redeemer of man himself. By becoming man, the Son of God identified himself with every man. In country after country of his travels, Pope John Paul II was very fond of saying that Jesus Christ became African, Asian, European. Whatever be the nation — Christ has made that nation his own and has identified with it. In this sense it is natural and legitimate to depict Jesus Christ as Asian, European, whatever.

Today we celebrate Monday after the Epiphany, and the Church provides us with texts from Scripture which enable us to continue in the glow of the Epiphany, which is to say in the thought of Jesus Christ as meant for all the nations. The Gospel scene of the Epiphany is that of the Christ-child being manifested to the pagan Wise Men from the East. He is not just the King of the Jews, the Jewish Messiah who would save his own people from their sins. He is the Messiah for the entire world, who will save all mankind from its sins. The Magi from the East symbolize mankind’s stake in Christ and his universal mission. Christ is meant to be not only Jewish, but in another sense Greek and Persian too. Our Gospel today (Matthew 4:12-17.23-25), though drawn from our Lord’s public life, continues this thought. Jesus leaves Judea after his baptism — and Judea was the quintessential Jewish locale — and returns to Galilee. Galilee was Jewish to a certain point, but was also notably cosmopolitan. The leaders of the Jews retorted to Nicodemus (when Nicodemus defended our Lord) that prophets do not come out of Galilee. I am sure that our Lord, having grown up in Galilee, and in a village so near to the bustling and developing city of Zepphoris, was multi-lingual, knowing not only Aramaic and able to read (and probably write) the classical Hebrew of the Scriptures, but would have been fluent in common Greek and Latin, and perhaps, to a point, some neighbouring languages as well. The point I am making here, though, is that our Gospel today is putting before our contemplation the Christ of the nations. He is the Redeemer not only of the Jews but of all men. So it is that we read Matthew stating that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, that the Galilee of the Gentiles (of the nations), “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan,” have seen a great light. They were a people in darkness, “living in the land of the shadow of death,” but now on them a light has dawned. Matthew it was who told us of the Magi coming from the East — a land of darkness — who were led by the light of a star from heaven to the King of the Jews. They came and worshiped him, for he was their King too. In our Gospel today, to the Galilee of the Gentiles Christ announced that the Kingdom was near.

While our Lord’s specific temporal mission was to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, he gave many tokens of his ultimate mission to all the nations. He spoke courteously and with high praise for the faith of the Centurion. Again, he praised the faith of the Canaanite woman. He spent two days in the Samaritan village, many of whom hailed him as the Saviour of the world. He received the Greeks just before his Passion, and on various occasions he alluded to those who would come from east and west. Finally, he sent his disciples to the whole world, to make disciples of all the nations. He is Brother to all the nations, and counts as having been done to himself what is done to the least person anywhere. Whoever we are, he wishes to manifest himself to us in all his saving glory.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (Matthew 4:12-17.23-25)

The living light Immediately following on the manifestation of the infant Messiah to the Wise Men of the East, the Church takes us to the manifestation of the Messiah at the beginning of his public ministry in Galilee. Christ’s work there is fulfilment of the prophecy

of Isaiah predicting that the Galilee of the nations — the Galilee that is made up of various nations — would see a great light. This in its turn presages the light of Christ being brought to all the nations. We are reminded that Christ is the light of the world — not just of Catholics, not just of Anglicans, Protestants, nor even just of Christians, but of every human being. He is not just a light, but the one Light of the world. This is particularly difficult for our age to see and accept, conscious as we are of various cultures, various religions, and various great religious leaders in history. No-one can come to the Father except through me, our Lord told his disciples. He is the one Light that takes us to the Father. He who sees me, sees the Father, he said. I am the Light of the world, he said again. The one who refuses to follow me, walks in the darkness. But there is more even than this. Christ is not just the great Light of the past, whose past teaching is the light of every man in the way that the teaching of Socrates or Plato or Aristotle may be claimed to be. No, Christ is a living Person who can be located, approached, and entered into communion with. His voice and ongoing teaching as applied to the issues of each generation can be identified. There is a living oracle, uttering his teaching. Where is it? It is in the Catholic Church, of which he is the Founder and living Head. We are his members, and the pope is his visible vicar.

We know where this Light is. Let us live by the living Light that is Christ, and bring it to others.

(E.J.Tyler)

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A task which presents no difficulties lacks human appeal — and supernatural appeal too. If you find no resistance when hammering a nail into a wall, what can you expect to hang on to it?
(The Forge, no.245)

Tuesday after the Epiphany A-1

Prayers for today: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; the Lord God shines upon us. (Psalm 117: 26-27)

Father, your Son became like us when he revealed himself in our nature: help us to become more like him, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(January 4) St. John Damascene (676?-749)
John spent most of his life in the monastery of St. Sabas, near Jerusalem, and all of his life under Muslim rule, indeed, protected by it. He was born in Damascus, received a classical and theological education, and followed his father in a

government position under the Arabs. After a few years he resigned and went to the monastery of St. Sabas. He is famous in three areas. First, he is known for his writings against the iconoclasts, who opposed the veneration of images. Paradoxically, it was the Eastern Christian emperor Leo who forbade the practice, and it was because John lived in Muslim territory that his enemies could not silence him. Second, he is famous for his treatise, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, a summary of the Greek Fathers (of which he became the last). It is said that this book is to Eastern schools what the Summa of Aquinas became to the West. Thirdly, he is known as a poet, one of the two greatest of the Eastern Church, the other being Romanus the Melodist. His devotion to the Blessed Mother and his sermons on her feasts are well known.
John defended the Church’s understanding of the veneration of images and explained the faith of the Church in several other controversies. For over 30 years he combined a life of prayer with these defences and his other writings. His holiness expressed itself in putting his literary and preaching talents at the service of the Lord. “The saints must be honoured as friends of Christ and children and heirs of God, as John the theologian and evangelist says: ‘But as many as received him, he gave them the power to be made the sons of God....’ Let us carefully observe the manner of life of all the apostles, martyrs, ascetics and just men who announced the coming of the Lord. And let us emulate their faith, charity, hope, zeal, life, patience under suffering, and perseverance unto death, so that we may also share their crowns of glory” (Exposition of the Orthodox Faith). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 1 John 4: 7-10; Psalm 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8; Mark 6: 34-44

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. This is a remote place, they said, and it’s already very late. Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. But he answered, You give them something to eat. They said to him, That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat? How many loaves do you have? he asked. Go and see. When they found out, they said, Five— and two fish. Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand. (Mark 6: 34-44)

Those loaves There is a beautiful little book of just a few pages wedged between the book of Judges and the two books of Samuel. I refer to the book of Ruth which tells the story of a Moabite woman who was joined to the Israelite people by her marriage with Boaz of Bethlehem.

The story opens in the time of the judges — the period between Moses and David — and a man from Bethlehem of Judah left with his wife and two sons to go to Moab because of a famine. Once there, he died leaving his wife Naomi. Her two sons married Moabite women, and after ten years those two sons died. Naomi was left with no-one. When word reached her that the famine had lifted back in Bethlehem, Naomi decided to return to her homeland. One of her two daughters-in-law chose reluctantly to stay behind, but Ruth, the other, resolved to remain with Naomi and went with her to Bethlehem. Ruth shows admirable filial piety. Here we have two ordinary, obscure, women — Naomi of Bethlehem, and her pagan daughter-in-law, Ruth. The attention of the book is on Ruth — loyal and obedient to Naomi, and resolved that “wherever you lodge, I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (1: 16). So we are speaking of what we might call a humble, good, unimportant nobody. Because of various circumstances she married Boaz, and what then happened? Ruth bore a son, Obed, and Obed was the grandfather of King David. So Ruth, the obscure pagan Moabitess, became the great-grandmother of King David, and as it turned out, an ancestor of the Messiah. This brief but very significant book ends with a short genealogy connecting Perez (the son of Judah) with Boaz, the husband of Ruth and David their great-grandson. This genealogy in turn is used by St Matthew in his genealogy of the Messiah, and in it Matthew specifically mentions Ruth. In the next stage of his genealogy — that between David and the Exile to Babylon — Matthew again mentions an ordinary woman, the wife of Uriah. Following David’s murder of Uriah, she was taken by him in marriage and bore to him King Solomon. So we have two otherwise obscure women who amid commonplace happenings were chosen in the providential plan of God to be instruments of his messianic purposes. God seems to delight in using small and ordinary things to bring forth something great and beautiful.

In our Gospel today (Mark 6: 34-44), we read that “when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.” May we not see in that large crowd a symbol of the world, the flow of peoples through history, the concourse of mankind whom our Lord was to save? There lay a large crowd before him, and they were like sheep without a shepherd. At the end of his teaching, our Lord directed his disciples to feed them. All they had was five loaves and two fish, with five thousand men before them, not mentioning any women and children among them. Contemplate those five loaves and two fish, and the task ahead! Contemplate, for that matter, the task of redemption that lay ahead, and how God had used the likes of Ruth and the wife of Uriah. If it is God’s plan, nothing is impossible to him, however modest be the means at hand. With the five loaves and two fish, and with his very ordinary disciples carrying out his orders, our Lord fed the vast crowd to their heart’s content, and left them fully satisfied. A feeling common to so many people is, what have I to show for myself? What is my life amounting to, especially in view of the failures and ordinariness of my course? I command no special respect among my acquaintances. I cannot point to much in the way of achievements in the past or the present. My marriage has had all its ups and downs, and my children leave so much to be desired. I am a failure, or at least I am not much of a success. All that seems to lie before me is an uneventful life, an ordinary round, like the donkey doing not much more than going round and round, pulling the wheel. But no. Let the thought of the five loaves and the two fishes give every person hope in God. He can use my life, such as it is. I am but a piece of one of those loaves. God can multiply the effects of my unworthy efforts. I must, within my very limited round, keep his will and grow in his friendship. Despite my poverty of life and soul, through the mercy of God I have a place given me. Let me present myself to him and place myself in his hands.

What mattered was the blessing of Christ, followed by the breaking. “Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people.” Let us ask him to take us into his hands, to raise his eyes and confer on us his blessing. Then, as with the loaves, so with us — we must be “broken.” That is to say, an indispensable part of being blessed by Jesus Christ is the presence of the cross. It was necessary that Jesus suffer and so enter his glory. It is necessary that we follow in his footsteps as he carries his cross. It is necessary that, as with the loaves and the fishes which he broke in his hands, so our path is that of the cross. With the cross — provided we carry it with Christ — we shall reign.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (Mark 6: 34-44)

Christ the good shepherd of man

When Our Lord saw the large crowd, he took pity of them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Let us consider that divine view on man — the crowd before Christ represents mankind. Mankind is like those sheep without a shepherd. As we think of the various systems of human thought and the history of man’s religions, it is obvious — when set against what God has actually revealed — how far from the truth mankind tends to go, and has actually gone. There is much that is true in what man has attained in his intellectual search, his culture and his religions. But there is great and important error too. It is a lesson to us on the depth of our need for God the Good Shepherd, revealed as such in Christ.

Now, Christ is the answer to this need of mankind. He is the Shepherd, and he looks with compassion on our need. He will feed us with what we need if we turn to him and do his will. God wants us this year to accept Christ as the Shepherd whom we consistently follow, and whom we lead others to follow. Let there be nothing and no one who takes this place from Christ in our life.

(E.J.Tyler)

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It seems incredible that a man like you — who say you know you’re nothing — should dare to place obstacles in the way of doing God’s grace. Yet this is what you’re doing with your false humility, your “objectivity”, your pessimism.
(The Forge, no.246)

Wednesday after the Epiphany A-1

Prayers for today: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; on those who lived in the shadow of death, light has shone.

God, light of all nations, give us the joy of lasting peace, and fill us with your radiance as you filled the hearts of our fathers. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son.

(January 5) St. John Neumann (1811-1860)
Perhaps because the United States got a later start in the history of the world, it has relatively few canonized saints, but their number is increasing. John Neumann was born in what is now the Czech Republic. After studying in Prague, he came to New

York at 25 and was ordained a priest. He did missionary work in New York until he was 29, when he joined the Redemptorists and became its first member to profess vows in the United States. He continued missionary work in Maryland, Virginia and Ohio, where he became popular with the Germans. At 41, as bishop of Philadelphia, he organized the parochial school system into a diocesan one, increasing the number of pupils almost twenty fold within a short time. Gifted with outstanding organizing ability, he drew into the city many teaching communities of sisters and the Christian Brothers. During his brief assignment as vice provincial for the Redemptorists, he placed them in the forefront of the parochial movement. Well-known for his holiness and learning, spiritual writing and preaching, on October 13, 1963, he became the first American bishop to be beatified. Canonized in 1977, he is buried in St. Peter the Apostle Church in Philadelphia.
Neumann took seriously our Lord’s words, “Go and teach all nations.” From Christ he received his instructions and the power to carry them out. For Christ does not give a mission without supplying the means to accomplish it. The Father’s gift in Christ to John Neumann was his exceptional organizing ability, which he used to spread the Good News. Today the Church is in dire need of men and women to continue in our times the teaching of the Good News. The obstacles and inconveniences are real and costly. Yet when Christians approach Christ, he supplies the necessary talents to answer today’s needs. The Spirit of Christ continues his work through the instrumentality of generous Christians. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 1 John 4: 11-18; Psalm 72:1-2, 10, 12-13; Mark 6: 45-52

Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid. Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened. (Mark 6: 45-52)

God-with-us The city of Vienna has had a distinguished record of giving birth to schools of thought, including psychiatry. One such was that spearheaded by Victor Frankl, the founder of logotherapy and one-time lecturer at the University of Vienna. His most famous book was Man's Search For Meaning.

According to the New York Times (November 20, 1991) this book was, at the time, one of "the ten most influential books in [the United States]." At the time of Frankl’s death 1997, the book had sold 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. According to Frankl, the book is designed to answer the question "How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?" In his career in psychotherapy, Frankl debunked the theories of Freud, Adler and Jung which understand man as driven by instinctual urges (such as sex, power and vague, ancestral archetypes), and he put his finger, instead, on man’s fundamental requirement to make sense of life. He needs to see a meaning in things. The modern tragedy, Frankl thought, was that there is now a widespread existential vacuum, a lack of meaning needed to make life worthwhile. This “meaning” is, he thought, something that each man must find for himself — importantly, through his conscience. This obviously vindicates the importance of a religious faith for the happiness of man. It is indisputably an advance on Freud, Adler and Jung in that it places the emphasis on what, with conscience leading the way, one ought actually know, rather than just on one’s instinctive urges. Frankl was a Jew, yet his theory has received widespread endorsement from Catholic sources, and in proportion to this favour coming from the Church, the Freudians and Adlerians tend to reject him. However, of course the further question must be determined and it is of the utmost importance. It is not enough just to have a sense of meaning. Each person must conscientiously seek the true and objective meaning of things, most especially that which God the Creator has revealed. The Christian message is that the meaning of life is found in accepting Christ and his teaching, and bringing one’s life into total alignment with his revelation.

It is God who gives meaning to things — not just any “God,” but the God who revealed himself and his plan for man. There is a scholarly view of the sacred name of Yahweh which understands the Name as signifying both his ineffable being and his undying presence. The awful “I AM” is not only the One who Is, but is also the One who is always there, the One who is with his people always. He is the One who is with us. This priceless revelation reached its permanent fulfilment in the Person of Jesus Christ, who is, as the Gospel of St Matthew calls him, God-with-us (1:23). This is perhaps the key point, that in Jesus Christ, God is with us. He who is Love, he who so loves the world, is with us always, whatever may happen. Reason can attain something of an insight into the incomparable immanence of God to each of his creatures, but his closeness to us is revealed in vivid detail in the Person of Jesus Christ. No matter what might happen, Jesus my God, my Brother, my Redeemer, is with me. As St Thomas More put it, though I lose my head, I’ll come to no harm. This is the “meaning” of things, and it is the true and objective truth of the matter. In our Gospel today (Mark 6: 45-52) our Lord sends his disciples ahead of him while he dismisses the crowds. Then he goes up the mountain to pray. The disciples do his bidding — and as a direct result of doing his bidding they land in difficulties. But all the while they were under the gaze of the Master. He was watching. “When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.” They were not alone, but they did not know this. They would have thought that they were indeed alone — and this is the trap we can all fall into if we allow our faith to weaken. What a difference it would make to every predicament we are in, even if we do not manage the situation to our satisfaction, and even if we are actually submerged by it, if at every point right through to the very end we know that God is with us in the person of Jesus Christ. That is surely a lesson of our Gospel passage today. In the midst of their difficulties, Christ knew and was watching. Nothing could separate them from him.

We know what happened. In the event, he chose to come to them across the water. Let us imagine him walking on the waves, rising and falling with the waves, striding quickly and masterfully, looming closer to the boat and pausing. Courage, he said to them, Do not be afraid — it is I. If Jesus Christ is an objective Fact to us, if we realize his objective presence in our lives even if unseen, then there will not be any existential vacuum in us, whatever be the tribulations that descend upon us. Though I lose my head, I’ll come to no harm. Let us renew our appreciation of the risen and glorious Jesus, God-with-us, though unseen. Let us, as did the disciples, receive him into our boat, and allow him to be the Master of our lives and of all that might surround us.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (1 John 4: 11-18)

Everything for Love There are various ambitions that can take hold of us, consciously or not. We can be possessed by the ambition of taking revenge for some past wrong. Our ambition could be material security, success in career, or whatever. In his first Letter, St John tells us (ch.4: 11-18) that since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another. Our ambition in life should be to be filled with the thought of God’s love for us, and in view of that, to love one another. If we do this God will be living in us, and we in him. Our idea of human perfection ought be the perfection of God’s love in us, leading us to strive to love others to perfection.

This is to be lived out in the commonplace details of daily life that we see described in today’s Gospel passage (Mark 6: 45-52) — the crowds eating, the disciples going into their boats to row across to the other side. There will be difficulties and storms, but Christ will always be near, coming towards us, saying to us, “Courage, it is I. Do not be afraid.” Let us set out on the daily path of love, determining to live it to perfection.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Lord, grant me the grace to give up everything that has to do with myself. I should have no other concern than your Glory — in other words your Love. Everything for Love!
(The Forge, no.247)

Thursday after the Epiphany A-1

Prayers today: In the beginning, before all ages, the Word was God; that Word was born a man to save the world. (John 1: 1)

God our Father, through Christ your Son the hope of eternal life dawned on our world. Give to us the light of faith that we may always acknowledge him as our Redeemer and come to the glory of his kingdom, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(January 6) St. Gregory Nazianzen (329-390)
After his baptism at 30, Gregory gladly accepted his friend Basil’s invitation to join him in a newly founded monastery. The solitude was broken when Gregory’s father, a bishop, needed help in his diocese and estate. It seems that Gregory was

ordained a priest practically by force, and only reluctantly accepted the responsibility. He skilfully avoided a schism that threatened when his own father made compromises with Arianism. At 41, Gregory was chosen suffragan bishop of Caesarea and at once came into conflict with Valens, the emperor, who supported the Arians. An unfortunate by-product of the battle was the cooling of the friendship of two saints. Basil, his archbishop, sent him to a miserable and unhealthy town on the border of unjustly created divisions in his diocese. Basil reproached Gregory for not going to his see. When protection for Arianism ended with the death of Valens, Gregory was called to rebuild the faith in the great see of Constantinople, which had been under Arian teachers for three decades. Retiring and sensitive, he dreaded being drawn into the whirlpool of corruption and violence. He first stayed at a friend’s home, which became the only orthodox church in the city. In such surroundings, he began giving the great sermons on the Trinity for which he is famous. In time, Gregory did rebuild the faith in the city, but at the cost of great suffering, slander, insults and even personal violence. An interloper even tried to take over his bishopric. His last days were spent in solitude and austerity. He wrote religious poetry, some of it autobiographical, of great depth and beauty. He was acclaimed simply as “the Theologian.”
It may be small comfort, but post-Vatican II turmoil in the Church is a mild storm compared to the devastation caused by the Arian heresy, a trauma the Church has never forgotten. Christ did not promise the kind of peace we would love to have—no problems, no opposition, no pain. In one way or another, holiness is always the way of the cross. “God accepts our desires as though they were a great value. He longs ardently for us to desire and love him. He accepts our petitions for benefits as though we were doing him a favour. His joy in giving is greater than ours in receiving. So let us not be apathetic in our asking, nor set too narrow bounds to our requests; nor ask for frivolous things unworthy of God’s greatness.” (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 1 John 4:19-5:4; Psalm 72:1-2, 14 and 15bc, 17; Luke 4: 14-22

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. Isn’t this Joseph’s son? they asked. (Luke 4: 14-22)

The Light There is a passing remark in our Gospel passage today that invites consideration. We read that our Lord, in the power of the Holy Spirit, returned to Galilee where news about him spread everywhere. In the midst of this reputation he returned to his home village of Nazareth and on the Sabbath day he went to t

he Synagogue, “as was his custom.” Let us consider our Lord’s “custom” in observing the Sabbath during his years growing up at Nazareth. One of the distinctive features of Jewish religious life, when compared with that of the peoples of classical times, was precisely its observance of the Sabbath. There was the Sabbath rest, and there was attendance at the Synagogue. It was the Lord’s Day, and we can imagine how holy that day was in the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Work ended on the evening of the Friday, and the three went together to the Synagogue and participated in its service on the Saturday. Let us imagine them, the holiest trio in the history of the world, the ones with the most profound and accurate knowledge of the mind and law of God, quietly in the Synagogue participating in the Sabbath service. There were psalms, readings, prayers, together with addresses on the Scriptures by the Synagogue leader or those whom he invited to speak. The amazement of the villagers on the occasion of our Gospel today suggests to me that our Lord had not spoken publicly in the Synagogue during his years as a villager. He was, with his mother and foster-father, a faithful participant, praying, singing, and listening respectfully to the teachings given in the Synagogue. The Spirit of God hovered over the Judaism that flowed from Abraham, the patriarchs and the prophets. As a twelve year-old, Jesus was found sitting among the doctors of Jerusalem, “hearing them and asking them questions” (Luke 2: 46). There was a Jewish Tradition which bore within it the Scriptures and their interpretations. The mind and plan of God was, to a point, known by the people — but only to a point, for much was obscure.

The most tantalizing obscurity, the most far-reaching ambiguity, was the prophetic expectation of the Messiah. Various things had been said in the Scriptures about the One who was coming, but there was no clear and authoritative interpretation about it borne along in the nation’s Tradition. Suddenly a voice began to be heard and it spoke of the One who was coming — that voice was John the Baptist. He announced the arrival of the Messiah, and charged the people to get ready to receive him. The Messiah was in their midst, unknown to them — and before he was taken from the scene, John identified the Messiah. He was Jesus of Nazareth. Perhaps this fact had not yet reached the ears of many Galileans, and in particular, the people of Nazareth. So here was Jesus back with them, and with a growing reputation of being a prophet of God. With his mother he went to the Synagogue on the Sabbath, “as was his custom,” and this time — perhaps the first — he stood up to read. He selected the book of the prophet Isaiah, and read the messianic prophecy (Luke 4: 14-22). Imagine our Lord reading what the Holy Spirit — whom he knew so intimately as the third divine Person — had written. Imagine the expression with which our Lord read it, and the meaning his reading of it would have brought out. Imagine his words of explanation that followed, and of which Luke gives us a mere summary in our text. It was absolutely riveting for the people. They had never heard such speech before, let alone from the lips of Jesus. It proclaimed an absolutely authoritative interpretation of the Scriptures and of the entire Tradition of the people of God. Jesus of Nazareth was the divine Oracle telling all what it was that God had meant. He spoke with authority, not like the scribes. He presented himself as the Light of every man. While prior to him God had spoken to the people in various ways, and they had been helped by the Spirit of God to understand and apply it to a point, now God was speaking to them in his Son. The moment when Christ rose to speak in the Synagogue was the moment when a certain level of light was replaced by the pure Light of the world.

Let us appreciate anew the greatness of this divine Light that is Christ. A people that lived in darkness and the shadow of death, St Matthew writes, began to see a great light. That light will flood the darkness of our lives if we but stay close to him. The light can be welcomed, or it can be rejected. Men can prefer darkness to the light — and this is what happened at Nazareth. They saw the light, marvelled at it, but then turned against it. The time of the Epiphany is the time when we think of Christ being manifested. He manifested himself to Nazareth, and they rejected him. Let this not happen to us! Let it not happen that we are found among those who reject him.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection (1 John 4:19-5:4)

Working with love Many people believe in God, and believe in him with passion. Many do not believe in him, and perhaps a much greater number are indifferent. But we can say that almost all believe in true selfless love. The goodness of selfless love, when seen, is self evident.

This is so, especially when it is a question of love for those in need. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was recognised universally as one who dedicated her life to the love of those in need. She showed true love for one’s brother — what St John is referring to in his first Letter. There are various ways this love for one’s brother in need can be lived out — in direct service of the poor, or in bringing the light of Christ and Christian teaching to others, including the young. But whatever is the field, it is this love for the needy which, when present, manifests and proves the presence of the love of God. God’s existence becomes more manifest through the selfless love of the one who believes in him. If, during our life, we are endeavouring to grow in our love for God by fidelity to various practices of piety — essential as they certainly are — and show little love for others, then St John tells us that our love for God is very poor indeed. Our Lord in his description of the Last Judgment (Matthew 25) makes this abundantly clear.

This is why our daily work has an essential place in our Christian life. It is by means of our work that we serve others in justice and charity. Our work is a most important means of personal sanctification — as it is a most important means whereby we contribute to the sanctification of others. Let us so work that we sanctify the work itself, and ourselves in the process, and also the ones for whom we do our work. The key to the doing of this is to do it with real love.

(E.J.Tyler)

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“When Herod heard this,” (that the King had come to this earth), “he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” This is an everyday occurrence. We see the same thing happening now. In the face of God’s greatness, which shows itself in a thousand ways, there are always some people — sometimes even in positions of authority — who are troubled. It’s because they do not love God; because they have no real wish to meet him; because they don’t want to follow his inspirations, and so they become obstacles in God’s path. Be forewarned; carry on working and don’t worry. Seek the Lord and pray — he will triumph.
(The Forge, no.248)

Friday after the Epiphany A-1

Prayers for today: The Lord is a light in darkness to the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and just. (Psalm 3: 4)

All-powerful Father, you have made known the birth of the Saviour by the light of a star. May he continue to guide us with his light, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(January 7) St Raymond of Penyafort (1175-1275)
(Picture to right: tomb of St Raymond, Barcelona)

Since Raymond lived into his hundredth year, he had a chance to do many things. As a member of the Spanish nobility, he had the resources and the education to get a good start in life. By the time he was 20, he was teaching philosophy. In his early 30s he earned a doctorate in both canon and civil law. At 41 he became a Dominican. Pope Gregory IX called him to Rome to work for him and to be his confessor. One of the things the pope asked him to do was to gather together all the decrees of popes and councils that had been made in 80 years since a similar collection by Gratian. Raymond compiled five books called the Decretals. They

were looked upon as one of the best organized collections of Church law until the 1917 codification of canon law. Earlier, Raymond had written for confessors a book of cases. It was called Summa de casibus poenitentiae. More than just a list of sins and penances, it discussed pertinent doctrines and laws of the Church that pertained to the problem or case brought to the confessor. At the age of 60, Raymond was appointed archbishop of Tarragona, the capital of Aragon. He didn’t like the honour at all and ended up getting sick and resigning in two years. He didn’t get to enjoy his peace long, however, because when he was 63 he was elected by his fellow Dominicans to be the head of the whole Order, the successor of St. Dominic. Raymond worked hard, visited on foot all the Dominicans, reorganized their constitutions and managed to put through a provision that a master general be allowed to resign. When the new constitutions were accepted, Raymond, then 65, resigned. He still had 35 years to oppose heresy and work for the conversion of the Moors in Spain. He convinced St. Thomas Aquinas to write his work Against the Gentiles. In his100th year the Lord let Raymond retire.
Raymond was a lawyer, a canonist. Legalism is one of the things that the Church tried to rid herself of at Vatican II. It is too great a preoccupation with the letter of the law to the neglect of the spirit and purpose of the law. The law can become an end in itself, so that the value the law was intended to promote is overlooked. But we must guard against going to the opposite extreme and seeing law as useless or something to be lightly regarded. Laws ideally state those things that are for the best interests of everyone and make sure the rights of all are safeguarded. From Raymond, we can learn a respect for law as a means of serving the common good.
(AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 1 John 5:5-13; Psalm 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20; Luke 5:12-16

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said. Be clean! And immediately the leprosy left him. Then Jesus ordered him, Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them. Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. (Luke 5: 12-16)

Man’s need The Confessions of St Augustine is a classic autobiography. Another is the Apologia pro Vita Sua of John Henry Newman — and it could even be said that the word “Apologia” has been given a greater prominence in English as a result of the appearance of his book in 1864.

It was a defence against the charge of duplicity thrown at him by Charles Kingsley. One of the notable, even startling, things which Newman says in his book is that were it not for the clear and certain voice of God speaking in his conscience and in his heart, he “should be an atheist, or a pantheist, or a polytheist” when looking into the world (Ch.5). He did not mean to deny the force of the arguments in proof of a God drawn from external reality, but they alone would not bring him to conviction. Now, what is it in the world which would have led him to atheism, had he not the fundamental certainty springing from the voice of his conscience? It is the evil in the world which seems to belie the fact of a good and loving Creator. Newman, then, — Newman the saint and great Christian thinker — allows that the problem of evil and suffering is indeed a great difficulty in the absolutely primary truth of God. He does not admit that it was ever a cause for doubt in him, but it was indeed a cause for difficulty. Why does God allow what goes on in the world — for, as Newman writes, “the sight of the world is nothing else than the prophet’s scroll, full of ‘lamentation, and mourning, and woe.’” It inflicts upon the mind “the sense of a profound mystery, which is absolutely beyond human solution.” The believer, let us add, ought then have compassion for the person who, lacking a prior and sure belief, is confirmed in unbelief by the experience of life and the sight of the world. The dilemma is encapsulated in its well-known expression: if God were all-powerful and all-loving he would fix it all up. He does not, so he is either impotent to do so, or does not sufficiently care. In either scenario, whatever he is, he could not be what man calls “God.” The intellectual difficulty is plain, but what gives it pathos is that human beings are crushed. Does not God care? Can’t he do something about this?

All sorts of rational answers could be given, and are given, to meet the problem of evil. The religions of the world have their answers — and I can think of one British anthropologist of primal religions who thought that a key to understanding such religions is the answer they severally give to this problem. But God has given us a revelation, and this brings us to our Gospel today (Luke 5: 12-16). In our passage today we have a man in a state that exemplifies all that we have been talking of. He is “full of leprosy.” Let us note in passing that, despite his terrible affliction, despite the problem of evil as it engulfed him, he was not led to unbelief. It was obviously a terrible difficulty, but there is no sign in him that he doubted the existence or love of God. He comes to our Lord and begs, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Our Lord’s response was immediate: “I am willing. Be cleansed!” Well then, why does this not happen every time man appeals to God for aid? That man does appeal continually to God (or his gods) for aid is obvious in the myths and rites of the world’s religions, most notably in the practice of Revealed Religion, and in particular, in the living of the Christian Religion. Now, the fact that the Gospels are replete with miracles of healing shows the power and the desire of God to relieve man of his suffering. But while our Lord showed by his miracles both the willingness and the power, he also showed that in God’s wisdom the priority was not to take away all suffering — immediately and in this life. The principal reason for Christ’s ministry of healing was to signal the liberation he would offer from a much deeper evil, the evil of sin. Further, while Christ urged us to ask God our Father for whatever we need, at times he refused to grant what was asked of him. On one occasion his close disciples presented a request that meant so much to them. James and John asked that he place them at his right and his left in his kingdom. He did not accede to that request, in that form. Again, when Christ expelled the demons from the man in the land of the Gadarenes, that man begged our Lord to let him follow him. But our Lord refused — and gave him a different mission, to speak of the goodness of God to his own people.

Our Lord’s refusal to accede to this or that need or request did not signify a lack of love or a lack of power. It signified that what was requested was not for the best. What is for the best for us, for mankind and for the world, may not be apparent to us. In one of our Lord’s parables, the owner of the field instructs his servants not to pull out the weeds with the wheat. It was best to leave the weeds, and their separation from the wheat would come at harvest time. Let our Gospel today assure us once again that God, in Christ, has both the power and the love, whatever be the suffering. At the same time, let us always understand that God has the wisdom to know how best to answer our needs and our prayer.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (Luke 5: 12-16)

Christ and the root of evil The Octave of the Epiphany celebrates Christ’s manifestation in different senses. In our Gospel event today (Luke 5: 12-16), given to us during the octave of the Epiphany, something very special is manifested about our Lord. The leper presented himself to our Lord and said,

“Sir, if you want to you can cure me.” Our Lord said, “Of course I want to, be cured!” So our Lord’s desire to cure him, to bring him life in abundance, was manifested. Our Lord showed forth both his love and his power. The Gospels were written to reveal the mind and heart of Christ and to show that he is the Son of God and Saviour of the world. He took away some of the evils afflicting some people — those who asked him with faith, and some others besides. But they were signs of who he was, signs of his true work, signs of the truth of his claims about his person and his mission. They were not his full and distinctive mission. Rather they were the means of inviting us to absolute faith in him. The overwhelming number of evils in the world at the time our Lord lived remained untouched by him — the sicknesses, the deaths, the wars, the tyrannies. Rather, he attacked and broke up the root of the world’s evils — sin. This is what he came to take away.

When we experience evils of one kind or another we ought, yes, go to our Lord and ask him persistently and with faith that he take away that evil. But for his own infinitely wise reasons he just may not do so — even though he certainly wants us to go to him with our burden. Christ’s concern is above all with the root of evil, sin in our life and in the lives of all others. It is this evil which we must with his help uproot and replace with life, life in abundance, the life of Christ himself.

(E.J.Tyler)

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You are not alone. Neither you nor I can ever find ourselves alone. And even less if we go to Jesus through Mary, for she is a Mother who will never abandon us.
(The Forge, no.249)

Saturday after the Epiphany A-1

Prayers today: God sent his own Son, born of a woman, so that we could be adopted as his sons (Galatians 4: 4-5).

God our Father, through your Son you made us a new creation. He shared our nature and became one of us; with his help, may we become more like him, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(January 8) Blessed Angela of Foligno (1248-1309)
Some saints show marks of holiness very early. Not Angela! Born of a leading family in Foligno, she became immersed in the quest for wealth and social position.

As a wife and mother, she continued this life of distraction. Around the age of 40 she recognized the emptiness of her life and sought God’s help in the Sacrament of Penance. Her Franciscan confessor helped Angela to seek God’s pardon for her previous life and to dedicate herself to prayer and the works of charity. Shortly after her conversion, her husband and children died. Selling most of her possessions, she entered the Secular Franciscan Order. She was alternately absorbed by meditating on the crucified Christ and by serving the poor of Foligno as a nurse and beggar for their needs. Other women joined her in a religious community. At her confessor’s advice, Angela wrote her Book of Visions and Instructions. In it she recalls some of the temptations she suffered after her conversion; she also expresses her thanks to God for the Incarnation of Jesus. This book and her life earned for Angela the title "Teacher of Theologians." She was beatified in 1693.
People who live in the United States today can understand Blessed Angela’s temptation to increase her sense of self-worth by accumulating money, fame or power. Striving to possess more and more, she became more and more self-centred. When she realized she was priceless because she was created and loved by God, she became very penitential and very charitable to the poor. What had seemed foolish early in her life now became very important. The path of self-emptying she followed is the path all holy men and women must follow. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 1 John 5: 14-21; Psalm 149:1-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b; John 3:22-30

After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptised. Now John also was baptising at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptised. (This was before John was put in prison.) An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. They came to John and said to him, Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan— the one you testified about— well, he is baptising, and everyone is going to him. To this John replied, A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less. (John 3: 22-30)

Messiah and Bridegroom The octave of the Epiphany — the immediate aftermath of the Epiphany — celebrates the manifestation of Jesus Christ, commencing in his infancy, but taken up again with the start of his public ministry. The circumstances of his manifestation at the beginning

of his public ministry are somewhat unique in the Scriptures. We have a great prophet declaring the presence among the people of a much greater prophet, and then identifying him. There are many prophets whose teachings are included in the Hebrew Scriptures. The patriarch Abraham may be regarded as “a prophet,” perhaps, and there are Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezechiel, and several so-called “minor” prophets. Generally they stand in isolation from one another, with the exception of Elijah and Elisha, his disciple and successor. Elijah ends his prophetic course and is taken from the scene, and, with his mantle, Elisha succeeds him. We could say that this is the nearest parallel in the past to the connection between John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. In John and Jesus we have two great prophets, acknowledged as such by the people and deeply connected with one another, as were Elijah and Elisha. Even though Elisha received a double portion of the spirit of Elijah, he did not eclipse Elijah — indeed, Elijah may be said to have remained the iconic instance of the prophetic tradition. It was he who, with Moses, appeared with our Lord at the Transfiguration. But John the Baptist pointed to Jesus Christ as the one who would entirely eclipse him in prophetic importance. John was counted as a great prophet by the people, and this was confirmed even the more by Jesus Christ, who said of him that a greater than he had not been born of woman. But John said that he himself was not worthy so much as to untie the sandal straps of Jesus Christ. As we read in our Gospel passage today (John 3: 22-30), John said that “he must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30). Indeed, John’s entire ministry was ultimately oriented towards preparing the people to receive Jesus of Nazareth worthily, for he was the Messiah. There is no circumstance quite like this in the prophetic tradition of God’s chosen people.

John was himself “a manifestation,” an “epiphany,” we might say. But the whole point of his being manifested as a prophet for the people was that Jesus of Nazareth might be manifested the more. In our Gospel passage today, John says several things. Firstly, he acknowledges himself to have received a prophetic mission from above. “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.” He never claimed, despite all that was reputed of him, to be the Messiah. Indeed, he specifically denied that he was. “You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’” His mission was to go ahead of the Messiah. His was a momentous mission because it was for this that the history of God’s chosen people had been heading. It was to the Messiah that so much of the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms alluded — as our Lord himself would repeatedly state. Further, John is directly implying in this particular context — in which his disciples refer to “the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, the one you testified about” — that Jesus is the Messiah himself. In John’s testimony to his disciples, Jesus Christ is once again being manifested as the Messiah. But there is more, and it is scripturally very rich indeed. John refers to Jesus as the “Bridegroom,” and to himself as the Bridegroom’s friend. How John must have been consoled in thinking of himself as the Bridegroom’s “friend”! Perhaps he thought also of the years of his growing up, knowing his holy relative in Nazareth, meeting him occasionally, and with his singular perception divining the incomparable holiness of Jesus, the son of Mary, his mother’s kinswoman. But more than anything, he had received a revelation that declared to him that Jesus was the Messiah — and so he saw himself as “friend” to him who was the “Bridegroom.” In the words of John, the Messiah was “Bridegroom” to God’s people — and our Lord himself would use this term to describe himself. John may have perceived that Jesus was the “Bridegroom” at his baptism, as a result of the Father’s revelation of Jesus as his “beloved Son.” Wondrously, the “Bridegroom” was, in the prophets, Yahweh God himself.

Let us ponder these grand titles of Jesus Christ, as John prophetically uses them of him. Let us make our own the attitude and spirit of John the Baptist, who looked on himself as but a herald, a voice, one who pointed to Jesus Christ. He was unworthy of so much as undoing his very sandals. There is a simple and profound humility here, together with a powerful witness. Let us strive to be like that in our everyday lives, filling up our days with an authentic witness to Jesus Christ, the Messiah and the Bridegroom of God’s people.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (John 3: 22-30)

Christ the bridegroom John the Evangelist had been a disciple of John the Baptist, and he tells us in this Gospel passage (John 3: 22-30) how his spiritual master viewed Jesus

and his arrival on the scene. Jesus is the Bridegroom: “The bride is only for the bridegroom; and yet the bridegroom’s friend who stands there and listens is glad when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This same joy I feel, and now it is complete. He must grow greater, I must grow smaller.” Jesus was the Bridegroom, the people of Israel the bride. He himself was only the friend of the Bridegroom. John’s words bespeak the greatness of Jesus and the humility of John. The Old Testament prophets spoke of God being the Bridegroom of the people, the people’s Husband. Our Lord would refer to himself as the Bridegroom and his disciples as the Bridegroom’s attendants. St Paul would refer to Christ as the Bridegroom of the Church, and to marriage as a Sacrament of Christ and his Church.

Christ is the Bridegroom. He is our All, the object of our love and our life, both individually and as the Church. Let us give ourselves to him unreservedly. Our heart ought belong to him in everything we do — as to God, for he is indeed God. Let us live out this fidelity in the little ordinary duties of everyday life, thus making of our ordinary lives something truly grand.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Don’t give way to sadness when it feels as if the Lord has given up on you. Seek him with greater determination. He who is Love does not leave you on your own. Be convinced that “he has left you on your own” out of Love, so that you may see clearly in your life what is his and what is yours.
(The Forge, no.250)

Baptism of the Lord A

Prayers today: When the Lord had been baptized, the heavens opened, and the Spirit came down like a dove to rest on him. Then the voice of the Father thundered: This is my beloved Son, with him I am well pleased. (Matthew 3: 16-17)

Almighty, eternal God, when the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan, you revealed him as your own beloved Son. Keep us, your children born of water and the Spirit, faithful to our calling. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,...
or
Father in heaven you revealed Christ as your Son by the voice that spoke over the waters of the Jordan. May all who share in the sonship of Christ follow in his path of service to man, and reflect the glory of his kingdom even to the ends of the earth, for he is Lord for ever and ever.

(January 9) St. Adrian of Canterbury (d. 710)
Though St. Adrian turned down a papal request to become Archbishop of Canterbury, England, Pope St. Vitalian accepted the rejection on the condition that Adrian serve as the Holy Father’s assistant and adviser. Adrian accepted, but ended up spending most of his life and doing most of his work in Canterbury. Born in Africa, Adrian was serving as an abbot in Italy when the new Archbishop of Canterbury appointed him abbot of the monastery of Sts. Peter and Paul in Canterbury. Thanks to his leadership skills, the facility became one of the most important centres of learning. The school attracted many outstanding scholars from far and wide and produced numerous future bishops and archbishops. Students reportedly learned Greek and Latin and spoke Latin as well as their own native languages. Adrian taught at the school for 40 years. He died there, probably in the year 710, and was buried in the monastery. Several hundred years later, when reconstruction was being done, Adrian’s body was discovered in an incorrupt state. As word spread, people flocked to his tomb, which became famous for miracles. Rumour had it that young schoolboys in trouble with their masters made regular visits there. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Isaiah 42: 1-4.6-7; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-38; Matthew 3:13-17

Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John resisted him, saying “I ought to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” Jesus answered him, “Allow it to be so for now. For it is fitting that we fulfil all that is right.” Then he consented. Jesus being baptized immediately came out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and coming upon him. And a voice from heaven, saying “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:13-17)

Our Father Today we think of our Lord’s baptism in the Jordan, and the revelation of the Blessed Trinity which it involved. The Son is baptised by John and in this public fashion declares himself to be in solidarity with sinful humanity.

The Holy Spirit descends on him to empower his humanity for his mission to redeem sinful mankind. The Father pronounces from heaven that Jesus is his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased. Many things can be contemplated in this event, but let us especially consider the words uttered by the Father, and what they reveal of himself, the Father. “This is my beloved Son,” he said. The Father’s words not only revealed who Jesus is. They also revealed who he, the Father, is — he is precisely the “Father.” At our own baptism, we are initiated into the triune life of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our Lord’s baptism was a forerunner of our own baptism when the Holy Spirit comes upon us and we are granted a share in our Lord’s sonship. We become adopted sons of God, and at the moment of our baptism the Father says of each of us, this is my adopted son in whom I am well pleased. We each become a new creation, and are made adopted children of the Father. All our sins, original and personal, are taken away and we are filled with the holiness given to us by the Holy Spirit. We are, though, left with a propensity to sin. Sadly, subsequent to our baptism, we deliberately accede to this propensity and fall into sin. But we have the Sacrament of Penance to enable us to regain the state of grace, and to grow in the holiness given to us at our baptism. Our vocation from the moment of our baptism is to seek personal holiness. If we fail to take up that call, our life, so full of promise at our baptism, will be a failure and a tragedy. Holiness consists in living consistently and with generosity one’s life as a child of God that begins with baptism. Because of our baptism we are called to live for God as his children, children of God who is our Father. Let us then be filled with the conviction that God is our Father, a Father who loves us more than we can possibly imagine. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who said, he who sees me sees the Father. Jesus reveals him to be Father to all mankind. Our calling is to love and trust him.

Now, it is not hard to hold to this belief when all is going well. The challenge of life lies in holding to it when things seem to be going very badly. All through life we must adhere to what God has revealed, in good times and bad, in times of blessing and in times of tragedy. At the end of 2004, a tremendous earthquake under the Indian Ocean convulsed the land masses of that part of the Asian world. We may not even remember it very clearly, but at the time the news of the world was full of the effects of that earthquake under the sea. There were hundreds of thousands of deaths across several countries. In the newspapers there appeared articles wondering about the very existence of God — how could God have permitted this evil to happen? We do not know why he permits such things to happen, but St Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that through man — one man — sin entered the world and with sin came death, and death has spread through the whole human race. So death comes ultimately from the sin of man, man’s original sin compounded by an unimaginable number of personal sins. Somehow, evil comes from sin. While God respects the freedom he gave to man and the consequences of its use, he is still our Father, and is constantly working to draw tremendous good out of evil. Good was drawn forth from the evil of that earthquake. There was a vast outpouring of funds and charity to help the peoples of Asia, and the world came together in a way not often seen. Australia gave one billion dollars, and was poised for a new stage of collaboration with Indonesia, which was the country hardest hit. We could surely see in this aftermath of aid something of the good that God was drawing out of the evil that so suddenly descended. It was an evil that God did not want, but which he allowed, for man freely chose by his sin to dislocate the world so profoundly. In any case, God would not have left so many people completely at the mercy of the elements. Perhaps before those terrible tidal waves came, God was tending with his special grace those soon to lose their lives. Perhaps their lost lives, preceding a great good that God would draw from the tragedy, derived great value in God’s sight from that future good which their deaths occasioned. Much of the human family came together. God may have mercifully rewarded many of them accordingly.

God is the Father of all mankind. In a special way he is Father to all those who are in Christ by baptism. Today in celebrating the Baptism of Christ, we celebrate our own baptism. By it we became children of God. All our lives let us regard God, the Lord of heaven and of earth, as our Father who looks with love on us his little ones no matter what may happen to us. Let us trust him, endeavouring to serve him humbly and obediently as his children, seeking true holiness.

(E.J.Tyler)

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You said to me: “I seem not only unable to go ahead along my way, but also unable to be saved without a miracle of grace. Oh, my poor soul! I remain cold and, what is worse, almost indifferent. It’s as if I were an outsider looking at ‘a case’ (mine) which had nothing to do with him. Will these days turn out to be completely futile? And nevertheless, my Mother is my Mother and Jesus is — dare I say it? — my Jesus. And there are good and saintly souls, at this very moment, praying for me.”
Go on walking hand in hand with your Mother. I replied, and “dare” to say to Jesus that he is yours. In his goodness he will bring clear light to your soul.
(The Forge, no.251)

Monday of the first week in Ordinary Time A-1

(January 10) St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 330-395)
The son of two saints, Basil and Emmilia, young Gregory was raised by his older brother, St. Basil the Great, and his sister, Macrina, in

modern-day Turkey. Gregory's success in his studies suggested great things were ahead for him. After becoming a professor of rhetoric, he was persuaded to devote his learning and efforts to the Church. By then married, Gregory went on to study for the priesthood and become ordained. He was elected Bishop of Nyssa (in Lower Armenia) in 372, a period of great tension over the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ. Briefly arrested after being falsely accused of embezzling Church funds, Gregory was restored to his see in 378, an act met with great joy by his people. It was after the death of his beloved brother, Basil, that Gregory really came into his own. He wrote with great effectiveness against Arianism and other questionable doctrines, gaining a reputation as a defender of orthodoxy. He was sent on missions to counter other heresies and held a position of prominence at the Council of Constantinople. His fine reputation stayed with him for the remainder of his life, but over the centuries it gradually declined as the authorship of his writings became less and less certain. But, thanks to the work of scholars in the 20th century, his stature is once again appreciated. Indeed, St. Gregory of Nyssa is seen not simply as a pillar of orthodoxy but as one of the great contributors to the mystical tradition in Christian spirituality and to monasticism itself.
Orthodoxy is a word that raises red flags in our minds. It connotes rigid attitudes that make no room for honest differences of opinion. But it might just as well suggest something else: faith that has settled deep in one’s bones. Gregory’s faith was like that. So deeply imbedded was his faith in Jesus that he knew the divinity that Arianism denied. When we resist something offered as truth without knowing exactly why, it may be because our faith has settled in our bones. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Hebrews 1: 1-6; Psalm 96; Mark 1:14-20

When John was imprisoned, Jesus went into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying: “The time is accomplished, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.” Passing by the sea of Galilee he saw Simon and Andrew his brother, casting nets into the sea (for they were fishermen). Jesus said to them: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately leaving their nets they followed him. Going on from there a little, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother who also were mending their nets in the boat. Immediately he called them, and leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with his hired men, they followed him. (Mark 1:14-20)

Discipleship By way of introduction, there are aspects of the course of events mentioned in our Gospel passage which are a little obscure. In our passage today, Mark tells us that it was when John was imprisoned that Jesus went into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

St Matthew writes that after Christ’s encounter with Satan in the wilderness, he heard of John’s imprisonment. At this, he withdrew to Galilee and began his public ministry, based in Capernaum (5: 12-13). St Luke, having made a passing reference to John’s arrest (3: 19-20), writes that after his temptations in the wilderness Christ came back to Galilee with the power of the Spirit. On this, Luke does not give us an ordered sequence of events. John has Jesus returning to Galilee soon after his baptism by John and having already gained his first disciples. He attends the wedding feast of Cana with some disciples in his company. In John’s order of things, our Lord returns to Jerusalem for the paschal feast and cleanses the Temple. While in Jerusalem, Nicodemus comes to see him. Then he and his disciples go into the land of Judea, and there “he remained with them, baptizing. John was still baptizing, too, in Aenon, near Salim” (3: 22). Then Jesus once more withdrew to Galilee. That is to say, while Matthew and Mark give the impression that our Lord launched his public ministry in earnest in Galilee when John had been arrested, and while Luke seems vague on the point, John suggests that John’s prophetic ministry was continuing in Judea while our Lord’s was beginning in earnest in Galilee, and indeed was starting to eclipse that of John. Then John was taken from the scene by Herod. If we take into account the different purposes of the various Gospels, including the symbolism of John, I think it can all be harmonized. But let us leave that to the best scholars, and concentrate on our scene today. Our Lord has returned from Judea, has begun his public ministry, and is by the Sea of Galilee. Perhaps it is early morning, for crowds are not mentioned. There he calls his first disciples to both himself, and to a share in his mission.

John the Baptist also had disciples. Several prophets before him must have had theirs — and Isaiah refers to his own disciples. I suspect that the prophets simply attracted disciples, rather than actively gathering them in numbers. We are not actually told of John calling people to be his disciples. I myself doubt that he did this — rather, he accepted them when they came. I suspect that his humility was so great that he did not presume to begin a school — even though he did indeed, by the force and quality of his instruction to the disciples who came, begin a school that long outlived him. We read of John’s disciples in the Acts of the Apostles being met by Christ’s missionaries. Apollos had been one such. But as I say, I suspect that John’s disciples just gathered around him. He then schooled them in a more profound religious life, based on the Revelation given to God’s chosen people and on his own prophetic teaching. Now Christ did not simply admit disciples to his company, and instruct them as they happened to come. He also actively sought them. Most interestingly, he framed his and their very mission in terms of gaining disciples. When he rose from the dead and instructed his disciples to go to the whole world, their mission was to make disciples of all the nations. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ was the end game, as we might say — it was the term of all things, the very purpose of life. Once a person has become a true disciple of Jesus Christ, that person has attained his end in life. Nothing more is required of him than that he be the truest and best disciple he can be. This means following in the Master’s footsteps and carrying his cross after him. Not so, is the case of other disciples and masters. This point is encapsulated in that beautiful scene in the Gospel of St John in which John the Baptist, in the company of two of his disciples, sees Jesus walking by. There is the Lamb of God, he says to them. At that, they leave him for Jesus. Being a disciple of John has as its term being a disciple of Jesus Christ. All men are called to be disciples of Christ. But there is this also, that being Christ’s disciple involves being given a share in Christ’s own mission.

So it is that our Lord, walking by the Sea of Galilee, calls Simon and Andrew, and then James and John, not only to be his disciples, but to share in his mission of calling other disciples. That is the mission granted them. It is to call all men to be disciples of Jesus Christ. This will involve not merely listening to the teaching of a Master, and trying to put it into practice. It will also mean receiving a share in his spirit, the Holy Spirit. The spirit of Elijah was passed on to Elisha, who received a double portion. In our case, we receive the Spirit of Jesus, but of course Jesus is the very Source. So let us think of the mission. We are called to be fishers of men, bringing them to Jesus.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (Mark 1:14-20)

The spirit of repentance Our Lord began his public ministry by calling on all his hearers to repent, for the Kingdom of God was near at hand. How important these words are, not only in order to receive Christ for the first time — for the Kingdom of God is present in Christ — but also in order to grow in his life.

As St Josemaria Escriva once said, it is not hard to begin — that is easy. The important thing is to continue with consistency. Now, to grow in the life of Christ we must grow in the spirit of repentance. This means learning to repent every day, recognizing the sins of each day and of the past, and truly repenting of them. It means growing in the capacity to repent very sincerely every time we approach the Sacrament of Penance. Every sacramental Confession ought involve a conversion, and this should be frequent and regular. In particular it means recognizing the deliberate venial sins of our daily life, and genuinely repenting of them. We ought confess them to God with the awareness that, being deliberate, they offend God. If we are to grow in holiness, we must firmly resolve to avoid deliberate venial sin. For this kind of spirit of repentance, we need the grace of God.

Let us pray to the Holy Spirit for the grace to attain a sensitive conscience, for the grace to make a careful and heartfelt examination of conscience repeatedly and regularly, and then for the grace to turn away from deliberate venial sin. Repentance must be a life-long feature of the ordinary life.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Grant me, Jesus, the Cross with no Simon of Cyrene to help me. No, that’s not right; I need your grace, I need your help here as in everything. You must be my Simon of Cyrene. With you, my God, no trial can daunt me. But what if my Cross should consist in boredom or sadness? In that case I say to you, Lord, with You I would gladly be sad.
(The Forge, no.252)

Tuesday of the first week in Ordinary Time A-1

(January 11) Blessed William Carter (d. 1584)
Born in London, William Carter entered the printing business at an early age. For many years he served as apprentice to well-known Catholic printers, one of whom served a prison sentence for persisting in the Catholic faith. William himself served time in prison following his arrest for "printing lewd [i.e., Catholic] pamphlets" as well as possessing books upholding Catholicism. But even more, he offended public officials by publishing works that aimed to keep Catholics firm in their faith. Officials who searched his house found various vestments and suspect books, and even managed to extract information from William's distraught wife. Over the next 18 months William remained in prison, suffering torture and learning of his wife's death. He was eventually charged with printing and publishing the Treatise of Schisme, which allegedly incited violence by Catholics and which was said to have been written by a traitor and addressed to traitors. While William calmly placed his trust in God, the jury met for only 15 minutes before reaching a verdict of "guilty." William, who made his final confession to a priest who was being tried alongside him, was hanged, drawn and quartered the following day: January 11, 1584. He was beatified in 1987.
It didn’t pay to be Catholic in Elizabeth I’s realm. In an age when religious diversity did not yet seem possible, it was high treason, and practising the faith was dangerous. William gave his life for his efforts to encourage his brothers and sisters to keep up the struggle. These days, our brothers and sisters also need encouragement—not because their lives are at risk, but because many other factors besiege their faith. They look to us. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Hebrews 2: 5-12; Psalm 8; Mark 1: 21-28

They entered Capharnaum and immediately going into the synagogue on the Sabbath day Jesus began to teach. They were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority and not like the scribes. Now there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit and he cried out, “What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” Jesus threatened him, saying: “Speak no more, and go out of the man.” The unclean spirit convulsed him, and crying out with a loud voice went out of him. They were all amazed and they questioned among themselves, saying: “What is this? What is this new doctrine? With authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” And his fame spread immediately throughout all of Galilee. (Mark 1: 21-28)

Christ’s authority Most people will have noticed that there seem to be two components in good marketing of a product. There is, firstly, a rational case presented by the producers or the marketers for the worth of the product. If an insurance policy is being advertised, the reasons are given for its

being considered a very good policy, and even the best. If no reasons are given, it can scarcely be taken seriously. But usually there is a second element to the advertising exercise. Other authorities are brought in to support what has been said for the product. Perhaps a famous sportsman has his say on the product, or a singer, or even some ordinary person with whom the audience can easily identify. Often this person will simply state his preference for the product, without presenting much of a rational case. The value of his testimony lies in its coming from someone who is admired. That is to say, it is deemed to be good because he says so. Now, there is a further aspect to this, and it is that there is a special weight accorded to the judgment of a person of high moral probity. Yes, it is persuasive among many viewers when a sportsman appears on television for some product being advertised. But if the sportsman is revealed to be morally deficient, then his credibility is at an end when it comes to any advertising. Provided all other things are equal, what really counts in terms of a worthwhile judgment, a judgment that can be taken as reliable, is if the person is known to be of great virtue. If you have two friends or relatives, both of equal intelligence and experience, both possessed of equal interest in your welfare, but one of them clearly more virtuous than the other and of a higher moral character, whose advice will you more readily seek? You will seek the advice of the one of higher virtue. It seems to suggest that the intellect is aided by virtue in the attainment and possession of truth. In respect to the attainment and possession of moral and religious truth, I would go further. In this case, the possession of virtue and the living of an upright life is of special importance. A person who speaks on religious or moral truth must himself be morally upright if he is to be credible.

In our Gospel today (Mark 1: 21-28), our Lord enters Capharnaum, and on the Sabbath day goes into the synagogue to teach. He is, of course, teaching on matters moral and religious — indeed, on what God had revealed to his chosen people, and on the true interpretation of this. What we notice in the Gospel accounts is that it was his absolute authority which struck his listeners. “They were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority and not like the scribes.” What was it that gave to them this impression of great authority? Yes, he spoke with complete personal assurance, without needing, as did the scribes, to appeal constantly to other authorities. Yes, he displayed a complete command of the Scriptures. Yes, he seemed to know all things in relation to the moral and religious life, and in particular divine revelation. Yes, his judgment was unerringly correct. Yes, he backed his teaching up with the authority of miracles — as in our Gospel today. But what, I think, gave to his teaching a very special authority was his own manifest moral goodness and high holiness. He was the archetypal example of the one whose judgments and declarations are completely reliable precisely because of his moral virtue — other things, such as prudence and intelligence, being equal. He was a truly and manifestly holy person, with all the moral virtues this must include. On one occasion when he was being attacked by the scribes and Pharisees, he challenged them with this question: Can any of you convict me of sin? On another he said, I always do what pleases my Father. He was sinless, and this gave to his teaching a most special authority. Indeed, this is precisely what the demon in the synagogue picks up. It challenges our Lord by a public intervention. Jesus has been speaking with manifest authority, and the demon calls out: “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” Of course, this title, “the Holy One of God” has deep Scriptural allusions, and it generally refers to God. I cannot think of any prophet to whom this title had been applied. But it is holiness which the title emphasizes, and it is precisely this utter goodness which Jesus always displayed. It inevitably gave to his teaching an immense authority.

I suggest we take the point further. If we think of the gods of the religions of man, do they generally give the impression of possessing moral holiness? Is this what is perceived by their devotees? I do not think there is a notable stress on holiness in the depiction of the gods in the religions of man. They are powerful, and they must be worshiped if man’s interests are to be guarded. But I do not think they are perceived as great models of holiness. The case is not thus in Revealed Religion. God is the Holy One, and he requires holiness. Now this, I suggest is one reason for the very authority of Revealed Religion. It comes from the Holy One, and it insists on holiness in man. So too with Jesus Christ. As the demon said, he is the Holy One. No wonder his teaching carries unparalleled authority.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection (Mark 1:21-28; Hebrews 2:5-12)

Christ strong and suffering The impression our Lord conveys in today’s Gospel passage (Mark 1:21-28) is one of great and holy strength. Our Lord is possessed of effortless authority and power, directed against evil and error. He made a deep impression because “unlike the scribes,

he taught them with authority”, and “he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey him.” But let us bear in mind what the passage from the Letter to the Hebrews (2:5-12) emphasizes: “it was appropriate that God, for whom everything exists and through whom everything exists, should make perfect, through suffering, the leader who would take them to their salvation.” Our Lord, humanly speaking, was brought to perfection through suffering. Powerful though he was, he passed through the way of suffering. So then whether we are great or small, strong or weak, whatever be our talents or situation, suffering is the path to perfection and salvation — for Christ is our “leader.” His power and authority is manifest in our Gospel today, but his path was to be that of suffering. When suffering and difficulty come our way, suffering that offers no alternative, let us believe in its capacity for fruitfulness. There is in it, because of Christ our “leader,” that which will redound to our own good and through us to others. This it will be if we go through it with Christ.

Let us learn from the all-powerful Jesus the fruitfulness of the Cross. It can sanctify us.

(E.J.Tyler)

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As long as I don’t lose You, no sorrow will be a sorrow at all.
(The Forge, no.253)

Wednesday of the first week in Ordinary Time A-1

(January 12) St. Marguerite Bourgeoys (1620-1700)
"God closes a door and then opens a window," people sometimes say when dealing with their own disappointment or someone else’s. That was certainly true in Marguerite’s case. Children from European as well as Native American backgrounds in seventeenth-century

Canada benefited from her great zeal and unshakable trust in God’s providence. Born the sixth of 12 children in Troyes, France, Marguerite at the age of 20 believed that she was called to religious life. Her applications to the Carmelites and Poor Clares were unsuccessful. A priest friend suggested that perhaps God had other plans for her. In 1654, the governor of the French settlement in Canada visited his sister, an Augustinian canoness in Troyes. Marguerite belonged to a sodality connected to that convent. The governor invited her to come to Canada and start a school in Ville-Marie (eventually the city of Montreal). When she arrived, the colony numbered 200 people with a hospital and a Jesuit mission chapel. Soon after starting a school, she realized her need for co-workers. Returning to Troyes, she recruited a friend, Catherine Crolo, and two other young women. In 1667 they added classes at their school for Indian children. A second trip to France three years later resulted in six more young women and a letter from King Louis XIV, authorizing the school. The Congregation of Notre Dame was established in 1676 but its members did not make formal religious profession until 1698 when their Rule and constitutions were approved. Marguerite established a school for Indian girls in Montreal. At the age of 69, she walked from Montreal to Quebec in response to the bishop’s request to establish a community of her sisters in that city. By the time she died, she was referred to as the "Mother of the Colony." Marguerite was canonized in 1982.
In his homily at her canonization, Pope John Paul II said, "...in particular, she [Marguerite] contributed to building up that new country [Canada], realizing the determining role of women, and she diligently strove toward their formation in a deeply Christian spirit." He noted that she watched over her students with affection and confidence "in order to prepare them to become wives and worthy mothers, Christians, cultured, hardworking, radiant mothers." (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Hebrews 2: 14-18; Psalm 104; Mark 1:29-39

Then going out of the synagogue he came with James and John to the house of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law lay in a fit of a fever: and immediately they told him of her. Coming to her he lifted her up, taking her by the hand; and immediately the fever left her and she served them. Then when it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill and possessed by devils and the whole town gathered at the door. He healed many who were troubled with various diseases and he cast out many devils, not allowing them to speak because they knew who he was. Rising very early, he went out into a desert place and there he prayed. Simon and those who were with him followed him and when they had found him said to him, “All are looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go into the neighbouring towns and cities, that I may preach there also; for to this purpose have I come.” And he continued preaching in their synagogues and in all of Galilee, casting out devils. (Mark 1:29-39)

The Saviour Jesus Christ was firmly part of the life and tradition of the chosen people. He was a son of David, a descendant of Abraham, a “devout Jew,” we would say. He cannot be understood or imagined as separated or isolated from that people which had sprung from Abraham,

which had Moses as its liberator and legislator, which had David as its grand king and which had the prophets for its teachers. He was, as soon as he began his public ministry, counted as a prophet as was John his precursor. He was considered not only as a prophet, but by some as one of the old prophets come back again. All this is to say that Jesus Christ was profoundly part of the texture of his people, and this was a direct factor of the Incarnation of the Son of God. However, there were striking differences from what had preceded him, not only in terms of his very Person, but in terms even of his prophetic ministry. We are so accustomed to reading in the Gospels of the healings of Jesus Christ and of his exorcisms that we have forgotten how striking and unusual was this feature in the history of Israel. Consider Abraham, the Patriarchs, Moses, Samuel, the greatest of the Judges, David and the prophets. Moses worked some great miracles — he brought down plagues on Egypt and parted the Red Sea — but did he cure the sick repeatedly and effortlessly? Did Samuel do this? Elijah and Elisha worked miracles, but none of the prophets worked so many miracles of healing and so effortlessly as did Jesus Christ. There was no physical affliction he could not heal, even to raising people from the dead. As a result vast crowds came to him for this single purpose, to receive healings. No other prophet in the history of Israel was importuned to such an extent for this purpose. In our Gospel passage today, we read that, having healed Simon’s mother-in-law from her fever, “when it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill and possessed by devils and the whole town gathered at the door. He healed many who were troubled with various diseases.”

This, of course, was not the principal focus of his ministry, but it is an aspect of it that stands out in the context of the prophetic tradition of which he was a part. Similarly, his expulsion of demons is virtually unique. Our Lord does refer to a ministry of exorcisms other than his own (Luke 11:19), but there is nothing like his ministry of exorcism described in the Old Testament. In fact, exorcism in the Old Testament is rare. One instance of it is the story of David's acting as King Saul's harpist when Saul was beset by an "evil spirit from the Lord" (1 Samuel 16:23). David’s playing of his harp would bring relief to Saul and the evil spirit would leave him. In the Book of Tobit, Sarah is plagued by a demon who has killed all seven of her husbands. Tobias is instructed by the angel Raphael to drive away the demon by burning a fish's liver and heart. Raphael follows the demon to Upper Egypt and binds him there. All this is a far cry from the powerful word of Jesus Christ commanding demons to leave and never to return. The demons cry out in terror or in a panicked bravado when Jesus Christ appears on the scene. His very presence seems to attract an infestation of demons and bring them to light — sending them packing in any encounter. So it is in our Gospel today that “he cast out many devils, not allowing them to speak because they knew who he was.” In all of recorded history, Christ is the premier exorcist and no-one remotely approaches him in his holy dominance of the underworld. In these respects alone — which is to say, his innumerable healings, from the fever of Simon’s mother-in-law to the raising to life of the son of the widow of Nain, as well as his effortless expulsion of demons from their human nests — in these respects alone, Jesus Christ stands forth in sacred and secular history as unique. Of course, there are other unique characteristics of Jesus Christ — such as his very claims — but our Gospel today invites us to notice the power and the extent of his healings and his exorcisms. But then this has to be said: this was not the primary focus of his mission. It simply subserved it. He had come to preach and establish the good news of the Kingdom.

So it is that we read of him saying to Simon Peter, “Let us go into the neighbouring towns and cities, that I may preach there also; for to this purpose have I come” (Mark 1:29-39). His healings and his exorcisms were but signs of his power and ability to save. In fact, he had come to save his people from their sins, and not his own people alone, but all mankind. He was the Lamb of God, come to take away the sin of the world. The “healing” and the “exorcism” he had come to bring for all mankind was on a far grander scale than that exemplified in the healings and exorcisms recorded in our Gospel today. Let us take our stand with him then, for he is the Saviour and Lord.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (Hebrews 2:14-18; Mark 1:29-39)

Christ now the Lord of Death St Paul writes in his letter to the Romans that sin entered the world through one man and with sin, death. In our passage from the Letter to the Hebrews today (Hebrews 2:14-18) the inspired author says that the devil had, prior to Christ, “power over death.”

Presumably this means that the death which entered the world as a result of sin was rendered the domain of Satan, and an instrument of his power. As such it typically kept men from God both in the experience of it and in its upshot. By sin, Satan gained the lordship over death. Death offered little hope and was naturally to be feared. But Christ by his own death took away this domain from the devil. His ministry of healing and exorcism (Mark 1: 29-39) was a sign pointing to his coming victory over death. He took away all the devil’s power and set free all those who had been held in slavery by the fear of death — especially by the fear of what death contained. Death and what leads to it now is laden with grace and the presence of God, so that men need have no fear of it (provided they receive into their hearts the Good News). It is now, thanks to Christ, a path to very great union with God and abundant life, both in the experience of it and in its upshot. Father Patrick Peyton, the great promoter of family prayer, once said that he actually looked forward to death. It is not something to be feared, rather it offers a great good if passed through in union with Christ. Christ is now the lord of life and of death.

Let us choose to follow Christ in dying to self daily, and resolving to die with him at our death.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Jesus will refuse a word to no one, and his words bring healing, they console, they bring light. This is what you and I have to remember at all times, especially when we find ourselves tired and weighed down by work or opposition.
(The Forge, no.254)

Thursday of the first week in Ordinary Time A-1

(January 13) St. Hilary (315?-368)
This staunch defender of the divinity of Christ was a gentle and courteous man, devoted to writing some of the greatest theology on the Trinity, and was like his Master in being labelled a "disturber of the peace." In a very troubled period in the Church, his holiness was lived out in both scholarship and controversy. Raised a pagan, he was converted to Christianity when he met his God of nature in the Scriptures. His wife was still living when he was chosen, against his will, to be the bishop of Poitiers in France. He was soon taken up with battling what became the scourge of the fourth century, Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ. The heresy spread rapidly. St. Jerome said "The world groaned and marvelled to find that it was Arian." When Emperor Constantius ordered all the bishops of the West to sign a condemnation of Athanasius, the great defender of the faith in the East, Hilary refused and was banished from France to far off Phrygia (in modern-day Turkey). Eventually he was called the "Athanasius of the West." While writing in exile, he was invited by some semi-Arians (hoping for reconciliation) to a council the emperor called to counteract the Council of Nicea. But Hilary predictably defended the Church, and when he sought public debate with the heretical bishop who had exiled him, the Arians, dreading the meeting and its outcome, pleaded with the emperor to send this troublemaker back home. Hilary was welcomed by his people. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Hebrews 3: 7-14; Psalm 94; Mark 1:40-45

A man with leprosy came to him and begged Jesus on his knees, If you are willing, you can make me clean. Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said. Be clean! Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them. Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. (Mark 1: 40-45)

Compassion Suffering is unavoidable. That is not to say that certain sufferings are unavoidable — we can avoid the pain that comes from, say, the neglect of one’s teeth or certain aspects of one’s health. But it is impossible to avoid suffering in life.

The world is so vast that it is impossible that it suit one’s convenience at all times and in all situations. In any case, like everything else that is transitory we must deteriorate and come to our end, and this will involve suffering. But what compounds the suffering is if one suffers alone and without receiving sympathy and compassion. An elderly lady lives in her home and does not want to leave it. Her health is not good and she suffers many physical and mental frustrations, but what intensifies her difficulties is that no-one seems to care about her. She has family, but they too do not show much compassion for and interest in her. They might even find her a bit of a nuisance, and wish she would agree to selling up and being committed to a nursing home. She feels her isolation and loneliness, and this leaves her somewhat embittered. If she were surrounded by compassion it would make so much difference, even in her declining health. She would be supported in coming to terms with the approaching end. Due to this lack of compassion for her, she might even be in danger of gradually giving up. By contrast, an elderly woman in her ninetieth year lives in her own home which she loves. Her powers are seriously declining and there is not much she can do. But her family surrounds her with love and compassion, assisting her constantly to do what she wants to do — such as getting to Mass frequently, getting to the doctor, to the dentist and to other outings when this is possible. This elderly woman feels that she is wanted, appreciated, and that no-one in her family wants to see her suffer. She has plenty of reasons to live despite what the euthanasia advocates would call her lack of “quality of life.” All has been made different by the compassion that surrounds her. How great would be the difference to her life were this to have been lacking!

Just as a person who receives little or no compassion can come to think that her life is meaningless, so there have been thinkers who have thought that the world is meaningless. Ultimately, they opine, the world is just a brute fact without meaning. It blindly surges along and its inhabitants are favoured or crushed as chance may have it. It is ultimately a question of being lucky or unlucky, or forceful enough to command attention. Religion is just an opiate — as Marx famously put it. It is an illusion which serves to soften the blow. We might even say that the ultimate question about the world, as with an individual life, is whether at its heart there is compassion. What are the ultimate springs of reality and the universe? Does the universe have a heart, which is to say a heart of compassion, or is it just a brute? Such a question may not formally occur to many people, but they would vaguely feel the issue. The elderly woman whose family surrounds her with love can count on compassion. She can count on being understood and assisted. Well, in some sense, can man count on Reality and the universe being understanding, being compassionate, being helpful — in the last analysis? To this vague but very basic question there has been an Answer coming from the Creator of all. It is that the transcendent Ground of all things, the Source from which all has come, is personal Love. Creation is a gift springing from love. But this very creation has been profoundly dislocated by man due to his sin, and thence comes the apparent lack of compassionate love which seems to pervade its workings. God is love, and so in the final analysis there is Love. Man can count on that. The full revelation of this is the person of Jesus Christ who is the Word made flesh, dwelling among us. This is his glory which has been seen — the grace and truth of love. In our Gospel today (Mark 1: 40-45) the leper approaches Jesus. How hopeless his condition, how great his need for compassion! If you are willing, he says to Jesus, you can make me clean. Jesus, filled with compassion, tells him, I am willing. Be clean!

We read elsewhere that “when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34). Again, seeing the crowds he said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat” (Mark 8:2). Again, “as Jesus approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out -- the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, ‘Don't cry’” ( Luke 7:12-13). Christ was overflowing with strong compassion, and in this he was the revelation of God. Whatever happens, even if we are not blessed with the compassion of others, we may and must always rely on the compassion of God.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (Hebrews 3:7-14)

Living for God today The inspired author of Hebrews (3:7-14) reminds his reader of what the Holy Spirit says: “If only you would listen to him today; do not harden your hearts, as happened in the Rebellion, on the Day of Temptation in the wilderness.” This “today” is every day of our lives — our whole life.

But it especially means this very day — the present that is actually with us. Our Lord once said, do not worry about tomorrow, today has enough to consider and to deal with. Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these other things will be given to you. The great challenge is to make the very best of today, of the present, while learning of course from the past and planning properly for the future. The one thing that is in our hands is the day we are actually living. This means giving entirely to God our whole being this day, our prayers, thoughts, works, joys and sufferings. The morning offering of ourselves to God is very important. It means resisting the “hardening of our hearts” by the lure of sin — and doing so “today,” as the inspired passage from Hebrews warns us. Every day we must fight sin — deliberate venial sins of thought, word and deed — for it is only by renouncing sin that we can remain united to Christ. But it is “today” that we must do this. We profit from the past by living fully in union with Christ “today,” by fulfilling as well as possible the duties of “today.” We prepare for the future, especially for the great future hour of our death, by living in union with Christ now, “today.”

Our treasure and our gift is the present, “today.” Let us live this today as if it is all we have.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Don’t expect people’s applause for your work. What is more, sometimes you mustn’t even expect other people and institutions, who like you are working for Christ, to understand you. Seek only the glory of God and, while loving everyone, don’t worry if there are some who don’t understand you.
(The Forge, no.255)

Friday of the first week in Ordinary Time A-1

(January 14) Servant of God John the Gardener (d. 1501)
John was born of poor parents in Portugal. Orphaned early in life, he spent some years begging from door to door. After finding work in Spain as a shepherd, he shared the little he earned with those even more needy than himself. One day two Franciscans encountered him on a journey. Engaging him in conversation, they took a liking to the simple man and invited him to come and work at their friary in Salamanca. He readily accepted and was assigned to the task of assisting the brother with gardening duties. A short time later John himself entered the Franciscan Order and lived a life of prayer and meditation, fasting constantly, spending the nights in prayer, still helping the poor. Because of his work in the garden and the flowers he produced for the altar, he became known as "the gardener." God favoured John with the gift of prophecy and the ability to read hearts. Important persons, including princes, came to the humble, ever-obedient friar for advice. He was so loving towards all that he never wanted to take offence at anything. His advice was that to forgive offences is an act of penance most pleasing to God. He predicted the day of his own death: January 11, 1501. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Hebrews 4: 1-5.11; Psalm 77; Mark 2:1-12

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralysed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. Now some scribes were sitting there, thinking to themselves, Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone? Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . . He said to the paralytic, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, We have never seen anything like this! (Mark 2: 1-12)

Forgiveness The public ministry of Jesus Christ was initiated by the prophetic ministry of John the Baptist. We read that “the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He came to the neighbourhood of the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3: 2-3).

In this he was fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah which spoke of a voice crying out in the wilderness: prepare for the coming of the Lord! Make straight the paths for him! John’s mission was to exhort the people to prepare for the coming of the Messiah by repenting of their sins and embarking on a holy life. Multitudes came to him — but of course no-one considered that in his ceremony of baptism he was presuming to forgive sins. He exhorted them to repentance in view of “the wrath to come” (Luke 3:7-9). His baptism was a rite in which people acknowledged their need of a cleansing, and in the washing then ceremonially given, they renounced their sins and entrusted themselves to the hoped-for pardon of God. But as I say, there is not the slightest hint in the Gospels that anyone considered that John himself exercised a power to forgive sins. Indeed, there is no prophet or priest or king before him who presumed to have the authority from God to do this. The forgiveness of sins was commonly thought to come from the offering by the instituted priesthood of the prescribed sacrifices. But at root this was an act of obedience to God acknowledging sin and entrusting oneself and the nation to his mercy. It was an act of faith in God that, seeing repentance and obedience, he would pardon the sin being thus acknowledged. It was not, as such, a case of an individual or a rite possessing a power to cleanse people of sin. Only God could do this, and it was undyingly hoped that he was doing this. It could be said that one of the most distinguishing features of the Jewish religion was the prominence it gave to the holiness of God and to man’s consequent need for forgiveness by him. As a religion it brought this point before the chosen people, and through them, before the world.

The Christian religion, coming forth from Judaism and counting itself as its divinely-ordained fulfilment, also taught the world that only God can forgive sins. Only he can effect a reconciliation between sinful man and himself. It also made clear that the divinely-instituted sacrifices and the priesthood of Judaic religion do not of themselves effect this pardon and reconciliation. Now, something of a sense of this is, I think, reflected in the astonishment of the scribes at seeing Jesus presume to forgive someone’s sins. We read that “some scribes were sitting there, thinking to themselves, Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:1-12) I regard this response as suggesting that the scribes themselves did not regard the sacrifices and the priesthood as having the power, as such, to do what Jesus so calmly presumed to do. No-one can forgive sins but God alone! On this, Judaism and Christianity are in utter agreement — and our Lord himself did not tell the scribes that they were wrong in thinking that only God can forgive sins. In fact, in almost every religion where man’s sin and the holiness of God is recognized, it is allowed that only God can forgive sins. Such, too, is the teaching of Islam. But Jesus Christ calmly claims the power on earth to forgive sins, and the reason is, of course, that he claimed to be God. It was an astonishingly audacious claim to make so calmly, so unhesitatingly, and with such assurance before the religious leaders who were so jealous of the uniqueness and sovereignty of God. He claimed the power to forgive sins, exercised it, and demonstrated the divine sanction for it by effecting the very next minute an astonishing miracle. The paralytic, at Christ’s mere word, arose from his mat and walked home to the wonderment of all. Just as Jesus Christ is the premier healer in the history of religions, just as he is the premier exorcist, so he is the premier forgiver of sins. In this he was unique in the religion of Israel, a religion so greatly defined by the thought of God’s holiness and man’s sins.

There is more. This power to forgive sins, exercised on this and on other occasions in our Lord’s public ministry, did not end with his redeeming death. Precisely as a result of his salvific death, Christ gave to his Apostles this very power to forgive sins. He rose from the dead, and at his first meeting with them as an Apostolic college, he endowed them with the Holy Spirit and the power to forgive sins: “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he said. “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them” (John 20: 22-23). Thenceforth, this blessing so readily given by our Lord to the paralytic, would be available to those who approach him. It resides in the Church, and is granted by the successors of the Apostles and their ordained collaborators, the priests. Let us seek it, then!

(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (Hebrews 4:1-5.11)

Now I begin! Our passage from Hebrews today promises a place of rest with God in heaven. So, the Letter tells us, “none of you must think that he has come too late for it.”

This is a very consoling thought, whatever be our age in life. We must never think we are “too late for it.” Virtually all our lives we may have wanted to serve God and may have been trying to do this. But looking back we recognise that we have been guilty of numerous failures. But whatever of the past, we are now in the present. The past is behind us. The Letter tells us that we have not come “too late” for what God wants for us. So then, let us begin again, hoping and trusting in God. But while we are granted the opportunity and grace of a new start in the present, the precious present, let us take note of the sombre warning of the Letter. We must now “do everything we can to reach this place of rest, or some of you might copy this example of disobedience and be lost.” Let us then do our best, “doing everything we can” each day to reach our heavenly homeland.

Now I begin! I will now do my very best, whatever be my past.

(E.J.Tyler)

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If there are mountains in the way, obstacles, misunderstandings, backbiting, which Satan seeks and God allows, you must have faith, faith with deeds, faith with sacrifice, faith with humility.
(The Forge, no.256)

Saturday of the first week in Ordinary Time A-1

(January 15) St. Paul the Hermit (c. 233-345)
It is unclear what we really know of Paul's life, how much is fable, how much fact. Paul was reportedly born in Egypt, where he was orphaned by age 15. He was also a learned and devout young man. During the persecution of Decius in Egypt in the year 250, Paul was forced to hide in the home of a friend. Fearing a brother-in-law would betray him, he fled in a cave in the desert. His plan was to return once the persecution ended, but the sweetness of solitude and heavenly contemplation convinced him to stay. He went on to live in that cave for the next 90 years. A nearby spring gave him drink, a palm tree furnished him clothing and nourishment. After 21 years of solitude a bird began bringing him half of a loaf of bread each day. Without knowing what was happening in the world, Paul prayed that the world would become a better place. St. Anthony attests to his holy life and death. Tempted by the thought that no one had served God in the wilderness longer than he, Anthony was led by God to find Paul and acknowledge him as a man more perfect than himself. The raven that day brought a whole loaf of bread instead of the usual half. As Paul predicted, Anthony would return to bury his new friend. Thought to have been about 112 when he died, Paul is known as the "First Hermit." His feast day is celebrated in the East; he is also commemorated in the Coptic and Armenian rites of the Mass. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Hebrews 4: 12-16; Psalm 18; Mark 2:13-17

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. Follow me, Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'? On hearing this, Jesus said to them, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. (Mark 2:13-17)

Sin One of the most important of all intellectual disciplines is philosophy. In it, the enquirer seeks to know the foundations of various aspects of life and reality. In fact, every department of life can be the object of philosophical consideration: language, ethics, beauty,

government and states (such as in the writings of De Tocqueville), religion, existence, science, law. Especially important for a genuine philosophy is the rational consideration of religion, which is to say, the being and nature of God. Now, it is notable how much the prevailing trends in philosophy reflect the trends in culture. In an age in which culture is religious, generally philosophy will be religious in character. The Middle Ages could be said to have reached the most penetrating levels of philosophical reflection on God ever to have been seen, and its greatest thinkers (such as Aquinas) remain reference points to our own day. On the other hand, the modern secular era has seen a more widespread presence of atheism and agnosticism in philosophy than ever before — allowing, of course, for the many excellent theistic philosophers of our time. I have a list of contemporary theist philosophers drawn from various countries, and there are many of them. But one gets the impression that many more are agnostic or atheistic. The fundamental issue of our Western-dominated age is the matter of God. Is God a figment of the imagination, or is he a Fact, and if so, what is he like? The tendency now is to regard God as a mere private persuasion, something which must publicly be relegated to the realm of dispensable personal opinion. Recently I read an article in the Sydney Morning Herald (December 20, 2010, p.9) by a professional philosopher from Melbourne University. He declares himself to be an atheist, and his article was about how his family celebrates Christmas. “Welcome to the modern atheist household,” he writes, “I’m not anti-religion ... But our family has no God or gods.” Every year his family celebrates Christmas, but “without the baggage of Christ.” Of course, very many do this, without being professed atheists. They live in a kind of informal, practical atheism.

There is no simple answer to the problem of atheism, if only because one cannot lead a person where he does not want to go. As the saying has it, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. As with any discipline or course of intellectual enquiry, a great deal depends on one’s dispositions. If one is disposed to consider something seriously, there is a chance that one will see the point. If one’s will is set against the matter, all is useless. That having been said, I would propose what John Henry Newman began with as a fundamental starting point: the testimony of the conscience to personal sin. He saw “sin” as basic to the human condition as it is. Of course, the one who is atheist by profession, or who is virtually atheist in his practical living, has little sense of “sin,” and of course would reject the idea. “Sin,” in the nature of the case, is an offence against God, and therefore, he would say, it begs the question. However, even the atheist, agnostic, or indifferent would accept the existence of the conscience and its sense of guilt. If he accepts this, there is a chance he may come to accept the sense of guilt before the One who is beyond — in other words, God. I think that if we can see that “sin” is a primary and basic experience of life, we are on the way to a vivid recognition of God. Built on the living recognition of personal sin, philosophy can proceed with a fruitful consideration of the being and nature of God. I say all this by way of introduction to our Gospel today (Mark 2:13-17). The Son of God made man is eating with the tax collectors and the sinners — with those who were very aware of this basic fact of life, that they were sinners. This is a far cry from the modern atheist or agnostic. It is they who are found in the company of our Lord. Our Lord said that he had come to call them. I remember reading an article by an atheist wife and mother. The article was entitled, “the godless, humanist kids are all right.” No person who is aware of his sinfulness would say that of himself. It is the one who thinks he is not all right who seeks to be with Christ.

The scribes and the Pharisees asked our Lord’s disciples why their master was associating with sinners. Our Lord said that he was sent to those who were sick — and it is those who know they are sick who receive him. The deepest sickness is the sickness stemming from sin. These particular scribes and Pharisees, the atheist and the agnostic, the religiously indifferent or hostile, scarcely recognize that they suffer from the sickness of sin. Hence they have no interest in the divine physician. Let us not slip into the blindness of a loss of a sense of our personal sinfulness. Let us pray for the light to recognize it, and for the grace to take our stand with our Saviour.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Second reflection: (Hebrews 4:12-16)

Holding on to the Faith Our passage today from the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that “Since in Jesus, the son of God, we have the supreme high priest who has gone through to the highest heaven, we must never let go of the faith that we have professed.” There are many ways we can let go of our Faith.

We can simply fail to nourish it by not keeping to a proper plan of life of prayer, spiritual reading, and sacraments. But I would especially warn of the danger to one’s faith in entertaining occasions of sin, particularly sins against religious belief. Temptations of this kind are especially prevalent when a liberalism in religion is assumed to be an intellectual virtue. These temptations can come in the media, in books, conversations, television programmes on religion, presenting, for instance, extreme interpretations of the Scriptures. To look at such programmes without a serious purpose and without an attitude of vigilance lays one’s religious imagination open to corrupting influences. Every aspect of our being, especially our imagination, ought be fortified in the direction of a strong Christian belief that will support the call to holiness. Many books and novels insinuate doubts about the faith in gripping and entertaining ways.

All these are occasions of sin of the most serious sort because they can lead to secret scepticism and unbelief. We must do all we can never to “let go of the faith we have professed”, rather believe with all our heart in the Christ proclaimed constantly by the Church.

(E.J.Tyler)

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Faced by apparent sterility in your apostolate you begin to detect the first waves of discouragement, which your faith rejects quite firmly. But you realise that you need a more humble, lively and operative faith. As someone who longs to bring health to your souls, you should cry out like the father of that sick boy possessed by the devil: Lord, help my unbelief! Have no doubt: the miracle will be performed again.
(The Forge, no.257)

Liturgical Season	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
Christmastide A-1							1 Mary, The Mother of God
Christmastide A-1	2 The Epiphany of The Lord	3	4	5	6	7	8
First week of Ordinary Time A-1	9 The Baptism of The Lord	10	11	12	13	14	15