June1 in Year A 11

Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Eastertide to Wednesday of the 11th Week of 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 June is: "That priests, united to the Heart of Christ, may always be true witnesses of the caring and merciful love of God."

His mission intention is: "That the Holy Spirit may bring forth from our communities numerous missionary vocations, willing to fully consecrate themselves to spreading the Kingdom of God."

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Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 18 (17): 50; 22 (21): 23 I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will tell of your name to my kin, alleluia.

Collect Grant, we pray, O Lord, that, as we celebrate in mystery the solemnities of your Son's Resurrection, so, too, we may be worthy to rejoice at his coming with all the Saints. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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

Jesus said to his disciples, I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. (John 16:12-15)

The Spirit of Truth Professor Antony Flew (1923–2010) was a British philosopher who belonged to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought. He was well-known for his works on various aspects of the philosophy of religion. He taught at the universities of Oxford, Aberdeen, Keele, Reading, and at York University in Toronto. Over the course of his academic career he had been an advocate of atheism, maintaining that atheism ought be presupposed till there is empirical evidence of a God. He also criticised other Fr. Ted Tyler

fundamental ideas of religion such as the notion of life after death, the answer to the problem of evil by recourse to free will, and the very meaningfulness of the idea of God. However, in 2004 he announced that in keeping his long commitment to go where the evidence leads, he now believed in God. Subsequently he wrote the book There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, with contributions from Roy Abraham Varghese. In the end, it was a scientific form of the teleological argument for God that impressed Flew. The evidence of order and purpose in the structure of the universe requires a Mind to account for it. It was early in 2004, six years before his death, that Flew informed Gary Habermas (his friend and philosophical adversary) that he had become a deist of the sort that Thomas Jefferson was. That is to say, reason sees design in the universe, and so there must be a God — but there is no supernatural revelation, nor any “transactions between that God and individual human beings.” There is certainly no afterlife. He expected his own death to be the end for him. He said that “What I was converted to was the existence of an Aristotelian god, and Aristotle's god had no interest in human affairs at all.” It had power and intelligence but was very different from the God of the Christians and very far from the God of Islam. His god was not the God of revealed religion. He accepted Intelligent Design — a position which had a bad press in other contexts early in the twenty-first century. This was as far as Flew got, and it began with his fundamental principle which, he said, Socrates insisted on, that one is to follow wherever the evidence leads.

It is interesting to note that Cardinal Newman, who was writing in England a century before Flew, was not particularly impressed with the Argument from Design, and in any case, said that of itself it would never take a person to the God of Revelation. His thesis is borne out in the case of Flew. But what is more telling is how much further than Flew do so many ordinary believers reach in their apprehension of the Ultimate. The Ultimate, Flew eventually decided, was the god of Aristotle or, perhaps, that of Spinoza. It was a god which kept out of the way, it was not bothersome — and it promised nothing. Life was unaffected by its existence, and the idea of God entering the scene to be crucified was preposterous. Let us rejoice that Flew emerged from his formal atheism at least to deism, but let us rejoice even more that so many others with nothing of Flew’s education go far further along the path of reality and truth. They not only come to know the true God with the utmost certainty, but become personally involved with him in a life of love — and they are sanctified by him. Many become saints because of their union in love with God. Indeed, the Good News of the Gospel is that man can become God’s friends and share his very life. All have a vocation to sanctity, and this is possible through the saving work of Jesus Christ. It bears out Newman’s scepticism about mere reason, reason alone. Newman gave emphasis to a lively and right-grounded conscience which will sense the reality and presence of a God who requires the doing of what is good, and which will open a person to Revelation. More than anything, though, the case of the mere philosopher helps us appreciate what our Lord Jesus Christ has given to us: a share in his own divine Spirit. By the gift of the Holy Spirit at our Baptism we receive the grace of faith. This gift of faith empowers and inclines us to accept the revelation of Jesus Christ and to perceive its absolute reality. As our Lord says in today’s Gospel, “when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you” (John 16:12-15). Come, Holy Spirit!

If you, as a Christian and member of the Church which Christ founded, are aware of your faith in God and in Jesus Christ his Son, and if you are aware that this faith is strong, rejoice in the power and grace of God that has brought this about. It is God’s gift, the result of the Spirit of Truth coming to you especially at your Baptism. The gift of faith is the foundation of everything, and it sets you not only on the path to the knowledge of God, but on the path to sanctity. As our Lord says in the Last Supper, eternal life is this, to know you, Father, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Let us treasure this above all else, and never allow anything to threaten it.

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The gift of faith For hundreds of years in the classical world, Athens was the centre of culture and sophisticated thought. In our Fr. Ted Tyler

passage today from The Acts of the Apostles we read St Paul’s address to the great Athenian forum, the Areopagus. St Paul begins by finding common ground with the Athenians. He refers to their monument dedicated to the Unknown God, and moves to the God who revealed that a judgment was coming, and who raised up Jesus from the dead. But for all their sophistication, their culture and their familiarity with new and foreign religious movements, the Athenians were poor material for what Paul spoke about. A few displayed an interest, but St Paul ended up moving on to Corinth. One wonders, incidentally, whether the Athenian concept of “God” — the Unknown — had starting points which were not favourable to Revelation. In any case, the account of St Paul’s attempt reminds us of how very fortunate we are to have received the gift of faith. Whether or not we are people of culture and education, having the gift of faith disposes us to accept the truth of what God has revealed as it comes to us from the Church. The example of the Athenians shows us how lacking in this disposition we may have been were we not to have received this gift.

Let us cherish this gift, so fundamental to the purpose of our life. Let us nourish it with the best and purest of sources, and strive to help others to receive it from above.

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You feel the need of conversion: He is asking more of you ... and you are giving him less each day!

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 68 (67): 8-9, 20 O God, when you went forth before your people, marching with them and living among them, the earth trembled, heavens poured down rain, alleluia.

Collect O God, who made your people partakers in your redemption, grant, we pray, that we may perpetually render thanks for the Resurrection of the Lord. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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

Jesus said to his disciples, In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me. Some of his disciples said to one another, What does he mean by saying, 'In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father'? They kept asking, What does he mean by 'a little while'? We don't understand what he is saying. Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, 'In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me'? I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. (John 16: 16-20)

Joy There were two big events at the end of April, 2011. The first, and in terms of world media coverage the more prominent of the two, was the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in Westminster Abbey on April 29. The second was the beatification on May 1 of Pope John Paul II exactly six years after his death, with more than a million of the faithful attending in Rome. Both were occasions of great joy. Inasmuch as the royal wedding riveted the attention of vast numbers of various religions and none, the massive media coverage was of itself a great good. Great numbers of people saw portrayed before them the ceremony of a Christian marriage, and heard words that referred to God, Christ, and the vocation to Christian marriage. They heard an excellent homily preached for the occasion, and one can only presume that it was an occasion of grace for many people. Let us hope and pray that the marriage thus celebrated will provide an example to others in the future. The point I would highlight here, though, is that it was an occasion of joy. There was joy for the couple being married, and that joy consisted in the love and closeness they felt for one another. Marriage is a perennial cause of human joy, and it is a cause of joy for others to witness it, especially, of course, those most closely connected with the ones being married. The joy comes from love, from friendship, from human association, from relationships. The beatification of Pope John Paul II less than two days later in Rome was also the occasion of great joy, and the joy was due to the love for God which distinguished that modern Pope. Great numbers of people felt close to him — they felt they had been loved by him, and that he had brought the love of God to them. Again, the joy that was experienced had to do with love. So important is joy, so evident is its value, that there is a sense in which people would accept that if a person has found joy in life, a joy that endures, he has attained life’s goal. I am not speaking of mere pleasure, gratification, or “a good time.” I am speaking of joy, something which many, I suspect, are in danger of never possessing securely or to any marked degree.

In our Gospel today, our Lord promises joy to his disciples — it will be theirs when he is with them again. “Jesus said to his disciples, In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” Our Lord is clearly referring to his Passion, Death and Resurrection which is about to descend upon him. Very soon, they will not see him and then they will see him. They could not understand this, and this incomprehension harmonizes with what we read elsewhere in the Gospels. When, during his public ministry, our Lord referred to his having to suffer and die in order to enter his glory, we read that the disciples could not understand him. Despite his repeated warnings, it just did not sink in. Simon Peter on one occasion presumed to take our Lord aside and remonstrate with him about all this kind of talk. It was ridiculous, he thought. His intervention drew a powerful and public rebuke from our Lord. Still, they could not catch on — and here at the Last Supper, when the whole terrible course was about to be set in train, they still could not envisage what our Lord was trying to convey. So our Lord emphasises again what he has just said: they will soon be engulfed in grief for he will be gone, while “the world” will rejoice at his departure. Importantly, though — and this is the keynote of the passage — “You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy” (John 16: 16-20). Christ is promising a coming joy. Their grief will turn to joy because he will be back with them. That is the point to be kept in mind all through life, that joy is ours because Jesus Christ is with us. If joy comes to a couple who are being married, it is because they belong to one another till death. Their love, one for the other, is the cause of their joy. This is a sign, even in God’s own plan for man, of the love which he has for us, a love that is undying and always faithful. The truest source of human joy is the knowledge of the love of God for us, and this is revealed, embodied, made present and given to us in the person of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead. Whatever be our sorrows, if we are truly planted and grounded in the knowledge of the love of Jesus Christ, nothing will take away our joy to the very end. Come rack, come rope, joy will be ours, for nothing can separate us from the love of God which is given us in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:39).

At the Last Supper in his prayer to his heavenly Father, our Lord says that eternal life is this, knowing you, Father, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. This means knowing the love of the Father and of the Son, a love personified and given in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Love is the foundation of joy, and God means us to possess joy amid our broken world, joy to the very end amid the suffering that is inevitable because of the world’s sin. St Paul tells us to rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice! he says (Philippians 4:4). Well then, let this joy fill our lives!

Persevering work St Paul had little success among the Athenians. So he left for Corinth, and there began trying to convince the Corinthians of the truth of the Gospel. He held debates in the synagogues (18:4), trying to convert Jews as well as Greeks. In Athens, the Greeks had laughed at him. In Corinth it seems that most of the Jews insulted him. Some did not, and even the president of the synagogue converted. Thus began the Christian community of Corinth — and we have two of St Paul’s inspired Letters as a result. The Church of Corinth was due to the grace of God and Paul’s persistence despite opposition and difficulty. We are reminded of Peter telling Christ, both before and after his resurrection, that they had laboured all night and caught nothing. At our Lord’s word he cast out the net again and had a great catch. We must never allow weariness or a sense of futility to weaken our efforts on behalf of God in our daily work. We never know when or how God intends that our work in life will have its intended effect.

The important thing is to strive to know what God wants us to do, and to do it as well as we can out of love for him. The sanctification of our daily work is critically important for our own sanctification and for the sanctification of others. We may then safely leave the result to him.

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For each one of us, as for Lazarus, it was really a “come out!” which got us moving. How sad it is to see those who are still dead and do not know the power of God’s mercy! Renew your holy joy, for opposite the man who is decomposing without Christ, there is another who has risen with him.

Entrance Antiphon Rev 5: 9-10 You have redeemed us, Lord, by your Blood from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us into a kingdom, priests for our God, alleluia.

Collect O God, who restore us to eternal life in the Resurrection of Christ, raise us up, we pray, to the author of our salvation, who is seated at your right hand, so that, when our Savior comes again in majesty, those you have given new birth in Baptism may be clothed with blessed immortality. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

In regions where the Solemnity of the Ascension is celebrated on the following Sunday:

Hear our prayers, O Lord, so that what was promised by the sanctifying power of your Word may everywhere be accomplished through the working of the Gospel and that all your adopted children may attain what the testimony of truth has foretold. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever

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

Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no-one will take away your joy. In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. (John 16:20-23)

Suffering In our Gospel today, our Lord warns his disciples that “you will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.” So, suffering is coming to them. Let us for a moment consider the phenomenon of suffering in the universe, so as to understand its presence more clearly in the human being. The pain experienced by an animal is not, of course, the same experience as that of a human being. Consider the pain of animals — their “suffering” as we might call it. Most accept that it is not right for animals to be made to suffer Fr. Ted Tyler

without proper cause, and in any case most understand that a needless infliction of pain on animals brutalizes society itself. That having been said, the pain of an animal is a radically different phenomenon from the suffering of man. Fundamentally, the animal is but matter. It is endowed with awareness and often of a high order, but lacks any spiritual element in its awareness. It has a power of self-generated activity, but is not free. It acts instinctively, and not freely, in response to what it is aware of. The animal has no self-awareness, properly so called, and is aware only of objects external to itself. It responds to these objects of its awareness according to instinct, and it must act in accord with its instinct. Its instinct is a great endowment, and it protects it against threats of pain. Importantly, the animal has no consciousness of its being an independent Self. When it is in pain it is not conscious of its own Self as in pain — it is just caught up in its pain. It is aware of the pain because it is paining, but not aware if its own Self as paining. This constitutes a profound difference between the suffering of animal and man. Man is above all aware of his being an independent Self with inherent dignity, able to choose his path. An important component of man’s suffering is the fact that he is aware of his own Self precisely as suffering. Aware of the dignity of his own Self, he is aware that his suffering is contingent in the sense that, ultimately, it need not be. So his suffering, so undesirable, is all the more repulsive because he sees that his painful condition could be otherwise. Suffering debilitates his Self, it degrades him and leaves him ruined. The worst and most mysterious thing about the life of man is that he has to suffer. Suffering is a horror to him.

Of course, not all feel the revulsion towards the fact of suffering that some do. In his account of the history of his religious views (1864), John Henry Newman has a powerful passage on the effect on him of the sight of the evil and suffering of the world. “I look out of myself into the world of men, and there I see a sight which fills me with unspeakable distress... I look into this living busy world, and see no reflexion of its Creator ..... The sight of the world is nothing else than the prophet’s scroll, full of ‘lamentations, and mourning, and woe” (Apologia pro Vita Sua, ch.5, p.250). The general point here is that while all living things experience pain in the sense that they undergo trauma, attack and decline, in a superior sense it is man who “suffers.” Further, being conscious of the independent Self that he is, he is able to reflect on the fact of his suffering and on the higher purpose that his suffering may have. As man, he senses that this is part of his calling. He is called to suffer, and he senses that by suffering well, he will improve the world. He, then, can look on suffering in a different way to the rest of suffering creation. He need not simply endure it — he can see that it has its place in his work for a better world. He has the sense that, properly speaking, it has a higher place for his Self than something to be merely endured. By his suffering he can be a better person, and by it he can make the world a better place. Within this perspective, let us situate our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel (John 16:20-23). “Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.” The greatest example of human suffering is that of Jesus Christ, and he embraced it as being the plan of God for the salvation of the world. By his sufferings he took away the sin of the world, and made it possible for all things to become new. He is the archetypal Man whose sufferings brought joy to the world. If we unite ourselves to him, our sufferings will, as St Paul writes, fill up what is lacking in his sufferings (Colossians 1:24). Thus by our sufferings we become co-redeemers with Christ the one and only Redeemer, with Mary his Mother being the foremost co-redeemer with him who is the only Redeemer.

Suffering is the worst thing about existence. But in another sense, it is the best thing about existence, because we have learnt from the example of the Suffering Man of the ages, Jesus Christ, that it is the principal path to goodness and the doing of good. Just as we are called to do good, so we are called to suffer. The key to it is to suffer with the Suffering Servant who bore the sin of the world through his obedient suffering. Let us then resolve to share in the sufferings of Christ, so as to share in his Resurrection. As our Lord says, “Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no-one will take away your joy.”

Human respect Many years ago in my youth, I knew a priest who repeatedly spoke to us about the dangers of human respect. I did not appreciate his point at the time because I was very young, but I have since come to see that it is a very great danger indeed. In our passage from The Acts of the Apostles, our Lord says to St Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid to speak out.” Of course, we must be prudent and weigh well the circumstances we are in. But all too often the only reason why we do not speak out in witness to our faith is because we fear what people will think, not of the faith, but of us. We fear that people will lose respect for us, or even despise us. This can even be the case within our own family circle or relations, or in our workplace environment, and certainly within circles of the Church itself. We are governed by human respect.

Our Lord once said that if any man is ashamed of him before others, he will be ashamed of that man before his heavenly Father. Let us then pray for the courage and fortitude to bear daily witness to our faith, wherever there is a true opening. Let us not fear the loss of good opinion.

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Earthly affections, even when they aren’t just squalid concupiscence, usually involve some element of selfishness. So, though you must not despise those affections — they can be very holy — always make sure you purify your intention.

Entrance Antiphon Cf. 1 Pt 2: 9 O chosen people, proclaim the mighty works of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light, alleluia.

Collect O God, whose Son, at his Ascension to the heavens, was pleased to promise the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, grant, we pray, that, just as they received manifold gifts of heavenly teaching, so on us, too, you may bestow spiritual gifts. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

In regions where the Solemnity of the Ascension is celebrated on the following Sunday:

Constantly shape our minds, we pray, O Lord, by the practice of good works, that, trying always for what is better, we may strive to hold ever fast to the Paschal Mystery. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Although few people had as great an impact on the 20th century as Pope John XXIII, he avoided the limelight as much as Pope John XXIII

possible. Indeed, one writer has noted that his “ordinariness” seems one of his most remarkable qualities. The firstborn son of a farming family in Sotto il Monte, near Bergamo in northern Italy, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was always proud of his down-to-earth roots. In Bergamo’s diocesan seminary, he joined the Secular Franciscan Order. After his ordination in 1904, Angelo returned to Rome for canon law studies. He soon worked as his bishop’s secretary, Church history teacher in the seminary and as publisher of the diocesan paper. His service as a stretcher-bearer for the Italian army during World War I gave him a firsthand knowledge of war. In 1921 he was made national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith; he found time to teach patristics at a seminary in the Eternal City. In 1925 he became a papal diplomat, serving first in Bulgaria, then in Turkey and finally in France (1944-53). During World War II, he became well Pope John XXIII

acquainted with Orthodox Church leaders and with the help of Germany’s ambassador to Turkey, Archbishop Roncalli helped save an estimated 24,000 Jewish people. Named a cardinal and appointed patriarch of Venice in 1953, he was finally a residential bishop. A month short of entering his 78th year, he was elected pope, taking the name John, his father’s name and the two patrons of Rome’s cathedral, St. John Lateran. He took his work very seriously but not himself. His wit soon became proverbial and he began meeting with political and religious leaders from around the world. In 1962 he was deeply involved in efforts to resolve the Cuban missile crisis. His most famous encyclicals were Mother and Teacher (1961) and Peace on Earth (1963). Pope John XXIII enlarged the membership in the College of Cardinals and made it more international. At his address at the opening of the Second Vatican Council, he criticized the “prophets of doom” who “in these modern times see nothing but prevarication and ruin.” Pope John XXIII set a tone for the Council when he said, “The Church has always opposed... errors. Nowadays, however, the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity.” On his deathbed he said: “It is not that the gospel has changed; it is that we have begun to understand it better. Those who have lived as long as I have…were enabled to compare different cultures and traditions, and know that the moment has come to discern the signs of the times, to seize the opportunity and to look far ahead.” He died on June 3, 1963. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 2000 together with Pius IX.
In 1903, young Angelo wrote in his spiritual journal: “From the saints I must take the substance, not the accidents of their virtues. I am not St. Aloysius, nor must I seek holiness in his particular way, but according to the requirements of my own nature, my own character and the different conditions of my life. I must not be the dry, bloodless reproduction of a model, however perfect. God desires us to follow the examples of the saints by absorbing the vital sap of their virtues and turning it into our own life-blood, adapting it to our own individual capacities and particular circumstances. If St. Aloysius had been as I am, he would have become holy in a different way” (Journal of a Soul). (AmericanCatholic.com)

Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father. (John 16:23b-28)

Reading Scripture I remember watching a documentary film which was a journalist’s report of a Christian community somewhere in the United States. The journalist was able to participate in the prayer meetings of the community and interview its members at will, including during some of its prayer sessions. One of the distinctive traits of this community was that it professed to take the word of God, as written in Scripture, seriously and on faith. It refused to water it down, or to explain it away. One feature of the sacred text which they had fastened on to was the promise of Jesus that miracles would be able to be worked by those who lived by faith. In particular, I remember, they took literally the promise of Christ to his disciples in Mark 16, not only that they were to go to the whole world and preach the Gospel, but that “they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them” (Mark 16:18). The film showed members of this community engaged in a form of dance while at prayer, but holding serpents as well. The serpents were venomous, and deadly. Of course, with the movement of those holding them, the serpents became the more agitated. The film showed one person being struck by the serpent he was holding and the bite immediately began to tell. The venom was lethal and to the agitation of the one who was filming, the person just bitten began to fail. The journalist immediately called on others to assist and do something for the person who, in effect, was at the first stages of dying. The others did come to attend, but virtually refused to do anything about it because to do so would signal a lack of faith in the word and power of God. The man died before the eyes of all, and in full view of the filming — and all that those of the community who attended would say was that, well, it was a mystery. The Scripture could not be questioned, of course, so it was a mystery — and the mystery had to be accepted. They said this as the person was ending his life from snakebite. It was a tragic instance of religious “fundamentalism” — a narrow and totally inadequate notion of living by the fundamentals, in this case, faith alone and Scripture alone, sola fide and sola scriptura. In fact, they were imprisoned in their impossible notions.

“Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete” (John 16:23b-28). These are strong, consoling and wondrous words. Does it mean that whatever we choose to ask for in Christ’s name, we shall be always granted? Sacred Scripture is the word of God, but still, this word has to be interpreted in the light of other ways in which God also makes his will known. To begin with, the word of God as expressed in one text must be interpreted in the light of other texts of the same Scriptures. When the devil tempted Christ at the very beginning of his public ministry, he took him to the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here” — for as Scripture says, God’s angels will protect you entirely (Luke 4: 9-12). It was not unlike the suggestion that the one with faith take up serpents in his hands, for as Scripture says (as in Mark 16:18), believers will be able to do this. But our Lord replied to Satan, It is also written that you will not put God to any kind of test. One text of the Scriptures has to be interpreted in the light of other texts too. Even taking a particular text, one must be careful lest one interprets the text hastily and superficially. When our Lord tells his disciples to go out taking “no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff,” as in Matthew 10:10, was Christ intending this directive for all times and places in the Church’s future? Common sense and the Church’s Tradition would immediately suggest otherwise. Christ wrote not a word to be handed on — but he did create his Church. The Church is Christ’s direct creation, and empowered to shepherd the flock in Christ’s name. Christ’s will and teaching is made known also in the Church’s life and Tradition. There are other ways in which God makes his will known than in the mere text of Scripture, precious beyond words though that text is. This leads to a further point, that Nature too is the voice of God, for it is his creation — and reason and common sense is an aspect of Nature. Reason and common sense have a part to play in our understanding of what is revealed.

Let us live by the word of God. A principal channel of this divine word, this revealed truth, is Holy Scripture. It is not the only channel, though. God makes his word known to those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ his Son through Sacred Scripture, through the life and Tradition of his Church, and, to a point, through Nature that has come from his hand. It is the Church’s guidance which enables us to interpret these channels of divine Revelation properly. Let us, then, who are children of the Church which is Christ’s creation, look to her as our mother and guide.

Apollos and his conversion Our passage today introduces us to the figure of Apollos — St Paul refers to him in one of his Letters. He must have been an important figure in the infant Church because St Paul says in that Letter that some (of those to whom he was writing) were saying I am for Paul, others I am for Cephas, and others again, I am for Apollos. In our passage today (Acts 18:23-28) Apollos is described as an eloquent preacher with a sound knowledge of the Scriptures. However, though he preached accurately about Jesus, he did not have the fullness of the Church’s message about him. So two members of the Church took an interest in him and gave him further instruction in the Catholic Faith. He went on to do great work for Christ and his Church.

Let us learn from this. There are plenty of good people who love our Lord, who have a certain knowledge of him, who speak of him eloquently, but who do not have the fullness of Catholic Faith and Truth. Let us befriend them as did the two who took an interest in Apollos and shared the Faith with him. They may go on to do great good as members of Christ’s faithful.

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Don’t be anxious for people to sympathise with you. That is often a sign of pride or vanity.

At the Vigil Mass Entrance Antiphon Ps 68 (67): 33, 35 You kingdoms of the earth, sing to God; praise the Lord, who ascends above the highest heavens; his majesty and might are in the skies, alleluia.

Collect O God, whose Son today ascended to the heavens as the Apostles looked on, grant, we pray, that, in accordance with his promise, we may be worthy for him to live with us always on earth, and we with him in heaven. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

At the Mass during the Day Entrance Antiphon Acts 1: 11 Men of Galilee, why gaze in wonder at the heavens? This Jesus whom you saw ascending into heaven will return as you saw him go, alleluia.

Collect Gladden us with holy joys, almighty God, and make us rejoice with devout thanksgiving, for the Ascension of Christ your Son is our exaltation, and, where the Head has gone before in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who believe that your Only Begotten Son, our Redeemer, ascended this day to the heavens, may in spirit dwell already in heavenly realms. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Boniface, known as the apostle of the Germans, was an English Benedictine monk who gave up being elected abbot to devote his life to the conversion of the Germanic tribes. Two characteristics stand out: his Christian orthodoxy and his fidelity to the pope of Rome. St Boniface

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

Scripture today: Acts 1:1-11; Psalm Ps 47:2-3, 6-9; Ephesians 1:17-23; Matthew 28:16-20

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. Then they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:16-20)

The exaltation of Christ Today we think of our Lord ascending into heaven, to take his seat at the right hand of his heavenly Father. His Ascension crowned forty days in his risen life with many appearances in the flesh to his disciples. As St Luke tells us, “He had shown himself alive to them after his Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God. When he had been at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised.” There in Jerusalem, on Pentecost, they would be filled with the Holy Spirit. This period of forty days prior to his Ascension manifested in him the power of God. During his public ministry he had shown great power in his miracles. His power was shown in a different way in his Passion and Death — in his endurance to the limits of weakness and degradation. Now his disciples beheld before them the spectacle of One who was beyond the reach of suffering and death, in whom the power of God was operative as never before. In him God had conquered death, Satan, evil, sin, everything. In fact, our Lord told them that the whole power of God in heaven and on earth had actually been given to him. Risen from the dead, and possessed of the fulness of the divine power, he was manifestly God almighty — though not, of course, the Father. When Thomas saw him at last, he bowed down before him and said to him, my Lord and my God. When our Lord ascended into heaven, with his disciples watching, he was showing in a visual manner that his power and his position was equal to that of almighty God. He ascended into heaven to the acclaim of the highest heavens, there to sit at the right hand of his heavenly Father. In fact, he had promised this even in the presence of his enemies. In his Gospel, Luke narrates that during his great trial during his Passion, our Lord told the Sanhedrin that “Hereafter, the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God.” They knew what this implied, so they asked him directly — for then they would be able to pass his death-sentence — “Are you, then, the Son of God?” Yes, “You say that I am.”At that, they took him straight to Pilate for sentence by crucifixion (Luke 22: 69-71).

St Paul writes of the Ascension in terms of the power of God. The strength of God’s power was seen at work in Christ “when he used it to raise him from the dead and to make him sit at his right hand, in heaven, far above every Sovereignty, Authority, Power or Domination, or any other name that can be named, not only in this age but in the age to come” (Ephesians 1:20-21). He also refers to God handing all his power over to him as man: “He has put all things under his feet, and made him as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation” (Ephesians 1: 22). The Ascension of our Lord into heaven shows that though Jesus is man and one of us, he is the highest of the highest, equal to God the Father. The Ascension is a manifestation of who Jesus our Redeemer really is, and where he now is. The Gospel of St John does not refer to the Ascension as it is described in the Synoptic Gospels. But St John does climax his Gospel with the recognition and acknowledgment by Thomas of Christ’s divinity. He is equal to Yahweh — in fact, he is Yahweh. “My Lord and my God!” Thomas says. It is a recognition of Christ’s exaltation. It is, in effect, a recognition by Thomas of Christ’s having ascended to the right hand of God, which John implies when on the morning of the Resurrection our Lord says that he is ascending to his Father: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, my God and your God” (John 20:17). Our Brother and Redeemer is at the Father’s right hand as his very equal, to be our Brother still, interceding for us directly with the Father. He is our Lord and our God. Let us remember that all this happened by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord became man in the first place by the power of the Holy Spirit. He exercised his ministry by the power of the Holy Spirit. He offered himself up on the cross as Victim by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, and he ascended to the right hand of the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Ascension manifests not only the divinity of Jesus Christ and his equality with the Father, but also the activity and power of the Holy Spirit, who would be sent to the infant Church soon after.

Today as we think of our Lord ascending into heaven, let us think of his unique and exalted position. He is not simply a great religious founder, nor simply the greatest of them. He is our Brother, our Redeemer and our God, there at the right hand of the Father continually representing us. From his exaltation he pours into our hearts a share in his own divine Spirit. By the gift of his Holy Spirit we are enabled to follow him closely and to be gradually transformed into his image at the deepest level of our being. Let us then take up the work of seeking sanctity by the close following of the Master, seated at the right hand of God.

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Whenever you speak of the theological virtues of faith, of hope, of love, remember that they are first of all virtues to be practised rather than to be speculated on.

At the Mass during the Day Entrance Antiphon: Wis 1: 7 The Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world and that which contains all things understands what is said, alleluia.

Romans 5: 5; cf. 8: 11 The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Spirit of God dwelling within us, alleluia.

Collect: O God, who by the mystery of today's great feast sanctify your whole Church in every people and nation, pour out, we pray, the gifts of the Holy Spirit across the face of the earth and, with the divine grace that was at work when the Gospel was first proclaimed, fill now once more the hearts of believers. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Acts 2:1-11; Psalm Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you! After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. (John 20:19-23)

The Spirit of God On Pentecost Sunday we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the infant Church, and through the Church to each of the Church’s members. When we set St Luke’s account of Pentecost in The Acts of the Apostles against the whole sweep of Scripture, it is plain that the event involved an altogether special coming of God the Holy Spirit to his people. God came to Moses in the Burning Bush. He came to his people when he took them through the Red Sea from the pursuing Egyptians. He came to his people on Mount Sinai and gave them the Covenant. He came to David, when, having been anointed by Samuel, the Spirit of the Lord fell upon him (1 Samuel 16:13). He came to his people when speaking through various of his prophets. Pentecost was a special culmination of these comings of God to his people, in the infant Church gathered in the Upper Room of Jerusalem. Thirty-three years earlier there had been the coming of God to his people when the Word was made flesh, an event momentous though unnoticed except for a few specially chosen, such as the shepherds and the Magi. Now at Pentecost there was this further divine coming, not of God the Son, but of the third divine Person, God the Holy Spirit. Just as the prophets had foretold the coming of the Messiah, so the Messiah promised the coming of the Holy Spirit — a promise prefigured in various of the prophecies, such as Joel 3:1. At the Last Supper Christ called him the Advocate — the other Defender — the Spirit of truth. “When the Advocate comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who issues from the Father, he will be my witness” (John 15:26). Our Lord had taught them about himself, about the Father, and about the saving plan of God. But they needed life and light and power from God if the word of Christ was to be grasped and to have its effect in them. “I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself but will say only what he has learnt, since all he tells you will be taken from what is mine” (John 16:12-15).

So important was this coming of the Holy Spirit, that our Lord told his disciples that unless he returned to the Father, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, would not come to them. He was saying in effect that it was critically important that the Spirit of truth come, or, despite all he had done and suffered, little would be achieved. If there was to be any life in what he had planted in his disciples and in the foundation of the Kingdom he had laid, the Holy Spirit must come and act. What came to the Church with the coming of the Holy Spirit was life! At Pentecost the Church was born to a new life. It saw the light of day and began to grow in strength. With this life came light. The light of God, involving conviction and understanding, filled the hearts of the Apostles and the Church’s members, and they immediately began to do what Christ had said to Pilate was his mission: to bear witness to the truth, the truth being the truth of Christ. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost shows to every generation that the Spirit of God, who is the Lord and giver of life, brings life and light to the Church and the Church’s members. At the beginning of his Gospel (1:4-5), John says that “whatever came to be” in the Word “found life, life for the light of men.” That life and that light which was to be found in the Word made flesh, was the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to give him to us. Long before, the prophet Ezechiel (ch.37) saw a vision of a valley full of bones, a vision of death. Then suddenly breath entered the bones and they began to be covered with skin and flesh and sinews, and they stood up, an immense army. They had come to life through the power of God’s Spirit. It is sin that brings death, and the taking away of sin means life. The most immediate and life-giving effect of the coming of the Holy Spirit is the forgiveness of sin. At our Lord’s meeting with his disciples of the day of his Resurrection, he breathed on them and gave them a share in his Holy Spirit — and with that he endowed them with power to forgive sin. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven” (John 20:19-23).

Let us learn to recognise the action of the Spirit of God in our life so as to be able to cooperate with him. Too often we scarcely advert to his presence within us. He is a neglected guest. Let us ever remember that he abides with us. He is there as our friend, teacher, counsellor, guide, defender, and above all our sanctifier. Remembering him, let us cultivate a love for him, for he is our God. Let us be alert to his promptings. He will enlighten us about Jesus, inspire us to follow him generously, and give us the strength to do so more and more heroically. Let us not make him sad by deliberate sin, and let us pray to him daily, Come! Come, O Holy Spirit!

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Whenever you speak of the theological virtues of faith, of hope, of love, remember that they are first of all virtues to be practised rather than to be speculated on.

Entrance Antiphon Acts 1: 8 You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you, and you will be my witnesses, even to the ends of the earth, alleluia.

Collect May the power of the Holy Spirit come to us, we pray, O Lord, that we may keep your will faithfully in mind and express it in a devout way of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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

The disciples said to Jesus, Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God. You believe at last! Jesus answered. But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:29-33)

Knowing all No-one ever, at the time of Abraham himself or at any point thereafter, thought that Abraham knew all things. Such an idea, for all our veneration for that great father of ours in faith, would be laughable. There was a great deal in his life that profoundly perplexed him, but he went forward as a hero of faith in God’s word to him. Similarly, none of the Patriarchs ever was thought of as knowing all things. When Moses was commanded by God to return to Pharaoh and direct that he be allowed to take his people out, he had no idea how to do this. He would have to be led by God. Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezechiel, the minor prophets such as Hosea, and the Maccabees — none of the great and holy persons of the Old Testament were such as to be said to know all things. They would all have responded, as would have the entire chosen people, that God alone knows all things. None of the great philosophers of classical times would have claimed to know all things, and no person would have claimed that they did. I suppose the nearest notion in classical philosophy to One who has knowledge of all things is Aristotle’s Pure Act — a principle explaining a moving, changing universe — who is intellect and self-thinking thought. If we take any of the great founders of the religions of man — say, Mahomet, or Buddha, or Zoroaster, or Confucius (if he can be regarded as properly religious) — there has never been any claim that any one of these persons knew all things. Take any of the greatest of thinkers, be they philosophers, theologians, whatever — say, St Albert the Great who was great because of his encyclopaedic knowledge — never is such a claim made of any of them. This is almost self-evident. Ah! but there is one exception, and it appears in our Gospel today. The disciples say to our Lord: “Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions” (John 16:29-33). Jesus Christ knew all things — any positive judgment he made, and any positive teaching he gave, was utterly free of any error. This was because he was divine, and it revealed that he was divine.

Of course, there are aspects of the Incarnation which make Christ’s omniscience and inerancy difficult to grasp, perhaps even impossible. He was truly man, and therefore there is a true sense in which he grew in knowledge. St Luke specifically tells us that “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52). So, in his human nature and character he had greater “wisdom” than he had as a two year-old. We can pin-point certain occasions in the Gospel when our Lord was content to remain in a certain “ignorance,” as we might call it, of some things. For instance, when he was making his way to the synagogue official’s house to heal his daughter, a woman silently amid the pressing crowds touched his garment and was cured. Instantly our Lord stopped, and asked who touched him. Mysteriously, he was aware that he had healed someone, but was content briefly to be in ignorance of who it was and to seek that information in usual ways. That is to say, he was content to learn the facts of the case in a human fashion — by asking about it. But he was not in any positive error about it. He made no positively erroneous judgment. In respect to anything Christ intended to know, judge or teach, he was never in error and could never be in error. In him, it was a divine Person who intended to know, judge or teach something. Supremely was this the case in respect to anything directly or indirectly to do with his proper mission which was to redeem the world from sin and reconcile it to God. For instance, I have come across statements which speak of Christ “losing his life” — that he was finally arrested and executed, and that circumstances overtook him. This is profoundly erroneous, and the Gospels take pains to show the full foreknowledge of Jesus Christ and his personal choice in submitting to his death for the salvation of the world. It is all an aspect of his omniscience, a quality proper to God alone. As the disciples make clear, at the Last Supper they had a glimpse of Christ’s divine omniscience — he knew all things. There is this too — that the unique profundity of the mysteries of Christianity, with their origin in Jesus Christ, shows his omniscience. There has been one person in history who has known all things, and that person is Jesus of Nazareth.

Let us, though, bring this down to the concrete reality of each of us. Christ’s omniscience, his knowing all things, means that he knows all things about me. I can trust him. He knows everything. Everything is in his hands. He knows where I have come from, he has known me from all eternity, and has chosen me from all eternity. He has his plan for me, and has a place allotted for me in heaven. How terrible it would be not to reach that place! Let each of us trust him, then! Let each of us resolve to know, love and serve him here on earth so as to see and enjoy him forever in heaven.

Be brave! There are many things that can depress us in life and lead us to abandon difficult work. That difficult work could be work on ourselves and on our defects. It could be the work of our profession or workplace. It could be the work entailed in being part of the family we have, or the wider family circle. If we intend to complete well the work we have been given in life, there will be difficulties. Our Lord tells us that we are to be brave in the face of difficulties, and he assures us that he has conquered the world. This victory was manifest in his rising from the dead — which is what we celebrate in the Easter season. Thus risen, nothing now could touch him, for all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him.

In taking up our tasks of each day — which should be a participation in Christ’s mission according to the vocation God has given us — we ought be filled with the awareness that Christ our Leader has won the victory. Let us then begin again. Now I begin!

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Is there something in your life that does not suit your dignity as a Christian, something which makes you unwilling to be cleansed? Examine your conscience, and change.

Entrance Antiphon Rev 1: 17-18 I am the first and the last, I was dead and am now alive. Behold, I am alive for ever and ever, alleluia.

Collect Grant, we pray, almighty and merciful God, that the Holy Spirit, coming near and dwelling graciously within us, may make of us a perfect temple of his glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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

After Jesus said this, he looked towards heaven and prayed: Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify Shroud of Turin

you. For you granted him authority over all mankind that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. (John 17:1-11a)

The glory of God One of the most notable gains of modern civilization, largely due to the intellectual drive of the West, is the general mastery of facts. The interest of modern man is in facts, and his strength is in knowing them. He wants to know the reality of things, and to distinguish this sharply from imaginative depictions of reality — as in, say, myths. The roots of this intellectual and cultural bent lie, we could say, in Greek philosophy piercing beyond what is mythic to what really is the case — the instrument being the reason rather than the imagination. It is also due to the assertion of Judaeo-Christian revelation that the world is not the arbitrary plaything of the gods, but is the creation of the one God who in creating embeds laws. The world is rational and has the stability of law, thus making it open to investigation. By contrast, man has usually thought in myths rather than in a strictly rational fashion. The world has been explained imaginatively rather than scientifically. There are advantages in both. Myth will typically express a world view whereas a scientific approach is in danger of having no world view. Be all this as it may, the point I wish to emphasise here is that the modern mind, borne along by the Western emphasis, is interested in hard facts. It is empirical, and tends to confine reality to that which can be tested empirically. It discounts myth — but as just said, this can easily result in a lack of any perception of objective meaning in the facts of life and the universe. All that is seen in life and the world are facts, and the facts are not perceived as carrying any special meaning. You make what you can of it, and more importantly, what you choose to make of it. You also make of yourself what you like. We see a form of this in the thought of Jean-Paul Satre, who spoke of man as being “condemned to be free.” Since there is no Creator, there is no objective “plan” for man. Man has no objective “essence” which could be said to precede, at least in idea, his existence. That is to say, there is no specific human nature — each man is fully responsible for, and free to construct, the kind of being that he becomes. The basic thing is that he exists — his essence is his own creation. This “existentialism” is, I think, a derivative of an exclusive emphasis on mere facts. Any meaning man chooses to give to them is the result of his own choice. The world as such does not contain “meaning.” All this is one serious downside of the discounting of “myth.”

A philosophy such as that of Satre is profoundly revolting. We demand to know the objective meaning of things, and refuse to think that fundamentally all there is, is the mere existence of things. There are not just facts, the facts before us on which we impose whatever meaning we choose. We are convinced that the world has some meaning, some purpose, an objective nature, which if allowed to flourish will bring fulfilment to all. This conviction that there is real and objective meaning to life leads man to ask, what is the purpose of things? — which is to ask more than what is the purpose of my own life. We wonder what is the purpose of the world, of the universe, of all things, be they seen or unseen. This is not merely an intellectual question, for we experience within ourselves a constant sense of obligation to do what is objectively right and good. If my marriage has an objective purpose and meaning, and not simply one that I decide for it, then this objective fact will profoundly affect what I perceive to be my moral obligations. All this is to say that my conscience will be shaped by what I perceive to be, or, by contrast, what I arbitrarily choose to be, the meaning of things. Well, into all this questioning comes the Good News of Divine Revelation. God has revealed the meaning of the universe, of my own life, and of all things that are, be they seen and unseen. The meaning of it all is that God may be honoured and glorified. The purpose of everything is the glory of God — that he be honoured and glorified. It is this to which our Lord refers in our Gospel today, which is drawn from his great prayer to his heavenly Father, offered up during the Last Supper and reported for us in the Gospel of St John (John 17:1-11a). Christ prays that the Father will glorify him, so that he may glorify the Father: “After Jesus said this, he looked towards heaven and prayed: Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” Our Lord continues, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” The purpose of creation is to give glory to God. The sin of man was a great refusal to give him glory, and the Son of God became man to reverse this and to render perfect glory to God on our behalf. And there we have it.

The meaning of life, the meaning of the world, the meaning of all things be they seen or unseen, is to give glory to God. St Ignatius Loyola coined a famous phrase that sums up the quest for goodness, which is the moral imperative perceived by the conscience. That phrase was, All for the greater glory of God: Ad maiorem Dei gloriam. Ignatius goes further than, all for the glory of God. Rather, his wording is, all for the greater glory of God. Our lives, founded on the love that God has for us, ought be impelled by a loving desire to give greater and greater glory to God by following more and more generously in the footsteps of Jesus Christ his Son. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit! As it was in the beginning, is now, and forever!

Being led by the Holy Spirit When our Lord spoke to his disciples at the Last Supper about the coming of the Holy Spirit, it was obvious from his very language that the Holy Spirit would deal with them as would a real person, and not just as some force. He would be their defender, their teacher, their Sanctifier, the one who would bear witness to Jesus and who would help them to bear witness to Jesus. We who have received the Holy Spirit all too often fail to treat Him as a real person. We carry on as if he was not around, and not within us. But as we read in The Acts of the Apostles, he was very active and personal in leading the Church’s members in the work of evangelisation and in how and where to evangelise. In today’s passage from The Acts St Paul tells the Christians of Ephesus that “the Holy Spirit, in town after town, has made it clear enough that imprisonment and persecution await me.”

As a first step in being guided by the Holy Spirit we ought consciously advert to the fact that he dwells within us if we are in the state of grace. Then we ought cultivate a personal devotion to him, trying to be sensitive to his promptings, especially in our conscience.

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Take a good look at the way you behave. You will see that you are full of faults that harm you and perhaps also those around you. Remember, my child, that microbes may be no less a menace than wild beasts. Just as bacteria are cultivated in a laboratory, so you are cultivating those faults and those errors, with your lack of humility, with your lack of prayer, with your failing to fulfil your duty, with your lack of self-knowledge. Those tiny germs then spread everywhere. You need to make a good examination of conscience every day. It will lead you to make definite resolutions to improve, because it will have made you really sorry for your shortcomings, omissions, and sins.

Entrance Antiphon Ps 47 (46): 2 All peoples, clap your hands. Cry to God with shouts of joy, alleluia.

Collect Graciously grant to your Church, O merciful God, that, gathered by the Holy Spirit, she may be devoted to you with all her heart and united in purity of intent. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

A disputed election as archbishop of York and a mysterious death. Those are the headlines from the tragic life of today's saint. Born into a powerful family in 12th-century England, William seemed destined for great things. His uncle was St William of York

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

sus raised his eyes to heaven and said, Holy Father, keep true to your name those you have given to me so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them I kept true to your name those whom you gave me. I have watched over them so that none has been lost except the son of perdition, in fulfilment of the Scriptures. I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I dedicate myself, that they too may be dedicated in the truth. (John 17:11b-19)

The Truth There are many things that man lives by in his desire for happiness. That is to say, there are many things he needs if he is to flourish. He has to have material means, and so he must work for his living. He needs to be able to work in order to gain the food, clothing and shelter he needs for himself and those whom he loves. He needs friends — it is a serious business if he loses all his friends by death, or by their turning away from him. When Christ announced the doctrine of the Eucharist in the Synagogue of Capernaum, many of his disciples left him — he lost a lot of friends. One of his closest companions, one of the Twelve, turned away from him to hand him over to his enemies. It caused profound sorrow of soul to our Lord. Another need of man if he is to flourish is education — he certainly needs to be educated sufficiently to have the skills he needs for life. In a sense, many of these needs are those of the animal world too — they are not distinctive to man except in their distinctive nature and form. An animal needs to be able to “work” — using the word analogously. That is to say, it needs to be able to take steps and act in order to gain its sustenance and build its shelter. It needs its “friends” — wild dogs live in packs, lions live in their prides, wild buffalo, elephants and other species of animals roam in their herds, birds fly in their flocks. Some animals and birds do not, but generally there is some parallel in their existence to nature’s need for bonding and company. It is a dim reflection or imprint of the Trinitarian life of the Creator. However, there is a need that is absolutely distinct to man, a need that distinguishes him from all other living things that share needs with him — and that need is for the truth. Man needs the “truth” if he is to flourish in his best self. He needs to seek the truth and he needs in important respects to know it. It is no surprise that our Lord, the Saviour of the world, described himself as the Truth — I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, he said. He described his mission in this world in terms of the Truth: for this was I born, he told Pilate, to bear witness to the Truth, and those who are of the Truth listen to my voice.

One of the things which the Gospel of St John reports, and which without that Gospel we may never have known, is that our Lord placed the “Truth” at the centre of his message and his preaching. It came from him, and John, the author of the Gospel, learnt the message well. I have not researched a comparison between the Johannine notion of “truth” — which is to say, Christ’s use of this term as in the Gospel of St John — and the notion of truth in Classical thought. While Greek philosophy understood itself as a love for wisdom or truth, I suspect that one difference between its notion, and the notion of “truth” in Christ’s teaching, is that the latter had an essentially moral bearing. That is to say, the “truth” in Christian revelation has a sovereignty over man. He feels imperiously called by his conscience to seek the truth, and when he discovers it, he feels bound to submit to its demands. It is a very moral matter. Yet all the while he is aware that he is free. He is obligated to seek and submit to the truth, and yet paradoxically there is no necessity compelling him to do so. I doubt that this was perceived to be the case in Classical thought — at least not to the extent that it is in Christ’s teaching and in Christian thought. Further, not only is man subject to the truth by the law of his conscience, but the truth is life-giving when he does so submit. He flourishes when he freely submits to the truth, and lives by it. I suspect that in Classical thought, there was lacking a sense that there had to be a thoroughgoing and profoundly moral submission to the truth. For Classical thought, seeking the truth was a grand adventure, and something of a conquest when attained. It was a personal accomplishment, an attainment, and even something of a sport, degenerating at times into a cultural pastime. In the teaching of Jesus Christ, the Truth was a source not only of deep intellectual satisfaction and even practical use as in technology, but of moral worth — provided the subject bowed before it and not merely conquered it. The Truth would make him good, and, yes, it could sanctify him. The principal reason for this is that in the Christian revelation the Truth stood forth not as an abstraction, not as a principle of reality as comprehended by the human mind, but as a living, concrete Person. Christ is the Truth.

In our Gospel today (John 17:11b-19), our Lord prays to his heavenly Father asking that he “sanctify” his disciples by the truth. “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I dedicate myself, that they too may be dedicated in the truth.” The truth is the word of God, and Jesus Christ is that Word become flesh. He is the Truth, as he is the Way and the Life. Ultimately the Truth is very concrete: it is God, and specifically, Jesus Christ. Eternal life is to know the Father, and Jesus Christ whom he sent. It is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who takes us to this Truth. Let us live by it, then!

Be on guard In the history of Christianity heresy has loomed large from the beginning. During the 2000 years of the Church’s history there have been periods when heresy has dominated the life of the Church. The fourth century of the Church, so wracked by the heresy of Arius, spawned vast sects even beyond the Church. Other heresies and schisms saw the light of day, and so it has been down the centuries. A sad feature of this has been that many heresies have arisen from the rebellion of the Church’s clergy. We think of Arius, Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, and many others. St Paul speaks of this in today’s first reading from The Acts of the Apostles. Addressing the elders of the church of Ephesus, he warns that “even from your own ranks there will be men coming forward with a travesty of the truth on their lips to induce the disciples to follow them.” To the elders, St Paul gives the remedy: “Be on your guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you the overseers, to feed the Church of God which he bought with his own blood.”

Let us be on our guard against any travesty of the truth. We must listen to the teaching of the Church, especially as given by the Successor of St Peter. Let us love him, pray for him, and above all listen to him and be moulded by his guidance and his teaching.

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Almighty God, Omnipotent and Infinitely Wise, had to choose his mother. What would you have done, if you had had to choose yours? I think that you and I would have chosen the mother we have, filling her with all graces. That is what God did: and that is why, after the Blessed Trinity, comes Mary. Theologians have given a rational explanation for her fulness of grace and why she cannot be subject to the devil: it was fitting that it should be so, God could do it, therefore he did it. That is the great proof: the clearest proof that God endowed his Mother with every privilege, from the very first moment. That is how she is: beautiful, and pure, and spotless in soul and body!

Entrance Antiphon Heb 4: 16 With boldness let us approach the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace as a timely help, alleluia.

Collect May your Spirit, O Lord, we pray, imbue us powerfully with spiritual gifts, that he may give us a mind pleasing to you and graciously conform us to your will. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Poet, teacher, orator and defender of the faith, Ephrem is the only Syrian recognized as a doctor of the Church. He took upon himself the special task of opposing the many false doctrines rampant at his time, always remaining a true and St Ephrem the Syrian

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

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

Scripture today: Acts 22:30; 23:6-11; Psalm 16:1-2a and 5, 7-11; John 17:20-26

Jesus prayed, My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them Shroud of Turin

may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. (John 17:20-26)

Unity In February 2007, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney — an intelligent and learned man — was interviewed on Australian ABC Television by Kerry O’Brien. The topic of discussion was unity with the See of Rome. It was occasioned by a London Times news report that the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches were close to embracing a proposal for unity. This hearsay was based on what was rumoured to be the contents of a report from the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, a body formed some years earlier. The report proposed, the gossip went, a number of measures that would set the Anglican Church on the path towards unity with the Catholic Church under the Pope. Despite this speculation being discounted by senior officials of the Commission, the media talk continued because of The London Times report. What was interesting was the Archbishop’s views on Christian unity. He could never imagine a day, this side of Heaven, when the two Churches would be united as one Church — in Heaven they would be, but not before. This was because, he declared, Churches are “just big institutions, denominations.” These big institutions are not “the real Church. There's one real Church that all Christians now belong to and although there is some use in, perhaps, denominational mergers from time to time, I don't really see any need for the churches to unite in that way.” He went on to say that it is impossible that the Anglican Church accept one central authority, the Pope — and this is because there is one head of the Church, and that head is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the head, not the Pope — and that is why a merger is impossible. All such discussion is a complete waste of time. He would prefer to say to Catholics — you become Anglicans. “We do have one central authority, that's the Bible. What we have is a lot of people who interpret the Bible, which is perfectly right. Each of us is accountable for interpreting the Bible. That's our central authority. Now, that is the way that God rules his Church. That leads to all sorts of differences of opinion. It is called Protestantism, and I'm actually in favour of it. I think it's a good thing in the modern world.”

Let us leave aside the question of the Archbishop’s theology of the Church and the Bible, and the likelihood and possibility of a sacred Book being the “central authority” whereby God could rule his Church. The Archbishop immediately allowed that such a system leads to all sorts of differences of opinion — and he did not seem to set any limits to the possible differences. Let us simply observe, what he admitted, that this obviously excludes the possibility of a visible Christian unity this side of the grave. All that is possible is the personal, private acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as one’s “head” and as the “head of the Church,” together with a personal set of opinions as to what he has revealed — a body of views which various others who also acknowledge Christ as “head of the Church” may or may not agree with. When it comes down to it, the Christian unity for which Christ prayed so ardently, so openly, so explicitly, is an impossible dream. It is like the dream of Don Quixote. But further, unity is impossible not merely because the differences of conscientious opinion are insuperable, but because it was not the divine plan anyway. But the text shows that this view must be wrong. Christ prayed for a visible unity, a unity of Church, embracing all his disciples. If we wish to understand Christ’s vision for his Church, and how we are to interpret his prayer, let us consider the body he actually founded. Did he permit, or encourage a situation involving say, his own Twelve — and then as well as this, other bodies of disciples with their own notions and plans, operating apart from the Twelve? The idea is absurd. The infant Church was united around the Twelve, with Mary the mother of Christ in their midst. Peter was the Rock on which Christ declared that he would build his Church. Christ founded but one Church. This was what came into being at Pentecost with the structure our Lord had given to it by divine intention. But the inherent and ever-imminent danger was of disunity. As Christ’s prayer makes abundantly clear, division and disunity make it difficult to bring the world to believe that he came from God (John 17:20-26).

The will of Jesus Christ is that all his disciples be one in a visible unity, a unity that is seen by the world, a unity which when seen, will convince the world that the Father sent him, and that the Father has loved us, even as he has loved Jesus himself. The very mission of Jesus Christ, a mission passed on to the Apostles on the evening of the day he rose from the dead, requires that we strive to do our best to move forward Christian unity. Let us leave to the power of the Holy Spirit the impossible task that this appears to constitute, for all things are possible to God.

The Christian sense of humour A sense of humour is important in both human life and in the Christian life. I refer to the ability to see what we might call the funny side, especially in the midst of difficulty. I am sure that our Lord himself often displayed a sense of humour. On one occasion he told his hearers not to be intent on getting the splinter out of their brother’s eye when they have a plank already in their own. I am sure that metaphor brought on peals of laughter, with our Lord smiling as he said it — perhaps laughing too. In our passage today from The Acts (23:6-11), St Luke tells us that when Paul was placed by the tribune virtually on trial before the members of the Sanhedrin he, Paul, saw that it was made up of Sadducees and Pharisees. These two groups held opposite views on the matter of the resurrection. He turned this to his advantage. He announced that it was because of the hope of the resurrection that he was on trial. This provoked a heated debate between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and Paul ended up being defended by the Pharisees as having possibly received a revelation from an angel on the matter! The scene is an amusing one to imagine, and it must have caused amusement when St Paul related it to his friends over the years. It appears here in Luke’s Acts of the Apostles. It is not the only example in that inspired work of a humourous perspective on moments of great difficulty.

In the course of life there are numerous difficulties in the path of the Christian, indeed of any person. The memory of injustices can be allowed to engulf one’s vision of life, and this will be profoundly debilitating. What will greatly assist is the development of the power to stand back and view another side — what we might call the amusing side of situations of difficulty. It is a habit of mind which is can be fostered by repeated attempts. The load will then be lighter, and one’s strength will be preserved for higher trials. Let the Christian cultivate a sense of humour, especially in moments of difficulty.

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Is this how it is? You are longing for the victory, the end of the struggle ... but it doesn’t come! Thank God, as if you had already gained what you are seeking, and offer him your feelings of impatience: the faithful man will sing the joys of victory.

Entrance Antiphon Rev 1: 5-6 Christ loved us and washed us clean of our sins by his Blood, and made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father, alleluia.

Collect O God, who by the glorification of your Christ and the light of the Holy Spirit have unlocked for us the gates of eternity, grant, we pray, that, partaking of so great a gift, our devotion may grow deeper and our faith be strengthened. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Born into an aristocratic family in Barcelona, Spain, Joachima was 12 when she expressed a desire to become a Carmelite nun. But Bl Joachina

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

Scripture today: Acts 25:13b-21; Psalm 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20ab; John 21:15-19

hen they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these? Yes, Lord, he said, you know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my lambs. Again Jesus said, Simon son of John, do you truly love me? He answered, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, Take care of my sheep. The third time he said to him, Simon son of John, do you love me? Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, Do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, Follow me! (John 21:15-19)

He wants our love One of the most astonishing features of the Christian religion is that man finds himself seated with his Lord and God, who is asking for his love. But commonly we take all this for granted. God treats man with an extraordinary dignity, and our Gospel today portrays this. The group of Apostles — John gives us the names of some of them — have been out fishing all night. They caught nothing, but then as dawn was breaking Jesus called to them from the shore, directing them to a huge catch. At this, they made their way to the shore, Simon Peter leading the way as he walked ahead in the water. On the shore, Jesus had prepared breakfast for them. Jesus! We ought never get used to the thought of Jesus. Our Lord once said during his public ministry that a prophet is never without honour except in his own country — in other words, that familiarity all too easily leads to contempt. We can get very used to the thought of Jesus, and Jesus can become a mere thought rather than the living, divine Reality that he is. There he was, on the shore, with breakfast prepared for his friends. He was man, man just as much as they, but in the first instance he was divine. He was a divine Person, and in him dwelt the fulness of the godhead bodily. The entire divine Being was present in this man Jesus of Nazareth, which is to say that he was the great God himself. There was nothing of the Being of God which was not present and to be found in the person of Jesus — which is not to say that he was the only Person who was God. He was not the Father, nor was he the Holy Spirit — he was the Son. But his was the fulness of the divine Being, and in gazing on this Man a person gazed on the living God. He was the Jewel of the universe, in his divinity boundlessly transcending the universe in wealth of being. There he was, on the shore, early in the morning, cooking fish for breakfast on a charcoal fire. One of the astonishing features of the Christian religion is that man finds himself seated with his God, who asks for his love. In Jesus Christ, God asks Simon if he loves him. He asks it three times, and makes it clear to Peter that this is how he is to view his future life.

We can appreciate this a little more when we think of the great concourse of men and women in history who have not known Jesus Christ, or knowing of him have not understand that he is the living God. If one is intelligent and well-educated, one may visualize the Ultimate in terms of pure Actuality without any need or possibility of change. The Ultimate is boundless Being. Such a view — exalted and philosophically correct — would scarcely capture the heart of man. Nor does it involve a radically different relationship with the Ultimate, in that God is still remote. In the main, outside of the Judeo-Christian revelation and those religions profoundly influenced by it (such as Islam), God is perceived as distant — and this is to be expected because of his utter transcendence. Various devices are employed to overcome this distance, and the multitude of religious rites and myths bear witness to man’s yearning for communion with whatever is the Beyond, whatever is the Explanation, whatever is the Source, whatever is the final End. But God has answered the quest of man by being discovered in his midst as one of themselves. There he is on the shore, among a few of his friends, risen from the dead, having gone through the great redemptive trial, the like of which has never been experienced by any other. There he is on the shore! He, the one God before whom all other “gods” are nothing, converses with his creatures with respect and love. He has become man, has suffered for all his brothers and sisters of human history, and he asks us one by one for our love. Receiving the promise of love, he gives a share in his work. “When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these? Yes, Lord, he said, you know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my lambs. Again Jesus said, Simon son of John, do you truly love me? He answered, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, Take care of my sheep. The third time he said to him, Simon son of John, do you love me? Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, Do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my sheep” (John 21:15-19).

Every day in the life of each one of us, Jesus Christ, true God and true man, our Brother and our Redeemer, asks us if we truly love him. This is the one thing which he desires of us, that we love him who is our God. It is to be a love that accepts totally what he has revealed. It is a love that accepts totally the Church he established on the Rock which was Peter, to whom he gave the charge of feeding his lambs, feeding his sheep. In a word, it is a love that shows itself in obedience to his will. If you love me, you will keep my commands. Let us place ourselves on the shore of the Lake, in the midst of the group gathered around our Lord, and listen to him as he asks each of us if we love him. Yes, you do? Then share in my mission. Feed my sheep!

Love for the person of Jesus Among the many distinctive things about the Christian religion is one that appears in our Lord’s words to Simon Peter in today’s Gospel passage. As far as I am aware, the great founders of the non-Christian religions did not demand of their followers then nor in perpetuity that they, their own persons, be the object of their disciples’ love. Their disciples presumably did love them, but those founders did not see that love as essential to their religions. What was essential was the acceptance of their doctrines. Now, of course our Lord requires total acceptance of his doctrine as the truth that comes from God. But he also requires that his disciples love him personally, and with a total love. His own person is the object of his teaching, together with all that is connected with his person. As we read in our passage (John 21:15-19) Our Lord requires of Simon Peter that he love him, indeed more than the other disciples — which implies that he required of the other disciples that they love him too. Through Simon as his chief representative our Lord asks each of us to love him personally with all our heart.

This all stands to reason, for if we must love God with all our heart and being, and if Jesus is God — as he is, then we will love Jesus with all our mind, heart, soul and being. Let us then resolve to do this daily, and by the grace of God grow in the perfection of this love.

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There are moments in which you are deprived of that union with Our Lord which enabled you to pray continually, even when you were asleep. You seem almost to be wrestling with God’s Will. It is your weakness, as you well know. Love the Cross. Love the fact that you lack so many things which the world thinks of as necessary; love the obstacles that you find as you start or .. As you continue on your way; love your very littleness and spiritual wretchedness. Offer — with a desire that is effective — all you have, and all that belongs to those who are yours. Humanly speaking, it’s quite a lot, but from a supernatural point of view, it’s nothing.

Morning Mass Entrance Antiphon Acts 1: 14 The disciples devoted themselves with one accord to prayer with the women, and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and his brethren, alleluia.

Collect Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who have celebrated the paschal festivities, may by your gift hold fast to them in the way that we live our lives. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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

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

Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, Lord, who is going to betray you?) When Peter saw him, he asked, Lord, what about him? Jesus answered, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. Because of this, the rumour spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (John 21:20-25)

Differences I remember passing a farming property where there was a herd of horses. Among them was a kangaroo — and wherever the horses went, the kangaroo hopped along with them. Somehow the kangaroo had identified with those horses and was content to live with them, and they with it. The kangaroo was, of course, unaware of its difference in genus from the horses. The idea of species, genus and kind is just that — it is an idea requiring the power of an intellect to form an abstraction. Such a power is beyond the animal and is part of the spiritual endowment of the intellect of man. The point here, though, is that the world is one of differences in kind, and man perceives this fact. The universe is made up of an incalculable range of differences in nature — differences among galaxies, differences among planets, differences within the atomic particle, differences among animals, insects, plant life and man. Within the unseen spiritual realm the differences are even more astonishing because St Thomas Aquinas teaches that each angelic being is his own species. That is, there is as much difference between one angel and another as there is between a horse and a man, for each angel is a distinct species, complete and entire in itself. Of course, we cannot imagine this because we cannot imagine an angel, for the angel has no spatial characteristics. My point here, though, is that God has created a universe, both seen and unseen, that is enriched with incalculable variety in kind and degree. It is an unending garden of different flowers, and the differences within humankind, among men and women — all of whom belong to a particular species — is but one instance of this created variety. We need but think of the individuality of each person’s fingerprints to realize this. There is a further point, but obviously profoundly connected with it, and that is that there is a vast variety of callings coming from God to man. His call to me is different from his call to the next person. Our Lord chose from his many disciples certain ones to be the Twelve — and left the others where they were. Among the Twelve, he chose three to be his companions in a more special sense: Peter, James and John. Paul refers to them as the pillars of the infant Church in Jerusalem.

The first wonderful thing about God’s particular call to me is the very fact that he calls me. I am what I am because of God’s loving choice, and I have my work to do because of God’s loving choice. As a result of God’s choice, each person has his assigned gift — and that gift may seem an affliction to another. But it is a gift, even if it involves suffering. Who knows what its proper use may lead to in God’s plan! God calls me to do his will, with my own path and my own distinctive mission. The grandeur of my life will depend on my fulfilling that path that has been lovingly chosen for me. I remember watching the report of a dog show. The winning dog was the smallest of all the entries, not because of its commanding the attention of all observers, but because it was all it should have been within its kind — more so than were the other dogs within their kind. It had no need to be “jealous,” as it were, of the other larger, more powerful, more impressive dogs. It was all it could and should be. And yet, so very sadly, this point is commonly forgotten among men. Men are prone to be jealous of the next person because of that person’s endowments, his opportunities, his calling. But no. All he need do, is do what God wants of him. When the disciples of John the Baptist came to him to tell him that Jesus “who was with you beyond the Jordan, and to whom you bore witness, he is baptizing, and all are going to him. John answered that ‘a man can receive nothing unless it is given to him from heaven’”(John 3:26-29). John was content and grateful for his calling, and rejoiced at the prominence of Jesus Christ. By contrast, when Jesus was handed over to Pilate, he could see that it was because of envy that they had done this. All of this brings us to our Gospel today. It is a lesson with which the Gospel of St John closes. “Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, Lord, who is going to betray you?) When Peter saw him, he asked, Lord, what about him? Jesus answered, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me” (John 21:20-25).

We notice others who seem to have a better path in life than we, better luck, more achievements, greater gifts. Why him, Lord, and not me? Our Lord would say, If I want him to follow that path, to be that kind of person, to have those opportunities, what is that to you? You must follow me. That is all we need worry about amid the differences we see among the children of God. Let each of us do our best to discover the will of God as it manifests itself in our Christian calling, in the voice of legitimate authority, in our specific vocation and profession in life, in our circumstances, in our God-given aspirations and yearnings. Knowing the will of God, let us then do it.

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At times, someone has told me: “Father, I feel tired and cold; when I pray or fulfil some other norm of piety, I seem to be acting out a farce.” To that friend and to you, if you are in the same boat, I answer: A farce? What an excellent thing, my child! Act out that farce! The Lord is your audience — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Blessed Trinity is contemplating us in those moments when we are “acting out a farce”. Acting like that in front of God, out of love, in order to please him, when our whole life goes against the grain: how splendid, to be God’s juggler! How marvellous it is to play one’s part for Love, with sacrifice, without any personal satisfaction, just in order to please Our Lord! That indeed is to live for Love.

Mass during the Day Entrance Antiphon: Wisdom 1: 7 The Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world and that which contains all things understands what is said, alleluia.

Or: Romans 5: 5; cf. 8: 11 The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Spirit of God dwelling within us, alleluia.

Jolenta was the daughter of Bela IV, King of Hungary. Her sister, St. Kunigunde, was married to the Duke of Poland. Jolenta was sent to Poland where her sister was to supervise her education. Eventually married to Boleslaus, the Duke of Greater Poland, Jolenta was able to use her material means to assist the poor, the sick, widows and orphans. Her husband joined her in building hospitals, convents and churches so that he was surnamed "the Pious." Upon the death of her husband and the marriage of two of her daughters, Jolenta and her third daughter entered the convent of the Poor Clares. War forced Jolenta to move to another convent where, despite her reluctance, she was made abbess. So well did she serve her Franciscan sisters by word and example that her fame and good works continued to spread beyond the walls of the cloister. Her favourite devotion was the Passion of Christ. Indeed, Jesus appeared to her, telling her of her coming death. Many miracles, down to our own day, are said to have occurred at her grave. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today (Mass during the Day): Acts 2:1-11; Psalm Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23

So important was this coming of the Holy Spirit, that our Lord told his disciples that unless he returned to the Father, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, would not come to them. He was saying in effect that it was critically important that the Spirit of truth come, or, despite all he had done and suffered, little would be achieved. If there was to be any life in what he had planted in his disciples and in the foundation of the Kingdom he had laid, the Holy Spirit must come and act. What came to the Church with the coming of the Holy Spirit was life! At Pentecost the Church was born to a new life. It saw the light of day and began to grow in strength. With this life came light. The light of God, involving conviction and understanding, filled the hearts of the Apostles and the Church’s members, and they immediately began to do what Christ had said to Pilate was his mission: to bear witness to the truth, the truth being the truth of Christ. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost shows to every generation that the Spirit of God, who is the Lord and giver of life, brings life and light to the Church and the Church’s members. At the beginning of his Gospel (1:4-5), John says that “whatever came to be” in the Word “found life, life for the light of men.” That life and that light which was to be found in the Word made flesh, was the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to give him to us. Long before, the prophet Ezechiel (ch.37) saw a vision of a valley full of bones, a vision of death. Then suddenly breath entered the bones and they began to be covered with skin and flesh and sinews, and they stood up, an immense army. They had come to life through the power of God’s Spirit. It is sin that brings death, and the taking away of sin means life. The most immediate and life-giving effect of the coming of the Holy Spirit is the forgiveness of sin. At our Lord’s meeting with his disciples on the day of his Resurrection, he breathed on them and gave them a share in his Holy Spirit — and with that he endowed them with power to forgive sin. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven” (John 20:19-23).

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A heart which loves the things of the earth beyond measure is like one fastened by a chain — or by a “tiny thread” — which stops it flying to God.

Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Ps 27 (26): 7, 9 O Lord, hear my voice, for I have called to you; be my help. Do not abandon or forsake me, O God, my Saviour!

Collect: O God, strength of those who hope in you, graciously hear our pleas, and, since without you mortal frailty can do nothing, grant us always the help of your grace, that in following your commands we may please you by our resolve and our deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The gospel call to leave everything and follow Christ was the rule of Anthony’s life. Over and over again God called him to something new in his plan. Every time Anthony responded with renewed zeal and self-sacrificing to serve his Lord Jesus more completely. His journey as the servant of God began as a very young man when he decided to join the Augustinians in Lisbon, giving up a future of wealth and power to be a servant of God. Later, when the bodies of the first Franciscan martyrs went through the Portuguese city where he was stationed, he was again filled with an intense longing to be one of those closest to Jesus himself: those who die for the Good News. So Anthony entered the Franciscan Order and set out to preach to the Moors. But an illness prevented him from achieving that goal. He went to Italy and was stationed in a small hermitage where he spent most of his time praying, reading the Scriptures and doing menial tasks. The call of God came again at an ordination where no one was prepared to speak. The humble and obedient Anthony hesitantly accepted the task. The years of searching for Jesus in prayer, of reading sacred Scripture and of serving him in poverty, chastity and obedience had prepared Anthony to allow the Spirit to use his talents. Anthony’s sermon was astounding to those who expected an unprepared speech and knew not the Spirit’s power to give people words. Recognized as a great man of prayer and a great Scripture and theology scholar, Anthony became the first friar to teach theology to the other friars. Soon he was called from that post to preach to the Albigensian in France, using his profound knowledge of Scripture and theology to convert and reassure those who had been misled. After he led the friars in northern Italy for three years, he made his headquarters in the city of Padua. He resumed his preaching and began writing sermon notes to help other preachers.

In his sermon notes, Anthony writes: "The saints are like the stars. In his providence Christ conceals them in a hidden place that they may not shine before others when they might wish to do so. Yet they are always ready to exchange the quiet of contemplation for the works of mercy as soon as they perceive in their heart the invitation of Christ." (AmericanCatholic.org)

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

Scripture When I was a child two people representing a vacuum cleaning company came to the door of our home selling vacuum cleaners. I remember how effective as a salesman one of them was — through persuasive words he had himself allowed into our living room to give a demonstration of a vacuum cleaner. That was one case of door-to-door selling. Another common case is of representatives of religious bodies coming to the door to introduce and sell their doctrines. As with any reputable salesmen, they have usually mastered their technique. The persons I am thinking of come two-by-two and are armed with a thoroughly prepared presentation of some Scriptural verses. In some instances they gain great victories, especially if they arrive when the host, an orthodox Christian — say, a Catholic — has been going through a difficult and vulnerable time. The aim of the visitors may be to convert the host from his belief that the man Jesus Christ is God, and to help him see that Jesus is an entity separate from the Trinity. After all, Jesus said, “why do you call me good? No-one is good, but God alone” (Mark 10:18). Other single texts are used to convert their listeners to this or that doctrine. The host interlocutor may not at that moment be feeling up to a narrow academic argument, and may not be particularly well-versed in the Scriptural sentences being suddenly flung at him. But of course, what shapes the visitors’ understanding of certain Scriptural texts is not an impartial study of the text itself, but the religious authority they have accepted and the tradition they have embraced. In the case of, say, two Jehovah’s Witnesses, it is the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses at the religion's Brooklyn headquarters, and the Scriptural and doctrinal teaching disseminated by their periodical, The Watchtower. What are in conflict during their engagement with the host are two opposite authorities: each with its tradition and understanding of the Bible. The religious sect represented by the two visitors in effect claims a much more extensive gift of Infallibility in respect to the details of the Scriptural texts than anything ever claimed by the Successor of St Peter himself.

What I am saying here is that any religion which gives great authority to a Book must be alert to the dangers of misinterpretation. Any text must be interpreted, however divine the text in its authorship may be. The Catholic Church — obviously the greatest of the Christian Churches — has pronounced but sparsely on the interpretation of textual details of the Bible. It has an extensive dogmatic teaching, but Scripture is generally allowed to speak for itself. Each reader must bear in mind the context of a particular verse and the drift of teaching in the entire Bible. But all of this is to be understood in the context of revealed truth as set forth in the doctrinal teaching of the Church. A fairly well instructed Catholic will be able to read the inspired pages with great profit. Still, there will be many things he may never understand, for their meanings may always be the object of dispute among reputable Scripture scholars. An occasional breakthrough could come here and there, casting light on a difficult book of the Bible. For instance, a scholar may present his hypothesis that the Book of Revelation at the end of the New Testament is primarily a liturgical book and is to be interpreted in the light of the Eucharist. That is to say, it is a kind of allegory of the celebration of the Holy Mass. The Wedding Feast of the Lamb, the Supper of the Lamb as in the Book of Revelation, is being played out before us every time we participate in the celebration of the Eucharist. This viewpoint is very explanatory, and gains a wide acceptance. But then a persuasive counter-proposal appears some time later — and all this discussion is good. They are broad views which, based on the Church’s dogmatic teaching, view the Scriptures as a whole and throw light on the interpretation of particular texts. In our Gospel passage today (Matthew 5:38-42), our Lord directs that “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.” Does our Lord mean this literally? When our Lord himself was struck with a blow on his face during his trial, with restraint and dignity he asked his assailant to give an explanation of this injustice. He did not invite him to strike him on the other cheek as well (John 18: 21-23).

Indeed, to have encouraged that person to continue doing what he had done would have been tantamount to encouraging him to continue sinning. Our Lord was correcting him — something he urges his disciples to do in the life of the Church when their brother sins publicly (Matthew 18: 15-22). The directive of our Gospel today is to be understood with the mind of the Church, and in the context of the teachings of Scripture generally. The response to violence is not to be vengeful — an eye for an eye — but is to incline towards Christ-like forgiveness and magnanimity: “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” With this balance, let us immerse ourselves in the Scriptures, and especially in the Gospels.

The charity of Christ There is in the modern world a constant discussion of human rights and of justice — and this is very good, for there can be no love without justice. If love is our ideal as Christians, justice is a precondition. But notwithstanding all our talk of rights, of justice and of duties to others, our Lord expects that we go much further still. He speaks of forgiveness, mercy, loving one’s enemies, and of our virtue being much deeper than that of the scribes and the Pharisees. An insistence on mere justice can fail to resolve conflict among men. In today’s Gospel our Lord says that instead of demanding an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, “if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer the other as well.” Of course, our Lord is making his point graphically, and with typical Hebraic hyperbole. We are to be generous in the face of evil and to overcome evil not just with justice, but with the mind of Christ.

St Paul says in one of his letters, “Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” Let us endeavour to be like Christ in the face of evil and unreasonable demands on us. In this way will we overcome evil. It will not be done simply by demanding justice.

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"Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation." It makes one shudder to see how someone can give up a divine undertaking for the sake of a fleeting delusion.

Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Ps 27 (26): 7, 9 O Lord, hear my voice, for I have called to you; be my help. Do not abandon or forsake me, O God, my Saviour!

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

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

Love A most important aspect of the mission of the Church — meaning, the mission of each and every member of the Church — is the evangelization not just of every individual in the world, nor just the evangelization of every society and people, but the evangelization of culture. Every culture has its prevailing ethos, its unspoken assumptions, its distinctive aspirations, its special way of doing things, its preferences. These are what constitute the founts of culture, and the modern secular view has regarded religion as a fruit of culture, and a poor — even somewhat rotten — fruit at that. Christopher Dawson (1889 – 1970) was perhaps the greatest English-speaking Catholic historian of the twentieth century. He never ceased to affirm the fundamental importance of religion to civilization. As he wrote in 1925, the “great civilizations of the world do not produce the great religions as a kind of cultural by-product; in a very real sense the great religions are the foundations on which the great civilizations rest.” From his historical work, he drew the lesson that religious faith is the spark of culture, and external material success will not survive its being extinguished. Just before he ascended into Heaven, Christ charged the Eleven to make disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28:19). Nations, not just individuals, are to become disciples of Christ. It implies that the cultures of nations are to be evangelized. This means bringing the person and teaching of Jesus Christ to the very foundations of national and social thought. The person and revelation of Christ is to be the basis of cultural thought — and the Church has been successful in this mission in the past. It was well on the way to evangelizing Roman civilization when the Roman world fell to the barbarians in the fifth and sixth centuries. Then the evangelization of the barbarian conquerors began, and this culminated in the emergence of Christian Europe. The Church has called on her members to begin a new evangelization of culture and civilization comparable to that which was achieved in previous ages. Nations with their cultures can be evangelized, with the aid of the all-powerful Spirit of God working through Christ’s disciples.

However, there is a danger that a culture, once evangelized in a general sense, can be thought to do its work almost automatically. It can be assumed that people will be carried along by a Christian culture to follow Christ and his Church authentically. Now, there is no doubt that a Christian culture is an immense help to the Christian life of a nation’s members, just as there is no doubt that an anti-Christian culture, or a religiously indifferent and secular culture, can be a great obstacle to the flourishing of the Christian life of a society’s members. We are supported or undermined, as the case may be, by the thought of others. Nevertheless, culture alone will not bring personal holiness. Apart from the grace of God, there must be ignited in each individual the resolve to seek holiness of life in Christ and according to his teaching. A culture may, through the persevering efforts of the Church’s members, become Christian and Catholic, but each individual must also be evangelized, formed and set on the path of holiness. The Christian life is not just a social and national matter — though in the modern secular world, the very idea of a Christian culture and society is largely rejected. What is fundamental is that each individual know and love Jesus Christ in his own mind and heart, as a matter of personal choice. Culture may support this, it may ignore it, or it may be hostile to it. Whatever be the case, the personal choice for Christ and love for him must not depend on culture, which is to say, on the society within which one is living. It is a very personal choice, and it involves a radical decision to go the whole way with Jesus Christ. Love is above all a decision, and the decision is to take up one’s cross every day and follow in the footsteps of the Master along the path of perfection. The greatest deficiency within Christ’s faithful is always the failure to hear and take up this call to personal perfection. It is a moral and spiritual perfection, the perfection of love for Jesus. There are many temptations enticing Christ’s disciples away from such a path, all summarized in the threefold caption, the world, the flesh and the devil. Those who take up the call can still fall away from it — through succumbing to bad example, spiritual sloth, gratification, whatever.

In our Gospel today, our Lord sets us a very high standard — we are not just to put up with our enemies, not even just to forgive them, but we are to love them. Love your enemies! Our standard ought be the love that fills the heart of God our heavenly Father. We are to seek the perfection of love, love modelled after that of God, and sharing in it, by his gift of grace. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” Our efforts to attain this ought be unabated throughout life. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5: 43-48). Love is a very personal decision.

The poverty of God God’s wealth is unlimited and is so from all eternity. The richness of his being is infinite. St Paul tells us in today’s first reading (2 Corinthians 8:1-9) that Christ "was rich, but he became poor for your sake, to make you rich out of his poverty.” St Paul writes elsewhere that Christ did not cling to his glory as one equal to God, but put it aside and became as we are, and even lowlier than that. This, then, is the character of true greatness. It does not consist in the mere possession of many things. Our Lord pointed to himself: the “Son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for the many.”

Let us make that our ultimate norm. This is the mind of Christ which we are called to put on. It is to be lived out after the manner of Mary and Joseph, in the loving fulfilment of the unnoticed duties of every ordinary day.

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Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Ps 27 (26): 7, 9 O Lord, hear my voice, for I have called to you; be my help. Do not abandon or forsake me, O God, my Saviour!

An unexpected encounter with St. Francis of Assisi in 1213 was to forever change — and enrich —t he life of Count Orlando of Chiusi. On the day a festival was being organized for a huge throng, St. Francis, already well known for his sanctity, delivered a dramatic address on the dangers of worldly pleasures. One of the guests, Orlando (also known as Roland) was so taken by Francis' words that he sought out the saint for advice on how best to lead a life pleasing to God. A short time later, Francis visited Count Orlando in his own palace, located at the foot of Mount La Verna. Francis spoke again of the dangers of a life of wealth and comfort. The words prompted Orlando to rearrange his life entirely according to the principles outlined by Francis. Furthermore, he resolved to share his wealth by placing at Francis' disposal all of Mount La Verna, which belonged to Orlando. Francis, who found the mountain's wooded recesses and many caves and ravines especially suitable for quiet prayer, gratefully accepted the offer. Orlando immediately had a convent as well as a church built there; later, many chapels were added. In 1224, two years before the death of Francis, Mount La Verna was the location where Francis received the holy wounds of Christ. In return for his generous gift, Orlando desired only to be received into the Third Order and to have St. Francis as his spiritual director. Under Francis' guidance, Orlando completely detached himself from worldly goods. He zealously performed acts of charity as a Christian nobleman. After his happy death Orlando was laid to rest in the convent church on Mount La Verna. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Jesus said to his disciples: Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have Shroud of Turin

no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18)

Divine reward There is a profound difference between the secular and the religious outlook. By “the secular outlook” I refer to the view of this world which regards it as being all that there is. There may, for all we know, be a life after death in some sense. But to all intents and purposes, this world is all that matters. Further, and intimately related to this, is the view that the world is nothing more than a fact — it does not have an ultimate moral significance. That is to say, what goes on in the world will not be held to any ultimate account. There will be no ultimate “rewards” or “punishments” — all that happens in the world will run to a natural end, and that will be the end of the matter. Looking on the world as a whole, as, let us say, an observer from outer space, secular man understands what he sees as complete in itself, however satisfactory or unsatisfactory the picture before him may be. He looks on the world as a great fact to be improved as best as can be, and once the great fact has gone, there is nothing more to it. There is no divine Judgement on the world and its inhabitants, for instance. It is plain that this is a profoundly opposite perspective on things from that which sees the world as actually dwarfed by the Supernatural. In the religious perspective, what is not seen is far, far greater than what is seen. The great unseen reality is above all the Creator, the great being we call God. He enfolds the world and all that is seen in his almighty grasp, and everything that is or happens is essentially and immediately related to Him. That is to say, there is absolutely nothing seen which is “complete in itself.” There is absolutely nothing that is just there, as if it is all that is there. This means too that the world is not just a fact without ultimate moral significance because everything will be held to a final account. Man is the pinnacle and crown of the visible world, and he leads and drags the world after him in what he chooses to do. All of his choices will be subject to the judgment of God, and thus the world he has shaped by his choices will be affected by that divine judgment. The world is not just a fact. It is a fact suffused with moral significance, and this means that facing the world there constantly looms the vast shadow of future reward and future punishment.

Reward and punishment face the world which we see. By “the world we see” I mean, above all, man who leads and shapes it. The world is man’s home, and before the totality of the seen, there looms the judgment of the One who is unseen. Everything depends on him, on him whom we cannot see. Everything man does will attract its reward or its punishment, down to his least deed, his least chosen word, his least deliberate thought. How grand is the life of man, then! Everything is of maximum importance! Nothing is a mere, indifferent fact! Nothing is like the pebble which, when thrown in the river, disappears without a trace. Everything in the world and in the life of the most insignificant man or woman matters. It is all played out before the gaze of the almighty Judge, and when it has run its course, that will not be the end of the matter. Reward and punishment have yet to come. So it is that we see our Lord in the Gospels constantly referring to the judgment of God — and so we see him referring to “reward” in our passage today (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18). “Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” If you do things in order to be praised by men and not in order to please God, then God will not reward you. You will have “no reward” from him (Matt 6:1). So your secret thoughts, what you intend, your choice of goals — even if you do not attain those goals — is no mere fact which comes and goes along the stream of other facts, disappearing when it has run its course. It has an ultimate moral significance which will come home to roost. It will be recalled, considered, judged. It will have an eternal significance for it will be rewarded or punished as the case may be. God sees, and he will remember. The books will be opened, and what has happened will be seen therein. “When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” We are reminded by these words that at the heart of the good action, the action which will attract a divine reward, is the intent to do what will please God. It is this which gives eternal significance and value to all that we do.

The most ordinary person can transform his life from being what seems a mere, brute fact to a flower of great beauty and undying significance. Let him do his ordinary things — as he must in any case — but with the noble intent of pleasing God his Father in heaven, in union with Jesus Christ his Brother and Saviour, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit his Sanctifier. That is what we must do. We must do all with the intention of pleasing God, in whose presence we live and move and have our being. Let us do this as from now! So then, now I begin!

The faith that supports charity A fair degree of time and effort is spent on ensuring security for the future — and that is good. We have various forms of superannuation and life insurance and we take other steps to ensure future security. But this preoccupation can reach the point of inhibiting our assistance to the poor. In our first reading today (2 Cor. 9:6-11), St Paul tells us that God loves a cheerful giver. God “will make sure that you will always have all you need for yourselves in every possible circumstance, and still have something, to spare for all sorts of good works.” He continues, “The one who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide you with all the seed you want and make the harvest of your good deeds a larger one”.

If we are to take this teaching to heart, we need to have faith in God’s power and love in our regard, and, loving our brothers, put our trust in it. On one occasion after our Lord insisted on faith, a person said to him, “Lord, I do believe. Help my unbelief.” Let us ask our Lord for the grace to believe in his loving and all-powerful care, enabling us to serve our brothers and to help them in their need without that anxiety for ourselves that can stifle a generous charity.

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A clear sign of lukewarmness is a lack of supernatural “stubbornness”, of fortitude to keep on working and not stop until you have laid “the last stone”.

Liturgical Season	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
Sixth Week of Eastertide A-1				1	2	3	4
Seventh Week of Eastertide A-1	5 or The Ascension of the Lord	6	7	8	9	10	11
11th Week of Ordinary Time A-1	12 Pentecost Sunday	13	14	15