June2 in Year A 11

Thursday of the 11th Week of Ordinary Time to Thursday of the 13th 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 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.

Born into a family of some wealth, John Francis was so impressed by his Jesuit educators that he himself wished to enter the Society of Jesus. He did so at age 18. Despite his rigorous academic schedule he spent many hours in chapel, often to the dismay of fellow St John Francis Regis

seminarians who were concerned about his health. Following his ordination to the priesthood, he undertook missionary work in various French towns. While the formal sermons of the day tended toward the poetic, his discourses were plain. But they revealed the fervour within him and attracted people of all classes. Father Regis especially made himself available to the poor. Many mornings were spent in the confessional or at the altar celebrating Mass; afternoons were reserved for visits to prisons and hospitals. The Bishop of Viviers, observing the success of Father Regis in communicating with people, sought to draw on his many gifts, especially needed during the prolonged civil and religious strife then rampant throughout France. With many prelates absent and priests negligent, the people had been deprived of the sacraments for 20 years or more. Various forms of Protestantism were thriving in some cases while a general indifference toward religion was evident in other instances. For three years Father Regis travelled throughout the diocese, conducting missions in advance of a visit by the bishop. He succeeded in converting many people and in bringing many others back to religious observances. Though Father Regis longed to work as a missionary among the North American Indians in Canada, he was to live out his days working for the Lord in the wildest and most desolate part of his native France. There he encountered rigorous winters, snowdrifts and other deprivations. Meanwhile, he continued preaching missions and earned a reputation as a saint. One man, entering the town of Saint-Andé, came upon a large crowd in front of a church and was told that people were waiting for "the saint" who was coming to preach a mission. The last four years of his life were spent preaching and in organizing social services, especially for prisoners, the sick and the poor. In the autumn of 1640, Father Regis sensed that his days were coming to a conclusion. He settled some of his affairs and prepared for the end by continuing to do what he did so well: speaking to the people about the God who loved them. On December 31, he spent most of the day with his eyes on the crucifix. That evening, he died. His final words were: "Into thy hands I commend my spirit." He was canonized in 1737. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Jesus said to his disciples: When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we also forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:7-15)

The Lord’s Prayer I remember when (the Servant of God) Pope Paul VI was dying in early August of 1978, it was mentioned that the last prayer on his lips was the Lord’s Prayer — as I recall it, he died while saying the Lord’s Prayer in Latin. As Blessed John Paul II described him in his first Encyclical, Redemptor Hominis (1979), Paul VI was a great Pope, and he referred to him as truly his “father.” We can expect that in due course he will be beatified. But what that news item about Pope Paul’s last moments suggested to me was the simplicity of his prayer. He was a man of profound prayer and had been this all his life — and he ended his life saying the Lord’s Prayer. A great deal has been written on prayer by the Church’s saints and theologians, and the Church herself has an extensive doctrinal teaching on it. For instance, the Catechism of the Council of Trent for Parish Priests (CCTPP), issued by Pope St Pius V some time after the final session of the Council of Trent, is divided into four parts — the Creed, the Sacraments, the Commandments and then Prayer. Introduced with a twenty-three page teaching on Prayer in general, the remainder of the CCTPP’s section on Prayer takes the form, appropriately enough, of an authoritative commentary on the Lord’s Prayer. This official book, the CCTPP of Pius V, was used for preaching and catechesis for the next four hundred years till its successor was published by Pope John Paul II, entitled The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), a wonderfully rich statement of the Church’s teaching. As Pius V’s CCTPP followed Trent, so the CCC followed the Second Vatican Council. The point to be noticed, though, is that in the new book once again the Church presented a formal body of teaching on Prayer. As had been the case with the CCTPP, the CCC was divided into the four sections of Creed, Sacraments, Commandments and Prayer. Christ’s faithful have plenty of authoritative material to study and embrace in understanding that fundamental feature of religion, and in particular of the Christian religion, which is the life of prayer. So important is this, that it is hard to see how a person can be saved without prayer, especially if prayer is knowingly discounted or rejected.

The mere fact that the Church gives such space to Prayer, the same amount as she gives to Creed, Sacraments and Commandments, shows the immense importance of Prayer in the life of the faithful. Further, the fact that she chooses to structure her teaching on Prayer in the form of a commentary on the Lord’s Prayer of the Gospels shows how important is the Gospel text providing us with this teaching of our Lord. Because the passage is brief and simply stated in passing amid many other things in the Gospel, we might be tempted to pass it by, somewhat. We could be tempted to count it simply among the many texts of Scripture which present us with inspired prayers. There are all the psalms, so beautiful, encapsulating so much of the Scriptures. There are such prayers as those in the Book of Tobit, or the Book of Daniel, or many of the prayers of Abraham, the Patriarchs, Moses, David and the Prophets. The Lord’s Prayer is not the only prayer of Christ recorded in the Gospels. Our Lord addresses his heavenly Father on other occasions such as when he blesses his heavenly Father for revealing these things to little ones and not to the clever, when he addresses his heavenly Father just before raising Lazarus from the dead, and especially his long prayer to his heavenly Father at the Last Supper, as recorded by John. With so many indications in the Scriptures as to how we are to pray, the Lord’s Prayer as given to us in today’s Gospel text (Matthew 6:7-15), might be easily passed by as being brief, simple, and perhaps not worth a lot of notice. But the Church thinks otherwise, and gives to our text an immense importance, making it the basis of her teaching to Christ’s faithful. So we ought treasure this prayer with the utmost love. It is enshrined in the Church’s liturgy, being prayed by the priest celebrating Mass, and all the faithful with him, following the Eucharist Prayer and beginning the Communion Rite. It is prayed by the Priest when he administers the Sacrament of Baptism and the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. It is prayed at the beginning of every decade of the Rosary. It ought be the basis of our prayer all through life, and Pope Paul VI gave the entire Church an example by his dying with this prayer on his lips. Let us follow that example in life.

The Lord’s Prayer is one of the simplest prayers ever devised, and it comes from the lips of God the Son made man. We have it from Jesus Christ in direct response to a request that he teach his disciples how to pray. Let us not, then, succumb to the very real temptation of treating it glibly and very casually. Let us look on it as a most sacred prayer, one containing riches which we shall certainly not exhaust in our limited and uncertain lifetime. Let us pray it fervently every day, many times every day, in union with our one great Intercessor and High Priest Jesus Christ, together with his body the Church, the Church of the ages. It will take us to heaven.

Spouse of Christ St Paul describes the relationship the Christian has with Christ as a marriage. He writes to the Corinthians that “I arranged for you to marry Christ so that I may give you away to this one husband.” We are, then, Christ's spouse. Our relationship with our Lord is one of mutual undying love. And yet, he writes, we can be seduced and corrupted and turned away from simple devotion to Christ by those who proclaim “a new Jesus” — which is to say, a new doctrine about him. Our marriage to Christ must be carefully guarded and protected against false doctrine coming from sources other than the Teaching Church. There is a rich biblical background for understanding our relationship with Christ in marital terms. Within the Old Testament prophetical tradition, notably in Hosea, Yahweh describes himself as the Husband of his people, and his people as his spouse — an unfaithful one, all too often. Our Lord referred to himself as the bridegroom, as did St John the Baptist when speaking of Jesus to his disciples.

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Some hearts are hard, but noble. When they come close to the warmth of Christ’s Heart, they melt like bronze into tears of love, of reparation. They catch fire. But lukewarm people have hearts of clay, of mean flesh. They crack and turn to dust. A sorry sight. Say with me: “Our Jesus, keep us from being lukewarm. We do not want to be lukewarm.”

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!

Even as a young man, Joseph loved to attend Mass and was known for his humility and fervour in prayer. After his ordination he was assigned to a seminary in Turin. There he worked especially against the spirit of Jansenism, an excessive preoccupation with sin and damnation. Joseph used the works of St. Francis de Sales and St. Alphonsus Liguori to moderate the rigorism popular at the seminary. Joseph recommended membership in the Secular Franciscan Order to priests. He urged devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and encouraged daily Communion. In addition to his teaching duties, Joseph was an excellent preacher, confessor and retreat master. Noted for his work with condemned prisoners, Joseph helped many of them die at peace with God. St. John Bosco was one of Joseph’s pupils. Joseph urged John Bosco to establish the Salesians to work with the youth of Turin. Joseph was canonized in 1947. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6: 19-23)

Duty If a chair breaks down, you get out a few tools and apply them to the task, and the chair is fixed. The object in question is restored to its proper condition, even to a better condition than it had previously, by applying in skilful fashion various forms of selective, physical pressure. If a person has a headache, that person may take this or that medication and the chemical effect of the substance will answer the physical or biological deficiency causing the headache. Many psychiatrists have extensive recourse to Fr. Ted Tyler

chemical medication in treating the personal disorders of their patients. The pills may sedate, and this alone could go a long way towards healing. Again, a Cardiprin aspirin tablet is taken daily to forestall cardiac problems — it is, we might say, an external cause acting on a passive subject, and it has the effect of maintaining physical health. A person is exhausted from his work, and he takes two weeks off to holiday beside the sea. The combination of new and pleasant sights, the congenial environment, the physical activity, all converge on the subject and combine to effect a restoration of health. Of course there is a subjective action at work here too, but broadly we could say that these are examples of health and restoration being effected by external factors acting on the subject in causal fashion. But in the case of the human being, there is a higher kind of health, a more basic form of flourishing, which is not the mere result of a passive openness to wholesome external influences. I refer to the effect on himself of the subject knowing and wanting what is objectively right. If a person contemplates doing an action which is morally evil, and, perceiving its evil, proceeds to do it, that person will fail as a person. A notable decline will set in. Man, if he is to be healthy, must strive to be good. The better a man is precisely in his moral life and constitution, the happier, more wholesome and flourishing as a person he will be. But this will depend on his moral choices. If he sees someone in need, and does nothing to help him when he can, then at a deeper level of health he begins to deteriorate. A principle of weakness has set in and he is on the path to personal decay.

While the plant thrives in response to environment — granted, of course, the inner propensities of the seed — and is more or less the product of environment, the case is different with man. He is the result primarily of his choices. He is the result of what he chooses to know, want and do. Paradoxically, he may flourish by giving up his very life, if this is the result of a choice for what is morally good. Man’s fundamental context, his most basic environment, is moral obligation. He finds himself with not just facts before him, facts that bear on him and cause him to flourish or decline. Rather, his most basic experience, his fundamental environment in which he finds himself, is that of moral obligation. He looks out before him and sees presented before him the imperious call of duty. This is a primary experience of reality, and it leaves him free. He can choose to do what he perceives he ought to do — which includes what he ought to think and say — or he can choose not to do it. This very choice will make or break him. It is not the external world that makes or breaks him but his own choice, even — and perhaps especially — if the external world crushes him because of his choice to do his duty. St Thomas More, under arrest for refusing to acknowledge King Henry VIII’s new claims, saw that as a result he was heading to his death. He exclaimed, “Son Roper, I thank Our Lord, the field is won!” His choice set him on the path to true fulfilment — and to death! He flourished as a man, not because the influences around him were to his liking or suitable to his temperament and personality, but because he chose what was objectively right. This choice led to his death and simultaneously to his highest fulfilment. This is the grandeur of man and a distinguishing difference from all other living things. As he chooses, so he flourishes or declines. Other things flourish or decline as they are acted upon. All of this brings us to our Gospel today (Matthew 6: 19-23), in which our Lord tells us, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” We do this by choosing to do what is right.

Eternal life is this, our Lord states in his prayer to his heavenly Father at the Last Supper, to know you Father and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Again elsewhere, It is not those who say to me, Lord, Lord, who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. These plain teachings of Jesus Christ remind us all that, granted the gift of God’s grace, we must become self-made persons. That is to say, our eternity, our happiness as human beings, our truest prospects, depend not on good fortune, or this or that circumstance, but on my own personal choice to pursue the path of duty — that duty which is made manifest in the word of Jesus Christ. Let us seek to know his word as it comes in the teaching of the Church, then, and do it.

“The lamp of the body is the eye” Cardinal Newman often made the point in his writings that the problem with the thinking of so many people was not their logic but their starting points, which is to say their underlying assumptions. Our Lord spoke of the eye being the lamp of the body. The eye lights up the body with its light — which is to say, with what it sees. It casts light into the body from outside, as it were. It is the window of the body which allows light into the room. If this lamp of the body is diseased, all will be in darkness. If the way we see things is deformed by false and sinful assumptions, then our whole life will be cast into darkness. Pope Benedict XVI repeatedly made the point that western culture is under the iron dictatorship of relativism. Truth is considered as relative to the knower, and this throws all into darkness.

Let our light, our starting point, be that of Christ, coming to us from his Oracle, the Church.

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All goodness, all beauty, all majesty, all loveliness, all grace adorn our Mother. Doesn’t it make you fall in love, to have a Mother like that?

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!

Matt can be considered the patron of men and women struggling with alcoholism. Matt was born in Dublin, where his father worked on the docks and had a difficult time supporting his family. After a few years of schooling, Matt obtained work as a messenger for some liquor merchants; there he began to drink excessively. For 15 years—until he was almost 30—Matt was an active alcoholic. One day he decided to take "the pledge" for three months, make a general confession and begin to attend daily Mass. There is evidence that Matt’s first seven years after taking the pledge were especially difficult. Avoiding his former drinking places was hard. He began to pray as intensely as he used to drink. He also tried to pay back people from whom he had borrowed or stolen money while he was drinking. Most of his life Matt worked as a builder’s labourer. He joined the Secular Franciscan Order and began a life of strict penance; he abstained from meat nine months a year. Matt spent hours every night avidly reading Scripture and the lives of the saints. He prayed the rosary conscientiously. Though his job did not make him rich, Matt contributed generously to the missions. After 1923 his health failed and Matt was forced to quit work. He died on his way to church on Trinity Sunday. Fifty years later Pope Paul VI gave him the title Venerable. On an otherwise blank page in one of Matt’s books, the following is written: "God console thee and make thee a saint. To arrive at the perfection of humility four things are necessary: to despise the world, to despise no one, to despise self, to despise being despised by others." (AmericanCatholic.org)

Jesus said to his disciples: “No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mamon. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will Shroud of Turin

eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6: 24-34)

Do not worry The prudent man counts the cost, and then makes his move. One man, seeing it advertised that a pilgrimage to the Holy Land has been arranged, makes an inquiry because he would like to go. He receives the brochures and considers his position. He realizes that his close cousin is in precarious health and wonders what will happen if, while he is on the pilgrimage far from his own country, she suddenly falls gravely ill. He makes his decision — he cannot go. Another is in a similar position and likewise weighs it up and decides that, well, there is a risk, but all things considered he is prepared to take it — and his sick relative wants him to anyway. He too has considered the risks and has made his decision in all prudence. The fact is that man’s situation is essentially contingent. There is nothing necessary about it. He is radically dependent on circumstances — his own health is dependent on factors that can easily change; his material security is contingent on a range of circumstances which could suddenly change — by floods, fire, malpractice, or whatever; his family happiness is dependent on many things which, sadly, have been known to change. Children can become heartless, spouses can become estranged. Indeed, the whole universe, with man as its crown, is radically contingent in its very existence. It depends on the circumstance that the Creator continues to hold it lovingly in being. Whether he realizes it or not, man is nonchalantly on the knife-edge of life and existence, a situation which could so easily change in but a moment. Therefore, his essential situation is such that he must calculate what is best for him to do. All of this, at least in its practical bearing, is pretty well self-evident to the average person. There is this danger though, that a person can think — and modern secular man certainly tends to think — that all of one’s calculation is to be done on the basis of what one can see. This is because all that there is, he thinks, is what one can see. There is only this world, so one must make one’s calculations in the light of this world. All there is, is what can be directly experienced and tested empirically. Risks must be taken, but the risks are calculated on the basis of what one can count on in this life. Counting on the things of this life, one takes the risk.

To a point, of course, all this is sheer prudence. One must calculate what to do on the basis of the circumstances of life. But if that is all that is being done, it is not really prudent at all. It is not taking everything into account, because the biggest factor of all is out of the picture. The biggest factor is a loving Creator. It is one of the greatest dangers of modern culture that the fact of a loving Creator will remain out of sight. This is the blind-spot of modern Western secularism. If we consider the East — it is also, it seems, a principal blind-spot of classic Buddhism. Again, Confucius did not offer a way to God as such — he offered a way to ethical human happiness in this life. The situation was not at all improved when, in the twentieth century, out of China there came the militant imposition of Communism — an atheistic import from the West. What it all means is that the greatest lack in the modern world is the sense of the Unseen loving God, a God who loves man and his creation with an incalculable love. It is precisely this which is left out of the calculation. It is this which is forgotten by modern calculating man, the man of successful pragmatism, the man of modern scientific, technical and material achievement. If a person is filled with a conviction of the reality of a loving Creator, a loving Creator who became man to save us from sin and death and to give us a share in his own eternal life, then obviously such a person will take greater risks in what he chooses to do. He can even risk his life by declaring that he believes in this loving Creator, when there are people who wish to stamp out this notion as being inimical to man’s true, terrestrial interests. All of this brings us to our Gospel today (Matthew 6: 24-34), in which our Lord tells us not to “worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.” This is because our loving Creator will care for us. All we need worry about is the doing of his holy will. That is what comes first. That is what matters — over and above all our other needs. In fact, he says, if we do his holy will and seek his Kingdom — which will include, of course, attending to our material needs — then he will look after us in the way he knows is best.

It is said that St Thomas Aquinas was once asked this question by his sister: how can one become a saint? Her illustrious brother replied — just want it! It all gets down to personal choice. But we worry about the cost and what we shall lose by it. We calculate the cost — as we should — and we decide that the risk of losing what is important is too great. But if we have faith in a loving Creator, manifest in Jesus Christ the Son, then it is not a risk at all. God will provide. As our Lord says, “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

“My power is at its best in weakness” God has bestowed many gifts on us, and we look to the gifts people have as being full of promise for their future. St Paul makes it clear that in his spiritual gifts he is just as endowed, and more so, than others. Things have been revealed to him that they, his critics, have not imagined. Yet he does not boast of that even though he could. His boast is in his weakness, and this is because Christ has told him that his grace is enough for him. “My power is at its best in weakness.” He acknowledged his weaknesses before God and before others, and placed his faith in God’s grace and power. It was then that God’s power was most at work in him. When we are especially conscious of our weaknesses, that is the golden moment to acknowledge the truth about ourselves and about God. God is all-powerful and can be trusted. When beset by abundant limitations, let us be content in that discontent, for God is all-powerful and can be trusted.

"Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong."

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We are in love with Love. That is why Our Lord doesn’t want us to be dry, still, lifeless. He wants us to be steeped in his tenderness!

Entrance Antiphon Blest be God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son of God, and also the Holy Spirit, for he has shown us his merciful love.

Collect God our Father, who by sending into the world the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification made known to the human race your wondrous mystery, grant us, we pray, that in professing the true faith, we may acknowledge the Trinity of eternal glory and adore your Unity, powerful in majesty. 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.

After a wasted youth, Romuald saw his father kill a relative in a duel over property. In horror he fled to a monastery near Ravenna in Italy. After three years some of the monks found him to be uncomfortably holy and eased him out. He spent the next 30 years going about Italy, founding monasteries and hermitages. He longed to give his life to Christ in martyrdom, and got the pope’s permission to preach the gospel in Hungary. But he was struck with illness as soon as he arrived, and the illness recurred as often as he tried to proceed. During another period of his life, he suffered great spiritual dryness. One day as he was praying Psalm 31 (“I will give you understanding and I will instruct you”), he was given an extraordinary light and spirit which never left him. At the next monastery where he stayed, he was accused of a scandalous crime by a young nobleman he had rebuked for a dissolute life. Amazingly, his fellow monks believed the accusation. He was given a severe penance, forbidden to offer Mass and excommunicated, an unjust sentence he endured in silence for six months. The most famous of the monasteries he founded was that of the Camaldoli (Campus Maldoli, name of the owner) in Tuscany. Here he founded the Order of the Camaldolese Benedictines, uniting a monastic and hermit life. His father later became a monk, wavered and was kept faithful by the encouragement of his son. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9; Daniel 3:52-56; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18

Shroud of Turin

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. (John 3:16-18)

The indwelling of the Trinity If we had to identify something about which there has been the widest and most profound disagreement, a most likely candidate would be what we might call the Ultimate Reality. By “the Ultimate Reality” I mean God, as he is variously imagined and conceived. Today the whole Church celebrates the revelation that God has made of himself. He is one in being, Fr. Ted Tyler

and yet three distinct, divine Persons. Each of these Persons is the one and only divine Being. This stupendous truth is not the result of a human quest. There have been numerous religions with their accounts of the Ultimate Reality, arising from the quest of great religious souls — Zoroaster, Buddha, Confucius, Mahomet and many others. The Judeo-Christian religion is not one of them — it is not the result of man’s quest for God, though it presumes and answers it. Rather, it is the result of God’s quest for man. What is this “quest” of man, or alternatively this “quest” of God, about? One way to understand and compare the religions of the world is to consider how in those religions man seeks salvation from evil and suffering. The notions both of what is man’s greatest evil and the cause of his sufferings, as well as the notions of salvation from it, and the ways man attains that salvation, vary profoundly among the religions. But the Judeo-Christian religion is not a pre-eminent way forged by man seeking salvation. It is the revealed way whereby God has attained the salvation of man. God revealed himself to Abraham, Moses, and the prophets as the one and only God on whom all depends. He revealed himself as having a plan that far surpasses all that man could hope for in his self-inflicted, broken and sinful plight. God’s will is man’s sanctification, and his plan is to achieve this by drawing man into his friendship. God is the Holy One, and he means to make man holy. He established his covenant with the people he chose to be his own, and formed this people for the Salvation to come. The Father then sent his only-begotten Son, the second divine Person of the most holy Trinity, to establish by his Death and Resurrection the definitive covenant which was intended, through the ministry of the Church, to embrace all mankind. All the nations were intended to become Christ’s disciples — which is to say his friends. It would be a friendship that would save and sanctify — if only it were accepted. It involves being drawn into the personal life of the three divine Persons of the one and only godhead — Father, Son and Spirit.

So the one, single divine Being, the single Ultimate Reality, is three divine Persons, and each of these Persons is that one divine Being. The Father is God and is the ultimate origin of all. The Son is his only-Begotten, and is himself God just as the Father is God. He is equal to the Father in every way, except that he is not the Father and ultimate origin. He is the Being that the Father is. The Son became man and is our Redeemer and our Lord — the Father did not become man, nor did the Holy Spirit. The life of love between the Father and the Son is the third divine Person. He is the Holy Spirit, the same one and only God, as is the Father and as is the Son. The Holy Spirit is the gift of the Father and the Son to the Church, and through the Church to the Church’s members. As God’s gift, the Holy Spirit is the Church’s life, just as he is the life of the Father and of the Son — with this enormous difference that we still struggle with sin while God is the Holy One. We adore the one and only God who is three divine Persons, each of whom is the one and only God. Imagine the inner life of God, the limitless love between the three divine Persons both now and from all eternity. Imagine sharing in that life! Imagine its happiness in heaven! Well, we are each of us called thus to share in it, both now, and then fully and definitively in heaven. We share in it by the gift of the Holy Spirit. We share in it as long as we are in the state of grace. What does this mean? This share in the life of God means that God the Holy Trinity is present to us in our very souls. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit dwell within us if we are in the state of grace, just as they, the three Persons in one God, dwell in heaven with the angels and saints. This is the most wondrous significance for us of the mystery of the most Holy Trinity. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit who dwell in the highest heaven before all the angels and saints as the Object of their love and adoration, dwell also within the soul of each one of us who are in the state of grace. This is an astounding privilege, and it should be a tremendous incentive to remain in the friendship of God. This we do by always striving to fulfil his will, and repenting of any failure of obedience to him. We ought live day by day in the thought of the indwelling in our souls of God the holy Trinity. It is the gift of God par excellence, and it is attained by membership in Christ’s true Church, and partaking of its spiritual treasures. The blessing of the divine indwelling ought be a stimulus to constant prayer. God abides within us, loving us and imparting to us his grace to enable us to grow in his friendship.

The problem is that we do not think of the fact of the indwelling within us of the Blessed Trinity. We do not take advantage of it. The three divine Persons are neglected Guests in our souls. They are neglected, ignored, forgotten. We ought live daily in their presence, frequently communing with them, living consciously and subconsciously in their presence and their company. We ought pray to God asking that he make of our souls a fit abode for the three divine Persons. The holy Trinity comes to us to abide in our souls through faith, prayer and the Sacraments, and especially through the Eucharist. Let us then resolve today to turn our minds to this wonderful mystery, the mystery of God the Holy Trinity, and his divine indwelling.

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See if you can understand this apparent contradiction. At thirty years of age, that man wrote in his diary: “I’m not young any more.” When he was over forty, he wrote again: “I will stay young till I‘m eighty: if I die before that, I’ll think I haven’t done my stint.” Wherever he went he took with him, in spite of the passing years, the mature youthfulness of Love.

Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Ps 28 (27): 8-9 The Lord is the strength of his people, a saving refuge for the one he has anointed. Save your people, Lord, and bless your heritage, and govern them for ever.

Collect: Grant, O Lord, that we may always revere and love your holy name, for you never deprive of your guidance those you set firm on the foundation of your love. 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: Jeremiah 20:10-13; Psalm Ps 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35; Romans 5:12-15; Matthew 10:26-33

esus said to the Twelve: Do not be afraid of any one. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:26-33)

In Hell In any modern Western country, schemes for retirement constitute a thriving industry — and it would be remiss to neglect such planning. But of course, the very logic of this ought lead us to make provision not just for the years of retirement, but for the truly final stage after we die. Just as it would be tragic if due to culpable neglect our final years were full of unhappiness, even more so would it be tragic if due to culpable neglect our eternity were engulfed in misery. We know with the utmost certainty, on the word of Fr. Ted Tyler

Jesus Christ, that ultimately there are but two alternatives for each of us. There will be either eternal happiness or unending sorrow. There will be either heaven or hell. We also know the path that leads to each of these, and so we are in a position to make an enlightened choice to ensure our eternal security. The way to life eternal is through Jesus Christ and the way to the loss of it is through deliberate separation from him. The thought of hell is appalling. Saint Theresa of Avila, doctor of the Church for her teachings on prayer, was granted by God to see in a vision her place in hell if she were not faithful. It was unforgettable. The children of Fatima were given a vision of hell — vast oceans of flame threw high and then received back the souls of the damned. The children were urged by our Lady to pray for sinners, especially those most in need of God’s mercy. That prayer is now said at the end of each decade of the Rosary. Yet in our secular culture numbers of people are not concerned that the revealed teaching on hell might just be true. They think little of the judgment of God. Our Lord in today’s Gospel (Matthew 10:26-33) speaks of the fear of being sent to hell. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” Our whole being longs for love and in particular the love that only God can give. We were made for it, and it is attained fully, finally and immediately in Heaven. Hell is the eternal loss of this. It is a horror — the horror of all horrors.

Consider a member of a loving family who deliberately alienates himself from his family circle. Confirmed in his prideful separation, he is nevertheless profoundly unhappy and his years end in loneliness and misery. Or again, many who look back on their lives regret having lost various opportunities that came their way. Such experiences can give us a faint inkling of the enormity of the loss endured in Hell. Hell is an unending, eternal loss of the company and the sight of God for whom we were made, that God who has always loved us and who placed us within his own family. Hell is the realization that for all eternity one has lost all of this, and deliberately so. One has preferred in place of God sinful things that pass away in a mere spark of passing time. The bitterness and the regret, the anguish of unending loneliness and hate, the resentment and bitterness against God and all those in heaven and against all those nearby in hell — all of this is unending. The most revolting aspect of hell is the unending hatred for God and all-consuming hatred for oneself. It will be a living death for ever and ever. Our Lord said of Judas that it would have been better if he had never been born. Scripture describes hell as an unending fire and the visions of hell that the saints have had have shown a great sea of fire, a burning sea that is surging with powerful fires, in which the damned are cast. It is a most graphic image. We need but think of the pain of the touch of fire on one’s finger to have some inkling of an eternity in hell. Scripture describes hell as an eternal death. The soul is perishing forever, without actually passing out of existence. The soul is absolutely lost forever, never to be reclaimed, yet its existence never ends. It is the greatest catastrophe imaginable, just as Heaven is the greatest blessing imaginable. Let all of us be warned. Hell is one's lot if one dies in the state of deliberate and unrepented mortal sin. Every day we ought make a sincere act of repentance and contrition with a firm purpose of amendment. If it is permitted to us by virtue of our Catholic Faith, we ought regularly approach the Sacrament of Penance. We should keep alive in our hearts a fervent desire for sanctity. Moreover, we ought endeavour every day to save souls from hell, by conducting a personal and daily apostolate. It is the principal form of charity.

On the other hand, consider the soul that is saved. He dies in the state of grace, sorry for his sins, and hopefully having received the Sacraments of the Church. He may be far from perfect yet, so God will mercifully purify him of his sins — the Church calls this divine purification beyond the grave, Purgatory. Being a total purification which leaves the person finally holy and fit for God’s presence, Purgatory is profoundly painful. It is the burning away of all sin, but it is in one who knows he is saved. We can hasten the Purgatory of a departed person with Masses and spiritual indulgences and prayers offered for him. Let us consider ourselves blessed to know of Purgatory, as we can, in view of it, make reparation in union with Christ for our sins while here on earth. We can also depend on our friends and the Church to pray for us after we have died. So many of the departed have no one to pray for them. Let us pray for them, then!

Further Reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church no.1030-1036. (The final Purification, or Purgatory; Hell)

Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Ps 28 (27): 8-9 The Lord is the strength of his people, a saving refuge for the one he has anointed. Save your people, Lord, and bless your heritage, and govern them for ever.

Anyone who is praised in the letters of six or seven saints undoubtedly must be of extraordinary character. Such a person was Paulinus of Nola, correspondent and friend of Augustine, Jerome, Melania, Martin, Gregory and Ambrose. Born near Bordeaux, he was the son of the Roman prefect of Gaul, who had extensive property in both Gaul and Italy. Paulinus became a distinguished lawyer, holding several public offices in the Roman Empire. With his Spanish wife, Therasia, he retired at an early age to a life of cultured leisure. The two were baptized by the saintly bishop of Bordeaux and moved to Therasia’s estate in Spain. After many childless years, they had a son who died a week after birth. This occasioned their beginning a life of great austerity and charity, giving away most of their Spanish property. Possibly as a result of this great example, Paulinus was rather unexpectedly ordained a priest at Christmas by the bishop of Barcelona. He and his wife then moved to Nola, near Naples. He had a great love for St. Felix of Nola, and spent much effort in promoting devotion to this saint. Paulinus gave away most of his remaining property (to the consternation of his relatives) and continued his work for the poor. Supporting a host of debtors, the homeless and other needy people, he lived a monastic life in another part of his home. By popular demand he was made bishop of Nola and guided that diocese for 21 years. His last years were saddened by the invasion of the Huns. Among his few writings is the earliest extant Christian wedding song. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Jesus said, Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. (Matthew 7: 1-5)

Do not judge Early in May of 2011 a party of American commandos flew in helicopters from a base in Afghanistan to a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. They landed in the compound, hastily overran it and found the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, who was asked to surrender. It was said that in some sense he resisted, but it was later announced that he was unarmed. He was shot and killed, and the party left with a cache of computers and other seizures, together with the body which was buried at sea. In Australia there have occasionally been police incidents when a man with only a knife has been shot and killed by police who were there confronting him. There is then a major inquiry into the legality of the police action, with important recommendations. The police in question are extensively interviewed as are any witnesses, the body is examined by a coroner, and a judgment is made. There have been cases of police shootings leading to the prosecution of the police themselves. At the time of my mention of this, there has been no such investigation of the death of the mass murderer, bin Laden. When certain persons are indicted for crimes against humanity, they are hunted down and brought to trial before legitimate courts and have the right to legal defence. This guards against unjust judgment and condemnation, something to which man is prone. One of the triumphs of American history was its eventual conquest of lynching. All countries where the rule of law is in place ban the practice, and require the prosecution of those guilty of it. There is no doubt about the guilt of bin Laden, just as there was no doubt about the guilt of Pol Pot, and Adolf Hitler. But there is surely doubt about the circumstances of his death. I mention this as an introduction to the sequel of bin Laden’s demise. Within a short time of Barak Obama’s announcement of the event, crowds were in the streets celebrating, and the next day a survey was conducted by the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation. According to its poll, about 60 percent of the public thought bin Laden was now in hell, and the New York Daily News published a full front-page photo of Laden, with “Rot in Hell” as its headline. That is, they wanted him in hell. Of course, this may have mainly signified that people thought bin Laden an evil person, but it says things too about man’s judgment on others.

I mention all this as an introduction to our Gospel today. On one occasion our Lord was informed by “some who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices” (Luke 13:1). It was an atrocity — if done these days, Pilate may have been brought to trial for a crime against humanity. The same can be said of, say, Herod the Great — one of his darker exploits is recorded in the Gospel of St Matthew. He slaughtered several infants in the quiet settlement of Bethlehem so as to stamp out a future rival to his hoped-for dynasty. There are countless bad deeds done in this sin-laden and sorry world. But what does Jesus Christ say about our response to evil? We are not to judge — not in respect to the person’s action, but how he stands ultimately in God’s sight and judgment. This is because only God knows. “Jesus said, Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7: 1-5). Our Lord is not saying that criminal actions and personal responsibility for them is not to be the object of civil or ecclesiastical judgment, indeed of the judgment of anyone who carries responsibility. But we must not — to give but one example — consign a person to hell. When our Lord was hanging in total agony from the cross, he did not assign to hell his enemies who were jeering in derision before him. They had effected his lynching by blackmailing a harassed and fearful governor. It was the most horrible crime in the history of the world, for it was God become man who was thus murdered. Of course, all this was under the almighty hand of God and his loving providence. Our Lord was master of the events in the sense that he freely submitted to the hostility directed against him. But he did not wish them the harm of hell, though he made clear, even to Pilate that “the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin” (John 19:11). He wanted them saved. On the cross Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). St Peter, in his first address following on Pentecost, publicly stated that “brothers, I know that you and your rulers acted from ignorance” (Acts 3:17).

We can never know the full extent of awareness and consent for bad deeds done, so we must leave to the judgment of God a person’s ultimate guilt and position before him. We, rather, ought aim to be truly human after the example of Jesus Christ. Let this mind be in you, St Paul writes, that was in Christ Jesus. The most fundamental revelation of the character and nature of God is that he is, yes, holy and therefore hateful of sin. But at the same time what is especially distinctive is that he is rich to overflowing in mercy. Let us, on this basis, pray for those who persecute us or do us harm, and strive to win all men to God and to an eternity with him in heaven.

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged.” On one occasion our Lord told his disciples that if their virtue went no deeper than that of the Scribes and Pharisees — to whom people looked in matters of religion — then they would never enter the kingdom of heaven. The much higher virtue our Lord expects of us is instanced in our Gospel passage of today in which our Lord tells us that we ought not judge one another. What our Lord means is made clear in the sentences that follow. It means that we are not to condemn. Let us judge our brother kindly and not be constantly prone to criticise him for his defects. That is the tendency of our thoughts in respect to others. We ignore and forget our own defects, and condemn our brother for his. Our Lord says: take the log out of your own eye before you endeavour to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.

Let us think for a moment of those in our life with whom we are constantly annoyed. Then let us apply our Lord’s teaching to ourselves, and let us resolve to put on the mind of Jesus Christ.

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How well I understand that question put by a soul in love with God: “Have I made any grimace of distaste, has there been anything in me which could have hurt you, my Lord, my Love?” Ask your Father-God to grant us the grace to be constantly demanding in that way.

The Lord can make saints anywhere, even amid the brutality and license of Renaissance life. Florence was the “mother of piety” for Aloysius Gonzaga despite his exposure to a “society of fraud, dagger, poison and lust.” As a son of a princely family, he grew up in royal courts and army camps. St Aloysius Gonzaga

His father wanted Aloysius to be a military hero. At age seven he experienced a profound spiritual quickening. His prayers included the Office of Mary, the psalms and other devotions. At age nine he came from his hometown of Castiglione to Florence to be educated; by age 11 he was teaching catechism to poor children, fasting three days a week and practising great austerities. When he was 13 years old he travelled with his parents and the Empress of Austria to Spain and acted as a page in the court of Philip II. The more Aloysius saw of court life, the more disillusioned he became, seeking relief in learning about the lives of saints. A book about the experience of Jesuit missionaries in India suggested to him the idea of entering the Society of Jesus, and in Spain his decision became final. Now began a four-year contest with his father. Eminent churchmen and laypeople were pressed into service to persuade him to remain in his “normal” vocation. Finally he prevailed, was allowed to renounce his right to succession and was received into the Jesuit novitiate. Like other seminarians, Aloysius was faced with a new kind of penance—that of accepting different ideas about the exact nature of penance. He was obliged to eat more, to take recreation with the other students. He was forbidden to pray except at stated times. He spent four years in the study of philosophy and had St. Robert Bellarmine (September 17) as his spiritual adviser. In 1591, a plague struck Rome. The Jesuits opened a hospital of their own. The general himself and many other Jesuits rendered personal service. Because he nursed patients, washing them and making their beds, Aloysius caught the disease himself. A fever persisted after his recovery and he was so weak he could scarcely rise from bed. Yet, he maintained his great discipline of prayer, knowing that he would die within the octave of Corpus Christi, three months later, at the age of 23.

"When we stand praying, beloved brethren, we ought to be watchful and earnest with our whole heart, intent on our prayers. Let all carnal and worldly thoughts pass away, nor let the soul at that time think on anything except the object of its prayer" (St. Cyprian, On the Lord's Prayer, 31). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Jesus said, Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7: 6.12-14)

Love for neighbour Matthew has obviously arranged his material in a certain way — as have each of the other Evangelists. At the beginning of our Lord’s public ministry following his confrontation with Satan in the wilderness (4: 1-11), the commencement of his public ministry in Galilee (4: 12-17), his call of the first and principal Apostles (4:18-22) and his proclamation of the kingdom (4: 23-25), our Fr. Ted Tyler

Lord lays before his disciples (chapters 5-7) his teaching. The section is a broad exposition of his revelation, and it is given to his disciples on the mountain in sight of the multitudes below (5:1). While this might indicate that what he says is directed to the disciples alone, at the end of his great discourse we read that “the people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority, and not like the scribes” (7:28-29). Still, the beginning of the scene suggests that Christ, seeing the multitudes, is telling his disciples the message they are to embrace in faith and then bring to the world below them. We are surely reminded of Moses who went up the mountain to receive the Law of God and then to bring it down to the multitudes below. Christ is the new Moses. Yet in another sense, since it is he who is giving the new Law, and not just receiving it as did Moses on Mount Sinai, he is far more than another Moses. It was Yahweh who gave the Law to Moses to take to the people, and now Christ is giving the new Law and not just receiving it. We read in Exodus 24:1-2 that Moses was told, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, with Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel ... but Moses alone is to come close to the Lord; the others shall not come too near, and the people shall not come up at all with Moses.” Then in 24:9 they go up according to that arrangement. In the scene of the Sermon on the Mount, with the multitudes below, Christ takes his seat up on the mountain — as would the great unrivalled teacher, and his disciples come to him to hear his word. It is reminiscent of the various scenes of Mount Sinai in the Book of Exodus — with Christ depicted in one sense as the new Moses, and in another sense as far, far more than Moses. When he finishes, he comes down and the multitudes follow him (8:1).

One of the obvious things our Lord does in his great discourse is that he draws various contrasts between what he says and what “you have heard that it was said to the ancients” (5:21). There are clear differences between what our Lord says and what “you have heard that it was said” (5:27). Our Lord does not say, for instance, “the Law and the Prophets say such and such,” but I say this. This might even have suggested a setting aside of the Prophets, a kind of opposition between the Law and the Prophets and his own revelation. He does not contradict the Law and the Prophets — he is full of love and veneration for them. Indeed, the entire Gospel of St Matthew is designed to show that our Lord’s mission and ministry is conducted on the basis of his being the very fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets. Our Lord did various things precisely because the prophecies pointed to them. They expressed the divine will, the mission given to him by the Father, and choices were made by him in the light of them. To give but one example, in Matthew’s account of Christ’s final entry into the City in preparation for his Passion and Death, he directed two of his disciples to go to the village and bring the ass and her colt for his entry. We read that “all this was done that it might be fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet, saying, tell the Daughter of Sion, behold your king comes to you seated upon an ass and a colt the foal of an ass” (Matthew 21: 4-5). The prophecy, depicting the entry of the Messianic King, was for Christ the indicator to him of the will of his heavenly Father, and he acted accordingly. My point is that the Law and the Prophets were loved and venerated by Jesus Christ with all his heart as being the word of God his Father, revealed by the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Hence he says in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not think that I have come to destroy the law and the prophets — I have not come to destroy but to fulfil them” (Matthew 5:17). It is in light of this that we ought notice our Lord’s summation in our Gospel passage today: “in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7: 6.12-14)

One of the striking things about the revealed Judeo-Christian religion is the intimate connection between religion and life. God will not tolerate a worship of him that sits side-by-side with neglect of one’s fellow-man. Christ fulfilled this superabundantly himself by laying down his life for the salvation of mankind, and he directed that his love for others be the benchmark for his disciples: Love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34). In this, as in so much else, he is the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets. Let us aim in life for love, then, the love of Christ coming to us by the Holy Spirit as his gift. This love is the path to human perfection.

“Enter by the narrow gate” One of the greatest dangers for the disciple of Jesus is that of falling into mediocrity. If the person of Jesus is loved, and if that love for him is truly real, there will be a holy Fr. Ted Tyler

ambition to be very generous. Our Lord tells us to “enter by the narrow gate, since the road that leads to perdition is wide and spacious, and many take it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life.” So then, every day will involve struggle and effort to do God’s will as perfectly as possible, if we hope to gain the prize of love for Jesus Christ. Struggle, ongoing daily struggle, will be essential. What is it that leads to mediocrity, for settling for anything but the best? Many things — such as giving in to deliberate venial sin, and not repenting of it, and failing to avoid the occasions of sin. But there is one thing we may not be conscious of, which is truly fundamental. It is the danger of gradually losing faith in God’s power to get us to our goal — which is, after all, God’s goal for us. “This is the will of God,” St Paul writes, “your sanctification.” The struggle against sin can seem so unrelenting (which it is) that we can gradually think that sanctity is an impossible project — impossible for God too. So we lose faith in God's power, which is really losing faith in God.

So let us always begin again. Now I begin! Each time, let us renew our faith in God’s power.

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Have you seen the affection and the confidence with which Christ’s friends treat him? In a completely natural way the sisters of Lazarus ‘blame’ Jesus for being away: “We told you! If only you’d been here!” Speak to him with calm confidence: “Teach me to treat you with the loving friendliness of Martha, Mary and Lazarus and as the first Twelve treated you, even though at first they followed you perhaps for not very supernatural reasons.”

His belief that no lay ruler has jurisdiction over the Church of Christ cost Thomas More his life. Beheaded on Tower Hill, London, July 6, 1535, he steadfastly refused to approve Henry VIII’s divorce and remarriage and establishment of the Church of England. Described as “a man for all seasons,” More was a literary scholar, eminent lawyer, gentleman, father of four children and chancellor of England. An intensely spiritual man, he would not support the king’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Nor would he acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church in England, breaking with Rome and denying the pope as head. More was committed to the Tower of London to await trial for treason: not swearing to the Act of Succession and the Oath of Supremacy. Upon conviction, More declared he had all the councils of Christendom and not just the council of one realm to support him in the decision of his conscience. Four hundred years later, in 1935, Thomas More was canonized a saint of God. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognise them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognise them. (Matthew 7: 15-20)

False prophets It is well known that a major problem for the early Church was the rise of Gnosticism with its various and profoundly unorthodox beliefs about Jesus Christ. Gnosticism was a wider phenomenon than a set of beliefs that falsified Christian doctrine, but it did constitute a major problem for the earlier and later Church. It often posited a demiurge, teaching that Jesus was a spirit that seemed to be human — and many other notions at complete odds with Christian belief. The Albigensian heresy of the Middle Ages was the most notable example of later Gnosticism. I remember attending a seminar in the school of Studies in Religion at one university, and I was struck at the deep sympathy of some academics for the plight, as they regarded it, of the early Christian Gnostics. Gnostics were persecuted for their beliefs, as they saw it, and the demise of Gnosticism (actually, it never died out) was a triumph of intolerance. I was intrigued by the sympathetic academic interest that Gnosticism attracted, and how the early Gnostics seemed to have won the hearts of those academics. I had the impression that the question of truth was not considered to be important — what mattered was freedom of personal preference. The perceived tragedy of Gnostic history was that their beliefs — which some academics seemed to think were cute — were so roundly opposed at their time and driven from the scene. Now, of course, it is a great gain in the modern era, the era of the last few centuries in the West, that personal freedom and the right of the individual conscience has been discovered and made a high philosophical and cultural priority. What now tends to be forgotten, though — just as personal freedom was forgotten in a previous era — is the paramount importance of the objective truth. The serious concern with Gnosticism was that the truth of Jesus Christ, as proclaimed by the Church, was deformed and presented as the real message. In our day many lack a concern for the critical importance of the objective Truth, and in particular, Revealed Truth. Many do not see Truth as saving, as the bearer of life, and Revealed Truth as redemptive and sanctifying. It is just “an opinion” — “your viewpoint,” “your position,” having no more value than “my opinion.”

Of course, our Lord would never force-feed the Truth into people. On one occasion when he was going up to Jerusalem for his final week of Passion and Death, he arrived at a Samaritan village, intending to stay there with his disciples. But the Samaritans, because Christ’s party was on their way to Jerusalem for the feast, would not receive them. James and John wanted our Lord to agree to their calling down fire from heaven on the Samaritans for their inhospitable affront. But our Lord rebuked his two favourite disciples, and turned aside for a different village. On another occasion, our Lord and his party, having arrived at the semi-pagan area of the Decapolis, was confronted by a notoriously dangerous demoniac, inhabited by several demons — Legion was their name. Our Lord at a word drove them all from the hapless man. Out came the nearby village and made their wishes clear — our Lord was to go. They could not cope with his presence. So he left — he accepted their wishes. He force-fed no one. This is an example to the Church and her members for the ages in their prosecution of the mission he has given them. They are to go to the whole world and make disciples of all the nations — but they are to make them in the way he did. That way is by the vigorous and faithful witness to the Truth of Jesus Christ, a witness that respects personal freedom in the way Christ respected freedom. All that having been said, there is nothing in Jesus Christ that looked upon the denial or distortion of Revealed Truth as but an “opinion,” one among other “opinions.” Christ would never have allowed such a notion to take root in the mind of his disciples. We are to die for the Truth of Jesus Christ, just as he died for it. When standing before Pilate, the representative of the Empire, Christ described his mission as bearing witness to the Truth. For this was I born, he told the puzzled Roman official, to bear witness to the Truth, and those who are of the Truth listen to my voice. Pilate was well out of his depth, and could only respond, “What is Truth?” His question to Christ, uttered perhaps in scepticism and scorn, is the question of the ages. The answer of the modern age is that it is no more than a personal persuasion or preference. The true answer is the answer of Jesus Christ: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

In our Gospel today (Matthew 7: 15-20) our Lord warns against those who will come distorting the truth — in other words, false prophets. There had been a long history of false prophets in the chosen people of God, and the Old Testament indicts them repeatedly and severely. Christ is in the line of the holy Scriptures in warning against false prophets. The one thing necessary for any human being, let alone a disciple of Jesus Christ, is to hear the word of God and to put it into practice. How terrible a thing it is, then, to falsify the word of God! The word of Jesus Christ has been entrusted by him to the Church, and the Church brings it to the ages, including to each of us, children of our age as we are. Let us treasure that word, and be its true prophets to others.

“Beware of false prophets” Repeatedly in the New Testament the disciples of Jesus are warned of false teachers and false prophets. St Paul insists time and again on the danger of being led astray by false teaching and St John in his letters insists on it too. It has been one of the great and constant issues down through the ages of Church history. The striking thing about Christianity is its proliferation of divisions into sects and schismatic bodies, led by this or that leader who has his message at variance with that of the Universal Catholic Church. We see it in the infant churches of the New Testament, we see it in the early centuries of the Church especially in the fourth and fifth centuries, and we see it time and again in the Middle Ages and in the Reformation period at the dawn of the modern age.

Let us take to heart this warning of our Lord and resolve to be distinguished by our love for the teaching Church especially as embodied in the successor of Peter, the vicar of Jesus Christ. We ought seek to know his teaching and integrate it into our lives. Let us reject all false teachers, and drink instead from the fountain-head, from the purest waters.

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How I like to think of John, leaning his head on Christ's breast! It is like giving up one's intelligence lovingly, difficult though this is, to let it be set on fire by the flame of the Heart of Jesus.

John Fisher is usually associated with Erasmus, Thomas More and other Renaissance humanists. His life, therefore, did not have the St John Fisher

external simplicity found in the lives of some saints. Rather, he was a man of learning, associated with the intellectuals and political leaders of his day. He was interested in the contemporary culture and eventually became chancellor at Cambridge. He had been made a bishop at 35, and one of his interests was raising the standard of preaching in England. Fisher himself was an accomplished preacher and writer. His sermons on the penitential psalms were reprinted seven times before his death. With the coming of Lutheranism, he was drawn into controversy. His eight books against heresy gave him a leading position among European theologians. In 1521 he was asked to study the problem of Henry VIII’s marriage. He incurred Henry’s anger by defending the validity of the king’s marriage with Catherine of Aragon and later by rejecting Henry’s claim to be the supreme head of the Church of England. In an attempt to be rid of him, Henry first had him accused of not reporting all the “revelations” of the nun of Kent, Elizabeth Barton. John was summoned, in feeble health, to take the oath to the new Act of Succession. He and Thomas More refused because the Act presumed the legality of Henry’s divorce and his claim to be head of the English Church. They were sent to the Tower of London, where Fisher remained 14 months without trial. They were finally sentenced to life imprisonment and loss of goods. When the two were called to further interrogations, they remained silent. Fisher was tricked, on the supposition he was speaking privately as a priest, and declared again that the king was not supreme head. The king, further angered that the pope had made John Fisher a cardinal, had him brought to trial on the charge of high treason. He was condemned and executed, his body left to lie all day on the scaffold and his head hung on London Bridge. More was executed two weeks later. Erasmus said of John Fisher: "He is the one man at this time who is incomparable for uprightness of life, for learning and for greatness of soul." (AmericanCatholic.org)

Jesus said, Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father Shroud of Turin

who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. (Matthew 7: 21-29)

The Rock Recently I viewed an interview on the television network EWTN conducted by Markus Grodi. Markus was conversing with a one-time Presbyterian minister who had converted to the Catholic Church. The convert Catholic was pointing out that his knowledge of Church history, Christian doctrine and the Scriptures were all set within the time frame beginning with the Reformation. Luther’s protest of 1517, when he nailed up his ninety-five theses, followed by Pope Leo X’s Encyclical of 1520, Exsurge Domine, Fr. Ted Tyler

began the Protestant Reformation. According to his own account, the Presbyterian convert I mentioned was educated totally in the Protestant tradition which grew from 1517, which is understandable. One of the points he made was that as a result, very many things in Scripture itself he never noticed, such as the teaching of the Scriptures on the Eucharist as in John chapter 6. He gradually learnt that there was a Tradition far greater than the tradition within which he was raised and educated, and this Tradition, which was also that of the early Church, should shape the mind by which the Scriptures are to be read and understood. I say this by way of introduction to our Gospel text today (Matthew 7: 21-29), in which our Lord gives his parable of the house that is built on rock. This teaching, emphasising the absolutely fundamental character of obedience to the word of Christ, appears as the solemn conclusion of the great Sermon on the Mount. The “rock” is Christ himself and his word. Building on that “rock” means obedience to his word. On no other rock should man build. There was another occasion in the Scriptures when a “rock” was at the centre of the event. Moses was commanded by God (Numbers 20:8) to take his rod, and to speak to the rock (teen petran) before them, and it would give forth its waters. Moses struck the rock — but then struck it again, obviously doubting (Numbers 20: 9-12). He failed to believe absolutely in the word and promise of God, and to act on it. The same “rock” out of which (ek petras) the waters flowed is recalled in Deuteronomy 8:15. In this case, the “rock” symbolized the word of God and its power — which is to say, God himself from whom comes life. Reference to a “rock” contained rich Scriptural allusions.

One manuscript version of Deuteronomy 32:4 reads: “The Rock — how faultless are his deeds.” Other manuscripts (such as the Septuagint) have “God” instead of “Rock.” God, then, is the Rock. In Psalm 61:2, it is suggested that God is the rock of one’s life: “You will set me on high upon a rock: you will give me rest, for you are my refuge”. In David’s song to the Lord when he had rescued him from Saul (2 Samuel 22:2), God is his rock: “O Lord my rock (kurie petra mou — Septuagint). In Daniel 2:45 the “stone” which broke to pieces the tile, iron, bronze, silver and gold was the kingdom set up by God, a kingdom never to be destroyed. It will put an end to those other kingdoms. God is a rock, a stone stronger than other things. I am sure that our Lord’s description of the house built on a rock would have had the allusions that the image of a rock carries in the Old Testament. Our Lord was also, though, speaking of himself as the Rock, for it is those who hear his word and keep it who are like the one who builds his house on rock. As God was the Rock of Israel and of every Israelite, so Jesus Christ is the Rock on which every person ought build his house. If the house is built on him and on obedience to his word, all will be well. If it is not, it will fall. Particularly significant is the scene when Christ asks his disciples who men say he is. It is Simon who answers: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:16). It is on this that everything is built — Christ, then, is the Rock. At that, Christ appoints Simon to be the Rock of his Church. Christ, the new Rock, is now appointing Simon to be the Rock on which he will build his Church, his House. When Christ cleansed the Temple, he said that his Father’s House was to be a House of prayer. Christ was now building a new House, and the Rock of the House would be Simon — “You are Peter (Petros), and on this Rock (petra) I will build my Church. The gates of hell will not prevail over it.” So the rains and floods would come, but the new House would not fall. It was founded on Rock — the Rock of Christ, represented by Simon, now Christ’s appointed Rock.

There are many things to be noticed when reading the inspired word of God, but we must read it with the mind of Christ and his Church, for it is out of his Church, and its divinely planted root, the chosen people of Israel, that the inspired Scriptures were formed and written. They must be read within the Tradition of the Church, and no other. Divine Revelation is transmitted by that interwoven channel, the channel of Scripture and Tradition which the Church in her authoritative and divinely-assisted teaching helps us to understand. In this sense, let us ever drink from the Scriptures, for as St Jerome writes, to be ignorant of the Scriptures is to be ignorant of Christ.

"Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?" One of the things that can affect a person’s joy and contentment in life is Fr. Ted Tyler

the question of success. One can look back on the past and consider the present, and observe that there is not much to be proud of. One is a “nobody,” with no notable achievements. Indeed, this can be a correct assessment of the facts. Most of us are “nobodies,” with few notable achievements. Our lives are "ordinary." This consideration can make a person sad and disappointed. But what does our Lord say? Notable achievements of themselves are not noteworthy in the sight of God. He says, speaking of the judgment, that “when that day comes many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?’ Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you, away from me you evil men.” That was because, for all their notable deeds, they were not actually doing the will of God. The “sensible” man is the one who hears Christ’s words and acts on them. Our happiness and our satisfaction ought lie in doing God’s will, whatever that might mean in the providence of God, notable deeds or not. So if being noticed by others comes our way in the fulfilment of God’s will, so be it. If it means being relatively unknown and unnoticed, or in other words, if our lives are "ordinary", so be it.

Let us remember that obscurity was the path of Mary and Joseph in Nazareth — and, at Nazareth, of our Lord himself. The doing of God’s will — let that be our joy and our fulfilment.

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God loves me. And John the Apostle writes: “Let us love God, then, since God loved us first.” As if this were not enough, Jesus comes to each one of us, in spite of our patent wretchedness, to ask us, as he asked Peter: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others?” This is the moment to reply: “Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you!” adding, with humility, “Help me to love you more. Increase my love!”

Vigil Mass Entrance Antiphon: Lk 1: 15, 14 He will be great in the sight of the Lord and will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb; and many will rejoice at his birth.

Collect Grant, we pray, almighty God, that your family may walk in the way of salvation and, attentive to what Saint John the Precursor urged, may come safely to the One he foretold, our Lord Jesus Christ. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Mass during the Day Entrance Antiphon: Jn 1: 6-7; Lk 1: 17 A man was sent from God, whose name was John. He came to testify to the light, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.

Collect O God, who raised up Saint John the Baptist to make ready a nation fit for Christ the Lord, give your people, we pray, the grace of spiritual joys and direct the hearts of all the faithful into the way of salvation and peace. 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.

Jesus called John the greatest of all those who had preceded him: “I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John....” But John would have agreed completely with what Jesus added: “[Y]et the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28). John spent his time in the desert, an ascetic. He began to announce the coming of the Kingdom, and to call everyone to a Nativity of John the Baptist

fundamental reformation of life. His purpose was to prepare the way for Jesus. His Baptism, he said, was for repentance. But One would come who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. John is not worthy even to carry his sandals. His attitude toward Jesus was: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30). John was humbled to find among the crowd of sinners who came to be baptized the one whom he already knew to be the Messiah. “I need to be baptized by you” (Matthew 3:14b). But Jesus insisted, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15b). Jesus, true and humble human as well as eternal God, was eager to do what was required of any good Jew. John thus publicly entered the community of those awaiting the Messiah. But making himself part of that community, he made it truly messianic. The greatness of John, his pivotal place in the history of salvation, is seen in the great emphasis Luke gives to the announcement of his birth and the event itself—both made prominently parallel to the same occurrences in the life of Jesus. John attracted countless people (“all Judea”) to the banks of the Jordan, and it occurred to some people that he might be the Messiah. But he constantly deferred to Jesus, even to sending away some of his followers to become the first disciples of Jesus. Perhaps John’s idea of the coming of the Kingdom of God was not being perfectly fulfilled in the public ministry of Jesus. For whatever reason, he sent his disciples (when he was in prison) to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah. Jesus’ answer showed that the Messiah was to be a figure like that of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah (chapters 49 through 53). John himself would share in the pattern of messianic suffering, losing his life to the revenge of Herodias. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture (Mass of the Day) Isaiah 49: 1-6; Psalm 138; Acts 13: 22-26; Luke 1: 57-66.80

When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown Shroud of Turin

her great mercy, and they shared her joy. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, No! He is to be called John. They said to her, There is no-one among your relatives who has that name. Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, His name is John. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. The neighbours were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, What then is this child going to be? For the Lord's hand was with him. And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel (Luke 1: 57-66.80).

Vocation Today we think of the birth of John the Baptist, one whom our Lord praised as having no equal among the sons of men (Luke 7:28). We think of what the archangel Gabriel said of him, that he would be great in the sight of the Lord (Luke 1:15). Even from his mother’s womb he would be filled with the Holy Spirit. He would bring back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord, and he would prepare for the Lord a people fit for him. He leapt in the womb at the approach of Mary and the unborn Jesus. We remember the course of his life, how he grew to be a great prophet, the greatest of them all and with the greatest of prophetic missions, announcing and pointing out Jesus as the Messiah. He, Jesus his kinsman, the Lamb of God, would take away the sins of the world (John 1:29). John crowned his magnificent life by dying a martyr’s death bearing witness to God’s truth on marriage (Matthew 14:4). Thinking of his birthday, we are led to think of his great vocation which he lived by being faithful to the promptings and graces of the Holy Spirit. The very thought of such a vocation has lessons for us all. St Paul writes (Ephesians 1:4) that before the world began, God chose each one of us in Christ, to be holy and full of love in his sight. So we each of us received our vocation from before the world began. We all have an eternal calling from God. From all eternity each of us, including John the Baptist, was in the loving mind of God. The providence of God, guiding the history and course of the world and of the universe, was preparing for the coming of each of us, each with his own vocation. John the Baptist had a unique vocation, but each of us too has our own calling from God, a calling originating in eternity. Just as his was unique, so is ours. Just as his was exalted, so is ours — and the words of St Paul just cited from Ephesians make this abundantly clear.

We ought value highly the special choice that God has made of us. God loves me and has chosen me. He has chosen me in the first place for himself. We each of us belong to the Father because we each of us have been chosen in Christ. Just as Christ belongs to the Father because he is his only begotten Son, so we, who are in Christ by the choice of the Father, also belong to the Father. Our Lord said that the Father has given each of us to him, to Jesus. And both the Father and the Son have entrusted us to the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and make us holy. And this too was the design of God from the beginning because St Paul says that since the beginning God chose us in Christ to be holy and full of love in his sight. He meant us to be holy, and this holiness, we know, comes from and is the work of the Holy Spirit. He is the Sanctifier who is entrusted with the work of our sanctification. St John the Baptist was entrusted to the Holy Spirit too, from his mother’s womb. He was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. We receive the Holy Spirit at our baptism. On this feast of the birth of John the Baptist, we ought pray for a renewed appreciation of God’s plan for each of us, a renewed appreciation of our vocation to be holy and full of love in the sight of God our heavenly Father. We are meant by God to be saints, whoever we are, be we a cook, a housewife, mother, student. Whatever might be the circumstances in which the providence of God places us, our vocation is the great constant one — to be more and more like Christ in mind and heart. If there is one thing the study of the lives of the saints ought teach us, it is that no set of circumstances, however untoward they may seem, can come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39). That love which God has for us is what takes us to sanctity, no matter who we be, no matter what be our situation. What matters is that we put on the mind of Christ in the midst of those circumstances. Let this mind be in you, St Paul writes, that was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5).

Let us remember that it was Mary who brought Jesus to St John the Baptist. When Mary approached, the gift of the Holy Spirit was granted and John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb. Mary is our mother and our model in the great project of our life which is to pursue holiness in Jesus Christ. On this feast of the birth of John the Baptist, let us entrust ourselves to God the Father, Son and Spirit, resolving to live our Christian vocation truly generously.

“He will bring back many to the Lord their God” Our Lord said on one occasion that there was no one born of woman greater than John the Baptist. This would surely refer in part to John the Baptist’s very vocation. His calling was a very great one, and he lived up to it. His vocation, and his response to it, were “great.” The angel said that “He will be great in the sight of the Lord” (Luke 1: 5-17). He was the forerunner of the Messiah. His calling was, in the words of the angel in our Gospel text, to bring back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and to prepare for the Lord a people fit for him. We ought dwell on that kind of vocation, that kind of work in life — bringing others back to God their Father. We were made to know, love and serve God here on earth so as to see and enjoy him forever in heaven. It is, then, the greatest possible service that can be rendered to another, to help him know, love and serve God — for that is the purpose of his existence. This kind of service ought pervade the particular work or profession by which we serve others in our daily life. Within our daily setting and service, we ought be also helping them by word, deed and example to attain God as the one necessary Reality.

How grand is the life of one given over exclusively to “preparing for the Lord a people fit for him.”

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“Love means deeds and not sweet words.” Deeds, deeds! And a resolution: I will continue to tell you often, Lord, that I love you. How often have I repeated this today! But, with your grace, it will be my conduct above all that shows it. It will be the little things of each day which, with silent eloquence, will cry out before you, showing you my Love.

Today's patroness of Prussia began her life amidst luxury and power but died the death of a simple servant of the poor. In truth, virtue and piety were always of prime importance to Jutta and her husband, both of noble rank. The two were set to make a pilgrimage together to the holy places in Jerusalem, but her husband died on the way. The newly widowed Jutta, after taking care to provide for her children, resolved to live in a manner utterly pleasing to God. She disposed of the costly clothes, jewels and furniture befitting one of her rank, and became a Secular Franciscan, taking on the simple garment of a religious. From that point her life was utterly devoted to others: caring for the sick, particularly lepers; tending to the poor, whom she visited in their hovels; helping the crippled and blind with whom she shared her own home. Many of the townspeople of Thuringia laughed at how the once-distinguished lady now spent all her time. But Jutta saw the face of God in the poor and felt honoured to render whatever services she could. About the year 1260, not long before her death, Jutta lived near the non-Christians in eastern Germany. There she built a small hermitage and prayed unceasingly for their conversion. She has been venerated for centuries as the special patron of Prussia. (AmericanCatholic.org)

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. Lord, he said, my servant lies at home paralysed and in terrible suffering. Jesus said to him, I will go and heal him. The Shroud of Turin

centurion replied, Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion, Go! It will be done just as you believed it would. And his servant was healed at that very hour. When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases. (Matthew 8: 5-17)

The Church catholic One of the great gains of modern times, including and perhaps especially in the West, is the appreciation of culture — one’s own culture, and the culture of other peoples. For instance, over the past half-century, there has been in Australia a new realization and appreciation of the distinctively Australian character. It is a word of condemnation in Australia to say of something or Fr. Ted Tyler

some practice that “it is not Australian.” In Australia, there has been a proliferation of interest in Australian literature over the last fifty or sixty years. I clearly remember when, in the 1950s, it became an option to study Australian literature at Leaving Certificate level. It is understood in the modern world that culture is at the heart of the soul of a nation, and that it is at the heart of the life of a nation’s citizens. In fact, one could say that a nation’s culture is its soul. The next thing to be observed is that, looking at the matter from the perspective of the ages — which is to say, looking at human culture in terms of millennia and mankind in general — at the heart of culture lies religion. Of course, the anomaly in this pattern is the secular culture of modern Western societies. Very many anthropologists have assumed religion to be a function of a society’s culture, but at least this reflects their conviction that generally religion is found to be deeply embedded in culture. There is, incidentally, another view on the relation between religion and culture — that, typically, religion lies so much at the root of a society’s life that it is not a mere function of its culture, but the principal creator and shaper of culture. In this sense, just as a culture is the soul of a society, so its religion is the soul of a culture. The point I am making, though, is that religion is so much part of the culture and soul of a society that generally it identifies with and is rooted to that culture. If the culture spreads, so does its religion. Its religion is the religion precisely of that particular culture. If the religion spreads, it is generally because the culture has spread or been embraced. Islam, for instance, is intimately bound up with the culture that bears it along, and is rarely if ever detached from it. My own impression is that if it is embraced, its embrace generally involves, to a significant point, the embrace of the culture. Whatever of that opinion, my point is that in history generally each culture has had its religion, and the religion is intimately, perhaps inseparately, bound to that culture.

In this, the Christian religion both as an historical phenomenon and as envisaged by its divine Founder, appears on the scene as something new. Of course, wherever it is found, it is embedded in a culture — if not the culture of the country where its adherents live, then at least in the (sub)culture of its adherents. Further, it has often been perceived as a feature of a particular culture. For instance, it has been viewed many times in history by particular societies as a Western phenomenon. Still, this perception is, in essence, mistaken. It is not bound to any particular culture. It takes root in a particular culture and embraces it, redeeming it, giving it a new and elevating life, and making it far more than it would have been. Pope John Paul II used often refer to the fact that due to the Church’s missionary endeavour, Christ has become Chinese, Asian, African, Eskimo, or whatever — just as he became Jewish when born in Bethlehem two thousand or more years ago. Our Lord was thoroughly Semitic, thoroughly Jewish. He was not a Roman, nor a Greek, nor Egyptian, nor Syrian, nor Gallic, nor Germanic. He was Jewish. The Word of God became flesh, and the flesh was Jewish. But what was distinctive about this was that Jesus Christ, glorified and at the head of his body the Church, was destined to be mystically united to believers of all the nations — Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Syrians, Gauls, Germans. In this union, they would not become Jewish. Rather, in them the glorified Christ would become Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Syrian, Gallic, and German. His body the Church was never destined to be a Jewish phenomenon simply because Christ was Jewish, and because the context of his teaching was Jewish. The Church was to be the Church of all the nations, with each nation showing forth the Face of Jesus Christ. Each nation, though, would show this divine Face with its distinctive cultural and national traits, and speaking its own language. There is a beautiful painting of Madonna and Child, cast in the features of the Australian traditional Aborigine. This reveals a great truth. Christ loved each one of us so much that he gave himself over to death for us, and he gives himself to each one of us in grace. In this, his self-donation to us, we are set on the path to our distinctive, individual perfection, with all the cultural characteristics that are ours.

In our Gospel today, our Lord, marvelling at the faith of the non-Jewish centurion, tells his Jewish audience that “many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8: 5-17). Christ was looking ahead to the day when his body the Church would be made up of “the east and the west.” The Church is essentially, and not just accidentally, catholic — and it is one because it is united with the one and same Jesus Christ. In him, the Church is one, it is holy, it is catholic or universal, embracing all cultures, and it is apostolic. Let us rejoice in our membership of Christ’s Church, founded on the Apostles with Peter at its head.

“Nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this” We have in our Gospel scene an instance of a prayer of petition that was answered, and the decisive element was the presence of faith. Inasmuch as Fr. Ted Tyler

our needs are many and great, it us surely important that we learn how we ought ask Christ our Lord for what we need. The Gospel introduces us to a centurion. The centurion would have been a “Greek” — that is to say, not of the chosen people of Israel — for our Lord at the end contrasts his faith with that of “Israel”. The centurion “pleaded” with our Lord and acknowledged that he was “not worthy” to have our Lord visiting his dwelling. He was, then, truly humble and reverent before One he recognised as great and holy. This humility disposed him for faith. And faith he certainly had, faith in our Lord’s power to save from death, a power he believed our Lord could exercise at a word, and from a distance. This was a man who was outside the people of God’s Revelation. On our Lord’s own word, we know his faith was outstanding (“nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this”) and he was immediately granted his request.

Let us learn from this and ask our Lord to help us be humble and believing, and always so. Thus will our prayers be answered.

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We men don’t know how to show Jesus the gentle refinements of love that some poor, rough fellows — Christians all the same — show daily to some pitiful little creature — their wife, their child, their friend — who is as poor as they. This truth should help us react.

Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Ps 81 (80): 17 He fed them with the finest wheat and satisfied them with honey from the rock.

Collect: O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption. Who live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Raymond worked all his life to promote the missions and died a missionary to North Africa. Raymond was born at Palma on the island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean Sea. He earned a position in the king’s court there. One day a sermon inspired him to dedicate his life to working for the conversion of the Muslims in North Africa. He became a Secular Franciscan and founded a college where missionaries could learn the Arabic they would need in the missions. Retiring to solitude, he spent nine years as a hermit. During that time he wrote on all branches of knowledge, a work which earned him the title "Enlightened Doctor." Raymond then made many trips through Europe to interest popes, kings and princes in establishing special colleges to prepare future missionaries. He achieved his goal in 1311 when the Council of Vienne ordered the creation of chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean at the universities of Bologna, Oxford, Paris and Salamanca. At the age of 79, Raymond went to North Africa in 1314 to be a missionary himself. An angry crowd of Muslims stoned him in the city of Bougie. Genoese merchants took him back to Mallorca where he died. Raymond was beatified in 1514. Three hundred years later Raymond’s work began to have an influence in the Americas. When the Spanish began to spread the gospel in the New World, they set up missionary colleges to aid the work. Blessed Junipero Serra belonged to such a college. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Deuteronomy 8: 2-3.14-16; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17; John 6: 51-58

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever. Shroud of Turin

This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live for ever. (John 6:51-58)

The Eucharist There is this singular danger that, in practical terms, we will fail to give to the Holy Eucharist the supreme importance it has in our lives and in the life of the Church. The Eucharist is none other than Jesus himself, the living Jesus in his entirety. We hear this doctrine declared time and again, and if the instructed Catholic were ever to be asked, he would state that the Eucharist is simply the Lord Jesus. But it requires of him repeated acts of faith in Christ’s word. The ever-present danger is that he will slide into thinking of the Eucharist not for what it is by the power of God, namely the person of Christ, but for what it looks like, a wafer of bread — with the added proviso that it is a wafer in which our Lord is present in some way. Our belief is shown not only by what we take to be our thoughts, but by our action — which is to say, by what we actually do in the presence of the Holy Eucharist. In view of this, let us ever remember what the Church formally teaches as having been revealed. At Mass the bread and wine cease to be bread and wine when the ordained priest pronounces the words of Christ, “This is my body,” and “This is my Blood.” At that, there is no longer bread there, but only the risen Jesus, body, blood, soul and divinity. The appearances and qualities of bread and wine remain, but not the reality or substance of bread and wine. The only objective reality before us is the person of the risen Jesus. Moreover, our Lord, in making himself present at Mass under the appearances of bread and wine, does so precisely as offering himself on our behalf at Calvary. It is not a new offering of himself, but the same sacrifice of himself to the Father that was made on Calvary. It is that same one Sacrifice that becomes present now, not of course in the circumstances of Calvary, but sacramentally, which is to say in the words and actions and the bread and wine that signify what is made present. In those sacred words and actions uttered by the ordained priest at Mass, and under the appearances of bread and wine, the risen Jesus, given to the Father at Calvary, is made present. There follows the wonderful opportunity in Holy Communion of uniting ourselves with Jesus in that one self-offering of Calvary. Then outside of Mass the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in our Tabernacles so as to enable us to maintain this union with our Lord.

The problem is that we tend to ignore and neglect all this. This is due to the fact that we depend so much on visual appearances. We are not just spirit, but spirit or soul informing body. We are each of us an embodied spiritual Self, and therefore our spiritual Self in knowing reality in the first instance grasps what it sees, hears, touches. Indeed, we tend to rest in what we know by our senses, rather than passing then to what is beyond them. This we can do by faith or reason, or by a combination of both. If someone is dressed in high class clothes, or drives a magnificent car, or lives in a grand house, or does things that appear to be special and important, we tend to give to that person more importance and respect. We tend to judge the reality of things simply by their appearances. This is because in exercising our powers of knowing reality we tend to rest in what our senses perceive. People did the same with our Lord himself when he walked the earth. He was a man, and obviously so. So many did not rise above those appearances. So many failed, or refused, to recognise and accept that he was God, the Son of God made man, despite all the indications of his divinity that he gave. We may presume that often it was without malice, but was, rather, a sign of weakness — moral weakness nevertheless. This can be very much the case with the way we treat the Holy Eucharist. Because all we see is the appearance of a wafer of bread, we can unconsciously act just on the appearances, even though we may not explicitly assert that it is just a wafer. Our actions manifest our practical belief, and belie our words or profession, and even what we might think to be our conscious thoughts. What we see in the church is the small Tabernacle. So, being creatures of sense and uninclined towards the effort that faith requires, we tend to act as if all that there is before us is a mere Tabernacle. Being human, we tend to depend on appearances. What we must do is take active steps to nourish our faith in what the Eucharist really is, despite the appearances. We must actively focus our minds on the Reality being made present during Mass, and the Reality before us within the Tabernacle outside of Mass. This requires concentration, a focus of the mind on the content of the Faith, and on the reason for its acceptance — namely the word of Christ as explained by the Church.

As we come to Mass, let us be recollected, thinking of what will really be happening at Mass. Let us always arrive a little early, and never late. Let us enter silently, reverently and prayerfully, avoiding distracting conversation. Let us begin with personal prayer as we await the beginning of Mass. Let us enter into the penitential rite. Jesus will be speaking to us in the readings and in the homily. The risen Jesus will make himself and his sacrifice of Calvary present in the Eucharistic Prayer. Jesus will come to us in Holy Communion. Outside Mass, Jesus is present in the Tabernacle. So let us actively adopt practices of reverence and prayer that will protect and nourish our faith in this most central and holy of the mysteries of our Catholic Faith. The Eucharist is the summit and source of all.

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The Love of God is so attractive, and so fascinating, that there are no limits to its growth in the life of a Christian.

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

Collect: O God, who through the grace of adoption chose us to be children of light, grant, we pray, that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth. 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: 2 Kings 4: 8-11.14-16; Psalm 88; Romans 6: 3-4.9-11; Matthew 10: 37-42

sus said to his apostles: “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” (Matthew 10: 37-42)

The lay person in the Church Years ago it was commonly thought — with many wonderful exceptions — that the work of spreading the Christian Faith and living a truly spiritual life was the province of the religious professionals, which is to say, the ordained priests and consecrated religious. There were notable movements within the Church, and many individuals, challenging this popular, unspoken assumption. Nevertheless, it was a common view among laity and even among some clergy. I remember years ago speaking to a relative of mine who thought that priests ought work as lawyers and in other secular professions, because then they would be able to attract to God and to the Church those in the world with whom they were working. How could the priest hope to attract to God and the Church the generality of persons when he was not working in the world where they are, on a day-to-day basis? Behind this suggestion was the assumption that it was the priest who engaged in an apostolic mission, and not others in the Church. I told him that his proposal was ridiculous. The priest would have no time to practise as a lawyer if he was to do his work as a priest properly. But more importantly, in the Church’s teaching it is the Catholic and Christian lawyers and other lay professionals themselves who should be doing on a day-to-day basis the very thing he proposed the ordained priest do as a civil lawyer. That is to say, the Catholic lay person should, within the context of his professional work, be carrying on a discreet yet very real apostolate of attracting fellow professionals to God, and in God to the Church where Christ abides as its head. What he was suggesting for the priest is exactly the work of the lay member of the Church. The lay-person’s situation in life is a secular situation. He lives in the world, not as one who is of the world, but as one who serves the world from within. In this service he brings Christ to his own place in the world. He fills his lay work and the world around him with the presence of Christ, and by means of his work he connects the world to God. St Paul tells us in his Letters that the baptised person is in Christ. This is the dignity of every baptised lay person. In him, Christ and his Church are present where he lives and works in the world.

Of course, a major challenge for every lay person is simply to remember this from day to day, and consciously and purposefully to live in Christ and according to his teachings. The likelihood is that day by day, immersed in the things of the world that naturally attract us, we will live by sight alone and not by faith. We will live only in view of what we see and hear and feel. We can so easily forget that there are far greater realities that are not seen at all, which are beyond what our senses can grasp. These realities are those that God has revealed. They are the realities that pertain to God and his plan for us. We can appreciate and realize them not because of what we see but on the basis of faith in God’s word which is given to us by Christ. It comes to us through the witness and teaching of the Church. The central reality of all that is revealed is unseen. Yet we are called to live in view of it. This unseen reality is the person of Christ our God who is ever with us. The lay person is called to live in the world of family, work, community, society and culture, with Christ at the centre of everything. The Christ whom he serves cannot be physically seen, yet he is far more real and constant than anything that is seen. The lay person is called to live in the world with Christ before him as if he saw him — which is to say with a constant and lively faith, nourished by the means provided by the Church for a strong spiritual life. At home in the family, at study at school, at University and higher education, looking after the children, at work in the office or at one’s trade — wherever one may be, Christ is present there. Christ who is in us serves others through and in our service of them. By our service we bring him to the world. Conversely, Christ awaits us in others in their need. We serve Christ in others, for Christ said that whatever we do to the least we do to him. So wherever the Catholic lay person is in the world, be he young, middle aged, or old, Christ who is in him is both serving and being served. The work of the lay person is to bring Christ to the world and to serve him in the world. In this way, through the lay member of the Church, the world is brought near to Christ and is opened to the grace and action of Christ. The mission of the lay person is to evangelize and transform the world from within.

The lay person does this by cultivating a spirit of prayer in the midst of daily work, and by sanctifying the day and its work. We ought do our work in life in such a way that it will be holy in the sight of God. We ought do our work also in such a way that we are sanctified in the doing of it. We ought do our work in such a way that others will be sanctified because of it. One’s work is a most sacred means of sanctification and evangelization. Everything the lay person touches, as it were, ought be sanctified the more as a result of his touch, because of his continual union with our Lord. Imagine if the entire laity of the Church were doing this, or at least most of the laity! A great sleeping giant would be roused and the world would be raised to God. Let each of us say, this means me! I shall serve our Lord where I am in my ordinary everyday life. So then, now I begin!

Further Reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church: no. 897-913 (Laity in Christ's Mission)

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The Love of God is so attractive, and so fascinating, that there are no limits to its growth in the life of a Christian.

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

Saints are not born with halos around their heads. Cyril, recognized as a great teacher of the Church, began his career as archbishop of Alexandria, Egypt, with impulsive, often violent, actions. He pillaged and closed the churches of the Novatian heretics, participated in the deposing of St. John Chrysostom (September 13) and St Cyril

confiscated Jewish property, expelling the Jews from Alexandria in retaliation for their attacks on Christians. Cyril’s importance for theology and Church history lies in his championing the cause of orthodoxy against the heresy of Nestorius. The controversy centred around the two natures in Christ. Nestorius would not agree to the title “God-bearer” for Mary. He preferred “Christ-bearer,” saying there are two distinct persons in Christ (divine and human) joined only by a moral union. He said Mary was not the mother of God but only of the man Christ, whose humanity was only a temple of God. Nestorianism implied that the humanity of Christ was a mere disguise. Presiding as the pope’s representative at the Council of Ephesus (431), Cyril condemned Nestorianism and proclaimed Mary truly the “God-bearer” (the mother of the one Person who is truly God and truly human). In the confusion that followed, Cyril was deposed and imprisoned for three months, after which he was welcomed back to Alexandria as a second Athanasius (the champion against Arianism). Besides needing to soften some of his opposition to those who had sided with Nestorius, Cyril had difficulties with some of his own allies, who thought he had gone too far, sacrificing not only language but orthodoxy. Until his death, his policy of moderation kept his extreme partisans under control. On his deathbed, despite pressure, he refused to condemn the teacher of Nestorius. Cyril's theme: "Only if it is one and the same Christ who is consubstantial with the Father and with men can he save us, for the meeting ground between God and man is the flesh of Christ. Only if this is God's own flesh can man come into contact with Christ's divinity through his humanity. Because of our kinship with the Word made flesh we are sons of God. The Eucharist consummates our kinship with the word, our communion with the Father, our sharing in the divine nature—there is very real contact between our body and that of the Word" (New Catholic Encyclopedia). (AmericanCatholic.org)

When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a scribe came to him and said, Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus replied, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Another of the disciples said to him, Lord, first let me go and bury my father. But Jesus told him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead. (Matthew 8: 18-22)

A certain scribe In our Gospel passage from St Matthew today, a certain “scribe” (eis grammateus) is mentioned, as is “another of the disciples.” Perhaps St Matthew’s designation of the latter as “another” of his disciples implies that the “scribe” was a disciple in some sense too. The scribe professes his intention to follow our Lord wherever he goes, and our Lord warns him that this will mean deprivation. At first sight, the “scribes” do not seem to get “a good press,” as we might say, in the Gospels. The “scribe” (grammateus) in its root or original meaning was one who could write — he knew how to write, and we see this meaning more Fr. Ted Tyler

commonly in the Old Testament. He could write out official documents, letters, decrees and financial records. Because of this they were usually regarded as learned. We read in 1 Chronicles 27:32 that “Jonathan, David’s uncle and a man of intelligence, was a counsellor and scribe,” and that he and Jehile were “tutors of the king’s sons.” In the Gospels the “scribes” are a special group among the Jewish religious leaders. With them, the emphasis was on their learning in the Law. Their primary duties were to study the Law of Moses, teach it to the people, and even to help settle disputes involving the questions of the Law. There had been and were outstanding scribes, an obvious one being Ezra of the Old Testament Book of Ezra. We read that Ezra “was a scribe, well-versed in the law of Moses which was given by the Lord the God of Israel.” Further, “the hand of the Lord, his God was upon him” (Ezra 7: 6). “Ezra had set his heart on the study and practice of the Law of the Lord and on teaching the statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). Ezra was a magnificent example of the true “scribe,” and was one among the saints of the Old Testament. So we must never imagine that being “a scribe” was an unworthy path. Though our Lord condemned many of them, he states that “scribes” had been and would be sent by God with a mission from him (Matthew 23:34). Too many, though, had spiritually lost their way and with it their authentic authority. The people saw that Christ spoke with authority, and not like the scribes (Matthew 7:29).

There is no doubt that by far the majority of references to the scribes (and the Pharisees) in the Gospels are condemnatory. They joined forces with others of the religious leadership and attacked Christ with persistence and animus, finally orchestrating his end with their collaborators. However, this must not lead us to think that all scribes were of this ilk, and our Gospel passage today (Matthew 8: 18-22) suggests otherwise. In it, a scribe is enthusiastically — if perhaps without counting the cost — offering to follow Jesus wherever he might go. On another occasion, “one of the scribes came, and having heard them debating — knowing that Jesus had answered well — asked him, What is the first of all the commandments?” This particular scribe was not in sympathy with those who were trying to trick Christ by their questions. When Jesus answered him, he responded, “Well said, Teacher,” and offered his own comment — at which our Lord told him that he was “not far from the kingdom of God.” Interestingly, we read that thereafter “no-one dared question him more” (Mark 12: 28-34). Perhaps the attitude of that particular scribe set an example for others, apart from the unfailing power of Christ’s responses. We read in John 12:42 that “even of the rulers (archontoon) many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him”. Perhaps among those “rulers” there were included some “scribes” — and certainly at least one of the “Pharisees,” Nicodemus, believed in him. We read that after Pentecost, Gamaliel, “a teacher of the law” — so, in some sense a prominent scribe — urged that the disciples be let well alone (Acts 5:34-40). What I am saying is that our “scribe” of today’s Gospel represents the better sort in a religious profession that had declined in character. He too, though, had his limitations — as we can divine from our Lord’s warning on his enthusiasm. Notwithstanding this, he may surely be taken to represent the better sort in any and every profession. For after all, what profession or class of persons en masse in our Lord’s time responded to him as they should have? There were some good, some mediocre, and some bad. Wherever we stand in our society, whoever we are, the call of Jesus Christ is directed to us.

Matthew, the author of our Gospel passage, was a despised tax-collector. He received the invitation to follow Jesus Christ, and he responded immediately. Further, he persevered. Our “scribe” today is being told by our Lord that he must expect difficulties, and discipleship will mean perseverance. We have received the invitation — how shall we respond? That is the question for every day. Do we respond with enthusiasm? Difficulties must be expected. Let us take our stand with Jesus Christ, knowing that this means taking up our daily cross and following in the footsteps of the Master. It is in this way that life, abundant life, will be ours.

“Follow me, and leave the dead to bury the dead.” Our Lord came on earth to make disciples. Throughout the pages of the Fr. Ted Tyler

Gospels he is making disciples. The mission he gave to his apostles before he ascended into heaven was to make disciples of all the nations. That is the mission of the Church, and we as members of the Church all share in that mission. We were made, created, to be the loving disciples of Jesus the Master. It is the purpose of our life. So then, the worth of anything in our life can be assessed by applying that yardstick to it — what is its place in relation to the one thing necessary, my being a disciple of Jesus Christ? Conversely, true and ultimate progress in life is also to be measured by that yardstick — my being a genuine disciple of our Lord. The Gospel scene of today (Matthew 8: 18:22) reminds us of the fundamental issue of discipleship. Two people responded to our Lord’s requirement of discipleship in ways that perhaps were less than satisfactory: the first seems to have been a little shallow in his enthusiasm and resolve, and the second hesitant and prone to second thoughts.

Let us be reminded of our own weakness, and pray earnestly for the grace to be a disciple of Jesus totally and in truth. We have but one life. Let us live as disciples of Jesus to the full.

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You cannot behave like a naughty child, or like a madman. You have to be strong, a child of God. You have to be calm in your professional work and in your dealings with others, with a presence of God which makes you give perfect attention to even the smallest details.

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

The Church is fortunate that Irenaeus was involved in many of its controversies in the second century. He was a student, well trained, no doubt, with great patience in investigating, tremendously protective of apostolic teaching, but prompted more by a desire to win over his opponents than to prove them in error. As bishop of Lyons he was especially concerned with the Gnostics, who took their name from the Greek word for “knowledge.” Claiming access to secret knowledge imparted by Jesus to only a few disciples, their teaching was attracting and confusing many Christians. After thoroughly investigating the various Gnostic sects and their “secret,” Irenaeus showed to what logical conclusions their tenets led. These he contrasted with the teaching of the apostles and the text of Holy Scripture, giving us, in five books, a system of theology of great importance to subsequent times. Moreover, his work, widely used and translated into Latin and Armenian, gradually ended the influence of the Gnostics. The circumstances and details about his death, like those of his birth and early life in Asia Minor, are not at all clear. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Then Jesus got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, Lord, save us! We're going to drown! He replied, You of little faith, why are you so afraid? Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him! (Matthew 8:23-27)

God saves! The Gospel of St Matthew is replete with references to the Old Testament, showing how Jesus fulfils all that the Old Testament promised, expected and aspired to. Our Lord in his teaching repeatedly refers to Old Testament figures and teachings. In the chapter from which our passage today is taken, our Lord tells his hearers that “many shall come from the east and west, and take their places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (8:11). He cast out devils and healed the sick “that it be fulfilled what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, he took our weaknesses and bore our diseases” (8:17). Christ does many things, not only with the result that the Scriptures were fulfilled, but in order that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. That is to say, he saw in the Scriptures indicators of the will of his heavenly Father for him, and he chose his course accordingly. We also see in the Old Testament, instances of a prophet engaged in symbolic actions which made clear the message he was announcing on God’s behalf. For instance, Hosea is commanded to marry a “harlot wife” (Hosea 1:2) — which is not to say that Gomer was a harlot when Hosea married her. She represents Israel’s infidelity to her Lord. Christ’s actions — including the one in our Gospel today — represents his divine message. The point is that Jesus Christ is deeply part of the prophetical tradition of the Old Testament, and his deeds had an important role in his work of revelation. Our Gospel passage today immediately reminds a person steeped in the Scriptures of another event involving a prophet at sea — that of Jonah. The disciples in the boat may have made the connection during the event (we do not know), but surely Matthew means his reader to. As a matter of fact, our Lord linked himself with Jonah on another occasion and declared himself to be a new and greater Jonah. In the same Gospel of St Matthew our Lord responds to the demand from “certain of the scribes and Pharisees” that he give “a sign.” He answered that the “only sign that would be given was the sign of the prophet Jonah” who was in the whale for “three days and three nights.” The pagans of Nineveh repented at Jonah’s preaching, and “a greater than Jonah is here” (Matt 12:39-41).

The prophet Jonah was not especially obedient to his prophetic mission — and here there is an immediate contrast with Jesus of Nazareth. He made ready to “flee to Tarshish away from the Lord” and boarded the ship to Tarshish “away from the Lord” (Jonah 1:3). But the Lord “hurled a violent wind upon the sea, and in the furious tempest that arose the ship was on the point of breaking up. Then the mariners became frightened and each one cried to his god” (1:4-5). In our Gospel scene today, our Lord embarks “in the ship” and “his disciples followed him” (Matthew 8:23). Then “behold, a great storm arose in the sea, such that the ship was covered by the waves.” In the midst of Jonah’s storm, he is found to be asleep down in the hold — and the captain came to him saying “What are you doing asleep?” Get up and call upon your god — he might help us so that we do not perish (Jonah 1: 5-6). In our Gospel scene, in the midst of the storm our Lord is found asleep. His disciples come to him and awaken him, asking him — save us, or we perish! (Matthew 8:24-25). While the sailors in Jonah’s case ask him to call upon his god, the sailors in the Gospel event ask Christ to save them. The result of Jonah being cast into the sea was that “the raging of the sea abated” (1:15). The result of Christ’s word was that “there was a great calm” (Matt 8:26). In both cases the sailors marvelled — Jonah’s sailors being struck with a great fear of the Lord, and in the Gospel, the disciples “marvelled.” But the effect of the connection with the incident of Jonah is to bring out the stark contrast between the two. Christ is ever so much greater than Jonah. Not only is he the truest and holiest of prophets, but he transcends all prophets by his power alone. In the Old Testament, only God has power over the seas — the powerful seas! The book of Jonah shows how helpless man is before the seas which are a symbol of the might of creation. God brings the calm. In the Gospel scene there is no need for some action of appeasement such as was the casting overboard of Jonah. All that was needed was the word of Jesus Christ — his rebuke of the winds and the sea. Indeed, the “rebuke” (epetimeesen) is the same word used of his “rebuke” (epetimeesen) of the demon on a later occasion (Matthew 17:18).

Our Gospel scene today finds Christ in the tradition of the prophets, but far transcending them all. There is a greater than Jonah here. Indeed, Christ is found exercising divine power at will. It is a further step in the gradual revelation of his divinity. “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” (Matthew 8: 23-27). He is a man, thoroughly man, more so than any other man because unsullied by original or personal sin. But he is at the same time far more than a man. He is God, literally and truly God — God the Son become man — with all the power of God to save. This action at sea is a prophetic action, showing forth his power to save. He can save us from anything, including the worst of afflictions — sin, and all that flows from sin.

“The Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord.” The Genesis account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by God for their sins (Genesis 19:15-29) reveals what our conscience suggests, that sin is very real. It brings down retribution sooner or later. The biblical picture of the punishment of these cities is very apposite for our day when the reality of sin is denied or ignored. Sin is assumed to be a subjective persuasion, because God himself is assumed to be a purely subjective matter. On the contrary, God and sin are real. God is holy and he does not accept sin. But let our imaginations flow on from the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to centuries later. Our gaze rests not on the two sinful cities pounded to dust for their sins. It rests on the crucified Jesus the all-holy one. Fire and brimstone had poured down on him, as it were, in the unimaginable sufferings he endured. He was not burdened in this way for his own sins but for our sins, for the sins of all mankind. What suffering that must have been! By his obedient suffering he made up for the sins not just of two cities but of the whole world.

Let us unite ourselves to Jesus and entrust ourselves to his atoning sacrifice. The means par excellence for this is the Mass, by which Calvary is made present. Let us understand clearly that the Eucharistic sacrifice is the summit and source of our entire Christian life.

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If bare justice is done, people may feel hurt. Always act, therefore, for the love of God, which will add to that justice the balm of a neighbourly love, and will purify and cleanse all earthly love. When you bring God in, everything becomes supernatural.

At the Vigil Mass Entrance Antiphon: Peter the Apostle, and Paul the teacher of the Gentiles, these have taught us your law, O Lord.

Collect: Grant, we pray, O Lord our God, that we may be sustained by the intercession of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, that, as through them you gave your Church the foundations of her heavenly office, so through them you may help her to eternal salvation. 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.

At the Mass during the Day Entrance Antiphon: These are the ones who, living in the flesh, planted the Church with their blood; they drank the chalice of the Lord and became the friends of God.

Collect: O God, who on the Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul give us the noble and holy joy of this day, grant, we pray, that your Church may in all things follow the teaching of those through whom she received the beginnings of right religion. 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.

Peter (d. 64?) St. Mark ends the first half of his Gospel with a triumphant climax. He has recorded doubt, misunderstanding and the opposition of many to Jesus. Now Peter makes his great confession of faith: "You are the Messiah" (Mark 8:29b). It was one of the many glorious moments in Peter's life, beginning with the day he was called from his nets along the Sea of Galilee to become a St Peter

fisher of men for Jesus. The New Testament clearly shows Peter as the leader of the apostles, chosen by Jesus to have a special relationship with him. With James and John he was privileged to witness the Transfiguration, the raising of a dead child to life and the agony in Gethsemane. His mother-in-law was cured by Jesus. He was sent with John to prepare for the last Passover before Jesus' death. His name is first on every list of apostles. And to Peter only did Jesus say, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the nether world shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:17b-19). But the Gospels prove their own trustworthiness by the unflattering details they include about Peter. He clearly had no public relations person. It is a great comfort for ordinary mortals to know that Peter also has his human weakness, even in the presence of Jesus. He generously gave up all things, yet he can ask in childish self-regard, "What are we going to get for all this?" (see Matthew 19:27). He receives the full force of Christ's anger when he objects to the idea of a suffering Messiah: "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do" (Matthew 16:23b). Peter is willing to accept Jesus' doctrine of forgiveness, but suggests a limit of seven times. He walks on the water in faith, but sinks in doubt. He refuses to let Jesus wash his feet, then wants his whole body cleansed. He swears at the Last Supper that he will never deny Jesus, and then swears to a servant maid that he has never known the man. He loyally resists the first attempt to arrest Jesus by cutting off Malchus's ear, but in the end he runs away with the others. In the depth of his sorrow, Jesus looks on him and forgives him, and he goes out and sheds bitter tears. The Risen Jesus told Peter to feed his lambs and his sheep (John 21:15-17).

Paul (d. 64?) If the most well-known preacher today suddenly began preaching that the United States should adopt Marxism and not rely on the Constitution, the angry reaction would help us understand Paul's life when he started preaching that Christ alone can save us. He had been the most Pharisaic of Pharisees, the most legalistic of Mosaic lawyers. Now he suddenly appears to other Jews as a heretical welcomer of Gentiles, a traitor and apostate. Paul's central conviction was simple and absolute: Only God can save humanity. No human effort—even the most scrupulous observance of law—can create a human good which we can bring to God as reparation for sin and payment for grace. To be saved from itself, from sin, from the devil and from death, humanity must open itself completely to the saving power of Jesus. Paul never lost his love for his Jewish family, though he carried on a lifelong debate with them about the uselessness of the Law without Christ. He reminded the Gentiles that they were grafted on the parent stock of the Jews, who were still God's chosen people, the children of the promise. In light of his preaching and teaching skills, Paul's name has surfaced (among others) as a possible patron of the Internet. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture (For Mass During The Day): Acts 12: 1-11; Psalm 33; 2 Tim 4: 6-8.17-18; Matthew 16: 13-19

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say the Son of Man is? They replied, Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But what about you? he asked. Who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus replied, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Matthew 16: 13-19).

Christ and the Church It could be said that our passage today is a truly pivotal one in the Gospel of St Matthew. Christ’s public ministry begins in chapter 4 with his being led by the Spirit into the desert following his baptism. His temptations follow, his call of his first disciples, the Sermon on the Mount, his wide ranging public ministry with its teachings, and then on the coasts of Caesarea Philippi his key dialogue with his disciples. With Simon at their head and speaking in their name, a magnificent and full profession of Fr. Ted Tyler

faith is made. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:16). The emphasis of the scene is on Jesus Christ, and Christ accepts the declaration — the highest and greatest statement by his disciples during the public ministry. To this point our Lord had spoken of the kingdom of heaven, what it was like, its conditions of entry and membership. He was the One who would establish it. The Kingdom? Where was it? How to enter it? How to access its benefits? Simon and the disciples have now declared who Jesus is, and on the basis of this faith it was the moment for Christ to take a momentously practical step. He announces that he will build his “Church.” According to Matthew’s Gospel account, then, the Church had its expressed origin in this event, even though it was not yet a vibrant reality. That would follow on the Resurrection and the Commissioning by Christ on the Mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:19-20). At this point in his ministry Christ declares formally that he will build his Church, and that this Church would be the means of access to the kingdom of heaven about which he had spoken so much and so publicly. Matthew is making it very clear that in Christ’s plan the Church is a necessary and fundamental feature of the work of redemption. The Church is not, for instance, some accident of history, or some man-made institution which happened to develop due to the initiative of the disciples or the early generations of “the Church.” It is not the product of a Jesus “movement” of the first generations following Christ’s death and perceived Resurrection. It was the direct institution of Jesus Christ, his master-plan from the beginning. He announced it to his disciples once he saw and heard their formal declaration of his messiahship and divinity.

There is more to the matter than just this. Christ declares certain fundamental features of the “Church” which he would build. In all of this, let us remember that Matthew is deliberately recording the express declarations of Jesus Christ. Simon is given a new name. His name is to be Rock, “Peter” — Cephas, Petros — and on this rock — petra — Christ will build his Church. Petros and petra are, of course, Greek words. Their identity is obvious, except that in Petros, petra has become masculine because it is now the name for Simon denoting his office with respect to the Church. But in the Syriac, so close to the language our Lord spoke, there is little or no difference in genders as there is in the Latin and Greek. The point is simply that it is manifest that not only is the “Church” necessary for enter and access the kingdom of heaven, but Simon is to have an indispensable role in the entry. He is the “rock” on which the Church is to be built. Of course, the true Rock is Jesus Christ and faith in him. Simon has just recognized this by his public declaration, speaking on behalf of the disciples to whom our Lord had directed his question. Further, the very declaration and the faith it expresses is, in a sense, the rock on which the Church is built. This is because it is by means of this faith, expressed in these words, that Jesus Christ is accepted and followed. But again, Simon has just recognized this too. Notwithstanding this, Christ declares that he, Simon, will be the Rock on which he will build his Church. Built on this Rock, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The one sure foundation is Simon and the declaration he makes about Jesus Christ. This is to be built into the very constitution of Christ’s Church. Further, it is to Simon Peter that Christ will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The keys to the kingdom! What power is this! Christ is entrusting the kingdom to him and to those who are with him — “whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16: 13-19). We have here a remarkable teaching, clearly expressed by Matthew. It is the high point of the public ministry of Jesus Christ in this gospel, and thereupon the countdown begins for his Passion.

It is no surprise that in the declaration of the First Vatican Council of 1870 on the Successor of St Peter, this pivotal text in the Gospel of St Matthew was quoted in full. It states that this teaching of the Council is the “absolutely manifest teaching of the Sacred Scriptures, as it has always been understood by the Catholic Church” (Session 4 On the Church, chapter 1, no.4). Further, it is one of those few texts in the Gospels to which the Church has given a formal and binding interpretation (4, 1, no.6). Let us understand clearly, then, Christ’s intent and plan for the Church, and how important is this plan for us if we are to gain access to the inestimable benefits of life in Jesus Christ.

“You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.” The Church has gradually come to see the enormous significance of Fr. Ted Tyler

these words of our Lord in Matthew’s Gospel. Enlightened by the Church’s teaching on them we, in our turn, are able to appreciate their significance. There was once a series on television that dealt with the story of Jesus and the infant Church. True to form, our Lord was described as beginning a “movement,” implying of course that the Church is just an outgrowth of, and little more than, the “movement” begun by Jesus. But no, Christ founded the “Church” of which he was to be the abiding head. The Church would be — to use the expression of Pope Pius XII — his “mystical” body till the end of time. An essential element of the Church’s constitution is the office to which Simon was appointed — to be the visible rock of the Church. Just as the Apostles have their successors in the bishops, so Simon Peter has his successors in the Bishops of Rome. The Church is built on this college. We ought be profoundly aware of the apostolic character of the Church of which we are members. Our Christian life should be characterised by communion with this one universal Church which comes from the Apostles, and through them from Christ. Our communion with the universal Church is expressed and nourished by our communion with the Bishop of Rome, the successor of Peter the rock of the Church and bearer of the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Pope St Pius X once wrote that it is not possible for a member of the Church to be holy if one does not love the Pope. Let us then love the Pope, receive his teaching as coming from Christ, be imbued with it, and steadily put it into practice.

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Love Our Lord passionately. Love him madly. Because if there is love there — when there is love — I would dare to say that resolutions are not needed. My parents — think of yours — did not need to make any resolutions to love me: and what an effusion of tenderness they showed me, in little details every day. With that same human heart we can and should love God.

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

There were Christians in Rome within a dozen or so years after the death of Jesus, though they were not the converts of the “Apostle of the Gentiles” (Romans 15:20). Paul had not yet visited them at the time he wrote his great letter in a.d. 57‑58. There was a large Jewish population in Rome. Probably as a result of controversy between Jews and Jewish Christians, the Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome in 49‑50 A.D. Suetonius the historian says that the expulsion was due to disturbances in the city “caused by the certain Chrestus” [Christ]. Perhaps many came back after Claudius’s death in 54 A.D. Paul’s letter was addressed to a Church with members from Jewish and Gentile backgrounds. In July of 64 A.D., more than half of Rome was destroyed by fire. Rumour blamed the tragedy on Nero, who wanted to enlarge his palace. He shifted the blame by accusing the Christians. According to the historian Tacitus, many Christians were put to death because of their “hatred of the human race.” Peter and Paul were probably among the victims. Threatened by an army revolt and condemned to death by the senate, Nero committed suicide in 68 A.D. at the age of 31. Pope Clement I, third successor of St. Peter, writes: “It was through envy and jealousy that the greatest and most upright pillars of the Church were persecuted and struggled unto death.... First of all, Peter, who because of unreasonable jealousy suffered not merely once or twice but many times, and, having thus given his witness, went to the place of glory that he deserved. It was through jealousy and conflict that Paul showed the way to the prize for perseverance. He was put in chains seven times, sent into exile, and stoned; a herald both in the east and the west, he achieved a noble fame by his faith....”

“Around these men with their holy lives there are gathered a great throng of the elect, who, though victims of jealousy, gave us the finest example of endurance in the midst of many indignities and tortures. Through jealousy women were tormented, like Dirce or the daughters of Danaus, suffering terrible and unholy acts of violence. But they courageously finished the course of faith and despite their bodily weakness won a noble prize.” (AmericanCatholic.org)

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

Forgiveness of sin One of the obvious differences, among very many, between the religions of the peoples of classical times and the religion of Israel (as expressed, say, in its inspired writings) turned on the matter of sin. Sin is openly at the forefront of the revealed religion of Israel, whereas in the religions of the nations offences against the gods had little of the status of “sin.” The gods were not to be offended, but this was because they were powerful and their help had to be obtained. “Sin” was not such because of the holiness of the gods. An action was wrong because it irritated the gods, or conflicted with their preferences and wishes. The gods themselves were scarcely holy in the understanding of the term obtaining in the revealed religion of Israel. They were not a lot better than humans, but they had a degree of power over the course of the world. Nor was the heavens of the gods a particularly holy place — in fact in many respects it was sordid, and the scene of conflict and base motivation. What was imperative was that the inhabitants of this world gain their co-operation and favour for the attainment of success. If one was at sea, or at war, it was no use to have the god of the sea or the god of war disinterested in one’s prospects. It would be worse, of course, if one had the relevant gods acting against one’s interests because of a foolish or short-sighted irritation of their persons, or because other humans with opposite interests had obtained their favour. In the religion of Israel as bequeathed to the chosen people by the Patriarchs, the holiest of the Judges, Moses, David and the prophets, “sin” was a very serious matter indeed because, being “sin,” it offended the Holy One of Israel — the Lord God. Despite the anthropomorphism of many of the depictions of Yahweh God in the Old Testament texts (his wrath, his commands to destroy, etc) all knew that God was the sinless One. His principal intent was not that he be not irritated or inconvenienced, but that sin be banished from the life of man. So serious was sin that God promised punishment for it and the withdrawal of his divine, protective presence if it was wilfully pursued. Be holy, for I am holy, said the Lord God of Israel. The catastrophes of the chosen people were taught to be due to “sin.”

Further, of course, only God could forgive sin. This was virtually taken for granted, and the rituals, sin-offerings and prayer of the religion of Israel appealed to God alone for the forgiveness of sin. Some of the greatest prayers of the Old Testament appeal to God for the forgiveness of sin, and imbued in these prayers is the awareness that only God can grant this pardon. The hope is that God in his mercy will grant it — but of course there was no declaration of this pardon in the normal course of events. Man could only hope, pray and trust that God in his goodness and compassion would grant it. Of course, it was unheard of that any Patriarch or prophet would arrogate to himself any power to act on God’s behalf in such a sacred matter as the forgiveness of sin. Sin pertained to the very personal relationship between God and the individual or the people, and only God could do anything there. The rituals and sin-offerings were prayers for forgiveness and acts of faith and trust, but were not declarations of the forgiveness of sin. No priest or prophet or king could make such a declaration on God’s behalf — for they were sinners too and depended themselves on faith in God’s pardon. The prophetic and priestly tradition exhorted the chosen people to appeal for this pardon and to hope in God’s mercy — but it did not as such firmly declare it to have been granted. Indeed, one may say that an essential part of the purest Messianic expectation and prophecy was precisely that this forgiveness would be forthcoming. It was an essential part of the coming Blessing for the people, and for the peoples. God in his goodness would do it. It is in this general context that we ought situate our Gospel passage today (Matthew 9: 1‑8). It portrays the unprecedented wonder of the forgiveness of sins being granted by the man Jesus of Nazareth, calmly, with supreme assurance, without the slightest ambiguity, and all this before the masters of the Law — the “scribes” (Matthew 9:3). Further, it was immediately followed by a spectacular act of God. The paralysis of the man forgiven his sins was taken away. Here there was an explicit forgiveness of sin, declared publicly, and exercised by a man — not a mere man, but by a man nevertheless.

There had been nothing like it in the history of Israel, but it marked the beginning of a new era in revealed religion. The multitudes marvelled that “such power had been given to men” in the person of Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 9:8). It was a power that was his by nature, for he was divine — and he would give this power “to men” in the persons of his chosen Apostles. On the very day he rose from the dead he breathed on them the Holy Spirit, and thereupon gave them the power to forgive sins (John 20: 22-23). Thereafter this power to forgive sin, coming from Jesus Christ, would be exercised in the life of the Church by the ordained ministerial priesthood. Let us marvel at this power as did the crowds, and avail ourselves frequently of its blessings.

“Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, ‘Courage, son, your sins are forgiven’.” It is notable how very frequently our Lord links his saving activity to the faith of those who come to him asking for his help. He usually wants to know if they believe, or seeing that they so believe, he proceeds to grant them what they need — be it sight, dispossession from demons, or whatever. Even after the event he assures a person that his faith saved him — as with the woman healed of her internal bleeding. Of course, his miracles were to point to far greater saving acts — salvation from sin and sanctification. It is this which Christ came most of all to offer, and again, in this he looks for faith in the one coming to him. In today’s Gospel a paralytic is brought to him for healing. This time there is a new step, for “seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic ‘Courage, my child, your sins are forgiven’.” It seems that our Lord divined that it was the paralysed man’s consciousness of sin which was his special burden — together, of course, with his paralysis — and in the face of which he needed courage. Yet he and his friends (“seeing their faith”) had the faith that our Lord was looking for to receive spiritual blessings.

We too in approaching our Lord for the heavenly blessings he wishes to give — the forgiveness of sins and sanctification — must approach him with a lively faith as did the paralytic and his friends. All too often it is this which we lack, and the upshot is that we do not ardently ask for what we spiritually need, and do not recognise the presence and power of Christ before us.

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Liturgical Season	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
11th Week of Ordinary Time A-1					16	17	18
12th Week of Ordinary Time A-1	19 Trinity Sunday	20	21	22	23	24 Birth of St John the Baptist	25
13th Week of Ordinary Time A-1	26 Corpus Christi	27	28	29 St Peter & St Paul	30