November1 in Year A 11

Solemnity of All Saints to Tuesday of the Thirty-third 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 November is: "For the eastern Churches, that their venerable tradition may be known and appreciated as a spiritual treasure for the entire Church."

His mission intention is: "That the African continent may find in Christ the strength to fulfill the path of reconciliation and justice, indicated in the second Synod of Bishops for Africa."

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Entrance Antiphon Let us all rejoice in the Lord, as we celebrate the feast day in honour of all the Saints, at whose festival the Angels rejoice and praise the Son of God.

Collect Almighty ever-living God, by whose gift we venerate in one celebration the merits of all the Saints, bestow on us, we pray, through the prayers of so many intercessors, an abundance of the reconciliation with you for which we earnestly long. 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.

(November 1) The earliest certain observance of a feast in honour of all the saints is an early fourth-century commemoration of "all the martyrs." In the early seventh century, All Saints Bysantine Icon

after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some 28 wagonloads of bones and re-interred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. The pope rededicated the shrine as a Christian church. According to Venerable Bede, the pope intended "that the memory of all the saints might in the future be honoured in the place which had formerly been dedicated to the worship not of gods but of demons" (On the Calculation of Time). But the rededication of the Pantheon, like the earlier commemoration of all the martyrs, occurred in May. Many Eastern Churches still honour all the saints in the spring, either during the Easter season or immediately after Pentecost. How the Western Church came to celebrate this feast in November is a puzzle to historians. The Anglo-Saxon theologian Alcuin observed the feast on November 1 in 800, as did his friend Arno, Bishop of Salzburg. Rome finally adopted that date in the ninth century.

“After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.... [One of the elders] said to me, ‘These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’” (Revelation 7:9,14). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Revelation 7:2‑4, 9‑14; Psalm 24:1‑6; 1 John 3:1‑3; Matthew 5:1‑12a

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:1‑12a)

Heaven Mankind has generally held that the human being does not end with physical death. I suspect that that is as far as we can go in characterizing the beliefs of man in respect to the Afterlife, because of their enormous variety. Of course, there have been many who believe that the end of this life renders a man extinct. Fr. Ted Tyler

I clearly remember one cheerful man in his late seventies who thought that his future was no different from that of any animal. His grave would be his end. Atheists, secular humanists and agnostics tend not to believe in life after death. Those of non-theistic religions such as Buddhism tend to believe in an Afterlife, but without reference to a God. Many religions — whether they believe in the soul’s existence in another world, or in re-incarnation — accept that one’s position after this life is a reward or punishment for one’s conduct. In Greek mythology the god Hades was the king of the underworld, where souls live after death. Hermes, the messenger of the gods, would take the dead soul of a person to the underworld. He would leave the soul on the banks of the River Styx, the river between life and death, and Charon, the ferry-man, would take the soul across the river to Hades. Once crossed, the soul would be judged by Aeacus, Rhadamanthus and King Minos. The soul would be sent to Elysium, or Tartarus, or the Asphodel Fields. Elysium was for the ones that lived pure lives. It consisted of green fields, valleys and mountains, everyone there was peaceful and contented, and the Sun always shone there. Tartarus was for those who blasphemed against the gods, or were consciously evil. The Asphodel Fields were for a selection of human souls. That was a pagan setting. The Gospels state that the Sadducees, who of course believed in God and accepted the Pentateuch, did not allow for a resurrection (Matthew 22:23). Our Lord refuted their position by showing that the Pentateuch itself (as in Exodus 3:6) teaches that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were still alive in God. At the time of our Lord, Jewish views on a resurrection were mixed. For instance, when our Lord told Martha that her brother Lazarus would rise again, Martha said to him “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11: 24). Our Lord proceeded to tell her that he himself is the resurrection and the life.

Christianity has no doubt about the matter. It is a fundamental dogma, expressed in the Nicene Creed, that “We look to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” It could be said that the Christian religion is far and away the religion with the most extensive and explicit teaching on the Hereafter, and this, of course, comes from her divine Founder, Jesus Christ. He has vouchsafed us with an awesome and momentous revelation on the matter. Following death, there will be one of two alternatives, depending on our conduct. It will be either heaven or hell, in perpetuity, without end. Those saved but as yet unfit for the divine presence, will be mercifully purified of the stains of sin in a process which the Church has traditionally called Purgatory. Now, on this day, the Feast of All Souls (November 1), the Church celebrates with joy all those now in the presence of God in the indescribable bliss of heaven. They have lived in the grace of God and according to his will. Some have done this heroically and have been formally recognized as such by the Church, and are venerated even in the Church’s Liturgy. They are the Church’s canonized saints. Their intercession is asked for by the Faithful, and they are proposed by the Church as models of Christian living. But there are numerous others who now live with God for their good and even heroic lives, even if not recognized formally by the Church. There may be many unknown in heaven who lived lives of greater heroism in virtue than others who have been canonized by the Church. Numerous others would have passed through the purifying process of Purgatory and now live spotless in holiness before God. At their head and lustrous beyond all others, be they angels or saints, is the Mother of God made man, Mary the Immaculate One. She was always full of grace, and the Lord was ever with her. She, the first and foremost disciple, is the mother and model of the Church, just as she was mother and model of her divine Son our Lord Jesus Christ, who so surpassed her in every way. Today we think of the Church Triumphant, those in Christ who have, by the grace of God, gained the palm of victory.

Let us think a lot of heaven and of those now there. They join with Jesus Christ our High Priest who intercedes for us continually at the right hand of his heavenly Father. With him, they are our intercessors, and they await our joining them. Let us never imperil our heavenly destination by sin! How terrible it would be, to lose this prize of being with God forever! Christ said of Judas that “woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born” (Matthew 26:24). Let us live day by day in union with Jesus Christ, following in his footsteps whatever be the cost — a path described by our Lord in the Beatitudes of our Gospel today (Matthew 5: 1-12a). Therein lies the path to glory without end.

“They shouted aloud, ‘Victory to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” Today we celebrate the holiness of all those in heaven and their triumph over the evil they encountered during their lives on earth. Fr. Ted Tyler

The most significant issue in the life of every human being is the call to goodness and the temptation to moral evil. One or the other will gain the victory. In the case of all those in heaven, the call to goodness gained the victory. But as our first reading (Revelation 7: 2-4, 9-14) makes vividly clear, the victory is God’s — and it is those in heaven who testify to this. From the first instant of our lives God involves himself intimately with us and fights on our side. He endeavours to unite us to himself in Christ, and to make us one with his resistance to evil and struggle for the good. However strong evil may be, he is by far the stronger, and we have every reason to be confident in his power and mercy. The saints in heaven are the evidence of it, and they themselves are constantly interceding for us. Let us be inspired by their example and call on the help of their prayers. Let us then, here and now on this feast of all the saints, make our choice for God once again. To work! The call of conscience — the special dwelling place of the Holy Spirit within us — summons us to the work God has given us to do.

In and through this work of every day will lie the outcome of the struggle for good or for evil. Let us do our work in a holy manner, doing it well and for God. It will sanctify us to the measure we sanctify it, and through it others will be sanctified. Our work, thus sanctified, will take us to the company in heaven of those we celebrate today.

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Entrance Antiphon Cf. 1 Thes 4: 14; 1 Cor 15: 22 Just as Jesus died and has risen again, so through Jesus God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep; and as in Adam all die, so also in Christ will all be brought to life.

Collect Listen kindly to our prayers, O Lord, and, as our faith in your Son, raised from the dead, is deepened, so may our hope of resurrection for your departed servants also find new strength. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Church has encouraged prayer for the dead from the earliest times as an act of Christian charity. "If we had no care for the dead," Augustine noted, "we would not be in the habit of praying for them." In the early Middle Ages monastic communities began to mark an annual day of prayer for the departed members. In the middle of the 11th century, St. Odilo, abbot of Cluny (France), decreed that all Cluniac monasteries offer special prayers and sing the Office for the Dead on November 2, the day after the feast of All Saints. The custom spread from Cluny and was finally adopted throughout the Roman Church. The theological underpinning of the feast is the acknowledgment of human frailty. Since few people achieve perfection in this life but, rather, go to the grave still scarred with traces of sinfulness, some period of purification is necessary before a soul comes face-to-face with God. The Council of Trent affirmed this purgatory state and insisted that the prayers of the living can speed the process of purification. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Wisdom 3:1‑9; Psalm 23:1‑6; Romans 5:5‑11 or Romans 6:3‑9; John 6:37‑40

Jesus said, All whom the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from Heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day." (John 6:37‑40)

Purgatory There have been various pictorial and literary presentations of the purification which God in his mercy has arranged for those who die in his grace, but who are not as yet fit to abide eternally in his presence. Whosoever comes into God's presence to abide therein must be perfectly pure, and it must therefore be presumed that a purgation is still required for most who are saved. This process the Church has traditionally called Purgatory. It has featured in literature and the arts. For instance, one of the great classics of world literature, Dante’s Divine Comedy, has for its second part an extensive depiction of the Purgatorio. The Poet, with Virgil as his guide, ascends the terraces of the Mount of Purgatory which is inhabited by those doing penance to expiate their sins on Earth. There are the proud who are forced to circle their terrace bent double in humility. There are the slothful who run around crying out examples of zeal and sloth. The lustful are purged by fire. Dante's Purgatory is a lofty island-mountain. On the lower irregular slopes are the souls whose penitence has been delayed in life and whose purgation is now delayed in death. Above that is the base of Purgatory proper, the place of active purgation, which consists of seven level terraces surrounding the mountain and rising one above another, connected by stairways in the rock. On these terraces the seven deadly sins are purged by penance from the souls that have been beset by them. On the summit of the mountain is the Garden of Eden, or Earthly Paradise, from which the purged souls ascend to Heaven. That was Dante’s renowned image of the doctrine. Much more useful, I would suggest, is Cardinal Newman’s great Dream of Gerontius (1865), which was set to music in 1900 by Edward Elgar as an oratorio. While Dante was a great poet, Newman was a man of holiness and original theological insight, and the Dream was his longest and most famous poem. The poem is a compendium of his insights into Catholic teaching on life after death. In the last part of the Dream, Newman depicts the judgment of the soul by God following death, and the purgatory that follows. It is a magnificent work, and I would invite all to read it.

Purgatory! Today, All Souls’ Day, we think of and pray for all those who have died in Christ and who are being purified of the remnants and stains of sin prior to their admittance into the eternal presence of God. Purgatory (Latin: "purgare", to make clean, to purify), in accordance with Catholic teaching, is a place or condition of purification for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions. The faith of the Church concerning purgatory is clearly expressed in the decree of the Council of Trent which (Session XXV) defined: “Whereas the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Spirit, has from the Sacred Scriptures and the ancient tradition of the Fathers taught in Councils and very recently in this Ecumenical synod (Sess. VI, cap. XXX; Sess. XXII cap.ii, iii) that there is a purgatory, and that the souls therein are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but principally by the acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar; the Holy Synod enjoins on the Bishops that they diligently endeavour to have the sound doctrine of the Fathers in Councils regarding purgatory everywhere taught and preached, held and believed by the faithful” (Denzinger, "Enchiridon", 983). In The Catechism of the Catholic Church, we read that “All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven” (1030). The Catechism continues: “The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.” The Catechism makes the further observation on Christ’s own words that “He who is truth (that is, Christ himself) says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offences can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come” (1031). So whatever be the opinion of any non-Catholic Christian communion, it is the formal doctrine of the Catholic Church that, due to the mercy of God, the saved are purified from all stain of sin following death.

Let us think of the words of our Lord in today’s Gospel (John 6:37-40) in relation to the Souls in Purgatory. The practical point here is that by our prayers, our Masses, and by the Indulgences we gain, we can hasten this purification of those in Purgatory. St Thomas More once wrote a powerful piece lamenting the neglect of the Souls in Purgatory. He reminded his readers that it is a great act of charity to pray for the Faithful Departed. Let us do this, then! Let us pray for our loved ones, and for the countless souls who are being purified and who have no-one to pray for them. So important is this that the Church sets aside a day every year for Masses to be celebrated across the entire universal Church for all the Souls in Purgatory. Let us make this a spiritual work of mercy which we engage in all our lives — and they will pray for us when we are there ourselves.

“On this mountain he will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples” Yesterday we celebrated the feast of all saints, all those now with God in heaven. The sense of the Church’s liturgy is that very many are now in heaven with God. Great numbers are there, and they inspire us by the fact of their being with God and help us by their prayerful intercession. Today we think of all those who are saved, but who are not yet with God in heaven. They are being purified by God’s action in Purgatory. There must be great, perhaps unimaginable numbers, in Purgatory. Perhaps the number exceeds many times the present population of the world because we do not know how long is required for a soul to be purified after death. Let us think of all those baptised who require this purification, and all those who were not baptised but who followed their lights conscientiously — implicitly desiring baptism, we may say. What numbers there may be! They cry out for our assistance — they cannot assist themselves as the possibility of acquiring merit ceases with death. But we can merit for them, and hasten their entry into the presence of God by our prayers, Masses, penances, almsgiving, and indulgences. We know that we can help the dead because of the doctrine of the communion of the saints. Because we are in Christ, and because those in heaven are in Christ, and because those in Purgatory are in Christ, there is a great communion between us all. We can share our goods with one another. Those in heaven can help those in Christ who are as yet not there. We here still below can pray to those in heaven, and we can help by our prayers those who have died and who are being purified of the stains of their sins.

Let us then resolve to help the faithful departed. Imagine how those in Purgatory who go to heaven more quickly as a result of our prayers and Masses will help us from heaven when we in our turn are in Purgatory being purified of the results of our sins. They will be our friends for we will have been their benefactors.

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Help me with your prayer. I want all of us within Holy Church to feel that we are members of the same body, as the Apostle asks of us. I want us to be vividly and profoundly aware, without any lack of interest, of the joys, the troubles, the progress of our Mother who is one, holy, catholic, apostolic, Roman. I want us to live as one, each of us identified with the cares of the others, and all identified with Christ.

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 38 (37): 22-23 Forsake me not, O Lord, my God; be not far from me! Make haste and come to my help, O Lord, my strong salvation!

Collect Almighty and merciful God, by whose gift your faithful offer you right and praiseworthy service, grant, we pray, that we may hasten without stumbling to receive the things you have promised. 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.

"Father unknown" is the cold legal phrase sometimes used on baptismal records. "Half-breed" or "war souvenir" is the cruel name inflicted by those of "pure" blood. Like many others, Martin might have grown to be a bitter man, but he did not. It was said that even as a child he gave his heart and his goods to the poor and despised. St. Martin de Porres (1579-1639)

He was the illegitimate son of a freed woman of Panama, probably black but also possibly of Native American stock, and a Spanish grandee of Lima, Peru. Martin inherited the features and dark complexion of his mother. That irked his father, who finally acknowledged his son after eight years. After the birth of a sister, the father abandoned the family. Martin was reared in poverty, locked into a low level of Lima’s society. When he was 12, his mother apprenticed him to a barber-surgeon. He learned how to cut hair and also how to draw blood (a standard medical treatment then), care for wounds and prepare and administer medicines. After a few years in this medical apostolate, Martin applied to the Dominicans to be a "lay helper," not feeling himself worthy to be a religious brother. After nine years, the example of his prayer and penance, charity and humility led the community to request him to make full religious profession. Many of his nights were spent in prayer and penitential practices; his days were filled with nursing the sick and caring for the poor. It was particularly impressive that he treated all people regardless of their colour, race or status. He was instrumental in founding an orphanage, took care of slaves brought from Africa and managed the daily alms of the priory with practicality as well as generosity. He became the procurator for both priory and city, whether it was a matter of "blankets, shirts, candles, candy, miracles or prayers!" When his priory was in debt, he said, "I am only a poor mulatto. Sell me. I am the property of the order. Sell me." Side by side with his daily work in the kitchen, laundry and infirmary, Martin’s life reflected God’s extraordinary gifts: ecstasies that lifted him into the air, light filling the room where he prayed, bi-location, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures and a remarkable rapport with animals. His charity extended to beasts of the field and even to the vermin of the kitchen. He would excuse the raids of mice and rats on the grounds that they were underfed; he kept stray cats and dogs at his sister’s house. He became a formidable fundraiser, obtaining thousands of dollars for dowries for poor girls so that they could marry or enter a convent. Many of his fellow religious took him as their spiritual director, but he continued to call himself a "poor slave." He was a good friend of another Dominican saint of Peru, Rose of Lima (August 23).

In 1962, Pope John XXIII remarked at the canonization of Martin: "He excused the faults of others. He forgave the bitterest injuries, convinced that he deserved much severer punishments on account of his own sins. He tried with all his might to redeem the guilty; lovingly he comforted the sick; he provided food, clothing and medicine for the poor; he helped, as best he could, farm labourers and Negroes, as well as mulattoes, who were looked upon at that time as akin to slaves: thus he deserved to be called by the name the people gave him: 'Martin of Charity.'" (AmericanCatholic.org)

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety‑nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety‑nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:1‑10)

God and sin The first thing which this passage conveys to us is the impression which Jesus gave to “the tax collectors and sinners.” We read that “all the tax collectors and sinners” (pántes hoi telōnai kai hoi amartōloi) were “nearing” (eggizontes) Jesus to hear him. So we are not speaking of just a few of this Fr. Ted Tyler

class that was so despised and avoided by the religious professionals and by many others who wished to avoid the way of sinners. Jesus gave an unambiguous impression, a plain message by his whole manner, that he was very happy to have “all” these undesirables about his Person. There was no doubt in the minds of “all” these “sinners” that they were welcome to come to him, and they did indeed come to him and they listened to him eagerly. Not only were they feeling uninhibitedly drawn to hear him, but they were dining with him — perhaps in a house, perhaps outside in public where Christ may have been speaking. Perhaps food was being passed around during something of a break. Some of them may have been seated next to or in front of Christ, handing him a loaf, or a little fish — perhaps our Lord himself was handing food to them while eating with them himself. We remember how after his resurrection he made breakfast for his disciples on the shore of the Lake of Tiberius, and handed them something to eat (John 21:13). Christ’s gaze, his smile, his tone of voice to each and all of them, his ever-present sovereign assurance and his spiritual and moral authority, made of him an incomparable haven for “all the tax collectors and sinners” — perhaps troubled by their own spiritual state and vaguely yearning for communion with God. They loved to be with him, so holy though he was. The scene of the holy prophet with such powers as he exercised being surrounded by such a despicable mob as this, was surely something of a sensation. The sight of the situation shocked the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. Doubtlessly too, it upset their notion of right religious order, and appeared to break down the form of ostracism which they promoted and which, in their view, protected the religious and moral ethos of the nation. It was yet another instance of the overturn of their system which, in their benighted eyes, Jesus of Nazareth was causing.

Their objection, then, was not against “all the tax collectors and sinners,” but against him. They were muttering among themselves at the scandal: this man is actually welcoming sinners, and going so far as to eat with them! Our Lord, of course, instantly knew what was clouding their hearts and so he explained not just his own actions, but himself — and all of heaven. As ever, our Lord had recourse to everyday life. On one occasion he was attacked by the synagogue official for healing in the Synagogue and on the Sabbath: “healing” was “work,” and so to heal on the Sabbath was a violation of its sacred rest. Our Lord masterfully replied, “Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” (Luke 13:15-16). So too, on this occasion, our Lord points to everyday life as an analogy: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’” God, too — and therefore he whom God has sent to speak and act on his behalf — seeks out the lost and rejoices to reclaim them. All of heaven rejoices: “ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” The Pharisees and the teachers of the law have an entirely mistaken notion of the attitude and the action of God towards sinners. God looks to the sinner with immense interest and compassion, desiring to draw him back to his love. So the first thing which Christ teaches us in our passage today (Luke 15: 1-10) is that God loves the sinner, while hating the sin (from which he wishes to draw the sinner away). God is the refuge of the sinner, provided the sinner regrets his sin and wishes to be rid of it. Christ shows “all the tax collectors and sinners” that he, and God whom he reveals, is their true happiness.

But especially decisive is Christ’s call to repentance. This is the special desire of the whole of heaven. “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Repentance is the call and the need of all. The serious sinner must repent of his serious sin, for his eternal salvation is at stake. The one on the way to holiness must repent of his deliberate venial sins if he is to advance to the heights. Everything turns on repentance at every point of life’s journey to God. Once we refuse to repent of a known sin, no matter how slight it may seem in our sight, progress is stalled. Let us then resolve to embark on a life-long and daily pattern of repentance. Now, then, I begin!

“There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner” It has been said that while youth is the time of great hopes, maturity is the time of regrets. This may be the case in terms of what people at different stages of their lives tend to do, but that ought not be the end of the matter. Just as the idealism of youth has to be Fr. Ted Tyler

assisted with prudence, so the regrets that come with extended experience can be transformed by the great prospects always ahead. That is to say, regrets can be transformed into life-giving repentance. At whatever stage of life we choose to take stock and begin again, we ought remember who the God is in whose hands lie all our prospects. He is a God of love who always pursues us with his offer of mercy. Our Lord tells us in our Gospel today (Luke 15: 1-10) that God is like the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine in the wilderness and goes after the one who is straying until he finds it. If there are many things a person regrets as he looks back, let him look on his regrets as a sign that God has begun to reclaim him with love. St Paul tells us elsewhere that nothing can come between us and the love that God has for us. Our Lord gives us another parallel. God is like the woman who finds the drachma she has lost, and she rejoices in her find (Luke 15: 1-10). Being found by God and brought back to union with him is something that transforms mere regrets into joy and hope for the future. Indeed, as our Lord tells us in the Gospel passage, it is a joy and a hope possessed by God and all in heaven.

Let us be striving for continual repentance, weekly, daily. Our repentance ought be a repentance from deliberate venial sin and from all lack of generosity with God. God is seeking to bring us back from the daily pathway of sin, for if we continue to follow it, holiness will be impossible. Our regrets will be nothing more than regrets. By the grace of God let us transform regrets into repentance, with the joy it brings.

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Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 38 (37): 22-23 Forsake me not, O Lord, my God; be not far from me! Make haste and come to my help, O Lord, my strong salvation!

The name of St. Charles Borromeo is associated with reform. He lived during the time of the Protestant Reformation, and had a hand in the reform of the whole Church during the final years of the Council of Trent. Although he belonged to Milanese nobility and was related to the powerful Medici family, he desired to devote himself to the Church. St Charles Borromeo

When his uncle, Cardinal de Medici, was elected pope in 1559 as Pius IV, he made Charles cardinal-deacon and administrator of the Archdiocese of Milan while he was still a layman and a young student. Because of his intellectual qualities he was entrusted with several important offices connected with the Vatican and later appointed secretary of state with responsibility for the papal states. The untimely death of his elder brother brought Charles to a definite decision to be ordained a priest, despite relatives’ insistence that he marry. Soon after he was ordained a priest at the age of 25, he was consecrated bishop of Milan. Because of his work at the Council of Trent, he was not allowed to take up residence in Milan until the Council was over. Charles had encouraged the pope to renew the Council in 1562 after it had been suspended for 10 years. Working behind the scenes, St. Charles deserves the credit for keeping the Council in session when at several points it was on the verge of breaking up. He took upon himself the task of the entire correspondence during the final phase. Eventually Charles was allowed to devote his time to the Archdiocese of Milan, where the religious and moral picture was far from bright. The reform needed in every phase of Catholic life among both clergy and laity was initiated at a provincial council of all the bishops under him. Specific regulations were drawn up for bishops and other clergy: If the people were to be converted to a better life, the had to be the first to give a good example and renew their apostolic spirit. Charles took the initiative in giving good example. He allotted most of his income to charity, forbade himself all luxury and imposed severe penances upon himself. He sacrificed wealth, high honours, esteem and influence to become poor. During the plague and famine of 1576, he tried to feed 60,000 to 70,000 people daily. To do this he borrowed large sums of money that required years to repay. Whereas the civil authorities fled at the height of the plague, he stayed in the city, where he ministered to the sick and the dying, helping those in want. Work and the heavy burdens of his high office began to affect his health. He died at the age of 46. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg — I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ “ ‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’ “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “ ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. (Luke 16:1‑8)

Good work Blessed John Henry Newman’s younger brother Charles — the second of the six Newman children and one year younger than John Henry — was, like the rest of his family, intelligent. However, he led a hopeless, forlorn life, and this was predicted by his father who said that Charles would never make his way. As we would say colloquially, he was never able to get his act together. His younger brother Francis did well in life, though his religious history was strange. His older brother John Henry (1801-1890) emerged as the greatest religious mind of England in his time, one of the best English prose writers, and beatified for the holiness of his life by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. Some people do poorly, others do well. People may do poorly in some things, while in other things they may do well. Alexander the Great was a soaring military conqueror as was Julius Caesar, but, to say the very least, neither did well in the moral realm. Napoleon Bonaparte was a military and administrative powerhouse, but in view of the enormous loss of life he caused and the devastation to the life of the Church, one can understand why George Bernard Shaw said that it would have been better if he had never been born. These men remind us of the recurring theme of success and failure, of good and bad work, and of true achievement. The doing of “good work” is distinctive of man and his calling. The animal senses no call to do things well — its actions are the fruit of instinct. The human being does his “work,” but he can choose not to work. If he chooses to work or to work well, consequences flow from this choice. Again, in choosing to work, he can work for a variety of motives. Characteristically and by nature, he experiences the call to work and to work well. It is one of the most fundamental aspirations of the human person — to work, and to work well, to do good work. The question, though, is not simply whether one is prepared to work and work well. Just as important is the question of what work one ought set out to do in life. We are endowed with the power of choice enabling us to choose to work well, and to chose the kind of work with deliberation and wisdom.

Countless instances in life and human history come to mind of people who have worked well and successfully in their chosen paths. Various societies have attained notable achievements. We think of the culture and, say, the pyramids of Egypt. We think of the literature and philosophy and political system of Greece. We think of the administrative and military achievements of the Roman Empire. All of this we may take as symbolized by the biblical story of the building of Babel. We read in the inspired text that “as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth’” (Genesis 11: 2-4). Babel came to grief because of arrogance and independence from God (Genesis 11: 6-9). But the high aim, to build a tower with its top in the heavens, can be taken as a symbol of the human ambition driving so many of the achievements of man and society. In our Gospel passage today, our Lord does not comment on the profoundly flawed character of much of human effort and work. Rather, he refers to the temporal efforts and achievements of man in order to comment on the lack of effort and foresight of those who have the benefit of divine revelation. They are well aware of the final destination of man, and of what man’s best and lasting work consists in. Man’s best work is to attain his heavenly homeland — not by the skin of his teeth, as it were, but by God’s grace with flying colours. Good work in an eternal sense is to have attained the place God has intended for us from all eternity. In one scene of the Gospel, James and John approach our Lord to ask for places at his right and left in his kingdom. Our Lord replied that they belong to those to whom they have been allotted by his heavenly Father. Man’s best work is to attain that place allotted to him. All our energies and our best understanding ought be applied to achieving that goal.

In our Gospel today, our Lord laments the fact that so many of the “children of light” fail miserably in application and understanding in attaining what they know to be to their best advantage — holiness and heaven. “For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light” (Luke 16: 1-8). Let us set our goals carefully in life. They ought be the goals of Christ. Our plan of life ought be the plan of God for us. As St Paul writes, this is the will of God, your sanctification. The one thing necessary, to which we ought apply all our powers day by day, is to attain holiness in Christ.

“I am to carry out my priestly duty by bringing the Good News to the pagans” Especially since the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church has constantly insisted on the distinctive character of the ministerial priesthood. The ministerial priesthood is essentially different from the universal priesthood of all Christ’s faithful. Nevertheless the universal priesthood of all the baptized is immensely important for the Church and the world, and must be appreciated and constantly lived if God’s saving plan is to have its effect. All the faithful are called, in their own fashion, to share in Christ’s priestly work of offering sacrifices to the Father and of being, in Christ, a mediator between God and man. Their whole life and work with its fruits are the spiritual sacrifice which they offer as members of Christ. St Paul makes a remark in today’s first reading (Romans 15: 14-21) that throws light on this matter. He has, he writes, his work of "performing the priestly duty of bringing the Good News from God to the pagans.” By means of the preaching of the Gospel he makes “them acceptable as an offering, made holy by the Holy Spirit.” Since that is a priestly work, the laity share in it in their measure and according to their own vocation. This they do by bringing the Good News to those around them in the world. In this way they too are priests of Jesus Christ and share in preparing a holy offering to God. Being apostolic is a priestly work.

Let us all, whatever be our vocation, strive by our daily work and apostolic activity to prepare a holy offering to God our Father in union with our High Priest his only Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Holiness is the acceptable offering to God. So let us live in holiness ourselves and bring the holiness of Christ to all around us.

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Pray to God that in the Holy Church, our Mother, the hearts of all may be one heart, as they were in the earliest times of Christianity; so that the words of Scripture may be truly fulfilled until the end of the ages: Multitudinis autem credentium erat cor unum et anima una — the company of the faithful were of one heart and one soul. I am saying this to you in all seriousness: may this holy unity not come to any harm through you. Take it to your prayer,

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 38 (37): 22-23 Forsake me not, O Lord, my God; be not far from me! Make haste and come to my help, O Lord, my strong salvation!

Barney Casey became one of Detroit’s best-known priests even though he was not allowed to preach formally or to hear confessions! Barney came from a large family in Oak Grove, Wisconsin. At the age of 21, and after Fr Solanus Casey

he had worked as a logger, a hospital orderly, a streetcar operator and a prison guard, he entered St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee—where he found the studies difficult. He left there and, in 1896, joined the Capuchins in Detroit, taking the name Solanus. His studies for the priesthood were again arduous. On July 24, 1904, he was ordained, but because his knowledge of theology was judged to be weak, Father Solanus was not given permission to hear confessions or to preach. A Franciscan Capuchin who knew him well said this annoying restriction "brought forth in him a greatness and a holiness that might never have been realized in any other way." During his 14 years as porter and sacristan in Yonkers, New York, the people there recognized him as a fine speaker. "For, though he was forbidden to deliver doctrinal sermons," writes his biographer, James Derum, "he could give inspirational talks, or feverinos, as the Capuchins termed them" (18:96). His spiritual fire deeply impressed his listeners. Father Solanus served at parishes in Manhattan and Harlem before returning to Detroit, where he was porter and sacristan for 20 years at St. Bonaventure Monastery. Every Wednesday afternoon he conducted well-attended services for the sick. A co-worker estimates that on the average day 150 to 200 people came to see Father Solanus in the front office. Most of them came to receive his blessing; 40 to 50 came for consultation. Many people considered him instrumental in cures and other blessings they received. Father Solanus’ sense of God’s providence inspired many of his visitors. "Blessed be God in all his designs" was one of his favourite expressions. The many friends of Father Solanus helped the Capuchins begin a soup kitchen during the Depression. Capuchins are still feeding the hungry there today. In 1946 in failing health, he was transferred to the Capuchin novitiate in Huntington, Indiana, where he lived until 1956 when he was hospitalized in Detroit. He died on July 31, 1957. An estimated 20,000 people passed by his coffin before his burial in St. Bonaventure Church in Detroit. At the funeral Mass, Father Gerald, the provincial, said: "His was a life of service and love for people like me and you. When he was not himself sick, he nevertheless suffered with and for you that were sick. When he was not physically hungry, he hungered with people like you. He had a divine love for people. He loved people for what he could do for them —and for God, through them." In 1960 a Father Solanus Guild was formed in Detroit to aid Capuchin seminarians. By 1967 the guild had 5,000 members—many of them grateful recipients of his practical advice and his comforting assurance that God would not abandon them in their trials. He was declared Venerable in 1995.

James Patrick Derum, his biographer, writes that eventually Father Solanus was weary from bearing the burdens of the people who visited him. "Long since, he had come to know the Christ-taught truth that pure love of God and one’s fellowmen as children of God are in the final event all that matter. Living this truth ardently and continuously had made him, spiritually, a free man—free from slavery to passions, from self-seeking, from self-indulgence, from self-pity—free to serve wholly both God and man" (The Porter of St. Bonaventure’s, page 199). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Jesus told his disciples, I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight. (Luke 16:9‑15)

God and money The Church in her teaching cannot accept an intent by the state to prevent private ownership and to control the entire administration of material goods. In response to the evils of rampant capitalism and the state laissez-faire (i.e., a refusal to interfere) policy towards those who owned the means Fr. Ted Tyler

of production during the Industrial Revolution, Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), then in Manchester, wrote his influential first book, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844. The book was written between September 1844 and March 1845 and was printed in German in 1845. In the book, Engels expressed his views on the "grim future of capitalism and the industrial age", and described in detail, street after street, the total squalor in which the working people of Manchester were living. In 1848 he produced with Karl Marx The Communist Manifesto, and later supported Marx financially to do research and write the Das Kapital. Karl Marx published Volume 1 of his Kapital in 1867, proposing that the motivating force of capitalism lies in the exploitation of labour, whose unpaid work is the ultimate source of profit. The work draws on Hegel’s dialectical method, and its second and third volumes were edited by Engels following Marx’s death in 1883. Marx and Engels were major (though not the only) influences in the rise of modern socialism, extremes of which dictated that the means of production must be commonly owned and controlled cooperatively. The purported purpose of this was so that those in need could be adequately protected. No importance nor recognition was given to private ownership. This has now been utterly discredited. The right, the ability and even the duty of each individual (unless freely set aside by him) to own and administer temporal goods must be appreciated and allowed. Man should be allowed to acquire, own and use the things of this world, so as freely to attain his proper end. If this is denied him, it will be virtually an imprisonment. But, of course, as the situation which gave rise to socialist theories and movements showed, the right to own the things of this world can be grossly abused.

That is looking at the matter of ownership primarily from the angle of its bearing on society. If we do not get this right, society will be profoundly disrupted and sundered. But there is a deeper side to it, and it bears on man’s salvation. The fact is that while every man has the right to own things and to use them to attain his proper end, he, fallen as he is, can very easily become profoundly attached to material things, even becoming their slave. His call is to a supreme attachment to God in love and obedience, but the danger is that he can so easily come to love the creatures which God provides for him. He can prefer to become rich in this world’s goods rather than rich in God’s love. In seeking to ensure his security in this world with adequate food, clothing, shelter and other necessary measures, he can slide into seeking his total security in the things of this world. The life of love is gradually snuffed out, and God is forgotten and Self takes his place. This is the danger of wealth and possessions. We must keep before us the fact that our possessions are God’s gifts, that they are constantly sustained by the creative hand of God, and that he extends them to us for one purpose: to do his holy will. This includes, of course, our wellbeing here on earth, and that of our fellow-man. So we must have a care to our own material security, that of those for whom we are directly responsible, and for the poor and those in need. So it is that our Lord tells us in our Gospel passage today: “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” We must use our material possessions not only to help ourselves, but those in spiritual and material need. The constant danger is an excessive attachment to temporal goods. Our Lord issues his dire warning: “No servant 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 Money. The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight” (Luke 16: 9-15).

Our spiritual aim ought be so to be detached from our material goods as to be poor in spirit. Our spirit ought be poor in material possessions and rich in communion with God. St Thomas More possessed a well-furnished home and property befitting his station in life, but he was poor and detached in spirit — and this was demonstrated in so many ways. Christ has told us that if we are poor in spirit we shall be sure heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5). If we carry within us a love for lands, houses, fields and treasures of coin, how can we preserve a heart filled with the desire for God? “For where your treasure is, there your heart is also” (Matthew 6: 21). As our Lord says in today’s Gospel, we cannot be a slave of both God and money.

“My greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked death” Consider the picture of the Church that shines through in Paul’s letter in our passage today. Paul thanks various persons whom he highly praises. Prisca and Aquila were fellow workers of his. They risked their lives to save his. Fr. Ted Tyler

All the churches among the pagans knew them. Others are mentioned who had been Christians a long time — Epaenetus, Andronicus and Junias. Others were Paul’s friends, such as Ampliatus and Stachys. They are unknown to us, mere names. They were ordinary Christians giving themselves generously for the Church and the spread of the Gospel. They had a burning appreciation of the saving power of what they had embraced. During the first four centuries the Church grew largely because of the apostolic spirit of the ordinary laity. They show that the little person has great importance in the saving plan of God for the world. We too in due course will be mere names. Our lives will have passed and little record of us will be present. But God will know. Our lives every day are hastening towards their end. All that will matter then will be the degree to which we, like those St Paul mentions in our passage from Romans today, have given over our lives to Christ and his revelation. We need to have faith in him and true conviction as to the truth of the Gospel. What we must do, though, is be lovingly dedicated to it in the work God has placed before us in life.

Do we have the dedication of these unknown persons St Paul mentions today? Paul mentions them and they stand as heroes for the little people. The time will come for our Lord to speak of us to his heavenly Father. He will do this if our names are found written in the book of life.

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Faithfulness to the Pope includes a clear and definite duty: that of knowing his thought, which he tells us in Encyclicals or other documents. We have to do our part to help all Catholics pay attention to the teaching of the Holy Father, and bring their everyday behaviour into line with it.

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 88 (87): 3 Let my prayer come into your presence. Incline your ear to my cry for help, O Lord.

Collect Almighty and merciful God, graciously keep from us all adversity, so that, unhindered in mind and body alike, we may pursue in freedom of heart the things that are yours. 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.

Nicholas and his three companions are among the 158 Franciscans who have been martyred in the Holy Land since the friars became custodians of the shrines in 1335. Nicholas was born in 1340 to a wealthy and noble family in Croatia. He joined the Franciscans and was sent with Deodat of Rodez to preach in Bosnia. In 1384 they volunteered for the Holy Land missions and were sent there. They looked after the holy places, cared for the Christian pilgrims and studied Arabic. In 1391 Nicholas, Deodat, Peter of Narbonne and Stephen of Cuneo decided to take a direct approach to converting the Muslims. On November 11, 1391, they went to the huge Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem and asked to see the Qadi (Muslim official). Reading from a prepared statement, they said that all people must accept the gospel of Jesus. When they were ordered to retract their statement, they refused. After beatings and imprisonment, they were beheaded before a large crowd. Nicholas and his companions were canonized in 1970. They are the only Franciscans martyred in the Holy Land to be canonized. In the Rule of 1221, Francis wrote that the friars going to the Saracens (Muslims) "can conduct themselves among them spiritually in two ways. One way is to avoid quarrels or disputes and 'be subject to every human creature for God's sake' (1 Peter 2:13), so bearing witness to the fact that they are Christians. Another way is to proclaim the word of God openly, when they see that is God's will, calling on their hearers to believe in God almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Creator of all, and in the Son, the Redeemer and Saviour, that they may be baptized and become true and spiritual Christians" (Ch. 16). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Wisdom 6:12‑16; Psalm 63:2, 3‑4, 5‑6, 7‑8; 1 Thessalonians 4:13‑18 or 4: 13‑14; Matthew 25:1‑13

Jesus said, At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. (Matthew 25:1-13)

“The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him!” In the Old Testament God refers to himself as Israel’s Husband. Israel, his chosen people, is his spouse by his deliberate and loving choice. Time and again the prophets preach that the people are acting as an unfaithful spouse. Our Lord took over this inspired expression and calls himself the Bridegroom. This was a step unparalleled among the prophets of Israel. Calling himself this suggested that he occupied the place of Yahweh the Husband of Israel — it was yet another allusion to his unique status, indeed his being equal to God. The new people of God Christ was founding on the basis of the Twelve was his spiritual spouse. Christ is the Bridegroom, the Church is his spouse. I am not aware of any other ancient people who understood their deity as not only their Lord but their Husband. I think it is a unique designation, and special to the Revealed Religion of the Hebrews and then appropriated by Jesus Christ to himself as the very Object of revealed religion. For instance, Islam reveres its founder Mahomet as the greatest prophet, but no more than this. God — and certainly not Mahomet — is seen as the object of his life. Further, even in respect to God, the Muslim does not understand God as Bridegroom to Islam. He is nothing other than ineffable Master and Lord. The Catholic Church, following the teaching of her divine Founder, looks on Christ as both her Lord and Bridegroom — her mystical Spouse. The Church loves Christ himself and sees him as her love and the object of her whole life and ministry. Our bond with him takes precedence over all other bonds, whether they be family or social. Christ himself is the centre of the whole of Christian life because he is our God and our Redeemer. He is the only way to the Father — no-one comes to the Father but through him. Indeed, in seeing him we see the Father. Eternal life consists in knowing the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. Let us cultivate a profound appreciation of the revealed plan of God. By his death and resurrection, Christ has become the Bridegroom of the Church, of which we are members. As such, we share his life by grace, and it is thus that we are redeemed and sanctified.

There is a corollary to this. It relates to a certain calling in the life of the Church. In his parable in today’s Gospel our Lord speaks of the sudden arrival of the bridegroom. At midnight there was a cry, “The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him” (Matthew 25: 1-13). These words are quoted by The Catechism of the Catholic Church in its discussion of those who choose a life of celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. This is what the Catechism says: “From the very beginning of the Church there have been men and women who have renounced the great good of marriage to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, to be intent on the things of the Lord, to seek to please him, and to go out to meet the Bridegroom who is coming. Christ himself has invited certain persons to follow him in this way of life, of which he remains the model” (no.1618). It is a beautiful thing to find a spouse and to marry, and the Church celebrates it. But the Church teaches that it is a still nobler calling to have Christ as one’s exclusive spouse. In thinking of Christ the Bridegroom today, we not only think of the spousal relationship between Christ and his body the Church. We think also of the vocation of some members of the Church to live an exclusive and spousal relationship with Christ. Countless numbers of the Church’s faithful in the past, and very many now, receive from our Lord the invitation to belong to him exclusively. Their privilege is to forego marriage for something much greater, which is to belong to Christ himself. It is a special gift, a special grace, a special charism. Instead of an earthly spouse, they have in their hearts a heavenly one here and now, day by day. Its basis is a vigorous and lively faith, and we remember what our Lord said to the doubting Thomas: “Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe.” The Church teaches that this is a worthier and nobler and more beautiful vocation than that of marriage, and the Church, God’s family, is stronger as a result of the flourishing of such vocations. It is a great blessing for a young person to receive such a calling, and a great blessing for the parents of such a one. The vocation to consecrated celibacy, whether in the priesthood or some form of dedicated Christian or religious life, ought be prayed for. Let us pray that many with this calling will come forth from the Church, including our diocese and our parish.

Whatever be our particular vocation, the fundamental thing is that by faith and baptism we are in Jesus Christ. We are in him as he is in the Father, and this by the gift and power of the Holy Spirit. In the inspired Scriptures, the earthly image of this union of all Christians with Christ is marriage, the spousal love between husband and wife. The bond between Christ and his Church is spousal. We who live in the state of grace are caught up and live in this bond. Let us wonder at it, contemplate it, and let us cultivate it. Let us be ever faithful to it and never soil it by deliberate sin. Sin is infidelity to this spousal calling. Our love is for the Bridegroom. He is our life and our flourishing.

Suggested Reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church 1618-1620 (Virginity for the Kingdom)

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I pray every day with all my heart that God may give us the gift of tongues. Such a gift of tongues does not mean knowing a number of languages, but knowing how to adapt oneself to the capacities of one’s hearers. It’s not a question of “simplifying the message to get through to the masses”, but of speaking words of wisdom in clear Christian speech that all can understand. This is the gift of tongues that I ask of Our Lord and of his Holy Mother for all their children.

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 88 (87): 3 Let my prayer come into your presence. Incline your ear to my cry for help, O Lord.

Didacus is living proof that God "chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong" (1 Corinthians 1:27). As a young man in Spain, Didacus joined the Secular Franciscan Order and lived for some time as a hermit. After Didacus became a Franciscan brother, he developed a reputation for great insight into God’s ways. His penances were heroic. He was so generous with the poor that the friars sometimes grew uneasy about his charity. Didacus volunteered for the missions in the Canary Islands and laboured there energetically and profitably. He was also the superior of a friary there. In 1450 he was sent to Rome to attend the canonization of St. Bernardine of Siena. When many friars gathered for that celebration fell sick, Didacus stayed in Rome for three months to nurse them. After he returned to Spain, he pursued a life of contemplation full-time. He showed the friars the wisdom of God’s ways. As he was dying, Didacus looked at a crucifix and said: "O faithful wood, O precious nails! You have borne an exceedingly sweet burden, for you have been judged worthy to bear the Lord and King of heaven" (Marion A. Habig, O.F.M., The Franciscan Book of Saints, p. 834). San Diego, California, is named for this Franciscan, who was canonized in 1588.

"He was born in Spain with no outstanding reputation for learning, but like our first teachers and leaders unlettered as men count wisdom, an unschooled person, a humble lay brother in religious life. [God chose Didacus] to show in him the abundant riches of his grace to lead many on the way of salvation by the holiness of his life and by his example and to prove over and over to a weary old world almost decrepit with age that God's folly is wiser than men, and his weakness is more powerful than men" (Bull of Canonization). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around your neck than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves. “If a brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. (Luke 17:1‑6)

Sin There are some fundamental features of reality and human life which have exercised the mind of man for centuries upon centuries, and which are both important and fascinating. One, of course, is the question of the Absolute, the Ultimate, the Origin, the Source of all things, seen and unseen. Fr. Ted Tyler

The voice of mankind is virtually unanimous in recognizing the reality of the unseen Power or powers — the Deity, or deities. Whether there is one God or many has always been contested, with the weight of belief decisively falling to the many. Again — what is God like? The nature of God or the gods has likewise lacked human consensus. Apart from questions of theodicy, another fundamental issue in thought and culture has been the question of right and good action. Is man obligated to do certain things, independent of their usefulness or expediency? What should man do, and why is he so obligated? In our modern secular age, in which God is not accepted as an agreed, objective Fact grounding reality and truth, there nevertheless is no disputing that society insists on various moral obligations. At this point, for instance, the rights of children are regarded as sacrosanct. Child pornography, child sexual exploitation, child forced labour, child military conscription, are all regarded, fortunately, as abominable — though, strangely, the rights of the unborn are denied. But what is the foundation of these basic rights? The foundation is the natural law. There is a law springing from nature, a natural law that can be easily recognized by all and which societies know they must recognize by binding legislation. The conscience of man apprehends these natural rights and recognizes the duty of man to respect them. All recognize that man has a right to his life unless his actions are so morally bad as to attract a supreme, capital punishment for them. A party or society may not engage in crimes against humanity, nor may any individual — and in the course of time sanctions may be imposed on those who violate this law. Now, what is also of interest is the sense that this natural law that obliges moral behaviour is often perceived as of divine origin. It manifests the will of God or the gods. What I am here referring to is the sense, not merely of wrongdoing or crime, but of sin.

Sophocles, in his Antigone, first performed in 441 B.C., recognises that human laws are subject to a higher divine law. In the dialogue between Creon and Antigone, Creon the king of Thebes demands to know why Antigone did not obey his order. Antigone replies: “because I did not believe that Zeus was the one who had proclaimed it; neither did Justice, or the gods of the dead whom Justice lives among. The laws they have made for men are well marked out. I didn't suppose your decree had strength enough for you, who are human, to violate the lawful traditions which the gods have not merely written, but made infallible. These laws are not for now or for yesterday, they are alive forever; and no one knows when they were shown to us first. I did not intend to pay, before the gods, for breaking these laws because of my fear of one man and his principles. I was thoroughly aware I would die before you proclaimed it; of course I would die, even if you hadn't. Since I will die, and early, I call this profit. Anyone who lives the troubled life I do must benefit from death.” Antigone is saying that it is better to follow the natural law and be punished for it by man, than to follow the law of man and be punished for it by God (Zeus). We have here a classical, pagan (Greek) recognition of the natural moral law and of its essential connection with the divine. We have expressed, in effect, a sense of the objective fact of sin. Sin must be avoided. Now, one of the most distinctive things about Revealed Religion — the religion the One God revealed to his chosen people — is the great prominence of the teaching, not only that there is one only God and that there is an objective moral law which he has imposed (in the Ten Commandments), but that sin is horrible in his sight. Sin must be avoided. Be holy, for I am holy, says the Lord — this is the pulsating theme of Revealed Religion. It is especially prominent in the teaching of Jesus Christ. While Greek and classical thought recognized the natural law and, to a point, sin, it is supremely and consistently present in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Sin is the surpassing abomination. While Christ was merciful, he said, “go now, and sin no more!”

In our Gospel passage today, our Lord is especially trenchant about sin and about those who lead others to sin: “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the one through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him” (Luke 17:1-6). Sin is the worst thing in the world, and it was to take away the sin of the world that the Son of God became man. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world by his one Sacrifice of himself on Calvary. Before he ascended into heaven he charged the Church with the mission to bring the forgiveness of sins to the world. This is a principal mission of the Church. Let us take steps to have our sins forgiven, and let us do all we can to avoid sin, never leading others to sin but rather to the all-holy God.

“Obstacles are sure to come, but alas for the one who provides them!” A danger which lies before the one who has embarked on any project is that of weariness in the face of the obstacles that are sure to come. A young couple get married and their intention is to found a family together. Obstacles are sure to arise, stemming from within them and outside of them. Fr. Ted Tyler

Or again, a person sets out on establishing a business. He knows that most small businesses fail and that therefore obstacles are sure to arise. Beyond the sphere of one’s own personal life, there is the life of society and the life of nations. Again, obstacles are sure to arise. The twentieth century was dominated by the terrible tragedies of Nazism, Fascism, Communism, greedy and excessive Capitalism, and many other systems. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, societies were faced with murderous terrorism. The danger will be that of giving in to the weariness that accompanies obstacles. Our Lord tells his disciples in today’s Gospel passage (Luke 17: 1-6) that “obstacles are sure to come.” Our Lord is referring to the obstacles that lead a person away from life in him, and from obedience to God’s commandments. We must keep alive a constant vigilance and spiritual readiness to resist such obstacles and all weariness attendant on them. Especially must we be vigilant lest we ourselves become obstacles to the spiritual flourishing of others, through our carelessness and mediocrity in the fulfilment of our daily duties.

Let us resolve to maintain a living and growing faith in God and Christ, and making of this faith a very practical matter. In this way we shall grow spiritually amid the inevitable difficulties and obstacles, and be increasingly careful not to be a source of obstacles to others.

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A few are wicked, and many are ignorant: that is how the enemy of God and of the Church reigns. Let us confound the wicked, and enlighten the minds of the ignorant. With the help of God, and with our effort, we will save the world.

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 88 (87): 3 Let my prayer come into your presence. Incline your ear to my cry for help, O Lord.

A humble man, John Duns Scotus has been one of the most influential Franciscans through the centuries. Born at Duns in the county of Berwick, Scotland, John was descended from a wealthy farming family. In later years he was identified as John Duns Scotus to indicate the land of his birth; Scotia is the Latin name for Scotland. John received the habit of the Blessed John Duns Scotus

Friars Minor at Dumfries, where his uncle Elias Duns was superior. After novitiate John studied at Oxford and Paris and was ordained in 1291. More studies in Paris followed until 1297, when he returned to lecture at Oxford and Cambridge. Four years later he returned to Paris to teach and complete the requirements for the doctorate. In an age when many people adopted whole systems of thought without qualification, John pointed out the richness of the Augustinian-Franciscan tradition, appreciated the wisdom of Aquinas, Aristotle and the Muslim philosophers—and still managed to be an independent thinker. That quality was proven in 1303 when King Philip the Fair tried to enlist the University of Paris on his side in a dispute with Pope Boniface VIII. John Duns Scotus dissented and was given three days to leave France. In Scotus’s time, some philosophers held that people are basically determined by forces outside themselves. Free will is an illusion, they argued. An ever practical man, Scotus said that if he started beating someone who denied free will, the person would immediately tell him to stop. But if Scotus didn’t really have a free will, how could he stop? John had a knack for finding illustrations his students could remember! After a short stay in Oxford he returned to Paris, where he received the doctorate in 1305. He continued teaching there and in 1307 so ably defended the Immaculate Conception of Mary that the university officially adopted his position. That same year the minister general assigned him to the Franciscan school in Cologne where John died in 1308. He is buried in the Franciscan church near the famous Cologne cathedral. Drawing on the work of John Duns Scotus, Pope Pius IX solemnly defined the Immaculate Conception of Mary in 1854. John Duns Scotus, the "Subtle Doctor," was beatified in 1993. Father Charles Balic, O.F.M., the foremost 20th-century authority on Scotus, has written: "The whole of Scotus's theology is dominated by the notion of love. The characteristic note of this love is its absolute freedom. As love becomes more perfect and intense, freedom becomes more noble and integral both in God and in man" (New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 1105). Intelligence hardly guarantees holiness. But John Duns Scotus was not only brilliant, he was also humble and prayerful—the exact combination St. Francis wanted in any friar who studied. In a day when French nationalism threatened the rights of the pope, Scotus sided with the papacy and paid the price. He also defended human freedom against those who would compromise it by determinism. Ideas are important. John Duns Scotus placed his best thinking at the service of the human family and of the Church. (AmericanCatholic.org)

“Suppose one of you has a servant ploughing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’.” (Luke 17:7‑10)

Duty There have been a variety of approaches in working out a philosophy of the human person. What is man, fundamentally? Where are we to start in giving an account of man — as opposed, say, to his nearest “cousin” in the visible world, the animal? There is a standard, classical definition: man is a “rational animal.” This definition recognizes the obvious likenesses between man and the animal, especially the highly endowed animal. It places man in the animal class, but simultaneously denotes the feature which marks him off from all other animals: his rationality. He has intellect, he is an “animal” with mind. With this power to reason and understand, he possesses an equally important gift — the freedom to choose among the options that lie before him. He is not the subject and slave of his instincts, as is every other animal. That man is a rational animal is the most widespread and received definition of him, but there have been important variations of this in emphasis. For instance, it has often been observed that in view of the almost universal prevalence of religion in human culture — allowing for the anomaly of modern Western secularism, agnosticism and atheism, and those cultures influenced by it — many have suggested that man is a “religious” animal. Of course, the religious instinct or sense is a feature of man’s rationality, but the point is that this illustrates the variety of approaches to the understanding of man. John Henry Newman preferred to stress a different element of man’s rationality in his account of man’s basic structure: his conscience or sense of duty. For instance, during the widespread and lengthy debate in England following Charles Darwin’s publication of his work, On the Origin of Species in November 1859, Newman’s correspondence shows he had no theological or philosophical difficulty with Evolution as such. Evolution could have God as its author, as could a creation involving no evolution. Newman made an interesting observation. He said that he would allow an evolution of the animal (by God’s sustaining hand, of course) to the point of lower forms of “intellect” or “rationality.” What would mark the appearance (or creation) of man as such would be the presence of a “conscience,” or sense of duty.

There is no need to linger on the merits or otherwise of this proposal. It would require a careful statement of the meaning of intellect and rationality — especially in light of the discoveries of some remarkable things which some animals can do. The point I am making here is simply to highlight one fundamental feature of man’s rationality, his conscience and sense of duty. Newman, for one, placed this high on the fundamental endowments of man. Indeed, in his philosophy of man he makes it the natural foundation of the religious sense. So while some might see the religious sense as distinguishing man, Newman would see the “conscience” as the root, the principle and the sanction of religion in man. It is, he taught, a basic starting point in human experience that man perceives his duty. Human life, the life that is distinctive to man as such, starts there. Man’s flourishing depends on his fulfilment of his duty, his fidelity to his conscience. Indeed, Newman insists, there lies within man’s conscience a primordial sense of the living, objective God. It is critical to man that he be alive to his duty and that he be fully disposed to fulfil it. If this is lacking in him, whatever be his intellectual and reasoning endowments, whatever be his power to choose, he will fail as a man and get nowhere. More, he could become an ogre if his moral life is dormant. Moreover, his conscience will not only keep before him his duty, but it will keep him humble in all that he does. It will teach him that he is a sinner, while urging him on in the doing of what his conscience dictates: and his conscience will sense that it is God who is calling him in it all. Let this general point of the fundamental importance of our sense of duty introduce us to our Lord’s teaching in today’s Gospel. We must strive through life to fulfil the will of God. This is our constant duty. But however well we may do this due to the assistance of his grace, we never have reason to boast of doing something “exceptional.” It is no more than our duty. “Will he (the master) thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty'" (Luke 17:7-10).

Let us strive to cultivate a sense of the sovereignty of God our loving Father. His will is our life, and nothing matters in comparison to the doing of it. That is our basic duty. If God’s will is done, all will be well, and if due to the gift of his grace we are blessed with doing it, then our gratitude ought be profound. The more we do God’s will, the more will our vision be clear enough to see how often we fail to do it. In any case, our attitude ought be, as our Lord explains, that “we are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” Let us make the loving and grateful fulfilment of our duty a fundamental element of our daily life. It will lead to true life and flourishing.

“It was the devil’s envy that brought death into the world, as those who are his partners will discover.” Day after day we read and see news of death and destruction. There are terrible natural disasters. There are disasters brought on man by his fellow man. Evil and death present a constant threat and struggle. St Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that sin entered the world through one man and with sin has come death, and death has spread through the whole human race. In this he is repeating the teaching of the Old Testament of which we have a specimen in today’s first reading from the book of Wisdom. Wisdom tells us that “God did make man imperishable, he made him in the image of his own nature; it was the devil’s envy that brought death into the world, as those who are his partners will discover” (Wisdom 2:23-3:9). So let us look on the calamities and sufferings characteristic of life in our world as symptoms and reminders of someone and something more sinister and foreboding that lives and operates out of sight. Personal and moral evil is at the origin of the profound dysfunction rampant in the world. The devil did it once, and he is trying to do it again and again.

When we see suffering and evil let us resolve not to be “partners” of the one who initiated it. Let us in our hearts renounce sin and “the devil’s envy.” Let us resolutely pursue the path of the virtuous who “are in the hands of God.” The path of the virtuous is that of gold being tested in a furnace. God will accept such a one as a holocaust. Let us make our choice for God and, without compromise, live it out amid the difficulties that will surely come.

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We have to try to ensure that in all fields of intellectual activity there are upright people, people with a true Christian conscience, who are consistent in their lives, who can use the weapons of knowledge in the service of humanity and of the Church. Their presence will be necessary because in the world there will always be, as there were when Jesus came on earth, new Herods who try to make use of knowledge — even if they have to falsify it — to persecute Christ and those who belong to him. What a great task we have ahead of us!

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Rev 21: 2 I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

Cf. Rev 21: 3 Behold God's dwelling with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people, and God himself with them will be their God.

Collect O God, who from living and chosen stones prepare an eternal dwelling for your majesty, increase in your Church the spirit of grace you have bestowed, so that by new growth your faithful people may build up the heavenly Jerusalem. 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.

O God, who were pleased to call your Church the Bride, grant that the people that serves your name may revere you, love you and follow you, and may be led by you to attain your promises in heaven. 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.

(November 9) The Basilica of St. John Lateran is the cathedral of Rome. It was built during Constantine's reign and was consecrated by Pope St. Sylvester in 324. This feast was later made a universal celebration in honour of the basilica called "the mother and mistress of all churches of Rome and the world" (omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput) as a sign of love for and union with the See of Peter.

Scripture today: Ezechiel 47: 1-2.8-9.12; Psalm 45; 1 Cor. 3: 9-11.16-17; John 2:13-21

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father's house into a market!" His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me." The Jews then responded to him, "What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." They replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:13‑22)

God’s Temple One of the most characteristic institutions of society amid the plethora of cultures that have spanned the centuries is the shrine or temple. Shrines have been everywhere under countless forms and names. The waterhole was often a sacred shrine for the traditional Australian Aborigine, and therein dwelt certain personages of the Dreaming. Fr. Ted Tyler

The native north American had his sacred shrines and sites. There were famous shrines in classical Greece. In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world. It was a major site for the worship of the god Apollo after he slew the Python — so the story went — a deity who lived there and protected the navel of the Earth. Python is claimed by some to be the original name of the site in recognition of the Python that Apollo defeated. The temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, also known as the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was the most important temple in Ancient Rome, located on the Capitoline Hill. Livy also records that before the temple's construction, shrines to other gods occupied the site. When the augurs carried out the rites seeking permission to remove them, only Terminus and Juventas were believed to have refused. Their shrines were therefore incorporated into the new structure. Because he was the god of boundaries, Terminus's refusal to be moved was interpreted as a favourable omen for the future of the Roman state. It was said that the temple of Jupiter was dedicated on September 13, about 509 BC. The original temple measured almost 60 x 60 m and was considered the most important religious temple of the whole state of Rome. The building was replaced several times over the centuries and today portions of the temple foundations can still be seen. These few examples show not only the well-nigh universal presence of the religious sense in man and society, but of its concrete manifestation in shrines, temples and in public prayer. The deities (however they are imagined) are recognized as being located in certain sacred areas where in some sense they can be approached, appeased and supplicated. They are perceived as meeting places between earth and heaven.

This tendency of man, of culture and society to create shrines and temples is, when we consider historical Revelation, entirely commendable because it is exactly what the one, true and living God directed for his chosen people. God revealed himself to the Patriarchs in certain locations. During the years of trek in the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land, the chosen people had before them the Tabernacle where God dwelt, going before them in the pillar of cloud by day, and in the pillar of fire by night. The time came when Solomon built the Temple, which after centuries was destroyed. It was the will of God that, when the people returned from exile, it be rebuilt. There had to be the Temple where, in a special sense, God would dwell. Herod built the most magnificent Temple in all of Jerusalem’s history — it took over four decades — though, some forty years after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, it too was destroyed, this time by the Romans. All that was left was a huge garbage dump, and over its ruins arose a pagan replacement. The point, though, is that in God’s plan the divine Presence, while everywhere, is usually located in a special sense in certain holy buildings. Jesus Christ confirmed that his heavenly Father dwelt in the Temple of Jerusalem: it was his Father’s House, and he would not tolerate its neglect and desecration by being made the place of a thriving religious commerce (John 2:13-22). But of course, the time came for something far higher to be divinely instituted. As our Lord said to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well, “the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him” (John 4: 23). He himself is the new and definitive Temple of the living God, and while Temples where God dwells continue to proliferate across the globe and across the centuries, the heart and soul of the worship intended by him is the Person of Jesus Christ. He, Jesus Christ, human and divine, risen from the dead, present as the Holy Eucharist, is the living heart of all the churches of his body the Church. Every member of Christ’s faithful knows where God is especially dwelling here on earth. It is in the Tabernacle of the local Catholic Church. Therein is the constant and real Presence of Jesus Christ.

On the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome we think of the principal church of the See of Rome from which the Successor of St Peter teaches and guides as bishop. As such, he teaches and guides the universal Church. We think of the real and constant Presence of Jesus Christ in that central Cathedral. It reminds us of the One who is present in the Holy Eucharist throughout the universal Church of all times and places. Let us renew our communion with the Eucharistic Jesus who is present in all our churches, and our communion with his visible vicar here on earth, the Successor of St Peter whose Cathedral we think of on November 9.

The Lateran There are many things we can think of on the feast of the dedication of the Lateran basilica, the cathedral of the diocese of Rome. It is from that “cathedra” (teaching chair) that the Pope as Bishop of Rome teaches the faithful of his own diocese and that of the world. So we are reminded of the universal Church’s communion in the one faith taught and handed on Fr. Ted Tyler

by the successors of the Apostles in union with the successor of the Apostle Peter. The Church is a communion in the one faith. But the Church is also a great communion in prayer and worship. We are surely reminded of this when we think of the Lateran cathedral. It is a great house of prayer and worship, and the entire Church worships in union with the liturgy celebrated by the Pope in his cathedral. We think then of the universal Church worshipping in the communion of one faith. Let us also remember how important is our local church where we gather to worship the Father in union with the Son with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Recall the zeal of our Lord for his Father’s house as it manifested itself in today’s Gospel (John 2: 13-22): he drove out of the Temple all who were desecrating it. The Temple was the house of his Father. Our own love for our local church and the One who dwells there constantly in the Tabernacle ought lead to the utmost reverence whenever we enter it, shunning small talk and taking care that our time in His Presence is filled with prayer and union with him in the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries.

Let us be deeply aware not only of the Eucharistic Jesus who dwells there in such a lowly and humble manner, but let us remember the entire Church that continually unites herself to him as she gathers constantly in worship and prayer. The church is the great gathering place of our lives, and we are reminded of this on the feast of the dedication of the St John Lateran basilica.

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In your work with souls — and all your activity should be work with souls — be filled with faith, with hope, with love, because all the difficulties will be overcome. To confirm this truth for us, the psalmist wrote: Et tu, Domine, deridebis eos: ad nihilum deduces omnes genies — You, O Lord, will laugh at them: You will bring them to nothing. These words confirm those other words: Non praevalebunt; the enemies of God shall not prevail. They will not have any power against the Church, nor against those who serve the Church as instruments of God.

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 88 (87): 3 Let my prayer come into your presence. Incline your ear to my cry for help, O Lord.

With apparent strong conviction of the importance of the Bishop of Rome in the Church, and of the Church as the ongoing sign of Christ’s presence in the world, Leo the Great displayed endless dedication as pope. Elected in 440, he worked tirelessly as

"Peter’s successor," guiding his fellow bishops as "equals in the episcopacy and infirmities." Leo is known as one of the best administrative popes of the ancient Church. His work branched into four main areas, indicative of his notion of the pope’s total responsibility for the flock of Christ. He worked at length to control the heresies of Pelagianism, Manichaeism and others, placing demands on their followers so as to secure true Christian beliefs. A second major area of his concern was doctrinal controversy in the Church in the East, to which he responded with a classic letter setting down the Church’s teaching on the two natures of Christ. With strong faith, he also led the defence of Rome against barbarian attack, taking the role of peacemaker. In these three areas, Leo’s work has been highly regarded. His growth to sainthood has its basis in the spiritual depth with which he approached the pastoral care of his people, which was the fourth focus of his work. He is known for his spiritually profound sermons. An instrument of the call to holiness, well-versed in Scripture and ecclesiastical awareness, Leo had the ability to reach the everyday needs and interests of his people. One of his sermons is used in the Office of Readings on Christmas. It is said of Leo that his true significance rests in his doctrinal insistence on the mysteries of Christ and the Church and in the supernatural charisms of the spiritual life given to humanity in Christ and in his Body, the Church. Thus Leo held firmly that everything he did and said as pope for the administration of the Church represented Christ, the head of the Mystical Body, and St. Peter, in whose place Leo acted. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. (Luke 17:20‑25)

The Kingdom One of the most obvious things about our Lord’s preaching and instruction as it is reported to us in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke is his stress on “the Kingdom.” The “Kingdom” is coming, it is near, and it has come. Our Lord repeatedly describes the “Kingdom” and who will enter it. His mission is to establish “the Kingdom.” In the Gospel of Matthew it is called “the Kingdom” or “the Kingdom of heaven,” though at times it has other forms such as “the Kingdom of their Father” or “the Kingdom of God.” In Mark it is “the Kingdom of God” and it is the same in Luke. Neither Mark nor Luke call the “Kingdom” the “Kingdom of Heaven” — perhaps because of their intended Gentile readership. In John, our Lord refers to “the Kingdom” (to Nicodemus) and “my Kingdom” (to Pilate) five times. The Acts has eight references to it, St Paul has some fourteen (excluding Hebrews), and there are some references to it in the remaining Letters of the New Testament and in the Book of Revelation. It is plain that it was a favoured expression of Jesus Christ. The “Kingdom” was the sum of God’s blessings that constituted the Promise foretold by his Revelation. So marked was this that in our Gospel passage today the Pharisees ask our Lord “when the Kingdom of God would come.” Further, it was clear that in “the Kingdom of Heaven” or “the Kingdom of God,” Jesus Christ is the Messiah-King. “I am he” he said to the Samaritan Woman. What this meant, and what the “Kingdom” really meant, was the grand question and it was subject to popular misunderstanding. After feeding the multitudes on one occasion, Christ was threatened with a move to make him king — meaning, a political king. He withdrew from the scene (John 6:15). When he was brought before Pilate, the charge the religious authorities laid against him (hoping it would tell with the Roman procurator) was of political sedition. He claimed to be a king, and Pilate asked him if that was what he was. Our Lord responded that he was a “King” only in a certain sense, and certainly his “Kingdom” was not of this world. Pilate did not know what he was talking about, but it was obvious that Jesus was not engaged in anything political, nor aspiring to any civil authority.

So, what was this “Kingdom of heaven,” this “Kingdom of God,” this “my Kingdom” that our Lord refers to in his preaching and teaching? In our Gospel passage today (Luke 17: 20-25), our Lord explains to the Pharisees that it is not something that comes subject to “observation” or the “keeping of a watch.” It is not something you will be able to point to as being seen, and indicated with the cry, “here it is,” or “there it is.” Our Lord is saying that it is not a kingdom of this world — though he will elsewhere establish a structure with his Apostles as the foundation. This structure, his Church, will indeed be visible, and will bear within it the unseen Kingdom. The “Kingdom” itself is primarily his very self — Christ himself and union with him by grace. In our passage today, our Lord explains that the “Kingdom of God is within you.” The word “within” (entos) is important — it is often translated as “among.” The problem with “among” is that it can convey the idea of a visible regime, whereas our Lord has just explained that it is not this, in essence. Zerwick and Grosvenor (An Analysis of the Greek New Testament, 1981) observe that the word “among,” as a translation is “elsewhere unknown” (p.251). Be that as it may, what is more telling is the long discourse of our Lord at the Last Supper, as recorded by St John in his Gospel. In that account, Simon Peter, Thomas, Philip, and Jude (not Iscariot) pose questions to our Lord. Jude’s question is “Lord how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” (John 14: 22). Jude is wondering what kind of Kingdom this must be if the world is not to see it. Our Lord replies, “if a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). This, in essence, is the Kingdom of God. This is the reign of God which must be brought to all the nations. It is “within” the hearts of Christ’s disciples, and it affects their whole life because it involves keeping Christ’s word. The “Kingdom of God” is above all union with Jesus Christ and the Father, in the Holy Spirit. This is made possible by faith, baptism and entry into Christ’s body the Church. Redemption, sanctification and perfection is the wonderful treasure that this “Kingdom of God” offers to all.

Let us make it our life’s ambition to be citizens of this Kingdom with all our mind, heart, soul and strength. It is nothing other than being a full-hearted disciple of Jesus Christ, taking all the means he has given us through his Church to live in him. Throughout his Letters, St Paul is insisting on being “in Christ.” The Christian is one who is in Christ, and his ambition ought be to live in him. Let us shake off our ingrained lethargy, our pride, our sin, and give ourselves wholly to life in Christ and to the bringing of him to the world. This is the “Kingdom” that will have no end. It is not of this world, but it is at the heart of this world, and it will take this world into eternity with God, for ever and ever.

“Over Wisdom evil can never triumph” Our experience of life involves the experience of persons of influence, be their influence for good or not. We ourselves influence for good or for ill. From childhood influences bear down on us, and we see influences bearing down on others around us. Great changes come about in the world in the course of our lifetime and as history proceeds, and in large measure these changes are due to personal influence. If a person possesses wisdom and lives by it, the influence he has will be for the good. Thus it is that the crux of the issue of good or evil prevailing in the world will be the degree to which true wisdom prevails and is in possession. The world will rise or fall on the victory or otherwise of true wisdom. Over “wisdom evil can never triumph,” and she orders “all things for good” (Wisdom 7: 22b-8:1). The Old Testament book of Wisdom speaks of the glory and the power of true wisdom, and that wisdom is the Wisdom of God. What this inspired text teaches is that the Wisdom of God can and is given to men who are disposed for it and who humbly ask for it.

The Book reminds us that it is imperative that we obtain from God this gift of wisdom if we are ever to attain our true end, the end to which God has called us. This is holiness of life and union with God, and the completion of our God-given work in life. Let us then ask the Holy Spirit our Counsellor and Guide for the gift of divine wisdom, and the help to live according to it.

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Our Holy Mother the Church, in a magnificent outpouring of love, is scattering the seed of the Gospel throughout the world; from Rome to the outposts of the earth. As you help in this work of expansion throughout the whole world, bring those in the outposts to the Pope, so that the earth may be one flock and one Shepherd: one apostolate!

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 88 (87): 3 Let my prayer come into your presence. Incline your ear to my cry for help, O Lord.

A conscientious objector who wanted to be a monk; a monk who was manoeuvred into being a bishop; a bishop who fought paganism as well as pleaded for mercy to heretics—such was Martin of Tours, one of the most popular of saints and one of the first not to be a martyr. Born of pagan parents in what is now Hungary and raised in Italy, this son of a veteran was forced to serve in the army against his will at the age of 15. He became a Christian catechumen and was baptized at 18. It was said that he lived more like a monk than a soldier. At 23, he refused a war bonus and told his commander: "I have served you as a soldier; now let me serve Christ. Give the bounty to those who are going to fight. But I am a soldier of Christ and it is not lawful for me to fight." After great difficulties, he was discharged and went to be a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers (January 13). On a bitterly cold day, a famous legend goes, Martin met a poor man, almost naked, trembling in the cold and begging from passersby at the city gate. Martin had nothing but his weapons and his clothes. He drew his sword, cut his cloak into two pieces, gave one to the beggar and wrapped himself in the other half. Some of the bystanders laughed at his now odd appearance; others were ashamed at not having relieved the man's misery. That night in his sleep Martin saw Christ dressed in the half of the garment he had given away, and heard him say, "Martin, still a catechumen, has covered me with is garment." He was ordained an exorcist and worked with great zeal against the Arians. He became a monk, living first at Milan and later on a small island. When Hilary was restored to his see after exile, Martin returned to France and established what may have been the first French monastery near Poitiers. He lived there for 10 years, forming his disciples and preaching throughout the countryside. The people of Tours demanded that he become their bishop. He was drawn to that city by a ruse—the need of a sick person—and was brought to the church, where he reluctantly allowed himself to be consecrated bishop. Some of the consecrating bishops thought his rumpled appearance and unkempt hair indicated that he was not dignified enough for the office. Along with St. Ambrose (December 7), Martin rejected Bishop Ithacius’s principle of putting heretics to death—as well as the intrusion of the emperor into such matters. He prevailed upon the emperor to spare the life of the heretic Priscillian. For his efforts, Martin was accused of the same heresy, and Priscillian was executed after all. Martin then pleaded for a cessation of the persecution of Priscillian’s followers in Spain. He still felt he could cooperate with Ithacius in other areas, but afterwards his conscience troubled him about this decision. As death approached, his followers begged him not to leave them. He prayed, "Lord, if your people still need me, I do not refuse the work. Your will be done." (AmericanCatholic.org)

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulphur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” “Where, Lord?” they asked. He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.” (Luke 17:26‑37)

The Judgment In his book, Conscience in Medieval Philosophy (1980), Timothy C. Potts writes that “Conscience has been much neglected by philosophers. It is not directly treated in ancient philosophy, while, apart from Bishop Butler, who was primarily interested in the aspect of self-deception, there is scarcely a philosopher from Fr. Ted Tyler

Descartes to the present day who has touched upon it more than tangentially.” Potts goes on to explain that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, however, “conscience became a standard component of commentaries upon Peter Lombard’s Judgements and from there found its way into university seminars” (p.1). One of the well-known features of the thought of John Henry Newman in 19th century England was the centrality of Conscience. Conscience had a fundamental place in his philosophy of man and religion. Interestingly, he made of Conscience the natural ground of religion — it is, as he wrote in an early Anglican sermon, “the principle and sanction of religion in the mind.” There have been various philosophies of religion, and the one that Newman gradually developed had an important place for the Conscience. In particular, it was “the feeling of a judgment” involved in the experience of conscience that is the starting point of religion. Newman maintained that man has a vague sense of a divine Lawgiver and Judge behind the moral obligation which he instinctively and naturally perceives. Wrongdoing is vaguely perceived as sinful, and at the heart of this there is the sense of a judgment on oneself by a Judge who has the right to obedience. Doubtlessly this would be contested by the agnostic, the religiously indifferent, let alone the atheist. But it would be hard to dispute that man has, within his conscience, a natural sense of being judged — the dispute would be about who or what is the “judge.” Be that as it may, this natural sense of a judgment attains its confirmation and fulfilment in receiving the Revelation that God has given of a coming Judgment. It is one of the most basic elements of historical Revelation that God is judging man and will judge him for his deliberate thoughts, words and deeds.

The point is prominent in the first pages of the Bible, and it is one of the first things that the Serpent denies when tempting the Woman. God commands the Man he has created not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil “for on the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Genesis 2:17). He will be judged and condemned to death. It was this that the Serpent, who “was more cunning than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made,” denied. He said to the Woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (3:4-5). The Woman ate of the tree, and gave it to her husband, “and he ate.” They hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden, for they sensed the coming judgment. God’s judgment followed. “What is this that you have done?” he asked the Woman. God then judged the Serpent, then the Woman and then the Man, and their punishment followed. All through the Scriptures the coming of God to judge is prominent, although the main emphasis throughout the Old Testament is on the results of this judgment during life. Moses promises that if the Pharaoh does not accede to God’s commands, he and all of Egypt will be punished. The divine judgment has results here and now. In the Prophet Hosea, the divine judgment will find expression in temporal misfortunes: “Samaria’s king shall perish like a chip on the face of the waters .... I will put Ephraim to the yoke, Judah must plow “ (Hosea 10: 7-11). But it is especially in the teaching of Jesus Christ that the theme of God’s judgment comes into its own. God has sent his Son not to judge the world but to save it — nevertheless, the Son of God made man repeatedly and extensively warns of the Divine Judgment and its eternal repercussions. Every person will be judged for his actions. In his parable of the Rich Man and the poor man Lazarus, the Rich Man dies and goes to Hades where he cannot be reached by anyone. He neglected justice and mercy. Lazarus goes to the bosom of Abraham. There is not only an individual judgment at death, but a General Judgment of all at the end of time. This is vividly and famously described in Matthew 25: 31-46.

In our Gospel today our Lord refers to the judgment of God on man during the days of Noah and in the days of Lot when he destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.” Our Lord seems to be referring to his coming at the end of time, when he will act as Lord and Judge. “Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it” (Luke 17: 26-37). Let us ever keep before us the last and final things we must all face. Indeed it is, basically, one thing: the Divine Judgment. Christ is coming. His coming is ever before us. He wishes to come and take us with him to be where he is. But first he must judge. This is the grand Event. Let us so live as never to be unprepared!

“From the good things that are seen (they) have not been able to discover Him-who-is” The book of Fr. Ted Tyler

Wisdom tells us what St Paul’s letter to the Romans repeats, that the world we see helps us know the Creator whom we cannot see. Let us take this to heart in our daily spiritual life. Living in the world, we are surrounded with constant reminders of the living God. These reminders — his creatures — speak to us of him, and we can easily understand the language being spoken, provided we are properly disposed. That is to say, an immense amount depends on our fundamental (religious) dispositions. This is the case in so many other matters of life. We shall never learn a language, we shall never come to know a person and be attuned to that person in love and sympathy, if we are not properly disposed. So too in our relations with God. We shall never attain a knowledge of the living God who is behind the veil of creation if we are not duly disposed. Let us then pray for the right dispositions, and for the help to guard them and to live according to them.

But our passage today from the Book of Wisdom (Wisdom 13: 1-9) speaks also of the danger that creatures pose to fallen man. The beauty of God’s creation can engross man’s heart and lead him to forget and be disinterested in the beauty of its Maker. If this happens, it will be blameworthy. Let us strive to be attached to God with all our mind, heart and soul, using creatures to be attached to the Creator the more. All our lives we must work at being attached to God and detached from creatures — or putting it differently, being attached to creatures only in God and according to the mind of God.

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Christ’s weapons will only become a reality through prayer and sacrifice, through faith and Love. Well, then: pray, believe, suffer, Love!

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 88 (87): 3 Let my prayer come into your presence. Incline your ear to my cry for help, O Lord.

In 1967, newspaper photos of Pope Paul VI embracing Athenagoras I, the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, marked a St Josaphat of Ruthenia

significant step toward the healing of a division in Christendom that has spanned more than nine centuries. In 1595, when today’s saint was a boy, the Orthodox bishop of Brest-Litovsk (famous in World War I) in Belarus and five other bishops representing millions of Ruthenians, sought reunion with Rome. John Kunsevich (Josaphat became his name in religious life) was to dedicate his life and die for the same cause. Born in what was then Poland, he went to work in Wilno and was influenced by clergy adhering to the Union of Brest (1596). He became a Basilian monk, then a priest, and soon was well known as a preacher and as an ascetic. He became bishop of Vitebsk (now in Russia) at a relatively young age, and faced a difficult situation. Most monks, fearing interference in liturgy and customs, did not want union with Rome. By synods, catechetical instruction, reform of the clergy and personal example, however, Josaphat was successful in winning the greater part of the Orthodox in that area to the union. But the next year a dissident hierarchy was set up, and his opposite number spread the accusation that Josaphat had "gone Latin" and that all his people would have to do the same. He was not enthusiastically supported by the Latin bishops of Poland. Despite warnings, he went to Vitebsk, still a hotbed of trouble. Attempts were made to foment trouble and drive him from the diocese: A priest was sent to shout insults to him from his own courtyard. When Josaphat had him removed and shut up in his house, the opposition rang the town hall bell, and a mob assembled. The priest was released, but members of the mob broke into the bishop’s home. He was struck with a halberd, then shot and his body thrown into the river. It was later recovered and is now buried in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He was the first saint of the Eastern Church to be canonized by Rome. His death brought a movement toward Catholicism and unity, but the controversy continued, and the dissidents, too, had their martyr. After the partition of Poland, the Russians forced most Ruthenians to join the Russian Orthodox Church. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ “ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1‑8)

Persevering prayer Despite the fact that the gods cannot be physically seen, heard or touched, and despite their having doubtlessly disappointed the prayers of man to them, peoples have persisted in praying to them. Man has consistently and well-nigh universally appealed to the unseen powers for aid and protection. He has constructed images of the deities and at times has even fallen into the foolishness of regarding these material constructs as those very deities. Though the atheist, agnostic or sceptic, insisting on the reality of tangible things alone, regards all this as superstitious nonsense, the voice of mankind has it that there are unseen powers who may be supplicated for their assistance. Speaking generally and considering the universal fact of religion and of ritual, there is no doubt in the mind of needy man that the prayer of petition is worth the trouble. The grand exception to this is the modern world of secularism which broadly assumes that the divine, indeed the supernatural generally, is virtually a figment of the imagination. The only hard facts are those that are tangible, visible, material. If this is truly assumed as the starting point of thought and life, genuine prayer and in particular the prayer of petition, of course, becomes profoundly problematic. We might start to pray, but an inveterate scepticism takes hold, and our prayer — especially our prayer of petition — drains away. There is no real God who is Lord of all things and who has a real mind for every little thing in his creation. I have no access to some kind of transcendent Master of everything, to One whose finger sustains and controls all. Rather, everything marches on according to the drumbeat of the laws, and the best thing I can do is to get on top of it all and be the master. If I do not, then I shall be pushed aside or crushed. This is a powerful assumption in the modern mind and it has replaced the religious starting point. Among other things it cripples prayer and any calling for divine aid — and this prayer is precisely what our Lord is pressing on us in our Gospel passage today (Luke 18: 1-8). Our Lord tells his disciples and each of us that we “should always pray and not give up.” The pivotal point in this passage is our Lord’s insistence on petition that perseveres.

It is normal, natural and instinctive for the human being to pray — to a point. There is evidence for this everywhere in human culture. Even in the secular culture to which I have just referred, it is natural for people to appeal to the divine for help — at least a bit, and to a point. But then when nothing is seen to happen as a result, the prayer that has begun is abandoned and forgotten as hopeless. True prayer, the prayer that is pleasing to God, will persevere. This is the test of faith in him. But it requires a real faith in a living, unseen God. If one is imbued with the conviction of the truth of historical revelation, that Revelation vouchsafed to man as recorded in the Old and New Testaments, then one will have every reason to persevere in prayer. It will be prayer to the living God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and the prophets. It will be prayer to him who is the Father of Jesus Christ, and prayer to Jesus Christ himself, the incarnate God and Redeemer of man. If the Christian is to persevere in his prayer, including his prayer of petition, his mind and heart must be nourished by the revealed doctrine on God. He has to sustain his spiritual life with the Christian creed and dogma. He has to come to know the real and living Christ and accept his divine revelation. This is the first point. But then he must not be fundamentalist in his understanding of that revelation. By this I mean that he must not take some single sentence in the inspired Scriptures and regard that as the only thing which Christ has revealed on the matter. He must consider the sweep of the Scriptures and its full meaning, especially as understood by Christ’s envoy and body, the Church. What do the Scriptures say on the point, and what does the Church in her teaching say about it? In the matter of prayer, the Christian will read in the Gospels that our Lord assures us that our prayer will be answered — but he also sees that at times it is not answered in the precise form requested. Christ asked that the “chalice” of his sufferings be spared him — if it were his Father’s will. It was not spared him. One thing is abundantly plain, though. It is that God wants us to ask him for what, in his presence, we think we need, and he does not want us to give up on our prayer if an answer we want does not seem forthcoming.

Let us remember all our lives the critically important message of our Gospel passage today. We have so much to pray for in terms of our own personal needs, especially our spiritual needs, and those of others — indeed those of the whole world. We must not give up on our prayer for these needs! If we do, we shall be demonstrating to God our lack of faith in him, and missing out on God’s answers to our petitions. There is no doubt that we do not receive more from God precisely because we do not ask for more, or because we give up asking for what we need. We must pray constantly, and never lose heart, our Lord tells us. Let us act on this, then!

“Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart” St Alphonsus Liguori placed a great stress on the prayer of petition. He wrote that a fundamental reason why we do not make the spiritual progress we could make is that we do not ask for the graces that are necessary. He said that we do not receive much if we do not bother to ask for much, and that the more we ask for from God the more we receive. What, then, is the problem? The problem all too often is that we tend to give up asking. We tend to lose heart and then give up on God. We secretly think it will make little difference and that the prayer of petition is a futile exercise. All too often we just do not ask at all, and all because God is not taken to be the Reality in our hearts that he is. A test of our faith in God is the readiness with which we ask him for what we need, and the perseverance with which we continue to ask. In today’s Gospel parable our Lord teaches the importance of persevering in our prayers of petition. God knows the best time and the best way to answer our prayers, but if we give up asking and let our active faith drain away because of mere appearances, in effect we are, to a point, losing faith in God. It is high praise to God if we keep up our prayer, refusing to give in to the thought that he does not have the power or the love to respond. The power of God is shown precisely in his mercy. Our Lord guarantees that God will hear the persevering prayers of “his chosen who cry to him day and night even when he delays to help them.”

Placing our faith in the word of Christ then, and resolving to believe in the power and the love of God, let us fill up our days with persevering prayer of petition for ourselves and for all those in need.

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The work of the Church, each day, is like the weaving of a great fabric which we offer to God: because all of us who are baptized make up the Church. If we carry out our tasks faithfully and selflessly, this great fabric will be beautiful and flawless. But if we loosen a thread here, a thread there, another over there. ..instead of a beautiful fabric we will have a tattered rag.

Entrance Antiphon Jer 29: 11, 12, 14 The Lord said: I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction. You will call upon me, and I will answer you, and I will lead back your captives from every place.

Collect Grant us, we pray, O Lord our God, the constant gladness of being devoted to you, for it is full and lasting happiness to serve with constancy the author of all that is good. 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.

Frances Xavier Cabrini was the first United States citizen to be canonized. Her deep trust in the loving care of her God gave her the strength to be a valiant woman doing the work of Christ. Refused admission to the religious order which had educated her to be a teacher, she began charitable work at the House of Providence Frances Xavie rCabrini

Orphanage in Cadogno, Italy. In September 1877, she made her vows there and took the religious habit. When the bishop closed the orphanage in 1880, he named Frances prioress of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Seven young women from the orphanage joined with her. Since her early childhood in Italy, Frances had wanted to be a missionary in China but, at the urging of Pope Leo XIII, Frances went west instead of east. She travelled with six sisters to New York City to work with the thousands of Italian immigrants living there. She found disappointment and difficulties with every step. When she arrived in New York City, the house intended to be her first orphanage in the United States was not available. The archbishop advised her to return to Italy. But Frances, truly a valiant woman, departed from the archbishop’s residence all the more determined to establish that orphanage. And she did. In 35 years Frances Xavier Cabrini founded 67 institutions dedicated to caring for the poor, the abandoned, the uneducated and the sick. Seeing great need among Italian immigrants who were losing their faith, she organized schools and adult education classes. As a child, she was always frightened of water, unable to overcome her fear of drowning. Yet, despite this fear, she travelled across the Atlantic Ocean more than 30 times. She died of malaria in her own Columbus Hospital in Chicago.

At her canonization on July 7, 1946, Pius XII said, "Although her constitution was very frail, her spirit was endowed with such singular strength that, knowing the will of God in her regard, she permitted nothing to impede her from accomplishing what seemed beyond the strength of a woman." (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Proverbs 31; Psalm 128:1‑5; 1 Thess 5:1‑6; Matthew 25:14‑30

Jesus said to his disciples, “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. “ ‘Take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For those who have will be given more, and they will have an abundance. As for those who do not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matthew 25:14‑30)

The Church If I want to be healthy in my whole mind and body, I should at least eat properly and get good exercise. The health of one part of the body contributes to the general good of the whole. If there is gangrene in my foot, or if my heart is weak — then my whole body will be affected. Fr. Ted Tyler

It is the same even if I have but a cold, or a slight toothache. The mind and the soul may be affected too. Conversely, a person’s mental health may affect his physical state. There is a deep interconnection between all elements that make up the human person. Something of this applies to social life: a disruptive member of a family affects the health of the whole family. Individuals can affect a society, and a particular society the world. The Church is the mystical body of Christ — drawing this terminology from Scripture. It is the communion of those who are in union with Christ — those who are members of his “body.” In the Creed, which we proclaim all together each Sunday after the homily, we profess to believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints. The Church is the communion of saints in heaven, on earth and in purgatory. St Paul in his Letters typically referred to the Christians to whom he was writing as “the saints,” which in that context means those who are “in Christ” by faith, baptism, and by a consistent Christian life. Such a person shares in Christ’s life. The Church is the communion of such persons and it embraces all the Church’s members, united with one another due to their union with her Head, Jesus Christ. The Church! I once read a news item that described the beliefs of an Archbishop of a Protestant Church in

Australia

. His beliefs were, of course, Protestant, and I noted how he put very little importance on the Church. He would accept the Church in the general sense of all those who are “in Christ.” But he did not place much emphasis on the “Church” as an intended divine institution with definite structures and channels that are necessary for the attainment of grace and a growing life in Christ. In this further sense, the Church as a divine and visible society was for him decidedly unnecessary. But Christ who is the Church’s Head founded it to be a communion with a definite and enduring structure, with definite powers, various officers, and a definite mission. The Church is not just an accidental if useful outgrowth of a movement of people who are in various relationships to the Saviour.

St Paul tells us that we are members of one body, and Christ is the head. That is the Church, Christ’s creation. An important result of this is that due to the oneness of this body, the spiritual gifts, graces, merits, and endowments of each and all, drawn from their common life in Christ, can be shared. The merits of one are of benefit to others of the Body, be they here on earth or being purified in Purgatory. Those in Heaven, Purgatory, or on earth are all “in Christ,” who imparts to the members of his body the riches they enjoy and which have their source in him. These riches that come from him reach us here on earth primarily through the Church’s preaching and teaching of the word of God and her administration of the sacraments. By our faithful response we can, by the aid of God, increase our merits and these too become part of the spiritual capital powering the health of the whole Church. We ourselves are aided by the prayers and merits of those in Heaven. In our Gospel passage today (Matthew 25: 14‑30) our Lord tells us a parable in which the master entrusts his wealth to his servants, depending on their ability. This detail reminds us of the riches that have flowed to us from Christ our Head because of our communion with him. Further, these are a responsibility and we must put them to work. By doing this we can increase the Church’s wellbeing and spiritual resources. The Church’s members draw on this when they gain what the Church calls “Indulgences.” Our Lord looks to us to add to the spiritual capital that is available for the good of the Church. By our daily prayer, our penance, by our dedication to our duties of state, by offering up our failures to God, we add to the Church’s fund of merits, and this treasury will powerfully aid in the reclamation of sinners. It strengthens the Church’s spiritual blood bank, as it were, and will be like the blood transfusion available for the aid of injured persons. It will be applied by God to wherever the Church needs it. This easy communion of spiritual goods explains why the saint is so spiritually effective. The fruits of his merits mysteriously overflow to others who need them. Power goes out from him, as it were, when the hem of his garment is touched. The more his union with and likeness to the Master increases, the more will he become a conduit of spiritual power and life to those who need it.

In this way, no matter who we are nor how lowly in the eyes of men may be our work and position, we can contribute invisibly to the good of the whole. This is because we are part of the communion of saints that is the Church. Let us live this doctrine of the Communion of Saints, proclaimed every Sunday in the Creed, enabling it to give fruitfulness to our lives.

Further Reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.946‑959 (The Communion of Saints)

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Why don’t you make up your mind to make that fraternal correction? Receiving one hurts, because it is hard to humble oneself, at least to begin with. But making a fraternal correction is always hard. Everyone knows this. Making fraternal corrections is the best way you can help, after prayer and good example.

Saint Gertrude of Eisleben is the most celebrated of several Saints of the same name, and for this reason the ancient authors named her Gertrude the Great. She was born in the year 1264 of a noble Saxon family, and placed at the age of five for education with the Benedictines of Helfta. She dwelt there as a simple religious, very mistrustful of herself, under the direction St Gertrude Of Helft

of an Abbess having the same name as herself. The Abbess’ sister was Saint Mechtilde of Hackeborn; and she was the mistress and friend of the young Saint Gertrude, who consulted her excellent teacher whenever she was tempted by vain and useless thoughts, or troubled by doubts suggested by the ancient enemy. Saint Gertrude learned Latin in her youth, as in those days was customary for persons of her sex who consecrated themselves to God, and she wrote Latin with unusual elegance and force. She also had an uncommon knowledge of Holy Scripture and of all the branches of learning having religion as their object; but one day Our Lord reproached her with having too great a taste for her studies. Afterwards she could find in them nothing but bitterness; but soon Our Lord came to instruct her Himself. For many years she never lost His amiable Presence, save for eleven days when He decided to test her fidelity. Prayer and contemplation were her principal exercise, and to those she consecrated the greater part of her time. Zeal for the salvation of souls was ardent in the heart of Gertrude. Thinking of the souls of sinners, she would shed torrents of tears at the foot of the cross and before the Blessed Sacrament. She especially loved to meditate on the Passion and the Eucharist, and at those times, too, could not restrain the tears that flowed in abundance from her eyes. When she spoke of Jesus Christ and His mysteries, she ravished those who heard her. One day while in church the Sisters were singing, "I have seen the Lord face to face," Saint Gertrude beheld what appeared to be the divine Face, brilliant in beauty; His eyes pierced her heart and filled her soul and flesh with inexpressible delights. Divine love, ever the unique principle of her affections and her actions, was the principle by which she was crucified to the world and all its vanities. She was the object of a great number of extraordinary graces; Jesus Christ engraved His wounds in the heart of His holy spouse, placed rings on her fingers, presented Himself to her in the company of His Mother, and in her spirit acted as though He had exchanged hearts with her. All these astonishing graces only developed her love for suffering. It was impossible for her to live without some kind of pain; the time she spent without suffering seemed to her to be wasted.

During the long illness of five months from which she would die, she gave not the slightest sign of impatience or sadness; her joy, on the contrary, increased with her pains. When the day of her death arrived in 1334, she saw the Most Blessed Virgin descend from heaven to assist her, and one of her Sisters perceived her soul going straight to the Heart of Jesus, which opened to receive it. Saint Gertrude is one of the great mystics of the Church; the book of her Revelations, recorded out of obedience, remains celebrated. In it she traces in words of indescribable beauty the intimate converse of her soul with Jesus and Mary. She was gentle to all, most gentle to sinners; filled with devotion to the Saints of God, to the souls in purgatory, and above all to the Passion of Our Lord and to His Sacred Heart. (magnificat.ca)

Scripture today: 1 Maccabees 1: 10-15.41-43.54-57.62-64; Psalm 118; Luke 18:35‑43

As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord, I want to see,” he replied. Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God. (Luke 18:35‑43)

Petition For believer and non-believer alike, the world presents an almost intractable problem. It is the problem of suffering and evil. It tests the faith of the believer, and it deepens his faith if the test is passed. It is also the trump-card of the non-believer, especially if he is militant about his atheism, his agnosticism or his scepticism. As one self-professed atheist and professional philosopher (Peter Singer) has said, if there were a God, he would have done a better job of things. Man suffers during life, and often terribly so — he cries out for mercy, compassion and aid. One of the distinguishing things about man as against the animal is that he can laugh. An animal cannot, properly speaking, laugh. But perhaps one can say that, more often, man weeps. Christ wept at the death of Lazarus his friend (John 11:35). He wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). To say the very least, the world is a sad puzzle — it is profoundly flawed, and man especially so. His heart aches under the burden of his sufferings, and the whole world groans with him. So it is that we may look on our Gospel scene today as a snapshot of creation and in particular of man. Over the heads of the crowd there is heard a sound of great pathos: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Luke 18: 35-43). This cry of man is heard over the multitudes age after age from the beginning till now, and it ever will be heard till the end. From his helplessness man cries out to his gods, and when the true and living God makes himself known to those chosen by him — as the Helper of man in distress — man continues to cry out to him for help. Our blind man sitting by the roadside of Jericho is a worthy representative of this fallen, broken man. He hears that Jesus is passing by. He calls out for mercy and due to his prayer he gains it. Now, let us notice and reflect on one thing. As our Lord said, his prayer of faith saved him. What would have happened had he not appealed to Jesus for mercy? It is to be presumed that Christ would have passed him by. The man would have remained in his blindness, it is to be supposed, for the rest of his life. As Jesus said to him, “Your faith has saved you.” That is to say, it was the blind man’s initiative in praying for help, born of his faith, that occasioned Christ’s act of mercy.

This point is worth pondering. While it was Jesus who did the healing, and God as Creator who was the ultimate Author of the blind man’s initiative in asking for mercy, in a real sense it depended on the blind man’s resolve to appeal. There may have been other blind men in Jericho and its vicinity — but there is no report of their cure. In fact, generally our Lord responded to needs that were presented to him. He calmed the raging storm because his terrified disciples woke him to their plight. While there were many cases of his miraculous action without a formal request, generally in such cases the human need was before him. It was placed there by somebody, or placed there by the course of events. There seems to be a pattern in our Lord’s deliverance of persons from their distress. The distress was brought to his attention by a formal petition, or it was brought to his attention by some other means. He was not formally asked to raise to life the dead young man of the village of Nain. But by a concurrence of events the dead young man was brought before him, together with his grieving widowed mother. Our Lord did not indiscriminately relieve persons of sorrows that were never brought before him by any means. Speaking broadly and allowing for plenty of notable exceptions, the general pattern seems to be that God intervenes as the Deliverer of man as a result of suffering being brought before him, whether by explicit, formal petition or by some other means. God, then, wants us to pray for our needs and for the needs of our fellow man. Generally speaking, the bringing of needs before God seems to be part of the Divine plan of God’s answer to the problem of evil. When the paralytic was lowered from the roof and placed before him, Jesus saw their faith — both the faith of the paralytic and the faith of his friends — and proceeded to forgive his sins and cure him of his paralysis. The paralytic would not have received this double blessing had his need not been brought before the Redeemer. The very redemption of man from his sins was the result of the great sacrificial and priestly prayer on Calvary of man’s Champion, Jesus Christ whom the Father had sent. Christ the Victim and Priest was our Petitioner, and his prayer was heard.

What is the answer to the problem of evil and suffering, which — though the atheist does not understand it — at root springs from man’s sin, both original and personal? A most important part of the answer is to bring the needs of the world before the Father of all mercies. There has to be an unremitting ocean of prayer for mercy arising from the hearts of mankind to the Father of all blessings. That is clearly according to the Divine plan. This prayer should be united with that of Christ our great High Priest, who continually intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father. This prayer of our Intercessor is one with his all-effective sacrifice on Calvary, that one sacrifice which is made present at Mass on our altars. By this all-powerful intercession of the Head with his body the Church, the world is sustained and can flourish. Let intercession abound in us, then!

“All the pagans conformed to the king’s decree, and many Israelites chose to accept his religion” In her spiritual teaching the Church alerts her faithful against one great barrier to the attainment of a great love of God. It is what Scripture calls “the world.” The world, the flesh and the devil conspire to lead us astray into infidelity and sin, and the wages of sin is death. The “world” consists of those influences stemming from society that oppose the plan of God for our salvation and sanctification. We have in our first reading today (1 Maccabees 1: 10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-64) a vivid instance of the influence of the world on the children of Israel in the time of the Maccabees. In this case, “the world” was represented by the will of the ruler Antiochus Epiphanes. It was also active in those of the people of Israel who wished “to practise pagan observances” and who submitted “to the heathen rule as willing slaves of impiety.” We are told in the text that “all the pagans conformed to the king’s decree, and many Israelites chose to accept his religion, sacrificing to idols and profaning the Sabbath.” That was one instance of “the world.” The pattern has recurred time and again within the life of the Church and among the faithful. We must be alert to the insidious influence of “the world” rather than to Christ. Christ referred to the devil as the “prince of this world.” Satan makes use of the world.

Let us be on guard lest we come to think as the world thinks, rather than thinking according to the mind of Christ. St Paul writes, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Let us then pray for the grace to make this the foundation of our life, and the source of our resistance to all influence from the “world,” the “flesh” and the devil.

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He has shown that he trusts you, by bringing you to the Church. So you have to have the balance, the calm, the strength, the human and supernatural prudence of a mature person, those qualities that it takes many people many years to acquire. Don’t forget what you learnt in your Catechism: that “a Christian” means a man or woman who has faith in Jesus Christ.

Albert the Great was a 13th-century German Dominican who influenced decisively the Church's stance toward Aristotelian philosophy brought to Europe by the spread of Islam. Students of philosophy know him as the master of Thomas Aquinas. Albert’s attempt to understand Aristotle’s writings established the climate in which Thomas Aquinas developed his synthesis of Greek wisdom and Christian theology. But Albert deserves recognition on his own merits as a curious, honest and diligent scholar. He was the eldest son of a powerful and wealthy German lord of military rank. He was educated in the liberal arts. Despite fierce family opposition, he entered the Dominican novitiate. His boundless interests prompted him to write a compendium of all knowledge: natural science, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, astronomy, ethics, economics, politics and metaphysics. His explanation of learning took 20 years to complete. "Our intention," he said, "is to make all the aforesaid parts of knowledge intelligible to the Latins." He achieved his goal while serving as an educator at Paris and Cologne, as Dominican provincial and even as bishop of Regensburg for a short time. He defended the mendicant orders and preached the Crusade in Germany and Bohemia. Albert, a Doctor of the Church, is the patron of scientists and philosophers. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore‑fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:1‑10)

Seeing Jesus There is nothing quite like seeing something or someone important. A person’s spouse is in hospital recuperating. It is not enough for him to contact her by phone each day. He must go and see her. A large family is scattered throughout the state. Come Christmas, it is not enough to send one another a fulsome Fr. Ted Tyler

Christmas card and greeting, nor to contact one another by phone or Skype. They must come together and see one another. This seeing of one another is not a mere viewing, it is the kind of seeing that includes personal interaction and communion. A devout Muslim yearns to see the land of Mahomet and, in particular, Mecca. He wants to see it. A devout Christian experiences joy in visiting the Holy Land, the land of Abraham, the patriarchs, the prophets, and above all of Jesus Christ. He sees where Jesus Christ was born, grew up, engaged in his public ministry, and above all where he suffered, died, rose and ascended into Heaven for the salvation of the world. As a result of seeing this, the Gospel narrative means a lot more to him. Again, the “seeing” of where such sacred events occurred is not a mere observation. It is a form of communion with the One who once filled the scene with his presence. The Gospel of St John opens with the grand Prologue setting the Incarnation in the context of Eternity. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Importantly, in him was life, and that life is the light of all people — and of course, light enables man to see. John tells us that this light shines in the darkness, and the darkness could not overcome it (John 1: 4-5). He, the Word, is the true light that enlightens everyone, and he came into the world (1:9). So the Word of God is the One who enables the world to see. With great exultation, John writes that the Word became flesh and lived among us “and we have seen his glory” (1:14). The greatest possible thing that man can “see” is the Word made flesh, and something of his glory, for he is “full of grace and truth” (1:14). But this “seeing” is not just a viewing, but a total acceptance. He, God’s only Son, is the only one who has seen God, and he has made him known (1:18).

In the Gospel of St John, the first ones who “see” Jesus and his glory are John the Baptist and his two disciples. We read that “the next day he (the Baptist) saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’” (John 1:29). John “saw” his glory and fully accepted it. He tells his hearers that “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it remained on him” (1:32). The next day he directed his two disciples to see Jesus: “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” (1:36). He was not inviting them merely to observe Jesus, to view him, but to enter into communion with him. This is exactly what the two did as a result of seeing Jesus: “The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.” More seeing was to come. When Jesus turned and saw them following him he asked what they were “looking for” — that is, what or who they were wanting to “see.” They replied, “Teacher” (immediately professing themselves to be his disciples), “where are you staying?” It was he whom they wanted to “see” much more of, in the sense of being in his company and accepting and receiving of his life and teaching. So our Lord said, “Come and see” (1: 39). What a wonderful invitation, to come and to “see” the glory of the Word made flesh, full of grace and truth. This they did, and came away and drew others to see Jesus. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “Come and see” — which Nathanael did, and professed a magnificent faith in Jesus as a result: “”Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King (i.e., Messiah) of Israel” (1: 49). Just before our Lord’s Passion and Death, some Greeks approached Philip and told him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus” (John 12:21). Let us bear all this in mind as we think of the chief tax collector of Jericho in our Gospel today (Luke 19: 1-10), who wished to “see” Jesus. He ran ahead of the crowd to climb the sycamore tree so as to be able more easily to see him. The event showed that he did not intend a mere viewing, a mere observation of a spectacle. As our Lord said of him, he was “a son of Abraham” despite his sinful life. He wanted to see Jesus because in his heart there was a yearning for communion with God, and this Jesus was manifestly the Presence of God among men.

Very importantly, there is a deeper “seeing” of Jesus, a more important sight of him than mere physical sight. Very many saw him at the time. Many even of his own disciples, having seen and heard him, walked away from him (John 6:66). During Christ’s Passion, Herod had long wanted to see him in order to see some miracle. Christ would not speak to him. The more important “sight” of Christ is the “sight” of genuine faith, the “sight” of the believing heart, the heart that wishes and intends to hear the word of Christ and to put it into practice. This is the best “sight” of all, the “sight” of one who may not see physically but who believes. When the doubting Thomas did see the risen Jesus he rose to the occasion with his magnificent profession: “My Lord and my God!” But then, as our Lord said to him: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:28-29). Let us pray for a deeper “sight,” the sight of a profound faith.

“This was how he died, leaving his death as an example of nobility and a record of virtue” In today’s first reading from 2 Maccabees we are presented with the faithful figure of Eleazar “one of the foremost teachers of the Law”, Fr. Ted Tyler

being pressured under threat of death to violate the stipulations of God’s Law. Despite all pressure and despite his advanced years with its concomitant weakness, he refused. What was the secret of his fidelity? Our passage tells us that his conduct had been impeccable from his boyhood. He had taken a firm and holy decision to be uncompromising on this point because it involved “the holy legislation established by God himself” (2 Maccabees 6: 18-31). He was aware, too, of the effect on others — especially the young — were he to submit to this pressure. These and various other reasons combined to give him an invincible fidelity to the will of God at a critical hour. Eleazar is a wonderful example for all who have reached advanced years and for those whose advanced years are still ahead of them. The best way to prepare for the difficulties in being faithful to God in old age is to be very faithful to him in the years of one’s youth and strength. The best way to prepare for a holy death is to live the present moment in a holy way. For this we need the grace of God both now and at the last.

Let us pray to Our Lady, using the words of the Hail Mary, that she, the Mother of God pray for us sinners both now and at the hour of our death. Let us not underestimate the importance of the present in preparing for the future. Let us give to God the whole of the present, and in that way prepare to give him everything at the end.

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You want to be strong? Then first realize that you are very weak. After that, trust in Christ, your Father, your Brother, your Teacher. He makes us strong, entrusting to us the means with which to conquer — the sacraments. Live them!

Liturgical Season	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
31st Week of Ordinary Time A-1			1 Solemnity of All Saints	2 Commem. of Faithful Departed	3	4	5
32nd Week of Ordinary Time A-1	6	7	8	9 Dedication of Lateran Basilica	10	11	12
33rd Week of Ordinary Time A-1	13	14	15