Today’s Scripture Readings are about “counting the cost” of following Christ, in terms of commitment and personal sacrifice:

Great crowds accompanied Jesus on His way, and He turned and spoke to them… ‘Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple’.

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, comes among us in person. In 1982 Pope John Paul II paid a Pastoral Visit to this island. Pope Benedict pays the first ever Papal STATE visit. He comes as Successor of St Peter, and will have a message for both the State and for the Church in our land. His words will be significant. Like Jesus, in whose Name he speaks, he will challenge us to live the Gospel, to stand up for and proclaim the truths of the Catholic Faith. Are we ready to be challenged?

16th Sunday of the Year

“For too long a time there has been a mistaken insistence on the supposed incompatibility between secular work and the interior life. Nevertheless, it is there in the midst of daily work and by means of it, not in spite of it, that God wants to call most Christians to lives of holiness. We are to sanctify the world and sanctify ourselves with a life of prayer that gives divine meaning to earthly tasks.

“Jesus does not pass sweeping judgement upon Martha or Mary. He responds to Martha’s question with profundity by pointing to what is most important in life, that being the presence of Christ in the house. How often might not the Lord make the same reproach to us?  Nothing can justify forgetting Jesus in our daily work, not even the most important concerns. We cannot put Him, who is the Lord of all things, aside for the sake of the things of the Lord. We certainly cannot minimize the importance of prayer with the excuse that we are too busy with activity.

“All worldly occupations, when engaged in with the right intention, allow us the opportunity to put into practice charity, mortification, a spirit of service to others, joy and optimism, understanding and an apostolate of friendship and confidence. We sanctify ourselves through our work. This is what really matters – to find Jesus in the midst of our daily concerns, not to forget about the Lord of all things… Otherwise we will end up doing what is, in fact, His work for ourselves, thereby neglecting the Master.

From In Conversation with God, by Francis Fernandez

15th Sunday of the Year

If you’re anything like me, then you know how dangerous the sin of pride is. Examining my conscience, whether before Sacramental Confession, or at the end of each day, I am amazaed how the sin of pride has, somehow, been at the root of all my other faults.

In one sense, pride is a seemingly natural response to achievement; what’s wrong in that? Nevertheless, as Christians, we recognise that Chris is the Lord of our lives; thus, earthly glories, ultimately, must be credited to God. Just as He stands with us in our adversities and blesses us with His Spirit of Hope, so He directs our successes. (For this reason, St Paul urges us to boast only in teh Cross (Cf Gal. 6: 14).)

Sacred Scripture is replete with supportive passages in this regard, but a personal favourite may be found in Proverbs (16: 9): “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” Thomas a Kempis, in the ‘Imitation of Christ’, explains it, thus:

For the resolutions of the just depend rather on the grace of God than on their own wisdom; and in Him they always put their trust, whatever they take in hand. For man proposes, but God disposes; neither is the way of man in his own hands…

Archaic words, but just as vital for our own day.

Calling upon the Hebrew peoples to keep Covenant with God, Moses, in our first reading, knows that “…whoever listen to … [the Lord] will dwell safel, and will be secure, without fear of evil.” (Prov. 1: 33). Pride and a lack of hope will be the undoing of God’s people, causing them to break faith with God and break His Covenant. For this reason, and constant theme throughout the Old Testament is (the other ‘Three Rs’): Reflect, Repent, Return. The Jew who sought God’s forgiveness would often stand before the scrolls of Torah (the Law), on the elaborate covering of which would be embroidered the words: “Da’ah lifnei omdim” – Know before Whom you stand. The particular Hebrew verb, le’da’at, to know, implies a cache of intimacy; to have an intimate knowledge; and thus (for the Jew, and for us, too) the act of returning (teshuvah), of repenting, must be far more than simply an intellectual exercise, it must be emotional and spiritual.

The author of today’s psalm took Moses’ counsel. He is clearly in a state of personal strife, but still he hopes on the Lord and uses his distress to bring comfort to others: the Lord will not desert them, rather, He will “…revive their souls … [and] … gladden their hearts“. How often do we meet people, who in their humble love of God and their keeping of His Law! Truly, they know before whom they stand!

This need for an authentic and intimate knowledge of God is probably why St Paul, in our second reading, goes to great lengths to stamp out the heresy which he found in the Church at Colossae, and to promote the truth about Jesus Christ: that it is only through Him that God and humanity may be reconciled. “Know before Whom you stand”! The Colossians had come to a distorted understanding of who Jesus Christ was, and failed to note His universal Messiahship, from which would flow their salvation. They had become apathetic – relativistiv – just as may within (and without) the Church today see many ways of approaching God, but without the essentials of Christ and His Law of Life. Pope Benedict, echoing St Paul, is reviled by many for preaching this same, urgent message: “Christ Jesus is the image of the unseen God…“!

The fruits of the Spirit are Love, Joy and Peace (Cf Gal. 5: 22), but without that same Spirit, our fruits sour and become pride, arrogance and apathy. Today’s Gospel of the ‘Good Samaritan’ is a timeous reminder that we meet the righteous requirements of God’s Law, only by walking in His Spirit (Cf Romans 8: 4). The Samaritans were reviled by the Jews for being the remnants of the northern kingdom of Israel, which had succumbed to all manner of alien influences, making them impure. However, as we see in today’s Gospel, just as in the story of Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well (Cf John 4: 4 – 42), the Spirit of God knows no boundaries and will enter wherever invited and do great things, often to the shame (or lack, thereof) of those who should know better.

Like the young lawyer, we may feel pride in knowing how to quote the Law of God; but, do we know how to live that same Law in the Spirit?

“Know before Whom you stand”! With a humble and contrite heart, meet the Lord, intimately, in the Sacrament of Confession, for “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord” (Psalm 37: 23).

Self deprecating humour is a British trait, out of necessity, rather than desire, I suspect. Take, for example, that infamous Welsh bi-lingual road sign: in English, it read, “No entry for heavy goods vehicles”; however, the Welsh translation read, “I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated”.  Swansea Council (a.k.a. Na nid yw’n golygu hyn) are to be congratulated for this giggle, and for taking the fall out with such good grace!

Nevertheless, signs and symbols are an important part of life, albeit things to which we, sometimes, pay little attention. In the academic world, there is even a study called ‘Semiotics’, where boffins consider what constitutes the ‘signifier’ and ‘signified’.

In today’s readings, we see Isaiah using Jerusalem as a signifier for something much greater than the historic city to which the post-Exilic Jewish community desired to return after their captivity in Babylon. Their yearning for the city is poignant; Isaiah encourages them in this by referring to it as a mother, feeding her young: they are at their most vulnerable, whilst their mother is most sacrificial. In doing this, he is looking ahead to the time of the Church, our ‘Holy Mother’, and the grace of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, where Christ feeds us with His very Self. This is truly a prayer answered and it is easy to imagine Psalm 65 – a portion of which we hear today – being sung as they approached the broken walls of Mount Zion 2,700-years-ago. We sing it today in our approach to this altar and sanctuary. In recalling the mighty works of God, in bringing the Hebrew peoples from the earlier captivity of Egypt, the post-Exilic Jews must have felt history was repeating itself, as now they, the chosen people, were again liberated, this time from the slavery of Babylon. The joy is overwhelming, and is expressed in the last stanza as the psalmist calls upon all of us to hear his personal testimony: the Lord answered my prayer!

One reason why the Jewish people were so vulnerable, and so easily recognized, lay in the marks of their faith: they bore the outward signs of the Covenant between God and His people, given in the Law, ‘Torah’.  At first glance, it is easy to conclude that St Paul, in our second reading, is criticizing the Jews of his day for keeping Torah, which hitherto, had set them apart for the Lord. However, his is not a criticism, but rather a call to all who love God, to recognize that the sign with which we proclaim our faith is that of the Universal New Covenant, made in the blood of Christ, and sealed upon the Cross. It is of a far more interior nature, but it will also make us all the more hated by the world: it is a sign of contradiction, it is the Sign of the Cross. If we think Swansea’s road sign is confusing, then consider how those outside of the Church see the Cross, with its call to sacrifice.

St Paul knew this already: when preaching to the Corinthians, he described the Cross as being an insurmountable problem for the Jews (how could the Messiah die so ignominiously?) and folly to the Greeks (who prized human philosophy above all else).

In our day, it is an agony for secularists who wish to deny that a Christian understanding of duty, service and sacrifice has any place in a ‘rational’ society, in spite of these qualities building our civilization in the first place.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus’ commissioning of the ‘Seventy-Two’ (representing the Church’s mission to the whole world – Cf Genesis 10) comes in a narrative of ascent, as he journeys up to Jerusalem; however, He is not returning from slavery or exile, but rather, He is journeying forward to bring an end to our slavery, by redeeming us (paying the price) with His Cross, in Jerusalem.

Slavery and exile are, for us today, signifiers of sin. We are all slaves to sin, and it is only through the Cross, that we can overcome sin as Christ has paid the necessary price to redeem us from that slavery. We journey in the Church, returning from our exile, and are greeted by the open arms of the Saviour as He hangs on the Cross out of love for us; for, as the Catechism teaches: “…the sacrifice of Christ secretly becomes the source from which the forgiveness of our sins will pour forth inexhaustibly.” (CCC #1851) This is why our ‘Psalm of Ascent’ today accompanies our journey towards the altar, which is where we find the Cross: the ultimate sign of love: the signifier and the signified!

When next we make the sign of the Cross, take a moment to recall that unfortunate and confusing road sign in Swansea. Having been led from exile by the good signage of our fellow pilgrims within the Church, may our willingness to take the saving mark of the Cross, and thus become signs for others, never be lost in translation!

13th Sunday of the Year

At first glance it looks like a poster for a horrow film – perhaps The Omen VI: He’s Coming to Get You.”

This is how Terry Sanderson, of the National Secular Society, recently described an ultrasound image of a baby in the womb. He speaks for the self-proclaimed apostles of ‘reason’; but, in being so flippant, reveals the unreasonableness of many secularists to those without a voice: they are to be reviled and are, at best, only a commodity. Survival is only for the fittest, and for those whom ‘they’ choose to live.

The Catholic Church, without reservation, defends the right of the unborn, the sick, the elderly and the marginalised; it is for this reason that many secularists hate her with a fanatical passion. She challenges their perceived ‘right’ to commit evil, as they see ‘evil’ to be something relative – to be determined only by the individual. Logically, this is an absurd idea, but, nonetheless, it prevails and is practised widely by those who choose to ignore the Word of God and the teaching of His Church. However, this is nothing new. In the first century, the First Chrisitian Martyrs of the fledgling Church of Rome stood up to the absurdities and evils of the tyranical emperor, Nero, and paid with their lives. We celebrate their memory this coming Wednesday (30th June). In our day, the Church of Christ is still proclaiming Christian Truth; yet, in spite of his enormous power and prestige, Nero’s empire is but a chapter in history. Mr Sanderson: Have regard for the past, examine the present, look towards the future – Respice, adspice, prospice!

Indeed, the Sanctorale (the commemoration of the saints) for this week richly recalls martyrdom: the price paid by Christians for the Truth of the Faith, and none more glorious that Ss Peter and Paul, the two great saints of the Holy Roman Church, whose solemnity we keep on Tuesday (and which is a Holy Day of Obligation in the Latin Church!).

The word, martyr, comes to us from the Greek, martyros, meaning witness. Almost all the saints, whom we recall this week, died in witness of Jesus Christ. One need only contemplate today’s Psalm to understand their motivation. Here, the Psalmist highlights what is key for all the people of God, manely, to have a total devotion to the Lord. God is our refuge and portion; He is our counsel and fullness of joy. To understand this is to be fearless in the face of earthly trial, no matter what the cost.

In throwing his cloak over Elisha, in our first reading, Elijah, symbolically, passed to Elisha his God-given gift of prophecy. This succession of grace and authority is still passed on today, which is why bishops of the Catholic Church stand in succession, to Peter and Paul, in succession to Christ; and so, when Paul’s work in Galatia was being hindered by those who sought to undermine his teaching, he was able to speak with authority and proclaim that it was the Law of Christ – the Law of Love through the Holy Spirit – which would free the Galatians from the slavery of pettiness and indulgence into which they had found themselves drifting.

After 2000 years, the detail of the challenge to the Church has changed – we are no longer confronted by those who seek to impose Mosaic ritual on the Galatians. However, challenges remain, as today’s world clings to what the Holy Father calls ‘Relativism’. This is how he described the problem just before becoming Pope:

Having a clear faith based on the creed of the Church is often labelled today as fundamentalism. Relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching, looks like the only attitude acceptable to today’s standards … We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognise anything as definitive and has as its highest value one’s own ego and one’s own desires.

The Church today, with that same apostolic authority, proclaims the Law of Christ, which is the Law of Love, the Law of Life. It is contrary to relativism and in the eyes of many, its promotion is an unpopular thing to do, but still, we must do it, for “… love of Christ compels us” (II Cor. 5: 14).

Death may not be the martyrdom which the Lord calls us to, but His words, nonetheless, call for a quality of discipleship and witness. His bidding, to “Follow me”, is not just for Sundays, it is for eternity, and we share it with all who have gone before:

Therefore, the witnesses are before the throne of God. They are exalted to heaven.

(cf Apoc. 7: 15)

Fashion is probably one of our modern age’s greatest concerns. It may not seem so, when one looks at some young people in ripped jeans and creased tee-shirts, but don’t be deceived, as each rip and each crease is carefully placed. ‘Sunday Best’ has come a long way and means difference things to different people. Indeed, the diversity of fashions seems to create divisions, often unintentionally, so that one group may be dismissive – or even fearful – of another group’s attire.

Whilst it is always important for the Christian to show respect by making an effort to dress for Mass, there is something far more important than mere fabric, which the Christian must consider as part of his or her calling. It is a far more glorious garment than any designer ensemble and enables the bearer to be an individual, but without losing their identity as a member of the Christian family. It proclaims the wearer as being a follower of Christ, united with God and His Church.

In today’s second reading, St Paul discusses the divisions in the society of his age when he talks of Jews, Greeks, slaves and freeman. We have our own divisions: rich and poor; black and white, etc. Some things don’t change! However, here we see how radical the gospel truly is. For no matter how our ‘enlightened’ and godless societies might consider themselves, they cannot help but create division and difference, in spite of their rhetoric to the contrary. True unity can only come from the God who is Unity in Trinity. For this reason, Paul teaches his listeners to clothe themselves with Christ – to put on Christ. In doing so, we become Christ’s and share in the Divine Love of the Trinity, which we celebrated in a significant way two weeks ago on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, but which is itself the apotheosis of all Christian worship. To clothe oneself in Christ is to enter an intimate relationship with God. It is to become one who proclaims Love; it is to become a living Gospel. We give testimony to God by putting on Christ.

In the Gospel today, Peter knew how to put on Christ when he acknowledged who our Lord truly was. The Gospel reading makes it plain that the price has been paid by Christ in his suffering. It is through the Passion and Death of our Lord that we can put on Christ. There is no other way to enter into this relationship of Divine Love; but, whilst the price has been paid by Christ, it is clear that, for our part, we must renounce ourselves, take up our cross and follow the Lord. The final point, that of following Christ, is an ongoing action and it is an eternal one. As the Compendium of the Catechism puts it (56):

While respecting our freedom, God asks us to cooperate with Him and gives us the ability to do so through actions, prayers and sufferings, thus awakening in us the desire ‘to will and work for His good pleasure’.

Phil. 2: 13

In a holiday, given at St Chad’s Cathedral in 1850, the Venerable John Henry Newman considered what it meant to put on Christ in this way when he wrote:

[We do not] dream of asking for more than that which, through God’s grace, will be ‘evident’, though there be ‘many adversaries’… No one proclaims the truth to a deceived world, but will be treated himself as a deceiver. We know our place and our fortunes: to give witness, and to be reviled; to be cast out as evil, and to succeed. Such is the law which the Lord of all has annexed to the promulgation of the truth: its preachers suffer, but its cause prevails. Joyfully have we become a party to this bargain; and as we have resigned ourselves to the price, so we intend, by God’s aid, to claim the compensation.

11th Sunday of the Year

Last Friday’s Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and this famous saying of Cardinal John Henry Newman – Heart speaks to Heart – resonate with today’s Sunday Scripture Readings. Jesus says of the sinful woman, who has shown such unrestrained and lavish devotion for Him: “Her sins, her many sins, have been forgiven her, or she would not have shown such great love”. Jesus adds: “It is the one who is forgiven little, who shows little love”.

Similarly, St Paul, writing to the Galatians in today’s First Reading speaks of his great faith “in the Son of God who loved me who sacrificed Himself for me”.

Our devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus will make us more aware of his love, and inspire us to be more loving to Him in response. We are also led by this devotion to recognise how greatly we wound the Heart of Jesus by our sins, and are therefore moved to confess them, make reparation, and to sin no more.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

The worship of the Eucharist outside of the Mass is of inestimable value for the life of the Church.

This worship is strictly linked to the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. The Presence of Christ under the Sacred Species reserved after Mass derives from the celebration of the Sacrifice and is directed towards Communion, both sacramental & spiritual.

It is pleasant to spend time with Him, to lie close to His breast like the Beloved Disciple (cf. John 13:25) and to feel the infinite love present in His Heart. If in our time Christians must be distinguished above all by the “art of prayer”, how can we not feel a renewed need to spend time in spiritual converse, in silent adoration, in heartfelt love before Christ present in the Most Holy Sacrament? How often have I experienced this, and drawn from it strength, consolation and support!

This practice, repeatedly praised and recommended by the Magisterium, is supported by the example of many saints. Particularly outstanding in this regard was St Alphonsus Liguori, who wrote: “Of all devotions, that of adoring Jesus in the
Blessed Sacrament is the greatest after the sacraments, the one dearest to God and the one most helpful to us”. The Eucharist is a priceless treasure: by not only celebrating It but also by prayer before It outside of Mass we are enabled to make contact with the very wellspring of grace. A Christian community desirous of contemplating the Face of Christ in the spirit which I proposed in my Apostolic Letters* cannot fail also to develop this aspect of Eucharist worship, which prolongs and increases the fruits of our Communion in the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia (on the Eucharist and the Church, section 25), April 2003.

* Novo Millenniu Ineunte and Rosarium Virginis Mariae.

Week beginning 30th May, Trinity Sunday

The Visitation of Our Lady (Monday 31st) celebrates Mary’s journey into the hill country to visit her Cousin Elizabeth, respectively to give birth to Jesus and St John the Baptist.

St Justin (Tuesday 1st June), martyr (100 – 165), born in Palestine of pagan parents and converted by reading the Bible and witnessing the heroism of the martyrs, he was beheaded in Rome with other Christians.

Ss Marcellinus and Peter (Wednesday 2nd / d. 304). Marcellinus was a priest, and Peter an exorcist, in Rome.

St Charles Lwanga (Thursday 3rd) was baptised in November 1885 and burnt alive the next June with 21 other youths of 13 – 30 years by orders of the despotic King of Uganda.

St Boniface (Saturday 5th / 680 – 754) a native of Crediton, Devon, and monk of Exeter, who evangelised Bavaria and neighbouring areas. Ordained Bishop of the Germanies, he founded many monasteries, bringing monks and nuns from England.

Corpus et Sanguis Christi (Sunday 6th) – the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ – gives thanks for the institution of the Eucharist as the source and summit of our faith.

We can speak to God because God has spoken to us – because He has come to us as a Word and because, in His inmost life in the TRINITY, He is a relationship.

The prayer of Jesus reveals that the heart of the TRINITY is a familial, filial relationship of love. God in His inner essence is a dialogue of love, and our prayer, both corporately in the liturgy and privately, is a participation in this filial and familial dialogue.

The family prayer that Jesus taught his followers, the Our Father, illuminates this point. Even when the believer prays the Our Father privately, he or she prays as a member of the family of God. It is never my Father. The prayer of Jesus is always personal and simultaneously the prayer of one who knows himself to be part of a family. Prayer is always praying with someone in the communion of the Church, in the Body of Christ, the family of God.

As our prayer is never alone, neither is it something we can do on our own initiative. Prayer and worship are our response to the God who has first spoken to us. God’s Word to us is a gift, the gift of Himself; it is the opportunity to participate in His familial dialogue of love. This has two implications. First, it implies that our worship is never the work of the Church, never our own invention. Worship is a response to an initiative coming from above, to a call and an act of love which is mystery.

We can respond to God’s words and deeds in prayer and worship because He calls us into the dialogue that He is. As Pope Benedict says, “God Himself is the content of Christian prayer”. In our prayer we ask for no less than the gift of God’s self. We have the audacity to ask for that gift because He has given Himself to us, in a most definitive way, on the Cross.

The prayer of the Church, the liturgy, becomes, then, a participation in Christ’s work of self-giving. Liturgy is the opus Dei, the work of God – God’s action in us and with us.

Covenant and Communion: The Biblical Theology of Pope Benedict XVI, by Scott Hann (DLT 2009). All quotations are the the Holy Father’s writings.