Palm Sunday

from a Paschal Homily of an Ancient Author

The imperfect events which took place in time are the images and symbols of what is perfect and eternal; they were devised by God to foreshadow the reality which is now dawning. In the presence of the reality, the symbol has no point, just as when the king comes on a visit, no one dares to ignore the king in person and pay homage to his statue.

We can see the extent to which the symbol is inferior to the reality from this: the symbol recalls the short life of the Jewish first-born, the reality recalls the eternal life of us all.

It is no great thing that one should escape death for a short time, if he will die soon afterwards; but it is certainly a great thing to escape death altogether. That is what happens for us, because Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed for us.

The very name of the feast points to the way in which it is surpassed, if it is correctly explained. The word ‘Pasch’ means ‘passage’, because when the angel of death was striking down the first-born in Egypt, he passed over the houses of the Hebrews (God’s chosen people). But with us the passage of the angel of death is a reality, for it passes over us once and for all, when Christ raises us up to eternal life . . .

We should be eager to welcome this beginning of the new life, and never run back to the old, for it has reached its end. How can we, who died to sin, still live in it?

5th Sunday of Lent

While they wandered in the desert for 40 years, waiting to enter the Promised Land, the People of Israel often grew discontented, and grumbled. They demanded water – then good. When God gave them manna to eat, they demanded meat instead. They harassed Moses so much he even felt tempted to abandon his mission. Such is human nature!

Our Lenten journey lasts just 40 days, but we too often grow discontented on the way. The things we gave up, the tasks we took on, all grow too much. Lent becomes a monotonous burden.

The Church, with the wisdom of 2000 years and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, knows exactly what human nature is like. And so, to encourage us, she breaks up the Lenten season in such a way that the monotony is lessened and we are inspired to look ahead to the joys of Easter. Last Sunday, for instance, we celebrated Laetare Sunday, which with its rose-coloured vestments marks the mid-point of Lent and gives us a new impetus to persevere. Today, the 5th Sunday of Lent, marks the beginning of Passiontide. The most obvious sign of this is the violet veils which now cover the crucifixes, statues and other images. The meaning of this custom – which goes back many centuries – is two-fold. Firstly, it reminds us that during Christ’s Passion, his glory was veiled. On the cross, his divinity was hidden, and only the broken humanity appeared. We need the gift of faith to see, in this frail figure, our Lord and our Redeemer. So, Passiontide encourages us to pray for deeper faith. Secondly, by veiling the images – good and useful as they are – the Church also encourages us to focus on what is truly essential in the liturgy – sacred silence, in which we draw near to God, listening, when God’s word is proclaimed, the offering of the heart, when the Eucharist is celebrated, and prayerful gratitude when Holy Communion is received. Passiontide thus prepares us to receive from the Lord the gift of his Salvation.

Next Sunday will be Palm Sunday. Red vestments, the waving of palms, the singing of joyful chants and hymns – then solemnity as the Passion is read. A drama which introduces the most sacred week of all the year – Holy Week.

Week beginning 14th March, 4th Sunday of Lent

St Joseph: Private Intention
St John Fisher/St Therese: Bishops
St Thomas More/St Anthony: The Children, Schools & Families Bill
Our Lady (Saturday – Monday): Katie Jeffa RIP / Private Intention
Cure d’Ars: Vocations to the Priesthood
St Pius X: Our First Communion Children
Sacred Heart: Private Intention

Find out about our Votive Lamps at the Shrines programme.

4th Sunday of Lent

The Prodigal Son, in today’s Gospel, is searching for happiness, but doesn’t know what it is, on where to find it (just like modern man), so he goes looking in the wrong place … as do we …

In Britain today, we are wealthier than ever and yet it seems there is a general feeling of dissatisfaction. Our society’s obsession with seeking happiness through consumption and pleasure often leads to the very opposite. The modern science of happiness offers plenty of good advice about how to achieve happiness, but remains strangely silent about how it is to be defined… The underlying assumption is that when people use the word happiness they all mean the same thing, namely, the very loose concept of ‘feeling good’… While there is nothing morally wrong in feeling good, it is not in itself a moral guide to right and wrong. If we are to find happiness, we need to go beyond simply feeling good and avoiding harm, to enter the world of knowing good and doing good.

Simply choosing and choosing again (as in ‘retail therapy’) can distract us from that interior world which is the true source of happiness. The exercise of external freedom can become a substitute for exercising internal freedom… The desert fathers and mothers discovered authentic insights about the interior world by living in extreme conditions of solitude and simplicity. They were as realistic as modern psychologists about the passions and struggles of the interior world, but they never wavered in their conviction that they were free to choose an interior life that was more integrated than the one they currently experienced. Just as we now send business managers on outward bound courses in remote and often wild locations in order to discover more about themselves…

… so the Christian embraces the desert wilderness of Lent in order to discover ourselves and God, and thus we find true and lasting happiness.

From Finding Happiness by Abbot Christopher Jamison (of The Monastery TV series)

On Wednesday 3rd March, His Eminence John Cardinal Foley conferred the Ministry of Acolyte on our Seminarian Alan Burgess, along with six of his second-year colleages from the Pontifical Beda College.

Unlike temporary commisioning of Extra-ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, this is a permanent ‘minor order’ authorising Alan to “aid the deacon and minister to the priest in liturgical celebrations … to distribute Holy Communion as an auxiliary minister (in the usual circumstances) … to expose and depose the Blessed Sacrament for Adoration” and to instruct altar servers and others in their temporary liturgical duties.

Alan is excited about his Acolytate and looks forward to his second pastoral placement this coming summer (elsewhere in our diocese). While visiting us at his diocesan base here in New Malden, he will now be able to assist in these ways and in taking Communion to the housebound and hospitalised.

The next major step for Alan, God willing, is his Candidacy for Ordination to the Diaconate which normally takes place in November of the third year of semiary formation (ie. 2010).

The Parish congratulates Alan on this second step on the road to Priestly Ordination. We continue to pray for him, and for our resident potential seminarian, Philip Andrews who is away from us this weekend, in Retreat at St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, in preparation for attending the Selection Conference next month.

3rd Sunday of Lent

In today’s first reading we hear God speak from the midst of the burning bush: “I have seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt. I have heard their appeal to be free…” So begins Israel’s long journey to freedom in the Promised Land.

While we all know the story of the Exodus, we often forget that God’s people had a particular reason for their journey into the desert. Moses says to Pharoah:  “We must go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord God…” In other words, the freedom Israel sought more than any other was religious freedom – all other freedom is built on this.

Today, we live in a country where religious freedom is under threat. This may sound melodramatic, and indeed, we are not living in slavery as the people of Israel were. Yet basic liberties of conscience can no longer be taken for granted. Only last week, Ed Balls, the Schools Minister, declared that, if the Children, Schools and Families Bill currently before Parliament becomes law, Catholic shools will be compelled to teach secular dogmas contrary to the Catholic Faith. As he said:

If you are currently a Catholic school … you could choose to teach only to children that contraception is wrong, homosexuality is wrong. That changes radically with this Bill.

And he went on to spell out exactly what this would mean in practice:

They must give both side of the argument. They must explain how to access an abortion. The same is true on contraception as well.

Rather bizarrely, the secular media has portrayed the controversy over the Catholic, Schools and Families Bill as some sort of victory for the Catholic Church, as the Government has conceded that matters such as abortion, sexual activity and so on can be taught ‘in a way that reflects the school’s religious character’. Mr Balls comments, however, reveal how little such a concession is worth. Notwithstanding their ‘religious character’, faith schools would have to teach their pupils where they can acces abortion, would have to demonstrate how to use contraception and would be obliged to teach about civil partnerships as a form of ‘stable relationship’ equivalent to marriage. Clearly schools obliged to teach in this way would no longer be Catholic – they might still be allowed to hang a crucifix in the classroom, but they would no longer be teaching the Catholic Faith.

It is still possible that this particular Bill will be rejected by Parliament, and we should all pray that this happens. But, in the current climate, further threats to our religious freedom are bound to arise. This is a time for all of us, as a Catholic community, to reflect deeply on the gifts of faith – to remember that, five centuries ago, brave men and women died to keep the Catholic faith alive in this land – and to ask whether we too are prepared to stand up and be counted. The Gospel reading today warns that God’s patience is great but not endless: like the fig tree in the parable, we must begin to bear fruit – or we will be judged and found wanting.