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).

During a January 2008 General Audience, the Holy Father explored what St Augustine of Hippo meant when he said, God is “more intimately present to me than my inmost being” (De vera religione):

Saint Augustine taught that by belonging to the Church, we are so closely united to Christ that we ‘become’ Christ, the head whose members we are. As our head, Christ prays in us, yet he also prays for us as our priest, and we pray to him as our God. If we ask what particular message Saint Augustine has for the men and women of today, it is perhaps his emphasis on our need for truth. Listen to the way he describes his own search for God’s truth: ‘You were within me and I sought you outside, in the beautiful things that you had made. You were with me, but I was not with you. You called me, you cried out and broke open my deafness. I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst for you.’ Let us pray that we too may discover the joy of knowing God’s truth.

One of the largest crowds ever assembled for a canonization – 250,000 – symbolized the reaction of millions touched by the simple story of Maria Goretti (Tuesday 6th / 1890-1902).

She was the daughter of a poor Italian tenant farmer, had no chance to go to school, never learned to read or write. She made her First Communion not long before her death at age 12, but had struggled with catechesis.

On a hot afternoon in July, Maria was sitting at the top of the stairs of her house, mending a shirt. She was not quite 12-years-old, but physically mature. A cart stopped outside, and an 18-year-old neighbour, Alessandro, ran up the stairs. He seized her & pulled her into a bedroom. She struggled and tried to call for help. “No, God does not wish it,” she cried out. “It is a sin. You would go to hell for it.” Alessandro began striking at her blindly with a long dagger.

She was taken to a hospital. Her last hours were marked by the usual simple compassion of the good – concern about where her mother would sleep, forgiveness of her murderer (she had long been in fear of him, but said nothing, lest she cause trouble to his family) and her devout welcoming of Viaticum, her last Holy Communion. She died 24 hours after the attack.

Her murderer was sentenced to 30 years in prison. For a long time he was unrepentant and surly. One night he had a dream or vision of Maria, gathering flowers & offering them to him. His life changed. When he was released after 27 years, his first act was to beg the forgiveness of Maria’s mother.

Devotion to the young martyr grew, miracles were worked, and in less than half a century she was canonized. At her beatification in 1947, her mother (then 82), two sisters and a brother appeared with the Venerable Pope Pius XII on the balcony of S. Peter’s. Three years later, at her canonization, her attacker, 66-year-old Alessandro Serenelli, knelt among the quarter of a million people and cried tears of joy at her raising to the altars.

St Joseph’s is blessed to possess a relic of this remarkable saint.

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!

Week beginning 27th June, 13th Sunday of the Year

Writing in what many consider his most famous work, the ‘Apologeticus’, Tertullian, the second century Father of the Church declared, “… the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” This is very true this week, wherein the Church rejoices in many martyrs, both named and unnamed, but who nonetheless planted a rich seed, the fruit of which we see around us.

The Apostles of Rome, Ss Peter and Paul (Tuesday 29th) both came from unlikely beginnings to become fearless lions of the Faith. In his first epistle, Peter urges his readers to be full of hope and propriety, regardless of their surroundings or the impending trials that would befall them. Likewise, in his epistle to the Romans, Paul urges them to remember that they are saved by hope (this being the text chosen by the Holy Father for his momentous encyclical of 2007, “Spe salvi facti sumus” – in hope we are saved!).

With such fertile teaching, the First Martyrs of the Roman See (Wednesday 30th / Ca AD 64) willingly surrendered their mortal lives, as witness to the world, that they were Christ’s.

However, such martyrs are not confined to far off lands or distant history. St Oliver Plunkett (Thursday 1st July / 1629 – 81) was martyred at Tyburn for the Truth as recently as 1681. Following a scandalous show trial, this saintly Archbishop of Armagh was hanged, drawn and quartered; but, in accepting his martyrs’ crown like those before, he is numbered among the company of the white-clothed army of martyrs.

Week beginning 27th June, 13th Sunday of the Year

St Joseph: Nicole & Kelly’s intentions
St John Fisher/St Therese: Nadine & Steve’s intentions
St Thomas More/St Anthony: Laurence Burbridge’s intentions
Our Lady (Saturday – Monday): Deacon John & Maureen Sampson
St Pius X: John Beck
Sacred Heart: Charlotte Fawcett’s recovery

Find out about our Votive Lamps at the Shrines programme.

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)

Week beginning 20th June, 12th Sunday of the Year

St Aloysius Gonzaga (Monday 21st / 1568-1591): As one who responded to God’s call from an early age, St Aloysius entered the Jesuit Seminary in Rome where he lived a life dedicated to the pursuit of holiness. He remained in the plague-torn city to care for the sick and dying, eventually yielding to the plague himself, dying at the age of 23. He is the patron saint of young adults and teenagers.

St Thomas More (Tuesday 22nd / 1478-1535): Lord Chancellor of England and a close friend of Henry VIII, St Thomas More, wore a hair shirt under his robes of state and led a life of prayer and mortification. He was beheaded on Tower Hill, 6 July, 1535, for steadfastly refusing to approve Henry VIII’s remarriage and break with Rome. At his martyrdom, he prayed for the king and taught the assembled crowd the true meaning of Christian conscience, when he said, “I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first”.

St John Fisher (also Tuesday 22nd / 1469-1535): A friend of St Thomas More, it was as Bishop of Rochester that, of all the bishops, he singularly refused to take the Oath of Supremacy, recognizing Henry VIII as head of the new protestant national church. The Pope accorded him the dignity of a Cardinal, which he could accept only in death, clothing himself in the scarlet of his own blood, rather than of his cardinalate robes. His body lay under the flagstones of the porch of All Hallows-by-the- Tower for centuries, as an act of desecration to his sacred memory.

Week beginning 20th June, 12th Sunday of the Year

St Joseph: Mrs Cathy Parvez
St John Fisher/St Therese: Charlotte Fawcett’s recovery
St Thomas More/St Anthony: Deacon John & Maureen Sampson
Our Lady (Saturday – Monday): Rodrigo Lipata RIP
St Pius X: Our Parish Families
Sacred Heart: Private intention

Find out about our Votive Lamps at the Shrines programme.